This Is No Game

Can YOU

Name This Marvel Villain??

Together with folks like the Zaniac, Locus, and a number of other characters who didn't exactly do the Mighty Thor title any favors in the early 1980s, our friend Megatak here would have to rank alongside them (or more than likely ahead of them) as an unlikely threat to the mighty Thor. Megatak began as a mere video game, so advanced ("two generations ahead of everything else on the market") that its developers were keeping a tight lid on it until its scheduled demonstration in public at an electronics show in Chicago. As a result, its schematics and circuitry were highly sought by those who wanted to obtain it for themselves and cash in on its market potential.

That leads us to Gregory Nettles, an industrial spy/computer thief who's been instructed in no uncertain terms by his employers to steal the game's silicon chips. With the clock ticking before the game is premiered, Nettles gives the exhibit's human actor a cool grand for his Megatak costume, which lets Nettles slip behind the exhibit and proceed with his job. But time runs out on Mr. Nettles--and he ends up getting a much closer look at Megatak than he bargained for.

As we see, Megatak is a villain born of madness, his sanity a casualty of becoming one with the game's circuitry and energy when the game is powered up. But when the loose wires Nettles had grabbed are repaired by a hastily called electrical team, the assembled crowd gets a heck of a demonstration on just how advanced Megatak has become.

It's not clear why Megatak has used his power over electronics to have every game in sight unleash their respective arsenals and attack the crowds--but since Megatak is now in the company of the Mad Hatter, Madcap, Lunatik, the mad Thinker, Maximus, Mad-Dog, and just about anyone else with a screw loose, justifying his actions is going to be the last thing to expect from him.

During Megatak's rampage, the lady Sif happens to be at the convention for unrelated reasons, and finds herself a target of the weaponry of the various games while trying to fight her way to Megatak. But as we know, the radio in Dr. Donald Blake's office is always tuned to music stations that break in with emergency announcements--and so Thor soon appears at the convention center, pivoting Sif to helping the mortals avoid weapons fire while he turns his attention to Megatak. And Megatak, who's found a way to augment his energy levels, certainly turns his attention to Thor.

Yet Thor discovers a way to deal with the menace of Megatak--and even in a story as absurd as this one, it admittedly makes sense.

The unconscious and de-powered Megatak is carted away by the authorities, while the Megatak display is no doubt carted away in pieces and dumped at the developers' lab. Better luck next time, fellas.

We'd find Megatak once more about to spring into action following a battle involving Sif and Beta Ray Bill--but fortunately for everyone (including, in all likelihood, the reader), someone else finds him first.

Thanks to the Hood, who seems to be able to raise the dead, Megatak would reappear and become involved with both the Punisher and Venom--but if you don't mind, let's give Scourge his due and leave Megatak in that great big Xbox in the sky where he can't cause any more trouble.