| “ | So long as I can appeal to man's basest instincts—to his greed, his envy, his hatreds and aggression, his fear and distrust of his fellow man. So long as man takes the law into his own hands, both in the streets and on 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! Thus, when I encounter a force for good, resolute and powerful...I have but one single goal: it must be destroyed! | „ |
| ~ Mephisto to the Silver Surfer. |
Mephisto, sometimes using the name Mephistopheles or even Satan (among many others), is one of the main antagonists of the Marvel Universe, specifically serving as the main antagonist of the Ghost Rider franchise and one of the overarching antagonists of the Spider-Man franchise.
He is a powerful demonic shape-shifting being and one of several such demons that feed off humanity's belief in The Devil so as to masquerade as Satan himself. In reality, however, Mephisto's origin seems to lie with the primordial Elder-Gods that ruled earth before being banished by Atum the God-Eater. The exact nature of this origin varies from story to story but tends to vary between the old gods becoming corrupt and the demons being formed by the already plentiful corruption found in the Elder-Gods. He is an enemy to countless heroes across the Marvel Universe, but most notably, the arch-nemesis of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider and Mayday Parker/Spider-Girl.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He hands out deals to corrupt people into giving him their souls so they'll suffer a torturous afterlife in his realm forever, using loopholes by playing off their exact words without really playing fair at all. Examples are:
- Curing Crash Simpson's cancer in exchange for Johnny Blaze selling his soul, only to have the former crash and die in a dangerous motorcycle stunt anyway.
- Offering to tip a bartender by making him "immortal," but only figuratively by draining all his blood and using it as ink since words do technically last forever.
- Taking Marlo Chandler's soul in her dreams with no possibly conceivable way of her knowing that it was real, and then nearly abducting her at her own wedding.
- Threatening to kill Ulik's brother Horth if he doesn't fight Thor to the death, only to cast said brother into the pits of death just to hurt Thor's spirit before the fight even starts. Worse still, some Asgardian villagers are revealed to have died from falling debris as a direct result of the fight.
- Giving Cynthia von Doom the power to take revenge on the baron who oppressed her family without allowing her the ability to control her powers, leading her to accidentally kill every child in her village. Mephisto then took Cynthia's soul after she died to torture her for all eternity, though her son Victor eventually freed her.
- In Born, he offered a deal to Frank Castle to give him an everlasting war after seeing Frank's bloodlust and brutality as a person. However, it comes with a price: the death of his loved ones. Although not directly involved in this, he is responsible for corrupting Frank's mind and turn him into the violence monster that he currently is.
- In Thanos Wins, he made a proposal to Frank Castle from Earth-TRN666 after learning about Castle's willingness to go to any lengths to avenge the destruction of Earth by Thanos, which consequently led Castle to become the Cosmic Ghost Rider.
- While that may sound "noble" in theory, as it essentially gave Frank the powers needed to punish Thanos, this ultimately served more to corrupt him and strip him of his humanity than to reflect any genuine honor or desire to assist him.
- Kidnapping and offering to free the Silver Surfer's girlfriend Shalla-Bal if he destroys the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, while also teleporting her there in an attempt to make him kill her too. Thankfully, the Surfer sees through the act just in the nick of time, and Shalla-Bal lives.
- Quite infamously, in One More Day, he manipulated Spider-Man to give up his marriage with Mary Jane Watson in order to save his aunt May, which stopped the existence of their daughter.
- Persuading Norman Osborn to give him the soul of his son Harry in exchange for fame and fortune. While Norman ended up better off than most of his clients, Norman ended up becoming mentally unstable to the point where he developed a split personality.
- He is a hideously abusive parent to his "son" Blackheart, who was created from centuries' worth of sin in the Christ's Crown for the sole purpose of being an evil monster like his father. To be specific, Blackheart's first story ends with his father crushing him (literally and repeatedly) before depowering him, and he even outright wishes death upon himself at one point in order to escape this torment. His next two stories end with said father actually eating him, regarding it as tough love.
- He actively encourages Thanos to wipe out half the universe by snapping his fingers with the Infinity Gauntlet in order to win Mistress Death’s heart, only to later betray him by trying to take the Gauntlet for himself.
- After Scarlet Witch creates two sons with a fragment of his soul, Mephisto eventually absorbs them back into himself and effectively kills them in front of her. Before being temporary, destroy them and set their souls free.
- The Avengers and Agatha decide to erase her memories of her kids because it's too painful. However, when she got her memory back, she went into deep depression, which led to Avengers Disassemble and House of M. Make him indirectly responsible for mutant genocide.
- Tricked Miles Morales into making a deal with him that allowed him to reverse time to save Vin and Kamala from death. While Miles successfully rescued both of them, he failed to save the life of a civilian that he was able to save in original timeline instead.
- He made a deal with Otto Octopus to resurrect him with the cause of forgetting Peter Parker memory and his own heroic deeds, and he will be in his original body instead of Peter's cloned body. Basically reverse him to his villainy.
- He personally targets all Spider-People because he hates the goodness in their hearts.
- Despite being a demon, nothing indicates he's Made of Evil since he makes up multiple stories about how he was born. Furthermore, Volume 3 of New Mutants shows him going on normal romantic dates with Magma, and he even enjoys himself during their relationship until she breaks up with him for not helping her during a crisis, at which point Mephisto became controlling and possessive and attempted to force Magma to get back together with him before being scared off by the Dísir.
- Overall, Mephisto is easily one of the most heinous villains in all of Marvel, if not number one. His long list of atrocities has had a huge, devastating impact on other universes even outside of Earth-616, and he has been committing them since literally the dawn of time. And, so long as there's evil in the world, he'll always come back from his "destruction" at the hands of other heroes.
External Links[]
- Mephisto on the Villains Wiki
- Mephisto on the Marvel Wiki
[]
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics (Earth-616) Other Earths Movies Television Video Games See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movies Television Novelizations Video Games Scripts See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movies Video Games See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Other Earths Films TV Series | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movies TV Series Video Games | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movies TV Series Video Games See Also | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movie | ||
 Pure Evils
| ||
|
Comics Movies TV Series Novelizations See Also | ||