Although the first appearance of the crown was in 1969 in Sub-Mariner #9 — which is set in contemporary times — various subsequent stories expanded and developed its earlier history in the Marvel Universe.

As human societies developed, the Serpent Men began to falter and eventually their race dwindled when King Kull became ruler of Valusia and launched a campaign against them.

However, it appears that it was much inferior to the Serpent Crown as its abilities eventually burn out and it is apparently destroyed during the course of a conflict between Thoth-Amon and Conan the Barbarian.

These new "Lemurians" (as distinct from the "Atlantean" Homo mermanus who settled in the sunken Atlantis) eventually uncover the Serpent Crown in the ruins of the city.

Naga's physical appearance is changed from exposure to the crown, his facial features coming to resemble those of a snake and his skin becoming scale-like and green (from the common blue of other Homo mermanus).

[9] However, the malignant influence of Set eventually manifested itself, with Piscatos finally becoming a follower of the serpent god, which led him to (unwittingly) cause a landslide which ended the civilization of the Ancients.

[10] The crown appears in its original form, worn by Lilia Calderu, queen of the Gypsies, during the time period when Destine is in suspended animation.

Calling himself "Destiny," Paul Destine seeks to take over the world and comes into conflict with the son of Captain Mackenzie, Namor the Sub-Mariner.

[13] The power of the Crown manages to overcome the Ancient's protective casing, revealing its true form and allowing Set to once again convey its influence through it.

Viper, at this point leader of the original Serpent Squad, then kidnaps the president of Roxxon Oil, Hugh Jones, and places the Crown on his head.

The Avengers then brought the Serpent Crown from that alternate world back with them to their own Earth, eventually losing it when it was dropped into the Pacific Ocean after a battle with the Living Laser.

[20] The Crown began to exert Set's influence again at Project: PEGASUS, mind controlling the staff at the complex and eventually overpowering the wills of everyone who works there.

The superheroes use the Cosmic Cube to destroy the massive Crown and reduce it to metallic dust, and Strange casts a spell exorcising Set from the Earth dimension forever.

[21] The Deviant priest Ghaur, a disciple of Set, and his ally, the Lemurian Llyra, attempt to engineer his return once again through the use of another giant Serpent Crown.

He is briefly successful in bringing Set back to the Earth dimension, as the spirit of the exiled god animates the Crown for a short while,[22] before he was defeated by Thor, Quasar, Thing and Doctor Strange.

[27] In the period when Namor was believed to have been amnesiac, Charles Xavier made contact with him as part of an attempt to locate more mutants, and sought to ease his mental instability by using a memory of a fallen friend to form a psychic construct to serve as therapist.

[28] Throughout the decades, Machan, as a manifestation of Namor's guilt and inadequacy, would attempt to influence his host to take more extreme action, culminating in a plot to turn all surface dwellers into Atlanteans.