How They Compare: Blackheart (Marvel)

After reading all the Ghost Rider comics, I felt it was only natural to make one of these for my favorite one of his villains, the dark abyss, Blackheart. Blackheart is the Demonic Son of Mephisto, spawned from the overflow of suffering and tragedies committed on a 300 year old Haunted Hill known as Christ’s Crown. He is a powerful schemening mastermind, who is very sophisticated and scholarly. He believes that the old ways of demons and torture are tired and obsolete in the world, and seeks to usurp his fathers throne and recreate Hell in his image.

Blackheart is one of the most powerful villains to ever walk Marvel Earth, he’s slaughtered his way through multiple super teams and heavy hitters like Scarlet Witch, Red Hulk, Doctor Strange and the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, gone head to head against the Mad Titan, Thanos, and even outright murdered his father, Mephisto when he came to Earth. Mephisto, even outside his own domain, was still able to nearly destroy 3 universes simultaneously when fighting another demon.

Blackheart is also fast enough to keep up with Zarathos, and casually perceive his astral projection flying from Earth to the Edge of the Universe and physically into other dimensions in seconds to spy on the celestials, both of which are well into the Quintillions of times the Speed of Light range.

Blackheart’s Body is composed entirely of Jet Black, Thorny Vines formed into the shape of a large, muscular, humanoid beast, with a tail, a mane of blades, and glowing red eyes. These thorns are horrendously twisted and knotted together, making Blackheart a creature of constant Agony, unable to sleep, eat or feel calmness. He has been constantly described as smelling of burning ink mixed with fragrant roses, symbolic to the balance of artistic visionary and ruthless monster he constantly shifts between. Nevertheless, Blackheart can spawn and control these demonic black roses, using them to attack, impale or bind his foes, as well as manipulate the ones that compose his body to stretch and shapeshift his form into just about anything, allowing him to impersonate superheroes and turn his limbs to weapons. He can even change his state of matter to travel as a gas or liquid, grow to the size of a city, and instantly regenerate from any conceivable injury, including being reduced to nothing, Mephisto couldn’t even kill him after trying dozens of consecutive times once. 

Blackheart’s mere presence in an area sends out a dark aura of fear and evil . People have frozen in terror, panicked and even abandoned their homes forever without ever seeing him, prolonged exposure to this passive aura can make people very sick, turn plants dark, and cause people to commit atrocities on one another, even Daredevil became murderous at a rapid pace. These Aura’s can be especially dangerous as Blackheart actually exists in all reflective surfaces, he can hear and see through all of them, spawn his body out from them and even BFR people into them like a much scarier Mirror Master. Likely because of this Time is without meaning to Blackheart, as he exists outside of it, a fact that has allowed him to gather up thousands of years of experience despite being created after Spider-Man became a superhero. Speaking of Mr. Spider Sense, Blackheart’s presence is shrouded in blackness, allowing him to slip by the super senses of Spider-Man, Daredevil, Mephisto and Thanos undetected. Physically touching Blackheart can be a death sentence thanks to his Corruption, a black poison infection potent enough to afflict the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider, it was able to transmute Upstate New York into a dark nightmare city. But the most famous Blackheart trait is having a black void for a Soul, which grants him immunity from many trademark Ghost Rider abilities including Hellfire and The Penance Stare, the latter of which actually makes him stronger as he draws power from Misdeeds, including his own. Not even the overpowered, Absolute soul destroying Zarathos Dagger could hurt him.

But enough about his physical traits, Blackheart also has a great deal of dangerous Magical Powers to pull from. He can Fly or Levitate, Teleport himself and others even to other dimensions, open Dimensional Portals, Turn Intangible, use Telekinesis and Stop Time. He is able to blast beams from his hands that instantly decay anyone they hit into a skeleton, shoot Lasers from his eyes, and manipulate the elements, able to make earthquakes that rip holes down to hell into the ground, summon enormous storms, use hellfire that burns one body mind and soul alike, and control Darkness, using it to Blow stuff up, make extensions of his limbs, Forge solid objects from it, and restrain characters as strong Dan Ketch Ghost Rider.

Blackheart has incredible Super Senses thanks to his mastery over souls, he can see the spectrum of invisible souls floating between worlds, as well as track individuals by their Soul even into other planes of existence, smell sins, and read someone’s entire history just by being near them. His power over souls allows him a wide variety of deadly astral abilities. He can physically interact with the astral plane, absorb or destroy souls, summon specific souls to himself from the afterlife, fuse souls together or into beings, transmutate souls into monsters or dimensional doorways, astral project himself and others, and enter into the realm of the soul, a dimension where time doesn’t move and he can talk to and make deals with the recently departed. 

Blackheart can Mind control an entire town at once, or manipulate the emotions of an entire team of heroes to make them try and kill each other. He can Telepathically speak to people from any location, Read Minds, create massive illusions, take away or restore memories, and Possess people. He has Technopathy that immediately shut down all of Reed Richard’s tech, and can both see and give others visions of the future. Blackheart can also duplicate himself or make projections of his form, he can control all these duplicates at once and they are just as strong as himself. He can even summon forth the inner antithesis of his foes, a twisted dark clone of them to do battle with them.

Blackheart has potent necromancy and resurrection powers, able to raise the dead, or bring people back to life, he even brought Johnny’s terrible girlfriend back as a Demoness named Black Rose. But one power he can really mess people up with is his Magical Containment Spheres, these balls of energy do not exist in the Earthly plane, and therefore are immune to the laws and concepts of our universe, even reality warping cannot destroy it making it an almost impenetrable force field and trap, immune to hax. Speaking of Traps, Blackheart is really good at BFR, and can send foes to a variety of nightmarish Pocket Dimensions, like a nightmare trap where they live out all their fears and anguish, a black void he can manipulate into anything he wants, and literal Hell. And if all that wasn’t enough, he can also amplify the power of his minions, enough to make ordinary humans relevant threats to the Dan Ketch Ghost Rider.

Blackheart has a few more powers, particularly Demonic Summons, including tiny demons that fill people's heads with insecurities, and the more traditional giant superhuman monster ones, and lead them on an unstoppable rampage. Blackheart is a Master Manipulator, who was able to make two superhero allies, who had known eachother since childhood, try to kill each other with just one casual conversation. One time he even literally manipulated ETERNITY, a celestial god entity who makes up the multiverse and knows all that goes on there, into banishing Mistress Death from his being, so that No one could Die in the multiverse, and Mephisto would lose all his power. He was smart enough to create genetic clones of X-23 infused with the Venom Symbiote, and his plans are so secretive, not even Mephisto can Discover them while Blackheart is imprisoned within his realm.

But while Blackheart is wiser than even his father, he also has a tendency to ignore his emotions in favor of being an unbiased monster of logic, which sometimes leads to him getting on his allies’ bad side. He has a major inferiority complex to his Father, and seeks to impress him despite clearly hating his guts, and his twisted tortured body and psyche have left him acting irrationally from time to time. He also does have a major Weakness, Death Manipulation, this is something that he has no resistance to and no way back from (at least of his own power) due to not possessing a soul to go to the afterlife, it is the only thing that has killed him in the past, though you presumably need a great deal with it because it took the entropy of the universe to pull it off.

Name: Blackheart

Origin: Marvel

Classification: Demon, HellLord

Powers and Abilities: Demonic Plant Manipulation, Elasticity, Shapeshifting, Logia, Size Manipulation, Low Godly Regeneration, Duplication, Draws Power from Misdeeds, Power Amplification, Fear Aura, Illusions, Flight, Levitation, Intangibility, Soul Manipulation, Soul Absorption, Astral Projection, Teleportation, Dimensional Travel, Portal Creation, Magical Containment Spheres, Necromancy, Technopathy, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Mind Control, Mind Reading, Possession, Precognition, Memory Manipulation, Time Manipulation, Decay Manipulation, Virus Manipulation, Emotional Manipulation, Corruption, Umbrakinesis, Darkness Constructs, Hellfire Manipulation, Geokinesis, Storm Creation, Lasers, Dimensional BFR, Exists in all Reflective Surfaces, Cosmic Super Senses, Transmutation, Can Read History, Can Mask his Presence, Soul Manipulation Immunity, Anti-Intangibility, Penance Stare Resistance, Mind Manipulation Resistance, Time Manipulation Resistance, Can Summon someone’s Anthesis

Weaknesses: Death Manipulation, Suffers from Severe Mental Trauma

Destructive Capacity: Low Multiverse Level

Range: Interdimensional

Speed: MTFL+ (Quintillions)

Durability: Low Multiverse Level

Stamina: Without Limit

Intelligence: Godly, can manipulate near omniscient celestials

 

So how would he do in other verses?

Starting with the Obvious competitor to Marvel, DC Comics. Blackheart would be Extremely powerful, and an Immediate threat to DC Earth, comparable in power to the Lords of Order and Chaos. He has Stats and Abilities potent enough to fight numerous high tier JLA characters, such as Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash, at the same time, and could very well win in a one on one fight with top tier mages like Alan Scott and Kent Nelson, especially with attacks such as the Magical Containment Sphere or Summoning their Anthesis. With his Intellect however, he could potentially manipulate his way into leadership roles with Dark Gods or 5th Dimensional Imps and garder a lot more power overtime. You would likely need someone like The Spectre, The Radiant or The Phantom Stranger to guarantee a win.

While we are talking about gods, in God of War, Blackheart would be comparable in sheer power to the top tier gods of the Greek pantheon such as Hades or Poseidon, and could likely compete with Zeus to some degree of effect. His speed on the other hand would not be seen as super impressive in the verse as God of War characters at that level are superior to the Fates and have feats of Septillions of times light, and some of them can get to infinite speed. But thanks to Blackheart existing outside of time, Blitzing him will not be a simple task. This series uses many tricks that Blackheart possesses, like summoning dark copies of foes, possession, and time manipulation, but Blackheart can actually pull off a lot of abilities better than they can, having Better Soul manipulation than Hades himself, and could easily tank he and Posidon’s attacks because of his own lack of a soul, and low godly regen. But that doesn’t mean this verse will be Easy for him, as it features numerous powers that could be devastating, such as conceptual manipulation, Ares’ broken ability to steal someone’s powers for himself, or Thanatos who happens to have potent death manipulation to pull on the guy. But Blackheart’s biggest advantage in this verse isn't how well he could fight the gods, it's how he's a God Tier Manipulator, being placed in a verse full of very manipulatable gods, and that is the true terror, he could corrupt the universe against itself from the shadows, in which case the only person I could see maybe stopping him, if he played it that way, would be Odin.

Because he’s kinda like a Chaos Spawn, in Sailor Moon, Blackheart would be a devastating monster easily comparable to the top tiers in physical stats, and possesses many abilities reminiscent of the heroes old foes, like Mind and Soul manipulation, existing in reflective surfaces, spacetime manipulation, corruption and more, plus unlike them he's not weak to his own powers. He also has some really potent abilities the verse has never had to deal with including the magical containment sphere, which should be able to trap anyone, or the ability to summon an antithesis. Most of the Senshi would not be able to bring Blackheart down, including most of the outer senshi such as Setsuna, especially because time cannot affect him. What can affect him however is Death, so it's only natural that Sailor Saturn would be perfectly suited to stop him with her potent Glaive and affinity for darkness like his. While he is an incredible manipulator there are characters in this verse who have the smarts to outthink him, and he has no defense against the potent Power of Destruction possessed by Galaxia and Sailor Moon.

In The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy verse, Blackheart would be one of the most powerful entities in the series, superior to even the Greek Gods or Grim, that said they could all boost themselves beyond him if given the chance so he’d have to work swiftly if he planned to use that. Blackheart has a lot of potential for manipulation in this verse, not so much because he's smarter than the gods here, but because many of them wouldn’t mind his goals, particularly Eris would like how he's much more creative in his mayhem than the vast majority of Demons which could cause some insurmountable alliances. Blackheart would be by no means invincible in this verse however, Grim for example has powers such as death hax and regeneration nullification that can stop him from coming back. Not to mention he has no means of actually defeating Eris or the other gods himself, and even if he did it would take him with them because of their nature. Blackhearts success basically depends on how well he can manipulate the pantheon because of this, unless Grim can stop him prentively.

As it's another series that deals with High Tier comic book superheroes, in Freedom force, Blackheart would be an immediate top tier, weaker, but still comparable to entities such as Time Master or the living Energy X. His speed on the other hand would be unheard of in this verse and I’m unsure if these god entities existing outside of Spacetime would be enough to cover that as Blackheart exists outside of time at the very least, making him an incredibly dangerous foe. Blackheart can match a lot of the abilities found here such as Duplication and various forms of Spacetime manipulation, he can also protect himself from nearly all of Time Master’s by properly using his Magical Containment Sphere, as Time Master is still using the laws of the universe to attack. On the other hand, Entropy would be an Extremely difficult foe for Blackheart to fight due to her mainpower being a perfect example of his most major weakness, cosmic death manipulation, and that is in addition to her abilities to warp the laws of reality to effect his magical containment sphere, and potentially stealing his powers. That said Blackheart still has a speed advantage and should be far smarter than her, so it is still possible for him to pull off a win.

In Mortal Kombat, Blackheart would be able to compete with the Elder Gods and even Titans in terms of physical power, and would be ridonqouliously faster than anything in the series, even if you allowed MK VS DCU, but due to the surprising amount of time manipulation found in the series, including that from Kronika, they could potentially get around that. Blackheart would be a hax GOD here as well with resistance to a lot of powers from the verse including soul hax and corruption, and his duplication power in particular would be crazy hax for taking on the more well rounded fighters. He would likely seek to take over the Netherrealm from Shinnok, and is more than hax enough to pull that off. The best way to stop him would be to use Onaga’s ability to replicate his powers and likely team him up with Kronika or Ashrah to cover all bases, if they can get around his manipulation.

Skullgirls deals a lot in corruption of innocence, Blackheart would definitely be one to seek the overthrow of The Trinity of Goddesses, not for the right reasons but still. Blackheart would be a lot weaker and slower than the Trinity, as they have complete domain over an Infinite Multiverse, and have better use of spacetime manipulation than he does, they also have resistance to Mind and Soul manipulation, are conceptual plane entities, and can do many of his most broken tricks like summon HIS antithesis or seal him off in nightmare timelines. Blackheart would not be able to fight them directly, but He COULD potentially use his genius intellect and technopathy to take control of the ASG Theonite tech and reach them through Aeon’s reflective torso to surprise attack their asses with their own power, though the success rate of that is unknowable.

Puella Magi deals a great deal with corruption as well. In this verse, Blackheart would be the most powerful and fast character in the entire series in terms of sheer stats, above even entities like Kami Madoka and Akuma Homura. Despite that, these two exist outside of time and are conceptual plane entities so cannot simply be beaten with physical stats. Blackheart does not have a means of effecting the Conceptual plane directly, however Blackheart is FAR Smarter and more Cunning than the two of them and could manipulate circles around them to take control of the situation. If it came to blows, Madoka and Homura definitely have the means TO kill him if need be, including massive duplication superior to his, Reality Warping, and conceptual manipulation, But Blackheart also has a few powers that they have shown weakness too, like memory manipulation, sealing, and very potent soul manipulation, so it could go either way.

Blackheart is very powerful in many of the more traditional ways, so time to throw him against the wacky powers of Touhou Project. Here, Blackheart’s would be the strongest and fastest character by a fair margin, but due to the massive amounts of regen in this verse, that is unlikely to get him Too far. Most characters in this series are immune to mental and astral manipulation, and therefore his most effective attacks are going to be his illusions, transmutation, and his ability to exist in any reflective surface, which is quite common in the series. With his super senses and memory manipulation he can even track down characters like Koishi, and avoid the powers of Time or Fate manipulation with his timeless nature. He could also just Telekinetically avoid any Danmaku attack outright, meaning a lot of characters who tried to fight him would take a lot of physical injuries, and could be perma sealed in one of his Magical Containment Spheres. That said some characters are Conceptual or even Metafictional entities that he has no way to affect, or manipulate as characters such as Ran or Yukari are even smarter than him. The verse does have a few powers he cannot defend against as well such as Border Manipulation, Absolute Purification, and History Destruction. The One character he absolutely cannot stop is the Ghost Queen, Yuyuko Saigyouji who can immediately Death Hax him into nothingness with her presence.

Lastly, because Blackheart is an Eldritch Abomination, I only felt it fitting to compare him to the Cthulhu Mythos. In this series Blackheart would have power significantly above the titular Cthulhu and comparable to members of The Slave Race or Top Tier Great Old Ones. His speed however would be laughably slow among these entities and as they too exist outside of spacetime, Blackheart cannot really avoid a blitz. Blackheart does have a major advantage over these beings though, that being his Insane levels of manipulation, which should let him manipulate and cause chaos among these arrogant and sometimes simple minded beings like some kind of dark puppet master. In battle Blackheart cannot directly affect these conceptual entities, but still could potentially stop them with his broken ability to summon an Antithesis, as they are an equivalent opposite to whomever his foe is.