Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Unrevealed; possible Deviant mutate (see comments)
Occupation: Warrior
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Agent of the Mole Man (Harvey Elder)
Enemies: Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Hawkeye/Clint Barton, Quicksilver/Pietro Maximoff, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Subterranea
First Appearance: Avengers I#17 (June, 1965)
Powers/Abilities: The giant Minotaur possessed superhuman strength (Class 10-25) and durability. It had large horns on its head, and its claws could gouge ruts into solid rock. It did not demonstrate advanced intelligence, and its lifetime spent underground made it vulnerable to bright light.
Height: 15' (by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eye: Unrevealed
Hair: Brown
History:
(Avengers I#17 (fb) - BTS) - The origin of the Minotaur is unrevealed (see comments), but it eventually came under the sway
of the Mole Man.
When he learned that the Avengers were seeking to add the Hulk to their ranks, the Mole Man sent a robot to Avengers Mansion to deliver false information about the Hulk's whereabouts, so he could lure the team to his kingdom and use the Minotaur against them.
(Avengers I#17) - After defeating the robot and learning from it that the Hulk was supposedly somewhere in the desert (see comments), the four Avengers flew due west in their jet-stream aircraft. When the team landed and began to search the area on foot, the Mole Man activated a hidden trapdoor, and the four Avengers plunged into Subterranea.
The Mole Man then sent the Minotaur to attack the Avengers in the tunnels, and none of "Cap's Kooky Quartet" could injure the giant beast. But Cap came up with a plan -- after having Hawkeye fire a flare arrow to dazzle the Minotaur's vision, Cap threw his shield and sliced through an overhead rock, which fell and struck the Minotaur on its shoulder. As the giant creature turned in a fit of rage, Cap goaded it into charging him; Cap ducked out of the way, and the Scarlet Witch used her hex power to cause the whole wall of shale to fall forward and lock around the Minotaur's horns.
The Avengers left the trapped Minotaur with its horns embedded in rock, apparently not caring that it might either starve to death, or die after ripping its horns out of its head in an effort to escape.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee (Who Else?) and Don Heck (Why not?)
|
Minotaur got a decent new image in the UK on the cover
from the Avengers (Weekly)#14, penciled by Ron Wilson and inked by Mike
Esposito and Frank Giacoia. Given the size of this Minotaur and the fate of the Minotaur of myth, I would guess that they were not the same being. More likely, this creature was a Deviant mutate, like many of the Mole Man's creatures. It wouldn't be hard to make an explanation to allow them to be the same, however. Maybe this creature had nothing to do with the
mythological Minotaur at all, and the Mole Man only referred to it as
such because it reminded him of one. To locate the Hulk in the desert, Captain America
played a hunch and guessed that the jade giant would be somewhere near
the spot where the Hulk had previously helped Cap and the original
Avengers fight the Lava Men (@ Avengers I#5). The Avengers' battle with the Minotaur coincided with
the events of Tales to Astonish I#69/2, wherein the Hulk fought the
Leader for the Absorbatron
-- ironically, the Leader's desert hideout was located just a few
miles from where the Avengers were. And the Minotaur's appearance in the story was a bit different from how it was depicted on the original Jack Kirby cover, where it only appeared to be slightly larger than humans.--Ron Fredricks IMHO the Minotaur in Marvel Year-in-Review 1992 was most likely Miklos Vryolak, who was small enough to fit into the bar and did fit the lame villain theme more than the actual Minotaur or the monster from Avengers I#17. I know Miklos was supposed to be dead, but so was Asterion. |
|
Profile by Snood. Expansion by Ron Fredricks.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Mole Man's Minotaur may or may not be:
|
After learning from news broadcasts that the "Cap's Kooky Quartet" Avengers were seeking to add the power of the Hulk to their team, the Mole Man used this giant automaton to deliver a false message about the jade giant's whereabouts, all in an effort to defeat the Avengers with the Minotaur. The robot tunneled into the basement of Avengers Mansion,
where the team was practicing in their "play room"; it announced that it
had a message concerning the Hulk. But sensing that the sudden
appearance of the mechanical giant could be a trap, Captain America
leapt into action. While Cap battled the robot, a combination of Hawkeye's
blast arrow and the Scarlet Witch's hex-power knocked the giant
automaton off its feet. Quicksilver then used a makeshift crowbar to pry
open the robot's main control panel, exposing its inner mechanisms, and
Hawkeye fired another blast arrow inside, causing the robot to explode.
But although it was wrecked, the robot's message tape was still running,
and it revealed to the quartet that the Hulk was in the desert (see
comments). This robot stood about twenty feet tall, and had great
strength, but (other than
looking like a cross between Titanium Man and Rom: Spaceknight)
it demonstrated no additional abilities. --Avengers I#17 |
images: (without ads)
Avengers I#17, p12, pan1 (main image - Minotaur)
Avengers I#17, p1, pan1 (headshot - Minotaur)
Avengers I#17, p16, pan2 (Minotaur blinded by Hawkeye's flare arrow)
Avengers I#17, p17, pan4 (Minotaur's horns embedded in rock; Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, Captain America [left])
Avengers (Weekly)#14, cover (Minotaur battles Avengers)
Avengers I#17, cover (Minotaur)
Avengers I#17, p5, pan6 (Mole Man's robot; Hawkeye, Captain America [left])
Appearances:
Avengers I#17 (June, 1965) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Don Heck (pencils), Dick Ayers (inks), Sam Rosen (letters)
First posted: 01/16/2003
Last updated: 12/22/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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