ARISEN TYRK

Real Name: Arisen Tyrk

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Other Realm) magic user

Occupation: Former ruler of Other Realm; former pawn of the Unnameable

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Formerly ruled Sky City (and all of Other Realm) and commanded an army of warriors; employed Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Kravinoff)
(Lunatik): Dollar Bill, Unnameable,
(Nilffim): Unnameable, Ytitnedion

Enemies: Defenders (Clea, Dr. Stephen Strange, Hellcat/Patsy Walker, Hulk/Bruce Banner, Nighthawk/Kyle Richmond, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde), rebels of Other Realm, Kristine Saunders,
Stargod (John Jameson/Man-Wolf), Simon Stroud, Unnameable, Xhoohx;
(Lunatik): Defenders (especially the Valkyrie), Ledge, Lunatik (intergalactic mercenary), Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
(Nilffim-Riders): Defenders, Sputs

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Lunatik(s), Nilffim, Nilffim-Riders, Harrison Turk, Harrisyn Turk;
God-King of Other Realm, Lunatik, Wizard King

Base of Operations: Xhoohx's palace within Tunnelworld;
   formerly an apartment near Empire State University, Manhattan, New York, Earth-616;
   formerly a Sky City within Other Realm

First Appearance:
(Harrisyn Turk): (BTS) Creatures on the Loose#33 (January, 1975); (seen) Creatures on the Loose#35 (May, 1975)

(Arisen Tyrk): (named) Marvel Premiere#45 (December, 1978); (seen) Marvel Premiere#46 (February, 1979)

(Lunatik): (named, in shadows) Defenders I#51 (September, 1977); (fully seen) Defenders I#53 (November, 1977)

(Harrison Turk): Defenders I#52 (October, 1977)

(Nilffim-Riders): Defenders I#71 (May, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: Arisen Tyrk was extremely powerful, both as a sorcerer, and via the use of advanced science. He was physically strong enough to shrug off a punch from the Hulk, and to almost casually swat the Hulk to the ground. He could release devastating bursts of energy.

Harrisyn Tyrk was simply a human form and identity used by Arisen Tyrk when he first traveled to Earth. His appearance and mannerisms were virtually identical to that of the form of Harrison Turk.

The Lunatik(s) were fragments of Arisen Tyrk which possessed great acrobatic skills and may or may not have had enhanced human physical abilities. They each used a staff as a weapon, and their random, crazed behavior made them unpredictable foes. They spouted music lyrics and television or movie phrases in place of most forms of conversation.
They attacked and brutally beat those they saw as criminals--anyone from drug dealers to litterbugs--making no distinction or exception based on severity of the crime.
The Lunatiks only showed up during times of a full moon.

Harrison Tyrk had knowledge of acting and performance. He was intelligent and spoke quite eloquently, and in addition, he may have had superhuman powers of charisma and persuasion. He very frequently paused in the middle of a...eh...sentence.

The Nilffim-Riders wore suits of armor, carried swords, and rode upon the Nilffim, which were giant flighted birds. They acted as agents of the wizard Ytitnedion in Tunnelworld.

Height: 6'4"
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Solid white; Blue (as Harrison Turk/Harrisyn Turk)
Hair: Black

History:
(Defenders I#71 (fb) / Marvel Premiere#46 (fb) - both BTS) - Arisen Tyrk was the tyrannical God-King of Other Realm, dwelling in a floating city and ruling by a combination of science and sorcery. He came into power some time after the death of the original Stargod of Other Realm.

(Creatures on the Loose#36 (fb) - BTS / 33-BTS) - Tyrk sought the power of the Godstone, which was actually a conduit for the energies of the original Stargod--to this end, he traveled to Earth and took the form of Harrisyn Turk, then hired Kraven the Hunter to attack the Man-Wolf, who was bonded to the Godstone, though its powers were greatly diluted by its distance from Other Realm.
The Man-Wolf fought off Kraven.

(Creatures on the Loose#35-37) - Garth, Gorjoon, and Lambert, a trio of rebels from Other Realm, came to Earth and sought out the Man-Wolf, hoping to bring him to Other Realm, in the hopes that he might aid them in fighting off the tyranny of Arisen Tyrk. These rebels located the Man-Wolf and directed him towards a portal to Other Realm.

   Tyrk was fearful that the power of the Stargod might be used against him. As Harrisyn Turk, he posed as a substitute art teacher to get close to Kristine Saunders, the girlfriend of John Jameson (the human form of the Man-Wolf). Harrisyn Turk used an equilibrium device to incapacitate Saunders, and then used her as bait in an effort to capture J. Jonah Jameson, John's father. However, Simon Stroud, who had been working for Jonah, arrived in time to save Jonah, and drove Turk away.

(Marvel Premiere#45-BTS, 46) - The Man-Wolf/Jameson arrived in Other Realm, where the proximity to the original Stargod's energies allowed him to regain his own personality and intellect. The rebels explained the situation to Jameson and convinced him to join their struggle against Tyrk.

   Meanwhile, Tyrk had taken Kristine back to his Sky Fortress in Other Realm; from there, he sent a legion of his undead warriors to attack Jameson and the rebels. His legions succeeded in slaying several rebels, capturing most of the rest, and knocking Jameson to his apparent death; but the Man-Wolf survived the fall, and his previous failure and the lives it had cost galvanized his will to take down Tyrk. He traveled to Tyrk's Sky City and freed the rebels, only to find Tyrk holding Kristine at sword-point and threatening to kill her unless Jameson surrendered.

   Tyrk's behavior served only to push the Man-Wolf over the edge--he managed to tap into the full power of the Stargod, which leveled Tyrk's fortress and incapacitated Tyrk and his agents in one powerful burst of energy, but completely spared Kristine and the rebels. Tyrk recovered in time to see the Man-Wolf/Stargod preparing to return to Earth, and he blasted the dimensional portal device, seeking to prevent the Man-Wolf from ever returning home as punishment for defeating him. One of the rebels dropped Tyrk with a powerful energy blaster, and then Jameson again accessed the full Stargod power to reach home anyway.

(Defenders I#71 (fb)) - The rebels left Tyrk for dead and turned towards drunken celebration. In an effort to escape capture, Tyrk fled into the extradimensional portal; however, the damaged portal disrupted his form, and as a result he was fragmented into an unknown number of beings and reflected into an unknown number of realms--in the process, at least some of his fragment forms fell under the sway of the powerful magical entity known as the Unnameable.

   Three fragments of Tyrk were sent to Tunnelworld, where they became the Nilffim-Riders, who joined forces with Ytitnedion.

   At least four parts of Tyrk were sent to Earth. One of these, retaining most of Tyrk's memories and personality, took human form and name, becoming Harrison Turk. Although penniless and virtually powerless, Turk retained enough cunning and guile to find a job, and he became a drama professor at Empire State University, where he became the roommate of the man known as Dollar Bill.

   Three other versions each represented a more twisted aspect of Tyrk's persona. Each version appeared on Earth during successive full moons. The first possessed Tyrk's regal sense of righteousness smf a desire to punish evil, but lacked the ability to distinguish between murderers and jaywalkers, and treated all lawbreakers with equal harshness. He appeared in public, acting out his desires as the being known as Lunatik. The third and fourth fragments on Earth embodied the qualities of adventurousness and loyalty. They admired the second fragment, and also took the form and identity of Lunatik, embellishing the concept, filling out the character.

   Turk sensed the presence of each of the Lunatiks--and vice-versa--and they sought each other out. Turk, who possessed the quality of fitting in, projected a public image. Turk allowed the Lunatiks to take refuge in his apartment to avoid capture. However, they periodically felt the need to go out individually into public and act out their personal desires. Turk kept the Lunatics under control initially, hoping for the arrival of other fragments possessing more subtle personalities, more like his own...which never arrived...







(Defenders I#51) - Lunatik attacked a litterbug, beating him with his staff.

(Defenders I#52) - Harrison Turk got on the Valkyrie's bad side by smoking in the non-smoking section of a movie theater (yes, they used to have those), right behind her. When he refused to extinguish his pipe, she shattered it. After the movie, he apologized to her, recognizing that he had broken the rules and she was right to treat him thusly.

(Defenders I#53) - The Lunatik encountered the Valkyrie in a subway terminal. She tripped him in her civilian guise as he fled from the police. He prepared to smash her with his staff, but stopped after seeing who she was, and then he grinned and darted off again.

 

(Defenders I#55-56) - Lunatik ran into the Valkyrie again, and attempted to impress her by showing her some drug dealers he had just beaten senseless; she disliked his style of justice and attacked him. When her friend Ledge jumped between them and tried to break up the fight, Lunatik attacked him savagely, cracking his skull and breaking his leg, among other things. The Valkyrie tried to bring Lunatik to justice, but his speed and agility--as well as his willingness to take hostages and threaten innocents--enabled him to stay one step ahead of her--at one point, he even took her sword and lopped off one of her pony tails.
Becoming increasingly more P.O.'d at Lunatik, the Valkyrie finally managed to flatten him in another subway terminal, but she stopped herself before she threw a punch that might have killed him. Quickly recovering, he jumped off, planted a big, fat one on her lips, and darted off, escaping.

(Defenders I#61(fb) - BTS) - Lunatik caught a 14 year-old shoplifter and killed her.

(Defenders I#61) - The Valkyrie, Hellcat, and Dollar Bill went to Harrison Turk to gain his wisdom in trying to capture Lunatik. Playing on his propensity for going after scofflaws, they had a Spider-Man statue erected on ESU. As figured, Lunatik hung out by the statue, hoping to encounter Spider-Man, who was at the time wanted by the law. The statue attracted Spider-Man as well, and Lunatik attacked him. The Defenders joined the fight and tried to take Lunatik down, but he managed to escape after temporarily blinding them with the tarp which had been covering the statue.

(Defenders I#62 (fb)) - Dollar Bill's TV documentary on the Defenders revealed that Lunatik had escaped through a hidden tunnel at the base of the Spider-Man statue.

(Defenders I#64) - Harrison Turk attended Ledge's release from the hospital, and then mentioned a proposition to Dollar Bill.

(Defenders I#65) - Turk told Dollar Bill that his offer would get him back on the good side of the Defenders (...after his documentary and "Defender for a Day" idea had turned into a gigantic disaster).

BTS - Turk invited Dollar Bill to move into his apartment, which he did.

(Defenders I#70) - Dr. Strange, noting a connection between the energy in Lunatik and the other-dimensional realm of Tunnelworld, journeyed to that realm with the Hulk to investigate.
Meanwhile, Harrison Turk and Dollar Bill hosted a party at which they invited the Defenders. Ledge showed up and accused Professor Turk of being Lunatik, after which Turk stormed out of the party. Suspicious, the Valkyrie followed him and found Lunatik instead. The Valkyrie sent Patsy (Hellcat) to notify Kyle (Nighthawk). After some struggle, Val succeeded in knocking Lunatik out and capturing him.
Patsy returned and saw Lunatik running across the park, and figured he had gotten the better of Val; she went after him and managed to overcome him as well.
Nighthawk arrived in the area, saw Lunatik running down the street, and swooped down at him. Lunatik dodged his initial swipe, but Nighthawk managed to knock him off a building, which incapacitated him.
The three Defenders then met up, each with a defeated Lunatik, leaving them all quite puzzled. Things didn't get any clearer when Professor Turk showed up and admitted that he was really Lunatik, and turned himself in.

(Defenders I#71-73) - Harrison Turk explained a skewed version of the past of Arisen Tyrk to the Defenders, and convinced them to bring him and the Lunatiks to Tunnelworld, where they could be reunited and Tyrk reformed. There they were joined by the Nilffim-Riders, and broke free and fought the Defenders anew. Joined by the power of the Hulk, however, all of Tyrk's fragment selves were recaptured and brought to the castle/fortress of the wizard Xhoohx.
Dr. Strange, Clea, and Xhoohx merged the fragments selves and reformed Tyrk, who immediately attacked and scattered them and the other Defenders. Furious over being used as a pawn by the Unnameable, Tyrk climbed to the top of Xhoohx's castle and challenged the powerful entity. The Unnameable sent storm-monsters to attack Tyrk, who easily fought them off. The Valkyrie succeeded in knocking Tyrk off the top of the castle and he fell through the Rings of Raggadorr (formed by the combined power of Clea, Strange, and Xhoohx)-- this both incapacitated Tyrk and placed him out of the Unnameable's reach. The Unnameable had apparently wished for Tyrk to battle him, so that he could defeat him and bring him under his control.
The inert Tyrk was left in the care of the wizard Xhoohx, at least until Dr. Strange could return to join the fight against the Unnameable.

(Lunatik#1) - One of the Lunatiks was located and presumably slain by Lunatik, the intergalactic mercenary, who didn't like anyone else using his name--this Lunatik fragment was apparently living in Leisure World, a retirement home. The merc learned of his existence through an old television transmission (almost certainly the one filmed by Dollar Bill) and then cornered him in the bathroom and pounded him into the toilet. This Lunatik fragment was never clearly seen, however.

Comments: Arisen Tyrk created by David Kraft and George Perez.
Lunatik created by David Kraft and ?? (Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen, and Mike Golden, and Terry Austen are all listed as artists).
...I had always just ASSumed that Gerber HAD to have designed the Lunatiks. My bad.

   Going by how Arisen Tyrk behaved on Earth, his powers were also likely significantly dampened on Earth. Even back in Other Realm he didn't seem too powerful, but he may have just been mortified by the power of the Stargod (and I think the storyline was likely somewhat rushed). When he reformed on Tunnelworld, he was a much more powerful character, and it took the combined power of the Defenders and Xhoohx to bring him down.

   Not long after Tyrk was left in the care of Xhoohx, Xhoohx was defeated and captured by the forces of Ytitnedion and subsequently slain by him. I'd guess that the Nya continued to monitor Tyrk and maintain him in an inert state, but he's a powerful guy to just leave lying around.

   The later appearance of one of the Lunatiks was never explained. It apparently either reformed/split off from Tyrk, or it was a fragment which had never reunited with him. Either way, this means that there could be more of those"Wild and Crazy Guys" out there somewhere.

   The word lunatic refers to someone wildly insane or foolish, and comes from the old belief that lunacy fluctuated with the phases of the moon.

   It's a real trip through the memory of media-past listening to Lunatik. As he was written in the late 1970s, he quotes/paraphrases such bands as Devo, "Are we not men? We are Lunatik!"; such television shows as Saturday Night Live, featuring the Wild and Crazy Czech Guys, and Steve Martin solo, "Well, Excu-u-u-u-u-se Me!"
In one series of random responses, he went from quoting Smokey Robinson, to the Rolling Stones, to Lewis Carroll, to the Carpenters, to Little Richard.

Lunatik's #1 Quote: "There are none so blind as those who can not see."

Lunatik has a full entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1980s Handbook.

New and additional images by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Arisen Tyrk has no known connection to:

The Nilffim-Riders should be distinguished from:

Other Realm should not be confused with:

Arisen Tyrk's sky castle

Built upon one of the rocky masses that floated in the atmosphere of Other Realm, it was Tyrk's citadel.

The fortress included a large throne room, and a dungeon/torture chamber where rebel prisoners were confined.

During the final battle to depose Tyrk, the castle was leveled by a blast of energy from Stargod/Man-Wolf/John Jameson.

--Marvel Premiere#46

Arisen Tyrk's warriors

Tyrk was served by an army of undead warriors (his "Calvary of the Damned") presumably of his own creation; they were armed with flaming swords and arrows, and carried handguns which projected fiery energy. They were skeletal and shattered when struck. They rode upon winged horse-like steeds with skeletal skulls.

They initially confronted Stargod (Man-Wolf/John Jameson) and the rebels in the skies of Other Realm. They killed some of the rebels, and seemingly killed Stargod, then captured the remaining rebels and took them to Tyrk's sky castle.

--Marvel Premiere#45 (#45, 46

Tyrk was also served by legions of more normal human-like denizens of the Other Realm. Like Tyrk (and Lunatik, and the Nilffim-Riders), they had them funky all-white eyes with dark lining. They were armed with some form of handguns.

--Marvel Premiere#46

images:
Defenders I#73, cover (main image - Arisen Tyrk, standing over Hellcat)
Defenders I#53, p8, pan5 (Lunatik)
Creatures on the LooseI#35, p5, pan11 (Harrison Turk)
Defenders I#71, cover (Nilffim-Riders)
Defenders I#72, p9, pan6 (trio of Nilffim-Riders; Dr. Strange)
Defenders I#73, p12, pan5 (Arisen Tyrk)
Marvel Premiere I#46, p9, pan1 (Arisen Tyrk threatening Kristine Saunders)
Defenders I#71, p5, pan1-2 (in flashback, Harrison Turk explains how he came to be fragmented)
Defenders I#71, p6, pan1 (Lunatik)
Defenders I#73, p13, pan1 (Arisen Tyrk fires energy burst at storm-monsters)
Marvel Premiere I#46, p2, pan4 (Arisen Tyrk's sky castle; Stargod/Man-Wolf and Gorjoon [foreground])
Marvel Premiere I#46, p14, pan11 (Arisen Tyrk's sky castle explodes)
Marvel Premiere I#45, p9, pan5 (Tyrk's undead warriors)
Marvel Premiere I#45, p14, pan1 (Tyrk's undead warriors, with handguns)
Marvel Premiere I#45, p14, pan9 (headshot - one of Tyrk's undead warriors)
Marvel Premiere I#46, p9, pan1 (three of Tyrk's humanoid stooges)

Appearances:
Creatures on the Loose#35 (May, 1975) - David Kraft (writer), George Perez (pencils), Frank McLaughlin (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Creatures on the Loose#36 (July, 1975) - David Kraft (writer), George Perez (pencils), Frank McLaughlin (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Creatures on the Loose#37 (September, 1975) - David Kraft (writer), George Perez (pencils), Fred Kida (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Defenders I#51 (September, 1977) - David Kraft (writer), Keith Giffen (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Defenders I#52 (October, 1977) - David Kraft (writer), Keith Giffen (pencils), Chic Stone (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Defenders I#53 (November, 1977) - David Kraft (writer), Dave Cockrum, Keith Giffen & Mike Golden (pencils), Terry Austin (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Defenders I#55-56 (January-February, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), Carmine Infantino (pencils), Klaus Janson (inks), Archie Goodwin (editor)
Defenders I#61 (July, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), Ed Hannigan (pencils), Bob Lubbers (inks), Jim Shooter (editor)
Defenders I#62 (August, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Jim Mooney (inks), Bob Hall (editor)
Defenders I#64 (October, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Don Perlin (inks), Bob Hall (editor)
Defenders I#65 (November, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Bruce D. Patterson (inks), Bob Hall (editor)
Marvel Premiere#45 (December, 1978) - David Kraft (writer), George Perez (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Marvel Premiere#46 (February, 1979) - David Kraft (writer), George Perez (pencils), Ricardo Villamonte (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Defenders I#70 (April, 1979) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Defenders I#71 (May, 1979) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Jack Abel (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Defenders I#72 (June, 1979) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Fred Kida (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Defenders I#73 (July, 1979) - Ed Hannigan (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Lunatik#1 (December, 1995) - Lovern Kindzerski (writer), Duncan Rouleau (pencils), Danny Bulanadi, Harry Candelario, Jeff Albrecht, Don Hudson & Jim Royal (inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)

First posted: 02/04/2003
Last updated: 11/26/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters