WHIRO

Real Name: Tawhakimatea (His Polynesian name, Whiro is his Maori name)

Occupation: God of the dead, former god of storm

Legal Status: Citizen of Celestial Hawaiki

Identity: The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Whiro except as a mythological deity.

Other Aliases: Tawhaki/Tawhiri (alternate Polynesian name), Milu, Limu (Hawaiian names), Loo (Samoan name), Negendei (Fiji name), Lothia, Loco (Loyalty Islands names), Papahanau-Mohu, et al.

Place of Birth: Avaiki (modern Raiatea in French Polynesia)

Marital Status: Married

Known Relatives: Rangi (father), Gaea (mother, alias Papa), Tame, Tangaroa, Tu, Rongo (brothers), Haumea (sister), Hina-hau-one (wife/niece), Matuu, Mata, Tona, Tua (sons), Hina-nui-te-po (step-daughter/niece), Pele, Laka, Polivah, Namaka, Hiiaka, Mahina, Atarapa (nieces), Kai-Tangata, Tinirau, Marama, Oru, Tama (nephews), Baiame (possible cousin)

Group Affiliations: The Gods of Polynesia (The Atua), and the Gods of Hawaii (The Kahunas), ally of Marduk and the Everlasting

Base of Operations: Po also Mobile, formerly Moana-irakau in French Polynesia

First Appearance: (as Papahanau-Mohu) Citizen V and the Everlasting #4

History: Whiro is a member of the Atua, an extra-dimensional race of beings who were worshipped as gods by the ancient Oceanic aborigines of the Pacific Islands. While the exact origin of the Oceanic gods is unrevealed, as compared to other pantheons of gods such as the Olympians and the Anunnaki, it is believed the Atua might have originated somewhere in the vicinity of the Fiji Islands, later extending their worship through Polynesia, Micronesia and the Australian continent. Most of the modern-day worship of the Oceanic gods is felt and centered around the Hawaiian Islands believed to have been created by the goddess Pele in a feud with her sister, Namaka, the ocean-goddess.

As Tawhaki, Whiro is one of the sons of the primeval earth-goddess, Gaea, known to the Polynesian aborigines as Papatuanuku, and her mate, Ranginui, the ancient sky-father, whose essence filled the biosphere of the earth's atmosphere just as Gaea had infused her life essence into the Earth itself. Rangi so loved Papa that he held her within a tight embrace and refused to let her go. As a result of this tight embrace, clouds and darkness covered the earth and all living things remained stifled between sky and earth. Realizing that nothing on earth would survive unless they could separate sky and earth, each of their sons took turns trying to separate their parents. For unknown reasons, Tawhaki and Tu, the war-god, objected to their brothers trying to separate heaven and earth. Finally, Tawhaki's youngest brother, Tame cleaved a great axe from divine materials and used it to break apart Rangi and Papa, rising his father into a lofty place in the heavens decorated by stars and adorning his mother with trees that reached to the sky. In doing so, Tame reportedly established day and night and the calendar and became ruler over his fellow gods.

Tawhaki and the rest of the Atua were eventually worshipped as gods by the ancient Maori aborigines who carried worship of their deities throughout the Pacific. Tawhaki was revered as god of storm and rain, harassing and troubling mortals with displays of his power. At some point, he invaded Po, the Polynesian underworld set aside for the shades (spirits) of their ancestors which was ruled by Hina-hau-one, daughter of Tame. Tame had created Hina-hau-one from the clay of the Earth either as a potential mate or as a lover in addition to his wife. When she discovered that he was her father, she had vanished from Earth, taking her daughter, Hina-nui-te-po, by Tame, with her. Hina-hau-one became goddess of the dead, and Hina-nui-te-po became the goddess of death. Tawhaki took Hina-hau-one as his wife and became Whiro, god of the dead, as a result. She sired him four sons, Matuu, Mata, Tona and Tua, who became gods of the wind. 

In the Hawaiian Islands, the Atua were worshipped as as a group of gods known as the Kahunas under variant names. In the Maori Islands, Tawhaki was known as Whiro and as Limu or Milu in the Hawaiian Islands. For unknown reasons, the Atua allowed their worship to dwindle after Europeans invaded the Pacific. The Hawaiians allowed American armies to claim the Hawaiian Islands and by 1940, it was claimed for the United States. By now, Tawhaki had been overshadowed by the young thunder-god, Tawhiri, just his brother Tu, the god of war, had been replaced by the war-god, Oro, son of Tangaroa, the sea-god. As one of the Kahunas or Gods of Hawaii, Whiro was known as Milu, a god of the dead. When the god Seth sought out Whiro and Hina in a plot to merge their perspective realms of the dead, Whiro refused him because of his allegiances to Marduk, one of the Mesopotamian gods.

Marduk had recruited Whiro in a plot to to take over Earth. To conceal his identity from his fellow Atua, Whiro acted under the employ of Marduk under the name Papahanau-Mohu and Marduk posed as a mortal named Zoltan Nestor. They seized control of Oracle, Inc. created by Namor the Submariner and later sold to Stark-Fujikawa in Japan. The V-Battalion meanwhile became aware of it from Amahl Farouk and sought out for information about it from Nestor unaware of his connection to it. He provided them with a bit of misinformation to distract them from his group for a while, but in the meantime Marduk placed his mark on Roger Aubrey, Mighty Destroyer of V Battalion, thereby gaining control of his life. Turning up a notch in his plans, Marduk funded and supplied weaponry to the anti-national terrorist group ULTIMATUM led by the Flag-Smasher with the intention to use the life energies of souls slain in the battles with ULTIMATUM to furl the Genesis Well, which would grant him full power over the earth. Whiro helped Marduk to capture the mutant known as the Collective Man to drain the life from the population of China. As a result, nearly the entire nation briefly fell into a comatose state. Citizen V had to slay the Collective Man to reverse that threat and recruited Flag-Smasher to help him defeat Marduk. Infuriated by this change in his plans, Marduk stole the life of Roger Aubrey and added it to the Genesis Well which gave him his power. Unfortunately, Marduk could not leave the well to fight Citizen V. As Aubrey and the captive spirits in the well rallied against Marduk and Whiro, Citizen V destroyed the Genesis Well whose energies then ripped Marduk apart and restored Aubrey to life. Whiro, however, escaped in the melee. His whereabouts are unknown. 

Height: 6' 7"
Weight: 395 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black

Strength Level: Whiro possesses superhuman strength to an unknown degree. The typical Oceanic god has superhuman strength enabling him to lift (press) at least 30 tons under optimal conditions.

Known Superhuman Powers: Whiro possesses the conventional physical attributes of the Atua or Oceanic gods. Like all of the Atua, he is exceptionally long-lived, but he is not immortal immortal like the Gods of Olympus. He tends to age at a more slowly rate than human beings and cannot die by any conventional means. He is immune to all Earthly diseases and is resistant to conventional injury. If he were somehow wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed. It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be possible for a god of significant power, such as Tame, Tangaroa or Baiame or for a number of Oceanic gods of equal power working together to revive him. Whiro also possesses superhuman strength and his Atua metabolism provides him with far greater than human endurance in all physical activities. (Atua flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength and weight of the Oceanic gods.)

Comments: This bio describes Whiro/Tawhaki as he has appeared in the Marvel Universe; he has not appeared in the DC Universe. However, Whiro is only identified by the name Papahanau-Mohu, a variant name of Papatuanuku, later getting properly identified as the god of the dead in the All-New OHOTMU Update #4 and the Thor/Hercules: Mythologica Encyclopedia. (It is unknown why a god of the dead has to be chosen to be a villain.) 

The line between the thunder-gods Tawhaki and Tawhiri is a little sketchy. They are almost treated as the same being; one of the sons of Papa and Rangi. However, in the lineage of the demigod, Maui, Tawhiri is the son of Urutonga, a son of Tangaroa, the sea-god. However, Tawhaki is often referred to as god of the underworld, an attribute not applied to Tawhiri. For the efforts of clarity, this bio will consider Tawhaki as the older deity and Tawhiri as the younger deity. Maui has a bio at the Guide to the Mythological Database.

In the Citizen V series, Papahanau-Mohu is identified as the accomplice of Marduk. However, by time the bio for Marduk came out in the All-New OHOTMU Update #4, it was noticed that Papahanau-Mohu was actually a name of the Polynesian Ouranus (Technically, it was a name of the Polynesian Gaea; Marvel had switched genders, but rather than stick to the previous assumption, Marvel further muddied the waters by giving Gaea both names.) To differentiate the "Ouranus" figure from the Marduk minion, Marvel then decided to establish "Papahanau-Mohu" as Whiro (Tawhaki), the Polynesian god of the dead. Except for a brief mention of Tu, the war-god, Whiro/Tawhaki/Papahanau-Mohu is the second Oceanic deity to appear in the Marvel Universe after Pele except for chosen characters mentioned in the Thor/Hercules: Mythologica Encyclopedia.