[4][5] Shuma-Gorath first appears as an adversary for Doctor Strange in Marvel Premiere #10 (September 1973),[6] created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Frank Brunner.

[citation needed] Heroic Signatures holds the rights to the Shuma-Gorath name, due to its use in Howard's story, along with additional elements related to the Conan the Barbarian and Kull of Atlantis mythos, which is licensed to Marvel Comics.

[8] During Earth's pre-history Shuma-Gorath ruled the world, and demanded human sacrifice until eventually banished by time-traveling sorcerer Sise-Neg.

[12][clarification needed] Years later, Strange battles Shuma-Gorath in its home dimension, and although victorious, he gradually becomes a new version of the entity.

[13] Sorcerer Nicholas Scratch summons the entity to Earth, but it is driven back by the combined efforts of Doctor Strange, the Fantastic Four, the Salem's Seven and villain Diablo.

[14] Shuma-Gorath is eventually revealed to be one of the four undying extra-dimensional "multi-angled ones" guiding a metaphysical invasion from a dimension called the "cancerverse".

It is weakened through mystical attacks by Power Man and White Tiger and finally banished by Monica Rambeau, who penetrates Shuma-Gorath's eye with a ray of light and disperses the entity from within.

[19] The Last Days of Magic storyline describes Shuma-Gorath as responsible for destroying the home planet of the Imperator, leader of the Empirikul, by sending a group of evil sorcerers after his family.

"[38] Johnny Brayson and Nola Pfau of Bustle included Shuma-Gorath in their "50 Most Powerful Characters In The Marvel Universe" list, and called it Doctor Strange's "greatest and most dangerous foe.