MARDUK

***see comments. More than one being has claimed to be Marduk. The one treats them as the same being***

Real Name: Marduk

Identity/Class: Babylonian/Mesopotamian/Sumerian God;
(Marduk Kurios) Demon (class two)

Occupation: currently unknown; former God of Wisdom;
former C.E.O. of Oracle INC; Museum Curator,
(Marduk Kurios) former ruler of a division of Hell;

Affiliations: Annunakki (Mesopotamian Gods); The Four Winds (Enlil, Ninurta, Hadad, and Martu)-childhood friends;
Oracle INC; leader of the Everlasting; Papahanau-Moku and Aqhat (allies) Collective Man (pawn); Flag-Smasher and ULTIMATUM (funded by Oracle under Marduk);

(Marduk Kurios) ruled a legion of demons; Daimon Hellstrom imposter (pawn);
Gabriel Rosetti, Soulfire (intended pawns)

Enemies: Tiamat;
Citizen V (John Watkins II and III), Roger Aubrey/Mighty Destroyer, V Battalion, Thor; possibly Pazuzu (see comments)
(Marduk Kurios) Daimon Hellstrom/Hellstrom/Son of Satan, Lavoisin; others not listed (see comments)

Known Relatives: Ea and Dumkina (parents);
(Marduk Kurios) Daimon Hellstrom/Hellstrom/Son of Satan (son), Satana (daughter)

Aliases: Zoltan Nestor;
He has over fifty names, many of which are those of mortal kings or other deities whose attributes he usurped. 1. Asarluhi, 2. Marduk, 3. The Son, The Majesty of the Gods, 4. Marukka, 5. Mershakushu, 6. Lugal-dimmer-ankia (King of heaven and earth), 7. Bel, 8. Nari-lugal-dimmer-ankia, 9. Asarluhi, 10. Namtila, 11. Namru, 12. 'Asare, 13. Asar-alim, 14. Asar-alim-nuna, 15. Tutu, 16. Zi-ukkina, 17. Ziku, 18. Agaku, 19. Shazu, 20. Zisi, 21. Suhrim, 22. Suhgurim, 23. Zahrim, 24. Zahgurim, 25. Enbilulu, 26. Epadun, 27. Gugal, 28. Hegal, 29. Sirsir, 30. Malah, 31. Gil, 32. Gilima, 33. Agilima, 34. Zulum, 35. Mummu, 36. Zulum-ummu, 37. Gizh- numun-ab, 38. Lugal-ab-dubur, 39. Pagal-guena, 40. Lugal-Durmah, 41. Aranuna, 42. Dumu-duku, 43. Lugal-duku, 44. Lugal-shuanna, 45. Iruga, 46. Irqingu, 47. Kinma, 48. Kinma, 49. E-sizkur, 50. Addu, 51. Asharu, 52. Neberu, 53. Enkukur.

(Marduk Kurios) Satan, Black Halo, the Devil, Simon Garth (imposter), Miles Gourney, Trachos (see comments),

Base of Operations: currently unknown; formerly Dilmun (the realm of the Mesopotamian Gods);
formerly a base in an abandoned oil refinery along the Black Sea; Oracle INC., Manhattan, New York; Zurich, Switzerland
(Marduk Kurios) formerly a realm of Hell; Fire Lake, in New England

First Appearance: (mentioning of the god Marduk): Strange Tales I#150/2 (November, 1966)
(Satan named as Marduk Kurios): Hellstorm#16 (July, 1994)
(Marduk of the Everlasting): Citizen V and the V Battalion: The Everlasting#2, 3 (August, 1992)

Powers: Marduk was likely always quite powerful, perhaps on the level of the other Godheads, such as Zeus or Odin. He was perhaps initially a warrior god, like Thor, but later gained power from Anu, making him more like Thor with the Odin-power.
He has been described as having four eyes and four ears, and could emit fire from his mouth when he speaks. He formerly rode a storm-chariot driven by Slayer, Pitiless, Racer, and Flyer, poison-toothed, tireless steeds. He was also gifted in magic.
When first seen, his powers had diminished to the point (perhaps from lack of worship over the years), that Thor overpowered him without much of a struggle. After this point, Thor drained his powers, leaving him close to a human in ability, although he retained his immunity to aging and conventional disease.
Marduk either gained or retained the ability to steal the soul at any point in the future of any mortal with whom he came into direct contact.
Backed by the Genesis Well, when in contact with its waters, Marduk was able to heal from any wound, and siphon power from others by draining their lives Some of his agents designed equipment to enable him to manipulate others and drain energy through other means.
Marduk Kurios possessed a high level of powers, as would befit a ruler of Hell. I'd place him in a level comparable to Mephisto. His powers were much greater within his own realm of Hell, than on Earth, or in other realms.

History: (mythological history)- Marduk is one of the gods worshipped by the people of ancient Sumer, Babylonia, and Mesopotamia. He was a god of Wisdom. He was born mature and powerful, well over 12, 000 years ago.

He was a childhood friend of the four winds, Enlil, Ninurta, Hadad, and Martu and even followed them into adventures.
He reportedly helped Ninurta in slaying Anzu the bird-god who stole the mystical Tablets of Destiny.
Marduk, however, became head of the Babylonian Empire. In some myths this was by deposing Enlil and Ninurta who had deposed Anu. In other versions, he becomes king of the gods by general consensus in agreement to his demands to be made king if the other gods wish him to defeat the dragon/mother-goddess-turned-destroyer Tiamat for them.

Some sources describe Marduk as having used the corpse of Tiamat to landscape much of the Earth, and to create the first humans.

(Strange Tales I#150(fb)-BTS)-At some point, priests of Marduk gained possession of the legendary Book of the Vishanti, one of the most powerful books of white magic in existence. The Book was placed under the guard of a griffin.
The sorcerer who would become known as the Ancient One traveled back in time to Babylonia, and managed to wrest the Book from the Griffin.

(StrT I#150)-The sorcerer Kaluu hurled the Book of the Vishanti back to ancient Babylonia. Dr. Strange and the Ancient One both journeyed back to time to retake the Book. Strange attempted to take the Book, but was powerless against the griffin. The Ancient One rightly figured that they were victims of some sort of time paradox, and that since the Ancient One had taken the Book the first time, it was only he who could ever do so. The Ancient One again dispatched the griffin and retook the Book.

(CV+VB: Ev#4(fb))-@ 980 AD, Marduk, having lost much of his power over the years, sought to storm Asgard and drain the life forces of the Norse Gods to empower himself. Thor attacked and defeated Marduk, draining him of much of his power, leaving him essentially human except for his immortality.

BTS-At some point, Marduk joined up with Aqhat and Papahanau-Moku and formed an organization known as the Everlasting.

(CV+VB: Ev#1(fb)-BTS)-@ 1953, Aqhat is first observed in action, and mentions the Everlasting.

(CV+VB: Ev#2(fb)-BTS)-@ 1971, The V Battalion learn of Marduk's connection to the Everlasting from Amahl Farouk.

(CV+VB: Ev#3(fb)-@ 1981, Now based in Zurich, Switzerland, and posing as a museum curator-type named Zoltan Nestor (that's a villain's name, if I ever heard one!), Marduk is sought for information on god Marduk and his involvement with the Everlasting by Roger Aubrey, aka the Mighty Destroyer of the V Battalion. Nestor sends Aubrey off on a wild-goose chase that yields a few decades of freedom from discovery. In addition, Marduk/Nestor also shook hands with Aubrey, and thus gained power over his life.

--According to some sources, the demon known as Marduk Kurios began to take the guise of Satan, a name used by many other demons. As the demon, he took the form of a man, and seduced and impregnated Victoria Wingate. Through her he fathered Daimon, and later Satana Hellstrom. (There's a lot of great explanations and detail behind all this, but since it has been ret-conned out of existence, and Marduk replaced by Satannish (sigh...see comments), I'm not going to cover it all here. Nor am I going to cover all of the appearances of Satan and/or Daimon's father, for the same reason).

(Hellstorm#1)-"Satan" (Daimon's father--take this for granted from here on) promised the power of Daimon Hellstrom's darksoul to the demon that had previously impersonated Daimon if he would aid him in a plot. Hellstorm encountered and destroyed the imposter.

(Hellstorm#5)-"Satan" discovered that one of his minor demons had manipulated pieces of a chess game, which represented a plot which Satan had been slowly manipulating for decades. The demon's manipulations upset the carefully balanced plot, and Satan sentenced it to five millennia of licking flaming bile out of the Netheranium latrines while Satan could then conceive of a more suitably severe torment. Satan then went to confer with the game's other player (presumably a high-ranking figure in Heaven).

(Hellstorm#11)-Hellstorm was cast down to Hell after assisting some escaped damned souls enter into the gates of Heaven. There he met Simon Garth, whose body walked the Earth as the Zombie. Garth explained the various levels and realms of Hell, and Hellstorm eventually figured out that he was not Garth at all, but his own father, "Satan."
(Hellstorm#16(fb))-This time, however, Daimon/Hellstorm held the cards in their eternal struggle. Daimon had learned of his father's true name and nature from a witch named Lavoisin. Knowing the true name and/or symbol of a thing is one of the greatest powers of all magic, and would allow you to control that thing. Hellstorm revealed his knowledge to his father, called him "Marduk Kurios", etched his symbol in Hellfire, and then summarily dispatched the demon. As a result, Hellstorm inherited the Black Halo, the mark of regency, and took over his father's power and dominion of his realm of Hell.

(Hs21)-There's evidence that Satan/Marduk Kurios would be reborn through Lavoisin, who had been impregnated by Daimon (crazy demon-magic...).

BTS--Marduk took over Oracle, INC, which had been sold by Namor to Stark-Fujikawa.

(CV+VB: Ev#1-BTS, 2-4)-Marduk and his agents in the Everlasting began to turn up the notch in their plans. Using Oracle's resources, Marduk funded and supplied weaponry to the anti-national terrorist group ULTIMATUM (Underground Liberated Totally Integrated Mobile Army To Unite Mankind), led by Flag-Smasher. Marduk planned to use all of the souls slain in the battles with ULTIMATUM to fuel the Genesis Well, from which he hoped to regain his full power.
At the same time, Aqhat and other agents of Marduk captured the Chinese hero known as the Collective Man. Using the technology of the Everlasting and/or Oracle, they enhanced his powers such that he actually drained the life force from his Chinese fellows, sending the entire nation into a comatose state which approached death.

Citizen V, John Watkins III, slew the Collective Man, reversing that threat, and convinced Flag-Smasher to abandon his current plan in exchange for being given sovereignty of the nation Rumekistan. Infuriated by the actions of Aubrey's agent, Marduk took his revenge by stealing Aubrey's soul and adding it the Genesis Well. Citizen V tracked down Marduk and battled him, but found himself in somewhat of a stalemate when he could not injure Marduk while he stood in the Well, but that Marduk could not leave the Well to fight him.

Aubrey's spirit, however, managed to fight back against Marduk, and rallied the other residents/victims of the Genesis Well to oppose Marduk. Citizen V blew up the Genesis Well, which flooded both Marduk and Aubrey's spirits with power. The energies ripped Marduk to pieces and restored Aubrey to life.

(Witches#1 (fb) - BTS) - His powers at their low ebb and seeking to lower his competition, Satan made plans to unleash the Hellphyr to slaughter the magic users on Earth.

(Witches#1) - Posing a Lou, caretaker of a collection of rare books in the New York Library, Satan led Andrew Kale to the Tome of Zhered-Na, knowing that his contact with the book would unleash the Hellphyr.

(Witches#2) - As Lou, Satan watched with amusement as the Hellphyr slew the minor magician Illusion.

(Witches#3) - As Lou, Satan visited Andrew Kale, encouraging his permanent transformation into the Hellphyr.

(Witches#4) - As Jennifer Kale, Satana, and Topaz arrived to oppose the Hellphyr, Satan revealed his presence and the fact tha he had orchestrated  the whole thing. Satan offered her a chance to rule alongside him if she allowed the Hellphyr to destroy all magic-users on Earth, but she turned her back on him and helped destroy the Hellphyr.

Comments: Marduk first mentioned, but not shown by Roy Thomas.
Marduk Kurios adapted by Warren Ellis and Leonardo Manco.
The most recent Marduk was adapted by Fabian Nicieza, Lewis LaRosa, and Klebs Junior.

Howard the Duck III#3 mentioned in flashback that the Priestess of the demon Pazuzu warred against the Priests of the God "Marduk or Baal, or Dagon, or whoever."

• Ah, what a mess continuity can become!
  OK, Here's the deal (prepare yourself for a long rant/tirade, or skip past this):
  (1) Warren Ellis, great writer. In 1994, he takes over the Hellstorm series and turns it into a thing of beauty (actually, I thought Nieves and Kaminski's runs were great, too...I don't know why books like this can't stay on the market, while Cable just turned 100!...digressing). He reveals that Hellstrom/Hellstorm's father is actually Marduk, the Babylonian God, who has degenerated into a demon in the millennia since he was worshipped. It's a great story--Hellstorm slays his father and takes over the title of ruler of his realm of Hell. Leonardo Manco's art is very impressive!
  (2) Steve Englehart, another great writer. He's given us Mantis, the first Avengers-Defenders War, an excellent run on the Silver Surfer, the recent Celestial Quest, and all types of cool stuff. However, his Hellcat limited series (@ 2000) was somewhat lukewarm. In this story, he reveals that Daimon's father is, in fact, Satannish, who is revealed as the son of Dormammu! What kind of ca-ca is that? For what reason? I'm betting Englehart never read the Hellstorm series and thought he was resolving some long-standing mystery.
  (3) Fabian Nicieza, an extremely talented writer, who is VERY good at using old, unused characters and resolving old plotlines (Which we, at the Appendix, love!). Fabian wrote the Citizen V series (@ 2002), and, having not read Ellis' stories (this is kind of ironic, since Fabian was the editor of Hellstorm during Nieves and Kaminski's runs, which just preceded Ellis'), picked Marduk from a Mythology Encyclopedia while looking for an interesting god for the story. His Marduk bears little resemblance to Ellis' version.
• (4) The Marvel Knights Encyclopedia entry on Hellstorm confirmed that Hellstorm merely duped Patsy into believing he was a more malevolent entity and the son of Satannish in order to distance her from his dark life, so that she might find happiness.
  
  SO NOW WHAT?
  (I'll deal with the Marduk issue first; the "Son of Satan" discussion is still included at the bottom of the profile, but the issue has been resolved)
  
• 1) Rest easy b/c you don't care, and continuity's a pain in the rear anyway. The easy out. This is what a normal person would do.
  
• 2) The most likely/reasonable, least messy, and probably the most popular explanation (in my opinion):
  
  Marduk Kurios, the demon from Hellstorm, was mistaken for Marduk and worshipped by the Sumerians, etc. but was not the original god. This sort of thing is extremely common, as many of the Eternals have been mistaken for gods over the years. This would make Fabian's Marduk the original Babylonian god. see also Flank's similar, but better, explanation under #4.
  
• 3) My explanation (Snood)--(merges all aspects of the character, maintains continuity):
  
  Marduk Kurios is also the Marduk from the Citizen V series:
  
  (I) First of all, a good writer/storyteller, in the true Marvel fashion, can gel all seemingly conflicting stories into one coherent plotline. I think that's the way to go, unless there are directly conflicting events.
  (II) Warren Ellis clearly intended Hellstorm's father to be Hellstorm's father (this is discussed on the Hellstorm letter page). His story came first, so he has precedent, and anything that says otherwise is retcon, which I think should be avoided, if possible. Marduk Kurios was weakened when Hellstorm used that name against him, Hellstorm took over his realm, and Marduk Kurios has not been seen since.
  (III) As discussed in the OHotMU, "The distinction between 'demon' and 'god' is somewhat blurry. While gods tend to be more benevolent in nature than demons, there are also evil gods. While gods tend to be the objects of worship more often than demons, there are also demons who are worshipped....While most demons are born as demons, it is possible for a god to physically degenerate into a life-preying demon." Their classification scheme would place Marduk Kurios in the level of a Class Two demon, one of those from a later generation than the Elder Gods, who dwell within realms often known as Hell. Fabian's Marduk is preying on the souls of others. That sounds pretty demonic to me. Also, if the idea of a Marduk as a demon really chaps your @$$, then just consider him a god gone awry.
  (IV) While the stories and characters are dissimilar, they can be meshed together, if'n you want to.
  Here's the direct quote from Fabian, taken from the Thunderbolts Message Board:
  "Since I'm completely clueless about any of the above, you can assume that the Marduk in CVB is not -- or at least wasn't intended to be -- related to other events in the MU. I just went through my Mythology Encyclopedia and picked an interesting "god" for my story. If you want to -- or even if you can -- make the pieces fit, have a party!"--fabian

• Here's my party:
  --Marduk is the Babylonian God of Myth. His life sucking/demonic activities in the modern era are not without precedent in the past, at least in the Marvel Universe.
  --After millennia without worshippers, and his power declining, he sought to usurp the power of the Norse Gods, as shown in CVB#4. His powers were drained substantially by Thor.
  --Over the following centuries, Marduk desperate for power, rekindled his by stealing the souls of others, and doing other demonic/occult activities. Seeking a more impressive reputation and following (from which he likely derived some power), he began to take the name of Satan.
  Also at this time, he continued to act as Marduk, recruiting loyalty from the few who would appreciate his true origins, such as Aqhat and Papahanau-Moku. Using them, he continued to build a store of power using the Genesis Well.
  --A couple decades before the modern era, taking human form, Marduk/Satan seduced Victoria Wingate, and fathered Daimon and Satana Hellstrom. Most, but not all, references/stories involving Satan that involve Daimon Hellstrom/Hellstorm and/or Satana should be referring to Marduk Kurios.
  --Eventually, in the pages of Hellstorm, Daimon learned the true origins of his father, Marduk Kurios, seemingly slew him, and usurped his power and domain.
  --An immortal, Marduk was greatly weakened, but recovered from Daimon's attack (possibly by being reborn through Lavoisin, or by other means). Rightly fearing that Hellstorm would finish him off if he knew his father was still around, he abandoned the guise of Satan, and focused his activities on his original alias of Marduk.
  --While it does take so squeezing and pushing to make this explanation, I see nothing that would directly conflict it. Marduk/Satan could certainly change shapes, and have more than one plot brewing at the same time.
  --Until someone proves or disproves this, or muddies the waters even further, it will remain my unconfirmed opinion.
  --Here's another idea, courtesy of Zevad:
  "...maybe he was so weakened by Thor that he sent a part of his essence..a STRONG part and that part evolved into Marduk Kurios. And eventually went about fathering Daimon and conquering his section of hell. Also maybe he didn't go into that Daimon's son but instead reentered his weakened form of just plain ole Marduk?"
  
• 4) Explanation courtesy of Flank McLargehuge (It's a good one!)
  Stephen Loss in HELLSTORM #16:  "But you, Daimon Hellstorm, now knew that the creature had been around long before human lips formed the word 'satan,'  The Sumerians had a name for him.  The Sumerians; a people so ancient they could trace the lineage of their kings from before the Great Flood.  So ancient that they recorded the times when feuds in Hell were actually fought on earth.  Sumerians saw the creature win his tract of Hell in battle.  In righteous fear of the awful things It did that day, they fell into worship of the beast. And they recorded his name well."
  
  So my theory, a variation on the Set/Seth thing, goes like this: Marduk Kurios was a demon, and became known to the early Sumerians
  (or a proto-Sumerian civilization perhaps as far back as the Hyborian age) when he won his realm of hell in a battle with a rival on earth. They worshipped him in fear, but he went back to his section of hell, and his worship dwindled over the generations.  Millennia (or maybe just centuries) later, a new god came to be worshipped in Sumeria's successor Babylonia, a god of wisdom who had 50 different names.  One of which, chosen because of the resonance it held in legend, was Marduk, which was the name it eventually became best known by.  This is the one whose power eventually dwindled to the point that he started sucking the souls out of other gods, and then large quantities of humans.
  
  My feelings on the subject:  I really liked Hellstorm's slaying of his father, and invoking his true name and everything made it seem far more final than Mephisto getting blown apart on alternate sundays.  I think the idea of him being reincarnated as Hellstorm's child is a really cool idea, and I quite like the symmetry.  But I don't think he and the Marduk from CITIZEN V are the same.  The connections are just too tenuous, and I think it takes away from the impact of Kurios' death if he pops up several years later in a totally unrelated book.  I also like the symmetry of Marduk Kurios taking on the name Satan to enhance his reputation, while a lesser god takes on the name Marduk for the same reason.
  Sounds good to me. It's probably more likely than my explanation, too. Still, it remains up for debate--Snood.
  

I'm sure there are Conan references to Marduk as well. I just don't know where to look for them.
    Per Degaton points out that Marduk is referenced (his name is taken in vain) in Conan the Buccaneer, by L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter. This is used word for word in its adaptation in the MU, in Savage Sword of Conan#40. Sigurd of Vanaheim, marooned on island, encounters Conan and exclaims, "Now, by the claws of Nergal and the guts of Marduk, mate, ye be a goodly sight to look on!"
    This dates Marduk to at least 10, 000 BC, during the Hyborian Era.

    For reasons listed above, I am not going to hit the whole chronology of Satan in this profile. It will only detail the appearances that should definitely be Marduk Kurios. I've include the pre-Ellis Hellstorm issues as well. Perhaps someday I'll do a profile on Marvel's Satan, but its hard b/c so many characters have used the name, and it's often hard to clarify which is which. If these points are definitively clarified (hopefully in a non-crappy story), I'll adjust the profile(s) accordingly

    Also, at any rate, since death doesn't even stop the normal joes in the Marvel Universe, I'm guessing that an ancient god and/or an arch-demon can make it back without a whole lot of trouble. Mephisto gets blown away and reformed left and right!

    In case you didn't know, the word "Satan" is a Hebrew word, meaning "adversary."

    Another (moot) point: You might think, "Hey, Snood, ya big melonhead! Why'd you put Marduk Kurios' involvement with Daimon's mother after 1981? Daimon's got to be more than his mid-twenties. Boy, are you stupid!"
    And I might respond, "Yeah? Come over hear and say that, and I'll..."...ok, digressing.
    Anyway, the reason I did this was because of Marvel's sliding timescale. The nature of the V Battalion's fixed attachment to certain eras in the past makes me think the references to 1953, 1971, 1981, etc. are all real time references. Hellstorm, however, is definitely part of Marvel's sliding time scale, and while he may be in his early thirties, eventually time will slide him beyond that point, @ 2015. Hopefully comics will still exist then!
"So there!. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, ya rat-@$$ bastich!"

Marduk and the mythology

    Babylonian Gods rank right up there with Lovecraft's work as one of the most common sources of demons in the MU: see the Annunaki
    I had mentioned previously that I thought these gods may have degenerated into demons due to millennia without worship. To clarify: I didn't mean that any god without worship would automatically become a demon after a given period. It just seemed like one possible motivation/explanation. However, the Mesopotamian Gods seem to have been particularly susceptible to this phenomenon. They have had the longest time to...spoil.

There's a nice summary of Marduk at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze33gpz/assyrbabyl-faq.html#Marduk which details his life in greater detail.

Yet another small clarification/moot point:
    Marduk is often described as a Sumerian God, when in reality he is a Mesopotamian God, although he was "ret-conned" into Sumerian Mythology by the Babylonians (I guess he's had a few millennia's of ret-cons...).
    William Uchtman, one of our myth-masters explains this: Marduk is Babylonian, but Babylonian myth does tell "flashback" stories of Marduk's life during Sumerian times such as following Enlil in the slaying of Apsu and Anzu. In a sense, he gained prominence in the hierarchy of Babylonian myth. It's the same way Vishnu was a minor character in the Vedic myth and gained prominence in Hindu religion.
    One tiny nit: while Marduk may have used the title of El, it was supposed to be the Phoenician title of Ea/Enki, god of water and magic and brother of Anu and Eriskegal.
William did give me a few bits on Marduk's background, though he disagreed with the characters treatment by Ellis, and doesn't think they should be considered the same. His opinion is that several demons have usurped the name of the real Sumerian / Mesopotamian / Babylonian Gods, but that they are distinct characters, which fits with my second explanation above.

And further relevant material c/o Greg O, another mythinator:
    Marduk is a Babylonian deity that rose to prominence after the decline of Sumerian political and military power. Babylon became the center of political, military, and religious might after the decline of Sumerian culture. Marduk, the city's patron god, declared that Babylon was the center of the universe around which the world revolved (so one would guess astronomy wasn't Marduk's strong suit). He likely had some kind of Sumerian antecedent, but seems to be a principally Mesopotamian and more particularly Babylonian deity.
    He had a hell of a lot of influence on later religions including Christianity - - Marduk fastened the two tablets of destiny to his chest after slaying and defeating Tiamat. Sounds an awful lot like two important tablets Ol' Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai to me. Also there very well could be a Satan/Marduk correlation, given the "our name is Legion" business we discussed elsewhere and the fact that many deities were considered to be manifestations of Marduk and he was attributed as having fifty names. In fact, here is where it gets really weird - - El is sometimes seen as an aspect of Marduk and the Hebrew God was often referred to as "El" Shaddai Jehovah (mind you this isn't el in the Hispanic sense meaning "the" but an actual name). Toss onto that the fact that one of Marduk's epithets is Bel which means "Lord" - the Lord Marduk? Neat eh?

Nick Hill--I'd say your list of cultural progression (Sumerian->Babylonian/Mesopotamian->Assyrian->Persians. The Phoenicians were actually a seperate group based in what is now Israel/Jordan.  They are also sometimes called the Caananites who inhabited the region that the ancient (and current) nation of Israel was founded on.  In mythology texts their myths are often grouped with those revolving around the Jewish faith, hence Fabian's error in describing Aqhat as a Jewish character) is pretty accurate. Of course history is never that cut and dried. It's not like one culture stops and another one just pops up like Athena jumping out of Zeus' head (oop! mixing metaphors AND pantheons! bad practice!)to take it's place. Rather cultures tend to wax and wane with overlapping tides and circles of influence.

Given Marduk's connection to early Canaanite mythology/religion and the other obvious parallels with Christianity maybe Marduk IS Satan or some sort of  false God/Jehova. I mean one of Christianity's founding tenets (and that of other monotheistic faiths) was that other religions god's (especially pagan religions' gods) were in fact NOT gods but demons deceiving mankind. Perhaps some of this can be tied into Marvels  - class II demon theory: demons that were once gods and have degenerated.

And another, pseudo-relevant comment, courtesy of John McDonagh:
  Yahweh is considered more correct than Jehovah. Jehovah is a mistake from the middle ages. The Judahites, you see, eventually decided that saying the name of their deity should be restricted to special occasions, and so they adopted the practice of putting the word Adonai (Lord) next to a reading that contained the word Yahweh. During the middle ages, someone accidentally combined those two words and got "Jehovah". But YHWH is considered more correct. (Incidentally, Muslims do not, as far as I know, use the name Yahweh for God. But then Muslims, according to secular history, did not exist until this whole thing had been worked out.)
http://filebox.vt.edu/users/oraja/YJA3.html mentions the controversy

I'll finish with a Deep Thought, courtesy of Jack Handy (quoted from memory).

    "To understand Mankind, one must first understand the two words that make it up: Mank and Ind.
    No one knows what these two words mean, and that's why no one understands Mankind."

CLARIFICATIONS:
Marduk the god and/or demon has no known connection to:

• Marduk, one of the Sons of Satannish, @ Dr. Strange I#175
  --hmmm...maybe there's an explanation in there somewhere. This guy was a normal person that joined the cult of the SoS, and took the name Marduk for some reason.
• Marduk, the black steed of Prince Gaynor the Damned, @ Conan the Barbarian I#14
• Marduk, the steed of Red Ymir, @ King Conan#1
• Marduk, the world-destroying "planet" created by the alien Annunaki race, @ Silver Surfer IV#7
• MARDUK of PANDARVE - theocrat of the city-fortress
      --Strip#16

Tiamat, the dragon/mother of the Mesopotamian Gods has not been seen in the Marvel Universe to the best of my knowledge, although she may be the Leviathan from which's carcass Lilith was reborn in Ghost Rider III#28
She should not be confused with:

• Tiamat, the extra-terrestrial sent to Earth to destroy S'met'kth the Messiah, @ Deadpool III#21, 22
  --this being came to Earth over 3000 years ago, and may have been mistaken for or named after the original
• Tiamat, allegedly a former sister planet to Mars hundreds of millions of years ago, destroyed in a bloody war, @ Silver Surfer IV#7

Zahgurim, apparently one of Marduk's many aliases, was likely the inspiration for:

• Zahgurim, another demon created by Warren Ellis (profile up and coming), @ Hellstorm#12

Last updated: 08/16/04

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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• Whew! now on to Englehart/Satannish:
  Everyone has his or her little things that get to him or her. Here's one of mine: Senseless, pointless retcon. If you're going to destroy the work someone else has already done, it should be an IMPROVEMENT. Case in point...
  Anyway...grumble, sumbich, rassa-frassa...Anyway...what's done is done. Ellis' and Englehart's stories are not compatible, so one or both of them are false. So here's how I see this as being resolved:
  --Grab Englehart, punch him in the kidneys and make him admit he's a big, fat, liar!!!!! (my choice, although I like Englehart...and you can't grow new kidneys...and transplants have their own bag of problems...so we probably shouldn't do this)
  --Satan has always been the Lord of Lies, so one or both of the two demons claiming to be Daimon's father are lying.
  -- Satan has also been described along the lines of "Call me Legion, for we are many." Lots of demons have claimed to be Satan. For example, Mephisto is the demon that called itself Satan when initially dealing with Ghost Rider/Blaze. Thog and Satannish have been described as aspects of Satan in some stories. However, I would have thought that a separate, single demon was the one who impregnated Victoria Wingate Hellstrom. It is possible that that demon was a composite of two or more demons, including Marduk Kurios and Satannish.
  --still though...Daimon Hellstrom is the grandson of Dormammu? peeeeyeeeeeuuuh! That stinks!
  Read Hellstorm#16, and then read Hellcat#3. Decide for yourself (psst...it's Marduk!).
  Perhaps someday, someone will write an equally reasonable story, in which the Burglar who killed Ben Parker is revealed to be the true father of Hellstorm.
  --Here's a nice explanation, courtesy of Zevad:
  "...When Hellcat/Patsy jumped to this conclusion it made no sense...Daimon Hellstrom DOES love his wife. I think he went along with this to help in her recovery. How hard would it be for Daimon to manipulate his energies to create the ILLUSION of those flames around his face. I bet as he soon returned to his much larger kingdom he either cried over how he lost Patsy or he has a great laugh with Cutter and Issac/Gargoyle over how gullable Patsy is. 'Good God! She said she got the idea from a soap opera hahahahahahaha,' Daimon could say."--I think this is along the lines of how Ellis would deal with it--Snood
  --and another, courtesy of GUILLAUMEPH:
  "Wouldn't it be more simple to say that Satannish's real name is Marduk ? Maybe Satannish is the mask and Marduk the real identity ... Maybe, Dormammu was the mentor who corrupted the god Marduk (off screen story...)
  Thus, Dormammu would be the "demonfather" (as opposed to a godfather) of Marduk/Satannish.
  Since demons are professional liars, Marduk created a "Satannish/Satan" appearance.
  Hellstorm saw through all his lies and took his place.
  A weakened Marduk continued on earth his mind manipulations, starting with the ex-wife of his son.
  The best lies are always based upon true facts so he mixed lies & truths ...
  Since his earthborn child had took his place in Hell, he decided to take Earth with the scheme written by Nicieza ... "
• Even if Satannish were the father of Daimon <wince>, the demon Marduk Kurios could just as easily still be the god Marduk. It would just make him a liar, which is not such a stretch for a demon.