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TOLOMAQ

Real Name: Tolomaq

Identity/Class: Extradimensional entity

Occupation: Ravager

Group Membership: Great Beasts (Kariooq, Kolomaq, Ranaq, Somon, Tanaraq, Tundra)

Affiliations: Richard Easton, Mauvais (Jean-Pierre Beaubier), Pestilence (F.R. Crozier)

Enemies: Alpha Flight (Aurora/Jeanne-Marie, Box/Roger Bochs, Guardian/James MacDonald Hudson, Madison Jeffries, Manikin/Whitman Knapp, Marrina, Northstar/Jean-Paul Beaubier, Puck/Eugene Judd, Purple Girl/Kara Killgrave, Sasquatch/Walter Langkowski, Shaman/Michael Twoyoungmen, Snowbird/Narya,Talisman/Elisabeth Twoyoungmen, Vindicator/Heather Hudson), the Inua, X-Men (Colossus/Peter Rasputin, Firestar/Angelica Jones, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Marvel Girl/Rachel Grey, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Rockslide/Santo Vaccaro, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/James Howlett)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "The fire beast"

Base of Operations: Unrevealed,
                                   formerly The Shattered Lands

First Appearance: Alpha Flight I#24 (July, 1985)

Powers/Abilities: Tolomaq is a fire elemental, a living embodiment of flame who can generate intense heat and flame. He lacks a distinct corporeal form, but can still talk through unrevealed ways.

Height: Variable
Weight: Variable
Eyes: White
Hair: None

History:

(Alpha Flight I#24 (fb) - BTS) - A million years ago Tolomaq and his fellow Great Beasts rose "on a planet in a universe outside our own". They pillaged and corrupted the land, taking it as their own even as they fought amongst themselves. Over time, the Great Beasts would set aside their hatred and join forces to conquer other realms.

(Alpha Flight I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Discovering Earth was the nearest realm in the mystic continuum, the Great Beasts staged three unsuccessful invasion attempts. During the final confrontation, they were opposed by the Ancient Gods of the North who beat them back and sealed the beasts behind a mystical barrier.

(Alpha Flight I#1 & 24 (fb) - BTS) - Tolomaq's fellow Great Beasts Tundra and Kolomaq had planned for this eventuality. They created a magical vortex that spun the energies of the barrier back on its creators. As a result, Nelvana, Hodiak and the other gods of the north were imprisoned in a realm beyond human ken as well.

(Alpha Flight I#24) - After discovering their teammate Sasquatch was actually the Great Beast known as Tanaraq, Alpha Flight traveled to the Shattered Lands to rescue the soul of Walter Langkowksi. There, they faced the Great Beasts's leader Somon the Artificer who greeted the heroes by sending the mind controlled Tolomaq to fight them along with Kariooq and Tundra. Tolomaq's hungry flames quickly surrounded Shaman, Puck and Talisman who tried to flee him. Tolomaq chased them deeper into the city where Somon resided, even helping out his fellow Great Beast Kariooq when Shaman attacked him with ice shards. Alpha Flight was fighting a losing battle losing until Snowbird, in her bear form, tore into Somon who lost control over his fellow Beasts. Back in their right minds, Tolomaq, Tundra and Kariooq renewed their age old feud and tore into each other, leaving the Alphans to resume their mission and ultimately leave the Shattered Lands with Langkowski's soul.


(Alpha Flight I#38) - The spirit of Tolomaq and the other Great Beasts were briefly summoned to Earth by Pestilence (F.R. Crozier) to battle Alpha Flight on his behalf. While his fellow Beasts engaged Alpha Flight, Tolomaq held back and formed a protective fire ring around Pestilence who was controlling them.  Ultimately, Michael Twoyoungmen donned his daughter's mystical talisman and forced the Beasts' spirit forms back to their native realm.

(Alpha Flight I#55) - Hoping to convince the new Sasquatch (Wanda Langkowski) to join their cause, Somon the Artificer subconsciously influenced Langkowski to sculpt an occult formation in the Canadian wilderness the Great Beasts could use as a nexus to return to Earth. Appearing near Alpha Flight, they began to directly influence Wanda. When she rejected them outright, Somon ordered Tolomaq and the others to attack and kill Wanda and Alpha Flight. However, the heroes ultimately proved victorious, sending the Fire Beast and the others back to their native lands.

(Alpha Flight I#64) - Tolomaq and the other Great Beasts once again used their mystical connection to Sasquatch to gain a foothold on Earth. This time, they manifested through Wanda Langkowski just as she was in an Ottawa probate court trying to get the Langkowski family fortune back from Walter's wife Ronnie. During the fight, Tolomaq held back while Tundra tried to sway Sasquatch to rejoin the Great Beasts so they could conquer Earth. In the end, Langkowski firmly chose to back Snowbird, Alpha Flight and the ancient gods of the north. To prove his point, he used the massive Tundra to shove Tolomaq and the others back into the dimensional gate, even as the stunned judge returned to a demolished courtroom to deliver the verdict.

(Alpha Flight I#71 (fb) - BTS) - On the eve of the return of the immensely powerful sorceror Llan, Heather Hudson had a talk with Alpha Flight's resident mystic Talisman. She was concerned about the team's recent string of encounters with mystical and otherworldly menaces like the Great Beasts, Pestilence, and the Dream Queen. Talisman concluded that these events were a warning of a greater threat: the world was about to enter a phase of darkness during which evil gains the upper hand.

(Wolverine I#172) - When the Arctic Gods banished the malevolent Mauvais to the Shattered Lands, Tolomaq joined Somon, Tundra and Kariooq in welcoming the stunned villain.

(Chaos War: Alpha Flight I#1) - Fearing the rise of the Chaos King (Amatsu-Mikaboshi) the Great Beasts summoned Sasquatch to their realm to request his aid in combating this threat. They even used their powers to resurrect his slain teammates from Alpha Flight (Guardian, Marrina, Shaman & Vindicator). The Beasts and Alpha returned to Earth to fight the Chaos King and his demon armies, but ultimately the Beasts were killed by the deity slayer.

(Amazing X-Men II#11 (fb) - BTS) - Tanaraq grew increasingly more powerful after an incident in Canada led to the creation of hordes of Wendigo (a murderer had ditched the corpse of his victim in a meat processing plant, causing thousands of consumers to commit cannibalism, triggering the Wendigo curse). Tanaraq used this power to conquer the Spirit Realm, openly warring against Tolomaq and the other Great Beasts.

(Amazing X-Men II#12) - Members of the X-Men and Alpha Flight traveled to the Spirit Realm in an attempt to reverse the effects of the curse. They learned of Tanaraq's conquest of the realm and tried to aid the Great Beasts after Snowbird convinced the heroes the world would be better off with all seven Beasts warring against one another. The mortal heroes were unable to hold their own against Tanaraq and his forces. They wound up chained next to the Great Beasts, but were soon freed by the arriving Iceman. The Great Beasts begged the mutants to free them as well so they could deal with Tanaraq. Storm refused, instead striking a deal that led to the Great Beasts empowering Storm, Iceman, Firestar and Rockslide. They fought off Tanaraq's Wendigo while a furious Guardian wound up killing Tanaraq. Without his power holding them back, Tolomaq and the remaining Great Beasts were freed.

Comments: Created by John Byrne (writer, pencils, inks)

You'd think that Byrne would get a bit more creative in the design of the great fire beast than having him be a bunch of flying flames. Still, it says what it does on the tin. Who says there's no truth in advertising?

Tolomaq appeared as part of the Great Beasts entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89#3

It is worth noting that since the Wolverine Index came out we've had other confirmed Great Beasts, so there are definitely more than seven. Alpha Flight I#6 mentioned "there were seven Great Beasts involved in Last Battle", which could be interpreted to mean either that there were only seven Great Beasts OR that there were more, but only seven were involved in that final fight. In Alpha Flight I#23, one of the Inua says Tanaraq is "one of the Last Seven, of the Great Beasts" - if not for that comma, that would be a clear statement that there were more than seven, and that the ones we've always counted were simply the last to fall, but even with the comma the comment could be interpreted that way. Apparently Wolverine II#172 and Over the Edge#2 also contain comments or info supporting this. In Incredible Hercules#119, Snowbird took the "forbidden form of the deadliest of the Great Beasts of the North, Neooqtoq the Ravager," and in Marvel Heartbreakers we meet another two Great Beasts, Tiamaq and Herateq. And Kimara the Cloudstalker was identified as a Great Beast; there were only two reasons to argue against this claim afaik, the first being there were only seven GB (now disproved) and the second that since he appeared in a gaming module that he wasn't canon (countered by his being confirmed in 616 via handbook entries).
--Loki

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Tolomaq should not be confused with


images: (without ads)
Amazing X-Men II#12, p3, pan1 (main image)
Alpha Flight I#24, p16, pan2 (attacks Alpha Flight)


Appearances:
Alpha Flight I#24 (July, 1985) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Dennis O'Neil (editor)
Alpha Flight I#38 (September, 1986) - Bill Mantlo (writer), David Ross (pencils), Gerry Talaoc (inks), Carl Potts (editor)

Alpha Flight I#55 (February, 1988) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Tony DeZuniga (inks), Carl Potts (editor)

Alpha Flight I#64 (November, 1988) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Alpha Flight I#71 (June, 1989) - James D. Hudnall (writer), John Calimee (pencils), Mike Manley (inks), Carl Potts (editor)
Wolverine I#172 (March, 2002) - Frank Tieri (writer), Sean Chen (pencils), Norm Rapmund (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Chaos War: Alpha Flight I#1 (January, 2011) - Jim McCann (writer), Reilly Brown (pencils), Terry Pallot (inks), Joe Quesada (editor)

Amazing X-Men II#11 (November, 2014) - Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost (writers), Carlos Barberi & Iban Coello (pencils & inks) Mike Marts (editor)
Amazing X-Men II#12 (December, 2014) - Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost (writers), Carlos Barberi & Iban Coello (pencils & inks) Mike Marts (editor)


First Posted: 10/30/2018
Last Updated: 01/06/2019

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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