had entered a contract as an amusement park version of "America's Heartland Next-Door." When Patsy Walker returned to visit her hometown, she discovered that the town's whole population was possessed by demons. A team composed of Avengers and Thunderbolts helped clear the town, which was apparently being victimized by a convoluted conspiracy composed of the amusement park developers, the Sons of the Serpent, and Salem's Seven. After defeating them, the Avengers/Thunderbolts team departed but Patsy elected to remain in Centerville. Soon Patsy discovered that Scratch was the mastermind behind the ongoing haunting of Centerville. She defeated him and accused him of serving Mephisto, but in reply, Scratch called down his true new master Dormammu. Abducting Hellcat, Dormammu then revealed his plans for domination via conquest of Hell, and that Scratch would become Sorcerer Supreme. Dormammu's plans were later defeated by the other Hell Lords causing Hell to freeze over. Dormammu then fled with Scratch. Scratch had not been seen until he was featured in The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch three-part storyline in Marvel Knights 4 where Scratch manipulated Salem's Seven and the Fantastic Four into releasing Shuma-Gorath only for the Fantastic Four, Diablo, Doctor Strange, and his own children to defeat him and Shuma-Gorath. Scratch was banished to Hell, where he made an alliance with Mephisto. Powers and abilities Scratch possesses vast indeterminate power through manipulation of the forces of magic. He has teleported, fired bolts of force and energy, traveled between dimensions, shown the ability to control and influence minds, and animated gargoyles to serve him. He could gain more power by tapping into extradimensional energy in entities or objects of power existing in dimensions tangential to Earth's. He had the mental powers of mesmerism, thought-casting, illusion-casting, and mental-probing. For a time, Nicholas Scratch was deprived of his supernatural powers by a spell cast by Agatha Harkness. Scratch wields the Satan Staff, a mystical power object that served as a focus for Scratch's magical powers. With it, he could direct the combined magical powers of the entire community of New Salem when they allowed him to do so. In other media Television Nicolas Scratch appears in The Avengers: United They Stand episode "The Sorceress Apprentice" voiced by Stephen Ouimette. References External links Nicholas Scratch at Marvel.com Characters created by George Pérez Characters created by Len Wein Comics characters introduced in 1977 Fantastic Four characters Marvel Comics characters who can