Marvel has created most of the Godly pantheons, the most known atleast, they created the norse pantheon with his highest leader Odin, the greek pantheon with his highest leader Zeus, the Japanese pantheon with his highest leader Izanagi, but they created the egyptian pantheon without the highest leader. i mean Odin was the king in norse mythology, Zeus was the king in greek mythology...etc, but the king in egyptian mythology isn't Osiris or Horus as they are referring in comics, the real king is Ra.

i think Marvel writers are missing a lot, maybe they have little knowlege of egyptian myths, but creating a story about Ra and his fight against Apophis and including the main super heroes in this story will be really amazing!!! they are really missing good opportunities here.

instead of bringing the real Ra as interpreted in Mythologies, they created a lame character called Atum Demogorge and they made him the first father of egyptian pantheon. that was really lame.

Marvel has the Norse and Greek pantheons.

DC has the Greek and Egyptian pantheons.

Kind of a trade off, you could say.

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: Marvel's not ignorant to Egyptian gods, evident by their attempt to push moon knight (avatar to khonshu). I think it was a missed opportunity to not delve all the way into Egyptian mythology.

Ever wonder what the apostrophe in Ra's Al Ghul was for?

Ra's Al Ghul = Ra is Al Ghul

If you look at this map, Egypt is just across the water from Saudi Arabia:

Ra has been secretly masquerading as an Arabian man for many years, forming the League Of Assassins to do his bidding. "Ra’s is an eco-terrorist and his purpose with the League of Assassins is to eliminate all evil in the world. He concludes that the only way to do so is to destroy all of humanity and start all over." This is kinda like the Christian God wanting to start over like in the Noahs' Ark story(weirdly, that's the second time I've referenced that on this site). Once he wipes out all of humanity, he'll return to his role as the creator, and create a new race of humans, free from evil this time around.

O.K. Maybe that's not true. But it could happen. Maybe.

:)

@V_Scarlotte_Rose:

nice interpretation, but i think it's not what Ra's Al Ghul means. he's arabian and his name is simply arab.

"Ra's" as exactly spelled means "head" in arab.

"Al Ghul" also well spelled means "ghoul" in arab.

his name means literally "head of the ghoul"

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: It is actully explained in the comics, and his name actully means "The demon's head". I'm not sure if this is accurate.

@JediXMan: @All_Mighty_Beyonder: Marvel has all of them actually. The Egyptians even have two sky fathers. http://www.comicvine.com/osiris/29-13962/ and http://www.comicvine.com/horus/29-13961/

Ra wasn't the king of the Egyptian gods he was the god of the gods also that is a picture of Horus not Ra

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: Yeah I know. Just being whimsical. :)

@DarkKnightDetective: yes!! exactly what i said, ghoul, demon it's the same thing.

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@Teerack: i know Horus and Osiris but there is no Ra who is in egyptian mythology above both of them, their protector and their king and all father.

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@Jonny_Anonymous: yes i know, i just didn't find cooler picture, and Ra sometimes has hawk head as Horus, and sometimes has human head. and in Marvel there is Elder Gods who are gods of gods, why not put Ra as one of them? they came out with a lame character as Elder god named Atum Demogorge but i can't accept that he's the Marvel interpretation of Ra.

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: If that's true then he was probably in the generation before Odin.

@Teerack said:

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: If that's true then he was probably in the generation before Odin.

yes!! according to myths he was the first to come out from primeval waters (oblivion in Marvel) then he created everything, he created Tefnut (Moisture) and Shu (Air). From this first divine pair sprang the sky goddess Nut and earth god Geb, who created the universe and gave birth to the gods Osiris, Isis, Set, Nephthys, and Horus.

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: No. I forget their names but they showed Odin's parents a few times in The Mighty Thor and in Journey into Mystery. The Different types of Gods don't mix they have Parallel lines at least as far back as Marvel has shown. Although Sense Thor and Hercules call each other cousin I would assume if we kept going back we'd get to The One Above All or The Living Tribunal or someone who was there at the start of everything.

Marvel named him Ammon Ra

@All_Mighty_Beyonder:

Marvel named him Ammon Ra

This

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: are you egyptian?

@Teerack said:

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: No. I forget their names but they showed Odin's parents a few times in The Mighty Thor and in Journey into Mystery. The Different types of Gods don't mix they have Parallel lines at least as far back as Marvel has shown. Although Sense Thor and Hercules call each other cousin I would assume if we kept going back we'd get to The One Above All or The Living Tribunal or someone who was there at the start of everything.

Odin's father is named Bor, and the prime parents of all pantheons are Gaea and Demiurge ( Elder Gods) according to Marvel.

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@gravitypress: @dondave:

yeah, that looks like the closest interpretation to Ra, but he's really neglected, he has no feats no established story.

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@Jorgevy:

hhh, no, what makes you think so ? i just like mythologies that's all.

What would be the point of having Ra around?

@AtPhantom said:

What would be the point of having Ra around?

2 things :

1. it's unfair to egyptian pantheon, norse pantheon has Odin, greek pantheon has Zeus, but egytian pantheon hasn't it's real king. maybe even Ra should be placed at Elder God level.
2. creating a story about Ra and his eternal fight with Apophis to protect reality would be great!! specially if they could add to it super heroes intervention (avengers, X men...)

@All_Mighty_Beyonder:

1. Nobody cares? The Egyptian pantheon is not a person that can be insulted, nor do they have anyone to be insulted on their behalf. There are dozens or hundreds of pantheons out there that are represented even less and nobody cares about them either. Just because Age of Mythology instituted the Greeks, Norse and Egyptians as some kind of pagan trinity doesn't mean you have to pay equal measure unto each of them.

2. Epic struggles to protect reality are a dime a dozen in comics. That's not a good reason to demand a character. Odin had an epic struggle with Surtur as well, but that's not the reason Odin exists in comic. Odin and Zeus exist not because the mythology they're based upon demand them to exist but because they provide excellent foils for their sons, the heroes of the story and the ones it's all about. They have a purpose within the comics they were created for. What would be Ra's purpose? To be just another monster/helping entity of the week? You can only tell the story of his with Apophis once before it gets repetitive. After a while he'll just be limited down to group shot appearances when the council of godheads meet. You know, like every other member of that group. That's boring and meaningless. The point is that characters should be created for a purpose, not just because the source material mandates their existence.

@JediXMan said:

Marvel has the Norse and Greek pantheons.

DC has the Greek and Egyptian pantheons.

Kind of a trade off, you could say.

Actually, Marvel has Egyptian and DC has Norse (at least a few), but they're not so common.

@ShootingNova said:

@JediXMan said:

Marvel has the Norse and Greek pantheons.

DC has the Greek and Egyptian pantheons.

Kind of a trade off, you could say.

Actually, Marvel has Egyptian and DC has Norse (at least a few), but they're not so common.

I can't speak for the Marvel and Egypt thing, because I myself haven't seen that - or I can't remember. DC's Norse pantheon, from what I've seen, is limited to Vertigo. There were a lot of Norse gods in Sandman.

@All_Mighty_Beyonder: Also, the King in Egyptian myth is dependent on time, cult, etc.

Atum-Ra (by this I mean Atum or Ra, or just Atum-Ra) is considered the first king, then it goes down to Osiris, Set, Horus, etc.

Also, Nut and Geb didn't give birth to Horus, who was the son of Isis and Osiris. At least in most myths.

Nut and Geb didn't create the universe either, it was often Ptah, or sometimes Atum-Ra out of loneliness.

@AtPhantom: And I agree with this.

@JediXMan: Well, Seth and Odin did fight at one point. Something to do with rending the fabric of the multiverse?

Atum is actually Egyptian and was the first god in some of the oldest versions of Egyptian mythology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology

In the Marvel universe, Ra is the son of Atum and Gaea (whom Marvel connects with various Egyptian names for primordial Earth goddesses). That's slightly different than in Egyptian mythology, but not too much. And the Egyptians themselves had no consistent mythology. (The same goes for the Greeks and Scandinavians.) They constantly changed their stories from city to city and year to year. So some editorial decisions just had to be made.

Also, in the Marvel universe Ra goes by the full name of Ammon-Ra: http://marvel.wikia.com/Ra

(Frankly, I think that was just to avoid confusion because it's such a short name and there may have already been other people going by the name of "Ra" in the Marvel universe.)

The Egyptian gods have actually featured quite often in the Marvel universe, especially in stories centered around Thor and the Asgardians: http://marvel.wikia.com/Heliopians

Congratulations ra will be moon knights new villain