Line #19 NightmareFuel/MarvelUniverse


1	While Creator/MarvelComics may one of the best companies in the comic book scene, that doesn't stop the Franchise/MarvelUniverse from having scary moments.
2	For examples with their own pages, see the NightmareFuel/MarvelComics index.
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4	* '''''ComicBook/{{Thanos}}''''', the Mad Titan, is one of the primary {{Big Bad}}s of the Marvel Universe alongside Magneto and Doctor Doom, and most certainly one of the most threatening. A Titan with a Deviant disorder, Thanos had yearned for the love of ''Mistress Death herself'', [[StrawNihilist considering life as "hell"]] and having only an eternal desire to die so that he can be with Death. In his most infamous outing ''ComicBook/TheInfinityGauntlet'', Thanos assembles the titular artifact and tampers with the universe as he sees fit, ''just to win over Death like some jealous teen.'' He goes from trying to destroy all the stars in the universe using the Infinity Gems, to creating his iconic Infinity Gauntlet and doing the legendary BadassFingersnap that wipes out half of universal life, to becoming the very personification of said universe itself, all while not at all regarding the countless lives being at stake and instead completely relishing in the massive waves of casualties by his hand. One of the most dreaded beings in the universe and perhaps the only one that would force ''all'' heroes and villains to perform an EnemyMine just to stop him, Thanos is petulantly lustful, but still a brutal, destructive tyrant who, while he later became an AntiVillain and [[EvilIsCool was always far from the most despicable Marvel villain]], [[TheDreaded is still feared by numerous due to his almighty power and position.]]
5	** This [[https://imgur.com/gallery/FWN0yMv story]] about an unfortunate individual named David who is tormented by Thanos every single birthday. Once you look past the BlackComedy, this becomes completely terrifying in a unique way from Thanos's usual deeds. Imagine every year, on what's supposed to be your happiest day, a sadistic and seemingly all-powerful monster comes in and does something to make your life hell. And you have no one to talk to about this. When you're a kid, people dismiss this as your imagination. When you're an adult, when the Avengers have been fighting off Thanos publicly, people ''still'' won't believe you, because why would an intergalactic warlord be interested in some random person? Thanos has murdered David's father, ruined David's relationship with his girlfriend, poisoned all his friends, burned down his college, and killed his cat all to make him suffer for his sadistic entertainment. As Cosmic Ghost Rider points out, [[EvilIsPetty no evil is too small for the Mad Titan]].
6	* For those who haven't seen that version, Ultimate Galactus (known in this universe as Gah Lak Tus) has, shall we say, a different method of operation from the mainstream version. Instead of a giant humanoid in shiny purple and a big-ass hat showing up and declaring with much PurpleProse that his eating your planet will ultimately serve some higher cosmic purpose, the Ultimate version is truly scary, so much so that the mere warning about its approach inspired world-wide nightmares affecting the entire human race, and millions of mass suicides. The truly nasty stuff comes in the third volume, when Gah Lak Tus actually starts doing things to the world it intends to eat. Like sending "silver angel" heralds to inspire suicide/murder cults, broadcasting irresistible psychic waves that drive you insane with fear, and spreading an Ebola-like virus, all so that the task of stripping the Earth bare of life is made easier. Then finally, when everything else is dead, Gah Lak Tus itself arrives: a hundred-thousand-mile-wide swarm of skyscraper-sized mechanical eating machines, each one dropping from orbit like a bomb, and implacably boring into the lifeless ground and grinding the entire planet apart from the crust inward. It's not for nothing that the final volume is called Ultimate Extinction.
7	** The true nightmare fuel from that story was Silver Surfer's teeth. shudder
8	** And as for the cosmic purpose Gah Lak Tus normally has: why does Ultimate Big-G need to eat planets? To use a planet's energies as fuel to get to the next one. Even worse, Gah Lak Tus despises all organic life and wants every living thing to die as painfully as possible.
9	** That all said, the mainstream Galactus is far from a puppy. A skyscraper-sized star god who can go anywhere in the universe he pleases, unstoppable and powerful enough to vaporize entire solar systems as if they're nothing. He might get hit with TheWorfEffect regularly, but more often than not he rebounds from it and reminds everyone why he's feared across the universe as a world-ending force of nature. He also regularly has a FlyingBrick of godly power to follow him around, and it's VERY rare for them to be as compassionate as the Silver Surfer.
10	** And let's not get even started when Galactus and Gah Luk Tus '''[[FusionDance fused into]] [[OhCrap one being]]'''.
11	* Creator/WarrenEllis' ''ComicBook/{{Ruins}}'', a version of the Marvel Universe where everything went horribly wrong. Everything. Powers go out of control, mutilating and killing their owners. All the "Happy Accidents" ending in death or worse. Cannibalism, child prostitution, BodyHorror and MORE mutilation; the Hulk as a rampaging mass of tumors or a de-limbed Quicksilver lying in an asylum. Or maybe it's the Silver Surfer ripping open his own chest in an effort to breathe again. Nightcrawler chewing on his own tail. Johnny Blaze pouring petrol over his own head and setting himself on fire. The army of cancer-ridden Kree. Thor as a pathetic, insane, cult leader. Emma Frost's flock of lobotomized children. Wolverine rotting from the inside out.
12	* TheJuggernaut is often subjected to TheWorfEffect, but really, he's terrifying when you think about it. On paper, he has SuperStrength, NighInvulnerability and a HealingFactor -- if that's not a scary combination in and of itself, his vast array of RequiredSecondaryPowers includes "doesn't develop fatigue", "does not require food", and "does not need to breathe". The ultimate ImplacableMan, in other words -- once he gets started, he will ''never'' stop. You don't have enough gun to hurt him. Hell, ''nobody'' has enough gun to hurt him who isn't a RealityWarper. You can run as far and as fast as you like -- though, keep in mind, it's been said his SuperStrength allows him to run at speeds of up to 110 miles per hour -- but ol' Juggy will just keep coming along after you. He won't ever get distracted, he won't ever get tired, and he will. Not. ''Stop''. '''Ever'''. Icing to the cake is that Juggernaut is usually a mild form of PsychopathicManChild; all of that enormous, terrible power... controlled by the mind of a schoolyard thug, a nasty, petty bully whose mind never grew up even as his body did. The whole reason he fights against Xavier is because he's ''still'' nursing a childhood grudge against his stepbrother.
13	** Even more unsettling is that Cytorrak, The GodOfEvil that fuels the Juggernaut's nigh-limitless power, actively encourages his new avatar to cause as much death and destruction as possible. If by any chance you try and use his power for good, Cytorrak will weaken and even depower you and move on to a more suitable maniac befitting his desires. It's essentially all but assured whoever becomes the Juggernaut will become a murder-happy force of nature no matter what the chosen host wants.
14	* The end of the very first ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} issue revealed the new heroes were actually Baron Zemo and his Masters of Evil in disguise.
15	* The ''ComicBook/YoungAvengers''/''ComicBook/{{Runaways}}'' Civil War crossover. The fact that Teddy--sweet, GentleGiant, loving boyfriend Teddy--was cut up and torn apart on some psycho's operating table was unsettling.
16	** Made even worse when you consider the fact that Billy had to watch it happen, completely helpless thanks to the horrifying implants that have been shoved into his ears to prevent him from casting any spells. And the implants only prevent him from hearing his own voice; he can still hear Teddy being tortured, and Warden is taunting him the entire time. And then having to watch him breakdown and begin actively wishing for the Warden to die? It was not only terrifying, it was heart breaking.
17	** And while we're on the subject, consider Noh-Varr, a Kree supersoldier stranded on Earth who the Warden has stripped of independent thought and free will through repeated and constant MindRape and treated like a dog at best, a broken plaything at worst. He gets his revenge in the end, but it's still terrifying to think about.
18	*** The two battles against him are also pretty scary. In the first, aside of a surprise kick by a giant Cassie, the combined force of the Young Avengers and the Runaways where literally nothing against him. Billy and Teddy never had a chance at offense and if the Warden himself hadn't extracted Noh-Varr from the battle, Nico, Chase and Kate would have died there. The last one has even more FridgeHorror attached considering what happens [[OfficialCouple in the future]].
19	*** The second battle is even worse. Noh-Varr almost kills Molly.
20	* The BadFuture that Iron Lad comes across in "The Children's Crusade" shows the Young Avengers as the new Avengers team, fighting the foes that Earth couldn't. On top of that, most of them had been paired off, so they were all either married or married with children. This sounds like an ideal scenario... but the nightmare fuel comes in when you realize that they've become extremists who are perfectly willing to commit genocide if it's for the greater good. Seeing them cheerfully introduce the new members and explain how happy they are in their personal lives whilst surrounded by the dead bodies of the aliens race they'd just wiped out is incredibly creepy.
21	* ''ComicBook/AvengersArena'' is the ultimate example of a horror and paranoia story in the Marvel Universe. The story revolves around 16 teenagers who were kidnapped via teleportation, without warning, from inside facilities protected by maximum security, to a deadly island in the middle of Antartica, completely sealed by an invisible shield, teleportation-proof and completely off every radar. On the island, the teenagers are forced to fight between each other to the death for the sole amusement of Arcade, a madman who is pretty much invincible inside the island (unlimited powers and automatic shields that protect him from all kinds of dangers: magical, physical, biological, etc...). Something like this wouldn't stand a chance of working in a world where SHIELD and the Avengers are monitoring pretty much everything, right? Well, that would be correct if this madman hadn't secured every single body scan, voice print, passwords and even completely identical robots to stand in for the teenagers. All of that, just so that no one starts to even wonder if they are in danger. But hey, villains always bluff a lot when doing this thing and no one actually ever dies in the end right? Well, to prove Arcade wasn't bluffing, he actually '''kills one of the kids himself at the very beginning''', so only fifteen of these teenagers are left to survive on the island. And if you are wondering what happens if there is no winner in thirty days, well... the island will kill them all.
22	** Many people die in this series and the only thing protecting the viewer from seeing all the gore of these deaths is a shadow effect in a red font. Yeah, here you can actually witness the shadow of people being blown apart or having their neck snapped. In issue #10, they outright forget about discretion and show you a girl having her whole arm being blown apart and the bones in one of her feet coming out of her body.
23	** And if you want to know how this story ends? [[KarmaHoudini Arcade escapes and uploads the whole thing online, destroying the kids' lives and making the adults look like idiots.]] The final page is him literally opening a champagne bottle to celebrate.
24	* [[ComicBook/TheSentry The]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Void]] just generally seems tailored to ParanoiaFuel and outright NightmareFuel. Whenever the mostly insane Sentry saves someone, The Void kills someone. Then there's the fact that should Sentry have a breakdown, there's a high chance that The Void will emerge from him in nightmarish fashion, which is, world wide, considered the worst possible outcome. Then there's the onslaught of nightmarish forms it uses in outright battle, culminating in a horrific hybrid of a scorpion, a storm and ''hell itself'' in ''ComicBook/{{Siege}}''. And worse, ''nobody really knows who or what [[EldritchAbomination this thing]] truly is.''
25	** After being killed off for a time, he is brought back by the Apocalypse Twins to serve as their Horseman of Death. During a fight with ComicBook/TheWasp, he decides to mock her by ''ripping his own head apart''. As in, he splits it down the middle with his ''fingers'', tearing his face and skull in half and throwing them aside like a mask, leaving behind just a disembodied, floating brain and a pair of blazing red eyes. [[https://66.media.tumblr.com/bab18086d98575ce385c90b6145f617e/tumblr_my0z11YGTO1rr8dpjo2_1280.jpg The worst part is the third panel, which focuses on his burning, mad stare, without a face to distract from it.]]
26	** Some of the things The Void gets up to can be cringe-inducing, but its unbelievably violent murder of Ares really, really takes the cake.
27	** The fact that The Void is ultimately so horrifying that the Sentry actually asks for a MercyKill.
28	* The very existence of Kobik. The Cosmic Cubes, {{Macguffin}}s that grant the user the power of a RealityWarper, are already scary enough. Imagine a Cosmic Cube that can ''think for itself''. And then imagine that this Cosmic Cube is a '''child''', with all the intelligence and emotional maturity of a four-year-old girl. She's the backbone of what's wrong with Pleasant Hill in ''ComicBook/AvengersStandoff'', and after being recruited into the ''ComicBook/ThunderBolts'', one of the first thing she does is nearly ''kill'' Moonstone because of a poor choice of words on the latter's part. Which she does by basically trying to ''rip her heart out''.
29	** As if Kobik isn't terrifying enough, then comes TheReveal: She's not just a GooGooGodlike, she's one who has imprinted on the freaking RED SKULL as her beloved daddy! As such, she believes Hydra is the ultimate force of good in the world, and so she begins subtly performing {{Cosmic Retcon}}s to rewrite people into being part of Hydra. This culminates in the events of ''ComicBook/SecretEmpire'', because one of those people? '''ComicBook/CaptainAmerica!'''
30	* The Lifeform event from June 1990; running across 4 "Annuals" for 1990 that released in the same month, the Lifeform event began in ''ComicBook/ThePunisher Annual #3'', when a guy named George Prufrock steals a government-engineered viral weapon at the behest of his A.I.M-aligned father, only to be exposed to the virus in a shootout with the guard. It causes him to start mutating into a hideous beast; a barely human mass of melting flesh and bone that battles first the Punisher, then ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' (Annual #6) -- by the time it's come to haunt Hell's Kitchen, the Lifeform has developed the ability to absorb living creatures into its own body, and has become obsessed with doing so. Mercifully, the police attempt to subdue it with tranquilizers, which instead react with its now-alien biochemistry to cause its heartrate to accelerate until it literally falls apart. Problem solved, right? Wrong! In ''ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk Annual #16'', the insane alien "Mercy" revives the creature and transports it to a ghost town, where it battled the Hulk. Although the Lifeform seemingly died in the battle, Mercy revived it again and then transported it to New York, where it sought out a scientist who had created the same virus now raging through its malformed flesh. In the hospital, it loses whatever is left of its humanity and becomes essentially a combination of ''Film/TheThing1982'' and ''Film/TheBlob1988''; a ravenous mass of shifting, squamous flesh dotted with limbs, mouths and eyes that are constantly extruded and absorbed into its bulk, which grows bigger and more voracious as it devours humans and animals. In the final part of the story, ''ComicBook/SilverSurfer Annual #3'', it goes on a ravenous feeding frenzy, devouring hundreds of people and tons of river life, swelling into a gargantuan shapeless mass of meat and hunger. Fortunately, the Surfer intervenes and transports the Lifeform to a dead world stripped by Galactus. There, he prepares to annihilate it... but when the last vestige of George Prufrock's consciousness surfaces to thank him, the Surfer changes his mind and just leaves it there, declaring that he cannot kill a sentient creature. The Lifeform screams at him to come back and kill it, declaring that otherwise it will simply linger on this world, starving, for all eternity, but the Surfer just flies away, privately wondering if what he is doing [[CruelMercy is merciful or cruel]].
31	** The BodyHorror of the Lifeform truly cannot be explained with mere words. [[http://www.supermegamonkey.net/chronocomic/entries/silver_surfer_annual_3.shtml Allow some picture to help tell the tale.]]
32	* Being trapped inside of Mephisto dimension. As long as someone is stuck in there they are subjected to whatever torments he can think of Mephisto is very creative. He doesn't simply employ physical torture, [[MindRape he can enter someone's mind and make them think they are relieving the worst moments of their lives.]] And if wishes [[YearInsideHourOutside he can make time flow more slowly in his dimension,]] which once did to a victim he agreed to bring back to life, only to reveal what was a hours for people on Earth was years in Mephisto's dimension while he was held there.
33	* Carnage just oozes this, being an unhinged psychopath with alien powers.
34	* A good majority of the villains that ComicBook/GhostRider goes up against. And even Ghost Rider himself, at times.
35	* Now that you've read all of the above, imagine that you're a normal human living in this universe (or indeed any of them), and you run the risk of dealing with ''all of that''. Is it any wonder that the average people of the Marvel Universe are either browbeat into apathy or hate their superheroes after so many years of dealing with this?
36	** The horrific nature of the threats of the Marvel Universe towards the average citizen are actually highlighted by [[TheSociopath Norman Osborn]] of all people who finds it his duty to actually change things simply because the world is that horrendously chaotic and dangerous to the average joe.
37	-->'''Norman Osborn:''' This world is a madhouse of mutants, terrorists, psychotics, aliens, and monsters. All of them clashing and crashing into each other at every second of every day. People put on costumes and just decide, all by themselves, that they are the savior of this world. That it's okay for them to go and do whatever the Hell they want to whoever however they want because they have a costume. Well, I am telling you, the world is going to end, one day soon, it's actually going to explode. The wrong creature is going to slam into the wrong Mutant and boom. That will be it. All of this--All of it will have been for nothing. All I wanted was to stop it. All I wanted to do was fix the problems before they happened. I know the mutants of this world will rise up and kill us. I know that the Hulk will one day decide to destroy everything he sees. I know the Punisher will one day kill the wrong person and set off a chain of events that will lead to nuclear holocaust. I know these heroes will dive head first into something they do not understand and end up doing such insane damage to the world that humans can no longer live on it. Victor von Doom will crush us under his last mad gasp of air.
38	** Humans aren't the only ones. In one comic, Earth is portrayed as a DeathWorld where biology is all screwed up and aliens go to die. It's pretty funny, until you stop and consider that how all the invasions of Earth went. Imagine it from their point of view: you come to this planet, expecting an easy fight. Set up infiltrations and pretty much follow all the steps. Than you see the new inhabitants: more than a few of these "people" may be a HumanoidAbomination with powers defying all logic. They tear through your defenses, break your leaders over their legs, and pretty much wipe out your entire army. Think your neat tech and weapons will stop them? Think again! They have magic and ''Gods'' on their side. It's not hard to see why some of them begged for death when sentence to exile to a little blue planet...
39	** This justified nightmarish fear that extraterrestrials have of Earth and mankind is lampshaded in the ''Beyond'' arc by The Stranger who tried to find a way to counter mankind's abilities because of how much he feared them despite all his own godlike power. Earth and mankind are just that nightmarish to alien life, even godlike ones.

Context NightmareFuel / MarvelUniverse