After years of supposed Easter eggs that weren’t really Easter eggs and rampant fan speculation, the third episode of Agatha All Along confirmed that the demon lord Mephisto exists in the MCU. Sure, it was just a casual name drop by the witch Jennifer Kale, but it’s confirmation nevertheless. And, this casual namedrop went through many layers of MCU brass. Agatha All Along‘s creator Jac Schaeffer reveals, “It was a conversation with [Agatha] executive producer Mary Livanos, [Marvel’s head of streaming] Brad [Winderbaum] and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige], but it is a mention that is larger than me and this show. It is the larger Marvel-ness of it.”
But what does this resounding Mephisto mention mean for the future of the MCU? Rumors persist that Mephisto is a presence in Ironheart, although that is not confirmed by Marvel Studios. If one looks to the comics, however, the introduction of Mephisto could mean quite a lot. The existence of Mephisto could change the story trajectory of many, many characters going forward.
Who Is Mephisto in the Marvel Comics Universe?
Created by Stan Lee and John Buscema in 1968’s Silver Surfer #3, Mephisto is essentially a stand-in for Satan/Lucifer in the Marvel Universe. His name is a shortening of the name Mephistopheles, the demon of Germanic folklore. Although, the comics have gone out of their way to let readers know Satan and Mephisto are actually separate entities. Regardless, Mephisto looks just like the traditional Judeo/Christian depiction of the Devil. He often fulfills the Devil’s role we see in fiction, tempting good people with deals and “selling their souls” to him. And he has beef with nearly every major hero in the pages of Marvel Comics.
Doctor Strange
The Master of the Mystic Arts has fought Mephisto on several occasions, as one of the only Marvel heroes who can outwit him. Strange usually finds ways to defeat Mephisto via trickery, or magical loopholes discovered in ancient tomes. Doctor Strange discovered that the demon Satanissh was once a part of Mephisto, and tricked them into fusing into one being again. Mephisto has hated Strange ever since. This animosity could manifest in a third Doctor Strange film. In their most famous encounter, Stephen Strange journeys to Mephisto’s realm to help one of his most lethal enemies. That leads us to our next Marvel character who has a real animosity with the demon lord—Doctor Doom.
Doctor Doom
In the comics, the mother of Doctor Doom, Cynthia von Doom, was a Romani witch who died at Mephisto’s hand. This all happened when Victor was a young boy. She traded her soul to Mephisto for power to defeat Latveria’s dictator, the Baron. Forever obsessed with retrieving his mother’s soul from Mephisto’s realm, he sought mastery over science and magic for this purpose. Eventually, in the 1989 graphic novel Doctor Strange and Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment, Doom and Strange go to Mephisto’s hellish dimension. There, Doom confronts Mephisto at last, allowing his mother to ascend to heaven. With Robert Downey Jr. coming back to the MCU as Doom, we could see Mephisto factor into Doom’s arc.
Scarlet Witch and Wiccan
When Wanda and Vision had their twins, Billy and Tommy, in the pages of the comics, it was eventually revealed that they were not real. Both children were illusions created by the Scarlet Witch’s magic. However, Marvel eventually retconned that, by saying the boys were actually shards of Mephisto’s soul. These shards received new life as the Maximoff twins. (Reed and Sue Richards’ son, Franklin, split Mephisto’s soul into several shards). Later, they became the flesh and blood Young Avengers, Wiccan and Speed. Yes, that means that Wiccan and Speed are related, in a way, to both Magneto and Mephisto. What a family tree they’ve got there. If “Teen” on Agatha All Along is indeed Wiccan as we suspect, that means part of Mephisto might be on screen already.
Spider-Man
The biggest Mephisto connection to Spider-Man from the comics has already been done in the MCU, in No Way Home. And it happened without Mephisto involved. In the comics, when Peter Parker’s secret identity as Spider-Man is revealed to the public, his life is nearly destroyed as a result. So he makes a deal with Mephisto to erase all knowledge of his secret identity from everyone’s mind. In the comics, the price of this bargain is his marriage to Mary Jane Watson. In the MCU, Doctor Strange administered the spell, not Mephisto. It’s unlikely Marvel Studios ever retreads that story. However, they did reveal Mephisto as the mastermind behind Norman and Harry Osborn’s descent into madness in the comics, and eventually, their becoming the Green Goblin. That’s a Spidey/Mephisto story the MCU could certainly still tell.
Ghost Rider
We have yet to meet either the Johnny Blaze or Danny Ketch versions of Ghost Rider in the MCU (and it’s up for debate if the Agents of SHIELD version counts as MCU). However, Marvel Television’s Brad Winderbaum recently said he really wants to bring the motorcycle-riding supernatural hero to the MCU as a series. Preferably, the Danny Ketch version. And where there’s a Spirit of Vengeance, there’s Mephisto not far behind. In the comics, the “deal with the Devil” that Johnny Blaze made that transformed him into the Ghost Rider was with Mephisto, not Satan, as he once thought. Mephisto, and his son Blackheart, continued to plague the subsequent Ghost Rider, Johnny’s brother, Danny Ketch, on a regular basis. There are few Marvel heroes with as much of a history with Mephisto as the Ghost Rider, so he’ll have to play a part in his eventual MCU incarnation.
The Silver Surfer
Mephisto was first introduced as a villain for the Silver Surfer in the ’60s. He was a demonic figure always meant to tempt Norrin Radd into giving up his virtuous existence. Stan Lee thought of the Surfer as a Jesus allegory. Lee wanted Mephisto to function in the role of the Serpent tempting Christ in the desert, as he envisioned the Surfer as a totally pure soul. With a new Silver Surfer introduced in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, maybe a future spin-off will focus on her battles with Mephisto. Mephisto did start off as a Silver Surfer villain after all. The MCU might make Mephisto the “Big Bad” for both the Surfer and Ghost Rider in the future.
Mephisto has encountered and fought almost every major Marvel hero over the years. Everyone from Thor and the Avengers, to the X-Men, to the Fantastic Four took a crack. Even the grounded hero Daredevil has come face to face with this literal Devil before. But, we’d be shocked if any of these heroes were to fight Mephisto in the MCU. He just hasn’t appeared in enough of their most prominent comic book stories. But who knows? Maybe in the future, Mephisto takes on every MCU hero we know.
Originally published on September 30, 2024.
