MARDUK
Real Name: Unknown, possibly Marduk
Identity/Class: Babylonian/Mesopotamian/Sumerian God;
Occupation:
Currently unknown;
former God of Wisdom;
former C.E.O. of Oracle INC;
former Museum Curator
Group Membership:
Annunaki (Mesopotamian Gods); The Four Winds (Enlil, Ninurta,
Hadad, and Martu)-childhood friends;
Oracle INC; leader of the Everlasting;
Affiliations: Aqhat, Collective Man (pawn), Flag-Smasher and ULTIMATUM (funded by Oracle under Marduk), Papahanau-Moku (actually Whiro)
Enemies:
Citizen V (John Watkins II and III), Kingu, Roger Aubrey/Mighty
Destroyer, V Battalion, Thor Odinson, Tiamat;
possibly Pazuzu (see comments)
Known Relatives: Ea (father), Damkina (mother), Anu (grandfather), Ki (Gaea, grandmother), Anshar (great-grandfather), Kishar (great-grandmother), Enlil (Dagon), Ba'al Hadad, Kinyras, Martu, Tammuz (uncles), Ishtar, Ereshkigal (aunts), Zarpandit (first wife), Nebo (son), Nisasba, Nanshe, Nina (sisters), Ninsar, Uttu (half-sisters), Enkimdu, Enbilulu, Asnan, Asarlubi (half-brothers), Gibil, Ninuarta, Nuski, Nergal, Shamash, Ullikummis (cousins)
Aliases: Zoltan
Nestor;
He has over fifty names, many of which are those of mortal
kings or other deities whose attributes he usurped. 1. Asarluhi, 2. Marduk, 3. The
Son, The Majesty of the Gods, 4. Marukka, 5. Mershakushu, 6.
Lugal-dimmer-ankia (King of heaven and earth), 7. Bel, 8. Nari-lugal-dimmer-ankia,
9. Asarluhi, 10. Namtila, 11. Namru, 12. 'Asare, 13. Asar-alim,
14. Asar-alim-nuna, 15. Tutu, 16. Zi-ukkina, 17. Ziku, 18. Agaku,
19. Shazu, 20. Zisi, 21. Suhrim, 22. Suhgurim, 23. Zahrim, 24.
Zahgurim, 25. Enbilulu, 26. Epadun, 27. Gugal, 28. Hegal, 29.
Sirsir, 30. Malah, 31. Gil, 32. Gilima, 33. Agilima, 34. Zulum,
35. Mummu, 36. Zulum-ummu, 37. Gizh- numun-ab, 38. Lugal-ab-dubur,
39. Pagal-guena, 40. Lugal-Durmah, 41. Aranuna, 42. Dumu-duku, 43.
Lugal-duku, 44. Lugal-shuanna, 45. Iruga, 46. Irqingu, 47. Kinma,
48. Kinma, 49. E-sizkur, 50. Addu, 51. Asharu, 52. Neberu, 53.
Enkukur.
see also comments
Place of Birth: Babylon (part of modern day Iraq)
Base of Operations:
currently unknown;
formerly Dilmun (the realm of the Mesopotamian
Gods);
formerly a base in an abandoned oil refinery along the Black Sea;
formerly Oracle INC., Manhattan, New York;
formelry Zurich, Switzerland
First Appearance:
(mentioning of the god Marduk): Strange Tales I#150/2 (November,
1966)
(Marduk of the Everlasting): Citizen V and the V Battalion: The
Everlasting#2, 3 (August, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: Marduk was
likely always quite powerful, perhaps on the level of the other
Godheads, such as Zeus or Odin. He was perhaps initially a
warrior god, like Thor, but later gained power from Anu, making
him more like Thor with the Odin-power.
He has been described as having four eyes and four ears, and
could emit fire from his mouth when he speaks. He formerly rode a
storm-chariot driven by Slayer, Pitiless, Racer, and Flyer,
poison-toothed, tireless steeds. He was also gifted in magic.
When first seen, his powers had diminished to the point (perhaps
from lack of worship over the years), that Thor overpowered him
without much of a struggle. After this point, Thor drained his
powers, leaving him close to a human in ability, although he
retained his immunity to aging and conventional disease.
Marduk either gained or retained the ability to steal the soul at
any point in the future of any mortal with whom he came into
direct contact.
Backed by the Genesis Well, when in contact with its waters,
Marduk was able to heal from any wound, and siphon power from
others by draining their lives Some of his agents designed
equipment to enable him to manipulate others and drain energy
through other means.
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 188 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Black
History: (mythological history)- Marduk is one of the gods worshipped by the people of ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia. He was a god of Wisdom. He was born mature and powerful over 5, 000 years ago.
He was a childhood friend of the four winds, Enlil, Ninurta, Hadad, and Martu and even followed them into adventures. He reportedly helped Ninurta in slaying Anzu the bird-god who stole the mystical Tablets of Destiny. Marduk, however, became head of the Babylonian Empire. In some myths this was by deposing Enlil and Ninurta who had deposed Anu. In other versions, he becomes king of the gods by general consensus in agreement to his demands to be made king if the other gods wish him to defeat the dragon/mother-goddess-turned-destroyer Tiamat for them.
Some sources describe Marduk as having used the corpse of Tiamat to landscape much of the Earth, and to create the first humans.
(Strange
Tales I#150(fb)-BTS) - At some point, priests of Marduk gained
possession of the legendary Book of the Vishanti, one of the most
powerful books of white magic in existence. The Book was placed
under the guard of a griffin.
The sorcerer who would become known as the Ancient One traveled
back in time to Babylonia, and managed to wrest the Book from the
Griffin.
(Strange Tales I#150/2) - The sorcerer Kaluu hurled the Book of the Vishanti back to ancient Babylonia. Dr. Strange and the Ancient One both journeyed back to time to retake the Book. Strange attempted to take the Book, but was powerless against the griffin. The Ancient One rightly figured that they were victims of some sort of time paradox, and that since the Ancient One had taken the Book the first time, it was only he who could ever do so. The Ancient One again dispatched the griffin and retook the Book.
(Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#4(fb)) - @ 980 AD, Marduk, having lost much of his power over the years, sought to storm Asgard and drain the life forces of the Norse Gods to empower himself. Thor attacked and defeated Marduk, draining him of much of his power, leaving him essentially human except for his immortality.
(Tower of Shadows#7/2 - BTS) - Marduk was invoked by a gypsy to avenge her daughter killed by "Black John" Wollaston. The curse placed on the Wollastons endured for centuries.
BTS-At some point, Marduk joined up with Aqhat
and Papahanau-Moku (actually Whiro) and formed an organization known as the
Everlasting. (Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#1(fb)-BTS) - @ 1953, Aqhat is first
observed in action, and mentions the Everlasting. (Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#2(fb)-BTS) - @ 1971, The V Battalion
learn of Marduk's connection to the Everlasting from Amahl Farouk. (Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#3(fb) - @ 1981, Now based in Zurich,
Switzerland, and posing as a museum curator-type named Zoltan
Nestor (that's a villain's name, if I ever heard one!),
Marduk is sought for information on god Marduk and his
involvement with the Everlasting by Roger Aubrey, aka the Mighty
Destroyer of the V Battalion. Nestor sends Aubrey off on a wild-goose
chase that yields a few decades of freedom from discovery. In
addition, Marduk/Nestor also shook hands with Aubrey, and thus
gained power over his life. BTS--Marduk took over Oracle, INC, which had
been sold by Namor to Stark-Fujikawa. (Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#1-BTS, 2-4) - Marduk and his agents in
the Everlasting began to turn up the notch in their plans. Using
Oracle's resources, Marduk funded and supplied weaponry to the
anti-national terrorist group ULTIMATUM (Underground Liberated
Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind), led by Flag-Smasher.
Marduk planned to use all of the souls slain in the battles with
ULTIMATUM to fuel the Genesis Well, from which he hoped to regain
his full power.
At the same time, Aqhat and other agents of Marduk captured the
Chinese hero known as the Collective Man. Using the technology of
the Everlasting and/or Oracle, they enhanced his powers such that
he actually drained the life force from his Chinese fellows,
sending the entire nation into a comatose state which approached
death. Aubrey's spirit, however, managed to fight back
against Marduk, and rallied the other residents/victims of the
Genesis Well to oppose Marduk. Citizen V blew up the Genesis
Well, which flooded both Marduk and Aubrey's spirits with power.
The energies ripped Marduk to pieces and restored Aubrey to life. Comments: Marduk first mentioned, but
not shown by Roy Thomas. Howard the Duck III#3 mentioned in flashback
that the Priestess of the demon Pazuzu warred against the Priests
of the God "Marduk or Baal, or Dagon, or whoever."
I'm sure there are Conan
references to Marduk as well. I just don't know where to look for
them. Marduk and the mythology Babylonian Gods rank right up there with
Lovecraft's work as one of the most common sources of demons in the MU: see the
Annunaki There's a nice summary of Marduk at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze33gpz/assyrbabyl-faq.html#Marduk which details his life in greater detail. Yet another small clarification/moot point: And further relevant material c/o Greg O, another mythinator: Nick Hill--I'd say your list of cultural progression (Sumerian->Babylonian/Mesopotamian->Assyrian->Persians.
The Phoenicians were actually a seperate group based in what
is now Israel/Jordan. They are also sometimes called the
Caananites who inhabited the region that the ancient (and current)
nation of Israel was founded on. In mythology texts their
myths are often grouped with those revolving around the Jewish
faith, hence Fabian's error in describing Aqhat as a Jewish
character) is pretty accurate. Of course history is never
that cut and dried. It's not like one culture stops and another
one just pops up like Athena jumping out of Zeus' head (oop!
mixing metaphors AND pantheons! bad practice!)to take it's place.
Rather cultures tend to wax and wane with overlapping tides and
circles of influence. And another, pseudo-relevant comment, courtesy
of John McDonagh: I'll finish with a Deep Thought, courtesy of
Jack Handy (quoted from memory). In the Annunaki entry in All-New OHotMU Update#3 it is revealed that Marduk became indeed king after slaying Tiamat and Kingu. CLARIFICATIONS: Tiamat, the dragon/mother
of the Mesopotamian Gods has not been seen in the Marvel Universe
to the best of my knowledge, although she may be the
Leviathan from which's carcass Lilith was reborn in Ghost Rider III#28 Zahgurim, apparently one of Marduk's many
aliases, was likely the inspiration for: Appearances:
First Posted: 04/04/2002 Any Additions/Corrections? please
let me
know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
Citizen V, John
Watkins III, slew the Collective Man, reversing that threat, and
convinced Flag-Smasher to abandon his current plan in exchange
for being given sovereignty of the nation Rumekistan. Infuriated
by the actions of Aubrey's agent, Marduk took his revenge by
stealing Aubrey's soul and adding it the Genesis Well. Citizen V
tracked down Marduk and battled him, but found himself in
somewhat of a stalemate when he could not injure Marduk while he
stood in the Well, but that Marduk could not leave the Well to
fight him.
Adapted by Fabian Nicieza, Lewis
LaRosa, and Klebs Junior.
OK, Here's the deal (prepare yourself for a long rant/tirade,
or skip past this):
(1) Warren Ellis, great writer.
In 1994,
he takes over the Hellstorm series and turns it into a
thing of beauty (actually, I thought Nieves and
Kaminski's runs were great, too...I don't know why books
like this can't stay on the market, while Venom and others just keeps on
sucking!...digressing). He reveals that Hellstrom/Hellstorm's
father is actually Marduk, the Babylonian God, who has
degenerated into a demon in the millennia since he was
worshipped. It's a great story--Hellstorm slays his
father and takes over the title of ruler of his realm of
Hell. Leonardo Manco's art is very impressive!
(2) Fabian Nicieza, an extremely
talented writer, who is VERY good at using old, unused
characters and resolving old plotlines (Which we, at
the Appendix, love!). Fabian wrote the Citizen V
series (@ 2002), and, having not read Ellis' stories (this
is kind of ironic, since Fabian was the editor of
Hellstorm during Nieves and Kaminski's runs, which just
preceded Ellis'), picked Marduk from a Mythology
Encyclopedia while looking for an interesting god for the
story. His Marduk bears little resemblance to Ellis'
version.
For the purpose of this profile, we are treating the
demon/Satan version and the degenerated god shown by Nicieza as different in
this profile. If you want the original profile I did, which placed them as
combined versions, as well as the discussion on how and why they might be
the same, check here:
Marduk
LIKELY EXPLANATIONS ON THE TWO BEING SEPARATE BEINGS.
Stephen Loss in HELLSTORM #16: "But you,
Daimon Hellstorm, now knew that the creature had been
around long before human lips formed the word
'satan,' The Sumerians had a name for him.
The Sumerians; a people so ancient they could trace the
lineage of their kings from before the Great Flood.
So ancient that they recorded the times when feuds in
Hell were actually fought on earth. Sumerians saw
the creature win his tract of Hell in battle. In
righteous fear of the awful things It did that day, they
fell into worship of the beast. And they recorded his
name well."
So my theory, a variation on the Set/Seth
thing, goes like this: Marduk Kurios was a demon, and
became known to the early Sumerians
(or a proto-Sumerian civilization perhaps as far back as
the Hyborian age) when he won his realm of hell in a
battle with a rival on earth. They worshipped him in
fear, but he went back to his section of hell, and his
worship dwindled over the generations. Millennia (or
maybe just centuries) later, a new god came to be
worshipped in Sumeria's successor Babylonia, a god of
wisdom who had 50 different names. One of which,
chosen because of the resonance it held in legend, was
Marduk, which was the name it eventually became best
known by. This is the one whose power eventually
dwindled to the point that he started sucking the souls
out of other gods, and then large quantities of humans.
My feelings on the subject: I really
liked Hellstorm's slaying of his father, and invoking his
true name and everything made it seem far more final than
Mephisto getting blown apart on alternate sundays.
I think the idea of him being reincarnated as Hellstorm's
child is a really cool idea, and I quite like the
symmetry. But I don't think he and the Marduk from
CITIZEN V are the same. The connections are just
too tenuous, and I think it takes away from the impact of
Kurios' death if he pops up several years later in a
totally unrelated book. I also like the symmetry of
Marduk Kurios taking on the name Satan to enhance his
reputation, while a lesser god takes on the name Marduk
for the same reason.
Sounds good to me. It's probably more likely than my
explanation, too. Still, it remains up for debate--Snood.
Per Degaton points out that Marduk is referenced (his name is taken
in vain) in Conan the Buccaneer, by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin
Carter. This is used word for word in its adaptation in the MU,
in Savage Sword of Conan#40. Sigurd of Vanaheim, marooned on
island, encounters Conan and exclaims, "Now, by the
claws of Nergal and the guts of Marduk, mate, ye be a goodly
sight to look on!"
This dates Marduk to at least 10, 000 BC, during the Hyborian Era.
I had mentioned previously that I thought these gods may have
degenerated into demons due to millennia without worship. To clarify: I didn't
mean that any god without worship would automatically become a demon after a
given period. It just seemed like one possible motivation/explanation. However,
the Mesopotamian Gods seem to have been particulary susceptible to this
phenomenon. They have had the longest time to...spoil.
Marduk is often described as a Sumerian God, when in reality he
is a Mesopotamian God, although he was "ret-conned"
into Sumerian Mythology by the Babylonians (I guess he's had a
few millennia's of ret-cons...).
William Uchtman, one of our myth-masters explains this: Marduk is
Babylonian, but Babylonian myth does tell "flashback"
stories of Marduk's life during Sumerian times such as following
Enlil in the slaying of Apsu and Anzu. In a sense, he gained
prominence in the hierarchy of Babylonian myth. It's the same way
Vishnu was a minor character in the Vedic myth and gained
prominence in Hindu religion.
One tiny nit: while Marduk may have
used the title of El, it was supposed to be the Phoenician title
of Ea/Enki, god of water and magic and brother of Anu and
Eriskegal.
William did give me a few bits on Marduk's
background, though he disagreed with the characters treatment by
Ellis, and doesn't think they should be considered the same. His
opinion is that several demons have usurped the name of the real
Sumerian / Mesopotamian / Babylonian Gods, but that they are
distinct characters, which fits with my second explanation above.
Marduk is a Babylonian deity that rose to prominence after
the decline of Sumerian political and military power. Babylon
became the center of political, military, and religious might
after the decline of Sumerian culture. Marduk, the city's patron
god, declared that Babylon was the center of the universe around
which the world revolved (so one would guess astronomy wasn't
Marduk's strong suit). He likely had some kind of Sumerian
antecedent, but seems to be a principally Mesopotamian and more
particularly Babylonian deity.
He had a hell of a lot of influence on later
religions including Christianity - - Marduk fastened the two
tablets of destiny to his chest after slaying and defeating
Tiamat. Sounds an awful lot like two important tablets Ol' Moses
brought down from Mt. Sinai to me. Also there very well could be
a Satan/Marduk correlation, given the "our name is Legion"
business we discussed elsewhere and the fact that many deities
were considered to be manifestations of Marduk and he was
attributed as having fifty names. In fact, here is where it gets
really weird - - El is sometimes seen as an aspect of Marduk and
the Hebrew God was often referred to as "El" Shaddai
Jehovah (mind you this isn't el in the Hispanic sense meaning
"the" but an actual name). Toss onto that the fact that
one of Marduk's epithets is Bel which means "Lord" -
the Lord Marduk? Neat eh?
Given Marduk's connection to early Canaanite mythology/religion
and the other obvious parallels with Christianity maybe Marduk IS
Satan or some sort of false God/Jehova. I mean one of
Christianity's founding tenets (and that of other monotheistic
faiths) was that other religions god's (especially pagan
religions' gods) were in fact NOT gods but demons deceiving
mankind. Perhaps some of this can be tied into Marvels -
class II demon theory: demons that were once gods and have
degenerated.
Yahweh is considered more correct than Jehovah.
Jehovah is a mistake from the middle ages. The Jews, you
see, eventually decided that saying the name of their deity
should be restricted to special occasions, and so they adopted
the practice of putting the word Adonai (Lord) next to a reading
that contained the word Yahweh. During the middle ages, someone
accidentally combined those two words and got "Jehovah".
But YHWH is considered more correct. (Incidentally, Muslims do
not, as far as I know, use the name Yahweh for God. But then
Muslims, according to secular history, did not exist until this
whole thing had been worked out.)
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/oraja/YJA3.html
mentions the controversy
"To understand Mankind, one must first understand the
two words that make it up: Mank and Ind.
No one knows what these two words mean, and that's why no one
understands Mankind."
It is unclear whether
Marduk the god has any known connection to
but he presumably as no known connection to:
--hmmm...maybe there's an explanation in there somewhere.
This guy was a normal person that joined the cult of the SoS, and
took the name Marduk for some reason.
--Strip#16
She should not be confused with:
--this being came to Earth over 3000 years ago, and may have been
mistaken for or named after the original
Strange Tales I#150 (November, 1966) - Roy Thomas (writer), Bill Everett (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Tower of Shadows#7 (September, 1970) - Allyn Brodsky (writer), Barry Windsor-Smith (pencils), vince Colletta (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#1 (March, 2002) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Lewis LaRosa (pencils), Jim Royal (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#2 (May, 2002) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Lewis LaRosa (pencils), Scott Koblish, Jim Royal & Udon Studios (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#3 (June, 2002) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Lewis LaRosa (pencils), Udon Studios (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#4 (July, 2002) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Jose Kleber de Moura Jr. (pencils), Udon Studios (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Last updated: 11/12/2005
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