Master Pandemonium

Master Pandemonium is a supervillain in the Marvel Universe. He's currently a demonic member of the Organization's Neo Masters of Evil.

Fictional character biography
Martin Preston was born in Rutland, Vermont. He was originally an actor who lost an arm in a car crash, and made a pact with Mephisto to regain his limb. Mephisto instead took the man's other three limbs, then replaced them all with demonic grafts. He was also given a hole in his chest in the shape of an inverted five-pointed star, and the ability to survive despite this hole in his chest. He was also given the ability to command the demons inside him.

At some point, Master Pandemonium became the CEO of Anvil Pictures.

Master Pandemonium went seeking the five beings possessing parts of his fragmented soul. He attacked Firebird to ascertain whether she was one of these five beings, and then attacked the Thing for the same reason, and wound up battling the Thing and the West Coast Avengers.[1] Master Pandemonium was then revealed as the master of the demon Riglevio who had infiltrated the Rangers disguised as Shooting Star. He also revealed how he was originally transformed by Mephisto. He then battled the West Coast Avengers again.[2] Master Pandemonium battled the West Coast Avengers once again, as well as Daimon Hellstrom, Hellcat, and the demon Allatou. Alongside the West Coast Avengers, he battled the Cat People in the Land Within, and regained one fragment of "his" soul.[3]

Master Pandemonium later became stranded on the planet Arcturus IV. Alongside the Fantastic Four, he encountered Comet Man and Max, and then returned to Earth.[4]

Master Pandemonium then abducted and absorbed Thomas and William, the "children" of the Vision and the Scarlet Witch, who were actually two of the soul fragments he sought. He regained and replaced all five missing soul fragments, but then collapsed into a magical "black hole" within himself. Mephisto then appeared and revealed that the soul fragments sought by Master Pandemonium were actually portions of Mephisto's own fragmented essence, not Pandemonium's, as he had been led to believe by Mephisto.[5]

Master Pandemonium was imprisoned for a time within Mephisto's realm, until he was freed by the nexus being known as Lore. Master Pandemonium's appearance was changed to an inhuman form by the torments in suffered at the hands of the Rakasha. With the assistance of his newfound ally, Pandemonium sought to capture the Scarlet Witch. The Scarlet Witch, with the help of Agatha Harkness and the Avengers, fought him off. When Pandemonium finally succeeded in kidnapping the Scarlet Witch, he was betrayed by his erstwhile ally Lore, who attempted to sacrifice both Pandemonium and the Scarlet Witch. Pandemonium was seemingly obliterated in the ensuing battle with Lore.[6]

Young Avengers members Wiccan and Speed (while searching for their mother the Scarlet Witch) encountered Master Pandemonium in their mother's former home in Leonia, New Jersey (incorrectly stated to be in Cresskill, New Jersey). He had reverted to a more human look, and claimed to be in hiding due to the belief his schemes had helped precipitate the Scarlet Witch's breakdown. After a brief battle, the two Young Avengers deemed that Pandemonium was not an active threat, and left peacefully.[7]

Master Pandemonium reappears in the Ghost Riders: Heaven's on Fire miniseries. In this appearance he appears to be fighting with his own demonic limbs (they try to drown him in his own breakfast cereal). Former Ghost Rider Danny Ketch appears, bludgeons him with a bat and wishes to use his chest as a doorway in order to make a deal with Satan to defeat Zadkiel. Pandemomium begs Ketch to kill him at this point. The deal Ketch proposes involves saving a teenager who is apparently the antichrist. Later in the series, the new Caretaker is ambushed and attacked and rendered unconscious by a seemingly recovered and much more sinister Master Pandemonium in the evil church that the child Anti-Christ, dubbed as Kid Blackheart, leads her to.[8] Using the hole in Master Pandemonium's chest as a doorway to Hell, Kid Blackheart calls forth an army of demons so he can march on Heaven and claim it for himself.[9] While Kid Blackheart's army is defeated in Heaven by an army of Ghost Riders, Master Pandemonium and the remaining demons are themselves defeated by Daimon Hellstorm and Jaine Cutter. Both villains are later seen alongside Blackout in a strip club as they plan their next move.[10]

Master Pandemonium appears in a cameo as one of the villains summoned by Sin to battle Earth's heroes. ==Possible Role in Ultima ==

Now, in his original appearances, Pandemonium was consumed by his quest for the five shards of his soul, which Mephisto had scattered to the four corners of the Earth because he's a dick. Mephisto, not Preston. Preston was, by all accounts, a nice enough sleazy producer/actor before running afoul of a moonlit canyon road and the devil, in that order. Preston's whole modus operandi is his search for the bits of his soul, a search which is slowly changing him from a normal man into a monster of the first order. Then comes Byrne. Preston goes from tortured soul-hunter to demonic deus ex machina. Not at first. At first, it's pretty much par for course for Pandemonium. Then it's revealed that he's nothing more than a homunculus-a servitor designed to retrieve the missing portions of Mephisto's own soul (which happened to be the Scarlet Witch's kids)! Mephisto lied about everything! There never was a Martin Preston! Cool, right? Meh. After that, Pandemonium suffers a fate worse than death-he becomes generic. An ugly demon-sort of guy (at least until he pops up in Young Avengers ) who does demon-y things, until his most recent appearances where he appears to be suffering from pangs of guilt ala his early days. Hence, 'John Byrne killed Master Pandemonium'. Byrne eliminated the hook that made the character interesting in order to tell his story. So, to make MP viable again, you've got to give him his hook back. How, you may ask? Simple. Mephisto lied. He lied about lying, in fact. All part of the game. He manipulated and used Preston in order to achieve his own goals. Preston's soul bits are still out there (all five of 'em), inhabiting the bodies of five unaware innocents (or not). Too, they move. Unless he catches them at the right moment, they switch hosts, forcing him to start his search all over again. And, having tasted the torments that await him should he fail, Master Pandemonium is now more determined than ever to reclaim what's his, regardless of the cost. Or is he? Preston is determined and slightly crazy, but he's not a psychopath. Desperate, yes. Sadistic, no. Which means that his hunt for the soul fragments might not be as cut and dried as he hopes. What if there's another fragment lodged in a child somewhere? Can he take it-thus killing the child-without Mephisto's influence goading him as before? And what if Mephisto has put stumbling blocks in his path-demonic adversaries that seek to engage Pandemonium in battle so that he misses his chance at a fragment? Imagine that-demon versus demon in downtown suburbia, with the hapless Pandemonium forced to act as a protector of innocents in order to have any hope of claiming his soul-piece. Of course, there would be others after him as well. AIM, for one, looking to exploit the fact that Preston is essentially a dimensional doorway made flesh. And, any hero in the vicinity is going to get involved, right? It puts a unique spin on the character. A villain who's a ticking time-bomb of destructive potential. How many interruptions to his quest can he stand? How long until his humanity gives out beneath the weight of his frustration? What happens when he finds a fragment inside one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes? What if Mephisto put one in Aunt May after Spider-Man made his deal? Amadeus Cho? One of the few remaining mutants? Hell, what if one gets stuck in Deadpool? Lots of possibilities there. (Cited from Villains with Potential: Master Pandamonium)