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Quote1 Fall like cosmic leaves, here at reality's end -- old gods of Zenn-La! Quote2
Chaos King[src]

Amatsu-Mikaboshi (天津甕星) is the God of Evil, Chaos and the Stars to the followers of the Shinto religion in Japan. He is not actually an Amatsu-Kami but a primordial being who was imprisoned in Yomi, the Shinto underworld, for all eternity.[9]

History

Origin[]

The entity known as Amatsu-Mikaboshi originated as an aspect of Oblivion, the cosmic entity embodying the void that existed before the universe began.[8][5] An incarnation of the primordial darkness and chaos that existed before the universe, the Chaos King exists as a dark counterpart to Eternity,[10] whose genesis stripped the Chaos King of much of its power and led to it being integrated into the Shinto cosmology as "Amatsu-Mikaboshi".[11]

According to Shinto cosmology, Amatsu-Mikaboshi ruled over the Earth when it was nothing more than a formless void of primordial darkness, until the elder god known as Gaea - in the form of Izanami - and a young Amatsu-Kami called Izanagi created the islands of Japan from the Void using the divine Jeweled Spear, enraging the dark god.[12] The dark entity declared war on Izanami, Izanagi, and their divine children the Amatsu-Kami - who later came to be worshipped as gods by the humans of Japan; but was ultimately imprisoned in the the netherworld of Yomi, where he remained for centuries - accruing an army of Oni, Shinma demons, and other monsters.[9]

Warriors Three[]

The Warriors Three were put on trial for accidentally killing a giant who had shape-shifted into an aquatic beast. As punishment they were sentenced to retrieve several difficult items from various pantheons and return them to the father of the dead giant. This included the sword Grasscutter from Yomi guarded by Mikaboshi.[13]

Ares Vol 1 4 Textless

"Amatsu-Mikaboshi"

Creation of the Ebon Samurai[]

When Japanese police officer Kioshi Keishicho was killed by the Silver Samurai and ended up in Yomi, Mikaboshi approached him and offered to resurrect Kioshi so he could seek revenge. When Kioshi accepted, Mikaboshi bonded him to a shinma demon that manifested as a black suit of samurai armor and a katana capable of cutting through almost anything.[14][15]

Ares: God of War[]

Taking advantage of the chaos left by the fall of Asgard and the Norse pantheon, Mikaboshi planned to extend his influence by capturing Olympus and crushing the Olympian gods. With the Olympians defeated, Mikaboshi hoped to compel all the other pantheons into surrendering. To this end, Mikaboshi laid siege to Olympus, which was very close to succeeding. Ares, still bitter about the treatment he received from the other Olympians, refused to raise a finger to help them. Desperate for his aid and wishing to goad Ares into action, Zeus had Alexander kidnapped and brought to Olympus where he was placed under the care of Achilles and his Myrmidons.[16]

With Mikaboshi in utter control of the battle, Hermes went to Earth to fetch an enraged Ares in an attempt to get him to speak with Zeus, but Ares' only concern was his son. Relenting, Hermes transported them both to Achilles' stronghold where they kept Alexander, only to find the fortress destroyed and Alexander missing.

While Achilles was away, Mikaboshi's forces managed to destroy the Myrmidon fortress and steal Alexander away to his own stronghold in the eastern lands. Mikaboshi slowly began to warp Alexander's mind in an attempt to turn him against his father by revealing the brutal history and patricides committed by the Greek gods. Mikaboshi hoped to turn Alex into the new god of war, one that could be used against the Greek gods and, more importantly, Ares himself.[17]

Finding out his son was in the hands of Olympus' enemies, a furious Ares begrudgingly agreed to join in the fighting, but only to rescue his son. During the battle, Zeus was on the brink of death and used his remaining power to break the hold Mikaboshi had over Alexander. Alexander used the Grasscutter sword against Mikaboshi and ended the battle.[4] Mikaboshi was then returned to the Japanese land of the dead defeated.

Secret Invasion[]

Athena of the Olympian Pantheon called a meeting of the Pantheons in San Francisco to assemble a team of Gods from Earth, known as the "God Squad". Mikaboshi was chosen by the pantheons of the east along with Hercules, Snowbird, Tecumotzin, and Atum, the God Eater to battle and defeat the Skrull Gods Kly'Bn and Sl'gur't. In route to Skrull space through the dream realm, they battled Nightmare. Mikaboshi was key in winning the battle by being able to make duplicates of himself.[7]

Upon arriving in Skrull space, the God Squad had to battle their way through conquered pantheons of gods on the way to Kly'Bn and Sl'Gurt’s thrones. Mikaboshi attacked Sl'gur't after she destroyed Atum, and both took shape of the same creatures during battle, eventually taking the form of each other. Mikaboshi killed Sl'gur't before being left by Hercules, Snowbird, and Amadeus Cho who thought Mikaboshi was killed, thus leaving Mikaboshi to take command of the conquered pantheons.[18]

Chaos War[]

Athena had been preparing herself for many years in order to fight the great struggle against the primordial darkness, Mikaboshi, who would soon descend upon the world, telling Amadeus Cho that Hercules' strength would be useless, but Cho's genius might bring them victory.[19] Later, Hera had vision of Mikaboshi slaying the Shi'ar Gods, Sharra and K'ythri.[20]

Amatsu-Mikaboshi (Earth-616) from Heroic Age Prince of Power Vol 1 4 0001

Amatsu-Mikaboshi

Amatsu-Mikaboshi amassed a great army of enslaved deities, though a small number of them had willingly joined him as seen with Glory.[21] They soon attacked the Old Gods of Zenn-La, who were awaiting his attack. Thrann, the Saint of Science, had told his fellow Zenn-Lavian gods that the First Mover, who gave the Universe "orbit, organization, and order" from a void of chaos and nothingness, extrapolated the coming of the Nil Star as the herald of the End Times eons ago. Mikaboshi eventually invaded their Cosmic Plane and easily destroyed them, enslaving them to further bolster his forces. After that he began approaching Earth, while killing Impossible Man in the process.[6] He then destroyed Nightmare and claimed his powers, thus disabling most of Earth's mortal heroes by trapping them in their sleep.[5]

Hercules tried to summon Eternity so he could fight the threat, but the being refused since fighting Mikaboshi would just be him fighting himself, as Mikaboshi is the void against which he is defined; however, he assured the heroes that they would be able to defeat him. Satan and his son Daimon tried to defend Hell, but they also fall as Mikaboshi devoured the ruler and destroyed the Underworld, causing Death to flee the universe. This allowed Mikaboshi to take control of an army of dead beings.[10]

After enslaving the Olympians, he used them against the reformed God Squad, even taking down Galactus through Zeus. After Hercules was tricked into piercing the shields which concealed hidden Throne Room of the Council Elite's Celestial Axis, Mikaboshi and his army erupted from Zeus' chest launching a devastating assault on the divine realms of all of Earth's pantheons and destroying most of the gods, even the various Godheads themselves.[22]

The Amatsu-Kami tried to confront Mikaboshi, with Amaterasu trying to defeat him as she did in the past, but they were no match as he enslaved them and used them to fight against the God Squad.[23] Amatsu-Mikaboshi also went after the Inua, causing great fear in the Great Beasts who felt they would be next.[24] He also gained new allies in Nekra, Grim Reaper,[25] Miek,[3] and Abomination, the latter fighting Doctor Strange. Mikaboshi attacked Strange from behind, awakening Zom within him, and ordered the being to go after Marlo Chandler since she held a connection to Death.[26] He then unleashed Carrion Crow on the revived members of the X-Men, in order to get one of Destiny's diaries which could hold the key to defeat Mikaboshi.[27]

Amatsu-Mikaboshi (Earth-616) from Chaos War Vol 1 5 001

The Chaos King's true form.

Eventually, Mikaboshi relished the slow death of his oldest enemy, Gaea, who herself was the fountainhead of creation and the one who birthed the Gods. When the God Squad went to an island in order for the universe to be recreated, Mikaboshi sent Athena to attack her brother who had recently achieved godhood, but was defeated.[3]

Hercules and the other heroes took the fight to Mikaboshi, but the being began consuming all reality into nothingness. However unbeknownst to him, during the battle Hercules punched him into the Continuum, an infinite pocket dimension that Amadeus and Galactus had created to originally be a safe place where to evacuate Earth, but was turned into Mikaboshi's eternal prison. Thinking he was still winning, Mikaboshi continued devouring everything in his path, completely unaware he had been sealed away from the main reality. Hercules later sacrificed his godhood in order to undo the damage caused by Mikaboshi and restore all of reality.[11]

Attributes

Power Grid[31]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Virtually Indestructible:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Supersonic:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Powers

While often mistakenly assumed to be one of the Amatsu-Kami, Mikaboshi is an entity of living darkness manifested from the primordial abyss.[5] Mikaboshi is more akin to a force of nature than a physical being, and having existed as a dark, primordial void that once dominated Earth (and before even that, the Marvel Universe, and before even this, the realities predating the Marvel Universe itself) in its earliest days, Mikaboshi's true form is elusive. Mikaboshi was able to gather enough power to shed his "Terran form" and emerge as the Chaos King, the primal embodiment of nothingness and primordial chaos that served as a natural opposing power to both Eternity and Death, and a threat to the entire Marvel Multiverse, and all its powered mortals, living or dead, abstract conceptual beings, cosmic entities and lesser divinities.

Nigh-Omnipotence: Mikaboshi possesses vast supernatural power, which is apparently inherent within him. He has employed powers of flight,teleportation, the projection of mystical energy as force blasts, invisibility, matter manipulation, image projection and the creation of inter-dimensional nexus points among other feats. His power is of such extent that he can control numerous minor demons, as well as animating and manipulating corpses en masse at will; moreover, even the Kami themselves appear wary and fearful of Mikaboshi whom they consider their primal foe, especially as he himself has slaughtered much of their pantheon. Mikaboshi was able to slay even formidable alien deities having destroyed the Demogorge (an entity who devoured the Elder Gods themselves) with relatively little effort, as well as crippling and slaying Skyfathers such as Zeus by tearing out his heart in seconds.[4]

  • Dark Magic: Mikaboshi has high ability to wield some form of potent Japanese dark magic, a brand of sorcery that seems especially effective against the Olympian deities. He can use this mystical energy for a variety of effects, among which are his ability to alter his form and shape; he also often takes on a female form to appear harmless.
    • Shadow Copies: Mikaboshi can create “shadow copies" capable of avoiding detection by high-level dark magical entities such as Nightmare in the latter's own realm.
    • Shapeshifting: Mikaboshi apparently exists as a single golden eye characterized by a slit-like iris. The eye is surrounded by an amorphous mass of dark energy, which Mikaboshi can form into tangible objects of virtually any form he can imagine, such as whip-like tentacles or a humanoid body. He can reshape his limbs into razor-sharp blades, and assume the form of a fire-breathing serpent, which Apollo's fire was unable to affect and which was able to retaliate with a blast of fire powerful enough to harm and strike down even the Olympian sun deity. He can also assume a comet-like appearance (with his eye serving as the comet's nucleus) and propel himself at incredible speeds.[28]
  • Lord of Death: As a the conqueror of Yomi, Japanese underworld of the Kami, Mikaboshi also has several powers enabling him to capture and detain the astral bodies (sheaths of the soul) of recently deceased human beings; on at least one instance, Mikaboshi has been shown capable of releasing a deceased mortal soul back into the realm of the living. Mikaboshi does not have jurisdiction over all of humanity's deceased. It is not yet known what the prerequisite conditions are for him to manipulate a human soul, nor are the precise means by which he accomplishes the feat known. Apparently these conditions require that the human being in question willingly submit to Mikaboshi's will. It is not yet known how a human being may free himself from bondage to Mikaboshi. Nor is it revealed whether or not Mikaboshi "feeds" on the psychic energies as other demons do. His army contains many netherworld denizens, mostly Shinma and Oni.[9]
    • Killing Resurrection: Mikaboshi is able to seize control over other beings by killing them & bring them back to life. He’s taken control thousands of alien deities of the Skrulls, and using them to tear through worlds and realities to eliminate the gods of countless other extraterrestrial civilizations, such as the gods of the Shi'ar and the gods of Zenn-La.
  • Power Copying: After killing Nightmare, he absorbed his powers, and the gods stated that everything he destroyed became a part of him[citation needed]. After killing Athena, he absorbed her wisdom and used it to destroy the multiverse[citation needed].
  • Superhuman Strength: Mikaboshi’s physical strength, at least in his main incarnation, is considerably lesser to that of Zeus or Izanagi, and is roughly equal to that of the average Kami, being able to lift 20 tons.[28]
  • Immortality: Mikaboshi is immortal and his life-force can't be terminated by conventional means.[28]
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: While he can be wounded in battle Mikaboshi possesses incredible recuperative abilities and only an injury capable of dispersing a major portion of his body molecules could kill him.[28]

Abilities

Notes

  • Amatsu-Mikaboshi is not the entity's true name, merely the name he was given by the Japanese.[5][22]
  • Mikaboshi is based on the Mikaboshi of Japanese mythology and the god of the Japanese race known as the Yomi, and speaks only in haiku.
  • Mikaboshi is said by Fred Van Lente as "who some see as the Japanese god of evil, but he really is a being that represents the polar opposite of the core values in the Shinto religion."[29]
  • In Defenders (Vol. 6) #5, the Defenders travel back to the Third Cosmos and help destroy Anti-All, a primordial manifestation of nothingness, shattering it into countless fragments. Doctor Strange theorizes that the pieces of Anti-All's essence scattered across the Multiverse and that when the heroes fight against "the great Nothing" in their own times they're fighting back against Anti-All as well, implying that dark entities like the Chaos King were born out of Anti-All's fractured essence; how it relates to the statement that it's an offshoot of Oblivion is unknown.

Trivia

  • Amatsu-Mikaboshi seems to incorporate elements of the Cthulhu Mythos, especially from Nyarlathotep. Both were portrayed as omnipotent black beings, referred to as Chaos Kings.

See Also

Links and References

References

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