Mephisto has big plans for the Marvel Universe, and none of them are good. From his grudge match with Hela to his multiversal ambitions, here are some of Mephisto’s most twisted plans!
Since his introduction in Stan Lee and John Buscema’s Silver Surfer (1968) #3, Mephisto has tangled with heroes such as the Avengers and the X-Men, repeatedly proving himself to be a major threat in the Marvel Universe.
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Due in no small part to his wild and often unpredictable machinations, Mephisto has nearly won on several occasions, where his schemes have turned the Marvel Universe on its head.
Mephisto absorbs the mind of the Silver Surfer
Mephisto’s debut in Silver Surfer (1968) #3 established him in a big way, showing just how far he will go to spread corruption and evil throughout the universe.
In that issue, a downed Silver Surfer, also known as Norrin Radd, brought human civilization to a standstill by disabling its technology because he had grown frustrated with its penchant for violence. This attracted the attention of Mephisto, who wanted humanity to remain hostile, as the corruption would lead to his eventual victory over them. Therefore, he set out to destroy the Surfer.
The first stage of Mephisto’s plan saw him grow closer to Shalla-Bal, Radd’s love of Zenn-La, before becoming Galactus’ Herald. Mephisto convinced her that he could reunite her with Radd and transported her to a spaceship near Earth.
When the army shot down the spaceship, Mephisto departed, leaving Surfer to find Shalla-Bal in the ruins. He healed her, but Mephisto quickly returned to take her to Hell.
Surfer went to Mephisto’s realm, where the demon tempted him with, among other things, a harem of women before forcing him to fight the demons.
When all his other plans failed, Mephisto reduced Surfer to a thought and then implanted him into his own brain, where he could (theoretically) bend him to his will, but the plan didn’t work.
Surfer’s sheer goodness helped him escape Mephisto’s mind and defeat him, though Radd was later separated from Shalla-Bal again.
Mephisto vs. Hela
In addition to his cunning, Mephisto is also aggressively mean-spirited, returning every slight against him in kind. Nowhere is this more apparent than in Mephisto VS. by Al Milgrom and John Buscema. (1987), which saw Mephisto enact one of his most ambitious plans to get revenge on Hela for stealing souls he believed belonged to him.
To start the plan, Mephisto took the Fantastic Four to Hell, where he lied to Sue Richards and claimed that Reed Richards got his intelligence through a deal with the devil.
Sue sacrificed herself to preserve Reed’s mind and return the Fantastic Four to Earth. Reed then contacted X-Factor for help, prompting Jean Gray to give up her soul to get Sue and her teammates out of Hell.
As the story progressed, Mephisto tricked Rogue into absorbing the souls of various X-Men and, with her in tow, headed off to steal Thor’s soul.
After a fight with the Avengers, Mephisto was unable to keep Thor’s soul, so he gave it up to the God of Thunder. However, in a conversation with the Living Tribunal, who were upset by Mephisto’s threats against the universe’s balance of power, the Prince of Lies revealed that he never intended to keep Thor’s soul.
Instead, he manipulated the soul of the God of Thunder in such a way that, when Thor dies and goes to the Asgardian afterlife, he will cause trouble for Hela.
Mephisto searches for the Infinity Gauntlet
In Jim Starlin, George Pérez, and Ron Lim’s Infinity Gauntlet (1991), Thanos assembled the Infinity Stones and became one of the deadliest threats the Marvel Universe has ever faced. Mephisto played a key role in that story, though, according to his character, the Prince of Lies eventually turns on the Mad Titan.
At the start of the series, Mephisto, who previously sought Death’s favor during Secret Wars II (1985), apparently swore to Thanos. Mephisto’s advice motivated Thanos to try to impress Death by first resurrecting Nebula and then taking half the universe from her.
However, it soon became clear that Mephisto did not have Thanos’ best interests in mind. During the Mad Titan’s battle with Earth’s heroes, Mephisto convinced Thanos to hold back and not just eliminate them outright by stating that Death would find him more impressive.
When Thanos succeeded against those heroes, the most powerful cosmic entities in the Marvel Universe burst onto the scene. During that battle, both Mephisto and Death turned on the Mad Titan, with the former attempting to steal the Infinity Gauntlet from him. Thanos killed them both in retaliation, and Mephisto ended up just a breath away from one of the most powerful weapons in creation.
Hell comes to Nevada
During Secret Empire (2017), Hydra destroyed Las Vegas, Nevada, killing thousands in the process. In response, Doctor Stephen Strange used his magic to bring those who died back to life. However, as Mephisto already had a claim on the souls of himself and the city itself, this created a massive conflict between the two, which was the subject of Doctor Strange: Damnation (2018) by Nick Spencer, Donny Cates and Rod Reis.
In Damnation, Mephisto built the Hotel Inferno, from which he ruled the city. With an established foothold on Earth, Mephisto soon began taking the souls of those who made even minor mistakes, leading him to possess several key heroes, including Hawkeye and Black Panther.
Doctor Strange tried to stop Mephisto with a letter. What was at stake was the soul of the Sorcerer Supreme versus Mephisto returning to Hell and relinquishing his claim to Las Vegas. Strange won by cheating, which Mephisto soon found out. He punished Strange by turning him into one of his minions.
To stop the catastrophe, Wong formed a new team of the Midnight Sons and used the group, which included Johnny Blaze’s Ghost Rider, to try to stop the Dark Lord. The Children of Midnight successfully defeated Mephisto, and Blaze ended up ruling Hell. Mephisto, for his part, was imprisoned in the Hotel Inferno for a while.
Plans in the Multiverse
After the death of Phil Coulson in Secret Empire (2017), Mephisto brought the SHIELD agent back to life. The Prince of Lies gave Coulson the Pandemonium Cube, which he later used to change history so that the Squadron Supreme would replace the Avengers as Earth’s premier superhero team. This led to Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness’s Heroes Reborn (2021) event.
The Avengers eventually beat Coulson, and Mephisto revealed that helping Coulson was actually part of a different plan. The demon empowered Coulson to show the Red Council, a group made up of various versions of Mephisto from across the Multiverse, the damage they could cause if they joined forces with him in one of his most evil plans.
The Red Council soon made a deal with Doom Supreme, an alternate version of Victor von Doom, to recruit versions of villains from across the Multiverse to form the Masters of Evil. This group has destroyed several Avengers teams over time and space, causing Avenger Prime to deploy Deathloks to try and stop them.
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Source: Marvel
The War of the Realms comes to SMASH and Marvel Comics Mexico
All kingdoms have fallen to Malekith and his army except one, Midgard, the home of the humans Thor loves so much, a place of heroes and gods too.
Unfortunately the dark elf allies have begun their invasion and now the Earth is on fire. New York falls into a deep state of chaos with the arrival of the conquering army. Thor finds himself trapped in the land of the frost giants and the Earth forces are overwhelmed. Faced with this situation, our heroes contemplate the defeat of Midgard.
SMASH and Marvel Comics Mexico bring you Thor: War of the Realms. An unmissable element from the authorship of Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman.
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