LIVING TRIBUNAL

 

LIVING TRIBUNAL

Real Names: Inapplicable

First Appearance: Strange Tales (Vol. 1) #157, June 1967

Powers: The Living Tribunal is a vastly powerful conceptual being who has existed since the onset of the Multiverse. The Living Tribunal's sole superior is the One-Above-All (not to be confused with the Celestial member know as the One Above All), the entity which is responsible for the existence of all life in the Multiverse, and possibly beyond.

The Living Tribunal often interacts with other conceptual beings, serving as their arbiter and judge. The Living Tribunal appears as a giant humanoid with three faces, each representing a different personality. It has a blank space where a fourth face could be exhibited. The Living Tribunal has suggested that this fourth face became the enigmatic cosmic entity known as the Stranger.

Even Beings as great as Eternity, Infinity, Death, and Oblivion are subjects to the Living Tribunal's authority. Unlike the other conceptual beings, the Living Tribunal does not possess counterparts in other realities, only one Living Tribunal exists in the Omniverse, and it is responsible for all judgments. The Living Tribunal's apparent base of operations is a dimension known as the Star Chamber, and it is served by lesser creatures called the Magistrati, who assist in judging matters where the Living Tribunal cannot intervene. The Living Tribunal also helped fashion the twin cosmic Entities the Brothers, each of whom became the guardian of a different Megaverse, within the larger Omniverse but encompassing more than a single Multiverse.

The Living Tribunal is not guided by any motivation or desires, but is entirely impartial, acting only in what it determines to be the greater interests of the universe. The Living Tribunal is more than willing to sacrifice millions of lives for the sake of billions more, or even billions for the sake of trillions, and will not deign to address the concerns of any lesser being without first establishing a plaintiff's importance.

Possessing virtually limitless power, the Living Tribunal can survey the entire multiverse at once, obliterate planets or suns at will, and for impenetrable barriers around worlds or even whole universes. The Living Tribunal manifests itself in a three-headed form, each head representing a different facet of his personality: The fully visible face represents equity; the fully hooded face represents necessity; and the half hooded face represents revenge. The face which addresses a plaintiff identifies which personality is guiding the Living Tribunal's decisions.