Serpent Crown The Serpent Crown is, as its name implies, a crown, which resembles a coiled, seven-headed serpent and is made of an unknown material. The resemblance is a reference to the malevolent seven headed exiled serpent god "Set" to whom the crown holds a mystical link from which it draws its powers.
Those powers confer on the helmet's wearer various abilities. These abilities can include superhuman strength, the power to read and control the minds of others, the power to levitate oneself and other persons or objects, the ability to cast illusions, the power to project destructive bolts of mystical energy and even the mental ability to manipulate matter and energy.
However use of the crown usually leads the wearer to fall under the mental domination of Set, who then has the wearer perform various tasks which would help facilitate its physical return to the Earth dimension.
Early history of the crownAlthough the crown first appeared in 1969 in Sub-Mariner #9 (which is set in contemporary times) various subsequent stories expanded and developed its earlier history in the Marvel Universe.
Savage Sword of Conan #192 (December, 1991) reveals some of the early history of the crown, showing how, in the prehistory of the Marvel Universe Earth, Set exiled himself from Earth's dimension and used his influence to spawn a race of humanoid, sentient reptilian beings that became known as the Serpent Men.
In such stories the Serpent Man are depicted as a race which devoutly worships Set and is in constant conflict with the human race. Kull the Conqueror Vol.1 #2 (August, 1971) shows how, as human societies developed, the Serpent Men began to falter and eventually their numbers are decimated when King Kull became ruler of Valusia and launches a campaign against them.
Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 (1982) showed the origin of the crown for the first time. Five centuries after the time of Kull, their numbers dwindling even further, a group of Serpent Men ally themselves with some alchemists from Lemuria to create the Serpent Crown, a device which gives them access to some of the enormous mystical power of their "god" Set. However just as the alchemists and Serpent Men were about to exploit the power of the Crown, the Great Cataclysm occurred. This event was a worldwide natural disaster which brought about the sinking of both Atlantis and Lemuria and leads to the deaths of most of the surviving Serpent Men and the loss of the Serpent Crown for centuries.
In Savage Sword of Conan #41-43 (June - August, 1979) a mystical object with many similarities to the Serpent Crown - the "Cobra Crown" - is shown to have existed during the Hyborian Age that followed the Great Cataclysm. In that story a follower of Set called Thoth-Amon allies himself with some surviving Serpent Men and briefly wields this second Crown. Another receptacle of Set's vast power, the Cobra Crown also enables its wearer to control the minds of others. However, it appears that it was much inferior to the Serpent Crown as its abilities eventually burn out and it is apparently destroyed during the course of a conflict between Thoth-Amon and Conan the Barbarian.
The Crown in sunken LemuriaThe Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #9 and Daredevil Annual #4B (both 1989) show how, many centuries later, the sunken city of Lemuria becomes home to a race of water-breathing humanoids called Homo mermanus. These new "Lemurians" (as distinct from the "Atlantean" Homo mermanus who settled in the sunken Atlantis) eventually uncover the Serpent Crown in the ruins of the city. The emperor of the Lemurians, Naga, dons the crown and quickly came under the influence of Set.
Naga's physical appearance are changed from exposure to the crown, his facial features coming to resemble those of a snake and his skin becoming scale-like and green (from the common blue of other Homo mermanus). He converts the Lemurian people to the worship of Set and uses its power to gain immortality, ruling over his people for centuries. Through his prolonged use of the crown the skin color and complexion of Lemuria's population also becomes green and scale-like over time.
Sub-Mariner #10 (February, 1969) reveals in flashback how Naga's use of the crown came to an end when a rebel named Piscatos stole it from him as he slept. Piscatos and his allies then fled with it to Antarctica, where they develop their own civilisation, now known as the "Ancients". This civilisation goes on to develop telepathic powers and though they use the Crown for various purposes, they manage to largely escape Set's dominance by encasing the helmet in an unknown substance which for a time prevents Set from controlling those around it.
However, the malign influence of Set eventually manifested itself, with Piscatos finally becoming a follower of the serpent god, which lead him to (unwittingingly) cause a landslide which ended the Ancient's civilisation. The Serpent Crown apparently remained buried underneath the antarctic ice until the twentieth century.
"The Helmet of Power"Avengers Annual #18 (1989) shows that in 1920 an antarctic expedition, led by Captain Leonard McKenzie of the icebreaker ship "the Oracle" discovers some remnants of the Ancients' civilisation. One of the expedition party, Paul Destine, uncovers the Serpent Crown (which is still disguised by its encasement in a protective substance). Calling it the "Helmet of Power" Destine puts the crown on his head and immediately received a vast increase of his latent psionic powers and was changed physically into a stronger and larger man then he had previously been. Destine, who is thought lost by the expedition which left without him, then uses some of the Ancient's equipment to place himself in suspended animation. Destine emerged from this state decades later, his powers further increased during his period in stasis.
The Destine character makes his first real appearance in Sub-Mariner #6-8 (October - December, 1968), as does the Crown, though in disguised form as the "Helmet of Power". Calling himself "Destiny" he seeks to take over the world and comes into conflict with the son of Captain Mackenzie, Namor the Sub-Mariner. Destine continues to draw on the power of the Crown throughout the story though he is never shown to fall under the overt influence of Set, perhaps due to the protective encasement under which the Ancients had placed the Crown centuries before and (more probably) the fact that that the concept of the Crown had not been fully developed by the creators yet.
First real appearance: The "re-emergence" of the Serpent Crown
After Destine is defeated Namor takes the "Helmet of Power" to Atlantis in Sub-Mariner #9 (January, 1969). In that story the power of the Crown manages to overcome the Ancient's protective casing, revealing its true form and allowing Set to once again convey its influence through it. This story is the first true, revealed appearance of the Crown, though it had appeared in disguised form previously and some later appearances are set chronologically before this one.
The Crown initially takes over the mind of Namor's consort, Lady Dorma, and through her the entire population of Atlantis fell under its control. Namor then dons the helmet himself and through the strength of his will subverts the influence of Set, thus freeing his people.
In Sub-Mariner #10 (February, 1969) the Crown is stolen and returned by Lemurian agents to the possession of Naga, who it is revealed has remained immortal despite his loss of the Crown centuries earlier. During the next three issues Namor attempts to reclaim the Crown and in Sub-Mariner #13 (May, 1969) both Naga and the crown are cast into an undersea chasm and thought dead and destroyed.
The super-hero Serpent Crown sagasIn Captain America (vol. 2) #180-182 (April - June, 1975) the Crown returns, having been recovered by the rebel Atlantean Warlord Krang, who delivered it to the superhuman criminal Viper. Viper, at this point leader of the original Serpent Squad, then kidnaps the president of Roxxon Oil, Hugh Jones, and places the Crown on his head. Jones immediately falls under the mental control of Set. At the conclusion of the storyline the police and Captain America interrupt the Squad's plan and the Crown is temporarily lost to an underground sewer .
However, in Avengers #141-144, it is shown that in the alternate universe where the superhero group the Squadron Supreme resides, that universe's version of the Serpent Crown has managed to gain control of the minds of many of the leaders of America's largest corporations and even that alternate America's President, Nelson Rockefeller.
The Avengers from the mainstream Marvel Universe Earth travel to the Squadron Supreme’s Earth and free many of that planet’s people from the dominance of the Crown, during the course of which they briefly fell under its influence themselves. The Avengers then brought the Serpent Crown from that alternate world back with them to their own Earth, eventually losing it when it was dropped into the Pacific Ocean ((Avengers #147-149, 153, 154 & Annual #6; November, 1975 - December, 1976).
Marvel Two-in-One #66 (August, 1980) shows how, the original Crown native to that Earth is then found by Hugh Jones, who is still under Set’s control. Jones also manages to locate and retrieve the second, alternate universe Serpent Crown, which he mystically merges with the original Crown to create a new Serpent Crown, identical in appearance to the others, though now possessing the combined power of the original two Crowns.
Using this power, Jones then takes control of the minds of the entire population of Washington, D.C., including most of the federal government of the United States. Jones then comes into conflict with a group of super-heroes including the Thing and the Scarlet Witch. At the close of the the story the Scarlet Witch engages Set in a battle on the Astral Plane, which allowes the Thing to snatch the Crown from Jones’ head, severing his link with Set.
Marvel Team-Up Annual #5 (1982) shows how the Crown is then brought to the US government energy-research facility Project Pegasus, where it soon begins to exert Set's influence again, mind controlling the staff at the complex and eventually overpowering the wills of everyone who works there. These workers then set about transporting other Serpent Crowns from alternate dimensions to the Project, finally amassing 770 such crowns which are then merged to create one giant Crown which is to be used to facilitate Set’s return to Earth.
Before this happens however several superheroes, including Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, the Thing and the Scarlet Witch intervene to once again disrupt Set's plans. In the annual's conclusion the superheroes use the Cosmic Cube to destroy the massive Crown and Strange casts a spell exorcising Set from the Earth dimension forever.
However, during the Atlantis Attacks crossover which ran through all of Marvel's 1989 annuals, the Deviant priest Ghaur, a disciple of Set, attempts to engineer his return once again through the use of another giant Serpent Crown. He is briefly successful in bringing Set back to the Earth dimension, as the spirit of the exiled god animates the Crown for a short while, before it is destroyed by Thor in Thor Annual #14
www.marvunapp.com/Appendix2/seteldergod.htmmarveldirectory.com/miscellaneous/serpentcrown.htmwww.answers.com/topic/serpent-crown____________________________________________
Serpent Crown -- From another Source
The Serpent Crown was one of the most ancient and mightiest objects of mystical power in the history of humanity. It was a helmet made of an unknown material that was designed to resemble a coiled, seven-headed serpent. The Crown drew its power from its mystical link with the primeval demon Set; anyone who wore the helmet was granted tremendous superhuman abilities by Set. These powers included the ability to read minds, the ability to control the minds of others, the power to levitate oneself and other persons or objects, the ability to cast illusions, the power to project destructive bolts of mystical energy, the mental ability to manipulate matter and energy, and superhuman strength. (Apparently not everyone who wore the Crown gained all of these abilities. Presumably the number of powers one gained from the Crown depended on the wearer's adeptness in learning how to use the Crown's energies, the length of time that the wearer wore the Crown, and Sets own attitude towards the wearer.)
However, virtually anyone who wore the Serpent Crown fell under the mental domination of Set. Only a person with tremendous will power could free himself or herself from Set's Crown-induced mental domination, and only if he or she then immediately removed the Crown from his or her own head. Anyone who has worn the Crown retained a psychic link with it.
Counterparts to this Earth's Serpent Crown existed on at least hundreds of divergent Earths throughout the multiverse. All of these Crowns were mystically linked with Set, who apparently is a multiversal entity. Possibly Set was exiled from Earth before the divergences that produced the multitude of Earths on which Serpent Crowns were created.
Ultimately, the Serpent Crowns were to serve as the means by which Set would return to physical existence on one or more of the Earths of the multiverse. (Similarly, another of these primeval demons, Chthon, created the Darkhold as a means through which he could again manifest himself on Earth.)
The history of the Serpent Crown therefore begins with the origin of Set himself. Prior to humanity's existence, and perhaps the existence of any other relatively complex organic life on Earth, beings called the Elder Gods arose on Earth. It is believed that the first of these Elder Gods was the Demiurge, which coalesced from Earth's biosphere (its fertile, life-supporting environment), achieved consciousness, and later split into fertile fragments, each one of which spawned a new being. These Elder Gods, the spawn of the Demiurge, mostly consisted of non-humanoid beings who degenerated over the passing eons into demons who preyed upon their own kind. Set, who manifests himself in the form of an enormous serpent, was one of the most powerful of these ancient gods/demons. He spawned other serpent-like demons in turn, such as Damballah and Sligguth. It might be speculated that Set was the patron god of the dinosaurs and other reptilian life forms that dominated the Earth during the Mesozoic Era. It is known that Set spawned a mortal race of humanoid, sentient reptilian beings that became known as the Serpent Men.
The only Elder God to escape degeneration into demonic form was the benevolent, humanoid Gaea. Gaea is said to have mated with a reincarnation of the Demiurge at the peak of the Elder Gods' degeneracy, to create a newer, more perfect race of gods. The first product of their union was Gaea's offspring Atum, who slew most of the Elder Gods. Atum did not attempt to harm Gaea, who remains active on Earth today. To escape being slaughtered by Atum, Set fled Earth's dimensional plane. However, from the dimension in which he now dwelled, Set continued to watch over and aid the Serpent-Men and, in later times, his human worshippers on the many Earths that diverged from the one he escaped.
The Serpent-Men preyed upon the nascent human race, but humanity eventually became strong enough to prove to be a deadly enemy to the Serpent-Men's race. The greatest foe of the Serpent-Men before the sinking of Atlantis was King Kull of Valusia, who was formerly an Atlantean barbarian. By Kull's time the Serpent-Men, greatly outnumbered by the human race, had to use their shape-changing abilities to disguise themselves as human beings and then infiltrate human civilization in the hope of conquering it. Kull was responsible for the deaths of large numbers of Serpent-Men who menaced his kingdom.
The Serpent-Men, who worshipped Set, formed an uneasy alliance with the alchemists of Lemuria. Working together, these alchemists and the Serpent-Men created the Serpent Crown, which Set linked to his own consciousness and which became a receptacle for his power.
At the time that the Serpent Crown was created, Lemuria was ruled by the evolutionary offshoot of humanity known as the Deviants, who had made the Lemurian continent the center of their empire. It might be speculated that the Serpent-Men and the Lemurian alchemists formed their alliance and created the Serpent Crown in a joint effort to overthrow the Deviants' rule of most of the known Earth.
The first person to wear the Serpent Crown and wield its power was Atra, the greatest of the Lemurian alchemists. However, just as Atra was about to begin his conquest of the known world, the Great Cataclysm occurred, a worldwide catastrophe, that brought about the sinking of both Atlantis and Lemuria. Most of the surviving Serpent-Men died in the Cataclysm, and the Serpent Crown itself was lost.
Following the Great Cataclysm human civilizations rose again during the so-called Hyborian Age. During this period the worship of Set centered in the land of Stygia, which is today known as Egypt. The wizards of Stygia who worshipped Set were practitioners of black magic, and the greatest, most powerful, and most dangerous of these sorcerers was the wizard Thoth-Amon. Thoth-Amon came to possess a headpiece known as the Cobra Crown, which vastly amplified his already mighty mental powers. Like the Serpent Crown, the Cobra Crown resembled a coiled serpent, although it was shaped differently than the Serpent Crown, looking somewhat like a present-day bishop's mitre. The Cobra Crown was also encrusted with diamonds. Thoth-Amon intended to use the Cobra Crown to bring thousands of men under his mental control so that they would serve him unquestioningly as members of his army of conquest.
Thoth-Amon formed an alliance with Duke Villagro, who hoped to replace King Ferdrugo as monarch of the kingdom of Zingara. Instead, however, Thoth-Amon cast a spell upon Ferdrugo that placed him under his own mental control and induced Ferdrugo to turn control of Zingara over to Thoth-Amon himself. Outraged, Villagro seized and donned the Cobra Crown and turned its power against Thoth-Amon. Since Villagro was unskilled in using mystical power, Thoth-Amon was able to use his own powers to resist the Cobra Crown's might. Assisted by Menkara, a priest of Set, Thoth-Amon overcame Villagro; however, distracted by his mystical combat with Villagro, Thoth-Amon lost control over Ferdrugo. Thoth-Amon recovered the Cobra Crown only to discover that it had been "burned out" and thus rendered useless by being utilized by the unskilled Villagro. Thoth-Amon's archenemy, Conan, the greatest warrior of his time, arrived and led soldiers in support of Ferdrugo in battle against Thoth-Amon's soldiers and defeated them. Thoth-Amon, however, escaped.
Many years later, Thoth-Amon, allied with the last remaining Serpent-Men, made his last stand against Conan, who had become king of the nation of Aquilonia. Together Conan and his son Conn slew Thoth-Amon and the last of the original race of Serpent-Men.
It may be theorized that Thoth-Amon's Cobra Crown was constructed in imitation of the Serpent Crown, which, presumably, was still lost beneath the ocean in sunken Lemuria. The Cobra Crown rivaled the Serpent Crown in sheer mystical power, but was inferior to it inasmuch as it was destroyed so easily through misuse. It should also be noted that neither of its wearers fell under Set's mental domination, although possibly Thoth-Amon's will was strong enough to enable him to resist it. Nevertheless, the Cobra Crown was mystically linked with the Serpent Crown, as demonstrated by the fact that Hugh Jones was able to conjure an image of Thoth-Amon when he created apparitions of past wearers of the Serpent Crown.
Long after Conan's time, a tribe of water-breathing humanoids belonging to the race Homo mermanus migrated to the Pacific Ocean, where they settled on the sunken Lemurian continent. These water-breathers and their descendants became known as the Lemurians; the other members of the Homo mermanus race, who remained in the Atlantic Ocean, are known as the Atlanteans. (Also, the Deviant race now dwelled underground beneath the sunken Lemurian continent.)
Eventually, one of the Lemurians discovered the Serpent Crown amid the ruins of the pre-Cataclysmic civilization. (Contrary to one account, the discovery of the Crown occurred after the Lemurians had established their empire in the Pacific, not during their migration there.)
The Crown was brought to Naga, the emperor of the Lemurians. Naga donned the Crown and developed a strong link with it; it soon began to transform him physically, making his head resemble that of a serpent and causing his skin to become scale like. Naga became a worshipper of Set and adopted the seven-headed serpent represented by the Crown as his imperial symbol. Naga wanted not simply the power that the Crown granted him, but immortality as well. His alchemists told him about certain sea creatures who had virtually indefinite life spans. Naga had one such creature captured, and his alchemists immersed the Crown in this fish's vital fluids. As a result, the Crown now gave Naga eternal life and youth as long as he wore it or had it in proximity to himself.
Utilizing the vast power of the Serpent Crown, Naga ruled tyrannically over his subjects for many centuries. During this time the Crown's power mutagenically-altered the water-breathing Lemurians, giving all of them scale like skin.
Finally, a rebel named Piscatos stole the Serpent Crown while Naga was asleep. Piscatos and his companions had used self-hypnosis to protect themselves from falling under the Crown's sinister influence. Taking the Crown with them, Piscatos and other rebels fled to Antarctica. There they built a civilization of their own, which lasted for an unknown number of years. The people of this civilization, who became known by air-breathing human beings as the Ancients, are said to have developed telepathic powers. Perhaps they did so through studying the Serpent Crown. However, the Ancients encased the Serpent Crown within an unknown substance to reduce its ability to induce individuals mystically to put it on and fall under Set's control.
The civilization of the Ancients eventually fell into decadence and finally came to an end when the Ancients' city was buried beneath an immense landslide. It is not known whether or not the Serpent Crown was responsible for either the decline of the Ancients' civilization, its physical destruction, or both. Nor is it known how long the disguised Serpent Crown remained buried in Antarctica.
Ever since the Serpent Crown was stolen, Naga had many of his subjects searching the oceans for it. With the Crown gone, Naga was no longer immortal. However, enough of the Crown's life-extending properties continued to affect Naga so that he aged at a remarkably slow rate. (Members of Homo mermanus age at a much slower rate than air-breathing human beings do, but Naga aged more slowly still.)
Early in the twentieth century, Paul Destine, a carnival mentalist who possessed actual telepathic abilities, learned through research about the existence of the Ancients. Hoping to find the site of their Antarctic civilization, Destine joined an expedition to Antarctica aboard the icebreaker Oracle, commanded by Captain Leonard McKenzie, in 1920. There he and McKenzie found a highly advanced dynamo, which had been built by the Ancients and which was now entombed in ice. Destine broke through the ice, intending to use the dynamo to increase his mental powers. But by activating the device, Destine unintentionally triggered an avalanche. Gravely injured, Destine revived to see the disguised Serpent Crown, which he later called the Helmet of Power, which had been hurled near him by the avalanche. The Helmet greatly increased Destine's psionic abilities, as well as healing his injuries and transforming him into a larger, physically stronger man. Destine did not return to the expedition and eventually used one of the Ancients' devices to place himself in suspended animation, during which his powers continued to increase.
Decades later, Destine emerged from suspended animation. He now called himself Destiny, for he believed it was his fate to rule the world. Through his telepathic abilities, Destiny learned that a civilization of water-breathing Atlanteans now lived beneath the Antarctic ice. As a test of his immense powers, Destiny triggered a series of catastrophic earthquakes that threatened to destroy the Atlanteans. The Atlantean Prince Namor the Sub-Mariner confronted Destiny but was defeated by him. Destiny then used his mental powers to destroy the Atlanteans' Antarctic settlements, killing the Atlantean Emperor Thakorr and Princess Fen in the process. (Most of the Atlantean population, however, survived.) Destiny then used his powers to compel Namor to fly to New York City, to give him amnesia, and to dull his ability to think. The result was that Namor spent years living as a derelict until his memory and full mental clarity were restored through the actions of the second Human Torch. As for Destiny, after dispatching Namor to New York City, he himself returned to suspended animation to increase his powers still further.
After emerging from suspended animation, Destiny again clashed with the Sub-Mariner. Destiny then made his way back to the United States, where, under his true name, he became a third party presidential candidate. Using the Helmet's powers, Destiny rendered virtually everyone who heard his speeches submissive to his will. In his final clash with the Sub-Mariner, Destiny used the superhuman strength given him by the Helmet to hurl Namor from the roof of a building. Unable to accept the fact that the Sub-Mariner's own tremendous superhuman strength enabled him to survive the fall, Destiny went wholly insane. Irrationally claiming he did not need the Helmet, Destiny cast it aside and attempted to levitate himself down to the street; instead, he fell to his death.
American legal authorities enlisted the Thing to transport the Helmet of Power to a place where it could be studied, but the Sub-Mariner managed to take the Helmet to Atlantis instead. There the Serpent Crown destroyed the casing that the Ancients had given it. The Atlantean noblewoman Lady Dorma donned the Crown, having fallen under its control, and she then spread its influence over the rest of the populace of the capital city of Atlantis. Namor took the Crown from Dorma and donned it himself in an attempt to learn its secrets, and, summoning all his will power, he overcame Set's attempt to control him and cast the Crown from his head. The Crown was soon carried off by Karthon the Quester, a Lemurian who served Naga.
Karthon captured Namor and brought both him and the Serpent Crown to Naga in undersea Lemuria. Naga was by now ancient and partially senile, but he was still cunning and dangerous. Regaining the Crown did not restore Naga's youth, but he once more commanded its other vast powers. Attempting to break Namor's spirit, Naga used the Crown's power to create an illusion that Karthon's sister, Myna, was Dorma, and then Naga engineered her death. Karthon was infuriated upon learning of Naga's deception. Naga used the Crown's power to create a great chasm and compel the Sub-Mariner to hurl himself into it. But while Naga watched Namor fall, Karthon struck Naga dead from behind with his Sword. Namor saved himself, and Naga and the Serpent Crown were swallowed up by an undersea earthquake that the Crown itself had triggered by creating the chasm.
Later, the Crown was recovered by the exiled Atlantean warlord Krang, and commanded him to turn it over to the second Viper, who then led the original Serpent Squad. The Viper and her accomplices abducted Hugh Jones, who was then president of the immensely powerful Roxxon Oil Corporation and she placed the Crown upon Jones's head in order to render him submissive to Set's control. In the course of a battle involving the Viper, Captain America, and the police, the Serpent Crown was lost when it fell down into a sewer.
Another Serpent Crown existed on the alternate Earth on which the team of costumed champions known as the Squadron Supreme lives. On this Earth the Crown had been worn in turn by the heads of a number of America's most powerful corporations, and finally by a man who served their interests and had become President of the United States. As a result, these corporation heads and their ally, the President, controlled that Earth's America both politically and economically. Through the Crown's power, the President of the Squadron's Earth was able to communicate interdimensionally with his ally Hugh Jones, who was still under Set's influence. A number of the Avengers traveled to the Squadron's Earth and captured its President's Serpent Crown. The Crown briefly took possession of the mind of one of the Avengers, the Scarlet Witch, but she succeeded in freeing herself from its control. The Avengers persuaded the Squadron that the government of the latter's Earth was corrupt, and the President and his corporate allies soon lost power. The Avengers brought the Serpent Crown to their own Earth, where it fell into the possession of their enemy the Living Laser. The Avengers recovered the Crown once more and the Avenger known as the Vision dropped it into the Pacific Ocean.
The Serpent Crown that was from the Avengers' own Earth communicated its whereabouts to Jones, who had one of his Roxxon employees recover it from the sewer into which it had fallen. Jones also sensed the location of the Crown from the Squadron's Earth and created the second Serpent Squad, who found it for him. Now in possession of two Serpent Crowns, Jones brought them together, and they mystically merged into a single Serpent Crown that possessed the square of the sum of the power the two Crowns had separately.
Wearing this more powerful Crown, Jones took control of the minds of the entire population of Washington, D.C., including the entire United States Congress. Jones also created ethereal manifestations of everyone who had ever worn either of the two crowns. (Note: These were not the actual spirits of the previous wearers of the Crowns.) Jones was challenged by the Thing, the Scarlet Witch, and the Stingray. The Scarlet Witch engaged in mystical battle with Set himself on an astral plane, enabling the Thing to seize the Serpent Crown from Jones's head. The Crown then slithered down the Thing's arm and assumed its normal form atop his head. But since Jones still tried to exercise his link with the Crown, the Crown did not exert its full influence over the Thing, who was thus able to hurl it from his own head. The Thing encased the Crown within thick wood, and turned the Crown over to the energy research institution known as Project: Pegasus for safekeeping.
But very soon a project technician fell under the Crown's influence and donned it, thereby becoming enslaved to Set. This technician placed the Crown upon a co-worker's head, thereby enslaving him as well. Eventually, everyone working at the Project, including its acting director, Myron Wilburn, and its security chief, Wendell Vaughn, alias Quasar, felt under the Crown's domination. Using interdimensional teleportation equipment, Project personnel transported Serpent Crowns from other dimensions into their own. Thus most of the Project personnel got to wear their own Serpent Crowns. The Crowns' influence began to alter the bodies of some of the Project personnel, causing their skin to become scaly, like a serpent's.
The ultimate plan of Set's slaves at Project: Pegasus was to amass seven hundred and seventy Crowns. Once they had done so, they placed all the Crowns together, which then merged into a single, enormous Serpent Crown of almost inconceivable power, whose heads could move as if they were alive. Once this was done, then Set himself could finally materialize on the Earthly plane. Set planned to use Project Pegasus resources to turn Earth's climate back into what it possessed in the Mesozoic Era. Then Set would transform all human beings willing to submit to his rule into Serpent-Men and would kill all those who resisted.
Earth's sorcerer supreme Doctor Stephen Strange and Spider-Man joined the Thing and the Scarlet Witch in opposing Set's slaves in the Project. Strange and the Thing and the Scarlet Witch battled the enormous, animate Serpent Crown to no avail, and the Crown devoured both the Thing and the Witch. Spider-Man, however, located the Cosmic Cube, the only power object at the Project that was more powerful even than the gigantic Serpent Crown. Spider-Man himself, bearing the Cube, which could transform thoughts into reality, was swallowed by one of the Serpent Crown's heads. Doctor Strange continued to fight on, but then, on Earth, the enormous Serpent Crown exploded. The Crown had been destroyed from within by the power of the cosmic Cube, directed by Spider-Man, the Thing, and the Scarlet Witch acting together, all of whom emerged unharmed. All that was left of the Crown were ten thousand normal-sized vipers.
Then, joining his will to those of his three allies, all of whom directed their wills into the Cube, Strange cast a spell of exorcism that exorcised Set's consciousness from Earth's plane of reality As soon as the spell was completed, the vipers collapsed dead. Moreover, everyone who had ever been under the Crown's control was now entirely free of Set's influence.
According to Doctor Strange, his spell has banished Set from the Earthly plane forever. It is possible, however, that although there is no longer any Serpent Crown on Earth, Serpent Crowns may still exist somewhere else in the virtually infinite multiverse.
First Appearance: (as Helmet of Power) TALES TO ASTONISH #101 (as Serpent Crown) SUB-MARINER #9
Final Appearance: MARVEL TEAM-UP ANNUAL #5
