Created by Stan Lee and artist John Buscema, Mephisto debuted in 1968’s “Silver Surfer” #3. Ruler of a hellish dimension, he takes an interest in the Silver Surfer; the Surfer’s noble heart is the mirror image of Mephisto, so he seeks to defeat him. Lee and Buscema’s “Silver Surfer” focuses primarily on its heroes feeling disillusioned with humanity’s violent and hateful ways. Who else could be the Surfer’s main adversary than the one who induces people to give in to the darkness in their hearts?
Mephisto returned a few more times throughout the title’s 18 issues and has since become a fixture in Marvel Comics. He’s not tied to a single book’s set, but is more of a general evil that many superheroes have had to face. (Why else would he be debuting in “Ironheart,” of all places?)
Mephisto’s name comes from the Faust legend, or the original deal with the devil. Faust, a learned man, sells his soul to the devil Mephistopheles. Today, Mephistopheles is often equated with Lucifer/Satan, though in the Faust story, he is technically not the same being. The same distinction can be made between Mephisto and Marvel’s devil.
As a kid, I owned an edition of “The Marvel Encyclopedia,” a frequently updated book going through the characters of the Marvel A-Z universe. Under Mephisto’s entry, I read (paraphrased from memory): “He is not the biblical Satan, and his domain is not the hell of Scripture.” “Why?” I thought. So clearly he is the devil, why obfuscate it?
Well, remember that Mephisto debuted in 1968. The Comics Code Authority (CCA), established in 1954 in response to accusations that comics were feeding subversive and illicit themes to children, was still in effect. The CCA explicitly prohibited horror, monsters, and “ridiculousness” of any religion. Lee and Buscema calling their devil character “Mephisto” smacks of plausible deniability; it’s a more obscure name than Satan, Lucifer, or just the Devil. At the same time, Mephisto explicitly refers to “his satanic will” in “Silver Surfer” #3, so they weren’t hiding it too tightly.
Marvel ComicsThe CCA is no longer a factor these days, but why did Marvel’s writers keep the song and dance that Mephisto isn’t the real Devil? Probably because it’s safer and more universal not to so explicitly link the Marvel universe’s cosmology to Christian ideas. Compare Mephisto to Him (Tom Kane) in “The Powerpuff Girls.” A children’s show like that couldn’t say he’s the Devil for cultural sensitivity reasons, but we all know who he’s supposed to be.
In any case, Lee and Buscema’s use of the term “Faust” reflects how Mephisto is characterized. The Mephisto stories focus much more on Lucifer’s “ruler of hell, corrupter of souls” side than on his “fallen” side.
