Bang's Character Analysis: Shuma-Gorath (Marvel Comics)

 

  • First Appearance: Journey into Mystery Vol 2 #1

  • Species: Unknown

  • Occupation: Master of the Old Ones

  • Aliases: The Lord of Chaos, The Void Made Flesh, He Who Sleeps But Shall Soon Awake, He Who Sleeps But Shall Awake, Chtma-Gorath, The Great Old One, The Withering Devourer



Background

Little is known about the true origins of Shuma-Gorath or how he came to be, only that he has existed before the dawn of time itself. Legends say that Shuma-Gorath is one of the many Great Old Ones, ancient eldritch beings that predate humanity by millions of years. Shuma-Gorath has always been a leader of these Lovecraftian horrors, terrorizing mankind for eons until the sorcerer Sise-Neg banished him from the mortal realm of Earth. But Shuma would soon hope to make his return, setting himself up as a god to be worshipped in the Pre-Cataclysmic Age. Sacrifices of blood would be made to this new god, and anyone who dared oppose would meet a terrible fate. A god named Crom answered, sending down three iron-bound books and a key for a shaman to banish the monster, imprisoning him high on the mountaintop of Mount Crom. By this point, Shuma-Gorath became an enemy not just to Earth, but he became a threat to the Vishanti, putting him on the map as an enemy of the universe just waiting to be awakened by whatever poor fool may stumble upon the Iron-bound books of Shuma-Gorath. Soon however, he would return…and Agamotto and his newly appointed Sorcerer Supreme were in grave danger.


Experience

Shuma-Gorath is one of the oldest beings in the Marvel universe. He is older than time itself, and has been feasting upon flesh and bones of humankind’s ancestors for millions of years. He has made many appearances attacking Earth, from the time of the dinosaurs to ancient Wakanda to the year 1804. He has fought in wars against other Hell Lords/Deities, such as fighting a four-way battle with Dormammu, Mephisto, and Nightmare over who would get to invade the Earth after Las Vegas was resurrected. Due to spending so much time on Earth, Shuma-Gorath is quite knowledgeable of its history, so much so that he quotes Earth philosophers mid-fight while fighting Doctor Strange.



Equipment


Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath

Created long before books existed, Shuma-Gorath created books of iron rings and plates, and Shuma uses these as means of accessing Earth again, often mind-controlling humans to do their bidding or open the books with the key.


Abilities


Great Old One Physiology

Shuma-Gorath is one of the Great Old Ones. With this comes lots of dreaded descriptions of his very being; he is oblivion itself, the emptiness outside of all understanding, sees little difference between the living and the dead, a creature of chaos, infinite, and a ruler of hundreds of dimensions, and a primal power of Chaos. He has existed before time itself, existing long before mankind. Shuma is an apex predator roaming across territories more vast than the human mind can comprehend, one that can manipulate his body, grow to the size of a building, and disguise himself as a mountain even in his true form. Mortals cannot comprehend his true form because he exists in a place diametrically opposed to Earth’s dimension, existing on planes that cannot be perceived.


As a Great Old One, Shuma-Gorath exists on a similar level to the Abstracts themselves, existing between the space of realities, yet coming from a place beyond reality itself, being described as super-dimensional. As we learn from- wait is that Cthulhu…as we learn from one of the Great Old Ones, beings like Shuma-Gorath are embodiments of nothing and the absence of meaning. 


However, Shuma-Gorath comes from a place even far beyond that. Shuma-Gorath comes from Outer Dark, a timeless realm that is “beyond reality itself”, described as being “beyond the furthest point of known existence, an endless abyss beyond the eyes of even the most ancient, abstract, primordial gods, a place so remote and far that there is no way of calculating its distance.” Upon entering it, Vision compared the realm directly to his experience under the light of the House of Ideas but as its opposite: the rot of a “Secret House of Death”. Given that the name of the realm that the M’Kraan Crystal protects from is known as “The Gorath” and it’s represented by a one-eyed tentacle monster, this is basically shouting that this realm is associated with Shuma-Gorath and thus the Outer Dark itself. Though Outer Dark is Shuma-Gorath’s home dimension, even he is small amongst far larger predators lurking in the dark. 


And within this space, Shuma-Gorath has access to his own realm, the Chaos Dimension, which will be discussed below. 


Avatar Creation

When Shuma-Gorath manifests on Earth, he never really leaves his home dimension, but he expends lots of his power into making a physical avatar of his body. These avatars have all the inner workings of a physical body, like organs and a nervous system, all of which are held together by an astral form, which also needs to be destroyed to kill Shuma’s avatar fully. Spider-Man describes it as a “small fingernail trying to scratch at our reality”, implying it's a lower emanation, one that gets stronger every moment. And Strange has an avatar of Shuma-Gorath just chilling in his fridge?!?!? Quick, nobody tell Kyle!


The Chaos Dimension

The Chaos Dimension is the original home of Shuma-Gorath where its true form resides. To merely approach this realm in the past, Strange and Kaluu use the Dragonfire to travel to the Chaos Dimension, where the dark folds and the light fractures, where space hangs in tatters like an old sock, and ramparts of dreams rise up to power (pictured above). Just being in the dimension began to weaken Kaluu, saying that no mortal has ever gone as deep as they have, with Kaluu elaborating that his spirit was dying in the dimension, needing to shield himself. Even in the modern day, Strange using the Nexus to all Realities to access Shuma-Gorath’s dimension, hit all six of Strange’s senses and forced him to go through many realms. Also existing in this realm are demons such as Arioch, who is as strong as he imagines he can be. On occasion, if he is in Earth-616, he can take people to his Chaos Dimension such as Kulan Gath, whom he took to feast upon him for years on end.


Reality Warping

Shuma-Gorath can affect Earth from his home dimension by affecting an astral image of it, causing it to go ablaze and merging the day and night. He was able to make Earth experience side effects due to battle with Doctor Strange; eyes begin to bleed, spikes appear in people’s necks, fire blossoms explode on the streets, demons inhabit human bodies, and hearts stop.


Telepathy

Shuma-Gorath is an extremely powerful telepath that can communicate with people across entire dimensions. His mere voice can be heard from a tear in the fabric of space, he calls himself timeless and willingly will not make an appearance in the main universe.

Mind Control

One of Shuma-Gorath’s most powerful abilities is by far his mind control. From his own dimension he can easily control humans to do his bidding, such as making a poor soul open the Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath with the key. Shuma-Gorath was also able to take over the Ancient One’s mind, which was an incredibly impressive feat. The Ancient One’s mind was Shuma’s gateway to the main universe, saying he spawned in a universe diametrically opposed to the main one, feeding upon the Sorcerer Supreme’s strength, the Ancient One attempted to kill himself when he realized Shuma-Gorath could not be defeated, and that in the Ancient One’s final days, he would tap into his mind and guide his consciousness to watch Doctor Strange, and Shuma dominating the Ancient One’s mind means he controls it to his whims, Strange says he is falling into infinity, and could speak through the deceased corpse of the Ancient One. Shuma was also able to infuse Earth’s minerals with a unique kind of magic, which Mr. Fantastic likens to the Puppet Master’s clay, which has psychoactive properties that allows him to mind control people. 


Illusion Creation

Shuma-Gorath can make illusions that can momentarily fool even Doctor Strange. He’s made illusions of many of his foes such as Dormammu and Nightmare, and made a crucified Doctor Strange illusion to spook him.


Future Display

Shuma-Gorath is capable of displaying visions of both the distant future and the distant past. He once showed memories to six people, including Conan, that come from a time before theirs. Accidentally peering into Shuma’s consciousness can show Strange visions of the future that seize him with suffocation, as shown above. 


Limited Magic

Shuma-Gorath from afar was able to cast a spell of silence on Nightmare that allowed him to puppet his body, and he allegedly knows a spell of invulnerability.


Non-Physical Interaction 

Doctor Strange tries to use a spell of invisibility/body double to slip away, but Shuma easily sees through it and grabs invisible astral Strange. Great Old Ones can fight Abstracts, who are considered so abstract in nature that fighting them in a physical manner is impossible.


Energy Projection

Shuma-Gorath can shoot mystic blasts of chaos energy, whether from his body or as eyebeams. These blasts are incredibly potent, eradicating Kulan Gath and Vammatar, leaving nothing left of them. Later when Shuma-Gorath attempted to obliterate the Shaman, the narration stated this blast would make him “vanish forever”. 


Energy Draining

Shuma-Gorath can absorb or drain energy from people and draw power from them, as shown when he started to sap Invisible Woman of her strength, weakening her. He can even draw power from sorcerers as powerful as Doctor Strange, the Ancient One, or Sise-Neg, a being who could warp reality on a whim.

Sealing

Quoggoth somehow surpassed Shuma in power, and Shuma couldn’t beat him so he imprisoned him on Earth in a tomb with mystic sigils lined in the walls to prevent him from escaping. 


Regeneration/Resurrection

Shuma-Gorath can reform his body, and destroying him permanently may be impossible, with Shuma himself saying a mortal cannot destroy a Lord of Chaos, and Agamotto himself was unable to destroy Shuma-Gorath. His avatar can easily reform a few moments after being one-shot by Blue Marvel.


In another modern instance, Shuma-Gorath had been gradually absorbed by Kulan Gath, which was weakening his true form, so Strange made a blood pact with the mighty Shuma in exchange for his help; Strange finished off the true form and burned the remains with the Flames of the Faltine, covering the blade in Shuma’s blood. Strange later used that blood to stab Kulan Gath, nullifying his healing, and Kulan Gath acted as a catalyst for Shuma being able to respawn, in exchange for Shuma never attacking the Earth dimension again. Shuma-Gorath’s body was remade through Gath, showing that any trace of the essence of Shuma that remains can allow a way back, although it does take some time and to an extent, some setup. 


Unfortunately for this next part, I need to make a major clarification about Shuma-Gorath’s immortality. For a long time in battleboarding, it was believed that someone who managed to successfully kill Shuma-Gorath would straight up become him, turning whoever killed him into just…the next Shuma-Gorath. 


Yeah this isn’t the case at all.


Shuma-Gorath tells Arioch-amped Strange that while he is draining Shuma’s power, that he is ‘his power’, and if Strange destroys him, he will eventually answer to the name of Shuma-Gorath when magic calls for it. After Strange destroys Shuma-Gorath by hurling a mystic image of Earth at him, Strange stabs himself with one of Shuma’s tentacles. By doing this, Doctor Strange says in the next comic that while Strange “became” Shuma-Gorath, all that was him was renounced, but there was still some damage done. His ego was damaged, and he had latent chaos energy within him due to absorbing some of it in battle, which he was still able to expel from his body, though Strange admitted that the darkness was not gone yet, but that was more than likely referring to an eventual return of Shuma-Gorath. 


So no, Shuma-Gorath cannot just respawn out of somebody’s body to make them become the next Shuma-Gorath. He can leave behind some of his energy/influence sure, but not to such an absurd degree that they get terraformed into the actual one-eyed tentacle monster. As shown in the Kulan Gath instance, his body respawning requires a lot of setup and limited resources to pull off already, so I am putting this “opponent becomes Shuma-Gorath” wincon to rest. 


Mystic Shields

Shuma-Gorath can form mystic shields around his eye to block attacks, and the shield is made up of sigils shaped like eyes, so Monica Rambeau tries to change her light form to mimic these symbols and bypass it.


Power Bestowal

Shuma-Gorath can grant power to people, usually as a bargain for them to do his bidding, offering Conan the Barbarian power that he can only dream of. This ability is also passive however, amping the Überkommandos just by being in proximity of them. He gave the Reaper power in exchange for him bringing souls to Shuma-Gorath, making him too strong for Vision and Scarlet Witch to face. 


Soul Manipulation

While this power is more vaguely tied with lots of his dialogue about feeding on the screaming souls of the universe, it isn’t entirely unfounded that he can affect souls. At one point, Shuma-Gorath ruled over a necrotic sub-realm, and he’s outright said he can taste souls. More evidence of Shuma’s ability to manipulate souls comes from Doctor Voodoo, who holds the lost souls of Shuma-Gorath beneath the Sanctum Sanctorum in the Scrying Stones of Cthon.


Life Creation

Shuma-Gorath created one of his servants named Quoggoth, a being that even Shuma-Gorath himself could not kill…seems a bit counterproductive.

Probability Manipulation

Shuma-Gorath is able to manipulate possibilities and influence events that would’ve happened regardless. He can also manipulate magic on a planetary scale, and Wanda says his “thaumaturgy”, or working of magic/miracles is incredibly potent.


Sound Manipulation

Shuma-Gorath can emit an ear-piercing scream that can make characters as powerful as the Scarlet Witch cover their ears. 


Psychometry

Psychometry is the ability to parse information, history, or knowledge from a person with super senses. By simply touching Luke Cage, he was able to learn about his daughter Danielle.


Infection

Shuma-Gorath can unleash spores of himself that infect humans, which makes them go feral. Kulan Gath was able to use tainted drugs to cause someone to become possessed by Shuma-Gorath. 


Dimensional Travel

Shuma-Gorath can travel to and fro various dimensions, such as going from the Earth dimension to his home dimension, or to necro-dimensions to do battle with other Hell Lords. 


Miscellaneous Great Old One Abilities

Due to being one of the Great Old Ones, Shuma-Gorath should be capable of various abilities they have shown, such as:



Resistances


Agents

Shuma-Gorath has fancied himself many servants to do his bidding, and these guys often act as Shuma’s messengers, summoners, and ambassadors to spread his chaotic will. Some of them include:


Feats

  • Defeated Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Kulan Gath, the Ancient One, Quoggoth, and the Vishanti

  • Has invaded hundreds of dimensions, such as the Terminal Earth 

  • Became a ruler of Hell

  • Ruled the Earth for millions of years 

  • Invaded New York City during Thanos’ invasion of Manhattan


Power


Speed


Durability



Scaling

Unfortunately, lots of the scaling will not be talked about here, particularly for Doctor Strange and Dormammu, as their blogs are still underway, so only a few feats will be provided for both. Similarly speaking, cosmology and scaling implications will be gone over in Strange vs Reimu, which comes out tomorrow. Stay tuned! 


Doctor Strange

Doctor Strange has done battle with Shuma-Gorath many times, with Agamotto calling Strange the last hope of humanity against the Great Old One, and Shuma’s overwhelming power has forced Strange to amplify himself in order to match him on equal footing, showing that Shuma-Gorath on average is more powerful than his arch enemy.  


Dormammu

Though they’ve had few confrontations, Shuma-Gorath is implied to be above Dormammu in power, and in most cases Dormammu is helplessly ensnared in his tentacles, and Dormammu himself admits that before Shuma-Gorath, he was Strange’s mightiest enemy. 


Hell Lords

Shuma-Gorath has a seat at the Hell Lord’s table now, thus he should be comparable to his fellow rulers of the underworld. 


The Abstracts 

Shuma-Gorath has fought the In-Betweener, an abstract that represents duality itself between concepts such as good and evil. The Great Old Ones were also capable of waging war on and killing the Abstracts, and Strange himself said Shuma-Gorath exists in a higher cosmic order alongside Eternity. 



Weaknesses

Despite his great wisdom and power, Shuma-Gorath falls short in some areas, and magic users have found many ways of dealing with him. For starters, his avatars are pretty easy to defeat. They are fairly weak and can be dealt with in many ways. Powerful enough characters can damage his eye or slice off his tentacles, and damaging his core will obliterate his body. Fighting him in groups is also a proven success again and again, because Shuma-Gorath is weak to equilibrium; if he is distracted for even a moment, he can be knocked off-balance pretty easily. He’s also pretty easy to banish, as a mere shove from giant Groot or the Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath can be used against him to seal him away, and powerful enough characters like Mephisto can banish him if they get the upper hand. He’s also weak to having his power siphoned or absorbed, though he himself can do this to siphon it back as shown with his fight against Sise-Neg.


His true form has quite a few exploitable weaknesses. For starters, as long as you aren’t from Earth-616, one can perceive Shuma-Gorath in his true form across many planes. His power can gradually be absorbed through his avatars on Earth, so much so that Kulan Gath nearly transcended Shuma himself in power, which weakened Shuma’s true form so badly that Strange could kill him with a mere blade. Even his true form can have his energy absorbed by Doctor Strange.


Summary

  • Attack Potency: Outerversal Level (His dimension is above Limbo, which infinitely transcends reality, threatened all realms including Limbo with his fight against Doctor Strange, has battled Abstract beings that embody multiversal concepts such as space and dualities)

  • Speed: Irrelevant (His true form exists in a place outside of time and space)

  • Chaos Dimension exists above time and space, weakens the soul, and Shuma can take people there, where he is virtually omnipotent

  • Powers:

    • Avatar Creation

    • Energy Manipulation

    • Energy Draining

    • Reality Warping (multi-dimensional range, planetary scale)

    • Telepathy (multi-dimensional range)

    • Mind Control (multi-dimensional range)

    • Non-Physical Interaction

    • Illusions

    • Regeneration

    • Limited Resurrection 

    • Future Display

    • Limited Magic

    • Sealing

    • Life Creation

    • Soul Manipulation

    • Dimensional Travel

    • Infection

    • Probability Manipulation

    • Psychometry

    • Mystic Shields

    • Sound Manipulation

    • Extrasensory Perception

    • Law Manipulation

    • Dark Magic

    • Death Aura

  • Resistance to Fire, Death Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Basic Magic, Gravity Manipulation, and Sleep/Paralysis Inducement

  • Has numerous servants to do his bidding, many of whom are Lesser Old Ones and powerful abstracts like Nightmare

  • Avatar is vulnerable to banishment, excessive body damage, being knocked off-balance, and energy siphoning

  • True form is vulnerable to energy/power siphoning from avatars or true form



Who Should He Fight? 


Hermaeus Mora (Elder Scrolls)

Connections: Lovecraftian one-eyed gods that have amassed cults of humans worshipping them, with help of ancient artifacts to exert their influence (Iron-Bound Books of Shuma-Gorath and Oghma Infinium), that are part of a wider race of ancient deities (Great Old Ones and Daedric Princes). 


Thoughts: This is a pretty cool fight! Elder Scrolls would be a solid contender for matching the ancient and eldritch spaces of Marvel, and while Mora lacks tentacles, he’s got the form necessary to bode well with Shuma-Gorath. Not sure who would win, but I imagine it’d be fun to research. 


Bill Cipher (Gravity Falls)

Connections: One-eyed extra-dimensional gods of chaos with their sights set on ruling all realities and causing never-ending chaos. 


Thoughts: I think unless you incorporate MvC Shuma, this fight has some pretty dry interaction potential, which I think is important enough for a Bill fight, but he can obviously get serious, no less with someone like Shuma who is more all business. It’d probably be a pretty sick fight, I like the idea of it having a multi-POV potential showing them fighting from and across various focal points in both Marvel and Gravity Falls, and the killing blow could honestly be a recreation of both of their defeats. Debate-wise, Bill’s gotten beefier after the Book of Bill dropped, this is probably debatable. 


Cthulhu (Lovecraftian Mythos)

Connections: Tentacled deities of horror beyond human comprehension that are considered the oldest and most powerful beings of their race that predate time, ruling over countless dimensions and usurping power from the humans that worship them. 


Thoughts: Before you say Shuma-Gorath is a bum, remember that he’s still infinitely less of a bum then this lame ass pussy who lost to a rich guy’s yacht- oh wait Cthulhu has a country level feat on VSBW? Nice. Still a bum though. I feel like this fight is the ideal fight for both but a) Cthulhu’s creator is quite the elephant in the room to address and b) nobody has really researched Cthulhu Mythos, primarily because of point a.


Who’s Next?


Blue Beetle (DC Comics)


Cyclops (Marvel Comics)


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