Real
Name: Marcus E. "Mark" Hazzard MARC HAZZARD
Real
Name: Marcus E. "Mark" Hazzard
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-148611) human
Occupation: Mercenary;
former soldier
Group Membership: Unidentified mercenary unit;
formerly the US Army
Affiliations: Ahmad, Ahmal, Louis "Treetop"
Barrington, Gar Bremby, Lieutenant
Claire Burnett, the Commander, Doc, Freida, Lincoln Griffin,
Louis "Lew" Hart, High Priestess, Dave Klapholz, Master Sensei, Tony
Panetta, Jacob Ram, Ritter, Rolf, Mal Rossi, Sergeant Major, Kim Sun,
Eli Wisenthal;
formerly Father Kevin Eugene Johnson
Enemies: Besq, Carmen,
Cestus Dei, Esteban, Father Kevin
Eugene Johnson, Fritz, Gordon, Henri Graymalkin, Irham, Kurtz,
Maria,
Luis Montoya, Santos and his revolutionaries, unidentified
South Pacific island President, unidentified assassins working for
Graymalkin, Colonel Jarret
Wolfson;
formerly Ramon
Known Relatives: Scott Hazzard (son), Joan (ex-wife), Leonard Hazzard (father, deceased), Margaret Hazzard (mother)
Aliases: "The Colonel"
Base of Operations: Ninja Martial Arts School,
downtown NYC;
formerly an apartment in Gramercy Park, Manhattan, NYC,
U.S.A., Earth-148611
First
Appearance: Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (1986)
Powers/Abilities: Hazzard was skilled in languages, tactics and most forms of combat, lethal both armed and unarmed, with experience fighting in most terrains. He was skilled with booby traps, such as creating improvised landmines by burying nails with shotgun shells. Depending on the mission, he carried a variety of weapons and sometimes wore Kevlar body armor.
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 240 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Brown
History:
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#3 (fb) - BTS) - Mark Hazzard was born in 1944...
(Amazing Heroes#101, Pete David interview, p41, column2) -
on February 14th.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb) - BTS) - He came from a distinguished military family,...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - and
his father was harsh, demanding he be the best at everything with
nothing less being acceptable. Whatever he did, no matter how well he
did it, wasn't good enough.
During high school Mark became
a star football player, and fell in love with fellow student Joan.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb) - BTS/Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Mark attended West Point...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#5 (fb)) - though this, like many of
the choices in his life, was not made by him but dictated by his father,
something Mark increasingly resented.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Mark was good at many
things at West Point, from tactics to languages, but he wasn't the best,
and so his father remained dissatisfied.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#3 (fb) - BTS) - While there he clashed with fellow cadet Jarret Wolfson, and in retaliation one night tied Wolfson up and dangled him by his feet from a flagpole.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) -Eventually, unable to
put up with his father's disapproval any more, Mark quit West Point and
married Joan.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb)) - Both of Mark's parents were
angry when Mark informed him that he had dropped out of West Point, and
his announcement that he was signing up to fight in Vietnam only made
his father Leonard even more angry.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Mark went into the
army as an NCO, and proved to be an exceptional soldier.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb)) - Mark did three tours,
spending time with the special operations group, always in the middle of
the nastiest jobs, taking the point in recon missions, killing men he
didn't even know in hand-to-hand combat, and playing tunnel rat to root
out the VC. He realized he only felt alive when facing the risk of
dying.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#4 (fb) - BTS) - At some point he was scarred across his left eye by an enemy combatant armed with a machete, an experience that continued to haunt his nightmares for years.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - In 1969 just after
the Tet offensive, Mark met pilot Louis "Treetop" Barrington when he was
flying a helicopter to evacuate soldiers trapped behind enemy lines.
Despite a rocky start the pair became fast friends, frequently working
together through the rest of the conflict.
In a separate incident, when the
Vietcong launched a surprise attack on a civilian city, Mark ran into
New Zealander Mal Rossi, a soldier attached to Australian Army Training
Team Vietnam (AATTV), and the pair got each other out alive. They
remained friends, crossing paths several more times through the war.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#7 (fb)) - He befriended an Asian woman
he called Doc after she patched up one of his friends; though a medic as
her nickname suggested, she was also a very capable fighter.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#10 (fb) - BTS) - Mark pulled another soldier, Gar Bremby, out of a tight situation in Vietnam.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Towards the end of the war Mark saved the life of Navy Seal Lincoln Griffin, who had become stuck behind enemy lines after a mission went wrong.
After the war Mark found it hard to find regular work, and the situation was exacerbated by the birth of his son Scott in 1974.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb)) - Leonard
Hazzard had died of a heart attack while Mark was serving. Mark's mother
Margaret informed Mark that Leonard's final wish was for his son to
follow him in his footsteps as a good soldier, but Mark informed her
that he had quit the army to become a mercenary, only willing to take
orders from himself. Hearing this, Margaret Hazzard cut ties with Mark.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Mark's frequent
absences strained things with Joan, left alone to raise their son for
weeks and months at a time.
Following the war Mark approached British
former soldier and fellow mercenary "Sergeant Major" to train would-be
rebels against various oppressive regimes around the world.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb) - BTS) - However this
fell apart in time, as they started to do jobs for anyone who could pay
them, work Sergeant Major found morally unsatisfying, so he and Sergeant
Major stopped working together so regularly, though they remained
friends and still occasionally undertook joint missions.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - Mal found his old friend Mal and convinced him to join his mercenary team. He also ran into Treetop again, and when the bored pilot learned what Mark was now doing he insisted on joining in, and on running the business by picking their clients.
Lincoln Griffin had also
become a mercenary, and his paths crossed Mark's once in a while, not
always working for the same side.
Eventually, while Scott was still a toddler, Joan gave Mark an ultimatum, to choose them or his mercenary work. Unable to take being ordered around thanks to his relationship with his father, Mark chose the latter, and the couple divorced.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb) - BTS) - Mark formed a mercenary unit with Treetop and Mal, the former acting as their booking agent, though he insisted Mark had final decision on whether to take a given job, and commanded them in the field. Following the divorce Marc stayed in an apartment near Grammercy Park...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#6 (fb) - BTS) - owned by Treetop.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (fb)) - In New York between
missions Mark saved a young runaway girl from being recruited by a pimp
and introduced her to his friend "Master Sensei," a skilled martial
artist who ran a dojo "Ninja School Martial Arts." She became Master
Sensei's disciple, eventually inheriting his dojo when the old martial
artist died, taking the title "High Priestess." However, she considered
the dojo as much Mark's as it was hers.
(Mark Hazzard: Merrc#1 (fb) - BTS) - He went on various mercenary jobs with Mal and Treetop, but sometimes Treetop booked them into jobs that conflicted with Mark's moral code, and Mal learned to recognize when Mark would get a look in his eyes suggesting he was about to act against their interests of whoever was employing them.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#3 (fb) - BTS) - Mark did a job for Jacob Ram of the Israeli Secret Service, but found him too bossy for Mark's tastes, and afterwards told Ram he would never work for him again.
At some point he became friends with police
Lieutenant Claire Burnett.
(Mark
Hazzard: Merc#1 (fb) - BTS) - Two years after Joan remarried,
Mark began an apparently casual relationship (at least on his side)
with a blonde woman, though he lied to her about his profession,
claiming he was a casting agent. Then, expecting Treetop to call with
details of a new mercenary gig, Mark began dodging commitments that
might tie up his time in conflict with this booking, and so screened
his calls. He stood up his blonde paramour, prompting her to leave an
angry message on his answering machine after waiting three hours for
him to show up for a date as Sardi's. Financially tight until he got
paid for the upcoming gig, his child support checks bounced. Scott
left several messages on Mark's answering machine mentioning his
upcoming Little League championship game, but Mark failed to call him
back.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1) - Returning to his apartment after purchasing groceries Mark checked his messages, including one from a clearly disappointed Scott almost pleading for him to at least call and wish him luck before the imminent game. Then, after a couple more messages that Mark discounted, Treetop finally confirmed the gig was on.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 - BTS) - Mark's team was hired by rebels who had been fighting for the last two years to overthrow the dictator of a South Pacific island, and who now sought professional help. The rebels employed the mercenaries to capture the President and bring him to them, dead or alive. The mercenaries were also booked to follow this mission with another job in Libya. Now knowing what his time commitments would be, Mark intended to call Scott back and tell him he would miss the game, but forgot.
(Mark Hazzard:
Merc#1) - A few days after his phone call Treetop dropped Mark
and Mal off by helicopter in the jungle near the President's compound.
While Mal set booby traps outside to eliminate the guards, Mark broke in
and confronted the President and his wife/bodyguard Carmen in the
President's office; when the latter pulled a Baretta, Mark shot her dead
with his silenced pistol. He tried to convince the President to
surrender, but when the man threw a knife at him and then went for a
Luger, Mark grabbed the blade and threw it back, killing the President
before the dictator could get off a shot. Having heard her father
shouting, the President's teenage daughter Maria arrived just as her
father was impaled and fled screaming back to her room. Before Mark
could follow, guards arrived, but witnessing the President's corpse they
began fighting amongst themselves over who would replace their dead
leader, and Mark watched in mild bemusement as they managed to wipe
themselves out without his needing to get involved.
Soon after this the rebels arrived at the compound, and Mark listened as their leader, Santos, made it clear that rather than restoring democracy he intended to simply become the new dictator of the island, beginning with killing those who had opposed him. Deciding to head home since there was still time to make Scott's game, Mark told Mal they should leave, but as they headed out the building they witnessed two guards outside Maria's room tossing a coin to decide which of them would get to rape the girl first. Wanting to avoid alerting the other rebels for as long as possible Mark immediately demanded that he and Mal go first,...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#1 - BTS) - then once in the room grabbed Maria and escaped with her out the window. Mark told Mal to lay down a false trail to draw the rebels off once they inevitably pursued, while he took the distrusting Maria in the direction of where they had arranged for Treetop to be waiting. They arrived to find Santos and his men had gotten to the airfield ahead of them and were trying to shoot Treetop's helicopter down, so Mark scattered them with a grenade, but as he tried to make a dash for the helicopter Maria struggled to pull away from him. With both Mark and his friends under heavy fire, Mark let the girl go, but as he boarded the helicopter he again thought to try and save her, ordering Treetop to swing the helicopter round towards her. However Maria ran straight for the rebels, naively shouting at them to save her from Mark, and Santos and his men immediately gunned her down, before being slain in turn when Treetop opened fire with the chopper's armaments. As the mercenaries departed Mal berated Mark for messing up their mission and costing them their pay. In response Mark told him that the Libyan gig would have to wait, as he had decided to stop disappointing his son and intended to attend Scott's game. Annoyed, Mal told Mark that his bleeding heart attitude was costing them money. Once back in the USA Mark called Scott and told the excited boy that he would be at the game.
(Amazing Fantasy II#18/2 (fb) - BTS) - With a couple of
days to go before the game, Mark agreed to a quick job serving divorce
papers to Luis Montaya, a general from a South American state run by
drug lords, who was illegally in the United States to visit his
mistress, and had stonewalled all his wife's prior attempts to deliver
the papers. Per their instructions, the mission was to be non-lethal.
(Amazing Fantasy II#18/2) - To reach the general who was
staying in a penthouse in Los Angeles, Mark descended from Treetop's
helicopter by rope and smashed in through the window. Finding more
bodyguards present than had been reported, Mark took them down with
non-lethal (though sometimes crippling) shots with covering fire from
Mal, who was positioned as a sniper on another building. He confronted
Montoya and his mistress in their bedroom, handed him the divorce
papers, and departed.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#2) - The Friday before the game Mark
visited Dave's Shooting Gallery with Mal and Treetop, a regular haunt
where people could practice shooting using household appliances brought
in by other customers. As they finished shooting the others teased Mark
about his plans to attend a little league game, with Treetop asking him
if he planned to pick off the base runners. When Mark insisted he just
wanted to be a normal father for once, Mal asked if normal fathers
usually packed hardware when going to watch kids play baseball, causing
Mark to state that he was intending to go unarmed. Just after he
finished shooting a large belligerent man came in, pursuing one of Dave
Klapholz's customers who had stolen his boombox radio on the subway.
Angry to learn from an unapologetic Dave that the radio had just been
shot to pieces, the man threatened to beat Dave up, so Mark stepped in
and took the interloper down.
On Sunday recalled his fellow mercenaries'
comments, and after some internal debate decided to leave his guns in
the apartment. He arrived a little late, with the game already underway,
but Scott was nevertheless happy to see him. However, unknown to Mark,
his ex-wife's new husband, Gordon, had become tired of living in Mark's
shadow, and asked a friend he knew had connections, French businessman
Henri Graymalkin, to get get rid of Mark. Graymalkin sent three
assassins, but Mark spotted the first one, visibly out of place among
the casually dressed parents, and lured him into the park's restroom,
disarmed him and tied him up in one of the stalls. Confiscating his
foe's gun and knife, Mark considered leaving, but decided to stay at
Scott's request. With Scott up to bat, Mark was momentarily distracted
and the next gunman got the drop on him, placing a gun in the small of
his back and trying to walk him somewhere out of sight of witnesses to
shoot him. However Scott spotted the gun and called out, briefly pulling
the assassin's attention away from Mark, who quickly stabbed him. A
third assailant then revealed himself, angry that Hazzard had just slain
his partner, but Hazzard used the dead man as a shield. The third
assassin grabbed one of the little leaguers and threatened to shoot the
boy if Hazzard didn't let surrender. Deciding to shoot his opponent even
if meant risking hitting the hostage was preferable to dying and never
seeing his son again, Hazzard took aim and told his opponent to go ahead
and shoot the boy. Not bluffing, the gunman pulled the trigger, but his
gun turned out to be empty. Dropping his prisoner, the assassin tried to
dodge until he could reload, and Hazzard shot him dead. The hostage's
mother called Mark an animal for risking her son's life, but Scott came
to his father's defense, insisting his dad had counted the shots and
knew the other man was out of bullets. Not wanting to lose Scott's
respect, Mark seized this excuse and agreed with his son, but inside he
raged that his violent world had intruded on his son's life.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#2 - BTS) - Mark gave a statement to the police over the shooting.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#3) - A week later Mark was visited in
his apartment by Burnett and her partner Detective Arnie, as their boss
was dissatisfied with Mark's account of the shootings, not least because
the surviving assassin was now claiming Mark had attacked him
unprovoked. They ordered him not to leave town until they completed
their investigation. Despite agreeing, Mark then took a job offer from
Jacob Ram, who hired Mark to provide security for Eli Wisenthal, an
Israeli politician visiting Philadelphia to represent his country in
that weekend's Israeli Independence Day Parade, convincing Mark to go
back on his vow not to work with Ram again by telling him he would be in
command of the operation, even over Colonel Jarret Wolfson, who the U.S.
government had appointed military liaison for the visit. Mark hoped his
trip would fly under Burnett's radar, but the parade was attacked by
Islamic terrorists. Disabling Wisenthal's car with a rocket launcher
they then used a motorbike and sidecar to snatch the Israeli. When Mark
tried to shoot the driver, Wolfson kicked the gun from his hand,
insisting he might hit civilians. Angry that Wolfson had let the
terrorists kidnap his client, Mark punched back, and they began a short
fight that ended with the police pulling them apart. Thanks to Wolfson's
official status, the police threw Mark into a cell, and Wolfson took
pleasure in taunting his old adversary, informing him that the
terrorists had taken refuge in some derelict buildings schedule for
demolition and that the mayor wanted to handle them with kid gloves to
avoid a PR debacle. Wolfson offered to release Mark if he apologized for
his past actions, but when Mark swallowed his pride and did so, Wolfson
laughingly reneged on the deal. However, minutes later Ram showed up
posing as Mark's lawyer to get him out the cell, then overpowered the
cops escorting Mark. When Wolfson walked into the interrogation room
Mark knocked him out and they hastily exited the police station. Ram
informed him that the terrorists were threatening to start imminently
dismembering Wisenthal if their demands weren't met, but Mark realized
that the only reason Ram would have taken the time to bust him out if
time was so tight was because he wanted a fall guy should things go
wrong. Despite this, and despite knowing that if he went in to rescue
Wisenthal there would be no way to keep Burnett in the dark, Mark's
sense of duty to his client won out, and he agreed to go in. With Ram
driving one of the cranes, Mark rode its wrecking ball to enter the
building via the upper floors, then rushed down to shoot Wisenthal's
captors before they could realize he was inside. In the aftermath Ram
took custody of the prisoners over Wolfson's objections, intending to
execute them for past atrocities against civilian targets. Mark however
was angry, having realized that Ram had learned of the plot in advance
and so swapped in Wisenthal, an unpopular politician back in Israel, so
that he could lure the terrorists out without risking someone who would
be missed if slain, and hired Mark so that if the Wisenthal had died the
Israeli Secret Service could deflect blame for the security failure away
from themselves. Annoyed at being used, Mark returned to New York, where
he was soon arrested by Burnett and Arnie.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#4 (fb) - BTS) - Hazzard was cleared of
the charges involving the assassins at the little league game, as his
actions were ruled to be self defense, but held facing potential charges
for his actions in Philadelphia. Additionally, Burnett found herself in
hot water for having taken Mark's word he'd stay in town.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#4) - Despite Mark's
bail being set at half a million dollars, Treetop covered him and Mark
was soon released. As he left the police station he was approached by
CIA agent Dirkson, who hoped to leverage Mark's predicament to recruit
him for a mission, but Mark told him he wasn't interested. After
checking in on Scott, Mark returned to his apartment, debating about
what to do, wanting to provide a good example to his son by going
through the legal process to prove his innocence, but concerned that
his state appointed attorney Louis Hart seemed inexperienced and
inept. At his apartment he found Dirkson waiting for him to repeat the
offer in more detail; accept targeted assassination jobs overseas and
in return have all charges not only dropped but cleansed from his
records and Burnett's, but refuse and Dirkson would send him to jail,
get Burnett put up on departmental charges, and pull Mark's friends'
gun permits. He gave Mark until midnight to decide.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#4 (fb) - BTS) - Mark
decided to nevertheless turn him down, but suspecting Dirkson might
try some dirty tricks when that happened, Mark called Mal and Treetop
to arrange some backup.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#4) - When Mark got to
Union Square for his rendezvous with Dirkson he was met by a stolen
bus driven by two Islamic terrorists, Irham and Besq, associates of
the men he had killed in Philadelphia, who had taken Burnett, her
husband Rick, Dirkson and Hart hostage. Forced to board to protect the
hostages, Hazzard watched as Irham callously murdered Rick Burnett
just for the hell of it, but then the bus ran into a roadblock set up
by Mal and some army buddies. Mal shot out the tires, and as the bus
fishtailed Irham fell over, and Mark stamped on his neck, breaking it.
Besq threatened to shoot Dirkson in the head, but with his attention
drawn by Mark and Mal, failed to notice Hart behind him, and the
lawyer knocked the last terrorist out using his briefcase as a club.
Despite owing them his life, Dirkson still tried to coerce Hazzard and
his friends into working for him, but Mark declined, leaving his
chances in Hart's hands.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#5 (fb) - BTS) - Mark apparently beat
the charges.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#5) - Mark visited his friend "High
Priestess" at her "Ninja Martial Arts School" in downtown Manhattan, to
do some training and bring her some shuriken he'd picked up for her in
Thailand. While there Mal showed up, looking for Mark's help, claiming
that his sister, a singer going to the stage name Phoenix, had been
kidnapped by a biker gang because the leader, Ramon, had decided she was
to be his woman, willing or not. Mark recruited Priestess' help to go in
the front of the East Side bar the gang used as a base, keeping them
distracted while he and Mal snuck into the East Side bar they gang used
as a base, and they snatched Phoenix, though to Mark's disquiet Mal
knocked his sister out before she could speak, justifying this by
claiming she was a screamer and he couldn't risk her alerting her
captors. Then they made their escape, unnoticed by most of the gang.
Anticipating the gang would come looking for Phoenix, Mark and Mal set
up a rooftop ambush, ready to gun the bikers down, but Mark avoided a
battle by challenging Ramon directly, and they agreed to face off
against one another at the Cloisters at dawn.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#5 - BTS) - Suspecting Mal had not been truthful Mark checked with the roadies for Phoenix's band, who confirmed that she had not been kidnapped but was in love with Ramon.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#5) - Finding Mal at the Cloisters
setting up explosives to kill the bikers Mark confronted him, and tried
to stop him killing the gang members. Though Mal was initially
resistant, Mark's arguments seemed to be gradually getting through to
Mal until some of the bikers pulled guns and opened fire, and Mal blew
up everyone but Ramon. Mal was about to shoot him when Phoenix arrived
and begged her brother to spare the man she loved. When Mal still seemed
unsure, Mark stepped in, threatening to shoot his friend if he didn't
let Phoenix and Ramon leave. Though this briefly caused a rift between
Mal and Mark, Mal soon apologized.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#6) - Treetop booked the team to
protect an upcoming Central European politician, Kurtz, but Mark soon
became concerned about the brutal way Kurtz' brownshirt followers
handled protesters, and stepped in to prevent one of them from seriously
injuring a woman. That night when he went out for a walk to clear his
head one of Kurtz' men tried to stab him, but Mark easily took the
assailant down. Immediately after he was approached by the woman he had
protected, Freida, who took Mark to meet her grandfather Rolf and watch
a wartime film that clearly showed Kurtz had been an officer in the
Nazi's 22nd Panzer division. Furthermore, they informed him that when
Rolf had protested Kurtz's political campaign his followers had beaten
him so badly it had left him in a wheelchair. Despite this Mark
initially insisted he could do nothing, since he was bound by his
contract, but the next day some of Kurtz's followers attacked Freida and
her fellow protesters at Kurtz's current rally, and one fatally stabbed
Freida. Leaping down from the podium Mark gunned the killer down, then
shot the other brownshirts when they pulled guns on him. Kurtz had fled
during the commotion, but when Mark made to follow Treetop called for
him to stop, insisting they had a contract. When Mark didn't listen,
Treetop pulled his own gun, but when he aimed it at Mark, Hazzard
quickly turned and shot his friend in the leg, then told him he quit. He
drove to Kurtz' headquarters and stormed in, gunning down the guards
when they opened fire on him. Called by Kurtz, the police arrived along
with the press, and Mark exposed Kurtz's past crimes. After several
hours sorting things out with the local authorities, Mark flew back to
New York, but since his apartment really belonged to Treetop he headed
down to Priestess' dojo and asked to crash there.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#7) - Hazzard took a job working with
Sergeant Major training some Central American rebels led by the
Commander. However, shortly after he returned to the U.S.A. Mark was
informed that the Commander had been captured. Considering the man a
friend, Mark assembled a team to rescue him. Though the pilot he sought
to recruit as a replacement for Treetop, Ritter, turned him down, as did
a still angry Mal, Sergeant Major and Doc signed up. Returning to
Central America and teaming up with the troops they had trained for the
Commander, Mark led a raid on the prison and rescued the Commander,
heavily injured from extensive torture. However, their escape was
betrayed by Esteban, one of the men they had trained, who turned out to
have been a spy for the regime all along. Surrounded by Esteban's men,
Mark nevertheless broke the traitor's back, killing him, and, having
been convinced to change his mind, Ritter showed up in the nick of time
to take out the enemy troops. Doc decided to stay in Central America and
lend her aid to the Commander's cause.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#8 (fb) - BTS) - Mark and Priestess began a relationship.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#8) - Plagued by guilty dreams over
what had happened with Treetop, Mark sought to occupy himself with work,
but found it hard to get a mercenary job since word had spread about his
breaking a contract. Eventually he was hired to rescue a kidnapped
Catholic priest, Father Capistran, and retrieve a Holy artifact, the
Ring of the Fisherman, both seized by Arab terrorists in the Lebanon.
The Monsignor who hired him insisted Mark take along Father Kevin Eugene
Johnson of Cestus Dei (the "Fist of God") as his back-up. The trail led
to Lebanon's capital Beirut, and they soon found and rescued Capistrain,
but in his captors' base Mark also discovered documents confirming that
the Catholic Church had banned Cestus Dei, that the dig Capistrain had
been taken from was an illegal one hunting for the ring in the hopes of
winning back the church's good graces, and that Mark had only been hired
after the Monsignor broke the ransom deal he had agreed with Capistran's
captors. Mark informed the church of what had happened, and ensured the
Cestus Dei members were arrested.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#9) - Lincoln Griffin recruited Mark, Mal (who had finally forgiven him) and Ritter to smuggle stinger missiles to the Mujahideen in Afghanistan; while Mal and Lincoln drove the guns through Pakistan, Mark and Ritter acted as a decoy, flying an innocuous cargo in via the Gulf of Oman.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#11 (fb) - BTS) - Gordon learned of
Mark's trip and passed the information on to Graymalkin, who in turn
informed the Iranians.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#9) - Forced down by Iranian planes, Mark and Ritter were taken prisoner and interrogated. When it became clear they did not have the stingers, the Iranians executed Ritter by firing squad in front of Mark.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#9 - BTS) - Learning of
Mark's fate, and that he had less than a week before he too was
executed, Lincoln recruited Treetop,...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#10 (fb) - BTS) - Priestess and Sergeant Major...
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#9 - BTS) - too to join
him and Mal in planning a rescue.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#10 - BTS) - Now an arms
dealer, Gar Bremby was approached to provide ordinance, and insisted
on joining because of the debt he owed Mark, while Priestess added
fellow martial artists Kim Sun and Tony Panetta to the cause, and
Sergeant Major called in other favors from soldiers he knew who owed
Mark, collectively putting together a sizeable squad for the rescue
mission.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc10) - Mark was held in a prison near Bandar Abbas, where he underwent daily torture and was also starved. When the guards heard the shots and explosions caused by his rescuers, one of them went into Mark's cell to kill him, but Mark strangled the man to death using the chain restraining his leg. By the time his friends reached his cell, Mark was standing there defiantly, armed with the guard's rifle and with the guard's corpse hanging by the neck.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc#11) - Lincoln freed Mark from his
manacles, but Mark refused to leave without first killing the officer
who had ordered Ritter's execution. It took only a few moments for them
to discover the man in his office, but the Iranian officer
condescendingly assumed that Mark's "Western morals" would not permit
him to gun down an unarmed man. Without hesitation, Mark proved him
wrong. The group then fought their way to freedom, commandeering a boat
to reach their rendezvous with their air transportation. Discovering
then that Treetop was among his rescuers despite now being in a
wheelchair because of him, Mark and his friend reconciled. The next day
Lincoln and Sergeant Major departed for Afghanistan, but before he left
Lincoln provided information his grandfather had dug up back in New
York, confirming Henri Graymalkin had informed on him to the Iranians. A
few nights later, after he had taken some time to recover and prepare,
Mark broke into Henri Graymalkin's estate and confronted the man,
demanding to know who had told Graymalkin about the trip. With some
persuasion Graymalkin admitted the culprit had been Gordon, but when
Mark turned to leave Graymalkin foolishly opened shot at him, hitting
his left arm. Despite a bad wound that was heavily bleeding, Mark
executed Graymalkin in response, then headed over to Gordon and Joan's
home in Queens. There he dragged Gordon out of bed and accused him in
front of Joan; rather than denying it, Gordon angrily admitted his
treachery, pulled a pistol out of the bedside cabinet and (with Mark's
reflexes slowed by the now-heavy bloodloss he had sustained), shot Mark
several times in the chest. Lunging for Gordon, Mark broke his neck,
then collapsed just as Scott entered the room.
(Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1) - Mark was rushed to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery. Though the surgeons kept him alive, Mark was brain-dead and kept going only by machines, so Scott told the doctors to turn them off, insisting his father would not wish to live that way.
Comments:
Created by Archie Goodwin, with input from Mark Beachum, Peter David and
Gray Morrow. Though Peter David wrote and Gray Morrow drew the first
issue of Merc, Marvel Age#44 confirms that Archie Goodwin created the
character and Marvel Age#48 includes a design sketch by him. Meanwhile
Marvel Age #47 includes headshots of Hazzard that are credited as "Mark
Beachum's original designs" for the character, so he was also apparently
part of the initial creations process; since Morrow is also included in
the same article with his "original sketch" of Hazzard's friend Mal,
Gray was apparently also involved in that process, and didn't just come
on board in time to draw the initial story.
Mark's eye color isn't exactly consistent within the stories. On the
final panel of the very first page of the first issue he's clearly got
blue eyes, then on page three of the same issue they suddenly seem to be
a very light gray; then on the cover of #3 they are green. He's back to
blue in subsequent issues, and his handbook entry officially confirms
his eyes to be blue.
Fred Hembeck encountered Mark Hazzard in his
strip in Marvel Age#50 and #59, but these are not the Earth-148611 Mark.
This isn't because it was a humor strip or because it was illustrated in
Hembeck's inimitable art style, especially as Hembeck explicitly gets
transported in #50 to the New Universe. Instead what prevents it is the
continuity-clashing supposed reveal that some other New Universe stars,
Psi-Force, have reinvented themselves as the Si-Cy-Sue Force.
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mark Hazzard has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update A-Z#1, Mark
Hazzard entry, based on Mark Hazzard: Merc#5 cover (main)
Marvel Age#47 cover, pan1 (headshot)
Marvel Age#47, p19, pan1 (design sketches of Mark Hazzard's head)
Marvel Age#48, p26 (Archie Goodwin's original design sketches of Mark
Hazzard)
Marvel Age#59, p16, pan4-6 (Fred Hembeck finds Hazzard's corpse)
Appearances:
Mark
Hazzard: Merc#1-2 (November-December 1986) - Peter David (writer), Gray
Morrow (art), Jim Owsley (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#3 (January 1987) - Peter David (script), Allan
Kupperberg (storytelling), Jack Fury (finishes), Jim Owsley (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#4 (February 1987) - Peter David (script), Allan
Kupperberg (layouts), Jack Fury (finishes), Jim Owsley (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#5 (March 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Mark Beachum
(layouts), Jack Fury (finishes), Blaustein & Redding (editors)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#6 (April 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Vince Giarrano
(pencils), "Manny Hands" (inks), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#7 (May 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Val Mayerik
(art), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#8 (June 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Gray Morrow and
Vince Colletta (art), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#9 (July 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Andy Kubert
(pencils), Adam Kubert (inks), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#10 (July 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Gray Morrow
(pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc#11 (August 1987) - Doug Murray (script), Gray Morrow
and Vince Colletta (art), Larry Hama (editor)
Mark Hazzard: Merc Annual#1 (1987) - Doug Murray (story), Vincent Waller
(pencils), Fraja Bator (inks), Larry Hama (editor)
Amazing Fantasy II#18/2 (April 2006) - Tony Lee (writer), Leonard Kirk
(pencils), Kris Justice (inks), Mark Paniccia (editor)
First Posted: 10/25/2026
Last updated: 10/25/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
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