Character Creation

 

Moon Knight is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Doug Moench and artist Don Perlin, the character first appeared in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975).

 

The son of a rabbi, Marc Spector served as a Force Recon Marine and briefly as a CIA operative before becoming a mercenary alongside his friend Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp.

 

During a job in Sudan, Spector is appalled when ruthless fellow mercenary Raoul Bushman attacks and kills archeologist Dr. Alraune in front of the man's daughter and colleague, Marlene Alraune.

 

After fighting Bushman and being left for dead, a mortally wounded Spector reaches Alraune's recently unearthed tomb and is placed before a statue of the Egyptian moon god Khonshu. Spector apparently dies, then suddenly revives, fully healed.

 

He claims Khonshu wants him to be the "moon's knight", the left "Fist of Khonshu", redeeming his life of violence by now protecting and avenging the innocent.

 

While early stories imply Spector is merely insane, it is later revealed Khonshu is real, one of several entities from the Othervoid (a dimension outside normal time and space) once worshipped by ancient Earth people.

 

On his return to the United States, Spector invests his mercenary profits into becoming the crimefighter "Moon Knight", aided by Frenchie and Marlene Alraune, who becomes his lover and eventually the mother of his daughter.

 

Along with his costumed alter ego, he primarily uses three other identities to gain information from different social circles: billionaire businessman Steven Grant, taxicab driver Jake Lockley, and suited detective and police consultant Mr. Knight.

 

It is later revealed Moon Knight has dissociative identity disorder (DID) (incorrectly referred to as schizophrenia in some stories), and that the alter egos known as Grant and Lockley originally manifested during his childhood.

 

Other subsequent alter egos who do not assume the Moon Knight identity have emerged at other points during his adulthood, including a werewolf-fighting astronaut; impersonators of Khonshu, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America, Iron Man, and Echo; and a red-haired little girl known as the Inner Child, introduced in the Ultimate Marvel continuity.

 

It is debated in different stories whether Spector has genuine DID due to childhood trauma or if his similar symptoms are the result of "brain damage" caused by his psychic connection to Khonshu, a connection compelling his personality to shift between the god's four major aspects.

 

Khonshu claims he created a psychic connection with Spector, Grant, and Lockley when the latter were young, decades before they became Moon Knight.

 

In most of his stories, Moon Knight has no supernatural abilities beyond occasional visions of mystic insight.

 

He relies on athletic ability, advanced technology, expert combat and detective skills, and a high tolerance for pain based on willpower, training, and experience. Since becoming Moon Knight, there have been multiple occasions when the character has died only to then be resurrected by Khonshu, implying he may now be effectively immortal until the moon god's protection is revoked (whether Khonshu has limitations on how often he can resurrect Spector is unknown).

 

For a time, Moon Knight's strength and resistance to injury could reach superhuman levels depending on the phases of the moon, but this ability later vanished, while the Moon Knight identity is occasionally depicted as an independent alter ego of the others.

 

The character has made appearances in various media outside of comics, including animated series and video games. Oscar Isaac portrays Marc Spector / Moon Knight, Steven Grant / Mr. Knight, and Jake Lockley in the Marvel Cinematic Universe live-action television series Moon Knight (2022).

 

Development

 

In an interview, Doug Moench recalled the character's genesis: "Somebody mentioned in the office and suggested using The Committee, and that I should bring The Committee back, and then I found out who The Committee were and thought, well they're really boring, I don't wanna use them. And then I thought, well wait a minute, how about if The Committee hires a mercenary to kill the Werewolf. And I thought, yeah that's a good idea, then I create this new character and it won't be these boring guys in business suits, it would be a flashy character. So, I said who is best to kill the Werewolf? Well, someone who uses silver weapons because silver hurts the Werewolf. And tied to the night, because the Werewolf only comes out at night, and I'll base this character on the Moon, because the Moon makes the Werewolf change, and this is going to be the opposite of the Werewolf, and as soon as I said the Moon I said, ooh I'll have a costume that's just like the Moon, just black and white, jet and silver, no color on the costume."

 

Don Perlin also commented on the creation of the character, "We were told we needed a costumed character in the book. So Doug and I created Moon Knight. I wanted the costume to be just black and white. Since he'd be on a color page, that would make him a little bit different. He had a silver baton he could use when he battled werewolves. See, he was hired to track down to kill the Werewolf."

 

Publication history

 

The character debuted in Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975), written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin and Al Milgrom, as a mercenary hired by the Committee to capture the title character. The creative team gave Moon Knight moon-related symbols and silver weapons (a metal poisonous to a werewolf) to mark him as a suitable antagonist for the werewolf hero.

 

The two-part story continues into #33, when Moon Knight realizes Russell is a victim rather than a monster and decides to help him. A demonic vision of Moon Knight then appeared in Werewolf by Night #37 (March 1976).

 

Editors Marv Wolfman and Len Wein liked the character and decided to give him a solo story in Marvel Spotlight #28–29 (June/August 1976), again written by Doug Moench with art by Don Perlin. The story, along with Spectacular Spider-Man #22–23 (September/October 1978) written by Bill Mantlo, recast Moon Knight as a more heroic character.

 

His association with the evil Committee during his first appearance was retconned to be an undercover mission he undertook to learn more about the villains.

 

Moon Knight acted as a hero again in Marvel Two-in-One #52, written by Steven Grant with art by Jim Craig. In The Defenders #47–51, Moon Knight briefly joined the Defenders during their war against the Zodiac Cartel.

 

Moon Knight appeared in recurring backup stories in Hulk! Magazine #11–15, #17–18, and #20, as well as a black and white story in the magazine publication Marvel Preview #21, all written by Doug Moench. Artist Bill Sienkiewicz drew Moon Knight in Hulk! Magazine issues #13–15, 17–18, and #20, creating a new look for the character heavily influenced by the art of Neal Adams, who at that time was most popular for his work on Batman and Green Lantern/Green Arrow for DC Comics.

 

This, along with Moon Knight's methods and the atmosphere of his stories, cemented a perception among some readers that he was Marvel's version of Batman. The Hulk backups and Marvel Preview issue provided Moon Knight with a partial origin story and introduced his brother, recurring villain Randall Spector (who would later become Shadow Knight).

 

Origin

 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Marc Spector was the rebellious son of an academic Jewish rabbi whose family had fled Europe in the 1930s to escape the Holocaust.

 

Marc could not understand why his father refused to fight against his people's persecution and grew disgusted with his pacifistic ways, viewing him as a coward.

 

Rejecting his father's faith, Marc started out as a heavyweight boxer before eventually joining the U.S. Marines, where he was trained as a commando. Shortly afterward, his skills led to his recruitment into the Central Intelligence Agency.

 

He worked with William Cross (who later became the villainous Crossfire) and his own brother, Randall Spector. However, Randall betrayed the CIA and was secretly smuggling and selling weapons. When Marc's lover discovered this and tried to turn him in, Randall brutally murdered her with a meat cleaver. In retaliation, Marc hunted Randall down, but during the fight, Randall was seemingly killed by an exploding grenade.

 

Fed up with the CIA, Marc went independent and became a fierce soldier of fortune, renowned for his willingness to do anything providing the job paid well enough. In Africa, he met a French mercenary, Jean-Paul "Frenchie" DuChamp, who would become one of Marc's closest friends and Marc's pilot.

 

While working for the terrorist Raoul Bushman, Marc became increasingly disturbed by Bushman's savagery and ruthlessness. For the first time in his life, his conscience had awakened, and it troubled him deeply. In Selima, Sudan, they stumbled across archaeologist Dr. Peter Alraune's excavation of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb. Believing there were gold and riches within, Bushman murdered Alraune to plunder the tomb.

 

Sickened by Bushman, Marc tried to do the decent thing and helped Alraune's daughter, Marlene, escape from Raoul's notice. Annoyed with Marc's betrayal, Bushman brutally beat Spector and abandoned him in the desert so he would suffer before he died.

 

Barely conscious, Spector staggered to the ancient tomb for shelter. Marlene was there with her father's men and brought Marc to rest near a statue of the moon god, Khonshu.

 

Weakened from his fight with Bushman and the elements of the desert, Marc Spector died. As Marlene cried over his cooling body, Spector suddenly returned to life, claiming that he had a vision that Khonshu had brought him back from the dead to be the Moon's Knight of Vengeance.

 

Spector removed the burial shroud from the statue of Khonshu and wrapped it around himself as a makeshift cloak, before confronting Bushman once again, and this time, he was victorious. Thus, Moon Knight was born.

 

Major Story Arcs

 

The Hero of the Night Rises

 

After defeating Bushman, Marc returned to the United States with Marlene and Frenchie along with the statue of Khonshu. He decided to continue his work to fight a war against evil and used his savings that he had collected during his mercenary days and invested it, turning it into a small fortune which he proceeded to finance and support his private war and set up shop in New York City.

 

In an effort to distance himself from his mercenary days, Marc created the persona of Steven Grant, a millionaire entrepreneur and high-roller whose jet setting personality enabled him to walk among the high rollers and elite of New York City. Realizing the value of these contacts as criminal activities are often plotted and planned at cocktail parties and boardrooms, Marc also decided to create a persona for lower level contacts and invented the identity of Jake Lockley, a New York cab driver. Through Lockley, he was able to make several contacts "on the streets" such as Bertrand Crawley and Gena Landers plus her sons Ricky and Ray.

 

Shortly after developing his costume and weapons along with a customized helicopter known the "Mooncopter", Frenchie posing as a French businessman made contact with a group of aristocrats known as "The Committee" who had plans to capture and retrieve Jack Russell, the Werewolf By Night whom they intended to use as a weapon to fulfill their desire to rule the city. Frenchie acting as the go-between, presented the Committee members with Marc Spector as a mercenary and ostentatiously revealed the Moon Knight costume and weapons which Frenchie claimed that he had created to battle Russell.

 

Although Marc was successful in defeating Russell, his suspicions were realized when he discovered the Committee's goals and proceeded to release Jack and defeat "The Committee" which earned him their undying enmity and established Moon Knight as a vigilante to be respected.

 

After thwarting a man calling himself Conquer-Lord, Moon Knight briefly joined the superhero team, The Defenders, to fight the Life Model Decoys of a villain group called Zodiac. He then went on to battle Cyclone alongside Spider-Man, and Crossfire with The Thing, as well as some solo missions against a terrorist group lead by a man named Lupinar, and even his own brother, Randall who had survived their previous encounter and had become a psychotic ax killer targeting women.

 

Afterwards, Moon Knight encountered villains that would become part of his own rogues gallery--such as the Midnight Man, Morpheus, Stained Glass Scarlet, and Black Spectre, just to name a few--and teamed-up with Spider-Man a few more times, as well as other heroes such as Daredevil, Iron Man, Power Man and Iron Fist.

 

Then, Marc received word that his father was dying and decided to try and patch things up with him. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he was able to return to Chicago and instead discovered that his father's body had been stolen by his father's former student, Zohar who used the deceased rabbi's body to focus for his mystical spells to punish Marc for his perceived sins against his dead mentor.

 

Although Moon Knight was able to overcome Zohar; the mental trauma combined with the act of juggling his different personas put a serious strain on Spector's mental health and he suffered a nervous breakdown and was deemed to be suffering from Multiple Personality Disoder (MPD) or as it later became renamed; Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID).

 

The Fist of Khonshu

 

After several months of recuperation for his mental health, Spector decided to retire as Moon Knight and with pressure from Marlene who greatly preferred his debonair and sophisticated Steven Grant persona, decided to give up both his Jake Lockley and Marc Spector identities. Marc became convinced that he only had a near-death experience and merely hallucinated the episode with Khonshu and even sold the idol of the Egyptian deity.

 

Marc however was plagued by strange dreams which convinced him that he had to return to the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

 

Marlene however adamantly refused to follow him again in his downward spiral of violence and insanity and demanded that he not go, sure that he would once more take up the mantle of Moon Knight. When he did so anyways, she left their home and broke up with him.

 

On his pilgrimage in Egypt, Marc met three priests who proclaimed that the idol of Khonshu had fallen into hands of the avatar of Anubis, Ahmad Azis who intends to perform a ritual that would destroy the idol to strike back at Khonshu whom he believes is the sole thing stopping him from world domination.

 

Proclaiming Marc as the Fist of Khonshu, they gifted him with an assortment of mystical weaponry and supernatural strength and powers that waxed and waned with the light of the moon.

 

His strength renewed and his faith restored, Marc would once again take up the mantle of the Moon Knight and even more powerful than before would defeat Anubis' plot and rescue the idol of Khonshu.

 

Strangely enough, seconds after saving the idol from being destroyed; a sudden desert sandstorm comes and blinds Azis and causes the temple to collapse on him, killing him.

 

The Silver Avenger

 

When the the West Coast Avengers were trapped in ancient Egypt, Hawkeye made a pact with Khonshu and created an assortment of weapons that Khonshu would mystically enhance and would subsequently be gifted to Marc Spector in the 20th Century.

 

In exchange, Khonshu informed his avatar, Marc Spector of their situation; allowing Moon Knight to help rescue them and return the Avengers to the present. Moon Knight then joined the team as the 24th Avenger.

 

He possessed a rather tumultuous stint of membership even though he proved to play a critical role in defeating Dominus and later, the Examiner of the Silg race; he often had a habit of playing fast and loose with the rules such as his pursuit of Cornelius Van Lunt which may have driven the man to his death and possessed less-than-stellar teamwork due to his longtime career as a loner. Further, his tenure was complicated with a romantic relationship with fellow Avenger Tigra.

 

When it was discovered that Mockingbird had allowed the Phantom Rider to be killed after he had drugged and raped her, her husband Hawkeye denounced her which caused Mockingbird to resign. In response, Tigra and Moon Knight both chose to accompany her and form their own splinter group of Avengers. The trio would fight the High Evolutionary in the Evolutionary War alongside Bill Foster, as well as battle the Night Shift.

 

When the team sought help from Hellstorm for the Phantom Rider's haunting of Mockingbird, it was discovered that Khonshu was possessing Moon Knight and was the true source behind his supernatural lunar-based powers.

 

Hellstorm was able to convince the Egyptian God of the Moon to leave Spector's body and it was revealed that it was Khonshu, not Marc who wanted to join the Avengers West Coast. Unsure of how much of Khonshu's influence had on himself for the past few months led Marc to breaking off his relationship with Tigra and also abandoning his mystical weapons.

 

Marc Spector: Moon Knight

 

After the fallout of Khonshu's possession, Marc returned to New York and sought out Marlene and reforge his ties with Frenchie even though he was no longer certain he wishes to continue as Moon Knight anymore. However, the return of his old enemy Bushman who kidnaps Marlene prompts him to return as the Crescent Crusader.

 

However without Khonshu's supernatural influence, Spector was much more psychologically stable and did not resume his previous identities of Jake Lockley or Steven Grant. Instead, he refocused his financial empire and created his own company SpectorCorp while he dedicated himself towards more urban street crimefighting over the more cosmic, supernatural evil that he previously battled under Khonshu's influence.

 

Afterwards, Marc discovers that an old enemy, Midnight Man may still be alive only to discover that foe is deceased but his grown son now seeks to redeem his father's criminal lifestyle as a hero and has sought out his father's greatest enemy; Moon Knight to train him up to become a crimefighter.

 

Feeling a sense of obligation, Marc reluctantly agrees. Desperate to prove himself worthy, Midnight infiltrates the Secret Empire and is ultimately captured and is presumed deceased while dressed up as Moon Knight.

 

Midnight however survived his horrific wounds and is converted into a cyborg soldier for the Secret Empire. Believing that the Silver Avenger had abandoned him, Midnight came to believe that his condition was all Moon Knight's fault.

 

With Midnight acting as their field agent, he broke Thunderball out of jail which earned him the attention of Spider-Man and Darkhawk. He was able to escape but Spider-Man recognized Midnight from his previous encounter with Moon Knight and called in the Lunar Legionnaire.

 

Midnight was then sent to capture the New Warrior Nova and discovered that he was soon to be rendered obsolete as merely one of cyborg grunts while the Empire would rebuild superhumans to enhance their formidable attributes.

 

With the clandestine assistance of a sympathetic nurse, Lynn Church who disabled the Empire's control devices, Midnight turned on the Empire and sought to establish himself as their new leader. Alongside Spider-Man, Darkhawk, the Punisher, Night Thrasher, the freed Nova; Moon Knight aided in bringing down the Secret Empire as well as Midnight and Lynn Church who was actually a cyborg herself who had been using Midnight as the testbed of the most successful cybernetic implants for her own upgrades.

 

In another encounter with his brother who had taken up the costume of Shadowknight as a sort of twisted version of his Moon Knight identity, there was an explosion at Spector Mansion which crippled Frenchie, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and forcing him to abandon his role as a Moon Knight's pilot.

 

As a consequence, Marc was forced to create the "Angelwing", a remote controlled aircraft for his activities. An increasingly formidable array of opponents also prompted him to upgrade his crimefighting equipment and accoutrements.

 

Marc also began actively recruiting specialized agents to assist him on his missions from psychological profiles, to expert thieves, and intelligence operatives in a think tank organization he dubbed "The Shadow Cabinet" that he kept in contact via holo-communicator rings.

 

Moon Knight would later become infected by the then-demonically possessed Hobgoblin with a demonic virus which prompted Marc to create a suit of armor which helped contain the virus while he sought a cure to his deteriorating physical condition and was only cured thanks to the mystical aid of Dr. Strange.

 

Infinity War and Crusade

 

When the Magus, the evil incarnation of Adam Warlock plan to gain absolute power, he created evil doppelgangers of both heroes and villains on earth. Moon Knight had to face his own evil self, manifested as Moonshade which he defeated.

 

After the War, the Goddess, the good incarnation of Adam Warlock recruited many heroes who are very spiritual, religious have had near-death experiences.

 

Because of Moon Knight's close affiliation with the moon god and his first resurrection to serve as the avatar of vengeance; the Goddess recruited Moon Knight to defend her as she purges the evil in the universe. Moon Knight was returned to normal when the Goddess was defeated by the combined efforts of Adam Warlock, Thanos and Professor X.

 

Soon afterwards in a battle against Seth the Immortal, Moon Knight sacrificed his life to save Marlene and Frenchie.

 

Resurrection War

 

Khonshu seemingly willed Moon Knight back to life in order to thwart the plans of his three greatest villains: Black Spectre, Raoul Bushman and Morpheus, who were all under the worship of Set, God of Darkness and Chaos.

 

Marc, questioning if his death was real or not, started experiencing dreams of the future in which Marc concludes that it is either Morpheus or Khonshu speaking to him once again. With the knowledge that he is the "white-light" of Khonshu, he sets out to thwart their plans, receiving help from Stained Glass Scarlet as well.

 

The two are able to defeat the trio and stop their plans of attacking a U.N. building that was holding a meeting at the time. Afterwords, Moon Knight went back to his crime-fighting once again.

 

He helped save the Black Panther from the Kingdom of the Dead and subsequently joined the Marvel Knights, a group of street level superheroes and vigilantes. However the team broke apart and went their separate ways including the Crescent Crusader.

 

Moon Fall

 

In an attempt to bring down the Moon Knight, the New Committee hired the The Profile to fully utilize his unusual talents to not simply defeat Moon Knight, but to break him.

 

As per his suggestion, they embarked on a long term strategy. First, they hired Bushman to attack the Lunar Legionnaire again. As part of their campaign, they wanted Bushman to physically cripple him and both of Marc's legs were severely fractured.

 

However, Bushman grew overconfident and was unprepared for Marc's brutal counterattack and then, in a fit of indescribable rage, Marc used one of his crescent darts to carve off Bushman's face, giving him a true death's head.

 

Unable to continue his career as Moon Knight, Marc began taking more and more painkillers and anti-psychotics, burning through his fortune and was no longer able to maintain his crumbling financial empire.

 

His manner had gotten to the point that he completely and irrevocably alienated those around him, especially Frenchie, who came to the conclusion that there was simply no course of action that he could take that could attempt to assist Marc in even the slightest way. After a heated argument with Marlene, Marc struck her and Marlene left.

 

His sanity apparently deteriorating as he is constantly "seeing" and "hearing" Khonshu talk to him and give him foul suggestions while Khonshu decided to use the guise of the deceased Bushman (without his face) to torment Moon Knight.

 

Knowing that he was both physically and psychologically weakened, the Committee overstepped themselves by hiring a thug to physically assault Frenchie and left him hospitalized.

 

Instead of breaking Marc, it reinvigorated him as he tracked down and savagely injured Frechie's assailant. Panicking, the Committee hired the Taskmaster to take out Moon Knight.

 

Taskmaster tortured Marc but he was aided by Marlene and defended by his butler, Samuels. This gave Marc the strength to defeat Taskmaster and destroy the Committee once more.

 

Soon afterwards, Marc learns that one of the struggling companies that he still retains ownership of has just made a significant technological breakthrough and he will once again be wealthy and begins to rebuild himself and life; finally getting himself out of his wheelchair and began physical therapy.

 

It is only afterwards that Marc makes an appalling discovery that Khonshu was responsible behind the entire affair. After Marc's latest resurrection, his reputation had taken a nose dive and so Khonshu decided to ensure that his Knight of Vengeance was firmly back in the saddle; nudging the Committee, bringing back Marlene at a critical moment, even arranging for Marc's wealth to be restored while reminding him who and what he is; Khonshu's Knight of Vengeance and bades him to go forth and do his work in Khonshu's name once more.

 

Although the Committee has gone underground, Marc locates the Profile who discovers that he was no match for Moon Knight, and ironically, became an informant for him instead.

 

Moon Knight takes back to the streets and attempts to be make up for lost time and would discover a string of murders were perpetrated by his former sidekick turned cyborg, Midnight who had survived their last encounter and had gone insane. Realizing that he had no choice, he was forced to kill his former sidekick Midnight.

 

The Waning Moon: Civil War and the Initiative

 

During the Civil War, Moon Knight chose to ally with neither side because, as he had said to Captain America, "The war is just like a game of capture the flag". Captain America retorted that he didn't want Moon Knight to join the fight because of his "methods" of bringing justice and Iron Man, seeing his history of psychotic tendencies and feeling some sense of obligation due to their past history as Avengers, decided that arresting him will just make his condition even worse.

 

When the Super-Human Registration Act became a law, Moon Knight felt that he didn't want the law to disrupt his work, so legally registered. Tony Stark assigned Marc to undergo a psychiatric examination, sure that he would fail. But when the psychiatrist placed Marc under deep hypnosis to talk to Marc's other personalities, Khonshu emerged and possesses Marc who then demoralized the psychiatrist and rebukes him.

 

After this the intimidated psychiatrist approved Marc's registration, but also did something quite peculiar--he bowed down before him and started worshiping him.

 

Afterwards, Marc claimed to the Profile that he had faked the whole possession and had employed the information given to him by the Profile to frighten the psychiatrist as a ruse to get his registration approved and proceeded to stalk the nights, bringing brutal justice to the thugs and gangs running around the city.

 

Unknown to Marc, the Black Spectre was recently released from jail and sought revenge against Moon Knight. The Black Spectre decided to turn to his life of crime again and frame Moon Knight for murder by killing his victims and carving a crescent moon on the victims head, which was Moon Knight's previous calling card. Due to public pressure, Iron Man immediately revoked Moon Knight's ID and told him he is no longer apart of the Initiative.

 

Looking to still bring justice on Black Specter, Marc finds out that he is going to release a stream of nanobots into a big parade in a plan to control the city. Moon Knight thwarts his plan and ends up throwing him off the roof of a building to his death. Outed by the government and with SHIELD searching for him, Spector moves underground.

 

With a warrant out for his arrest the, C.S.A. call in for the Thunderbolts to come and hunt down Moon Knight as a fugitive of the law. Iron Man strongly opposes the idea but is overruled on the matter. Moon Knight continues to lay low only to resurface in a black uniform and a with a few new bones to pick. SHIELD interrogates several of Marc's friends and contacts, although nothing comes out of them. Now is the time for the Thunderbolts to strike.

 

Several weeks later after having a run-in with the Thunderbolts, Moon Knight pleads with Khonshu for forgiveness for losing his faith at him, but the Lunar god will not have it and says that he has worshipers that actually follow him. Marc returned into his costume to help Frenchie, who was attacked by a gang. But little did he knew that the attack was used to set-up Moon Knight to be captured by the Thunderbolts. Moon Knight was then ambushed by Venom.

 

He was captured by the reformed villain team, but he got away when SHIELD came. Frenchie agreed to help Moon Knight while the Thunderbolts release Bullseye to kill him.

 

Moon Knight and Bullseye fight all throughout New York and the battle leads them to a warehouse, which was secretly planted with many explosives. Moon Knight sets it off and the warehouse explodes.

 

Later in a press conference Norman Osborn tells reporters about the Thunderbolts' success in eliminating Moon Knight while Iron Man condemns his team on the death of the vigilante.

 

However, it all was a ruse for Moon Knight to fake his death via a prepared escape tunnel. However, the events effectively killed the "Marc Spector" persona with the Jake Lockley persona now in control.

 

Lockley fled to Mexico to recuperate and is hired by a millionaire to search for his daughter who has been kidnapped by corrupt cops.

 

Little does Moon Knight know that the Punisher is also in the trail of the corrupt cops and is now out to bring them justice through a method he knows best, punishment.

 

Moon Knight then goes to fight off the Zapata Brothers (who were brought in by Alcantara after Jake killed his henchmen and took his condemned daughter) only to make a deal with them to take down Alcantara. Moon Knight then proceeds to launch a full-scale assault on Alcantara when he finds everyone is murdered except Alcantara himself until Toltec finds them and Moon Knight walks away as Toltec kills Alcantara. Moon Knight (having taken Alcantara's money and bought himself a condo) has seen on TV what Norman Osborn has become and vows to go back to the U.S. and bring him down.

 

Return with a Vengeance

 

Moon Knight has returned to New York to exact his revenge on Norman Osborn and did so by stopping a bank heist in progress without killing a single bank robber, much to the surprise of the police.

 

Khonshu is still convincing him to become the ruthless vigilante he was before, but Moon Knight continues to ignore the temptations of the deity and plans to redeem himself as well as reform into a new hero. News of Moon Knight's return circulated throughout the bustling city, with Norman Osborn denouncing him as a renegade and a menace while promising the public that Moon Knight will be dealt with for his acts of vigilance accordingly.

 

The Sentry appeared before Moon Knight and reminded him that he can never run from his past and that he will be tested for to prove himself as a hero, to which he replied that he will also be tested as well.

 

Moon Knight paid a visit to his criminal contact, the Profile and told him about the Slug and some stolen diamonds that he has. Moon Knight confronted the Slug and his henchmen for the diamonds, while Khonshu urges him to kill the villain but he was squashed in the floor.

 

Meanwhile, Norman Osborn has delegated the Hood on stopping Moon Knight. The Hood then had the Profile to track down and profile Moon Knight. The Profile thought of a plan to take down Moon Knight and it involves the grave of his late nemesis, Raoul Bushman.

 

Jake goes home and sees the news coverage about the jailbreak in Ravencroft. Jake suits up as Moon Knight and tells his butler to call his pilot for the Mooncopter, but he cannot reach him and Moon Knight decides to use his other vehicle, Angelwing.

 

When the hanger doors were opening, Moon Knight was surprised to see his old partner, Frenchie, dressed in a aviator suit and walking on a cane. Reunited with his friend, Frenchie flies the Mooncopter and drops Moon Knight inside the melee of the escaped convicts. In the middle of the chaos, Khonshu is still persuading Moon Knight to kill for him, but to no avail.

 

When Moon Knight called Frenchie to come back, he told him he can't because of an enormous flock of birds blanketing the sky, which was summoned by the Scarecrow. Frenchie then shoots a large net from the Mooncopter to catch the flock, neutralizing it.

 

Moon Knight then catches Scarecrow, but he then argues to him that Moon Knight should confront his old nemesis, Bushman. Moon Knight goes to his contact, Crawley for any word from the street,but they were suddenly attacked by Bushman.

 

After taunting him, Bushman fires a RPG to Moon Knight but it hits a corner of building, threatening it to collapse. Moon Knight rushed in to hold the building and Bushman left him to be beaten by his army of convicts from Ravencroft.

 

After beating the convicts with only his underwear and mask on, Moon Knight carves his symbol on all that he defeated on their strait jacket.

 

Spider-Man then swings by and he tried to convince Moon Knight to stop his heroics before he return back to his murderous ways, to which Moon Knight argued that his heroism doesn't fare better because Norman Osborn is still in power.

 

Moon Knight got a tip from Crawley goes in search for Bushman in one of OsCorp's warehouses. Moon Knight then infiltrates the warehouse and begins searching for Bushman to no avail, until he surprises Marc. After a much drawn out, grueling fight between Marc has Raoul pinned down and mounts him with his crescent dart in his hand as if to cut off Bushman's face again.

 

Though Bushman begs Marc not to take his face again, causing much hesitation for the hero before stopping his act. Marc left and let the authorities take care of him. Meanwhile, now that Marc has prevailed, The Profile left to the cavern of Khonshu, for reasons unknown.

 

Moon Knight finds that someone has forcibly enter a hospital. When he got there, he saw Deadpool about to kill a bed-ridden patient. Moon Knight stops him and they go into a brief scuffle until Deadpool gets thrown through a window and escapes. Moon Knight then finds out that the person he just rescued was a Ukrainian crime boss dying from cancer, that made him question himself about being a hero.

 

Deadpool then met up with his employer, a mother whose son was kidnapped by the crime boss' henchmen. Moon Knight goes to see Deadpool and after they talked, Moon Knight goes to a warehouse to rescue the employer's son. Moon Knight saves the boy and left the henchmen for the police, but soon Deadpool picked up where they left off in their previous encounter.

 

They fought in a carnival's hall of mirrors where the duel turned into a sword fight, which left Moon Knight left as the winner. When Jake was having nightmares in his sleep, he suddenly woke up rushed to get into the hospital but he was too late to save the crime boss from Deadpool's employer who killed him with an injection of potassium chloride, stopping the patient's heart.

 

Heroic Age

 

After the events of Dark Reign and Siege, Norman Osborn was deposed as America's "top cop" and his organization H.A.M.M.E.R. was disbanded. Captain Steve Rogers then forms the Secret Avengers as a group of superheroes to operate under a veil of secrecy, in addition to the main Avengers team.Moon Knight was approached by Steve Rogers and he asked him to join the Secret Avengers to find his redemption.

 

Moon Knight agrees to this and his first mission was to go after Captain Barracuda who was capturing Oil Tankers. Moon Knight proved himself to the team by saving them and the Tanker crew when Captain Barracuda used the Horn of Proteus to summon sea monsters and destroying the Oil Tanker.

 

Next, Moon Knight infiltrated Roxxon headquarters with fellow Avenger, Ant-Man. They then had to travel to Mars to rescue another teammate, Nova who was looking for the Serpent Crown. The team split up and Moon Knight was accompanied by Black Widow and Valkyrie to look for Nova.

 

When they found him he is wearing the Serpent Crown and he also detected their presence. He and Black Widow were knocked unconscious when they confronted Nova. After the threat on Mars, the team went back to Earth and continues their objective of finding out who is trying to steal the Serpent Crown and why they want it.

 

Shadowland

 

Moon Knight goes to his mansion and sleeps with Marlene, he wakes up and is taunted by Khonshu on going back to his murderous ways and to kill in his name. The other night, Marlene asks Jake out and reveals that she is pregnant, which he is happy about.

 

After days of being taunted by someone calling himself Shadow Knight, Jake gets a mission from Steve Rogers to infiltrate Shadowland as a prisoner. As the heroes and the Hand ninjas fight each other, Jake takes a white cowl and joins to the brawl.

 

Daredevil then attacks Marc from behind, but when Moon Knight begins to fight him, his mind is subsequently infiltrated by an unknown entity that has been inside Daredevil. Khonshu then appears and tells Moon Knight that in order to kill the creature, he will need the Sapphire Crescent, an artifact that was a part of the original sculpture of Khonshu.

 

Moon Knight asks for it, but Khonshu demands him to kill in his name, which Moon Knight declines to do. When he returns home to his mansion, he finds Marlene in a bloody pulp and is informed that Shadow Knight did this and that the baby she was carrying is now dead. Moon Knight then agrees to kill for Khonshu and he will start with Shadow Knight.

 

When he begins to fight him by crashing his glider, the crazed man reveals himself to be Randall Spector. The brothers fight it out but Randall escapes. Driven by revenge over what Randall had done to Marlene, Jake agrees to kill Randall in Khonshu's name. The deity then tells him the Sapphire Crescent's history and that is found in New Orleans.

 

Jake finds it in the possession of a fortune teller which he buys for a large sum. As Jake walks through a carnival, Randall steals it and the brothers again begin a scuffle in the middle of a Mardi Gras festival.

 

Shadow Knight begins to tell Moon Knight that he is doing this because he was sent by the acolyte of Khonshu, the Profile. Jake persuades him that he is being played for a fool by the Profile (working for Daredevil) but he will not have it all. When collateral damage begins to mount, Moon Knight takes control of the fight and corners Shadow Knight on a dock, but he is prepared to commit suicide and kill them all with dynamite.

 

Moon Knight then throws the Sapphire Crescent into Shadow Knight, slicing his throat and causing him to fall in the water below. Moon Knight then flies off back to Shadowland to face Daredevil and the Hand. Afterwards, the Lunar Legionnaire declares that Jake Lockley is dead and that he is now Marc Spector once again.

 

Move to the West Coast

 

Leaving New York and memories of Marlene behind him, Marc moved to West Coast where he is developing a Moon Knight television series, "The Legend of Khonshu".

 

Unable to cope with his past identities, Marc has instead developed a new batch of personalities in the form of other heroes including Spider-Man, Captain America, and Wolverine. Marc honestly believes that he has been asked specifically by these three heroes to once again take up the mantle of Moon Knight and frequently consults with them, unaware that he is hallucinating.

 

He later recruits an assistant Buck Lime, an ex-SHIELD agent who provides technological support for his activities.

 

Investigates an illegal deal going down in the docks, Moon Knight stumbles into a major case involving high-end technology being run by Mr. Hyde. Moon Knight engages Hyde in hand-to-hand combat but Hyde escapes, leaving behind a shipment of Ultron technology.

 

Marc later continues on to uncover more details about this new gang by subconsciously dressing as Spider-Man while attacking the new gang lead by Snapdragon. Overwhelmed by the Snapdragon's henchmen, Marc was rescued by Echo, who was undercover at the time and had to blow her cover in order to save Moon Knight.

 

Teaming up with Echo to continue their investigation together, Marc begins falling in love with her and tries to pursue a romantic relationship only for it to fail badly. After fighting the Night Shift, Marc and Echo discover that the leader of this gang is none other than Count Nefaria.

 

When Moon Knight and Echo target his bases of operations, Nefaria retaliates and kills Echo before demanding that Marc serve him. Apparently surrendering, Marc instead lures Nefaria into a trap and is later congratulated by Iron Man for a job well done.

 

Age of Ultron

 

Marc was involved with the 'Age of Ultron' crossover series, and is shown to be one of the few heroes left in the city of New York, after the Avengers' villain Ultron took power. He is working with Black Widow from an old hidden base left by Nick Fury, and their plans focus on destroying Ultron, before they are destroyed.

 

Return to New York

 

Using laundered old money, Marc returned to New York with a host of new equipment including an upgraded baton and an automated limousine. He also discovered with the help of a psychologist, Elisa Warsame, that he has never had DID (Dissociative Identity Disorder) but instead when Khonshu's consciousness colonized his own, it forced Marc's mind to adapt to it's four aspects which has resulted in brain damage.

 

Calling himself "Mr Knight" and wearing a white suit and mask, Marc now works with Detective Flint's Freak Beat to investigate weird crimes. When a more direct approach is needed Marc discards the Mr. Knight persona and instead will use the Moon Knight one with a new updated light armor.

 

Some of the investigations were into trained killers going after Gen. Lor of Akima, an East African micronation that was recently being recognized by the UN. Elisa had been using therapy sessions to recruit these killers having seen Gen. Lor's violence up close. Spector confronts her and believes she is trying to recruit him, only she was actually recruiting Khonshu. who abandons Spector.

 

Spector would be arrested and sent to an off-the-books special prison. Khonshu continued to visit Spector hoping to convince him to join Elisa's quest, however, Spector was able to convince Khonshu instead that he was being used and get his help escaping.

 

They discovered Gen. Lor actually led revolutionaries against Warsame's father, the former governor of Akima, who was in fact guilty of the crimes Elisa described. Elisa has been trying to restart the unrest in her home country so that she could take her father's seized fortune quietly.

 

Spector was able to save the general before Elisa could execute him.

 

Freak Beat

 

As part of Flint's task force, Moon Knight would go on many weird investigations. For one, he would try to fight off a gang of punk ghosts; but was unable to harm them. Khonshu reminded him of his various acquisitions of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including enchanted weapons and armor. Facing of against the ghosts again in a ornate armor with a bird skull mask he was able to fight and defeat them

 

Other investigations included a pack of dogs trained to attack the city's wealthy elite, a hotel full of benevolent ghosts and violent gang members, and a demon posing as the monster under the bed. Spector believes he is representing Khonshu by protecting those who travel at night, but Khonshu disapproves of Moon Knight's current fight for justice.

 

It appeared as if Khonshu was looking for new guardians to replace Spector and collect sacrifices for him. Spector took the fight to them only to discover a cult leader acting in Khonshu's name but without Khonshu's support.

 

Versus The Moon

 

Marc Spector and his allies (Frenchie, Crawley, Marlene, and Gena) mysteriously find themselves in a mental institution with no memory of how they got there. Their past lives come back to them slowly and in fragments, with Marc the most confused due to his multiple identities.

 

The doctor in charge, Dr. Emmett, was trying to convince Marc that he imagined his adventures as Moon Knight. However, Khonshu informs him that Dr. Emmet is in fact Ammut, the Egyptian god of judgement, and that the Egyptian pantheon is trying to take over New York. This convinces Marc and his allies to stage a successful breakout, at the cost of one of their souls. Crawley volunteers.

 

Unfortunately, Khonshu was lying. It was Khonshu who was setting up a New Egypt, and he has been breaking away at Marc's psyche so Khonshu could take Marc's body for himself. Marc refused and leapt from Khonshu's pyramid. When he awoke, New York was fine and he was his billionaire identity, Steven Grant.

 

As Steven, he is producing a movie about the Moon Knight. Marc Spector is cast as the leading man. Jake Lockley is a local cab driver, who is actually Moon Knight. They all seem like they are separate people now, but they are sharing memories.

 

Just as Steven started questioning it all, he is hit with a new identity. This one shared a name with Marc Spector, but he was a fighter pilot for a futuristic space force that protected the humans of a moon colony against werewolves that had taken over Earth.

 

These disparate identities are joined together by the primary Marc Specter to hash things out with fists and words until the real Marc was finally back in control and ready to face Khonshu. Marc first revisits Anubis, who aided in Marc's escape.

 

Marc made a new deal to save Anubis' wife Anput from the Overvoid in exchange for the return of Crawley's soul and passage back to Khonshu.

 

Khonshu throws everything he can at Marc, but Marc is able to fight through it. to Marc, that means he has proven he can be Moon Knight without Khonshu, but in his final confrontation, Marc doesn't throw a single punch. He acknowledges Khonshu (or at least this version of Khonshu in his mind) as "that thing in [his] mind that is wrong" and not the Egyptian god. By doing so, Marc expels this Khonshu from his mind and receives clarity. He is suspicious of the clarity, but it feels real enough for now.

 

Versus the Sun

 

With his identities at ease and working together, Moon Knight is slowly rebuilding his street cred. In his first big fight, he comes across a tall muscular tattooed man calling himself The Truth.

 

He is able to infect people with hard truths, but when Moon Knight lets Jake take over, The Truth can’t take his dark side. Jake ends up blinding him with two shurikens to the eyes.

 

Afterward, he gets a call from his on-again/off-again girlfriend, Marlene. She invites him over after they had some time apart, but it was a ruse by the Sun King, an avatar of Ra, looking to get back at Khonshu.

 

The Sun King’s plan was to use Marlene as bait but ended up introducing Moon Knight to his daughter. Unbeknownst to Marc, Jake had been meeting with Marlene in secret, fathering the child and helping to raise it. Moon Knight fought his way out with his daughter, Diatrice, but Sun King took Marlene.

 

The Sun King also recruited Bushman, his new gang, and The Truth to aid him in taking out Moon Knight. They collected Moon Knight from his apartment and sailed to Isla Ra, Sun King’s new city for the disenfranchised.

 

Here, Sun King is determined to fight Moon Knight to the death and prove his dominance. However, Moon Knight “out-crazies” Sun King, and Sun King’s insecurity disables his abilities.

 

So, Sun King submits, Bushman and the Truth abandon his quest, and Moon Knight becomes guardian to the disenfranchised Sun King had already given shelter too.

 

Age of Khonshu and The Phoenix Force

 

With the Phoenix Force oncoming due to the machinations of Mephisto, Khonshu instructed Moon Knight to steal the abilities of the present day mantle holders of a stone age team resembling the Avengers.

 

While briefly connected to the Phoenix, Marc was so shocked by his consideration of genocide to stop Mephisto that he returned the Avengers' abilities and allowed them to best him. Black Panther tried to convince him to team up with them, but he declined, thinking the Avengers were severely outmatched.

 

Unfortunately, trying to take over the world for Khonshu had lasting effects on Marc's personal life. Marlene and Diatrice cut him out of their lives, forcing Marc to come to a reluctant agreement with his Steve and Jake personalities.

 

He forced his other two personas into his subconscious and would not allow them to take hold of their body. This way, Marc believe he could have a new beginning.

 

Midnight Mission

 

With Khonshu locked up in Aesir by the Asgardians and his personalities presently pacified, Marc continued to keep up with his duty as the guardian of those who travel at night. He opened the Midnight Mission, an office where locals can come officially request his help, and started seeing a therapist (Andrea Sterman) by special request of the Avengers. He also got himself a new office assistant, Reese, who was also a vampire, and a new friendly rival, Hunter's Moon, who was loyal to Khonshu and chastised Marc's lack of faith.

 

Marc made a name for himself busting heads in his new neighborhood. This got the attention of a helpful Tigra, who was secretly working with Black Panther. It also got the attention of the mysterious and ambitious Zodiac, who saw a number of attempts on Marc's life as a game.

 

Zodiac cut Marc off from his riches and destroyed his office building, forcing Marc to enter a partnership with the sentient residence, The House of Shadows.

 

His feud with Zodiac would reach its peak when he attacked the Midnight Mission. It required all of Moon Knight's allies including Hunter's Moon, Rutherford Winner, and former Hydra agent, Soldier, who had swiped a spare Moon Knight costume for himself.

 

When Soldier died, Reese lashed out and almost killed Zodiac. Steven took control of Marc's body and stopped her from crossing the line.

 

Blood of the Fist

 

Jack Russell knew of a prophecy within the pages of the Darkhold that referred to a weapon that could be used to kill Khonshu, who he considered his oppressor and oppressor to all werewolves. "The Blood of the Fist, anointed by the Blood of the Fist" referring to the child of a Fist of Khonshu that would "forged by the King of All Wolves." The child would be Diatrice, the daughter of Marc Spector, but in order to turn her, he needed to become The King of All Wolves.

 

He challenged the leadership of every werewolf tribe in North America and won. He then defeated Wendigos in Canada to prove himself, but when he kidnapped Diatrice, Marlene went to the Midnight Mission to send Moon Knight after Jack.

 

With Hunter's Moon's help, the two of them tracked Jack and his followers, however, Diatrice's innocent naivety disarmed Jack. He still intended to go through with it, but the window of planetary alignment required was closing.

 

Once Moon Knight was able to interfere, he was capable of distracting him long enough for him to miss his opportunity. With no reason to continue, Jack relented and left with a dire warning from Marc to stay away from his family.

 

The Structure

 

When Zodiac shot through Reese and killed Soldier, enough DNA survived on the bullet to infect Soldier with Reese's vampiric curse.

 

This got the attention of Tutor, the vampire who had sired Reese and was running the vampire cult, The Structure. He believed that Soldier was the first of many, so he treated the Midnight Mission as a rival organization. After Moon Knight had a run-in with two assassins (Nemean and Grand Mal) hired by The Structure to take them out, Moon Knight started looking into vampire activity in the city.

 

With the help from a rival vampire leader, Lady Yulan, Moon Knight got the location of a vampire conclave being held by Tutor, bringing in vampires from all over the globe. Unfortunately, Hunter's Moon was attacked by the assassins, forcing Marc to take care of them first.

 

He had them pulled into the House of Shadows to be tortured. He would then drop them through the skylight of the conclave meeting place, while he and Tigra make a fancy entrance.

 

Soldier put his Hydra terrorist training to good use by rigging the fire suppression system to go off. Marc than proved himself to be a true priest of Khonshu by consecrating the water, transforming it into holy water and taking out nearly all of Tutor's followers.

 

They left one witness, a human familiar, to send a warning back to Dracula what happens when vampires mess with New York

 

City of the Dead

 

After Moon Knight failed to save a young boy named Khalil from the Egyptian-American street gang, Sons of the Jackal, Marc went to Hunter's Moon for help entering The Duat, the City of the Dead.

 

He pledged to find the soul of the boy and bring it back to his comatose body. He tracks members of the Jackals who came to Duat after their death and had the boys heart. They also increased their strength by summoning the power of the Horsemen of Apocalypse.

 

Overpowered, he was eventually joined by the Scarlet Scarab, a fallen mercenary friend made the guardian of Duat. They soon learned that the Sons of the Jackal were stealing the innocent hearts of children to weigh on the scales of justice, thus avoiding punishment for themselves.

 

Their leader, Jackal Knight, reveals himself to be Moon Knight's dead brother, Randall, the new host of Anubis. He has summoned a Legion of the Unliving made up of Moon Knight's dead enemies.

 

They had captured Khalil because he is the host of Osiris, and Randall wanted his power for his own. Once he had it, he was too strong for Marc to take on, even with Layla's help.

 

Thankfully, because the realm is psychoactive and can be shaped by the contents of a person's heart, Moon Knight was able to create four bodies: one for each of his three personalities and Khonshu.

 

This still wasn't enough to overpower Randall and his Legion. So, when Khalil awoke during the fight, he committed suicide, freeing Osiris' physical form to take the power back from Randall. In exchange, Osiris sent both Marc and Khalil back to the land of the living to live out the rest of their days.

 

The Ghost in the Telephone

 

The Midnight Mission was targeted by Sidney Sarnak, employed by a mysterious new player. Whoever they were, they were using Sarnak's ability of brainwashing people with sound.

 

First, they manipulated The Harlequin Hitman couple to go after Moon Knight's old Shadow Cabinet, to throw Moon Knight off his game. They also tested riot-inducing music at a club that Reese and Soldier just happened to be attending.

 

Spector finally got a lead when Dylan Brock needed his protection and mentioned the Venom symbiote had been off due to the sound manipulation around town. Using the symbiote to track Sarnak, Sarnak turned himself into the police rather than be interrogated by the Moon Knight.

 

Sick of playing games with Moon Knight, this new player revealed themself as a new Black Spectre. Using 8-Ball to lure Moon Knight to Hart Island, Black Spectre revealed his use of Cobra Project mind control, which Marc had dealing with during his mercenary days.

 

He also employed every thug and superhuman The Midnight Mission has defeated as a gauntlet for Marc to run, hoping to end Moon Knight once and for all. Fortunately, a guilty 8-Ball decided to betray Black Spectre and save Moon Knight.

 

Back at the mission, Hunter's Moon had caught another of Black Spectre's employees, Vibro. Marc was forced to interrogate him psychically because Badr had beat him into a coma. Inside his mind, the two Fists of Khonshu learned that Vibro had been drilling around Manhattan turning it into a giant tuning fork to use Sarnak's sound hypnosis on. Black Spectre's plan was to force Manhattan to tear itself apart

 

The Last Days of Moon Knight

 

With the knowledge from Vibro's mind, Moon Knight hatches a plan to take out the new Black Spectre once and for all. He tracks the Black Spectre to The Mount, a skyscraper in New York. 8-Ball, now Moon Knight's resident pilot, would fly Marc, Badr, and Tigra to The Mount in his Hover-Rack.

 

Soldier would already be on site doing recon, while Reese watches over the Mission. Unfortunately, Black Spectre was ready for them. The Hover-Rack would be shot out of the sky and crash into the building, and the heroes would be quickly separated by Black Spectre's goons.

 

8-Ball would be injured and stay with his airship. Tigra would be stuck when she steps on a land mine but be saved by Soldier, who had training in ordinance disarming. Badr would track down Sarnak and try to intimidate him into turning off the sound device, and Marc would take on Black Spectre, who eventually revealed himself to be Sigmund, a member of the Shadow Cabinet Marc thought had been killed.

 

Marc was shot many times and close to death, left to watch Sigmund's work. He was visited by Khonshu, who said he didn't have enough power while imprisoned to revive him.

 

Knowing this is the end (and with approval of his identities, Jake and Steve), Moon Knight rigged Sigmund's weapon to explode before it could have any effect on Manhattan, killing him in the process.

 

In his absence, his friends carry on the good work of the Midnight Mission.

 

Revived

 

When Blade was possessed by Varnae, the first vampire, he took over The Structure and filled the sky with darkforce. Under this permanent night, the vampires of Earth would attempt world domination.

 

With help from the Avengers, Hunter's Moon, Tigra, and Wrecker would be teleported to Asgard so they may free Khonshu. Once the god was freed, he raised his past priests from the dead, including Marc, to fight back against the vampire horde.

 

As the sky cleared, the vampires had changed. They no longer were weak against the sun, meaning Moon Knight and the Midnight Mission's job was just getting started. Once they had driven the vampires back into hiding, Marc needed his first break since being revived.

 

Khonshu would not have it. He demanded Marc kill the pretender: the Shroud. Marc decided to fool Khonshu. He fought Shroud, stopping his heart, fulfilling his debt to Khonshu, but he had Hunter's Moon prepared to revive Shroud, giving him the second chance Shroud was looking for.

 

Glitter

 

In Marc's absence, a new drug kingpin, Achilles Fairchild, had moved in on the Midnight Mission territory thanks to his magic drug, Glitter.

 

Powers and Abilities

 

Due to his multiple personalities, Moon Knight possesses formidable psychic resistance and most telepathic or mental attacks are less effective on him. It has also been noted by several people that Moon Knight possesses an extraordinary degree of pain tolerance and has casually ignored debilitating wounds and major injuries to keep fighting.

 

Throughout his varied careers as a boxer, marine, commando, and CIA agent, Moon Knight possesses a wide range of skills and abilities including military strategy and tactics, infiltration and stealth techniques, military interrogation and torture techniques, driver evasion techniques, and is a competent pilot who can fly most types of aircrafts.

 

He is an expert in a wide variety of military firearms including pistols, sniper rifles, and machine guns with a marksman rating. His military training and background makes him not only an unconventional hero, he can and will use drastic means and extreme violence to stop criminals.

 

Moon Knight is a highly skilled combatant who is equally adept in both unarmed and armed fighting techniques; he is a former heavyweight boxing champion who has comprehensive knowledge of the weak points of the human body.

 

Moon Knight's fighting style is brutal and straight to the point and combines techniques from Krav Maga, Dambe, Savate, Silat and FMA (Filipino Martial Arts) to put down his opponents as quickly and as painfully as possible. He also has advanced skills in Judo, Kung Fu and is an Olympic-class athlete, acrobat and gymnast.

 

Taskmaster claims that there is no one's fighting style that he hates copying more than Moon Knight's. This is because unlike most other fighters, Moon Knight prefers not to block or evade an attack or injury if it allows him the opportunity to counterattack his opponent; much like how some boxers will actually court their opponent to attack and trusting in their stamina and ability to take punishment.

 

He is also highly adept in various conventional and unconventional weaponry as well including shurikens and thrown projectiles, combat knives and swords, batons, truncheons, bo staffs, nunchucks, three-sectional staffs, longbows, chains, and bolos.

 

Thanks to his extensive experience in criminal investigations, Moon Knight has also picked up a surprising degree of skill as a detective including how to profile psychopathic behavior and a broad base knowledge of the criminal underworld.

 

When he became the Fist of Khonshu and was possessed by Khonshu, Moon Knight gained superhuman powers derived from the moon itself.

 

During this period, Moon Knight had enhanced strength, stamina, and reflexes based on the lunar phase of the moon. He was at his strongest during a full moon, as he could lift the weight of 2 tons and at normal strength when there is a no moon, where he could lift around 700 lbs.

 

He could also see magical beings that normal humans cannot see and possessed night vision as well. Moon Knight could also become invisible in a shadowed area and had a "healing factor" that allowed his wounds to quickly heal when shined in moonlight.

 

After the exorcism of Khonshu from his body, Moon Knight appears to have lost most of his powers but there is speculation that he may or may not retain some aspect of them. He still appears to receive prophetic visions and a connection to Khonshu but it is unknown just how much is actually Khonshu's influence or Marc Spector's own mental hallucinations.

 

Moon Knight has also shown that he can be revived by Khonshu. This may prove that Moon Knight is near immortal.

 

Weapons and Equipment

 

Thanks to his immense wealth, Marc Spector has financed the development of numerous weapons, armored costumes, devices, specialized vehicles, and equipment as Moon Knight.

 

Crescent Darts

 

Even though Moon Knight has utilized a wide variety of weapons throughout his career, his most widely utilized and best known are his crescent darts.

 

The crescent darts are sharpened metal throwing weapons similar in size to Japanese shurikens and visually appear to be based on the Gibbous moon. Moon Knight has often concealed a crescent dart in his hand and in the past has used them for close quarters combat; as his calling card; and during certain parts of his career--even using them as makeshift gruesome carving tools into his victims.

 

Moon Knight can hurl several of these darts simultaneously with impressive force and accuracy as well as performing deflection shots. In addition, he has utilized crescent dart throwers; mechanical devices mounted on his wrists that enable him to discharge a barrage of crescent darts at high velocities for better penetration and offensive spread patterns.

 

Over the years, he has employed crescent darts forged out of silver for anti-werewolf use; specially modified explosive crescent darts that detonated on impact; as well as ones forged out of unbreakable adamantium alloy that can cut through virtually anything.

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Marc Spector

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First Appearance: Werewolf by Night #32 (August 1975)

 

Created by: Doug Moench (Writer)

Don Perlin (Artist)

My first published shots. The Formula Una babes are a little incentive by Red Bull Racing (the F1 team), to get more women to the different Grand Prix. These are "our" (Belgian) Formula Una's. Note: In the middle is the lovely "Zorha" (a 'famious' Belgium beaty). I could link to the article, if I could just find out how that works in Flickr. Without a doubt my favorite personal shot with my Canon 400D. I wanted it to be overexposed and it worked out. It's hardly edited actually.

Published by Grande Consórcio Suplementos Nacionais, Brazil 1940

natasa and olga, clowning around.

  

website | blog | facebook | google+ | twitter

 

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was printed and published by J. Salmon Ltd. of Sevenoaks. The card, which has a divided back, was printed in England.

 

Note the sign for J. Lyons on the left of the photograph.

 

Selfridges, Oxford Street

 

The building with the flags is Selfridges.

 

Selfridges is a Grade II* listed retail premises on Oxford Street in London. It was designed by Daniel Burnham for Harry Gordon Selfridge, and opened in 1909.

 

Still the headquarters of Selfridge & Co. department stores, with 540,000 square feet (50,000 m2) of selling space, the store is the second largest retail premises in the UK, half as big as the biggest department store in Europe, Harrods.

 

Selfridges was named the world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012.

 

Background to The Store

 

In 1906, Harry Gordon Selfridge travelled to England on holiday with his wife, Rose. Unimpressed with the quality of existing British retailers, he noticed that the large stores in London had not adopted the latest selling ideas that were being used in the United States.

 

Selfridge decided to invest £400,000 in building his own department store in what was then the unfashionable western end of Oxford Street, by slowly buying up a series of Georgian buildings which were on the desired block defined by the surrounding four streets: Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard and Duke.

 

Design and Construction of Selfridges

 

The building was designed by American architect Daniel Burnham, who was respected for his department store designs. He created Marshall Field's, Chicago, Filene's in Boston, Wanamaker's in Philadelphia, and Gimbels and Wanamaker's in New York City.

 

The building was an early example in the UK of the use of a steel frame, five stories high with three basement levels and a roof terrace, originally laid out to accommodate 100 departments.

 

American-trained Swedish structural engineer Sven Bylander was engaged to design the steel frame structure. As the building was one of the early examples of steel frame in the UK, Bylander had to first agree appropriate building regulations with the London County Council, requiring amendments to the London Building Act 1844.

 

Using as a basis the regulations which covered the similarly-designed London docklands warehouses, Bylander then agreed changes which enabled greater spans within lesser beam dimensions due to the use of steel over stone.

 

Bylander designed the entire supporting structure which was approved by the LCC in 1907, with a steel frame based on blue brick pile foundations, supporting a steel frame which holds all of the internal walls and the concrete floors.

 

Bylander had to include additional supported internal walls, as the LCC would not approve store areas above 450,000 cubic feet (13,000 m3) due to the then-approved fire safety regulations, many of which were removed 20 years later in light of new legislation.

 

Bylander submitted a 13-page fully illustrated account of the design of the building to Concrete and Constructional Engineering, which was published in 1909. The work of Burnham and Bylander with the LCC led to the passing of the LCC (General Powers) Act 1909, also called the Steel Frame Act, which gave the council the power to regulate the construction of reinforced concrete structures.

 

American architect Francis Swales, who trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, was briefed to design the frontispiece. Aided by British architects R. Frank Atkinson and Thomas Smith Tait, the final design was highly influenced by John Burnet's 1904 extension to the British Museum.

 

The steel supporting columns are hidden behind Ionic columns, to create a façade which presents a visually uniform, classical, Beaux-Arts appearance.

 

The distinctive polychrome sculpture above the Oxford Street entrance is the work of British sculptor Gilbert Bayes.

 

The final frontage, through the use of cast iron window frames to a maximum size of 19 feet 4 inches (5.89 m) by 12 feet 0 inches (3.66 m), means that both the Oxford Street and Duke Street frontages are made up of more glass than stone or iron.

 

Construction of Selfridges

 

Opening on the 15th. March 1909, the store was built in phases. The first phase consisted of the nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner, a site of 250 feet (76 m) wide on Oxford Street by 175 feet (53 m) along Duke Street. The floor heights averaged 15 feet (4.6 m), and the initial structure contained nine passenger lifts, two service lifts and six staircases.

 

The main entrance and all of the bays to its left were added some 18 years after the store first opened, using a modified construction system. The complete building opened fully in 1928, and through the use of supporting spandrel steel panels, the scale of the glass panes within the main entrance could be greatly enlarged.

 

A scheme to erect a massive tower above the store post-World War I was never carried out. Harry Selfridge also proposed a subway link to Bond Street station, and renaming it "Selfridges"; however, contemporary opposition quashed the idea.

 

The final design of the building was completed in 1928, and although classical in visible style and frontage, it is modern in its steel frame construction.

 

In part due to new schools of architectural thought emerging apart from the classical schools, and in part due to the close proximity of World War I, the building is seen as the last of the great classical buildings undertaken within the UK.

 

Although the UK was late in adopting modern architecture only from the 1930's onwards, by the mid-20th. century many architects looked at Selfridges as if it were pre-historic in design, accepted just because Harry Gordon Selfridge wanted to advertise his business with a confident display of classicism in stone.

 

Selfridges in Operation

 

When it opened the new store employed 1,400 staff, thereby setting new standards for the retailing business.

 

At that time, women were beginning to enjoy the fruits of emancipation by wandering unescorted around London. A canny marketer, Selfridge promoted the radical notion of shopping for pleasure rather than necessity.

 

The store was extensively promoted through paid advertising. The shop floors were structured so that goods could be made more accessible to customers. There were elegant restaurants with modest prices, a library, reading and writing rooms, special reception rooms for French, German, American and "Colonial" customers, a First Aid Room, and a Silence Room, with soft lights, deep chairs, and double-glazing, all intended to keep customers in the store as long as possible.

 

Staff members were taught to be on hand to assist customers, but not too aggressively, and to sell the merchandise. Oliver Lyttleton observed that, when one called on Selfridge, he would have nothing on his desk except one's letter, smoothed and ironed.

 

Selfridge also managed to obtain from the GPO the privilege of having the number "1" as its own phone number, so anybody had to just dial 1 to be connected to Selfridge's operators.

 

The roof terrace hosted terraced gardens, cafes, a mini golf course and an all-girl gun club. The roof, with its views across London, was a common place for strolling after a shopping trip and was often used for fashion shows.

 

The Basements at Selfridges

 

There are two levels of basement beneath the lower-ground shop floor: the ‘sub’ and the ‘sub-sub’. Combined, these descend 60 metres (200 ft) below street level. These two areas are then split into two more areas: the dry sub and sub-sub, and their "wet" equivalents. The wet area is beneath the original nine-and-a-half bays closest to the Duke Street corner of the 1909 building. The "dry" is under the rear of the building, known as the SWOD after the surrounding four streets – Somerset, Wigmore, Orchard and Duke – that once enclosed it.

 

Selfridges in WWII

 

During World War II after the entry of the United States into the conflict, from 1942 the dry sub-sub SWOD was used by the United States Army. The building had one of the only secure telex lines, was safe from bombing, and was close to the US Embassy on Grosvenor Square.

 

Initially used by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower, the commander of SHAEF, it later housed 50 soldiers from the 805th. Signal Service Company of the US Army Signal Corps, who installed a SIGSALY code-scrambling device connected to a similar terminal in the Pentagon building.

 

The first conference took place on the 15th. July 1943. Initial visitors included Prime Minister Winston Churchill, to enable secure communications with the President of the United States, although later extensions were installed to both 10 Downing Street and the Cabinet War Rooms.

 

Rumours persist of a tunnel built from Selfridges to the embassy so that personnel could move between the two in safety, with interrogation cells for prisoners hewn from the resultant uneven space available.

 

As with much of central London during World War II, Selfridges suffered serious damage on a number of occasions during the 57 nights of the London Blitz from the 7th. September 1940, and in 1941 and 1944. After the heavy bombing of the west end on the 17th./18th. September 1940 by a combined force of 268 Heinkel 111 and Dornier Do 17 bombers – after which the store's Art Deco lifts were out of service until post-WW2, and the signature window was shattered – Harry had the ground floor windows bricked-up.

 

The bomb on 17 April 1941 destroyed only the Palm Court Restaurant, venue for the rich and famous. However, at 11 pm on 6 December 1944, a V-2 rocket hit the Red Lion pub on the corner of Duke Street and Barrett Street. A canteen in the SWOD basement area (see above) was massively damaged, with eight American servicemen killed and 32 injured, as well as ten civilian deaths and seven injuries. In the main building, ruptured water mains threatened SIGSALY, and while the Food Hall was the only department that did not need cleaning, Selfridges’ shop-front Christmas tree displays were blown into Oxford Street.

 

By 2010, only three of the four major pre–World War II Oxford Street retailers—Selfridges, House of Fraser and John Lewis—survive in retail, while Bourne & Hollingsworth and Peter Robinson (acquired in 1946 by Burton's), are no longer trading. Selfridges is the only retailer still trading in the same building, which still bears the scars of war damage, while John Lewis has moved. Bourne & Hollingsworth was located in the now closed Plaza Shopping Centre at No 120, while Peter Robinson is now Niketown at No 200-236.

 

A Milne-Shaw seismograph was set up on the third floor in 1932, attached to one of the building's main stanchions, unaffected by traffic or shoppers. It recorded the Belgian earthquake of 11 June 1938 which was also felt in London. At the outbreak of war, the seismograph was moved from its original site near the Post Office to another part of the store. In 1947, the seismograph was given to the British Museum.

 

Bombing by the IRA

 

Parts of Selfridges were damaged in the Oxford Street bombing in 1974 committed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army. The IRA planted other bombs too - on 21 February 1976 inside the store, injuring five people; just outside the store on Oxford Street on 28 August 1975, injuring seven; and inside the store on 29 January 1977, setting the building ablaze and causing an injury.

 

The 2002 Restoration of Selfridges

 

While restoration work was carried out in 2002, the scaffold surround was used to carry the largest photographic artwork ever produced, 60 feet (18 m) tall by 900 feet (270 m) long and weighing two tons. Created by Sam Taylor-Wood, it showed a gathering of well-known pop and cultural figures of the time, including Sir Elton John.

 

In 2002, Selfridges was awarded the London Tourism Award for visitors' favourite London store. Selfridges was named world's best department store in 2010, and again in 2012. It claims to contain the UK's largest beauty department, and Europe's busiest doorway which siphons 250,000 people a week past the Louis Vuitton concession on to Oxford Street.

 

The Roof Terrace

 

The roof terrace reopened in July 2011, for a promotional event staged by Truvia as part of their UK launch.

 

In Summer 2012, Bompas & Parr designed an art installation themed as "The Big British Tea Party", which included a cake-themed 9-hole crazy golf course, accompanied by a Daylesford Organic sponsored tea house.

 

Selfridges' Windows

 

Selfridges' 27 Oxford Street windows have become synonymous with the brand, and to a certain degree have become as famous as the store and the Oxford Street location itself. The windows consistently attract tourists, designers and fashionistas alike to marvel at the current designs and styling and fashion trends.

 

Selfridges has a history of bold art initiatives when it comes to the window designs. When the building opened, Harry Selfridge initiated a "signature" window which was signed by all of the stars and famous people who came to shop at the store. This was cracked in the first bombing during the blitz, and was never restored.

 

Today, the visual merchandising team calculate that 20% of business-winning trade is from the windows. When Alannah Weston became Creative Director after the purchase by her family in 2003, she approached artist Alison Jackson to put her trademark Tony Blair and David Beckham lookalikes in the windows.

 

The resultant display brought traffic to a standstill, with the Metropolitan Police finally insisting they stop the project because it was clogging up Oxford Street.

 

Since 2002, the windows have been photographed by London photographer Andrew Meredith and published in magazines such as Vogue, Dwell, Icon, Frame Magazine, Creative Review, Hungarian Stylus Magazine, Design Week, Harper's Bazaar, New York Times, WGSN and much more including worldwide press, journals, blogs and published books all over the world.

 

Ownership of Selfridges

 

In 1951 the store was acquired by the Liverpool-based Lewis's chain of department stores, which was in turn taken over in 1965 by the Sears Group owned by Charles Clore. Expanded under the Sears group to include branches in Oxford, Manchester and Birmingham, in 2003 the chain was acquired by Canada's Galen Weston for £598 million.

 

Expansion of Selfridges

 

In 2011, the Weston family bought 388–396 Oxford Street, which is located immediately to the east of the Selfridges building across Duke Street, on which fashion chain French Connection has a lease until 2025.

 

In early 2012, Selfridges commissioned Italian architect Renzo Piano (responsible for London's The Shard skyscraper), to work on an extension to the 1909 department store. The project could feature a hotel as well as office space, or additional retail space.

 

In December 2012, Selfridges acquired the 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) Nations House office building from Hermes, which is located immediately behind its Oxford Street store in Wigmore Street, for around £130m.

 

J. Salmon Ltd.

 

Alas, J. Salmon no longer produce postcards. Having churned out small coloured rectangles of card from its factory in Kent for more than 100 years, the company stopped publishing postcards in 2017.

 

The fifth-generation brothers who still ran the company sent a letter to their clients in the autumn of 2017, advising them that the presses would cease printing at the end of 2017, with their remaining stock being sold off throughout the following year.

 

The firm’s story began in 1880, when the original J. Salmon acquired a printing business on Sevenoaks high street, and produced a collection of twelve black and white scenes of the town.

 

In 1912, the business broke through into the big time by commissioning the artist Alfred Robert Quinton (1853 - 1934), who produced 2,300 scenes of British life for them up until his death.

 

From Redruth to King’s Lynn, his softly coloured, highly detailed watercolours of rosy milkmaids, bucolic pumphouses and picturesque harbour towns earned him a place in the hearts of the public, despite references to Alfred's 'chocolate-box art' by some art critics.

 

J. Salmon also produced photographs and cheery oils of seaside imagery captioned with a garrulous enthusiasm: “Eat More Chips!”, “Sun, Sand & Sea”, “We’re Going Camping!”

 

It commissioned the comic artist Reg Maurice (who often worked under the pseudonym Vera Paterson), to produce pictures of comically bulbous children with cutesy captions, alongside the usual stock images of British towns.

 

It was this century’s changing habits – and technology – that did for Salmon. Co-managing director Charles Salmon noted:

 

“People are going for shorter breaks,

not for a fortnight, so you’re back home

before your postcards have arrived."

 

He barely needed to say that Instagram and Facebook had made their product all but redundant, almost wiping out the entire industry in a decade.

 

Michelle Abadie, co-director of the John Hinde Collection, said:

 

“When I heard the news, I was

actually surprised they still existed."

 

John Hinde was once J Salmon’s biggest rival; it sold 50-60 million postcards a year at its peak in the 1960's, but it, too, shuttered four years previously. The licensing for its rich archive of images was sold off, and repurposed in art books.

 

However, in one sense, the death of the postcard is overstated. Like vinyl records, our fetish for the physical objects we left behind is already making its presence felt.

Michelle Abadie points out:

 

“If you go into Waterstones now, they

sell lots of postcards of book covers.

The idea itself isn’t dead – as a

decorative object, people still want

them.”

The Postcard

 

A postally unused postcard that was published by The South African Garrison Institutes. The card was printed by Whitehead, Morris & Co. Ltd. of Cape Town. The card has a divided back.

 

Windhoek

 

Windhoek is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around 1,700 metres (5,600 ft) above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre.

 

The population of Windhoek in 2020 was 431,000 which is growing continuously due to an influx from all over Namibia.

 

Windhoek is the social, economic, political, and cultural centre of the country. Nearly every Namibian national enterprise, governmental body, educational and cultural institution is headquartered there.

 

The city developed at the site of a permanent hot spring known to the indigenous pastoral communities. It developed rapidly after Jonker Afrikaner, Captain of the Orlam, settled here in 1840 and built a stone church for his community.

 

In the decades following, multiple wars and armed hostilities resulted in the neglect and destruction of the new settlement. Windhoek was founded a second time in 1890 by Imperial German Army Major Curt von François, when the territory was colonised by the German Empire.

 

Herero and Nama Genocide

 

The Herero and Nama genocide was a campaign of ethnic extermination and collective punishment waged by the German Empire against the Herero and the Nama in German South West Africa.

 

It was the first genocide of the 20th. century, occurring between 1904 and 1908.

 

In January 1904, the Herero and Nama people rebelled against German colonial rule. On the 12th. January they killed more than 100 German settlers in the area of Okahandja, although women, children, missionaries and non-German Europeans were spared.

 

In August, German General Lothar von Trotha defeated the Hereros in the Battle of Waterberg and drove them into the desert of Omaheke, where most of them died of dehydration. In October, the Nama people also rebelled against the Germans, only to suffer a similar fate.

 

Between 24,000 and 100,000 Hereros and 10,000 Nama died in the genocide. The first phase of the genocide was characterised by widespread death from starvation and dehydration, due to the prevention of the Herero from leaving the Namib desert by German forces.

 

Once defeated, thousands of Hereros and Namas were imprisoned in concentration camps, where the majority died of diseases, abuse, and exhaustion.

 

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the aftermath as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa.

 

In 2004, the German government recognised and apologised for the events, but ruled out financial compensation for the victims' descendants.

 

In July 2015, the German government and the speaker of the Bundestag officially called the events a "genocide". However, it still refused to consider reparations. Despite this, the last batch of skulls and other remains of slaughtered tribesmen which were taken to Germany to promote racial superiority were taken back to Namibia in 2018.

 

In May 2021, the German government agreed to pay €1.1 billion over 30 years to fund projects in communities that were impacted by the genocide.

 

Background to the Genocide

 

The Herero, who speak a Bantu language, were originally a group of cattle herders who migrated into what is now Namibia during the mid-18th. century. The Herero seized vast swaths of the arable upper plateaus which were ideal for cattle grazing.

 

Agricultural duties, which were minimal, were assigned to enslaved Khoisan and Bushmen. Over the rest of the 18th. century, the Herero slowly drove the Khoisan into the dry, rugged hills to the south and east.

 

The Hereros were a pastoral people whose entire way of life centred on their cattle. The Herero language, while limited in its vocabulary for most areas, contains more than a thousand words for the colours and markings of cattle. The Hereros were content to live in peace as long as their cattle were safe and well-pastured, but became formidable warriors when their cattle were threatened.

 

According to Robert Gaudi:

 

"The newcomers, much taller and more fiercely warlike

than the indigenous Khoisan people, were possessed

of the fierceness that comes from basing one's way of

life on a single source: everything they valued, all wealth

and personal happiness, had to do with cattle.

Regarding the care and protection of their herds, the

Herero showed themselves utterly merciless, and far

more 'savage' than the Khoisan had ever been.

Because of their dominant ways and elegant bearing,

the few Europeans who encountered Herero tribesmen

in the early days regarded them as the region's 'natural

aristocrats.'"

 

By the time of the Scramble for Africa, the area which was occupied by the Herero was known as Damaraland.

 

The Nama were pastorals and traders, and lived to the south of the Herero. 

 

In 1883, Adolf Lüderitz, a German merchant, purchased a stretch of coast near Lüderitz Bay (Angra Pequena) from the reigning chief. The terms of the purchase were fraudulent, but the German government nonetheless established a protectorate over it. At that time, it was the only overseas German territory deemed suitable for European settlement.

 

Chief of the neighbouring Herero, Maherero rose to power by uniting all the Herero. Faced with repeated attacks by the Khowesin, a clan of the Khoekhoe under Hendrik Witbooi, he signed a protection treaty on the 21st. October 1885 with Imperial Germany's colonial governor Heinrich Ernst Göring (father of World War I flying ace and World War II convicted war criminal Hermann Göring), but did not cede the land of the Herero.

 

This treaty was renounced in 1888 due to lack of German support against Witbooi, but it was reinstated in 1890.

 

The Herero leaders repeatedly complained about violation of this treaty, as Herero women and girls were raped by Germans, a crime that the German judges and prosecutors were reluctant to punish.

 

In 1890 Maherero's son, Samuel, signed a great deal of land over to the Germans in return for helping him to ascend to the Herero throne, and to subsequently be established as paramount chief.

 

German involvement in ethnic fighting ended in tenuous peace in 1894.  In that year, Theodor Leutwein became governor of the territory, which underwent a period of rapid development, while the German government sent the Schutztruppe (imperial colonial troops) to pacify the region.

 

German Colonial Policy

 

Both German colonial authorities and European settlers envisioned a predominately white "new African Germany," wherein the native populations would be put onto reservations and their land distributed among settlers and companies.

 

Under German colonial rule, colonists were encouraged to seize land and cattle from the native Herero and Nama peoples and to subjugate them as slave laborers. 

 

Resentment understandably brewed among the native populations over their loss of status and property to German ranchers arriving in South West Africa, and the dismantling of traditional political hierarchies. Previously ruling tribes were reduced to the same status as the other tribes they had previously ruled over and enslaved. This resentment contributed to the Herero Wars that began in 1904.

 

Major Theodor Leutwein, the Governor of German South West Africa, was well aware of the effect of the German colonial rule on the Hereros. He later wrote :

 

"The Hereros from early years were a freedom-loving

people, courageous and proud beyond measure. On

the one hand, there was the progressive extension of

German rule over them, and on the other their own

sufferings increasing from year to year."

 

The Dietrich Case

 

In January 1903, a German trader named Dietrich was walking from his homestead to the nearby town of Omaruru to buy a new horse. Halfway to Dietrich's destination, a wagon carrying the son of a Herero chief, his wife, and their son stopped by. As a common courtesy in Hereroland, the chief's son offered Dietrich a ride.

 

That night, however, Dietrich got very drunk and after everyone was asleep, he attempted to rape the wife of the chief's son. When she resisted, Dietrich shot her dead.

 

When he was tried for murder in Windhoek, Dietrich denied attempting to rape his victim. He alleged that he awoke thinking the camp was under attack, and had fired blindly into the darkness. The killing of the Herero woman, he claimed, was an unfortunate accident. The court acquitted him, alleging that Dietrich was suffering from "tropical fever" and temporary insanity.

 

The murder aroused extraordinary interest in Hereroland, especially since the murdered woman had been the wife of the son of a Chief and the daughter of another. Everywhere the question was asked:

 

"Have white people the right

to shoot native women?"

 

Governor Leutwein intervened. He made the Public Prosecutor appeal Dietrich's acquittal. A second trial took place (before the colony's supreme court), and this time Dietrich was found guilty of manslaughter and imprisoned.

 

The move prompted violent objections of German settlers who considered Leutwein a "race traitor".

 

Rising Tension

 

In 1903, some of the Nama clans rose in revolt under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi. A number of factors led the Herero to join them in January 1904.

 

(a) Land Rights

 

One of the major issues was land rights. In 1903 the Herero learned of a plan to divide their territory with a railway line and to set up reservations where they would be concentrated.

 

The Herero had already ceded more than a quarter of their 130,000 km2 (50,000 sq mi) territory to German colonists by 1903,  before the Otavi railway line running from the African coast to inland German settlements was completed.

 

Completion of this line would have made the German colonies much more accessible, and would have ushered in a new wave of Europeans into the area.

 

Historian Horst Drechsler states that there was discussion of establishing and placing the Herero in native reserves, and that this was further proof of the German colonists' sense of ownership over the land.

 

Drechsler illustrates the gap between the rights of a European and an African; the Reichskolonialbund (German Colonial League) held that, in regards to legal matters, the testimony of seven Africans was equivalent to that of one colonist.

 

(b) Racial Tensions

 

There were also racial tensions underlying these developments; the average German colonist viewed native Africans as a lowly source of cheap labour, and others welcomed their extermination.  The German settlers often referred to black Africans as "baboons" and treated them with contempt.

 

One missionary reported:

 

"The real cause of the bitterness among the Hereros

toward the Germans is without question the fact that

the average German looks down upon the natives as

being about on the same level as the higher primates

('baboon' being their favourite term for the natives),

and treat them like animals.

The settler holds that the native has a right to exist only

in so far as he is useful to the white man. This sense of

contempt led the settlers to commit violence against

the Hereros."

 

The contempt manifested itself particularly in the concubinage of native women. In a practice referred to in Südwesterdeutsch as Verkafferung, native women were taken by male European traders and ranchers both willingly and by force.

 

(c) Debt Collection

 

A new policy on debt collection, enforced in November 1903, also played a role in the uprising. For many years, the Herero population had fallen in the habit of borrowing money from colonist moneylenders at extremely high interest rates.

 

For a long time, much of this debt went uncollected, and it accumulated, as most Herero had no means to pay. In order to correct this growing problem, Governor Leutwein decreed with good intentions that all debts not paid within the following year would be voided.

 

In the absence of hard cash, traders often seized cattle, or whatever objects of value they could get their hands on, as collateral. This fostered a feeling of resentment towards the Germans on the part of the Herero people. Resentment escalated to hopelessness when they saw that German officials were sympathetic to the moneylenders who were about to lose what they were owed.

 

Revolts

 

In 1903, the Hereros saw an opportunity to revolt. At that time, there was a distant Khoisan tribe in the south called the Bondelzwarts, who resisted German demands to register their guns. The Bondelzwarts engaged in a firefight with the German authorities which led to three Germans being killed and a fourth wounded.

 

The situation deteriorated further, and the governor of the Herero colony, Major Theodor Leutwein, went south to take personal command, leaving almost no troops in the north.

 

The Herero revolted in early 1904, killing between 123 and 150 German settlers, as well as seven Boers and three women, in what Nils Ole Oermann calls a "desperate surprise attack".

 

The timing of their attack was carefully planned. After successfully asking a large Herero clan to surrender their weapons, Governor Leutwein was convinced that they and the rest of the native population were essentially pacified, and so withdrew half of the German troops stationed in the colony.

 

Led by Chief Samuel Maherero, the Herero surrounded Okahandja and cut railroad and telegraph links to Windhoek, the colonial capital.

 

Maharero then issued a manifesto in which he forbade his troops to kill any Englishmen, Boers, uninvolved peoples, women and children in general, or German missionaries. 

 

The Herero revolts catalysed a separate revolt and attack on Fort Namutoni in the north of the country a few weeks later by the Ondonga.

 

A Herero warrior interviewed by German authorities in 1895 had described his people's traditional way of dealing with suspected cattle rustlers, a treatment which, during the uprising, was regularly extended to German soldiers and civilians:

 

"We came across a few Khoisan whom of course

we killed. I myself helped to kill one of them.

-- First we cut off his ears, saying, 'You will never

hear Herero cattle lowing.'

-- Then we cut off his nose, saying, 'Never again

shall you smell Herero cattle.'

-- And then we cut off his lips, saying, 'You shall

never again taste Herero cattle.'

And finally we cut his throat."

 

According to Robert Gaudi:

 

"Leutwein knew that the wrath of the German Empire

was about to fall on them and hoped to soften the

blow. He sent desperate messages to Chief Samuel

Maherero in hopes of negotiating an end to the war.

In this, Leutwein acted on his own, heedless of the

prevailing mood in Germany, which called for bloody

revenge."

 

The Hereros, however, were emboldened by their success and had come to believe that the Germans were too cowardly to fight in the open. They rejected Leutwein's offers of peace.

 

One missionary wrote:

 

"The Germans are filled with fearful hate. I must really

call it a blood thirst against the Hereros. One hears

nothing but talk of 'cleaning up,' 'executing,' 'shooting

down to the last man,' 'no pardon,' etc."

 

According to Robert Gaudi:

 

"The Germans suffered more than defeat in the early

months of 1904; they suffered humiliation, their brilliant

modern army unable to defeat a rabble of 'half-naked

savages.'

Cries in the Reichstag, and from the Kaiser himself, for

total eradication of the Hereros grew strident. When a

leading member of the Social Democratic Party pointed

out that the Hereros were as human as any German and

possessed immortal souls, he was howled down by the

entire conservative side of the legislature."

 

Leutwein was forced to request reinforcements and an experienced officer from the German government in Berlin. Lieutenant-General Lothar von Trotha was appointed commander-in-chief (German: Oberbefehlshaber) of South West Africa, arriving with an expeditionary force of 10,000 troops on the 11th. June 1904.

 

Leutwein was subordinate to the civilian Colonial Department of the Prussian Foreign Office, which was supported by Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow, while General Trotha reported to the military German General Staff, which was supported by Emperor Wilhelm II.

 

Leutwein wanted to defeat the most determined Herero rebels and negotiate a surrender with the remainder in order to achieve a political settlement.  Trotha, however, planned to crush the native resistance through military force. He stated that:

 

"My intimate knowledge of many central African

nations (Bantu and others) has everywhere

convinced me of the necessity that the Negro

does not respect treaties, but only brute force."

 

By late spring of 1904, German troops were pouring into the colony. In August 1904, the main Herero forces were surrounded and crushed at the Battle of Waterberg. 

 

Genocide

 

In 1900, Kaiser Wilhelm II had been enraged by the killing of Baron Clemens von Ketteler, the Imperial German minister plenipotentiary in Beijing, during the Boxer Rebellion. The Kaiser took it as a personal insult from a people he viewed as racially inferior, all the more because of his obsession with the "Yellow Peril".

 

On the 27th. July 1900, the Kaiser gave the infamous Hunnenrede (Hun speech) in Bremerhaven to German soldiers being sent to Imperial China, ordering them to show the Boxers no mercy, and to behave like Attila's Huns.

 

General von Trotha had served in China, and was chosen in 1904 to command the expedition to German South West Africa precisely because of his record in China.

 

In 1904, the Kaiser was made furious by the latest revolt in his colonial empire by a people whom he also viewed as inferior, and took the Herero rebellion as a personal insult, just as he had viewed the Boxers' assassination of Baron von Ketteler.

 

The tactless and bloodthirsty language that Wilhelm II used about the Herero people in 1904 is strikingly similar to the language he had used about the Chinese Boxers in 1900. Nevertheless, the Kaiser denied, together with Chancellor von Bülow, von Trotha's request to quickly quell the rebellion.

 

No written order by Wilhelm II ordering or authorising genocide has survived. In February 1945 an Allied bombing raid destroyed the building housing all of the documents of the Prussian Army from the Imperial period.

 

Despite this fact, surviving documents indicate that Trotha used the same tactics in Namibia that he had used in China, only on a much vaster scale. It is also known that throughout the genocide, Trotha sent regular reports to both the General Staff and to the Kaiser.

 

Historian Jeremy-Sarkin Hughes believes that regardless of whether or not a written order was given, the Kaiser must have given General von Trotha verbal orders. According to Hughes, the fact that Trotha was decorated and not court-martialed after the genocide had become public knowledge lends support to the thesis that he was acting under orders.

 

General von Trotha stated his proposed solution to end the resistance of the Herero people in a letter, before the Battle of Waterberg:

 

"I believe that the nation as such should be annihilated,

or, if this is not possible by tactical measures, have to be

expelled from the country. This will be possible if the water-

holes from Grootfontein to Gobabis are occupied.

The constant movement of our troops will enable us to

find the small groups of this nation who have moved

backwards, and destroy them gradually."

 

Trotha's troops defeated 3,000–5,000 Herero combatants at the Battle of Waterberg on 11th. and 12th. August 1904, but were unable to encircle and annihilate the retreating survivors. 

 

The pursuing German forces prevented groups of Herero from breaking from the main body of the fleeing force, and pushed them further into the desert. As exhausted Herero fell to the ground, unable to go on, German soldiers killed men, women, and children. Jan Cloete, acting as a guide for the Germans, witnessed the atrocities committed by the German troops, and deposed the following statement: 

 

"I was present when the Herero were defeated in a

battle in the vicinity of Waterberg. After the battle all

men, women, and children who fell into German hands,

wounded or otherwise, were mercilessly put to death.

Then the Germans set off in pursuit of the rest, and all

those found by the wayside and in the sandveld were

shot down and bayoneted to death.

The mass of the Herero men were unarmed and thus

unable to offer resistance. They were just trying to get

away with their cattle."

 

A portion of the Herero escaped the Germans and went to the Omaheke Desert, hoping to reach British Bechuanaland; fewer than 1,000 Herero managed to get there, where they were granted asylum by the British authorities.

 

To prevent them from returning, Trotha ordered the desert to be sealed off. German patrols later found skeletons around holes 13 m (43 ft) deep that had been dug in a vain attempt to find water. Some sources also state that the German colonial army systematically poisoned desert water wells.

 

Maherero and 500–1,500 men crossed the Kalahari into Bechuanaland where he was accepted as a vassal of the Batswana chief Sekgoma.

 

On the 2nd. October 1904, Trotha issued a warning to the Herero:

 

"I, the great general of the German soldiers, send this

letter to the Herero. The Herero are German subjects

no longer. They have killed, stolen, cut off the ears

and other parts of the body of wounded soldiers, and

now are too cowardly to want to fight any longer.

I announce to the people that whoever hands me one

of the chiefs shall receive 1,000 marks, and 5,000

marks for Samuel Maherero.

The Herero nation must now leave the country. If it

refuses, I shall compel it to do so with the 'long tube'

[cannon].

Any Herero found inside the German frontier, with or

without a gun or cattle, will be executed. I shall spare

neither women nor children. I shall give the order to

drive them away and fire on them. Such are my words

to the Herero people."

 

Trotha further gave orders that:

 

"This proclamation is to be read to the troops at roll-call,

with the addition that the unit that catches a captain will

also receive the appropriate reward, and that the shooting

at women and children is to be understood as shooting

above their heads, so as to force them to run away.

I assume absolutely that this proclamation will result in

taking no more male prisoners, but will not degenerate

into atrocities against women and children. The latter will

run away if one shoots at them a couple of times. The

troops will remain conscious of the good reputation of

the German soldier." 

 

Trotha gave orders that captured Herero males were to be executed, while women and children were to be driven into the desert where their death from starvation and thirst was to be certain.

 

Trotha argued that there was no need to make exceptions for Herero women and children, since these would "infect German troops with their diseases."

 

Trotha explained that:

 

"The insurrection is and remains

the beginning of a racial struggle."

 

After the war, Trotha argued that his orders were necessary, writing in 1909 that:

 

"If I had made the small water holes accessible

to the womenfolk, I would run the risk of an African

catastrophe comparable to the Battle of Beresonia." 

 

The German general staff were aware of the atrocities that were taking place; its official publication, named Der Kampf, noted that:

 

"This bold enterprise shows up in the most brilliant

light the ruthless energy of the German command

in pursuing their beaten enemy.

No pains, no sacrifices were spared in eliminating

the last remnants of enemy resistance. Like a

wounded beast the enemy was tracked down from

one water-hole to the next, until finally he became

the victim of his own environment.

The arid Omaheke Desert was to complete what

the German army had begun: the extermination of

the Herero nation."

 

Alfred von Schlieffen (Chief of the Imperial German General Staff and architect of the Great War Schlieffen Plan) approved of Trotha's intentions in terms of a "racial struggle" and the need to wipe out the entire nation or to drive them out of the country, but had doubts about his strategy, preferring their surrender.

 

Governor Leutwein, later relieved of his duties, complained to Chancellor von Bülow about Trotha's actions, seeing the general's orders as intruding upon the civilian colonial jurisdiction, and ruining any chance of a political settlement. 

 

According to Professor Mahmood Mamdani of Columbia University, opposition to the policy of annihilation was largely due to the fact that colonial officials looked at the Herero people as a potential source of labour, and thus economically important.  For instance, Governor Leutwein wrote that:

 

"I do not concur with those fanatics who want to

see the Herero destroyed altogether. I would

consider such a move a grave mistake from an

economic point of view. We need the Herero as

cattle breeders, and especially as labourers.

 

Having no authority over the military, Chancellor Bülow could only advise Emperor Wilhelm II that:

 

"Trotha's actions are contrary to Christian and

humanitarian principle, economically devastating

and damaging to Germany's international

reputation". 

 

Upon the arrival of new orders at the end of 1904, prisoners were herded into labor camps, where they were given to private companies as slave labourers, or exploited as human guinea pigs in medical experiments.

 

Concentration Camps

 

Survivors of the massacre, the majority of whom were women and children, were eventually put in places like Shark Island concentration camp, where the German authorities forced them to work as slave labour for the German military and settlers.

 

All prisoners were categorised into groups fit and unfit for work, and pre-printed death certificates indicating "death by exhaustion following privation" were issued. The British government published their well-known account of the German genocide of the Nama and Herero peoples in 1918.

 

Many Herero and Nama died of disease, exhaustion, starvation and malnutrition. Estimates of the mortality rate at the camps are between 45% and 74%.

 

Food in the camps was extremely scarce, consisting of rice with no additions.  As the prisoners lacked pots and the rice they received was uncooked, it was indigestible. Horses and oxen that died in the camp were later distributed to the inmates as food. 

 

Dysentery and lung diseases were common.  Despite the living conditions, the prisoners were taken outside the camp every day for labour under harsh treatment by the German guards, while the sick were left without any medical assistance or nursing care.  Many Herero and Nama were worked to death.

 

Shootings, hangings, beatings, and other harsh treatment of the forced labourers (including use of sjamboks) were common. A sjambok is a long, stiff whip, originally made from rhinoceros hide.

 

A 28th. September 1905 article in the South African newspaper Cape Argus detailed some of the abuse with the heading:

 

"In German S. W. Africa: Further Startling

Allegations: Horrible Cruelty".

 

In an interview with Percival Griffith, "an accountant of profession, who owing to hard times, took up on transport work at Angra Pequena, Lüderitz", related his experiences:

 

"There are hundreds of them, mostly women and

children and a few old men. When they fall they are

sjamboked by the soldiers in charge of the gang,

with full force, until they get up.

On one occasion I saw a woman carrying a child

of under a year old slung at her back, and with a

heavy sack of grain on her head - she fell.

The corporal sjamboked her for certainly more

than four minutes and sjamboked the baby as well.

The woman struggled slowly to her feet, and went

on with her load.

She did not utter a sound the whole time, but the

baby cried very hard."

 

During the war, a number of people from the Cape (in modern-day South Africa) sought employment as transport riders for German troops in Namibia. Upon their return to the Cape, some of these people recounted their stories, including those of the imprisonment and genocide of the Herero and Nama people. Fred Cornell, an aspiring British diamond prospector, was in Lüderitz when the Shark Island concentration camp was being used. Cornell wrote of the camp:

 

"Cold – for the nights are often bitterly cold there –

hunger, thirst, exposure, disease and madness

claimed scores of victims every day, and cartloads

of their bodies were every day carted over to the

back beach, buried in a few inches of sand at low

tide, and as the tide came in the bodies went out,

food for the sharks."

 

Shark Island was the worst of the German South West African camps. Lüderitz lies in southern Namibia, flanked by desert and ocean. In the harbour lies Shark Island, which then was connected to the mainland by only a small causeway.

 

The island is now, as it was then, barren and characterised by solid rock carved into surreal formations by the ocean winds. The camp was placed on the far end of the relatively small island, where the prisoners would have suffered complete exposure to the strong winds that sweep Lüderitz for most of the year.

 

German Commander Ludwig von Estorff wrote in a report that approximately 1,700 prisoners (including 1,203 Nama) had died by April 1907.

 

In December 1906, four months after their arrival, 291 Nama died (a rate of more than nine people per day). Missionary reports put the death rate at 12–18 per day; as many as 80% of the prisoners sent to Shark Island eventually died there.

 

There are accusations of Herero women being coerced into sex slavery as a means of survival.

 

Trotha was opposed to contact between natives and settlers, believing that the insurrection was "the beginning of a racial struggle," and fearing that the colonists would be infected by native diseases. 

 

Benjamin Madley has concluded that although Shark Island is referred to as a concentration camp, it in fact functioned as an extermination camp or death camp.

 

Medical Experiments and Scientific Racism

 

Prisoners were used for medical experiments, and their illnesses or their recoveries from them were used for research.

 

Experiments on live prisoners were performed by Dr. Bofinger, who injected Herero who were suffering from scurvy with various substances including arsenic and opium; afterwards he researched the effects of these substances via autopsy.

 

Experimentation with the dead body parts of the prisoners was rife. Zoologist Leonhard Schultze (1872–1955) noted taking "body parts from fresh native corpses" which according to him, was "a welcome addition." He also noted that he could use prisoners for that purpose.

 

An estimated 300 skulls were sent to Germany for experimentation, in part from concentration camp prisoners. In October 2011, after three years of talks, the first 20 of an estimated 300 skulls stored in the museum of the Charité were returned to Namibia for burial. In 2014, 14 additional skulls were repatriated by the University of Freiburg.

 

The Number of Victims

 

A census conducted in 1905 revealed that 25,000 Herero remained in German South West Africa.

 

According to the Whitaker Report, the population of 80,000 Herero had been reduced to 15,000 "starving refugees" by 1907. In 'Colonial Genocide and Reparations Claims in the 21st. Century: The Socio-Legal Context of Claims under International Law by the Herero against Germany for Genocide in Namibia' by Jeremy Sarkin-Hughes, the number of 100,000 victims is given. Up to 80% of the indigenous population were killed.

 

A political cartoon on German South West Africa was run in 1906 with the following caption:

 

"Even if it hasn't brought in much profit and

there are no better quality goods on offer,

at least we can use it to set up a bone-

grinding plant."

 

Newspapers in 2004 reported 65,000 victims when announcing that Germany officially recognized the genocide.

 

Aftermath of the Genocide

 

With the closure of the concentration camps, all surviving Herero were distributed as labourers for settlers in the German colony. From that time on, all Herero over the age of seven were forced to wear a metal disc with their labour registration number. They were also banned from owning land or cattle, a necessity for pastoral society. 

 

About 19,000 German troops were engaged in the conflict, of which 3,000 saw combat. The rest were used for upkeep and administration.

 

The German losses were 676 soldiers killed in combat, 76 missing, and 689 dead from disease.  The Reiterdenkmal (English: Equestrian Monument) in Windhoek was erected in 1912 to celebrate the victory and to remember the fallen German soldiers and civilians. Until after Independence, no monument was built to the killed indigenous population. It remains a bone of contention in independent Namibia.

 

The campaign cost Germany 600 million marks. The normal annual subsidy to the colony was 14.5 million marks. In 1908, diamonds were discovered in the territory, and this did much to boost its prosperity, though it was short-lived. 

 

In 1915, during the Great War, the German colony was taken over and occupied by the Union of South Africa, which was victorious in the South West Africa campaign. South Africa received a League of Nations mandate over South West Africa on the 17th. December 1920.

 

Link Between the Herero Genocide and the Holocaust

 

The Herero genocide has commanded the attention of historians who study issues of continuity between the Herero genocide and The Holocaust of WWII. It is argued that the Herero genocide set a precedent in Imperial Germany that would later be followed by Nazi Germany's establishment of death camps.

 

According to Benjamin Madley, the German experience in South West Africa was a crucial precursor to Nazi colonialism and genocide. He argues that personal connections, literature, and public debates served as conduits for communicating colonialist and genocidal ideas and methods from the colony to Germany.

 

Tony Barta, a research associate at La Trobe University, argues that the Herero genocide was an inspiration for Hitler in his war against the Jews, Slavs, Romani, and others whom he described as "non-Aryans".

 

According to Clarence Lusane, Eugen Fischer's medical experiments can be seen as a testing ground for medical procedures which were later followed during the Nazi Holocaust.

 

Fischer later became chancellor of the University of Berlin, where he taught medicine to Nazi physicians. Otmar von Verschuer was a student of Fischer; Verschuer himself had a prominent pupil, Josef Mengele.

 

Franz Ritter von Epp, who was later responsible for the liquidation of virtually all Bavarian Jews and Roma as governor of Bavaria, took part in the Herero and Nama genocide.

 

Mahmood Mamdani argues that the links between the Herero genocide and the Holocaust are beyond the execution of an annihilation policy and the establishment of concentration camps as there are also ideological similarities in the conduct of both genocides. He focuses on a written statement by General Trotha:

 

"I destroy the African tribes with streams

of blood. Only following this cleansing can

something new emerge, which will remain." 

 

Mamdani takes note of the similarity between the aims of the General and of the Nazis. According to Mamdani, in both cases there was a Social Darwinist notion of "cleansing", after which "something new" would "emerge". 

 

Reconciliation

 

In 1985, the United Nations' Whitaker Report classified the massacres as an attempt to exterminate the Herero and Nama peoples of South West Africa, and therefore one of the earliest cases of genocide in the 20th. century.

 

In 1998, German President Roman Herzog visited Namibia and met Herero leaders. Chief Munjuku Nguvauva demanded a public apology and compensation. Herzog expressed regret but stopped short of an apology. He pointed out that international law requiring reparation did not exist in 1907, but he undertook to take the Herero petition back to the German government.

 

On the 16th. August 2004, on the 100th, anniversary of the start of the genocide, a member of the German government, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, Germany's Federal Minister for Economic Development and Cooperation, officially apologised and expressed grief about the genocide, declaring in a speech that:

 

"We Germans accept our historical and

moral responsibility and the guilt incurred

by Germans at that time.

 

She ruled out paying special compensation, but promised continued economic aid for Namibia which in 2004 amounted to $14M a year. This amount has been significantly increased since then, with the budget for the years 2016–17 allocating a sum total of €138M in monetary support payments.

 

The Trotha family travelled to Omaruru in October 2007 by invitation of the royal Herero chiefs and publicly apologised for the actions of their relative. Wolf-Thilo von Trotha said,

 

"We, the von Trotha family, are deeply ashamed

of the terrible events that took place 100 years

ago. Human rights were grossly abused that time."

 

Negotiations and Agreement

 

The Herero filed a lawsuit in the United States in 2001 demanding reparations from the German government and Deutsche Bank, which financed the German government and companies in Southern Africa.

 

With a complaint filed with the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in January 2017, descendants of the Herero and Nama people sued Germany for damages in the United States. The plaintiffs sued under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 U.S. law often invoked in human rights cases. Their proposed class-action lawsuit sought unspecified sums for thousands of descendants of the victims, for the "incalculable damages" that were caused.

 

Germany seeks to rely on its state immunity as implemented in US law as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, arguing that, as a sovereign nation, it cannot be sued in US courts in relation to its acts outside the United States. In March 2019, the judge dismissed the claims due to the exceptions to sovereign immunity being too narrow for the case.

 

In September 2020, the Second Circuit stated that the claimants did not prove that money used to buy property in New York could be traced back to wealth resulting from the seized property, and therefore the lawsuit could not overcome Germany's immunity. In June 2021, the Supreme Court declined to hear a petition to revive the case.

 

Germany, while admitting brutality in Namibia, at first refused to call it a "genocide", claiming that the term only became international law in 1945.

 

However, in July 2015, then foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier issued a political guideline stating that the massacre should be referred to as a "war crime and a genocide". Bundestag president Norbert Lammert wrote an article in Die Zeit that same month referring to the events as a genocide. These events paved the way for negotiations with Namibia.

 

In 2015, the German government began negotiations with Namibia over a possible apology, and by 2016, Germany committed itself to apologizing for the genocide, as well as to refer to the event as a genocide; but the actual declaration was postponed while negotiations stalled over questions of compensation.

 

On the 11th. August 2020, following negotiations over a potential compensation agreement between Germany and Namibia, President Hage Geingob of Namibia stated that the German government's offer was "not acceptable", while German envoy Ruprecht Polenz said:

 

"I am still optimistic that a

solution can be found."

 

On the 28th. May 2021, the German government announced that it was formally recognizing the atrocities committed as a genocide, following five years of negotiations. The declaration was made by foreign minister Heiko Maas, who also stated that Germany was asking Namibia and the descendants of the genocide victims for forgiveness.

 

In addition to recognizing the events as a genocide, Germany agreed to give as a "gesture of recognition of the immeasurable suffering" €1.1 billion in aid to the communities impacted by the genocide.

 

Following the announcement, the agreement needs to be ratified by both countries' parliaments, after which Germany will send its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, to officially apologize for the genocide. The nations agreed not to use the term "reparation" to describe the financial aid package.

 

The agreement was criticized by the chairman of the Namibian Genocide Association, Laidlaw Peringanda, who insisted that Germany should purchase their ancestral lands back from the descendants of the German settlers and return it to the Herero and Nama people.

 

The agreement was also criticized because negotiations were held solely between the German and Namibian governments, and did not include representatives of the Herero and Nama people.

 

Repatriation of the Skulls

 

Peter Katjavivi, a former Namibian ambassador to Germany, demanded in August 2008 that the skulls of Herero and Nama prisoners of the 1904–1908 uprising, which were taken to Germany for scientific research to claim the superiority of white Europeans over Africans, be returned to Namibia.

 

Katjavivi was reacting to a German television documentary which reported that its investigators had found more than 40 of these skulls at two German universities, among them probably the skull of a Nama chief who had died on Shark Island.

 

In September 2011 the skulls were returned to Namibia. In August 2018, Germany returned all of the remaining skulls and other human remains which were examined in Germany to scientifically promote white supremacy. This was the third such transfer, and shortly before it occurred, German Protestant bishop Petra Bosse-Huber stated:

 

"Today, we want to do what should have been

done many years ago – to give back to their

descendants the remains of people who

became victims of the first genocide of the

20th. century."

 

As part of the repatriation process, the German government announced on the 17th. May 2019 that it would return a stone symbol it took from Namibia in the 1900's.

 

The Genocide in the Media

 

-- A BBC documentary, 'Namibia – Genocide and the Second Reich' (2005), explores the Herero and Nama genocide and the circumstances surrounding it.

 

-- In the documentary '100 Years of Silence', filmmakers Halfdan Muurholm and Casper Erichsen portray a 23-year-old Herero woman, whose great-grandmother was raped by a German soldier. The documentary explores the past and the way Namibia deals with it now.

 

-- Mama Namibia, a historical novel by Mari Serebrov, provides two perspectives of the 1904 genocide in German South West Africa. The first is that of Jahohora, a 12-year-old Herero girl who survives on her own in the veld for two years after her family is killed by German soldiers. The second story is that of Kov, a Jewish doctor who volunteered to serve in the German military to prove his patriotism. As he witnesses the atrocities of the genocide, he rethinks his loyalty to the Fatherland.

 

-- Thomas Pynchon's novel 'V'. (1963) has a chapter that included recollections of the genocide; there are memories of events that took place in 1904 in various locations, including the Shark Island concentration camp.

 

-- Jackie Sibblies Drury's play, 'We Are Proud To Present a Presentation About the Herero of Namibia Between the Years 1884–1915', is about a group of actors developing a play about the Herero and Nama genocide.

Always cool to see one of my photos on the cover of a book

Self-published hand-made book Did we ever meet? Winner of Rock your dummy Award 2013. Full info, edition, price - www.offonroad.com/books/did-we-ever-meet/

©2006 Phillip Nesmith

 

A Border Patrol agent (member of BORSTAR) watches as Omaha 18 finds a place to land in the borderlands of Arizona.

 

**This image was published as part of a Yahoo! News interactive feature on immigration**

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

As Omaha 18 danced in the hot sky around me my mind and eyes were occupied to full capacity. My eyes darted from the ground and the tracks that we were following to the surrounding terrain looking for people in the scrub, over to Agent S.K., up to the helicopter, then back to the ground. The harsh high desert sun beat down on the back of my neck like a hot steaming towel after a barber shave. We had been walking North for a couple of miles and we had lost and found the trail left by the small group of border crossers about six times. I was beginning to think that the tracks, although fresh were older than we all thought. With the helicopter so far ahead I thought that the crew would see something…or the crossers would be running, and their tracks showed no sign of hast.

 

Up ahead I saw a large billowing cloud of fine tan/orange dust rise into the air. Omaha 18 had landed ahead of us just short of clump of vegetation. In this area of the country a clump of dense vegetation means the presents of water sometime during the year. Omaha 18 was dropping off the second member of the two-person crew to search the area prior to our arrival. Not having access to the radio I thought that we were getting close. As I walked along I looked at the four to five sets of dusty athletic shoe and boot tracks leading us across the land. My mind wondered about the people that left the tracks and about that face that I might soon be able to put a face to the footprints.

 

Reaching the vegetation I caught movement out of the corner of my eye to the right. It was the agent that Omaha 18 had dropped off. He waved in our direction and said he had found the tracks over there. We caught up with this agent and we exchanged greetings and we talked about this situation. He said his name was Dave and that he had doubts about how fresh the tracks were. As we walked along I discovered that Dave was with BORSTAR (Border Patrol Search Trauma and Rescue: www.customs.gov/xp/cgov/border_security/border_patrol/bor... ). We walked and chatted, talking about the state of the tracks, the way in which the people seemed to be walking etc. It was decided that Dave would call the helicopter to land and Agent S.K. would be taken back to our truck so that he could move it to a road near by to pick me up.

 

After Omaha 18 landed, coming in low over the brush, blowing a thing fog of Arizona into the air all of which would seem to find its way into my ears, hair, cloths, camera, and eyes. The smell of the burning aviation fuel, the heat, and the gritty feeling of dirt on my face took me back to Iraq. Agent S.K. climbed into the small cockpit and with an increased whine of the engine and a furious whipping of the air by the rotors Omaha 18 broke free of the chains of gravity, banking to the south.

 

Dave and I stood talking as we looked at the tracks on the ground. We walked a bit more to the North, as there would be a good amount of time before the truck would be closer. The desert ghost laid their tracks in snaking lines across the Mars like dirt as if walking drunk. Through thick vegetation, then across open ground, up over rocky sections to end up disappearing into a patch of grass. We walked in circles until we found them again. This was the same pattern that we had been following for a few miles. Picking up the trail again as it led across a plane of flat dry dirt I looked to the direction they were going…toward more thick vegetation. My mind had been thinking about how these people had been trying to keep anyone from following them long by trying to leave (or not leave) tracks across all types of terrain. Then suddenly as the tracks went into a tangle of dead and downed mesquite trees, which looked like some military obstacle, it hit me. These people had walked through in the dark! This would put us about 4 hours behind them.

 

Someone had posted a comment to one of my other border images and asked if the Border Patrol “always gets their man”. I am here to tell you that many get past the efforts of the Border Patrol, which is a testament to the skill of the coyotes and drug runners and the vastness of the Arizona desert.

 

*** Names and callsigns changed ***

 

*** See the beginning of the story here: www.flickr.com/photos/visualadventure/241138484/ ***

 

Icones plantarum Indiae Orientalis

Madras :published by J.B. Pharoah for the author,1840-1853.

biodiversitylibrary.org/page/781582

this shot is published in a new book

the title is " Pink attitude " LIZ édition

you can see it on the web flipbook.liz-editions.com/?task=flipbook&book_id=8&am...

Published 1886

published in Diva annual issue, 2009

published in Xpozé, 01-Jan-08

Canon EOS 5D and Nikkor 50mm f/1.2 AI

  

I was really thrilled to have one of my photos published in the 2008 Time Magazine "Person of the Year" issue. It's kind of random, but exciting anyway.

 

Thanks everyone for your support through this year. It has been a lot of fun posting my photos here and enjoying photography with people all over the world.!

Publish Janu,15/01/ 2017 BD LIVE HITS is a YouTube Chanel that presents all Hit Model, , Videos, News, , Live Performance, Juicy jokes etc ! ** Lisa Hayden married 3 months pregnant!** Love was long. However, there is no rush to get married actress Lisa Hayden never showed. 016 before the end of gulluke boyfriend had secretly married Lisa. Gullura the jamkajamakahinabhabe married in October with 016-Sareen the heroine! Lisa's Instagram shared wedding photos. The rules were conceived after the share Instagram pictures. After bikini, by the sea's "baby bump" She showed. He wrote, start another period of happiness! . Subscribe our channel : goo.gl/FD2h1b Share the video : youtu.be/OB4ivbc0IGk Facebook fun page : ift.tt/2gF3THr Twitter : twitter.com/anis01713734673 *****KEYWORD****** ** Lisa Hayden married 3 months pregnant **

Gourd for scale. getting closer to COVER!

Artists: Jayme Cortez

Published by October, Brazil 1960

The program that was published when this building was dedicated in 1912 included the following:

 

History of the NSGW Building

by Lewis F. Byington, Past Grand President

 

The new Native Sons’ Building, just completed and situated on the east side of Mason Street, between Geary and Post Streets, is unquestionably the best appointed and arranged fraternal building in California, and for the lodge and social purposes the most centrally located of any in San Francisco. It stands on the same block as the St. Francis Hotel and within a radius of two blocks are Union Square at the heart of the city, the Hotel Bellevue, the Stewart Hotel, the Olympic Club, the Bohemian Club, the Union League Club, and the Elks’ Club, the Columbia, Alcazar and Orpheum Theatres, and most of the leading hotels, clubs, restaurants, and places of amusement in San Francisco.

 

It is a “Class A,” steel frame structure, eight stories in height, with a beautiful and ornamented façade of granite, terra cotta and brick. Around the two main entrances to the building are placed medallions of distinguished men, who are thus honored and commemorated for their services in connection with the discovery and civilization of California. They are: Cabrillo, discoverer of California; Father Junipero Serra, civilizer and founder of missions; General John A. Sutter, typical pioneer; General John C. Fremont, U.S.A., the Pathfinder; Admiral John Drake Sloat, U.S.N., who raised the American flag at Monterey; James W. Marshall, the discoverer of gold; Peter Burnett, the first American governor of California; General M. G. Vallejo, typical Hispano-Californian; General A. M. Winn, Founder of the Order of the Native Sons of the Golden West.

 

Set in the front of the building at the height of the second story are six terra cotta panels, the work of Domingo Mora and his son, Joseph J. Mora, artistically designed and depicting important historical events, namely: “The Discovery of California”; “Civilization”; “The Raising of the Bear Flag”; “The Raising of the American Flag”; “The Pioneers”; “The Discovery of Gold.” The sculptured heads of grizzly bears, which mark the line of the third floor, have been designed as emblematic of California, while the sculptured phoenix, placed over the doorways, typifies San Francisco.

 

The phoenix was a wonderful bird, fabled to exist for 500 years, the only of its kind. It built a funeral pile of spices and aromatic gums, lighted the pile with the fanning of its wings, and was burned upon it, but from its ashes revived in the freshness of youth. It is the emblematic bird of San Francisco, adopted and placed upon its seal in early days after the city had been four times destroyed by fire. During a recent visit to Europe, Mr. James D. Phelan, the president of the Hall association, found in the Vatican at Rome the most ancient sculptured representation of the phoenix and which is attributed to the famous Greek sculptor Praxiteles. Mr. Phelan secured a splendid reproduction in marble of this work of art and presented it to the Hall Association, and it is now in the new building.

 

The building contains one of the largest and best-appointed assembly halls for dances, concerts and entertainments in California; also fourteen well-lighted, handsomely furnished, and artistically arranged lodge rooms; the offices of the Grand Secretary; Library and Reading Rooms. Over the main assembly hall is the largest steel truss ever built in California, and which supports the floors above. The eighth floor is arranged for club room purposes and is admirably designed for this object. The rooms are spacious, high and well lighted, both from above and from the front and sides. In the front an artistic loggia has been placed from which the city to the west may be viewed, while at the rear a pergola, over which vines will be twined, furnishes an artistic, sheltered, open-air places for the members to sit. The Grand Parlor has taken steps to secure all books, data and records bearing upon the history and development of California and these doubtless will be stored here. In time, an Historical Museum will also be maintained within the building.

 

In the main hall are twenty circular windows, which it has been decided to use for art glass portraits of twenty Native Sons and Native Daughters who have won distinction in the arts and sciences, literature and drama. The names of the following have so far been selected: Gertrude Atherton, literature; Sybil Sanderson, music; Mary Anderson, drama. Upon the walls of the upper floors will be hung portraits of the distinguished men and women, not natives of California, who have in this State won distinction in literature, science and the arts. The grandeur of the Yosemite and our mountains and lakes may also be depicted upon other windows and these features will add materially to the beauty of our building and will make it unique among the structures of the country. The building will stand as the home of the Order in the State, and as the noblest and most enduring monument to the perpetuity of the organization and for the advancement of its principles of Friendship, Loyalty and Charity.

 

The architects of the building are Righetti and Headman (E.H. Hildebrand, associate). The superintendant of construction was Mr. P.J. Walker and his foreman Mr. J.S. Fifield.

 

Since the destruction of the Native Sons’ Building by the fire of April 18, 1906, it has been the desire of the members to see erected in this city, and upon the lot where that building stood, a home for the fraternity, within which the local lodges may meet and where members from all over California may find an hospitable welcome amidst pleasant and comfortable surroundings. That desire has now been realized.

 

The Hall Association of the Native Sons of the Golden West was incorporated April 5, 1893, for the purpose of securing a site upon which to erect a home for the Order. The first Board of Directors selected was composed of the following members of the fraternity: John H. Grady, Henry Lundstedt, Dr. C.W. Decker, W.W. Shannon, T.E. Keough, George D. Clark, John T. Greany, John A. Steinbach, W.H. Miller, J.R. Kropp, Adolph Eberhart, Lewis F. Byington, T. C. Conmy, John H. Nelson, T.P. Leonard, Joseph B. Keenan, H..J. Seitz, G.H.S. Dryden, W. J. Wynn, W. E. Foley, Daniel Suter, C.H. Hobson, J.P. Donovan, R. Horber, C.H. Mass, J.W. Reinfeld, H.G.W. Dinkelspiel, Sol. Bloom, J.R. Howell, Louis Nonnenmann, H.E. Coffey, Jas. P. Sweeney, L.L. Dennery, L.M. Bannan, W.P. Johnson, and A.E. Holmes.

 

The Association purchased from the Congregation Ohabai Shalome, for $42,500, the lot located on the east side of Mason Street, sixty-eight feet and nine inches north of Geary Street, and having a frontage of sixty-eight feet and nine inches and a depth of one hundred and thirty-seven feet and six inches. One of the first synagogues erected in this city stood upon the lot.

 

Competitive plans for a lodge building were invited and those submitted by Mr. A.C. Lutgens were selected and the handsome five-story “Class C” building erected which stood until destroyed in the early morning of April 19, 1906, by the disastrous fire which then swept the city. It was erected at a cost of about $82,000, and contained a large assembly hall, the offices of the Grand Secretary, the Library and Reading Room and seven lodge rooms. The corner stone was laid on Washington’s birthday, 1895, and the building was dedicated February 9, 1896. Shortly after its completion, Irving M. Scott presented to the Hall Association a magnificent painting by William Keith, California’s greatest landscape artist. It depicted one of California’s fruitful valleys and was entitled “The Heritage of the Native Sons.” It was burned with the building.

 

When the Association concluded to rebuild upon the old site, it was determined to erect a “Class A” building in line with the spirit of progress which animated the citizens of the new San Francisco. The capital stock of the Association was, therefore, increased to $400,000 (50,000 shares of a par value of $8.00 each).

 

The corner stone of the new building was laid February 22, 1911. It is the old corner stone saved from the fire with a new stone covering it. Upon the old stone appears the inscription:

 

HALL OF

NATIVE SONS OF THE GOLDEN WEST

WASHINGTON’S BIRTHDAY

A.D. 1895”

 

And upon the stone above is carved:

 

BUILDING DESTROYED BY FIRE, APRIL 19, 1906

CORNER STONE RELAID FEBRURARY 22, 1911

 

“Program: Dedication of NSGW Building 1912”. Published by NSGW, San Francisco, Cal.

_______________________________________________

 

© 2015 MATTEO CERREIA VIOGLIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I retain all copyrights of any picture on this page.

You may not modify, publish or use any files on

this page without written permission and consent.

_______________________________________________

Note: this photo was published in an undated (Oct 2010) Everyblock NYC zipcodes blog titled "10007." It was also published in an undated (late Oct 2010) Dating Soulmates blog, with the same title and detailed notes as what I had written on this Flickr page. It was also published in a Jan 18, 2011 blog titled "The Most Interesting Subway Stations In The World." And, demonstrating that time can sometimes move backwards, the photo was published in a blog titled "'Invierno en Nueva York" which is allegedly dated August 10, 2008.

 

Moving into 2012, the photo was published in a Jan 22, 2012 blog titled "New York's Secret Subway Station."

 

Note: A large percentage of my "landscape" photos (including the ones in this set, and several other related photos from this set, which I've gradually deleted from Flickr) are now copyright-protected, and are not available for downloads and free use. You can view them here in Flickr, but if you would like prints, enlargements, framed copies, and other variations, please visit my "City Hall" SmugMug gallery by clicking here.

 

**************************************

 

If you want to know when New York City joined the ranks of major cities of the world, one possible date would be October 27, 1904 -- the inauguration of the city's first underground subway line, during which Mayor George B. McClellan predicted that the subway would guarantee New York's status as a great city. Wikipedia tells us that the subway system trails only Tokyo, Moscow, and Seoul in annual ridership, and that it carries more passengers than all other rail mass-transit systems in the U.S. combined.

 

But ironically, the original station that was used to inaugurate the subway line is a "ghost" terminal, closed and no longer in service. Located under the public area in front of New York's City Hall, and intended to be the showpiece of the new subway, the "City Hall," or "City Hall Loop," station was the the southern terminus of the IRT line (also known as the "Manhattan Main Line" that stretched north to Grand Central Termsinal, across 42nd Street to Times Square, and then north all the way up to 145th Street. But as it turned out, the City Hall station was never very popular -- mostly because the Brooklyn Bridge station, located a short walk away at the opposite end of City Hall Park, provided both local and express service, including trains to the outer fringes of the known universe, otherwise known as Brooklyn.

 

There were also engineering issues: as the overall subway system grew more popular, the city responded by adding more cars to each subway train. That required longer subway platforms, which would have been difficult at City Hall station because it was built on a tight curve (there is not a single straight line of sight on the tracks, when you're at the station). In addition, the new, longer trains had center cars in each door, which were located at an unsafe distance from the platform edge. This would have required movable platform extensions to fill the gap; and while that was done at South Ferry and 14th St - Union Square, it was deemed too expensive at City Hall station. Instead, the station was closed on December 31, 1945.

 

Since then, City Hall station has been a "ghost station," though it is still used as a turning loop for #6 trains on the Lexington Avenue line. You're supposed get off at the Brooklyn Bridge stop, at which point loudspeakers in the station proclaim that you've reached the "last stop." But the conductors and MTA personnel don't check, and you can actually stay on the train ... at which point you're carried forward, and into a loop that goes past the silent City Hall station, and then all the way around, to head northward on the uptown track.

 

Also, the New York Transit Museum operates guided tours of the ghost station a couple times a year. I've lived in this city for over 40 years, and I wasn't surprised to learn that there was a "transit museum" ... but I never knew that they conducted such tours, nor did I actually know anything about this abandoned station. So it was a great treat to learn about this bit of New York City history, sign up for the tour, and then show up at the appointed time.

 

There were about two dozen other people in the group, and quite a few had "serious" cameras. Someone even brought along a tripod, and said he would be taking a series of HDR compositions; and if you search various photo sites on the Internet, you'll find quite a few other collections as well. And now you can add my modest little collection of 30 photographs, for what it's worth ...

 

Better yet, take the tour yourself. You can start by visiting the website of the New York Transit Museum, and finding out when the next tour is scheduled...

A print from the Phillip Medhurst Collection (published by Revd. Philip De Vere at St.George's Court, Kidderminster, England)

Not too sure about this 'New, new Flickr' thing... my brain hurts..!

Character Creation

 

Illyana Nikolaievna Rasputina (Russian: Ильяна Николаевна Распутина) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum, the character first appeared in the Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975). llyana Rasputin is a member of a fictional species of humanity known as mutants, who are born with superhuman abilities. She is known under the codename Magik.

 

llyana Rasputin is the younger sister of the Russian X-Men member Colossus and X-Men enemy Mikhail Rasputin. She became a powerful sorceress due to her time imprisoned in (and later ruling) Limbo. Her mutant power, which first manifested in that Limbo, is the ability to teleport via stepping discs utilizing that dimension's magic. Following her escape from Limbo, she became part of the New Mutants. She later joined the X-Men.

 

The character has been featured in various Marvel-licensed products, including video games, animated television series, and merchandise. Anya Taylor-Joy portrayed Illyana Rasputin in the 2020 film The New Mutants.

 

Publication history

 

llyana Rasputin debuted in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975), created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. Her first name was not revealed until The Uncanny X-Men #145 (May 1981). For the first eight years of the character's existence, she was an infrequently appearing background character known as Colossus' little sister. The means of changing this was set in The Uncanny X-Men #160 (August 1982), in which she ages seven years while in a paranormal dimension called Limbo, becomes a sorceress, and develops the mutant ability to create "teleportation discs." These changes were not immediately explored or explained, and for the next year she remained essentially a background character.

 

In December 1983, the limited series Magik (Illyana and Storm) was launched, chronicling Illyana's years in Limbo, which is also her origin story. Magik #1 (December 1983) is her first cover appearance as young Illyana, her second full appearance and the first time she get the name Magik. Magik #2 (Jan. 1984) is her first cover appearance as adult Magik. Immediately following the end of the series, she was added to the cast of the New Mutants, appearing regularly in that comic from The New Mutants #14 (April 1984), the first cover appearance of adult Magik in costume, to The New Mutants #77 (July 1989), in which she returns to her family in Russia after having reverted to childhood. As the younger sister of Colossus and a member of the New Mutants, she also sporadically appeared as a guest star in Uncanny X-Men.

 

In The Uncanny X-Men #303 (1993), she dies of the Legacy Virus. Other than flashbacks and alternate realities, she was absent from regular publication for most of the 1990s, though she does appear as a time-traveler in The New Mutants: Truth or Death #1-3 (1997). After being resurrected by Belasco, she returned to regular publication in 2007, in New X-Men #38-41 (2007), X-Infernus #1-4 (2009), X-Men: Hellbound #1-3 (2010) and New Mutants vol. 3 #1-29 (2009-2011). As a member of Cyclops' Extinction Team, she appears in The Uncanny X-Men vol. 2 #1-20 (2012), Avengers vs. X-Men #1-12 (2012), AVX: Versus #3 (2012), and AVX: Consequences #1-5 (2012). She appears in All-New X-Men, The Uncanny X-Men vol. 3, Extraordinary X-Men, and The New Mutants: Dead Souls (2018), as a regular character. She appears in Strange Academy #1 (2020) as a teacher in Dr. Strange's Sorcerer School.

 

Origin

 

To simply be a mutant didn't quite make you as different as it once would have. What made someone different was the type of mutant that they were. Specifically, their power level that would show their potential or ability as a mutant. The Rasputin children, Mikhail, Piotr, and Illyana, were all mutants. Each of them would have gifts that would/could affect many, even on a global level. Their futures would see them all go very different ways; their genetics ensured whichever way they chose to go, huge repercussions could be expected. These three mutant siblings would be no exception. From Mikhail's ability to manipulate matter on the subatomic level and his dimensional teleporting powers to Illyana's immensely powerful magical might and teleporting powers and even Piotr, who seemingly appears much weaker in comparison, but is prophesied to be the sole individual responsible for the destruction of an entire planet, Breakworld, and all of its inhabitants.

 

On the outward appearance it may seem that it must be purely coincidental that Illyana and her two older brothers, Mikhail and Piotr (Colossus), would all have massively powerful mutant powers and all be born to one family. But, not all is as it seems. These three siblings were born to a family that had been manipulated to ensure these outcomes. A bloodline refined to create power. Not only just Illyana, Mikhail and Piotr would have these substantial gifts, but all children born within the Rasputin bloodline would. Each would have the same genetics, share the same bloodline and lineage, each with the possibility to wield powerful mutant gifts. This was not a coincidence at all. This is all due to the manipulation, on a grand scale, by one of the foremost masters in genetics by the name of Nathaniel Essex, better known as Mr. Sinister.

 

Character Evolution

 

Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin, the indomitable mutant known as Magik, is a super-humanly powerful mutant with the power of teleportation, as well as being an unbelievably powerful and gifted sorceress. She has a potential that has yet to be reached. In her short life, she has seen and been through many things. From the experience of being kidnapped at a very young age by the evil Belasco, to life in a "Hell" dimension named Limbo for 7 years. Her gifts were exploited, and her soul was corrupted by black magic, turning a portion of it evil. After becoming the first victim to die of the Legacy Virus, she was eventually resurrected by her former master several years later. She is currently a member of the New Mutants. During the events of Avengers vs X-men, she has tasted even greater power; that of the Phoenix Force.

 

Major Story Arcs

 

Before Her Time...

 

More than 100 years ago, the patriarch of the Rasputin bloodline, the legendary Grigory Rasputin, would be the first to meet Sinister. The two would make unlikely allies. After their encounter, the Rasputin family would never be the same. When Grigory was younger, around the time of the emergence of his own mutant powers, Sinister would give him an offer he couldn’t refuse. Sinister or the "Pale Man" as Grigory referred to him as, would offer Grigory the chance to create a bloodline from his DNA that would lead a race of super humans. Grigory's importance to Sinister was quite simple. He was a mutant, and based on the time one of the few firsts. Not only was he a mutant, but a powerful one. Grigory was aware of his gifts or the "miraculous occurrences" that surrounded him. He enjoyed them and used them regularly. Though unrevealed, it’s assumed that Grigory may have had matter manipulating abilities. These powers seemed similar to that of his future descendant, Mikhail. Powerful or not, Sinister's offer appealed to him and he accepted promptly after. Sinister would go to work immediately.

 

He would seek out females similar to Grigory, mutants with special powers. Sinister would find around 15-20 women and impregnate them all by crossing their genes with that of Grigory's. Sinister would experiment on the unborn babies, with many dying in the process. There was one woman though that was a prefect match for Grigory, a woman by the name of Elena. Once Sinister found that the two could produce the outcome that he wished for he would put introduce the two. Shortly after meeting, two would marry each other. Elena would be his soon-to-be wife and bearer of his future army of super powered children. This would culminate with Grigory taking part in a mystical ceremony, led by Sinister, transferring his essence into his pregnant wife’s womb. His last words were that he promised to return to the world when the world was ready for him. With Elena giving birth to her baby months later, it would be the beginning of the powerful mutant bloodline that would lead to the eventual birth of one Illyana Nikolievna Rasputin.

 

Innocent Beginnings

 

Nikolai Rasputin and Alexandra Rasputin had three children, two boys, named Mikhail and Piotr and, their youngest, a girl named Illyana. Mikhail was already an adult when Illyana was born. He wanted more than a farmer's life and decided to become a cosmonaut working for the Russian government. As a result Illyana would never have the opportunity to meet her eldest brother and unfortunately never would as reports would come indicating that Mikhail had died while in duty. The reality was that his mutant powers manifested and the government decided to use him as a guinea pig. They wanted to see if they could find a way to harness his gift. Basically they were exploiting him, with no intention of releasing him. Illyana's family grieved, but she was relatively unaffected partially due to her age and she really didn't know him. Beyond that she had a fairly normal early childhood. She had a close-knit family, more love then she could ever know and a bond between her brother and her that death couldn't break, literally. The Rasputins would thrive and continue to live their lives as best they could. They managed to achieve a little normalcy in their lives right when another mutant would make their self known.

 

Professor X & the X-Men

 

Mikhail wouldn't be the only of his sibling to have mutant powers. Piotr would also have his powers emerge. Though he would attempt to keep his mutant gifts hidden, he would be forced to reveal them in a much unexpected way. Illyana was playing alone when an unmanned tractor came barreling in her direction. No one was near or had the ability to help her, save Piotr. He reacted instinctively, running to her aid and unconsciously activating his mutant powers. In a bright flash of light his entire body turned into that of a silver, shiny, armored giant. Standing in the way of the tractor, it would hit him and go no further as it would be destroyed upon impact. Like a knight in shinning armor, he was able to save his "Little Snowflake," as he referred to her. Relieved that he was able to protect his sister, he never noticed that a visitor had arrived and had watched the entire event unfold.

 

A man that would change not only Piotr's life, but that of his little sister, Illyana's as well. This man was Professor Charles Xavier and he had arrived wanting to speak with Piotr, hoping to recruit him as one of his new X-Men. After much conversation Piotr would accept and begrudgingly leave his family to start a new one in the United States. While a member of the team he took the codename Colossus and became one of the vaunted X-Men. As a member of the X-Men he would save the world many times over. But for Piotr it was a rough transition. He missed his family. He often suffered from homesickness, and as such he tended to stay alone and withdrawn. While on missions he often hid his feelings. Hiding them as he might, nothing could prepare him for the following events.

 

Abduction

 

The X-Men would do battle with many a foe, but one of the oddest was the eccentric, murderous Arcade. An assassin for hire and creator of Murderworld he was one of the best at what he did, but would bite off too much when Doctor Doom was involved. Arcade became involved in dealings that went bad with Doctor Doom. As a result he was held captive with no means of freedom. An associate of Arcade's, Miss Locke, would devise a plan that would have the X-Men do all the hard work and free Arcade for her. Of course they would never do this willingly, she would have to force them somehow. Miss Locke decided that she would blackmail them by kidnapping numerous members of each of the X-Men's family, this would include Piotr's little sister Illyana, and force them to assist.

 

And they did. The X-Men sent in two units, sending the larger of their forces in to get Arcade and the few remaining to free their captive loved ones. The X-Men would find themselves to be successful and would return home. Colossus though would make a decision that would change his little sister's life permanently.

 

He decided that Illyana should stay with them and not return to Russia. He felt that it would be safer for her as he and the X-Men could protect her better, so that another incident like her being abducted could never happen again. Professor X agreed with the decision. He even telepathically taught all of his X-Men how to speak the Russian language so that Illyana would feel more comfortable in her new environment. He, too, wanted to test Illyana to see if she had the mutant gene, like her brothers feeling that there was a strong chance that she would be one. A discussion would follow but it would be decided to not test her. Feeling that she had many more years before her potential mutant powers would emerge based on her age. Illyana's stay would be granted by a special student visa. She would attend tutored classes by Professor X while at the X-mansion.

 

While there she brought a happiness to Colossus, one that he hadn't felt in a long time since he left his home long ago. Illyana would get close to all the X-Men, but especially Kitty Pryde. Kitty would read her bedtime stories and interact with her a lot. This would be the start of a bond that would only grow over time.

 

Abducted by Balasco

 

Illyana stayed with the X-Men all the time, save when they embarked on missions. This included when they were in need of a new temporary headquarters. Due to a recent battle it had sustained major damage and Xavier's Institute had been destroyed. The X-Men with no other choice would be forced to take up base elsewhere. They would find and inhabit an island that Magneto once used as a base. It was a strange alien city on an island in the Bermuda Triangle. Coming to this island would be the event that would lead to Illyana's destiny and future self.

 

Illyana was a child, only 7 years old, when the X-Men came to the island. Having been on the island for only a couple of days the X-Men had managed to settle themselves in; though they were still held doubts over their new location. Storm, the field leader, deciding they needed to release some stress, had the X-Men participate in a training exercise while Illyana would play alone a short distance away so as to not get hurt.

 

However, when no one was paying attention, the young Illyana began to walk away as if she was being guided. Unable to control herself she would continue on until she reached a temple, which she entered without hesitation. Of all the other X-men it was only Kitty who had noticed her missing, and began to follow with the X-Men not too far behind. Illyana would reach her destination in the back of the dimly lit tunnel inside of the dilapidated temple. She stood in the middle of a circular shape with glowing yellow and white lights and disappeared. The X-Men would follow and also get teleported to another dimension, one of the many splintered realms of Hell. This one was called Limbo.

 

Limbo

 

As soon as Illyana arrived she was whisked away to the side of Belasco. He tempted her with many wonderful things, including a glorious future. All the while the X-Men made their way to Limbo as well. Through a string of events they were informed, by a second set of X-Men, that they had to leave in order for their Illyana to survive. The second set of X-Men, those stuck in Limbo, attempting to rescue their Illyana, were successful but they themselves found themselves unable to return; they too were stuck in Limbo. Immediately after, the X-Men were spirited away back to Earth and Illyana was left to fend for herself. Meanwhile, back with Illyana, Belasco had brought her to an altar and began a spell to withdraw the first of 5 pieces of Illyana's soul.

 

Effectively taking the first piece of her soul, it was transformed into a "Bloodstone" and he placed it into what he called the Beatrice Amulet. The Amulet once opened had a 5-pointed star with open holes. The first Bloodstone filled the spot of one of those points. Belasco's intentions for Illyana was to slowly take all 5 portions of her soul and turn them into bloodstones to complete the Beatrice Medallion. He needed time to further corrupt her soul, all the while step by step consecrating her to evil and making her the instrument of Belasco's masters the Elder Gods. He would also use her to free him from Limbo and allow him to roam Earth once again, where he would take over and rule supreme. He would leave immediately after the Bloodstone was removed and allowed time to take place.

 

Girl Interrupted

 

Still on the altar, Illyana would be saved and taken in by an older alternate Storm and an alternate version of Kitty Pryde, now calling herself Cat. Both were very different; Cat actually had been transformed in to a cat/human hybrid by Belasco and as a result hated magic. Differing from her mainstream counterpart, winds no longer listened to the elderly Storm, so she could not control the weather anymore and instead she focused purely on magic. Ororo attempted to break Illyana free of the link she had with Belasco immediately after saving her. After a trip to the astral plane, she finds that a part of Illyana was now and forever belonging to the side of evil, specifically to Belasco. When in Illyana's mind, the "evil" part of Illyana would attack and try to kill the elderly Ororo, but Ororo luckily would survive. Once back Ororo devised a plan to help the young Illyana. Wanting to equip Illyana for her future, Ororo decided to teach Illyana all the white magic she knew by making Illyana her magical apprentice.

 

The goal was to teach Illyana so that she would be enabled to keep her dark side at bay with white magic. All of her lessons would take place in Ororo's magic garden, from there they would proceed to administer the classes on the astral plane. Illyana was trained and became quite adept at white magic, tapping into her ancestral magical lineage. Storm felt it necessary to teach Illyana so that she was prepared for her next confrontation with Belasco. What Illyana didn't know, was that Belasco had once attempted to use both Storm and Cat to draw bloodstones from but was unsuccessful. Storm knowing this would only further her want to protect the young child. Cat disagreed partially because she despised magic, but also because she felt that Storm would be doing Belasco’s dirty work for him. She felt that Storm was making a huge mistake. Regardless, Storm began teaching Illyana white magic. While there she taught Illyana about life, white magic and the creation of life itself.

 

Their Illyana stayed for an entire year and learned everything that Storm could teach. Illyana learned fast but was quite angered by the fact that, try as she might, each and every spell she would cast would always be tainted by darkness. Where Ororo would magically have the ability to create life such as plants (or her entire garden), Illyana's attempts always seemed to fail. Though her spells were done properly and she had the magical aptitude to make them work, they would always turn out in a negative way.

 

Once the year was complete, in the middle of the night Cat would wake Illyana up and convince her to come with her leaving Ororo's garden. Cat was attempting to return Illyana to her home. During that night Illyana and Cat would get into a heated argument and during this time, Illyana's mutant powers first manifested. She accidentally created a stepping disc and fell through it. When she arrived she was still in Limbo, but here is when she first meets her future servant and enemy, S'ym. He taunts her and begins to attack her. She luckily is saved by Cat and together they escape from S'ym. While seeking a way to send Illyana home they came upon a desert and were informed that at the end of the desert would be the wall of Limbo.

 

Where if Cat used her phasing powers she could take Illyana through and free her from Limbo. Their trek through the desert would take two long years. Through that time Cat would teach Illyana how to fight, use a sword and survival skills. At the end of the 2 years they would finally reach their destination only to find that they were misled by one of Belasco's illusions. Belasco would first transform Cat even further into a cat-like being and took the young Illyana with him as his pupil. It would be during this time that Belasco would create his second Bloodstone out of Illyana's soul, effectively tainting the essence of the child even further making her even more evil. Illyana followed Belasco to his palace, worried but accepting her situation. She fully understood that Cat would no longer be able to provide help to her. Belasco's spell halted Cat's ability to think for herself and she was now bound to Belasco doing his every bidding. In the 3 years that followed, Belasco made Illyana his pupil, teaching her all that he knew.

 

Illyana learned the darkest of dark magic and the blackest of black magics. She took to it quite quickly, and unlike the spells that Ororo taught her, Illyana could produce all the black spells with ease, without error. She realized that the reason why she was unable to produce spells that created life was because her soul was permanently tainted with darkness. She would never produce white magic spells without them going awry. One day, while Illyana was brainstorming a way to get out of Limbo, she inadvertently activated her latent mutant powers of teleportation. Now a few years old, she had so much control learned from her magic teachings that she was able to practice her mutants powers without being afraid of them.

 

She began creating stepping discs and decided to walk through one to see where she would go. Her stepping disc took her to the future, unknown to her. Here she witnessed the arrival of her future teammates the New Mutants. Although at this point she had no clue who they were. The New Mutants were teleported to that very spot by a future Illyana. Seeing all she wanted to she, she created yet another stepping disc and teleported herself away. The disc this time sent her to the past. Here she witnessed a battle that took place many years ago in Limbo. The fight was between Belasco and a very young magician Storm.

 

Illyana watched as Storm was able to successfully defeat Belasco. As Storm was to make her killing stroke, she was taken over by darkness. In attempting to kill Belasco, Storm tainted her own soul, changing her. Scarred by what she saw, Illyana opened yet another disc and teleported to the current time. As she arrives, she sees yet another battle. The opponents were the same, but now Storm was very aged. The elderly Storm had attacked Belasco's palace in an attempt to free Illyana. Illyana immediately ran to Storm's aid but was cut off by the demonic Cat. They battled for a few short minutes but Illyana could tell that Cat was simply trying to hold Illyana back from helping Storm. Angered by this, Illyana lunged at Cat and snapped her neck, killing her immediately. When she finally gets to Storm she realizes that Storm too had fought against Cat and was dealt a mortal wound.

 

The elderly Storm was dying. Realizing it was all a trap, Illyana tried to take Storm when she found out that Belasco planned to used Storm's soul and life essence to create a 3rd Bloodstone. Not wanting to help Belasco get any closer to his goal she mercy-kills Storm, putting a halt to Belasco's plan. Belasco sees what Illyana has done and became enraged, but put plan B into play. Instead of using Storm for the 3rd Bloodstone, he would use Illyana to create it. She immediately teleports away using her mutant powers and reappears in Russia on the farm she grew up on directly in front of the house of her parents.

 

Overcome with happiness when she realized that she could use her power to leave Limbo, she ran to her parents' door and knocked. Her happiness would soon end when she sees her parents and tells them who she was. They, of course, did not recognize her and turned her away, under the assumption that their daughter was safe with their son Colossus in America and was a 6 year old little girl. Giving up she turned around and saw the corpses of the Limbo X-Men animated their to take her back to Limbo. When she gets back to Limbo, Belasco would quickly draw a 3rd Bloodstone from Illyana, even further tainting her soul and making it more demonic, and would exile her to the garden that the elderly Ororo taught her in many years ago. He would bind her powers disabling her use of her magics and mutant powers. Timing could not have been worse as it was the beginning of a harsh winter one that Illyana, likely, would not survive.

 

While in the garden Illyana used the skills taught to her by the now deceased Cat, managing to thrive in the unbearable cold. She also continued to practice the magic that the elderly Ororo taught her, attempting to find a way to free herself of the garden. Time and time again she was unable to produce magic that allowed creation, always coming out tainted as her soul was. She then had an epiphany; she was not able to produce magic like Ororo because they had differing motives. Ororo was attempting to help Illyana, Illyana's motive was quite simply revenge. She reconfigured the spell and used a small portion of her untainted, pure soul and a bright light grew directly in front of her. When she reached in she pulled out her Soulsword. Shortly after, she headed to Belasco and with the use of her newly created weapon, she battled and defeated Belasco. Just prior to her killing stroke she stopped, not wanting to become any more dark, any more like Belasco. She then exiled him from Limbo.

 

Due to this defeat, Illyana was now the unquestioned ruler of Limbo. And due to the 6 years of teaching she received while there, she had the ability to fight for her title if need be. Finally gaining confidence she would create a "stepping disc" and would return herself to home. When she arrived it would only be seconds from when they originally lost the younger Illyana. After a small conversation they believed her and took her to Professor X for further examination. He found that he was unable to probe her very much but did see, for the most part, that what she claims happened, did.

 

She would stay at the mansion with the rest of the X-Men uneventfully for a short while. She would be roomed with Kitty Pryde. They became quick friends and would lay the foundation for a relationship as best friends that would be unending. But even to Kitty she revealed nothing. She made sure not to tell anyone of her magical or mutant powers, wanting to keep them a secret. Illyana was attempting to try and cope with all the events and changes she went through while in Limbo. Try as she might, Illyana could not hide forever and her secrets would be revealed.....well one of them at least.

 

An unexpected arrival of Belasco would force her to use her mutant powers to teleport the New Mutants (mutant students who attend the Xavier Institute) to Limbo for their safety. Coincidentally, this would be what she saw when she was stuck in Limbo many years ago. When all was said and done the New Mutants were returned to Earth unharmed. Illyana would use a forgetting spell ensuring the New Mutants would not remember any of what occurred except for the fact that Illyana was a mutant. Once Professor X was informed of Illyana's mutant nature, she would be granted to ability to study with and join the New Mutants, which she gladly did.

 

Enter the New Mutants

 

While apart of the New Mutants, Illyana would finally allow herself to let her guard down....a little. In a short time she became a powerful and valued member of the team. Although they knew she was a mutant, she still guarded her magical side intensely. Due to the barriers she kept up she sometimes felt misunderstood and alone but the others truly cared for her. As a team, the New Mutants would go through more than their fair share of battles. Though they had many successes, they too had many great loses. First Professor X stepped down and left the school in the hand of the villainous Magneto. Magik and the New Mutants were none too happy about this change. Amidst the ups and downs of life Illyana finally revealed her magical side to her teammates, receiving mixed reviews. Shortly after that they would suffer yet another lose, this time the death of teammate Douglas Ramsey (Cypher).

 

As if that wasn't enough, the New Mutants all would then have their lives snuffed out by the Beyonder during the Secret Wars. He made it as if they never existed. The Beyonder was bent on the idea of humanity and the attempt to gain one. He would have a machine created that if working properly give one life or bring one back to life. Needing guinea pigs he would test it on the recently departed members of the New Mutants. Though they were alive again, the experiences of their deaths and resurrections was far too traumatic for them. They were all severely mentally affected by their experiences. Magik and the New Mutants were mere husks of their former selves and showed no human emotions. Once they returned to the Institute, Magneto would decide to send his students to Emma Frost, the White Queen of the Hellfire Club and leader of the Hellions. Emma was to use her vast telepathic powers to help repair the already damaged psyches of each of the New Mutants.

 

While under the care of Emma Frost, the New Mutants enrolled at her school and were recruited into her team of Hellions. This was her true plan all along. To her surprise, though, once Magik and the New Mutants were healed they would returnimmediately to the Xavier Institute.

 

The Inferno

 

During a standard trip through Limbo, something went wrong and the New Mutants were stuck. Illyana's evil and demonic side started to take over her body. The demons there wanted her to become the full lord of Limbo. When she tried to escape, the demon N'astirh used this as a way to open a huge teleportation disc between Earth and Limbo, which started an invasion of Earth by the demons of Limbo. Magik then managed to defeat the powerful demon S'ym . After the battle the New Mutants examined the remains of Magik's armor and found the seven-year old Illyana inside it. However, she still possessed the bloodstone amulet. The 7 year old Illyana was then brought home and returned to Russia where she lived with her parents until they were murdered by the Russian government in order to make sure Illyana had her abilities to defeat a powerful psionic being, which posed a threat to Russia. After this, Illyana returned to the X-Mansion.

 

Death

 

Illyana was brought back to America and the X-mansion. However, shortly afterward, Illyana caught the Legacy Virus, a deadly and incurable disease that only affected mutants. At this time, the young X-woman Jubilee and Illyana made a special friendship. Although she was a fighter, and her brother was at her side almost always, Illyana succumbed to the virus a few weeks later and died in the X-Mansion. This happened at a time during which her brother was on a mission with the X-Men, something he would never forgive himself for. She was buried at the Xavier Institute and was mourned by everybody, especially by her brother and good friend Kitty Pryde. Her spirit would later go on to visit Wolverine and her brother, Piotr.

 

Magik Returns

 

During the House of M storyline, the Scarlet Witch used her reality-warping abilities to recreate the world as we knew it, transforming it into way she wished it was. Illyana came back to life and joined many of the new X-Men as students at S.H.I.E.L.D. She was placed in the Hellions training squad and, during their last mission, was told to take a group of mutated humans somewhere safe. She teleported just as chaos took over, and the House of M came to an end reverting back to the way it was before. In a world where Illyana was no longer alive. No one remembers ever meeting Magik because none of them remembered the House of M. Later, the evil Belasco came looking for Magik, as he sensed her presence that was left behind during the House of M, and used his powers to take most of the students at the school prisoner. He smelled Magik on them but none of them remembered meeting her. All clues began to point to Magik being alive.

 

A group of free students on the run in Limbo ran into a version of Illyana in her Darkchild self. She revealed that she was recreated by Belasco, but in body and mind only. Her soul resided in her Soulsword, and that had been lost. She sought to create a new soulsword, and five new bloodstones of power, from the pure soul of Pixie. The process was only partially successful, resulting in only one bloodstone being created. Pixie ended up with a soul dagger instead of a soul sword. Illyana then taught Pixie a teleportation spell, which allowed the students to reach Belasco's castle which lead to their confrontation with Belasco. In the ensuing fight, Pixie stabbed Belasco with the dagger, allowing Illyana to use the bloodstone's power to presumably destroy Belasco. With Belasco defeated, she once again became queen of Limbo. Despite an emotional reunion with her brother, Piotr, she banished the X-Men from Limbo and sealed it off, not content to rest until she recovered her soul and became whole once again.

 

Divided We Stand

 

llyana wants her soul back, thinking back to the ones she once loved, like Kitty and Piotr she tries to reclaim her soul through these connections and teleports to the Xavier Institute only to find it destroyed and abandoned after the events of Messiah Complex. Angrily she decides that she will not get her soul back through love but through hate and suffering and she will target those who have wronged her and make them pay with their souls.

 

Infernus

 

Infernus is the Quest for Illyana to regain her soul and to later rejoin the X-Men. The story begins with Illyana in Limbo searching for the Beatrice Amulet. Flustered that she can't find it, she sends hordes of Limbo Demons to search the earth and find it. Meanwhile, the X-Men are back in their danger room and Pixie goes crazy and stabs Nightcrawler. After she stabs him with her Souldagger, she pulls the weapon from his body cavity and out comes Illyana's Soulsword with it. Nightcrawler is unharmed by the Souldagger, and the Soulsword that his ex girlfriend Amanda Sefton (another ruler of Limbo), locked inside of him for safe keeping. Instantly back in Limbo, Illyana feels her Soulsword emerge and teleports to the Danger Room to reclaim what is rightfully hers.

 

Everyone is shocked to see Illyana again, as most believed her to be dead. Illyana demands her sword, promising that no one will be hurt if they just hand it over to her. The X-Men refuse and one by one are struck down by Illyana. First Rockslide, then Mercury, followed by Beast. Then Pixie comes along and starts a fight against Illyana but loses, so Illyana takes her Soulsword back and she changes, becoming more human but still incomplete so she runs away to Limbo again only to find out that Witchfire, Belasco's daughter is there and wants her head. The X-men go to Limbo after her and encounter demons but Pixie feels her soul and goes to the castle. The mutants go after her only to be taking down by Witchfire who has Illyana in chains and starts to take another piece of Pixie's soul. Nightcrawler stabs Illyana with the Souldagger and pull out the Soulsword. He calls Pixie and tells her that she is the only one that can save them all. She frees Illyana and together they banish Witchfire but she took along Illyana's and Pixie's soul, that make the young X-Men fly away. Illyana takes everybody back to the Danger Room and there Illyana decides to stay with them.

 

Back to the New Mutants

 

After another brief disappearance, Illyana reappears at the X-Men's new San Francisco home, exhausted and injured. Disoriented and sounding more than a little insane than usual, she gets fellow New Mutants Cannonball, Sunspot and Magma to help her find Dani and Shan, who she says will die soon if aid doesn't come quickly. She goes with her old friends to Colorado, where Dani and Shan had gone earlier based on reports that a young mutant there might have been endangering the local populace. On the way there, she plays mind games with Amara, teasing her that she can cure Empath of the injury caused by Pixie's Souldagger. Once there, she splits up with Amara to track down a missing little girl, empathizing acutely with her as she was also kidnapped in her youth.

 

Tracking her down to a certain home, Illyana and Amara think they've found Shan being held prisoner. But when they open the small cell, they instead find a grinning Legion waiting inside. Conferring with Sam and Bobby, who had found Shan's body in another location, they find out that Shan is inside Legion's mind with a benign little girl personality, but are being chased by the more violent personalities in David Haller's mindscape. When Shan and the little girl are overwhelmed, the violent persona take over. One with superhuman strength punches Amara away, and another one uses an energy blast to down Illyana. The mutant sorceress quickly recovers, and tells Sam and Bobby to find Dani. As one of the beings who previously tried to "fix" David Haller's mind, Dani has become one of Legion's intended targets.

 

Meanwhile, Sam and Bobby find Dani imprisoned in a local jail, about to be attacked by Legion. Bobby knocks Legion away from Dani's cell before she can be harmed, but Sam leaves her inside, thinking that she will be safer. Sam realizes his mistake when Legion uses another of his powers to manipulate the earth in Dani's cell in a second attempt to kill her. That attempt is stopped when Magik and Magma arrive. Magma melts the earth golem Legion created, preventing Dani from being strangled. Furious at Sam, Dani punches him, then leaves to arm herself in order to be useful when they bring the fight back to the insane mutant.

 

Determined to put an end to the threat and save Shan, Illyana teleports to Shan's body and touches it, initiating a transfer of her mind into Legion's. Once there, Illyana shows that she means business by threatening harm if they didn't release Shan to her immediately. When she is accused of bluffing, Illyana manifests her soul sword and, ignoring Sam's plea not to harm any of Legion's personalities, proceeds to cleave and decapitate three of Legion's personas in short order. When a fourth persona attempts to stop Illyana and fails, the remaining personalities acquiesce and lead her to where they're holding Shan and the little girl prisoner. Illyana frees them both, and in the process also frees David Haller's base personality. Guided by David, Illyana discovers that the doll, named "Moira," is the basis for conscious control of Legion's body. Illyana takes the doll away from the remaining hostile personalities just in time to save Dani and the others.

 

Second Coming and Hellbound

 

When Cable returns to the present timeline with Hope Summers in tow, Illyana is dispatched along with a group of other X-Men to retrieve the pair and return them to the safety of the island nation of Utopia. Unfortunately, Bastion's forces nearly kill the trio in an explosion, but Illyana manages to take the brunt of the attack. Before she can use magic to mend herself, Illyana is dragged into Limbo via a stepping disc by demons, much to Colossus's dismay. The next day, Colossus confronts Cyclops, and demands that he be allowed to rescue his sister. Cyclops declines his request, explaining that he needs him by his side, and that he has already ordered Cannonball to form a team of X-Men to retrieve the teleporter from the hellish dimension. They include Northstar, Anole, Pixie, Trance, Dazzler, and Gambit. Although some of the mutants are more willing to help than others, they are all teleported to Limbo thanks to the spell Magik taught Pixie during the events of Quest For Magik. They are quickly attacked by the monstrous hordes belonging to the demon N'astirh, and Gambit succumbs to the realm's evil mystical influence.

 

Facing seemingly insurmountable odds, Dazzler and Northstar both fall victim to Gambit's corruption, and proceed to attack the remaining X-Men sent to aid illyana. Meanwhile, Pixie is visited by N'astirh, and given a choice. He offers to restore the portion of her soul that has been corrupted by Magik. All she has to do is use her Souldagger to kill Magik, and retrieve the Soul Sword for him. Pixie seems reluctant, but allows the demon to take her to Magik. Magik pleads with Pixie to take her life, and end her suffering, but Pixie tricks N'astirh, and stabs the demon with her weapon. With the aid of Cannonball and Anole, The trio manage to free Magik from her imprisonment, and liberate Gambit, Dazzler, and Northstar from Limbo's wicked influence. Magik explains that the reason she hates the new crop of X-Men so much is that they remind her of the monster she has become, and of everything she has lost since Inferno.

 

Once Pixie and the X-Men free Magik, the pair use their weapons to stab N'astirh, and Illyana reclaims Limbo as her own realm. Illyana makes a tentative pact with Pixie to work together in order to reclaim what they have lost as the result of dark magic. Magik and her teammates then leave Limbo to rejoin the rest of the X-Men, and combat the threat posed to mutankind during the events of Second Coming.

 

Avengers vs. X-Men

 

During the conflict, Magik becomes one of the mutants empowered by the Phoenix Force to help defeat the Avengers. Magik intervenes during a battle between Rogue and the Avenger Ms. Marvel, using her powers to gag the heroine and trap her in Limbo. Upon Namor's defeat, Magik, along with her brother, Cyclops and Emma are empowered by Namor's portion of the Phoenix Force. Magik and Colossus defeat Thor and they throw him into a portion of Limbo that Magik raised into the Earthly plane that they are using a prison for the Avengers. The Rasputin siblings end up fighting the Avengers trying to break their team out. In order to buy some time for the Avengers to break the team free, Spider-Man stands up to the two of them. Colossus punches him telling him he does not wish to harm anyone. Magik tells him that he should kill him now and Colossus tells her he does not like what the Phoenix Force is doing to her, and them in general. Spider-Man tricks the two into fighting each other. The Rasputins clash in a fiery blaze of the flaming cosmic energy and both are knocked out and lose their respective portions of the Phoenix Force which then goes to the remaining avatars, Emma and Cyclops. Magik teleports Colossus and herself away to Siberia. In a dark moment for Colossus where he feels doomed, Magik reveals that she planned Colossus becoming the Juggernaut from the beginning. She wanted him to truly understand how she felt when she was a demon from his own demonic experience. In his anger, he attacks her as the Juggernaut but she teleports away leaving him with her final gift; regret.

 

Illyana later returns to her brother with the aim of finishing their 'business'. As Colossus attacks her, she teleports the both of them to Limbo and, being empowered there, removes Cyttorak's corruption from her brothers soul. When asked if she could have done this any time, she replies that she could put that she wanted her brother to learn both of her experiences and to not sacrifice someone who "simply does not deserve it". Colossus threatens to kill her if he ever sees her again and, satisfied that he learned that lesson, Illyana teleports away again.

 

She is next seen at the Jean Grey School For Higher Learning. She hides in Storm's room and upon seeing her, gives her a letter with her brothers location and the suggestion to arrest him. When Storm finds Colossus she is shocked by his animosity he has for the very image of his sister.

 

All New X-Men and the New Revolution

 

Illyana plays a crucial role in the breakout that frees Cyclops, summoning demonic arms to tear away the wall of his cell. She is also seen banishing prisoners murdered a mutant inmate to her dimension of Limbo.

 

Now known as a public enemy to the US Magik has joined Cyclops' team of renegade X-Men alongside with Emma Frost and Magneto. Magik plays a pivotal role in the new All New X-Men series. Magik helps teleport the team around saving innocent mutants from mutant hate groups and law enforcements.

 

Due to the Phoenix Force's influence on the hosts, their powers have been altered and Magik's have been upgraded. Her, Magneto, Cyclops, Emma Frost, and the two new students named Eva Bell and Christopher Muse, show up to save a new mutant by the name of Fabio Medina. During the rescue, the team is attacked by a horde of sentinels and Magik destroyed a massive one with utter ease. After Cyclops lays waste to the rest, Magik teleports the new mutant to the New Xavier Institute where they will be taught how to control their powers. Magik attends the meeting with the other veteran X-Men where they go over the new institute lay-out with the new students and explain the current world's mutant situation. Eva Bell wishes to go home to check on her mother so Magik volunteers to take her and the others, but the whole group goes save for Magneto. Once in Australia, Magik keeps an out for trouble and eventually a group of the Avengers led by Captain America make their way to the scene.

 

Cyclops' team show up the Avengers on live TV by having Scott's team appear as victims of persecution and Eva freezing the Avengers in a temporal bubble. Magik continues to be their primary source of transportation as she teleports the team to the Jean Grey Institute where Cyclops attempts to clear the air and offer a chance for the younger mutants to join his school. When they leave and return home, Magik's powers show her broken side-effects as she writhes in pain, disappears in a hellish portal, and the reemerges with a burst of flames before running off on her own. Her powers act up a second time when the team returns once again with new students in the Stepford Cuckoos and the original, younger version of Angel.

 

Magik is pulled into Limbo after discovering Dormammu has tried taking over. Dormammu forces Magik back into Limbo, along with the rest of the team, and is held captive by the demon as he forces her to watch as his teammates fight for their lives against the mindless ones. Magik manages to break free and casts the team out of the dimension, all the while she absorbs the entirety of Limbo into herself. She then finds the demon in the desolate Limbo and is suggested to have killed him. With her revelation and after absorbing Limbo, Illyana decides she needs help and finds a Dr. Strange back in time before he ever becomes an Avenger to help her control her powers.

 

Magik and the Cuckoos rescue and recruit a new mutant by the name of David Bond. After receiving word of Fabio's kidnapping at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D., Magik is one of the team members that helps rescue him. Magik is seen training with Eva, but gets caught in Eva's bubble and displaced somewhere in time before coming back. Magik joins the X-Men team to a pro-Cyclops rally, but the team is suddenly attacked by a new sentinel called the blockbuster sentinel. Since the Blockbuster sentinel attack, Magik has helped in training the students and fighting with the alternate timeline versions of the X-Men during the Battle of the Atom event. When the X-Men get a notification of a new mutant, it turns out to be a trap from more sentinels. Thinking it is SHIELD, Cyclops tries to get a distraction going when he learns the sentinel is somehow disabling their mutant abilities. Illyana taps into her training from Dr. Strange and unleashes a magical dragon attack that destroys a bunch of the sentinels. The large one ends up fleeing and the team declares war on whoever is sending these sentinels, whether it be SHIELD or someone using SHIELD.

 

The Last Will & Testament of Charles Xavier

 

When lawyer Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk, received the last will and testament of Charles Xavier, she left for the Jean Grey School to read it to the X-Men listed by Xavier, who also included Scott Summers on the list. In order to have the will read, Scott needed to be contacted and brought to the school. Hank McCoy revealed that he'd always known where Scott's secret base was, but he never told anyone else, not wanting his life to be directed by Scott Summers any longer. The X-Men flew to the New Charles Xavier School for Mutants in the Canadian wilderness, and were greeted by the Uncanny X-Men. The situation was explained, and Magik quickly teleported to JGS and back to verify the story. Scott, Emma, Illyana, Kitty, and Ali teleported to JGS for the reading of the will. It was revealed that Charles Xavier had married Mystique, and that he'd covered up the discovery of an omnipotent mutant by the name of Matthew Malloy. He'd suppressed the boy's memories in order to suppress his powers, but it was all beginning to become undone. He charged the X-Men with the final task of finding and suppressing this mutant. Scott left along with Storm and Rachel Grey to find the mutant. With a wave of his hand, Malloy destroyed a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier, and proved to be telepathically immune to Rachel's provocations. He teleported the X-Men away, back to their respective schools. Scott had Magik teleport him back to Malloy, and made a deal with the man. Together, the trio teleported away to Devil's Tower. Scott ordered Magik to give him time to talk to Malloy. During this time, Magneto intervened telling Scott that he'd gone too far, and needed to back down. Malloy, angered, teleported Magneto away and continued his conversation with Scott.

 

In the meantime, Magik visited Doctor Strange in the past again, and, after interrupting one of his more private sessions with a woman, asked if he knew of a way to stop someone as powerful as Malloy. Strange gave Magik the Eye of Agamotto to use on Malloy. Teleporting back to the present, Magik attempted to explain how she would use the artifact, when SHIELD attack forces appeared and blew the entirety of Devil's Tower to smithereens, resulting in the unfortunate and untimely demise of Scott Summers, Matthew Malloy, and Illyana, herself.

 

Guardians of the Galaxy & X-Men: The Black Vortex

 

Responding to a distress call from her friend and teammate Kitty Pryde, Illyana takes the All-New X-Men and teleports to the Jean Grey School. Once there, she is able to quickly and vaguely inform Storm and Beast that there is a problem that requires their attention. She teleports the group to a the planet Spartax where Kitty and her boyfriend, Peter Quill aka the Legendary Star-Lord are waiting for them with the Guardians of the Galaxy. They have gathered to discuss the dangers of the mysterious Black Vortex, and begin to argue over what should be done with it. While some, like Gamora, want to use the artifact, others, like Storm, want to destroy it. The cosmically empowered Slaughter Lords working for Mister Knife attack the assembled heroes to steal back the Black Vortex. While they battle, Gamora uses the Vortex to enhance herself. With her new skills, she easily battles all of the Slaughter Lords at once, giving Magik time to teleport everyone away. Once safely spirited away by Magik, an argument erupts once again over what should be done, with Kitty spearheading the argument against using the Black Vortex. During the commotion, Beast uses it and becomes cosmically empowered. He agrees with Gamora. All his questions have been answered. He urges the others to use the artifact, tilting the mirror so that they can see what they would look like if cosmically empowered by the Black Vortex.

 

Powers and Abilities

 

Illyana has two very distinctive powers, one is her mutant power to generate spacial/temporal warps in the form of stepping discs, the other is her magic, learned while she was in Limbo. As more and more of her soul was removed, it was replaced and filled with Black Magic granting vast mystical abilities. The two powers will be described separately below.

 

Mutant Power

 

Stepping Disc

Illyana Rasputin has the mutant ability to create and control teleportation energies in the form of "stepping discs". These yellow rings of glowing light, once created, provide the ability to teleport. Not only just herself but a group of individuals as well, to a multitude of different places including destinations in both time and space. The only limitation to her teleportation power is that she must use Limbo as her stopping point prior to her final destination, wherever that may be. Magik can also teleport herself or others into her domain, Limbo or "Hell" dimension or out of it. As Limbo is her domain, Illyana is able to mentally scan Limbo, while on Earth in order to locate whomever she wishes to teleport to Earth from it. Magik has succeeded in teleporting herself and another person across a continent on one occasion, and to travel through time on a few others.

 

However, Magik has not yet mastered her teleportation ability. The greater the distance over which she teleports, the greater the possible margin of error in terms of her arriving at the point in time she desires. Hence, when she once teleported herself and a friend from New York to California, hoping to arrive within seconds of the time she left, Magik and her friend instead arrived one week later, having accidentally traveled into the future. Magik is continuously practicing the use of her teleportation power in order to master it. Although already quite adept in the use of the mutant powers she still has a lot to learn especially considering how new she is to them.

 

In terms of potential Illyana's is nearly limitless. She was once told by Dr. Strange that she had the potential for great feats of manipulating time on a very wide scale. Never one to accept the status quo, Illyana continuously and regularly practices the use of her mutant powers in order to master them and have them grow in strength.

 

Ever since having her powers altered by the Phoenix Force, Magik has undergone an upgrade. She has been shown to be able to conjure and project powerful blasts of energy from her Limbo dimension as an extension of her powers rather than her magic. She has been shown consistently adept at teleporting people away before others can react. Since Dormammu attempted to take over Limbo, Illyana has absorbed the entire dimension into her body.

 

Magical Power

 

Sorceress

As a result of the time Illyana was forced to spend in Limbo, she was permanently changed both physically and mentally. She would spend a total of 6 years in Limbo during which she would learn valuable skills and abilities taught to her by different teachers that would help her in becoming the future Sorceress Supreme & Ruler of Limbo, that she was destined to become. During her first year in Limbo, Illyana was an apprentice to an alternate reality version of Storm. One who unfortunately was stuck in Limbo and lost the ability to control the weather instead becoming a powerful magician highly skilled in the use of white magic. So skilled was she, that she was nearly able to best Belasco in their very first battle only faltering in the very end. During Illyana's time with the now elderly Ororo, she was taught in the uses and practices of white magic. Different from black magic, white magic usually helped rather then hurt when used. She was also taught about life, the creation of it and astral projection. It would be during the time that she would spend with the elderly Ororo that Illyana would learn, much later master, the ability to mystically heal herself. She would spend an entire year apprenticing under the tutelage of the elderly Ororo.

 

Following Illyana's first year with Ororo, Illyana then was trained by Cat. Cat was an alternate reality version of Kitty Pryde. No longer fully human in appearance, due to an interaction with Belasco, she had been transformed into a cat-like hybrid making her more animal in nature. As a result of the magical transformation forced on Cat, she had a hate for magic and wanted Illyana to have nothing to do with it. Illyana would train with Cat for 2 years, during which she would be taught how to fight, specifically, unarmed-combat and in the effective use of bladed weapons. Initially Cat taught Illyana how to use a dagger then moved on to that of swords. Illyana would become quite comfortable in the use of both weapons; comfortable and very effective. It was during her time with Cat that she was also taught valuable survival skills allowing her to thrive in the most unlikely places. Illyana would grow to become best friends with Cat and look at her like family, willing to do anything to protect her.

 

It would be during her time with Limbo's, then, ruler Belasco that Illyana would learn and be changed the most. It was Belasco's goal to transform all 5 parts of Illyana's soul into Bloodstones. This was for two very different reasons. Firstly, with the 5 Bloodstones, Belasco could complete the magical Beatrice Medallion thus allowing him the ability to traverse to and from Limbo. An ability he had lost when he was exiled to Limbo by his masters the Elder Gods, for failing them. As a result of her soul being removed, it would be filled completely with black magic and would permanently make her a tool of both his, Belasco, and that of his evil masters the Elder Gods. This would make her a being of pure evil and thus helping the Elder Gods take over the Earth dimension.

 

Belasco would be unsuccessful in his ploy to remove all 5 parts of Illyana's soul. In the 3 years that she would learn under his tutelage, he would only manage to take 3/5 of her soul. This would still permanently taint her soul and as a result give her a partial demonic soul instead. It would be during her time as a pupil of Belasco's that he would teach her the darkest of the dark arts and the blackest of black magic. While at his palace she, too, had full access to Belasco's library of books of magic, that he had collected through this long, unnatural life. Belasco taught the young Illyana everything he knew. As a result of this, Illyana could produce virtually any and all spells that Belasco could and would be able to manipulate the forces of magic for a variety of effects to include.

 

-Mind Control (both humans and animals)

 

-Metamorphing (herself, others or objects. living or otherwise)

 

-Astral Projection

 

-Necromancy

 

-Generate and release concussive bolts of pure magic energy

 

-Creation of magical force fields

 

-Inter-dimensional travel

 

-Ability to generate and manipulate fire

 

-Mental Possession

 

-Dark force manipulation

 

-Creation of constructs purely of magical energies

 

As a result of Illyana's diverse training and multiple years learning while in Limbo, she gained an aptitude for sorcery and control over magic that was unlike no other. She had created a unique blend of both white and black magic that she would wield. Additionally, due to her now partially demonic soul, Illyana had also naturally gained formidable psionic shielding granting her immunity to mental probing. This shielding was effective enough to hinder the vaunted telepathic abilities of both Professor X and Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers) arguably two of the most powerful mutant minds the world has seen.

 

After Illyana bested Belasco in battle, she chose to exile him from the Limbo, allowing him to live rather than kill him. As the winner, Illyana, was granted the title of Sorceress Supreme of Limbo. The full extents of her powers have not yet been fully defined. It have been stated that in Limbo, Illyana's power is unmatched and her word is law. With but a single thought she can completely alter the physical appearance of Limbo. As stated previously, she too, potentially, could cast all spells that Belasco could have. This especially since she has unlimited access to Balesco's sorceress knowledge.

 

For this reason and more Illyana is most powerful during her time in Limbo. This is clearly a result of her should being connected to the dimension, allowing for the two being intertwined by the very essences that they are created from. On the flip side, while on the Earth dimension, cut off from Limbo, Illyana's magical prowess and abilities are dramatically reduced. Illyana has preformed a handful of magical skills on Earth but nothing comparable to that of what she can do in Limbo. While on Earth, Illyana has effectively preformed; Astral projection, an abilities to sense magical presences and the ability to magically scan her Limbo dimension, allowing her to track and/or see all that occurs in Limbo while she is away. Illyana's most notable power while on Earth though are largely limited to her magical weapon, of her own making, called the Soulsword.

 

Recently,Illyana has been using her abilities to travel back in time to Dr. Strange before he became an Avenger to help train her in her magical abilities.

 

The Soulsword

 

The Soulsword is the ultimate embodiment of Illyana's magical strength that was forged during a time of great need and despair. Illyana was desperate to find a way to free herself of Belasco and find a way to leave Limbo.

 

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Illyana Nikolaievna Rasputina

 

Publisher: Marvel

 

First appearance: As Illyana Rasputina: Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975)

As Magik: Magik (Storm and Illyana) #1 (December 1983)

 

Created by:

Illyana Rasputina:

Len Wein (Writer)

Dave Cockrum (Artist)

 

Magik:

Chris Claremont (Writer)

Sal Buscema (Artist)

 

Illyana has not been seen on the Bijou Planks stage prior to this, but she has been seen outside the theater, such as in Paprihaven issue 1269!

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/27683661579/

I've been published

Published by O Globo, Brazil 1937-1952

Designer: Deepk Perwani

Published in Brides & You Volume 05, Issue 04

 

MØ

Secret Solstice Festival

June, 2015

Reykjavik, Iceland

© 2015 LEROE24FOTOS.COM

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED,

BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.

One piece of a Jigsaw puzzle themed installation

  

Out and About at Vivid 2015

Published on Khánh Hòa Sunday magazine (1/7/2012)

Link: www.baokhanhhoa.com.vn/Vanhoa-Thethao/201206/Nguyen-Xuan-...

My project: www.flickr.com/photos/hmoong/sets/72157627891376819/

Two-Face (Harvey Dent) is a supervillain appearing in comic books published by DC Comics, commonly as an adversary of the superhero Batman. The character was created by Bob Kane and first appeared in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942). As one of Batman's most enduring enemies, Two-Face belongs to the collective of adversaries that make up Batman's rogues gallery.

 

Once a bright and upstanding district attorney of Gotham City dedicated to ridding its streets of crime and corruption, Harvey Dent is hideously scarred on the left side of his face after mob boss Sal Maroni throws acidic chemicals at him during a court trial. He subsequently goes insane and adopts the "Two-Face" persona, becoming a criminal obsessed with the number two, the concept of duality, and the conflict between good and evil. Two-Face obsessively makes all important decisions by flipping a two-headed coin. The character was reinvented for the Modern Age of Comic Books as having dissociative identity disorder, with Two-Face being an alter, which stemmed from the abuse Harvey received from his father during his childhood. The modern version is established as having once been a personal friend and ally of James "Jim" Gordon and Batman, as well as a friend of Batman's secret identity, Bruce Wayne.

 

Two-Face has no superpowers, instead relying on his proficiency in marksmanship and martial arts, which was further improved after being trained by Deathstroke and Batman. As a former lawyer, the character uses his expertise in criminal law, criminology, and police procedures to devise his crimes

 

Creation and Golden Age history

 

Two-Face was created by Batman co-creator Bob Kane, and debuted in Detective Comics #66 ("The Crimes of Two-Face"), written by Batman's other co-creator Bill Finger, in August 1942 as a new Batman villain originally named Harvey "Apollo" Kent, a former handsome, law-abiding Gotham City district attorney close to the Batman whose face was disfigured in half after a mob boss he was prosecuting, Sal Maroni, splashed Kent with acid, resulting in his loss of sanity and turn to crime, with his crimes centered around the number 2. In creating Two-Face, Kane was inspired by the 1931 adaptation of the Robert Louis Stevenson story The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, which Kane described as a "classic story of the good and evil sides of human nature", and was also influenced by the 1925 silent film adaptation of Gaston Leroux's novel The Phantom of the Opera. Kane and Finger conceived the idea of Two-Face flipping a coin scarred on one side to determine which side of his personality emerges: evil if the coin flip results in the scarred side, which causes him to "go on a rampage of looting and destruction," or good if it results in the unscarred side, causing him to give his loot to charity or refrain from committing a crime. In Kane's autobiography Batman and Me, Kane suggests that Finger was inspired by the pulp magazine hero Black Bat, with their similarities as both district attorneys disfigured with acid. Two-Face's last name Kent was later changed to Dent, which Kane infers was done because of Superman's alter ego Clark Kent having the same surname.

 

"The Crimes of Two-Face" also introduced Two-Face's devoted wife, Gilda Dent, a long-standing character in Two-Face stories. Later appearances continued featuring the character's criminal life until he was cured through plastic surgery in his third appearance and shown reformed in 1952's "The Double Crimes of Two-Face!" (Detective Comics #187), with impostors taking Two-Face's place in later stories. Two-Face made his last appearance in the Golden Age of Comic Books in 1954's "Two-Face Strikes Again" (Batman #81), in which Two-Face returns to crime; however, this story is non-canon to the Golden Age version of the character, because only the Two-Face stories from 1942 to 1952 were assigned to DC's setting for their Golden Age characters, Earth-Two.

 

Dormancy and revitalization

 

The character was unused throughout the Silver Age of Comic Books, only appearing in the 173rd issue of World's Finest Comics in 1968 which featured Batman transforming into Two-Face. In July 1971, during the Bronze Age of Comic Books, Two-Face was brought back by writer Dennis O'Neil and former DC editor Julius Schwartz in the story "Half an Evil" (Batman #234). Written by O'Neil and drawn by Neal Adams, "Half an Evil" is a mystery story which features Two-Face stealing doubloons from a pirate ship; the issue also retold his origin with a recap of previous stories. After his reintroduction, Two-Face was featured in several DC comics, such as The Brave and The Bold, Justice League of America, and Teen Titans, and became one of Batman's most popular enemies.

 

Modern Age

 

Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths comic event which rebooted the DC Universe, Two-Face was reintroduced in Frank Miller's 1986 revision of Batman's origin, Batman: Year One, as Gotham City's former crusader against crime and former ally of the Batman. Later in 1990, Two-Face was given a revised origin by Andrew Helfer in 1990's "The Eye of the Beholder" (Batman Annual #14) which established Harvey Dent as having dissociative identity disorder effected by the psychological trauma from his past of childhood abuse dealt by his father, with Two-Face being a second personality state, and cemented Dent as being formerly part of an alliance with Batman and Commissioner James Gordon against crime in Gotham City. 1995's Batman/Two-Face: Crime and Punishment by writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Scott McDaniel built on "Eye of the Beholder" and explored Dent's psyche and his childhood with his abusive father. Two-Face's origin was later expanded in writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale's 1996 Batman limited series The Long Halloween, which incorporated aspects of "Eye of the Beholder" and explored Batman, Gordon and Dent's struggle to end Gotham's Mob during the rise of costumed supervillains.

 

A reformed Dent rid of Two-Face was featured in Loeb and artist Jim Lee's 2002 Batman arc Hush, continuing on to 2006 in the 52 limited series and in writer James Robinson's Batman arc "Face the Face", which explored Dent having trained under Batman and taking Batman's place as Gotham's protector during Batman's one-year absence, as well as Two-Face's return. In the 2006 limited series Two-Face: Year One written by Mark Sable, Two-Face was given a revamped origin, focusing on Dent's transformation into Two-Face during Dent's election campaign for district attorney, as well as establishing the relationship between a young Harvey Dent and Bruce Wayne, Batman's secret identity.

 

Description

 

Two-Face is a duality-obsessed criminal. Introduced in 1942 as a criminal mastermind obsessed with the number 2, Two-Face's crimes as well as his hideouts and henchmen surround the number; since the 1980s, Two-Face's duality obsession evolved into an obsession with the duality of man, with the character committing crimes based on his "misguided sense of right and wrong".

 

Two-Face views himself as both good and evil, and relies on flipping his double-headed coin, scarred on one side, in making important decisions and deciding whether his good or evil side will prevail.

 

Widely considered Batman's most tragic villain, Two-Face was established as a tragic figure in his debut: a former law-abiding district attorney turned criminal whose disfigurement resulted in him being shunned by society, which led to his turn to crime. In his early stories, Two-Face yearns to fix his face and bring back the love of his wife who he mistakenly thinks does not love him because of his disfigurement. 1990's "The Eye of the Beholder" (Batman Annual #14) reimagined Two-Face for the Modern Age as having psychological trauma from the childhood abuse he received from his father, and depicted him as being on the verge of a mental breakdown as a result of his repressed trauma and the pressure of fighting crime in Gotham, and driven to a point of desperation by Gotham's corruption. "Eye of the Beholder" also established Two-Face as a second personality state of Harvey Dent's dissociative identity disorder which resulted from his trauma; a psychiatrist in the story describes his condition as having "two personalities", with Dent having managed to "sublimate the second, anti-social one since he was a teenager".

 

Skills and abilities

 

Before his transformation into Two-Face, Harvey Dent had a successful career as Gotham's district attorney, driven to bring an end to the city's epidemic of organized crime. Following his disfigurement, he becomes obsessed with the number two and the concept of duality, and thus stages crimes centered around the number two—such as robbing buildings with 2 in the address or staging events that will take place at 10:22 p.m. (2222 in military time). He was an accomplished lawyer highly skilled in almost all matters relating to criminal law and an extensive knowledge of the criminal world. He is also a charismatic leader and speaker. Two-Face is a genius in criminal planning and has an exceptional character, which allows him, among other things, to stoically endure pain and recover from smudging injuries in a short time. Two-Face is a skilled marksman, and regularly uses a variety of firearms such as pistols, shotguns, grenade launchers, Tommy guns, knives and rocket launchers during his battles with Batman. He primarily wields dual pistols, and has become dangerously skilled with them.

 

Harvey Dent has kept himself in peak physical conditions, even before his transformation into Two-Face and had exercise equipment in his office when he was an assistant district attorney. He later received combat training from Batman and Deathstroke. The Batman: Face the Face story arc reveals that Batman, shortly before leaving Gotham for a year, trains Dent extensively in detective work and martial arts. To further improve his proficiency in the use of firearms, Dent hires the sharpshooting assassin Deathstroke to train him.

 

Relationships

 

This section details the character's most notable relationships across various interpretations of the Batman mythos:

 

Gilda

 

Gilda Dent in some iterations, is Harvey Dent's wife. Her character debuted in Detective Comics #66, alongside Harvey, and became a recurring character in Batman stories involving Two-Face.

 

Bruce Wayne

 

Batman's alter-ego Bruce Wayne is the best friend of Harvey Dent, while before becoming Two-Face, Harvey was also one of Batman's earliest allies, predating Batman's partnership with James Gordon. Their friendship goes back to Harvey's first appearance in Detective Comics, in which Batman refers to him as his friend and emotionally asks him to give up his life of crime. Because of this relationship, Two-Face is one of Batman's most personal enemies. In the comics, it is shown that Bruce considers Harvey's downfall a personal failure, and has never given up in rehabilitating him.

 

It is established canonically that Harvey knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. The character's knowledge of Batman's secret identity was introduced in the story The Big Burn from Peter Tomasi's 2011 Batman and Robin ongoing series, and is shown in subsequent comics such as Scott Snyder's All-Star Batman, in which they were established as childhood best friends. In Detective Comics #1021, Harvey admits to Batman that he has been keeping his identity secret from his Two-Face personality in order to protect him.

 

Renee Montoya

 

Renee Montoya and Harvey Dent have a complicated relationship, introduced by writer Greg Rucka in the sixteenth issue of 1999's Batman Chronicles, in which Renee reaches out to Two-Face's Dent persona and is kind to him. Their relationship continues with the "No Man's Land" crossover storyline; in one issue, Harvey sends Renee flowers for her birthday and Renee visits him in Arkham Asylum. Harvey eventually develops romantic feelings towards Renee, which Renee doesn't return. This one-sided love would turn into an unhealthy obsession with her, which would lead to her professional and personal ruin; in the five-part Gotham Central story arc Half a Life, Two-Face attempts to destroy Renee's life by framing her for murder, outing her as a lesbian, and orchestrating a prison escape to make her a fugitive, so she would have nothing to keep her from returning his love.

 

Years after the release of Half a Life, Rucka would reunite the two in Convergence: The Question in 2015, following his return to DC Comics after his departure from the company in 2010. In the story, Renee saves a remorseful Harvey from killing himself, and convinces him to be a good man.

 

Rucka has talked about the characters' relationship in an interview with Comic Book:

 

Renee and Harvey have always had a very odd bond, as far as I've written them, going back to the very first Renee story I did for DC, "Two Down". It's never been just cop-and-criminal between them. There's a peculiar understanding between them; Renee, to me, has always been able to see the path of Harvey's madness in a way that even Batman has never negotiated. I'm not sure I'd ever call them friends, especially after what he's put her through, but Renee has always been sympathetic to him, at least, and that care, that guardianship, drives much of our story.

 

Christopher Dent

 

Christopher Dent is Harvey Dent's abusive and alcoholic father, first introduced in the definitive Two-Face origin story Eye of the Beholder (Batman Annual #14). Dent would beat his son based on the flip of a coin, heads he would beat Harvey, tails he wouldn't. Because the coin was double headed, Harvey would always be beaten. The trauma Harvey received from his father's constant abuse fueled the inner torment that eventually turns him into Two-Face.

 

Character biography

 

Golden Age

 

Acid is thrown onto Harvey Kent's face in Detective Comics #66 (August 1942). Art by Bob Kane.

Two-Face's debut and Golden Age origin story, 1942's "The Crimes of Two-Face" (Detective Comics #66), introduced him as Harvey "Apollo" Kent,[a] a handsome law-abiding Gotham City district attorney prosecuting mob boss Sal Maroni; the issue also introduced his wife, Gilda Kent,[b] who is a sculptress. During the trial, after Kent presents Maroni's lucky two-headed coin as evidence, an enraged Maroni throws acid at Kent's face and disfigures it in half. Kent, driven insane by society's repulsion and his wife's nonacceptance of his new appearance, destroys his wife's sculpture of him to resemble his disfigurement and scars one side of Maroni's two-headed coin to symbolize his appearance's duality of beauty and ugliness, then flips the coin to decide whether to become a criminal or wait for the only plastic surgeon able to fix Kent's face, who was caught in a concentration camp in Germany, to arrive. With the scarred side of the coin being the result of Kent's coin flip, Kent decides to become a criminal with the alias Two-Face who depends on flipping his coin to determine whether to be evil or good; afterwards, with the coin landing on the scarred side, Two-Face robs a bank, then, with the coin landing on the unscarred side, gives his loot to charity, causing confusion between the police and populace, whose opinions are divided about Two-Face's morality. The rest of the issue features Two-Face committing a series of crimes centered on the number 2, one of which is stopped by Batman, who pursues and corners Two-Face after he escapes. Batman makes Two-Face a proposition to give himself up and start over, by which Two-Face replies that the coin makes all his decisions for him, then flips the coin. The issue ends with the coin landing on its edge, making Two-Face leave his life to fate, with the story being resolved in "The Man Who Led a Double Life!" (Detective Comics #68). Harvey Kent is cured through plastic surgery in 1943's "The End of Two-Face" (Detective Comics #80), and is shown reformed in 1952's "The Double Crimes of Two-Face!" (Detective Comics #187).

 

Kent would later be framed for crimes done by imposters like his butler Wilkins, Paul Sloane, and George Blake.

 

Later, Kent attends the wedding of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle as a guest in 1981's "The Kill Kent Contract!" (Superman Family #211).

 

Bronze Age

 

The reintroduction of the villain Two-Face, in Batman #234 (August 1971). Art by Neal Adams.

In Two-Face's Bronze Age reintroduction, "Half a Life" (Batman #234), Two-Face concocts an elaborate scheme to steal doubloons from a historical schooner, which Batman realizes and attempts to stop. As Batman approaches the ship, Two-Face finds and incapacitates him, then ties him up, eventually leaving the ship after he lets it sink. Before Two-Face leaves, Batman tries to convince Two-Face to flip his coin to save an old man unwittingly caught in the trap by reminding him that he is both good and evil; Two-Face first disagrees until after his departure from the ship in which he is unable to resist flipping his coin. With the coin landing on the unscarred side, Two-Face returns to the ship to rescue the old man, then sees Batman had escaped his restraints. Batman offers Two-Face to surrender, to which Two-Face disagrees and attempts to attack Batman, with Two-Face being knocked out unconscious by Batman afterwards. "Half a Life" also includes a recap of his Golden Age stories as his origin: from his transformation to Two-Face and his subsequent reformation to his criminal relapse, as depicted in the 1954 story "Two-Face Strikes Again!" (Batman #81), in which Harvey Dent's plastic surgery is undone after he attempts to prevent a robbery, causing his return as Two-Face.

 

In "Threat of the Two-Headed Coin!" (Batman #258), Two-Face is broken out of Arkham Hospital[c] by a retired United States Army general who hires Two-Face to blackmail the United States government with an atomic bomb. After Two-Face betrays the general and takes over his plan, the general reveals the scheme to Batman, then dies by suicide out of remorse. Later, in the United States Capitol, Two-Face interrupts a Congress meeting to carry out the extortion scheme: in exchange for not exploding the Capitol with an atomic bomb, Two-Face demands the United States government to give him two billion dollars and gemstones, with Two-Face intending to use the money to bribe people to ignore his hideous appearance and end his misery; Batman eventually foils Two-Face's plan.

 

Two-Face then appears in a number of non-Batman comics, such as The Joker, Justice League of America, and Teen Titans. The Joker's first issue, "The Joker's Double Jeopardy", features Two-Face and fellow Batman adversary Joker battling each other to prove who is the superior criminal, while Justice League of America's 125-26th issues, "The Men Who Sold Destruction!" and "The Evil Connection", shows Two-Face assisting the superhero team Justice League. In Teen Titans, Two-Face meets Teen Titans member Duela Dent who claims to be his daughter.

 

In the 313-314th issues of Batman, Two-Face steals a top secret missile activation binary code owned by the United States government and goes to New Orleans, with Batman and a United States federal agent reluctantly working together to trail him and obtain the code. On a float in New Orleans' Mardi Gras parade, Two-Face deceives an American and a Russian representative who each negotiated for the code for $22,000,000 and steals $44,000,000 from them; Two-Face then escapes from the float to a blimp, with Batman and the agent in pursuit. Afterwards, while Batman hangs from the blimp's hatch, Two-Face flips the coin to decide whether to kill him, with the agent eventually shooting the coin outwards the hatch. Two-Face, declaring that his life is meaningless without the coin, leaps for it and falls out of the blimp.

 

Two-Face changes his face through plastic surgery as well as his identity to Carl Ternion in Batman's 328-329th issues, and reunites with Gilda Dent to make her happy after her former husband, Dave Stevens, died. Two-Face then avenges Stevens' death by killing Sal Maroni, who had also changed his face and his identity to Anton Karoselle and had killed Gilda Dent's former husband. Karoselle's death and Two-Face and Maroni's changed identities are significant aspects of the mystery Batman solves in the story: how Ternion murdered Karoselle twice and had been acquitted for it, as Ternion admits in a video tape sent to Batman by Two-Face. Later, Two-Face runs away from Gilda Dent after his plastic surgery becomes undone, and afterwards, Batman tells Gilda Dent the truth about Ternion's actual identity and convinces her of a plan to lure and take down Two-Face: Batman disguises himself as Maroni attacking Gilda Dent as bait, and, with Two-Face chasing him, leads Two-Face to the Gotham City courthouse, where Batman and Gilda Dent eventually convince Two-Face to rehabilitate himself in Arkham.

 

In the two-issue arc "Half a Hero... Is Better Than None!" from Batman #346 and Detective Comics #513, Two-Face escapes Arkham Asylum and puts Batman in an elaborate deathtrap set in a converted halfway house, eventually capturing Batman and imprisoning him for a week, after which Two-Face attempts to rob a record company named Duo Records, and is stopped by Batman's sidekick, Robin. Two-Face, having escaped the encounter, returns to the halfway house. Afterwards, Batman escapes by creating and putting on a Two-Face mask, causing Two-Face to release him.

 

Two-Face's good and evil sides are in conflict in a four-issue storyline in Batman and Detective Comics, with his evil side being predominant. Two-Face allies with Batman villain Black Mask's former lover Circe who convinces him to steal a pharaoh's death mask concealed within a sarcophagus which she states to be imbued with magic that could restore his good side; this plan is revealed to be conceived by Batman, who is working with Circe to trick Two-Face into having his good side restored and have him rehabilitated. The plan doesn't work with Two-Face's evil side taking over.

 

Modern Age

 

The retelling of Two-Face's origin in Showcase '93 #7 (June 1993). Art by Klaus Janson.

The Post-Crisis and followed up in The Long Halloween established this version of Two-Face is depicted as having had an unhappy childhood; his father was a mentally ill alcoholic who beat him regularly, often deciding whether or not to brutalize his son based on a flip of his lucky coin. The abuse instilled in Dent his lifelong struggle with free will and his eventual inability to make choices on his own, relying on the coin to make all of his decisions. Dent is diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder at a young age, but manages to hide his illnesses and, thanks to an unyielding work ethic, rises up through the ranks of Gotham City's district attorney's office until, at age 26, he becomes the youngest DA in the city's history. Gordon even suspected that Dent could be Batman, but discarded this suspicion when he realized that Dent lacked the vigilante's financial resources. Dent forges an alliance with Gordon and Batman to rid Gotham of organized crime. Mob boss Carmine Falcone bribes corrupt Assistant District Attorney Vernon Fields to provide his lieutenant Sal Maroni, whom Dent is trying for murder, with sulfuric acid; Maroni throws the acid in Dent's face during a cross-examination, horribly scarring the left side of Dent's face. Dent escapes from the hospital and reinvents himself as the gangster Two-Face. He scars one side of his father's coin and uses it to decide whether to commit a crime. Eventually, Two-Face takes his revenge on Falcone, Fields and Maroni, but is captured by Batman, leading to his incarceration in Arkham Asylum.

 

During the Batman: Dark Victory story arc, the serial killer Hangman targets various cops who assisted in Dent's rise to the D.A.'s office. Two-Face gathers Gotham's criminals to assist in the destruction of the city's crime lords. After a climactic struggle in the Batcave, Two-Face is betrayed by the Joker, who shoots at Dent, causing him to fall into a chasm, presumably to his death. Batman admits in the aftermath that, even if Two-Face has survived, Harvey Dent is gone forever. During a much later period, Two-Face is revealed to have murdered the father of Jason Todd, the second Robin. When attempting to apprehend Two-Face, Jason briefly has the criminal at his mercy, but lets Two-Face's punishment be decided by the law. Two-Face similarly serves as a 'baptism by fire' for Tim Drake, the third Robin. Two-Face has Batman at his mercy, but Tim dons the Robin suit to save Batman.

 

In Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Arkham's doctors replace Dent's coin with a die and eventually a tarot deck, but rather than becoming self-reliant, Dent is now unable to make even the smallest of decisions—such as going to the bathroom. Batman returns the coin, telling Two-Face to use it to decide whether to kill him. Batman leaves safely, but it is implied that Two-Face made his own decision to let Batman live.

 

In the No Man's Land storyline, in which Gotham is devastated by an earthquake, Two-Face claims a portion of the ruined city, takes up residence in Gotham City Hall, and forms a temporary alliance with Gordon to share certain territory. His empire is brought down by Bane (employed by Lex Luthor), who destroys Two-Face's gang during his destruction of the city's Hall of Records. Two-Face kidnaps Gordon and puts him on trial for his activities after Gotham City is declared a "No Man's Land", with Two-Face as both judge and prosecutor for Gordon's illegal alliance with him; Gordon later plays upon Two-Face's split psyche to demand Harvey Dent as his defense attorney. Dent cross-examines Two-Face and wins an acquittal for Gordon, determining that Two-Face has effectively blackmailed Gordon by implying that he had committed murders to aid the Commissioner. During this time, Two-Face also meets detective Renee Montoya. Montoya reaches the Dent persona in Two-Face and is kind to him. He falls in love with her, though the romance is one-sided.

 

Eventually in the Gotham Central series, he outs her as a lesbian and frames her for murder, hoping that if he takes everything from her, she will be left with no choice but to be with him. She is furious, and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman intervenes, putting Two-Face back in Arkham.

 

In the Batman: Two-Face - Crime and Punishment one-shot comic book, Two-Face captures his own father, planning to humiliate and kill him on live television for the years of abuse that he suffered. This story reveals that, despite his apparent hatred for his father, Dent still supports him, paying for an expensive home rather than allowing him to live in a slum. At the end of the book, the Dent and Two-Face personalities argue in thought, Two-Face calling Dent "spineless". Dent proves Two-Face wrong, choosing to jump off a building and commit suicide just to put a stop to his alter ego's crime spree. Two-Face is surprised when the coin flip comes up scarred but abides by the decision and jumps. Batman catches him, but the shock of the fall seems to (at least temporarily) destroy the Two-Face personality. In Batman: Two-Face Strikes Twice!, Two-Face is at odds with his ex-wife Gilda Grace Dent, as he believes their marriage failed because he was unable to give her children. She later marries Paul Janus (a reference to the Roman god of doors, who had two faces). Two-Face attempts to frame Janus as a criminal by kidnapping him and replacing him with a stand-in, whom Two-Face "disfigures" with makeup. Batman eventually catches Two-Face, and Gilda and Janus reunite. Years later, Gilda gives birth to twins, prompting Two-Face to escape once more and take the twins hostage, as he erroneously believes them to be conceived by Janus using an experimental fertility drug. The end of the book reveals that Two-Face is the twins' natural father.

 

Batman: Hush

 

In the Batman: Hush storyline, Dent's face is repaired by plastic surgery, seemingly eradicating the Two-Face personality. Dent takes the law into his own hands twice: once by using his ability to manipulate the legal system to free the Joker, and then again by shooting the serial killer Hush. He manipulates the courts into setting him free, as Gotham's prosecutors would not attempt to charge him without a body.

 

Return to villainy

 

In the Batman story arc Batman: Face the Face, that started in Detective Comics #817, and was part of DC's One Year Later storyline, it is revealed that, at Batman's request and with his training, Harvey Dent becomes a vigilante protector of Gotham City in most of Batman's absence of nearly a year. He is reluctant to take the job, but Batman assures him that it will serve as atonement for his past crimes. After a month of training, they fight the Firebug and Mr. Freeze, before Batman leaves for a year. Dent enjoys his new role, but his methods are more extreme and less refined than Batman's. Upon Batman's return, Dent begins to feel unnecessary and unappreciated, which prompts the return of the "Two-Face" persona (seen and heard by Dent through hallucinations). In Face the Face, his frustration is compounded by a series of mysterious murders that seem to have been committed by Two-Face; the villains KGBeast, Magpie, Ventriloquist and Scarface, and Orca are all shot twice in the head with a double-barreled pistol. When Batman confronts Dent about these deaths, asking him to confirm that he was not responsible, Dent refuses to give a definite answer. He then detonates a bomb in his apartment and leaves Batman dazed as he flees. Despite escaping the explosion physically unscathed, Dent suffers a crisis of conscience and a mental battle with his "Two-Face" personality. Although Batman later uncovers evidence that exonerates Dent for the murders, establishing that he was framed as revenge for his efforts against new crime boss Warren White, a.k.a. the Great White Shark, it is too late to save him. Prompted by resentment and a paranoid reaction to Batman's questioning, Dent scars half his face with nitric acid and a scalpel, becoming Two-Face once again. Blaming Batman for his return, Two-Face immediately goes on a rampage, threatening to destroy the Gotham Zoo (having retained two of every animal—including two humans) before escaping to fight Batman another day. Batman subsequently confronts White, while acknowledging that he cannot attack White, as there is no explicit evidence supporting Batman's deductions, vowing to inform Two-Face of White's actions when they next face each other.

 

On the cover of Justice League of America (vol. 2) #23, Two-Face is shown as a member of the new Injustice League. He can be seen in Salvation Run. He appears in Battle for the Cowl: The Underground, which shows the effects of Batman's death on his enemies. In Judd Winick's Long Shadow arc, Two-Face realizes that someone else has taken over as Batman. He hires a teleporter and manages to infiltrate the Batcave. When the new Batman investigates the cave, Two-Face ambushes him with tranquilizer darts, and in a hallucination he sees Dent in a red and black Two-Face themed Batman costume. Alfred Pennyworth saves the hero from Two-Face's torture after subduing his accomplice, and with his help Batman convinces Two-Face that he is the real, original Dark Knight, informing Dent that his problem is that he cannot imagine Batman changing because he himself is incapable of seeing the world in anything other than black and white. In Streets of Gotham, Two-Face has been at odds with Gotham's latest district attorney, Kate Spencer, also known as the vigilante Manhunter. Two-Face has recently been driven out of Gotham City by Jeremiah Arkham.

  

⚡ Happy 🎯 Heroclix 💫 Friday! 👽

_____________________________

 

A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.

 

Secret Identity: Harvey Dent

 

Publisher: DC

 

First appearance: Detective Comics #66 (August 1942)

 

Created by: Bob Kane (writer)

Bill Finger (Artist)

 

Two-Face appeared previously in BP 2023 Day 289!

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/53264025605/

 

He was also seen conniving with the Riddler in Christmas 2017!

www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/38394550835/

A Chevrolet Caprice Wagon at the Street Mag Show Hannover.

  

© Dennis Matthies

My photographs are copyrighted and may not be altered, printed, published in any media and/or format, or re-posted in other websites/blogs.

 

Published under the above title and credited as "By the Genroku-kwan" in the book, "Japan in Transition" by Stanford Ransome (London and New York: Harper & Brothers: 1899). Original photo taken at Kajima Seibei's Genrokukan Studio in Tokyo 1895/97.

Published under the above title and credited "Photograhed by Genroku-Kwan" in the book, "Japan in Transition" by Stanford Ransome (London and New York: Harper & Brothers: 1899).

This image was taken at the studio of Kanamaru Matashiro.

 

Published in 2013 by the late Graham de Chastelain

My Photo was used by Popular Photography" magazine in their Feb. 2007 issue in the article "The Right Lens for the Job". The article appears on page 72 and in the table of contents.

 

This is my first time really being published, so I'm kinda happy about it. Popular Photography is the biggest photography magazine in the world.

 

NOTE: From this photo it could appear that this photo was taken with a Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens (which is a fine lens), but it in fact was taken with my Canon 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5 EF-S lens, which is noted next to the photo of the Tokina.

Cover artist unknown. Mexican comic book published by Organización Editorial Novaro, S. A.

Published by Vecchi, Brazil April 1979

Snowdonia, or Eryri is a mountainous region and national park in North Wales. It contains all 15 mountains in Wales over 3000 feet high, including the country's highest, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa), which is 1,085 metres (3,560 ft) tall. These peaks are all part of the Snowdon, Glyderau, and Carneddau ranges in the north of the region. The shorter Moelwynion and Moel Hebog ranges lie immediately to the south.

 

The national park has an area of 823 square miles (2,130 km2) (the fourth-largest in the UK), and covers most of central and southern Gwynedd and the western part of Conwy County Borough. This is much larger than the area traditionally considered Snowdonia, and in addition to the five ranges above includes the Rhinogydd, Cadair Idris, and Aran ranges and the Dyfi Hills. It also includes most of the coast between Porthmadog and Aberdyfi. The park was the first of the three national parks of Wales to be designated, in October 1951, and the third in the UK after the Peak District and Lake District, which were established in April and May 1951 respectively. The park received 3.89 million visitors in 2015.

 

The name Snowdon means 'snow hill' and is derived from the Old English elements snāw and dūn, the latter meaning 'hill'. Snowdonia is simply taken from the name of the mountain.

 

The origins of Eryri are less clear. Two popular interpretations are that the name is related to eryr, 'eagle', and that it means 'highlands' and is related to the Latin oriri ('to rise'). Although eryri is not any direct form of the word eryr in the meaning 'eagle', it is a plural form of eryr in the meaning 'upland'.

 

Before the boundaries of the national park were designated, "Snowdonia" was generally used to refer to a smaller upland area of northern Gwynedd centred on the Snowdon massif. The national park covers an area more than twice that size, extending south into the Meirionnydd area.

 

This difference is apparent in books published before 1951. In George Borrow's 1907 Wild Wales he states that "Snowdon or Eryri is no single hill, but a mountainous region, the loftiest part of which is called Y Wyddfa", making a distinction between the summit of the mountain and the surrounding massif. The Mountains of Snowdonia by H. Carr & G. Lister (1925) defines "Eryri" as "composed of the two cantrefs of Arfon and Arllechwedd, and the two commotes of Nant Conwy and Eifionydd", which corresponds to Caernarfonshire with the exception of southwest Llŷn and the Creuddyn Peninsula. In Snowdonia: The National Park of North Wales (1949), F. J. North states that "When the Committee delineated provisional boundaries, they included areas some distance beyond Snowdonia proper".

 

Snowdonia National Park, also known as Eryri National Park in English and Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri in Welsh, was established in October 1951. It was the third national park in the United Kingdom, following the Peak District and Lake District in April and May of the same year. It covers 827 square miles (2,140 km2) in the counties of Gwynedd and Conwy, and has 37 miles (60 km) of coastline.

 

The park is governed by the Snowdonia National Park Authority, which has 18 members: 9 appointed by Gwynedd, 3 by Conwy, and 6 by the Welsh Government to represent the national interest. The authority's main offices are at Penrhyndeudraeth.

 

The park authority used Snowdonia and Snowdon when referring to the national park and mountain in English until February 2023, when it resolved to primarily use the Welsh names, Eryri and Yr Wyddfa. There will be a transitional period of approximately two years in which the authority will continue to use the English names in parentheses — for example "Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon)" — where the context requires.

 

Unlike national parks in other countries, national parks in the UK are made up of both public and private lands under a central planning authority. The makeup of land ownership in the national park is as follows:

 

More than 26,000 people live within the park, of whom 58.6% could speak Welsh in 2011. While most of the land is either open or mountainous land, there is a significant amount of agricultural activity within the park.

 

The national park does not include the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which forms a unique non-designated enclave within the park boundaries. The town was deliberately excluded from the park when it was established because of its slate quarrying industry. The boundaries of the Peak District National Park exclude the town of Buxton and its adjacent limestone quarries for a similar reason.

 

The geology of Snowdonia is key to the area's character. Glaciation during a succession of ice ages, has carved from a heavily faulted and folded succession of sedimentary and igneous rocks, a distinctive rocky landscape. The last ice age ended only just over 11,500 years ago, leaving a legacy of features attractive to visitors but which have also played a part in the development of geological science and continue to provide a focus for educational visits. Visiting Cwm Idwal in 1841 Charles Darwin realised that the landscape was the product of glaciation. The bedrock dates largely from the Cambrian and Ordovician periods with intrusions of Ordovician and Silurian age associated with the Caledonian Orogeny. There are smaller areas of Silurian age sedimentary rocks in the south and northeast and of Cenozoic era strata on the Cardigan Bay coast though the latter are concealed by more recent deposits. Low grade metamorphism of Cambrian and Ordovician mudstones has resulted in the slates, the extraction of which once formed the mainstay of the area's economy.

 

The principal ranges of the traditional Snowdonia are the Snowdon massif itself, the Glyderau, the Carneddau, the Moelwynion and the Moel Hebog range. All of Wales' 3000ft mountains are to be found within the first three of these massifs and are most popular with visitors. To their south within the wider national park are the Rhinogydd and the Cadair Idris and Aran Fawddwy ranges. Besides these well-defined areas are a host of mountains which are less readily grouped though various guidebook writers have assigned them into groups such as the 'Arenigs', the 'Tarrens' and the 'Dyfi hills'.

 

Snowdon's summit at 1085 metres (3560 feet) is the highest in Wales and the highest in Britain south of the Scottish Highlands. At 905 metres (2970 feet) Aran Fawddwy is the highest in Wales outside of northern Snowdonia; Cadair Idris, at 893 metres (2930 feet), is next in line.

 

Rivers draining the area empty directly into Cardigan Bay are typically short and steep. From north to south they include the Glaslyn and Dwyryd which share a common estuary, the Mawddach and its tributaries the Wnion and the Eden, the smaller Dysynni and on the park's southern margin the Dyfi. A series of rivers drain to the north coast. Largest of these is the Conwy on the park's eastern margin which along with the Ogwen drains into Conwy Bay. Further west the Seiont and Gwyrfai empty into the western end of the Menai Strait. A part of the east of the national park is within the upper Dee (Dyfrydwy) catchment and includes Bala Lake, the largest natural waterbody in Wales. A fuller list of the rivers and tributaries within the area is found at List of rivers of Wales.

 

There are few natural waterbodies of any size in Wales; Snowdonia is home to most. Besides Bala Lake, a few lakes occupy glacial troughs including Llyn Padarn and Llyn Peris at Llanberis and Tal-y-llyn Lake south of Cadair Idris. Llyn Dinas, Llyn Gwynant, and Llyn Cwellyn to the south and west of Snowdon feature in this category as do Llyn Cowlyd and Llyn Ogwen on the margins of the Carneddau. There are numerous small lakes occupying glacial cirques owing to the former intensity of glacial action in Snowdonia. Known generically as tarns, examples include Llyn Llydaw, Glaslyn and Llyn Du'r Arddu on Snowdon, Llyn Idwal within the Glyderau and Llyn Cau on Cadair Idris.

 

There are two large wholly man-made bodies of water in the area, Llyn Celyn and Llyn Trawsfynydd whilst numerous of the natural lakes have had their levels artificially raised to different degrees. Marchlyn Mawr reservoir and Ffestiniog Power Station's Llyn Stwlan are two cases where natural tarns have been dammed as part of pumped storage hydro-electric schemes. A fuller list of the lakes within the area is found at List of lakes of Wales. In 2023, the park standardised its Welsh language lake names, to be also used in English.

 

The national park meets the Irish Sea coast within Cardigan Bay between the Dovey estuary in the south and the Dwyryd estuary. The larger part of that frontage is characterised by dune systems, the largest of which are Morfa Dyffryn and Morfa Harlech. These two locations have two of the largest sand/shingle spits in Wales. The major indentations of the Dovey, the Mawddach and Dwyryd estuaries, have large expanses of intertidal sands and coastal marsh which are especially important for wildlife: see #Natural history. The northern tip of the national park extends to the north coast of Wales at Penmaen-bach Point, west of Conwy, where precipitous cliffs have led to the road and railway negotiating the spot in tunnels.

 

There are only three towns within the park boundary, though there are several more immediately beyond it. Dolgellau is the most populous followed by Bala on the eastern boundary and then Harlech overlooking Tremadog Bay. More populous than these is the town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which is within an exclave, that is to say it is surrounded by the national park but excluded from it, whilst the towns of Tywyn and Barmouth on the Cardigan Bay coast are within coastal exclaves. Llanrwst in the east, Machynlleth in the south and Porthmadog and Penrhyndeudraeth in the west are immediately beyond the boundary but still identified with the park; indeed the last of these hosts the headquarters of the Snowdonia National Park Authority. Similarly the local economies of the towns of Conwy, Bethesda, and Llanberis in the north are inseparably linked to the national park as they provide multiple visitor services. The lower terminus of the Snowdon Mountain Railway is at Llanberis. Though adjacent to it, Llanfairfechan and Penmaenmawr are less obviously linked to the park.

 

There are numerous smaller settlements within the national park: prominent amongst these are the eastern 'gateway' village of Betws-y-Coed, Aberdyfi on the Dovey (Dyfi) estuary and the small village of Beddgelert each of which attract large numbers of visitors. Other sizeable villages are Llanuwchllyn at the southwest end of Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid), Dyffryn Ardudwy, Corris, Trawsfynydd, Llanbedr, Trefriw and Dolwyddelan.

 

Six primary routes serve Snowdonia, the busiest of which is the A55, a dual carriageway which runs along the north coast and provides strategic road access to the northern part of the national park. The most important north–south route within the park is the A470 running from the A55 south past Betws-y-Coed to Blaenau Ffestiniog to Dolgellau. It exits the park a few miles to the southeast near Mallwyd. From Dolgellau, the A494 runs to Bala whilst the A487 connects with Machynlleth. The A487 loops around the northwest of the park from Bangor via Caernarfon to Porthmadog before turning in land to meet the A470 east of Maentwrog. The A5 was built as a mail coach road by Thomas Telford between London and Holyhead; it enters the park near Pentrefoelas and leaves it near Bethesda. Other A class roads provide more local links; the A493 down the Dovey valley from Machynlleth and up the coast to Tywyn then back up the Mawddach valley to Dolgellau, the A496 from Dolgellau down the north side of the Mawddach to Barmouth then north up the coast via Harlech to Maentwrog. The A4212 connecting Bala with Trawsfynydd is relatively modern having been laid out in the 1960s in connection with the construction of Llyn Celyn. Three further roads thread their often twisting and narrow way through the northern mountains; A4085 links Penrhyndeudraeth with Caernarfon, the A4086 links Capel Curig with Caernarfon via Llanberis and the A498 links Tremadog with the A4086 at Pen-y-Gwryd. Other roads of note include that from Llanuwchllyn up Cwm Cynllwyd to Dinas Mawddwy via the 545 metre (1788') high pass of Bwlch y Groes, the second highest tarmacked public road in Wales and the minor road running northwest and west from Llanuwchllyn towards Bronaber via the 531 metre (1742') high pass of Bwlch Pen-feidiog.

 

The double track North Wales Coast Line passes along the northern boundary of the park between Conwy and Bangor briefly entering it at Penmaen-bach Point where it is in tunnel. Stations serve the communities of Conwy, Penmaenmawr, Llanfairfechan and Bangor. The single-track Conwy Valley Line runs south from Llandudno Junction, entering the park north of Betws-y-coed which is served by a station then west up the Lledr valley by way of further stations at Pont-y-pant, Dolwyddelan and Roman Bridge. After passing through a tunnel the passenger line now terminates at Blaenau Ffestiniog railway station. Prior to 1961 the route continued as the Bala and Ffestiniog Railway via Trawsfynydd to Bala joining another former route along the Dee valley which ran southwest via Dolgellau to join the still extant coastal Cambrian Line south of Barmouth. The Pwllheli branch of the Cambrian Line splits from the Aberystwyth branch at Dovey Junction and continues via stations at Aberdovey, Tywyn, Tonfanau, Llwyngwril, Fairbourne and Morfa Mawddach to Barmouth where it crosses the Mawddach estuary by the Grade II* listed wooden Barmouth Bridge, a structure which also provides for walkers and cyclists. Further stations serve Llanaber, Tal-y-bont, Dyffryn Ardudwy, Llanbedr, Pensarn and Llandanwg before reaching Harlech. Tygwyn, Talsarnau and Llandecwyn stations are the last before the line exits the park as it crosses the Dwyryd estuary via Pont Briwet and turns westwards bound for Pwllheli via Penrhyndeudraeth, Porthmadog and Criccieth.

 

Many sections of dismantled railway are now used by walking and cycling routes and are described elsewhere. The Bala Lake Railway is a heritage railway which has been established along a section of the former mainline route between Bala and Llanuwchllyn. Other heritage railways occupy sections of former mineral lines, often narrow gauge and are described in a separate section.

 

The national park is served by a growing bus network, branded Sherpa'r Wyddfa (formerly Snowdon Sherpa). Together with the TrawsCymru network of buses this provides a car-free option to tourists and locals wishing to travel across the National Park.

 

The network was relaunched in July 2022 with a new brand, Sherpa'r Wyddfa, to reflect the National Park's new push for the promotion of Welsh place names. As such the publicity and websites for the newly branded service only use these Welsh names, even for English language users.

 

Snowdonia is one of the wettest parts of the United Kingdom; Crib Goch in Snowdonia is the wettest spot in the United Kingdom, with an average rainfall of 4,473 millimetres (176.1 in) a year over the 30-year period prior to the mid-2000s. (There is a rainfall gauge at 713 metres, 2340' on the slopes below Crib Goch.)

 

The earliest evidence for human occupation of the area dates from around 4000–3000 BCE with extensive traces of prehistoric field systems evident in the landscape. Within these are traces of irregular enclosures and hut circles. There are burial chambers of Neolithic and Bronze Age such as Bryn Cader Faner and Iron Age hillforts such as Bryn y Castell near Ffestiniog.

 

The region was finally conquered by the Romans by AD 77–78. Remains of Roman marching camps and practice camps are evident. There was a Roman fort and amphitheatre at Tomen y Mur. Roads are known to have connected with Segontium (Caernarfon) and Deva Victrix (Chester) and include the northern reaches of Sarn Helen.

 

There are numerous memorial stones of Early Christian affinity dating from the post-Roman period. The post-Roman hillfort of Dinas Emrys also dates to this time. Churches were introduced to the region in the 5th and 6th centuries. Llywelyn the Great and Llywelyn ap Gruffudd had various stone castles constructed to protect their borders and trade routes. Edward I built several castles around the margins including those at Harlech and Conwy for military and administrative reasons. Most are now protected within a World Heritage Site. Some of Snowdonia's many stone walls date back to this period too. In the Middle Ages, the title Prince of Wales and Lord of Snowdonia (Tywysog Cymru ac Arglwydd Eryri) was used by Llywelyn ap Gruffudd; his grandfather Llywelyn Fawr used the title Prince of north Wales and Lord of Snowdonia.

 

The 18th century saw the start of industrial exploitation of the area's resources, assisted by the appearance in the late part of the century of turnpike trusts making it more accessible. The engineer Thomas Telford left a legacy of road and railway construction in and around Snowdonia. A new harbour at Porthmadog linked to slate quarries at Ffestiniog via a narrow gauge railway. At its peak in the 19th century the slate industry employed around 12,000 men. A further 1000 were employed in stone quarrying at Graiglwyd and Penmaenmawr. Mining for copper, iron and gold was undertaken during the 18th and 19th centuries, leaving a legacy of mine and mill ruins today. Ruins of the gold industry are found at Cefn Coch on the Dolmelynllyn estate.

 

The Snowdonia Society is a registered charity formed in 1967; it is a voluntary group of people with an interest in the area and its protection.

 

Amory Lovins led the successful 1970s opposition to stop Rio Tinto digging up the area for a massive mine.

 

The park's entire coastline is a Special Area of Conservation, which runs from the Llŷn Peninsula down the mid-Wales coast, the latter containing valuable sand dune systems.

 

The park's natural forests are of the mixed deciduous type, the commonest tree being the Welsh oak. Birch, ash, mountain-ash and hazel are also common. The park also contains some large (planted) coniferous forested areas such as Gwydir Forest near Betws-y-Coed, although some areas, once harvested, are now increasingly being allowed to regrow naturally.

 

Northern Snowdonia is the only place in Britain where the Snowdon lily (Gagea serotina), an arctic–alpine plant, is found and the only place in the world where the Snowdonia hawkweed Hieracium snowdoniense grows.

 

One of the major problems facing the park in recent years has been the growth of Rhododendron ponticum. This fast-growing invasive species has a tendency to take over and stifle native species. It can form massive towering growths and has a companion fungus that grows on its roots producing toxins that are poisonous to any local flora and fauna for a seven-year period after the Rhododendron infestations have been eradicated. As a result, there are a number of desolate landscapes.

 

Mammals in the park include otters, polecats, feral goats, and pine martens. Birds include raven, red-billed chough, peregrine, osprey, merlin and the red kite. The rainbow-coloured Snowdon beetle (Chrysolina cerealis) is only found in northern Snowdonia.

 

Snowdonia has a particularly high number of protected sites in respect of its diverse ecology; nearly 20% of its total area is protected by UK and European law. Half of that area was set aside by the government under the European Habitats Directive as a Special Area of Conservation. There are a large number of Sites of special scientific interest (or 'SSSIs'), designated both for fauna and flora but also in some cases for geology. Nineteen of these sites are managed as national nature reserves by Natural Resources Wales. The park also contains twelve Special Areas of Conservation (or 'SACs'), three Special Protection Areas (or 'SPAs') and three Ramsar sites. Some are wholly within the park boundaries, others straddle it to various degrees.

 

There are numerous SSSIs within the park, the most extensive of which are Snowdonia, Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt, Morfa Harlech, Rhinog, Berwyn, Cadair Idris, Llyn Tegid, Aber Mawddach / Mawddach Estuary, Dyfi, Morfa Dyffryn, Moel Hebog, Coedydd Dyffryn Ffestiniog and Coedydd Nanmor.

 

The following NNRs are either wholly or partly within the park: Allt y Benglog, Y Berwyn (in multiple parts), Cader Idris, Ceunant Llennyrch, Coed Camlyn, Coed Cymerau, Coed Dolgarrog, Coed Ganllwyd, Coed Gorswen, Coed Tremadog, Coedydd Aber, Coedydd Maentwrog (in 2 parts), Coed y Rhygen, Cwm Glas Crafnant, Cwm Idwal, Hafod Garregog, Morfa Harlech, Rhinog and Snowdon.

 

The twelve SACs are as follows: Snowdonia SAC which covers much of the Carneddau, Glyderau, and the Snowdon massif, Afon Gwyrfai a Llyn Cwellyn, Corsydd Eifionydd / Eifionydd Fens (north of Garndolbenmaen), the Coedydd Derw a Safleoedd Ystlumod Meirion / Meirionydd Oakwoods and Bat Sites - a series of sites between Tremadog, Trawsfynydd, and Ffestiniog and Beddgelert and extending up the Gwynant. It also includes many of the oakwoods of the Mawddach and its tributaries. Afon Eden – Cors Goch Trawsfynydd, Rhinog, Cadair Idris (in 2 parts), Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt, River Dee and Afon Dyfrdwy a Llyn Tegid (Wales), Mwyngloddiau Fforest Gwydir / Gwydyr Forest Mines (north of Betws-y-Coed) and a part of the Berwyn a Mynyddoedd De Clwyd / Berwyn and South Clwyd Mountains SAC. The Pen Llyn a'r Sarnau / Lleyn Peninsula and the Sarnau SAC covers the entire Cardigan Bay coastline of the park and the sea area and extends above the high water mark at Morfa Harlech, Mochras and around the Dovey and Mawddach estuaries.

 

The three SPAs are Dovey Estuary / Aber Dyfi (of which a part is within the park), Berwyn (of which a part is within the park) and Migneint-Arenig-Dduallt.

 

The three designated Ramsar sites are the Dyfi Biosphere (Cors Fochno and Dyfi), Cwm Idwal and Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake).

 

The area's economy was traditionally centred upon farming and from the early 19th century increasingly on mining and quarrying. Tourism has become an increasingly significant part of Snowdonia's economy during the 20th and 21st centuries.

 

The extensive farming of sheep remains central to Snowdonia's farming economy.

 

Significant sections of the park were afforested during the 20th century for timber production. Major conifer plantations include Dyfi Forest, Coed y Brenin Forest between Dolgellau and Trawsfynydd, Penllyn Forest south of Bala, Beddgelert Forest and Gwydyr (or Gwydir) Forest near Betws-y-Coed which is managed as a forest park by Natural Resources Wales.

 

The region was once the most important producer of slate in the world. Some production continues but at a much reduced level from its peak. The park boundaries are drawn such that much of the landscape affected by slate quarrying and mining lies immediately outside of the designated area.

 

Construction of a nuclear power station beside Llyn Trawsfynydd began in 1959 with the first power produced in 1965. The site was operational until 1991 though it continues as an employer during its decommissioning phase. Pumped storage hydroelectric schemes are in operation at Llanberis and Ffestiniog.

 

Research indicates that there were 3.67 million visitors to Snowdonia National Park in 2013, with approximately 9.74 million tourist days spent in the park during that year. Total tourist expenditure was £433.6 million in 2013.

 

Many of the hikers in the area concentrate on Snowdon itself. It is regarded as a fine mountain, but at times gets very crowded; in addition the Snowdon Mountain Railway runs to the summit.

 

The other high mountains with their boulder-strewn summits as well as Tryfan, one of the few mountains in the UK south of Scotland whose ascent needs hands as well as feet are also very popular. However, there are also some spectacular walks in Snowdonia on the lower mountains, and they tend to be relatively unfrequented. Among hikers' favourites are Y Garn (east of Llanberis) along the ridge to Elidir Fawr; Mynydd Tal-y-Mignedd (west of Snowdon) along the Nantlle Ridge to Mynydd Drws-y-Coed; Moelwyn Mawr (west of Blaenau Ffestiniog); and Pen Llithrig y Wrach north of Capel Curig. Further south are Y Llethr in the Rhinogydd, and Cadair Idris near Dolgellau.

 

The park has 1,479 miles (2,380 km) of public footpaths, 164 miles (264 km) of public bridleways, and 46 miles (74 km) of other public rights of way. A large part of the park is also covered by right to roam laws.

 

The Wales Coast Path runs within the park between Machynlleth and Penrhyndeudraeth, save for short sections of coast in the vicinity of Tywyn and Barmouth which are excluded from the park. It touches the park boundary again at Penmaen-bach Point on the north coast. An inland alternative exists between Llanfairfechan and Conwy, wholly within the park. The North Wales Path, which predates the WCP, enters the park north of Bethesda and follows a route broadly parallel to the north coast visiting Aber Falls and the Sychnant Pass before exiting the park on the descent from Conwy Mountain. The Cambrian Way is a long-distance trail between Cardiff and Conwy that stays almost entirely within the national park from Mallwyd northwards. It was officially recognised in 2019, and is now depicted on Ordnance Survey maps.

 

The use of the English names for the area has been divisive, with an increase in protests against their use since 2020; these led to the national park authority deciding to use Welsh names as far as legally possible in November 2022. An early example of pressure to deprecate Snowdon and Snowdonia was a 2003 campaign by Cymuned, inspired by campaigns to refer to Ayers Rock as Uluru and Mount Everest as Qomolangma.

 

In 2020 an e-petition calling for the removal of the English names was put forward to the Senedd, but rejected as responsibility lies with the national park authority. In 2021 an e-petition on the same topic attracted more than 5,300 signatures and was presented to the national park authority.

 

On 28 April 2021 Gwynedd councillor John Pughe Roberts put forward a motion to use the Welsh names exclusively, calling this a "question of respect for the Welsh language". The motion was not considered and delayed, as the national park authority already appointed a "Welsh Place Names Task and Finish Group" to investigate the issue. The park authority however cannot compel other bodies and/or individuals to stop using the English names, with the proposals facing some criticism.

 

In May 2021, following the dismissal of the motion, YouGov conducted a poll on Snowdon's name. 60% of Welsh adults supported the English name Snowdon, compared to 30% wanting the Welsh name Yr Wyddfa. Separating by language, 59% of Welsh speakers preferred the Welsh name, but 37% of these still wanted Snowdon to be used as well. 69% of non-Welsh speakers firmly supported Snowdon as the Mountain's name. The proposals to rename Snowdon are usually accompanied with proposals to rename Snowdonia.

 

On 16 November 2022, Members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority committee voted to use the Welsh names Yr Wyddfa and Eryri to refer to the mountain and the national park, rather than the English names, in materials produced by the authority. The national park authority described the decision as "decisive action" and the authority's head of culture heritage stated that Welsh place names were part of the area's "special qualities" and that other public bodies, English-language press and filming companies have used the Welsh-language names. Before the decision the park had already prioritised the Welsh names by using them first and giving the English names in parentheses. The name "Snowdonia" cannot be abandoned entirely, as it is set in law and so must be used in statutory documents. The authority announced a review of the authority's branding in 2023 to adapt to the new approach to Welsh place names.

 

Gwynedd is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The city of Bangor is the largest settlement, and the administrative centre is Caernarfon. The preserved county of Gwynedd, which is used for ceremonial purposes, includes the Isle of Anglesey.

 

Gwynedd is the second largest county in Wales but sparsely populated, with an area of 979 square miles (2,540 km2) and a population of 117,400. After Bangor (18,322), the largest settlements are Caernarfon (9,852), Bethesda (4,735), and Pwllheli (4,076). The county has the highest percentage of Welsh speakers in Wales, at 64.4%, and is considered a heartland of the language.

 

The geography of Gwynedd is mountainous, with a long coastline to the west. Much of the county is covered by Snowdonia National Park (Eryri), which contains Wales's highest mountain, Snowdon (Yr Wyddfa; 3,560 feet, 1,090 m). To the west, the Llŷn Peninsula is flatter and renowned for its scenic coastline, part of which is protected by the Llŷn AONB. Gwynedd also contains several of Wales's largest lakes and reservoirs, including the largest, Bala Lake (Llyn Tegid).

 

The area which is now the county has played a prominent part in the history of Wales. It formed part of the core of the Kingdom of Gwynedd and the native Principality of Wales, which under the House of Aberffraw remained independent from the Kingdom of England until Edward I's conquest between 1277 and 1283. Edward built the castles at Caernarfon and Harlech, which form part of the Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd World Heritage Site. During the Industrial Revolution the slate industry rapidly developed; in the late nineteenth century the neighbouring Penrhyn and Dinorwic quarries were the largest in the world, and the Slate Landscape of Northwest Wales is now a World Heritage Site. Gwynedd covers the majority of the historic counties of Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire.

 

In the past, historians such as J. E. Lloyd assumed that the Celtic source of the word Gwynedd meant 'collection of tribes' – the same root as the Irish fine, meaning 'tribe'. Further, a connection is recognised between the name and the Irish Féni, an early ethnonym for the Irish themselves, related to fían, 'company of hunting and fighting men, company of warriors under a leader'. Perhaps *u̯en-, u̯enə ('strive, hope, wish') is the Indo-European stem. The Irish settled in NW Wales, and in Dyfed, at the end of the Roman era. Venedotia was the Latin form, and in Penmachno there is a memorial stone from c. AD 500 which reads: Cantiori Hic Iacit Venedotis ('Here lies Cantiorix, citizen of Gwynedd'). The name was retained by the Brythons when the kingdom of Gwynedd was formed in the 5th century, and it remained until the invasion of Edward I. This historical name was revived when the new county was formed in 1974.

 

Gwynedd was an independent kingdom from the end of the Roman period until the 13th century, when it was conquered by England. The modern Gwynedd was one of eight Welsh counties created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972. It covered the entirety of the historic counties of Anglesey and Caernarfonshire, and all of Merionethshire apart from Edeirnion Rural District (which went to Clwyd); and also a few parishes of Denbighshire: Llanrwst, Llansanffraid Glan Conwy, Eglwysbach, Llanddoged, Llanrwst and Tir Ifan.

 

The county was divided into five districts: Aberconwy, Arfon, Dwyfor, Meirionnydd and Anglesey.

 

The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 abolished the 1974 county (and the five districts) on 1 April 1996, and its area was divided: the Isle of Anglesey became an independent unitary authority, and Aberconwy (which included the former Denbighshire parishes) passed to the new Conwy County Borough. The remainder of the county was constituted as a principal area, with the name Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire, as it covers most of the areas of those two historic counties. As one of its first actions, the Council renamed itself Gwynedd on 2 April 1996. The present Gwynedd local government area is governed by Gwynedd Council. As a unitary authority, the modern entity no longer has any districts, but Arfon, Dwyfor and Meirionnydd remain as area committees.

 

The pre-1996 boundaries were retained as a preserved county for a few purposes such as the Lieutenancy. In 2003, the boundary with Clwyd was adjusted to match the modern local government boundary, so that the preserved county now covers the two local government areas of Gwynedd and Anglesey. Conwy county borough is now entirely within Clwyd.

 

A Gwynedd Constabulary was formed in 1950 by the merger of the Anglesey, Caernarfonshire and Merionethshire forces. A further amalgamation took place in the 1960s when Gwynedd Constabulary was merged with the Flintshire and Denbighshire county forces, retaining the name Gwynedd. In one proposal for local government reform in Wales, Gwynedd had been proposed as a name for a local authority covering all of north Wales, but the scheme as enacted divided this area between Gwynedd and Clwyd. To prevent confusion, the Gwynedd Constabulary was therefore renamed the North Wales Police.

 

The Snowdonia National Park was formed in 1951. After the 1974 local authority reorganisation, the park fell entirely within the boundaries of Gwynedd, and was run as a department of Gwynedd County Council. After the 1996 local government reorganisation, part of the park fell under Conwy County Borough, and the park's administration separated from the Gwynedd council. Gwynedd Council still appoints nine of the eighteen members of the Snowdonia National Park Authority; Conwy County Borough Council appoints three; and the Welsh Government appoints the remaining six.

 

There has been considerable inwards migration to Gwynedd, particularly from England. According to the 2021 census, 66.6% of residents had been born in Wales whilst 27.1% were born in England.

 

The county has a mixed economy. An important part of the economy is based on tourism: many visitors are attracted by the many beaches and the mountains. A significant part of the county lies within the Snowdonia National Park, which extends from the north coast down to the district of Meirionnydd in the south. But tourism provides seasonal employment and thus there is a shortage of jobs in the winter.

 

Agriculture is less important than in the past, especially in terms of the number of people who earn their living on the land, but it remains an important element of the economy.

 

The most important of the traditional industries is the slate industry, but these days only a small percentage of workers earn their living in the slate quarries.

 

Industries which have developed more recently include TV and sound studios: the record company Sain has its HQ in the county.

 

The education sector is also very important for the local economy, including Bangor University and Further Education colleges, Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor and Coleg Menai, both now part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai.

 

The proportion of respondents in the 2011 census who said they could speak Welsh.

Gwynedd has the highest proportion of people in Wales who can speak Welsh. According to the 2021 census, 64.4% of the population aged three and over stated that they could speak Welsh,[7] while 64.4% noted that they could speak Welsh in the 2011 census.

 

It is estimated that 83% of the county's Welsh-speakers are fluent, the highest percentage of all counties in Wales.[9] The age group with the highest proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd were those between ages 5–15, of whom 92.3% stated that they could speak Welsh in 2011.

 

The proportion of Welsh speakers in Gwynedd declined between 1991 and 2001,[10] from 72.1% to 68.7%, even though the proportion of Welsh speakers in Wales as a whole increased during that decade to 20.5%.

 

The Annual Population Survey estimated that as of March 2023, 77.0% of those in Gwynedd aged three years and above could speak Welsh.

 

Notable people

Leslie Bonnet (1902–1985), RAF officer, writer; originated the Welsh Harlequin duck in Criccieth

Sir Dave Brailsford (born 1964), cycling coach; grew up in Deiniolen, near Caernarfon

Duffy (born 1984), singer, songwriter and actress; born in Bangor, Gwynedd

Edward II of England (1284–1327), born in Caernarfon Castle

Elin Fflur (born 1984), singer-songwriter, TV and radio presenter; went to Bangor University

Bryn Fôn (born 1954), actor and singer-songwriter; born in Llanllyfni, Caernarfonshire.

Wayne Hennessey (born 1987), football goalkeeper with 108 caps for Wales; born in Bangor, Gwynedd

John Jones (c. 1530 – 1598), a Franciscan friar, Roman Catholic priest and martyr; born at Clynnog

Sir Love Jones-Parry, 1st Baronet (1832–1891), landowner and politician, co-founder of the Y Wladfa settlement in Patagonia

T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), archaeologist, army officer and inspiration for Lawrence of Arabia, born in Tremadog

David Lloyd George (1863–1945), statesman and Prime Minister; lived in Llanystumdwy from infancy

Sasha (born 1969), disc jockey, born in Bangor, Gwynedd

Sir Bryn Terfel (born 1965), bass-baritone opera and concert singer from Pant Glas

Sir Clough Williams-Ellis (1883–1978), architect of Portmeirion

Owain Fôn Williams, (born 1987), footballer with 443 club caps; born and raised in Penygroes, Gwynedd.

Hedd Wyn (1887–1917), poet from the village of Trawsfynydd; killed in WWI

Website | Tumblr | Vimeo

A truck strategically parked outside 200 George Street building site

My 1st picture to be published.

  

Rose Marie Kemp Simon is the author of Broken Pieces. Broken pieces is a diary of poems about her trials and personal life experiences from a very long and difficult period of isolation, confusion and depression. It also contains a testimony of spiritual revelation of hope and peace.

 

You can get the book at flipkart

An alert friend/contact V.I.D.S sent me this, this morning!

 

The total circulation of the magazine includes 7.4 million copies being shipped to members' homes and 600,000 available in Sam's Club locations nationwide.