Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)

Venus
Name	Unrevealed
Current Alias	Venus
Aliases	Aphrodite, Goddess, V, Vicki Starr, Victoria Nutley Starr
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Agents of Atlas, Atlas Foundation; Olympians Formerly God Squad, Department Zero, servant of the Kraken
Relatives	Oceanus, Tethys (paternal grandparents); Zeus, Mnemosyne (maternal grandparents); Achelous (father); Terpsichore (mother); numerous others
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′6″ (1.68 m)
Weight	325 lbs (147.42 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Siren / Naiad
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Greece
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	Greek
Occupation	Adventurer, Goddess of Love; Former professor of humanities, siren
Base of Operations	Temple of Atlas, located within a huge concealed cavern beneath San Francisco, California Formerly Los Angeles California; Congo, Africa; Ocean off the Morocco coast
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Jeff Parker, Leonard Kirk
First	Agents of Atlas #1 (August, 2006)
First	Agents of Atlas #1 (August, 2006)

History

Early Life

For centuries, sailors told tales of ships being lured to destruction by the voice of a Siren, or naiad, a soulless ocean being that fed on men as they drowned. One ship, however, had a magician on board (Ancient One), and he stopped the Siren by transforming her into a complete being, "making her soul as beautiful as her physical form." Horrified by the destruction wrought by her actions, she forbade herself from speaking. She eventually found solace at a monastery, where she served the nunnery for over two years. Everyone believed that she was a mute servant girl, until she joined a chorus, and her voice filled the clergy with lust.

Venus

She was then expelled from the nunnery for the scandal. Again wandering the world, the woman came to believe she was the immortal, beautiful, goddess Venus, imbued with the power of love. Her true nature and its terrible memories were repressed in favor of her new sense of purpose.

G-Men

During her time as an adventurer, Venus was approached by FBI agent Jimmy Woo, and she agreed to join him and his allies in freeing President Eisenhower from the clutches of the Yellow Claw. These G-Men operated for six months, until the government decreed that the country wasn't ready to learn of such a super-team and its exploits.

In the 1970s she briefly adopted the identity of Vicki Starr.

Africa

At some point in the 1980s, her former teammate Gorilla-Man returned to his place of origin in Africa. He recounted to Venus horrible stories of the atrocities brought upon by centuries of tribal warfare. Venus took it upon herself to aid the region, using her powers to help unite the warring factions until, years later, they had intermarried and became a blending of the two factions. Venus stayed with these people for many years.

Modern Age

Becoming Agents of Atlas

In the Modern Age, Jimmy Woo was restored to his youth and began investigating the Atlas Foundation, Venus's location was discovered while Derek Khanata was searching for the origin of the Gorilla Man. Travelling to Africa Jimmy recruited Venus but the team was attacked by Yellow Claw.

After a small scuffle Yellow Claw was revealed to have been a robot and Jimmy was rescued by his team-mates. Saying goodbye to the tribe and leaving Africa, the team return to where Jimmy was initially injured in hopes of finding a temple, however they find nothing. Leaving M-11 behind, Woo and team travel to an old coffee shop Woo used to visit, Gorilla Man reveals M-11 visited him before SHIELD did to inform Hale that he needed to rescue Woo and Marvel Boy revealed his origins and how there was a second version of himself. As the story concludes, the team sees M-11 trying to travel to Antarctica since he has concluded that Namora isn't dead and needs to be rescued. Travelling there they find what appears to be the remains of Namora.

Namora was revealed to be alive by Marvel Boy and while M-11 freed Namora, the rest of the team were attacked by giant crabs and were rescued by a newly revived Namora. Feeling that he has taken his team away from their lives, Jimmy tries to send the rest of the team home but they all refused and plan to continue helping him investigating. Using a list complied by Woo before he lost his memories, they began to investigate all possible operations of the Atlas Foundation, with every single site they visit being one. After taking down some pirates using her Siren song, the team is attacked again by Yellow Claw and his terracotta army, in the fight Yellow Claw escaped and not even Grayson could detect his presence. After the attack Jimmy confided in Khanata that he suspected on his team to be a traitor.

During the search, Namora revealed the secret of Venus' true nature, having known of the legend of the Siren. Venus fell into depression and filled all of her companions with despair. This caused Marvel Boy to reveal the fact that Jimmy suspected M-11 of being the traitor in the midst. While the rest of the team began to fight each other, Woo calmed her and was able to help her rediscover her confidence. Venus had finally reconnected with her past life and regained all of the abilities she possessed as a naiad. Venus proceeded to sing, soothing the rest of the team and they returned to their mission to take down the Atlas group.

Woo and his team go back to the San Francisco branch of Atlas and re-enter the hidden room. This time, they survive and confront Yellow Claw and Mr. Lao. It turns out that Yellow Claw was waiting for Woo to come, to claim the mantle of Genghis Khan. With the title of Great Khan, Woo also assumed control over the holdings of The Atlas Foundation. Jimmy then asked Khanata to lie to S.H.I.E.L.D. and tell them that they actually perished in the temple so they can continue in secret.

When Jimmy took control of the Atlas Foundation, he professed his determination to use such resources for the betterment of the world. He, Venus, and the other Agents of Atlas would become a clandestine force for good.

The transition away from being a criminal organization was not easy however as one of the the early missions after becoming the Atlas foundation involved a rogue faction of the organization who did not want to stop their criminal activities. Using a theatre production they would use the audiences life force, combined with totemic vessel to create an army of Monsters. The group teamed up with Spider-Man to stop them, after him and the group were attacked. Initially unsure which side the group was on Spider-Man fought with Gorilla Man until Siren used her song to calm him down. Teaming up, they stopped the rogue faction when M-11 destroyed their power source at the Rockefeller Center. In order to keep their existence a secret, Marvel Boy wiped everybody but his team's memory of the incident including Spider-Man's.

Secret Invasion

During the Secret Invasion, Namora killed a Super-Skrull and was captured by other Skrulls. She was later rescued by Gorilla-Man and M-11, and returned to Marvel Boy's Ship with a Skrull hostage. Their location discovered, the team defended the ship and Jimmy asked Venus to use her powers to kill the attackers, but Venus didn't want to use her powers to kill and Marvel Boy revealed that the Skrulls were not malevolent and just wanted to join the human and Skrull races together. Jimmy however, defending humanity, got M-11 to wipe out all the attacking Skrulls.

Dark Reign

The Atlas Foundation hindered the Skrulls' activities on the West Coast during their Invasion. Afterwards, however, the world had changed, and Woo and his team took a surprising step: to use Plan Chu's villainous reputation to present themselves as the Agents of the Atlas Empire. Their first act was to steal all the gold in Fort Knox, which Norman Osborn had earmarked for special weapons programs.

Aphrodite

Venus was abducted by the true Olympian goddess Aphrodite who was angry at her for assuming her name and guise. Rescued by the group, they had battle with Aphrodite, until in a climactic battle of song, the goddess decided to appoint Venus in her place, recognizing that she had not been truly dedicated to love since the Trojan War.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

• Siren Physiology: Venus's status as a mythological siren grants her a number of super-human abilities. Thus far Venus has demonstrated:
  • Amphibious: Venus is able to live indefinitely on land or under water, swim at high speeds, and resist the crushing pressures of the depths of the ocean.
  • Virtual Immortality
  • Vocal Pathokinesis: Also known as her Siren Song, Venus has the mystical ability manipulate the emotions of other sentient beings through her voice.
    
  • Illusions: Through her vocal powers, she can create romantic illusions which can affect beings like the Silver Surfer, the Sentry, and the Hulk.
  • Shapeshifting: Venus is able to alter her form at will limited only by her imagination and desire. Because Venus enjoys her current form, she usually only shifts her hair color and clothing.

Abilities

• Venus is a master of all the arts and sciences of physical love, and she has extensively studied the subject of emotional/sentimental love.
• She can breathe underwater and swim at great speed.
• Venus possesses the abilities of a siren, including to affect men with her song, which reflects her mood - her song usually causes abrupt lust in a subject, but a song sung while she cries will cause acute despair.

Weaknesses

Beings not considered to be conventionally alive (e.g. robots, undead, etc.) are not affected by her voice. Those with sufficient willpower such as Temugin are also resistant to her voice.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Venus wears an enchanted girdle called the Cestus that enables the wearer to charm anyone to become a love-slave by arousing love and sexual passion in others at the wearer's will. It can also neutralize or transform all weapons of war into objects that can be used for peaceful purposes. This girdle originally belonged to Aphrodite, however she was gifted it by the Goddess when she passed over her mantle to the siren after their battle.

Trivia

• Venus was a professor of Humanities at Pepperdine University (where she taught Namorita amongst other pupils) in the 1970's, though she spent more time organizing peace rallies than teaching the actual curriculum.
• Venus changed her hair from blonde to red after Namora joined the Agents of Atlas, as she didn't feel two blondes on the team were appropriate.

See Also

• 68 appearance(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 5 minor appearance(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 59 image(s) of Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 2 quotation(s) by or about Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)
• 1 item(s) used/owned by Venus (Siren) (Earth-616)