MARNIE
Earth-71181

Real Name: Marnie

Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-71181) human

Occupation: Homemaker

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Amarix, Balzamo

Enemies: Reynard of the Commonlands and his warriors, unidentified monstrous desert mutate

Known Relatives: Zeph (husband, deceased), Blackmark (son);
    unidentified mother (presumably deceased)

Aliases: "ignorant piece of barnyard baggage" (from Reynard)

Base of Operations: (All Earth-71181)
    formerly a piece of land on the island Longsound (see comments);
    formerly Country McCull;
    formerly Country Clayro

First Appearance: Blackmark novel (1971);
    (Marvel) Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (August, 1974)

Powers/Abilities: Marnie did not demonstrate any particular skills, but she was accustomed to living in a bleak landscape, caring for horse-like mutes, cooking, homemaking, etc.

    When her family was threatened, she was willing to confront a group of soldiers armed with only a pitchfork, and she was able to kill a large horse-like creature by stabbing the pitchfork into its chest. 

    Even after being repeatedly bludgeoned by armored gauntlets, she defiantly/desperately slashed her assailant's face in an effort to avoid or end sexual assault.

Height: Unrevealed (perhaps 5'5", which is around average height)
Weight:  Unrevealed (perhaps 125 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (black and white comic)
Hair: Black or dark brown
Distinguishing Features: A purple sword-shaped birthmark on her right lateral upper thigh.

History:

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - In Earth-71181's dystopian future, society ("Old Earth") was devastated by nuclear war, "New Earth" lived as a shadow world, inhabited by the vestiges of humanity, divided into tyrannical petty kingdoms, wracked by fear, superstitions, and barbaric property. Mutated beasts roamed the blasted lands and swam the poisoned seas. 

    Science was abominated, its secrets buried, its last adherents scourged and cast out by the people, although remnants of a lost technology lived on in their strange warships and power plants, whose heart glowed strangely at night and whose supply of energy was inexhaustible.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - Marnie was born with a sword-like birthmark on her right upper lateral thigh.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - As Marnie sat on her mother's knee, her mother told her tales of "Hell-sent scientists and their demoniacal devices."

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - Marnie married the older Zeph the Tinker, and everyone considered her fortunate to find a man so steady and reliable in such uncertain times. Comfortable but lacking true love or anything to dream of, Marnie was devastated after months of fretting and trying proved that, like many women from the time of the holocaust, Marnie was barren/sterile; she would never realize her dream of motherhood.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - While Zeph and Marnie lived in Country Clayro, the ruling tyrants bled commoners dry for tribute and made free trade impossible. As commoners, they were denied passage on the great dragon ships capable of bypassing horrific places. 

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking a better livelihood, Zeph took Marnie and departed Country Clayro via a covered wagon led by a dray-mute, intending to cross the desolate stretch known as Demon Waste to find fresh land. "The wizards" warned them against departing, noting the "devil fire" in the skies (from the days of the destruction and holocaust) and the wild and monstrous mutant beasts.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5) - While traveling across the desolate stretch known as Demon Waste, Marnie fell asleep. Awakening suddenly, Marnie asked if everything was alright. Considering that it had been a long day and now was a good time to make camp, Zeph asked Marnie if she would be safe while he hunted for food. Briefly hesitating, Marnie nodded, after which blue lights crackled above, and a monstrous beast charged them. After Zeph drove the creature off with a hurled piece of deadwood, Marnie cried out that they should never have left Country Clayro, but -- acknowledging the danger and the warnings -- Zeph told her that they had no choice if they wanted a better livelihood. 

    As always, Marnie managed to fight back her tears, but not the terrible bitterness. After building a fire, Zeph clumsily patted Marnie's arm and trudged off into the darkness. As the winds grew colder and the blue lights continued, Marnie considered that Old Zeph was not a bad man, merely an ordinary one, caught in the grip of terrible times. As she dampened a cloth to clean away the grime of many days' travel, Marnie was startled by the sudden thunder of hoofs and the labored snorts of hard-driven charger-mutes. 

    The lead rider of the pair -- the dethroned King Amarix of the Westlands -- assured Marnie they meant no harm but merely wished to rest; however, Marnie noticed the spreading circle of deep crimson staining the wrapping over his breastplate. As the assistant, Balzamo, helped the his master down from his horse, he noted that his master was dying, and he asked if she had heard troubadours sing the name of Amarix. Marnie acknowledged that she had heard of him as a wise and just lord, although she had thought him but a legend. Balzamo told Marnie that Amarix had been cast out of his own land for preaching the need for science to rediscover the old science to make Earth live again. 

    After Amarix asked if Marnie was married and had a son, Marnie noted that she was married but was childless and barren. Though pained by even this act, Amarix gave Marnie a purse of gold coins, after which he asked her to humor a dying king's strange request. He assured her that no harm would come to her and that she might even find herself mother to the New Earth's savior. 

    Marnie admitted her fear at Amarix's statements, and he elaborated that he would soon die but that he wanted to leave behind some of the scientific knowledge he had struggled so long to amass; he wanted to transfer it to the brain and blood and body of another so the knowledge of mankind and the Old Earth would not die. 

    Observing the phantasmagoric landscape and lights, Marnie protested, noting that the wizardry he called science had brought them to this ruin. Amarix briefly countered that it was abuse of the knowledge rather than the knowledge itself that had wrought the holocaust, after which he asked her to accept his offer and not struggle to understand his reasons: He implored her to take the purse in return for permission to pour what scientific knowledge he possessed into her and into that of the child she would bear. As Balzamo returned with the machinery, the confused Marnie reiterated that she was barren, but Amarix assured her that his regenerator would subtly alter the structure of her body. 

    Seeing Marnie chilled by discussion of machinery, Balzamo assured her that it was but a means to both share his knowledge and allow her to have a child. Looking at the purse Amarix was offering, Marnie considered the misery she and Zeph might have avoided if they'd had such a purse before beginning their journey, as well as what the gold might mean in the new country to which they were traveling. Her voice almost a whisper, she finally accepted. 

    While mutant beasts bellowed in the Demon Waste and strange winds and blue lights filled the gloomy darkness, Marnie laid down beside the dying king. She suppressed a shudder as Balzamo attached silver slips and pads to her forehead, arms, and wrists. After Balzamo threw a switch, the whorls of glass glowed brightly, and Marnie's mind tingled as some great, misty light seemed to grow within her, becoming a swirling, all-engulfing nebula...

    Marnie eventually awakened to find the machine dismantled and Balzamo hurriedly helping Amarix into the saddle while hearing hoof beats of pursuers seeking Amarix's death. Noting that if the pursuers found them together, Marnie would be slain as well, Amarix told her that she must live to bear a child of destiny. 

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - Via this "electronic mating" with Amarix, Marnie was able to conceive a child (see comments).

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5) - After watching the departure and the pursuit, Marnie stood in the wind, alone, dizzy, and uncertain, until Zeph returned with a burrow-mute he had killed. Still stunned by the events, Marnie told Zeph everything that happened, but Zeph considered this blasphemy and that she had gained the devil's money by consorting with demon scientists as well as calling the king a "black marked soul!" He then proceeded to beat her into unconsciousness with a stick.

    In time, the night passed, and Marnie's wounds healed, and they completed their journey across the Demon Waste. They eventually settled in Country McCull, paying tariff for their crude peasant hut to the local Lord. In time, Marnie grew swollen with child.

    On a stormy night, Marnie -- via midwife -- gave birth to a son who screamed in rage and defiance at being born. Like his mother, the child had a sword/cross-like birthmark on his hip. After laying the howling infant into Marnie's arms, the midwife fearfully slunk away (perhaps from Zeph, who seethed with hatred and disgust, but apparently from the screaming child).

    Zeph considered the child, born of "demon science and rogue lust" a black mark of evil (and named him Blackmark after this), and Marnie felt both tired and bitter at being reviled by her husband. As Marnie held her son, she had visions of savage warrior combat and monstrous beings. In a moment of haunted, piercing intuition, she was frightened for her child. She sensed that the child was both the son of Zeph and the heir of a man of royal blood and vast vision (see comments), and she knew that the price of that heritage would be a destiny great and stormy.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - Blackmark grew rapidly, large-boned and strong, bright and alert. Old Zeph found it harder and harder to nurture the hate and humiliation he had felt at Blackmark's birth.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - After a year, Zeph finally smiled and picked up his son.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (fb) - BTS) - As life in Country McCull was severe, Zeph, Marnie, and Blackmark moved, purchasing passage by ferry to the island Longsound, where Zeph abandoned his tinker's trade and took up the cultivation of this piece of unclaimed land. This move exhausted the contents of the purse Amarix had given Marnie.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3) - By the time Blackmark was five, he demonstrated advanced skills and strength, including running swiftly, climbing trees, and shattering firewood with a deft, two-handed stroke of the shortsword. 

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3 (fb) - BTS) - Questioning his mother, Blackmark learned of the holocaust that had destroyed the previous society.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3 (fb) - BTS) - Marnie prepared supper while Zeph and Blackmark hunted fleet-footed leap-mutes.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3 (fb) - BTS) - In Blackmark's 6^th year, a warm breeze tempted Blackmark to go burrow-mute hunting, alone on the moors.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3 - BTS) - Great paddle ships arrived on the Longsound shore. Led by their armored warlord Reynard (although he was not identified until over 15 years later) and astride charger-mutes, they rode into the isle's local villages, destroying them and slaughtering their inhabitants.

    The warm breeze carried to Blackmark evidence of the marauding riders, and he raced up the steep hillside. 

    From inside her home, Marnie watched helplessly as Zeph futilely confronted and was slain by the Warlord.

(Blackmark novel / Savage Sword of Conan#2/3) - After a similarly futilely attacking Blackmark was subdued by a broadsword hilt to his head, Marnie rushed out and stabbed the warlord's charger with a pitchfork, killing it. 

    The furious warlord then denounced Marnie as an "ignorant piece of barnyard baggage" for slaying his best charger, and he grabbed her hair with his gauntlet and yanked her head back, bringing her to tears. As the warlord's soldiers restrained the young Blackmark and forced him to watch, the warlord slapped and backhanded the helplessly struggling Marnie and then pulled her into his embrace. 

    While the warlord either was in the process or the preparation of raping her, Marnie got her hands free, and she raked his mouth with her fingernails. Enraged, the warlord repeatedly struck her face before flinging her barely conscious form to the ground. 

    After drawing his sword, the warlord saw Marnie's sword-like birthmark and traced it carefully with his sword before raising his blade into the air and stabbing it between her breasts with all his might. 
He then withdrew the sword, and Marnie's stiffened body went limp. Seizing the saddle blanket of his dead charger, the warlord wiped his sword clean and noted, "Perhaps with a few more such lessons, this accursed land will come to its senses." 

    The Warlord had his men drub the young Blackmark and leave him there as they departed.   

Comments: Created by Gil Kane.

    "Mutes" apparently refers to mutated animals. I don't think they ever directly stated that, but that's what I inferred. When I first read it, I mis-read the small print as "mule." Dray-mutes were mule-like beasts of burden.

    Archie Goodwin apparently helped Gil with the writing.

    In the first chapter of the first Blackmark story, his mother, Marnie, has a vision, in which she sensed that Blackmark was both the son of Zeph and the heir of a man of royal blood and vast vision, and she knew that the price of that heritage would be a destiny great and stormy. The transfer is also referred to as an electronic mating.
    I think that Amarix's science enabled Marnie to become impregnated with Zeph's child and that Amarix implanted the knowledge and drive that led Blackmark to become who and what he was. I don't THINK Amarix implanted his genetic material within Marnie during the technological knowledge transfer, but I also don't think it's clearly stated that he did not. The comment about both men being his father makes me think that Zeph was the genetic father, but that Amarix influenced the child's development/nature and implanted the knowledge with the child.
    However, Zeph's comment that the child was spawned by demon science and rogue lust seems to indicate that Zeph had no reason to think he was the child's father.
    It's not 100% clear TO ME, at least...

    I would ASSume that the island Longsound was named for Long Island Sound.

    This profile was completed 04/24/2022, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Marnie should be distinguished from:

• other Marnie characters, places, races, items, groups, etc. 

Appearances:
Blackmark novel (1971) - Gil Kane (writer/artist), Bantam Books (publisher)
Savage Sword of Conan#1/5 (August, 1974) - Gil Kane (writer/artist), Roy Thomas (magazine editor)
Savage Sword of Conan#2/3 (October, 1974) - Gil Kane (writer/artist), Roy Thomas (magazine editor)

First posted: 09/18/2026
Last updated: 04/24/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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