Mephistopheles

**Mephisto** is an extra-dimensional Demon who rules a fiery pocket dimension that he calls "Hell" or "Hades" although it is neither the Hell of the Christian religion nor the Hades ruled by Pluto, the Olympian god of the dead. Mephisto calls his extra-dimensional realm "hell" in order to exploit Earth human beings' belief in a single being of absolute evil, who is often referred to as Satan, who rules such a realm. Mephisto resembles the traditional visual conception of the devil. (It is not known whether this is Mephisto's true appearance, or one that he has adopted in order to resemble the devil). He also allows himself to be called names that human beings give to their conceptions of devils, such as Mephisto, a shortened form of **Mephistopheles**, the name given to the devil in the Faust legends and of a possible fallen angel.

Indeed, Mephisto has allowed people to believe him to be Satan himself, however, Mephisto is not Lucifer. Mephisto's domain is inhabited by himself, by lesser demons who serve him, and by the astral forms of certain deceased human beings, which have been trapped in the bodies of demons. These demonic bodies imprisoning human spirits have been magically altered to resemble the deceased's mortal human forms. Mephisto is continually seeking to add more spirits of sentient beings to his realm by inducing living sentient beings to submit their wills to his. Mephisto apparently seeks primarily to enslave human souls, although he will go after those of extraterrestrials on Earth as well.

## Mephistopheles

### Aliases

Mephisto, Satan, Old Scratch, Mr. Scratch, Beelzebub, Lucifer, Maya, Beelzebub, the Devil, Prince of Lies, Prince of Devils, Lord of the Lower Depths, Legion, Old Nick, Nick Scratch, Doctor Bultar, Friend, Muffy, Jack Scratch, the Adversary,[11] Great Corruptor,[11] Devourer of Souls,[11] Master of the Realm of Lost Souls,[11] His Satanic Majesty,[11] Evil Incarnate,[11] Lord of all that is Evil,[11] Master of Malice,[11] Securer of the Seven Sins,[11] Whisperer in Darkness,[11] Foul Pact Maker,[11] Dread Persuader,[11] Serpent,[11] Spirit of Universal Lies,[11] the Messenger,[11] Lord of Darkness,[11] Lord of the Lost Despair,[11] Lord of Hate and Evil,[11] Lord of Pain,[11] Lord of the Dark Underworld,[11] Lord of the Netherworld,[11] Lord of Depravity,[11] Lord of Evil,[11] Lord of Temptation,[11] Prince of Deceivers,[11] Prince of Darkness,[11] Prince of Liars,[11] Mister Fisto,[12] many others

### Affiliation

Himself, Hell Lords, Lords of the Splinter Realms, Council of Red; former member of the Six-Fingered Hand, Annihilation Wave; Thanos; countless others over centuries, Legion Accursed, Legion of the LostLeader of a number of agents, including Arimanes, bailiffs, Bitterhorn, Challenger, Dargil, Darklove, Spohrrinox, Donna, Gormac, the Haazareth Three, Hellfred, Herlequin, Hykos, Jerry, John Law, Legion Nagrite, Montgomery H. Price, the Rakasha, Sidney, Skritch, Sykos, Tabak, the Vril, Woody, Zarathos, Master of Asmodeus

## Biographical information

### Date of birth

During the existence of the first firmament, Reborn from the dark energy of the Elder God's deaths

### Date of death

During the existence of the first firmament

## Appearances

### Appears in

The Road to Amazing, Dracula and His Brides

## History

### Origin

* Mephisto's true origin has been lost to time, many stories claim to tell the true origin.

* The primordial entity known as Nemesis was born at the beginning of time and was alone in it's universe the First Cosmos. It used its great power to create life from its own form, but sadly the creations turned out to be evil becoming the first demons. Saddened by what it created and wiped them all out. Alone again the entity committed suicide and it's remains became the Infinity Stones. After its death, the demons were reborn, and one of the beings was Mephisto, but the power of the Stones was forbidden to these beings.

* Eons ago the Elder God Demogorge defeated the other members of his race ending their rule. The dark energy created from their death formed the first demons; these included; Thog, Satannish and Mephisto.

While Mephisto was still young in the form of a fly, he witnessed the Celestial known as the Progenitor succumbed to the Horde, with Mephisto taking this opportunity to lay his maggots

* According to Lilith, **Mephisto** - again in the form of a snake - tricked Eve and Adam into partaking of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge - ensuring their banishment from the Biblical Garden of Eden. Mephisto became increasingly obsessed with manipulating living humans into selling their souls to him, neglecting the teeming masses of damned souls already condemned to his realm.

### 1,000,000 BCE

Taking on the form of a snake, Mephisto appeared before a young man belonging to a tribe of mammoth-riding early humans, who had been slaughtered by a Wendigo. Mephisto offered the man the power to avenge his people in exchange for guessing his name, and bonded him to a Spirit of Vengeance to make him the first Ghost Rider.

Mephisto also attempted to corrupt Fan Fei, an exile from the city of K'un-Lun who possessed the power of the Iron Fist. Fan Fei rejected his suggestion that she use her power to conquer the world, and Mephisto vengefully assisted the Gorgilla Clan of Man-Apes in their war against Fan Fei and her followers, giving the Ape King the Power Stone.

When Iron Man was displaced a million years into the past, Mephisto attempted to manipulate him into making a deal - first by offering him gifts and then by sending the Ape King and other monsters to attack him. With Iron Man's armor running low on power, Mephisto - who had come into possession of the Time Stone - appeared before him in-person claiming to be Tony's real father. Tony refused Mephisto's offer and fought off the monsters the Hell Lord sent to pressure him into making a bargain, eventually returning to the present day.

In an attempt to defeat the Avengers, Mephisto convinced a young Thanos to attack them.

### 6th century

During the rule of King Arthur he granted refuge to the sorceress; Morgan Le Fay in his realm in exchange for a piece of the sword Excalibur. Doctor Doom travelled back in time to trade Iron Man for the sword fragment. Doctor Doom also took Le Fay with him keeping her trapped in a mystical cage. Mephisto amused himself by watching Stark try to escape his Hellish realm, battling his demonic hordes. He took the form of a armored Howard Stark in demonic armor. Iron Man was able to defeat him and used his powers to return to the present.

### 10th century

Mephisto convinced Apocalypse that the false gods who mocked him needed to perish, sending the mutant into conflict with that era's Avengers.

In the year 987 A.D., seven members of a druid cult made a deal with Mephisto in exchange for immortality; they had agreed to funnel souls into his realm. Over the subsequent millennium, the mages acquired great wealth and became the board members of a London-based corporation named Mys-Tech. To pay their debt to Mephisto, the Mys-Tech board plotted to take over the world and kill vast numbers of innocents.

### 17th century

In 1667, Mephisto related the tale of Lucifer's fall from Heaven to John Milton. He wrote this down in his epic poem "Paradise Lost".

### 18th century

Mephisto encountered the sea Captain; Joost van Straaten and corrupted his soul causing him to be consumed by greed. He sent his ship and crew into a storm killing them all. He claimed his soul and cursed him to sail the seven seas forever becoming the legendary "Flying Dutchman".

In 1775, Heinrich Faust made a demonic bargain with Mephisto, but because he used his gift for good he got out of the contract on a technicality. He later told his tale to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which inspired his play "Faust: The Tragedy".

### 19th century

At the end of the 19th century Dr. Jonas Ravencroft, founded the Ravencroft Institute. One of the workers building the facility claimed Mephisto told him to cave the foreman head in with a hammer.

### 20th century

During World War II, Nazi scientists created the Darkdoor, which was actually a portal to Mephisto's Realm. Before he could unlock the secrets, the Allies arrived, and the project was destroyed. One of the scientist; Thule escaped to the US and began to work for the government, hoping to continue his work there. Mephisto was able to trick the scientist to believe to door was a portal to the home of the Vril, an alien species that had originally inhabited Earth in centuries past. Mephisto manipulated Thule to sacrifice lives to open the door, which in fact were just his Demon servants.

### Modern Era

At some point, Mephisto peered into his own destiny and saw that one day he would manage to secure his ruthlessly vanquished kingdom on Earth, only to be defeated by Spider-Man or a mysterious female spider-totem that would be the afore mentioned totem's legacy. The demon believed this totem to be Spider-Man's child because of this, the devil was tormented with the possibility of his downfall and so began a long planning to ensure that this never happened.

Mephisto has made repeated unsuccessful attempts to break the will and enslave the soul of the noble alien known as the Silver Surfer. In order to do so, Mephisto kidnapped Shalla-Bal and used her to force the Surfer do his bidding and give up his soul. Taking her to his realm, Mephisto was shocked when the Surfer was able to follow him to his realm. Mephisto tried to tempt the Surfer with riches and women in an attempt to corrupt his soul. However, the Surfer was able to resist temptation. In a final attempt to try and corrupt the Surfer, Mephisto absorbed the Surfer into his mind. However, the opposite happened and Mephisto found out that the Surfer's purity was now influencing his mind. Releasing the Surfer, Mephisto admitted defeat, but not before sending Shalla-Bal back to Zenn-La and the Surfer back to Earth, where he is still trapped by the barrier erected by Galactus.

His next attempt was to use the wandering ghost of Joost van Straaten, the legendary Flying Dutchman. Mephisto used his powers to transform the ghost of Joost into the Ghost, a super-powerful entity to battle the Surfer. However, after the battle, the Ghost renounced Mephisto, who then began to banish the Ghost back to Limbo. However, the Surfer, truly understanding the torment of the Ghost's soul, sheds a single tear, which breaks the Ghost's curse freeing him from Mephisto's control and allows him to finally reach his eternal rest.

In his third attempt, Mephisto offered the Surfer what he wanted most: to be freed from the barrier created by Galactus. He agreed and travels to Zenn-La. However, Mephisto captured Shalla-Bal. Meanwhile, back on earth after a brief battle, Mephisto tells the Surfer that he would free Shalla-Bal if he destroyed S.H.I.E.L.D.. At the same time, Mephisto secretly replaces a secretary at S.H.I.E.L.D. with Shalla-Bal in the hopes that the Surfer will kill her along with the rest of the organization. However the Surfer refused to hurt anyone, so he sent her back to Zenn-La.

In the fourth attempt, Mephisto kidnapped Shalla-Bal once again, but when the Surfer comes to his realm to attack him, he transformed himself into energy and sends the energy orb out into space. The Surfer chases after it. However, he realizes he's once more trapped in the barrier that is around the Earth.

#### Thor

Thor, who was trapped in Loki's body, was banished to Mephisto's realm. But when Mephisto touched Thor's shoulder, he soon realized it was Thor. Sif and the Warriors Three went to Mephisto's realm, where they found him and Thor frozen in a chunk of ice. Thor used his selfsame powers to free his friends and then defeated Mephisto by radiating his inner goodness, causing the hell-lord to suffer extreme pain. Surrendering, Mephisto transported them all back to Asgard, where Odin condemns the heroes to Earth for daring to question him. Meanwhile, Tana Nile uses her control pack to disguise herself as an Earthling while accepting the fact that she and Silas Grant are marooned on Earth. Doctor Donald Blake discovers that his office has been closed in his absence due to a change in building ownership. Slowly but surely, the exiled and marooned are separated and all fall prey to Mephisto. He later battled him again went he is forced back to his realm. He used his demons to disguise as his friends taunt him. However he is able to see through the ruse and escape.

#### Doctor Doom

Cynthia von Doom faced constant persecution at the hands of the Baron and his men and, in an effort to punish them, she made a deal with Mephisto, promising him her soul. Cynthia walked into a village and started killing the Baron's men, but unbeknownst to her, the magic she was using also killed every child in the village, just as Mephisto had planned. Horrified over what she had done, she renounced the power, and was stabbed by a dying guardsman. She survived long enough to wander into the woods, where she died in the arms of her husband, making him promise to keep their son Victor from walking the same path as her. Upon her death, her soul was trapped in Mephisto's realm, where it was to be tortured for all eternity. Doctor Doom was allowed to summon and challenge Mephisto once a year and try to win back the soul of his deceased mother. After casting a spell to summon the Lord of Lies' presence in his castle, Doom battled the Devil's chosen champion: Kagrok the Killer. However, he lost every time to the prince of lies.

#### Ghost Rider

The human stunt cyclist Johnny Blaze once made a pact with Mephisto, whom he believed to be Satan, by exchanging his soul for Mephisto's saving his stepfather "Crash" Simpson from dying by cancer. However, Mephisto allowed Simpson to die instead from injuries he suffered in performing an unsuccessful motorcycle stunt. However, before Mephisto could take possession of Blaze's soul, Simpson's daughter Roxanne arrived and recited a spell of banishment she had read in one of Blaze's occult books. Mephisto was forced to flee without Blaze's soul, but not before he had grafted the essence of the demon Zarathos to Blaze's body. Roughly two thousand years ago, Mephisto had taken control of the living flame that was Zarathos' soul. Since Zarathos was too powerful to use as a mere lackey, Mephisto amused himself over the centuries by placing the essence of Zarathos in a human host. Mephisto employed him in that form to claim human souls. After Mephisto grafted Zarathos' essence onto Blaze, Zarathos would continually take control of Blaze's body. The composite Zarathos/Blaze entity became known as Ghost Rider.

Mephisto made a deal with Jennifer Glatzer, a Satanist. She would get Linda Littletrees involved in Satanism under the pretense of harmless fun. However, she soon became a sacrifice that they offered to Satan, and Linda's soul was put in forfeit. He sent her after Ghost Rider, but when she failed, Mephisto forced her to turn her own Satanic power on herself in front of Blaze as both a punishment and a warning. In a desperate bid to save Roxanne, Blaze surrendered himself to the devil. He was, however, stopped by the Son of Satan. He next sent Roulette after them, and then tricked Roxanne into coming to hell to rescue her father, where he tried to use her again to gain Ghost Rider's soul, but failed.

#### Norman and Harry Osborn

When Norman Osborn was about to go bankrupt on account of his debts and would eventually have his company taken over by his partner, Mephisto approached him in the guise of an "acquisitions" investor and offered Norman a deal to make his financial life more successful in exchange for his the soul of his firstborn, Harry. Norman initially refused the deal, but after the devil explained to him that if he accepted he would not even remember their encounter, he agreed. With the deal closed, Mephisto made Norman's business life immensely successful both financially and in status, but made him relentless in the process - ultimately leading to his madness. Furthermore, as a result of this bargain, Harry would suffer numerous personal tragedies and eventually die.

#### Doctor Strange

Mephisto, disguised as Satan, used James Mandarin as a tool against Doctor Strange in order to lure him to hell. The Mandarin was returned to Earth after Strange defeated Mephisto and stole some mystical books from Strange's home, but was caught and Strange erased all memories he had of him being a sorcerer.

#### Hell-Lords

The Hell-Lords met in Hades where they decided to merge their respective realms, thus increasing their power, and to begin taking in new souls. They perform a ritual creating the nexus of the netherworlds. Unfortunately, this also summons the Demogorge, who begins consuming the Hell-Lords one by one.

#### Darkoth

Mephisto saved Darkoth from an explosion by transporting him to his realm. He then sent him against Thor.

#### The Beyonder

Mephisto sought to steal Beyonder's powers or to destroy him to win the favor of Death. To do this Mephisto sent an army of supervillains called the Legion Accursed to attack the Beyonder, who is saved by the Thing. After the Legion Accursed was defeated, Mephisto returned its members to where they were before he formed the team.

#### Master Pandemonium

Mephisto has sometimes been impersonated by lesser demons who imitate his form. Such demons are defeated far more easily than the virtually invincible Mephisto. Mephisto has also bound demons to actor Martin Preston, thus creating the entity called Master Pandemonium.

#### Franklin Richards

Doom kidnapped Franklin so that he could give Franklin's soul to Mephisto in exchange for the freedom of his mother's.

#### Mephisto Vs

At another time, Mephisto initiated a complex plot that in the end would cause Hela (the Asgardian death goddess) trouble in the far future. Hela had recently stolen some twentieth century souls that rightfully belonged to him. Knowing of Hela's curse against Thor, he wished to demonstrate to Thor the horrors of living on a plane of the dead. First of all, Mephisto transported the Fantastic Four and Franklin Richards physically to his plane. There he tricked Susan Richards into believing that he had made a deal with Reed Richards years earlier. Mephisto then apparently took away Reed's intelligence, making Reed a drooling idiot. Sue agreed to stay in Mephisto's realm if he returned Reed's intellect and returned the Fantastic Four and Franklin to Earth. A desperate Reed thought that the clue might mean the X-Factor team.

He contacted them and asked for their help. X-Factor agreed, and ultimately confronted Sue Richards, under Mephisto's control, and Mephisto, who appeared in a waterfront warehouse. Mephisto tried to get them to bargain with him, but Iceman refused and broke Mephisto's seductive spell. They attacked but he was able to use his illusion powers to confuse them. He then got Jean Grey to agree to sell her soul in return for the release of Sue Richards and X-Factor. The X-Men then tried to rescue Jean Grey, and Mephisto tricked Rogue into believing he was susceptible to her power to absorb other people's memories and powers.

Wishing to save the X-Men, she used her powers to absorb their personalities. Rogue then found out that Mephisto had been pretending that her powers could affect him. He then drained her soul, plus the personalities of all the X-Men she had absorbed. Mephisto then transported himself and Rogue to where the badly beaten Thor lay, after battling the Midgard Serpent. Hela arrived, claiming Thor's soul as her own. Mephisto somehow used Rogue's powers to release Thor's soul from his body, where he then captured Thor's soul and also sent Rogue back to the X-Men. Hela arranged for the Avengers to arrive to fight Mephisto while she tried to free Thor's soul. Mephisto was able to beat the Avengers while Hela was unable to free Thor's soul from Mephisto's mystic mylar. Mephisto tried to break Thor's soul, both with temptation and pain, but he was unable to. Realizing that such a soul on his plane would cause nothing but trouble, Mephisto returned Thor's soul to his body and conceded defeat to Hela. Mephisto then revealed to the Living Tribunal that his power weakening was nothing more than a sham, and that he never really had any claim over Thor's soul anyway. In fact, the whole plan had been to give Thor a small taste of what it was like on a plane of the dead. When Thor's soul finally arrived on Hela's plane, Thor would be more determined than ever to cause Hela as much trouble as possible.

#### Mishna

Mishna, a poor Landlak, seeked to bargain her soul with Mephisto in exchange for immortality in order to provide for her family forever. She crossed paths with Silver Surfer, and after a small talk, Mishna changed her mind and refused to deal with Mephisto.

#### Mephista

Mephisto had a daughter Mephista with an unidentified human mother. She has battled Doctor Strange on a number of occasions.