BATTLETIDE
Real Name: Not applicable
Identity/Class: Demonic Gestalt
Occupation: Essence of warfare and vengeful combat
Affiliations: Bezial, Megaira, Termagent, Termagaira
Enemies: Dark Angel (Shevaun Haldane), Dark Guard (Albion, Dark Angel, Tigon Liger, Motormouth/Harley Davis, Ultramarine), Death's Head (Minion), Hercules (Heracles/Alcaeus), Killpower (Julius Mullarkey), Megaira, Psylocke (Elizabeth Braddock), Sabretooth (Victor Creed), Smith, Tasker, the Temploids, Termagent, Termagaira, Wolverine (James Howlett/Logan);
numerous other unidentified combatants and spectators
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Tide
Base of Operations: The Dread Citadel--whose walls were built with slabs of concentrated
hate--on the edge of the galaxy;
mobile throughout the known universe;
formerly Colosseum
First Appearance: Death's Head and Killpower: Battletide I#2 (January, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: The Battletide consumes the souls of those fallen in combat. It does so by amplifying violence and destruction to obscene levels, driving warriors into a mindless berserker rage and boosting their adrenaline. In order to do so the Battletide may cross vast distances in space.
History:
(Deaths Head and Killpower#2(fb)) - The Battletide sprang from the final conflict of the
mythical Demonwars in pre-history. It was the distillation of
bloodlust and carnage, containing within its form demons who fell
in combat. Hunting for the souls of the fallen to sustain itself,
its appetite drew it towards many battles making them far, far
bloodier by its presence. It sensed such a conflict coming on
Colosseum and headed towards the desolate planetoid.
(Deaths Head and Killpower#4 (fb)) - Termagaira, the former Warlord of the demon host, had been split into two separate beings and separated from the Battletide. As Termagent and Megaira they had manipulated events on Colosseum to bring the Battletide to them.
(Battletide II#3 (fb)) - In the distant past, the Battletide threatened the homeworld of the beings who would become known as the Temploids. The Temploids, then fierce warriors, launched a warship to destroy the Tide. The Battletide consumed the ship and then obliterated the Temploid's homeworld, leaving just a small number of survivors, who formed the Knights of the Tempered Brotherhood.
(Deaths Head and Killpower#1-4) - On Colosseum, warriors from across the multiverse had come to participate in the Games, the greatest bloodsport of them all. Attendance was at record levels, as this cycle the Games were to be to the death, and live omniversal link-ups would provide trillions of viewers with coverage of the events. Termagent had collected heroes and villains from Earth and other lower worlds to participate in the Games, including Dark Angel, Death's Head, Hercules, Killpower, Psylocke, Sabretooth and Wolverine. They had been fitted with inhibitor collars and paired with a partner.
Day one was the elimination round, and while
Earths heroes survived, it was not an easy ride. The tag team of
Wolverine and Sabretooth had attempted to rebel only for the
inhibitor collars to boost their adrenaline and aggression
levels, turning them into enraged beasts who had attacked Death's
Head and Killpower. Psylocke and Hercules had fought the avian
tag team, while Dark Angel and her strong but silent partner,
Smith, had battled in the oasis sector of the arena-plex. While
there Dark Angel was contacted by the Tempered Brotherhood, aka
the Temploids. At the end of the day, the contestants all
gathered in the pleasure drome of the gladiators village to
recreate, where Dark Angel gathered the heroes to meet with the
Temploids, who warned them of the threat of the Battletide. It
appeared that the Battletide would be able to flood the omniverse
with violence through the seventeen point six trillion sentient
beings watching the Games via the omniversal transmitter.
The following day the heroes gathered in sector X245 where they made a play for the cameras. Killpower had deactivated their inhibitor collars, and Sabretooth was mind-controlled by Psylocke. When they removed the collars and broke free, Termagent ordered for them to be killed and made to like it was part of the Games. The heroes were almost at the tower when Termagent and his troops attacked, but as the two factions faced off against each other, the Battletide arrived.
The world of Colosseum shook as the Battletide washed over it, flowing through Termagent and Megaira and breaking through into the spectator's area wreaking havoc. The crowds were driven into a mindless berserker rage as their adrenaline levels rose, but Dark Angel and Psylocke worked together to create a mystic shield in the heroes minds to protect them from the Battletide's effects. However, the Battletide had a different effect on Termagent and Megaira: their memories were restored and they became reunited as Termagaira, warlord of the demon host.
The Temploids appeared to warn the heroes of this turn of events and, reinforcing their psychic barriers, helped them get to the tower to stop Termagaira, who was headed there to draw the Battletide onto himself. Death's Head, Killpower and one of the Temploids made it through the crowds, leaving the other heroes behind. Noticing Termagaira atop the tower, with the Battletide swirling around him, Killpower shot the tower out from under him. Deaths Head and Killpower fought the demon, and it plunged to its death, impaled on a segment of the tower. The demon entity left its physical body to be re-absorbed by the Battletide.
Realizing the Battletide would now pull the
planet apart and consume them all, the badly damaged Temploid
asked Killpower to fuse its remains into Deaths Heads systems,
combining the Temploids techno-mystical power with Death's heads
multiple wills in an attempt to turn back the Battletide. The
remaining heroes made it through the crowds only to watch as
Death's Head acted as a super-conductor, drawing the energies of
the Battletide into himself causing a massive implosion which
tore his body apart.
Killpower subsequently rebuilt Death's Head, who was extremely
grateful, until he saw the large pile of leftover parts that
Killpower hadn't been sure where to put.
(Battletide II#4 (fb)-BTS) - When Death's Head form was destroyed, the mind of Bezial, one of those who had been absorbed by Death's Head in the past, escaped. Bezial fled into the Battletide. There it found and possessed the body of Termagaira, and was able to use the demon-lord's power to harness the entire Battletide.
(Battletide II#1-4) - The Battletide, now possessing conscious awareness, again left the Dread Citadel. It returned to the cosmos, acting as a predator, deliberately choosing rich, life-bearing worlds to prey on. Earth became its next target. The Temploids sensed the return of the Battletide and gathered Killpower and Death's Head (and his ally, Tuck) to oppose the Tide. The Battletide sent one of its demons to possess the Hulk and transported him aboard the Temploids ships, where he neither slaughtered the Temploids and their allies, until defeated by their combined power.
The Temploids sent one of their own to accompany Death's Head and Killpower to the Dread Citadel to hopefully destroy the Battletide at its heart. The Temploid accompanying them was destroyed by demons, but they were joined by Gabriel, another Temploid who had gone into exile. With Gabriel's aid, they fought their way into the Dread Citadel, to confront Bezial/Termagaira. Bezial revealed that he planned to use the Battletide to consume Earth, after which it would be so powerful that he could then take the entire cosmos. During a savage battle, Death's Head managed to use his cranial syphon to again steal Bezial's personality, trapping it within himself again. Termagaira's mindless form collapsed, and without any conscious control, the Battletide returned to the Dark Citadel. From there it returned to its continuous trek around the periphery of the galaxy.
(Battletide III#1-4) - The Dark Guard (Albion, Dark Angel, Tigon Liger, Motormouth/Harley Davis, Ultramarine) fought the Battletide.
Comments: Created by Dan Abnett, Andy
Lanning and Geoff Senior;
published under the Marvel UK imprint
Battletide III was underway
when in 1993 when the bubble burst for Marvel UK, and had been at least
partially written, pencilled and inked, though not it seems colored yet. Per
the credits page, it was written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, pencilled
by Geoff Senior, inked by John Stokes, lettered by Alan O'Keefe, and was
intended to be colored by Louise Cassell, and from the art page available, the
Dark Guard were going to fight the Battletide.
--Loki
Profile by Changeling and Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No known connection to:
Appearances:
Battletide I#2-4 (January-March,
1993) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Geoff Senior (artist),
John Freeman (#2-3) & Jacqui Papp (#3-4) (editor)
Battletide II#1-4 (August-November, 1993) - Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Geoff Senior (artist), Jacqui Papp (editor)
First Posted: 12/19/2002
Last updated: 08/16/2020
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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