BASILISKBASILISK
Real Name: Basil Elks
Identity/Class: Human mutate;
Citizen of the U.S.A.
Occupation: Burglar
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: The Alpha Stone and the Omega Stone
Enemies: Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), Mister Fantastic, Mole Man, Scourge of the Underworld, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Thing (Benjamin Grimm)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Place of Birth: Norristown, Pennsylvania
Base of Operations: New York, NY, USA;
subterranean caves
beneath New York and the Savage Land.
First Appearance: Marvel Team-Up I#16 (December, 1973)
Powers/Abilities: The Basilisk has enhanced human strength, durability, and reflexes. His skin was tougher and thicker than normal, and he was especially resistant to great heats (including that of molten rock). He can survive for extended periods without food or water.
His body generated microwave-related energy, which he can emit at will through his eyes for a variety of effects, including a force beam that heated up an intense vortex of air beneath him. This force beam was capable of exerting a force of 1,500 pounds per square and could lift him into the air (a maximum of 400 feet high, at a maximum speed of 250 mph) when he trained it on the ground. His eye-blasts could accelerate or decelerate molecular motion, causing surfaces to freeze and be covered with coatings of ice, or to reach a high temperature of up to 3, 000 degrees Farenheit. The eye-blasts could also be used for stunning, repulsing, and molecular transformation (to a limited degree). His intelligence was augmented by the transformation. After he absorbed the Omega Stone powers, he could also levitate in the air without using his force beam, cause volcanic risings and eruptions, tremors and earthquakes, equal the Thing's strength (Class 90), transport himself extremely rapidly through lava and teleport (see comments)), and fly on pieces of rocks. His intellect was even further augmented by the Omega Stone. His body sometimes emitted heat.
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 210 lbs.
Eyes: (as Elks) Blue, (as Basilisk) Red (enlarged and glowing)
Hair: (as Elks) Black, (as Basilisk) None
Skin: (as Basilisk) Green
Unusual Features: In addition to the above, he has big fins on the back.
History:
(Marvel Team-Up#16 (fb) - BTS) - Basil Elks was a convicted burglar with an
undistinguished career.
In prison he was nicknamed "Basilisk" by his cellmates.
(Marvel Team-Up#16) - Out of prison, Basil Elks went to rob the biggest emerald in the world. By night, he entered a museum and stole the Alpha Stone. In his hand the emerald pulsed like it was alive. A night guard shot at Elks, but hit the emerald, which exploded and transformed Elks into another being. With a simple thought, Elks' eyes transformed the air around the guard into ice. Learning that he had acquired exceptional powers, the Basilisk transformed an ancient rigid suit of armor into his soft uniform. Sensing that another gem waited for him, left the museum.
His wrecking of the museum was noticed by Spider-Man. Basilisk eye-blasted Spider-Man, who avoided the rays, but the Basilisk's managed to hit him several times, knocking the hero down for a while. Basilisk was killing Spider-Man when Captain Marvel intervened. Basilisk transformed the ground to make it like sand, and his rays sank Captain Marvel down. The hero levitated out the trap. Basilisk then solidified the air around the Kree and fled.
Basilisk reached a
yard and started to use his eye-blasts to dig a hole to find the second gem. Spider-Man arrived, driven there by
Captain Marvel's "sensing" of the Omega Stone. Basilisk was distracted
by Spider-Man, and when Captain Marvel touched the Omega Stone it grew to great
size, enveloped him, and then
disappeared into the ground with the hero inside. Basilisk pretended to flee.
(Marvel Team-Up#17 (fb)) - Instead the Basilisk actually hid, and he followed Spider-Man to the Baxter Building. After this he followed Spider-Man and Mister Fantastic to the Mole Man's underground kingdom, where they found the Omega Stone with Captain Marvel inside and immobilized and supplying power the giant ruby that the Mole Man intended to power an immense surface laser-cannon to use against the surface world.
(Marvel Team-Up#17) - When Basilisk saw the Mole Man army attacking the two heroes, he transformed the Moloids into glass and then shattered them into pieces with a second blast. He then confronted Mole Man, but soon changed side and they hit Mr. Fantastic and Spider-Man. With the heroes stunned the Mole Man expressed regret that he would soon have to kill the Basilisk. In response, the Basilisk blasted Mole Man, too, but then Captain Marvel switched places with Rick Jones, and the Omega Stone, lacking Mar-Vell's Kree energies, returned to its smaller size. The laser cannon malfunctioned, causing the magma pits to erupt, and molten lava flooded the cavern. Not wanting to abandon the stone, Basilisk was covered by the magma, and the others managed to flee.
(Marvel Team-Up#47 (fb)) - Basilisk was imprisoned in the Omega Stone and had to wander for months, transported by the rivers of lava. The Stone was found by some Moloids, who worshipped him like an idol and took him to the deepest cave. An earthquake isolated the cave, and only one Moloid remained there with Basilisk. The Moloid touched the stone and released its energies. Basilisk absorbed the Omega Stone energies into the Alpha Stone within him, becoming even more powerful. He then fed on the Moloid's life force, killing him.
(Marvel Two in One#16 - BTS) - Basilisk's augmented powers caused a volcano to rise in the Savage Land and caused repeated earthquakes, each increasing with geometrical intensity.
(Marvel Two in One#17) - In the cave beneath the volcano
Basilisk encountered the Thing and the two fought. The Basilisk held the Thing back with
ease while confirming he was the cause of the tremors on the surface and of the
volcanoes rising on the Earth's magnetic axis.
The Basilisk had used his increased powers to initiate a volcanic chain reaction
with which he intended to destroy civilization. Then he decided to cause the
destruction in more civilized placed and started to travel to New York, in order
to destroy the city and
prove his superiority to the world. The Thing managed to reach Basilisk in the
exact instant
of the he began the transport.
Basilisk's arrival in New York caused the rising and the
eruption of another volcano in the Hudson River. The rapid transportation stunned the
Thing, and Basilisk believed him dead. Seeing Spider-Man approaching, the Basilisk
hurled the Thing's seeming corpse at the hero.
(Marvel Team-Up#47) - Basilisk told to the Web-Slinger his
history, but soon after fought Spider-Man, who succeeded in reviving the Thing.
Bored, Basilisk abandoned the volcano and used his rays to fly on a rock
platform over New York. He started to blast and destroy the city.
The repeated hits of the two heroes couldn't stop
Basilisk, only serving to distract him; but the final combined strike of the two heroes threw
Basilisk into the volcano just when he was releasing his deadliest eye-blast.
The resulting explosion destroyed the volcano, and the Basilisk disappeared,
trapped underground
(Fantastic Four I#289) - The Basilisk finally reached the surface, emergency at the site where Four Freedoms Plaza was being constructed. However, no sooner had he appeared than he was suddenly killed by one of the Scourge of the Underworld killer-vigilantes, disguised as a construction worker.
Comments: Created by Len Wein, Gil Kane, and Jim Mooney.
Probably Basilisk's power
concerned something that hid him from Spider-Man spider-sense.
Basilisk killed tens (maybe one hundred) of Moloids. It was rather strange that they
treated the Stone with him inside like a gift of a god. Perhaps they were of
another tribe, and knew nothing about his previous massacre.
Captain Marvel declared that Basilisk, with the power of the two stones, could
have destroyed the world, he didn't seem that powerful against the Thing and
Spider-Man, but he did seem rather invulnerable and strong, more so than the two heroes.
I seem to remember a
correction in an OHotMU that he could not actually teleport, but rather
transport rapidly through lava. Where was that correction? What was the big deal
with him being able to teleport? I mean, why the issue? Didn't it look like he
teleported in the original issues?
--Snood
The original "correction" appeared in Basilisk's entry in
the second issue of the original OHotMU. His entry ended with these two
sentences: "Contrary to one account, the Basilisk is unable to teleport
himself. He can, however, travel at astonishing speed through molten magma
inside the earth by the thrust of his force beams." However, his entry in the
first Book of the Dead issue of the OHotMU's Deluxe Edition confirmed that "He
had the ability to teleport himself, subject to unknown restrictions."
It was never explained why this "correction" was made in the
first place but I would guess that somebody on the OHotMU staff thought that the
Basilisk should only have powers related to the energy beams that he could emit
from his eyes and that person chose to "explain away" the one time when he
appeared to use teleportation. Apparently, that explanation didn't stick
precisely because it was undeniable that he DID teleport himself and the Thing
from the Savage Land to New York City in Marvel Two-in-One #17.
--Don Campbell
OK, so maybe he could only do it when he had the Omega Stone's power?
--Snood.
The Basilisk was one of the characters of whom Arnim Zola designed a Proto-Husk. Deadpool slew the Basilisk Proto-Husk.
Clarifications:
The real Basilisk should be distinguished from:
BASILISK proto-husk - creation of Arnim Zola, destroyed by Deadpool--Deadpool III#0
Basilisk has no known connections to
Images:
Marvel Team-Up#17, page 5, panel 5
Marvel Team-Up#17, page 3, panel 1
Marvel Team-Up#17, page 4, panel 4
Appearances:
Marvel Team-Up I#16 (December, 1973) - Len Wein (writer), Gil Kane (pencils), Jim Mooney & David Hunt (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Marvel Team-Up I#17 (January, 1974) - Len Wein (writer), Gil Kane (pencils), Sal Trapani, Frank Giacoia & Mike Esposito (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Marvel Two-in-One#17 (July, 1976) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Mike Esposito & David Hunt (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Marvel Team-Up I#47 (July, 1976) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Ron Wilson (pencils), Dan Adkins (inks), Marv Wolfman (editor)
Fantastic Four I#289 (April, 1986) - John Byrne (writer/pencils), Al Gordon (inks), Michael Carlin (editor)
Last updated: 05/07/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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