CHARLES COTTA
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extratemporal extraterrestrial (race unrevealed), inhabiting Caesar's body;
46 BC to 44 BC, modern era, unrevealed (possibly future) era
Occupation: CEO of Julian Enterprises; former history teacher, Roman Emperor
Group Membership: Julian Enterprises; formerly Future Foundation, Roman Empire
Affiliations: Achilles, Alexander the Great, Atilla the Hun, Clea, Cleopatra, Dakor (Alan Dakor), Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange), Fantastic Four (Ant-Man/Scott Lang, Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Medusa/Medusalith Boltagon, Miss Thing/Darla Deering, Mr Fantastic/Reed Richards, She-Hulk/Jennifer Walters, Thing/Ben Grimm), Future Foundation (Adolf Impossible, Ahura, Bentley-23, Dragon Man, Korr, Leech, Luna, Artie Maddicks, Mik, Onome, Alex Power, Tong, Turg, Vil, Wu), Hannibal, Hector, Human Torch of Earth-13266, Impossible Man, Lafayette, Lucy, Maximus the Mad (Maximus Boltagon), Napoleon, Patton, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, Sun Tzu (see comments), Uatu, Ulana
Enemies: Decimus Junius Brutu, Marcus Junius Brutus, Gaius Cassius, Kara of Reality-64356, Zota
Known Relatives: Junia Tertia (suspected daughter, see comments)
Aliases: Julius Caesar
Base of Operations: New York, New York City, Julian Enterprises;
formerly Uatu's observatory in the Blue Area of the Moon;
formerly New York, New York City, Baxter Building, Future Foundation;
formerly Rome, Italy (44 BC);
formerly unrevealed time and place
First Appearance: Fantastic Four IV#5 (May, 2013); (retconned) Ideal#1/1 (July, 1948)
Powers/Abilities: Cotta is an extraterrestrial sentient life-form who's composed of a pink cloud-like form. He can use his cloud-like form to inhabit the bodies of other lifeforms such as human beings which he sees as machines. In the case of Julius Caesar he inhabitated his body after the man died, granting his human body near immortality. Even when inside a "machine" Cotta can release part of his cloud form the body to use it to create images of people and events he's witnessed or lived through. Cotta also possesses a spacecraft which he uses to travel across time and space.
Height: 5'7" (inhabiting Caesar's body), variable (original form)
Weight: 170 lbs. (inhabiting Caesar's body, by approximation), variable (original form)
Eyes: Brown (inhabiting Caesar's body), none (original form)
Hair: Brown (inhabiting Caesar's body), none (original form)
History:
(Fantastic Four IV#5) - <46 BC> An extraterrestrial who spent its time studying Earth had travelled through time and space to observe Caesar. It watched as Caesar's fifth Legion repelled elephants of war at Thapsus.
(Fantastic Four IV#5 (fb) ) - <46 BC> During the battle of Thapsus, Caesar rode a large elephant when it suddenly jumped upon seeing a snake. Sadly Caesar's head hit a rock during his fall causing the man to die. Shocked to see the iconic leader dead the extraterrestrial was afraid his act of observing caused history to alter wildly. Believing history needed to be played out as it should the extraterrestrial inhabited Caesar's body and continued his life according to what he'd studied.
(Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme#33) - <ca. 44 BC> Cleopatra and "Caesar" encountered the 20th century Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Strange and his confidante, Clea, who had been transported through time. Cleopatra mentioned that the sorcerer Zota opposed her and Caesar.
(Ideal#1/1 (fb) - BTS) - <44 BC> "Caesar" had erected a gold statue of the Egyptian Queen Cleopatra next to Jupiter and Venus something which outraged the senate.
(Adventures Into Weird Worlds#3/2) - Would-be-conquerer Kara, hailing from the 30th century's Mars planned to conquer not only Earth but the entire Solar System. To do so Kara disguised himself as a human and built a time-machine to pick out and trick the best of Earth's Generals and Soldiers throughout time to help him. As such he travelled to ancient Rome to find Caesar. At the time Caesar was already wearing a white toga with a wreath on his head (meaning Caesar's body was already taken over by Charles Cotta). The raving maniac approached Caesar and others in the heat of battle and swooped them off in a metal chariot that thundered down through time. Caesar found himself in Kara's base where he met other men such as Alexander the Great, Achilles and Hector, men who he knew to have died a long time ago. Kara appeared before the men, revealing he'd brought them to the 30th century where they would have six months to aid him in his conquest after which they would naturally drift back to their own times. That evening several amongst the men called a secret gathering to discuss what had to be done. After arguing for hours it was decided to kill Kara, Caesar was chosen as the one to call him. Caesar followed the plan after which Achilles, Hannibal and Napoleon were the first to stab Kara, Lafayette was the last. However, once Kara was dead the men discovered he was in fact an alien and after torturing two of Kara's aides they learned of their true plans. To stop the Martian invasion Caesar and the others reached out to the Earth Government, who within five months wiped out Mars. Caesar and the men hung around for another month, taking in the future sights and eventually faded away to their own time. Returned to Rome at the exact moment he'd disappeared Caesar realized the impossibility for anyone to truly conquer all he lost his appetite for war and conquest.
(Strange Tales I#53/2 (fb) - BTS) - "Julius Caesar" had a strange dream, wherein he lived in the distant future (America in the 1950s) as racketeer Julie King.
(Strange Tales I#53/2 (fb) ) - When King tried to take over the territory of mobster Joe Cass, he was driven off by Cass' henchman, the Brute. But King later hired the Brute as his personal bodyguard. The Brute eventually went missing, and King feared betrayal, because the Brute knew about him under-reporting his income taxes.
(Strange Tales I#53/2) - On March 15th, 1955, King went to psychiatrist Dr. Marcland to talk about his problems; after he heard King's story, Marcland began to shake King and told him he belonged in 44 BC.
"Caesar" was roused from his dream by Mark Anthony (Dr. Markland), who warned him to beware the Ides of March--Caesar was unaware that Brutus (The Brute) and Cassius (Joe Cass) were plotting his death at the time.
(Fantastic Four IV#5) - <44 BC> Then arrived the day "Caesar" had dreaded the most, 15th of March, the Ides of March the day he knew he would be assassinated. During that morning "Caesar" witnessed two crows kill a dove thus realizing his time had come as well.
(Ideal#1/1) - <44 BC> "Caesar" came across a "soothsayer" who warned him not to go to the senate. "Caesar", however dismissed the "soothsayer's" superstitious prophecies
(Fantastic Four IV#5) - <44 BC> However, things didn't go as expected when he met four rather strange travellers; the Human Torch, the Thing, Franklin and Valeria Richards. The quartet was on an educational journey through time and space during which Reed Richards searched for a way to stop his body from breaking down at a molecular level. Intrigued by the travellers' arrival "Caesar" decided to reveal his true origin and showed them to his alien spaceship in which he'd arrived on Earth. He then showed his true cloud-like form which he used to play the events in which the real Caesar had died. The Thing immediately opted to rescue the extraterrestrial, "Caesar" however noted Caesar's assassination was too large an event to avoid without complicating the timeline even further, he, however, did tell the time traveling heroes he would survive his assassination after which they were captured by his legion who arrested them on behalf of the senate.
(Ideal#1/1 / Fantastic Four IV#5) - <44 BC> While the time traveling heroes were left to face Cacus, the son of Vulcan in the colosseum, "Caesar" faced the group of rebellious senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Decimus Junius Brutus, who stabbed him to death.
(Incredible Hulk I#210 (fb) - BTS) - <44 BC> The man who would become Maha Yoghi stood by smugly while "Julius Caesar" was seemingly stabbed to death.
(Cable I#96 (fb)) - <44 BC> Cole witnessed "Julius Caesar" betrayed by Brutus at the senate in Rome and seemingly stabbed to death.
(Fantastic Four IV#5) - <44 BC> Having defeated Cacus, the time travellers returned to find Caesar's "corpse" and helped him escape out of the city. Repeatedly thanking the travellers for their help he watched as the travellers joined Reed and Sue Richards and left.
(Fantastic Four IV#5 - BTS) - <44 BC> Caesar retrieved his alien spaceship and decided to travel to modern times where he started his own business, Julian Enterprises under the alias of Charles Cotta.
(Fantastic Four IV#5) - <Modern Era> While in his office Cotta read the Daily Bugle, learning the Fantastic Four had disappeared and decided to go and help their friends to find them noting Caesar always repaid his debts.
(FF II#9 (fb) - BTS) - Cotta reached out to the new Fantastic Four (Ant-Man, Medusa, Miss Thing, She-Hulk) and the Future Foundation, inviting them to a pool party at Julian Enterprises.
(FF II#9) - Upon the arrival of the new Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation Cotta welcomed them to the headquarters of Julian Enterprises and showed them the way to an extravagant rooftop pool. While the youngsters went and enjoyed themselves the Fantastic Four and a time traveling Human Torch (Earth-13266) met with Cotta in his office. Without any hesitation Cotta revealed he was an alien who pretended to be Julius Caesar and wanted to repay his debt since the Fantastic Four had helped him in ancient Rome. While the four new members were surprised by Cotta's bluntness the older John Storm was quick to remark he remembered him and shook his hand. When Scott Lang proved to be skeptical of Cotta's story he revealed his spaceship and offered the advanced piece of technology for them to go and find the real Fantastic Four. In exchange Cotta wished to volunteer his services as instructor of history to the Future Foundation, the new Fantastic Four gladly accepted.
(FF II#11) - Cotta started his first day as a teacher at the Future Foundation teaching Conquering 101. During class he was quick to notice several students sneaking in who were late he then asked Bentley-23 on his thoughts how to conquer Dr Doom. Later that night Cotta discovered Maximus the Mad was secretly living in the Baxter Building when the Inhuman was pillaging the kitchen like a wild beast. Cotta introduced himself to Maximus explaining he was in the business of conquering worlds and they needed to talk.
(FF II#12) - Cotta and Maximus sat down to discuss how to proceed as both explained that if they wished to conquer the world they had to stop Dr. Doom first. Unwilling to get his hands dirty Cotta asked Maximus to build him a multilinear chronostellar manifold to pull the Fantastic Four back so they could defeat Doom for them. However, to build the machine Maximus would need the specifics from the man he wanted to kill, the time displaced John Storm, Maximus accepted. In reality Doom had kidnapped young Alex Power's parents and ordered him to steel the plans for the machine and kill old John Storm and therefore reached out to Maximus. All of them however, were unaware they were being watched by Kid Immortus, Ravonna, teen Annihilus and Dr. Doom from Latveria.
(FF II#13 (fb) - BTS) - Loyal to the Fantastic Four's cause Cotta revealed what he'd learned of Alex Power and Maximus to Scott Lang.
(FF II#12) - In the days that followed Cotta worked alongside Maximus and John Storm to create the manifold. When the machine was finished Cotta and all of the Future Foundation gathered round the manifold, but instead of starting the machine all of them were seemingly teleported away which left Doom and the others unable to spy on the heroes any longer.
(FF II#13) - In reality Lang had used the Pym Particles to shrink all of them down unto the Impossible Man's purple pants so he could teleport them to safety away from Doom's prying eyes. The green alien teleported the Future Foundation inside the Watcher's home in the Blue Area of the Moon. Uatu was less than pleased by the sudden intrusion and was ready to show his uninvited guests the door when Lang pulled out an Ultimate Nullifier and threatened to use it if the Watcher didn't cooperate. Sensing Lang's desperation (and well aware the "Nullifier" was just a prop), Uatu played along, even letting himself get tied up with some dimestore clothesline Ant-Man happened to bring. Then, Ulana (Uatu's consort) came to check on Uatu, surprised to find the FF there. She revealed they were dating, much to the surprise and joy of the younger Future Foundation members. Meanwhile Lang gathered all the information he needed to face Doom.
(FF II#14) - Cotta and the others gathered to hear Lang's plan to defeat Doom. While unfolding his plan Lang mentioned they had access to the greatest military mind in history prompting Cotta to take center stage and thank Lang. However, just then Lang invited legendary Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu to the stage revealing he was from the same extraterrestrial race as Cotta. Disappointed Cotta took a step back and listened as Lang continued his plan. It was decided Lang and his team would face Doom while the young members of the Future Foundation would control several robots (the Mad Thinker's robotic replicas of Earth's heroes, Andy the Awesome Android, a Kree Sentinel and several Thing suits created by the Dragon Man) to face Doom's forces in Latveria. In addition Medusa was ordered to retrieve Dakor the Magician, an obscure magician from 1942 to combat Doom's magics. The next morning, Cotta, Sun Tzu, the Watchers and the Future Foundation watched as their allies went off to fight Dr. Doom.
(FF II#15) - From Uatu's observatory Sun Tzu and Cotta both led a team of the young students to attack Doom's forces while controlling the robots. Cotta led Bentley-23's team who managed to give his team enough sugar to stop most Doombots.
(FF II#16/1 - BTS) - Cotta and the others presumably watched from Uatu's observatory as Lang and his team proved successful and managed to defeat Dr. Doom.
(FF II#16/2 / Fantastic Four IV#16/2) - Cotta joined the party the Fantastic Four, the Future Foundation and their allies threw in the Blue Area of the Moon to celebrate their recent victory over Dr. Doom.
Comments: Created by Matt Fraction (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks).
Who's who? Caesar vs Cotta
So what you might've learned in school isn't necessary what happened in the Marvel Universe. While the real life Caesar was assassinated on the Ides of March, the one on Earth-616 died during the war at Thapsus, falling of an elephant. The extraterrestrial who took over Caesar's body would continue to live out Caesar's life as chronicled. On the Ides of March (15 March), 44 BC, "Caesar" was then assassinated by a group of rebellious senators led by Gaius Cassius Longinus, Marcus Junius Brutus and Decimus Junius Brutus, who stabbed him to death. "Caesar" survived and escaped the city of Rome thanks to the time traveling Human Torch, the Thing, Franklin and Valeria Richards after which he went to live in modern times as Charles Cotta though still inhabiting Caesar's body. It's interesting to note that the extraterrestrial chose to call himself Cotta named of course after Aurelia Cotta, Caesar's mother.
The Fantastic Four IV#5 retcon however proves somewhat problematic when it comes to his appearance in Adventures into Weird Worlds#21/2 (1953) where Caesar is seen in Hell with a knife stuck in his back. So while he notes one knife in his back is enough the one stabbed was Cotta, who's still very much alive in the modern era. The one in Hell must be Caesar, but it doesn't jibe well with the way his life ended at Marvel.
The retcon also means that some of the earlier published stories where Caesar appears would now be Cotta: Caesar's death as shown in Ideal#1/1 (July, 1948), Incredible Hulk II#210 (April, 1977) and Cable II#96 (October, 2001) but also his run in with Doctor Strange and Clea in Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme#33 (September, 1991). As such these appearances are now chronicled in this profile.
In FF II#14 another being from Cotta's race was revealed; Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu. Like Cotta he'd taken over the earthly form of Sun Tzu, it's been unrevealed if it was because Sun Tzu died prematurely like Julius Caesar that remains to be seen.
Family
Only Caesar's suspected daughter Junia Tertia with Servilia born ca. 60 BC would be the offspring of the extraterrestrial, albeit still genetically Caesar's daughter since the extraterrestrial was animating the real Caesar's body.
Other comments
Adventures Into Weird Worlds#3/2 was a text story called "The War of the Worlds". Since that Caesar was already wearing a white toga with a wreath on his head we knew its Cotta. Since the real Caesar had died before even donning the typical white toga and wreath. The text story had one image, the one on the right, depicting Kara, the Martian hailing from the 30th century.
Since the "real" Caesar was killed in 46 BC (@ Fantastic Four IV#5) and his spirit was in Hell, the Caesar in Strange Tales I#53/2 (December, 1956) is probably that extraterrestrial who inhabited his body.
--Ron Fredricks
Thanks to Mike Castle for pointing out his appearance in Adventures Into Weird Worlds#3/2 and Ron Fredricks for adding Strange Tales I#53.
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Charles Cotta has no known connections to
31th Century would-be-conquerer Kara, hailing from Mars set out to conquer the entire Solar System. Using a selfmade timemachine Kara, disguised as a human, travelled to different time periods (in reality to Earth-616) to trick the best of Earth's Generals and Soldiers throughout time to help him, among them were: Julius Caesar (secretly Charles Cotta), Alexander the Great, Achilles, Hector, Hannibal, Napoleon and Lafayette. Instead of helping, the time-displaced men killed Kara, discovering he was an alien. Reaching out to the Human Government of the 31st Century they wiped Mars out within five months after which the men faded away to their own time.
--Adventures Into Weird Worlds#3/2
Lucy was Cotta's secretary at Julian Enterprises. When Cotta read the Fantastic Four had dissappeared he told Lucy to hold his calls and reschedule all of his meeting for the day.
--Fantastic Four IV#5 - BTS
images: (without ads)
FF II#9, p3, pan1 (main image)
Fantastic Four IV#5, p10, pan1 (arriving on Earth)
Fantastic Four IV#5, p10, pan5,6 (taking over Caesar's body)
Strange Tales I#53/2, p4 pan3 (Julius Caesar, aroused from his dream by Mark Anthony)
Fantastic Four IV#5, p14, pan3 (stabbed to "death")
FF II#9, p15, pan2,3 (wants to help the FF)
FF II#14, p5, pan4,5 (meeting Sun Tzu)
Appearances:
Ideal#1/1 (July, 1948) - creative team unrevealed
Adventures Into Weird Worlds#3/2 (March, 1952) - Unidentified writer
Strange Tales I#53/2 (December, 1956) - Carl Wessler (writer), John Forte (artist), Stan Lee (editor)
Incredible Hulk II#210 (April, 1977) - Len Wein (writer/editor), Sal Buscema (pencils), Ernie Chan (inks)
Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme#33 (September, 1991) - Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas (writers), Chris Marrinan (penciler), Mark McKenna (inker), Mike Rockwitz (editor)
Cable II#96 (October, 2001) - Robert Weinberg (writer), Michael Ryan (pencils), Harry Candelario (inks)
Fantastic Four IV#5 (May, 2013) - Matt Fraction (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Jake Thomas, Tom Brevoort (editors)
FF II#9 (September, 2013) - Matt Fraction (writer), Joe Quinones (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF II#11 (October, 2013) - Matt Fraction (writer), Michael Allred (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF II#12 (November, 2013) - Matt Fraction (writer), Michael Allred (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF II#13 (December, 2013) - Matt Fraction & Lee Allred (writers), Michael Allred (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF II#14 (January, 2014) - Matt Fraction & Lee Allred (writers), Michael Allred (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
FF II#15 (February, 2014) - Matt Fraction & Lee Allred (writers), Michael Allred (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Fantastic Four IV#16 (March, 2014) - Karl Kesel & Lee Allred (writers), Joe Quinones (pencils), Michael Allred (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 03/17/2019
Last Updated: 08/31/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com