Agamotto
| Agamotto | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Strange Tales #115 |
| In-story information | |
| Team affiliations | Doctor Strange Vishanti |
| Notable aliases | Agamotto the All-Seeing The Light of Truth |
| Abilities | cross-dimensional awareness omniscience supernatural powers |
Agamotto is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. He is known mainly as the source of the Eye of Agamotto—a tool of magical clairvoyance used by superhero sorcerer Doctor Strange.
In a preface to the Dr. Strange story in The Origin of Marvel Comics, co-creator Stan Lee explained that while many people assumed such names to be distorted allusions to real-world spiritual terminology, he "just made 'em up." In the modern Greek language, Agamotto's name is transliterated using slightly different vowels in order to avoid an unfortunate resemblance to a vulgar phrase.
Fictional character biography
Together with Oshtur and Hoggoth, Agamotto is the one of the three eternal Vishanti and one of the most powerful mystical entities in the Marvel Universe. The Vishanti bestow mystical knowledge and power upon sorcerers who invoke their names in spells, and are the main backers of the current Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth's dimension, Doctor Strange. Little more is known about Agamotto than his fellow Vishanti members. He is known to have existed before the creation of the Earth and to have power enough, at least when in his realm, to battle Galactus directly.
By some accounts Agamotto was the first Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth's dimension. This likely means that Agamotto helped to protect the Earth from evil before a Sorcerer Supreme could be established. It is likely due to this that Agamotto chose to donate many articles of his power to the Marvel universe's Sorcerer Supreme, as he felt a special connection to that reality. Among these items are at least two versions of the Eye of Agamotto, the Orb of Agamotto and the Book of the Vishanti.
Agamotto himself is called "the All-Seeing," and has apparently spent his long life observing events throughout the multiverse from the dimension in which he resides. He has been known to express partial apathy at any one universes' destruction as each is just one of the many universes that he likes to follow. Often this type of behaviour is part of an act he puts on: he has pretended to be indifferent or even hostile to Strange before just to teach or motivate him. The Vishanti feel responsible for the safety of every universe, but on at least one occasion the other Vishanti interfered, because they felt that Agamotto was being selfish. At other times, Agamotto chose to warn Strange, even though the other Vishanti felt that he had betrayed them.
Agamotto is a non-corporeal entity that can take on any form. Often while appearing on Earth he takes the form of the head of a cat-like being. On one of these occasions Agamotto resembled a lion, while on another he apeared as a tiger. When Doctor Stephen Strange has visited Agamotto's own dimension, Agamotto has appeared to him as a gigantic caterpillar. Agamotto explained to Strange that that he had made himself an image from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that he had seen in Strange's mind. When Agamotto fought Galactus, Strange noted, after witnessing Agamotto's form being destroyed repeatedly, that the caterpillar was just a manifestation of Agamotto, who was in fact the whole dimension around them. However, the battle between Galactus and Agamotto created such a disturbance across the realm of the Vishanti, Oshtur and Hoggoth appeared in an attempt to talk Agamotto down from continuing his battle with Galactus. When appearing as the caterpillar, Agamotto usually acts informal, even glib to others, while as part of the Vishanti he takes on a more serious and formal persona.