kadagar-pilgrim-49327-dh15-real-main PILGRIM KADAGAR

Real Name: Pilgrim Kadagar (see comments)

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Reality-49327) apparent human circa 2026 A.D.

Occupation: Leader of the Kadagar crime family

Group Membership: Kadagar crime family (Bethlehem Bardot, others)

Affiliations: Bethlehem Bardot, Death's Head (Minion), Captain Jeanet Hutch, Pilgrim Kadagar golem, Tuck

Enemies: Alkemist, Captain Jeanet Hutch, Lorson;
    indirectly Earth-616's modern era's Mys-Tech (specifically Algernon Crowe and Ormond Wychwood)

Known Relatives: Bethlehem Bardot (life-love/wife), unidentified extended family members

Aliases: Crime Boss of Clinton

Base of Operations: Clinton City, Earth's Mars colony, Reality-49327 circa 2026 AD

First Appearance: Death's Head II#13 (December, 1993)

Powers/Abilities: Pilgrim was an experienced combatant, especially proficient in knife-fighting, but also experienced with using handblasters, etc. His golem's personal weapon was a yellow jagged-edged double-sided sword with a central handle including a knuckle guard. The real Pilgrim likely used a similar weapon.

    He commanded all of the warriors of the Kadagar crime family.

    He spoke in something of a broken dialect, referring to himself in the third person and frequently speaking in fragments. 

    Although a cheat and a murderer, Pilgrim had gang honor, and his swearing by Kadagar blood was considered an honorable vow.

    Pilgrim was fiercely loyal to his family, even to the point that an android/golem with his mind destroyed itself to allow the rightful succession to occur peacefully.

Height: Unrevealed (the Pilgrim golem was up to about the chin of the 7' tall Death's Head, so perhaps; however, when the real Pilgrim is finally seen, he seems maybe a few inches taller as he was closer to Death's Head's nose, but I doubt the real Pilgrim is taller or the difference would be obvious to those who knew him well; perhaps 6'2" to 6'6")
Weight: Unrevealed (perhaps 200 lbs. to 230 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Dark brown 

History:kadagar-pilgrim-49327-dh15-realface
(Death's Head II#15 (fb) - BTS) - As a token of their love, Pilgrim Kadagar gave Bethlehem Bardot a clasp knife when they were children in the red burrows

(Death's Head II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Bethlehem and Pilgrim became life-loves, husband and wife.

(Death's Head II#13 - BTS) - Pilgrim Kadagar was the head of the Kadagar family -- a business including brothers, fathers, uncles, and the occasional ill-tempered aunt -- who ran the black market business in Clinton City on the planet Mars since the it was first established in 2011. The Kadagar gangboys were considered some of the best blade-fighters in human space. Those dwelling in Clinton City either played things their way or faced the consequences.

(Death's Head II#13 - BTS) - Head of the Kadagar family, Pilgrim suffered bloody injuries against Ultra-Marine Captain Jeanet Hutch. 

(Death's Head II#15 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking to avoid the prying eyes of their time period, Algernon Crowe and Ormond Wychwood of Earth-616's Mys-Tech's Techno-Wizards made arrangements with the Alkemist and Lorson on Reality-49327's Mars colony' Clinton City circa 2026 AD. Establishing a straight-tap wormhole between the two realities/times/locations, Mys-Tech financed Alkemist and Lorson's operation to fabricate golems (android replicas) of Earth's mightiest heroes using either living subjects or Mys-Tech's extensive database of previously scanned bio-traces.

(Death's Head II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Alkemist and Lorson established a base in Teefoebee (TerraForming Base command), the abandoned settlement of the first human colonizers on Mars; Clinton City had been built on the abandoned site.

(Death's Head II#13 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking to lay low after recent conflicts on Earth (such as the battles with Charnel), Death's Head and Tuck hijacked an A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) time dish and traveled to Reality-49327's Mars colony' Clinton City circa 2026 AD. 

(Death's Head II II#14 (fb) - BTS) - Two days before the main story, Pilgrim Kadagar encountered the Liger golem, which identified itself as an acquaintance of Death's Head's. Pilgrim apparently brought "Liger" back to the Kadagar ranch.

(Death's Head II#13 (fb) - BTS) <Thirty clocks before Pilgrim Kadagar revealed this information to Death's Head> - Pilgrim Kadagar was last confirmed to be flesh and blood.

(Death's Head II#13 (fb) - BTS) - At some point thereafter, the Alkemist's agents captured Pilgrim Kadagar, created a golem of him, and released the Pilgrim golem -- who believed himself to be the real Pilgrim -- to take the place of the original.

(Death's Head II#13 (fb) - BTS) - <A few days after their arrival and "three clocks" (a few hours?) before the main story> - Alkemist and/or his agents captured Tuck. 

    Tuck was placed in a pen alongside the real Pilgrim Kadagar.kadagar-pilgrim-49327-dh15-real-face-prof

(Death's Head II#13 - BTS) - During an encounter with Death's Head, the Pilgrim's wrist was partially crushed by Captain Hutch, exposing circuitry beneath and causing him realize he was not the real Pilgrim. Keeping this secret to avoid an uprising in the Kadagar family, the Pilgrim golem joined with Death's Head to uncover the truth about himself and possibly recover the true Pilgrim as well as recovering Tuck. 

(Death's Head II#14 - BTS) - Bethlehem Bardot overheard the Pilgrim golem telling Death's Head that if his kin learned of his fate, there would be a massive succession gangwar. 

(Death's Head II#15 - BTS) - From a distance, Bethlehem observed the exposure of the machinery in the abdomen of "Pilgrim" (exposed in a fight with a Wolverine golem) and she used that information to convince others in the Kadagar clan to help her eliminate the false Pilgrim and install her as leader of Kadagar. 

kadagar-pilgrim-49327-dh15-real-bleed(Death's Head II#15) - Ultimately, Death's Head's involvement caused Crowe and Wychwood to cancel their conflict with Lorson. After Death's Head slew Lorson, the Alkemist escaped.

(Death's Head II#15 (fb) - BTS) - Security fences went down either with Lorson's death (which took out a computer console) and/or the Alkemist's departure, and the real Pilgrim and Tuck escaped.

(Death's Head II#15 - BTS) - As the Pilgrim golem prepared to join Death's Head in looking for the real Tuck, they were confronted by Bethlehem Bardot and other Kadagar agents. When Bethlehem noted Pilgrim to be a copy and claimed leadership of the Clan Kadagar, Death's Head attempted to intervene, but Hutch told him that by clan law this was a genuine act of succession and that if he interfered, he would plunge the colony into civil war. Admitting that he was not Pilgrim but that he was Death's Head's friend, the Pilgrim golem received a weapon from Bethlehem, and he proclaimed "By the blood of the clan. By the future. I do this for Kadagar," and then blew his head off.

(Death's Head II#15) - Bethlehem then voiced the appropriate verses and proclaimed herself Kadagar Prime, at which point the real Pilgrim and Tuck arrived. Pilgrim then asked Bethlehem for the clasp knife he had given her when they were children, with which he sliced into his forearm, and the active hemorrhage convinced the Kadagar present, including Bethlehem, that he was the real Pilgrim.

    Pilgrim approached Death's Head, noting that he owed him his honor and a future favor, and Death's Head replied that he was sure he would think of something. Tuck told Bethlehem that Pilgrim was a good man and that she should not lose him again. Pilgrim also conveyed the thanks of the Kadagar clan to Captain Hutch, and he bade his friends farewell as he and the rest of the Kadagar departed.

Comments: Created by Dan Abnett, Salvador Larroca, Paul Scott, and Colin Fawcett as part of the Marvel UK imprint.

    The last/clan name was consistently Kadagar (three a's) in the first story in Death's Head II#13...but then in #14-15, it was consistently Kadogar (two a's, with a central "o"). Maybe there's some reason for the switch, in-story or otherwise. My preference is to use the precedent, especially when it is repeated multiple times throughout the first appearance. 

    Obviously this story was written a little under 20 years before the Krakoans/X-Men/etc. stories colonized Mars in the modern era, but this is an alternate reality, and the divergence must have occurred well before the Krakoan colonization. The fact that Clinton City was noted to have been named after the president who inaugurated the Mars expansion presumably indicates that Reality-49327 operates in real time (unlike Earth-616's sliding timescale/Marvel Time)...and that the writers were overly-exuberant fans of William Jefferson Clinton, inaugurated in 1993, who did nothing of the sort in the real world.
    Peter David made a comment in a future story where someone mentioned "President Clinton" and someone from the future asked if they meant Bill or Chelsea...however, as Chelsea was born in 1980, and the minimum legal age for becoming president is 35, there would have had to have been some special changes to allow her to have been president in time to have been the one to have initiated the Mars expansion.

    I don't know how long a "clock" is supposed to be, but I'd have thought it was a full clock, meaning 12-24 hours, but then Alkemist notes that they had taken Tuck a few hours back.

    As the Pilgrim Kadagar golem was the one shown in most of the story and as it largely replicated the real Pilgrim's appearance and abilities, you can check out more images, including multiple of his weapon, in the profile for the Pilgrim Kadagar golem.

    Golems seemed to be equivalent to advanced Life Model Decoys. It seems to be a point of contention with some folks (or one folk) with regards to what the term android means. While there are multiple definitions and interpretations, the original definition comes from the Greek root "andro" (man) and the term "oid" meaning, like. At least in the Marvel Universe, the term "man" in this usage is meant to refer to mankind, rather than male vs. female (while I haven't seen the term in usage, the specific term to refer to taking the form of a woman would be "gynoid"). It is most commonly/consistently used as a specific type of robot in human form. While individual stories/writers sometimes use their own terminology, that's the official policy, spelled out by Mark Gruenwald, et al., in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition and reiterated in subsequent editions.
    If you believe differently...good for you, and have a nice day...

    This profile was completed 06/11/2022, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event to represent Death's Head (Minion)'s stories and characters.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Pilgrim Kadagar should be distinguished from:


images: (without ads)
Death's Head II#15, pg. 19, panel 1 (real Pilgrim, full/blocked by Tuck);
            panel 2 (mostly full real face);
        pg. 20, panel 1 (face in profile);
            panel 3 (real Pilgrim cutting self and bleeding)

Appearances:
Death's Head II#13 (December, 1993) - Dan Abnett (writer), Salvador Larroca (penciler), Paul Scott & Colin Fawcett (inkers), Stuart Bartlett (editor)
Death's Head II#14-15 (January-February, 1994) - Dan Abnett (writer), Salvador Larroca (penciler), Paul Scott (inker), Stuart Bartlett (editor)

First posted: 09/29/2026
Last updated: 08/10/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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