BERSERKERS
Earth-83466

Membership: Hound (James Howlett), the Thunderer (Thor), possibly others (? - see comments)

Purpose: To serve Earth-14412's Dark Phoenix

Aliases: None

Affiliations: Dark Phoenix (Raven Darkholme of Earth-14412), King Killmonger of Earth-36054

Enemies: Avengers (Captain America/Steve Rogers, Captain Marvel/Carol Danvers, Echo/Maya Lopez, Iron Man/Tony Stark, Starbrand/Brandy Selby, Thor/Thor Odinson), Deathloks

Base of Operations: Earth-83466, although they could be summoned to nearly anywhere Earth-14412's Dark Phoenix went.

First Appearance: Avengers VII#51 (February, 2022)

History:
(Avengers VII#51 (fb) - BTS) - Earth-14412's Dark Phoenix began assembling a group of servants using her Phoenix Force abilities to burn out the souls of her victims, transforming them into mindless slaves that she called her Berserkers. Hating her own reality's counterpart of Wolverine and knowing he would rather be dead than serve her, Dark Phoenix-14412 sadistically transformed Earth-83466's Wolverine into a Berserker dubbed the Hound and began utilizing him as her primary Berserker. At some point, Dark Phoenix also transformed Reality-83466's Thor into the Berserker she dubbed the Thunderer and sent him to destroy Multiversal Deathloks on behalf of the Multiversal Masters of Evil.

(Avengers VII#51) - Attacking Deathloks on Earth-616, Dark Phoenix encountered Earth-616's Avengers and unleashed the Berserker Hound to assist her in battling the heroes. During the battle, Earth-616's Echo attempted to contact the hero hidden deep within the Hound's mind using her own Phoenix Force powers but Dark Phoenix assured her that the Hound only had scorch-marks inside where his soul once existed and considered transforming Echo into a Berserker as well. Noticing Echo and Thor bickering due to Thor's dislike of the Phoenix Force, Dark Phoenix summoned forth another Berserker, the Thunderer, who had been killing Deathloks on his own elsewhere.

(Avengers VII#54 - BTS) - The Berserker Thunderer attacked other Avengers Captain America, Captain Marvel and Starbrand as they flew to regroup with Iron Man, Thor and Echo, destroying a wing of the Avengers' jet. Having pursued the Thunderer, Thor attacked the Thunderer in retaliation, calling him a mockery of a true Thor, but Dark Phoenix gloated that the Thunderer was perhaps the truest Thor of them all, as he had embraced the Phoenix as his mother. Echo then arrived as well and blasted the Thunderer with her Phoenix Force flames, grabbing and using the Thunderer's own hammer against him. Thor and Echo continued to battle the Thunderer as Dark Phoenix gloated at how the Thunderer would do anything for his "mother's love." Thor ultimately accepted his own connection to the Phoenix Force and managed to project Phoenix Force fire through the chest of the Thunderer, killing him and returning his hammer back to the Dark Phoenix. Accepting the hammer, Dark Phoenix warned that Thor had no idea what he had now unleashed, commenting by suggesting Thor's connection to the Phoenix Force was how she had been able to corrupt a Thor in the first place.

Comments: Created by Jason Aaron and Juan Frigeri.

    While it's not 100% clear if each of the Berserkers were from Earth-83466, it is known that the Hound who served as both as a Berserker and on the Multiversal Masters of Evil was from Earth-83466. Given how each of the Multiversal Masters of Evil seemed to take over a reality that they had destroyed, it seems logical that Earth-83466 could be a reality that Earth-14412's Dark Phoenix took over and from there, she corrupted heroes of that reality to act as her Berserkers. It should also be noted that only the Hound actually served in the Multiversal Masters of Evil.

    This profile focuses on the Berserkers as a group so any appearances of the Hound by himself will not be included here unless the Berserkers as a group are present or mentioned in those issues. The Hound's appearances are best left for a profile of the Hound himself. With that in mind, the appearance of the Berserkers in Avengers VII#54 would be considered BTS because the group is not present, only the Thunderer. The issue is directly tied to the events in which the group was involved in in Avengers VII#51. It's actually a bit strange that Avengers VII#51 ends with Dark Phoenix summoning the Thunderer but then the issue where we see what happened next (Avengers VII#54) shows the Thunderer attacking the incoming Avengers jet. It's almost as if we are missing an issue in between where the Thunderer battles Thor, Iron Man and Echo before then flying off to attack the jet, especially since we see Thor and then Echo eventually catch up to the Thunderer moments after he attacks the jet, as if they had been pursuing the Thunderer following a battle. At any rate, while the Berserkers as a group are not seen in Avengers VII#54, they still existed as a group during the events of that issue, as Dark Phoenix likely had the Hound off accomplishing something else as the Thunderer battled the Avengers. My guess is the Hound was probably still battling Iron Man, Thor and Echo until they flew off to continue the fight with the Thunderer. Since the group was still together in that issue, albeit accomplishing separate goals, I chose to list Avengers VII#54 as a BTS appearance of the group.

    It was never shown if there were any other Berserkers besides the Hound and the Thunderer but I'm leaning towards not. My reasoning for this is that, after the Thunderer was killed by Thor, the Hound began occasionally using the alias of THE Berserker, as if he was the only one left in existence. Whether that truly became his codename is unclear, as he was sometimes referred to as the Hound and sometimes the Berserker (perhaps he was simply referred to as such because he was one of the Berserkers?). We also never see the Berserkers as a group after the Thunderer is killed so it's possible the group simply ceased to exist as a group after the Thunderer died.

    Another thing of note: There are absolutely no images of the Berserkers together as a group. Both the Hound and the Thunderer are present as a group in Avengers VII#51 but we never see them side-by-side. As such, I had to make do with what images I could find to illustrate the group...

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Earth-83466's Berserkers have no known connections to:

The Thunderer

Thor was the son of the Phoenix Force, a connection which Earth-14412's Dark Phoenix took advantage of to corrupt and transform him into one of her subservient Berserkers, rechristening him the Thunderer. Referring to Dark Phoenix as "mother," the Thunderer was sent to destroy any Multiversal Deathloks he could but was soon summoned to Dark Phoenix's side when she battled Earth-616's Avengers. Shortly after he was summoned, the Thunderer was sent to strike down the incoming jet of more Avengers but Earth-616's Thor and Echo quickly caught up and engaged the Thunderer moments after he destroyed one of the jet's wings. Eventually, Thor-616 accepted his own connection to the Phoenix Force and used the connection to fire a burst of Phoenix Force fire through the Thunderer's chest, killing him.

The Thunderer had superhuman strength and durability sufficient to go toe-to-toe against Earth-616's Thor without permanent injury. He also wielded a twisted hammer that he could use to summon dark lightning from the sky.





--Avengers VII#51 (#54d,

images: (without ads)
Avengers VII#51, p7, pan1 (The Hound by Dark Phoenix's side, main image)
Avengers VII#51, p20, pan1 (Thunderer by Dark Phoenix's side)
Avengers VII#54, p2, pan4 (Thunderer)

Appearances:
Avengers VII#51 (February, 2022) - Jason Aaron (writer), Juan Frigeri (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Avengers VII#54 (May, 2022) - Jason Aaron (writer), Juan Frigeri (art), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 11/30/2023
Last updated: 11/30/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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