Kaluu (Earth-616)

Early Life[]

Kaluu was born over five hundred years ago in Kamar-Taj, a small area in the Himalayan Mountains in the land now known as Tibet. When he was older, Kaluu came to know a boy named the Ancient One, and the two learned the mystic arts together.^[1]

An evil vampire named Varnae met with Kaluu and imparted to him knowledge from the primeval compendium of black magic known as the Darkhold. With this knowledge, Kaluu set about to make himself ruler of Kamar-Taj. While Yao continued his studies, Kaluu used his sorcery to influence the minds of the people of Kamar-Taj and control them. Eventually, Kaluu and Yao together cast a spell that eliminated disease, poverty, and suffering from Kamar-Taj and granted its people immortality. Shortly thereafter, the people of Kamar-Taj, responding to Kaluu's magical influence on their minds, crowned him as their king. Kaluu desired to bring a lasting peace to Kamar-Taj by making it so powerful that none of the Asian conquerors of the time would dare attack it,^[2] so for over a year Kaluu organized the men of Kamar-Taj into an army of conquest.^{[citation needed]}

Meanwhile, Kaluu also slowly increased his mystic control over the minds of the people of Kamar-Taj so until they became little more than his placid puppets. Yao attempted to warn the people of Kamar-Taj about Kaluu, but Kaluu's magic prevented them from heeding him. In response to Yao's disloyalty to him, Kaluu struck Yao with a magical bolt from behind, which paralyzed the child. Then Kaluu had his soldiers conquer a neighboring village and capture its inhabitants as slaves.^[1][3]

While Kaluu plotted further conquests and the people of Kamar-Taj fell into decadence, the paralyzed Yao, whom Kaluu had placed in the public square as an object of ridicule, mentally called upon mystical forces to defeat Kaluu. However, the youth was not yet a master of the mystic arts, and, although he did not intend it, the mystic forces he summoned created a pestilence that wiped out virtually the entire population of Kamar-Taj. Kaluu fled to the dimension of Raggadorr, where he remained for five centuries, increasing his mystical knowledge. With Kaluu gone, the youth was freed from his paralysis, but the remaining population of Kamar-Taj were no longer immortal.^[1]

The youth then sought the Cup of Eternity and thus aging at a greatly slowed rate. The young Yao eventually became the Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth dimension known as the Ancient One.^[4]

Mighty Avengers (1970s)[]

In November 1972, the Mighty Avengers were formed by different people who came across each other while investigating the murder of a were-bat.^[5] When The Bear revealed the Deathwalkers led by Lichidus were behind this, the team officially formed to take them down. Kaluu tracked down the black magic used in the werebat to a secret subway station below the City Hall. The Mighty Avengers then attacked the Deathwalkers before they could make their sacrifice. After Blade recovered the Talisman of Kamar-Taj, which was required to perform the sacrifice, Adam Brashear caused the subway to collapse above the Deathwalkers. With the Deathwalkers stopped, the team disbanded.^[6]

Doctor Strange[]

In his final years, the Ancient One trained the disciple who would become his successor, Dr. Stephen Strange. In the years just before the Ancient One's death, Kaluu returned to Earth to destroy the Ancient One and to steal from him his greatest tome of mystical knowledge, the Book of the Vishanti.^[7] Doctor Strange and the Ancient One battled Kaluu, who stole the Book of the Vishanti from them,^[1] memorized its spells (apparently possessing a total recall memory), and hurled it back through time to the point of its origin in ancient Babylonia.^[8] Strange and Kaluu traveled back through time and recovered the Book, and returned to their own time with it. Doctor Strange then confronted Kaluu, who cast a spell to place Strange into suspended animation. But Strange used the Book of the Vishanti to turn Kaluu's spell back upon him, casting him into suspended animation instead. The Ancient One then hurled Kaluu into another dimension.^[9]

Years later, after the Ancient One's death, Doctor Strange attempted to destroy his own talismans of power and mystic volumes, including the Book of the Vishanti, in order to keep them out of the hands of the evil alien sorcerer Urthona. Unbeknost to Strange, who believed them to be destroyed, they were in fact transported by the mystical entity Agamotto to his own dimension. Strange, however, believed them destroyed. Their disappearance broke the ancient spells protecting Earth from invasion by various demonic entities.^[10] Many of these spells had been put into effect through the use of black magic. Moreover, the disappearance of the Book of the Vishanti from the Earth dimension broke the spell holding Kaluu in suspended animation. Awake once more, Kaluu returned to Earth.^[11]

Doctor Strange fell into despair over the dangers that he had released upon the Earth through destroying his objects of mystical power, and over the fact that he had already used black magic in struggling against them. It was then that Kaluu came to him and offered him his assistance.^[12] Claiming that he no longer sought vengeance on Strange, Kaluu said he would help him combat the demonic forces now menacing Earth if Strange would become his disciple. Strange refused to become Kaluu's disciple but agreed to fight by his side against the demons, believing he had no other choice.^[13]

Together, Kaluu and Strange battled Ghaszaszh Nyirh of the Old Ones, who had enslaved the populace of a famine-stricken area of Africa.^[14] Strange lost his eye in the process and both were forced to flee from Nyirh's temple. However, they destroyed the temple from the outside, sealing Ghaszaszh Nyirh away from Earth as a result.^[15] As Strange had feared, he was forced to use black magic in the course of this combat.^[16] Kaluu and Strange journeyed through the dimensions toward the realm of the most powerful of these demons, Shuma-Gorath.^[17] Kaluu exhausted himself and was unable to complete the journey, but Strange continued and finally entered Shuma-Gorath's other dimensional realm. There Strange defeated Shuma-Gorath and apparently destroyed him.^[18]

Since then Doctor Strange has purged himself of the corrupting effects of black magic and has once again become the master practitioner of white sorcery in the Earth dimension.^[2]

Mighty Avengers[]

Kaluu was later contacted via crystal ball by Blade, a longtime ally and member of Luke Cage's Mighty Avengers.^[19] He worked with the Mighty Avengers following their fight with Proxima Midnight.^{[19][20][21][5][6][22][23]}

Kaluu is a powerful black magician, considered by Captain America (Sam Wilson) and Tony Stark to be a Beta Level Threat.^[23]

• Sorcery: Kaluu is possibly the most powerful living human black magician. Kaluu's magic derived from four major sources. Three of these sources are the same ones utilized by Doctor Stephen Strange and other practitioners of "white" magic: personal powers of the soul and mind (such as mesmerism, astral projection, and thought-casting), powers gained by tapping this universe's ambient magical energy and employing it for specific effects, such as teleportation, illusion-casting, and energy projection), and, finally, powers gained through the tapping of extradimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power residing in mystical dimensions tangential to our own. The latter means of power is usually gained by the recitation of spells; either ritualized ones found in various mystical texts or by original spells invoking extradimensional assistance.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Mystical Knowledge: Kaluu has knowledge of a host of sorcerers spells and incantations invoking the names and aspects of various other-dimensional objects and beings of power. Kaluu is able to call upon these extra-dimensional power sources for very specific effects without taxing his own personal abilities. As a practitioner of black magic, Kaluu has no moral qualms about invoking demonic beings such as Chthon or Satannish for power. He has considerable knowledge of the spells contained within the Darkhold, the most infamous and powerful known volume of black magic. Kaluu has also learned many of the spells contained in the Book of the Vishanti, a volume of white magic.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Life-Force Absorption: The fourth major source of Kaluu's power is the tapping of the life forces of living beings and the manipulation of the environment in certain ways. These methods are used only by practitioners of black sorcery. Kaluu can derive the mystical energy to perform certain magical feats by slaying a living being.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Necromancy: Kaluu also deals in necromancy; a sorcery that derives its mystical forces through the summoning of the spirits of the dead.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Aerial Flight: Kaluu can travel through the air by harnessing the power of the storm and lightning, but by doing so, he deprives an area of the world of rainfall that it would otherwise receive.^{[citation needed]}

• All of these methods of wielding magic are abhorred by practitioners of white magic as forms of black sorcery.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Immortality: Kaluu has used mystical means to render himself immortal. He does not age, but he can be killed by external means.^{[24][25][26][27][verification needed]}

• Expert Occultist/Expert Magical Knowledge: During his studies, which continued until recently, Kaluu has gained expert awareness on cults and the extra-dimensional entities they worship. This knowledge so far exceeds any on Earth in the Marvel Universe.^{[citation needed]}
• Skilled Martial Artist: Kaluu is a skilled athlete and was trained in the martial arts used by Tibetan monks in Kamar Taj.^{[citation needed]}