Oizys (Earth-616)

Oizys was the fourth and final spawn of Nyx, the Olympian goddess of the night. Nyx and her three children, Hypnos, Apate, and Dolos, were outcasts among the Olympians. After waging war against the other gods, Zeus split Nyx's soul into three Night Shards and cast her and her children out into a prison of darkness, sealed by a spell that ensured their imprisonment for as long as the Sun shone upon the Earth. Out of her hatred, Nyx manifested Oizys, the Goddess of Misery.^[4]

Oizys and her family remained chained to their prison of darkness until the Modern Age. During a conflict between two Elders of the Universe, the Grandmaster and the Challenger, the Earth was briefly removed from its orbit around the Sun. With the spell of imprisonment broken, Nyx rallied her children against the Olympians. Believing the gods, the mortals and the universe itself to have all been spoiled after an eternity of mistreatment, Nyx set out to recreate the universe to her image, returning everything to a state of empty and pure darkness.^[4] When Nyx and her children arrived on Olympus, they slaughtered all the gods present in the scene, including Zeus, whose mind Oizys probed for the whereabouts of the Night Shards.^[5]

While the rest of Nyx's children were dispatched to retrieve the Night Shards, Oizys remained by her mother's side, and helped her fight a group of Avengers, who had become aware of the Olympian massacre.^[5] The search for the Night Shards took both the Avengers and Nyx to Shadizar, a city that existed during the Hyborian Age.^[6] After claiming the portion of her power within The Night That Was, Nyx returned to the present to find another shard, and left Oizys to kill the Avengers.^[7] Oizys managed to subdue the heroes and drown them in visions of despair. However, when Hercules managed to overcome his anguish to console Voyager, Oizys began to lose her power, diminishing in size until she was small enough for Hercules to squash her under his boot.^[1]

Nyx came back to life and revived her children next. Hercules, Thor, and Loki sought them out, and Oizys tried to feed on Thor's despair. He threw her at Hypnos, and Loki sent them all into the Land Without Suns.^[2] Nyx disintegrated her when she decided to stay there, as she wanted to build worlds that would not need despair.^[3]

Misery Manipulation: Oizys can infect people with feelings of utter loss of hope, a sense of worthlessness,^[5] induce them with despair, fear and hatred.^[4]

• Despair and Fear Manifestation: She can manifest ghosts out of people's despair, and inflict visions of a being's deepest fears.^[1]
• Despair Absorption: Oizys can feed on her victim's despair and becomes bigger and more monstrous with more she absorbs.^[1]

If her victim is capable of overcoming the despair Oizys becomes small and weak.^[1]

• The following is the original description for Oizys written by Avengers No Road Home writers Mark Waid, Al Ewing and Jim Zub for Joshua James Shaw, the designer of Nyx and her children: "Just this horrible, oozing mind-creature, almost Cthulhu-esque, hard to look at. She's the voice in the head--we all know it-- the inner demon that wants you to suffer. She can infect people and take them over, leave them not in their right mind. In terms of physicality, she is a scrawny, serpentine, alien figure that squats on Nyx's shoulder or coils around the throats of people she's influencing. (When given power by her mother, she gets bigger and meaner.) Extremely bony hands/fingers and a lower body that's more wormlike than human. She has no eyes, just flesh bumps where they should be and a huge mouth filled with tiny jagged, stained teeth. Her body and head are wrapped in shredded and soiled rags. Even in the midst of a pitched battle with a cacophony of noise, her psychic 'whispers' can cut through the din and build up dread and doubt within her victims if they're not on their guard."^[5]