SHIVA
Real
Name:
Shiva Nataraja (also spelled Siva)
Occupation:
God of Destruction and Rebirth
Legal
Status:
Citizen of Nirvana
Identity:
The general populace of Earth is unaware of the existence of Shiva except as a
figure in Hindu religion. He is well known to the people of India and countries
that practice Hinduism.
Other
Aliases: Jyotirlinga
Place
of Birth:
Unknown
Marital
Status:
Married
Known
Relatives:
Gaea (mother, alias Ammavaru), Vishnu, Brahma (brothers), Himavat
(father-in-law), Menaka (mother-in-law), Parvati (wife), Kali (daughter/wife),
Ganehsa, Skanda (sons), Dharma, Kama (nephews), Padma, Vach (nieces), Lakshmi,
Sarasvati (sisters-in-law),
Group
Affiliation:
The Hindu Gods (Daevas); The Council
Elite; apparent ally of Dansen Macabre and
the Cult of Kara-Kai
Base
of Operations:
Kailasa in the Nirvana Dimension
First
Appearance:
Thor I #301
History:
Shiva is part of the ruling triumvirate of gods in the Hindu Pantheon, which
boasts over five hundred gods. Very little is known about his origins, but
according to Dravidian myth, he was conceived from an egg given birth by Gaea in
her role as Ammavaru, the Dravidian goddess of the earth. With him were his
brothers Vishnu and Brahma. Together, they lifted one half of the egg to become
the heavens and they created the earth from the lower half. Together, the three
brothers rose to ruling council of the Hindu gods after Vishnu overthrew the
Rakshasas, the Hindu demons who had overthrown their Vedic ancestors, once
worshipped as gods by the Aryan tribes on earth.
In their battle for supremacy, the
Rakshasas poisoned the drink called amrita that provided the Hindu gods their
immortality. Shiva, however, drank the whole tainted vial down to save the rest
of the Daevas (The Hindu Gods),
but he held it in his throat for a time and spat out the poison within it. As a result, the color of
the skin around his throat is darker than the rest of his body.
Shiva loved the goddess Sakti, the
youngest daughter of the sun god, Daksha, and wanted her as his wife. Daksha
meanwhile had the decision to approve her husband, but he did not want Shiva as
a son-in-law and after gathering all the gods of Nirvana for his daughter to choose a
husband from, Sakti became distressed that Shiva was not invited for her to choose
from. She tossed her bridal veil far into the air, but Shiva appeared and
presented it to her. When Shiva revealed that her father did not support their
marriage and that as a result they could not truly marry, she became so forlorn
that she cast herself into a sacrificial flame than marry anyone else. Shiva
took his revenge for his broken heart out on Daksha by beheading him, but after
an intercession from the gods, Brahma later restored Daksha to life with the head
of a ram.
Sakti was later reborn as Parvati, one of
the daughters of the mountain-god Himavat, and Shiva finally took her to be his
wife. Parvati was sister to Lakshmi and Sarasvati, wives of respectively Vishnu
and Brahma. According to one story, after Sakti’s death, Shiva entered into a
ascetic existence. While in a trance-like state, he was wounded by one of the
shafts of desire from the love-god, Kama, son of Vishnu and Lakshmi. Awakened
from his trance, Shiva opened his third eye and incinerated Kama with the power
from it. (Kama would be re-born years later from Krishna, the mortal avatar of
Vishnu, with his wife Rukmini.)
Due to Kama's spell, Shiva fell in love
with Parvat and eventually married her. She eventually
gave birth to his sons Ganehsa, the wisdom-god, and Skanda, the war-god. While
his father was away for several years, Ganehsa was guarding his mother’s
bedroom when one day his father returned home. Not recognizing his
son, Shiva beheaded the young man but realized his error when Parvati screamed.
He restored Ganehsa to life with the head of an elephant taken from Airavata,
the elephant mount of the thunder-god, Indra.
Kali, the destroyer aspect of Parvati, eventually became so powerful that it broke free of her to destroy demons. Although she technically conceived the dark goddess, Shiva saw Kali as another form of his wife.
Under the Hindu Religion, Shiva was one of
the chief gods alongside Vishnu and Brahma. As god of destruction and rebirth,
Shiva apparently granted power in recent years to the woman who would become
Dansen Macabre. In the wake of Ragnarok, the Asgardian god Thor appeared in
Nirvana seeking a portion of the life energies necessary to resuscitate the
Asgardians. Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva, however, put the option to a vote and
decided not to donate the energies to former deities that had outlived their
ascendancy and preferring rather the energies go on to other immortals. A clash
of tempers, however, caused a confrontation between Shiva and Thor. Realizing he
could not overwhelm the power of the Hindu god, Thor cast them both to Bifrost,
the rainbow bridge to Asgard. Realizing he was overwhelmed by the thunder-god's
passion, Shiva formulated an uneasy truce between them and relinquished the
energies Thor wanted as the two separated with uneasy tension.
Shortly thereafter, Yama, the Hindu god of
the dead, entered into a pact with several other gods of the dead including
Hades, the Olympian god of the dead, and Seth, the Egyptian underworld-god to
unite their realms. Their ritual released the entity known as Demogorge who saw
them as malevolent deities and then commenced with consuming them to destroy
them. Odin, Ruler of the gods of Asgard, sent a plea to the rulers of Earth’s
gods to send champions to battle Demogorge. Vishnu sent the god Indra who for
reasons of his own used his powers to impersonate Shiva and assist Thor, Apollo
and the other gods present to defeat Demogorge. Although briefly consumed
himself, Indra was freed after Thor caused a shift in the creature’s palate
that restored it back into Atum. Indra then departed realizing that he had
dissolved any further enmity between Thor and Shiva.
Seth subsequently dissatisfied with these events launched and manipulated events that allowed him to conquer Celestial Heliopolis, home of the Egyptian Gods, and to invade Asgard. Shiva watched the events unfold out of morbid curiosity partially interested in the outcome. During his observation, he overheard the primal scream of Amora the Enchantress over the death of her then lover, Heimdall, who had been slain by Seth. (Odin restored Heimdall to life sometime after).
Shiva
joined forces with the other Hindu gods as the mad Titan Cronus laid siege to
the gods of earth in trying to conquer the multiple realms and heavens of the
gods of earth. Wonder Woman and the demigod Rama
joined forces to sever the flow of Godwave energies fueling Cronus that allowed
him to conquer Nirvana and Shiva, Vishnu and Brahma were able to defeat him and
spread his molecules to the universe.
After Odin’s death battling Surtur, Thor inherited his place as ruler of the Asgardian Gods. As a result, he was called before the Council Elite to be tested for worthiness to join them as a replacement for Odin. The Council Elite served as the high governing committee for affairs occurring between pantheons and Shiva was a member along with Vishnu and Brahma. Shiva was present at this meeting as well, and it was he who insisted that Thor perform the Koronkakkta, a ritual that would test his character. Thor, however, failed in one of the tests and was judged as having failed the test and prevented from replacing his father’s seat in the council.
Most
recently, energies of Shiva present at a mortal Hindu wedding on Earth became
attracted to the White-Lighter Leo. Simultaneously, his wife, Piper Halliwell, a
powerful Wiccan in her own right, was imbued with energies of Shiva's wife,
Parvati as the mother goddess. Leo used Shiva's energies to hunt down demons
that threatened the future of his mortal son, but Piper's sisters, Phoebe and Paige
Halliwell, cast spells that restored Leo and Piper to their normal power
levels.
Height: 7’2”
Weight: 510 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
Unusual Physical Features: In his true form, Shiva has light blue skin and four arms.
His neck is dark blue due to the poison he ingested.
Strength Level:
Shiva possesses Class 100 level strength enabling him to lift (press) well over
100 tons.
Known Superhuman Powers:
Shiva possesses greater physical powers than the majority of the Daevas (Hindu
Gods). Like all of the Hindu Gods, he is immortal. He has not aged since
reaching adulthood and cannot die by any known conventional means. He is immune
to all known terrestrial diseases and is invulnerable to conventional injury. If
wounded, his godly life force would enable him to recover with superhuman speed.
It would take an injury of such magnitude that it dispersed a major portion of
his bodily molecules to cause him a physical death. Even then, it might be
possible for Vishnu or a number of gods of equal power working together to
revive him. Shiva does have some superhuman strength and his own Daeva
metabolism gives him far greater than human endurance in all physical
activities.
(Daeva flesh and bone is about three times as dense as similar human
tissue, contributing to the superhuman strength and weight of the Hindu Gods).
Shiva has extra-ordinary power to tap into
and manipulate the cosmic forces of the universe on a level comparable to Vishnu
or Brahma although Shiva might be the most powerful of the three. With his
powers of life and death, he can restore the dead to life or completely destroy
anything beyond restoration. Most of this power is concentrated in his third eye
which when opened even he cannot completely control. This third eye is capable
of releasing flames that can completely incinerate anything at which he is
looking. It is known that he had so completely immolated Kama that the love god
could only return to life after being reborn anew.
Shiva can also use his powers to move
between dimensions and command the forces of the universe such as erecting force
fields and rays of less destructive power.
He has a strong association with flame and can generate it at will or
manipulate existing flames. He can mentally shape it into hands or columns or
force it take on material objects exuding great heat. Because of his godly
attributes, he is immune to their effects and cannot be burned. His godly
stamina is also immune to fatigue and he can stay in a meditative state for
exceptional periods without food or drink. He has immeasurable strength and
stamina in physical form. He also has such complete mastery over his body that
he can slow his breath and pulse to the brink of near death and move about in a
solely spirit state. In this form, he is still in complete command of his cosmic
power and cannot be harmed by any means. He has exceptional cosmic awareness,
which is greater when he is in his spirit form.
Weapons:
Shiva uses a number of weapons including a club, curved dagger called a vajra,
bow and arrow and swords. His statues generally depict him as carrying a skull,
drum and noose in addition to these items.
Pets:
Shiva rides a great bull named Nandi. Possessing extra-ordinary size, Nandi
seems to have a sentient level intelligence and can create thunder with one
stamp of its foot. His origin is unknown, but he may be a god in an animal form.
Comments:
The use of Shiva, one of the principal gods of the Hindu religion, and his
defeat at the hands of Thor, did not sit well with members of Hinduism, still one of the
largest, thriving religions on the planet. As a result, Marvel ret-conned that
appearance to be Indra, posing as Shiva.
In Hindu myth, a bhut is a ghost, the spirit of a person who had not been given a funeral.
Clarifications:
Shiva should not be confused with:
Shiva
Shiva