The
Mark The
Mark
Real Name: Isaac
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Freedom fighter
Group Membership: PFA (People's Freedom Army)
Affiliations: Scrub, Gamin, Captain Midnight, X
Enemies: The Archon, Eberhardt
Known Relatives: Hiram (brother), Hattie (sister), unidentified father (deceased), unidentified mother
Aliases: The Masked Rebel, the Masked Terrorist
Base of Operations: The Warehouse, Stephangart, Lutzany
First
Appearance: The Mark#1 (Dark Horse,
September 1987)
Powers/Abilities: Superhuman strength (strong enough to bend steel) and durability - he is able to take multiple shots to the chest without suffering serious injury; though the bullets penetrate the skin, barring minor bleeding they do not seem to otherwise impair him.
Height: Unrevealed, but well above
average - perhaps around 6'6"
Weight: Unrevealed, but very muscular for his height
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Summary: In the 1930s the small middle-European nation of Lutzany was one of Nazi Germany's early allies, sharing their views on eugenics and the superiority of a "Master Race." Despite this, shortly prior to the outbreak of the Second World War Lutzany's military leaders saw the flaws in Hitler's war strategies and so cut ties with Germany, ultimately declaring themselves neutral once the conflict began. While other countries' neutrality was ignored by the Nazis, like Switzerland Lutzany was both relatively small and surrounded by treacherous mountains, and so survived virtually untouched. Despite the neutrality, Lutzany's ruler, Duke Otto, a former confidante of Hitler, remained both interested and aware of Germany's experiments on human prisoners, and when the war ended he snatched up the Reich's premier bio-engineer, Kreitz, and his greatest success, a genetically-augmented genius child. Post-war Lutzany publicly took a staunch anti-Communist stance, deliberately making itself a minor but strategically important ally to the United States, thus both protecting itself from Soviet incursion and from too much scrutiny by the Western Powers into Lutzany's internal affairs. As soon as he was old enough Kreitz's superhuman protege usurped the throne from Otto, becoming Lutzany's dictator, the Archon. As Lutzany was reshaped by the new regime, the citizens were swiftly separated into those Kreitz deemed superior and thus were granted privilege, and those classified as defective sub-humans, viewed as second-class citizens little better than slaves, useful for menial tasks and experimentation, and forced to wear a mathematical "less than" symbol to visibly denote their lowly status.
Decades passed, and despite his best efforts Kreitz found himself unable to reproduce the success he had achieved in creating the Archon. "Sub-humans" were rounded up as and when deemed necessary to provide new test subjects. One of these was Isaac, the eldest son of his family; taken to the Warehouse, the "collection center" that housed the test subjects, Isaac underwent experiments that seemed to leave him mute and largely insensate, unaware of the world around him. However, in truth Isaac was Kreitz's first true success since the Archon, his body and intellect boosted to superhuman levels. Aware that one man, no matter how powerful, could not overthrow the Archon's entire regime by himself, Isaac maintained the facade of being withdrawn from reality and a harmless, almost model prisoner at the Warehouse, but used his superior abilities to casually evade the Warehouse's security so he could sneak out nightly to battle the regime, inspire others to resist, and prepare to eventually take down the Archon. Disguised by a simple costume, the powers dubbed him the Masked Rebel or Masked Terrorist, but others knew him by "less than" symbol he wore in defiant pride, publicly declaring himself to be one of the supposed sub-humans even as he easily defeated the "superior" classes in each and every encounter. To those hoping to see freedom restored in Lutzany, the masked man was no terrorist - he was the Mark!
History:
Comments:
Created by Mike Richardson and Randy Stradley.
Appearance checklist (not including reprints): The Mark#1-6; Mayhem#1-4; Dark Horse Comics#14-15; The Mark in America#1-4; San Diego Comic Con Comics#3; Dark Horse Presents#135; X (2015)#21-22; Captain Midnight (2015)#21-24
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Mark should not be confused with:
First Posted: Circa 14/09/2004
Last updated: 27/04/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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