SAVAGE AVENGERS
Membership: Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Black
Widow (Natasha Romanoff),
Conan of Cimmeria, Daredevil (Elektra Natchios), Doctor Doom (Victor
von Doom), Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Doctor Voodoo
(Jericho Drumm), Ghost Rider (Johnny Blaze), Daimon
Hellstrom, Juggernaut (Cain Marko), Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel
Richards of Earth-6311), Magik
(Illyana Rasputina), Punisher (Frank Castle), Wolverine (Logan/James
Howlett)
Purpose: To stop Kulan
Gath
Aliases: "Frightful Four" (name suggested by
Juggernaut), Teams Spear and Shield (while split into two squads)
Affiliations: Bats, Galadriel
Enemies: Kulan
Gath, the
Priest
of Sickles, Sadurang, Shuma-Gorath
Base of Operations: The Sanctum Sanctorum, New
York City, New York, USA
First Appearance: (First mentioned by name on
comic cover only, no organized team) Savage Avengers I#1 (July, 2019);
(mentioned by name as an organized team) Empyre
Handbook#1 (June, 2020);
(fully seen but not identified as an organized team)
Savage Avengers I#12 (November, 2020);
(fully seen in two squads, identified as the Savage
Avengers): Savage Avengers I#16 (February, 2021)
History: (Savage Avengers
I#12) - Doctor
Strange and Elektra located the time-displaced Hyborian era barbarian
Conan in Mexico and asked for his assistance against the sorcerer Kulan
Gath. After agreeing to join Doctor Strange, Conan asked if the three
of them would be enough and Strange replied in the negative but then
opened a portal to reveal a war party of heroes he had assembled.
(Savage Avengers I#13) - Meeting on Earth's Moon, Doctor Strange informed his assemblage of heroes of Kulan Gath's return and how Kulan Gath was now more powerful than ever. When Strange remarked that he was confident his assemblage could defeat Kulan Gath, Wolverine questioned why they were meeting on the Moon and Strange replied by stating that Kulan Gath had been attacking from the past with possible knowledge of the modern era and that he hoped to be unpredictable to Kulan Gath by meeting on the Moon. Strange then continued filling the heroes in on what he knew about Kulan Gath's history and his recent usage of cannibalism to obtain sorcerous knowledge. The members of the assemblage followed up by sharing what they knew of Kulan Gath's recent activities, including Kulan Gath's intention to devour Shuma-Gorath and Gath's previous consumption of the leaders of the Hand ninja organization and an Egyptian death cult.
After hearing that Kulan Gath appeared to be binding Shuma-Gorath to unsuspecting modern day drug users, Doctor Strange suggested the assemblage split into two groups (dubbed Teams Spear and Shield), one going to acquire a second Amulet of Agamotto in the possession of the Asgardian dragon Sadurang that Strange suspected Kulan Gath either wanted or feared, and the second routing Kulan Gath's acolytes on Earth. Before the assemblage split up, Black Widow suggested the vigilante Punisher to aid against the Shuma-Gorath-tainted cocaine shipment,s and Strange replied that if the Widow thought Punisher was the right man, she could bring him into the assemblage as long as she kept him a short leash. Strange then returned them all to his Sanctum Sanctorum, which he explained would act as their place to fall back to if they were forced to retreat during their missions. When Wolverine asked which team Doctor Strange would be on, Strange revealed that he would try to watch over both squads as he went to check on Shuma-Gorath himself. Once Strange had departed, Wolverine mingled with the Sanctum Sanctorum's ghost dog, Bats, while Elektra and Black Widow sought out the Punisher.
(Savage Avengers I#14) - In
their quest to acquire the second Amulet of Agamotto from Sadurang,
Conan and Magik traveled to a Bar with No Name, where they recruited
Juggernaut onto their squad. They then teleported to recruit the Black
Knight, arriving shortly after Black Knight had taken down a Ku Klux
Klan group. Conan tossed Black Knight a bag of coin and remarked that
Doctor Strange requested the Black Knight join them. Black Knight
remarked that he did not offer his services in exchange for payment,
commenting that he only swung his sword against tyranny, but when Magik
showed Black Knight a photo of what they were up against, Black Knight
willingly joined the squad. The foursome then teleported to Bruges,
where the dragon Sadurang was attempting to sleep. As part of their
plan, Conan and Black Knight then engaged Sadurang while Magik
teleported a running Juggernaut through a portal and into the air above
Sadurang. Juggernaut then collided with Sadurang, the impact of which
transformed Sadurang from his dragon form into his humanoid form.
(Savage Avengers I#15) - After the Punisher was recruited, Black Widow, Elektra, Wolverine, Daimon Hellstrom and the Punisher traveled to Veracruz in their mission to route all of Kulan Gath's Earthly acolytes. Learning that a death cult had been tainting the local drugs with remnants of Shuma-Gorath, the squad tracked down the cult and began murdering the cultists, freeing their slaves in the process. Eventually, cult leader the Priest of Sickles was summoned, and the squad unleashed punishment upon him that would have killed a normal man including burning him with Daimon Hellstrom's hellfire, blasting him with Black Widow's Widow's Bite, stabbing his wrists with Elektra's sais, filling him full of bullet holes from the Punisher's guns and ripping his heart out with Wolverine's claws. Despite this, the Priest of Sickles survived, and Wolverine dragged the Priest outside, where he was thrown into a wood chipper. Wolverine then ordered Hellstrom to burn the remaining bits. While the squad prepared to then celebrate their victory, Magik's squad was still battling Sadurang in Bruges, where all but Magik had been downed.
(Savage Avengers I#16) - When
Sadurang transformed back into his dragon form and the recovered Savage
Avengers renewed the fight, they eventually succeeded in defeating the
dragon and the made a deal with Sadurang to transport him to limbo
(Otherplace) so that he might rest in temporary exchange for his
Amulet of Agamotto. The group then left Sadurang in limbo and returned
to Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, where Juggernaut left the team
and they turned over the second Amulet of Agamotto to Strange. Strange
attempted to bestow the Amulet on Conan, but Conan refused, not wishing
to use magic to augment his already exceptional skills. Strange then
took back the Amulet and asked Conan what he planned to do while they
waited for Kulan Gath to make his move, and Conan replied that he
planned to go to the pub.
(Empyre Handbook#1 - BTS) - The Savage Avengers, despite using the Avengers name, was not an officially sanctioned Avengers franchise and their members did not hold official Avengers membership.
(Savage Avengers I#27 (fb)) - Doctor Strange made a
blood pact with the surviving Elder demon Shuma-Gorath for the Savage
Avengers to kill Kulan Gath in exchange for Shuma-Gorath being granted
back the power stolen from him by Kulan Gath as long as he left the
Earth dimension alone. To seal the blood pact, Strange cut Shuma-Gorath
with a blade and infused it with Shuma-Gorath's essence, soon wrapping
it in red bands.
(Savage Avengers I#26) -
After recruiting Doctor Doom and a temporally divergent Kang the
Conqueror counterpart, Doctor Strange confronted Earth-21924's Kulan
Gath, who bragged about murdering the Conan from his own reality, only
to realize Earth-616's Conan was not with the Doctors and Kang. As
Kulan wondered where Conan was, Conan appeared on a triceratops and
attacked Kulan Gath. Kulan Gath began gloating that his Conan had
begged for mercy, but Doctor Doom ripped off Kulan Gath's jaw. When
Kulan Gath extended his fingernails into claws, Strange caught sight of
the change and alerted Kang, who blew off one of Kulan Gath's hands.
Strange then wrapped the other hand with the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak
and prepared to sentence Kulan Gath to death.
Kulan Gath, his severed jaw regenerating, knocked Strange's mystic blade from his hand, but Doctor Doom punched him. When Kulan Gath responded by hitting Doom with mystic lightning, Kang prepared to attack but was frozen in place. Kulan Gath then gloated that he was all existence but before he could kill the foursome, a temporal portal opened, and another Kang emerged with the rest of the Savage Avengers and their newest recruit, Ghost Rider. The Savage Avengers then furiously fought Kulan Gath with Doctor Strange's blade being knocked from hand to hand until Magik grasped the blade and plunged it into Kulan Gath's heart. Unfazed, Kulan Gath gloated to the Savage Avengers that he would simply ascend to another plane of existence any moment.
(Savage Avengers I#27) - Kulan Gath quickly realized his wounds were not magically healing and he demanded to know what Doctor Strange and the Savage Avengers had done. Strange revealed his blood pact with Shuma-Gorath and, having been infected with Shuma-Gorath's essence, Kulan Gath soon found tentacles emerging from his wounds and attempted to cast a teleportation spell, only to have Conan cut off his other hand. Conan then announced that Kulan Gath must not escape, prompting the other Savage Avengers to attack Kulan Gath. Eventually, Kulan Gath stopped moving just as the Savage Avengers' Black Knight was about to behead the sorceror and a reborn Shuma-Gorath fully emerged from Kulan Gath's body.
Now a part of Shuma-Gorath himself, Kulan Gath begged Strange and the Savage Avengers to save him in exchange for Kulan Gath leaving Earth's dimension, but Strange reminded Kulan Gath that he had sealed his own fate. Strange then reminded Shuma-Gorath of their blood pact, and Shuma-Gorath asked what if he reneged on the deal, prompting Doctor Strange to threaten Shuma-Gorath with facing the Savage Avengers, the world's most savage warriors. Laughing, Shuma-Gorath admitted he had much to keep himself busy as he slowly devoured Kulan Gath's body and he teleported away.
With Shuma-Gorath and Kulan Gath gone, Conan announced that a feast was in order, and the Savage Avengers stood around, wondering where to go next. Doctor Strange suggested they go somewhere with mobile reception so he could make them a dinner reservation, but Conan suggested they go to Doctor Doom's castle, as Doom was the only one present who ate like a king. Doom agreed and shortly after hosted the Savage Avengers at a massive celebratory feast. During the feast, Doctor Doom and Kang suggested to Conan about traveling back in time to kill Kulan Gath before he gained mystic power. Doctor Strange, having read the villains' lips, announced that he would not abide the murder of an innocent child, even if the child grew up to become Kulan Gath, and his exclamation drew the other Savage Avengers' attention. Conan announced that Kulan Gath's fate fell to him, and he teleported away with Kang before Strange could stop them.
(Savage Avengers I#28) - The Savage Avengers remained
at Doom's feast, with Doctor Strange constantly viewing history texts
to see if Kulan Gath died in the past, until Kang returned without
Conan, whom Kang falsely claimed wished to return to his own time
period.
Comments: Created by Gerry Duggan and Adam Gorham.
The Savage Avengers were first mentioned on the cover of Savage Avengers I#1 as the title of the comic. However, they did not start forming together as somewhat cohesive team (despite having teamed up at various points in the series) until Savage Avengers I#12 but the team was not identified. Additionally, while the team had not even officially banded together at the time the issue was published, Empyre Handbook#1 established that the team was not an officially sanctioned Avengers squad. This information would have to occur after the team became a bit more organized as a named team.
This profile was completed 04/26/2022, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Savage Avengers have no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Savage Avengers I#13, p2-3, splash page (Savage Avengers, main image)
Savage Avengers I#12, p20, splash page (Savage Avengers, original
recruits)
Savage Avengers I#14, p11, pan1 (Savage Avengers, squad one)
Savage Avengers I#15, p6, pan3 (Savage Avengers, squad two)
Savage Avengers I#26, p14, pan2 (Savage Avengers with Ghost Rider &
Kang)
Appearances:
Empyre Handbook#1 (June, 2020) - Mike O'Sullivan (head writer,
coordinator, image refurbishment), Anthony Cotilletta, Jacob Rougemont,
Luc Kersten (assistant coordinators, writers), Ronald Byrd, Jeff
Christiansen, Daron Jensen, Rob London, Chris McCarver, Marc Riemer,
Stuart Vandal (writers), Carl Farmer (assistant coordinator, image
refurbishment), Brian Overton (editor)
Savage Avengers I#12 (November, 2020) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Adam
Gorham (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#13 (December, 2020) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#14 (January, 2021) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#15 (February, 2021) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#16 (February, 2021) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#26 (January, 2022) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#27 (February, 2022) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Savage Avengers I#28 (March, 2022) - Gerry Duggan (writer), Patch
Zircher (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First posted: 09/08/2026
Last updated:
08/02/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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