M'nagalah (New Earth)

M'nagalah
Mainstream Universe‎‎, 1950s-2011‎
Gallery
Real Name	M'nagalah
Main Alias	M'nagalah
Other Aliases	The Cancer God
Base Of Operations	Ivy Town, Connecticut · previously Perdition, Pennsylvania
Status
Alignment	Bad
Identity	Secret Identity
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Deity
Characteristics
Gender	Genderless
Hair	Yellow
Origin
Universe	Earth-One · New Earth
Creators	Len Wein · Bernie Wrightson
First Appearance	Swamp Thing #8 (February, 1974)

M'nagalah is a shapeless alien life form, an enemy of Swamp Thing.

History

He is the self-proclaimed father of life on not only this Earth dimension, but many parallel worlds. He is considered the face and fountain of all human knowledge. He is the Cancer God. Manifesting on Earth some 200,000 years ago, he chose which life forms would prosper and survive their own evolution and which ones would serve only as food. As humanity began to grow, M'nagalah used his telepathic abilities to inspire the imagination of select individuals. In 1827, M'nagalah used his powers to inspire Edgar Allan Poe. In 1866, he reached out to inspire the creative energy of writer Ambrose Bierce. In 1896, M'nagalah's essence touched the mind of a six-year-old boy from Providence, Rhode Island named Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Lovecraft would grow up to become one of the most acclaimed writers of horror fiction of the 20th century.

Years later, a man named Abraham Monroe from the Pennsylvania mining town of Perdition used a spell book to evoke the essence of M'nagalah. Since that time, M'nagalah kept the community locked in a grip of evil. He began nesting in an old mine shaft called Tunnel 13 and over the span of generations continued to grow in both size and influence. In January of 1974, the plant elemental known as the Swamp Thing came to Perdition. Jason Monroe, the great-grandson of Abraham Monroe was a slave to M'nagalah's whims and lured the Swamp Thing to Tunnel 13 so that M'nagalah could take control of him. By absorbing the Swamp Thing's mass, M'nagalah would have acquired enough raw power to dominate all of mankind. The Swamp Thing resisted M'nagalah's power and caused a section of the mine to collapse, trapping M'nagalah beneath a ton of debris.

A piece of M'nagalah clung to Jason, who visited his cousin, Dr. Heathcliff Monroe, thinking it was some sort of skin disease. M'nagalah promised Heathcliff power if he were to assist in bringing his "relatives" to Earth. When the Challengers of the Unknown member Prof Haley was infected with M'nagalah, the other Challengers brought him to Perdition to see Dr. Munroe, who intended to use them to fulfill M'nagalah's goals. The Challengers, with the help of the Swamp Thing, defeated M'nagalah.

Years passed, and M'nagalah continued to live and slowly regain his power. He became aware of an ideological war brewing between factions of chaos and order; faith and reason. M'nagalah somehow freed himself from Tunnel 13 and took up residence in the sewer systems beneath the city of Ivy Town. As Lord of Cancer, he began spreading his infection across the town's inhabitants in preparation for a battle with an alien race known as the Waiting. This brought him into contact with Ryan Choi, a twenty-six year old physics professor who had only recently assumed the mantle of the Atom. M'nagalah was in awe of Ryan's ability to alter his atomic size and tried to absorb him into his being. The Atom resisted M'nagalah's thrall, but there was another who did not - Giganta. Infected by M'nagalah's cancer, Giganta fought with the Atom and temporarily caused him great discomfort by swallowing him. After this battle, M'nagalah rose from his subterranean domain and manifested himself in Ivy Town.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Alien Physiology
  • Immortality: According to the creature itself, M'nagalah is as old as life on Earth.
  • Telepathy: As M'nagalah does not have a physical mouth, it must communicate with others via telepathy.
  • Matter Absorption: M'nagalah possesses the ability to absorb biological matter, adding it to his own prodigious mass. Absorbing living human beings does not necessarily kill the person in question. They merely became a sentient aspect of M'nagalah's greater whole.
  • Infection: As the Cancer God, M'nagalah can infect others with a toxin that mentally enslaves them to his cause. The infection produces a variety of physical symptoms as well, including boils and lesions that grow across the affected victim's skin.

Notes

• Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.

Related

• Appearances of M'nagalah (New Earth)
• Images featuring M'nagalah (New Earth)
• Quotations by or about M'nagalah (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: M'nagalah (New Earth)

Footnotes

Swamp Thing villains(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of Swamp Thing. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Swamp Thing Villains."

Atom Villain(s) This character is or was primarily an enemy of one or more of the heroes called the Atom. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Atom Villains category."

Swamp Thing Character This character specifically relates to the Swamp Thing and is predominantly seen in the Swamp Thing family of titles. This character may be part of the Swamp Thing's supporting cast, a minor acquaintance, or one of his adversaries. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the Swamp Thing Characters category.