Villain Profile: Mephisto

We’ve seen a “good” demon, now it’s time to look at one that is pure evil. Evil comes in many forms, sometimes it’s loud and obvious, like when guys like Lex Luthor plot world domination. But sometimes, the purest, vilest evil comes quietly, with a smile, and the promise of giving you exactly what you want. And all he wants in exchange? YOUR SOUL!  Mwhahahahahahaha! Sorry, got a little too into that one. That aforementioned subtle evil is the kind that our next villain, Mephisto, excels at. Let’s get to it.

Who looks at this guy and thinks,
"Yeah, that's a trustworthy face?"

The arch-demon commonly called Mephisto is one of the oldest and most powerful beings of the Marvel Universe. He, and other demons, claims to be have been created when the “Supreme Being” of the Marvel Universe committed suicide. Said death of Marvel’s God apparently created many of the demonic forces of the Marvel Universe and the immensely powerful Infinity Gems. Now, considering the “primary” source of this background includes Mephisto, a guy whose titles include “The Prince of Lies,” I think we should be a little skeptical about the details. Never the less, Mephisto and his kin are all extremely powerful entities that seem to like corrupting the souls of Earthlings. Surely he can offer a Kree or a Skrull some sort of Faustian Bargain as easily as they can a human. Just saying. Mephisto rules a fiery dimension that he calls “Hades” or “Hell” depending on how he’s feeling. Don’t be fooled, Mephisto doesn’t rule the “real” Hell, he’s just likes #$%*ing with people. Mephisto is a master manipulator. Everything from his physical appearance to the look of his home dimension is designed to play on the fears and expectations of Judeo-Christians, more the Christian half than the Judeo half if we’re being honest. He loves using the idea of a pure supreme evil like Satan in his deals with mortals. It apparently gives him an edge when making promises he has no intention of keeping. Heck, Mephisto might not actually be his name. It’s a shortening of Mephistopheles, the satanic figure from the legend of Faust. To be fair, since the Marvel Universe is a realm of fiction, then the German legend of Faust could have actually occurred and Mephisto may have been the demon of that legend. Hey, if Batman can meet Sherlock Holmes, and Hercules can be a superhero, anything is possible. But I’m getting off task here. Focus. Mephisto’s realm is filled with lesser demons that sometimes serve him, and other times try to double-cross him, and all those poor unfortunate souls that made deals with him.

One of the firsts documented acts of evil that Mephisto committed was tied to Cynthia von Doom. The Latverian Romani sorcerous summoned the Arch-Demon in the hopes of getting the power to punish the local ruler of Latveria, the Baron. Mephisto gladly gave her the power to kill the Baron and his men, but left out an important side effect of the magic. Cynthia marched into the closest town and started killing the Baron’s men. She was horrified to learn that the magic she was using to kill the Baron’s men also killed one child in the village with each death. Cynthia renounced the power given to her, ran off into the woods, and then died in the arms of her husband. Despite Cynthia's attempt at redemption, Mephisto still collected her soul and added it to his collection in Hades. This created one of the most…interesting rivalries of the Marvel Universe. You see, after Cynthia’s son, Victor, gained magic power and learned of his mother’s fate, he swore to free his mother. Mephisto worked out a deal with Doom, he would get to challenge the demon once a year for his mother’s soul. Doom lost every time. Why does the Prince of Lies let Doom do this? The sick monster likes screwing with people. Duh.

He's got a deal for you.

Mephisto also has a history of stalking the Silver Surfer. The Surfer possess an incredibly noble soul, the kind that Mephisto loves corrupting and collecting. Mephisto came closest to capturing the cosmic warrior by kidnapping his girlfriend Shalla-Bal and keeping her in his dimension. Unfortunately for Mephisto’s plan, the Surfer was able to follow them into Mephisto’s dimension. Mephisto does what he does best, and tries to corrupt the Surfer by offering him wealth, women and power. The Surfer resists and forces Mephisto to back down. The demon relented, but made sure to separate the Surfer and Shalla-Bal by sending them back to Earth and their home world of Zenn-La respectively. The Surfer, at the time, was trapped on Earth by a barrier created by his former master Galactus.

His most famous, and long lasting hero/villain relationship is with the demonic Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze was a stunt cyclist who willingly souled his soul to Mephisto in order to save his stepfather, Crash Simpson, who was dying of cancer. Mephisto used his powers to heal Crash, but then later let the stunt man die in a stunt. He nearly took Blaze’s soul, but was forced back by Simpson’s daughter, Roxanne, who recited a banishment spell that she’d read in the very occult books that Johnny had used to summon Mephisto. The demon had his last laugh, though, by binding a fragment of a powerful demon named Zarathos to Johnny’s body. Zarathos had been a rival of Mephisto’s ages ago, but Mephisto had bound him around the time of Christ. Zarathos, being too powerful to be just used as a lackey, was broken into pieces. Mephisto amuses himself by forcing his former rival into human hosts, creating a human/demon bounty hunter known as the Ghost Rider. While Ghost Rider occassinally works for Mephisto, but more often does his best to ensure no one else is insured by Mephisto’s lies and tricks.

Basically, every major character of the Marvel Universe has had a run in with Mephisto at one time or another. Mephisto has a habit of appearing at just the right time, and offers just the right thing to make the heroes of the Marvel Universe forget that he’s the Prince of <bleeping> Lies. Here’s a short list. I mentioned his long standing grudges with Doctor Doom and the Silver Surfer. He magically altered the time line of Peter Parker and Mary Jane so that the two never married in exchange for healing Peter’s Aunt May. He’s battled the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange, on several occasions as he tries to claim souls. Mephisto was quiet furious when Doctors Doom and Strange teamed up and freed Cynthia Von Doom’s soul from his dimension. (Doom was the runner up for Sorcerer Supreme and his prize was getting one favor out of Strange, FYI.) He’s often crossed the Fantastic Four while trying to claim the soul of Reed and Sue Richards’ omni-powerful son, Franklin. After one such encounter with Franklin, Mephisto was broken into five fragments. Two of those fragments were used to create Scarlet Witch and the Vision’s twin sons. Mephisto reabsorbed these fragments, much to Scarlet Witch’s horror. She blasted the arch-demon with all her maternal fury and anguish, causing Mephisto to retreat. Hawkeye once traveled into Mephisto’s realm to save the soul of his late ex-wife Mockingbird. He once attempted to gain the soul of the uber-righteous Nightcrawler, by offering to resurrect Kurt’s dead adoptive brother Stephan. Thankfully everyone’s favorite demon-looking Catholic had the strength of character to banish the tempter.

And there was that one time that he helped me kill one of his uppity Lieutenants. Guy had me kill a bunch of folks that he’s made deals with in a bid to destroy Mephisto. Apparently invulnerability, shapeshifting, and surviving any environment wasn’t enough to match the big bad demon.

Very true Deadpool.

And the guy does have Hitler, Attila the Hun, and Blackbeard locked in his dimension. So he’s not all bad.

Is it really a ‘good deed’ if you consider that the atrocious acts these men did were because of Mephisto’s doing?

Hmm… Fair point.

So yeah, Mephisto is a pretty evil dude.

The effects guys clearly had no idea who Mephisto is. 

Mephisto is an immensely powerful entity. He’s able to manipulate memories, alter time, project illusions, shapeshift, and has created life in the form of several demonic minions. In his home dimension he can control every aspect of reality. Should he be severely damaged or destroyed, he’ll retreat to his home dimension and regenerate. Mephisto delights in collecting souls, particularly those of people that are particularly pure or righteous. He can’t make anyone accept his deals, but he can, and does, make them as tempting as possible. Mephisto is also a master manipulator. He knows exactly what buttons to push to get folks to accept his crooked deals. Just know that regardless of how tempting the offer is, no matter what he promises, Mephisto is the only one that wins in his deals.

Mephisto has appeared a handful of times outside the comics. As far as I know, he is never called by his “real name,” and only referred to by human aliases or simply The Devil. Which has always really bugged me, not going to lie. It just seems like an unnecessary simplification. Is it so much harder to call him Mephisto and then say, “He’s a demon so powerful that some folks think he’s The Devil,”? I think not.

He was one of two major antagonists in Ghost Rider. He was played by Peter Fonda. His origin remains more or less the same, making a crooked deal with a young and impressionable Johnny Blaze. Years later, he forces Blaze to work as his bounty hunter. His first job? Hunting down “the Contract of San Venganza,” a mystical contract that Mephisto had made years ago that took the souls of an entire town. A previous Ghost Rider had stolen the contract from Mephisto and hid it away. Mephisto is particularly desperate to get this contract, as his “son” Blackheart is also after it. Overall, the film is okay. Not great, but it’s still better than say, Daredevil (Movie) or Fantastic Four, either of them.

In Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, he’s portrayed by Ciaran Hinds. I have no idea if this movie is supposed to be a sequel or reboot, as Nicholas Cage is still Ghost Rider but virtually nothing else from the previous film is mentioned. This version of Mephisto is really reworked into more of a Christian Devil, as he’s more interested in possessing a child he’d had in order to take over the world. This movie really messed up the whole shtick of Mephisto’s, as the arch-demon has no desire to rule the world. He’s 100% okay with Humans ruling the world, as we’re pretty good at making the perfect conditions for miserable folks to stupid decisions. Like trusting the Prince of Lies. I know I’m harping on this one, but seriously, why would anyone trust a demon? So yeah, if you need or want to see a Ghost Rider movie, watch the original, not Spirit of Vengeance.

Mephisto is a pretty straightforward villain. Again, he’s a demon, and powerful enough to pose as the biblical Satan. I may have trouble buying why folks continue to offer their souls in exchange for his lies, but he does make for an excellent villain. His kind of power is definitely necessary to give guys like Galactus, Thor, and the Silver Surfer a run for their money. He’s the Prince of Lies, the Master of Manipulation, the King of the Contract, Mephisto. Next time, we get mysterious with Mysterio.

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