Amatsu-Mikaboshi (comics) - Powers and Abilities

Powers and Abilities

Mikaboshi possessed the conventional abilities of one of the Kami, the order of Japanese deities, such as superhuman strength, speed, durability, agility, endurance and recuperative abilities, as well as high ability to wield some form of potent Japanese dark magic, a brand of sorcery that seems especially effective against the Olympian deities. His physical strength, at least in his main incarnation, is considerably lesser to that of Zeus or Izanagi, and is roughly equal to that of the average Kami, but Mikaboshi can project energy on a scale at least rivaling that of Zeus and Izanagi. Like the Asgardians, the Japanese gods are extremely long-lived but not truly immortal like the Olympians; they tend to age at an extremely slow rate upon reaching adulthood and are three times denser than normal human beings.

Mikaboshi possesses vast supernatural power, which is apparently inherent within him. He can use this mystical energy for a variety of effects, among which are his ability to alter his form and shape; he also often taken on a female form to appear harmless. He is otherwise almost always represented as a being of black, shadowy energy with a mask for a face. He can reshape his limbs into razor-sharp blades, and assume the form of a fire-breathing serpent, which Apollo's fire was unable to affect and which was able to retaliate with a blast of fire powerful enough to harm and strike down even the Olympian sun deity. He has employed powers of flight, teleportation, the projection of mystical energy as force blasts, invisibility, matter manipulation, image projection and the creation of inter-dimensional nexus points among other feats, such as creating "shadow copies" capable of avoiding detection by high-level dark magical entities such as Nightmare in the latter's own realm. His power is of such extent that he can control numerous minor demons, as well as animating and manipulating corpses en masse at will; moreover, even the Kami themselves appear wary and fearful of Mikaboshi whom they consider their primal foe, especially as he himself has slaughtered much of their pantheon. Mikaboshi was able to slay even formidable alien deities having destroyed the Demogorge (an entity who devoured the Elder Gods themselves) with relatively little effort, as well as crippling and slaying Skyfathers such as Zeus by tearing out his heart in seconds.

More akin to a force of nature than a physical being, and having existed as a dark, primordial void that once dominated Earth (and before even that, the Marvel Universe, and before even this, the realities predating the Marvel Universe itself) in its earliest days, Mikaboshi's true form is elusive. He apparently exists as a single golden eye characterized by a slit-like iris. The eye is surrounded by an amorphous mass of dark energy, which Mikaboshi can form into tangible objects of virtually any form he can imagine, such as whip-like tentacles or a humanoid body. He can also assume a comet-like appearance (with his eye serving as the comet's nucleus) and propel himself at incredible speeds. He is immune to most diseases and possesses extremely quick reflexes. Mikaboshi possesses an extremely high intellect rivaling that of genius-level, and is an accomplished strategist, though his preferred tactic is simply overwhelming opponents with the sheer number of his demonic foot-soldiers. His army contains many netherworld denizens, mostly shinma and oni.

As a demonic entity, and the conqueror of Yomi, Japanese underworld of the Kami, Mikaboshi also has several powers enabling him to capture and detain the astral bodies (sheaths of the soul) of recently deceased human beings; on at least one instance, Mikaboshi has been shown capable of releasing a deceased mortal soul back into the realm of the living. Mikaboshi does not have jurisdiction over all of humanity's deceased. It is not yet known what the prerequisite conditions are for him to manipulate a human soul, nor are the precise means by which he accomplishes the feat known. Apparently these conditions require that the human being in question willingly submit to Mikaboshi's will. It is not yet known how a human being may free himself from bondage to Mikaboshi. Nor is it revealed whether or not Mikaboshi "feeds" on the psychic energies as other demons do.

After seizing control over thousands of alien deities of the Skrulls, and using them to tear through worlds and realities to eliminate the gods of countless other extraterrestrial civilizations, such as the gods of the Shi'ar and the gods of Zenn-La, Mikaboshi was able to gather enough power to shed his "Terran form" and emerge as the Chaos King, the primal embodiment of nothingness and primordial chaos that served as a natural opposing power to both Eternity and Death, and a threat to the entire Marvel Multiverse, and all its powered mortals, living or dead, abstract conceptual beings, cosmic entities and lesser divinites.

Oblivion, the entity which embodies all that never was, is not and never will be, remarked off-handedly that Amatsu-Mikaboshi was merely one aspect of himself - and therefore had to fail in his ambition.