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"I am so much more than a god!"
—Mallus[src]


Mallus is a mysterious entity that exists, rises and dies throughout time. According to John Constantine, it is supposed to be a demon of the highest order.[1] Unable to directly threaten the populations of other dimensions, it works through avatars and intermediaries.

Biography

Centuries ago, the Lost Tribe of Zambesi that guarded the land of the dead with the Death Totem formed an alliance with Mallus, causing him to form a link with the totem, but he was soon imprisoned by the bearers of other five Totems of Zambesi within a cage of time. This prison exists beyond the astral plane, which separates the real world from Mallus' prison. In order to free himself from his confines, there must be enough rift and destruction in the fabric of time to release him.[2]

According to Rip Hunter, Mallus was perceived as a myth, existing throughout all of the time, and known by many different names in all types of languages. Rip also states that the Time Masters were too frightened to even speak his name. Mallus acquired followers to aid in his endeavors, such as the Order of the Shrouded Compass.[3]

Plotting his escape

Following the Legends' time storm that disrupted history and created anachronisms,[4] Mallus took advantage of the disruption to maintain the anachronisms and deteriorate time as well as his prison. To create more temporal disruption from beyond his cage, he resurrected people who he also deemed worthy of wielding the totems that imprisoned him to prevent them from being used to stop him again.[2]

Eleanor possessed by Mallus

Mallus speaking through Nora

Agent Ava Sharpe mentioned that Mallus became a threat after the Legends "broke" time.[5] After Kuasa was resurrected by a servant of Mallus, she told her that Mallus requested her services.[6] Mallus was hunted throughout time by Rip Hunter for years. Mallus later ordered Nora Darhk to travel to London 1895 and resurrect Damien Darhk. During the ceremony, Rip Hunter interrupted them and demanded to Nora to speak with Mallus. Without hesitation, Nora agreed and within seconds, Mallus took possession of her body and stated to Rip that it was a pleasure to meet him. Rip then demanded to see his true form, Mallus wickedly laughed and said that he wouldn't live when he saw his true form and claimed that while Rip was mortal, he was a god. Just before Damien was resurrected, Mallus stopped possessing Nora.[3]

Mallus was not seen again for a while until the Legends crossed paths with the Darhks again, this time in the year 1000 A.D. while endeavoring to rescue a younger Martin Stein from Vikings and preventing the modern-day United States from becoming New Valhalla. During a pitched battle between the two sides, Damien came rushing to his daughter's aid, using his time stone to transport them away. As they did so, White Canary grabbed on to Darhk and was transported suddenly to a dark, desolate place, the very dimension in which Mallus was imprisoned. Mallus called out to her from the darkness, never revealing his face or true form. Declaring his name when asked who he was, Mallus swore that he would soon be free and that the entire world would soon be subjected to unendurable pain. Canary could only look on in stunned terror as a huge, black hand reached out towards her from out of nowhere as ghoulish laughter echoed all around before she was yanked back into her own world by Agent Sharpe through a portal hovering nearby.[7]

Possessing Nora Darhk

While possessing a young Nora Darhk in 2017, Mallus soon attracted the attention of the notorious warlock John Constantine who subsequently broke into the mental hospital Nora had been placed in to exorcise her. Constantine, unfortunately, had no idea what he was really blundering into and recklessly tried to banish Mallus from the girl with an ordinary exorcism without knowing the entity's name first; Mallus merely laughed it off and derided Constantine's efforts, citing his failure to save Astra, his own eternal damnation and his efforts to save the soul of Sara Lance. Frightened by Mallus' power, Constantine fled the hospital and went in search of Sara.

Mallus didn't have to wait long before Constantine returned to the hospital with the Legends in tow to help him. Once he, Sara Lance and Leo Snart had revived the catatonic Nora inside a magical seal known as the Triangle of Solomon, Mallus soon emerged and greeted them, focusing on Sara and remarking on how he had been expecting her; that she would soon see his true form when he took her back to his world for all eternity. Wasting no time, Constantine launched into another exorcism, this using Mallus' name to amplify it. Laughing ghoulishly, Mallus once more shrugged off Constantine's exorcism without even trying and simply strode out of the Triangle, bellowing that Constantine's powers were useless against him. Telekinetically tossing the group aside, Mallus quickly scrawled a temporal displacement symbol on the ground and cast the group back in time to the 1960s version of the same hospital before withdrawing back into Nora. Obsessed with taking possession of Sara Lance, Mallus reached out telepathically to her in the 1960s and began haunting her, giving her hallucinations and dredging up her worst memories so as to incited enough fear and rage within her to prime her for possession. He was foiled in this regard by Constantine who coached Sara through the process of resisting possession.

Meanwhile back in 2017, Mallus revealed himself to Zari and Ray in Jitters after they attempted to help Nora reenter normal life and mocked their efforts. Roaring, screaming and bellowing as the building shook with tremors all around, Mallus ignored their appeals to Nora and threw Ray against a wall when he got too close. In response, Zari moved to grab Nora by the arm which unexpectedly started to badly burn the entity. Horrified and roaring with pain, Mallus accused Zari of being 'one of the six' and tried to fire a swarm of glass shards at her. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Nora reasserted control over herself with the help of Sara, temporarily silencing Mallus.

Targeting White Canary

Determined to win over Sara Lance as an ally, Mallus concluded that, as a former assassin, she would be the perfect candidate to bear the Death Totem and thus be swayed to fight for him. To that end, he once more reached out to her in the temporal zone, this time more cautiously by disguising his telepathic voice as Sara's own and projecting harmless illusions into her mind via the Death Totem, which at the same time had already begun drawing her to it so as to ensnare a new bearer with promises of power over death. Sara was unable to resist the pull nor Mallus' influence and put it on, allowing Mallus to take her over completely and transporting her mind to his home dimension.

Wielding the Death Totem, Mallus rampaged throughout the locked-down Waverider, gravely injuring Ray and laying out Amaya, Mick, Zari, Wally and Nate in quick succession with relative ease while shrugging off Sara's efforts to reassert control over her body. Suddenly Ava Sharpe appeared through a temporal window with Gary and John Constantine in tow. Undaunted, Mallus casually tossed the Time Bureau agents aside telekinetically and taunted Constantine by mimicking the voice of Astra and trying to convince him to trade her soul for Sara's to which Constantine refused. Enraged, Mallus began telekinetically choking Constantine when the Death Totem suddenly began glowing on its own, triggered due to the activation of the restored Fire Totem by Mick. Mallus raced to the lab Mick and Amaya were in but was stopped in his tracks when Mick hurled a miniaturized sun at him, forcing Mallus to telekinetically catch and contain it and force it back. Seeing an opening, Mick hurled a fireball at Mallus and knocked him out.

Furious and smarting over being overpowered by Mick, Mallus frantically tried to revive his vessel but despite help from the younger Darhk, Sara rejected Nora's offers of power and an alliance with Mallus and expelled him from her body as well as the influence of the Death Totem.

Assuming his true form

Eventually, Kuasa began having second thoughts about helping the Darhks to free Mallus and double-crossed them by returning the Anansi totem, which the Darhks had stolen, to Amaya. In retaliation, Nora used her magic to extract the Water totem's powers from Kuasa's body, killing Kuasa in the process.[8] Losing Kuasa prompted Amaya to take the Waverider's jump ship to 1992 Zambesi, the day before her village is attacked by warlords, Amaya's 1992-self dies, and her family is torn apart. Ultimately, the Legends decide to allow this anachronism to happen to the timeline, in order to free Mallus so that they can take him down once and for all.[9]

The plan backfired, however, due to Darhk's sabotage in hopes of freeing Nora by losing Grodd on the village. The Legends scatter in the chaos and Nora is set free by her father while the team battles Grodd. Once the rampaging gorilla is defeated, Mallus is freed, and Nora painfully transforms into the demon's true form.

Personality

Whilst possessing Nora, Mallus is shown to be a malevolent entity whose very existence even scared the Time Masters. Mallus is also extremely arrogant, referring to Rip Hunter as "hopelessly mortal", compared to his presumed status as a higher being. When Sara Lance accidentally entered the very dimension he was imprisoned in, he vowed to her that once he is freed from his prison, he will make her entire world know unendurable pain.

Powers and abilities

Powers

  • Demonic physiology: Mallus is a primordial, mysterious, malevolent and extremely powerful being, whom John Constantine identified to be a demon of the highest order. Mallus possesses tremendous amounts of maleficent supernatural power and has so far shown the following powers and abilities.[10]
    • Immortality: Mallus states that Rip Hunter is "hopelessly mortal", suggesting that Mallus is immortal. It is known that the ancient Zambezi tribes sealed him away, suggesting that he is a primordial demonic entity.
    • Supernatural Immunity: Mallus was immune to John Constantine's traditional magic and exorcisms, even going so far as to be immune to a trap that Constantine boasted to be able to hold any demon. It should be noted, however, that he was vulnerable when splashed with holy water.
    • Demonic possession: Mallus displays the ability to possess and speak through Nora Darhk.[3] This possession is characterized by his target's eyes turning blood red. In the sense, he gained absolute control over Nora's body and inhabited her.
      • Demonic Transformation: Upon gaining complete control over Nora, he fully inhabited her body and transformed her human physiology into a powerful demonic physiology, with extremities like claws, tails and demonic wings and horns.
    • Power bestowal: Mallus was able to grant Damien and Nora Darhk powers similar to those obtained through the Khushu Idol and a few extra powers.
      • Photokinesis: Mallus was able to grant Nora the powers to control condensed light blasts while being channeled through her.[10]
      • Thermokinesis: Mallus was able to grant Nora the powers to control fire and ice while being channeled through her.[10][7]
      • Mediumship: Mallus was able to grant Nora the ability to communicate with deceased spirits as well as himself. It's possible he granted Damien the same ability.
      • Superhuman durability: Mallus can grant Nora the ability to take massive hits with no harm brought to her. He hit Nora's head on a table multiple times at high speeds without even damaging her physically, stating that she feels no physical pain.
      • Superhuman strength: Mallus made Nora significantly strong, enough to use her nails to easily scratch on a television without any signs of slowing down, strain or fatigue.
      • Telekinesis: The ability to impart kinetic energy on objects.
        • Immobilization: Mallus has been shown, on several occasions, to use telekinesis to halt all the movements of multiple people at once.
    • Restoration: Mallus can also apparently restore any lost aspects of a person as upon resurrecting Damien, he regained his lost memories while part of the Legion of Doom. He also regained his magical powers, which were apparently improved to no longer require the Khushu Idol.[3]
    • Biological manipulation: Mallus made dark colored goo appear from Nora's mouth.
    • Resurrection: Mallus' has the power to resurrect the dead. He resurrected Damien Darhk.[11]
    • Telepathic powers: Mallus has also displayed telepathic capabilities. So far he has shown.
      • Illusion Conjuration: Mallus was able to cast illusions which were realistic. It made Sara believe that Mallus' demons were attacking her.
      • Memory manipulation: Mallus was able to manipulate Sara Lance's memories, to show her the painful memories she had repressed for years, enthralling her in submissive fear.
    • Flight: Mallus possesses massive wings that allow him to fly in the air.

Abilities

  • Intimidation: Rip states that the Time Masters were too frightened to even speak his name. Mallus was able to strike fear into the highly courageous and dangerous assassin Sara Lance when she heard his voice in the very dark dimension he was imprisoned in. The Time Bureau are also terrified of him.
  • Occult knowledge: Mallus is extremely knowledgeable of magic and spell works, such as a time based one in order to transport the Legends.

Weaknesses

  • Totems of Zambesi: Mallus is vulnerable to whoever wields one of six mystical totems of Water, Earth, Fire, Air, Spirit, and Death. If he is even touched by one of the totem bearers, it burns him considerably.
  • Possession resistance: Mallus can only possess someone who has been completely consumed by their rage and darkest fears. If they have not, they can resist his influence successfully.
  • Temporal imprisonment: Mallus was imprisoned by the original six totem bearers. His prison is time itself, so when the Legends broke time, it started to release his influence. The more anachronisms that are created, the weaker his prison becomes.

Trivia

  • Mallus' influence on the timeline has so far been identified as random anachronisms throughout history; when Nate Heywood conducted a scan of the timeline, he determined that a series of anachronisms were directly linked to the breaking of time caused by Legends revisiting the same time and place twice in order to defeat the Legion of Doom, but Mallus' anachronisms broke this pattern.
    • Ray Palmer and Nate have noted that these divergent anachronisms have all had some connection to the Legends' own personal histories; Mallus' first role in an anachronism was linked to Ray Palmer's younger self, another involved Sir Henry Stein (Martin Stein's great-great-grandfather), and a later anachronism targeted the younger Stein, while one anachronism was peripherally linked to Mick Rory's father.
      • When Sara Lance spoke directly to Mallus, he has expressed a personal interest in her for unspecified reasons, reinforcing the implication that he has ties to the Legends.
  • Mallus' claim that he would soon be free, indicates that, at the time, he was imprisoned in the realm where White Canary had encountered him, answering the question as to why he must communicate with his followers through Nora Darhk.
  • As of "Daddy Darhkest" Mallus appears to closely resemble a number of demon kings featured in Constantine who originated as pagan gods, such as Pazuzu, Lamashtu, and Nergal. Stripped of their old glory, these entities try to restore their worship as gods while possessing people and trying to escape their prison-like bounds.
  • Mallus is very similar to Savitar in that they are both godlike villains, who are initially trapped in some sort of alternate dimension; influencing the outside world by possessing a certain individual (Nora Darhk and Alchemy, respectively), and are both the main antagonists of the third seasons of their respective shows; Legends of Tomorrow and The Flash. Also, Mallus exists simultaneously throughout all of time, which was Savitar's ultimate goal.
  • Mallus' name is likely derived from the Latin word "Malus", which means, among other things, "evil," "bad," "wicked," "ill," "harmful," and "noxious."
  • When Sara Lance asked Nora Darhk what voices she heard in her head from Mallus, Nora replied the number 6, which John Constantine points out is the number of the Biblical Beast from Christianity's Book of Revelation. It could also be from his fear of the six totem's of Zambesi as he also called Zari "one of the Six."

Appearances

DC's Legends of Tomorrow

Season 3


References

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