—Mister Misery[source]I want you to know I take no joy from this. Pleasure, yes. An immense amount of pleasure. But no joy.
History
"The Thing in the Cellar" was the alias attributed by Doctor Strange to a magical being he created, a vessel to reposition all the pain and suffering that using magic would otherwise cause him. Its name was derived in part due to it being kept in the basement of the Sanctum Sanctorum.[2]
When the Empirikul assaulted the Earth to purge it of magic, they razed the Sanctum Sanctorum.[3] Several of them fell to the Thing in the Cellar, to the point their leader, the Imperator, was forced to confront it personally. While he was battling it, Doctor Strange and other sorcerers arrived, armed with several items which contained the last traces of magic in the world.[4] Despite its deep hatred for its creator, The Thing in the Cellar joined forces with Doctor Strange to defeat their common enemy since it wanted to kill Strange on its own terms. The Thing in the Cellar was freed of Doctor Strange's suffering when his pain was distributed among countless willing recipients, people from all over that he had previously helped. The Thing expressed feelings of nothingness after being freed, even though it expected to experience joy, which caused it to consider seeking revenge.[2]
After failing to ignore its need to absorb suffering, The Thing in the Cellar began to terrorize citizens to feed off their pain. During a brief encounter with Doctor Strange, who tried to get The Thing to stop, the creature revealed that it had adopted a moniker to mirror the name of his creator, Mister Misery.[1] Strange defeated Misery, prompting the creature to lay low until finding a young teenager named Calvin Morse, who was hurt the same way he was. Realizing he could benefit from his pain, Misery disguised himself as a magical jacket and bonded with Calvin.[5]
When Calvin enrolled in Strange Academy, Misery could only think about torturing Strange, but he chose to remain hidden and learn more before he was strong enough to face his maker.[5] Upon returning from a field trip to Asgard,[6] Calvin's classmate Toth found out about Mister Misery, so he possessed Calvin and proceeded to shatter Toth, stealing his heart shard so he couldn't be revived. However, when Calvin accidentally found the shard in his pocket, Misery had to possess him once again and finally reveal himself to everyone.[7]
To defeat Misery, Dessy decided to feed him all the suffering in existence using her powers. As it became too much for him to handle, Calvin managed to break free, and, in the end, Dessy devoured Misery.[5] Later, after Dessy quit Strange Academy alongside other students, they brought Misery back to Calvin so he would join them, but Calvin was able to remain in control and expelled Misery with a spell.[8]Notes
- "The Thing in the Cellar" was the name of a story in Weird Tales by science fiction, fantasy and horror author David H. Keller published in March 1932.
See Also
- 13 appearance(s) of Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 2 minor appearance(s) of Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 5 mention(s) of Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 13 image(s) of Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Mister Misery (Earth-616)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Mister Misery (Earth-616)