WILD ONE

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Demon (or some other elder being, origins unknown); magic-user;
    Post-Hyborian (at least) and modern eras

Occupation: Demon, hedonist

Group Membership: None known

Affiliations: Formerly Lucian Aster, Shanzar, 666 demonized human sacrificial pawns, a number of demonized Hawaiian natives and tourists

Enemies: Lucian Aster, Marlo Chandler, Defenders (Dr. Strange, Hulk, Namor, Silver Surfer), Rick Jones, Neptune, Pantheon (Delphi, Paris, Ulysses), Shanzar, Jill Walker, 666 demonized human sacrificial pawns (deceased), a number of demonized Hawaiian natives and tourists

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Strange Matter dimension;
    formerly body trapped at the ocean's depths, soul trapped extradimensionally;
    formerly Earth

First Appearance:
    (BTS) Incredible Hulk II Annual#18 (1992);
    (mentioned) Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (1992);
    (fully seen) Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (1992)

 

 

 

 

 

Powers/Abilities: The Wild One has vast magical powers, sufficient to lay low Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Namor, and the Silver Surfer with a single blast. In addition to firing energy blasts, he can transform people into demonic servants, manipulate the Earth and weather, creating typhoons and tsunamis, or causing volcanoes to erupt with minimal effort. He can summon and/or create a flying car and a guitar through which he projects hellish energy. He can shrug off Hulk-level  physical assaults, Dr. Strange's magical attacks, and the Silver Surfer's power cosmic. He is presumably immune to aging and most forms of conventional disease. Only a small fragment of his power was observed.
    The Wild One's sole apparent interest is pleasure, usually generated from destruction and death. Despite being millennia old (or far older) and not having been present on Earth for millennia, he took the appearance of a human styled somewhere from the 1950s on, and he referenced popular culture, such as music, and even Popeye. He may have observed Earth from the dimension to which he had been banished, or he might simply have drawn the references from the minds of those around him, for his own purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

History: The Wild One's origins are unrevealed.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One is an ancient being, though a relative adolescent compared to the Elder Gods, such as Chthon.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS / Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One's body was trapped by Neptune beneath the surface of the Mariana Trench, the deepest trenches in the Pacific Ocean (and the deepest point on Earth), while his spirit was banished extradimensionally.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One was mentioned in passing in the Book of the Vishanti.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One was referenced in the Necropoor Chronicle.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - Amateur sorcerer Lucian Aster made contact with the Wild One during his conjurings.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - Following Shanzar's ousting from the Earth dimension at the hands of the Defenders he began to explore other realms. He encountered the disembodied Wild One who hungered to be returned to flesh.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One instructed Aster to summon Shanzar back to Earth and to prepare for him a body hardy enough to sustain Shanzar for the week required to orchestrate the Wild One's rebirth. In return the Wild One promised to create a permanent body to house Shanzar's essence and sorcerous arsenal, as well as to grant Shanzar an honored place in his future hierarchy.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS / Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (fb) - BTS) - Part of the ritual required the sacrifice of 666 demons, followed by the spilling of the blood whose soul is pure. The Wild One arranged the financial backing for Aster to publish a book, Spelling Made Easy, and imbued the book with power to transform people into demons. The Wild One further requested that the scion of Neptune witness his rebirth.
    These newly created demons then flocked to Shanzar.

(Incredible Hulk II Annual#18 (fb) - BTS) - Jill Walker read a phrase from Lucian Aster's book and was transformed into demonic form.

(Incredible Hulk II Annual#18 (fb) - BTS) - Aster and Shanzar sent demons to ambush and capture Namor, who at the time had been rendered amnesiac by Master Khan. They pulled his mind from his body and transferred it into the demonic form that had once been Jill Walker. They thought they could hold hold Namor, but his mind reasserted itself and he broke free. The mystic form hosting Namor's mind guided him to one he knew could be trusted: the Hulk.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - Shanzar's essence and power inhabited Namor's empty form.

(Incredible Hulk II Annual#18 - BTS) - The demonized Jill Walker (containing Namor's mind, though partially submerged) rampaged through a mall in Reno, Nevada, encountering Rick Jones, who knocked it into a fountain and electrocuted it. Its tail contacted Rick, transferring the mind of Namor into him, while the demon returned to human form; Namor revealed his presence within Rick to the Hulk, who summoned Dr. Strange who questioned Jill Walker about the book, then probed the mind of Namor, revealing what had happened to him. At the same time, Marlo Chandler read from Aster's book and was transformed into demonic form.
    During the same period, the Pantheon's Delphi attended one of Aster's signings in Los Angeles; he recognized her psychic powers and fled, notifying Shanzar of the encounter. She brought the book back to the Mount, and Paris read from it and was demonized.
    As the Hulk fought the demonized Marlo, the demonized Paris attacked him as well. Via a lightning rod, the Hulk electrified both demon-oids, restoring them to normal.
    A demon serving Shanzar caused a nightmarish vision for the Silver Surfer, causing him to return to Earth.
    Aster informed Shanzar of the involvement of the super-heroes, but Shanzar felt that they would be too late to stop them.

(Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 - BTS) - The demonized people gathered at Shanzar's office in Los Angeles' Pan-Dimensional Publishing Building. Dr. Strange, the Hulk, and the Namor-possessed Rick Jones arrived soon after to follow-up on Aster's book. Splitting up, they battled two of the demonized people, and the Namor-possessed Rick was trapped at the bottom of a pool and began to drown. Neptune appeared and granted Rick Namor's powers for the duration of the possession. Neptune further revealed that Namor's opponents were agents of one of Neptune's old foes, though an edict from Zeus forbade Neptune's direct involvement in the coming conflict. The demonized people were restored to normal, and the heroes then confronted Shanzar, learning his involvement in the plot. Shanzar abducted the Namor-possessed Rick Jones, gathered his demonoids, and vanished, after which the Hulk and Strange were joined by the newly arrived Silver Surfer.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5) - Having made direct contact with Aster, Delphi directed Dr. Strange to the bottom of the Mariana Trench to stop him and Shanzar, while Strange asked the Pantheon to collect and destroy all copies of Spelling made Easy. Via a spell that allowed the Hulk to breathe underwater, Strange brought himself, the Hulk, and the Surfer to confront Shanzar, just as Shanzar had planned. They encountered the mystic shield Shanzar had placed, and their assaults, specifically the Surfer's endless outpourings of force, upon the shield allowed Shanzar and Aster to siphon that cosmic energy to empower their sacrificial dagger. When the blade was "ripened," Shanzar had Aster as the residual cosmic energy to the summoning sequence, and then they opened a portal in their shield. After the three Defenders passed through the portal, Shanzar sent the 666 demonoids after them. Strange confirmed that the demonic presences within the people had consumed their souls, leaving no residual humanity. With no further risk of killing the people--since their souls were already lost--the three Defenders slaughtered the demons, unwittingly completing the ritual sacrifice for Shanzar and Aster. With the demons slain, the Surfer turned his assault on Shanzar, who stabbed him with the sacrificial blade that his own energies had empowered. The Surfer briefly bled onto the ocean floor before healing himself, but this nonetheless completed the final portion of the ritual, and the Wild One began to burst forth from the ground. All present fled the violent upheaval, traveling to the Ocean's surface. Strange freed the Namor-possessed Rick, but the Wild One then emerged from the ocean, driving a flaming car. He acknowledged Shanzar and Aster for reviving them, telling them they'd get their rewards later, and he then took off for the Big Island of Hawaii.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5 / Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One transformed the island's natives and tourists into his own personal demonic honor guard.

(Silver Surfer III Annual#5) - The Defenders followed the Wild One to Hawaii and confronted him..

(Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Annual#2 (fb) - BTS) - The Wild One summoned Shanzar and Aster to his side, and he set off the five volcanoes that originally formed the island.

(Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Annual#2) - Mildly annoyed at the heroes presence and behavior, the Wild One told them to go bother the great Cthulu or someone, as he only wished to play with their world for awhile, after which they could have whatever was left of it. The Defenders subsequent assaults were met by Shanzar and the demonized humans. As the heroes made some headway, Aster told the Wild One that this wasn't what he had in mind when he helped bring him back to Earth; the Wild One thanked him for his opinion and told him to buzz off so he could deal with approaching Hulk. The Wild One reached back into "his own world," and pulled forth a guitar from which he could project hellish flames. Aster begged the Wild One for protection against the approaching heroes, and the Wild One decided to use the guitar on him first. Strange shielded Aster, and the Wild One then struck down Strange with an energy blast. The Hulk threw the Surfer into Wild One, who retaliated by smashing them all down with his car. Knowing they had no hope in defeating the Wild One in direct conflict, Strange caused the Defenders to feign defeat by pulling their astral selves into another realm, and he pulled the physical selves of Shanzer and Aster there as well. The two sorcerers realized that they meant nothing to the Wild One, who had no intentions of honoring his promises to them, and they joined forces with the Defenders.
    Meanwhile, the Wild One caused several volcanoes to erupt and simultaneously caused a monsoon, a tsunami, and a giant tidal wave, wreaking havoc on Hawaii. The Defenders returned to Earth and put a halt to the destruction, and then confronted the Wild One, who took them out one-by-one with energy blasts. However, when the blast hit "Dr. Strange," he was revealed to really by Lucian Aster, who had willingly sacrificed his own life to be transformed into a trap that would pull the Defenders and the Wild One into the ultra-dense Strange Matter dimension. Strange protected himself and the other Defenders from being crushed, while the Wild One, who was not prepared for such forces, was crushed and twisted out of existence.
    Shanzar subsequently attacked the Defenders, but when they fought back, he relented, realizing that if his dimension were destroyed or even badly damaged that the Wild One would be freed from his crushing prison and take revenge on them all.
    The Defenders returned to Earth, the demonized Hawaiian natives and tourists were returned to normal, and the Pantheon completed the collection and destruction of the copies of Spelling made Easy.

Comments: Created by Ron Marz and Tom Morgan?

    The Wild One references grabbing his guitar from "his dimension." That could mean the dimension he had been imprisoned in for millennia, OR it could  just as easily refer to the realm to which he is native, indicating he is extradimensional in origin. You'd have to ask Ron Marz...and if you do, please let me know.

    To have been an enemy of Neptune, the Wild One had to have been around 8,000 B.C. or later. He was defeated by Neptune "millennia ago," so presumably some time between 8,000 BC and the start of the modern calendar. He obviously also could have around much earlier. The Elder Gods are around 5 billion years old, and the Wild One is significantly younger than they, but that's about as much as we can pin it down.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

images: (without ads)
Silver Surfer III Annual#5, story page 28-29, panels 1 (in flying car)
        p32, panel 2 (on Hawaii)
Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Annual#2, story page 8, panel 1 (face close up) & 5 (with guitar)

Other Appearances:
Incredible Hulk II Annual#18 (1992) - by Peter David (writer), Kevin McGuire (penciler), Brad Vancata (inker), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Namor the Sub-Mariner Annual#2 (1992) - by Ron Marz (writer), James Fry (penciler), Christopher Ivy (inker), Terry Kavanaugh (editor)
Silver Surfer III Annual#5 (1992) - by Ron Marz (writer), Tom Morgan (artist), Craig Anderson (editor)
Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme Annual#2 (1992) - by Roy Thomas (writer), M.C. Wyman (penciler), E.R. Cruz (inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)

Last updated: 06/02/06

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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