BATHALA

Real Name: Bathalang Maykapal

Identity/Class: Filipino god

Occupation: God of the sky, King of the Diwatas

Group Membership: The Diwatas (Aman Sinaya, Amihan, Anitun, Apo Laki, Aswang, Mayari, Tala)

Affiliations: Ajak, Amatsu-Mikaboshi, Amadeus Cho, Council of Godheads (Altjira, Kwaku Anansi, Athena/Athena Panhellenios, Hodiak, Horus/Horus-Aton, Izanagi-No-Mikoto, Shou-Hsing, Tezcatlipoca, Ukko, others), the Diwatas, Hercules (Heracles), Huitzilopochtli, Inti, "Kirby" (secretly a disguised Skrull), Snowbird (Narya), Thor (Thor Odinson)

Enemies: Aswang

Known Relatives: Gaea (mother), Aman Sinaya (sister), Amihan, Aswang (brothers), Apo Laki (son), Mayari, Tala (daughters), several generations of Diwatas (descendants)

Aliases: Abba, Ampu (Palawan name), Batala, Diobata, Diwata, Gugurang (Bicolanos name), Kabunian (Ilocano name), Kan-Laon (Visayan name), Lumikha, Maykapal, Melu (B'laan name)

Base of Operations: Kaluwalhatian

First Appearance: (Unidentified) Thor I#300 (October, 1980);
    (identified): Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica (2009)

Powers/Abilities: Bathala is a true immortal and therefore, he ceased aging at adulthood. He possesses the conventional attributes of a Diwata, including superhuman strength (lifting at least 25 tons, if not more), superhuman endurance and superhumanly durable physical tissue that is 2 1/2 times denser than a mortal human. He is extremely resistant to conventional injury, able to use his godly life force to recover from nearly any injury at a superhuman rate, and cannot die by conventional means. Only an injury sufficient to completely incinerate Bathala or disperse a large majority of his bodily molecules could kill him and even then, a god or gods of equal or greater power could resurrect him. His superhuman resistance also provides him an immunity to all terrestrial diseases.

Bathala, like all Diwatas, is also extremely attuned to nature but progressively weaken after prolonged stays in the Earth realm. He is capable of binding his life essence to a mortal host while away from his home dimension of Kaluwalhatian for extended periods.

Height: Unrevealed (possibly variable-see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed (possibly variable-see comments)
Eyes: Unrevealed (see comments)
Hair: Unrevealed (see comments)

History: (Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica - The Diwatas entry - BTS) - The sky god Bathala was birthed by his mother, the Earth Mother Gaea, alongside his sister, sea goddess Aman Sinaya, and brother Amihan, the wind god. Becoming the supreme Sky Father of the Diwatas, Bathala dwelled in the extradimensional realm of Kaluwalhatian and, according to legend, fashioned the first mortals from a bamboo shoot which he and his siblings instilled with souls. During a later visit to Earth, Bathala fell in love with a mortal woman and sired three children with her, the war god Apo Laki, moon goddess Mayari and star goddess Tala. As worship of the Diwatas spread after 4000 B.C., Bathala became known as Kan-Laon to the Visayans and Gugurang to the Bicolanos people. He was also known as Melu to the B'laan, Kabunian to the Ilocanos and Ampu to the tribes of Palawan.

(Thor I#300) - Bathala attended a Council of Godheads assemblage circa 1000 A.D. to discuss the threat of the cosmic Celestials.

(Thor I#301 - BTS) - In the modern era, when most of the Asgardians were slain attacking the Celestials, Bathala granted Thor life energies to add to his collection of life energies capable of resurrecting the Asgardians.

(Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica - The Diwatas entry - BTS) - When Christianity became prominent in the Philippines after the 16th century, Bathala decided that the time had come for the Diwatas to break their ties with Earth despite retaining deep affection and interest in the people of Earth. After retreating back to Kaluwalhatian, Bathala took up defending the dimension from his younger brother Aswang, god of evil and ruler of the adjacent realm of the dead, Impiyerno.

(Incredible Hercules I#116 - BTS) - Bathala attended a Council of Godheads meeting organized by the Olympian Athena, who hoped to get aid from the various pantheons against the threat of the extraterrestrial Skrulls.

(Incredible Hercules I#117) - After few champions were provided by the Council to assist Athena's champion, Hercules, against the Skrulls, Bathala watched as Hercules attacked another champion, the devious Japanese god Amatsu-Mikaboshi.

Comments: Adapted into Marvel Comics by Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Keith Pollard and Gene Day.

It should be noted that various sources on Filipino mythology give various different accounts on the story of creation and the origins of Bathala. While I would normally cover some of the mythology in a god character's History section (provided it doesn't go against what Marvel established in their comics) and since there are various versions of the legends, I chose to not include much in the way of myths into Bathala's History section of this profile. Since this profile is on the Marvel Comics version of Bathala, I chose only to include the origins and legendary stories of Bathala that were given in the Marvel-published Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica comic, as those correspond to Marvel's version of Bathala. I did include a few alternate names for Bathala given in mythology into this profile's Aliases section, however.

For the record, Bathala was not listed as an actual member of the Council of Godheads in OHotMU profiles but he was definitely present with them at times so perhaps he was not listed because he did not directly act during the Council but rather, observed the events.

The modern Diwatas OHotMU profile mentions that Bathala attended the first Council of Godheads in Thor I#300 though he was not identified in that issue. Since many of the Council members seen in that are identified in the modern Council of Godheads OHotMU profile, Bathala must be one of the random ones seen in various shots outside of the main Council image (since he is not identified in the modern Council OHotMU profile). The closest image I could find for Bathala in Thor I#300 is the one shown in this profile and the image is drawn as if seen from far away. I chose this character as Bathala based entirely on the green color to his outfit. It's really the only character that could be considered Bathala, as most of the other Council members are identified by name in the modern Council OHotMU profile.

In addition, Bathala was only barely seen in crowd shots of the Council of Godheads in Incredible Hercules I#117 (he was not actually seen in #116) and even then, it wasn't easy to pinpoint his identifying headdress due to the art and his penchant for being obscured by other characters. He was also not identified in the Incredible Hercules appearances and I suppose it is possible that the image included in this profile is actually an image of another aspect of one of the identified Godheads members but since we don't know for sure, I chose the image because it is the closest we have that resembles Bathala.

The Marvel Universe's version of Bathala's eyes, hair, height and weight were impossible to determine, as he was never drawn in a way that showed his proper eye or hair color (only seen with a headdress obscuring his hair or far away as to prevent any guesses as to his eye color and, as a godhead, Bathala likely possessed at least some ability to alter his form and shape or appear as different aspects of himself. While readers never saw Bathala display this ability, it's likely his height and weight would be variable depending on which form he appeared in. If he does not possess the ability to change his shape, then I would approximate his normal form with a height of around 6'0" and a weight of 460 to account for his superhumanly dense body.

    This profile was completed 6/09/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Bathala has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica, p21, The Diwatas main image (Bathala, main image)
Incredible Hercules I#117, p13, pan3 (Bathala, headshot)
Thor I#300, p12-13, pan4 (Bathala at first Council of Godheads)

Appearances:
Thor I#300 (October, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio (writers), Keith Pollard, Gene Day (art), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Thor I#301 (November, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio (writers), Keith Pollard, Chic Stone (art), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Incredible Hercules I#116 (June, 2008) - Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente (writers), Rafa Sandoval (pencils), Roger Benet (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Incredible Hercules I#117 (July, 2008) - Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente (writers), Rafa Sandoval (pencils), Roger Benet (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
Thor & Hercules: Encyclopaedia Mythologica (2009) - Anthony Flamini (head writer, coordinator), Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, Paul Cornell (consulting writers), Ben Oliver (The Diwatas entry art), Jeff Youngquist (editor)

First Posted: 09/12/2021
Last updated: 09/10/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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