Malebolgia
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Malebolgia is the name of a fictional demon in the Spawn universe. He was the primary antagonist of the comic from issue 1-100 and was Spawn's master and one of the major Lords of Hell.
[edit] Background
Thought to be the equivalent of Satan in the Bible, he is responsible for the creation of Spawn. It is eventually revealed that Malebolgia is one of Hell's many rulers, a being from the "Eighth Circle of Hell" who has been around for 70,000 years or so, forming an army in its war against Heaven and God. Malebolgia was respected and feared as the most powerful of the rulers, and thus the de-facto grand master of Hell. His powers include energy projection, matter manipulation, enormous physical strength, recuperative abilities, and abilities to morph and induce hallucinations. His standing in Hell's hierarchy gives him nigh-unlimited power while in the 8th Sphere. His mastery of necroplasm gives him the exclusive ability to create Hellspawn and during his rule, he created an army larger than anything Heaven could handle.
Satan himself was only recently revealed in the Spawn comics, Wanda's daughter (the twin to God, Wanda's son). It has been noted that Malebolgia was constantly at war with the rulers of the other spheres of Hell, as well as at odds with Mammon.
Malebolgia is one of the few characters from Spawn who has made an appearance or a cameo in other Image books outside the core Spawn title and its spin-offs. He was notably absent, but was mentioned, during Chapel's rise to power in Hell when he usurped control of Hell away from Lucifer and became Lord Chapel as part of a large Image crossover including Prophet, Supreme, the groups Youngblood, Brigade and others. Lucifer also appeared in the Angela mini-series, quite different from the Lucifer in the Liefeld-laden crossover but for the most part it is believed that he is not the Satan of the Spawn universe. That leaves Malebolgia and Mammon as the highest ranking devil-like characters in Spawn canon thus far.
Malebolgia was slain by Spawn in issue #100. Spawn was offered the crown of the Eighth Circle, and though he declined, Spawn still received vastly enhanced powers and a command over Hell itself. It has become known that Mammon was a far more commanding presence in Hell than Malebolgia and though he was given self-determination and rule over Hell he was far from the most powerful being in The Pit.
The name is taken from the term in Dante's Inferno used to describe Malebolge, the ditches (bolge) in the eighth circle of Hell where the evil (male) are punished.
