Shuma-Gorath

Shuma-Gorath is a Great Old One in the expanded Cthulhu Mythos. It was first mentioned in a short story by Robert E. Howard from the 1920s (exact date unknown) called "The Curse of the Golden Skull", in which the "iron-bound books of Shuma Gorath" are briefly mentioned in a single sentence.
It is a character which has been fully developed by Marvel Comics into a cosmic threat. The first appearance of Shuma-Gorath as the primary antagonist was in a story arc within Marvel Premiere issues #3–14 involving the superhero Doctor Strange, and it was in issue #10 when he makes his first physical appearance in print.
Since then he has appeared in other Marvel comics and during his incursions into Earth (of the Prime Reality), his manifestations have battled Dr. Strange, the Avengers, Fantastic Four, the Invaders, and the Salem Seven. His minions have battled various heroes and teams, including the X-Men. Shuma-Gorath has also appeared in Marvel properties in both video games (Capcom and Zen Studios) and roleplaying games (TSR).
==History==
Shuma-Gorath is a member of the Great Old Ones (also known as the Many-Angled Ones), a race of malevolent cosmic entities that fed on the flesh and bones of mankind's ancestors. He is at least hundreds of millions of years old, having been on Earth at the time of the dinosaurs when he battled a rebellious Many-Angled One of great power whom he had created in the skies over the planet. He claims to be older than the universe itself, which would make him billions of years old. Shuma-Gorath once ruled over the Earth along with the other Old Ones before Sise-Neg (a time traveling sorcerer from the 31st Century) defeated him by putting him to sleep and banishing him into another dimension, after which he destroyed and recreated the universe.
Millions of years later, Shuma-Gorath was able to reestablish himself in the Prime Reality (Earth-616) but his manifestation was imprisoned in a mountain by the Cimmerian god Crom. The barbarian warrior, Conan would later battle a newly freed Shuma-Gorath who Crom would banish back to his home dimension. He would be summoned to Earth during the 20th century and early 21st century by sorcerers, an agent of Thanos, and a group of superhuman Nazis, though the heroes of Earth would successfully stop his incursion each time.
During the early 21st century, Shuma-Gorath and the rest of the Many-Angled Ones attempted the conquest of the prime reality via an invasion from one of the realities they had conquered, known as the Cancerverse. An invasion force of eldritch monsters, daemonic living bioships, sinister warships with giant skull faces on the bows, and Satanic-counterparts of Earth's heroes invaded the Prime Reality through a tear in the universe called the Fault between the Milky Way galaxy, the Andromeda galaxy, and the Shi'ar galaxy, which had been created in a recent war by the detonation of a weapon of mass destruction. The combined fleets of various interstellar powers (e.g. the million-world Shi'ar Empire), a number of cosmic super heroes, and an army of cosmic beings confronted the invaders. Despite this the defenders were losing but the Prime Reality were saved by Thanos and the Guardians of Galaxy who struck into the Cancerverse and crippled the invasion.
==Powers and Abilities==
In the Marvel multiverse, Shuma-Gorath is stated to be the greatest and most powerful of all the Great Old Ones. As the god of his realm, he is gigantic and omnipotent in his home dimension. When Doctor Strange first visited his dimension, he mistook him for a mountain. In his home dimension, Hell Lords like Mephisto and Sataanish are like "mice in a great temple".
Shuma-Gorath has conquered hundreds of realities and rules countless worlds. Like the other Many-Angled Ones, he exists simultaneously in many planes of existence. Mortals (e.g. humans) are incapable of seeing his true form and the manifestations they encounter contain a tiny sliver of his power, such as in Earth where his smallest essence has manifested. When one of his manifestations appears in the prime reality, it usually is in the form of a great cyclopean eye surrounded by various massive tentacles but he has manifested in at least one other form.
Shuma-Gorath is nothing but power, and his physical form is simply the shell containing that power. His aura-pressure alone would destroy multiple galaxies if it appeared in the prime reality. He cannot be destroyed and when it appears that he has been "killed", he always reforms although the timeframe varies. Shuma-Gorath can communicate with and control others across dimensional barriers, project mystical blasts of energy from his tentacles, generate his own mystical power, transmutate matter on a planetary scale, can draw any type of energy into itself and even manipulate reality. When he combines his tentacles, he can create a balls of energy that are powerful enough to destroy entire universes.
==Reception==
Due to the Japanese market, when Marvel licensed its property to Capcom for the development of video games, Capcom was adamant about using Shuma-Gorath despite Marvel's opposition. In Japanese culture, tentacled monsters are a very popular theme for both mainstream media and hentai. After Marvel agreed to let him be used in Capcom's fighting video games, Shuma-Gorath became a more popular and mainstream character.
==Gallery==
==Links and references==
===See Also===
*Great Old Ones
*Many-Angled Ones
*Shuma-Gorath's Ego Maze
===External Links===
Category:Great Old Ones
Category:Characters Originating From Lovecraft Circle Works
Category:Characters Originating From Mythos-Adjacent Works