RagaRaga
Real Name: George Friedrich
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Recruiter of worshippers for the Black Lama, world-conqueror
Group Membership: His disciples (Cynthia Chong, Dion)
Affiliations: Black Lama
Enemies: Iron Man (Tony Stark), Cynthia Chong, MacKenzie Davies
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Wish of Fire, the Son of Fire
Base of Operations: The Red Forest near Santa Monica, California, USA
First Appearance: Iron Man I#52 (November, 1972)
Powers/Abilities: To channel his emotions and create and throw flames and intense heat, to highly increase his body's temperature, to grow in strength, durability, invulnerability and, in general, in power. He could induce pain in the other's body and could also create strong earth-tremors. It is uncertain if he could also grow in size, or if it was only an effect of the Black Lama's "mystic plan".
History:
(Iron Man I#53 (fb)) - The man who would become Raga fell
in love for a student from India, but she left him and went back in India. The
man followed her, and after a hard search found the girl, but she was married. The man
exploded in rage and slew his love and her husband.
The Black Lama found the man, still boiling in rage and proposed to teach him to channel his emotions and conquer the world. The man accepted and started a long period of learning, months, with spectacular adventures in the world of the occult. The man learned the meditation necessary to reach the volcanic fires in his soul. When he was ready, the Black Lama gave him an uniform and a name, "Raga", that meant "Wish of fire" (or Fire-Wish?).
(Iron Man I#52 (fb) - BTS) - Raga united a group of apprentices in the Red Forest, near Santa Monica, and started to teach them what he had learned from the Black Lama. During this period of time one of the disciples, "sister" Cynthia, fell in love with MacKenzie Davies, a forest guard.
(Iron Man I#52) - Raga found Cynthia with
his lover together. Thinking she would have betrayed their cause, the rage
increased in him. Raga struck Davies, set the forest on fire and forced Cynthia to
follow him.
Meanwhile, Anthony Stark was attending a party near the
forest. Donning the armor, Iron Man reached the fire, saved the forester and cut the fire
off, then started to search for Raga. The armored Avenger found Raga just
before his brothers (a group of hippies) and he could execute Cynthia for her betrayal. Raga's
brothers were easily overwhelmed by Iron Man, but Raga managed to burn the
Avenger. Raga was unaffected by Iron Man's heaviest assaults. Instead, he channeled his fury, started to glow, and transformed the granite
and the soil in lava, trapping the golden Avenger.
(Iron Man I#53) - The river of lava produced by Raga was reaching some residences, but Iron Man succeeded in diverting the path of lava, then went back to the execution scene, where he also founding the Black Lama!
The Black Lama had appeared some minutes before to investigate Raga's performance of his plan. Trying to demonstrate his determination, Raga used his power to punish Cynthia but she also was a little trained to channel her emotions in energy and managed to defend herself for a while. But Raga was more trained, and he hollowed out his emotions and struck Cynthia with several stings of pain; Iron Man intervened before he could kill her.
Raga received the Black Lama's help. The mysterious person created a "mystic plane" around the three super-humans, remaining on a different physical plane: fury, heat, and fire against iron, repulsors, and courage, but the fight was only in their mind.
Meanwhile
MacKenzie Davies arrived on the place of the fight, saw Iron Man, Raga and Cynthia standing immobile, surrounded by a glowing
aura and understood that the Black Lama was the cause. MacKenzie threw himself
on the Lama only to be introduced to the "mystic plane". On this "plane," Raga grew in size and
was overpowering Iron Man,
but a distraction by MacKenzie let the Avenger recover. Impressed by MacKenzie's
sacrifice, Iron Man rallied his emotions; his rage grew and so did his dimensions, and
he repeatedly hit
Raga. The Lama had everybody come out the mystic plane, claiming the end
of the mystic fight. After stating Raga's defeat, the mysterious master left the man alone with his karma.
Affected by the Lama's abandonment, a strong emotion grew in
Raga's soul: fear! Losing the control of his powers, Raga spread powerful
vibrations in the ground, causing a little earthquake. The cliff of the mountain
where he stood collapsed and he tumbled down in the sea, covering him with tons of
rocks.
The two lovers, Cynthia and MacKenzie could finally embrace.
Comments: Created by Mike Friedrich, George Tuska and Vince Colletta.
I don't know what is the language spoken by the
Black Lama that leads to the translation from Raga to "Wish of Fire",
but in English I think that the sound of "Raga" is very similar to sound of "rage", the emotion most used by Raga to develop
his powers.
How many other super-humans were left in the Red Forest by the Black Lama? And how many of
them developed their powers by themselves?
Raga's real name was revealed in Marvel Atlas#1.
Clarifications:
Raga, has no known connections to
Raga's disciples
They are a group of young men and women. They seem
to be hippies, or
boys who like to live in the woods, far from the cities, but it is uncertain.
Cynthia and Dion are two of them. Raga taught them the infernal rites and
songs, to channel the human fury and transform it in fire.
Raga refers to Cynthia as a "sister" and to the group as a
"family", but at the end, when they run away, frightened from
Raga's madness, he calls them children "sons".
Probably they all are brothers-in-faith.
--Iron Man I#52 (53
Cynthia Chong
Cynthia Chong was one of Raga's "sisters". She fell in love for MacKenzie Davies, a forester, but this let Raga believe that she would have revealed the secrets of their "cult".
She had developed some extra-powers, but she didn't use them when Raga kidnapped her. She tried to use them with no result, when she was bond, put on death by her family, and was saved by Iron Man's entering on the scene. She also tried some minutes after, when Raga wanted to demonstrate his loyalty to the Black Lama, and she managed to stop Raga only for some seconds using her survival instinct.
On the "mystic plane" she didn't take part at the mystic fight, held on by Raga and Black Lama's powers.
--Iron Man I#52 (53
Dion was one of Raga's brothers-in-faith who attacked Iron Man when he stopped Cynthia's lynching. He probably was (or believed to be) the "strong-guy" of the group. He hit Iron Man without any result and was easily knocked down by a single slap. It is unclear if he had some extra-powers induced by his control on the emotions or if it was only a boasting, in fact after this "performance" Raga claimed that he was the only one with the sufficient training to inflict pain to Iron Man.
--Iron Man I#52
images:
Raga - full body, Iron Man I#52, Cover
Raga - head shot, Iron Man I#52, page 8, panel 3
Raga giant-size, Iron Man I#53, page 17, panel 2
Cynthia Chong, Iron Man I#53, page 10, panel 4
Dion, Iron Man I#52, page 16, panel 3
Iron Man I#52-53 (November-December, 1972) - Mike Friedrich (writer), George Tuska & Jim Starlin (#53) (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Last updated: 02/28/05
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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