Mephisto
- Debut: The Silver Surfer #3 (December 1968)
- Created By: Stan Lee & John Buscema
We might already be getting a lot of flack for even adding Mephisto to this list at all. He’s known to be mostly a Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange and Ghost Rider villain. He remained mostly connected to them for a long time. However, in later periods, he ends up in battles with Spider-Man quite often. Mephisto is essentially Marvel’s version of The Devil. He is said to be responsible for a lot of the evil that has taken place on Earth. In fact, Mephisto is said to be responsible for both Norman & Harry Osborn’s turn to the dark side. Harry eventually dies after this turn, which is key to remember. Soon, May Parker is going to die so Peter makes a deal with Mephisto to save her. Yet this being has no concept of good, so anything he does for another comes at a massive price.
For many, he would simply take their soul. Yet Spider-Man would be taking eternal punishment for a righteous reason, which disgusts Mephisto. This gives him the idea for another plan. Due to hating the happiness of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson, he decides to retcon their lives. In this new reality, MJ and Peter never get married. However, this is a huge issue as the two would still have knowledge of each other’s existence. Thus, at MJ’s request, Mephisto erases all knowledge of Peter’s identity. Yet a lot comes with that, including that their future daughter will be erased too. In this new reality, Harry is now alive as the timeline change brought him back and we find out that Norman faked Harry’s death. Mephisto literally changed the entire life of Spider-Man.