Cecil Cephalopod (Earth-43348)

Earth-43348[]

Cecil Cephalopod was a professor^[1] and doctor, that went by Dr. Cephalopod.^[2] and lived circa the year 3000^[3] on Earth-43348.^[6]

He pursued studies on "projected temporal consciousnesses".^[3] While researching into the Old Ones, Cephalopod was "blessed" with his Cthulhu-like form, and also discovered the existence of the Great Race of Yith, ultimately using their ancient technology to create the "Shadow Templates",^[5] or "Yith Templates".^[1]

In the year 3000, he battled the Space Ghost Rider in outer space, a fight observed by the timeslipping woman who became known as Finale the Ultimate Artist.^[3]

Terminal Six[]

As Finale's mother died at this moment, Finale decided she wouldn't follow her mother's fate. She rescued Dr. Cephalopod from his world before it was devoured by the End of Time, and used her massive wealth to fund Cephalopod's studies.^[3]

Along him were saved five other villains from dying universes, forming the Terminal Six, to serve her plot of becoming the ultimate meme. Cephalopod acted both as leader and scientist of the group.

At the end of all time, Finale presented her plan before an extatic audience, introducing the Finalizer machine who could send her temporal profile back through time, to be reborn in every age, and her Terminal Six, all carrying an time-travelling artifact, Cephalopod holding Doctor Doom's Time Platform. As Kid Carcass had been killed while trying to acquire Cable's sentient chronocomputer, Cephalopod urged Finale to abort her plan in lack of the final artifact, but Finale proceeded anyway under Cephalopod's supervision, who activated the artifacts and cast Finale's shadow through time. Without Cable's computer to guide it, Finale's shadow form was interrupted, and in place of Finale, it was Ghost Spider (Gwen Stacy)'s form who was cast into time as multiple avatars (causing massive alterations to Earth-65). Infuriated, Finale demanded that Cephalopod and the Terminal Six track and kill those new Gwens. She demoted Cephalopod, and included Nightbird (Gwen Stacy) as new leader of the team.^[1]

The Terminal Six first visited the altered Earth-65 circa 800 CE, in Norway tracking Thorgwen (Gwendolyn Janus). Cephalopod interrogated a local woman, who revealed Thorgwen had left through a multiversal gate. Cephalopod then devoured the woman.^[2] Nightbird then assigned her team to assassinate the various variants, herself paired with Cephalopod.^[3]

While Cephalopod and Nightbird, the last Terminal Six, were preparing to kill the last template, Gwen Jones/Captain Marvel, they were attacked by Ghost-Spider and her variants. Cephalopod was targeted by Thorgwen and Iron G.W.E.N. (Toni Stacy), but their bickering allowed him to escape (as did Nightbird).

Before attacking Captain Marvel at the roof of the Daily Bugle Building, Cephalopod shared with Nightbird information he had acquired from the temporal profiles, which she could spread to others. Nightbird used that intel by similarly sharing it to Captain Marvel, revealing to her her true purpose and leading the Kree Supreme Intelligence to overload Marvel's Nega-Bands. As Cephalopod was gutted by Wolverine (Gwen Howlett), he still gloated at victory as Marvel fled upwards, to detonate as far away as possible from the city surrounding her.^[5]

Cephalopod's fate, whether he manage to escape the scene, or seemingly perished (whether succombing to the wounds inflicted upon him by Wolverine or to Captain Marvel detonating), remains unconfirmed.

Dr. Cephalopod displayed extensive knowledge on temporal and multiversal travel,^[1][2] having pursued studies on "projected temporal consciousnesses".^[3]

He also used ancient science and technology, including that from the Great Race of Yith.^[5]

Dr. Doom's Time Platform, tentacle-arms bracelets, Shadow Templates

• Dr. Cephalopod is a future (being set in year 3000 in his universe) counterpart of Doctor Octopus, while his form is obviously inspired by H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu, and has other connections to the Cthulhu Mythos.
  • He was "blessed" with this form by his research into the Old Ones. This led Captain Marvel (Earth-80329) to confuse him with a Great Old One.
  • In the course of this research, he discovered the Great Race of Yith (also created by Lovecraft). From their technoogy, which he named ""Shadow Templates", "temporal profiles", or "Yith Templates".
  • When Cephalopod shared information from those temporal profiles with Nightbird, a projection of the Yellow Sign (a creation of Robert W. Chambers, integrated into the Cthulhu Mythos by August Derleth) appeared on her forehead. The Yellow Sign appeared again when Nightbird herself shared those informations into Captain Marvel.^[5]

• Dr. Cephalopod eats humans.^[2]
• He was described as an "actual Cephalopod".^[2]
• Dr. Cephalopod found the pet-fox Erma to be so "keeeyuuute".^[3]