Ancient Spirits of Evil (1985)

Partners in Crime
Full Names	Unknown
Alias	Ancient Spirits of Evil
Origin	ThunderCats
Occupations	Noncorporeal Overlords
Powers/Skills	Grant empowerment to whoever summons them Vast dark magics Capable of transferring their knowledge to their summoners Manipulation Can summon and control demons Can de-materialize living beings into nothingness Eternity Curse infliction Can heal and inflict plagues Can turn people into shadow demons
Hobbies	Trollig Mumm-Ra
Goals	Rule the universe through their bound servant Mumm-Ra.
Crimes	Trickery
Type of Villains	Unseen Bigger Bads

“	Ancient Spirits of Evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living!	„
	~ Mumm-Ra

The Ancient Spirits of Evil are an unseen force in both the 1985 and 2011 ThunderCats series. The being Mumm-Ra is their bound servant, and he is dependent upon them for his power and immortality. Mumm'Ra would call upon these spirits to transform himself from his mummified form into a much more power version of himself called Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living.

Biography

1985

In the original series the four Ancient Spirits of Evil never revealed themselves. The spirits were represented by and possessed four anthropomorphic statues of a boar, crocodile, vulture, and ox. As such they represented oversized versions of Egyptian canopic jars that were often used in burials.

Originally if Mumm-Ra was in the pyramid when calling upon their power the eyes of the statues would light up as the spirits infused Mumm-Ra with the power necessary to transform into his more powerful form. Later in the series the statues would move from their pedestals at the corners of the burial chamber and would envelop Mumm-Ra with their power as he transformed. Mumm-Ra did not have to be in his pyramid, he could call upon the spirits anywhere to be transformed.

The spirits were able to speak through the cauldron in the pyramid. Their main goal was to destroy the ThunderCats.

For an unknown reason - quite possibly to troll Mumm-Ra - the Ancient Spirits of Evil once infused a captured Snarf with their power, creating a powerful being called Snarf-Ra. Snarf-Ra quickly flew off to the Cats Lair, where he quickly defeated Mumm-Ra, who flew off promising to seek revenge against the "ThunderCat Creature." Afterwards Lion-O used the Sword of Omens to return Snarf to his natural state.

As the series progressed the spirits became disappointed on Mumm-Ra's repeated failures, so they threatened to remove the Mutants and the Lunataks out of Third Earth. They punished Mumm-Ra's failures as well as his attempted rebellion against them.

Comics

In Wildstorm’s comic Thundercats Origins: Heroes and Villains an ancient Egyptian man named Wahankh - one of the reigning Pharaoh's most trusted advisers - decided to betray the Pharaoh and overthrow him in a coup. Wahankh used four magic runes which represented each of the spirits to summon them for the first time. When they appeared Wahankh requested they grant him some of their power in order to overthrow the Pharaoh and in exchange he would rule Egypt as their humble servant.

The spirits granted Wahankh's request. They infused Wahankh with their evil power, creating a powerful sorcerer. Wahankh's body mutated into a cadaverous grey form, and he became known as Mumm-Ra.

Mumm-Ra confronted the Pharaoh and demanded he bow down in front of him. However the Pharaoh's son soon defeated him in battle. Due to his years of loyal service the Pharaoh - unaware that his former adviser was now immortal - decided to grant Wahankh a noble death, being entombed alive as a mummified being in a pyramid. The Pharaoh's son, who was fully aware of Mumm-Ra's immortality took great joy in seeing Mumm-Ra entombed.

Following his entombment Mumm-Ra begged the Ancient Spirits to help him. However the spirits were not having any of that due to Mumm-Ra's incompetence in facing the Pharaoh. They ordered their servant to build the four giant statues seen in his pyramid, a task that would take over 600 years to finish. Once he completed his task they gave him the ability to become Mumm-Ra, the Ever-Living - a being of great power with the capability to defeat any Pharaoh.

2011

The Ancient Spirits of Evil as they appeared in the 2011 series.

As in the 1985 series, Mumm-Ra was the bound servant of Ancient Spirits of Evil, and was dependent upon them for his power and immortality.

Eons ago Mumm-Ra commanded a starship on behalf of the Spirits, which was crewed by a number of enslaved species, including anthropomorphic cats, lizards, jackals, monkeys, and birds. The spirits commanded Mumm-Ra to destroy the Plun-Darr star system, which he eagerly complied with in order to create material that he could fashion into a powerful sword at the cost of billions of lives. After the Sword of Plun-Darr was created the cat Leo used the scraps of the material used to create the Sword of Omens, and placed a talisman in the sword which became the Eye of Thundera.

Leo led the cats and the other species crewing Mumm-Ra's ship to mutiny against their evil undead overlord. The ship crashed on a habitable planet, with Mumm-Ra going into hibernation. Millennia later Mumm-Ra - still serving the Ancient Spirits of Evil - returned and put plans in motion to re-enslave all the species still living on Third Earth.