ALEISTER KANE

Real Name: Aleister Kane

Identity/Class: Human magic user

Occupation: Sorcerer ("Scientist of the Mystic Arts")

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Dr. Strange

Enemies: Keepers of the Great Silver Gate (see comments)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: An old country home somewhere in America

First Appearance: Marvel Fanfare I#52/2 (August, 1990)

Powers/Abilities: He combined scientific and occult knowledge to perform magical feats.

History:
(Marvel Fanfare I#52/2 (fb)) - Aleister was one of Dr. Strange's closest friends in the past, but Aleister's ruthless research methods on the mystic arts drove them apart. They stayed friends nonetheless and while Strange became the Sorcerer Supreme, Aleister continued with his experiments. Combining science and magic, he pushed himself to his limits and used pentagrams to taunt demons. Aleister's vanity and arrogance were incomparable.

(Marvel Fanfare I#52/2 (fb) - BTS) - One day Aleister tried to prove one of his theories. He set up mirrors in the right configuration and used black magic on them to open a passageway into the higher dimension where no human sorcerer had been before. Aleister succeded, but the Keepers of the Great Silver Gate didn't welcome him in a friendly way. They trapped him on a Forcewheel of Light which would spin him endlessly by the windows to other dimensions he would never be able to enter.

(Marvel Fanfare I#52/2) - For weeks Aleister sent out pleas to Dr. Strange who received only gibberish he mistook for an attack, but when the Sorcerer Supreme realized that the gibberish only came through to him because somebody needed his help, he deciphered the message and heard the voice of his old friend Aleister. Dr. Strange immediately travelled to Aleister's house where he found the mirrors and passed through them like Aleister did before him. In the strange new dimension Dr. Strange first destroyed some monster and then found Aleister bound to a Forcewheel of Light. Aleister had to use telepathy to tell Dr. Strange his sad story. The kaleidoscopic shifts of the wheel Aleister was trapped on were excruciating for Aleister although he was well versed in the occult and his subconscious was controlled by the Keepers who channeled their power through it to create monsters while his soul was leeched away. Dr. Strange fought these monsters while a second forcewheel slowly formed around him. Strange told Aleister that he couldn't free him and that he had to leave soon. Aleister asked him just to save his soul and Dr. Strange destroyed the forcewheel. Aleister's soul was free again, but his body was destroyed.

Comments: Created by Dean Allen Schreck, Gene Colan & Al Williamson

Uh oh! Teasing demons and other higher beings is a bad thing. Especially if you go up against some of H.P. Lovecraft's more powerful beings.

In "Through the Gates of the Silver Key" written by E. Hoffmann Price (a Lovecraft sanctioned sequel to the story "The Silver Key") the Keepers of the Gate first appeared. The keepers included Umr At-Tawil and a group of Ancient Ones (all shadows of Yog-Sothoth AFAIK; these Ancient Ones are not the Great Old Ones). Aleisteir was probably punished by them because he wasn't perceived as worthy enough to get any further. But perhaps he had already passed the so-called Ultimate Gate and was punished by Yog-Sothoth himself.

It wouldn't make any difference because Yog-Sothoth is the gate and he is most likely also Umr At-Tawil and the Ancient Ones. So Aleister was punished by Yog-Sothoth for trying to pass him.
Sounds logical to me!

From the pages of the Necronomicon:
For Yog-Sothoth is the Gate.
He knoweth where the Old Ones
came forth in times past and where
They came forth again when
the cycle returneth.
--Abdul Alhazred

The name Aleisteir Kane seems to be a combination of a famous occultist (Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) ) and the first murderer in biblical history (Cain/Káyin/Kane/etc. the brother/murderer of Abel) or perhaps the last name was derived from the Robert E. Howard character Solomon Kane.

Profile by Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS:
Aleister Kane has no known connection to:

• Aleister Building, Technomancers HQ @ Sensational Spider-Man I#32
• Cain, or Kane the biblical son of Adam and Eve @ Howard the Duck III#4
• Cain, gris gris man @ Ghost Rider III Annual#2/2
• Caine, Knut, better known as Mad Viking @ Tales to Astonish III#1
• Cane, one of Rosalie Carbone's Assassins @ Punisher War Zone#8
• Kaine, the Peter Parker clone @ Web of Spider-Man#119
• Kain, of the Pacific Overlords @ Avengers West Coast#71
• Kane aka. Nemesis @ Falcon#1
• Garrison Kane, of the Weapon X project @ X-Force #2
• Joshua Kane, the Werewolf (Jack Russell) foe @ Werewolf by Night I#4
• Marcy Kane, a former ESU student who later turned out to be one of the Contraxians, @ Spectacular Spider-Man II#32
• Solomon Kane, a puritan adventurer created by Robert E Howard, @ Weird Tales (1928) @ Savage Sword of Conan#13
• Sugar Kane, a Britney Spears-like pop star @ Uncanny X-Men #395
• any other character with a similar name

images:
Aleister Kane body shot: Marvel Fanfare I#52, p25, pan5
Aleister Kane head shot: Marvel Fanfare I#52, p29, pan1
Aleister Kane on the Forcewheel of Light: Marvel Fanfare I#52, p29, pan2

First Posted: 09/19/2005
Last updated: 07/18/2013

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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