Biographical Data

Real Name: Anath-Na Mut
Other current aliases: The Dreaded One
Former aliases: None
Dual identity: Secret
Current occupation: None
Former occupation: Wizard in the Egyptian Pharaoh's court, later conqueror
Citizenship: None, formerly citizen of ancient Egypt
Legal status: None
Place of birth: Somewhere in Egypt
Marital status: Partner of Lady Sphinx (who have since merged into one single being)
Known relatives: None
Known confidants: Sayge (Veritas)
Known allies: Thraxon (Inhuman)
Major enemies: Nova, New Warriors, Fantastic Four, Inhumans, Galactus, Puppet Master, The New Champions, The Terrible Trio, Doctor Sun, Kur
Usual base of operations: A mobile flying pyramid, formerly located in Egypt
Former bases of operations: Pyramid of Knowledge, upstate New York
Current group membership: None
Former group membership: None
Extent of education: Training in sorcery by ancient Egyptian wizards

Origin: The Sphinx is Nova's greatest and most powerful enemy. Created to be part of a super-human army by the alien Caretakers of Arcturus, the Sphinx eventually escaped to Egypt. In Egypt, he took the name Anath-Na Mut and became the wizard to the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses II. After being defeated by the legendary Moses, Mut was banished into the desert by the pharaoh.

After years of wandering, Mut happened upon a temple of unknown origin, inside which was the mystic Ka Stone. The mystical stone seemed to bid him to touch it to his forehead. The moment he did so, the stone affixed itself to him and heightened the Sphinx's mutant strength and gave him immense superhuman powers along with immortality. However, the influx of power left Anath-Na Mut in a comatose state for months. During this time, he was found and cared for by an Egyptian woman named Meryet Karim. After awakening, Anath-Na Mut assumed the name of the Sphinx and spent the next 5,000 years traveling the Earth without purpose, involving himself in whichever endeavors of mankind interested him.

Eventually, the Sphinx became profoundly bored with his immortal life and began to search for a means to free himself from the Ka Stone and its unwanted powers. Hearing of a being whose powers rivaled his own, he traveled to the Himalayan mountains where he encountered the enigmatic mystical entity he called Sayge. Sayge refused to help him and tormented him for unknown reasons with his predictions of the Sphinx's supposedly unalterable destiny of eternal life. Sayge, also known as Veritas, the embodiment of truth, frequently accompanied the Sphinx, again for reasons that remain unknown.

By the mid-twentieth century, the Sphinx had probed thousands of minds in search of knowledge towards a means of ending his life, but to no avail. He then tapped the mind of Richard Rider, a youth who possesses the powers of a Nova Centurion, a superhumanoid champion from the planet Xandar. Rider's subconscious mind had been imprinted with the knowledge possessed by his alien predecessor, including knowledge of Xandar's planet-size computer. The Sphinx, unaware of the precise nature of Rider's knowledge, nevertheless believed the youth to possess the secret of thwarting the Ka Stone. Because this knowledge was in his subconscious, however, Rider managed to resist the Sphinx's efforts to wrest it from him. Eventually, the Sphinx learned of Xandar from the living computer Quasimodo. The Sphinx pressed Rider and a number of Nova's allies and opponents into accompanying him to Xandar in the Nova Prime Starship.

Reaching Xandar, the Sphinx absorbed the sum total of that world's accumulated knowledge by absorbing it from Xandar's central computer. The Sphinx also absorbed tremendous amounts of energy from the planet-sized computer. Now, at last, the Sphinx had sufficient knowledge and power to end his life. However, he abandoned his goal of suicide and instead decided to return to Earth to destroy it. Learning of his intent, the Fantastic Four contacted the world-eater Galactus and bargained with him to battle the Sphinx. The Fantastic Four believed that only a being as mighty as Galactus could defeat the Sphinx, who was now vastly more powerful than ever before.

Galactus did indeed defeat the Sphinx in battle, deprived him of his added power from the computer system of Xandar, plucked the Ka Stone from his forehead, crushed it, and used his immense powers to dispatch the Sphinx back in time to relive his life over and over eternally in a 'time loop'.

However, Galactus, whose knowledge of time travel is rudimentary, failed to take into account the fact that the Sphinx already existed at the time period to which he sent him. Therefore, there were now two Sphinxes at that time period, who met at the point in time when the Sphinx first discovered the Ka Stone. The Sphinx's future self told his past self what Galactus had done to him and the two were able to work out an elaborate scheme by which they could escape the doom Galactus had intended for them. Employing the power of the Ka Stone and the scientific knowledge that the Sphinx's future self had gained, the two Sphinxes built a machine that would reform the Ka Stone after Galactus had destroyed it. Then the Sphinx's future self hypnotized his past self into forgetting their encounter; the Sphinx's past self proceeded to live the next 5,000 years apparently as recorded, ending with his being sent back to the past. The Sphinx's future self placed himself in suspended animation to awake five millennia later.

Thus, in the twentieth century, months after the Sphinx had been sent back in time by Galactus, the Sphinx emerged from suspended animation and began using the machine to restore the crushed Ka Stone. The Sphinx clashed with one of the members of the Fantastic Four, the Thing, who destroyed the machine before it could fully restore the stone.

However, since the Ka Stone's restoration was left unfinished, the stone began slowly disintegrating and losing its power. Since it was the Ka Stone that gave the Sphinx his immortality, once it fully disintegrated, the Sphinx would soon perish. The Sphinx was now determined to kill the Thing in vengeance for depriving him of his immortality. The Sphinx succeeded in defeating the Thing in battle but then the Thing's longtime enemy, the Puppet Master, intervened. Believing that he owed the Thing a debt of gratitude, the Puppet Master used one of his mystical puppets to take control of the Sphinx's mind and thereby forced the Sphinx to remove the Ka Stone from his brow and crush it into dust. As soon as he did so, the Sphinx's body succumbed to rapid aging and withered, turning finally to dust itself.

During the thousands of years that the Sphinx wandered the Earth, the woman who had cared for him in the desert still lived. Having been exposed to the powerful energies of the Ka Stone indirectly, Meryet Karim was also granted immortality but in a unique manner. Upon the death of her physical body, she was reincarnated into a new body but retained her full memories of her past lives. Karim set about on her quest to recreate the Ka Stone which the Sphinx had failed to do. She was successful in her goal and used its power to create an alternate Earth in which Egypt was its ruling power and she (as the new female Sphinx), along with the male Sphinx whom she loved, ruled the planet.

On this altered Earth, Nova was shown the truth about his world by the Sphinx's aid Sayge. Nova, along with the rest of the New Warriors, defeated the female Sphinx by threatening her cat which was her last true link to the real Sphinx. In order to save the cat, Meryet Karim restored reality to its proper state.

However, the Sphinx was still alive and angry at Karim for stealing the Ka Stone. The two battled until they realized they actually loved each other. After coming to terms with their mutual feelings for each other, the Sphinx and female Sphinx merged together in a burst of energy and reformed into a single entity. This new Sphinx left for an unknown destination. Later, the new Sphinx returned to assist the New Warriors in fixing a temporal anomality that threatened the Earth. The current location of the new Sphinx is unknown.

Soon afterwards in Egypt, an explorer has discovered the tomb of Anath-Na Mut which is holding the Scepter of Ka. After opening the tomb, the scepter drains the life force from the grave robber and channels it into the mummified remains of the Sphinx. The man was turned to dust and the Sphinx was once again alive.

In order to regain his full power, the Sphinx drains the life force of thousands of people. Wanting revenge on Galactus and to stop the time loop he was placed in, the Sphinx attempts to steal the knowledge from Nova's mind which is linked to the Living Computers of Xandar. In order to continue gaining power, the Sphinx drains the life forces of everyone around him including Nova's friends. Nova and the Sphinx battled furiously with Nova eventually ripping the Ka Stone from the Sphinx and hurtling it into the Sun. With the Ka Stone gone, the Sphinx's body turned to stone and was pulverized by Nova.

However, an effect of the Ka Stone's destruction caused time to reverse itself back to a point before the Sphinx attacked Nova. As a result, Nova's friends and thousands of lives were saved along with the Sphinx remaining alive somewhere on Earth. Later, the Sphinx was sent to the Negative Zone by the Fantastic Four. After an failed escape attempt in which the Sphinx was captured by the Thing and Hercules, he is currently imprisoned in the Negative Zone's Vault prison.

Note: Whether this new Sphinx is the same one that the Thing battled and slowly restored from dust by the power of the Ka Stone (since two Ka Stones would have existed along with two Sphinxes due to Galactus's time loop) after being reburied by the Egyptians is unknown. He may also be the result of an unrevealed effect of the time loop created by Galactus and is a separate entity of its own.

Physical Description

Height: 7' 2"
Weight: 450 lbs.
Eyes: Red
Hair: Bald
Other distinguishing features: None

Powers and Abilities

Intelligence: Above normal
Strength: Superhuman Class 90 tons
Flight Speed: Unrevealed
Speed: Peak human
Stamina: Demi-godlike
Durability: Demi-godlike
Agility: Superhuman
Reflexes: Superhuman
Fighting skills: None, relies on superhuman strength and other powers rather than skill
Special skills and abilities: Knowledge of ancient Egyptian sorcery
Superhuman physical powers: Aside from the above listed attributes, Sphinx has virtual immortality.
Superhuman mental powers: Ability to manipulate mystical and cosmic energies, telepathic abilities including the ability to control or probe the minds of others and ability to induce hallucinations, ability to project beams of concussive force, heat, or light and to levitate or teleport himself and other persons or objects.
Special limitations: Dependent on mystical Ka Stone for his superhuman powers.
Source of superhuman powers: Genetic mutation, the Ka Stone, and other sources.

Paraphernalia

Costume specifications: Ordinary fabric
Personal weaponry: Ka Stone
Special weaponry: None
Other accessories: None
Transportation: Levitation and teleportation
Design and manufacture of paraphernalia: The Ka Stone was created millenia ago as part of the Lifestone Tree. The Lifestone Tree was created by a coalition of alien races as a means to achieve galactic peace. It later found its way to Earth and landed in ancient Egypt.

Bibliography