The Living Tribunal

• The Living Tribunal
• The Death of Death

“	With great power comes great responsibility and little happiness.	„
	~ The Living Tribunal

Summary

The Living Tribunal is a humanoid cosmic entity who has existed as long as the Multiverse itself, existing as one of its key inner mechanisms. Its function is to safeguard the Multiverse (the total sum of all alternate universes) from an imbalance of mystical forces. It may act to prevent one universe from amassing more power than any of the others, or from upsetting the cosmic balance in some way. The Tribunal may also act to prevent an overwhelming imbalance of good or evil within a universe.

The Tribunal manifests itself as a being with three faces, which represent the three sides of the Tribunal's personality. Its front face, through which it usually speaks, represents Equity, the fully hooded face on its right side represents Necessity, and the partially hooded face on its left represents Vengeance. All three voices must agree in a case before the Tribunal can intervene.

The Living Tribunal is the Abstract Embodiment of Multiversal Law & Order, and the collective manifestation of all existence, alongside all lesser Abstract Entities. For instance, Eternity and Infinity are part of his Face of Necessity, while Death is within the Face of Vengeance, and Galactus is of the Face of Equity, while the Fourth Face he does not have is perhaps The Stranger. This principle continues on all levels of reality, such as that of lesser Abstracts, with Master Order being Necessity, Lord Chaos being Vengeance, and the In-Betweener the Equity that separates both, et cetera.

During the storyline Time Runs Out, more specifically within the pages of New Avengers issue #30, the entity was slain by The Beyonders alongside the majority of the Marvel Cosmic Pantheon. However, with the rebirth of the Seventh Cosmos into the Eighth, he was returned to existence alongside the rest of the hierarchy.

Powers and Stats

Tier: Varies up to 1-A | 1-A | 1-A

Key: M-Bodies | Death of Death | True Self

Name: The Living Tribunal, The Living Trinity

Origin: Marvel Comics

Gender: Inapplicable (Manifests a masculine persona)

Age: Inapplicable (Exists beyond time)

Classification: Cosmic Being, Abstract Entity, Judge of all Worlds, Law of the Omniverse, Representative of The One Above All, Inner Working of Eternity

Powers and Abilities:

• M-Bodies
• Death of Death
• True Living Tribunal

• Omnipresence & Nigh-Omniscience
  • Cosmic Awareness
• Beyond-Dimensional Existence (Type 2)
  • Acausality (Type 4; Exists on a similar level of existence as Eternity, above time as a whole.)
• Abstract Existence (Type 2; Manifestation Bodies are anthropomorphic avatars assumed by the Abstracts in order to act in more personal matters, existing as images created by the interpretations of lesser onlookers, given semi-substantial being by the reality-altering properties of perception)
  • Multiple Selves (Type 1)
  • Transduality (Type 2; Stated to transcend "all opposing realities")
  • Immortality (Types 1, 5 & 9; Due to the nature of Manifestation Bodies as simple visualizations brought into being by the perceptions of lesser entities, they cannot truly be harmed, as fighting them is tantamount to doing battle with one's own thoughts, and any damage seemingly inflicted on them can be instantly reversed as if it never happened)
  • Incorporeality (The M-Bodies of the Abstracts reside above the physical universe, and are stated to be "too abstract to fight in anything remotely resembling a physical manner")
• Reality Warping (Instantly restored order to the cosmic court with a wave of his hand, overriding the powers of the Infinity Gauntlet)
  • Dimensional Manipulation & Space-Time Manipulation
  • Matter Manipulation
  • Energy Manipulation
  • Conceptual Manipulation (Type 1)
  • Law Manipulation (Can enforce rulings that dictate and shape reality, such as when he made it so the Infinity Gems became powerless when placed in unison by forbidding usage of the Infinity Gauntlet)
    • Power Nullification
  • Teleportation, Telepathy & Telekinesis
  • BFR & Sealing (Sealed off Korvac's reality from the wider multiverse, and did the same to the Beyonder, locking away his reality from interaction with others)
  • Absorption (Absorbed the Protege into himself after trapping him in the Eternal Hourglass)
  • Creation
• All powers and abilities held by Eternity, Death, Galactus, The In-Betweener & Lord Chaos and Master Order (All members of the Cosmic Pantheon are simply parts of the Living Tribunal, each embodied by one of his three visages)

All powers and abilities of the Living Tribunal

All previous powers and abilities to unfathomably greater scale as well as:

• Abstract Existence (Type 1; Exists in the Superflow, a realm of pure concepts and information where "metaphor and reality meet, signifier and signified become one")
  • Transduality (Type 3; Transcends the In-Betweener, an inner function of Eternity that personifies the barrier and division between dichotomies, being "a concept of concepts" and "walking the path between all worlds, all concepts," simultaneously the union of all polarities and something that stands exempt from them)
• Fate Manipulation (His hand is the force that spins the wheel of destiny into being)
• Vastly Enhanced Conceptual Manipulation (Type 1; Personifies the laws and rules of the multiverse that define the nature and purpose of each the Cosmic Aspects, without which they are no longer constrained by their roles, as there is no longer anything deciding what they are the personifications of)

Attack Potency: Varies (Since Manifestation Bodies are powered by an exchange of energies with the Abstracts, how powerful they are can be adjusted as needed, with them being able to be made weaker than even an incomplete Cosmic Cube such as The Beyonder, who is otherwise insignificant to the higher members of the Cosmic Hierarchy) up to Outerverse level (Described as transcending all opposing realities, both governing and exceeding the realms of Eternity and Death and Chaos and Order, and holding them as facets of his existence, alongside Galactus and The In-Betweener. As such, he should be superior to the hypothetical fusion between Eternity and Death, who was described as dwarfing both of its fusees to the same degree they once dwarfed the weakest beings in reality) | Outerverse level (A quasi-aspect of the Living Tribunal that personifies the judgement of Death as a function of the universe, being responsible for deciding if it should exist or not, and, if necessary, carrying out the destruction of its personification, an event that results in reality transitioning to a Cancerverse, thus killing the abstraction of Death itself and not simply its Manifestation Body) | Outerverse level (The Living Tribunal is vastly above other Multiversal Abstracts, being the most powerful being in creation and law of the omniverse itself, which personifies the very bond that inextricably links together all of the Abstracts and the hierarchy that dictates their nature and standing within Eternity's inner structure, without which the Cosmic Aspects fall into a state of anarchy where no one entity is more or less powerful than another. Stated to be "all of reality, the multiverse taken form," and the heart of creation itself, with its pulse reverberating through him)

Speed: Omnipresent (Eternity and Infinity, the personification of the concepts of time and space that encompass all reality, are part of the Tribunal. The Silver Surfer momentarily experienced oneness with the universe by merging with the Tribunal's missing fourth face), Immeasurable when taking a form (Exists on the same level of existence as other Abstracts, who reside in, and encompass, realms above time entirely. Describes himself as transcending the realm of time and space, standing unaffected by stopped time in virtue of that) | Immeasurable | Omnipresent, Immeasurable when taking a form (Exists in the Superflow, above the concepts of space and time personified by the Universal Eternity)

Lifting Strength: Immeasurable

Striking Strength: Varies up to Outerverse level | Outerverse level | Outerverse level

Durability: Varies up to Outerverse level (The skin off the Living Tribunal's corpse was used to create the Life Raft that withstood the collision and subsequent destruction of Earths 616 and 1610) | Outerverse level | Outerverse level

Stamina: Infinite (As a conceptual being, the concept of stamina and endurance is meaningless to him)

Range: Outerversal

Standard Equipment: None notable

Intelligence: Nigh-Omniscient (His three faces personify past, present, and future, and as such he knows all. Stated to feel the ebb and flow of all realities, possessing an "omniscient perspective" that makes his motives and thoughts unfathomable even to the likes of Eternity)

Weaknesses: None notable

Notable Matchups

Victories:

Losses:

Inconclusive:

Discussions

Discussion threads involving The Living Tribunal