Malekith (Earth-199999)

Malekith was ruler of the Dark Elves of Svartalfheim, obsessed with returning the universe to its primordial state of darkness. During the reign of Asgardian king Bor, Malekith created the Aether from the Reality Stone in an attempt to achieve that darkness, but was defeated and forced to retreat. In 2013, he awoke from millennia of sleep to attempt to use the Aether once more, but was this time defeated and killed by Bor's grandson Thor.

Biography

Thousands of years before the modern age, Malekith attempted to use the Aether during a convergence of the Nine Realms to plunge the universe into an age of darkness. He and the Dark Elves waged war with the Asgardians led by Bor, who were able to wrest the Aether from him with the use of the Bifrost. In his moment of defeat, Malekith abandoned his people, sacrificing them to deal a devastating blow to Asgard's forces and make good his own escape. Malekith put himself and a remainder of his army into suspended animation in his flagship in space, to be awoken in advance of the next convergence.

In November of 2013, Malekith and his people awoke. He transformed his right hand Algrim into a Kursed in order to act as his army's strongest defense. Malekith detected the Aether on Asgard, and sent Algrim to disguise himself as a Marauder being taken prisoner by the realm. Successfully imprisoned, Algrim initiated a violent escape from Asgard's dungeons, foreshadowing a full-fledged attack from Malekith's aerial forces. Malekith's ship landed, and he made a beeline for the source of the Aether. He found it in the human woman Jane Foster, who was being shielded by Asgardian queen Frigga. In truth, this was merely an obfuscation: the image of Foster was an illusion to make good her escape elsewhere, and Malekith had Algrim stab and kill Frigga in rage. Frigga's son (and Bor's grandson), the mighty Thor, appeared moments later and attacked Malekith with a mighty lightning blast to the face, horribly scarring his right side. Malekith and Algrim hastily escaped in his ship, retreating off-world to regroup.

The Dark Elf forces gathered their strength, preparing to attack Asgard once more. But the next day, Malekith detected the Aether's presence not on Asgard, but on Svartalfheim. Landing there, he and his forces found Foster, Thor, and Thor's brother Loki, who had seemingly betrayed Thor during a plan to defeat Malekith. Loki handed Foster and the Aether to Malekith, in exchange simply for the destruction of Asgard. Algrim corroborated Loki's stance against Asgard, having seen him in its dungeons. Malekith began to absorb the Aether from Foster's body, but Thor sprung from a feigned prone state to attack the airborne Aether with a lightning blast, causing a dramatic explosion. But the broken shards of the Aether (or rather, its progenitor the Reality Stone) simply coalesced back into one in moments before being absorbed by Malekith. Malekith calmly walked back to his ship to await the convergence, leaving Thor and Loki behind to fight Algrim and the others. Algrim was killed in the ensuing fight, while Loki faked his own death and Thor and Foster warped to Earth.

Specifically, Malekith's plan was to use the Aether at the point where all Nine Realms were closest during the convergence, which happened to be in Greenwich on Earth, thereby amplifying its power to a universal level. He thus arrived there roughly ten minutes before the convergence, where Thor was waiting for him. Thor and his allies—notably Foster and scientist Erik Selvig—simply intended to occupy Malekith long enough for the convergence to pass, thereby thwarting his ultimate goal. Selvig and Foster employed advanced technology to focus a series of portals in the area, sending Thor and Malekith fighting through various realms. Malekith was soon able to unleash the Aether in the proper place and time, creating a large, powerful cloud of red mist around him. Thor got close to him with a gravimetric spike, stabbing it into his chest, powerfully knocking him into his own ship, and allowing Foster to blip Malekith back to Svartalfheim. The damaged ship began to collapse onto Thor's weakened and prone body, but also fell into a portal and fell on Malekith on Svartalfheim instead, killing him. Forces from Asgard later recovered the Aether from Malekith's corpse, donating it to the Collector for safe keeping. What became of the Dark Elves after Malekith's death is unclear.