DOCTOR GLITTERNIGHT

Real Name: Glitternight (translated from an unrevealed language)

Identity/Class: Extradimensional Demon(?) magic-user

Occupation: Would-be World Conquerer

Group Membership: The Five who are All (former member)

Affiliations: Taboo (former apprentice); Nightmare, Lissa Russell (as the were-demon), Sin, Topaz, and a number of others (transformed pawns); zombies

Enemies: Brother Voodoo (Jericho Drumm), Buck Cowan, Raymond Coker, Fire-Eyes, Lt. Victor Northrup, Lissa Russell, the Three who are All, Topaz, Werewolf (Jack Russell)

Known Relatives: uncertain relationship to Three who are All and Fire-Eyes

Aliases: Amazing Dr. Glitternight, Diabolical Dr. Glitternight, Glitternight (sounds better without the campy "Doctor" anyway);
    possibly Heka-Nut

Base of Operations: currently unknown;
formerly Devil's Grotto, Haiti;
formerly a cavern in Malibu, California; India;
formerly unnamed extra-dimensional realm

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night I#27 (March, 1975)

Powers: Glitternight was a powerful necromancer. He could remove the soul from another and corrupt its nature. He could transform this corrupted ectoplasm into a powerful monster to serve him, or could return it to its owner, enabling him to corrupt, transform, and or control him or her. He could fire powerful bolts of magical energy from his chest for a variety of effects. He could incubate magical power of a period of time, causing to grow in strength and force. He often did this by incubating it in the form of a black egg. He could levitate, and his costume was designed to enable him to glide along the currents of the wind.

He was often served by some of those whose bodies and/or souls had been transformed by him. He was also served by a group of false zombies who had been formed by the energy drained from true zombies he had captured. His false zombies crumbled into dust when severely injured.

Height: 6' 1"
Weight: 170 lbs.
Eyes: Alternating blank, white and black
Hair: None

 

History:
(WwbN#40(fb))-Glitternight originally existed, at least thousands, if not millions of years ago, in a different plane along with four other beings as part of a group known as the Five who Are All. The purpose and nature of the Five are unknown.

At some point, under unknown circumstances, Glitternight turned against the other four. He drove one of the four away from the group, and imprisoned it within his own dark soul. The other three actively battled him, in a war of such magnitude that they used entire planets as weapons against each other. The war lasted only minutes in their realm, which was equivalent to eons in Earth's reality. Glitternight was defeated, reduced to microscopic (by their standards) size, and cast from their realm. Glitternight ended up arriving on Earth, while the remaining three became the Three who are All.

Glitternight sought to corrupt all life on Earth, and became known as a powerful sorcerer as he accumulated power.

(WwbN#27(fb2))-Glitternight served as the mentor to Taboo, Topaz's step-father.

(WwbN#28(fb))-Almost immediately following the death of Taboo, Glitternight took his corpse and used his powers to claim his soul. He incubated Taboo's soul within one of his black eggs until it hatched into a new body for Taboo. Glitternight revealed to Taboo his plan to murder every person on Earth and use their souls to create an army of demon to serve him. Taboo refused to serve him and so the two fought. Taboo's powers had increased during the incubation, so he was able to hold Glitternight off until he could escape.

(WwbN#27(fb1))-Topaz's powers had faded, and she sought out Glitternight to help her regain them. Glitternight instead stole her soul and placed it within a black egg to incubate.

(WwbN#27-30)-Glitternight transformed Topaz's soul into the creature Nightmare, which was slain in battle with the Werewolf. Glitternight later captured Russell and Topaz, and reformed the ectoplasm into another, more powerful, creation, Sin, which was made up of the darker side of Topaz's soul, strengthened by Glitternight's own darkness. Russell became the Werewolf and destroyed Sin as well, causing it to return to its original form, and disperse (apparently returning to Topaz).

 

 

 

 

 

Glitternight questioned Topaz about the location of Taboo, whom they'd all seen die. Topaz had a dream that Russell and his allies to Castle Russoff (Russell's ancestral home), to which Glitternight followed them. They found the reanimated form of Taboo, but were attacked by Glitternight. As it was the first full moon after her eighteenth birthday, Lissa Russell began to transform into a werewolf as well. Glitternight filled her with his energies, and she was instead transformed into a were-demon under his control. Russell, the Werewolf, managed to defeat the were-demon, while Taboo, Topaz, and Buck Cowan teamed up and succeeded in incapacitating Glitternight.

The next night Glitternight broke free from his bonds and again transformed Lissa Russell into the were-demon. Taboo sacrificed his pseudo-life by transforming into energy which Topaz used to cure Lissa of her lycanthropy and return her to human form. The Werewolf fought fiercely against Glitternight, and fought off his strongest blasts long enough to tear open the hole in his chest, which apparently released his soul and caused his body to explode.

([WwbN#38], 39-41)-Glitternight, having reformed, made a new base for himself in Haiti, there he captured several zombies. He used these zombies as a power source to incubate and create a group of false zombies, as the start of an army to take over the country. This drew the attention of Raymond Coker, an associate of the Werewolf, and a former werewolf himself, whose great-grandfather, Jaranda, was one of the actual zombies who served him. The use of the zombies brought in Brother Voodoo, who joined with Coker, and brought Russell and his allies to Haiti to investigate.

Glitternight's false zombies attacked the group and abducted Coker, whom Glitternight re-transformed into a werewolf state. Russell's group located and battled Glitternight to a standstill until he snatched Topaz and Coker, and took off with them. Russell and Brother Voodoo made there way into Glitternight's stronghold, a giant obsidian egg, and were attacked by Topaz, who had been transformed into a harpy-like form under his control. Brother Voodoo helped Topaz overcome Glitternight's control and transformation, and shattered his giant egg. Glitternight took off with Coker, and also captured Lt. Victor Northrup, who had been investigating the Werewolf's activities. Glitternight sought to absorb their souls into himself, but Werewolf broke the connection.

 

On the edge of being overpowered by Brother Voodoo, Topaz, and the Werewolf, Glitternight released Fire-Eyes, the fourth member of the original Five who are All, who had been contained within and mutated by his dark soul for untold eons. Fire-Eyes fought off the Werewolf until Brother Voodoo severed Glitternight's connection to Fire-Eyes. This freed Fire-Eyes to take his vengeance for his long imprisonment at Glitternight's hands, and the two apparently killed each other.

Comments: Created by Doug Moench and Don Perlin.

A simulacrum of Dr. Glitternight was created by another of the Werewolf's enemies, Belaric Marcosa, in WwbN#37. The real deal didn't appear in that issue.

Glitternight's eyes were constantly switching back from solid black to solid white.

The deaths of Fire-Eyes and Glitternight somehow altered the werewolf curse on Russell, enabling him to maintain control of the werewolf form for a time.

If Dr. Octopus can come back from true death, I'm thinking an extradimensional demon sorcerer who is millions of years old might be able to make a return.

 

The character was interesting, but when he was flying he had a frickin' goofy costume. I think he was supposed to look like he was gliding all the time, but he looked more like Humpty Dumpty or Mr. Potato-Head.

Marvel used the term "zuvembie" in place of zombie for some time. I think it had to do with the Comics Code Authority prohibiting the word "zombie," but I may be wrong.

Doctor Glitternight has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1970's Handbook.

(Mystic Arcana: Magik (fb) - BTS / Marvel Legacy: The 1960's-1990s handbook: 1970's Where Are They Now) -  It is believed that Glitternight was once the sorcerer Heka-Nut who had acted as an intermediary to the Elder Gods until tempted and broken by Keku (the primordial Ogdoad god of darkness and chaos), after which he spent 1000 years trying to obtain the Sword of Bone, which was the Elder Goddess Oshtur's contribution to the Cornerstones of Creation. In the 11th century BC he captured the soul of the Egyptian sorceress Ashake (ancestor to Storm/Ororo Munroe) and forced her and her ally, the time-traveling Magik (Illyana Rasputin), to obtain the Sword of Bone. They did so, but when the sword turned back into a powerless rib in Heka-Nut's unworthy hands, Magik struck him with her Soulsword, disrupting his mind and powers. Ashake then trapped him in a jackal-headed Canopic Jar. Over the millennia he evolved into the being who would become Glitternight, developing a particular animosity to jackals and other canids due to the nature of his containment. The exact connection between the Elder Gods and the Five Who Are All remains unclear, but the latter's Burning Snake, Goat Child, Fire-Eyes, and Hooded One are believed to represent cosmic representations paralleling the Elder Gods Set, Gaea, Chthon, and Oshtur.

    As Glitternight and Heka-Nut are technically not the exact same being, Heka-Nut's information will be left for another profile on another day.

Clarifications:
Nightmare, the mutated soul of Topaz has no known connection to:

Sin, the mutated soul of Topaz, has no known connection to:

images:

Other appearances:
Werewolf by Night I#28-30 (April-June, 1975) - Doug Moench (writer), Don Perlin (artist), Len Wein (editor)
Werewolf by Night I#39-41 (July-November, 1976) - Doug Moench (writer), Don Perlin (artist), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Mystic Arcana: Sister Grimm#1: Ian McNee story (October, 2007) - David Sexton (writer), Eric Nguyen (artist), Jordan D. White (assistant editor), Mark Paniccia (editor)

First Posted: 10/08/2001
Last updated: 11/09/2007

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Characters