N'KANTU
Earth-1984
Real Name: N'Kantu
Identity/Class: Alternate reality
(Earth-1984) human mutate
Occupation: Midnight Mission employee
Group Membership: The Midnight Mission
Affiliations: Anubis, Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Moon Knight (Marc Spector), She-Hulk (Jen Walters), S.H.I.E.L.D. (Fury, others), Wolverine (Logan)
Enemies: Loki
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Bub" (nickname from Wolverine)
Base of Operations: The Midnight Mission, Manhattan, New York, USA
First Appearance: What If?: Venom I#4 (July, 2024)
Powers/Abilities: As a walking corpse, N'Kantu
is capable of surviving without food or water and his skin is extremely
durable, able to withstand attacks from superhumanly strong opponents
with feeling any sort of pain.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 7'6")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 650 lbs.)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: None
History:
(What If?: Venom I#4 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, the living mummy and
servant of Anubis N'Kantu took a job working at the Midnight Mission.
After Moon Knight went unresponsive in the Midnight Mission for several
hours, N'Kantu began to
worry that he would soon have to collect Moon Knight's soul for Anubis.
(What If?: Venom I#4) - When the surprised Moon
Knight eventually awakened and proclaimed that he
had seen N'Kantu die, a slightly confused N'Kantu reminded Moon Knight
that he was already dead and subsequently answered Moon Knight's
question whether Loki had been seen lurking about the Midnight Mission
by
stating that he had not seen Loki at all in the Midnight Mission.
Somewhat
confused but also curious, Moon Knight informed N'Kantu that he would
be stepping out and he departed the Midnight Mission.
(What If?: Venom I#5) - Moon
Knight returned to the Midnight
Mission in his identity of Jake Lockley alongside the She-Hulk and
"Jake" greeted N'Kantu when he arrived. Shortly after N'Kantu informed
"Jake" that their boss would be returning soon, She-Hulk, controlled by
her alien symbiote, attacked N'Kantu and hurled him into "Jake,"
knocking them both unconscious. The symbiote then forced She-Hulk to
imprison the unconscious "Jake Lockley" and N'Kantu, as well as
herself, while the symbiote then utilized Moon Knight's identity of
Steven Grant to lure the mutant Wolverine into imprisonment as well.
After the mystic Doctor Strange was also captured, he telepathically
reached out to the heroic personality of Moon Knight, who soon began to
overcome Loki within Loki's mental illusion. As Moon Knight battled
Loki, N'Kantu freed the captive heroes and Dr. Strange managed to
remove the alien symbiote portions from the assembled heroes and Loki,
imprisoning them long enough for S.H.I.E.L.D. to arrive and take the
disassembled symbiote and Loki into custody. When S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Fury
joked that the heroes made a good team and Moon Knight admitted to
She-Hulk that they could use some legal counsel at the Midnight
Mission, N'Kantu asked if her room would be bigger than his.
Comments: Created by Jeremy Holt and Diogenes Neves.
Much of the What If?: Venom I#4 issue involves Moon Knight being trapped in a mental maze of sorts created by the symbiote-powered Loki in an effort to use Moon Knight's mind to confront Khonshu. The issue had Moon Knight reliving a constant loop of events with slight variations each time so N'Kantu's appearances prior to N'Kantu finding the unresponsive Moon Knight towards the end of the issue were figments of Moon Knight's mind and not an appearance of the actual N'Kantu. The actual N'Kantu did not show up until, as stated, towards the end of the issue when N'Kantu finds the previously unresponsive Moon Knight awaking.
N'Kantu's height and weight were
approximated from that of his Earth-616 counterpart.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-1984's N'Kantu should be distinguished
from:
| --What If?: Venom I#4
(fb) - BTS (#4 - BTS, |
Appearances:
What If?: Venom I#4 (July, 2024) - Jeremy Holt (writer), Diogenes Neves
(art), Devin Lewis (editor)
What If?: Venom I#5 (August, 2024) - Jeremy Holt (writer), Jesus
Hervas, Geraldo Borges (art), Devin Lewis (editor)
First posted: 10/31/2025
Last updated: 10/31/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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