Living Tribunal - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

The Living Tribunal is a virtually omnipotent entity that oversees and maintains balance in the realities that constitute the Marvel Comics Multiverse, including the mainstream universe and all alternate universes.

The character is first encountered by Doctor Strange, announcing its intent to destroy Earth due to its potential for evil. After a series of trials Strange is able to convince the Living Tribunal that good also exists, and Earth is spared. The Tribunal reappears to the Galadorian spaceknight Rom; appears briefly with the rest of the cosmic hierarchy when in discussion with the entity the Beyonder; and reveals to the former Herald of Galactus (the Silver Surfer) that its three faces represent "Equity"; "Vengeance" and "Necessity" respectively. The fourth side of the Living Tribunal's head is a void, with the entity claiming that it could have represented the face of the cosmic entity the Stranger. The character also witnesses the triumph of the hero Quasar - acting as the avatar of cosmic entity Infinity - over the villain Maelstrom, who acts for the entity Oblivion.

The Living Tribunal's power is apparently limitless, as the entity prevents the Infinity Gems from being used in unison, though is inferior to the even higher entity, whom it represents and serves, known as the One-Above-All. The entity has representatives called The Magistrati who dispense judgments by request on alien worlds, and chose to reveal the previously covered face of "Necessity" to She-Hulk as a reflection of her own face, stating that the face is a "Cosmic Mirror which reminds us to always judge others as we would have ourselves judged."

Read more about this topic:  Living Tribunal

Famous quotes containing the words fictional, character and/or biography:

    One of the proud joys of the man of letters—if that man of letters is an artist—is to feel within himself the power to immortalize at will anything he chooses to immortalize. Insignificant though he may be, he is conscious of possessing a creative divinity. God creates lives; the man of imagination creates fictional lives which may make a profound and as it were more living impression on the world’s memory.
    Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)

    Common-sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncrasies of individual character and the opinion of the newspapers.
    W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1966)

    Had Dr. Johnson written his own life, in conformity with the opinion which he has given, that every man’s life may be best written by himself; had he employed in the preservation of his own history, that clearness of narration and elegance of language in which he has embalmed so many eminent persons, the world would probably have had the most perfect example of biography that was ever exhibited.
    James Boswell (1740–95)