Atum (Earth-616)

Origin[]

Son of Gaea[]

Around four billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the Earth, the Demiurge, the sentient life force of Earth's biosphere, seeded the planet with its essence, creating the Elder Gods. Over time, the Elder Gods degenerated into demons, warring with one another and struggling for power and influence. Gaea, uncorrupted and fearful for the safety of the new life brewing within the Earth's oceans, went to the Demiurge and asked it to conceive in her a means to vanquish the demons. In depths of the Earth, she gave birth to Atum, the first of a race of new gods and the eldest of her male children. Atum went around the Earth, slaying the demons and absorbing their energy. He took on a monstrous appearance and became Demogorge, the God-Eater, in the process. Demogorge eliminated all of the Elder God demons, except Chthon, Set, and a scant few others who realized it was futile to fight and escaped to other dimensions. Upon completing his task, Atum took to the skies, released the energy stored within his body, and retreated into the sun.^[2][20][8]

Merger of the Old Ones[]

An alternate account exist to Atum's origin.
At an unknown point, the Old Ones, possibly including Cthulhu, were reborn in a different form, into one simple spiritual entity, the source of all persecution, toxic pride and true depravity: God when his name was invoked in hatred. They assumed various identities, including Ra, prayed by the Egyptians for him to keep the slaves in line and themselves wealthy. This tale was told by Ra's son Khonshu,^[16] although its veracity has been questioned as it contradicted both previous and subsequent distinctions between Elder Gods of Earth and Great Old Ones.

Early years[]

Blood Feud[]

Around 65,000,000 B.C., having determined the dinosaurs to be an evolutionary dead end, Gaea shifted her focus to mammals and allowed the dinosaurs to die out. Set, who derived his power from them, sent dinosaurs to attack every mammal on Earth in retaliation. Desperate, Gaea summoned Atum to protect her and her mammals. Emerging from the sun at faster than light speed, Atum flew directly into Set's head, decapitating him. The vast amount of energy given off by Set caused Atum to become the Demogorge once again. Set survived the attack and replaced the head he lost with two. Demogorge and Set continued their battle for the next million years and by the end of it, Set grew seven heads and all the dinosaurs were dead. Weakened, Set fled into his own dimension. His job done, Demogorge reverted to Atum and once more returned to the sun.^[21]

Heliopolitans[]

Eventually, Atum returned to Earth and took the aspect of Ammon Ra and sired the Heliopolitan race of gods and settled in the extradimensional realm of Celestial Heliopolis.^[17] These gods were worshiped in ancient Africa.^[22] His brother Thoth nominated him as ruler of the gods. Ra took the goddess Amaunet at as his wife, and had several children including Khonshu and Montu. but also sired other offspring, such as Shu, Sobek and Hathor.^[23]

Millenia ago, Anubis attempted to usurp the throne and enslaved Amon Ra. He tried to cut out his heart and absorb the power, however, he was able to outwit the Death-God by giving it to Bast, the Panther Goddess who ripped it out of his chest. She took the heart to the centre of Africa to hide it, however she found a tribe of great hunters who worshipped her before hiding the heart she decided to bless one of the warriors with the blood of Ra. The warrior was tasked with protecting the heart creating the city of Necropolis in Wakanda, the "Greatest Nation on the Earth".^[5]

Hyborian Age[]

Ra gained prominence in the nation of Stygia the end of the Hyborian Age which occurred roughly around 10,000 BC.^{[citation needed]}

Ancient Egypt[]

The worship of Ra and his children continued into the time of Ancient Egypt. However 1350 B.C., Amenhotep turned away from worshiping the old gods to promote the religion of one true god he called Aten. He changed his name to Akhenaton and established new cities across the region. He dedicated to the worship of Aton and attempted to obliterate all traces of worship of the former gods. Akhenaton later vanished, supposedly removed from power by his priests who supported Ra returning him back to prominence.^{[citation needed]}

When the Ancient Egyptian people rebelled against Ra, he became enraged with their disloyalty, so he sent his daughter Hathor to punish humanity. Her bloodlust changed her into the ferocious Sekhmet^[11] and released such veracity against the mortals of Earth, but Ra feared she would destroy the human race.^{[citation needed]} He decided trick his daughter into drinking 7000 jars of beer, this knocked her out long enough for her to return to normal.^[11] To stop her from transforming into Sekhmet again he created the Orb of Ra using Hathor's right eye.^[24]

Sun Kings across time[]

Ra and his son Khonshu, the Moon God had been warring against each other for millennia, having been reborn again and again through earthly avatars, with Khonshu beating Ra in every instance.^[19] In 300 B.C., he selected a Sun King in Ancient Rome who rose to the highest ranks of the Empire. He was killed by Moon Knight who worked as a Gladiator as Rome burned around them.^[19] During the Medieval ages he recruited a Sun King who he sent against a Moon Knight, but once again was slaughtered him in battle.^[19] In 1,000 A.D., Ra attended a gathering of the Council of Godheads to discuss the coming of the Celestials' Third Host.^[18] A Sun King was found in the Wild West of the America. He was killed in a shoot out by a gunslinging Moon Knight.^[19] During World War II a Sun King joined Hydra fought for the Axis powers. He later lost a battle and was about executed by a Moon Knight, when he took his own life.^[19]

Modern Age[]

Return of the God-Eater[]

In recent years, Atum was raised again as the Demogorge by an assembly of Death Gods composed of Ahpuch, Ereshkigal, Pluto, Seth, Yama, Mephisto, and Hela who intended to expand and merge their realms. Thor, Indra, Tawa, Apollo, Shango, and Quetzalcoatl were sent to defeat it. The Demogorge consumed all of the gods assembled against him, but Thor continued to resist Demogorge's metabolic processes from within, causing the God-Eater to conclude that it was not time for these gods to die and proceed to release them.^[2]

Atlantis Attacks[]

Atum was contacted by Thor to aid Earth's heroes in a battle against the returning Set. Thor fought Atum and forced his transformation into Demogorge. As Demogorge, Atum defeated Set once again and then returned to the sun.^[25]

Smash of the Titans[]

During a series of battles when the mindless Hulk was sent to the realm of Olympus, one of the seals to the nether realm of Tartarus was damaged, allowing Cronus the Titan to escape and lead a small army of Gigantes in an attempt to take back Olympus. At this time, Demogorge appeared in the skies overhead and warned the Olympians that if Cronus were to prevail in conquering Olympus, then the Cosmic Axis would shift and the Demogorge would feast on the defeated Olympians. Declaring that Cronus' revolt was merely an internal family matter, Zeus ordered the Demogorge to return to his home in Earth's sun, but the Demogorge did not listen. However, Cronus and his Gigantes were quickly defeated by Hercules and Zeus' other offspring, thus averting the Demogorge's threat.^[26]

Secret Invasion[]

During the Skrull invasion of Earth, at the behest of his great great-grandson Horus, Atum joined the God Squad organized by Olympian goddess Athena to fight the Skrull gods.^[22] As the God Squad traversed the Dreamtime in search of the Skrull Gods, they inadvertently entered the Dream Dimension ruled by Nightmare, who forced each member of the God Squad to face their deepest fear. As the grim engineer of apocalypse, Atum's greatest fear was revealed to be the abstract entity of Eternity, as Atum's dull existence in the heart of the sun would last forever if the end of days were to be permanently forestalled. However, the God Squad was able to break free from and defeat Nightmare's conjured terrors and continue on their mission.^[13]

The God Squad eventually reached the Skrull Dreamtime, where Atum transformed into the Demogorge and consumed the Skrull goddess Sl'gur't; however, Sl'gur't contained the essences of countless other gods, which overloaded the Demogorge and caused him to unexpectedly explode. His spine was later used by Snowbird to kill the Skrull god Kly'bn.^[27]

Atum eventually regenerated and appeared during the Serpent's War, where he was seen at the Devil's Advocacy, gathering to discuss the threat posed by the Serpent.^[28]

Graveyard of the Gods[]

Thor and two other gods encountered Atum as the Demogorge during a trip through a place beyond time and space. where forgotten gods went to after dying, to be consumed by Demogorge. Thor and his allies were swallowed by the Demogorge and fought their way through a graveyard where the gods Demogorge consumed were forever trapped in tendrils that clouded their minds. Thor eventually defeated the Demogorge by striking his heart with Mjolnir and escaped back to Earth through a portal.^[29]

Return of the Sun King[]

Ra watched over Patient 86 at the Ravencroft Institute, who was being treated by Doctor Emmet, who diagnosed him with bipolar disorder. He had symptoms similar to her former patient Moon Knight, so tried to introduce him to Egyptian mythology. His son Khonshu also watched over the patient as Ra and decided to make him his avatar on Earth the "Sun King" and burned the entire hospital, with a horribly burned Emmet being the only survivor.^[30]

Khonshu revealed the truth to Moon Knight and all his personalities regarding his father Ra and the origin of the Gods.^[16] Ra confronted his son in Moon Knight's mind scolding him and his action when he refused to comply, so he set Khonsu aflame.^[31]

However, during ritual combat against Sun King, Khonsu convinces the personalities to join forces and become one embracing the crazy and Marc caught a second wind by believing in Diatrice. Marc's strength manifested in a berserker rage he used to defeat Sun King and break his spirit. Following Sun King's admission of defeat, Moon Knight took his followers for himself.^[32]

• Elder God Physiology: Atum possesses various superhuman abilities that are common to the various god pantheons of Earth. However, he is considerably more powerful than the vast majority of them and possesses power comparable to the likes of Odin, Zeus and Vishnu.^[33]
  • Absorption and Transformation: Although Atum is already immensely powerful, he has the ability to literally absorb and consume other gods as well as demons. As a result, Atum's body basically feeds upon these absorbed beings like food and, as a result, their powers are added to his, thereby increasing all of his powers beyond their limits. However, if he absorbs too much energy, he transforms into the Demogorge, which is a hulking, almost unstoppable brute. After Atum has purged himself of this excess energy, which he can do at will by releasing the beings he absorbs or burns the energy away in combat, he will revert to his normal form.^[33]
  • Superhuman Strength: Atum possesses vast superhuman strength, the limits of which aren't known. However, it is believed that his physical strength surpasses that of any member of the god or demon pantheons of Earth. Hence, Atum is ultimately able to lift far in excess of 100 tons.^[33]
  • Superhuman Speed: Atum is capable of running and moving at speeds that are beyond the physical limits of even the finest human being, or most other gods for that matter.^{[citation needed]}
  • Superhuman Stamina: Atum's advanced musculature produces no fatigue toxins during physical activity, granting him limitless superhuman stamina.^[33]
  • Superhuman Durability: Atum is highly resistant to all forms of physical injury. Even without transforming into the Demogorge, Atum can withstand attacks from some of the most powerful of Earth's gods and demons without being injured. Atum can fully and easily survive the temperature and pressure within a star and the vacuum of deep space indefinitely.^[33]
  • Superhuman Agility: Atum's agility, balance, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.^{[citation needed]}
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Atum's reflexes are similarly enhanced and are superior to those of the finest human athlete.^{[citation needed]}
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: Although he is virtually invulnerable, it is possible for Atum to suffer physical injury. However, his body is capable of rapidly regenerating damaged or destroyed bodily tissue faster and more extensively than most other gods, even to the point of easily regrowing lost limbs.^{[citation needed]}
  • Virtual Immortality: Atum, like some of the god pantheons on Earth, is functionally immortal in the sense that he is completely immune to the effects of aging. He is also immune to all earthly diseases and infections.^{[citation needed]}
  • Flight: Atum, even while transformed into the Demogorge, is capable of flying through the air, or even through deep space. The upper limit of his flight speed isn't revealed, though he can achieve faster than light speeds.^[33]
  • Energy Manipulation: Atum is capable of manipulating and controlling vast amounts of energy for numerous purposes, although only a few have been revealed, on a level that is at least equal to that of gods such as Odin and Zeus. Atum can manipulate massive amounts of solar energy, typically in the form of extreme light or heat that actually rivals the temperature of the sun itself.^[33]
  • Shapeshifting: As the Demogorge he can manifest orifices anywhere on his body to consume divine life essence.^[34]

• Skilled Combatant: Atum possesses no true special abilities. However, the sheer scope of his powers make him an extremely formidable combatant, even though he has no formal training in combat.

Eternity is the greatest fear of the Demogorge, as discovered by Nightmare when the God Squad journeyed to his realm.^[13]

• The character is a fusion between the mythological characters Atum and Ra, from the Egyptian mythology, and the Demogorgon from the Greek mythology, who might have originated from the misreading of the name Demiurge.
• Atum is considered alternatively as the first of the new gods^{[2][20][35][4][36][37]} or as an Elder God,^[13][14][15] but seemingly not as an Elderspawn.^[35][38]
• Chthon, wanting to ensure that should another Demogorge ever appear on Earth it would be at his own behest, and added the Demogorge Page to the Darkhold, along with a counterspell against the Demogorge that would be casted only by a non-mystical person.^[39] Blade used the Page to summon the Other and accepted his offer in becoming the new Demogorge, the Switchblade.^[40] However, Louise Hastings used the counterspell to save every victim of Switchblade, but losing a portion of her soul.^[41]