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Hell Lords

    Arioch 

Arioch

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/arioch_earth_616_from_strange_tales_vol_2_13_0001.jpg

Species: Fallen Angel

First Appearance: Conan the Barbarian #15 (February, 1972)

Arioch is an entity who serves as Lieutenant to the chaos lord, Shuma-Gorath. His power is so immense that it is only limited by his imagination.


  • Canon Immigrant: He is the sometime patron of Elric of Melnibone, and is peripherally part of the Marvel Multiverse thanks to Elric's guest appearance in a few issues of Conan the Barbarian.
  • Fallen Angel: He was listed among the millions of fallen angels cast down from Heaven, possibly for participating after the rebellion of Lucifer against God.
  • Imagination-Based Superpower: Arioch stated that he could be as strong as he wished, or as he could imagine, and that he could do to other anything he could conceive of.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Appears to dress in green and his skin is purple.

    Asmodeus 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asmodeus_demon_earth_616_from_doctor_strange_damnation_vol_1_1_001.png

Species: Fallen Angel / Demon

First Appearance: Ghost Rider Vol 2 #53 (February, 1981)

Originally an angel who joined Lucifer's rebellion against God during his war in Heaven, Asmodeus was cast out like Lucifer and others, degenerated into a demon and came to rule a subsection of the nether realm Hell. He also mated with his fellow outcast Lilith, parenting many demonic offspring, although most were slain by agents of Heaven.


    Asti 

Asti the All-Seeing

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/asti.png

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Strange Tales #144 (February, 1966)

A demonic creature that is a minion of Dormammu, Asti was once set upon Doctor Strange, who was able to defeat the creature.


    Belasco 

Belasco

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-belasco_earth-616_4804.jpg

Nationality: Florentine Republic

Species: Demon (formerly Human)

First Appearance: Ka-Zar the Savage #11 (1982)

Belasco was a sorcerer in 13th Century Italy who used his knowledge of alchemy and the black arts to contact the Elder Gods (actually extradimensional demonic entities). He forged a pact with them enabling them to cross the barrier to our dimension using a pentagonal arrangement of five Bloodstones. In return, Belasco was granted immortality and immense mystical power. He was also given a demonic appearance, as he was intended to form a new race of Earth-dwelling demons.


  • Arch-Enemy: To Dante Aligheri in the 13th century and Illyana Rasputin in the modern age.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Despite appearing to be little more than a convenient Arch-Enemy for Magik, Belasco's goal to open a portal between Earth and Limbo actually became something of a long-running plot point, as it was pursued by his underlings S'ym and N'astirh after his fall before ultimately being fully realized by Madelyne Pryor as the Goblyn Queen during Inferno (1988). Ten years later this plot would be recycled almost wholesale with the introduction of the very Belasco-like villain Azazel and his very Belasco-like plan to open a portal betwen Earth and another dimension to facilitate another demonic invasion.
  • The Corrupter: He draws the young Magik to him, corrupting her into his disciple the "Darkchylde". Unfortunately for him he ended up doing too good a job with Illyana, and she overthrew him to become Limbo's new ruler.
  • Deal with the Devil: He made a pact with the elder demons of Limbo in exchange for Immortality and increased magical power. Interestingly, this deal did not require him to give up his soul, but rather to provide the elder demons with a way to cross over from their dimension to the normal one.
  • Demon of Human Origin: It can be easy to forget nowadays that Belasco actually started out as a mere human (albeit a very evil and ambitious one). After making his pact with the elder demons of Limbo, he has since made a name for himself as a very powerful Hellish ruler in his own right, sometimes even making a bid to oust Mephisto himself.
  • Dimension Lord: Rules over the Otherplace, later identified as Limbo.
  • Evil Makes You Ugly: As part of his deal with the elder demons his physical body was distorted into a demonic form through which he would sire a new race of Earth-dwelling demons for his masters.
  • Eviler than Thou: After being cast into the lowest depths of hell by his masters, Belasco literally proved himself as this to a native-born demon by tricking it into getting close and then stealing its lifeforce to open a portal back to Limbo.
  • Evil Redhead: As his profile image shows, he was one of these even before his demonic makeover.
  • Evil Sorcerer: He was one of these even before his Deal with the Devil, and afterwards was powerful enough to successfully impersonate Satan himself.
  • For the Evulz: He has a really flimsy Freudian Excuse in that he was accused of heresy by the Catholic Church of his day, but seeing as how he was actually engaging in heresy, well...
  • God Guise: He pretended to be Lucifer when he appeared in The Punisher as Rev's benefactor.
  • Handicapped Badass: Belasco lost his entire right arm under unrevealed circumstances, but he is no less dangerous a foe for it.
  • Implacable Man: After M-Day, he stormed his way back up to Limbo, wading through almost literal rivers of demon blood as Amanda Sefton threw everything in the realm at him to stop him. Which didn't work.
  • I Reject Your Reality: During "The Quest for Magik", whenever the New X-Men try telling him they don't know anything about Illyana Rasputin, he refuses to believe them and lashes out with violence.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: He's the father of Alpha Flight member Witchfire.
  • The Man Behind the Man: To obscure Punisher villain The Rev, as well as his subordinates S'ym and N'astirh.
  • One-Man Army: He singlehandedly reclaimed Limbo from Amanda Sefton with only one axe in hand and fighting through legions and legions of demons in his path.
  • Public Domain Character: He was the rival of Dante and the abductor/rapist of Dante's beloved Beatrice. Yes, that Dante and Beatrice.
  • Really 700 Years Old: A rare example that matches up on the dot with the number, as he was born sometime in the 13th century, making him around 700 years old and some change in the present day.
  • Replacement Goldfish: He tried reviving Illyana after M-Day, having seen her resurrection in the House of M reality. The soulless evil Darkchylde he created didn't meet his standards, and he kicked her out.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: As his first appearance indicates, Belasco was originally introduced as a villain to Ka-Zar, but nowadays he's primarily known as an X-Men villain.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Trapped in Limbo/Otherplace, the locket that is his key is escape having been thrown into a volcano. Kidnapped Illyana Rasputin to use her as his tether to escape.
  • Sore Loser: After his plans were foiled twice Belasco shifted his focus from opening a portal to Earth to just wiping out humanity outright. Needless to say, that didn't work out for him either.
  • Stalker with a Crush: Revealed as being this to Magik during the appropriately-titled Quest for Magik storyline.
  • Wife Husbandry: He tried this with Illyana when she became Magik the first time. Of course, it didn't go quite as planned.

    Blackheart 

Blackheart

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/7dbfe776c5c3117e52b794b7d279dfb9.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Daredevil #270 (September, 1989)

Blackheart is the son of Mephisto, an evil mystical creature that plots to take his father's throne and rule all of Mephisto's Realm.


  • Abusive Parents: When you are the son of Mephisto, this is a given (though it should be stressed that Blackheart was born evil, so this isn't a Freudian Excuse at all). His first story ends with Mephisto squishing him- literally, and more than once- then depowering him when Blackheart still kept annoying him. His next two ended with Mephisto actually eating him. In the latter two cases, Mephisto regarded it as Tough Love.
  • Antagonistic Offspring / Archnemesis Dad: Most of his plots are schemes to usurp Mephisto. He got steadily better at it until eventually, he succeeded... and then he lost it again.
  • Anti-Magic: Ghost Rider's Penance Stare does not work on him. Weak magic spells aren't going to fare much better.
  • Black Magic: Being a demon, he knows this stuff instinctively.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Several times. Mephisto never listens.
  • The Chessmaster: Not quite as good as he would like to be, but he plays a mean game.
  • The Corrupter: He often tries to turn heroes into his minions to use against Mephisto.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Blackheart supposedly beat Toxin (the "son" of Carnage) to death "in a gutter". Considering how powerful Toxin is, that's quite a feat.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Blackheart unquestionably is rotten to the core, but the Darkforce power he often taps into (and is partially made out of) is just that, a force. Many creatures, good and evil, have made use of it. Then again, the Darkforce has always been portrayed as Ambiguously Evil itself.
  • Dimension Lord: Temporarily succeeded in overthrowing his father and reigned in Hell. He is also able to tap into the power of the Darkforce dimension; within it, he is actually The Omnipotent.
  • Evil Counterpart: He's fond of creating or setting up people to act as these.
  • Evil Smells Bad: He has an unpleasant odour about him, with Daredevil describing it as burning roses.
  • First Law of Resurrection: He's actually died a couple of times only to return with no explanation. He died several times in his first few appearances. He kept coming back because like his father, that is actually one of his powers.
  • Flanderization: A scary, philosophical villain who utilized a great deal of Psychological Horror in his first couple of appearances, he is nowadays often written as a bit of a Large Ham and Card-Carrying Villain- almost the opposite of the quiet, stoical, What Is Evil? approach he adopted originally.
  • Hell on Earth: He's tried to cause it at least once.
  • Humans Are Special: Villainous, condescending example. He very much considers humans to be his inferiors; at the same time, he admires our capacity for independence and free will, and believes he understands our moral complexities better than Mephisto does. He once freely admitted that he envies us, though only because we had more free will than he (ie. his father kept him on a tight leash).
  • Made of Evil: Centuries worth of sins collected from the "Christ's Crown" area were used by Mephisto to bring him to life. This is what makes him immune to the penance stare, experiencing all the evil he's caused doesn't really bother him since he's made of the stuff. He can still be hurt by simpler, more direct methods though.
  • Manipulative Bastard: He spends surprising little time getting his own hands dirty, despite saying that Mephisto is too passive. But he is a bit more interactive and personal about it.
  • Master of Illusion: He can conjure nightmarish images to torment others or trick them into evil actions (eg. he once made Daredevil beat up an innocent man by pretending that he, Blackheart, was that man in disguise).
  • Mind Control: He can both spread a Hate Plague or outright enslave any mind he chooses.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: He has been crushed, squished, eaten, cut, stabbed, sliced, machine-gunned... you name it. He always recovers. Even if you do somehow kill him, all you will do is send him back to Hell so he will come back anyway. If he dies in Hell, he just recovers even faster. He's apparently heavily affected by Miles Morales' Venom blast, but like anything else thrown at him, he bounces back from it later.
  • Overlord Jr.: He's not Mephisto's biological son, technically, but still takes after his father's oppressive, expansionist ways.
  • The Philosopher: He used to do a lot of musing on the nature of things like free will and evil. He quickly concluded that he knew more about it than his dad did.
  • Psychic Powers: A power he has but most demons do not, including his father. It gives him a bit of an edge, but its not brought up much and he can't use it to force somebody to sign over their soul without crossing some metaphysical lines.
  • Red Eyes, Take Warning: Most of the time, sometimes they are blue but really, take warning. Originally, he had no eyes.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Just like his dad Mephisto, Blackheart initially was a villain from another Marvel superhero. In his case, Daredevil. He was introduced in Daredevil, but Spiderman showed up to help Murdock out. He was only really a Daredevil villain for one Story Arc; he has crossed paths with pretty much every Marvel hero since then. In his second appearance he's already moved on from the Man Without Fear and chose instead to target Wolverine, The Punisher, Danny Ketch and later Johnny Blaze Ghost Riders. He's only really a Ghost Rider villain by virtue of crossing paths with them a little bit more than everyone else.
  • Self-Duplication: In his second story he tried to make three separate deals with Punisher, Danny Ketch and Wolverine. When all three rejected him, it was revealed he was talking to each of them all at the same time in three different locations.
  • Strong as They Need to Be: Although always depicted as powerful, Blackheart has been depicted as anything in between just giving Daredevil an uphill fight and taking on several cosmically powerful foes at once.
  • Took a Level in Badass: At one point he managed to finally defeat Mephisto and ruled as prince of his domain; consequently, his powers increased dramatically. Of course, it didn't last.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: Though he rarely takes the form of anything that is not black and spiny. In one of his first appearances, he took the form of an angel. He can certainly appear however he wishes to.
  • What Is Evil?: He was initially written as interested in the nature of evil and sometimes resorted to appeals to morally grey arguments.
  • You Are Grounded!: Mephisto once banished him to Earth to humble him.
  • You Are What You Hate: Several characters have pointed out that he is more like Mephisto than he likes to admit.
  • You Don't Look Like You: He starred as the FIRST starring villain in Miles Morales' Spider-Man, and he looked absolutely nothing like he looked before. Additionally, he was somehow beaten as Miles was able to shock him with his spider sting, meaning a powerful demon that moments before beat an entire roster of Avengers was beat with a single attack from a teenage superhero.
  • You're Insane!: In his second appearance Danny Ketch thought he was crazy; he wasn't the last.
  • Your Soul Is Mine!: He will sometimes try to forcibly extract a soul, rather than make a deal for it like Mephisto.

    Daimon Hellstrom 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daimon_hellstrom_earth_616_from_official_handbook_of_the_marvel_universe_vol_4_18_0002.jpg
The Son of Satan himself

Notable Aliases: Son of Satan, Hellstorm

Species: Human-Demon Hybrid

First Appearance: Ghost Rider Vol. 1, #1 (September, 1973)

Daimon is the son of a mortal woman named Victoria Wingate and Satan (later retconned to be a high-level demon named Marduk Kurios). Daimon and his sister Satana were trained in magic by their father, before their mother figured out who he was and went mad. After she was institutionalized, Daimon and Satana were placed in different homes, with Satana eventually embracing her demonic heritage, while Daimon fought against it and fought against his father's evil forces, becoming an Anti Anti Christ.

Daimon worked at the University of the District of Columbia Parapsychology Department when he wasn't fighting the forces of darkness and eventually joined the Defenders, becoming an active member of that group and even marrying Hellcat. After witnessing his true face, however, Hellcat went insane and killed herself; not content to let his wife stay dead, Daimon eventually overthrew and killed his father and took the throne of Hell, eventually manipulating events to resurrect Hellcat. He even had his own book again for a while, Hellstorm: Prince of Lies.

Daimon has gone back and forth between being a hero, anti-hero, and villain. He's been a member of the Midnight Sons, an ally of Doctor Strange, and a member of the Masters of Evil. He was a member of Strikeforce alongside Blade, Wiccan, Angela, Spider-Woman, Spectrum, and the Winter Soldier.

In 2019, it was announced that Hulu was making a Helstrom television show (having dropped the second l), written and showrun by Paul Zbyszewski. Daimon will be played by Tom Austen, with his sister Ana played by Sydney Lemmon, and their mother Victoria played by Elizabeth Marvel. In the show, they are described as the "children of a powerful serial killer" who "hunt the worst of humanity." All episodes of the series premiered in October 16, 2020. The series is ostensibly set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet has no Marvel branding whatsoever in its advertising.


  • Bash Brothers: With Johnny Blaze. Although they've had their disagreements in the past (depending on Daimon's characterization at the time), the two hell-forged anti-heroes tend to get along for the most part and have teamed up with each other time and time again.
  • Claimed by the Supernatural: His Darksoul manifests itself as a pentagram shaped birthmark on his chest that glows red when he uses his power. The Hellmark, as it is known, is bestowed upon those who have the potential to become a Hell Lord. It grants its bearer control over lesser demons and grants the ability to use Hellfire, but slowly corrupts its user over time.
  • Continuity Snarl: Is strangely prone to this; due to his relative obscurity it's not uncommon for Daimon to be very inconsistently written, with entire character relationships coming and going on a whim. While this results in typical Depending on the Writer situations like if he's a Nice Guy who's also a Deadpan Snarker or if he's an Hair-Trigger Temper Jerkass and lecherous Casanova Wannabe, it also results in him strangely showing up as a member of the Masters of Evil and being depicted as a straight-up villain, only to then show up at other times as a hero without any reference to the fact he's been breaking bread with Baron Zemo. Writers who try to make sense of this have came up with some interesting handwaves (such as Daimon making a bunch of duplicates of himself, or Daimon seeing good and evil as an outdated binary).
    • Another thing is his father. Though it's long established that his true father is Marduk Kurios, a high-ranking demon who had posed as Satan, some writers aren't as aware and so 'Satan' is often depicted as his and Satana's father, despite Marvel not even having an actual Satan. In The Falcon (2017), he was even depicted as the son of Mephisto.
  • Demon Lords and Archdevils: Rules a region of Hell.
  • Devil's Pitchfork: Wields a wicked trident.
  • Fiery Redhead: Has red hair and is often literally fiery.
  • Genius Bruiser: Daimon also has a degree in theology and is self taught in demonology. He was even part of the University of the District of Columbia Parapsychology Department and now teaches at Strange Academy.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The offspring of a demon prince and a mortal woman.
  • Happily Married: For a while, he was happily married to Patsy Walker, with both of them retired. Then he lost his "Darksoul" and in order to get it back and not die, Patsy made a deal with his father. Unfortunately, this ended up driving her insane and she killed herself, driving Daimon to overthrow his father and take over Hell.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door
  • Hellfire: One of his powers was that he could project "soulfire" or "hellfire."
  • Hell Has New Management: Once took over Hell as its new ruler. He still rules a Hell dimension, although it's only a part of Hell, as most of Hell is still in Mephisto's realm.
  • Hero Killer: Shares responsibility with Nekra Sinclair in the role of Dr. Druid's murder. While Nekra was the one who actually killed Druid, it was Hellstrom who planned it
  • Mark of the Beast: The pentagram on his chest represents his "Darksoul."
  • Mr. Fanservice: By virtue of being a Walking Shirtless Scene, typically when Daimon is being depicted heroically, he'll also be depicted as very hot.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Daimon's "Darksoul" allowed him access to numerous superpowers, some of which he only used once. One time, it let him travel through time to ancient Atlantis.
  • Occult Detective: In Hellstorm: Prince of Lies, he eventually sets up shop as one of these under the name "Hellstorm Investigations."
  • Our Demons Are Different: He's technically half-demon (or half-Satan), since his mother was human.
  • Our Souls Are Different: He had a normal soul and a "Darksoul" from his demonic half. The Darksoul manifested as the pentagram on his chest and allowed him access to numerous superpowers. When he lost his Darksoul, he ended up almost dying.
  • Religious Horror: Often what his original stories were presented as.
  • Satanic Archetype: His father, when he's not literally Satan.
  • The Unchosen One
  • Walking Shirtless Scene: Likes being shirtless.

    Lucifer 

Lucifer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/450e4bb7da4bd5809f3544c3f17106c7.jpg

Species: Fallen Angel

First Appearance: Ghost Rider Vol 6 #1 (September, 2006)

In keeping with his Biblical origins, this version of Lucifer was originally an angel but was cast into Hell after having led a rebellion against God. He's not one of the most prominent demons of the Marvel universe, and has mostly opposed the Ghost Rider.


For Lucifer's tropes, see his entry on the Ghost Rider: Central Rogues Gallery page.

    Marduk Kurios 

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Marvel Spotlight #13 (September, 1973)

The father of Daimon Helstrom and Satana. Marduk is a hell-lord who often claims to be the one true Satan. Whether he is or not depends on the story. Shares a lot of the same tropes as other hell-lords. May or may not be the Babylonian god of the same name.

  • Arch-Enemy: The closest thing his children have to one.
  • Believing Their Own Lies: A couple of stories have implied at some point he started beliving he truly is the fallen angel and actual Lucifer when he really is not.
  • Big Red D Evil: Commonly takes on the appearence of one.
  • Blatant Lies: Whenever he claims to be Satan to the other hell lords.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Very upfront about his evil nature.
  • Continuity Snarl: Two Cases:
    • Whether or not he is Satan and/or Lucifer. Some writers make is clear that he is supposed the real deal in direct opposition to heaven. Others have him outright state he is lying and only playing off the fear.
    • His connection to the Babyonian god Marduk. Sometimes they are separate entities who share the same name. Other times he inspired the worship of the god.
  • The Corrupter: Accoring to one source, he helped corrupt some of the Mesopotamian gods into demons to retain power on Earth when the rest were cutting ties.
  • Deal with the Devil: Less prone to these than other hell-lords.
  • Demon Lords And Arch Devils: Whatever else he may truly be he is still a hell-lord.
  • Dimension Lord: Rules his own part of Hell and sometimes claims to rule all of it.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He has displayed genuine love and respect for his children even if being a hell-lord make him horrible at being a parent.
  • Fallen Angel: In stories that portray him as the real Lucifer and not a pretender.
  • The Legions of Hell: Once displayed his vast armies to his children.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Sometimes revealed to be the one behind the plots his children foil while using others as fronts.
  • Pride: Fitting for the character, he has an overblown sense of his own importance and power. Some of his plots have been undone by his inability to not brag to other people before the scheme is completed.
  • Satanic Archetype: When he is not being the real deal he does his best to appear to be the real thing.

    Mephista 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0a94c9d28a5d45238263e9e9743f1e24.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #6 (April, 1989)

Mephista is the daughter of Marvel's resident devil Mephisto, and the sister of Blackheart. While not as active as her family members, she is just as dangerous. Residing in the same hell dimension as her father, she is a frequent enemy of Doctor Strange.


    Mephisto 

Mephisto

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mephisto_7.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Silver Surfer #3 (September, 1968)

"Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste... no? Not even a smile? A chortle? Ooh, tough crowd."

An embodiment of ultimate evil, powerful Hell Lord and Marvel's most common stand-in for Satan. He has antagonized just about every hero (from Ghost Rider to Doctor Strange), but tends to single out those who are especially noble like the Silver Surfer and Thor. As can be expected, many of the traditional tropes associated with Satan are part of him.

His origins are unclear; Mephisto claims to have been created, along with many other demons, by the supreme being whose suicide resulted in the creation of the Marvel universe as well as the Infinity Gems. He also claimed that his total evil nature is because the supreme being did not choose to make him good as that being had no concept of it.

Mephisto is responsible for a number of evil acts, including capturing and holding the soul of Cynthia von Doom — the mother of Doctor Victor von Doom — until Doctor Strange and Doom free her to ascend to heaven. He was jealous of the worship of the fire demon Zarathos, so, posing as Satan, Mephisto creates the Ghost Rider by bonding Zarathos to Johnny Blaze — though this has been subjected to numerous revisions and retcons. In one story where he battled Thor, he was shown to have various historical villains in his realm, such as Adolf Hitler, Blackbeard, and Attila the Hun. He has also created his 'son' Blackheart, a demonic entity that plagues many of Earth's heroes. And naturally, it's almost impossible to forget his actions in One More Day.

As of right now, the only live-action adaptations of the character are in Ghost Rider (2007) and Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (where he's portrayed by Peter Fonda and Ciarán Hinds respectively), in spite of memetic amounts of speculation of an appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.


  • Abusive Parents: Though given his kids are, like him, both invincible and pure evil, this might cross into Hilariously Abusive Childhood (his punishments have ranged from eating Blackheart alive to turning him into the new janitor of a casino whose toilets were all overflowing, for example). He's still a gigantic dick to them, very purposely for the reason of making them more evil.
  • Actually a Doombot: He's sometimes been impersonated by lesser demons who imitate his form. Such demons are defeated far more easily than the virtually invincible Mephisto. Jason Aaron's run on the Avengers also suggests that any inconsistency can be due to an alternate version subbing in. In it Moon Knight kills a Mephisto but another keeps showing up, with a drastically different style of clothing.
  • Alliance of Alternates: In Jason Aaron’s Avengers, Mephisto forms the Council of Red, an alliance of 665 other alternate versions of himself, with the goal of conquering the Multiverse.
  • Always Someone Better: He's one of the most evil, powerful demons in Marvel's cosmology. A good example of just how powerful the One Below All is? In "Defenders: The Best Defense", a future version of Doctor Strange asked Mephisto to take its "spiritual infection" out of the Hulk, and he cuts the sorcerer off immediately after he asks to do so "if possible":
    Mephisto: Oh, it’s not. The Devil in him is far stronger than I am.
  • Ancient Evil: He's been around for billions of years — possibly on account of him obtaining the Time Stone, antagonized the Stone Age Avengers, and according to Lilith is the Biblical Satan responsible for Adam and Eve getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Ghost Rider, Black Panther and Silver Surfer (he see the Surfer's pure soul as the greatest prize imaginable). Fighting him also falls under the jurisdiction of Doctor Strange, though by this point, there are very few heroes he hasn't screwed around with. He also is this to a lesser extent with Spider-Man, having taken the latter's marriage, and it is revealed that the Green Goblin, one of Spidey's main archenemies, became as successful and ruthless as he is because of a secret deal he had made with Mephisto. This makes Mephisto indirectly responsible for some of the greatest tragedies in Peter's life. He also makes a similar One More Day deal with Miles Morales, stating that he loves screwing with all Spider-Men. He does this AGAIN with Superior Spider-Man, being the reason Otto returns to being Doc Ock.
  • As Long as There Is Evil: Mephisto is energized by sources of evil in the human world and has implied multiple times that as long as there is evil in the world he will never fully be gone and find a way to return after each defeat.
    "So long as I can appeal to Man's basest instincts... to his greed, his envy, his hatreds and aggressions, his fear and distrust of his fellow man... So long as Man takes the law into his own hands... both in the streets, and in the field of battle... And, so long as crime covers the planet like a deadly, creeping fungus... Then, only Mephisto shall reap the final, eternal REWARD!"
  • Badass Boast: "Spare me your verses, sorcerer! The power they conjure is as nothing to me! Your efforts would be amusing, were they not so pathetic! It is clear that you STILL do not realize the full extent of the POWER you face! You have called me demon and monster - but I am the LORD OF DEMONS, the ultimate monster! I am the LIVING EVIL... I AM MEPHISTO!!"
  • Bad Boss: Mephisto is a cruel master and is quick to beat or torture his minions when they don't preform to his standards.
  • Berserk Button: Taking a soul from his realm puts him in a VERY bad mood. Telling him what to do is an even bigger one. Galactus once demanded he hand over the Silver Surfer, and Mephisto went ballistic and picked a fight with him just because Galactus made a demand of him.
  • Big Bad: Up until Blaze (temporarily) got rid of Zarathos, Mephisto was behind Ghost Rider's central conflict as well as the mastermind of many other mishaps. In the wider Marvel Universe, he occasionally manages to play this role too.
  • Big Red Devil: The big red devil of the Marvel universe.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: In the climax of Infamous Iron Man, where it's revealed he's been working to push Doctor Doom back into villainy, he pulls a Zack Morris time-stop to talk directly to readers about his motivation.
  • Breakout Villain: While the likes of Dormammu are probably more iconic than him, he's easily the most recognizable of the classic demonic roster in the Marvel-verse. He's consistently ranked as one of Marvel's best villains, has been a major figure in many famous storylines and has made enemies with most of the Marvel heroes with his Manipulative Bastard ways. Many fans are hoping to see him depicted well in the MCU soon.
  • Butt-Monkey: Yes really. If Deadpool gets involved with him, do not expect his dignity to remain intact. Towards the end of Deadpool: The End, Wade stops killing Death after both him and Ellie decide to Face Death with Dignity, he is chain on a dragon's... yeah... but Mephisto is so horrified that he starts praying.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Mephisto's evil and proud of it, sometimes going as far as to claim to be the origin of evil.
  • Cardboard Prison: Damnation ended with Mephisto losing dominion over his portion of Hell to Johnny Blaze before being magically sealed in his own Las Vegas tower. He's since reappeared, free and fully-powered, in titles like Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider, Best Defense, Champions and Deadpool with no explanation whatsoever, though Ghost Rider (2019) mitigates this by having Mephisto state that, in his absence, some minor demons have been impersonating him to make deals because of the clout his name and reputation bring, suggesting that the occasions where he appeared to be free weren’t actually him. At the same time, Jane Foster: Valkyrie has him simply remark that he's Mephisto. Of course he found a way around his own imprisonment.
  • Chess with Death: He's willing to play games and engage in competitions for souls, with one of the more mundane instances of this being when he wagered a golden fiddle to an alien if the fellow could beat him in a musical duel (in a Shout-Out to Charlie Daniels's song "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"). Mephisto lost. Badly.
  • The Chessmaster: Case in point, he'll often allow himself to be beaten if he can use the event to give a greater enemy more grief down the line.
  • Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not as outright as some examples, but his plans often include screwing over his partner in some way. Just ask Loki. He is called the Lord of Lies for a reason, after all.
  • Complete Immortality: Destroy his body, it just banishes him back to his realm. Destroy his body there like Doctor Doom once did? He'll just create a new one. Even being erased by a Reality Warper isn't enough to kill him.
  • Continuity Snarl: Johnny Blaze's origin has become a bit of clusterfuck in regards to whether it was Mephisto, Satan/Lucifer, Zadkiel or a combination of the three who orchestrated the Ghost Rider deal with him. That all three are compulsive liars doesn't help.
  • The Corrupter: His usual MO. His most (in)famous case being convincing Spider-Man to trade his marriage for Aunt May's life.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle: Most fights end with him dishing these.
  • Deal with the Devil: Not his only tactic, but probably his favourite.
  • Death Seeker: His ultimate goal in The Avengers (Jason Aaron), as revealed in Avengers Assemble (2022).
    Mephisto: I was reigning in Hell when your kind were still slithering in muck. And sure, we've had our laughs since then, humanity and I. But after so many eons of incessant sinfulness, it has gotten that… even the sight of a sniveling, lecherous priest being flayed alive… fails to bring a smile to my face. Hell makes slaves of us all, sooner or later, even the Devil who sits the throne. Which is why I've decided to finally free myself from the monotony of eternal damnation, once and for all. After this flood sweeps across creation… there'll be no more life. No more afterlife. No more sinners or saints to make scream and suffer. Nothing but a grand and glorious… silence… stretching on into infinity. How beautiful it will be.
  • Demon Lords and Archdevils: He's only one of a number of powerful and rival demon Hell Lords, others being the likes of Thog and Sataanish. Mephisto is generally depicted as the strongest of them all, though not by a significant standard.
  • Demoted to Dragon: Willingly submits himself as Thanos' servant following the latter's acquisition of the Infinity Gems, and acts as his adviser for much of the storyline. Ultimately, though, he's The Starscream.
  • Depending on the Writer: The only consistent things about him are that he is red and evil. His appearance changing can be justified by his shapeshifting, but his personality is on a spectrum between Classic Devil, Large Ham, and Flaming Devil. In the orignal Journey Into Mystery run Mephisto and all the splinter realm lords were portrayed as being far below Dormammu, forced them to watch as he defeated Doctor Strange and conquered all the known dimensions...Dormammu lost, but Dormammu and Doctor Strange kept getting more and more powerful from then implying Mephisto would be old news to Strange, yet Mephisto has been shown to be a credible threat to both since, largely because different writers like it better that way.
  • Dimension Lord: He rules one of the Splinter Realms, which were originally Hell itself before being divided between the various demons and gods that now rule it. He owns one of the larger portions and within is nigh-unstoppable, but is much weaker outside of it. Often his physical form is considered an extension of it.
  • Distaff Counterpart: His daughter Mephista.
  • Enemy Mine: He's willing to help the Ghost Riders against common threats, though he rarely gets directly involved.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • Half-Mockingly tells Harry Osborn that his evil plan to trick Spider-Man into believing Norman was intimate with Gwen Stacy which resulted in the Stacy twins was "low" even for him. Coming from THIS guy? THAT'S saying something!
    • He also acknowledges that there are demons and entities even worse than he is (such as Abraxas) and even he doesn't think he could contend with them, even within his own realm. Mephisto is literally the Marvel equivalent of Satan, so that should really tell you how bad they are.
    • It's very rare, but there are some souls he deems unworthy of claiming for a number of reasons (see Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth).
  • Eviler than Thou: Has pulled this on Doctor Doom, tormenting him with nightmares of his mother being tortured. Rescuing his mother had been one of Doom's goals for years, but Mephisto got the better of him every time until Doom enlisted Doctor Strange's help.
  • Evil Versus Evil:
    • He's a monstrously cunning and powerful Satanic Archetype who revels in ruining people's lives by playing the Jackass Genie, but one silver lining for the inhabitants of the Marvel universe is that he's none too picky about the morality of his victims. Plenty of supervillains have been arrogant, shortsighted, or insane enough to take his deals, leaving Mephisto as an unlikely agent of karma. In fact, he particularly relishes breaking down fellow villains even more than most heroes. Most be the whole "alpha dog" personality.
    • An X-Factor storyline has him and the other Hell Lords fighting one another over who gets to rule Hell. None of them win in the end.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Never ask for Mephisto's help without expecting consequences. Thanos was smart enough to avoid this. A desperate Deadpool once came up with a plan to get Mephisto to break a contract with an underling of his named Vetis by sending his ally Michael to Mephisto's realm, via murder. Mephisto did agree to nullify Vetis' contract in exchange for Vetis' soul with no strings attached for a change, but there was still a caveat. Michael didn't spend hours in Mephisto's realm like Deadpool expected, he was there for years.
  • Exact Words:
    • This is why no one should ever make a deal with him. He absolutely loves overly specific interpretations of deals that screw the other party over as much as possible while still technically being within the terms.
    • A good example was the time when he pitted Johnny and Zarathos against Asmodeus, saying they would be freed from each other if they managed to outrace him, but if they weren't fast enough to win, they'd have to serve Asmodeus. Ghost Rider wins the race, but Mephisto finds some reason to back out of the deal. Ghost Rider was really bait to get his rival to accept a small fine; Mephisto might consider being blasted into non-existence "small" (see Fighting a Shadow below), but it probably wasn't what Asmodeus had in mind.
    • Had the tables turned and this used against him by Thanos. He offered to help in one of the Mad Titan's quests in exchange for a Cosmic Cube. Once it was over, Thanos gave him a Cube and Mephisto immediately tried to use it to obliterate Thanos. Turns out that Cube's power had already been drained and it was useless. Thanos pointed out he never specified a functional Cosmic Cube and that even devils should be careful when making deals with the Mad Titan. Needless to say, Mephisto was not pleased.
  • The Family That Slays Together: A variation. He isn't exactly fatherly to them but he did sire 3 kids that often work alongside him: his two sons Blackheart and Greylight and his daughter Mephista. While Blackheart is an Overlord Jr. who is a recurring antagonist for the heroes teams of Earth, Greylight only dwelled in an afterlife dimension until he met the Hulk. Mephista is less active but is a renowned enemy of Doctor Strange and is a classic Daddy's Little Villain.
  • Faux Affably Evil: He is usually polite, or at worst, affably snarky - and, of course, he is exceptionally charming when he wants to be. However, it only serves to further highlight his wickedness.
  • Fighting a Shadow: He will always come back as long as his dimension is still around. A powered-up Alejandra came close to killing him for real. Unfortunately she was going to destroy way more than just Mephisto's splinter realm and had to be stopped by John Blaze.
  • Fire and Brimstone Hell: He actually even modeled it on Dante's Inferno, just to mess with those that end up in it.
  • Flaming Devil: He gets more and more camp with every passing year.
  • Flies Equals Evil: According to Jason Aaron's Avengers run, his earliest appearance on Earth was as a fly feasting on the rotting corpse of the dead Celestial that crashed on the primordial planet.
  • For the Evulz: What else do you expect from an embodiment of ultimate evil?
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: More often than not.
  • Good Hurts Evil: He currently serves as the trope image.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: In Spider-Man/Deadpool; he hasn't forgotten his last interaction with Spider-Man and now seeks to corrupt his soul. The Amazing Spider-Man (2018) takes this to a completely new level with The Reveal that he's directly responsible for the creation of the Norman Osborn's Green Goblin persona and taking Harry Osborn's soul, meaning that he's effectively behind much of Peter Parker's suffering even beyond what happened with One More Day, and has been for a long time.
  • Hate Sink: He is a demon motivated solely by his desire to make others suffer and his method for doing so is trying to offer people deals, just so he can cheat them on them. If he seems to offer a deal with no strings attached like requesting a soul, then typically he's thought of another way to screw you over.
  • Hellfire: He uses it to torture souls, though this is one thing Zarathos might be better at using than Mephisto, at least when it comes to an immediate area.
  • Hidden Depths: He's an evil Satanic figure through and through, but it's implied there's eons of loneliness underneath all that evil and a desire to find true affection. He once forcibly kissed Rogue, who revealed Mephisto's memories show how he is miserable after spending eons alone with no one desiring to know or even contact him, so he began pilfering souls as a substitute for any real contact with other living beings. This is further supported by his affection and insecure romantic feelings for Magma of the New Mutants.
  • Home Field Advantage: While depicted as a comparatively lesser threat compared to, say, Dormammu or Shuma-Gorath, since he often leaves his realm, Mephisto while drawing power from it is every bit as fearsome as any of them and possibly even worse.
  • Honey Trap: A Silver Surfer storyline had him pose as the deceased Nova in order to seduce the Surfer and claim his soul via Exact Words.
  • Incredibly Lame Pun: He's not above making them, just to be (more of) a dick, as Sigurd the Ever-Glorious can vouch for. Mephisto tricked him into apparently signing a deal for reincarnation, only to turn out Mephisto had promised him a wheel of "Rein carnations".
    Mephisto: And let that pun be your first of many tortures.
  • Invincible Villain: Mephisto's plots can be thwarted, but it never does much to him in the long term. Actually defeating him is rare, especially if he's fought in his realm. The combined efforts of Doctor Doom and Doctor Strange in Triumph and Torment weren't able to defeat him. Doom even managed to build a weapon that destroyed Mephisto's body, but the demon simply recreated it.
  • Jackass Genie: He isn't even remotely trustworthy, except that he's magically bound to technically fulfil the terms of his agreements (at least, those agreements pertaining to souls). He will use Loophole Abuse to either ensure that he benefits the most or, and far more likely, that the recipient will have whatever they got out of the deal ruined for them.
  • Jerkass Gods: Powerful enough to convincingly pass for a deity of sorts, and he's also a total jackass who loves to screw people over for kicks.
  • Joker Immunity: On top of being immortal, even when he's seemingly been destroyed, he still comes back.
  • The Juggernaut: Mephisto almost never loses, regardless of whether or not he's fighting inside his realm. The only reason heroes survive a meeting with him most of the time is because he wants to claim their souls, and killing them would leave their souls beyond his reach.
  • Karma Houdini: Most times. For example, Mephisto has managed to avoid receiving any comeuppance from Spider-Man for his actions for years.
  • Know When to Fold 'Em: While Mephisto has been known to compulsively start fights with people who can potentially beat him, such as Doctor Strange and Galactus, he knew better than directly moving against Thanos while The Mad Titan held the Cosmic Cube or Infinity Gauntlet. He also knows better than trying to fight Uri-El, instead trying to get rid of the angel by being a Rules Lawyer. He won't directly antagonize The One Below All either, although Mephisto has pushed his luck on what The One Below All will or won't respond to.
  • Large and in Charge: He's sometimes depicted as being as tall as a small building and big enough to easily pick human-sized characters up with one hand. Thanks to Voluntary Shapeshifting, he can appear as big or small as he wants, but this is often implied to be his true size, or close enough to it.
  • Large Ham: Depending on his mood, a stand-out case being a fight with Galactus where Mephisto managed to match the Devourer of Worlds in Ham-to-Ham Combat.
  • Laughably Evil: At times. He may be a vile demon and the inventor of lies, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have any moments of levity, whether it be from his terrible puns, his hammy delivery or even just how much he enjoys screwing with people. It would normally veer into Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor, but while you can hate him for a lot of things, the bastard's Actually Pretty Funny (though of course hardly anyone in-universe thinks so). Just look at his page quote. You're lying through your teeth if you say you didn't at least crack a smile.
  • Legions of Hell: Among his many servants, they're surprisingly not used very much. Then again, he's far more powerful than most of them anyway.
  • Made of Evil: Probably. It's not altogether clear.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Despite his vast power and armies, he prefers guile and deception. For example, he convinced Spider-Man of all people to make a deal with him, and a Silver Surfer storyline had him goad the Surfer into apparently killing him so he'd have to live with the guilt and become impure, while the real Mephisto was unharmed.
  • Master of Illusion: All to better deceive people.
  • Medium Awareness: In Infamous Iron Man #12, he pauses a battle between himself, Doctor Strange, and Doctor Doom to complain to the reader.
  • Mephistopheles: His name is a shortened version of the famous Faustian devil's, and he shares many of his more famous traits. He typically appears to propose deals to characters in dire straits, offering to perform grand changes to the state of the universe in exchange for some cost to the petitioner. What this cost is varies from case to case, but the deal always results in pain and grief for the other party.
  • Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: At the end of the "Damnation" series, Doctor Strange manages to lock him away in a cell at the Hotel Inferno from which even he can't escape. The only setback seems to be the loss of his direct influence in Hell, as his Faustian activities aren't slowed down in the slightest. He isn't kept from people visiting his cell directly as they negotiate deals, and he still has access to all his assets. He also somehow manages to sneak in and out, as he approaches Miles Morales and the Superior Spider-Man to bargain with them without Doctor Strange or Johnny Blaze being aware of it. However, the 2019 Ghost Rider comic has Mephisto claim these were actually minor demons impersonating him.
  • Mind Rape: Tormented Doctor Doom with nightmares of his mother suffering. What he can do to someone inside his realm is even worse.
  • Multiple-Choice Past: Writers can't seem to agree on exactly what he is or where he came from; since he's the Prince of Lies, this has been explained as Mephisto either not knowing himself and/or making stuff up to better confuse people. On one occasion Dormammu thought he was playing Mephisto like a fiddle, only for the exact opposite to be true, with Mephisto even calling Dormammu out on having the nerve to try and deceive him when he was the one who invented deception and manipulation.
  • Nerd in Evil's Helmet: While he's generally very suave, he still has a dorky side. It generally comes out when he's around Magma of the New Mutants.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Has been severely hurt and even completely destroyed on more than one occasion, but he always reforms. Even then, it takes some very powerful attacks to do him real damage in the first place.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Inverted. Mephisto has underlings but mostly acts on his own without their assistance.
  • Our Souls Are Different: He likes to stick the souls he claims into the bodies of demons who follow him. The process was reversed for his rival Zarathos. On many other occasions, he's seen eating and drinking them.
  • Out-Gambitted: Mephisto is smart, but not as smart as he believes. As a result he's easily caught off guard when someone is wise enough to plan for his betrayals:
    • "Triumph and Torment" saw Doctor Doom successfully scam him. Mephisto offered Doom the soul of his mother in exchange for Doctor Strange. When Doom delivered on his end, his mother refused to return to life out of disgust for what her son had just done. Mephisto knew that would happen, but he didn't count on Doom planning for it and leaving Strange with a device that let him break from the Anti-Magic prison Mephisto held him in.
    • Thanos cut a deal with Mephisto to aid against the Goddess in exchange of Cosmic Cube. Mephisto predictably tried to kill Thanos with it once he got it, but found it was powerless. He never asked for a functioning Cosmic Cube.
  • Physical God: Within his own dimension. Exactly how powerful he is comes down to the old Depending on the Writer, but two of his best showings are fighting Galactus to a near-stalemate and casually destroying an entire galaxy from his chair. Both are older examples and both, again, occurred while he was in his native dimension. Outside it, while he's still quite powerful and always very dangerous, he's nowhere near as strong as he normally would be.
  • The Plan: Many of them. Some of them evil and story driving.
  • Public Domain Character: Is either Mephistopheles or a stand in for him, depending on who is writing.
  • Rage Against the Heavens: He occasionally speaks of being at war with God himself and claims that many of his actions are done to spite Him. It's not clear if he's being genuinely serious about this (regardless of whether he's actually the Devil or not- being a demon might be enough) or if this is just him playing up his Satanic image for effect.
  • Reality Warper: His chief power, though the exact strength of it varies. Within his own realm, he's virtually The Omnipotent.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Originally started out as a villain of the Silver Surfer and The Mighty Thor. Then he became a prominent Ghost Rider villain. He also often pops up as a Black Panther nemesis, and more generally he has crossed paths with nearly every important Marvel hero at one point or another. He could even count as an enemy of many villains, including Doctor Doom. Modern writers have also decided to just run with his infamy in One More Day and rework him into a prominent Spider-Man villain.
  • Satanic Archetype: While Mephisto is more than happy to claim to be the Biblical Satan when it suits his purposes, most stories are adamant that he's not the Satan;note  and there are many other devils who have equal(ly invalid) claim to that title, but Mephisto is generally the most used stand-in with only one or two people introduced so far who are maybe more legit. His name comes from Mephistopheles, a demon in Germain literature who was a reluctant servant of the devil.
  • Shout-Out: The page quote is, of course, a reference to The Rolling Stones.
  • Smug Snake:
    • Sort of. While he's certainly very, very powerful and competent and has a not-insignificant amount of major accomplishments to his name, he also likes to act like he's a far bigger deal than he actually is, as beings like Chthon, Set, and Dormammu greatly dwarf him in power (unless he's in the confines of his own realm, but they aren't dependent on that) and potential reach (he generally accomplishes far more than they do, but that's because they're either locked away or act on a far larger scale, which understandably takes more time and effort).
    • This is partly strategy, however- he makes himself out to be the Ultimate Evil because that works to his advantage, making his enemies and victims fear him more as well as spreading misinformation about who and what he really is (if he even knows himself). Still arguably counts as this since he's rarely quite as successful or menacing as you'd think a genuinely powerful demon like him should be. Then again, he could be deliberately trying to appear weaker than he really is, so maybe he's playing a long-game. Regardless, he's never one to be underestimated.
    • Case in point, he once tricked the supposedly far greater Dormammu in fighting Galactus, resulting in the former getting eaten for his troubles. By comparison, the one time Galactus in Mephisto fought (again,in Mephisto's own realm), he stalemated Galactus instead. The same story also shows Mephisto-from within his own realm- effortlessly bending Umar, Dormammu's supposedly only slightly less powerful sister, to his will.
  • Soul Eating: He's been shown devouring souls quite frequently.
  • The Starscream: During his short period as adviser to Thanos, he subtly takes advantage of his confusion and turmoil upon finding himself a Supreme Being (and still being rejected by his beloved) to manipulate him into a position where he might lose the Infinity Gauntlet. He's unsuccessful as Thanos anticipated his betrayal. When he later on allied with Dormammu, he only did so so he could screw him over later, which he totally did.
  • Stupid Evil: A defining trait of his. Yeah, he always fulfills his part of a deal because he's bound by oath. That being said, he will always fulfill it to the letter and nothing more while going out of his way to screw over the other party as much as he can within the confines of the oath, and if the terms of a deal don't really allow him to do that much to mess someone or he really feels like being a dick, he'll just rob them of everything that they gained from the deal somewhere down the line. He has no reason for doing any of this, either; "just felt like being an asshole" is about as deep as his rationale gets. Needless to say, it tends to come back to bite him in the ass, but since he's virtually impossible to destroy and has a seemingly neverending supply of new entrants for pacts, "don't shit where you eat" has never really crossed his mind.
  • The Worf Effect
    • All of the hell lords were put under Dormammu's thumb, Mephisto included, during Dormammu's first appearance, and had to be "saved" by Doctor Strange. Since then individual hell lords have been shown capable of directly challenging Dormammu, Mephisto included. The slightly weaker and far stupider splinter realm duke Plotka was even retconned as deliberately trying to destroy Dormammu's Dark Dimension and getting away with it unscathed, despite his failure. Granted, Mephisto has had just as much time to do something about Plotka with no results, but it still makes the early Dormammu interactions look like they were written for shock value than genuine world building purposes.
    • As an individual Mephisto's most infamous defeat was getting pummeled and sliced up by Bast, just in case anyone needed to be remind where she, Ra and Seth stand in the Marvel Comics rankings.
  • Too Dumb to Live: While he never stays dead, there have been many times where he has been destroyed because, what can charitably called, a lack of common sense. Partially Justified by the fact that he is Made of Evil and has to be evil in every action he takes so a lot of his actions are Stupid Evil. Of course, given revelations in the Immortal Hulk about hell and what lies beneath it basically makes every attempt he has even made to try to influence or use the Hulk really, really dumb as like every gamma mutate has been "marked" by the One Below All as one of its "children" with the Hulk himself being a standout as the Hulk has the strongest gamma signature and the strongest connection to The One Below all and the Below-Place. Even more notable is that Mephisto himself has stated that the One Below All is "far stronger" than him.
  • Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: He once successfully laid claim to Deadpool's soul, with the intention of corrupting Wade and turning him into a ruthless enforcer for Hell. Things did not work out for 'Phisto.
  • Villainous Crush: On Magma of the New Mutants. Seeing Mephisto turn into an overcompensating dork around her is... something.
  • Villain Override: Not usually, but he did resort to it once when he felt a witch had failed him badly enough.
  • Villainous Widow's Peak: Considering he can look like whatever he wants, one would think he would at least project the image of better hair. His isn't as bad as Lilith's, though.
  • Voluntary Shapeshifting: He can and does take several forms, though his favourite seems to be a stereotypical Big Red Devil (well, tall and thin at least). Its implied that his real form is a large red lizard...thing... that he sometimes shows up as, though there's a variation there as well as sometimes it's thin, and sometimes it's an obese Fat Bastard. Likewise, and regardless of his form, sometimes he's human-sized and sometimes he's several stories tall. He also has no qualms about changing his gender.
  • We Want Our Jerk Back!: The Angel Uri-El had a centuries spanning plan to permanently get rid of Mephisto, and Blackheart, that ended with the establishment of Nobel Kale as the new benevolent head of the splinter realm. What the angel failed to realize in all these hundres of years of planning was that the demons of the splinter realm didn't want a benevolent ruler and thus successfully conspired to oust Kale. Whether they really wanted Mephisto back or not, he was quickly reestablished in Nobel Kale's absence.
  • Worthy Opponent: In Journey into Mystery (Gillen) he seems to view Loki/Kid Loki as this, and it seems relatively mutual. Both are fully aware that their apparent cooperation and pseudo-friendship is entirely a façade... but a façade both make use of and appreciate the artistry in maintaining it.
  • Your Approval Fills Me with Shame: He figured out what Loki had done at the end of Journey into Mystery, and during Agent of Asgard got the chance to say "well done" to Teen Loki for it. Since Teen Loki actually felt guilty about that whole mess, they didn't take it well.

    The One Below All 

The One Below All

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/obaimage.jpeg

Species: Cosmic Entity

First Appearance: Immortal Hulk #4 (August, 2018)

The ruler of the Below-Place, the absolute deepest layer of Hell and the Marvel Multiverse, the One Below All is, as its name suggests, the One Above All's opposite and as such is the greatest force of darkness and malice in the entire multiverse, making all other Hell-Lords look like nothing. It is the source of gamma radiation and thus the power of gamma mutates such as the Hulk.


See its entry in Marvel Comics: Cosmic Entities

    Satana 

Satana Hellstrom

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/satana_marvel_comics.png

Species: Human-Demon Hybrid Succubus

First Appearance: Vampire Tales #2 (July, 1973)

Satana Hellstrom, also known as the Devil's Daughter, is a half-demon anti-hero/supervillain from Marvel Comics. She is the sister of Daimon Hellstrom and associate of Doctor Strange (although she has ranged from helping him to trying to kill him). She was created by Roy Thomas and John Romita Sr.

Satana first appeared in Vampire Tales #2 (October 1973) where she was billed as "Satana, the Daughter of the Devil." A half-demon and succubus, Satana was eventually revealed to be the sister of Daimon Hellstrom and daughter of Victoria Wingate and Satan (later retconed to be a high-level demon named Marduk Kurios). After their mother went insane and was institutionalized, Daimon was left on Earth, while Satana was taken to Hell and raised by her father. Her soul was eventually bound to a demonic spirit called the Basilisk to increase her magical power and she was then banished to Earth as a succubus.

As a succubus, she devoured the souls of men... but also served as an avenging anti-hero for women who were killed. She confronted her father, her brother, and even saved Doctor Strange's life, sacrificing her own. Being a supernatural being (and a comic book character), however, her death was short-lived and she came back to life and began preparing to take over her father's realm in Hell.

She starred in the mini-series Witches, alongside Jennifer Kale and Topaz, where they teamed up to fight against a mystical entity called the Hellphyr, which turned out to be her father. She had a Legion of Monsters one-shot, where it was shown that she was still harvesting souls in order to take over her father's realm. Eventually, she starts to work with the Thunderbolts and is even with them as they travel through time together. (She enjoyed working with Man-Thing especially.)

At one point during Deadpool Team-Up, she and Deadpool got married in order to swindle some gambler demons out of getting her soul. Even though they got divorced, she still owns half of Deadpool's soul.

In 2019, it was announced that Hulu was making a Helstrom television show (having dropped the second l), written and showrun by Paul Zbyszewski. Satana, renamed Ana, will be played by Sydney Lemmon, with her brother Daimon played by Tom Austen, and their mother Victoria played by Elizabeth Marvel. In the show, they are described as the "children of a powerful serial killer" who "hunt the worst of humanity." The show will premiere in October 16, 2020. The series is ostensibly set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, yet has no Marvel branding whatsoever in its advertising.


  • Anti-Hero: She's a demon princess who gets her power by feeding on souls, but she's usually not overtly evil and can team up with heroes from time to time, usually as a kind of occult consultant or by taking part in a Supernatural Team.
  • Bad Girl Comic: Satana, the Devil's Daughter, was one of the earliest example of this genre. She was created in The '70s, but wasn't used much for decades. She later appeared in all her "bad girl" glory in the mid-'00s Witches miniseries where she played the token evil teammate, and as a Boxed Crook in Thunderbolts/Dark Avengers.
  • Badass Cape: She wore a red and black cape when she was serving at the Thunderbolts.
  • Burning with Anger: Get her irritated enough, and she starts breathing out flames.
  • Costume Evolution: The woman has gone through many different styles throughout the years, having red, black or white hair in different styles and dressing in either black or red leather.
  • Dark Action Girl: While she specializes in magic, she still knows a thing or two about hand-to-hand combat.
  • Depending on the Artist: Her appearance can change drastically from artist to artist.
    • Her original hair color is red, but it has since changed to pink, black and white. The length and style of her hair can also vary.
    • The color of her skin-tight suit has varied from dark purple, to pure black, and to blood red.
    • Whether or not she has her Unusual Eyebrows or has horns can also vary depending on the art style.
  • Depending on the Writer: She changes from being an Anti-Hero to a full-blow villain pretty often, depending on who's writing her at the time. Her personality can also change from being composed and professional to being immature and flirty.
  • Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?: She has a crush on the Man-Thing and is implied she has done something sexual with him in nature when she "inscribed the world song" in his body during Thunderbolts.
  • Evil Laugh: She sometimes starts laughing during combat. If she's working with the good guys, it often leads to them feeling uncomfortable, as she apparently sounds really maniacal while doing it.
  • Evil Mentor: Became a magic mentor to The Hood during Dark Reign.
  • Evil Redhead: During her time with the Thunderbolts she had red hair, although she wasn't as evil as her other teammates.
  • Extreme Libido: As a succubus, she has a very high libido and is sometimes portrayed as sex-crazy and hedonistic.
  • Extreme Omnisexual: She's... very up-close-and-personal with everyone, male or female. She even has something of a crush on Man-Thing.
  • Fiery Redhead: Her first and most common hair color is red, and she does have the fiery temper and fire association to go with it.
  • Flight: She's often using her magic to casually levitate, but it doesn't seem like she can fly at very high speeds.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Her eyes tend to glow when she's using her magic or gets angry.
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The offspring of a demon prince and a mortal woman.
  • Heel–Face Revolving Door: Has flipped between villainy and heroism multiple times over her career.
  • Hellbent For Leather: She's a hellish being whose most common outfit is a skin-tight leather suit with a Navel-Deep Neckline. The color has varied from dark purple to black or to blood red.
  • Hellfire: Like her brother, she can control hellfire, with her most common combat ability being throwing fireballs made of it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: She sacrificed herself to save Doctor Strange in a Marvel Team-Up story. Given she's an important demon, it didn't take long for her to be brought Back from the Dead, but it still had the side-effect of getting rid of the Basilisk demon that was also possessing her.
  • High Collar of Doom: Her outfit during Thunderbolts features a high collar, as part of the whole villainous demon sorceress aesthetic.
  • Horned Humanoid: She tends to show up with two white horns on her head.
  • Human-Demon Hybrid: She's the offspring of a human woman named Victoria Wingate and a high-ranking demon named Marduk Kurios. Originally, her father was Satan but this was retconned.
  • Kiss of Death: Her kiss can drain the life force. She often uses to kill her victims, causing them to shrivel and release the soul in a butterfly-like form, Satana would then capture the butterfly to feed on it however the ability is not explicitly deadly, depending on how powerful the person she kisses it can have weaker effects. When she kisses Hawkeye and America Chavez she knocks them out and when she kisses Angela, she just gets weak on her knees.
  • Lady of Black Magic: She has extensive knowledge of dark magic and unholy rituals. The Eye of Agamotto even considered her a candidate to become Sorceror Supreme once.
  • Most Common Superpower: A Marvel anti-heroine with a pretty buxom figure.
  • Ms. Fanservice: She's a beautiful half-succubus who tends to have a sultry demeanor and wears revealing clothing, often feating a Navel-Deep Neckline.
  • Mystical White Hair: For Marvel Legacy she changed her hair from red to white.
  • Navel-Deep Neckline: A common feature of her outfits is a plunging neckline that goes all the way down to the navel.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: When her Extreme Libido gets the best of her, she can get pretty touchy with people such as when she first met Luke Cage's Thunderbolt team, which she greeted them by biting Juggernaut's ear, kissing ghost and groping Moonstone. Luke had to active her Restraining Bolt to keep her from futher molesting the team.
  • Occult Detective: She's usually consulted by other heroes when they deal with occult or dark magic, with her helping them figure out who is behind it or what the effects of the magic are.
  • Our Souls Are Different: Her soul is bonded to an evil spirit called "the Basilisk."
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: When she chooses to have black hair, it's used to contrast with her pale complexion.
  • Sex Goddess: As expected from a succubus, she's an expert in matters relating to carnal pleasure. In Thunderbolts she once even kept the supervillain Mr. Hyde immobilized by using succubus magic to keep him trapped in a state of constant ecstasy.
  • Restraining Bolt: During her stay with Luke Cage's Thunderbolt team, Doctor Strange put a talisman on her that would act as a restraining bolt, letting Luke control her in case it was needed.
  • Sex Magic: As a succubus, she knows a few spells and rituals that use or require sex. In Thunderbolts she even managed to heal Namor from near death with a ritual that required her sleeping with him (not that he minded).
  • Shameless Fanservice Girl: She already dresses immodestly most of the time and doesn't really care about being seen naked by her teammates when the situation calls for a magic ritual that requires nudity (she is a succubus after all). Mystic Knight complained about this, when Satana made a guest appearance in a Heroes for Hire and didn't bother to cover herself up when meeting with the team.
    Mystic Knight: Why is Satana wearing remarkably little clothing even for her impressive standards?
    Paladin: She was casting some kind of banishment thing and... she needed the freedom?
  • Succubi and Incubi: She is a half-succubus, though usually she's just referred to and treated as a full succubus. It mostly manifests as her using a kiss to drain the souls and life-force of men and her overall sexualized appearance and demeanor.
  • Super-Strength: She's far stronger than a normal human, though not absurdly strong as beings like The Hulk.
  • Super-Toughness: As a demon she's far tougher than she looks and can take quite a bit of punishment before she's actually hurt.
  • Soul Eating: As a succubus, she feeds on souls, although she has been known to horde them, too.
  • The Tease: She often acts flirtatious and touchy towards people.
  • Teleportation: She can use her magic to transport herself to specific places, but she can't bring anyone else with her.
  • Token Evil Teammate: For the Thunderbolts, although she's not as bad as Crossbones or Hyperion.
  • Underboobs: Her outfits not only expose most of her cleavage, they also expose the lower part of her breasts.
  • Unusual Eyebrows: Her original design hash her eyebrows being impossibly long and extending above her head in a horn-like motif.
  • Vapor Wear: Most of her outfits feature a Navel-Deep Neckline or Underboobs that make it clear she isn't wearing a bra.
  • White Hair, Black Heart: When she chooses to have white hair.

    Satannish 

Satannish

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/230cc2ddb48ccfc279acbb36742e4353.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Doctor Strange #174 (August, 1968)

A Hell Lord who is said to be the creation of Dormammu and thus ultimately acts to further his goals. He is a rival of Mephisto and one of the few who can come close to matching him in power.


Fear Lords

    D'Spayre 

D'Spayre

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dspayre_earth_616_from_marvel_war_of_heroes_001.jpg

Notable Aliases: D'spayre, Desmond, Gramps, he usually appears as a trusted person for his would-be victim

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up #68 (April, 1978)

The Demon known as D'Spayre was created 20,000 years ago by the Dweller-in-Darkness, using the fear originated from the sinking of Atlantis and Lemuria. He is a Lord of Fear and deprives power and pleasure from the negative emotions of others.


  • Arch-Enemy: D'Spayre is the archfoe of Cloak and Dagger, being the one who gave them their powers. A piece of his wicked soul was infused into them and he's remained their most personal and evil enemy.

  • Ax-Crazy: It is implied that the pain and suffering apparently required to fuel his powers are not so much necessary than just him being a vicious sadist.
  • Batman Gambit: When the other Fear Lords created the Great fear, a powerful magic device that would cause all of humanity to be overcome with fear, he played along, despite his lower position meaning he would receive the least amount of power from it. After humanity has been subjected to the Great Fear, the other Lords get drunk on the power, only for it to wear off quickly as humanities fear slowly turned into despair. As his name should tell you, he fed on the fear until he was more powerful than the other lords and proceeded to kill them all.
  • Emotion Eater: In the same vein as his creator. Though with him, it is implied it isn't really necessary, he just does it because he can.
  • Emotional Powers: Fear and despair.
  • For the Evulz: While he claims to require the pain and suffering of others to fuel his power, it is implied that he is lying.
  • Hand Blast: His go to method of attack.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Manipulated the other Fear Lords, including his own master, into destroying themselves during one story arc. They got better.
  • Popularity Power: A minor case. Possibly due to his cool design, he has continued to make appearances every few years or so, while most of the other Fear Lords rarely appear at all.
  • Power Creep, Power Seep: Starts off weaker than Dweller-in-Darkness, which is fitting seeing as he was created by him, but as time goes on, not only is he of near equal power, but he is made a Fear Lord, making him have equal if not greater standing than his master.
  • A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Well, they were both evil, but D'Spayre turns on his master to usurp his position.
  • Retcon / Composite Character: Avengers/Invaders claimed that he was actually the Golden Age Marvel hero, Aarkus the Vision, who had somehow been cursed into a demonic form. During the course of that story he gets un-cursed and returns to normal, but is so freaked out and ashamed by having been a monster for decades that he flees our world and returns to his home dimension. This has since been ret-retconned so that Aarkus was merely manipulated by D'Spayre, but the two are in fact separate beings.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: A three-way mutual partnership between Doctor Strange, the X-Men, and Thor.
  • Touched by Vorlons: He was the Vorlon for Cloak and Dagger. While they would still have gotten powers from the drug they were injected with, it was D'Spayre's magic that swapped the powers between the two of them.
  • Xtreme Kool Letterz: Just look at his name.
  • You Have Failed Me: Gets this from his master in his first few appearances.

    Dweller-in-Darkness 

Dweller-in-Darkness

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2307266_letter_4.jpeg

Species: Elder God

First Appearance: Thor #229 (August, 1974)

The Dweller-in-Darkness was a demon from the dimension Everinnye, like the demon Nightmare, and like Nightmare, the Dweller fed on the fear of living beings; fear both increased his powers and kept him alive. When he first came to Earth, the Dweller-in-Darkness fed upon the fears created by the war between the humans of Atlantis and the Deviants of Lemuria. The Atlantean sorceress Zhered-Na discovered the existence of the Dweller and banished him with the help of Agamotto and the Atlantean god Valka. He is one of the Fear Lords, and often acts as their de facto leader.


    Kkallakku 

Kkallakku

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2155665_kkallakku_journey_into_mystery_633.jpg

Species: Demom

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #1 (September, 1988)

Kkallakku is the creator of the Fear Eaters, a race of interdimensional demons that feed on and draw their power from the fear of others. Kkallakku was one of the founding members of the Fear Lords.


  • Above Good and Evil: In her initial appearances, she was only concerned about feeding her and her children hunger. Later stories would portray her as more overtly malicious.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Looks like some sort of worm or serpent with tentacles along its body.
  • Mama Bear: Very protective of her children.
  • Monster Progenitor: Gave birth to the fear eaters.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: Her fear eaters inhabit every place on Earth, picking away at people's minds, tiny nibbles at a time.
  • Villainous Glutton: Has an insatiable hunger. Her children try to sate her hunger by feeding her the fear of humans.

    The Lurking Unknown 

The Lurking Unknown

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/531215_lurking_unknown_larry_alexander01.jpg

Species: Demnon

First Appearance: Thor #136 (November, 1966)

The Lurking Unknown, one of the seven Fear Lords, is a demon of unknown origin that gains its powers from the fear of others. It has displayed many abilities, from super strength to flame generation and control.


  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: When he is at full power.
  • Attention Whore: His driving character trait, aside from For the Evulz.
  • Crippling Overspecialization: Lampshaded by Loki; his powers only work when people are afraid of him. While this sounds good in theory, when your default form is barely a foot tall, it can be a bit hard to get people to fear you.
    • Loophole Abuse: Once traveled to a dimension of tiny fairies, who were already much smaller than him. When he comes back from it, he's gigantic.
  • Dimensional Traveler: Can travel between dimensions.
  • For the Evulz: He isn't a very deep villain.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Grows from a tiny demon barely bigger than a cat, to a gargantuan monster the size of skyscrapers.
  • Make My Monster Grow: Himself. If he is able to acquire an adequate amount of fear, he can grow to enormous sizes. In theory, he can grow larger than the world, but he has never managed to get that far.
  • Sizeshifter: The main manifestation of his power.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: Is the least powerful of the Fear Lords, as his powers are directly proportional to how much people are afraid... of him. He still likes to act as if he's in charge, and throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way.

    Nightmare 

Nightmare

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/470b34d249c6e928f21a68e604862c11.jpg

Notable Aliases: Casper, Lord of Dreams, Lord of Darkness, Edvard Haberdash, impersonated Hamir and countless others

Species: Extradimensional Demonic entity

First Appearance: Strange Tales #110 (April, 1963)

One of Strange's oldest demonic foes, Nightmare is an evil entity that preys on human beings in their sleep and seeks to trap them in the Dream Dimension where he can plague them with nightmares for all eternity, feasting on their psychic energy by causing his victims fear. Though he is unable to affect the waking world, the terrors and illusions he utilises can traumatise and haunt a person long after sleep. He is also a member of the Fear Lords.


  • Arch-Enemy: Aside from Doctor Strange, the one creature Nightmare fears is the Gulgol, a monster that never sleeps, making it utterly immune to his abilities.
    • His role in the Dream Dimension also naturally puts him at odds with the Sleepwalkers who guard and protect the Mindscape.
  • As Long as There Is Evil: As long as people can dream, Nightmare will live. It is possible to kill him by stopping people dreaming, but humanity would quickly go mad as a result. Causing him mortal injury has had devastating effects, such as causing psychics worldwide to go berserk. This is implied to be the reasons why more benign entities of the mental plane, such as the Sleepwalkers, tolerate his rule over the Dream Dimension.
  • Death is Cheap: He wouldn't be a prominent comic book character without this trope applying to him at some point. In Loki's 2019 solo series, he dies and gets into Heaven,note  where he's personally greeted by the One Above All. As of the 2022 run of Savage Avengers, he got better.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Nightmare doesn't seem to have quite as much power as beings like the Hell-Lords, as he's been physically beaten up by mortal beings like the Hulk and supernatural beings that you'd think would be less powerful, like Sleepwalker.
  • Dimension Lord: The Dream Dimension, though despite its name there are actually several of them and in fact several other dream demons, though he is possibly the most powerful. The other dream dimensions are not always bad places. In fact, in Doctor Strange: Nexus of Nightmares, he's apparently powerful enough in his realm to have imprisoned, tortured, and then effortlessly killed three Beyonders.
  • Dream Land: His domain, the Dimension of Dreams.
  • Dream Weaver: Traps his victims in nightmares which they never awaken from.
  • Eldritch Abomination: He appears fairly human, but it's likely that his shape is mutable.
  • Enemy Mine: In the "Savage Avengers" comic, he gives indirect aid to Dr Strange through Conan and Ghost Rider, because he shares a common enemy with them in Kulan Gath.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: His pet horse, Dreamstalker, is about the only thing that he has ever displayed any genuine affection for, and that includes his human girlfriend and his children like Daydream and Dreamqueen.
    Nightmare (on the verge of death): So take good care... of the old girl... won't you... Stephen?
  • God of Evil: Really more of a God of Fear, but it amounts to nearly the same thing.
  • Hellish Horse: His steed, Dreamstalker.
  • Horrifying the Horror: In the 2018 series, issue #10, a side story shows us what Nightmare has nightmares about. Stephen Strange.
  • Humanoid Abomination: He seems to prefer a human form much of the time that he is seen.
  • Logical Weakness: In the 2015 Doctor Strange series he's defeated by Strange inventing a new spell.. one that makes Stephen experience the nightmares of EVERY PERSON ON EARTH and gives the rest of Earth a good night's sleep. Naturally a world without nightmares, however temporary, leaves Nightmare utterly powerless.
  • Manipulative Bastard: His illusions allow him to manipulate people into his traps.
  • Master of Illusion: One of his most effective power sets.
  • Mind Rape: And, of course, you're most vulnerable when you sleep.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Even non-magical heroes in the Marvel Universe know to be wary of him.
  • Necessarily Evil: Nightmare's an asshole, but his existence is integral to the cosmic balance, and whenever he's killed or otherwise disposed of it has devastating effects on reality, with dreamers gradually descending into madness and psychics entering berserk rages. He occasionally resents his lot in life, and has done things like temporarily abandon his realm to be human, and attempt to get Strange to kill him and find someone else to tend to the Dream Dimension. And while he can be replaced, it is implied that no one with a conscience would actually want his job or be able to handle it, making the whole thing kind of a case of Better the Devil You Know.
    Nightmare: No, no... you have to let me die... please... I... can't take it... anymore... do you know... what it's like... to maintain the dreams of others... and not be allowed... to have dreams... of your own? I... want to die.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Almost literally.
  • Non-Action Guy: He doesn't seem to have the raw power demonstrated by some of Strange's other enemies, which is why he resorts to trickery and manipulation instead.
  • Psychic Powers: In a limited sense, at least to the extent of imposing hallucinations or illusions. In his own realm, however, he's closer to Reality Warper.
  • Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: He's a Serial Rapist on top of everything else.
  • Reality Warper: It takes somebody on Dr. Strange's level to compete with him in his own realm. His influence over reality in the waking world isn't as strong.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: The usual solution to defeating him, though it is always just a matter of time till he gets out.
  • Serial Rapist: He has a daughter called the Dreamqueen; he got her by raping a succubus, which is messed up in all sorts of ways. Worse, he once told the Hulk that he spawned his other daughter Daydream by raping Banner's wife; this earned him a mild case of death, though of course he got better. He also spawned his son, Trauma by raping the mother.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: Is capable of these. As he explains in Avengers: No Road Home, he's the living personification of nightmares, so it's natural he's got the power to be right behind you. Always right behind you...
  • Take Over the World: He is psychically linked to humanity, so his ambitions are often limited to just this unlike other demons on this page. Of course, this would mean that humans would be suffering horrible nightmares for all eternity, so it's still far from a pleasant goal.
  • Villainous Lineage: Subverted. He sired at least 3 kids - his daughters Daydream and the Dreamqueen and his son Trauma - whom he still hangs around, even if he left most of the parenting to their respective mothers. All three of them have inherited at least part of his powers to varying degrees but are quite different in terms from one another in terms of character. The Dreamqueen is very much Daddy's Little Villain: her powers are very similar to her father's and she is the one who looks like him the most out of all his kids. Quite aptly, she's also the one whose personality and goals resemble her father's the most as well. Trauma is sharp-tongued, unfriendly and not exactly nice but he's a therapist who vowed to use his fear-based powers for benevolent purposes and joined a team of heroes to that end. Daydream is a peculiar Dream Walker who can enter people's daydreams in addition to their regular dreams. And while she's a bit selfish and not above using the info she gathers in people's dreams to get what she wants, she's not actually that bad, especially compared to her bitchy sister. Being born to Betty Ross, Bruce Banner's steady girlfriend, possibly has something to do with this.
  • Wild Card: Of the Fear Lords, he fill this position.

    Nox 

Nox

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/nox.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #31 (May, 1991)

Nox is a demon pretending to be the Olympian goddess of the night and is a founding member of the Fear Lords.


Elder Gods

    Chthon 

Chthon

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/83e51afd7ed81b5ee28741e40c41ec84.jpg

Species: Elder God

First Appearance: Marvel Chillers #1 (July, 1975)

The demon Chthon is perhaps the most powerful of the Elder Gods and the first Evil Sorceror in the history of Earth. The office of Sorcerer Supreme was created specifically to defend against this demon in particular, and it has successfully exercised a nebulous influence throughout the planet's history. Chthon is the creator of a demonic race called the N'Garai and is the author of the Darkhold, the first book of Black Magic from which vampires, werewolves and witches were unleashed on the world. It is trapped in a pocket universe both by innumerable mystical barriers erected by Gaea and Earth's magical defenders and by its own sheer power, as it is so strong and huge it cannot leave by normal means, though has imparted a fraction of its power into potential human hosts for later possession, most notably and successfully the Scarlet Witch.


  • The Anti-God: Somewhat closer to this than even the Hell Lords — whose existence it is partly responsible for — as a source of ultimate evil in Marvel Earth. It is far more powerful than any of them too. The archangel Lucifer fought against his forces in the distant past, before his fall even. So perhaps it is more correct to say that Chthon is worse than the Devil.
  • Arch-Enemy:
    • To Oshtur and the Vishanti, who made it their mission to never let him win.
    • Chthon serves as the most personal enemy of Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). He's responsible for cursing Wanda with chaos magic that's left her unstable and has made related attempts to possess or harm her in order to use her for his aim of destroying the Earth
  • The Archmage: Easily one of the most powerful of Elder Gods.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Darkhold and other evil items.
  • Black Magic: Literally wrote the book on it; also the creator and source of Chaos magic, which despite Depending on the Writer, really does exist in the Marvel universe.
  • The Chessmaster: Almost never engages any of the heroes in person, instead using his students or slaves to do his bidding. Most of them are more than a match for the Sorcerer Supreme and the Avengers combined; one can only imagine how powerful he really is.
  • The Corrupter: Through artifacts like the Darkhold, Chthon can twist the minds of hapless victims to evil.
  • Demonic Possession: Several times, though it seems to have reserved the Scarlet Witch as its host of choice. It once ended up possessing her brother Quicksilver and even though this was just a tiny portion of its power, it very nearly destroyed the planet causing calamities as it rewrote reality.
  • Dimension Lord: Of a pocket dimension adjacent to Earth. As the Scarlet Witch demonstrated though, his power can affect the multiverse.
  • The Dreaded: He usually draws a Oh, Crap! reaction when he appears and with good reason.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Chthon is an Elder God, an ancient deity exiled to a dark dimension. This has resulted in Carnage Vol. 2 turning him into an expy of Cthulhu. Even in the 2022 Darkhold series, where he takes on a humanoid form, he degenerates into a mass of tentacles, eyes, and fangs when fighting the Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After his personal army is wiped out in Darkhold Omega, Chthon vows to mourn it, and to complete his corruption of the Earth "in tribute."
  • Evil Counterpart: It is the antithesis of the Sorcerer Supreme and the job exists primarily to fight it, and not demons, evil sorcerers and cosmic beings in general. Also, its presence is enough to slowly kill Strange, who has to either use magical shields by default or fight Chthon by proxy in order to engage him.
  • Evil Sorceror: In Marvel canon, the original Evil Sorcerer (well, to Earth anyway), and one of the most powerful.
  • Expy: He's turned into a pastiche of Cthulhu in Carnage Vol. 2, complete with passages of the Darkhold reading "Chthon fhtagn".
  • Fighting a Shadow: It has never shown up in its true form and usually relies on hosts or squeezing through portions of its power. If it did somehow manage to return, it would probably destroy the world just with its presence. note 
  • God-Eating: Chthon devoured its own siblings for power, degenerating into a demon in the process.
  • God of Chaos: God of Chaos and the source of Chaos magic, both of which are evil in the context of the story.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: It cannot act directly in the regular Marvel universe and thus is rarely if ever seen, the exceptions being when it utilises Demonic Possession, and in such cases it is a shadow of its true power (though still a major threat to all life everywhere). Also indirectly responsible for The Legions of Hell, as its dark magic experiments caught on with some of its siblings. This led to mass cannibalism among the primordial beings of Earth, which motivated Gaia to conceive the Demigorge, who was corrupted after consuming her siblings and expelled it in the form of demons.
  • Humanoid Abomination: Likes to manifest a human form in some occasions, most-often as a grey-skinned humanoid in a blue cloak. In the 2022 Darkhold series he manifests as a Horned Humanoid with pallid skin and a red cloak instead.
  • I Have Many Names: The Other, The Great Shadow, He Who Holds The Darkness, Demon Of The Darkhold.
  • Leaking Can of Evil: The demon itself is trapped in another dimension and countless magical barriers are erected to keep it there; on one occasion a portion of it was summoned by cultists who realized their mistake and imprisoned it in Mount Wundagore. The Fantastic Four villain the Puppet Master gets his magical clay from there and it was there that it implanted a fraction of its power into Wanda Maximoff and marked her as its host. Chthon's presence essentially turned the area into Lovecraft Country.
  • Man of Kryptonite: The very essence and presence of Chthon is poisonous to the Sorcerer Supreme, whoever that may be. Strange can usually get by this with magic shields, though.
  • Manipulative Bastard: Very manipulative, good at playing people to his tune.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: Vampires, werewolves, witches and all manner of demons and other horrors owe their existence to him, though sometimes indirectly.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: It is also known as the Great Shadow, and Eternity once called it the "Cancer of Reality".
  • Reality Warper: Warps reality to his advantage, but still can't leave his plane of existence.
  • Retcon: Chthon was initially depicted as an Elder God and sibling to Gaia, appearing as a grey-skinned humanoid in a blue-black cloak. Later stories retconned him into a Great Old One — treating it and the Elder Gods as synonymous — and depicted him as an expy of Cthulhu; with Carnage Vol. 2 saying that Chthon was the mightiest of the Great Old Ones and led them before being sealed away.
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Darkhold, responsible for the creation of vampires and the fall of Atlantis amongst many other things. The Book of the Vishanti was written specifically as a counterweight to it.
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Chthon is usually out to cause the biggest mess it can most of the time, but even if it had just stuck to experimentation and study without becoming more proactive. The damages it is ultimately responsible for would still be incalculable. Shuma-Gorath is a liberal user of chaos magic, for example.

    Set 

Set

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/308521e78fc9e79a57efa9d7eb5892d4.jpg

Species: Elder God

First Appearance: Marvel Tales #96 (March, 1950)

Set is the Elder God who first devoured its brethren for power and degenerated into a demon, and is thus the first murderer in the history of Earth. It is an enormously powerful ancient evil that seeks to kill humanity and mammals and make reptilian life the dominant on Earth again, as it gains power from their violent death. The multi-headed snake god is the power behind many ancient sorcerers since mankind's early days and holds a special enmity for its sister Gaea, who is responsible for many of its greatest defeats.


  • Animalistic Abomination: A gigantic, horrifically powerful Hydra-like entity that resides over its own dimension, and that's not touching on the fact that he's an Elder God.
  • Arch-Enemy: Gaea, who sired Atum to kill Set and the other Elder Gods, and unleashed it against Set again when he returned, and sent the dinosaurs to wipe out all mammalian life as she had decided dinosaurs were an evolutionary dead end. Their battle accidentally caused the dinosaurs to go extinct (the meteor that killed them was probably summoned by one or the other) and is the reason it has so many heads.
    • Some 2019 Conan stories also give it a rival called The Wyrm, who seeks to undermine its so it can dominate the world.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Serpent Crown, which grants magical powers to whoever wears it and of which there are several throughout the multiverse, each mystically connected to the same Set who is a unique entity (Depending on the Writer). The Crowns enable him to influence events on a multiversal scale.
  • Body Horror: Its true form in its own dimension is identical to its normal one...except that it has been turned inside out for some horrible reason.
  • Blood Knight: Enjoys a good fight, but of course hates it when he loses.
  • Canon Immigrant: He was originally the Greater-Scope Villain of the Conan the Barbarian pulp novels. When Conan joined the Marvel Universe, so did he.
  • Dimension Lord: He is stuck in a pocket dimension adjacent to Earth thanks to magical barriers set up to keep him there. He has slightly more freedom than his brother Chthon however as he has managed to escape before and is still capable of influencing not just Earth, but alternate versions of Earth throughout the multiverse (though only Earth, due to the limitations of his prison.)
  • Evil Is Petty: His ambition coincides with him doing this to spite his sister.
  • A God Am I: What he sees himself and expresses at large.
  • God-Eating: The very first Elder God to eat its brethren in a bid for more power.
  • God of Gods: His ambition is to be the greatest.
  • Horror Hunger: More than any other Elder God, Set is characterized by his insatiable appetite and is possibly unable to stop, not that it particularly wants to mind. It is said that while Gaea nourishes, Set consumes.
    • In one continuity, he actually ate the Phoenix Force.
  • Human Sacrifice: Demands it, partly because it grants him power, partly just to be a dick.
  • Hydra Problem: Atum cut off its original head, but two more took its place. So Atum kept cutting until he has seven.
  • I Have Many Names: Father Set, the Great Serpent, the Great Devourer Set the Great Destroyer.
    • Each of its heads have their own name too and are the basis of various mythological and religious serpents-Set, Apep, Ophion, Tiamat, Lotan, Leviathan and Apocalypse, respectively, are their names.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: The Sons of Set are its children.
  • Kill All Humans: A side effect of its ultimate goal.
  • Legacy Character: There is another Set in the Marvel cosmology, the God of Evil of the Egyptian pantheon who often clashes with Odin and The Mighty Thor- apparently he took Set's name just because he thought Set the Elder God was just that badass. Apocalypse of the X-Men was also once mistaken for Set, and milked it for all it was worth.
  • The Man Behind the Man: To several demons and human sorcerers, most notably Thoth-Amon, the Arch-Enemy of Conan the Barbarian.
  • Manipulative Bastard: An entire arc was weaved for him to gain power.
  • Multiple Head Case: His natural form.
  • Reality Warper: Warps reality into gaining power.
  • Religion of Evil: Has had a few in his time.
  • Seven Deadly Sins: Each of its heads represents one of them.
  • Smug Snake: Both figuratively and literally.

    X'axal 

X'axal

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/xaxal_earth_616_from_doctor_strange_vol_5_1_001.jpg

Species: Elder God

First Appearance: Doctor Strange (Vol. 5) #1 (June, 2018)

Elder God who attempted to conquer the Earth-616 dimension. He was stopped by Dr. Strange.


  • Eyeless Face: Doesn’t seem to possess any vestige of either eyes or a nose on his face whatsoever.
  • The Noseless: The only facial feature it has is a mouth, lacking a nose or eyes.
  • Humanoid Abomination: It's an Elder God, so he's vaguely humanoid and certainly an abomination.

Great Old Ones

    Dagoth 

Dagoth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dagoth_earth_616_from_marvel_premiere_vol_1_7_0001.jpg

Species: Demon God

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #7 (December, 1972)

Dagoth the Sea-Born is a demon god that serves the evil entity named Shuma-Gorath. Once worshipped as a god in the doomed land of Kalumesh, he was trapped when it fell, then released in modern times.


  • Fish People: He appears as a purple, fish-like humanoid that dwells underwater.
  • Mind Control: Dagoth has some level of psychic power over the minds of mortals. As well as bewitching a crowd, he's able to take control of the sleeping minds of his ancient worshipper's descendants, using their bodies as his puppets.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: In the distant past, Dagoth was worshipped as a god by the people of Kalumesh. When Kalumesh was claimed by the ocean, Dagoth was trapped until modern times - crushed under his own collapsing temple.
  • Super-Strength: Dagoth is physically powerful, able to lift and throw boulders about when battling Doctor Strange.

    Kathulos 

Kathulos

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/kathulos_earth_616_from_marvel_premiere_vol_1_8_001.jpg

Species: Great Old One

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #8 (February, 1973)

Kathulos is a powerful Old One. It is a servitor of Shuma-Gorath and a lord of chaos.


  • Botanical Abomination: A powerful servant of Shuma-Gorath in the form of a venus flytrap, albeit one with a silvery human head in its mouth.
  • Man-Eating Plant: Takes the form of a venus flytrap with a humanoid head in its mouth.

    Shuma-Gorath 

Shuma-Gorath

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/251px-Shuma-Gorath_MvsC3-FTW_5798.PNG

Species: Great Old One

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere #10 (June, 1973)

"I fed on the screaming souls of universes. I drank the spoiled milk of dead stars. I am the emptiness outside all understanding. I am Shuma-Gorath."

One of the most dangerous demons Stephen Strange has ever faced, Shuma-Gorath is one of the most ancient and terrible entities to ever exist. Apparently unkillable, borderline omniscient, and the ruler of nearly a hundred alternate realms, it is responsible for the death of the Ancient One and has attempted to invade the Earth several times, and in the distant past even ruled it on two separate occasions. It has only grown stronger since then and its return could bring about the end of the universe.

It has been established that it is one of the Many-Angled Ones, immortal Lovecraftian entities that alter reality to bring about an end to death which allows life to grow out of control and ferment as a cancer, and turns all living beings into creatures as alien and abominable as they are. It also established Shuma-Gorath and his brethren as one of the oldest sentient life forms in the multiverse, and is thus a truly ancient and terrifying evil.


  • Alas, Poor Villain: After seeing what Kulan Gath had done to Shuma in Savage Avengers, Strange cannot help but feel sorry for him, and even banters with him a bit before subjecting him to a Mercy Kill.
    Shuma: Come to gloat, sorceror?
    Strange: Shuma-Gorath... have you ever known me to gloat?
    Shuma: *laughs*
  • Ascended Extra: While immensely powerful and being responsible for the death of The Ancient One, he is one of Doctor Strange's minor villains due to how powerful he is. Despite this, however, he was chosen for the Marvel vs. Capcom videogames series, as the Capcom representatives find him more interesting to develop than "a man with a cape" such as Strange's. This has helped Shuma-Gorath gain more attention, even if he is still a minor antagonist.
  • Big Bad: Whenever Dorammamu doesn't take over.
  • Canon Immigrant: Same as Set, he comes from Robert E. Howard's Kull pulp novels, though Shuma is much less of a character; he was mentioned all of once and there was no indication he was even a real being until Marvel got ahold of him.
  • Card-Carrying Villain:
    Shuma-Gorath: So thou knowest the essence of Shuma-Gorath, eh, Doctor Strange? Aye — evil! Ancient, timeless... patient... evil! And Shuma-Gorath doth know thee.
  • Characterization Marches On: The elder god Cthun used to be considered the worst of Strange's enemies and the addition of this Shuma-Gorath to the Marvel universe proper did not change that. It did not take many appearances though for Shuma-Gorath to rapidly increase in threat level, despite how rarely the octopus ever appears. This can be attributed to Robert E. Howard treating such creatures as a different kind of challenge for Conan and Kull to overcome but since Shuma looks like something from a HP Lovecraft horror story it was increasing portrayed that way as time went on.
  • Charm Person: All living beings within its realms are fanatically devoted to worshipping it, though this doesn't seem to apply to artificial beings like robots and the like. In ancient Earth "its name was whispered in reverence by every living thing". Even in the present, many powerful and often evil entities are prepared to serve it.
  • The Chessmaster: His schemes are complex and usually evoke fighting a shadow.
  • Demonic Possession: Of a sort. If you have enough power, you can kill it in its own realm, but the amount of power you'll need to absorb (and, implied, the sheer atmosphere of its home dimension) will slowly corrupt you until you become Shuma-Gorath yourself.
    Shuma-Gorath: Once you have smashed this shell, you will stand in the midst of the cosmos and exult — and you will reach out with your new-found power and do your will — for good, you think — But after an age your will becomes the only good — and one day when the magic invokes the name of Shuma-Gorath — you will answer!
  • Depending on the Writer: On his good days it is capable of destroying Death itself, outmatching Galactus and the Celestials combined, and automatically destroy galaxies through aura-pressure alone. On an off day, it can be beaten by....the Mighty Avengers....yeah. Justified since it is established that Shuma frequently utilises Fighting a Shadow so the Avengers probably didn't beat the real deal. Also The Mighty Avengers book in question noted that despite the immeasurable level of power the creature was radiating, it was still just barely the equivalent of Shuma clawing into our dimension with just the tiniest fraction of his metaphorical fingernail poking through.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Subverted during Infinity. The Tiger God that powers the young superheroine White Tiger seemingly manages to defeat Shuma, but it is swiftly pointed out by Blade that the "Shuma" they were fighting was only an advance scout.
  • Dimension Lord: Of several hundred dimensions, in fact.
  • The Dreaded: This thing is incredibly powerful, incredibly intelligent, and as such, when he makes an appearance, people start freaking out. Let's put it this way: Dormammu was terrified at the prospect of having to deal with him. Dormammu.
  • Eldritch Abomination: More so than any other on this page. Its normal form is a multi-armed tentacled monster with one giant eye, but it can take any shape and its other forms, and possibly its true form, are even more alien than that. It has been said that Shuma takes the form which most terrifies the dimension he is trying to conquer. One panel even has "Shuma-Gorath Fhtagn" written in jagged red letters.
  • Enemies with Death: And Death is usually on the losing end.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Its usual m/o; odds are good that if you run into what appears to be Shuma, you're probably just fighting a projection that may or may not be the vanguard of an actual incursion. It's also likely that it can't actually enter most universes on its own without potentially destroying them, which would explain why it tends to act from afar until the universe is so thoroughly ruined that it can enter without having to worry.
  • A God Am I: Worshipped as such in all of its hundreds of realms and across thousands more. Within its own realms it is all-powerful in every sense of the word, save for its lesser realms, though even in them its power is said to be so huge it makes Mephisto and Satannish look like "mice in a great temple".
  • God of Evil: To the point it does not even want worship, just misery, going by all three times it has been on Earth. During Conan's time Shuma-Gorath even obliterated worshipers trying to gain its favor, only wanting to see some kind of bloodshed. Shuma-Gorath did offer Conan gifts though in an attempt to stop him from summoning Crom against it-too little too late.
  • God of Gods: More like God of gods of gods. Shuma-Gorath claims that even Dormammu pales in comparison to his power and there is very little to contradict that, and the one time that Dormammu was faced with the prospect of tangling with him, he was terrified; next to Zom and the Living Tribunal it is probably the most powerful being on this page, and Zom has a bad habit of dying or being a Sealed Evil in a Can. As ruler of a hundred alternate timelines, it has implicitly killed the likes of Eternity, Death and the other cosmic abstracts many times overnote , and it might very well be one the top ten most powerful beings in the entire Marvel cosmology.
  • Greater-Scope Villain:
    • Being among the Many-Angled Ones makes him indirectly responsible for the Cancerverse.
    • The Imperator got his hatred of all magic due to Shuma-Gorath consuming his dimension. This lead to the near-extinction of magic across countless dimensions and the deaths of practically every Sorcerer Supreme except for Doctor Strange.
  • Hero Killer: Strange was forced to kill the Ancient One to stop it, then later forced to kill himself to prevent it from consuming him and get rid of its power. It returned far quicker than he imagined.
  • Human Sacrifice: Commanded this back in the day.
  • I Have Many Names: Shuma-Gorath, The Lord of Chaos, The Unclosing Eye, The Withering Devourer, He Who Sleeps But Shall Awake, The Great Old One.
  • If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: Literally; thanks to a situation Strange put himself in. It is not as if he had any amount of foresight that would allow him to make better choices to his credit.
  • Immortality: Shuma-Gorath cannot truly die and any creature that somehow manages to kill it will end up becoming it, unless they have a similar level of immortality. If you kill yourself, its energies will just reform and it will return again. And don't put it off too long; those energies are so powerful than with them inside you can destroy galaxies just by being in them!
  • Large and in Charge: His normal form is so big that Strange mistook him for a mountain, though thanks to Voluntary Shapeshifting he really has no size limit.
  • The Man Behind the Man: It has been served by Nightmare and various human sorcerers, one of whom sold out the world in exchange for "my life and Barbados. All manner of otherwise egomaniacal gods and demons are more than willing to do its bidding if it calls on them.
  • Mercy Kill: Gets this in the "Savage Avengers" comic. Kulan Gath was taking his power by eating his flesh, and Dr Strange ends his life for the good of the world as well as basic decency.
  • Multiversal Conqueror: And very, very good at it.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Oh, sure, you can hurt him, potentially even injure him severely, but you cannot ever hope to keep him down for long. No matter what you hit him with, he WILL get back up as if nothing happened.
  • The Omniscient: Not quite, but close enough.
  • Physical God: Within his realm, he's basically omnipotent. Outside of his realm, the amount of people who can reliably survive an encounter with him is in the very low double digits.
  • Reality Warper: Can travel between dimensions and bend them to its will.
  • Sympathetic Magic: He once made a voodoo doll of Earth. Disaster ensued. What's worse is that it didn't even require any effort; it conjured it out of nowhere purely to mess with Strange. (This backfired when Strange used it to kill him).
  • Tentacled Terror: Shuma-Gorath can best be described as a creepy pile of green tentacles with a giant eye in the middle. He is overall very unpleasant to deal with to say the least, not to mention extremely dangerous.
  • Time Abyss: Shuma-Gorath is not only one of the oldest creatures in the multiverse; it is one of the first. It probably started out as some kind of magical, invincible bacteria from a completely alien reality, and slowly grew in size and power over the course of trillions of years at least, until the present where it is currently one of the most powerful forces of evil in all of existence. The other Multi-Angled ones are the same.
  • Vampiric Draining: The time traveler Sise-neg found Shuma-Gorath feeding on the fear of early primates and noted it was passively draining energy from him even as he subdued it. So he banished it before it could possibly do something unexpected. Shuma was also able to drain the Human Torch and Invisible Woman somehow, suggesting it can derive energy from multiple sources.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?: The Many-Angled ones eliminate death as part of their standard stratagem when they take over a universe; the end result is a universe of nightmarish horrors as life grows out of control.

    Slorioth 

Slorioth

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/slorioth_earth_616_from_defenders_strange_heroes_vol_1_1_001.jpg

Species: Great Old One

First Appearance: Secret Defenders #22 (October, 1994)

A powerful mystic entity able to disrupt temporal continuity.


  • Combat Tentacles: His body has a lot of tentacles that can absorb the life-force of living beings, including that of Silver Surfer.
  • Deal with the Devil: In an attempt to save a dying Jillian Woods, Anthony Druid bargained with Slorioth to save her in exchange of his soul. In time, this bargain would allow Slorioth to take Druid as his vassal and free him, so that he may walk the earth again. The Druid was tricked/manipulated by Slorioth into releasing him from his mystical prison.
  • Eldritch Abomination: As it is expected from a member of the Many-Angled Ones, he's a nigh-unstoppable entity that can affect all reality.
  • Godzilla Threshold: Since the Defenders couldn't even scratch it and the Vishanti refused to intervene, they instead summoned the Living Tribunal, who banished Slorioth.
  • Person of Mass Destruction: Its sheer presence is enough to threaten even Eternity.
  • Reality Warper: Its rise from the Earth resulted in sub-harmonic tremors throughout the Earth, the minds of all being disturbed at the subconscious level, and the growth of extranormal activity throughout the United States.

Others

    D'Kay 

D'Kay

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/871903_legionofvengeancegrif2.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #116 (November, 1992)

A demon from the Pit who tried to destroy humanity.


    Kazann 

Kazann (Micah)

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2453263_kazann_a.jpg

Species: Fallen Angel

First Appearance: Ghost Rider Vol 5 #2 (December, 2005)

Former angel and now demon of Hell.


  • Divinely Appearing Demons: He still appears as an angel despite having fallen. His manifested physical form is fittingly far more demonic.
  • The Faceless: His face is always enveloped in light.
  • Fallen Angel: An angel that fell from Grace after rebelling against God.

    Skin Bender 

Skin Bender

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1046587_skin_bender_6.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: Ghost Rider (Vol. 6) #35 (May, 2009)

A Japanese demon Johnny Blaze encountered while in Japan. She has the ability to turn whatever she touches into anything.


  • Affectionate Parody: Of anime character designs, specifically Magical Girl series.
    • The works of Junji Ito as well. The story is littered with background references to Uzumaki and Gyo to name a few. As well, Skin Bender's powers allow her to basically create all of the Body Horror that his works are most famous for.
  • Body Horror: Her power. She is able to "bend" the flesh of others into anything she desires. Some examples include combining peoples bodies with those of fish, twisting people into spirals, and combining groups of people together into Cronenberg-esque masses of flesh. She herself also qualifies, with her giant translucent eyes, long spindly fingers, giant head, thigh-length hair, giant boobs, and elongated skeleton.
  • Buxom Beauty Standard: Parodied. Has huge boobs as a deconstruction of how anime girls would actually look.
  • Deconstructive Parody: She looks like a character from Sailor Moon if they really existed, with all of the stylized cartoony proportions kept in.
  • Fan Disservice: Has a rack to put even Emma Frost to shame with a cleavage to show it off, but the grotesque proportions on literally every other part of her body means it's anything but titillating.
  • Gag Lips: Close ups of her face make it look like she's had bad plastic surgery.
  • Grimmification: In appearance, at least, she is a grimmified version of Sailor Venus.
  • In Love with Your Carnage: Upon seeing the Ghost Rider, she instantly wants to jump his bones.
  • Nightmare Fetishist: Judging by her facial expressions throughout, there is most likely something sexual to her about her "skin bending". When she is unable to bend Johnny's flesh, she get's very upset, and the way she phrases it makes it sound like Johnny just turned her down for sex.
  • Not Quite Dead: After being incinerated to hell by Johnny, it's later revealed that she yet survives, albeit reduced to a smoldering chunk of flesh. The issue ends with her attacking a random victim in order to begin regenerating her old form.
  • Sailor Senshi Send-Up: She's a parody of Sailor Moon, showing how the body proportions would look in real life.
  • Too Kinky to Torture: Johnny burns her alive so she'll die slow and in agony. Her screams aren't the kind he was expecting.
  • Would Hurt a Child: She threatens to hurt a child if Johnny won't tell her who gave him his powers.

    Lilith 

Lilith

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/f16ff38ff5c03336244a6f0e761964f1.gif

Species: Annunaki Goddess

First Appearance: Ghost Rider Vol 3 #28 (August, 1992)

Lilith "Mother of Demons" is originally a goddess, dating back to Pre-Sumeria.


  • Atlantis: She hung around there long ago but was banished long before its sinking.
    • Summon Bigger Fish: This was accomplished by calling on Tiamat (or the Leviathan, depending on who's penciling the story) and having her (or it) eat Lilith.
  • Big Bad: She is what brought the Midnight Sons together.
  • Composite Character: The primary source seems to be the Akkadian Kisikillillake but she also draws from various Sumerian Lilitu and depictions of Lilith in Judo-Christian apocrypha, including not being the only one.
  • Deflector Shields: To the point she can cover the moon and isolate entire nations from the rest of the Earth!
  • Divide and Conquer: She hires the Night Stalkers, who would have been helpful in taking her down, to take down John Blaze and Danny Ketch.
  • Dream Weaver: She can projector herself into the dreams of other people at the very least. She's done it to Danny Ketch.
  • Eats Babies: A rumor used to get people to baptize their children, but considering the source, there was probably some truth in it-she's eaten her own babies to restore her vitality.
  • I Have Many Names: Kiskillilla is popular too but there are many to choose from.
  • Monster Progenitor: What she currently is, even though her kids, the Lilin, aren't identical; they usually get killed off before they get too abnormal or large in number.
  • Mother of a Thousand Young: She aims to be one anyway.
  • One-Steve Limit: Dracula's daughter has the same name and has encountered many of the same characters. There is rarely any confusion because the other Lilith is much more pleasant.
  • Red Baron: Mother of Demons.
  • Secondary Color Nemesis: Associated with the colors green and purple.
  • Statuesque Stunner: She stands at 6"/183cm tall.
  • Totally Not a Werewolf: She has pale skin and drinks like a vampire so some have mistaken her for one. She is also known for attempting seduce people in their dreams, which leads some to mistake her for a succubus. She's worse than both.
    • Our Vampires Are Different: She was also accused of being involved in the creation of the vampires belonging to Varne's line (more commonly known as Dracula's line).
  • Villainous Widow's Peak: You'll be forgiven for thinking she has horns at first glance.

    N'astirh 

N'astirh

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/2886293_ohotmu_a_to_z__2___page_39.jpg

Species: Demon

First Appearance: X-Factor #32 (September, 1988)

A demon lord of Limbo infected with a techno-organic virus.


  • Arch-Enemy: Usually can be found annoying Magik or Madelyne Pryor.
  • Big Red Devil: Alternates between this and a green complexion, Depending on the Artist.
  • Deal with the Devil: Made a few in his day with characters more enduring than himself. He granted Complete Immortality to Cameron Hodge, transformed Jason Macendale into the Demogoblin on a lark, and granted Madelyne Pryor a Traumatic Superpower Awakening that led her to become the Goblyn Queen. This last deal is N'astirh's most enduring legacy.
  • The Dragon: To Madelyne Pryor in her Goblyn Queen incarnation during Inferno (1988).
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Manipulated Madelyne Pryor into becoming the Goblyn Queen, only to find himself outmatched and forced to become her servant.
  • Fighting a Shadow: Storm supposedly killed him with a lightning bolt, but he showed up later alive and well, so he's probably got this going for him.
  • Magitek: Inverted, as he started with black magic but manipulated Wiz Kid into infecting him with the techno-organic virus, from which he acquired Technopath abilities.
  • Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A horse-faced cyberdemon that predates the larger and more well-known one from Doom.
  • Obviously Evil: No one is ever going to look at N'astirh and mistake him for a good guy.
  • Our Demons Are Different: He's not a traditional demon from Hell, but instead dwells in Limbo.
  • Smug Snake: He's not a half-bad schemer, but is always one-upped, be it by his Limbo rival S'ym, Magik, or even his would-be pawn Madelyne Pryor.

Alternative Title(s): Hellstrom, Hellstorm, Son Of Satan, Mephisto, Daimon Hellstrom, Satana

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