Man-Beast

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Background

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Powers and Abilities

On paper, the Man-Beast holds a deadly combination of superhuman physical might, great psionic  power and heightened intelligence and knowledge. He’s a deadly opponent in a fight and tends to have whichever psionic powers and technological know-how to advance the plot. He’s perennially working on refining his powers and technological creations.

However, despite his interminable list of physical, scientific, psionic and other assets the Man-Beast’s abilities are incoherent from one story to the next. They also tend to be just below his opponent du jour’s.

The stories provide no indication as to why. It just happens that he was always a loosely-defined, plot-shaped villain. This entry resorts to a random system to model Man-Beast as he behaves in the comics.

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Might makes right

The Man-Beast’s physical strength and durability have been all over the map. His blows have just knocked down and dazed Flash Thompson in one story, yet harmed Thor in the next. In DC Heroes RPG terms, the use of Power Reserve among his Powers help model this.

Though it was never mentioned, this incoherence might reflect an instability in Man-Beast’s genetic makeup. The experiment that created him was completely out of control. It is thus possible that his body, psionic powers and mind are actually unstable and ever-changing, with the Man-Beast focusing on his obsessive hatred as his sole constant. His constant changes in appearance certainly suggest that.

The Man-Beast has considerable scientific and engineering knowledge. But he’s not a genuine innovator and can only go so far as the most advanced technology he can find, perhaps making minor improvements.

Over the decades he was exposed to advanced technologies from alien races or the Avians (via Bi-Beast), greatly expanding his knowledge. But it also makes it unclear which tools are his creation, and which have been copied or procured elsewhere.

Wolf science

Here’s a list of creations of the Man-Beast, for which there’s not enough material to provide stats. This will give a sense of what the Man-Beast can deploy and the sorts of technology he prefers.

The Man-Beast did :

• Produce at least a score of New Men using controlled exposure to the brand-new Isotope C within an hour or so of his own creation.
• Hack and upgrade the spaceship he and his New Men were exiled in. This is the most economical explanation – perhaps they did reach the galaxy they had been exiled to and the Man-Beast built a huge ship there from scratch, but assuming that he commandeered the ship they were in is simpler.
• Modify the voice of Presidential candidate Rex Carpenter to have a quasi-hypnotic cast to it, and perhaps greatly enhance his charisma. It may have been a cybernetic implant, or a biotech modification — or maybe possession by Man-Beast since there are contradictions as to when he possessed Carpenter. With daily exposures, Carpenter’s voice acquired mesmeric effects, even when retransmitted through 1960s television.
• Design and produce lifelike masks that somehow fully allowed him to pass for human. This was before he was able to disguise himself psionically. The masks may have been enhanced by a early form of his psionic power.
• Reconstitute his physical body from nowhere after months spent as a disembodied consciousness possessing another man. This could have been a feat of psionic strength, or it could have been a cloning project and a teleportation machine. This second hypothesis seems easier on Occam’s Razor .
• Ensure that the Dr. Richards of Counter-Earth would become the very powerful Brute after being exposed to cosmic radiation. This was likely achieved using the god-like instruments on the High Evolutionary’s ship combined with the Man-Beast’s scientific knowledge, rather than Man-Beast’s own technology and plotting.
• Build a special helmet that, once shoved unto the Hulk’s head, adhered long enough (and was resilient enough) for a charge of tranquillising gas to turn Hulk back into Banner. Having this on hand implies that Man-Beast had deduced that the Hulk was around, and how to best deal with him, upon learning that a second Bruce Banner had been fished out of the ocean by the US military.
• Build an implant that could generate pain within the subject, or transmit a precise tracking signal even while underground. The implant could survive the transformation from Banner into Hulk undamaged.
• Conceive equipment that could detect and monitor all tracking and listening devices in a wide radius, and locate their receivers in real time.
• Use hate-broadcasting equipment, which may have been the exact same gear used by the previous Hate-Monger.
• As Omega, the Man-Beast had a large starship, including a contingent of security droids, and outfitted Triax and himself with power armour. Stats for those are indeterminate, since the only benchmark for them — Adam Warlock — was gradually recovering his capabilities. See Triax’s entry for tentative power armour stats.
  A notable bit of equipment were flowers laced with sleep gas that proved immediately effective against Drax in his “musclebound oaf” stage (in DCH terms it presumably attacks BODY/BODY with an AV/EV of about 14), and ultrasonic weaponry that knocked out Moondragon and Gamora in one burst.
  The latter presumably blanketed an area with vibration only harming people, bypassing both women’s high ability to evade attacks.

• Create new New Men, though this likely requires special resources that are not always available. Presumably he still uses the Isotope B catalyst and associated processes, which means that his New Men are not going to be very powerful.
• During his time as Karnivor, it is possible that the Man-Beast enhanced his claws — or, more likely, wore artificial claws — with a degree of Sharpness that actually stacked with his own Sharpness power. This allowed him to shred the normally invincible High Evolutionary’s armour with little resistance.
• The Man-Beast’s ships, aircrafts, spaceships, etc. always have a small, very fast escape module that can rapidly be jettissoned. The module can usually carry 2-4 persons and has some mean to deter pursuit – for instance very thick, very large smokescreen.

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History

(There are minor continuity issues (such as when the Man-Beast possessed Carpenter, when he allied with Bi-Beast, etc.). But we’ll gloss over those since this history section is already large and complex enough.)

In the late 1930s, the High Evolutionary created an incredible material he called Isotope B, which would allow for uplifting animals into sapient humanoids in a stable, safe manner. Bova (a cow) was the first animal turned into a sapient humanoid, and numerous others were successfully mutated – forming the New Men. The Evolutionary envisioned his New Men as peaceful, kind creatures.

Isotope C

However, with the second World War raging on, the High Evolutionary feared of the safety of this new, heteroclite race. He worked on creating much more powerful New Men who could protect the rest, and this was made possible by the development of Isotope C during the 1960s.

As his first test subject for C, the High Evolutionary chose to work for the first time ever on a wolf. This was a species he strangely regarded as having far greater savagery than any other.

While the wolf was being super-evolved by Isotope C Thor Odinson burst in the lab and demanded to meet with Jane Foster, whom he mistakenly thought had been kidnapped by the High Evolutionary. Though the misunderstanding was quickly and peacefully solved, the wolf stayed irradiated by Isotope C for longer than planned.

By the time the High Evolutionary could return to his experiment, the energy unleashed was too great. All he could do was to wait until the Isotope C charge died down.

This would only occur once the process had gone to its furthest possible stage – the ultimate evolution of wolves combined with the ultimate evolution of men ! While Stan Lee is a fantastic storyteller, he’s no biologist.

Natural-born killer

When the creature did emerge from the lab, it was everything the High Evolutionary had feared – highly intelligent, very powerful, and full of hate. Psychically sensing life nearby, the Man-Beast attacked – for surely all life was his enemy.

Though the Man-Beast swiftly created a small army of New Men that would serve him, he was vanquished by Thor. The High Evolutionary had his Knights of Wundagore box the evil New Men into a spaceship, threw the Man-Beast in, and sent the whole lot to the uninhabited Dromisana galaxy.

According to New Men oral tradition, two of the High Evolutionary’s New Men were instrumental in fighting off the Man-Beast’s horde. These were the knight Lady Shadra (apparently an uplifted house cat, though she may have been a panther) and her squire Gulo (an uplifted wolverine).

Albeit the situation had been contained, the High Evolutionary was very affected by the incident. Within hours, he bade farewell to Thor and Jane Foster, and his entire science citadel with all New Men aboard rocketed off into space. Only a few New Men stayed behind on Earth, including Bova.

The creator has a master plan

The High Evolutionary had underestimated the Man-Beast, however. The super-evolved wolf apparently took control of the spaceship and swerved back toward Earth’s solar system.

In his cloaked ship (the Wundagore-3), the Man-Beast observed the High Evolutionary creating Counter-Earth and accelerating the evolution of its life-forms to span millions of years within hours.

Counter-Earth was a duplicate of Earth, orbiting on the far side of the Sun – but one where man had no genuine capacity for evil. However, as the High Evolutionary fell asleep after his titanic work of creation, the Man-Beast sneaked in and used his creator’s cosmic machinery to alter Counter-Earth.

The Man-Beast reintroduced the capacity for murder, evil and destruction while at the same time suppressing the chance for great champions and superhumans to emerge. The Man-Beast also had time to slip in a few subtle changes, such as turning Dr. Reed Richards into one of the very few superhumans on Counter-Earth — the Brute.

The High Evolutionary awoke and attacked the Man-Beast, but the super-wolf followers came pouring in. The Evolutionary received the help of Adam Warlock, forcing Man-Beast and his evil New Men to retreat to Counter-Earth, where they intended to finish their task of corruption.

While the High Evolutionary had decided to destroy Counter-Earth he was convinced not to by Adam Warlock, who was sent to Counter-Earth to bring salvation.

Like paradise

Adam Warlock was rendered amnesiac by the teleportation to Counter-Earth, facilitating the work of Man-Beast and his minions – whose number included Kohbra, Rhodan, Lizardhus, Snakar, Weezhil, Barachuudar, Cobrah and Triax.

As Adam Warlock oriented himself on Counter-Earth (which was quite similar to the real world circa 1971), Man-Beast sent Rhodan to kill him at Cape Canaveral, but that was a complete failure.

Despite this setback, the Man-Beast toiled forth. In particular, he adopted the identity of a human street preacher called the Prophet. As the Prophet, he arranged to encounter Adam Warlock and his young apostles. Prophet then claimed that voices in his head had him warn humanity against the evil of the Man-Beast, and announce the coming of a saviour – Adam Warlock.

Warlock being naive and unworldly, he was then easily led by Man-Beast right into an ambush by his assembled New Men.

During the fight, the Man-Beast came to realise the power of Warlock. Taken aback, he changed his strategy and offered him an alliance. The goal of the uplifted wolf was to turn Warlock’s principles against him and deprive him of his cosmic weapon, the Soul Gem.

The words of the Man-Beast confused Warlock and filled him with anger against humanity. The wolf exploited this by subtly trapping Adam Warlock in a psionic hallucination.

Though Warlock eventually perceived that he had been plunged in an illusion and shook free, he was quite weakened by the experience. The Man-Beast tried to finish him off, but Warlock was still too strong. As Warlock gained the upper hand, he used his Soul Gem to devolve the Man-Beast, who desperately projected his consciousness outside of his body to escape.

The candidate

The Man-Beast came to possess one Rex Carpenter, a charismatic independent candidate to the Presidency. Despite his lack of political backing, Carpenter was enjoying groundswell support, which presumably snowballed further after the Man-Beast took over his psyche. Man-Beast concentrated on winning the Presidential campaign.

The Man-Beast’s New Men were still active, but did not amount to much – except for a spectacular attack by Triax the Terrible on Cape Canaveral. This ended up helping Carpenter, as he was seen on TV attempting to defuse the situation by talking to Triax.

Disappointed by the results he had obtained on New Earth so far, Adam Warlock retreated in his cocoon for several weeks.

Mister President

During that time Carpenter won a landslide victory and became President. Carpenter purposefully authorised nuclear tests near the San Andreas fault, ignoring the warnings of the best scientists in the US of Counter-Earth such as Dr. Richards and Dr. von Doom.

Furthermore, these tests were taking place near a cache of doomsday weapons only Carpenter and a few others knew about.

Leaving his cocoon, Warlock intervened. With Dr. von Doom’s help, he contained the worst of the damage from the nuclear tests – though the devastation was terrible.

The Man-Beast’s animalistic anger started glaring under his Carpenter persona, and the President accused Adam Warlock of being the enemy of America. The military tried to terminate Warlock, who left for reflection.

Exploiting this delay, Carpenter took hypnotic control of the Brute. He then sent his agent Astrella (who was posing as Warlock’s most faithful apostle) to lure Warlock into a fight with the Brute. Warlock defeated the Brute and saved the bystanders during the fight, forcing Carpenter to tone down his policies against Warlock so as not to lose his popularity.

The Man-Beast changed strategies and psionically turned Richards into the Brute again. The Brute needed massive energy to feed his mutation, and built a geothermal tap to absorb the heat from the planet’s very core. Man-Beast knew that Counter-Earth was more fragile than its model, and that the Brute’s scheme carried a significant chance of destroying the world.

However the heroic Dr. Von Doom sacrificed himself to save both his friend Dr. Richards and Counter-Earth.

For many deceivers are gone forth into the world

Support for Warlock continued to grow among the population, and particularly among the youth. To cripple this, the Man-Beast had camouflaged New Men disrupt the protests in front of the White House. He also started building a conspiracy to take down Warlock.

Man-Beast sent two agents, Aggression and Deceit (apparently unusually powerful Isotope C New Men) to harass and weaken Adam Warlock, then bring him to the Oval Office. There, Man-Beast-as-Carpenter confronted Adam Warlock. The man-wolf left the Carpenter body to assume his own reconstituted physical form and fight Warlock.

Man-Beast and his servants captured Warlock. The golden saviour was kept prisoner, but resisted all attempts at interrogation and torture. Meanwhile, many Americans were demanding that Warlock be freed, knowing that he had entered the White House and never left.

The Man-Beast remained in his own body, being now able to psionically disguise his true appearance. Still, as a precaution, Carpenter was kept in a secret jail for the Man-Beast to possess when he needed to operate in human form for extended periods. As President Carpenter, the Man-Beast had the disciples of Adam Warlock hunted down and locked up.

The next phase of his plan was to trigger a nuclear apocalypse, apparently by having the US attack the UK and France. The Man-Beast and his remaining New Men then planned to rule the ruins of Counter-Earth as the sole survivors, content in knowing that they had wrecked the High Evolutionary’s creation.

The Incredible Hulk

Mere weeks before this Armageddon could take place, the Hulk accidentally ended up on Counter-Earth. At about the same time, agents of the High Evolutionary freed Adam Warlock.

Nevertheless, the Man-Beast defeated and captured everyone. As Carpenter he then ordered a public execution ceremony to get rid of Adam Warlock. When Warlock was killed, his body was unexpectedly engulfed in a cocoon to regenerate from death. The incredible Hulk then grabbed the cocoon and fled.

The Man-Beast mobilised the US military, but certain generals refused to comply with his plans and alerted Warlock’s remaining supporters. These faithfuls sent the Hulk to attack the Man-Beast within the White House.

Never having fought the Hulk before, Man-Beast discovered that the jade giant could withstand even the power of his hate-fueled mental blasts.

The Hulk fought long enough for Warlock to complete his regeneration and come back. The resurrected saviour hit the Man-Beast with a ray from his soul-gem, turning him back into an ordinary wolf who fled the scene.

Animal crossing (between Earths)

The wolf managed to escape hunters long enough for some confused memories to return. Eventually, the influence of Adam Warlock grew too distant in time and space, and the Man-Beast reverted to his super-evolved form and sapience.

However, extensive measures had been taken by Counter-Earth authorities to ward him off. He decided to leave and stealthily return to the original Earth.

The Man-Beast disguised himself as a human, arranged to join the US’s space exploration program, and covertly modified the rocket he was to pilot. After the historic manned flight was launched, the Man-Beast reverted to his true form and activated his machines to fly from one Earth to the other.

His craft crashed in Việt Nam. That was in the early 1970s, and the Man-Beast hoped that the war there would cover his arrival.

As it turned out, international smuggler Achmed Korba was near the crash site. Korba and the Man-Beast allied to found a pseudo-religion, the Legion of Light. Fronted by Brother Power (Achmed Korba) and Sister Sun (Sha Shan), the Legion spread a shallow message of light and love.

As the power behind the cult, the Man-Beast found it amusing to wear the costume of the Hate-Monger, an identity once assumed by Adolf Hitler.

However, with the fall of the Saigon government, Korba found himself less than welcome in Việt Nam. He quickly left for the US using his CIA connections, then resumed his activities by establishing a successful restaurant that became a base for the cult. The Man-Beast remained hidden behind the scenes.

The Legion of Light

It was presumably during that time that Man-Beast came in contact with the strange android Bi-Beast, and they forged an alliance. Their goals and deeds are not fully documented, but a key part was that the Bi-Beast provided advanced scientific knowledge to the Man-Beast in return for being exposed to the wolf’s seething hatred.

The android Bi-Beast lacked the capability to feel emotions on his own, but considered that feeling something like hatred would make him more efficient. As to Man-Beast, it seems that his long-term plan was to return to Counter-Earth with the means to launch a new plot.

By 1976 the Legion had a good foothold on the West Coast. In 1977 it reached New York City. The followers were mostly young, and gave away their belongings to the cult as they proselytised.

Within months of establishing a power base in the New York state, the impatient Man-Beast decided to have a huge rally at Yonkers Coliseum and reveal himself in his Hate Monger costume.

Spider-Man (helped by Razorback (Buford Hollis) and Flash Thompson) intervened at the rally. However, Man-Beast defeated them. He then decided to have the Coliseum collapse on them so they’d be blamed for the deaths of hundreds of Legion of Light cultists, facilitating his next move.

This plot failed, and the Man-Beast was seemingly destroyed by the explosion of his hate-mongering equipment. Achmed Korba also disappeared, and the assembled cultists wandered away in a daze from the conflicting psychic influences.

Bestially yours

The Man-Beast survived the explosion of his equipment. In fact the energy from these machines, after percolating within his body for three days, augmented his strength for a short while. Using this extra brawn to dig himself out of the debris, the man-wolf returned to the Bi-Beast’s base.

Meanwhile the Bi-Beast launched a large-scale plot. He captured numerous human shipping vessels, hypnotised the crews into slavery, and used the resultant workforce, machinery and raw material to build a super-city. The Man-Beast helped with his ally’s scheme, presumably hoping to scrounge enough resources from it to build a spaceship.

The main plan was foiled by Thor and Iron Man, but Man-Beast rescued the defeated Bi-Beast. The pair decided to try again, this time by capturing campers in the Everglades as their starter resource. However, Thor and Iron Man had been tracking down the Bi-Beast, and engaged the villainous pair.

Though the bestial villains fought fiercely, the opposition was just too strong. After Bi-Beast was felled, Man-Beast tried to flee. Thor and Iron Man shot his damaged craft from the sky, and the Man-Beast crashed his ship into quicksand.

If any one cometh unto you, and bringeth not this teaching

Escaping, the Man-Beast discreetly investigated which resources had been left behind at the old site of the Wundagore fortress. He found brainwashing machines, and discovered that the small population of New Men there had the means to summon the High Evolutionary if they were in grave danger.

The wolf terrorised the New Men and kidnapped the few who were capable of fighting, turning them into his servants. As he had hoped the High Evolutionary was summoned as a last recourse, and Man-Beast ambushed his creator. His goal was to steal the Evolutionary’s armour, as he assumed it held extraordinarily powerful weapons.

Man-Beast appeared to defeat the High Evolutionary, and took his armour ; as he did he saw the High Evolutionary dissolve into light. Man-Beast decided that he, too, would eventually transcend matter and become pure, immortal energy. He unleashed his brainwashed servants to storm the village of the New Men, then put on the armour.

As it turned out, the mutants Wolverine (Logan/James Howlett) and Ariel (Kitty Pryde) were present, mistakenly suspecting that the Man-Beast’s equipment belonged to Magneto. Their intervention foiled the Man-Beast’s plot. When the wolf’s mental powers failed to stop Wolverine, he was shaken to discover that a predator more ferocious than him existed, and he fled.

The Man-Beast glimpsed the High-Evolutionary becoming material again and reclaiming his armour as he left.

The beast who ate infinity, part 1

In unrevealed circumstances, the Man-Beast did build the spaceship, weapons and machines that he needed, and returned to Counter-Earth. It was for naught – as he was preparing his plot in his orbiting ship, the energies of the Infinity Gauntlet wielded by Thanos broke the fragile Counter-Earth, destroying everything.

Still wanting to deface the creation of the High Evolutionary as redeemed by Adam Warlock, the Man-Beast rescued 12 men from the dislocating Counter-Earth. He turned them into apostles of hatred. The Man-Beast also was reunited with his servant Triax the Terrible, who was presumably fleeing the disintegrating Counter-Earth.

Returning to Earth, the Man-Beast learned that Adam Warlock had just assembled the Infinity Watch. This collection of weirdoes was tasked with protecting the cosmically powerful Infinity Gems. The wolf — using the new identity of Omega — captured the Infinity Watch members one by one to reassemble the Gems, catching them unaware and using their weaknesses against them.

The beast who ate infinity, part 2

Meanwhile, the High Evolutionary had been greatly diminished after witnessing the birth of a Celestial, which demolished his mind. Omega thus sent They, his apostles of hate, to relentlessly hunt down the addled Evolutionary and his outmatched protectors.

Adam Warlock intervened and destroyed They. In the meanwhile, though, Omega had plugged all Gems into a special machine and created the Infinity Thrall, an immensely powerful creature that represented a safer means to wield the energy of the gems. Warlock came in, but found himself utterly outmatched by Omega’s thrall.

Realising that Omega was the Man-Beast, Warlock tricked the Thrall into hitting the machinery drawing power from the Gems. Everything exploded, the Man-Beast’s ship was wrecked, the Thrall was dispersed and Warlock recovered the Gems and the Infinity Watch.

Thinking Warlock dead, the Man-Beast hurriedly evacuated his disintegrating ship in an escape pod along with Triax. He decided to take over Earth, but soon learned that Adam and the Watch had survived the destruction of his ship.

For he that giveth him greeting partaketh in his evil works

The Man-Beast resumed impersonating an American politician. This time it was one Senator Munson, who also worked with the UN. Using his mental powers, “Munson” had the UN pass a series of measures against Monster Island – where the Infinity Watch had established its base.

The evil New Man’s manipulations eventually resulted in open conflict between the Watch and the UN, and escalated until the Avengers became involved. ”Munson” also psychically influenced the Avengers into attacking the Watch, but the Vision was immune to his power and bid his time until he could free his comrades.

After a clash with the Avengers, Warlock realised what was going on and exposed “Munson” as the Man-Beast and his bodyguard as Triax the Terrible, defeating them in front of the General Assembly. Warlock nearly killed the Man-Beast, but Captain America stopped him and had the two New Men arrested.

Karnivore

Man-Beast quickly escaped from prison and, learning that the High Evolutionary had returned to Earth, tried to find him ASAP. The wolf discovered that the High Evolutionary had stolen a lion, an elephant and a bear from the Bronx Zoo to create a new generation of aggressive New Men (Simbus, Tantaro and the whimsically-named Urson Wellz, respectively), presumably using Isotope C.

The Evolutionary then changed his mind and enhanced four humans into superhumans patterned after Asgardian gods. He intended for this Godpack to clash with the three New Men, to let the best ’race‘ serve him.

Renaming himself “Karnivore” (or maybe Karnivor), the Man-Beast approached the three new New Men to turn them against the High Evolutionary. They agreed to defect, and formed the core of the Animutants as Man-Beast established a hidden base where he created more evil New Men.

This small army then stormed the new fortress of Wundagore and attacked the High Evolutionary’s men-gods. The assault didn’t go well for Karnivor and his Animutants. While they had brought Jane Foster-Kincaid as a hostage to ward off Thor she escaped, further worsening their odds.

However, the Man-Beast had never expected the Animutants to carry the day. He was just using them as cannon fodder to get his shot at the High Evolutionary. Demonstrating incredible speed and impossibly sharp claws, Karnivor actually took down the Evolutionary, but he was overcome by Thor and had to flee.

The Animutants were captured, and the High Evolutionary announced that he would rehabilitate them.

Circa 1995, the Man-Beast was captured and sent to the Vault under unknown circumstances. Some months later a raid of the U-Foes, sent by the Master of the World (Eshu), allowed him to escape.

Man-Beast learned that a new generation of New Men, employing a new catalyst (Isotope E) had been created a few months after he and his Animutants had attacked the High Evolutionary. Two of the Isotope E New Men were of particular interest.

One, the White Tiger, was a huntress created to hunt him down and kill him – though the Man-Beast managed to stay one step ahead of her for months. The other, Sir Wulf, was the second attempt by the High Evolutionary to work with an uplifted wolf, after a clash with the mutant Exodus had convinced the Evolutionary to produce a savage fighter to defend the New Men.

Knowing that the other New Men would greatly distrust an uplifted wolf given the Man-Beast precedent, the Evolutionary gave his creation a code name (“Lord Anon”) and a full-body armour hiding his appearance and his smell, so no New Man would suspect the presence of a wolf.

The Man-Beast saw this as an opportunity and sneaked into Wundagore, murdering Sir Wulf and stealing his identity as Lord Anon. As an added bonus, he was now in the last place where White Tiger would come looking for him.

Lord Anon, part 2

Thus Man-Beast spent the last few months of 1995 and most of 1996 as Lord Anon, right under the nose of the High Evolutionary. As such, he fought as one of the Knights of Wundagore when Exodus and the Acolytes of Magneto attacked again and conquered the science citadel.

The Evolutionary had to retreat so Isotope E would not fall into Exodus’s hands. He ran along with a small number of surviving Knights of Wundagore that included “Lord Anon”. The nine surviving Knights were placed under the command of an old ally, Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff), and Man-Beast bid his time.

Mutants mercenaries employed by Exodus captured the Knights whilst Quicksilver was away, to learn the location of the Evolutionary and the Isotope. ”Anon” repulsed those sent to capture him, freed the others, stole a ship and flew with his colleagues to the Savage Land.

The High Evolutionary had established his new base there, and the Knights of Wundagore knew that Exodus’s forces would soon attack.

During the fight with the mutants, Fenris (Andrea and Andreas Strucker) breached “Anon”’s armour. One of the Knights, Lord Churchill, recognised the smell of a wolf. Anon killed him and reported that he had been slain in battle. As he discovered the properties of Isotope E, “Anon” resumed scheming — but White Tiger came back.

Her psychic senses realising “Anon”’s nature she attacked. This triggered a fight between the Knights of Wundagore and her allies, the Heroes for Hire. The High Evolutionary broke the fight.

“Anon” told the Evolutionary that she had mistakenly attacked him when she realised that he was a wolf. Still, the Man-Beast knew that he would soon be exposed.

Man gave names to all the animals

The man-wolf thus soon went on the offensive – clobbering the Evolutionary, stealing Isotope E and revealing his identity. When Exodus and his Acolytes attacked anew, he and Man-Beast decided to broker a temporary alliance and get rid of their common foes, the Heroes for Hire.

Holding the unconscious Evolutionary hostage, the Man-Beast forced the Knights of Wundagore to serve him. However, Quicksilver freed himself and stole the Isotope.

As the fray resumed, Man-Beast tracked down the High Evolutionary and found him escorted by but a few Knights of Wundagore, who were attempting to evacuate their master. He tried to take mental control of one of the Knights, Lady Ursula — but she killed herself rather than serve him, and that bought enough time for the White Tiger to come in.

However, the two were separated by an explosion, with the White Tiger taking the brunt of the blast.

Tiger relentless

Seeing that the High Evolutionary had gone insane and was about to destroy everything, the Man-Beast offered another alliance of convenience – to fusion his psionic might with that of Exodus and of Thena, of the Heroes for Hire.

Having no other solution to stop the demented Evolutionary, they agreed. Once the High Evolutionary was brought under control, the Man-Beast turned against anyone, but his assault failed against the White Tiger, who attacked anew.

The tiger had the upper hand, but the Evolutionary, who had regained his sanity, chose to devolve the Man-Beast into an ordinary wolf rather than have him murdered. At her request, he also devolved the White Tiger back into an animal.

The Man-Beast has already come back from devolution several times, though.

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Description

See illustrations.

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Personality

A cruel, scheming villain lusting for power and revenge against the High Evolutionary. The Man-Beast is crafty to the point of paranoia, and expects treason everywhere and from every quarter – which, given his style of management, is a reasonable assumption. This means he’s careful to only create henchmen of moderate power or clear limitations, lest they band together and overthrow him.

Man-Beast is in the thrall of animalistic hatred. His strategies can thus be less than rational, fixating on something inspired by hatred rather than analysis.

Early on his goal was to wipe out all life on Earth to demonstrate that he was the greatest predator ever, then he fixated on spiteful revenge against the High Evolutionary – basically urinating in his morning cereals, in a ploy that would have been petty without the grandiose scale of the Evolutionary’s creation at that time.

Schemes

The wolf tends to oscillate between revenge and proof of superiority through domination, but such plots will usually be stronger on cunning than on analytical strategy.

Man-Beast has a complicated mental model where he wants to prove that he’s the pinnacle of evolution by being the most hateful, destructive predator in all of creation. Obviously his definition of “evolution” is radically different from real-world biology (for instance it assumes that it has some sort of end goal), and is deeply intertwined with religious sentiments toward the High Evolutionary.

Man-Beast is both the fallen angel (who does evil because it’s his nature, and is proud of it) and the jealous son (whose strong feelings toward his creators are a toxic mix of hatred, jealousy, need to see his strength recognised, hatred, envy, hatred and hatred).

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Quotes

(His very first words) “I live !! I feel !! And more… I HATE !!”

“I possess the brain of man — as it will be a million years hence ! Plus, the power of the wolf — as he will be a million years hence ! Therefore, how easy it is for me to mentally sense the pressure points in your body which are the most vulnerable ! My knowledge of every form of combat is a million years more advanced than yours !”

(Fighting Adam Warlock) “Try, then, use your pretty and pathetic soul jewel. Against the power of my hate, it is nothing — and less than nothing !”

“Servile disciple, what a fool you are ! I am not as like you as you care to think, Brother Power… for where you aspire to power — to the trappings of evil — never forget, Achmed Korba — that I am evil incarnate !”

“There is no way you could know of me, fool ! I am beyond your knowledge and understanding ! I am your primordial fear sprung violently to life ! I am Evil ! On your knees, humans — where soon the rest of your race will be — and prepare yourselves for death at the rending claw of… the Man-Beast !”

“The soulless android fool ! A curse that I must humour his folly of destroying Earth ! What care I of Earth ? My vengeance concerns only Counter-Earth — and I shall not rest until I have used the Bi-beast to get me there.”

“Exactly ! The Man-Beast ! And I have returned to witness your death at the hands of — the Infinity Thrall !”

(To Adam Warlock) “Fine by me, you gleaming cretin ! Your death by my hand has long been my fondest wish ! You stole from me a world I once wisely ruled ! Your self-righteous interference made me a galactic fugitive ! For almost a decade I have dreamed of blood retribution for the wrongs you did me ! That glorious moment is now at hand !”

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By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Capita_Senyera. I’ve also checked at which point in time Marvunapp.com placed the Wolverine : First Class story and followed suit.

Writeup completed on the 25^th of January, 2011.