ULTIMUS
Real Name: Ard-Con
Identity/Class: Kree Eternal
Occupation: Warrior; former agent of the Kree Empire
Group Membership: None; formerly Starforce (Captain Atlas, Doctor Minerva, Korath the Pursuer, Ronan the Accuser, Shatterax, Supremor)
Affiliations: Ael-Dan, Dar-Benn, Deathbird (Cal'syee Neramani), Inspector Prichard, Kree, Lilandra Neramani, Shi'ar, Supreme Intelligence, Underground Legion (Dr. Caitlin Maddox, Mammoth, Prime Skrull, Sentry #459, Touchstone, Toxin, Wildwind)
Enemies: Araki (Skrull imposter), Avengers (Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Crystal, Hercules, Sersi), British Army, Excalibur (Captain Britain/Brian Braddock, Meggan, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Phoenix/Rachel Summers of Earth-811, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde, Widget of Earth-811), Her, Imperial Guard (especially Earthquake), Lunatic Legion, Makkari, Peacekeepers (Bristle, Lady Trident, Schizo, Wraath, unidentified Skrull pilot), Quasar (Wendell Vaughn), Skrulls, Starfox (Eros), Tantalus, Thor (Odinson);
formerly Deathbird, Lilandra Neramani, Shi'ar
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Demon Druid
Base of Operations: Mobile in Kree Empire;
formerly imprisoned in underground London, England;
formerly unidentified planet in Kree Empire (former home of the Kree Eternals);
formerly Cienat Plains, Kree-Lar (place of birth)
First Appearance: (Demon Druid) Thor I#209 (March, 1973); (Ultimus) Wonder Man II#7 (March, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: Ultimus can manipulate cosmic energy to augment his life force, granting him great longevity and regenerative abilities. Absorbing large amounts of radioactivity increases his size and mass. He is immune to most diseases and functions within the space's vacuum. He can project cosmic energy as concussive blasts from his hands, uses the same energy to encase others in stone and possesses an invisible personal force field varying from a radius of one-inch to several yards. He has superhuman strength (lifting 75 tons) and by harnessing anti-gravitons can fly at 115 mph. A homing instinct allows him to locate any site he remembers having visited.
Height: 8'6" (variable)
Weight: 680 lbs. (variable)
Eyes: White (no visible pupils)
Hair: Silver-white (with black eyebrows)
History:
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5) - Ard-Con was a member of the Kree's Eternals, a part of the Celestials' experiments on the Kree race on Hala in the distant past. Over 4000 years ago the Ard-Con joined Kree Eternals on a journey to Earth.
(Thor I#209 (fb) - BTS) - Arriving on Earth they were mistaken for gods by the Celts. They soon left, but Ard-Con stayed behind and became known as the Demon Druid among the locals. At some point the Demon Druid heard of Woden (another name for Thor's father Odin).
(Blackwulf#7 (fb) - BTS) - Over 3000 years ago the Demon Druid ran afoul the extraterrestrial Deviant Tantalus, who imprisoned him underground in the area that would later become London.
(Thor I#209) - When Thor landed in London he accidentally cracked the Demon Druid's underground stone prison when the vibrations of Mjolnir hitting the ground reached it. The Demon Druid awakened and exploded from the street while the stone case that had been his prison for millennia broke apart around him. Thor confronted the floating Demon Druid, who didn't wish to speak to him and hit him with an energy blast from his hand instead. Demon Druid left the unconscious Thor behind and protected by a powerful force field surrounding him headed straight to Stonehenge, destroying everything in his path. When the British Army's weapons were unable to penetrate the Demon Druid's force field, Scotland Yard's Inspector Prichard sent Thor after him. Meanwhile Prichard found out that the symbol on the Demon Druid's chest resembled Stonehenge and surmised that the Demon Druid only sought to leave Earth. Though the Demon Druid seemed unstoppable at first Thor managed to knock him down with an energy blast from Mjolnir on the edge of the Salisbury Plain in the county of Wiltshire near Stonehenge. Inspector Prichard arrived on the scene and stopped the British Army restraining the unconscious Demon Druid in a net. He then explained that the Demon Druid only wanted to leave Earth and asked everyone to just let him depart. When the Demon Druid regained consciousness everyone watched him head straight to Stonehenge and use it as a launching pad to fly into outer space.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5) - Demon Druid failed to reach his people.
(Excalibur I#20) - Californian tourists Cherilyn and Sonny got mystically trapped in stone by Demon Druid while he teleported back to Earth on Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh, Scotland. Demon Druid assimilated the energies of the captured tourists to form a Stonehenge-like energy formation Stonehenge on Arthur's Seat in an attempt to create another launching pad to return to his people. The formation's lights lured a surprised Meggan to the location. Demon Druid felt her her power and hoped she could aid him in attaining his desire. The fight between Demon Druid and Meggan was broadcast on TV. Shadowcat and Phoenix (Rachel) saw the blinding lights caused by the battle from afar, but they arrived too late to prevent Demon Druid mystically trapped her in stone as well. Before he did he sensed another powerful being approaching. Shadowcat phased through Demon Druid, temporarily merging her mind with his, and breaking his control over the energy constructs, freeing Meggan and the tourists in the process. Demon Druid and the energy construct disappeared.
(Excalibur I#20 - BTS) - Shadowcat did some research on what she had seen while connected to Demon Druid's mind and came up with a solution with a little help from Captain Britain to bring him back to his people.
(Excalibur I#20) - Demon Druid reappeared at the Darkmoor Nuclear Research Facility, a complex located over one of the most significant focal points of arcane energies, and recreated a nuclear-powered energy facsimile of Stonehenge in place of the facility's two cooling powers. Knowing they were not ready to go through with their plan, Captain Britain went ahead to face off with Demon Druid, while Shadowcat programmed the alleged location of Demon Druid's people into Widget. Nightcrawler teleported Shadowcat, Meggan, Phoenix and Widget to the facility where Demon Druid had grown into a giant by absorbing the nearby nuclear energies. When Captain Britain flew into battle against Demon Druid he was stopped by Phoenix. Shadowcat contacted Demon Druid, who trusted her due to their previous psychic connection, and she revealed that the portal in front of him would bring him back home. Demon Druid thanked Shadowcat before stepping through the portal created by Widget to leave Earth and find his people with the power he had accumulated on Earth.
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5) - Though the portal led him home, his people were all gone, and Ard-Con rechristened himself Ultimus.
(Wonder Man II#7) - On a barren planetoid Ultimus contemplated the sense of his immortal existence because he neither knew where he came from nor where he should go. The Supreme Intelligence contacted Ultimus telepathically and asked him to come to the Kree Galaxy to learn about his true heritage.
(Captain America I#399) - Ultimus arrived on Hala and followed the voice of the Supreme Intelligence to an abandoned subterranean power station. He was already sick of the whole situation and vowed to wander the galaxy once again and ignore the voice that led him there if those he saw below where not the ones he sought. He ran into Shatterax and Korath the Pursuer, who were clearly not the ones that summoned him. Supremor, the corporeal host of the Supreme Intelligence, then arrived and revealed himself as the one who summoned the three warriors. He asked them for their aid to become ruler of the Kree once again.
(Avengers I#346 (fb) - BTS) - Ultimus learned of his Kree heritage from the Supreme Intelligence, who heavily indoctrinated him...
(Thor I#446 (fb) - BTS) - ...and also revealed to him that he was a Kree Eternal...
(Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5) - ...the last of his kind.
(Avengers I#346) - Honoring his heritage Ultimus joined the Supreme Intelligence's Starforce. Ultimus quickly helped quell the in-fighting between Att-Lass, Shatterax and Minn-Erva by reminding them of what it meant to be a Kree. When the Supreme Intelligence falsely claimed the Avengers, who had actually come to Hala to talk the Kree leaders into ending the war with the Shi'ar, were working with the Shi'ar and planned to assassinate the Kree leaders Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn. The Starforce found the Avengers at the Capitol Citadel and Ultimus attacked Hercules with full force despite Hercules claiming the Avengers had come in peace. Captain America came to Hercules' aid and knocked Ultimus out with his shield (glass chin or are the components of the shield his Kryptonite?). Eventually the Avengers were surrounded by Starforce with nowhere to go. Ael-Dan and Dar-Benn arrived on the scene and were surprised by the unsanctioned Kree heroes. They didn't even know who Ultimus was and mere moments later sentenced both teams to death for the affront of storming the Capitol Citadel. Seconds later the Starforce and the Avengers got trapped beneath an impenetrable force field by Lilandra's sister Deathbird and were all forced to watch Deathbird assassinate the two Kree leaders. Following the Kree leaders' deaths the Supreme Intelligence appeared on all screens at the Capitol Citadel and destroyed the force field to free both teams. The Supreme Intelligence rallied the Kree against the Shi'ar once more and vowed to retaliate against the Shi'ar by having their Majestrix Lilandra killed. With Ronan the Accuser added to the Starforce's ranks the Supreme Intelligence ordered them to go to Chandilar to assassinate Lilandra.
(Thor I#446) - Using coordinates provided to them by spies the Kree Starforce teleported into the Palace Regal on Chandilar. After Ronan took out a few guards they split up to find Lilandra and assassinate her. While the other Starforce members got into a fight with members of the visiting Avengers and the Imperial Guard, Ultimus found Lilandra in the Imperial Command Center. He took down a few soldiers with an energy blast and avoided a seismic attack by the Imperial Guardsman Earthquake before knocking him out. When he was ready to kill Lilandra she was saved from him by the Titan Eternal Starfox, a member of the Avengers, who quickly learned that his pleasure center manipulating powers didn't work on the Kree Eternal. Despite Starfox's quickness Ultimus was too powerful for him and Ultimus threatened to kill him for protecting Lilandra, who had used the distraction to get her hands on a large energy blaster and used it to knock Ultimus out.
(Avengers West Coast#82) - While the Starforce was trapped in a stasis field Lilandra sentenced them to death in front of the Avengers and the Imperial Guard. Captain Marvel tried to convince Lilandra to negotiate with the captured Kree rather than execute them, but Lilandra's advisor Araki goaded her to move forward with the execution and the war against the Kree. He even suggested the Avengers were in cahoots with the Starforce and their fight against them was staged. A fight that broke out between the Avengers and the Shi'ar's Imperial Guard while Lilandra still tried to come to a conclusion on what to do next. Araki vehemently opposed her suggestion to send one member of the Starforce back to Hala with a message, but it was her final decision. She also decided to blame the Terrans for everything, which angered the Avenger Living Lightning so much that he tried to shoot her with a lightning blast, which accidentally hit Araki, who transformed into a Skrull. Shocked that her advisor, who had constantly pushed her to go to war with the Kree was a Skrull impersonator, Lilandra went through with her plan and released Ultimus from the stasis field. Ultimus had seen everything that had occurred and pointed out the possibility that the war between the Shi'ar and Kree was stirred up by the Kree's ancient enemies the Skrulls all along. Ultimus knew he lacked the power to declare peace and asked Lilandra to give him permission to return to Hala to report what had transpired on Chandilar. Lilandra gave him permission, but also asked him to tell his leader that the Nega-Bomb the Shi'ar planned to use against the Kree had disappeared.
(Avengers I#347 - BTS) - The Nega-Bomb detonated in Kree space and killed billions of Kree. When the Supreme Intelligence revealed it had plotted the detonation of the Nega-Bomb to lead the Kree out of the evolutionary dead end the Avengers slew it.
(Avengers I#347) - Following the Nega-Bomb's detonation and the Supreme Intelligence's death Ultimus, Shatterax and Korath arrived on Hala with Lilandra and the Imperial Guard. Ultimus was present when Lilandra claimed the defeated the Kree Empire for the Shi'ar Imperium. Lilandra offered her sister Deathbird to rule over the Kree Empire as her viceroy and gave her the Kree's Starforce, who would still answer to Lilandra, as her personal Imperial Guard on Hala.
(Quasar#35) - Deathbird and Starforce (Korath, Shatterax and Ultimus) attacked Quasar and his allies Her and Makkari when they landed on Hala, which was considered a restricted zone by the Shi'ar. Though Quasar tried to explain that they were only there to assist the surviving Kree on Hala in any possible way, Deathbird ordered Starforce to shoot them. Upon firing on them the Starforce witnessed the implosion of Quasar's quantum field when the hero quantum-jumped outside Hala's orbit with Makkari and Her, escaping Starforce and Deathbird in the process.
(Silver Surfer: Breakout#1 [Spider-Man Drakes Cakes Mini Comics Series II#1]) - When Kree Admiral Galen Kor initiated a prison riot on Hala, Deathbird and Starforce (Korath, Shatterax, Supremor and Ultimus) quelled the riot while the Imperial Guard went after the escapees.
(Blackwulf#7) - Starforce (Korath, Shatterax, Ultimus) attacked the ship of the Underground Legion, believing them to be in cahoots with the unknown attacker who had recently destroyed a Shi'ar outpost and numerous ships. Ultimus destroyed Mammoth's weapon, but was then stopped by Touchstone. When Wildwind revealed they had been after the true culprit, the Deviant Lord Tantalus, Ultimus recognized the name because Tantalus was the one who had imprisoned him on Earth over 3000 years ago. He insisted to join the Underground Legion's hunt for Tantalus and used him homing instinct to lead them directly to Tantalus' homeworld Armechadon.
(Blackwulf#8) - Upon arriving on Armechadon Ultimus flew into battle against Tantalus, but was literally swallowed by the ground when Tantalus' agent Schizo used her reality-altering powers and remained buried while the battle against Tantalus and his forces raged on.
(Annihilation: Ronan#1 (fb) - BTS) - The members of Starforce were branded defectors when the Kree Empire later regained its autonomy from the Shi'ar and forced to leave the Kree Empire.
Comments: Created by Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema (pencils) & Vince Colletta (inks).
In Thor I#209 Inspector Prichard assumed Stonehenge to be a launching pad of the Demon Druid's race later used as a temple by Celtic druids. Although Demon Druid used Stonehenge as a launching pad it doesn't necessarily mean the Kree Eternals built it. The Caretakers of Arcturus actually claimed to have built Stonehenge in the Marvel Universe. While other sources claim the occult stones forming Stonehenge originally stood in Ireland and were moved to their current location with the aid of Merlin. Maybe Demon Druid was only drawn to the stones and not the location and moving the stones to a different location was the reason why he failed to find his way home.
The whole Ultimus as a Kree was a retcon from the Operation: Galactic Storm crossover because more super-powered blue aliens were needed for the Starforce. Thanks go to the Supreme Intelligence for giving the amnesiac Ultimus a race to fight for. It didn't seem like he lacked knowledge of his heritage before as he clearly had a goal in Thor I#209 and Excalibur I#20.
In Blackwulf#7 Ultimus was a bit more Caucasian than usual probably caused by colorist not knowing who the character was they were currently coloring. It is an understandable mistake by Ashley Posella considering how similar Ultimus and Blackwulf looked at this point and how the story switched between the fight on Armechadon and Blackwulf's fight on Earth with Godstalker throughout the issue.
There is the slight possibility Ultimus remained buried on Armechadon after the battle against Tantalus' forces.
According to Annihilation: Ronan#1 (June, 2006) Starforce were branded defectors, but were are not even sure Ultimus ever returned from Armechadon as mentioned above.
Ultimus has a profile in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition#19 (1992) and Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5 (February, 2011). He received his real name, birthplace and a few other information in the latter profile with some input from the original creators.
Profile by Markus Raymond.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Ultimus should not be confused with:
images (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Update#5, Ultimus profile (main; original source Wonder Man II#7, p16, pan2)
Thor I#209, p7 (released from prison)
Excalibur I#20, p3, pan3 (return)
Blackwulf#8, p15, pan1 (flying)
Blackwulf#7, p13, pan3 (caucasian flying blast)
Appearances:
Thor I#209 (March, 1973) - Gerry Conway (writer), John Buscema (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Excalibur I#20 (March, 1990) - Michael Higgins (writer), Ron Lim (pencils), Joe Rubinstein (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Wonder Man II#7 (March, 1992) - Gerard Jones (writer), Jeff Johnson (pencils), Dan Panosian (inks), Fabian Nicieza (editor)
Captain America I#399 (April, 1992) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Rik Levins (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Avengers I#346 (April, 1992) - Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Thor I#446 (April, 1992) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Pat Olliffe (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Avengers West Coast#82 (May, 1992) - Roy & Dann Thomas (writers), Dave Ross (pencils), Tim Dzon (inks), Nelson Yomtov (editor)
Avengers I#347 (May, 1992) - Bob Harras (writer), Steve Epting (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Quasar#35 (June, 1992) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Harry Candelario (inks), Kelly Corvese (editor)
Spider-Man Drakes Cakes Mini Comics Series II#1/Silver Surfer: Breakout (1994) - Eric Fein (writer), Robert Walker (pencils), John Stanisci (inks), Glenn Herdling (editor)
Blackwulf#7 (December, 1994) - Glenn Herdling (writer), Angel Medina (pencils), Bill Anderson & Sandu Florea (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Blackwulf#8 (January, 1995) - Glenn Herdling (writer), Angel Medina (pencils), Bill Anderson, Sandu Florea & Mike Machlan (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
First Posted: 11/22/2018
Last updated: 11/22/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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