AKHENATEN

Real Name : Amenhotep IV

Identity/Class : Cosmically-Augmented Human (Earth-4321; see comments); Egyptian

Occupation : Conqueror, former Ruler/Pharaoh of Egypt (c.1351 - 1334 BC)

Group Membership: None

Affiliations : Aten/Aton (his god);
   Apocalypse (posing as Aton), The Celestial Order, Imperial Police Force

Enemies : Avengers, Council of God-Kings, Defenders, Dr. Doom, The Egyptian Gods, Fantastic Four, Kree, Shi'ar, Spider-Man, Thanos, Adam Warlock, the X-Men (Angel, Archangel, Beast, Bishop, Chamber, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Gambit, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Sage, Stacy-X, Storm, Thunderbird, Wolverine);
time-travellers (like Immortus, Kang, Rama-Tut, Timekeeper, Time-Keepers, Time-Twisters, Zarrko the Tomorrow Man, and others)
   all heroes of Earth

Known Relatives : Amenhotep III (father, deceased), Tiy (mother, deceased),

Nefertiti (wife, deceased), Tutankhamen (son or step-son, deceased, SEE COMMENTS),

Aliases : Akhenaton, Akhetaton, Ikhnaton, Echnaton, Name translates into “Aton is Pleased”

Place of Birth: Thebes, Egypt

Base of Operations : Akhenaten (now modern Tell-el-Amarna), Egypt;

formerly Thebes, Egypt (both during the 14th Century BC),

Extent of Education: Royal tutors

First Appearance : Incredible Hulk II#457 (October, 1997)

 

Powers/Abilities : Akhenaten possesses incalculable powers on a Cosmic Scale possibly on a scale of the Beyonder and surpassing that of Odin, Zeus, The Collector and the Elders of the Universe. He had Class 100 level strength and the ability to control and manipulate energy on an infinite level by tapping directly into the prime universal flow of the cosmos.

Height: 6' (variable)
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Yellow (formerly Brown)
Hair: Black

 

History : (Historical) - Akhenaten was the last important ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty, taking power @ 1351 BC. His wife, Nefertiti, was renowned as the most beautiful woman in Egypt for her time. He was the first Egyptian ruler to establish a monotheistic religion on one god he called Aten (aka Aton). To honor this new religion, he changed his name from Amenhotep IV to Akhenaten (“Aten is Pleased”); established cities devoted to Aten in Egypt, Nubia and Syria and attempted to obliterate all traces of religion to the Egyptian Gods. He moved the capital city of Egypt from Thebes to the newly built city of Akhenaten. His priests tried to adhere to the religion of Ammon Ra secretly under his rule.

(Incredible Hulk II#457 (fb)) - Akhenaten also believed he was the spokesman for the god Aton. The mutant Apocalypse, while living in Egypt, forced Akhenaten to believe that he was his god, Aton, as Akhenaten requested his presence before his people.

(Marvel: The End#1 (fb)) <1334>- After a reign of seventeen years, Akhenaten was abducted by aliens known as the Cosmic Order who considered him an ideal example of human beings and a person with idealistic motives. The granted him the power of the Heart of the Universe, but his acclimation into accepting these powers required thousands of years.

(Marvel: The End#l (fb)/ Historical)- After Akhenaten’s disappearance, his throne was filled by Smenkhtare who was possibly a regent until Akhenaten’s young son, Tutankhamen, could take power. Tutankhamen, the boy-king, however, was reputedly murdered by Horemhneb, Akhenaten’s rival who also killed Kheperkheprure Ay, Akhenaten’s vizier, who stood next to inherit the throne. Horemhreb ordered all traces of Akhenaten to be wiped from existence as he restored worship of the gods of old and ordered Akhenaten’s tomb be emptied of his remains which were never found.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Marvel Universe: The End#1)- After several thousand years, Akhenaten returned to Earth to resume his rule of it from Egypt. Still hating the gods of old, he warned Thor and possibly the other gods of Earth that his claims to Earth predated his. He annihilated all those alien races with previous designs on Earth such as the Kree and the Shi’Ar. He also destroyed earth’s champions known as the X-Men because he considered them a worthy antagonist to his rule. Ordering the rulers of earth to accept him as their new ruler, he promised an era of prosperity and rewards to all who accepted him including cures for AIDS and cancer. Expecting resistance, he then offered the Avengers and the Fantastic Four the chance to be his royal bodyguards, but before they could counter, the Thing tried to attack him and he killed all of them with one thought. He then hung their bodies throughout Manhattan as a warning to all who opposed him.

Eternity then met with Infinity, Master Order and Lord Chaos as Akhenaten’s actions caused an imbalance in the cosmic flow of the universe. Thanos and the Silver Surfer meanwhile joined forces to explore the source of Akhenaten’s power.

(Marvel Universe: The End#2) – Akhenaten also seized all individuals who presided from outside the timestream among with several time travelers to prevent them from altering his past. He also seized the spirit of Horemheb from the afterlife to make him suffer for his sins of the past before completely destroying him.

Frustrated with the death of his son, Hercules, with the Avengers, Zeus contacted Thor for a meeting of the Council of Godheads to discuss the actions of Akhenaten against humanity: Atar (Vedic/Persian), Horus (Egyptian), Hunab Ku (Mayan), Izanagi (Japanese), Ndriananahary (African), Shou-Hsing (Chinese), Thor (Asgardian), Vishnu (Hindu), Zeus (Olympian). They also discussed summoning Those of the Forgotten Realm. Horus, who was most familiar with Akhenaten used the Eye of Ra to spy on the powerful being, but Akhenaten detected them and attacked, destroying all present, except Thor and Zeus, who managed to flee to safety.

(Marvel Universe: The End#3-4)- Akhenaten abolished all weapons of earth and created an Imperial Police force out of the super-powered villains of Earth to weed out and destroy society’s undesirable elements, particularly the last remaining heroes of earth. Dr. Doom, meanwhile, having studied the hieroglyphs from Akhenaten’s temple from afar learned how he received his cosmic power and the exact time it occurred and then traveled back in time to 1334 to stop him and usurp his power. Akhenaten, meanwhile, expected this and confronted him in the past as he chided Doom for foolishly thinking he would leave his past unprotected. After dealing with Doom, Akhenaten stood by and watched as his past proceeded undisturbed.

Thanos and the Defenders meanwhile reached the ship of the Cosmic Order and encountered the aliens that maintained it and protected the Heart of the Universe within it. The aliens remained oblivious to their presence up until the Hulk discovered a robot he believed was attacking him and destroyed it. Their presence revealed, the Defenders fought to shut down the source of Akhenaten’s power. Thanos then dived into the Heart of the Universe believing his armor could contain, filter and absorb the energies as they had done so expertly in the past. Gaining the virtually unlimited power of the Heart, Thanos inadvertently destroyed the ship and took a brief moment to assimilate and adjust to these energies. He then unconsciously sent himself back in time to 1334 and rescued Dr. Doom from the cosmically powered Akhenaten, so that Doom could kill the human Akhenaten. As a result, he altered time so that Akhenaten never gained his power, effectively undoing his actions and restoring those he had destroyed in the future. However, to those who could understand or even remember what had happened, these actions were seen as the replacement of one threat with another, perhaps even worse.

Thanos, meanwhile, still had to contend with the cosmically powered Akhenaten from the previous timeline. Meeting each other beyond time and space, they fought each other for supremacy of the cosmos and infinity as they proved to be more than a match for each other. Thanos, however, admitted how much he was impressed by Akhenaten and sent him back to contend with Dr. Doom to decide his fate. Doom, however, destroyed the ship of the Cosmic Order to remove their influence from the time stream, and Akhenaten perished aboard that ship. Thanos then sent Akhenaten to his final reward in the afterlife in the form of a harmless butterfly.

Comments : Adapted by Peter David, David Brewer, Cam Smith and Andrew Pepoy.

Thanos would not be allowed to hold the power cosmic. Even with his new self-awareness and new inner peace, his ego would force him to absorb everything in the universe after getting attacked by the gods and heroes of earth. After Adam Warlock forced him to realize the futility of his actions, Thanos gave up all to restore all that he had destroyed.

Considering the mechanics of time travel and alternate realities, there should be another Thanos in the reorganized present with no memory of ever taking on Akhenaten, plus, in the reality which Akhenaten took over, there would exist a timeline where super-powered villains still exist as his Imperial police but without Akhenaten to guide them.
--Or...we can accept that the actual physics of time travel remain unknown and ASSume that they can vary in different circumstances. I would take this as an actual case of altering the past and thus re-writing the history of Akhenaten. Because he was outside of the timestream in his encounter with Thanos, he could have continued to exist until his defeat by Thanos. Still, if that were true, there would be an alternate reality in which Akhenaten was not wiped out of existence. Again, it's all just theory anyhoo.
--Snood.

In Egyptology, Tutankhamen was believed to be the son-in-law, not the son of Akhenaten, but this new relationship may be part of new archaeological evidence which now outdates all previous established data. Or perhaps, Tutankhamen was the son of Akhenaten in the MU.

Much of the historical research for the real Akhenaten here comes from Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia, Volume One, A – American Indian Languages, Copyright 1982. A list of pharaohs back to Pre-Dynastic Egypt (c. 3150 BC) can be found located here.
Akhenaten's historical reign in the real world is listed as 1375? BC-1358 BC.

I seem to hear more and more of "this story can't be continuity b/c 'Red Lotus' wasn't a member of the X-Men' or 'so-and-so never wore that costume' or some other minor reason. People seem to try to find ways to exclude stories from being continuity, when I actually think the opposite.
Look at it this way. Way back when, Stan Lee discussed writing comic books based on the official stories as they were told by a member of the Fantastic Four or whoever. So, every story is second hand, based on a couple characters' memories...and no one's memories are perfect (there was a good Spectacular Spider-Man issue (II#121) that showed how Peter Parker, Jonah, and MJ remembered a recent adventure as dramatically different).
Also, there is both bias of the storyteller and writer, and artistic license.
As a Marvel Zombie, the job then becomes what must be explained in order to make this story fit in. A prime example would be the Kangaroo entry I wrote for the Spider-Man Encyclopedia, based on the profile on this site. Kangaroo
Anyway, the End continues from Infinity Abyss, and continues into the current Thanos series, and should be considered continuity. Period. The End.
--Snood.

Akhenaten and Aknaton (see Clarifications) were both detailed by Jim Starlin, about two decades apart. Their appearance--or at least the Egyptian motif--is very similar. Another character from Dreadstar's reality to make an appearance, or have a similar counterpart in the more mainstream MU is Quarry, who was clearly based on Izak. In that case, both characters were written and drawn by Peter David and Angel Medina, respectively.
Maybe once I get another couple thousand profiles done from the mainstream MU I'll start hitting some from Dreadstar...

In OHotMU 2006 A-Z#1 it was revealed that Akhenaton is from Earth-4321. This doesn't mean that at least some of the events of Earth-4321 happened on Earth-616 as well, but the extent of this duplication remains unrevealed.

Thanks to Erik Kampmann for following information:
I do not know if you are referring to the comics when referring to certain information regarding Akhenaten, but Akhetaton was not an alias of Akhenaten, it is, in fact, the name of the city he founded at Amarna. Its name means "the Horizon of the Aten". Also, it was Tutankhaten who restored the worship of the god Amun, not Horemheb. After Tutankhaten restored the old religion, he changed his name to Tutankhamen and his wife, Ankhesenpa'aten (Akhenaten's daughter, perhaps Tutankhamen's half-sister?) changed her name to Ankhesenpa'amun. And Smenkhare could have been any number of people, the name appears at the same time that Nefertiti's name disappears, which means it is possible Nefertiti became a co-king with Akhenaten and changed her name to Smenkhare. After Akhenaten's death, Nefertiti?/Smenkhare married Ankhesenpa'aten (who would have been Nefertiti's own daughter). But it is unclear who Smenkhare was, only that this person married Ankhesenpa'aten. The Aten was not so much a god as it was a thing. The Aten is the solar disc and the worship of the Aten is the worship of the warm, life-giving power of the sun's rays. It is not really a mono-theistic religion, more of a type of nature-worship. And Akhenaten didn't believe that only he was the spokesman for the Aten, it was the royal family, chiefly Akhenaten and Nefertiti, who were not so much the spokesmen, but more like the Jesus/God relationship that Christianity exhibits. And Tutankhamun is believed to possibly be the actual son of Akhenaten but through a second wife named Kiya.

I believe this alternate timeline does exist, since Marvel said that Thanos: The End took place on Earth-4321. This seems like a strange case where Earth-616 is the timeline that was split off, with the original timeline continuing on "off-camera". (A similar situation occured in the story where Kulan Gath took over the world: the heroes managed to go back in time and stop Gath from returning, resulting in the Gath-free Earth-616 timeline, but the timeline where Gath took over still continued to exist, and was shown again much later on.) As for another Thanos being out there with no memory of fighting Akhenaten, I think that God-Thanos could've just merged with his usual 616 self after changing everything back to normal, which would be why 616 Thanos remembers the events of The End.
--Metalgoldknight

Profile by: Will Uchtman

CLARIFICATIONS: Akhenaten is not to be confused with:

  • Aknaton of Earth-8116, last survivor of the Osiriran race, @ Epic Illustrated#1: Metamorphosis Odyssey
    --see comments.
  • Ikthalon, demonic entity, @ Marvel Spotlight I#14

 

images:
Marvel Universe: The End#1, pg 34, top right;
pg 3, right panel;
pg 35, middle left

Appearances:
Incredible Hulk II#457 (October, 1997) - Peter David (writer), David Brewer (pencils), Cam Smith & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Marvel Universe: The End#1-4 (May-June, 2003) - bi-weekly - Jim Starlin (writer/pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 01/12/2004
Last updated: 09/13/2005 Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know. Non-Marvel Copyright info
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