AXON-KARR
Real Name: Axon-Karr
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Makluan)
Occupation: Mate of his ship's crew
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Fin Fang Foom, other members of his crew (later known as Chen Hsu, Wu Pong, and Chi Chan, six others unnamed)
Enemies: Unidentified Chinese warriors
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Axonn-Karr
Base of Operations: Kakaranathara (Maklu-4)
First Appearance: Tales of Suspense I#62 (February, 1965)
Powers/Abilities: Axon-Karr presumably possessed his race's ability to shape-shift and fly.
History:
(Iron Man I#274 (fb)) - Axon-Karr lived on the planet Kakaranathara, a peaceful world without hunger founded on science and arts. He was part of a group of renegades that sought more than this boring life. On their journey through the universe they discovered numerous more exciting worlds of war, violence and destruction. They followed tales heard on some of the more advanced worlds that led them to Earth, the most violent world in all the galaxy.
Axon-Karr was a member of the crew of Makluans who set out to Earth in search of violence...
(Iron Man I#272 & 274 (fb)) - ...but their vessel wound up crashing, landing in China.
(Iron Man I#272 (fb)) - They left the 10 rings which controlled their ship onboard, and evacuated the ship. Just as they stepped into the daylight, a Chinese warrior attacked Axon-Karr and slit his throat. From then on, this part of China was known as "the Valley of the Dragons."
(Tales of Suspense I#62 (fb)) - Axon-Karr returned to the vessel to complete his log about his crew's many adventures throughout the galaxy, but was unable to make an escape. He was ultimately trapped inside of a cave and slain by Chinese warriors.
Centuries later, Axon-Karr's skeleton was found by a young man who went on to wield the 10 rings, becoming the Mandarin.
(Iron Man I#57 (fb)) - Following his defeat by the Inhumans (@ Amazing Adventures II#4), the Mandarin made a pilgrimage to the Valley of the Dragons to find a way to reclaim his lost rings -- he once more passed by the skeletal remains of Axon-Karr.
(or see comments)Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Don Heck and Dick Ayers.
In Tales of Suspense I#62, Axon-Karr is said to have been driven into a cave, whereas Iron Man I#272 depicts him being killed almost immediately after stepping out of his ship. It could be that these are two different Makluans that were killed, but...well, then there's the problem of the 10 dragons.
See, Iron Man I#272 identifies 10 survivors of the crash (one for each ring). One is then killed. But then there are 10 in Iron Man I#274 in the modern day! And they claim that 6 more died over the centuries! Possibly they kept breeding over the centuries? In any case, no room for an extra Makluan, so I'm assuming he didn't die from the slash to the throat, but couldn't catch up to his crew.
I thought the Makluans were renamed Kakaranatharnians in the Iron Man story.
He was kind of name-dropped in Iron Man III#27 (April, 2000) when Tony was made to believe by Jocasta (corrupted by Ultron's code) that all his friends had been killed. The name Axonn Karr was allegedly scrawled in the victims' blood near them. Axonn-Karr was the original spelling of the Makluan's name from Tales of Suspense I#62 BTW.
--Markus Raymond
Markus Raymond on the Invincible Iron Man Annual I#1 retcon (or is it one?):
The Mandarin is a perpetual liar, who likes to embellish or present a cleaned up version of his own history. This was seen very well in Invincible Iron Man Annual I#1 (August, 2010) when he lied through his teeth about every aspect of his life to the people that were supposed to make a movie about him after kidnapping them.
This story also marked the first time when we became privy to an actual memory and not just Mandarin's account of his discovery of the spaceship and what we saw was very different from what we have been told before by the Mandarin.
During this flashback we see Mandarin finding and entering the Makluan ship and encountering an alien connected to the ship. It tried to introduce itself, but the alien's translator didn't work properly. Mandarin slew the alien and stole the Ten Rings despite the alien warning him not to. It is unclear whether the alien was Axon-Karr or another Makluan that got stuck in the ship after the crash.
In case this was Axon-Karr this would mean that he was not killed centuries ago and actually survived his first and possibly second encounter with humans. Maybe he remained inside the vessel to heal?
Thanks to John Kaminski for adding the missed appearance in Iron Man I#57.
Profile by Prime Eternal. Update by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Axon-Karr should not be confused with:
images: (without ads)
Tales of Suspense I#62, p4, pan2 (main, skeleton)
Iron Man I#272, p8, pan1 (throat slit by warrior)
Tales of Suspense I#62, p5, pan5 (slain in larger form)
Invincible Iron Man Annual I#1, p12, pan1 (Axon-Karr?)
Appearances:
Tales of Suspense I#62 (February, 1965) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Don Heck (pencils), Dick Ayers (editor)
Iron Man I#57 (April, 1973) - Steve Gerber (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Mike Esposito & Frank Giacoia (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Iron Man I#272 (September, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Iron Man I#274 (Novmber, 1991) - John Byrne (writer), Mark Bright (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Nel Yomtov (editor)
Invincible Iron Man Annual I#1 (August, 2010) - Matt Fraction (writer), Carmine Di Giandomenico (artist), Ralph Macchio (editor) - maybe
First Postes: 05/07/2005
Last updated: 04/14/2026
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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