STORMER

Real Name: Zarlokk

Identity/Class: Alternate future (A.D. 2099) reality (Earth-928) human mutate or mutant (see comments)

Occupation: Warrior

Group Membership: Hellrock Mutroids;
   formerly Dethstryk's Kill Squad

Affiliations: Formerly Dethstryk (Graeme Stryker)

Enemies: "Ace", Dethstryk, Ravage (Paul-Phillip Ravage), Seeress (Sophia Stryker), Ursell

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Mightiest Warrior of Them All," "Strongest of the Strong"

Base of Operations: Hellrock, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean (see comments)

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2 (December 1992)

Powers/Abilities: Zarlokk possessed immense strength, likely to an unspecified but low level superhuman degree. He had four arms, the upper pair more heavily muscled than the lower, though this second pair were still fairly sturdy-looking and additionally had fingers topped by clawlike nails. He wielded a sturdy battleaxe which he claimed had killed many people, and an energy rifle. Though not explicitly confirmed, it is likely he was more durable than normal humans, and given he lived on Hellrock, he had to possess a high tolerance to radiation and other toxins. 

Height: 6'5" (by estimation - see comments)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown (see comments)

History:
(Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2 / Ravage#2 (fb) - BTS) - Stormer...

(Ravage#6 (fb) - BTS) - a.k.a. Zarlokk...

(Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2 / Ravage#2 (fb) - BTS) - was a mutroid living on Hellrock in the year A.D. 2099, a radioactive island where he and his fellow Mutroids had been exiled to by rest of humanity, and more specifically the Alchemax corporation. There the mutroids, Zarlokk included, lived under the rule of Dethstryk.

(Ravage#6 (fb) - BTS) - Zarlokk was the (apparently self-appointed) "Strongest of the Strong" and "Mightiest Warrior of Them All." 

(Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2 / Ravage#2) - Tired of waiting for Dethstryk to order the mutroids to attack the rest of humanity, Stormer announced to his fellow mutroids that there was none among them that he couldn't defeat, and declared his candidacy to take over from Dethstryk and lead them in conquering the world. When one among the gathered throng, "Ace," insisted that Stormer could not take over as ruler from Dethstryk, Stormer declared their current master to be weak and afraid, hiding in his castle instead of leading them against the normals. However this only prompted "Ace" to defiantly rebut Stormer, stating that Dethstryk was afraid of nothing. Enraged, Stormer snatched the suddenly fearful "Ace" up and struck him. Though the first blow killed "Ace" instantly, Stormer continued to take out his anger on the unfortunate mutroid's corpse, before finally throwing it aside and demanding of the crowd if anyone else spoke in support of Dethstryk or against Stormer's prospective leadership. He was answered by Dethstryk himself, denigrating Stormer for his temper tantrum as a poor example of leadership qualities and chastizing him for slaying a fellow mutroid. Undaunted Stormer declared that his victim had been weak and only the strong deserved to survive, then leapt at Dethstryk while drawing his axe. Calmly stepping to the side, Dethstryk dodged the blow and struck Stormer on the back with a staff as he flew by. Ignoring Dethstryk's order to stand down or be humiliated Stormer tried once more to attack, only for Dethstryk to strike him repeatedly with casual ease, each blow backed by a tiny portion of Dethstryk's "Touch of Death" energies, leaving Stormer feeling like his entire body was on fire. Dethstryk then offered the now-cowed Stormer a choice of death or eternal allegiance to him. Dropping to one knee, Stormer vowed to serve Dethstryk always.

(Ravage#5) - Having apparently dropped the Stormer pseudonym (see comments), Zarlokk joined Dethstryk's Kill Squad in hunting for the human Ravage who was on the run somewhere in Hellrock's jungle. Alerted to their prey's location by flashes of light (resulting from Ravage emitting energy as had begun mutating thanks to exposure to Hellrock's radiation), Zarlokk and the other hunters found their target in an underground lab in the company of Ursell, a mutroid scientist considered a traitor because he defied Dethstryk. Pleased at this discovery, Zarlokk instructed his allies to kill Ravage first, then crush Ursell. However Ravage fought back savagely, blasting the oncoming attackers even as he and Ursell retreated deeper into the caverns. The Kill Squad pursued, eventually cornering Ravage, and as they began to overwhelm him through sheer numbers Zarlokk pressed forwards with his axe raised, calling for them to crush Ravage and (prematurely) declaring victory was theirs. At Ursell's urging, Ravage unleashed his new energy powers, incinerating all of the attackers save Zarlokk, who narrowly managed to evade Ravage's wild energy blasts. As the blasting started a cave-in, Zarlokk hastily fled back up the passageway they had come down, believing (wrongly) that both Ravage and Ursell had been slain by the falling rocks. 

(Ravage#6) - Thinking Ravage dead, Zarlokk hastened back to inform Dethstryk of this, believing that he would be able to claim Dethstryk's "generous reward" all for himself. Reaching Dethstryk's castle Zarlokk smashed his way past the guards who tried to tell him that Dethstryk was granting no audiences that day and stormed into Dethstryk's throneroom proudly proclaiming that he had slain Ravage. When Dethstryk asked for details, Zarlokk heavily embellished his encounter, claiming that he had personally beaten Ravage to death, but Dethstryk's advisor Seeress decried this as a lie, sensing via her psychic powers that Ravage still lived. Informing Zarlokk that he knew the price for failure, Dethstryk struck the mutroid, but Zarlokk insisted (truthfully this time) that he had seen Ravage fall, and promised to hunt Ravage down and kill him if he still lived. Unimpressed, Dethstryk stated that Zarlokk bored him. His ire raised, Zarlokk tried to attack Dethstryk, but Dethstyk caught hold of the handle of Zarlokk's axe as the mutroid tried to strike, easily pulling it from hand of the supposedly "strongest of the strong." Melting the axe with his Touch of Death, Dethstryk casually lifted Zarlokk aloft with his other hand, then derisively tossed him aside, stating that he could forgive Zarlokk for being defeated by Ravage, but not for trying to lie to him. Fearing for his life, Zarlokk tried shooting Dethstryk, but Dethstryk shrugged the blasts off dismissively. Knowing that Zarlokk's warrior pride would prefer death over being disgraced, Dethstryk declared himself tired of the charade and instead of killing Zarlokk he ordered him to run, stating that the guards could practice their skills by hunting Zarlokk down. Zarlokk fled, but remained defiant, sure he could defeat any guards who pursued, and promising himself that he would find the secret to Dethstryk's power.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Paul Ryan and Keith Williams.

   Though termed a mutroid, the 2099 terminology for the mutated individuals mostly living on Hellrock, it's uncertain whether he'd originally been a normal human mutated by that place's radioactivity, or had been born like that and would thus be more accurately considered a mutant.

   His first appearance in MCP I#117 was a preview of the first few pages of Ravage#2, but the coloring wasn't an exact match. In particular, his hair looked closer to a red-brown. However, in Ravage#2 and both his subsequent appearances it was definitely just brown, so consistency beats original coloring in this instance in terms of figuring out his official hair color.

   Height-wise, he's clearly a large man, but he's never depicted in a good comparison pose near anyone with an established height. He's on a par with Dethstryk (himself with no official height given as yet), so I'm figuring a little taller than Ravage's original human form (6'2"). In terms of his weight, he's probably fairly heavy, but since we don't know if his body is denser than a normal person of his height, I'm not going to estimate that.

   When last we saw him Zarlokk was plotting to return and take revenge on Dethstryk. However, a few issues later the Ravage comic changed writers from Stan Lee to Pat Mills and Tony Skinner, and this plotline was dropped/forgotten. Did he attempt his revenge and get slain off panel by Dethstryk, or is Zarlokk still out there playing the long game?

   In his first appearance Zarlokk and others called him Stormer, but in both his subsequent issues he went by Zarlokk. Presumably the former was a title or codename he went by, perhaps part of his attempt to win support for his attempted power grab - I guess Stormer is a marginally cooler name for a leader than Zarlokk. However, having been cowed by Dethstryk (now that's a way cooler name than either Stormer or Zarlokk), he dropped the affectation and went back to answering to his given name. Only a few years later Stan Lee came up with another character called Zarlok (sic) for the planned Excelsior line of comics. Given it's hardly a common name, nor does it mean anything (in English at least - in Polish it apparently means "glutton"), I'm guessing either that around this time Stan just thought it sounded cool, or else it had some personal meaning to him (like Gene Roddenberry naming Klingons after an old LAPD friend and colleague Wilbur Clingan, and named Khan Noonien Singh after a wartime buddy Kim Noonien Singh).

   So, where exactly is Hellrock anyway? Ravage#27 confirms it began as an artificial island in the Atlantic created by Alchemax as a place to dump toxic waste. Because characters in Ravage who are based in NYC travel to and from there fairly quickly some sites seem to believe it's in the lower bay of New York, but that overlooks that those who travel there have access to late 21st century transportation that can presumably traverse great distances rapidly, and that creating a massive toxic waste dump just off Manhattan would presumably draw negative public attention. Additionally, Ravage#1 describes it as "a continent of evil" which implies a very large island. In Ravage#6 the titular lead uses an old F4 Fantasticar to fly between Hellrock and NYC, and it takes him two hours, meaning Hellrock has to be a good distance from Manhattan. More conclusively, in Ravage#2 a transition between a scene set on Hellrock to one set in NYC notes that this is "half a world away" and in Ravage#4 a similar transition informs us that NYC is "one thousand miles away."

   This profile was completed on 07/19/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary's celebratory event to represent Ravage 2099.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Stormer (Zarlokk) has no known connections to:

• ZARLOK - Excelsior line hero--Zarlok#1
• or any other "Storm" or "Zarlokk" characters

images: (without ads)
Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2, p1, pan1 (main image)
Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2, p3, pan2 (turning headshot)
Ravage#5, p3, pan2 (facing forward headshot)
Ravage#6, p7, pan1 (being lifted aloft by Dethstryk)
Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2, p2, pan2 ("Ace")

Appearances:
Marvel Comics Presents I#117/2 (December 1992) - Stan Lee (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Ravage#2 (January 1993) - Stan Lee (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Ravage#5 (April 1993) - Stan Lee (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Keith Williams & Buddy La Rosa (inks), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
Ravage#6 (May 1993) - Stan Lee (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Keith Williams & Buddy La Rosa (inks), Joey Cavalieri (editor)

First Posted: 09/12/2026
Last updated: 07/19/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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