Marvel Comicsintroduces dozens of new characters every year, as storytellers embrace and expand the growing lexicon of powers available within the Marvel Universe. But in just the past decade alone, creators like Al Ewing, Dan Slott, and Donny Cates have introduced multiple new heroes and villains who have completely redefined Marvel’s power scaling.
From eldritch gods to cosmic embodiments of concepts, to lone mortals destined for terrifying greatness, the days of men in metal suits are long gone. The ranks are filled with mighty characters, but these arethe most powerful Marvel characters introduced in the last decade.
15The One Above All & The One Below All
Debuted inFantastic Four #511by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo; Also Debuted inImmortal Hulk #4by Al Ewing and Joe Bennett
Marvel has a deep and complicated cosmology of eldritch gods and cosmic embodiments. However, no deity reigns higher than the One Above All and the One Below All. While the two beings operate somewhat independently, they are technically one god.The One Above All represents creation itself and, more specifically, the actual writers who create the comics. However, the opposite of creation is destruction.
When the One Above All first debuted, it took on the form of Jack Kirby!
The One Below All is the cosmic balance to the One Above All’s endless cycle of creation, embodying elements of chaos and collapse. Revealed in Al Ewing and Joe Bennet’sImmortal Hulkseries, the One Below All is the cosmic power source whose energy fuels gamma-beings like the Hulk and the Leader.
14The Lost One
Debuted inAll-Out Avengers #4by Derek Landy and Greg Land
Before the Marvel Multiverse existed a singular, cosmically aware universe, called the First Firmament or the First Cosmos. Within the First Cosmos, its creations, the Celestials, created their own sentient creation: Cal-Horra aka “The Lost One.” Imbued with the rawcosmic power of creation, gifted from the first hands made by the first universe,the Lost One is an unfathomably formidable beingwho holds the power to create and destroy as simply as a human being breathes.
Marvel has recently introduced many of its heroes to levels of power beyond mortal comprehension, but this cosmic pseudo-villain is part of the catalyst that has slowly bridged the gap between the mortal heroes and the primordial powers behind existence itself. Amid the Avengers’ war with the Beyonders, the Lost One devastated the heroes’ sense of reality aftersimultaneously obliterating every major cosmic entity across all realities, including the likes of Eternity and Infinity. Fortunately for the Avengers and the multiverse, the Lost One’s only true enemy is its own creations, the Beyonders.
13Enigma
Fully Debuted inRise of Powers of X #1by Kieron Gillen and R.B. Silva
Enigma is the ultimate embodiment of the evolution of intellectual organic life. Long before the pseudo-god’s birth, it was once the machine-hating mad scientist Nathaniel Essex. Essex is a human supremacist who has spent his entire life, and near-infinite lives after,building a master plan to create a cosmic being that would supposedly control the fate of humanityand protect the species from a future of machine domination.
Comprised of Essex’s four clone selves, Mister Sinister, Doctor Stasis, Mother Righteous, and Orbis Stellaris, Enigma is the combination of these four versions of Nathaniel Essex who dedicated themselves to one form of intellectual mastery each; Mutant DNA, Superhuman Science, Magical Mastery, and Spacefaring Domination. At the height of its power,Enigma’s metaphysical crowncould be seen across the previous iterations of the Multiverse.
12Knull
Fully Debuted inVenom #3by Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman
The eldritch god of the Multiverse’s primordial void and the father of all symbiotes, Knull, akathe King in Black, is the ultimate embodiment of decay and destruction. Like Galactus, Knull existed in Marvel’s previous Cosmos, but had been reborn alongside the Cosmos into a multiversal-level deity. As the god of the Abyss, Knull’s only goal is to see theMultiverse cast back into the infinite voidand to have the light of the Celestials snuffed out for good.
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Of course, Knull is most well-known for having created the symbiote species that Venom and Carnage both belong to. Through the symbiotes, Knull has immediate access to any place and time across the multiverse where one of his creations exists. Due to this,the Klyntar Demiurgepossesses cosmic-level awareness and, ironically, the ability to create and manipulate life at will.
11Moridun/Omnimax
Debuted inNew Avengers #2by Al Ewing and Gerardo Sandoval
The first Sorcerer Supreme and the first Devourer of Worlds, Moridun originally existed in the Fifth Cosmos before surviving the death of his multiverse and being subsequently reborn into each following one. During his reign as the Sorcerer Supreme of the Fifth Cosmos, Moridun was essentiallythe mortal embodiment of the Multiverse’s first primordial magic.When the cosmic cycle came to end the Fifth Cosmos and give birth to the Sixth, Moridun survived the change and was reborn as Omnimax, the Devourer of Worlds.
Like Galactus, originally a resident of the Sixth Cosmos, Omnimax wandered the Cosmos, endlessly trying to satiate his infinite hunger. Currently, Moridun resides withinthe current Eighth Cosmosafter the Maker pulled the spirit of his original form into the modern time. Now reveling in the potency of magic that has developed since his first reality, Moridun keeps an obsessively close eye on the Scarlet Witch and Wiccan to hopefully possess and consume theirimmeasurable magical powers.
10Maystorm
Debuted inUltimate Universe #1by Peach Momoko
Mei Igarashi is a mutant and a resident of the new Ultimate Marvel Universe. Only having recently developed her mutant abilities, Maystorm’s powers are nearly identical to those of Ororo Munroe’s, the mutant hero known as Wind-Rider in her reality. Capable of controlling the weather at will, Mei hasalready demonstrated a quick grasp of her powers.
While she is still young and undertrained, as with most of Earth-1610’s new surge of heroes, if Mei possesses even an inkling of power to that of Earth-616’s Storm, then she will surely become a force to be reckoned with for the Maker or any other ofUltimate Marvel’s twisted villains. The young mutant has already been called into a battle of cosmic proportions to assist the Phoenix’s astral battle against Enigma. She may be untrained, butshe is brimming with the powers of a goddess.
9Griever at the End of All Things
Debuted inFantastic Four #2by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli
A recently developed cosmic devil, the Griever at the End of All Things is the ultimate embodiment of entropy and decay and serves as the destructive counterpart to the Queen of Nevers, the physical embodiment of the Fourth Cosmos. As opposed to the Queen of Nevers’dominion over infinite possibility, the Griever represents asingular end. While she is certainly portrayed as a villain, theGriever is more of an inevitability.
When the Eighth Cosmos eventually falls and the Ninth is next to be born, the Griever will be there towatch reality die and to grieve every being and story that was and no longer can be.In addition to her own powers, the Griever controls a horde of endlessly hungry cosmic demons called Endlings, a counterbalance to the Queen of Nevers’ nexus beings. Much like Eternity, the Living Tribunal, or Death, the Griever is an “abstract entity,” meaning that she can never truly die because she doesn’t possess any tangible physical form, insteadexisting as a living concept.
8Meridius
Fully Debuted inVenom #1by Al Ewing, Ram V, & Bryan Hitch
Meridius is a temporal eventuality and the inevitablefuture form of Eddie Brockbefore transcending into the Eventuality. Fearful of losing his sense of self to become the Eventuality, Meridiusmaliciously broke free from his destined timelineto stake his claim as an independent entity and the ultimate King in Black. Like Knull, Meridius has near-perfect control over every symbiote across space, time, and the multiverse.
However, Meridius’s understanding of theinfinite multiversal nature of his powerfar transcends anything Knull had been capable of before. Thedefiant King in Blackexcels at understanding time and the enigmatic nature of the multiverse, easily traversing the two as a mortal can walk forward and back on the ground. What makes this temporal offshoot of Eddie Brock truly dangerous ishis manipulative and vindictive personality; he holds a grudge against almost everybody and is willing to do whatever is needed to break free from his destiny.
7Anti-All and the Lifebringer One
Debuted inDefenders #4by Al Ewing and Javier Rodríguez
The Lifebringer One and the Anti-All are simple cosmic entities that were created within the Third Cosmos, which introduced the concept of “narrative” to existence. The Lifebringer One is the embodiment oflife, order, and creation, whereas its cosmic counterpart embodiesnon-existence, chaos, and destruction. While the pair’s conceptual primordial forms “died” alongside the Third Cosmos, their essences have been reborn within each subsequent Multiverse that has followed.
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Currently, the Anti-All is now the power behind the Kings in Black and the infinite cosmic void they draw power from. Concurrently, writer Al Ewing has teased that the Lifebringer One may exist as the cosmic wellspringthat empowers the Sentry. As with many of the Multiverse’s cosmic entities,the Anti-All and the Lifebringer One will always remainin some capacity throughout each iteration of the Multiverse.
6Neith
Debuted inEdge of the Spider-Verse #2by Dan Slott and Paco Medina
Before genetically engineered spiders turn fifteen-year-olds into superheroes,there was the Spider-Verse. Before the multiversal organization that gathers those infinite variants of spider-themed people, there was the Web of Destiny. Before the Great Web which ties all of those instances and lives together, there exists Neith.
Neith is the Goddess of Spiders, the creator of the Great Web, and the mother of the Multiverse’s Spider-Totems. Neith was charged with organizing the eventuality of the multiverse, carefully building the web that connects all possibilities to a defined form of reality. Despite her divine brilliance,Neith is also a childwhose negligence in maintaining her creation led to the multipleSpider-Verse eventsthat almost sawthe destruction of the Multiverseitself.
