The Thing in the Black Box

History: Centuries ago, Zeus, chief of the Olympian gods, gave a tightly sealed box to Pandora, warning her never to open it; she did, and unleashed evil, wicked imps upon the world. The imps were sealed back in the box and Pandora was exiled to a tropical island in the South Pacific.

In present times, a man was ship-wrecked on the beautiful Pandora's isle. She tricked him into opening the box and released a single demon which grew to gigantic proportions. This demon was the personification of all the individual imps. Pandora commanded the demon to attack the world. Meanwhile, the ship-wrecked man surrounded Pandora with mirrors, showing her her true, centuries-old reflection. Pandora surrendered and ordered the creature back into the box. The box was then sealed and buried.

In modern times, Pandora's box wound up in the hands of The Sorcerer (Not to be confused with Aaron or Sazzik or Spider-Man's one-time foe) who fought The Human Torch by unleasing the individual imps (which included Hatred, Forgetfulness, Sleepiness, Cold, Paralysis, Disease, Flood, Foolishness, Laziness, Flame, and Fear). Defeating the imps, the Torch welded the box shut.

Height: Variable

Demonstrated Powers: The Thing from Pandora's box was the personification of all the individual evil imps and had their combined powers, the full extent of which are unknown. Among these powers were the magical ability to cause floods, dematerialize, cause cities to sink, create rings of flame in the sky, and create a mist that would overwhelm a person's will to resist.

Comment: In modern times, this story was redone in Chamber of Darkness # 3 as “Something Lurks on Shadow Mountain”, art by John Buscema.

Again, I loved the spin that Marvel did on the myth, that Pandora had power over what was in the thing, and let it out so it could trash the world for her. Again, I LOVED Kirbys work on the apparently young Pandora. She looked seriously evil!

I believe Strange Tales #109 also featured a story about a character called Circe…who may or may not be the Eternal, Sersi. Can anyone clarify this for us? Please let us know at The Eternals Message Board: http://members3.boardhost.com/Eternals/

This is not the first marvel story featuring PANDORA'S BOX,in the years following the decline of the popularity of the super heroes,timely/atlas/marvel(which DID use that name briefly.)converted CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS into CAPTAIN AMERICAS WEIRD TALES,featuring the capster as a narrator,or in stories of a supernatural theme(the RED SKULL had a contest against cap;in hell!!!!!!!!,i swear to god im not making this up,maybe it was the george maxon skull)but pretty soon it dropped him altogether,but CAPTAIN AMERICA'S WEIRD TALES#75 has a story called ''THE THING IN THE CHEST'',about a chauvinist who blames everything on women,but ends up unleashing a horrible plague on humanity;''THE LEPER MAN''(so much for a ''new''plague)in the last few panels,his wife,dying,jokes about his supposed superiority.this story is poorly written and drawn,and the cover is mis-leading,in that the monster is a zombie-type in the story,and a green-furry thing on the cover,while the woman does not appear in the story.the chest is never said to be pandoras,but ''phil''jokingly references the legend,and id say it was safe to say this was pandoras chest,i mean;just how many evil boxes containing monsters and plagues are there?

............. TURRRRRRRRRRD THE THING THAT COULD NOT DIE!!!!!!!!! :: 06 December 2006

oooooooh,forgive me,Marvel's first pandora-style story is in MYSTIC COMICS#7,where hitler unleashes a trunk of demons on some old guy,but is foiled by the golden age DESTROYER,however i dont have this issue,so i cant say anything on the contents……yet.;any help?

............. TURRRRRRRRRRRRD THE THING THAT COULD NOT DIE!!!!!!! :: 13 December 2006

In Thunderstrike#4(1/94)-6(3/94) he and Spider-Man fought a deviant named Pandara who had an enchanted casket that black smoke and “Demons”(Daemons) came out of.In Venus#19(4/52)[The Box Of Doom!]a hideous vampire creature emerged from the “Box Of Doom” and merged with a messenger.In the 1967-1970 Spider-Man cartoon—-second half(after “The Night Of The Villians”) a villian called Miss Trubble used Pandora's Box to summon simulacra of a Centaur,Cyclops Cerebrus,Diana of the hunt,and Vulcan god of fire [Here Comes Trubble].She used a Magic Key to open the box.

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