Brother to one of the most powerful mutants. Champion of a dark god. Unstoppable. He is the Juggernaut. What would you do with immense strength and durability? Cain Marko has had several ideas over the course of his life, many of them are not great. How does one get to be a champion of a god and where do you get such a helmet? Let’s find out!
Cain Marko was born to Marjorie and Kurt Marko, they would divorce not too long after he was born, Cain going with his father. Marjorie would die when Cain was three, so it was just him and his father until he would marry his now deceased research partner’s wife, Sharon Xavier. They would move into the Xavier mansion and Cain would now have a little step-brother, Charles.
The two boys didn’t really get along, Cain felt like Charles was always spying on him and Charles was clearly Kurt’s favorite since he was more like him. Cain was a big and strong child, who would often get bullied by his father for not being smarter. He took this anger out on Charles, feeling like Charles knew what was going on through whatever spying he was doing.
Sharon would eventually die, leaving the boys with just Kurt. The abuse towards Cain would increase until one day father and son had a huge fight in Kurt’s lab. The fight lead to a fire breaking out and while Kurt was able to get Cain and Charles out safely, he would die from smoke inhalation. With his dying breath, Kurt told Charles to keep his telepathy a secret, but Cain overheard this. He had been right about Charles spying on him, but he didn’t know due to Charles’ inexperience, it was never intentional.
The two would grow up and continue to resent one another, Cain becoming bigger and stronger but Charles also becoming an athlete in his own right along with his academic success. The two would finally come to blows as they reached adulthood, Charles was now more capable and was able to beat Cain in a one on one fight. The two would go their own ways after this. Charles to college and Cain to become a mercenary.
While out working, Cain would be jailed for some crime or another, he would meet Tom Cassidy, who would become a frequent partner in crime for him in the future. Even though they had been apart from one another for several years, the military would bring Cain and Charles back together, both were stationed in Korea and would find an ancient temple. They would explore it and Cain found a massive ruby, upon grabbing it he would find it was a magical artifact that linked him to the god Cyttorak. Now as Cyttorak’s champion, he would become a Juggernaut, immensely powerful. Cain would grow in size and while this happened an enemy bombing caused the temple to collapse, Charles got out but presumed Cain was dead, unaware of his new powers.
Eventually able to crawl his way out of the rubble, Cain would gain access the garb of Cyttorak’s champion which included a helmet to protect his mind from psychic attacks as much as his body was immune to physical attacks. He would find Charles to finally beat him down once and for all. Thing is, Charles went and got himself some child soldiers and their combined might was able to stop him eventually by removing the helmet so Charles could knock him out.
This began Cain’s long standing feud with the X-Men and heroes in general. He would get tossed through dimensions, sometimes visiting Cyttorak, himself. He would team up with Tom Cassidy again here and there, often the two would end up fighting as much as they did working together. Cain would even fight with Cyttorak at one point, losing much of his power as he realized he wanted to turn over a new leaf.
To show he meant to be a better person, he would seek out his brother and ask for forgiveness and be allowed to join the X-Men. He would even confront the law for his past crimes as he showed he was willing to make right for all his wrongs. He did great work with the team and would even join other hero teams, like Exacliber, over time. When the Hulk came to seek vengeance on those who tried to kill him, Cain made a deal with his own devil, Cyttorak, in exchange for being a selfish brute once more, he would get his powers back for this one last act of heroism.
Now seeking peace, Cain would do his best to destroy the gem of Cyttorak, even if it destroyed his power. He would accomplish this and become a mostly normal person again, living a quiet life until he learned Charles had been killed by his former student, Cyclops. This was when Cyttorak was able to resurrect his gem on Earth and Cain could sense its return. He went to seek it out, partly to destroy it and Cyttorak but another part of him wanted it so he could get vengeance for Charles. In the end, he would gain the powers back and became the Juggernaut once more.
There you have it! Juggernaut has been a part of the X-Men mythos since nearly the beginning. Whether as a villain or a hero, he’s been there bashing his way through his problems. He’s been animated on the small screen and has appeared a few times in live action. Where will the unstoppable Juggernaut crash through next? We’ll have to wait and see! Until then, see you next time!
Suggested Reading
The X-Men #12
Uncanny X-Men
Amazing X-Men
Juggernaut
Dr. Bustos
drbustos@comicattack.net
