Origin
Atum is son of the female Elder God known as Gaea or Mother Earth and the Demiurge, which is the sentient life-force of the Earthâs biosphere. Mother Earth dispersed her own immortal energies into the planet that bears her name. When Mother Earth / Gaea gave birth to Atum he began a campaign to destroy all the Elder Gods who had fallen from their original divine nature and turned into monstrous demons. These murderous demonic entities were waging cannibalistic wars against each other to try and gain the most power. Atum’s war against the demons ended their chaotic age but in the process of defeating the demonic Elder Gods by, ironically, consuming them, Atum became the Demogorge, a fairly monstrous entity all on its own.
Atum left Earth to radiate all the divine energies he had absorbed from demonkind. Atum’s monstrous form that comes about when he has devoured massive quantities of evil energy is a kind of Jekyll-Hyde effect- his darkside, as it were. He departs to purge himself before returning to his home with Earth’s sun. When Gaea deemed the dinosaurs and evolutionary dead end and sought to replace them with mammals Set opposed her. He had come to feed off their life energies and wished to continue so. She called upon Atum to defend her. During the conflict Atum cut off Set’s head several times only for two more to grow in its place. After a fierce battle that lasted ages Atum was eventually able to drive him off, but the battle had destroyed the dinosaurs.
Creation
Atum is a Marvel comics character first appearing in Strange Tales #70. the character is created by Alan Zelenetz and Robert Hall.
Character Evolution
During the Atlantis Attacks event, Atum was summoned by Thor, his half-brother, to help battle Set.
Major Story Arcs
A group of death-gods agreed to merge their realms together in an effort to gain more souls and increase their waning power. This upset the cosmic axis and summoned Atum in his Demogorge form early. He thought it was time to end thecurrent gods. After devouring the death-gods he was opposed by a team of sun and thunder gods sent by Earth’s pantheons to stop him. He devoured each of them, but the fighting spirit of Thor was too strong for him to fully consume and attacked him from within. Realizing it was not yet his time he released the gods he had consumed and reverted to Atum. He then returned to the sun after the cosmic axis was corrected and the death-gods realm was separated again.
When the elder snake god Set achieved the power to manifest on Earth again, the god eater was asked by Thor to help. Eventually Atum appeared and assaulted Set until the serpent’s power was exhausted. When the Greek Titan king Cronus launched an assault on Olympus once again, Atum observed and warned the Olympians that if Cronus won, the Greek gods would all be devoured by Demogorge. Hercules fought off the giants and the titan king, before turning to challenge the Devourer as well.
Atum left Earth to radiate all the divine energies he had absorbed from demonkind. Atum’s monstrous form that comes about when he has devoured massive quantities of evil energy is a kind of Jekyll-Hyde effect- his darkside, as it were. He departs to purge himself before returning to his home with Earth’s sun. When the threat of the Skrull Invasion was brought before the Council of Godheads, the Heliopolis deities sent Atum. He joined Hercules’ god-squad on their journey to the home of the Skrull pantheon. Once there he joined the Earth’s Gods assault on the Skrull fortress. Atum died in the battle against the Skrull god Sl’gur”t. After trying to consume the deity, Atum exploded, because he had so many multiple godheads in one he couldn’t contain all of their energies.
Powers and Abilities
Atum resides in the sun and is completely immune to the heat, pressure and cosmic forces of the sun. He can also absorb/consume foes thereby gaining all of their abilities. Atum is by a considerable margin one of the most powerful entities of the whole Marvel Universe. Atum is an extremely mighty being with unbelievable power sufficient to singlehandedly defeat the elder gods, or simultaneously overcome multiple pantheons of deities all by his lonesome. Atum possesses the power of the Sun itself, and can project intense forms of both heat and light and can also fly at the speed of light. Atum also possesses the power of flight. When fighting gods, Atum quickly reverts to God Eater form, and while possessing incredible strength, stamina, and flight in this form, it is not totally invulnerable as it has been hurt by divine weapons of exceptional quality. The God Eater’s most disturbing trait is its ability to convert gods into energy and absorb them through orifices in the palms of its hands. During this act the rapidly dissolving god’s form can be seen coursing through the God Eater’s veins. A god consumed by the God Eater retains some shape and sentience and manifests as a face on the entity’s body. Probably like all gods he has resistance to all Earthly diseases and toxins and some resistance to magic.
Physical Characteristics
- Height: 10′
- Weight: 3700 lbs
- Hair: None
- Eyes: Red