MARKED MAN

Real Name: unknown

Identity/Class: Mutant

Occupation: Survival

Affiliations: Formerly the Morlocks

Enemies: The Marauders, the NYPD,

Known Relatives: unknown

Aliases: none

Base of Operations: The Morlock tunnels and the New York city subway system.

First Appearance: Cloak & Dagger III#10 (February 1990)

Powers/Abilities: The Marked Man uses ether to render people unconscious. He has a limited psychic ability to find a persons guilty secrets, which gives him a psychological sense of well being, and temporarily boosts his physical strength, possibly to enhanced human levels. Even without that benefit he has roughly athlete to peak human strength and durability. He can project an inky secretion from his fingertips in order to tattoo his victims secrets on their forehead, or he can shoot it into their eyes and temporarily blind them. While he has a child like mentality, he is intuitive and has good survival skills.

Limitations: Having lived in the tunnels so long he was unaccustomed to bright lights.

History: (Cloak & Dagger III#11 (fb) ) - At some point the Marked Man decided to tattoo the letter M on both of his eyelids. He was mocked by his fellow Morlocks for being paranoid. He tried to warn them of the Marauders. He escaped the Marauders and believed himself to be the only living Morlock left. Still believing the Marauders where after him he began attacking people on the New York city subway who he thought were guilty and marked them so the Marauders would kill them first. He hoped this would distract them from finding him, but the Marauders had long since moved on to other things.

(Cloak & Dagger III#10) - The Marked Man attacked a young lady on a New York subway platform. He found her guilty and tattooed the word "Shoplifter" on her forehead. He then went to hide and sleep.

(Cloak & Dagger III#11 (fb) ) - The Marked Man attacked a man and tattooed the word Gigolo on his forehead. A policeman found him crouching by the body and radioed for help. Cloak and Dagger were with Detective Nales and heard the call for help. They joined her and the other policeman in the search. They found him in a subway tunnel, but he ran away. Cloak, Detective Nale's and the policeman ran after him too fast for Dagger to keep up (this story was set during the time when Dagger was blind) and they got separated. Dagger continued to follow but was ambushed by the Marked Man. She blinded him with a light burst before he could use the ether on her. Hearing him whimper like a child she decided to try and reason with him. Speaking slowly and using a calm tone of voice she got through to him, and he agreed to help her. However the Crimson Daffodil appeared in his Wombat outfit and startled him.

(Cloak & Dagger III#11) - The Marked Man grabbed hold of Dagger from behind and rendered her unconscious. As the Crimson Daffodil charged him he flipped him into a wall. He carried Dagger to safety and, leaving her on a subway station, attempted to escape. However he and several other suspects were rounded up by the police. The police asked Dagger to identify him. As Dagger was blind she couldn't identify him by sight. She believed that the Marked Man needed help and shouldn't be allowed to stalk the subway hurting people and living like a hunted animal and considered identifying him by the feel of his clothing or sound of his voice. However she felt like identifying him would betray the trust he had placed in her. In her frustration and tiredness she unleashed a burst of light. Being unaccustomed to bright lights, he instinctively closed his eyes, revealing the M's tattooed on his eyelids. The police fought him and put him in chains. As he was taken away he yelled at Dagger, believing she has willingly betrayed him.

Comments: Created by Terry Austin and Mike Vosburg

In his defence the Marked Man was misguided and he had a child like mentality and speech pattern. I assume he had some sort of learning disability or mental health problem. It would appear the other Morlocks weren't at all friendly with him, but he responded to Dagger's patience and understanding. Perhaps if he had been given the proper care his misguided attacks could have been avoided. If only some kind writer would bring him back and send him to a residential home for superhumans with learning disabilities, or perhaps Ravencroft! Not that many writers seem capable of portraying accurate learning disabilities characters accurately, especially characters with autism such as Goblyn, her sister Laura Dean, and Monet (Beast may have genius level skill in Biochemistry, Genetics, and Electronics but he could do with studying up on his mental disorders!). Writers seem to think of autism in particular as merely a withdrawal into themselves, but there is much more to it. As it is I don't think Marked Man was intended to be autistic, so I won't go into too much detail on the subject. However, considering his mental state, it would be interesting to find out what happened to him. I think the chances of him getting a fair trial (though if he did surely it would be super-lawyer Matt Murdock on the defense!) are about the same as someone reading this profile and immediately submitting a Marked Man storyline to Epic, but perhaps someone will prove me wrong!

Profile by Changeling

CLARIFICATIONS:

The Marked Man has no known connection to:

Last updated: 06/26/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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