TORGO
Real Name: Torgo
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial, citizen of Mekka, Kirthom star system
Occupation: Warrior, First Among Equals on Mekka, slave-gladiator on Kral
Group Membership: Ravagers (Cammi Benally, Ora, Pip the Troll, Planet Terry, Sera, Yondu Udonta, others);
formerly Horror-Hunters/Hulk-Hunters (Amphibion, Dark-Crawler), Mekkans (ruler)
Affiliations: Asgardians of the Galaxy (Angela/Aldrif Odinsdottir, Executioner/Skurge, Kid Loki, Annabella Riggs, Throg, Thunderstrike/Kevin Masterson, Valkyrie/Brunnhilde), Captain Mar-Vell, Collector and his agents, Deadpool ("Wade Wilson"), Drax the Destroyer, Ego the Living Planet, Fin Fang Foom, Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), R304, the Sagittarians (Empress Daydra, others), Starjammers (Ch'od, Corsair/Christopher Summers, Hepzibah, Raza), Terrax the Tamer, Thing (Benjamin Grimm), Threnody (Melody Jackson), unidentified children, unidentified Kakaranthara hatchling, unidentified refugees;
former agent of "Lippy" Louie and a pair of unnamed cloaked aliens
Enemies: Abomination (Emil Blonsky), Boss Barker,
Galactus, Galaxy Master, Kakarantharans, Killer Thrill, "Lippy" Louie, Raiders (Chargazel, others), unidentified space pirates;
formerly Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), Thing (Benjamin Grimm)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: "Robot-Man," the Ultimate Weapon
Base of Operations: Planet Mekka (formerly Maarin)
orbiting the star Kirthom, in the Milky Way Galaxy;
formerly the Collector's "prisonship";
formerly the planet Kral in the Skrull Galaxy
First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#91 (October, 1969)
Powers/Abilities: Torgo is a mechanical form of life, possessing superhuman strength (Class 25-50 initially, later Class 100) and durability (composed of unknown metal). An experienced combatant, his weapon of choice is his battle stave, which has a rectangle on one end that can be used to choke and/or electrocute opponents. He is approximately 6'5".
Torgo is the only Mekkan that is not programmed to obey the prime directive, which is never to take a human life. He also apparently has a bit of a sweet tooth.
Height: 6'10"
Weight: 600 lbs.
Eyes: Red, formerly white, yellow, black
Hair: None
History:
(Fantastic Four I#173 (fb)) - Torgo was one of the first and most powerful robots constructed by the humanoid race on the planet Maarin. That race died out from a deadly spore-virus centuries ago, and it was Torgo who buried the last inhabitant of the planet and renamed it Mekka.
(Fantastic Four I#92 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo was captured by the Skrulls of Kral, who forced him to serve in their gladiatorial pens under the threat of using one of their weapons to destroy Mekka if he refused. Torgo's power and skill enabled him to become champion of the contests under the mob boss Lippy Louie, and he was undefeated in a lengthy string of combat.
(Fantastic Four I#91) - In the slave pens of Kral, Torgo met the Thing and told him that he would kill him when they fought.
(Fantastic Four I#92) - Torgo attempted to convince the Thing that it was useless to oppose the Skrulls, as their slave collars and hypno-rays made him helpless. The Thing tried to convince Torgo to join him against the Skrulls, but Torgo attacked him and the Skrull slavers had to break them up. As they approached, Torgo revealed the threat of the Sonic Disruptor aimed at their home planets. They then watched the first contest, a match between a Primitoid and a Cat-Man.
(Fantastic Four I#93) - Torgo and the Thing entered the arena, where the Thing continued to try to convince him to fight their real enemies: the Skrulls. Unwilling to listen and thinking the idea to be futile, Torgo continued to attack. The fight was evenly matched, though the Thing was less experienced with the weapons they were given and was frequently at a disadvantage as a result. Nonetheless, the Thing managed to get Torgo at his mercy, but refused to kill him and let him go. Torgo then used a gas weapon to weaken the Thing and stunned him. However, remembering how the Thing had spared him, Torgo refused to kill his foe. The Skrulls aimed the Sonic Disruptor at Mekka, but the rest of the Fantastic Four then arrived and the Human Torch destroyed the Disruptor. The Skrulls' control ended, Torgo led a rebellion and the slaves then turned on their former masters.
(Fantastic Four I#173 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo's rebellion led the slaves to victory. Returning home, he was named a hero and named First among Equals of Mekka.
(Fantastic Four I#173) - The Thing and Mr. Fantastic were sent by the High Evolutionary to find a potential world for Galactus, in hopes of sparing the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth. They were sent to Mekka, but quickly realized that the robots of that world were intelligent, and planned to head back to the High Evolutionary to reveal their failure. However, despite his previous alliance with the Thing, Torgo decided that they could not be allowed to return, as they might reveal the location of Mekka to Galactus. Torgo and the Mekkans overpowered, subdued, and imprisoned the two (to be fair, the Thing was temporarily in human form and using a Thing exoskeleton, and Reed's powers were fading).
(Fantastic Four I#174) - Torgo revealed his plan to turn Reed and Ben into Mekkans to force them to stay--he was also brilliant enough to reveal the Tower of Life, the source of power to all Mekkans. After Torgo left his prisoners alone, they escaped. While Ben fought Torgo and the Mekkans, Reed fought his way to the Tower. Ben finally managed to drop Torgo, but Reed then revealed that he had simultaneously turned off their power supply. Ben restored the power, and Torgo took their act of good faith as reason enough to trust that they would not betray him, and allowed them to leave in peace.
(Marvel Two-In-One#45 (fb) - BTS) - Boss Barker, having survived by impersonating a corpse, managed to gain revenge on Torgo, decapitating him and claiming his head as a trophy.
(Marvel Two-In-One#45) - Barker confronted the Thing, revealed his trophy, and then tried to rub him out as well. The Thing was assisted by Captain Mar-Vell, but ultimately it was Torgo who saved the day. Briefly reactivating, he fired an eyeblast that dropped Barker. Mar-Vell then planned to program Barker's ship to take Torgo's head back to Mekka to be repaired.
BTS - Torgo was rebuilt.
(Hostess Ad: July, 1979: The Ultimate Weapon, ie. Defenders I#73) - A pair of cloaked Jawa-like aliens allied themselves with Torgo. They attacked the Thing, nearly crushing him with their Atomic Hydraulo-Press, before he shattered it and broke free. The aliens then sent Torgo against him, but the Thing pulled out some Hostess® fruit pies. Torgo decided that the pies were very good, and definitely better than fighting. The Thing and Torgo ate the pies, and the aliens wished they could have some, too.
(Incredible Hulk II#269 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo was recruited by Empress Daydra of the Sagittarians to fight off the Galaxy Master and his agent, the Ravager of Worlds (actually the Abomination). Before leaving, he had the computers redesign his frame to make him strong enough to confront these foes. Torgo was joined by Amphibion and Dark-Crawler, but even their combined might was insufficient against the Abomination, whose strength the Galaxy Master had doubled. Daydra then brought the trio to Earth as the Hulk-Hunters, to find and enlist the Hulk, who had defeated the Galaxy Master before.
(Incredible Hulk II#269) - The Hulk-Hunters arrived on Earth, but their name caused their intent to be mistaken, and they soon found themselves on the losing end of a battle against the Hulk. Seeing that further fighting was pointless, Torgo summoned Daydra to stop the fight and reveal their intent. The Hulk accepted Daydra's request for aid.
(Incredible Hulk II#270) - After breaking up a fight between Amphibion and the Hulk en route, Torgo led the renamed Horror-Hunters against the Galaxy Master, while the Hulk engaged the Abomination. The Hulk became angry enough to defeat the empowered Abomination, weakening the Galaxy Master sufficiently to allow the Hunters to penetrate his shields. The Galaxy Master then teleported the Hulk and Abomination closer to him, so that the Abomination could defeat the Hunters, but the Hulk attacked and destroyed the Galaxy Master and the Abomination went mad and fell into the void of space.
(Wolverine II#135(fb) - BTS) - Torgo allied himself with the Collector, aboard a ship which he had created that was shielded from the detection of Galactus. Many aliens came by choice to this ship to avoid the planet-eater.
(Wolverine II#135) - Wolverine was brought to the Collector's ship by the alien Aria with the intent of freeing the "prisoners." The Collector sent Torgo to stop them, and he led a pair of Sidrian Hunters after them.
(Wolverine II#136) - The Sidri captured Aria and Torgo smashed Wolverine aside to stop him from helping her. Torgo convinced Wolverine that he had perhaps heard a skewed version of what was really going on. Torgo was called back to the Collector's side and so he left Wolverine to learn the truth from the other inhabitants. However, the other inhabitants proved quite hostile to the human Wolverine.
(Wolverine II#137) - After Wolverine broke out, Torgo accompanied the Starjammers in an effort to recover him. Wolverine and Aria's efforts successfully destroyed the ship's main power grid, disabling the cloaking device. The ship was then discovered and approached by Galactus.
(Wolverine II#138) - While there was a mass exodus from the ship as the others fled from Galactus, Torgo refused to leave and stayed behind in hopes of slowing Galactus enough that all could escape. Wolverine and Aria, regretful of their error in judgment, joined Torgo in trying to destroy Galactus' elemental converter. Even when Galactus foiled all other efforts, Torgo refused to leave with the Starjammers and continued to pound at the converter until Galactus blasted him.
SECRET WARS III HAPPENED
(Drax I#4) - Torgo was caught by Fin Fang Foom's followers on a distant planet to participate in gladiatorial combat. An electrical agony circlet was placed around his neck to control him. The blood of the fallen warriors was used to bath Kakarantharan eggs in it.
(Drax I#4) - In prison Torgo told fellow prisoner Drax that they would fulfill their destiny in combat. Torgo promised other fighters that he would kill them fast. After Drax slew a Gloorthian Death Crab, Torgo was sent in to battle him and Terrax. Torgo damaged Drax's agony circlet, allowing Drax to rip it off. Drax then destroyed the circlets around the necks of Terrax and Torgo to free them as well.
(Drax I#5) - Torgo joined forces with Drax and Terrax to fight Fin Fang Foom and his followers. Fin Fang Foom fled with the eggs through a portal, but Torgo, Drax and Terrax followed him through. They found Fin Fang Foom distraught because the eggs were turning to dust. Terrax stopped Drax from attacking Fin Fang Foom. Drax and Torgo left the planet with the kidnapped children while Terrax stayed behind with Fin Fang Foom to console him. Drax took the last egg he found with him as a souvenir on his journey to return the kidnapped children to their families. He was joined by Torgo, R304 and bartender Ora, who had originally hired him to save the children.
(Drax I#6 (fb) - BTS) - Drax, Torgo, Ora and R304 used Drax's spaceship the Space Sucker to return several of the kidnapped children.
(Drax I#6) - Drax failed to return one of the children because he ran into the wrong caste, who hunted them down. Torgo pulled the child back into the ship and told Drax to come inside as well because there was no honor in dying in the rain. They trio eventually found her nomadic tribe and returned the child.
(Drax I#6 - BTS) - They kept returning children to their families.
(Drax I#6) - On a peaceful world Drax, Ora, Torgo and R304 were celebrated for returning a child. With a flower garland around his neck Torgo enjoyed the festivities until a ship arrived and started firing into the crowd. Torgo fought against the space pirates led by Killer Thrill, who was a former partner of Ora and tried to collect a bounty. Torgo saved Drax from Killer Thrill, who was unable to use her psychic powers against Torgo. Because they wanted to prevent any further collateral damage Torgo, Drax and Ora picked up the remaining children they had to return and took off in their spaceship. They escaped from Killer Thrill through a minefield.
(Drax I#7) - Torgo hung out with the children while Drax dealt with his former ally Cammi and her new partner Planet Terry. Cammi and Terry secretly left behind cryo-fusion detonators before teleporting back to their ship to freeze everyone on the ship.
Torgo and the others eventually thawed out after Drax was delivered to Pip the Troll by Cammi and Terry. They learned that Pip actually wanted to help.
(Drax I#8) - Crammed into Drax's ship Cammi, Ora, Pip, Planet Terry, R304 and Torgo continued their mission to return the children to their families. They were attacked and nearly hijacked by space pirates, but escaped after Drax, Torgo and Pip destroyed the pirates' ships. Torgo wished for more battle like this one. They soon returned another girl to her family.
(Drax I#9) - Torgo's circuits began to sizzle when Killer Thrill, who had secretly stowed away aboard, attacked Ora. He told the others, but they couldn't prevent Ora from ejecting herself and Killer Thrill from the ship in a container. When they arrived on the planet where Killer Thrill and Ora had landed, Ora was barely alive. Killer Thrill escaped by forcing Pip to teleport with her away. Shortly after the dragon that had hired Killer Thrill to bring them the egg arrived and were ready to pick up the young dragon that had recently hatched. Torgo remembered their fight against Fin Fang Foom and realized that they had no chance against more than one dragon. He pointed out that fighting the space dragons would delay getting Ora the medical attention she needed and their attempt to save Pip, but he realized that there was no way around it.
(Drax I#10) - Torgo fought six Kakarantharan alongside Cammi, Drax and Planet Terry. Two of them tried to rip Torgo apart, but Drax saved him. Torgo was glad that fire burned away the dragon blood from his chassis, but a second later he was hit by a tail whip and taken out of the fight. Fin Fang Foom and Terrax joined the battle against Foom's kin and Torgo rejoined the battle. Torgo was ready to crush one of the dragon's skulls, but Foom stopped him because the Kakarantharan were already retreating. After the battle everyone realized that the hatchling had been kidnapped by Killer Thrill.
(Drax I#11 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo bandaged up Ora.
(Drax I#11) - Aboard the Space Sucker Torgo, Drax and Terrax watched over Ora while Cammi and Planet Terry pilot the ship to follow Fin Fang Foom to the hatchling. When they finally arrived on the world where Killer Thrill had taken the hatchling, Torgo felt inspired to one day be more than a killing machine after hearing Foom talk about his wish to prevent the hatchling from becoming a monster. Torgo and the others slaughtered their way through the prisoners Killer Thrill had sent against them. In the end the hatchling aided Drax to defeat Killer Thrill. Torgo watched as Foom and Drax decided to give the hatchling to Ora to raise. He also gave the Space Sucker to Cammi and the others.
(Deadpool: Assassin#4) - Aided by Deadpool and Threnody the team of Cammi, Ora, Pip, Planet Terry, Torgo and overthrew a despotic space barony for the equivalent of a half million dollars.
(Asgardians of the Galaxy#6 (fb) - BTS) - Torgo and his friends joined Yondu's Ravagers. They brought refugees, whose prayers created diamonds, to Ego the Living Planet. Chargazel and his Raiders were still after the refugees.
(Asgardians of the Galaxy#6) - The Ravagers attacked the Asgardians of the Galaxy when the landed on Ego. Torgo got into a fight with Skurge. The battle quickly ended when Angela kissed her girlfriend Sera, who was one of the Ravagers. The two teams later joined forces to defend the refugees from Chargazel's Raiders. The fight angered Ego, who, influenced by his moon Alter Ego, lashed out against everyone on the surface.
(Asgardians of the Galaxy#7) - Fighting for their survival against the planet Torgo and Skurge battled stone golems created by Ego. Ego ultimately calmed down after Angela forced the Raiders to shut down the device that controlled Alter Ego. The Raiders fled soon after and the Asgardians of the Galaxy left as well, leaving the Ravagers to continue protecting the refugees.
Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Joe Sinnott.
Like any good robot, perhaps Torgo has a spare set of memory/programming back on Mekka and he could be rebuilt.
The fact that Torgo most likely slew tens (if not hundreds) of others (many most likely innocents) during the Great Games is kind of down-played. He's definitely willing to kill, as he turned a gun on his former masters and shouted "Death to the Skrulls!"
The Hostess story became canon with Torgo's entry in the 2006 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#11.
A robot resembling Torgo was seen in Reanimator's collection in Wolverine II#149. ---Prime Eternal
Profile by Snood. Update by Markus Raymond (Drax, etc.)
CLARIFICATIONS:
Torgo has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Drax I#4, p6, pan1 (main)
Fantastic Four I#93, p15, pan5 (first appearance)
All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#11, Torgo entry (full body)
Incredible Hulk II#269, cover (Hulk hunters)
Wolverine II#135, p13, pan2 (alongside the Collector)
Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#92 (November, 1969) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
Fantastic Four I#93 (December, 1969) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Frank Giacoia (inks)
Fantastic Four I#173 (August, 1976) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
Fantastic Four I#174 (September, 1976) - Roy Thomas (writer/editor), John Buscema (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks)
Marvel Two-In-One#45 (November, 1978) - Peter Gillis (writer), Alan Kupperberg (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Hostess Ad: The Ultimate Weapon (July, 1979)
Incredible Hulk II#269 (March, 1982) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils/inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#270 (April, 1982) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils/inks), Al Milgrom (editor)
Wolverine II#135 (February, 1999) - Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda (pencils), Jonathan Sibal (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Wolverine II#136 (March, 1999) - Erik Larsen, Eric Stephenson (writers), Jeff Matsuda (pencils), Jonathan Sibal (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Wolverine II#137 (April, 1999) - Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda (pencils), Jonathan Sibal (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Wolverine II#138 (May, 1999) - Erik Larsen (writer), Jeff Matsuda, Steve Scott, Yancey Labat (pencillers), Jonathan Sibal, Scott Elmer, Scott Koblish (inkers), Mark Powers (editor)
Drax I#4-5 (April-May, 2016) - Cullen Bunn & CM Punk (writers), Scott Hepburn (artist), Jacob Thomas (editor)
Drax I#6-7 (June-July, 2016) - Cullen Bunn & CM Punk (writers), Scott Hepburn (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Jacob Thomas (editor)
Drax I#8 (August, 2016) - Cullen Bunn & CM Punk (writers), Scott Hepburn & Marcus To (pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Jacob Thomas (editor)
Drax I#9-11 (September-November, 2016) - Cullen Bunn & CM Punk (writers), Scott Hepburn (artist), Jacob Thomas (editor)
Deadpool: Assassin#4 (September, 2018) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), John Dell & Roberto Poggi (inks), Devin Lewis (editor)
Asgardians of the Galaxy#6 (April, 2019) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Matteo Buffagni (artist), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
Asgardians of the Galaxy#7 (May, 2019) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Matteo Buffagni & Stefano Landini (artists), Sarah Brunstad (editor)
First Posted: 10/15/2003
Last updated: 10/29/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let us know.
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