Hey everybody, welcome to another great spotlight in Marvel Snapshot! In this week’s exciting edition, we’ll be looking at none other than the Juggernaut, Cain Marko! Yes that big-mouthed behemoth that is nearly unstoppable will be the focus today, so get ready for some bruises!
So everybody should know by now that Cain is the half-brother of Charles Xavier. Charles’s mother married Cain’s father and the bullying started soon after. Cain resented Charles because his father favored Charles over him, and would even physically abuse Cain as well. This made Cain’s hatred for Charles grow leaps and bounds, and still carries till this day. Later on in life, Cain and Charles were both in the Army and stationed in Korea when Cain found a cave that was dedicated to the Demon god Cyttorak. When he spoke the now famous words on the Ruby he found there, “Whosoever touches this gem, shall be granted the power of The Crimson Bands of Cyttorak! Henceforth, you who read these words, shall become, forevermore, a human Juggernaut!”, Cain then changed into the Juggernaut. A near unstoppable force of power aided by the magic of the Gem of Cyttorak.
As you can imagine, Cain wasted little time in using his new-found powers of superhuman strength and invulnerability to attack his brother and his new team of mutants, the X-Men. The X-Men usually found a way to defeat Cain, but he always comes back to plague them again, and again. The team more often than not tries to remove his helmet, because it protects his mind from telepathy (mind control). Removing the helmet leaves the door open for Professor Xavier or Jean to put the mental whammy on him and then game over. This used to be the only way to stop Cain for the most part, as he regularly shrugs off Cyclops’s optic blasts, Wolverine’s adamantium claws, and everything else the X-Men throw at him.
Through the years, Juggernaut has made many enemies but few friends. The enemies include Spider-Man, the X-Men, Dr. Strange, and so on. He really has only made one friend, though, Black Tom Cassidy. Tom is the brother of the X-Man Banshee, and constant antagonist of the X-Men and Excalibur. He’ll pretty much do anything for money or to get revenge on his brother Banshee. Cain also had some great appearances on television as well. He was on an episode of Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends (“A Firestar is Born“), and also on the X-Men animated series. One appearance that I’ll hopefully someday forget, is in the movie X3. The depiction of Juggernaut in that movie can only be described as heinous. That one appearance though does not take away from the awesome character that Juggernaut is. Right now he can be seen in the pages of Thunderbolts as more of a hero, or anti-hero, if you will.
Check out some great Juggy reading material along with some of his more memorable covers below; enjoy!
Recommended Reading
Uncanny X-Men vol. 1 – #12, 13, 32, 33, 194, 435, 436 (1963)
Juggernaut (one-shot) (1997)
Juggernaut (one-shot) (1999)
Deadpool (L.S.) (1994)
Deadpool (L.S.) (1997)
X-Men vol. 1 – #53, 54, 157-164 (1991)
Thunderbolts vol. 1 – #144- current (1997)
Billy Dunleavy
billy@comicattack.net
He’s been a favorite of mine for a while and I’ve actually liked his character progression over the years as well. Nice pick Billy!
“I’m the Juggernaut!! Bitch!”- Great Juggy line from the horrible third X-Men movie. I have always been a fan of Juggernaut thought out the years of him being bad and sort of good. Nice one Billy.
@Speech- Juggy is a great villain. I don’t really care for him as much as a hero though.
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@Nick- Thanks man!
He ended up a villian due to crappy parenting when you actually think about it Billy lol
@Speech- lol, yeah, I’d be a jerk after all those beatings too! 😀