MAJOR OAK

Real Name: Major Oak

Identity/Class: Extra-temporal (@3442) mutant

Occupation: The Kings champion

Group Membership: Ludite rebellion

Affiliations: General Cicatrice, the Human Protectorate (and its unnamed King), the Huscarls, Lord High Protector, Methinx

Enemies: Hood (AKA Death's Head and Minion) and his Merry Men (AKA the Bandits and the Outlaws), Tuck, Yorick of Lionheart

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Cordelion, Lionheart

First Appearance: Deaths Head II#3 (May 1992)

Powers/Abilities: Major Oak's mutant power allows him to absorb and adapt to the attacks of his opponents.  This grants him superhuman endurance, near  invulnerability, regeneration, and superhuman strength (class 75-90).  He is also an expert tracker and assassin, if a little slow on the uptake.

History:
(Death's Head II#3) - Major Oak and his Huscarls attacked Death's Head's band of outlaws under orders from the Lord High Protector. While he appeared to gain the upper hand over Death's Head, Doctor Necker shot him from behind.  By the time he recovered, Death's Head was gone, but the outlaws had been defeated by the Huscarls.

(Death's Head III#6-8) - One of Major Oak's spies told him of Death's Head's return to Lionheart.  The Major and his Huscarls found Death's Head at the Gibbet Gate Cemetery.  With a little help from Methinx, Oak was able to defeat Death's Head.  Oak took the cyborg prisoner and prepared to have him executed, but Methinx stopped him.  Tuck freed Death's Head and attacked Major Oak with a candle holder when he tried to stop them.  Oak recovered and tried again, but Death's Head used his blade configuration on him and got away before Oak could regenerate.

Major Oak's men found the carcass of a plesiosaur that had choked on Death's Head's time belt. While attempting to fathom it's purpose, he accidentally triggered the device and disappeared.

(Death's Head Gold#1 (fb) ) - Major Oak's travel through time brought him into contact with General Cicatrice's Ludite rebellion.  Cicatrice supplied him with cyber-technology so that his Ludite spies could infiltrate the cyborg rebels on Lionheart.  Weakened from within, Death's Head's men were decimated, though Death's Head and Tuck both survived.

Comments: Created by Dan Abnett and Liam Sharp.

As Death's Heads "Hood" persona is inspired by Robin Hood, Major Oak appears to be a mutant amalgam of the Sheriff of Nottingham and Guy of Gisbourne.  In his first appearance, the Lord High Protector describes Oak's power as almost like magic and says that in the old days he would have been called a mutant.  Death's Head refers to him as a mutant during their battle in the cemetery, and he's described as a mutant in the flashback in Death's Head Gold.  I know sometimes even Marvel get their own definitions wrong, but there's no mention of an event that gave him his powers hence my classification of him as Mutant and not a Mutate.

I haven't re-read the issues to be sure, but Ludite is likely derived from Luddite:

• The Luddites were a group of early-19th century English radicals who opposed the use and growth of machines over man.  Because many of them took to destroying the machines of the time, many members were rounded up and executed.
• General Cicatrice's Ludites were opposed to cyborgs and robots, so it's a logical extension.

The word Huscarl is the Old English form of housecarl, which refers to a member of the bodyguard of a Danish or early English king or noble.

Profile by Changeling

Profile updated/edited by Kyle Sims

CLARIFICATIONS:

Major Oak has no known connection to:

• Major Love, Spider-Man and Generation X enemy, @Marvel Team Up vol2#1
• Major Mapleleaf, Canadian Adventurer, @Alpha Flight#106
• Major Vron-Ikka, Kree Soldier and former lover of Rick Jones, @Avengers Spotlight#25/2
• OAK (                      ) - Warpy. large+brown,great strength--Excalibur I#63
• or any other "Major" or "Oak" Characters

Cicatrice has no known connection to:

• Cicada 2099, @Doom 2099#3
• any other Cic something characters
• the word Cicatrix, an alternative form of Cicatrice, meaning "Scar"

Major Oak's Huscarls have no known connection to:

• HUSCARLS - followers of the demon lord Phemous, ride Polyp Steeds--Magik II#3

Hood (AKA Minion and Death's Head) and his Outlaws (AKA the Merry Men and the Bandits) have no known connection to:

• Outlaws, Silver Sables team of freelance operatives--Web of Spider-Man#50, Amazing Spider-Man Annual#25/3

• OUTLAWS of the Old West 19thC (Drago Dalton, Johnny Ringo, Cole Younger) --??,  (reprinted in Kid Colt#188)

• Outlaw (Nigel Higgins) - vigilante--Punisher II#64

• Outlaw (Crazy Inez) - mercenary, associate of Deadpool, trained Agent X--Deadpool III#66

• OUTLAW KID of the Old West (Lance Temple) - @ 1870s, masked cowboy--Outlaw Kid I#1

• any other bandits, merry men or outlaws

The Lord High Protector and the Human Protectorate have no known connections to:

• Protector, the Nova character, @Nova I#6
• any other "Lord" or "Lord High" characters

Tuck has no known connection to:

• Tuc, @Avengers#390

Appearances:
Death's Head II#3 (May, 1992) - Dan Abnett (writer), Liam Roger McCormack-Sharp (pencils), Andy Lanning (inks), John Freeman (editor)
Death's Head III#6-8 (May-July, 1993) - Dan Abnett (writer), Simon Coleby (#6-7) & Anthony Williams (#8) (pencils), Andy Lanning (#6, 8) & Sean Hardy (#7) (inks)
Death's Head Gold#1 (January, 1994) - Liam Roger McCormack-Sharp (writer/pencils), Andy Lanning & Rodney Ramos (inks)

First Posted: 03/24/2003
Last updated: 06/05/2003

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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