Immortal Man
Encyclopedia
Immortal Man is a fictional comic book
superhero
character in the DC Comics
Universe
. He first appeared in National Comics
(now DC Comics) flagship science fiction anthology comic Strange Adventures
#177 (June 1965). Immortal Man was also a member of The Forgotten Heroes
.
Following this he appeared with The Forgotten Heroes in Action Comics
#552 - #553 (February - March 1984) by Marv Wolfman
and Gil Kane
and DC Comics Presents
#77 - 78(January - February 1985) by Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan
and Dave Hunt, a direct link into DC Comics major cross-over event 'Crisis on Infinite Earths
. Nothing further was published until an appearance in Animal Man
#23 (May 1990), The Flash
vol 2 #48 - 50 (March - May 1991), written by William Messner-Loebs
, and a final appearance written by Dan Abnett
, with art by Andy Lanning
, in Resurrection Man
25 - 27 (June - August 1999).
while in battle with him, and Immortal Man fashions an amulet
from a jewel from the same meteorite, a tektite
, discovering it gives him the power of resurrection, super-strength and the ability to fly, along with other powers. Over the millennia Immortal Man has been a Babylonia
n, an Egyptian
, Greek
, Roman
, Carthaginian
, an Arab
warrior and a knight, a Mongol
and many other people. Each time he dies he comes back as someone else, sometimes as an adult, sometimes as a child, and throughout history he is the enemy of Vandar Adg - who later becomes known as Vandal Savage
.
When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japan
ese Samurai
culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. He is next suddenly plunged into the jungle as an adult 'Jungle Man' some months later, with memories of who he was and realising that he reincarnates
in a new body every time he dies. In the following months he dies saving a pair of treasure hunters from a rampaging mythical beast conjured by a mystical helmet, and saves them again and dies by exploding a rocket bomb constructed by the same helmet. By this time Helen Phelps, one of the treasure hunters, has fallen in love with him and worked out his secret reincarnation ability. She finds him again, but once more he is killed, taking a bomb to a dimensional rift in space so as to close it.
Years later, Immortal Man summons Sea Devils
, Cave Carson
, Animal Man
, Congo Bill, Rip Hunter
and Rick Flag
of Suicide Squad
and Dolphin
, with the aim of stopping Superman
, who has been infected with ancient spores by Vandal Savage. Immortal Man calls the group 'The Forgotten Heroes
'. They then help Superman defeat a group of super-powered criminals under Kraklow the Magician and The Enchantress
calling themselves 'The Forgotten Villains', but Immortal Man is killed saving Dolphin from a rock flung by The Faceless Hunter From Saturn, then reincarnated as 'a strapping youth'. Ultimately, Immortal Man "erased himself from all existence" to save the world during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Forest 1.93 million years ago, during the Pleistocene Era
.
Despite apparently having been erased from existence during the Crisis, Immortal Man apparently returns as a girl. Eight years later the rest of The Forgotten Heroes, with the help of Mitch Shelley, Resurrection Man
- who they and he suspect is really Immortal Man - discover that Vandal Savage has been keeping Immortal Man prisoner for many years. Together Resurrection Man, Vandal Savage and a reluctant Immortal Man go up against a creature that had come through time on a second temporal meteorite - one that Vandal Savage had been tracking, hoping to use its power to augment that of the first one. This 'Warp Child' erases many of the world's heroes, including the Justice League
and Teen Titans, from reality, and is only defeated when Immortal Man melds his 'tektite field' with the creature then overloads it - causing both to be erased from existence.
Comic book
A comic book or comicbook is a magazine made up of comics, narrative artwork in the form of separate panels that represent individual scenes, often accompanied by dialog as well as including...
superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
character in the DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
Universe
DC Universe
The DC Universe is the shared universe where most of the comic stories published by DC Comics take place. The fictional characters Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are well-known superheroes from this universe. Note that in context, "DC Universe" is usually used to refer to the main DC continuity...
. He first appeared in National Comics
National Comics
National Comics may refer to:* National Comics: An early name for the comic book publisher known later as DC Comics.* National Comics : a 1940's comic book series published by Quality Comics....
(now DC Comics) flagship science fiction anthology comic Strange Adventures
Strange Adventures
Strange Adventures was the title of several American comic books published by DC Comics, most notably a long-running science fiction anthology that began in 1950.-Original series:...
#177 (June 1965). Immortal Man was also a member of The Forgotten Heroes
Forgotten Heroes
The Forgotten Heroes are fictional superhero team in the DC Comics universe. The group is composed of superheroes that had faded from the limelight...
.
Publication history
Immortal Man first appeared in "I lived a Hundred Lives" in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965), an eight-page story drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him. Although not a regular character in the title, Immortal Man then featured in Strange Adventures: #185 in a 16-page tale and Strange Adventures #190 and #198 in 12-page tales. Jack Sparling drew all four adventures, and Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man also featured on the covers to all four issues.Following this he appeared with The Forgotten Heroes in Action Comics
Action Comics
Action Comics is an American comic book series that introduced Superman, the first major superhero character as the term is popularly defined...
#552 - #553 (February - March 1984) by Marv Wolfman
Marv Wolfman
Marvin A. "Marv" Wolfman is an award-winning American comic book writer. He is best known for lengthy runs on The Tomb of Dracula, creating Blade for Marvel Comics, and The New Teen Titans for DC Comics.-1960s:...
and Gil Kane
Gil Kane
Eli Katz who worked under the name Gil Kane and in one instance Scott Edward, was a comic book artist whose career spanned the 1940s to 1990s and every major comics company and character.Kane co-created the modern-day versions of the superheroes Green Lantern and the Atom for DC Comics, and...
and DC Comics Presents
DC Comics Presents
DC Comics Presents was a comic book published by DC Comics from 1978 to 1986 featuring team-ups between Superman and a wide variety of other characters of the DC Universe...
#77 - 78(January - February 1985) by Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan
Curt Swan
Douglas Curtis Swan was an American comic book artist. The artist most associated with Superman during the period fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Swan produced hundreds of covers and stories from the 1950s through the 1980s.-Early life and career:Curt Swan, whose Swedish...
and Dave Hunt, a direct link into DC Comics major cross-over event 'Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Crisis on Infinite Earths is a 12-issue American comic book limited series and crossover event, produced by DC Comics in 1985 to simplify its then 50-year-old continuity...
. Nothing further was published until an appearance in Animal Man
Animal Man
Animal Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals...
#23 (May 1990), The Flash
Flash (comics)
The Flash is a name shared by several fictional comic book superheroes from the DC Comics universe. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Harry Lampert, the original Flash first appeared in Flash Comics #1 ....
vol 2 #48 - 50 (March - May 1991), written by William Messner-Loebs
William Messner-Loebs
William Messner-Loebs is an American comic book writer and artist from Michigan, also known as Bill Loebs and Bill Messner-Loebs...
, and a final appearance written by Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
, with art by Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning
Andy Lanning is a British comic book writer and inker, known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics, and for his collaboration with Dan Abnett.-Career:Lanning works primarily at Marvel Comics and DC Comics as an inker...
, in Resurrection Man
Resurrection Man
The Resurrection Man is a fictional character, a superhero whose adventures were published by DC Comics from 1997 to 1999 in a serialized comic book of the same name, created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Jackson Guice...
25 - 27 (June - August 1999).
Pre-Crisis
50,000 years ago the Immortal Man was Klarn, a caveman leader of the Bear Tribe, and a mortal enemy of Vandar Adg of the Wolf Clan. Vandar is made immortal by a meteoriteMeteorite
A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives impact with the Earth's surface. Meteorites can be big or small. Most meteorites derive from small astronomical objects called meteoroids, but they are also sometimes produced by impacts of asteroids...
while in battle with him, and Immortal Man fashions an amulet
Amulet
An amulet, similar to a talisman , is any object intended to bring good luck or protection to its owner.Potential amulets include gems, especially engraved gems, statues, coins, drawings, pendants, rings, plants and animals; even words said in certain occasions—for example: vade retro satana—, to...
from a jewel from the same meteorite, a tektite
Tektite
Tektites are natural glass rocks up to a few centimeters in size, which most scientists argue were formed by the impact of large meteorites on Earth's surface. Tektites are typically black or olive-green, and their shape varies from rounded to irregular.Tektites are among the "driest" rocks, with...
, discovering it gives him the power of resurrection, super-strength and the ability to fly, along with other powers. Over the millennia Immortal Man has been a Babylonia
Babylonia
Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia , with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as a major power when Hammurabi Babylonia was an ancient cultural region in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq), with Babylon as its capital. Babylonia emerged as...
n, an Egyptian
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
, Greek
Ancient Greece
Ancient Greece is a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history that lasted from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and the Byzantine era. Included in Ancient Greece is the...
, Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
, Carthaginian
Carthage
Carthage , implying it was a 'new Tyre') is a major urban centre that has existed for nearly 3,000 years on the Gulf of Tunis, developing from a Phoenician colony of the 1st millennium BC...
, an Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
warrior and a knight, a Mongol
Mongols
Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...
and many other people. Each time he dies he comes back as someone else, sometimes as an adult, sometimes as a child, and throughout history he is the enemy of Vandar Adg - who later becomes known as Vandal Savage
Vandal Savage
Vandal Savage is a fictional character, a supervillain published by DC Comics. He first appeared in Green Lantern vol. 1 #10 , and was created by Alfred Bester and Martin Nodell....
.
When he first appears in modern times, Immortal Man is an orphan named Mark with a mysterious past he has little memory of and many skills in areas such as bullfighting, Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese Samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
culture and culinary arts without knowing why. Eventually he returns to the orphanage where he was brought up and is given a jewel amulet that shows him his past lives and powers. Shortly afterwards he instinctively uses similar powers to save a town when a reservoir bursts, but dies when a school boiler explodes during the rescue. He is next suddenly plunged into the jungle as an adult 'Jungle Man' some months later, with memories of who he was and realising that he reincarnates
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
in a new body every time he dies. In the following months he dies saving a pair of treasure hunters from a rampaging mythical beast conjured by a mystical helmet, and saves them again and dies by exploding a rocket bomb constructed by the same helmet. By this time Helen Phelps, one of the treasure hunters, has fallen in love with him and worked out his secret reincarnation ability. She finds him again, but once more he is killed, taking a bomb to a dimensional rift in space so as to close it.
Years later, Immortal Man summons Sea Devils
Sea Devils (comics)
The Sea Devils are a team of characters in comics published by DC Comics. They are a team of conventional adventurers, in undersea adventures. They were created by writer Robert Kanigher and artist Russ Heath ....
, Cave Carson
Cave Carson
Calvin "Cave" Carson is a fictional character that appeared in stories published by DC Comics. Carson, a spelunker, first appeared in Brave and the Bold #31 ; he was created by France Herron and Bruno Premiani.-Publication history:...
, Animal Man
Animal Man
Animal Man is a fictional character, a superhero in the . As a result of being in proximity to an exploding extraterrestrial spaceship, Buddy Baker acquires the ability to temporarily “borrow” the abilities of animals...
, Congo Bill, Rip Hunter
Rip Hunter
Rip Hunter is a DC Comics character who first appeared in Showcase #20 . Following three more appearances in Showcase , Rip Hunter was given his own series, which ran for 29 issues . He later starred in the six-issue Time Masters series , written by Bob Wayne and Lewis Shiner...
and Rick Flag
Rick Flag
Rick Flag is the name of three fictional characters in the DC Comics universe. They are father, son, and grandson.The father, Richard Flag was in the original Suicide Squad, a World War II unit. After the war he was a member of Task Force X. The son, Rick Flag Jr...
of Suicide Squad
Suicide Squad
The Suicide Squad, also known as Task Force X , is a name for two fictional organizations in the DC Comics Universe. The first version debuted in The Brave and the Bold #25 , and the second in Legends #3...
and Dolphin
Dolphin (comics)
Dolphin is a fictional character, a superheroine in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer-artist Jay Scott Pike, she debuted in Showcase #79 Dolphin is a fictional character, a superheroine in the DC Comics universe. Created by writer-artist Jay Scott Pike, she debuted in Showcase #79 Dolphin...
, with the aim of stopping Superman
Superman
Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...
, who has been infected with ancient spores by Vandal Savage. Immortal Man calls the group 'The Forgotten Heroes
Forgotten Heroes
The Forgotten Heroes are fictional superhero team in the DC Comics universe. The group is composed of superheroes that had faded from the limelight...
'. They then help Superman defeat a group of super-powered criminals under Kraklow the Magician and The Enchantress
Enchantress (DC Comics)
The Enchantress is a DC Comics character who has been both a superheroine and supervillainess. She first appeared in National Comics flagship science fiction anthology title Strange Adventures #187 , and was created by writer Bob Haney and artist Howard Purcell.More recently she is usually called...
calling themselves 'The Forgotten Villains', but Immortal Man is killed saving Dolphin from a rock flung by The Faceless Hunter From Saturn, then reincarnated as 'a strapping youth'. Ultimately, Immortal Man "erased himself from all existence" to save the world during the Crisis on Infinite Earths.
Post-Crisis
In post-Crisis continuity the meteorite that gave Van Adg and Klarn their immortality was hurled through time by unknown agents and landed in what would become the ArdennesArdennes
The Ardennes is a region of extensive forests, rolling hills and ridges formed within the Givetian Ardennes mountain range, primarily in Belgium and Luxembourg, but stretching into France , and geologically into the Eifel...
Forest 1.93 million years ago, during the Pleistocene Era
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene is the epoch from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years BP that spans the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
.
Despite apparently having been erased from existence during the Crisis, Immortal Man apparently returns as a girl. Eight years later the rest of The Forgotten Heroes, with the help of Mitch Shelley, Resurrection Man
Resurrection Man
The Resurrection Man is a fictional character, a superhero whose adventures were published by DC Comics from 1997 to 1999 in a serialized comic book of the same name, created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Jackson Guice...
- who they and he suspect is really Immortal Man - discover that Vandal Savage has been keeping Immortal Man prisoner for many years. Together Resurrection Man, Vandal Savage and a reluctant Immortal Man go up against a creature that had come through time on a second temporal meteorite - one that Vandal Savage had been tracking, hoping to use its power to augment that of the first one. This 'Warp Child' erases many of the world's heroes, including the Justice League
Justice League
The Justice League, also called the Justice League of America or JLA, is a fictional superhero team that appears in comic books published by DC Comics....
and Teen Titans, from reality, and is only defeated when Immortal Man melds his 'tektite field' with the creature then overloads it - causing both to be erased from existence.
Other versions
In Final Crisis: Superman Beyond #1, Superman moves briefly through Earth-20, where alternate versions of a number of DC Comics older heroes exist as 'The Society of Super-Heroes', a group of 'pulp'-style mystery men led by Doc Fate and including Immortal Man. Writer Grant Morrison described it as a '1940s retro thing'.Powers and abilities
- Immortal Man gained his powers from future tektite technology, which merged with him from a jewel that came from a 'temporal meteorite' that crashed on Earth through time. Its creators and purpose are unknown.
- He possesses the power to resurrect as a new persona every time he is killed. The reincarnations appears to happen almost immediately on death, and he does not always remember who he was before, or learns of it later. He usually retains most of the skills he has learned in previous lives.
- Immortal Man also exhibits super-strength and some hypnotic powers, as well as minor pyrokinetic talents, and can fly using telekinetic power.
External links
- Immortal Man entry at 'The Unofficial Guide to the DC Universe' - http://www.dcuguide.com/chronology.php?name=immortalman
- Immortal Man entry at the 'DC Database' - http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Immortal_Man_%28New_Earth%29
- Immortal Man entry at 'The Comic Vine' - http://www.comicvine.com/immortal-man/29-28862/
- Forgotten Heroes entry at 'Adam Arnold's Vanishing Point' - http://www.adamarnold.net/forgottenheroes/wwprecrisiscast.html