Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Mercenary Of The Ages!


Can YOU


Name This Marvel Villain??



It's hard to imagine someone laying claim to being the greatest warrior in the galaxy, much less the universe, though we've met a few--for instance, the Elder, Champion, certainly held that opinion of himself, while the Over-Mind felt that he could crush any opposition on his way to universal conquest. But if you've never heard of the Berserker, who looks like he stepped right off the set of Ben-Hur, it's not because he's been hiding under a rock. More like a mountain, though we'll get to that in a moment.

For now, we have to figure out just how what appears to be a soldier from ancient Earth became a warrior feared throughout the universe. Let's go back a few centuries, where we find two tribes at war--and the sole survivor of one of those tribes flees into what they all called "The Cave of Glowing Walls," where none had ever returned from. But this man proves to be the exception.



That fury is first unleashed on the entire tribe that slew his own. Since then, this now-immortal "berserker," who develops a real knack for killing, goes on to fulfill that insane desire for centuries, becoming a hired gun for those in power who can make good use of his "talent." And while there's no clear answer as to how such a thing might come to pass, his growing reputation reaches the stars, where others who might benefit from his services await.



Finally, an ancient race known as the Earth Lords--who wielded power over the elements--move to destroy the Berserker, though they found that his power had grown to such an extent that they could only contain him.



But before he could carry out his mission, the "guardian" that the narrative refers to--the Shadow Lord--came into conflict with the Avengers, who mistook him as an enemy and inadvertently caused his death. Elsewhere, in the Italian countryside, a group of archeologists have excavated what they believed to be a body that had become a casualty of the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius--but what they have unwittingly returned to life from his 2,000-year slumber may well become responsible for the deaths of millions.



Seeking to right their wrong, the Avengers assume the mission of the Shadow Lord and seek out the Berserker. Yet while our villain may seem at first glance little more than an outdated soldier of an empire long since extinct, his centuries-old reputation speaks for itself (and from what we've seen, speaks quite a distance, at that)--and though the Avengers are a force to be reckoned with as well, they're caught off guard by an aggressive foe whose way of life has been nothing but battle and dispensing death.



To make a long story short, the Avengers are decisively clobbered. In addition to the power he gained in the cave, the Berserker has accumulated advanced weaponry which has effectively countered anything that the Avengers have used against him. A shield that dissolves anything that touches it; a dagger that can wound even the Vision; armor that stands up to Iron Man's assault; gauntlets that sap Wonder Man's might and adds it to his own; and strength that deals with Captain America and the others.

But following a hunch regarding gems that came from the Shadow Lord, a desperate Wonder Man is able to banish the Berserker forever.



To date, the Berserker remains a one-shot villain from 1981 who appears to be trapped in dimensional exile indefinitely.

5 comments:

  1. How many glowing rocks and radiation cavemen are there in comics? This Berserker fellow (whom I had never heard of), Vandal Savage, Ulysses Bloodstone - I feel there are more.

    The prehistoric times seem to be littered with origin-causing materials. I can only wonder what percentage granted amazing power but not immortality. How many "Captain Caveman" types roamed the tundra unbeknownst to the modern age?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great! Yeah, how many "Capt. Caveman" types are there in comics …?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I read this story a few years ago, but don't even remember it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The name doesn't really fit his appearance. It's rather like the character had been drawn very romanesque but then they were forced to pluck a name out the hat at the last minute.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Murray and SDTB, I suppose we can't forget how the fortunes of prehistoric man were also changed by the experiments of both the Kree and the Celestials--while the Romans also apparently ran into their share of extraterrestrials. They do seem to be turning out to be the tip of the iceberg, don't they?

    Tiboldt, I can agree with your point for the most part. I imagine that if the story was instead a two-parter, and we were given more of the Berserker's history as a, well, berserker, we might find that the name was more suitable. It beats me why someone who went on to become the galaxy's greatest warrior would bother returning to Earth, rather than branching out and seeking to conquer on a greater scale. It doesn't sound very berserk of him--though from one of the panels above, he seems eager to pick up where he left off out there.

    ReplyDelete