Magus
Magus is a powerful supervillain in Marvel Comics. He was a galactic tyrant and a god for a while and now exists in a ghostly form - he is the archenemy of Adam Warlock and his evil self from an alternate future.
History
For centuries, Warlock was bombarded with Chaos and Order's "dark secrets". Primarily, they taught him that there is no such thing as good and evil. Rather, the true struggle is between purpose. Warlock sought refuge from these "truths" in his cocoon, but they penetrated even there. Finally, Warlock gave in to these "truths", which resulted in him going insane.
Chaos and Order sent him before his time. Warlock, calling himself the Magus, emerged from the cocoon with great powers and an afro. The inhabitants of Homeworld attacked him and were slaughtered.
The survivors fell to worship him The Magus used their technology to build a fleet that spread the religion of The Universal Church of Truth throughout the galaxy.
Thus, the Magus ruled a theocratic empire for millennia. Finally, the Magus set out to bring about his own creation. The Magus appeared to Warlock as a Big Glowing Head after 3 of his Inquisitors murdered a girl Warlock had sworn to protect.
The Magus taunted Adam that made him realize that he and the Magus were one and the same being.
The Magus confronted Warlock after the Magus easily defeated Warlock and told Warlock Warlock's future. Warlock refused to believe it for him, proving that he knew how events were going to unfold. The Magus revealed that he knew of the Matriarch. Warlock attacked him, only The Magus toyed with him more until the moment to summon the In-Betweener. Gamora sought to stop him but was pimp-slapped herself.
The Magus blasted Adam with harmless radiation that would lead the In-Betweener to him within hours. The Magus then executed the Matriarch and ordered his Black Knights to attack Adam, Pip, and Gamora. The Magus planned for the Knights to keep Adam busy to escape the In-Betweener. However, the Magus had reckoned without Thanos, who appeared as the Knights were attacking.
Warlock and the others escaped the Knights and retreated to Thanos' ship, Sanctuary II. The Magus learned of Thanos' involvement and used his astral senses to look into Sanctuary. He saw that Thanos had constructed a time-machine and was planning to send Warlock through it. The Magus realized that with Warlock and a time machine, Thanos could prevent his very existence.
The Magus opened a portal onto Sanctuary and led a squadron of Black Knights against Thanos, Warlock, Pip, and Gamora. Once again he planned to delay them until the In-Betweener's arrival. However, Thanos convinced Warlock to steal all of the Black Knights' souls. With no one in his way, Warlock plunged into the time machine with Pip.
Thanos and the Magus squared off, and the Magus revealed that he knew Thanos wanted to destroy all of the stars and that as Life's champion, he would oppose him. The two of them fought a cataclysmic battle while Warlock found himself on his own "kismet trail," a junction of his possible futures.
The Magus had just beaten Thanos when he suddenly began fading from existence. Warlock had destroyed the trail that led to his life as the Magus. The Magus began a futile dash toward the time machine to stop Warlock, but he faded completely before he could get far. The universe then recreated itself without the Magus having ever existed.
The Magus was recreated when in order to be a logical god after his having gained the Infinity Gauntlet, Warlock expelled both good and evil sides of his persona. The Magus was reincorporated near the Crossroads leading to several strange actualities, realities which may not have existed prior to the Magus' resurrection.
Via travel to a number of the dimensions accessed from the Crossroads, the Magus wandered far down the Dimensional Corridor, establishing a region to call his own. From there he set up a fortress from which to execute his ultimate plan: Determining that direct and prolonged exposure to the energies of the Containment Units could cause madness, the Magus set up instrumentation through which to control their power. He planned to merge the Earth-616 dimension with an alternate reality of his own designs, which would transform Earth-616 to match the new realm and place its inhabitants under his control.
Not content with even this, the Magus plotted to gain further power, the power of the Infinity Gauntlet. Knowing that the Living Tribunal had rendered the Infinity Gems unable to be used in unison, the Magus plotted to make his threat known so that the Tribunal would be persuaded to reverse his decision. He needed to enlist someone of sufficient power and cosmic stature to appeal to the Living Tribunal: Galactus. At the same time, limited knowledge of his plans would draw Adam Warlock and his Infinity Watch—possessors of the Infinity Gems—close to him, enabling him to take the Gems for himself. Finally, he planned to involve Earth's heroes, intending to use them to cause distraction and confusion amongst the more major players/pawns in his plot.
Lastly, the Magus set up a relay transmitter midway between his realm and the Earth dimension, intending to draw others to its energies, delaying their location of his realm. Magus and ShadeThanos watch Thanos with Warlock. He sees them plan to go to the Infinity Well in Death's palace. ShadeThanos says he can find no fault with Magus' plan, but wonders if it will ensnare Magus' "other self". Magus freaks and grabs ShadeThanos' neck saying Warlock is his shade, not vice-versa. ShadeThanos agrees.
Magus asks about the Galactus Contingent—an alliance of Galactus, Dr. Strange, the Silver Surfer, and Nova (Frankie Raye), who were investigating the vast energies the Magus was releasing. When they find they are ahead of schedule Magus decides he better find a way to slow them up. When Magus feels they have learned enough he informs Death indirectly that they are in her palace. Magus watches as his Reed Richards' doppelganger detonates a gamma bomb while the heroes are all gathered within the Fantastic Four's headquarters.
Thor uses his ham
Magus obtains near-omnipotence.
mer's mystical powers to contain the blast. Then, Magus and ShadeThanos teleport into the Fantastic Four's base and takes back the doppelgangers of Iron Man and Richards. The heroes naturally assumed ShadeThanos to be the real deal and thus took him for the villain in the current plot. Further, due to the Magus' obviously similar appearance to Adam Warlock, they assumed him to be part of the plot as well.
Galactus is too far ahead of to slow him down the Magus used the power of the Containment Units to blow up Galactus' ship (though Galactus' power protected himself and those within). Magus dispatches the other shades to Earth to fight the heroes who remained behind.
Magus watches as the pawn heroes teleport right to where he wanted them- facing Thanos and the others. A misunderstanding results, as the Earth natives still distrust Thanos, with the concomitant battle ensuing. Magus says that nothing can stop him now. At some point, the Necromancer, the Doctor Strange of the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth, who had left that planet year before and thus escaped its destruction, went to the true Earth in search of the true Doctor Strange.
He found and killed a double of Doctor Strange loyal to the Magus. However, the Necromancer then decided to offer his services to the Magus via a telepathic signal, and the Magus accepted his service. Magus watches as Galactus comes and teleports all the heroes aboard his ship. ShadeThanos warns Magus about underestimating Galactus' might.
Magus says that Galactus is integral to his plan. Galactus joined forces with the heroes, sharing each one's memories with the others, breaking down their mistaken assumptions about the motives of Thanos, Warlock, etc. Galactus further summarily incapacitated all doppelgangers assaulting the contingent of heroes who had remained on Earth.
Warlock was used to bringing together the Gauntlet for him. Magus admires how even cosmic giants are his unknowing slaves. He tells Warlock of the field that prevents Quasar from using the Ultimate Nullifier. As Magus watches the pending verdict on the Gauntlet, Kang and Doom decide to attack. Warlock decides to side with the devil he knows and fights with Magus against them. Kang shoots Magus.
Magus hits him and smashes his face into a screen. Magus gets up and realizes that the field that was blocking the Ultimate Nullifier is down. Kang shoots Magus in the back. Now angered, Magus backhands Kang. He hits Kang into the wall and goes to physically use the Cosmic Cubes to reinstate the shield. Doom defeats Warlock and Kang tells Doom to go after Magus. Doom says he will, but since Kang is no longer any use to him he blasts him.
Magus is aghast to find that the Cosmic Cubes have been stolen by parties unknown (later revealed to be the Goddess @ Infinity War#6). Doom blasts Magus from behind. Gamora resuscitates Eternity making it possible for Eternity to agree to Galactus' request to overturn Living Tribunal's verdict (as the Tribunal had no intention of rescinding the order without Eternity's support of the idea). Magus struggles to his knees.
Doom demands the Gauntlet, but before Magus hands it over Eternity allows the gems to work together. Magus stands triumphant, now seemingly possessing the full power of the Infinity Gauntlet. He dissolves Quasar and holds the Ultimate Nullifier in his hands.
Magus emerges from one chamber to addresses the two Thanos as they battle. Magus invites the winner to join him in the chamber and then places a spell on the door to remain locked until one Thanos is dead. Magus watches from within the room and admires Thanos as a unique being despite the fact that there are currently two of them.
Magus believes his Thanos' augmented power will ensure the real Thanos' death. Then Magus will deal with his disloyal thrall. Magus says that two of anything is too much. Magus decides that soon his existence and that of his shades will take the place of the others.
Magus stands with the Infinity Gauntlet. As Invisible Woman frees the Magus' captives, the Magus appears as a giant face. Invisible Woman tries to attack but the Magus simply snaps his fingers and lines up all his opposition except Warlock and Thanos emerges from his victory over ShadeThanos. Thanos stands but Magus uses his power to force Thanos to bow. Thanos tells Magus that reality is not what Magus perceives.
Magus' confidence is shaken and Magus pummel Thanos. Freed in the conflict, Warlock grabs the Infinity Gauntlet from behind and tries to wrest control of the gauntlet. As Magus and Warlock struggle, Warlock says that reality is shifting constantly.
The defeated Goddess comes face to face with the Magus. Magus informs that as portions they are only phantoms in Soul World. Goddess charges Magus but passes through him. Even to each other Goddess and Magus are ghosts.
Powers and Abilities
Magus as a phantom.
According to Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), the Magus is the universal counterbalance to Adam Warlock and exists as negative, dark half. Because of this, he possesses all the substantial power of Warlock himself. Kang the Conqueror considers the Magus to be one of the most monstrous entities in the cosmos.
- Avatar of Life: Originally chosen to become the avatar of life by Lord Chaos and Master Order, the Magus was designated as the Avatar of life by the aforementioned entities in order to oppose the then-Avatar of Death, Thanos, and keep a cosmic balance between life and death Although it succeeded for a time, the Magus's future was changed and he lost this status. After re-inserting the inactive timeline involving the Magus, Adam was officially recognized as Earth-616's Avatar of Life again. In turn, the Magus's reappearance had designated him as so also.
- Summoning: The first iteration of Magus was capable of once summoning Lord Chaos and Master Order's agent, the In-Betweener by saturating his past counterpart in a harmless special radiation that acted as a beacon. It's unknown if this capability can only be done via the Soul Gem or that being an Avatar of Life allowed it to be possible.
- Superhuman Conditioning: As the dark half of-of Adam Warlock, the Magus possess all the physical capabilities and abilities of Adam Warlock prior to his most recent resurrection. Formerly, his first incarnation was capable of possessing super strength that was sufficient enough to defeat Thanos in personal combat while his second incarnation, born from Warlock's splitting his good and evil self after possessing the Infinity Gauntlet, possessed Class 100 strength, supersonic flight speed, regeneration, enhanced human stamina, reflexes, and agility, and superhuman durability. His latest resurrection (at its peak maturity), was at a level in which made him capable of easily defeating Gamora in physical combat and resilient enough to withstand Drax the Destroyer's blow that killed Thanos.
- Sorcery: Being a "Cosmic Sorcerer" in his second incarnation, Moondragon remarked that the Magus is a rather powerful magician and as such, can command magic for a variety of He is capable of teleportation, creating portal through other objects such as a mirror, and projecting his own arm through devices such as a telephone, time traveling, and vast healing powers in which could heal Moondragon from a fatal wound in an instant.
- Life-Force Absorption: After escaping from Soul World, the Magus had a wraith-like form. He appeared with a semi-solid head and trunk, with his lower body as an ethereal stream. Physical attacks like Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell)'s photonic blasts simply passed through him. In this form, the Magus could steal the "life essence" of sentient beings to augment his power and return him to full physical existence. The Magus could also project psychic blasts capable of harming Captain Marvel.
- Quantum Magic: His recent resurrection allows him to use the full might of Quantum Magic, a power developed to stop the expansion of the Fault. Like Adam Warlock, he's capable of various feats such as enchantments, transmutations, conjurations, closing space rifts, and magical energy projection. His powers can be rejuvenated and powered by raw magic energy and souls.
- Chronokinesis: After his resurrection, his Quantum Magic allowed him to manipulate time even further. He was able to overshadow the timeline of Earth-616 and render all futures in which he himself ruled in the end according to Kang the Conqueror.
- Reality Transmutation: The Magus is capable of transmuting reality itself to create realistic illusions. He was able to fool the Guardians of the Galaxy into thinking he was killed by Star-Lord.
- Cosmic Powers: His body was made-up of certain cosmic energy receptive cells. He could manipulate cosmic energy for a variety of uncatalogued effects. By tapping into his own stores of cosmic energy, he could achieve Class 50 strength and warp flight speed. In his prime, the Magus possessed vast cosmic power. He could also become intangible, teleport and create teleportation portals to accommodate an army. During the Infinity War, the Magus possessed these powers, but probably to a lesser degree, as he was laid low by energy blasts from Dr. Doom. By this time he no longer possessed his soul gem.
- Ultra Senses: Possessing both cosmic awareness and mystic senses, the Magus is an extremely perceptive individual. He is capable of conversing with one with Cosmic Awareness as well as being able to sense attempts at changes in his timeline. Kang the Conqueror remarked that had he tried changing the timeline to stop the Magus's influence directly, he would have sensed it. Unknown to him, however, it seemed that his senses proved even more acute, as he was seemingly aware of his subtle entirely.
- Psionics: Whether done with magic or his own will, the Magus possessed powerful telepathic powers in each of his incarnations. He proved capable of being able to mentally enslave Moondragon unknown to herself in his second incarnation. His most recent resurrection, despite not being fully mature, was capable of taking over 30% of the Earth's population after tapping into the power of the belief font as well as having the willpower to take over Gladiator 's body.
Quotes
| “ | Flea bag, the difference is far more pronounced than that, I assure you! I am the butterfly this golden caterpillar before you shall soon metamorphose into! I am the new order! I am that which the forces of chaos and order have decreed you shall become! | „ |
| ~ Magus to Pip the Troll and Adam Warlock. |
| “ | You remember me, even though I haven't happened yet. How sweet! | „ |
| ~ Magus to Gamora. |
| “ | Thanos's fear and hatred drove him to seek omnipotence so that no one would have control over him. My vision took me beyond that juvenile passion. | „ |
| ~ Magus. |
| “ | I am the ultimate force! What I wish... is! Depending upon my mood, worlds live or galaxies die! | „ |
| ~ Magus. |
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