Real Name: George Friedrich (see comments)

Identity/Class: Human mutate

Occupation: Cult leader, recruiter of worshipers for the Black Lama, would-be world-conqueror

Group Membership: His disciples (including Cynthia Chong, Dion)

Affiliations: Black Lama

Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark), Cynthia Chong, Mackenzie Davies, unidentified ex-girlfriend

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: The Son of Fire; The Living Volcano; "Desire-flame" (translation of "Raga," as per the Black Lama; see comments)

Base of Operations: The Redwood forests near Santa Monica, California, USA

First Appearance: Iron Man I#52 (November, 1972)

Powers/Abilities: Trained to tap the energy of his innermost emotions, Raga could focus his anger and project flames of intense heat from his hands. He could highly increase his body's temperature, and enhance his strength and durability.

He could also channel his power to induce pain in the bodies of others, and create small earth-tremors.

When the Black Lama transported him to another dimension, Raga's intense emotions allowed him to grow to giant-size [see fourth image] -- this would seem to be only a mental illusion caused by conditions in that "mystic plane," and Raga's size did not otherwise increase while he was on the earthly plane.

Height: Unrevealed (6'2"; by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History:
(Iron Man I#53 (fb)) - The past of George Friedrich is largely unrevealed, but while in college, he fell in love with an exchange student from India; however, she did not reciprocate his feelings. When she left to return to her home-country, Friedrich was furious over his loss, so he vowed to track the girl down and win her back. But after a long and obsessive search, he learned the girl was married. Exploding in a jealous rage, Friedrich beat her husband to death; when his ex-girlfriend tried to defend her spouse, Friedrich killed her as well.

   But as Friedrich--still boiling in rage--drove away from the scene of his crime, the Black Lama appeared before him and proposed to teach him how to channel his emotions, and thereby use that energy to conquer the world. Friedrich accepted the offer, and for long years, he was a pupil of the Black Lama; undergoing training that included spectacular ventures into the occult realms, Friedrich eventually learned the meditation necessary to reach the volcanic fires in his soul. When Friedrich had completed his studies, the Black Lama gave him a hallowed uniform and a new name:"Raga," which meant "Desire-flame" (see comments).

(Iron Man I#52 (fb) - BTS) - Friedrich changed his personal appearance -- originally clean-shaven and well-groomed, he grew a mustache and long hair after becoming Raga. In the Redwood forests near Santa Monica, he gathered a communal "family" of disciples and began to teach them what he had learned from the Black Lama. During this period of time, one of his disciples--"Sister" Cynthia Chong--fell in love with Mackenzie "Mack" Davies, a forest ranger.

(Iron Man I#52) - Raga found Cynthia with her lover Mack -- his anger increased because he believed she might have betrayed their hallowed secrets to an outsider. Raga struck Davies, set the forest on fire, and forced Cynthia to accompany him back to their home.

   Meanwhile, Tony Stark was attending a party near the forest when he saw the blaze. Donning his armor, Iron Man saved Davies, then used his repulsor rays to cut a wide trench that separated the forest fire from the remaining trees. The armored Avenger located Raga just before he and his disciples were about to execute Cynthia for her "betrayal". Raga's followers were easily overwhelmed by Iron Man, but Raga was unaffected by the golden Avenger's most powerful blows; then the cult-leader started to glow as he channeled his fury to heat the solid granite and soil of the area into a lava quagmire, which had Iron Man trapped.

(Iron Man I#53) - Employing his boot-jets, Iron Man managed to escape, but the river of molten lava produced by Raga was headed for some nearby houses. Iron Man succeeded in diverting the path of lava into the sea, then went back to the execution site, where he also found the Black Lama!

   The Black Lama had appeared some minutes earlier to investigate Raga's performance of his plan. Trying to demonstrate his determination, Raga used his power to punish Cynthia; but by employing her own emotion-tap training, Cynthia managed to defend herself for a while. The better-skilled Raga delved deep into his emotion and struck Cynthia with sharp points of excruciating pain, but Iron Man intervened before Raga could kill her.

   Then Raga received the Black Lama's help -- the mysterious figure warped reality and created a "mystic plane" around Raga, Cynthia, and Iron Man, while he himself remained on the physical plane.

   Meanwhile, Mackenzie Davies arrived at the scene of the battle -- he saw Iron Man, Raga and Cynthia standing immobile, surrounded by a glowing aura, and he understood that the Black Lama was the cause. Davies threw himself at the Lama, only to be introduced into the "mystic plane" as well.

   In the unearthly realm, Raga grew in size and was overpowering Iron Man, but a distraction by Davies (who threw a punch at the giant Raga's ankle, only to be swatted away) let the Avenger recover. Impressed by Mackenzie's selfless sacrifice, Iron Man rallied his emotions -- his own rage grew, and so did his size, until he matched Raga's height...then he repeatedly struck the villain. Realizing that Raga had lost the mystic conflict, the Lama returned everybody to the earthly plane. After stating that Raga had failed, the mysterious master vanished, leaving Raga to face his own karma.

   Distressed by the Lama's abandonment, a strong emotion grew in Raga's soul: fear! Losing control of his powers, Raga unleashed powerful vibrations into the ground, causing a small earthquake. The ocean-side cliff where Raga stood collapsed, and he tumbled down into the sea, to be covered by tons of rocks.

   Following the apparent death of Raga, the two lovers--Cynthia Chong and Mackenzie Davies--could finally embrace without fear of the cult leader's retribution.

Comments: Created by Mike Friedrich, George Tuska and Vince Colletta.

I don't know what language spoken by the Black Lama leads to the translation of "Raga" to "Desire-flame," but in English, I think that the sound of "Raga" is very similar to the sound of "rage", the emotion most used by Raga to manifest his powers.

And did any of Raga's other disciples develop powers of their own?

Raga and his disciples would seem to be contemporaneously patterned after Charles Manson and his communal "family".

And Raga would also be seen in a one-panel flashback in Iron Man I#77.
--Ron Fredricks

Raga's real name was revealed in Marvel Atlas#1.

New and additional images plus two sub-profiles (Davies and the ex-girlfriend) by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Spidermay. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Raga (George Friedrich) / "The Son of Fire" should not be confused with:

Cynthia Chong has no known connections to:

Dion should not be confused with:

Mackenzie Davies has no known connections to:

Raga's disciples

An unspecified number of young men and women who seemed to be hippies, they camped in the Redwood forests of Santa Monica, California -- only Cynthia Chong and Dion were identified.

They were members of a cult led by Raga, who attempted to teach them the infernal rites to channel their human fury into flame.

When Raga wrongfully believed that Cynthia Chong had revealed their secrets to her lover Mackenzie Davies, his other disciples called for her death.

After Iron Man came to their camp, they attacked him, but they were easily overwhelmed by the armored Avenger.

When Raga himself went up against Iron Man, he used his power at its highest degree and transformed the land of the area into an inferno of molten lava -- frightened by their leader's apparent madness, the disciples abandoned Raga and ran away.

(Comment: Although Raga referred to the group as his "family," and  individual members as his "brother" or "sister," there was no evidence that he was actually related to any of them.)

--Iron Man I#52 (53

Cynthia Chong

Cynthia Chong was one of the "sisters" in Raga's cult. She had fallen in love with forest ranger MacKenzie Davies, which led Raga to believe that she would reveal the secrets of their cult to an outsider.

Raga was prepared to execute Cynthia for her supposed betrayal of their "family," but Iron Man arrived in time to stop him.

As a disciple of Raga, Cynthia was in the early stages of developing the similar emotion-tap powers that he had, but she was nowhere near as powerful as he was.

After Raga was apparently killed when he lost control of his powers, Cynthia was free to return to Davies without fear of reprisal.

--Iron Man I#52 (53

Dion

Dion was one of the "brothers" in Raga's cult; he attacked Iron Man when the armored Avenger came to prevent Cynthia Chong's execution.

He was probably (or believed himself to be) the "strong-guy" of the group. He punched Iron Man without any result, and was easily swatted aside by a single slap.

(Comment: It was unclear if he had some extra-powers induced by Raga's teachings, or if he was only boasting -- in fact, after Dion's "performance," Raga claimed that only he was the one with the sufficient training to inflict pain on Iron Man.)

--Iron Man I#52

Mackenzie "Mack" Davies

A forest ranger, he was stationed in the Redwood forests of Santa Monica, California; he met and fell in love with Cynthia Chong, a member of Raga's cult.

When Raga found Mack and Cynthia together, he was enraged because he thought Cynthia was revealing his cult's secrets to an outsider. Mack threw a punch at Raga, and nearly burned his hand when he made contact, because Raga's skin was nearly as hot as a campfire. Raga retaliated and struck Mack, then Raga dragged Cynthia back to their home after projecting flames from his hands to set the forest afire -- Mack would be saved shortly afterward by the timely arrival of Iron Man.

Later, Mack was sent into a mystical plane where Iron Man battled a giant Raga; after swatting the armored Avenger aside, the gigantic Raga turned his attention to punishing Cynthia; but in defense of the girl he loved, the relatively small Mack punched Raga in his ankle before he was also swatted aside -- Mack's selfless act gave Iron Man the inspiration he needed to finally beat Raga.

Later, after getting carried to safety by Iron Man, Mack and Cynthia embraced because the threat of Raga was apparently ended.

--Iron Man I#52 (52, 53

unidentified ex-girlfriend

At some point in the past, she was an exchange student from the countryside of India; she attended college with George Friedrich. Although Friedrich was in love with her, she had no mutual feelings for him.

She eventually returned to her home country and married another man; but the obsessed Friedrich tracked her down, hoping to win her back.

After Friedrich learned that she was married, he savagely beat her husband to death; when she tried to defend her spouse, Friedrich realized that the flicker of love in her eyes was not for him, so he killed her as well.

George Friedrich fled the scene of the murders and eventually became the flame-powered Raga.

--Iron Man I#53 (53 (fb), d

images: (without ads)
Iron Man I#52, p20, pan1 (main image - Raga)
Iron Man I#52, p6, pan4 (headshot - Raga)
Iron Man I#52, cover (Raga battles Iron Man)
Iron Man I#53, p17, pan1 (on mystic plane, Raga as a giant; Iron Man [left])
Iron Man I#52, p12, pan1 (some of Raga's disciples, calling for death of Cynthia Chong)
Iron Man I#52, p15, pan5 (some of Raga's disciples, preparing to attack Iron Man)
Iron Man I#52, p20, pan2 (Raga's disciples begin to abandon him)
Iron Man I#52, p20, pan3 (Cynthia Chong)
Iron Man I#53, p10, pan4 (Cynthia Chong uses her own power to defend herself from Raga)
Iron Man I#52, p16, pan3 (Dion)
Iron Man I#52, p16, pan4 (Dion)
Iron Man I#53, p16, pan1 (Mackenzie Davies)
Iron Man I#53, p18, pan1 (Mackenzie Davies)
Iron Man I#53, p18, pan2 (on mystic plane, Mackenzie Davies punches giant Raga's ankle)
Iron Man I#53, p7, pan2 (in flashback, George Friedrich with girlfriend)
Iron Man I#53, p7, pan5 (in flashback, George Friedrich [foreground] confronts ex-girlfriend and her husband)

Appearances:
Iron Man I#52 (November, 1972) - Mike Friedrich (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), John Costanza (letters), Roy Thomas (editor)
Iron Man I#53 (December, 1972) - Mike Friedrich (writer), George Tuska & Jim Starlin (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Artie Simek (letters), Roy Thomas (editor)

First posted: 02/28/2005
Last updated: 08/06/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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