Dormammu

Dormammu is a Faltine — a being of pure mystical energy — who abandoned his native dimension to conquer the Dark Dimension, eventually becoming its all-powerful ruler. His boundless ambition and mastery of dark magic brought him into repeated conflict with Sorcerer Supreme Doctor Strange.

Few villains in Marvel's Silver Age canon radiate menace quite like Dormammu — a being of such cosmic, occult magnitude that he's spent six decades as one of the most persistently dangerous threats in the entire Marvel Universe. Conjured into existence by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Strange Tales #135 in 1965, this dark lord of the mystic arts has haunted the pages of Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme, and Strange Tales ever since, racking up 169 catalog appearances and seven key issues that collectors rightly treasure. He keeps extraordinary company — Stephen Strange, Spider-Man, Tony Stark, and Peter Parker have all found themselves caught in his shadow — which speaks to just how far his dark influence extends beyond any single corner of Marvel's world. If you're building out your mystical Marvel reading list, Dormammu is the looming, ever-present darkness that makes the whole mythology feel genuinely dangerous.