Origin[]

The Multiversal Masters of Evil was formed when Mephisto approached Doom Supreme in Earth-616's past, who was observing the local prehistoric Avengers. Claiming that it was dangerous to challenge them alone, Mephisto suggested the time-travelling Doom Supreme to start a team. Doom accepted Mephisto's proposal and went on to recruit some of the deadliest villains in the Multiverse: Kid Thanos, Dark Phoenix and her pet Berserkers, King Killmonger, Ghost Goblin (Norman Osborn), and the Black Skull.^[4]

Naming themselves the Masters of Evil, the team hopped from universe to universe, slaying the local Prehistoric Avengers at the ancient past in order to rewrite the future as they saw fit. Their incursions were often opposed by a group of reality-hopping Deathloks deployed by Avenger Prime, the guardian of the God Quarry. Despite the continued interference of these Deathloks, the villains were able to conquer hundreds of Earths during their quest for power.^[5][4]

Hunting Deathloks[]

As part of their agreement with the Council of Red, Doom and his Masters of Evil were not allowed to rewrite the timeline of Earth-616 until it was the last reality standing, thus the group didn't interact with it in any capacity since formation. However, when the Deathloks fled to present-day Earth-616 to warn its Avengers about their activities, the Masters had no other choice than to enter the reality to destroy them.^[2][8] Launching a multipronged attack, the Masters of Evil were able to destroy all Deathloks, but couldn't prevent the cyborgs from delivering their warning message to the Avengers, with whom the Masters came into conflict during their hunt.^[9] They left Earth-616 as soon as their mission was accomplished and after Doom Supreme spoke with Mephisto and Iron Inquisitor.^[8]

All-Rider[]

The Black Skull took over Earth-818 but was defeated by the native heroes and Robbie Reyes, the All-Rider. His variants arrived from other universes but were also defeated with help from the Goddesses of Thunder.^[10] He was soon replaced by another Black Skull variant.^[11]

Avengers Assemble[]

Once the Masters of Evil were finished with the other Earths,^[12] they begun their attack on Earth-616's prehistory, but were met with fierce resistence from its prehistory Avengers and its time-travelling modern Avengers. Doom Supreme killed the prehistoric Starbrand and Ghost Rider, and blinded Agamotto, but after a nine day battle, the Avengers defeated most of the Masters of Evil which resulted in the deaths of Berserker, Ghost Goblin, and King Killmonger while Black Skull was defeated, deprived of his Symbiote which briefly possessed Kid Thanos, and left unconscious.^[13][14] Doom Supreme abandoned the Masters of Evil while Young Thanos and Dark Phoenix escaped; Dark Phoenix Mystique soon realized that Doom Supreme had been using them as a distraction.^[15] In secret, Doom Supreme had been amassing an army of his own counterparts, including Doom the Living Planet.^[11] He went on to attack his true target: the God Quarry.^[16]

Mephisto returned to Earth-616's genesis point and Kid Thanos informed him that his plan had failed while collecting the corpses of his fellow teammates and the Symbiote-less Black Skull. However, Mephisto was actually after the First Firmament beneath the Quarry and the Masters were simply pawns used to weaken the barrier. The red devil had been siphoning energy from all the universes the Masters of Evil had assaulted and used that power to absorb the remaining members of the Council of Red. While Doom Supreme and the Avengers fought each other, a supersized Mephisto began digging to reach the First Firmament.^[7]

Dark Phoenix attacked Doom Supreme in the the God Quarry, but he embraced her with a kiss instead. When Dark Phoenix tried to combat the Avengers gathered at the Quarry, she was struck down by the efforts of Firehair and Thor. Their attack also shattered the God Quarry.^[17] Doom Supreme attempted to harness the power of the First Firmament to take over the Multiverse but was overwhelmed and was petrified. Dark Phoenix recovered but was defeated once and for all by the Avengers' Phoenixes, ending the Masters of Evil.^[18]

• It is stated that the Masters of Evil successfully wasted 615 Earths.^[18] However, it does not appear that these Earths are in any particular order as Earth-56337 was one of the Earths affected.^[19]

• Doom Supreme sees the others as nothing more than a pack of hunting dogs.^[11]