Mephisto (Marvel)

"Many are the good men who can resist murder, theft, and cruelty. But a touch of greed? A bit of laziness? These are the seeds of the ruination that can bring down the best of men!"

- Mephisto

Mephisto, sometimes using the name Mephistopheles or even Satan (among many others) is a powerful demonic super-villain from Marvel comics and is one of several such demons that feed off humanity's belief in The Devil so as to masquerade as Satan himself. In reality however Mephisto's origin seems to lie with the primordial Elder-Gods that ruled earth before being banished by Atum the God-Eater, the exact nature of this origin varies with story to story but tends to vary between the old gods becoming corrupt or the demons being formed by the already plentiful corruption found in the Elder-Gods.

At any rate Mephisto now rules over his own dark dimension, commonly called Hell but not related to the Biblical realm (though to the average human being it may as well be as it is equally as horrific), within this realm Mephisto rules supreme with only demons such as Blackheart (his own son) being capable of challenging him there.

Outside his realm however Mephisto becomes much more restrained, although still a virtually limitless sorcerer - he is aware of these limits and seeks ways to expand his influence throughout time/space but also, like many demons, enjoys causing misery and deception for no apparent reason other than malice. Mephisto's main enemies are the Silver Surfer, Fantastic Four, Dr. Strange, and Ghost-Rider, Ghost-Rider is especially prominent since he was formed due to a pact with Mephisto but dedicated himself to stopping the devil rather than working as his servant.

When May Parker died, Mephisto offered Spider-Man the chance to bring her back. In exchange, Peter had to surrender his love for Mary Jane.

Mephisto is also an enemy of Doctor Doom due to the demon having trapped and tormented the soul of his mother, Cynthia Von Doom (note that this is only relevant to the comic canon and may or may not apply to other versions of Dr. Doom).

Movie Appearance
Mephisto, played by Peter Fonda, appeared in the film Ghost Rider as the Bigger Bad/secondary antagonist, while his son Blackheart is the main antagonist. During Wild West times, he had a Ghost Rider named Carter Slade ride to the town of San Venganza and retrieve a supernatural contract that contains 1,000 mortal souls, supposedly to bring them to Hell. However, Slade discovered how powerful it was and he couldn't let the Devil get it. So he runs off with it and does what no other Rider before had done; he outran the Devil himself.

Ghost Rider
In the movie's actual events, Mephistopheles appears before Johnny Blaze whom he tricked into giving up his soul in return for saving his father from cancer, yet have him killed in a motorcycle accident. He ordered Johnny as an adult (now as Ghost Rider) to hunt his reluctant son Blackheart and destroy him before he finds the Contract of San Venganza that will give him the power to even overthrow his own father.

Johnny succeeded in defeating Blackheart and destroying the thousand evil souls of San Vengeanza that Blackheart consumed. In happiness, the Devil appears at the church in San Venganza, where Blackheart's body laid and where Johnny stood. Mephisto offers to give Johnny his soul back and let someone else be the Ghost Rider. Johnny refuses, claiming that he shall "own" this curse and use it against the lord of evil that deceived him. Mephisto proclaims that he will make Johnny pay for this, then is given the response "You can't live in fear". Mephisto yells out "NO!!!" and turns into smoke, taking Blackheart's body back to Hell with him. He returns to Earth later on.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
In the sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, Mephisto is now going by the name "Roarke" and is the main antagonist. It is revealed that while he walks the earth in human form, he is weak and must send people to do his bidding by using what Johnny calls his greatest power; the power of "the Deal", where he takes a mortal's soul away and enters their body, or has them become his Ghost Rider minions. He attempted to transfer his soul into the body of a boy named Danny, whose mother made a deal with him to save her life. This transfer would make him powerful, since Danny is literally the spawn of all evil. As Mephisto put it, it's a pain to stay in human form, as his various bodies throughout the centuries were never made to do the things he could do, but since Danny is a hybrid of demon and human, entering his body will allow him to use his powers on Earth.

He sent Ray Carrigan, a drug dealer, to capture Danny for him, but Carrigan was mortally wounded by Johnny. However, Roarke transformed Johnny into Blackout, allowing him to decay whatever thing he touches. He eventually gets Danny and brings him to a ruined Colosseum, where his wealthy followers arrive one at a time. He reveals his plan to enter Danny's body and must hold a ceremony where his followers must dress in black robes and chant Latin while Roarke and Danny sit at the Colosseum center. Johnny, Nadya and monk Moreau arrive with their guns and disrupt the ceremony. Moreau is decayed, but smashes his head into Blackout's face. Johnny is brought before the audience by Blackout, now about to decay him. Danny approaches him, then roars fire into his face, turning Johnny into the Ghost Rider and sending all the Devil's present followers to Hell with his fiery chain. Roarke tries to flee in a car with Danny, now unconscious, while his minions drove in armed trucks to stop Ghost Rider from following him.

Even still, all of the trucks were destroyed, and Blackout was attacked by Ghost Rider's Penance Stare power, killing him. The Rider then throws his chain and rips a part of Roarke's car out from the bottom, sending it tumbling off the road and into the desert, where Danny had been wounded but Roarke was unharmed (likely because he was not really human). Johnny then ties his chain around Roarke's waist, throws him way up into the air and brings him smashing down to the desert ground, where he falls into the planet's crust and is burned alive. Roarke was now back in Hell and Johnny heals Danny, foiling the villain's plan.