Malekith

Humble Beginnings - Origins

When young Malekith of the Black Bile Clan saw his 12 older brothers' heads tossed to his mother, Lady Mazerot promised he would not go off to die uselessly in a never-ending war like his siblings. Instead, she sold him into slavery for two sacks of snake livers and a barrel of pickled toads.

Though not a soldier, he still witnessed the full ravages of war as a corpse burner who would go ply his craft after battles had been waged. If some of the soldiers happened to still be clinging to life? Well, he didn't get fed to save anyone. Before long, the trolls captured Malekith and tossed him in a cell with an old wizard who helped him escape.

Malekith apprenticed under the sorcerer until one day when the elder revealed that Malekith was not only one of the most gifted spell-casters he'd ever seen, but possibly the key to ending all war. Noting that his entire life had been forged by war, Malekith responded by stabbing his mentor with every sharp piece of cutlery at the table.

As his teacher lay dying Malekith opined, "War is the fire that forges elves' souls. So long as Malekith lives, there will always be war. There must…always be war. For without war…without war…what am I?" Before dying, though, the old wizard lashed out with one final spell that would mark Malekith for all his days.

His mother got to see the black mark across his face when the Dark Elf returned home and ingratiated himself to her ravenous dogs by offering her up as a meal, thus The Wild Hunt was born as was the Dark Elf who would be king and fight Thor and other defenders of the realms on more than a few occasions.

Powers

Like all Dark Elves, Malekith possesses greater strength, stamina, speed, agility and resistance to injury than an average human as well as a much longer lifespan. Also, like his fellow Dark Elves, the Accursed one can easily be felled by iron. However, he also studied the supernatural and became the most powerful sorcerer in Svartalfheim.

Malekith is also a master manipulator thanks to both his silver tongue and his ability to actually take the form of another. He can also traverse great distances without much effort and turn mortals into his unwilling slaves with tainted faerie food. As Master of the Wild Hunt, he can call down an army of ravenous hounds who will seek out anything he desires. Finally, he often possesses a mystical artifact called the Casket of Ancient Winters which grants him any number of ice-based abilities including the power to loose ocean-freezing storms anywhere he desires.

The Storm Rages

Eons ago, a man known as Eric Willis stole the Casket of Ancient Winters from Malekith, King of the Dark Elves, after discovering the dangers it held. Because he no longer possessed the artifact, Malekith could not properly hide from Odin, which resulted in the Dark Elf's banishment. He spent untold eons in limbo until Surtur arranged for his escape. During Malekith's stay in the nothing-dimension, Willis lived a long life on Earth keeping the Cask safe, but eventually had to pass the responsibility on to his son, Roger when Malekith tracked him down.

Malekith's reappearance came about during a time when Balder the Brave had vowed to put his sword down forever. So, when Odin asked that he of all Asgardians deliver a message to Loki, the mission took on a new level of seriousness.

When Balder finally entered Loki's chambers, the trickster revealed that he'd already been visited by another, Malekith, who he described as, "He whom Odin did banish to the limbo of endless night so many ages agone." Balder recognized the Dark Elf as a threat, but could not convey Odin's message before Loki had him bound and gagged.

Pushed to the absolute brink by his knowledge that the message he needed to deliver could save untold lives, Balder picked a sword back up once again and felled Malekith's troll minions. Upon regaining his audience with Loki and the Dark Elf, the brave one slashed at the denizen of Svartalfheim only to see him disappear before his very eyes!

Able to, at last, deliver the note to Loki, Balder's heart sank and his ire raised as Odin's step-son glibly tossed the letter aside and told him he'd already decided to join forces with Malekith. For his part, the Dark Elf used his teleportation abilities to make his way to Earth in an effort to uncover the Casket of Ancient Winters from Eric Willis.

To speed up the regaining of his prized possession, Malekith not only bent humans to his will with fruits of the faerie realm, but also ordered The Wild Hunt, a legion of supernatural dog-wolves. They brought him to Roger and the Cask, but also drew the attention of Thor!

Malekith almost had his quarry, but Thor remembered his weakness for iron. Though the Dark Elf fled, he didn't go far, appearing at the home of Melodi Thor's girlfriend who was actually Lorelei, the Enchantress' sister. There he added another spell to the mead she used to keep Thor in love with her, replaced Melodi with a stand-in and left a message for Thor: go to The Cotswolds of England with the Cask to get her back.

Having seemingly bested both Thor and Roger, Malekith attempted to open the Casket on an unsuspecting world, but Roger fired off one shot at the Dark Elf, hitting him in the arm and breaking his concentration. Thor soon returned to the battle field and tussled with Malekith who used his own shape-shifting abilities to fortify his physical form.

Though Thor had beaten the Dark Elf soundly, Malekith still rose once more and managed to shatter the Casket of Ancient Winters, unleashing blizzards of unknown proportions all across the globe. The act also allowed for Surtur himself to smash through his own prison and begin making his way towards the twilight of the gods. Thor then returned to Asgard with the unconscious Malekith over his shoulder, but still had to contend with the enraged fire god.

Kurse You

Later on, Malekith's machinations came to light when the creature known as Kurse wreaked havoc on Midgard after being rejuvenated by The Beyonder for kicks. As Thor swept in to stop it, Kurse remembered his old life as Algrim the Strong, a Dark Elf,who the Accursed one tasked with killing Thor by granting him the Kurse armor.

With some help from Beta Ray Bill and The Power Pack, Thor felled Kurse. Thanks to some quick thinking on Thor's part, The Beyonder sent the addled creature to Hel where he could seek out Malekith.

The Dark Elf appeared in shadow not long after as a guest in Loki's tower on the outskirts of Asgard as the Trickster plotted his takeover of Odin's land. Malekith's presence garnered the attention of Kurse after Hela managed to kick the thing out of her domain.

Before the confrontation, though, Malekith tricked Loki's ladyfriend Lorelei into drugging Odin's stepson as well as herself. Showing his own deceptive nature, Malekith cast a spell to make Loki look like the Dark Elf. He then sent Loki-as-Malekith out on a mission that was quickly stopped by Asgardian guards, leading to imprisonment. Meanwhile, the actual Malekith took the form of Balder who was supposed to take over as the new lord of Asgard. When Kurse attacked the real Loki, he directed Kurse towards the false Balder. The whole plan backfired on The Accursed as Kurse killed him in the form of Balder, which was soon discovered by Thor and the others.

Mind Games

Malekith and Lorelei teamed up once again down the line in Hel. He pushed her to appear before Ben Grimm using her magical wiles to get him to find a love potion she'd left behind on Earth. With The Thing under a spell, Malekith broke in and had him drink the potion himself, thus putting one of the strongest beings on the planet under the Dark Elf's control leading to a titanic tussle with Thor.

When that plan failed, Malekith looked for another even more powerful being to send after the Odinson and quickly turned towards manipulating Kurse who had become an official Asgardian and roommate of Heimdall. Kurse then forced his way down into Hel to confront Malekith. This time posing as Lorelei, Malekith tricked Kurse into heading to Earth and hopped a ride with him.

Thanks to one more bit of trickery, the Accursed cast another spell that made Thor appear as Malekith to Kurse. Kurse even went so far as to recruit the Midgard Serpent and the Ravagers from the Realms of Death and Ice to take out his enemy. An epic battle broke out as The High Evolutionary, the Godpack, The Warriors Three, Heimdall and Beta Ray Bill showed up to help Thor and Sif fight the mythical monsters.

Secretly, Malekith took over Jane Foster's form and used it to trick Sif into bringing Hela into the fracas. The goddess of death cleared Kurse's vision, showing Thor's true identity, but then made a deal with Thor. She would take the Ravagers back to Hel with her if the Odinson would go with her and become her dedicated warrior.

Back on Earth, the Godpack realized Malekith's Foster ruse and outed him. Though the Dark Elf tried to escape, the enraged Kurse tracked him down and would have killed him had Sif and the Godpack not interceded. Sif implored that they trade Malekith to Hela for Thor, a gambit that paid off.

Conquests Denied

During the time when Thor had been supposedly killed by Onslaught and sent to another universe, Malekith tried taking over Asgard, but got stopped by the combined efforts of the Asgardian warriors, Cable and X-Force. He also appeared on Earth as Malcolm Keith in service of a mysterious but powerful force in exchange for eventual control of Avalon. However, he made a fierce enemy when he manipulated the dragon Drake who fried the Dark Elf out of spite.

Stay Frosty

The villain made a true return after Thor himself came back to his home reality. At that point, Odin had faced the Dark Gods and brought back all of their prisoners, even their longtime enemies, including the Dark Elf, as a way to restore order and balance. Revived, Malekith did not waste much time. He quickly killed Jagrfelm who had come to possess the Cask of Ancient Winters, taking it back for himself.

At that time Asgard's leader had fallen into the Odinsleep. Malekith took advantage of the timing used the box to call forth Pentigaar, a demon made of ice. He sent the warrior to Earth in search of Asgardian blood, specifically Thor's, but first it clashed with Balder and then accidentally brought a revitalized Beta Ray Bill forth from a cosmic egg.

Having failed in that pursuit, Malekith next sent the cold winds of Ancient Winters to plague Sif, who had take over for Odin during his time of rest. The cold quickly froze the Golden City with the hounds of the Wild Hunt attempting to pick off stragglers. Upon entering Odin's chambers, they all attacked. The Dark Elf even managed to place a pillow over the All-Father's mouth and was moments away from suffocating him when Thor, Beta Ray Bill and the Warriors Three appeared to stop him.

Between attacking Thor with the actual Casket and also bringing Kurse back into the mix, Malekith appeared close to an actual victory. In fact, the Ancient Winters spread not just across Asgard but down into Hel. Taking a page out of his enemy's playbook, Thor fooled Malekith into entering the Hall of Lost Souls while he himself sought the Gem of Infinite Suns from Odin's personal horde. The Odinson quickly used the artifact to destroy the increasingly powerful Pentigaar, break Malekith's hold on Kurse and return the cold to the Cask before sealing it with the hot stone and sending the whole package into another dimension. Sif then had the honor of knocking the villain into unconsciousness for his transgressions against her and the realm.

Prince Of Power Play

During a time when Thor had been banished by Odin, Malekith appeared to the Incredible Hercules and his father Zeus — then a mind-wiped boy — in the guise of Balder asking for help in taking on a new threat to Svartalfheim, Alflyse, Queen of the Dark Elves of the Eastern Spires. Told that the elves truly feared Thor, Malekith gave Herc a Thor-inspired new look and sent him and the lightning bearing lord of the Greek gods on their way.

Malekith set them into motion as a way to empty the throne which would lead to control of all the Nine Realms. While on the mission, Herc got along so well with the queen that they had a very exciting night. Things got crazier in the morning, though, when the hero learned that he and Alflyse were officially married and that her forces were planning on invading Midgard and then Asgard for his sake. Since the actual Asgardians wanted to stop the war, but keep the more manageable queen in power, they dressed Thor up like Hercules and the two wore each out in battle, exactly as Malekith planned. With them tired, he dropped Grendell into the mix. However, a quick bolt from Little Zeus quickly ruined those plans and sent Malekith to dream up new plans of conquest.

A Pledge of Allegiance

Malekith wound up back in Hel, part of Niffleheim. Eventually his Dark Elves broke him out of the Pit of Woe. His return to Svartalfheim proved so violent that the Realm's representative to the Congress of Worlds saw the carnage in a vision during a banquet. By the time Thor and the Asgardians responded, Malekith and his men had killed anyone who didn't pledge their allegiance to him. Vowing to make every elf see that he was their one true ruler, or die, Malekith once again called forth The Wild Hunt.

To keep her own head, Queen Alflyse secretly traveled to Nidavellir, realm of the dwarves, for safety. Back in Svartalfheim, Malekith easily bested Alflyse's best swordsman in combat. Before Thor could rush off to the faerie realm to face Malekith, his mother, Freyja stopped him, noting that the Congress of Worlds wanted a League of Realms with representatives from each to fight against The Accursed one and his rebel army.

Thor lead Sir Ivory Honeyshot of the Light Elves, Screwbeard of the Dynamite Dwarves, Oggy the Mountain Giant, Ud the Troll and Lady Wazira of the Dark Elves to face Malekith, but he escaped in the heat of battle.

Vowing to kill Malekith, the League faced his minions in Alfheim, realm of the Light Elves and Jotunheim, land of the giants. There, Malekith killed Oggy before calling in the Frost Giants who had allied themselves with the dark one. Traveling into their land would be seen as an act of war that could ravage many a realm, so the League had to stop.

To stay one step ahead of his enemies, Malekith had an agent slip a mystical bug into Thor's mead, giving the villain an unwitting ally in the League of Realms. Thor caught on, though, and made it seem like the League broke up. When everyone revealed themselves, another epic battle ensued. Malekith used many a dirty trick — including turning Thor's liver to broken glass — but the God of Thunder prevailed.

Seeing how Malekith truly represented Dark Elf ideals, the Dark Elf Tribal Council made him king instead of sending him back to Hel! When Freyja demanded he still pay for the crimes he committed against Asgard, Malekith called for a proxy and Wazira offered herself. In the wake of the encounter, the reappointed king also decided to put together his own version of the Congress of Worlds called the Dark Council.

Mandarin Four

Soon after he regained the throne, Malekith found himself talking to a mysterious ring that appeared, telling him of the dangers of Tony Stark. Using his magic, Malekith took control of the ring and took on the title of Mandarin Four. This set the king on a quest to collect all ten of the Mandarin's fabled rings.

Thanks to some help from his resident supernatural expert, Dark Angel, Iron Man took the fight to Malekith. Though initially a stealth mission, Iron Man eventually used a suit made of actual iron to take on Malekith's minions, including two that the king had granted rings to. When other Mandarin ring bearers appeared, the whole thing proved more than Malekith cared to deal with so he agreed to let Stark leave with the rings, assuming the Mandarins would follow.

Proven right, Malekith still felt a sense of victory as Terrana of the Smoke, the third Dark Elf he gave a ring to, returned with a baby torn from an Extremis subject called the Bridge who Tony and his people had been monitoring. As it turned out, the king wanted an heir.

Bad Dealings

During the events of Original Sin Nick Fury whispered something in Thor Odinson's ear that made him unworthy of lifting Mjolnir. However, the Realms were not without a Thor as a mysterious woman took up the mantle. Just before she picked up the hammer, though, Malekith lead a group of Frost Giants against an underwater Roxxon research facility in the Norwegian Sea looking for something they uncovered: the skull of Laufey, former king of the Frost Giants and Loki's father.

When the Odinson attacked the giants in a sorry state, Malekith mocked him relentlessly before slicing off his opponent's left arm. The elf king met the new Thor when she flew in to stop his attack on Roxxon Island, though she lacked her uru hammer after it got trapped inside an adamantium-lined vault with Roxxon's CEO Dario Agger.

While Thor busied herself fighting the Giants, Malekith used his sorcery to open Agger's vault where the CEO finally unleashed his inner Minotaur. The two fought long enough for Thor to regain her hammer and use it to smash the skull to bits. After Odinson returned and got into it with Thor, Malekith disappeared, but only after burning the former thunder god's arm to ash!

After the gods flew off, Malekith and Agger met once again so the CEO could give the Dark Elf the real skull of Laufey in exchange for mineral rights to all realms conquered by Malekith including Svartalfheim. While Thor fought the Destroyer, Malekith took Agger to Alfheim where they both killed a great deal of Light Elves. The dark king then used the elf blood in a spell that brought Laufey back to life in Jotunheim.

Wedding Bell Blues

Just before the reality altering events of Secret Wars, Malekith made his presence known to Angela, she of the recently rediscovered tenth realm of Angels called Heven. Before disappearing, he told the secret sister of Thor that, thanks to Freyja's vengeance eons ago, Angels secretly toiled in piteous torment after dying in Hel. Since Angela had lead to Sera's death, that meant that she was there too, suffering because of her friend.

When reality came back to normal, Jane Foster carried on as the Mighty Thor even as cancer threatened her mortal life while Malekith and his associates did the same for all life in the realms. He kicked off a War of the Realms in fact, when he dumped a legion of Light Elves in Earth's orbit so that they would crash to the surface below. At this point, the membership of the Dark Council came to light. In addition to Malekith and Agger, it counted Ulik the Troll, a lava being from Muspelheim, King Laufey of the Frost Giants, The Enchantress and Loki among its members.

In an effort to distract Malekith while her mages got their people to the land of the Dwarves, Light Elf Queen Aelsa Featherwine sought an audience with her dark counterpart. Once alone, Enchantress worked her own magic on the queen so that she would marry the king and unite the two elf realms! Immediately after the ceremony, Malekith had Aelsa locked up in a cell.

Kurse Words

Malekith's war against the realms proved a raging success. It seemed like few could stand in his way, though this new Thor and an updated League of Realms certainly tried. The free, surviving members found themselves joined by Lady Sif, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Roz Solomon, Angela, Ro Bloodroot the Wood Wizard of Vanaheim and the Mountain Giant Titanya. One of their early missions focused on extracting Queen Aelsa from Malekith's clutches, but the dark one surprised them with an all-new Kurse to deal with.

The Accursed one had de-powered the former Kurse, Algrim, and swapped him out for Wazira in Hel before making her the new Kurse. While the Dark Elves and Kurse battled the League, Malekith made off with his "associates" Loki and Aelsa. Before leaving Alfheim, Malekith made his wife realize that he'd only used the realm as a place to test his soldiers and abuse the resources before moving on. He then did so, but only after biting her tongue from her royal mouth.

War Monger

Not satisfied with one war, Malekith began another one between the kingdoms of Asgard and Shi'Ar with some help from Loki. With his opponents distracted and both his own elves and the Frost Giants waiting to attack, Malekith made a trip to Muspelheim to await the coming of Cindr The Queen of that realm and daughter of Surtur. After inquiring about her loyalty, he then used his Black Bifrost Bridge to visit Heven and Old Asgard where he told Mangog where the Asgardians were and then nearly killed Volstagg, who had become The War Thor not long before.

Mangog tore through Asgardia, but Odin, Freyja and their son stood in the creature's way. However, when they fell, the dying Jane Foster risked her own life once more by turning into Thor to stop the being of pure destruction. With the Asgardians decimated and Thor temporarily no more, the Angels agreed to join Malekith's side.

Now, with what seems like an unstoppable army at his back and realms already reeling from his attacks, it seems like Malekith stands on the precipice of total victory. Then again, he does have the newly worthy Thor Odinson to deal with. Not to mention a lot of angry Asgardians, Light Elves, Trolls, Dwarves, Valkyries and those troublesome super heroes of Midgard.