Reverend Doctor Michael Ibn al-Hajj Achebe's true identity remains unknown. Stories persist that he was originally a Ghudazian farmer until Ujankan guerillas took refuge in his home, repaying his hospitality by stabbing him repeatedly, burning his farm, and stealing his unfaithful wife. Refusing to die, the farmer sold his soul to the devil for revenge, hunting down and slaying everyone associated with his wife, from close family to casual acquaintances.

Though that tale remains unconfirmed, Achebe did sell his soul to the demon Mephisto. Earning multiple degrees in America, he formed ties with rogue elements in the U.S. intelligence community. Ghudaza shared a border with the technologically advanced Wakanda, and Achebe's new allies saw him as a means to access restricted Wakandan information denied them by the the Wakandan king T'Challa, also known as the Black Panther. Achebe was repatriated, and through a complex series of deniable intermediaries, including Spectrum Dynamics, the Russian Mafia, and the Volcan Domuyan secret police, his allies instigated a bloody, ethnic civil war in Ghudaza. Thousands of refugees fled into Wakanda, Achebe included, and were housed in makeshift camps. T'Challa's decision to accept these outsiders angered many more insular Wakandans, while the refugees grew restless over the poor living conditions in the camps.

T'Challa was aware that the situation had been engineered, but played along to draw his enemies into the open. Achebe's allies lured T'Challa to America by creating a scandal in the Wakandan-backed Tomorrow Fund charity, and Achebe led a coup in his absence. T'Challa's step-mother Ramonda agreed to power share with Achebe. Publicly this alliance was to halt the civil war; secretly, it was to spy on Achebe for T'Challa while appearing tobetray her stepson. Achebe's secret U.S. backers lost control of him when T'Challa forced Mephisto to cut Achebe loose. This caused Achebe's insanity to worsen. Now taking advice from his hand puppet Daki, Achebe had T'Challa's fiancée kidnapped and turned into a human bomb. T'Challa rescued her, and rooted out Achebe's allies. Achebe responded by activating giant Panther "Prowler" robots designed to defend Wakanda's capital, turning them on the citizens. T'Challa returned to confront Achebe, who escaped disguised as the Black Panther after threatening to blow up the palace.

Achebe went into hiding, briefly emerging to torture the renegade Dora Milaje Nakia (T'Challa's former ally). Months later, when T'Challa was deposed as Black Panther by Erik Killmonger, Achebe hired Deadpool and his allies to kidnap Killmonger's leopard companion Preyy. Achebe hoped that Deadpool would slay Killmonger, thus restoring Achebe's "playmate" T'Challa. When this failed, Achebe killed Preyy and went back into hiding.