The following contains major spoilers for Legion of X #4, available now from Marvel.

For even longer than it has been home to its most iconic costumed crusaders, the Marvel Universe has been bursting at the seams with the gods who lord over it. Plenty of Marvel deities have made themselves known, and more than a handful have managed to become pop culture icons in their own right. Of course, for every god who has risen to prominence, even more have been relegated to obscurity. In fact, the mutants of Krakoa have just discovered a lost god of Arakko, and Tumult's very existence could change everything there is to know about what really makes something a god in the first place.

Nightcrawler and his allies have been fighting a losing battle against the mystically enhanced Switch, who has been wreaking havoc all across Krakoa by possessing his fellow mutants. Once Nightcrawler finally manages to catch up with him in the pages of Legion of X #4 (by Si Spurrier, Jan Bazaldua, Federico Blee, Tom Muller, Jay Bowen, and VC's Clayton Cowles), the secrets behind Switch's newfound strength begin coming into focus. Not only is the source of Switch's boon the exact same deity who has gone missing from Arakko, but this new god shouldn't necessarily be described as such.

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legion of x 4 tumult

Rather than something that the Marvel Universe has never seen before, its latest trickster god, is instead a patchwork of those who came before him. Tumult even describes himself as the Trickster Chimera, which is about as appropriate as any moniker could be. From the helm of Loki to the wings of both Eris and Hermes, every single part of Tumult once belonged to an older, more experienced god of the same relative station. As far as the young god himself is concerned, his is a grotesque origin that he never asked for.

Although there aren't many who actively worship Tumult, let alone know of his existence, those who do are enough to have given him the life of divinity he now suffers from. The fact that Tumult's worshippers have used his gifts is unsettling enough, but the idea that their belief in him is what fuels both Tumult's font of power and his very existence is almost horrifying. Plenty of characters including Nightcrawler have laid their personal foundations in faith, yet those who do so with unwavering devotion in the face of chaos never seem to be the ones to manifest a divine spirit such as Tumult.

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legion of x 4 fled from her

The last time the Marvel Universe saw a new god born in this way, it was the culmination of tall tales of Stained Glass Scarlet. A former vigilante whose violent crusade came to an end during her final confrontation with the police, Scarlet Fasinera became a legend. Scarlet was resurrected as a special breed of deity, a living fable that can never truly be killed. Luckily, Scarlet was still defeated by the Hunter's Moon and Khonshu in Moon Knight #8 (by Jed MacKay and Alessandro Cappuccio), albeit with the promise that it was merely a reprieve from her presence rather than an end to it.

As a god in hiding from his followers, Tumult is proof that his ilk are not only possible but something which can be weaponized. This doesn't mean that genuine faith is easy to come by. Rather, it highlights that those who exhibit it could bend that faith to their own will if they were aware of the power it holds. Though both Scarlet and Tumult did have their beginnings in something which already existed, neither of their divine forms were in any way precluded by their respective abilities.

That being the case, it would appear that almost anyone could find themselves fashioning a god of their own, if not become one unto themselves. Thankfully, none of Marvel's newer gods seem capable of doing much damage on their own, and with any luck, it will stay that way for a long time to come.