While Thanos brought the entire Marvel Universe to its knees more than once, Mephisto has overtaken him as Marvel’s most dangerous villain.
WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Amazing Spider-Man #74, available now from Marvel Comics.
For as long as the Marvel Universe has existed, it’s been a target for some incredibly powerful villains. Over the years, menacing figures like Ultron, Thanos and Kang have all at some point risen from relatively humble beginnings to the greatest threats in the entire universe.
But as of Amazing Spider-Man #74 by Nick Spencer, Christos Gage, Marcelo Ferreira, Mark Bagley, Ze Carlos, Dio Neves, Carlos Gomez, Ivan Fiorelli and Humberto Ramos, Mephisto has stepped up to officially take over the role of Marvel’s biggest villain.
It’s no secret that Spider-Man’s life has been a living Hell for the past few months. Between his greatest villains amassing together to try and end his life and the demonic Kindred who has been corralling them all his way, Parker’s life has rarely been worse. Doctor Strange, however, knows how bad things truly are, especially considering he is watching it all unfold alongside the one who put these events in motion. Mephisto has been orchestrating this vast conspiracy against the wall-crawler, and he happily opens up about why he has taken such a keen interest in Spider-Man in recent years, cementing his place as Spider-Man’s most dangerous threat.
As Mephisto puts it, he’s become obsessed with ruining Peter Parker’s life because he’s had a vision of Spider-Man and Spider-Man and Mary Jane’s daughter being the cause for his ultimate defeat in the future. This is why Mephisto has spent so much time targeting Peter Parker and his loved ones throughout Spider-Man’s superhero career, far beyond the marriage-erasing deal he made with Peter during “One More Day.”
The wall-crawler is far from the first hero to find themselves under Mephisto’s ire. Since he debuted in Stan Lee and John Buscema’s Silver Surfer #3, Mephisto has made dedicated plays for power by targeting the Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider and even Doctor Strange in some of Marvel’s most memorable battles.
Beyond asserting himself as Spider-Man’s ultimate villain, Mephisto has also revealed himself to be the Avengers’ ultimate threat too. While the events of 2021’s Heroes Reborn, by Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness, saw Earth’s Mightiest Heroes rise up to reset reality after it had been remade in Mephisto’s own image, the same creative duo’s Avengers #38 made it perfectly clear how deep the villain’s hatred of the Avengers truly runs. From the earliest Avengers of the prehistoric era to the modern-day team’s earliest adventures, Mephisto was behind nearly every major event that happened in their lives, and each and every one of them was nothing more than a bid to clear the field of his greatest enemies.
All of this adds up to Mephisto easily staking a claim to being the biggest active threat in the Marvel Universe. And with an army of himself available in the form of the Council of Red, there might not be any way to stop him. And since Mephisto has a good idea of how Marvel’s heroes will ultimately triumph over him, he knows exactly where to strike to hurt them the most.
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