THE MEDUSA

The medusa was an ugly creature. Let's have a look at how she came into existance, for she wasn't always that ugly... Again, the Gods played their role.
The Medusa was the daughter of Phorkys and Keto, the children of Gaia (Earth) and Okeanos (Ocean). She was one of the three sisters known as the Gorgons. The other two sisters were Sthenno and Euryale. Medusa was the only mortal out of the three. She was once very beautiful and lived far in the north were the sun didn't visit. Being very curious, she wanted to see the sun, and asked the Goddess Athena for permission to visit the south. Athena refused to allow her to visit. The medusa got angry and dared to say that Athena hadn't given her permission because she was jealous of her beauty. that was it! Athena was angered and punished her by turning her hair into snakes and cursing her by making her so ugly that who ever lookes at her eyes would turn into stone

Medusa

Real Name: Medusalith Amaquelin Occupation: Royal interpreter Identity: Medusa does not use a dual identity. She is unknown by the general public of Earth to be an Inhuman. Legal Status: Citizen of Attilan Other Aliases: Madame Medusa Place of Birth: Island of Attilan, Atlantic Ocean Marital Status: Married Known Relatives: Quelin (father), Ambur (mother), Crystal (sister), Karnak, Gorgon, Triton (second cousins), Black Bolt (husband), Luna (niece), Pietro Maximoff (brother-in-law) Group Affiliation: Royal Family of the Inhumans, former member of the Frightful Four and Fantastic Four Base of Operations: Attilan, Blue Area, Earth's Moon First Appearance: FANTASTIC FOUR #36 History: Medusa was the first of two children born to the Inhuman nutritionists Quelin and Ambur. Her father Quelin was the brother of Rynda, wife of Agon, king of the Inhumans, and as such she has been considered part of the Royal Family. Medusa's parents elected to expose her to the mutagenic Terrigen Mist when she was an infant, and the process endowed her with hair that she could animate like added appendages. While still in adolescence she began to make frequent visits to the isolation cell of her second cousin, Black Bolt, and learned to communicate with him in a special sign language. Medusa and Black Bolt developed a special bond between them that blossomed into love when Black Bolt was first allowed out of his cell at the age of eighteen. In the aftermath of the first coming of the Trikon, Medusa left the Inhumans' Great Refuge. Afflicted with amnesia sustained in an aircrash, the Inhuman wandered Europe, committing petty thefts to get food to survive. Her animated hair soon brought her unwanted attention, and eventually the American criminal called the Wizard heard rumors of her. Locating Medusa in Paris, the Wizard brought her to America and enlisted her in the Frightful Four, a band of criminals he had organized. Medusa went along with the criminal activities of the Frightful Four since she felt grateful to the Wizard for her rescue and had nothing better to do. The Frightful Four battled the Fantastic Four, and all but Medusa were captured. Medusa's public exploits enabled Black Bolt and the other members of the Royal Family, who had been exiled from the Great Refuge by Black Bolt's mad brother Maximus, to locate her. Seeing them again restored her memory, and they were all taken back to the Great Refuge by the Seeker, an agent of Maximus. When Black Bolt regained the throne, Medusa renewed her betrothal to him and served as his royal interpreter. She has remained at his side as his constant companion for most of the time since, seeing the Inhumans through one of their most tumultuous periods in history. Although Medusa has taken various short journeys from the Inhumans' base Attilan without Black Bolt (once where she engaged Spider-Man in battle, another time to thwart the reunion of the Frightful Four), she has only left his side for a period of months twice. The first time she joined the Fantastic Four to take the Invisible Girl's place on the team during her estrangement from her husband. The second time, she was taken captive by the criminal Enclave, who sought to conquer Attilan. Medusa has recently wed Black Bolt, thus becoming the queen of the Inhumans, after the customary several year royal engagement period was over. She and Black Bolt are expecting a child. Height: 5 ft. 11 in. Weight: 130 lbs Eyes: Green Hair: Red Strength Level: Medusa possesses the normal strength of a female Inhuman of her age, height, and weight who engages in moderate regular exercise, Due to generations of eugenics, Inhumans are superior to humans in strength, reaction time, stamina, resistance to injury, and speed. Known Superhuman Powers: Medusa possesses a long, thick head of hair, every strand of which has greater tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and shear resistance than an iron wire of the same thickness (average hair diameter: .045 inches), as well as the psychokinetic ability to animate her hair for a number of feats. Her hair, approximately 6 feet in length while relaxed, can elongate to almost twice its normal length with only about a 25% loss of overall tensile strength. One strand of hair, 2-feet long, can support 6.4 pounds, a list-sized lock of hair can support about 750 pounds and her whole head of hair can lift about 3,200 pounds (1.6 tons). A portion of her hair must be used to anchor the rest at these greater weights, so that more than her scalp/skull is used as a brace. Medusa can control the movement of her hair as if it were countless thin appendages growing from her head. A psionic field permeates her mutagenically altered hair-cells, causing mutual attraction across the gaps between strands. These relatively small forces operate in conjunction to develop larger forces. Through concentration, she can psionically move her hair in any manner imaginable. She can snap the length of it through the air like a whip (the tip of which moves faster than the speed of sound), or rotate it in a fan-like manner. She can bind persons or objects with it as if it were rope or use it to lift objects which weigh more than she could lift with her arms. (Her scalp, skull, and neck do not support the weight of an object that she lifts: it is held aloft by the psionic force coursing through the hair.) Medusa can also perform delicate manipulations with her hair such as lock picking or threading a needle, and such complex acts of coordination as typing or shuffling a deck of cards. Although she has no nerve endings in her hair, she can "feel" sensations on all parts of her hair by a form of mental feedback from her psionic field. As yet Medusa has not manifested her psychokinetic powers in any way except the animation of her own hair. Whether she has the potential to control other fibrous substances other than her own hair (as can the mutant Gypsy Moth) has not yet been determined.