SKAR
SKAR
Real Name: Skar
Identity/Class: Extratemporal (Earth-691, Killraven era) extraterrestrial? (possibly created by the Martian Masters) cyborg/android;
Occupation: Assassin, hunter, former tester of tripods for the Martian Masters
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: High Overlord, Martian Masters
Enemies: Foropulist, Freemen, Carmilla Frost, Gort, Grok, Hawk, Hobie, Kelly, Killraven, M'Shulla Scott, Old Skull, humanity in general
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Earth-691 @ 2019 A.D. (Killraven
era)
Specific recent location unknown;
formerly mobile across the USA;
formerly the tripod assembly facility
at the Indianapolis 500 race course
First Appearance: Amazing Adventures II#25 (July 1974)
Powers/Abilities: Scar possesses superhuman strength
(enhanced human) and durability, and possibly speed, reflexes, etc. He can crush
a laser pistol in his bare hand. He cannot be stopped unless his body is
physically destroyed. While he possesses some form of vision or other visual
sensing, he has no external eye; a spear thrown directly into his eye does him
no damage. He can fire devastating energy beams from his "eye" socket, and he
can attract objects (telekinesis, magnetism, other?) to his hands from across a
distance of several yards.
He is a highly skilled tracker and combatant, and he is
sentient and malicious; he thoroughly enjoys hunting and killing others.
He typically rides a specially designed Martian Tripod known
as the Devil's Marauder. It appears to be about 30'
tall, and it possesses spiked blades on its footplates, which could impale its
target. The limbs could also be lifted high into the air to assault anyone
trying to approach the command module. The Marauder's surface could be heated to
perhaps 600-800 F within seconds, and it could also fire flame blasts.
History:
Skar's origins are unrevealed, or at least very vague
(Amazing Adventures II#25 (fb) - BTS) - Skar's creators taught him well.
(Amazing Adventures II#25 (fb) - BTS) - Skar presided over the tripod assembly facility at the Indianapolis 500 race course, supervising the work of the human slaves.
(Amazing Adventures II#25 (fb) - BTS) - When the slave Gort tried to escape, Skar delivered to the man a grizzly fate.
(Amazing Adventures II#25) <2019 A.D.> - After Skar attacked
and killed a man, Killraven arrived on a Dyna-Glider and attacked him. Killraven
weathered a slash across the back by the one of the Devil's Marauder's talons,
but when he leapt atop the command module and began pounding on it, Skar
super-heated the dome, forcing Killraven to leap off of it and crash to the
ground. Skar left him for dead. Only stunned, Killraven's psychic powers
allowed him to sense the location of the site in which the Devil's Marauder was
produced. Killraven later led his Freemen to the base at the former Indianapolis
500 race course in which the tripods were being built.
Returning to the base, Skar savagely kicked another slave,
Hobie, while wandering the facility. Later, while racing a tripod against one of
the Martian Masters, Skar was confronted by Killraven, who had commandeered
another tripod and used it to leap atop Skar's command module again, this time
shattering it with a chain before Skar could heat it up. Still, Skar was not
shocked in the least when Killraven attempted to choke him from behind, nor when
the Devil's Marauder crashed into a building and then fell to the ground. Skar
took off while Killraven went back to rescue Hobie, only to find that he had
been crushed by rubble caused by the tripod hitting the building.
(Amazing
Adventures II#27) <March, 2019 A.D.> - Skar appeared before the Martian High
Overlord, bowing to his presence and reporting on the loss of the tripod base.
The Overlord gave Skar the chronology record on Killraven, sending him to find
and slay Killraven, whom the Overlord predicted would be heading in the general
direction of the former Yellowstone National Park (searching for evidence of his
brother, Joshua Raven). Skar promised the Overlord Killraven's severed head or
perhaps he would just bring him back a broken man, discussing how the sight of
the weeping Killraven would demoralize those in the breeding pens.
(Amazing Adventures II#28) <April, 2019 A.D.> - In a new (or rebuilt) version of the Devil's Marauder, Skar followed Killraven's trail to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he had recently battle Pstun-Rage. Skar attacked and questioned Foropulist; after the man told him that Killraven had come and gone, Skar asked the man if he were afraid. As Foropulist started to answer, Skar hurled him into Pstun-Rage's tombstone, splintering his skull.
(Amazing Adventures II#31) <April, 2019 A.D.> - Within the Devil's Marauder, Skar continued to track Killraven, arriving at Lake Michigan and encountering a dead and frozen mutated sea lamprey that Killraven had slain a month before. Investigating on foot, Skar encountered the mariner Kelly, who denied having even heard of Killraven. Skar left Kelly alive but badly burnt his hands when he touched one of the Marauder's limbs. After Skar left, Kelly collapsed in pain, revealing the signature he had been hiding: "Killraven was here."
(Amazing Adventures II#32) <June, 2019 A.D.> - Skar arrived in the Illinois (outside Chicago) site which had been the final battle between Killraven and the Deathbreeders two months before. There he received a mental transmission from the High Overlord, whom he informed of the deaths of Atalon and the Sacrificer, revealing that Killraven and his Freemen had slain them and destroyed the Death-Birth facility. Skar noted that his targets were off-course for Yellowstone, but promised the High Overlord that he would slaughter Killraven and each of his followers, after which he would bring a piece of each of them back to the Overlord for mementoes.
(Amazing Adventures II#34) <July, 2019 A.D.> - Skar tracked
the Freemen to Chatanooga, Tennessee. He first encountered Old Skull, whom he
incapacitated with a burst of flame from the Devil's Marauder. Hawk came across
Old Skull's fallen form and attempted to hide from the approaching Skar, who
fired a blast from the dark gash in the center of his yellow face,
disintegrating the boulder that was Hawk's hiding spot. While Skar chased and
mocked the fleeing Hawk, the other Freemen came upon the Devil's Marauder and
realized that Skar was near. M'Shulla climbed into the tripod's control module
and began smashing its equipment. When Skar approached, Carmilla tried to blast
him from behind, but he simply attracted her pistol to his hand and crushed it.
Carmilla rushed forward and kicked Skar in the face while M'Shulla fired an
arrow through the back of his neck. Unaffected, Skar swatted Carmilla to the
ground, and then dropped the onrushing M'Shulla with a second blow. Skar
prepared to blast the pair to atoms, but Killraven leapt on him from above. Skar
tossed him off and was similarly unaffected when Killraven shoved his sword deep
into his "eye" socket. As Skar pulled the sword from his head, Killraven tackled
him again, but Skar smashed him off.
Skar then targeted Grok, who was laying on the ground, suffering
from months old wounds at the hands of the mutated lamprey. Skar blasted the
rocks overhanging Grok, and Hawk leapt to try to protect the helpless Grok; both
men were killed. As Skar laughed at what he had done, Killraven pulled a laser
pistol and began blasting him relentlessly. Skar continued to laugh as holes
appeared in his chest, arm, and face. Enraged to the point of madness, Killraven
began bludgeoning Skar until his hands bled. Skar's laughter gradually faded to
nothingness.
Comments: Created by Don McGregor, Rich Buckler, and Klaus Janson.
Skar is described as a cyborg, but no organic parts were even seen. If he were a cyborg, I'd like to know who and what he was before he became Skar.
Skar was a really nasty and intriguing villain. I thought his ending was anticlimactic.
It should be noted that the point of divergence occurred at some unknown point in the past on Earth-691, but prior to 2001 A.D. (apparently when Vance Astro of the Guardians of the Galaxy came back and caused his younger counterpart's powers to develop in his teens). This world does not have a sliding timescale, and so it would be a minimum of 20 years ahead of the modern era of Earth-616.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
There is an unclear connection (presumably being from the same line) with:
But he has no known connection to:
The Devil's Marauder has no connection to:
images:
Amazing Adventures II#25, p1, panel 1+2 (Devil's Marauder)
p3 (with control module)
#27, p14, panel 8 (face)
#34 cover (body shot)
Amazing Adventures II#27 (November, 1974)
Amazing Adventures II#28 (January, 1975)
Amazing Adventures II#31 (July, 1975)
Amazing Adventures II#32 (September, 1975)
Amazing Adventures II#34 (January, 1976)
Last updated: 04/26/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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