Teraknid

Well, ladies and gentlemen, assuming I have an audience outside of my forms of nonfiction professor, this is a very special post. This post is special because it might be my last one. So, I figured what better way to end my blog than talk about a character that only ten people have heard of: Teraknid.

This character is so obscure, it took me four Google searches to find this one image of him, and he looks ridiculous. Teraknid appeared as a one-off villain in a 90s cartoon, wherein he fought against Venom and Ghost Rider. Venom was a secret agent at the time and Ghost Rider was just looking to punish some sinners. However, we’re not here to talk about any of the “rad” things that Venom or Ghost Rider did. We’re here to talk about how stupid Teraknid is.

I mean, just look at him, he’s a cyborg spider-centaur. The reason that he only appeared in this one comic book was because of how dumb he is. I showed a picture of Teraknid to my roommate once and he was appalled. Sure, he manages to give Venom some trouble, but he dies by the end of the story. He was trying to kill a diplomat or something, I’m not entirely sure to be honest.

Ordinarily, I talk about characters that I believe deserve more exposure and should appear in more movies or television shows (I mean, even Batroc the Leaper got to appear as a cool martial artist and savate master in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), but I am dead serious when I say do not allow this character to appear in any movies, not even as a joke.

Morlun

Previously I’ve talked about Marvel characters that have a chance of appearing in their own media, at least in some regard. Most of them are pretty cool in some respect, and this guy’s no different… Except I’ll never expect him to appear in a movie. Now, he’s actually a more recent character, so his backstory is a lot less convoluted than these other comic book characters, but it’s still pretty crazy. Today I’ll be talking about the Inheritor, Morlun.

Morlun debuted in The Amazing Spider-Man vol 2 #30. In it, it details Spider-Man fleeing from a strange man, and one of Peter’s strongest adversaries to date, Morlun. The man chases down Peter, and has strangely “pure” DNA, but is ultimately defeated when he disintegrates after being exposed to radiation, something his species can’t handle. Then he reappears again during one of my favorite Spider-Man comics, The Other. Comic book characters come back often enough, but this guy had literally disintegrated.

Morlun is an incredibly powerful fighter in his own right, with his punch being stated to be the strongest one he’s ever felt (Spider-Man’s been throttled by the Hulk mind you) and has the ability to sense any Spider-Man he’s ever felt. And that’s not a typo, Morlun is an inter-dimensional psychic vampire that goes from universe to universe. He’s a hunter, and alongside the rest of his family members, the Inheritors, they devour universal animal totems, namely the spider totems/Spider-Men.

Morlun is no different. After beating down Spider-Man, Morlun actually ripped out Spider-Man’s eye and ate it (it’s fine, he got better). It turns out, that Morlun’s appearances were actually foreshadowing an event known as Spider-Verse, wherein the Inheritors struck across the entire multiverse to devour every Spider Totem and drastically increase their power.

While Morlun himself isn’t the most interesting character, all of the storylines surrounding him are peak Spider-Man, and I’d argue you won’t get any better entertainment elsewhere.

Red She-Hulk

Okay, so this is a weird one. You probably already know about Hulk and She-Hulk, they’re very well-known characters. She-Hulk actually has her own television series coming to Disney+ (date not yet determined). Then, an individual known as the Red Hulk came out of the woodwork. He’s basically like the Hulk, but red and gets physically hotter the stronger he gets. He’s actually Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross, the person who’s been trying to capture or kill the Hulk for years. And then we have Red She-Hulk, who is his daughter.

Betty Ross was actually a supporting character in Hulk Comics for some time, even marrying Bruce Banner, before they eventually divorced. She was his first and most well-known love interest. Well, because comics don’t seem to like to people being together for too long a period of time, the divorce was all but inevitable.

After dying and being resurrected (let’s not get into that right now), Betty agreed to become the Red She-Hulk, or She-Rulk, in order to help her father, Thunderbolt Ross (who was allied with MODOK). Thus she was transformed into one of the most powerful characters in Marvel Comics.

She-Rulk is a lot like other Hulks, immense strength that defies common sense and she gets stronger the angrier she gets. She’s more similar to her father though, in that she gets hotter the angrier she gets and can absorb energy from outside sources for power boosts. She’s also been known to actually use weapons.

While I can’t recommend any comics focusing solely on her, since for the most part she’s an ensemble character, I can recommend stories where she is focused on, such as World War Hulks, Fear Itself, and Original Sin. The amount of time Betty spends as She-Rulk isn’t that long, but it’s certainly interesting to say the least.

Franklin Richards

Everyone knows who the Fantastic Four is. They’re Marvel’s first family, one of the original superhero teams, and the first one to show any disfunction. You already know that Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman were in a relationship, and you probably know that they got married too. And from that information, if you didn’t know already, you could probably infer that they had a child. Well, what if I told you that that child was probably the most powerful individual in the entire Marvel Universe by the time he was four years old. Let me introduce you to Franklin Richards.

If you remember my earlier post about Vulcan, we briefly discussed Omega-Level Mutants. Well, Franklin is beyond Omega-Level. To put his abilities simply, he can warp reality. He’s aged himself to adulthood and back to childhood, he permanently lit the Sub-Mariner on fire in another timeline (yes, even underwater), and created a pocket universe for people to live in. He’s so powerful, the world eater Galactus considers this child his equal.

For the longest time, people didn’t know how powerful he truly was, he would just have random outbursts of power from time to time. But the older he got, the more control he seemed to possess. It’s a good thing his parents are heroes, or else the universe would probably be doomed.

Currently, as a preteen or young teenager, Franklin has started using the moniker of Powerhouse. He’s used more sparingly in comics in comparison to most characters, because he could obviously just solve everyone’s problems. However, despite being a god amongst men, Franklin’s still rather down to earth and is an energetic and fun child. He’s only ever interested in what’s best for others. Let’s just hope he doesn’t have a rebellious phase.

Caiera

Caiera is an amazingly powerful woman, with immense physical strength, speed, and stamina. She’s an alien from the Sakaar, belonging to the Oldstrong race, and is the loyal bodyguard of the Red-King (who is a crazed despot, but we’re not really talking about him). It’s just a shame that the thing Caiera is most remembered for is marrying the Hulk.

That’s right, during the Planet Hulk storyline, Caiera met the Hulk after he was marooned on Sakaar. After Hulk earned his freedom through gladiatorial combat, he took out the Red-King taking Caiera as his bride. She had fallen in love with him due to his strength of will and character, which is not an easy feat.

You see, as an Oldstrong, Caiera’s capable of absorbing power from the planet of Sakaar to drastically increase her physical abilities. Coupled with her warrior training, she was probably the most powerful individual on the planet before Hulk showed up, capable enough to go toe to toe with him.

Unfortunately, Caiera’s end was rather swift. After the ship Hulk crash-landed in was turned into a monument, it exploded, killing her and many another bystanders, causing Hulk to swear revenge on those that banished him to Earth. This was not quite her end, as the still living children within her womb still managed to survive, with her giving birth to her twin sons, Skaar and Hiro-Kala, post-mortem. Caiera would guide her children as a spirit.

Not the most fitting end for a warrior of her caliber, but I’d still recommend checking out the Planet Hulk comic just for her relationship with the Hulk. Even before falling in love with him, the manner in which their relationship developed from enemies, to comrades, to lovers is actually incredibly interesting (and the action isn’t bad either). The story actually inspired half of the movie Thor: Ragnarok. While not the most well-remembered character, she still has her place in the heart of many fans of this particular book.

Beak

I’m not going to sugarcoat it, Beak is one of the weakest superheroes I’ve ever seen in Marvel Comics. He’s very unattractive given his bird-like appearance, and because of his anatomy he can’t even fly right (which is the one thing a bird is supposed to be able to do!) Yet, somehow, he ends up being one of the most compelling and effective Marvel characters I’ve ever seen.

Beak, per his own admission, is not strong, smart, and doesn’t have any extraordinary powers (he uses a titanium baseball bat to compensate). He’s just good at making friends. During an invasion of the U-Men, looking to harvest Mutant organs (that’s a whole other story), while a group of new X-Men were out training, they all looked to Beak. For some reason Beak was the one they had follow them! And he actually did a pretty good job.

Did you know that Beak has also saved the world? Yeah, there was a prophecy saying he’d be the one to do it, and then he managed to enact a plan that stopped Dark Hyperion from destroying everything. And eventually he married his girlfriend Angel Salvatore, the two had kids together (which looked kinda weird cause Angel has insect-based powers).

After the event known as M-Day, where a majority of the Mutant population lost their powers, Beak was one of those individuals. However, in his case it was more of a blessing. While not the most handsome of individuals, it was still a drastic improvement over his previous bird-like appearance. He still remained a superhero however, using technology and the new codename Leatherwing.

Despite all the things that have happened to Beak over the years, I still can’t help but enjoy him. He’s one of my favorite X-Men, and people really need to see more of him.

The Sentry

If you’ve been following my other blog posts, you may remember my mention of Hyperion, Marvel’s parody of Superman. Well, the Sentry’s a little bit like that, except he doesn’t have any weaknesses. At least not any “normal” weaknesses.

The Sentry’s first ever appearance was rather interesting: a man named Robert Reynolds wakes up, remembering that he’s the Sentry, and that his arch nemesis “The Void” is returning. However, nobody remembers him, or the Void. During this storyline, the Sentry goes around, reminding various superheroes of the great impact he’s on their lives, and gathering everyone together to stand against the Void. It’s only then that Reynolds realizes that he is not only the Sentry, but also the Void, an evil personality buried deep into Reynolds, and he wiped everyone’s memory of the Sentry, including his own, so that an episode where the Void returns would not occur. So, he has to tearfully wipe everyone’s memory of him again, leaving the reader with the impression that maybe they forgot about the Sentry the first time themselves.

The Sentry is probably the most powerful, non-cosmic entity in the entire Marvel Universe, only held back by his split-personality syndrome. He received his powers from injecting himself with a super-saturated version of the Super Soldier Serum that made Captain America. His power is described as having that of “one million exploding suns”, and it’s certainly accurate. He’s gone toe to toe with the Hulk and Thor while in a weakened state. When at full strength, he broke every bone in the Hulk’s body and ripped off the head of Ares.

The Sentry has appeared in several comics since then, sometimes as a troubled hero, and other times as a troubled villain. In his first reappearance, he was held in a Supervillain prison called the Raft, voluntarily. Then, after all the prisoners were freed, the Sentry protected the civilians in the area and ripped Carnage in half. Despite his power, he doesn’t risk being a copy of Superman, and has a rather troubled past. He’s probably my second favorite Marvel character, and I think he’d benefit the most from being in the limelight.

Vulcan

Everyone’s familiar with the original leader of the X-Men, Scott Summers, AKA Cyclops. If you’re a more avid comic book fan or watched some of the later installments in the X-Men film franchise, then you should also know about Cyclops’ brother, Alex, AKA Havok. Both of these Mutants have energy manipulation abilities in some manner, but they have a younger brother who puts their powers to shame. I’m talking about Gabriel, AKA Vulcan.

Vulcan’s history is rather interesting, and expectantly insane for a comic book character. You see, Vulcan’s parents were kidnapped by an empire of aliens called the Shi’ar while his mother was still pregnant with him. The Shi’ar then killed his mother, extracted him from his mother’s womb, and placed him in an incubation pod so that he could be used as a slave. He was aged to adulthood, to the point of being physically older than Cyclops, then sent to go be a slave on Earth. He then escaped and ended up being adopted by X-Men supporting character Moira MacTaggart.

Still following? Cool. Let’s continue.

Despite working with the X-Men on occasion, and even being related to two prominent superheroes, Vulcan is, 100% a villain. Even his Wikipedia article calls him a supervillain. Because of his upbringing, he’s incredibly unstable and constantly puts people at risk. It doesn’t help that he is practically a child, mentally, and only cares about himself. Vulcan actually conquered the Shi’ar Empire and became a crazy despot. This all led into an interesting storyline called War of Kings.

Vulcan’s got the kind of power to back up his rule. He’s an Omega-Level Mutant, meaning he’s the cream of the crop when it comes to Mutants. For reference, other Omega-Level Mutants include Dark Phoenix, Magneto, Legion, and Iceman (who is way more powerful than you think). His abilities allow him psionically manipulate any form of energy, whether it’s on the electromagnetic spectrum or is a more exotic energy, like Magic. Vulcan even managed to go toe to toe with Black Bolt, a powerful Inhuman whose voice is so powerful it can destroy a planet.

While Vulcan hasn’t been a huge part of Marvel Comics storylines and history, every time he shows up he arrives with a bang. He’s one of the most powerful characters in Marvel history, and every time he makes a move, even the cosmic side of Marvel thinks they need to intervene.

Onslaught

Now, we’ve talked an awful lot about obscure heroes, so I thought this week it would be a nice idea to take a step back and talk about an obscure villain. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you a villain so obscure, he doesn’t even have a physical body, Onslaught.

If you’re familiar with the X-Men, you may noticed the similarities between Onslaught’s design and Magneto‘s. For you see, Onslaught was made from the consciousness of Magneto! And Professor X! After a battle between the X-Men and Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants, their consciousnesses were essentially copied and merged into one, creating a psionic creature more powerful than Professor X and with the knowledge of both Mutant leaders.

Onslaught is one of the heavy-hitters in the Marvel Universe, with supreme telepathic and telekinetic capabilities. While his storylines are rather few, and his personality rather dull, the stories he does take part in are rather intriguing. One of my personal favorites is the AXIS event, where all the heroes and villains have their morality flipped after and altercation with Onslaught.

Onslaught may not have the most compelling stories, and even be involved in a few weird ones (don’t get me started on how he revealed to Jean Grey that Professor X had been in love with her the time), give him the attention he deserves and he could become a rather interesting character down the line.