Enter Hela
Loki #1
![time-traveling-waitress:
[Image: A black and white drawing of Hela from Marvel comics. She is standing with her back to the viewer but is turning to face the viewer. One hand is on her hip while the other is raised in a dramatic pose. She is wearing a large cape and a patterned body suit with a large headpiece.]
awyeahcomics:
Hela by Bill Sienkiewicz](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_llxne7lr6Z1qce9ueo1_500.jpg)
[Image: A black and white drawing of Hela from Marvel comics. She is standing with her back to the viewer but is turning to face the viewer. One hand is on her hip while the other is raised in a dramatic pose. She is wearing a large cape and a patterned body suit with a large headpiece.]
Hela by Bill Sienkiewicz
Hela
Hela was born in Jotunheim, the other-dimensional land of the giants, one of the “Nine Worlds” of Norse mythology, and she is the daughter of the Asgardian god of mischief Loki and the sorcery wielding giantess Angerboda. The three Asgardian goddesses of fate, the Norns, are said to have warned the Asgardian gods that Hela would prove to be a great danger to them.
Odin, ruler of the Asgardian gods, decreed that Hela would become goddess and ruler of the spirits of the dead on the day of her maturity. These spirits were in the other-dimensional realms of Hel and Niffleheim, two more of the Nine Worlds, both of which Hela ruled. However, Odin himself directly ruled the souls of Asgardians and their human worshipers who died in battle as heroes, and had the palace of Valhalla built in a distant section of Asgard, known as Valhalla, to house them.
Hela sought for ages to bring more Asgardian souls under her control, and especially longed to possess the souls of Odin and his son Thor. In recent years, when Odin’s attention had strayed from the rule of Valhalla, Hela tried to annex that realm to her own, hoping to consolidate her power over all of Asgard’s dead. Eventually Odin grew aware of her ambitions and opposed them. Hela finally withdrew to her own realms, and Odin reestablished his control over Valhalla.
For untold ages, Hela had directed the construction of a gigantic ship, Nailgar, said to be made of the fingernails of the dead. Hela planned that when Nailgar was finished, she would send an army of the dead to Asgard in it to destroy the gods. However, Nailgar was destroyed by the Asgardian hero Executioner as it neared completion.
Hela once cast a curse on Thor which prevented him from healing any wounds and also prevented his death. After many battles and untold amounts of pain, Thor, reduced to pulp by a battle with the Midgard Serpent, entered Hela’s realm within the armor of the Destroyer. The Destroyer’s power proved too much for Hela, and she restored Thor’s health and removed her curse. The Destroyer remained in Hela’s realm to remind her of her defeat.
It is said that should the forces of evil in the Nine Worlds ever succeed in destroying Asgard, Hela and her army of the dead would be at their side.
Hela is a goddess and as such enjoys superhuman resistance to injury, diseases, and an extremely long lifespan. Hela has the ability to use various spells such as levitation, illusion casting, and virtually any other desired effect. She is immediately aware of any actions in her realms, and she commands all who dwell there. Hela can project her astral essence to whichever dimensions as she pleases, for unlimited periods of time, and wields the same powers as usual.
Hela holds the power of life and death over the gods of Asgard. She can cast magical Eldritch bolts that cause aging in Asgardians, to the equivalent of 20 years for a human. The touch of the death goddess on bare flesh functions as a Death Touch. She can also restore life to a newly-fallen Asgardian, leaving them weakened or at their full measure of vitality, as she sees fit.
Hela’s cloak/cowl headdress contains much of her life force. Without it, she becomes extremely weakened and cannot use any of her powers. The left half of her body assumes its true form: that of a petrified corpse. Replacing the cloak will restore Hela to full vitality, and even touching it will allow her to stand.
Hela was awakened from her mortal guise after Ragnarök by Thor, albeit due to Loki’s machinations. She began living in Las Vegas, maintaining a lair where she could feed on the souls of random unlucky people, joining her powers with her father Loki’s to enable him to travel back in time and prompt Odin to adopt him as a child, fulfilling the penultimate step of his mastermind plan against Thor. Quasimodo researched Hela along with nearly two hundred other anti-heroes and villains, revealing his knowledge of her current whereabouts and loss of Hel and Nifflehelm to Osborn, but suggested that, while the goddess herself seldom took an interest in mortal affairs, he believed she can be persuaded by Loki to support their agenda if needed.
She attended a meeting with Mephisto, Blackheart, Satannish and Dormammu about a disturbance created by the newly resurrected Magik, who was looking for the soulsword and the original Bloodstone amulet. Belasco’s daughter, Witchfire appeared during the meeting and revealed she was now the current owner of the original amulet and vowed to take her father’s place as ruler of Limbo and seat at their table.
Danielle Moonstar met with Hela at the Inferno Club of Las Vegas, asking her for a boon, though one not coming for free, which gave her a sword and a new ride home.
During the events of Siege, Loki brokered a deal between Mephisto and Hela in which from the Peninsula of Perfidy to the Gully of Hubris will be for Hela to govern for a thousand and one years. With Ragnarok past an Asgardian’s only destiny is a place in Hela’s halls, for Loki’s part in the bargain it is a destiny he no longer shares.
