SERPENTYNE

Real Name: possibly Serpentyne

Identity/Class: Terrestrial variant (the People/Saurians)

Occupation: Avenger;

Affiliations: Member of "The People" (aka the Saurians, and Lizard People); Rom

Enemies: Dire Wraiths; Rom (due to madness)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: The Stalker in the Night, the One-Eyed

Base of Operations: Subterranean tunnels beneath the USA, specifically under the deserts of New Mexico, and under Clairton, West Virginia

First Appearance: Rom#8 (July, 1980)

Powers: Serpentyne possesses superhuman strength (Class 25) and durability. He is missing his right eye, but he possesses excellent nocturnal (nighttime) vision and motion tracking abilities. He has superhumanly keen olfactory (smell) senses, allowing him to identify a Dire Wraith by scent, no matter what form it had taken. He has a semi-prehensile tail, which he can use as a blunt weapon.
In addition, he carries a sword, and is a skilled swordsman.

History: Serpentyne believed himself to be the last member of a race of intelligent reptiles who called themselves simply "the People."

(Rom#9 (fb) - BTS) - The People were the result of the United States' first atomic bomb test. The radiation somehow interacted with materials in the New Mexican mesas, causing the desert reptiles exposed to it to evolve quickly. They had formed a society within a decade. They attempted to avoid contact with humans as much as possible. The People feared they would either be annihilated by man's superior technology or culturally overwhelmed if their existence were known. Thus they kidnapped and held prisoner any humans they encountered.

(Ms. Marvel I#20-21 - BTS) - One of the last humans they captured was a friend of Carol Danvers, then also known as the super-heroine Ms. Marvel. She went looking for her friend and was captured by the People. After a combination of fighting and talking, Ms. Marvel convinced the People's elders to let the humans go. She would never reveal their existence and they could hypnotize the humans to make them forget what they had seen.

 

 

(Rom#9 (fb)) - Unknown to the People and Ms. Marvel, one of the captives was actually a Dire Wraith in disguise. Immune to the hypnosis, he returned to tell his fellow Wraiths of this hidden race. The Wraiths attacked and killed every last member of the People so that they could use the People's subterranean lair for themselves. Serpentyne was only spared because he was separated from the battle by a cave-in. When he awoke, he vowed vengeance and began stalking and killing every Wraith he could find, tracking them by his keen sense of smell. To the Wraiths he became known as "the Stalker in the Night."

(Rom#8-9) - Now active in Clairton, West Virginia, Serpentyne continued his mission, exterminating the Dire Wraiths he found infiltrating the town. He unwittingly saved Silas Lane when he slew one of the Dire Wraiths who learned that Lane had discovered a connection among all of the "humans" apparently slain by Rom. When he saw Rom battle some Wraiths in Clairton, he heard them talk of Rom's Neutralizer. Serpentyne, realizing the Wraiths were even more afraid of Rom and his weapon than they were of him, decided he must have the Neutralizer.
Serpentyne had allowed his obsessive mission to drive him over the edge, and he decided that only he deserved to possess the powerful weapon. He fought Rom, who had fallen into his current underground lair, in an effort to gain his Neutralizer (which at the time was in Wraith possession anyway). The battle ended when Serpentyne was accidentally impaled on a stalagmite. With his last words, he apologized to Rom, admitting he had gone mad with vengeance. He asked Rom not to grieve for him, as he was going to rejoin the People.

 

 

Comments: Created by Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema.

Thanks to Lee Seitz for allowing me to adapt some information from his site: Rom: Spaceknight, revisited

Back as a wee lad of 10 years, I thought Serpentyne was the coolest character EVER! I use to write my own stories, and I had this extra-terrestrial lizard-warrior, Serpentyne, definitely patterned after this guy. Even now, something about him still really interests me. I would love to see him return. What would be great, would be for Starlin to pick him up and use him in a sequel to his Spaceknights limited series. Since when has death stopped anyone?

What do you call five West Virginia women in one room?
A full set of teeth.

Before you write in and try to correct the word Stalagmite, go look it up. Stalactites are on top ("T" for top), stalagmites are on bottom ("G" for ground).

CLARIFICATIONS: Serpentyne's "The People" are definitely the same race as the Saurians brought to the Savage Land in the X-Treme X-Men: The Savage Land limited series. It is not detailed how they survived. Chris Claremont wrote both the Ms. Marvel stories which created the People, and the X-Treme X-Men issues.
They are NOT the same as:

Serpentyne has no known connections to:

Last updated: 08/01/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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