If there's one villain in Marvel Comics that remains a mystery to many fans, it's Immortus. The Master of Limbo manipulates time from his citadel in a dimension outside of time itself. Since first appearing in Avengers #10 by Stan Lee and Don Heck, he was initially portrayed as a foe to the Avengers. Although he eventually appeared to exist outside of the traditional hero and villain labels, he ultimately has been revealed to be one of their more dangerous foes.
Immortus hasn't received any reference in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Stories have been used that he was a part of, especially in Wandavision. The introduction of time travel and the upcoming inclusion of Kang the Conqueror into a future film sets fan speculation that the lord of time himself may be coming to adaptations sooner rather than later.
10 He's a Distant Relative of Reed Richards
Reed Richards's father Nathaniel invented the time machine that could also transport him to alternate Earths. He settled as the technological savior of a fallen human civilization on an Earth where the Dark Ages never happened. By the 30th century, the world was a peaceful utopia.
The Richards descendant, also named Nathaniel sought adventure. In the ancient citadel of his ancestor, he discovered his ancestor's time machine and used it to start a long career in the Marvel Multiverse. This would eventually lead to his time as Immortus.
9 He Has Worked For the Time-Keepers
While Immortus always presented himself as the master of Limbo and/or time, he worked for someone. The three beings he worked for were known as the Time-Keepers, born of the remains of the last of the Time Variance Authority. When Immortus first arrived in Limbo, the Keepers gave him seven millennia to care for.
The Time-Keepers instructed Immortus to destroy the Avengers, but Immortus defied them surreptitiously. When they confronted him with various alternate realities where the Avengers devastated the galaxy, they insisted that he at least kill the Scarlet Witch, whose children would be immensely powerful. Immortus instead tried to prevent her from having children by pairing her with an android, the Vision.
8 Then Again, They Weren't The Real Time-Keepers
The Time-Keepers were replaced with their warped opposite, the Time Twisters. Thor had stopped the Twisters before, as their manipulations had a persistent effect of destroying realities. They had Immortus eliminate alternate realities to increase their control of time.
They also instructed him to turn a nexus being into a power source. That being was the Scarlet Witch, who saw her powers greatly increased. This ended with Immortus being rendered a temporal battery for the Time Twisters.
7 He's Gone By Many Names
Nathaniel Richards from the 30th century was saved by his future self who showed him his future. He traveled to the 21st century and took the identity of the Young Avenger Iron Lad. Iron Lad tried to fight his destiny, but when the young lady he loved died, he elevated into the role of a conqueror.
He went back to ancient Egypt to rule as the Pharoah Rama-Tut. He conquered many eras as Kang the Conqueror and the Scarlet Centurion. By age sixty, he journeyed into Limbo where he took the name Immortus.
6 He Uses Space Phantoms
In Limbo, anyone stuck there for too long becomes a "Space Phantom." Immortusis immune to the effect as uses the Space Phantoms as pawns in his manipulations. Space Phantoms have been known to lie, claiming to be alien invaders, an entire species trapped in Limbo, but they're merely Immortus's tools.
Space Phantoms can change their shape, usually mimicking the appearance of beings to sow confusion and distrust. They cannot change into mystical beings like Thor but only learned this limitation when initially trying to break up the Avengers. Their oddest moment came when Immortus had two disguised as "synchro-staffs" that guided the Avengers through time.
5 There Are No Alternate Versions of Immortus
There have been alternate versions of Kang, so many to create a council to coordinate attacks in various realities. One alternate version became known as the Scarlet Centurion. However, being based in Limbo, Immortus does not create alternate versions of himself.
Immortus gained this unique attribute from the Time-Keepers, as even his time on Earth-X as Pope Immortus did not create an alternate version of him. Every appearance on any Earth could be seen to be the actual Immortus. Even his death is uncertain, as no time actually passes in Limbo.
4 He Can Eliminate Problematic Timelines
During his manipulation of the Scarlet Witch, Imortus was also pruning problematic alternate timelines. He would often let the divergence play out before wiping everything out with a wave of his hand. Like with most of his powers, these came from the technology at his disposal.
Immortus also used the elimination of these timelines to further his plan to make the Scarlet Witch his puppet. The power gained from those timelines flowed into increasing the Scarlet Witch's powers. Immortus hoped to use that power to make himself the master of all time, not just the millennia the Time-Keepers assigned him.
3 He Drove Iron Man To Betray the Avengers.
Immortus disguised himself as Kang and manipulated Tony Stark to destroy the Avengers. This followed the Avengers killing the Kree Supreme Intelligence to end the Kree-Shi'ar War. The Avengers were moving towards the future that the Time Keepers warned him about. There was also a future threat looming in the form of Onslaught.
The manipulation saw Iron Man betray the team he had helped to found. He constructed secret rooms in various headquarters from which to coordinate with the person he believed to be Kang. Only the recruitment of a younger, uncorrupted version of Tony Stark saved the Avengers.
2 He Sought To Prevent Scarlet Witch From Having Children
Being a nexus being, capable of affecting multiple timelines, Scarlet Witch was destined to have extremely powerful children, if she had any at all. Initially, Immortus was to break up the Avengers before the Scarlet Witch could join and train in her mutant powers.
Immortus instead steered Wanda in a direction where she would have no children. Through deceit, manipulation, and subterfuge, Immortus guided her into a romance with the Vision. Being an artificial man, the assumption was that there could be no children from their union.
1 He Actually Is The Reason Vision and Scarlet Witch Got Married
As mentioned, Immortus steered the Vision and Scarlet Witch together. The lengths he went to accomplish this were extraordinary. It involved a lot of deceit that only Immortus could back up. Almost as if to ensure that the Vision and Scarlet Witch stayed together, he officiated their wedding in a dual ceremony with Mantis and the Swordsman possessed by a Coatati destined to father a celestial messiah. However, Immortus later remarked that the more important half of the wedding was Vision and the Scarlet Witch.
Immortus created a divergent copy of the android Human Torch for Ultron to construct into the Vision. He feigned helplessness as the Avengers battled Kang's Legion of the Unliving. He went on to reinforce his deception as the Avengers' ally for years and numerous adventures. He even used Space Phantoms disguised as "Synchro-staffs" to guide the Vision through history to discover his "origins as the original Human Torch. This gave Vision the extra confidence to pursue marriage with the Scarlet Witch.