Lunatik is a fictional character appearing in

American comic book An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...

s published by

Marvel Comics Marvel Comics is a New York City–based comic book publishing, publisher, a property of the Walt Disney Company since December 31, 2009, and a subsidiary of Disney Publishing Worldwide since March 2023. Marvel was founded in 1939 by Martin G ...

Publication history

Lunatik first appeared in ''

Defenders Defender(s) or The Defender(s) may refer to: * Defense (military) * Defense (sports) ** Defender (association football) Arts and entertainment Film, television, and theatre Film * ''The Defender'' (1989 film), a Canadian documentary * ''The D ...

'' #51 (September 1977), though a later

retcon Retroactive continuity, or retcon for short, is a literary device in fictional story telling whereby facts and events established through the narrative itself are adjusted, ignored, supplemented, or contradicted by a subsequently published work ...

identifies him as an incarnation of Arisen Turk, a character who appeared in ''

Creatures on the Loose ''Tower of Shadows'' is a horror/fantasy anthology comic book published by the American company Marvel Comics under this and a subsequent name from 1969 to 1975. It featured work by writer-artists Neal Adams, Jim Steranko, Johnny Craig, and W ...

'' #35-37 (May-September 1975), by writer

David Anthony Kraft David Anthony Kraft (May 31, 1952 – May 19, 2021) was an American comic book writer, publisher, and critic. He was primarily known for his long-running journal of interviews and criticism, ''Comics Interview'', as well as for work for Marvel C ...

and artist

George Pérez George Pérez (; June 9, 1954 – May 6, 2022) was an American comic book artist and writer, who worked primarily as a penciller. He came to prominence in the 1970s penciling ''Fantastic Four (comic book), Fantastic Four'' and ''The Avengers (c ...

. According to Kraft, he had been trying to link Lunatik to the ''Creatures on the Loose'' story arc during his time as writer on ''Defenders'', and his successor

Ed Hannigan Edward Hannigan (born August 6, 1951) is an Americans, American comics artist, writer, and editor for both Marvel Comics and DC Comics. Career Ed Hannigan's first credited comics story was published in Marvel Comics' Brand licensing, licensed ' ...

picked up on this, but made a different connection between the two than Kraft had had in mind.

Keith Giffen Keith Ian Giffen (November 30, 1952 – October 9, 2023) was an American comics artist and writer. He was known for his work for DC Comics on their ''Legion of Super-Heroes'' and ''Justice League'' titles as well as for being the co-creator of ...

stated "Lunatik was a character I came up with in high school. When it went radically wrong, I went to DC omics andtook the basic concept of Lunatik and ... split tinto two characters: Lobo had his mercilessness, and

Ambush Bug Ambush Bug is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. His real name is supposedly Irwin Schwab, but he has mental problems that prevent him from truly understanding reality around him, so even his true identity migh ...

had his goofiness." The character was created and designed in a hurry, with his appearance based on

Alice Cooper Vincent Damon Furnier (born February 4, 1948), known by his stage name Alice Cooper, is an American rock singer and songwriter whose career spans sixty years. With a raspy voice and a stage show that features numerous props and stage illusion ...

, when Giffen suddenly left Marvel to work for

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. The character subsequently appears in ''Defenders'' #51-53 (September-November 1977), #55-56 (January-February 1978), #61-62 (July-August 1978), #64-65 (October-November 1978), ''Marvel Premiere'' #45-46 (December 1978, February 1979), and ''Defenders'' #70-73 (April-July 1979). An unrelated character named Lunatik appears in ''

Marvel Comics Presents ''Marvel Comics Presents'' is an American comic book anthology title that was published in three series by Marvel Comics: from 1988 to 1995; 2007 to 2008; and in 2019. Volume 1 The first volume was released on a bi-weekly basis and lasted for ...

'' #172-175 and ''Lunatik'' #1 (December 1995). He is a cosmic mercenary who is later killed by Drax the Destroyer.''Drax the Destroyer: Earthfall'' #1-4

Fictional character biography

Arisen Tyrk acted as the tyrannical ruler and god-king of the dimension called Other Realm. He seeks the power that the Godstone would give him, which is bonded to John Jameson as the Man-Wolf. Tyrk hires

Kraven the Hunter Kraven the Hunter (Sergei Nikolaevich Kravinoff; Russian: Сергей Николаевич Кравинов) is a supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko, th ...

and has him attack Man-Wolf, but Man-Wolf fights Kraven off. Rebels from the Other Realm bring the Man-Wolf to their land, and he defeats Tyrk. Tyrk tries to escape through an extra-dimensional portal, but the portal is damaged and splits him into several duplicates. Four of them battle the

before being re-fused. For a time, he poses as drama professor Harrison Turk at

Empire State University Empire State University (SUNY Empire) is a public university headquartered in Saratoga Springs, New York. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) system. Empire State University is a multi-site institution offering associate, bac ...

In other media

Lunatik appears in ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy are a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Comic book teams 1969 team The 1969 version of the Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), Guardians of the Galaxy were the origi ...

'', voiced by

John DiMaggio John William DiMaggio ( ; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the ''Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on '' Kim Possible'', ...

. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information. This version is an old friend of

Star-Lord Star-Lord (Peter Jason Quill) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, the character first appeared in '' Marvel Preview'' #4 (January 1976). The son of human Mered ...

who owns a nightclub on the Grandmaster's space station, the ''Conjunction''.

References

External links

* {{Defenders Characters created by Keith Giffen Comics characters introduced in 1975 Marvel Comics characters who use magic Marvel Comics supervillains