Jornik (Extraterrestrial thief; Lila Cheney and X-Factor foe)

jornik-alien_thief-full JORNIK

Real Name: Jornik

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (race unrevealed) technology user

Occupation: Thief, technology merchant

Group Membership: None known

Affiliations: Balthazar of Cygnus Prime, Bretelian Bondar, Urg, unidentified Skrull

Enemies: Strong Guy (Guido Carosella), Lila Cheney; indirectly the K'lanti, X-Factor (Forge, Havok/Alex Summers, Polaris/Lorna Dane, Strong Guy/Guido Carosella, Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None;
Guido somewhat jokingly referred to him as "mister," "pal," Jor-El," and "little sneetch"

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    last seen in the vault within Lila Cheney's Dyson Sphere;
    previously based out of a decaying hotel on the canal in Madripoor's Lowtown;
    formerly Boh-Tan-Ee;
    place of birth/development unrevealed

First Appearance: X-Factor I#110 (January, 1995)

Powers/Abilities: Jornik did not demonstrate any particular superhuman abilities.

He wielded a staff able to discharge energy (electricity or otherwise) bursts sufficient to pain and/or incapacitate the powerful Guido Carosella.

He utilized a D'Baaran image inducer to adopt a human form (at least); however, at least by the time he encountered Guido, the device was glitching, and he finally gave up on it altogether.

Jornik formerly traveled between planets via a ship about which little has been revealed.

He utilized a Bretilian Bondar to restrain a prisoner in his base.

He formerly had access to all of the materials stolen from the vault in Lila Cheney's Dyson Sphere, including the Daedalus Wing, Harmonium, the Jewels of Seven Suns, and an Urg egg.

Height: Approximately 2'
Weight: Perhaps 50 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed (some images make them look light blue or brown)
Hair: Gray mustache (varies from almost white to light gray to dark gray (almost black)) and eyebrows (vary from nearly white to a dark gray))
Skin color: Light blue
Other distinguishing features: Jornik has two apparently smaller arms on his right, and one arm on his left. Each hand has two fingers and a thumb.

He has two short legs, each ending in six toes.

A single antenna rises from the top of his head, ending in a cotton-like fluff ball.

His paired eyes (in a humanoid position on his head) are relatively large; when first fully seen, he appeared to be wearing lenses of some sort on his eyes, and he seemed to be adjusting a lens with his right hand. Subsequent images look more like regular eye; maybe he lost his lenses in the excitement.

While the top of his head is bald, he has bushy eyebrows, and a thick mustache to beard-like structure covers almost everything in his face below his eyes. No visible oral (mouth), nasal (nose), or auditory (ear) structures were shown, although any such structure could be covered by his beard/mustache.

While his arms are somewhat muscular, his abdomen is significantly large/distended. His legs are short and stocky. And he has a short tail, rapidly narrowing to a dull tip.

History:

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Planning to steal from the legendary intergalactic thief (and singer) Lila Cheney, Jornik spent two rotations planning for this, studying her concert schedule, learning the layout of her the Dyson Sphere (an immense structure built around a star), and memorizing every nuance of her security system.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - While Lila was out on her "How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away" tour, Jornik raided Lila's Dyson sphere, taking everything she had her her vaults, including the Daedalus Wings, Harmonium (a device Lila had taken from the powerful K'lanti), the Jewels of Seven Suns, an Urg egg, and presumably a Bretilian Bondar +/- a D'Baaran image inducer.

(X-Factor I#110 - BTS) - Jornik stored what he had stolen from Lila on Earth, within a decaying hotel in Madripoor's Lowtown that formerly boasted its exclusive location on the canal, but which now found itself in the canal as the filthy waters gradually eroded its decaying foundation. He figured that Lila would not think to look for him on her home planet.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Jornik considered the Harmonium to be a worthless music box, a piece of junk.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS / X-Factor I#111 (fb) - BTS) - When Jornik sold the Daedalus Wing to Balthazar of Cygnus Prime, he threw in the Harmonium with the deal.

Considering the Harmonium to be nonfunctional, Balthazar threw it out back in the garbage heap behind his Used Goods Emporium.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) <"cycles" before the main story> - Having fled the planet Boh-Tan-Ee, Jornik traveled to Earth; exhausted by his constant flight, he crashed his ship in the fetid harbor/canal waters of Lowtown.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Needing to return the Harmonium to the K'lanti or face their wrath, Lila began searching for Jornik in earnest. jornik-alien_thief-human_form

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Lila spent 3.5 weeks scouring 4 different solar systems tracking down Jornik.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Jornik used an image inducer to take a human form.

(X-Factor I#110 - BTS) - On the planet Boh-Tan-Ee, in the outer spiral arm of the Cladeen galaxy, Lila Cheney assaulted a Skrull associate of Jornik's, threatening him and forcing him to reveal Jornik's location: Earth.

Lila returned to Earth to seek out Jornik.

(X-Factor I#110 - BTS) <- Transported to Madripoor by the power of Legion (David Haller), X-Factor (Forge, Havok/Alex Summers, Polaris/Lorna Dane, Strong Guy/Guido Carosella, Wolfsbane/Rahne Sinclair) fell into the water beside Jornik's ship and then climbed on top of it. The ship then underwent an upheaval as the Urg burst out of it.

(X-Factor I#110) - Watching from the shore, Jornik considered the chaotic situation and concluded that the Urg egg must have broken when the ship crashed. He appreciated that with the Urg on the loose, his presence there was compromised and that this would send a signal to Lila. Upon recognizing Guido, Jornik wondered if Lila hadn't already found him.

After Guido had been knocked away, Jornik confronted him, and called him by his surname before asking where "she" was. With Guido confused and not knowing who he was talking to or what he was talking about, Jornik admitted they didn't know each other, but that he knew of Guido and for whom he worked. Jornik then stunned Guido unconscious by touching his forehead with his energy staff, figuring Guido would be easier to transport unconscious and that in a less public place, Guido might be more cooperative. As his image glitched out a few times, Jornik realized he would not be able to maintain that facade much longer. jornik-alien_thief-human-shadowed

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Jornik transported Guido to his decaying hotel base. There Jornik had Guido restrained by a Bretilian Bondar. jornik-alien_thief-human_form-face

(X-Factor I#110) - When Guido awakened, Jornik again asked where "she" was, and he zapped Guido again when he said he didn't know (and asked to be released as his friends were in trouble). Guido became angry with his treatment, but Jornik was quick to point out that he could not escape the Bondar. As he advised Guido that his freedom was up to him (meaning he would be released if he told Jornik what he wanted to know), his image inducer continued to short out, and he finally deactivated it, noting with frustration that you just couldn't rely on D'Baaran technology anymore.

    Once back in his true appearance, Jornik realized that this was quite liberating, as he hadn't had a moments' rest since departing Boh-Tan-Ee. Seeing Jornik's alien nature, Guido realized who was after him, just seconds before Lila arrived and leveled her energy weapon at Jornik. As Lila and Guido greeted each other, Guido kicked out Jornik's feet as he approached Lila from behind. Lila then turned her gun on Jornik, expressing her frustration with her lengthy pursuit, but Guido distracted her by having her free him from the Bondar.

    At Guido's request, Jornik proudly related how he had ripped off the greatest thief in the known universe. When Lila threatened to rip something off of him if he didn't tell her where her stuff was, he agreed, noting that he regretted the theft as it had cost him a ship and a lot of time. He then led them to the room in which he had stored her stuff, warning Guido to look away as she raised the blinding Jewels of the Seven Suns.

    Unable to find the Harmonium, Lila grabbed Jornik by the neck and demanded to know its location. Choking, Jornik told he had had considered it to be a piece of junk, throwing it in with the Daedalus Wings that he had sold. Lila screamed at the terrified Jornik about the trouble he had caused before transporting him to her Dyson sphere, kicking him in the butt, and leaving as she told him he better be there when she returned or she'd hunt him down again and his punishment would be a lot worse.

(X-Factor I#110 - BTS) - The K'lanti arrived on Earth to confront Lila.

(X-Factor I#111 - BTS) - Lila recovered the Harmonium from Balthazar and returned to the K'lanti.

Comments: Created by John Francis Moore, Todd Dezago, Jan Duursema, and Al Milgrom.

The spelling "Jornick" is used in the very first reference, but he is consistently referred to as "Jornik" thereafter, so I believe that is the correct spelling.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jornik should be distinguished from:

Other "Jor" characters, alien thieves, etc.

Jornik's ship

    Little has been revealed about the ship, and it was never even shown clearly.

(X-Factor I#110 (fb) - BTS) - Jornik used his ship to travel from Boh-Tan-Ee (in the outer spiral arm of the Cladeen galaxy) to Earth. At this point, the ship also held, at least, the Urg egg Jornik had stolen from Lila's Dyson Sphere.

    Fearing pursuit by Cheney, Jornik ended up crashing into a canal in Madripoor's lowtown. Jornik escaped, using his image inducer to pose as human, while the Urg egg apparently broke from the crash.

(X-Factor I#110) - A pair of local men, Chow Yun and Woo, argued over who had seen the ship first and therefore who had the right to claim it. Their argument was interrupted by the splashdown arrival of X-Factor who had been teleported above the canal by Legion.

    X-Factor climbed atop the ship, but the ship suddenly began upheaving, and the Urg tore a hole in the side of the ship and escaped.

--X-Factor I#110

Note: I don't think Jornik's ship was shown again.

images: (without ads)
X-Factor I#110, pg. 3, panel 3 (ship);

       pg. 5, panel 1 (Urg exiting through hole ripped in ship);
       pg. 6, panel 1 (human form, distant);
          panel 3 (human form, face);
       pg. 8, panel 1 (shadowed form standing over Guido);
       pg. 12, panel 5 (image inducer failing);
          panel 6 (true form, full; legs/feet obscured);
       pg. 13, panel 2 (face, profile);
       pg. 15, pane 5 (full body, distant, unobscured)

Appearances:
X-Factor I#110-111 (January-February, 1995) - John Francis Moore (plot), Todd Dezago (script), Jan Duursema (penciler), Al Milgrom (inker), Kelly Corvese (editor)

First posted: 12/13/2018
Last updated: 12/13/2018

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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