Universal Church of Truth

The Universal Church of Truth is an organization that features in Marvel Comics.

History

Their headquarters was established on the planet Sacrosanct that served as the homeworld of the Universal Church of Truth. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1)

During their expansion, they turned the planet GS Deneb into their fifth homeworld that remained in their control for sixteen years. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #2) Under the Magus, they grew in power and were noted as being among the larger powerful factions at the time with one of their rivals being the forces of the Mad Titan Thanos. (Thanos v3 #1)

On Binary Stasis Twelve, they battled the Guardians of the Galaxy who had responded to a distress signal on the dyson sphere. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #3)

In an effort to learn more of the Church, Adam Warlock went to one of their colonies and defeated one of their Cardinals where he requested a meeting with the Holy Matriarch. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #8)

Members of the U.C.T. were allowed a presence on Knowhere where they preached their faith. At this time, an entity emerged from the Fault where it erupted from its host on the station. Adherents from the Church saw the entity as being a holy creature and sought to claim the creature with the Guardians of the Galaxy looking to contain it. Afterwards, an armed force from the Church secretly took Moondragon who had the entity within her body and sought to take her with them to allow the creature to be born anew. They were opposed by Drax but the Matriarch used her abilities to incapacitate him as they departed Knowhere. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #21) The Matriarch took Moondragon to their world of Orison in order to use the billions of souls to empower the belief font machines to induce the creature inside of her to be born as they believed it to be their god. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #22)

The Magus had several templeships detonated as he escaped with those Guardians he captured in order to hide his trail whilst he built up his strength. This saw him going to Sacrosanct where he tortured the Guardians that were chained in the catacombs of the Church's homeworld. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #23)

The Church was responsible for hiring Jeutar Morat with the capture of Gamora but he ended up terminating the contract following a confrontation with her and She-Hulk on Earth. (Guardians Team-Up v1 #4)

After being reborn, the child Magus was left in the care of the Order of the Healing Truth and they seemingly looked to care for him. However, the Order came to see the young Magus as a danger and being part of the Church's actions. Thus, they sought to kill him and he was forced to unleash his power thus murdering them before they could do him harm. Around this time, a temple-destroyer of the Church from the future came to the present where it sought to change the timeline where they would rule. Thus, the Cathedral began brainwashing people to serve them with J'son falling under their control. To combat this threat, the Guardians sought out the young reborn Magus in the hope that his status as the Church's former leader would allow him to have some sway over them. (Guardians of the Galaxy v5 #10)

Overview

A central governing body within the U.C.T. was the synod. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #21)

It was known to consist of an army of zealots and clerics. (Thanos v3 #1) One group within the Church's ranks were elite warriors known as the Cardinals. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1) These elite enforcers were powered by the energy of belief that they drew on stored belief battery energy. This allowed them to be capable of doing anything so long as they believed in it. This allowed them to generate blades made of faithmetal and control its composition such as making them hollow to obtain blood samples from their targets. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #3)

Another division was the Black Knights who were shocktroops from the Church and fearsome enough to be able to taking over a planet in the span of hours. Their bodies were strengthened by armorweave body plates, faith-enhanced biologies and beam weapons that discharged pure belief energy. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #24) Certain members of the Church came to find their works abhorrent and departed their ranks where they formed the Order of the Healing Truth. Their ranks included former members and also survivors of the Church's campaigns where they sought to eradicate the harm to the galaxy caused by the cult. (Guardians of the Galaxy v5 #10)

The Church was said to engage in a purification form of missionary work where they exterminated races that did not convert to their beliefs. (Thanos v3 #1) It was claimed that their motto was "convert or die". (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1) The Church was said to not engage in discourse with pagans and the sight of 'heathen magic' offended them. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #3)

The Church collected the power of prayers and beliefs of its faithful followers with this being stored in belief batteries. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #3)

They operated in the universe on-board large spacecraft that were referred to as Templeships. Such vessels were powered by the use of faith generators that supplied the Templeships font that operated as a power battery. As a result, the Church was empowered by faith and absorbed the faith of their believers which was then converted into energy. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1)

Members

• Matriarch : a female humanoid revered as her Excellency that led the Church after the Annihilation War. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #1)
• Raker : male member of the Cardinals that was dispatched to combat the Guardians of the Galaxy. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #2)
• Arokine : a Cardinal who battled Adam Warlock. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #8)
• Flennse : a individual noted for being the finest interrogator of the Church and who tortured his victims to convert them to the faith. (Guardians of the Galaxy v2 #23)

Notes

• The Universal Church of Truth were created by Jim Starlin where they made their first appearance in Strange Tales v1 #178 (February, 1975).

In other media

Television

• In Guardians of the Galaxy, the Universal Church of Truth appeared in the animated television series as the Universal Believers. They had the ability to make whatever they believed into becoming reality with much of their technology powered by their positive thinking. However, if their belief waivered then they lost their power and everything fuelled by their faith similarly failed.

Video games

• In Marvel: Avengers Alliance 2, the Church of Truth appeared in the setting of the mobile video game. The backstory stated that in every reality they existed that they were a bastion of interstellar dogmatism who sought the resurrection of their Savior namely the darkbringer Magus.

Appearances

• Strange Tales v1: #178
• Annihilators: Earthfall v1: #1
• Guardians Team-Up v1: #4
• Old Man Quill v1:
• Thanos v3:
• Guardians of the Galaxy v5:

External Links

• Wikipedia Entry

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