MORIDUN

Real Name: Moridun

Identity/Class: Extraversal astral being magic user (pre-current Multiverse (the Fifth Cosmos), resurrected into the modern era of the current Multiverse)

Occupation: Dark wizard;
    former world devourer, Sorcerer Supreme

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: The Maker (Reed Richards of Earth-1610) (briefly);
    formerly Carlo Zota, the Wonder Worm

Enemies: The Defenders (Cloud, Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange, Masked Raider/Carlo Zota, Red Harpy/Betty Banner, Silver Surfer/Norrin Radd, Taaia of the Sixth Cosmos), the Knights of the Infinite (K'kyy, Lan-Zarr, Mur-G'nn, M'ryn the Magus, Varra, others), the New Avengers (Demiurge/Billy Kaplan, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Hulkling/Dorrek VIII, Power Man/Victor Alvarez, Songbird/Melissa Gold, Squirrel Girl/Doreen Green, White Tiger/Ava Ayala), Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff);
    While possessing Wiccan: A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. Initiative of Earth-16364 (Captain America/Dani Cage, Collapsar/Manu Chauhan, Iron Mariner/Jako Krangsen, King Hulk/Teddy Altman, Marvel Woman/Marlene Brashear), W.H.I.S.P.E.R. (Brad, Larry, others)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Omnimax;
    "Big Hungry," "Creep," "Dark Wizard of the Fifth Cosmos," "Ghost Wizard of the Fifth Cosmos," "Lord," "Mor-I-dun," "the Old Devourer," "Space Wizard of the Fifth Cosmos" (nicknames/titles)

Base of Operations: Castle Tarnala, the Forbidden Asteroids, Andromeda Galaxy, the Eighth Cosmos;
    formerly the Sixth Cosmos, Fifth Cosmos

First Appearance: New Avengers IV#2 (December, 2015)

Powers/Abilities: While occasionally existing in physical form, Moridun primarily existed in the modern era as an astral being capable of possessing other beings to utilize as host bodies, which he could accomplish by extending his tentacles to touch the other being, "infecting" them with a sliver of his consciousness that would grow to eventually overcome the host and allow his consciousness to dominate. After "infecting" other beings with his consciousness, Moridun's physical body could still act independently while the sliver of his consciousness grew inside his new host body. Few, if any, beings could resist the initial possession but some especially strong-willed beings or those with experience with mental possession (such as Wiccan or the Scarlet Witch) were able to cast Moridun out of their bodies.

    Moridun fed on and grew strength from magic, draining it like a parasite and often leaving a withered husk in his wake.

    Moridun has an extremely vast knowledge of magic, having existed during its creation, and he could accomplish a variety of magical feats including not only the aforementioned possession of other bodies but also invasive, telepathic mind-reading and glimpsing of mental images, mystic force projection sufficient to knock back even superhumanly strong foes, alteration of his own size (often to gigantic proportions), projection of mystic fire (such as the projection of fireballs), instantaneous travel through spilled blood, and the casting of specific spells such as the Ace of Blades, which conjured a psychic blade used to "carve" knowledge from a person's brain.

    During his time as Omnimax in the Sixth Cosmos, Moridun had vast cosmic power rivaling that of the Eighth Cosmos' Galactus though he was not seen displaying any specific abilities other than the hunger that came with being a cosmic world devourer.

Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: Red (glowing yellow as a disembodied spirit)
Hair: None

History:
(Defenders VI#2 (fb) - BTS) - Moridun was the Sorcerer Supreme of the Fifth Cosmos.

(Defenders VI#3 (fb) - BTS) - The time-displaced Eighth Cosmos scientist Carlo Zota arrived in the Fifth Cosmos and Moridun made Zota his slave, teaching him humility via starvation and pain but also teaching him the way of the Fifth Cosmos magic.

(Defenders VI#2) - Witnessing the time traveling Defenders of the Eighth Cosmos rocketing back in time into the Fifth Cosmos, Sorcerer Supreme Moridun assumed their arrival was a comet and that the "comet" was an omen bringing good tidings for the end of days.

(Defenders VI#3) - As the Defenders and their Sixth Cosmos ally Taaia attempted to land, Moridun viewed their descent in his scrying sphere and remarked to himself that the Defenders did not matter, as he was prophecized to see their Eighth Cosmos home era at some point in his future, further noting that he would first survive the end of the Fifth Cosmos and travel into the Sixth as a grand devourer. His slave Carlo Zota asked how Moridun knew of his own prophecy, Moridun reminded Zota how much he had already taught him but when Zota akined the circle of Moridun's magic to that of a crystal ball, Moridun smashed his scrying sphere into Zota's face for daring to tell him what his own magic was like. Moridun soon sensed secret knowledge Zota had been keeping from him, however, and opted to learn the knowledge by subjecting Zota to the Ace of Blades spell that "carved" knowledge from Zota's mind via a psychic blade. Using the Ace of Blades, Moridun learned that Zota knew who the Defenders were and demanded to know more.

    Moridun soon sent the Wonder Worm creature after the Defenders and following its defeat, Dr. Strange sensed that the creature's blood contained a magical puissance. Taaia was unfazed but Moridun subsequently traveled through the creature's blood to appear before the Defenders. He then telepathically entered the minds of the Defenders to learn their mettle, only to pause when realizing that each of the Defenders represented a color of Moridun's own magic and they existed as a living spell. Claiming their status would serve them not, Moridun slowly backed away and mystically made the nearby roots tear at the team. While the Defenders battled the tree roots, Dr. Strange managed to access his Eighth Cosmos magic but secretly funneled it into his teammate, the Red Harpy, as Moridun captured him. The magic soon exploded outward from the Red Harpy, banishing Moridun and instead summoning a mystic doorway that pulled in Carlo Zota and the Defenders as well due to Strange's earlier spell to follow Zota.

(Defenders VI#1 (fb) - BTS) - Surviving the destruction of the Fifth Cosmos as prophecized, Moridun became the gigantic, world-devouring Omnimax in the Sixth Cosmos. Omnimax embraced his newfound cosmic hunger, enjoying the death it brought to civilizations.

(Defenders VI#1) - Omnimax arrived on the planet Taa to devour it and during his arrival, the superheroic Defenders from the future eighth iteration of the Multiverse also appeared, having traveled back in time to stop scientist Carlo Zota's misuse of a magic time travel spell using a spell of Dr. Strange's that pulled them to Zota's location.

(Defenders VI#2) - Witnessing the enjoyment Omnimax took in destroying the world, the Silver Surfer feared for the natives of the Sixth Cosmos' Taa and helped the Defenders get many civilians outside of Omnimax's "trouble zone." After regrouping inside the native scienceer Taaia's tesseract space, the Defenders sought to work with Taaia to halt Omnimax with her emotion-housing Mother-Cube but they soon found themselves facing Omnimax's herald, the time-displaced Carlo Zota, who had been in the Sixth Cosmos for some time following his time travel spell mishap. While the Silver Surfer battled the cosmic Carlo Zota, Dr. Strange had Cloud provide a stellar "snack" to distract Omnimax. Drawing Omnimax's attention, Cloud found the Omnimax desired more than just a snack and when Omnimax threatened to devour Cloud into instability, the Defenders decided to use the Mother-Cube against Omnimax by having Dr. Strange direct its emotional waves through magic. Hitting Omnimax with love and hope, emotions he had never felt, the Defenders forced Omnimax to retreat from Taa and when the Silver Surfer managed to absorb the Power Cosmic of Carlo Zota, Zota was sent hurtling further backwards in time. Unable to stop the magic he had channeled to force Omnimax back, Dr. Strange uncontrollably pulled himself, Taaia, and the Defenders equally backward in time as his original spell to locate Zota forced the Defenders to follow Zota.

(New Avengers IV#2) - While researching previous iterations of reality, Earth-1610's Maker performed a ritual to summon Moridun's spirit into the current iteration of reality. Moridun's spirit communicated from across the dark and asked the Maker why he was being called, to which the Maker replied that he just wanted to see if he could do so. The Maker then explained his theory that he existed in a reborn universe and that he wanted proof that universes existed prior to his own by excavating the spirits of those from previous iterations of the Multiverse. When the Maker laughed that he should have expected a being from the previous Multiverses to reach out to him on their own, Moridun agreed and announced himself as being from the Fifth Cosmos. Recognizing the current Multiverse as the Eighth Cosmos, Moridun found it ripe with possibilities.

(New Avengers IV#4 (fb) - BTS) - During the time in which his spirit was connected to the Eighth Cosmos, Moridun telepathically caught a glimpse of the powerful hero Hulkling in the Maker's mind and followed the mental "threads" to learn basic points of a prophecy regarding the Hulkling becoming the king of the Kree and Skrull empires.

(New Avengers IV#2) - Moridun announced his intentions to stay in the Eighth Cosmos. Sunspot's New Avengers soon disrupted the vibrational frequency that the Maker was using to summon forth spirits from previous realities and in doing so, they disrupted the summoning ritual the Maker was using to draw forth Moridun's spirit and seemingly banishing Moridun back to the dark from which he came from, leaving a charred pentagram on the floor. Assuming Moridun had returned to the past, the Maker and his agents of W.H.I.S.P.E.R. went about their business, completely unaware that Moridun's disembodied spirit still remained in t he current Multiverse.

(New Avengers IV#4 (fb) - BTS) - Still telepathically tugging at mental "threads" regarding Hulkling, Moridun's spirit followed the threads to Castle Tarnala in the Andromeda Galaxy.

(New Avengers IV#3) - The disembodied spirit of Moridun contacted the elder Knight of the Infinite M'ryn the Magus, speaking to him about M'ryn's delaying of his Knights of the Infinite in summoning their future king. When M'ryn warned Moridun that he had magic at his disposal, Moridun revealed that he fed on magic as he began to drain the magic from M'ryn's staff. Proclaiming that he would feed on the magic to live again, Moridun soon began draining the inherent magic within M'ryn himself as he remarked to M'ryn on how the Magus had kept secret the detail that the day the Knights would find their king would also be the day M'ryn died. Moridun then completely drained and killed M'ryn, assuming his physical form once more and noting that M'ryn should find solace in his death, as it meant M'ryn's prophecy had been true. Moridun then announced that the Knights' king would indeed come for his throne and all of the dark that came with it. He then assumed M'ryn's form and tasked the Knights of the Infinite with traveling to Earth to retrieve their future king, the heroic Hulkling.

(Empyre Handbook#1 - Hulkling Update entry - BTS) - Tasking the Knights with retrieving Hulkling was secretly part of a plot by Moridun to lure Hulkling's boyfriend Wiccan into his presence.

(New Avengers IV#4) - When the Knights of the Infinite returned to the Castle Tarnala headquarters with Hulkling and his boyfriend Wiccan, they went to introduce them to M'ryn, only to find the Moridun-possessed M'ryn devouring the souls of two of the other Knights. Caught in the act, Moridun sarcastically suggested that the Knights should learn to knock and when he ominously told them to wait their turn, Hulkling attacked Moridun, hitting him with a shapeshifted fist and demanding to know who he was. Revealing his true form, Moridun knocked back Hulkling and explained how he had learned of Hulkling and the prophecy surrounding him via telepathic threads, and how he had arranged events to bring Hulkling into his clutches. Moridun then turned his attention towards Wiccan but Hulkling sliced Moridun's tentacle as Wiccan noted the feeling was like a bee sting in his brain. The Knight of the Infinite K'kyy then attempted to hit Moridun with a photon blast but the powerful Moridun caught the blast in mid-air. Absorbing the blast into himself, Moridun then grew to gigantic size, erupting out of and destroying Castle Tarnala as Hulkling's New Avengers teammates arrived on the scene in the Avenger Three spacecraft. Hawkeye immediately fired five TNT arrows, one into each of Moridun's eyes, and Moridun briefly reeled in pain before retaliating with large mystic fireballs. After absorbing one of the fireballs with his newly-found sword Excelsior, Hulkling realized the sword was magic and had the New Avengers distract Moridun long enough to plunge the sword in the center of the giant Moridun's head, seemingly destroying Moridun in a large explosion of mystic energy.

    Following Moridun's defeat, the New Avengers and the Knights of the Infinite held a funeral for those killed by Moridun, during which Hulkling admitted curiosity as to why Moridun would seek to bring Hulkling to him if Hulkling had the one weapon that could hurt him. K'kyy suggested that Moridun perhaps sought the absorb the sword's power and Hulkling recalled Moridun's words about how he would play pretend if it provided a distraction for life infecting and laying eggs. Admitting that he could relate to the Hulkling's attempt to find reasoning in the whole situation with Moridun, Wiccan akined the feeling to that of an itch in one's brain before suggesting he change his codename to Demiurge. Wiccan then claimed he somewhat liked the name as Moridun's five eyes appeared deep within the recesses of Wiccan's mind.

(Empyre Handbook#1 - Hulkling Update entry - BTS) - Moridun's presence within Wiccan remained undetected.

(New Avengers IV#5 - BTS) - Moridun's influence continued to grow within the newly-dubbed Demiurge as Demiurge and Hulkling battled W.H.I.S.P.E.R. agents Larry and Brad. When Demiurge mystically disappeared Larry and Brad's skycycles while they were still 200 feet in the air, Hulkling berated the Moridun-possessed Demiurge for his reckless actions.

(New Avengers IV#5 - BTS / New Avengers IV#15 (fb) - BTS) - Once Larry and Brad were taken into custody, Hulkling asked the Moridun-possessed Demiurge if he was okay.

(New Avengers IV#5) - Hulkling later attempted to talk to the Moridun-possessed Demiurge, only for Demiurge to inform Hulkling that their Avengers Island headquarters was under attack. Hulkling immediately asked who was behind the attack and an ominously smiling Demiurge, under the increasingly strong influence of Moridun, merely stated that the attackers were people who wanted to disrupt and destroy everything they had built.

(New Avengers IV#6) - The Moridun-possessed Demiurge and the rest of the New Avengers arrived at Avengers Island to find the divergent Earth-16364's A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. Initiative demanding Sunspot tell them where Demiurge was. The A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. immediately attacked Demiurge and when the weakened Demiurge expressed plans to eradicate all of the A.V.E.N.G.E.R.S. and dance on their ashes, Hulkling realized Moridun was possessing Demiurge. Moridun spoke through Demiurge, bragging about how it was too late to stop him, but Hulkling pushed Demiurge to fight back against Moridun's control. Within Demiurge's mind, Demiurge's thoughts began to awaken at Hulkling's urging and Moridun communicated, promising that Demiurge's end would swift and relatively painless if he submitted to Moridun.

(New Avengers IV#6 / Wiccan: Witches' Road#4 (fb)) - Noting that Moridun needed to work on his pitch, Demiurge began to fight back and the two fought a mental battle until the Demiurge appeared unfazed by Moridun's threats of self-fear and self-loathing.

(New Avengers IV#6) - A surprised Moridun continued to threaten such mental anguish but Demiurge refused to give in to his own self-loathing, instead casting Moridun out. Demiurge continued pushing Moridun out of his body, eventually coughing up the horrified and extremely weakened, not yet fully regrown Moridun. Resembling an everyday squid in his weakened state, Moridun continued squealing "Life is horror!" as Earth-16364's Collapsar confirmed that the squid was indeed all of Moridun and that his influence on Demiurge was completely gone.

(Scarlet Witch IV#2 (fb) - BTS) - After Demiurge cast Moridun out, he apparently perished without a host body and fell deep into the imprisonment of the deepest waters of the Witches' Road in the Land of the Dead.

(Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling#1 - BTS) - While Wiccan was attempting to magically repair the Excelsior sword, he discussed with the Knight Mur-G'nn the legends of the Kree and when Wiccan asked if she believed them, Mur-G'nn reminded Wiccan how Moridun had killed and possessed her father before possessing Wiccan as well, all of the experiences influencing why Mur-G'nn no longer believed in so-called "fairy tales."

(Defenders VI#4 - BTS) - During a time travel jaunt to the earlier Fourth Cosmos, the heroic Defenders encountered an archetypal world devourer and when they leaped in to battle it, Masked Raider reminded Red Harpy of their earlier encounter with the Sixth Cosmos' Omnimax and the danger of his mask equaling the devourer's hunger.

(Scarlet Witch IV#2) - When the heroic Scarlet Witch's physical body was destroyed, she entered the Land of the Dead outside of space and time and learned of her potential as a nexus being by the Queen of Nevers, who guided Scarlet Witch into the deepest part of the Witches' Road, where Moridun was imprisoned, to be tested for the chance to return to life. Upon reaching Moridun, Scarlet Witch was asked to identify herself and the reasons for tempting his starving hunger. Learning that Scarlet Witch sought passage back to the land of the living, Moridun related his punishment of suffering, imprisonment and lack of full life without being tied to a host, to which Scarlet Witch replied by revealing her knowledge of who he was and his past possession of Wiccan. Admitting that Moridun had indeed been punished, the Scarlet Witch then engaged Moridun for his past hurting of her son. The two fought furiously and Moridun attempted to force Scarlet Witch deeper down the Witches Road but she fought back with hex, refusing to yield and insisting that she would pass and return to his life. Having infected Scarlet Witch during the battle, Moridun announced that she would pass and he with her, for while his previous physical body lay withered, he now had another.

(Scarlet Witch IV#3) - Scarlet Witch fought back against Moridun's possession, her spirit shredding the possessed form he forced her to assume, but when she expelled him, the weakened Moridun claimed that neither were strong enough to pass back into life alone. Nonetheless still refusing to be possessed, Scarlet Witch suggested Moridun think on her refusal of possession as he pulled his spirit back together. She then left the shredded pieces of Moridun behind as she climbed her way back towards life.

(Scarlet Witch IV#10 - BTS) - After saving her apprentice Amaranth Hawlut and Amaranth deciding to go out on her own, Scarlet Witch thought back on the recent events of her life (including her earlier encounter with Moridun) as she moved on with her own life.

(Wiccan: Witches' Road#4 - BTS) - While contemplating to use of his reality-warping powers to correct bad things, Wiccan thought back on various horrible events in his life, including his possession by and battle with Moridun.

(Magik & Colossus I#3 - BTS) - As she battled the mage Count Kaoz in the Immortal's arena, the mutant Magik invoked Moridun's name to cast the Moridun's Siphon spell in an effort to restore some of Count Kaoz's magic and mental faculties.

Comments: Created by Al Ewing and Gerardo Sandoval.

    Moridun is not seen nor mentioned by name in New Avengers IV#15 but the flashback seen in that issue is an extended flashback to events that occurred in New Avengers IV#5, a time during which Moridun was possessing Demiurge/Wiccan. Since Moridun himself actually DOES appear in one panel influencing Demiurge in New Avengers IV#5, I chose to list #15 as a BTS appearance of Moridun since he was present.

    Moridun is not actually mentioned by name, only as a "monster," in Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling#1 but based on the events Mur-G'nn recounts, it's clearly referencing Moridun.

    Moridun's look and status as existing before the current iteration of the Multiverse seems to reference H.P. Lovecraft's Great Old Ones such as Cthulhu.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Moridun should be distinguished from:

• other "Moridun" characters, groups, items, races or events
  

Appearances:
New Avengers IV#2 (December, 2015) - Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (art), Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss (editors)
New Avengers IV#3 (January, 2016) - Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (art), Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss (editors)
New Avengers IV#4 (February, 2016) - Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (art), Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss (editors)
New Avengers IV#5 (March, 2016) - Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (art), Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss (editors)
New Avengers IV#6 (April, 2016) - Al Ewing (writer), Gerardo Sandoval (art), Phil Noto (art, colors), Mark Bagley (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Tom Brevoort, Wil Moss (editors)
New Avengers IV#15 (October, 2016) - Al Ewing (writer), Paco Medina (pencils), Juan Vlasco (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Empyre Handbook#1 (October, 2020) - Mike O'Sullivan (head writer, coordinator, image refurbishment), Anthony Cotilletta, Jacob Rougemont, Luc Kersten (assistant coordinators, writers), Carl Farmer (assistant coordinator, image refurbishment), Mike Fichera (assistant coordinator), Ronald Byrd, Jeff Christiansen, Daron Jensen, Rob London, Chris McCarver, Marc Riemer, Stuart Vandal (writers), Jim Cheung, Jamie McKelvie, Paco Medina, Humberto Ramos, Valerio Schiti, Declan Shalvey (Hulkling Update entry art), Brian Overton (editor)
Defenders VI#1 (October, 2021) - Al Ewing (writer), Javier Rodriguez (pencils, inks), Alvaro Lopez (inks), Wil Moss, Sarah Brunstad (editors)
Defenders VI#2 (November, 2021) - Al Ewing (writer), Javier Rodriguez (art), Wil Moss, Sarah Brunstad (editors)
Last Annihilation: Wiccan & Hulkling#1 (November, 2021) - Anthony Oliveira (writer), Jan Bazaldua (art), Darren Shan (editor)
Defenders VI#3 (December, 2021) - Al Ewing (writer), Javier Rodriguez (art), Wil Moss (editor)
Defenders VI#4 (February, 2022) - Al Ewing (writer), Javier Rodriguez (art), Wil Moss (editor)
Scarlet Witch IV#2 (September, 2024) - Steve Orlando (writer), Jacopo Camagni (art), Alanna Smith (editor)
Scarlet Witch IV#3 (October, 2024) - Steve Orlando (writer), Russell Dauterman, Jacopo Camagni (art), Alanna Smith (editor)
Scarlet Witch IV#10 (May, 2025) - Steve Orlando (writer), Jacopo Camagni, Russell Dauterman (art), Alanna Smith (editor)
Wiccan: Witches' Road#4 (May, 2026) - Wyatt Kennedy (writer), Andy Pereira (art), Michelle Marchese (editor)
Magik & Colossus I#3 (June, 2026) - Ashley Allen (writer), German Peralta (art), Darren Shan (editor)

First posted: 10/31/2026
Last updated: 10/31/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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