Shuma-Gorath

Shuma-Gorath
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Marvel Premiere #5 (Nov 1972) (mentioned), #10 (on-panel)
Created by	Robert E. Howard (name), Steve Englehart (story) and Frank Brunner (art)
In-story information
Species	Demon
Team affiliations	Old Ones
Notable aliases	Lord of Chaos; He Who Sleeps, but Shall Awake
Abilities	Immortality, Mystical powers, Virtually omnipotent in native dimension, Tentacular form possesses superhuman strength and resilience.

Shuma-Gorath is a fictional character created by Robert E. Howard, best known for his later interpretations starting with Steve Englehart, as a demonic enemy of Doctor Strange in Marvel Comics publications. He is also well known for being an unconventional playable character in the Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom video games. Shuma-Gorath shares naming conventions and physical traits to creatures in the Cthulhu Mythos, the universe in which popular weird fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft set the majority of his stories.

Publication history

The name "Shuma-Gorath" is first used in the Kull short story "The Curse of the Golden Skull," which was unpublished until 1967, years after the author's death. In it, a dying magician named Rotath invokes the "iron-bound books of Shuma-Gorath" in a curse against humanity.

His first comic-book appearance was as an adversary for Doctor Strange in the pages of Marvel Premiere #3-9 (July 1972 - July 1973). This re-imagining of the character resembled a giant purple eye with tentacles. In most subsequent appearances the color of the creature was changed from purple to green. He was a giant tentacled creature which evoked terrible dread and was worshipped in time immemorial and long ago locked away from our plane of existence.

The character subsequently appears in Marvel Premiere #14 (March 1974): Shuma-Gorath appears on prehistoric Earth and is defeated by Sise-Neg; Doctor Strange #81 (February 1987); Strange Tales Vol. 2 #4-15 (April 1987-April 1988): the second battle between Strange and Shuma-Gorath occurs in #13-14; Fantastic Four #314 (May 1988): the story from Strange Tales crosses over and has effects on Dr. Strange which carry on into Strange Tales #15; Conan the Barbarian #252 (January 1992), #258-260 (July–September 1992): Shuma-Gorath is briefly resurrected in the Hyborian Age, although the character looks significantly different than normal; Marvel Knights #26-27 (March–April 2006): defeats the Fantastic Four but is defeated by Dr. Strange off panel; Wolverine: First Class #12 (February 2009); and Invaders Now! #4-5 (December 2010).

Shuma-Gorath received an entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Horror #1 (2005).

Fictional character biography

In his first few appearances, Shuma-Gorath was colored purple. Art by Frank Brunner.

Although his true origins are unknown, before the arrival of the First Host of the Celestials, Shuma-Gorath rules the Earth and commands human sacrifice, until the time-traveling sorcerer Sise-Neg banishes him. He manages to return and set himself up as a god during the Hyborian Age, again commanding bloody sacrifice, but slaughters those who seek his favor. Eventually, the power of Crom imprisons him within a mountain. Even from that prison, he could interact with Conan the Barbarian, Kulan Gath, and many others, before Crom banishes him back to his home dimension.

When Shuma-Gorath tries to return to Earth through the mind of the heroic sorcerer the Ancient One, he forces Doctor Strange to kill his master to prevent the powerful creature from arriving on Earth. Years later, Strange is forced to destroy the talismans keeping the chaos demons at bay, to keep them from falling into the hands of an evil sorcerer. Strange is then forced to travel to Shuma-Gorath's dimension and fight him there to prevent the demons from invading Earth. To do so, Strange absorbs the chaos magic into himself, gaining enough power to destroy Shuma-Gorath. However, he starts to transform into a new Shuma-Gorath himself as a result, so he commits suicide to prevent that from happening. An ally of Strange is able to purify him on his way back to the living. Shuma-Gorath resurrects himself not long after from the remnants of the chaos magic.

Shuma-Gorath is later summoned to Earth by the sorcerer Nicholas Scratch, who offers his services in return for "[his] life and Barbados". However, the demon is driven back by the combined efforts of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, the Salem's Seven, and Diablo.

The entity was shown to be one of the four greatest undying otherdimensional "multi-angled ones", behind the metaphysical "cancerverse" invasion when that universe's Captain Marvel spoke its name during an incantation, striving to destroy Death itself. However, along with its brethren, it was rendered inert (requiring at least thousands of years to recuperate) by a direct counter-attack from the conceptual entity, and was then caught within the destruction of the entire reality.

Powers and abilities

Shuma-Gorath is a powerful and ancient force of chaos of the highest order, sometimes referred to as a demon, but unrelated and an alien concept to truly infernal beings. He possesses vast supernatural powers, and is essentially invincible to anything but the most powerful magic; or the greatest cosmic entities.

Because of Shuma-Gorath's unique physical form, he has the ability to shapeshift and even liquify his body. He also has the ability to generate several forms of energy attacks, mostly forming from its one eye. One attack not generated from his eye is when he uses all of his tentacles to generate a ball of pure energy that can shatter realities.

His powers included sympathetic magic, which he demonstrated by creating a miniature replica of the planet Earth, and then transferring the effects on the replica to the real earth. He is capable of draining the magical energy of other beings, as Sise-Neg noted.

He can teleport and phase at will and levitate. He can enter and leave different planes of existence and dimensions at will and has reality warping powers. He can also summon demons and other supernatural creatures, even powerful forces such as Nightmare, to do his bidding.

In one of Shuma-Gorath's lesser realms, powerful demons such as Mephisto and Satannish were stated to be "mice in a great temple" and after Doctor Strange absorbed the entity's power, the sorcerer's mere aura was stated as sufficient to unconsciously destroy any nearby galaxies.

In other media

Shuma-Gorath as he appears in "Marvel vs. Capcom 2."

Television

• Shuma-Gorath is referenced in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Night in the Sanctorum."

Video games

• Shuma-Gorath appears as a playable character in the Capcom fighting game Marvel Super Heroes and its sequels Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes. He returned as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, available as downloadable content. He is voiced by Frank Perry in Marvel Super Heroes, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2, and by Paul Dobson in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3.

• Shuma-Gorath makes a cameo appearance in Apocalypse's stage in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and also in Storm's ending in the same game. He was initially colored pink in his original appearances in Marvel Super Heroes and X-Men vs. Street Fighter, while in his subsequent appearances in Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Marvel vs. Capcom 3 and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, he was colored green. Also, in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, he has access to an alternate costume which is visually inspired by Quoggoth, a disciple of his that rebelled against him, and whose original appearance was in Wolverine: First Class #12 (February 2009).

External links

• Shuma-Gorath at Marvel.com
• Shuma Gorath at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe