I hate to be the one to bump this thread, but there is a huge misconception going around several sites in regards to Azathoth. As a studied Lovecraft fan I would like to clear them up. To start, I do not know the full capabilities of DC's Lucifer, so I do not know who wins the battle. First off, if we are exclusively using Lovecraft stories than Azathoth was never described as being infinite or omnipotent. Here are quotes and feats related to Azathoth.
"And at the last from inner Egypt came The strange dark One to whom the fellahs bowed; Silent and lean and cryptically proud, And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset flame.Throngs pressed around, frantic for his commands, But leaving, could not tell what they had heard; While through the nations spread the awestruck word That wild beasts followed him and licked his hands. Soon from the sea a noxious birth began; Forgotten lands with weedy spires of gold; The ground was cleft, and mad auroras rolled Down on the quaking citadels of man. Then, crushing what he chanced to mould in play, The idiot Chaos blew Earth’s dust away." - Fungi from Yuggoth. If we assume the "Idiot Chaos" to be Azathoth, here is a poetic telling of the possibility that he would be able to destroy Earth. (I also want to note that Lovecraft uses many adjectives in his stories to give his creatures "larger than life appearances". Many of these descriptions are ones I do not believe to be taken literally. That being said, that is my personal interpretation, something I will expand upon when I am through.)
"Out in the mindless void the daemon bore me, Past the bright clusters of dimensioned space, Till neither time nor matter stretched before me, But only Chaos, without form or place. Here the vast Lord of All in darkness muttered Things he had dreamed but could not understand, While near him shapeless bat-things flopped and fluttered In idiot vortices that ray-streams fanned. They danced insanely to the high, thin whining Of a cracked flute clutched in a monstrous paw, Whence flow the aimless waves whose chance combining Gives each frail cosmos its eternal law. “I am His Messenger,” the daemon said, As in contempt he struck his Master’s head." - Fungi from Yuggoth This quote appears to be the one where they claim this proves Azathoth's supposed omnipotence. Besides the fact that it is a poem an and that words are used more to convey feelings than actual feats. let's play off this. Past the bright clusters of dimensioned space, till neither time nor matter stretched before me --- This is where Azathoth's throne at the center of all infinity lies. Many times is the word "infinity" tossed around in Lovecraft. Marvel has a bad case of doing this as well, even when beings are in fact not infinite. That being said, going past time-space means you exited the Universe -possibly-. Azathoth is also called the vast lord of all things. As are many gods in their respective universes. However, there is no question that Azathoth is in fact the lord of the Lovecraftian universe. He also gave "through chance combining" each frail cosmos it's eternal law via playing a flute (or however a man of the twentieth century might interpret it). This could be implied to be a multiveral creation, or this could simply be him giving our universe it's eternal laws. It's also implied in later stories that Azathoth is not the only one playing a flute. I also want to note, there is a myth that states if Azathoth stops dreaming the multiverse will be destroyed. Notice how the quote says nothing about the multiverses creation. Nor does it say anything about universal creation. In fact, "Dreamed" is used in past-tense here, implying that the entity is in fact awake. Fungi from Yuggoth is a poem (a beautiful poem depicting the decay and nihilism of everything) written to express ideas and feelings rather than state feats. If you go to read the rest of the poem, you'll understand why some of these "feats" for Azathoth cannot be taken so literally.
"If in our dreamland, it might conceivably be reached, but only three human souls since time began had ever crossed and recrossed the black impious gulfs to other dreamlands, and of that three, two had come back quite mad. There were, in such voyages, incalculable local dangers; as well as that shocking final peril which gibbers unmentionably outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last amorphous blight of nethermost confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity - the boundless daemon sultan Azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; to which detestable pounding and piping dance slowly, awkwardly, and absurdly the gigantic Ultimate gods, the blind, voiceless, tenebrous, mindless Other gods whose soul and messenger is the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep." Dream Quest of the Unknown Kadath.
This is another passage that people attempt to take and use to prove his omnipotence. The word "Boundless" is used to describe Azathoth. Even if taken literally, this is merely meant to say that his rule is boundless. Not that the entity itself has power or being that is boundless. Clearly being stated as the "Lord of all things", it would make sense that his rule is boundless. Although that does not mean he is unopposed, but that discussion is for another time *cough* Yog-sothoth *cough*. It also states that his throne sits outside the ordered universe, is that meant to imply that there is also a disorderly part of the universe? As stated before, a lot that is said about this being, and many Lovecraft beings, is an interpretation that people only support with the vague terms used to describe them. Honestly, a lot of beings from Marvel, by definition of their nature, far exceed Azathoth and Yog-sothoth. The Ultimate gods are the same thing as the Other gods. Again though, it is only interpretation.
That is really all that can be said about Azathoth. There are a few other descriptions of him in a couple other stories, but none of them are really as detailed as this. In "Dreams in the Witch House", the protagonist ( Walter Gilman) seems to look towards a bright star in the sky that is implied to be the Throne of Azathoth, even though it is only ever encountered in his dreams.
""Hei! Aa-shanta 'nygh! You are off! Send back earth's gods to their haunts on unknown Kadath, and pray to all space that you may never meet me in my thousand other forms. Farewell, Randolph Carter, and beware; for I am Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos."
And Randolph Carter, gasping and dizzy on his hideous Shantak, shot screamingly into space toward the cold blue glare of boreal Vega; looking but once behind him at the clustered and chaotic turrets of the onyx nightmare wherein still glowed the lone lurid light of that window above the air and the clouds of earth's dreamland. Great polypous horrors slid darkly past, and unseen bat wings beat multitudinous around him, but still he clung to the unwholesome mane of that loathly and hippocephalic scaled bird. The stars danced mockingly, almost shifting now and then to form pale signs of doom that one might wonder one had not seen and feared before; and ever the winds of nether howled of vague blackness and loneliness beyond the cosmos.
Then through the glittering vault ahead there fell a hush of portent, and all the winds and horrors slunk away as night things slink away before the dawn. Trembling in waves that golden wisps of nebula made weirdly visible, there rose a timid hint of far-off melody, droning in faint chords that our own universe of stars knows not. And as that music grew, the Shantak raised its ears and plunged ahead, and Carter likewise bent to catch each lovely strain. It was a song, but not the song of any voice. Night and the spheres sang it, and it was old when space and Nyarlathotep and the Other Gods were born." Notice how one may be able to pull a contradtion out of this statement. This means to say that space (Granted it does not refer to which one) is of a similar age to all but Azathoth and his song. Azathoth could have very well predated the universe that we know. However I think it would be slightly over-stepping to claim a multi-verse or anything of the sort, let alone omnipotence, but I digress. In the end, it was merely interpretation. I hope this clarifies any misunderstandings people may have originally had. Now to state a couple of things about the Cthulhu mythos in general. One, people do not always go insane when they look at a mythos monster, they merely become over whelmed by the vastness of the scale they operate on in comparison to the size of the universe we originally understood. Randolph Carter is a perfect example of this. I also want to alter users to the fact that the story most people claim gives Yog-sothoth his multi-versal "feat and or abilities" is in the story "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" which was co-written by E. Hoffmann Price. "Lovecraft "kept as many of Price's conceptions as possible, as well as some of his language." Thus many of the central ideas of the story like 'Umr at-Tawil, the talk of mathematical planes and multiple facets of Randolph Carter throughout Time and Space come from Price, who was well read in neoplatonic thought, theosophy and the occult. Even the quote from the Necronomicon is mainly by Price in outline though put in more Lovecraftian language" While I personally think Lovecraft's stories to be better, you could definitely count this as official "canon" if you wish. As all of his works are in the public domain. Yog-Sothoth is an entity that I will tackle when I have more time. I will also tackle the idea between humanity in the mythos, and the mythos creatures minds when compared to our own. You'd be surprised at how alike our minds as systems are. I will leave you guys with one last part that bugs me dearly. Cthulhu was in fact rammed and defeated (temporarily) by the "Alert". Yes the stars were right and no he did not form around it.
"Poor Johansen's handwriting almost gave out when he wrote of this. Of the six men who never reached the ship, he thinks two perished of pure fright in that accursed instant. The Thing cannot be described - there is no language for such abysms of shrieking and immemorial lunacy, such eldritch contradictions of all matter, force, and cosmic order. A mountain walked or stumbled. God! What wonder that across the earth a great architect went mad, and poor Wilcox raved with fever in that telepathic instant? The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years great Cthulhu was loose again, and ravening for delight." I want to remake on that number, as it is used to try and convey something that's really old while not actually stating the truth. As it completely contradicts earlier statements in this story, and the records of the Elder Things. This once again proving that aliens are just not something these sailors can really understand.
" Three men were swept up by the flabby claws before anybody turned. God rest them, if there be any rest in the universe. They were Donovan, Guerrera, and Angstrom. Parker slipped as the other three were plunging frenziedly over endless vistas of green-crusted rock to the boat, and Johansen swears he was swallowed up by an angle of masonry which shouldn't have been there; an angle which was acute, but behaved as if it were obtuse. So only Briden and Johansen reached the boat, and pulled desperately for the Alert as the mountainous monstrosity flopped down the slimy stones and hesitated, floundering at the edge of the water.
Steam had not been suffered to go down entirely, despite the departure of all hands for the shore; and it was the work of only a few moments of feverish rushing up and down between wheel and engines to get the Alert under way. Slowly, amidst the distorted horrors of that indescribable scene, she began to churn the lethal waters; whilst on the masonry of that charnel shore that was not of earth the titan Thing from the stars slavered and gibbered like Polypheme cursing the fleeing ship of Odysseus. Then, bolder than the storied Cyclops, great Cthulhu slid greasily into the water and began to pursue with vast wave-raising strokes of cosmic potency. Briden looked back and went mad, laughing shrilly as he kept on laughing at intervals till death found him one night in the cabin whilst Johansen was wandering deliriously.
But Johansen had not given out yet. Knowing that the Thing could surely overtake the Alert until steam was fully up, he resolved on a desperate chance; and, setting the engine for full speed, ran lightning-like on deck and reversed the wheel. There was a mighty eddying and foaming in the noisome brine, and as the steam mounted higher and higher the brave Norwegian drove his vessel head on against the pursuing jelly which rose above the unclean froth like the stern of a daemon galleon. The awful squid-head with writhing feelers came nearly up to the bowsprit of the sturdy yacht, but johansen drove on relentlessly. There was a bursting as of an exploding bladder, a slushy nastiness as of a cloven sunfish, a stench as of a thousand opened graves, and a sound that the chronicler could not put on paper. For an instant the ship was befouled by an acrid and blinding green cloud, and then there was only a venomous seething astern; where - God in heaven! - the scattered plasticity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously recombining in its hateful original form, whilst its distance widened every second as the Alert gained impetus from its mounting steam." Both of the quotes are from the Call of Cthulhu.
Johansen, btw, was implied to have been murdered by the cult ("dockside accident'). He did not commit suicide.
I will finish by saying that as amazing as Lovecraft's stories are, we need to take into consideration they way they are written and why they are written. Comics and Lovecraft portray humanity in different lights. sometimes they complement each other, other times they are completely opposite. In the end, when t comes to feats from Lovecratian beings *based on what Lovecraft wrote* it is all a matter of interpretation.
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