The Marquis of Death

Origin

The Marquis of Death's tale began with him as a young boy named Clyde Wyncham, who was the one and only Mutant in the Universe from which he originated. His tale is told in Marvel 1985. He was a troubling young boy living in a huge mansion with his mother Mrs. Wyncham. She was not a kind mother, often fearing the boy. This was because he seemed to have strange special powers and no way to control them. Clyde's only enjoyment was when he could play with his childhood friend Jerry. Soon however, Clyde and his mother disappeared, as did their whole mansion. A few days later, the mansion was back, but with no sign of either Clyde or his mother. Nobody ever set foot in the mansion form that moment on. Unbeknownst to anyone, Clyde remained inside the house for years. In the year 1985, Clyde caused an inter-dimensional calamity that shook both his home reality and a reality similar to Earth-616 to their very core, an event which caused Clyde's mental condition to further deteriorate. It also caused supervillains from that reality to came to Clyde's own reality. Luckily, the villains were stopped when some superheroes that followed the villains, thanks to the warning of Toby, Jerry's young son. Clyde seemed to disappeared again, and was not seen anymore. Nevertheless, Reed Richards found and detained Clyde and imprisoned him on Earth-616 in a place known only as Area-87 where, along with a helmet designed to give Clyde an eternity of pleasant dreams, his God-like reality altering abilities were subdued by his own internal brain damage.

Becoming the Marquis of Death

Several years passed, then one day without any warning, Area-87 fell under attack by several of Reed Richards' greatest enemies, all of whom sought to kill Clyde, in their arrogance they awoke Clyde and accidentally restored his mind. With only a thought, Clyde killed all of the villains and by doing so...awakened his insatiable hunger for destruction. Dedicating a billion years of his immortal life to learning how to master both Time and Space, Clyde evolved into an entirely new being and thus, The Marquis of Death, was born. As The Marquis, he traveled across The Multiverse wiping out every single Universe he came into contact with, that is until the day he arrived on Earth-616 and met a young man named Victor Von Doom. The Marquis of Death saw within Doom the potential to become greater than what he was. So he took young Victor on as his apprentice and taught him everything he knew. Once he had finished training Doom, The Marquis of Death departed from Earth-616 and continued on with his genocidal sojourn for another two decades during which he gained yet another Apprentice.

In the Present Day, The Marquis of Death and his new apprentice arrived on "Earth-One Dimension Away," an alternate reality where Reed Richards and The Human Torch (known as Jack Storm in this Universe) are married. Shortly after arriving The Apprentice asked The Marquis of Death which species they would eradicate first; Humans or Insects. The Marquis wasted no time thinking on the matter and declared that they would eradicate Humanity first. It was within a short amount of time that The Marquis of Death and The Apprentice wiped out nearly every living thing in the Universe with the exception of Reed Richards, his husband Jack, and the Sun. The Marquis of Death tortured Reed by telling him how he burned his sister-in-law, The Invisible Woman, to death in the most horrifying manner possible. He continued the assault by recounting how he also crushed The Thing into pebbles with his bare hands.

When the horrified Reed asked The Marquis of Death why he had done this, he grabbed Reed by the chest while explaining the very simple nature of the situation and then proceeded to tear Reed's heart out of his chest, eating it.. Jack, after pushing himself out of the rubble and watching his husband die, tried one last ditch attempt to take The Marquis of Death and The Apprentice down only to have his neck snapped via The Marquis' telekinetic abilities.

When The Marquis of Death asked The Apprentice if there was anything left to kill before they moved on to the next world, The Apprentice directed his attention to the Sun and asked that he make "her" scream because he liked it when "they" screamed. The Marquis of Death told The Apprentice that he always made them scream and then by simply raised his hand into the air and made it glow with an ominous blue aura, The Marquis of Death caused the Sun to go supernova, thus signaling the ultimate demise of "Earth-One Dimension Away." Taking a moment to bask in the glory of the death of an entire Universe, the two Universe-annihilating madmen raised their arms into the Heavens watching as the darkness consumed everything.

When The Marquis of Death learned that their next destination was none other than Earth-616 and that they were going to visit his old apprentice, Victor Von Doom, The Marquis was very surprised and believed that the encounter would be a very interesting one indeed.

Mayor Story Arcs

The Masters of Doom

Following the events of Dark Avengers #1-4, Dr. Doom began preparing a massive celebration for The Marquis of Death's arrival. Meanwhile, the corpse of an alternate Uatu the Watcher, who was suspected to have been murdered at the hands of The Marquis of Death, washed up on a beach and was taken back to the Baxter Building for an autopsy. It is revealed that The Marquis' unique power is extraterrestrial in nature.

Back in Latveria, Doom's celebration was reaching its climax. Finally, Doom's Masters, The Marquis of Death and his Apprentice, appear before the amazed crowds. Even Doom falls to his knees, before the two imposing deities. Doom asked The Marquis if he approved of his countless, terrible achievements. The Marquis of Death is not satisfied and, seemingly destroying Doom, he sets out to give Earth-616 a better kind of villain.

Doom survived however, and he emerges from the rubble of a collapsed structure, belittling The Marquis' simple flame attack. The Marquis of Death became infuriated and unleashed a powerful wave of energy at Doom. Doom pushed his way forward, boasting that he was no longer a Novice, that he had done and seen things that The Marquis was incapable of imagining, and that he was going to make The Marquis of Death feel his wrath, etc. The two former allies clash.

Dawn of a new Doom

Allied with with nearly every hero and villain on Earth, Doom waged a war against The Marquis of Death and The Apprentice which lasted over a span of six weeks. Many of Earth's Mightiest were killed, including Reed Richards. However, after much struggle and death, Doom was able to trap The Marquis of Death using a device called "The Omega Box." Five years of peace and rebuilding followed the great tragedy. Even the once-terrible Doctor Doom found peace leading the world to a new golden age. His technology and research eliminated cancer and all other ailments. Before long, the world was an even better place than it had been when The Marquis' had arrived. During this prosperous age, Doom and The Invisible Woman married and she became pregnant with his child. A massive monument to Reed Richards was constructed by Doom, honoring his valor and his bravery, not just during the war against The Marquis of Death, but for everything he'd done. For Doom, things couldn't have been better.

Ruse Revealed

When his wife, The Invisible Woman, asked Doom if he was finally happy, he responded that he had never been happier, and she was revealed to have been The Apprentice all along. The Marquis of Death then emerged from the enigmatic Omega Box and explained to Doom that less than five seconds had actually passed and that Doom was still lying on the ground, burning. The Marquis revealed his plan to show Doctor Doom the "perfect life" and then took it all away from him, making it all the more painful of a defeat. The Marquis of Death then sends out a massive blast of energy, wiping out Latveria's entire capital city and an unknown amount of the rest of the small country. The Marquis turned his attention on Doom and taunted him as his heart turned into stone and his blood turned into acid. The Marquis then directed The Apprentice to open a time-rift into The Pliocene Age, where he tossed Doom's dying body into a primordial ocean. A gargantuan Megalodon (a Pliocene Age Shark) appeared to consume Doom's body.

After reflecting on their first meeting with Doom, The Apprentice suggested that The Marquis restore his honor by initiating The Slaughter (the destruction of the entire Earth-616 universe), The Marquis of Death decided otherwise and, having placed the tattered remnants of Doom's mask on his own face, The Marquis explained that he would regain his honor by rectifying all of Victor's mistakes, starting with The Fantastic Four.

The Marquis of Death and his Apprentice then traveled to New York to destroy the Fantastic Four. Though he claimed he'd come to kill them, the Marquis planned to torture the Fantastic Four before obliterating them. The Fantastic Four confidently told the Marquis that someone would stop him, even if they couldn't. In arrogance, The Thing joked that if everyone else failed, his Aunt Petunia would be the one to defeat The Marquis of Death. In response to The Thing's disrespect, the Marquis forced The Thing to watch helplessly as he brutally killed Petunia Grimm. Still defiant, Johnny spat in The Marquis' face. The Marquis of then showed Johnny every version of Sue that he'd murdered over the centuries.

Then, still refusing to relent, the Marquis put Reed through a number of trials (or a "Solomon's Deal"). The Marquis offered to spare Earth-616 if Reed would kill his son, Franklin. When Reed declined, the Marquis offered up Ben Grimm and Reed declined again. The Marquis of Death even offered his younger self (Clyde Wyncham) as the third choice, yet Reed declined once more since the Clyde who was residing on Earth-616 cannot be held accountable for another version's crimes.

The Marquis of Death then sent Reed back to the Baxter Building where he was attacked by alternate versions of the other members of the Fantastic Four from all across the Multiverse. It is then revealed that Doom had actually survived The Marquis' onslaught. Dr. Doom waited for years in the past using all his knowledge and sorcery. He then became the Marquis' Apprentice and waited for the Maquis to be weakened enough for Doom to gain his revenge. This came on Earth-616 when he faced Mr. Fantastic.

Powers

Clyde is the only mutant in his own universe. He has the ability to manipulate reality, time, space, matter and energy on Abstract Level that may dwarf even some of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Multiverse. His main power if reality manipulation. Clyde, even before becoming Marquis of Death, at the time he was much less experienced with his powers, could manipulate space and time and was able to teleport villains from alternate reality to his own Universe, even Galactus himself. Later he sent all villains back to their own universe and even Galactus could not resist his will. Clyde could also use his powers to easily manipulate Galactus, Odin and Thanos easily in his fight against his older self. Just before becoming Marquis of Death, Clyde used his powers to become the master of all of space and time.

When he became Marquis, Clyde spread destruction and death through the Multiverse. He could easily jump from one universe into another, or even teleport others in other planes of existence like when he teleported thousands of versions of Fantastic Four from the Multiverse into 616 reality to fight that version of Fantastic Four. He can time travel as well. He showed the Fantastic Four Doom's future as well as going back in time to feed Doom to Megalodons. He also has powerful telepathy, allowing Doom to see all events in five years of his life in five seconds which is impressive considering the fact that Doom has massive psionic resistance like when he resisted the telepathy from Emma Frost. Marquis could destroy the Sun with the wave of his hand and could use his reality manipulation to use most powerful Cosmic entities in battle against his younger self, even Eternity who is the embodiment of the Universe itself and ultimately win (even tho he was very exhausted after the fight). Marquis is also very durable. Even after being exhausted from the fight with his younger self, he still survived the combined power of Fantastic Four who absorbed the power of thousand versions of Fantastic Four. He even survived the blast from amped Human Torch at full power which Marquis claimed to be capable of rupturing the Multiverse