Characters / Juggernaut (Marvel Comics)

Juggernaut

Juggernaut

Cain Marko / Juggernaut

I'm the Juggernaut! Ain't nothin' — ain't nobody — can beat me!

Nationality: American

Species: Human

First Appearance: The X-Men #12 (July, 1965)

Charles Xavier's older step-brother and antithesis, Cain Marko was abused by his father Kurt, leading him to torment his stepbrother viciously and developing a deep-seated grudge against him. When they were both in the army during The Korean War, they took refuge in a cave where Cain discovered a magical ruby placed there by an Eldritch Abomination named Cyttorak that turned him into its avatar — the Juggernaut. Unstoppable in every way but via psionics or advanced magic, the Juggernaut continued to be a thorn in Xavier's side for years, eventually getting trapped inside of the source of his own powers. Since he was let out, he fought briefly on the side of good, before embracing his true evil nature and returning to villainy. Despite being associated with the Brotherhood of Mutants for years in adaptations, he was never officially a member until joining Exodus' Brotherhood alongside his longtime partner in crime Black Tom.

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• Abhorrent Admirer: He's a fan of Dazzler and has a big crush on her. So he usually goes easy on her if she's on an X-team he's fighting.
• Abusive Parents: Kurt Marko used to beat him up horribly.
• Achilles' Heel:
  • He has a weakness to psychic powers (only when his helmet is removed). Also, he has no way of getting around besides walking, so if you can teleport him or trick him through a portal, he's stuck wherever he ends up until he manages to physically walk himself back to where he wants to be. Also, his powers being magic based, powerful entities such as Thor can more or less neutralize them once they've figured out exactly how they operate, Illyana Rasputin has actually been able to permanently remove the Juggernaut power from her brother Peter and Cain Marko himself. The Juggernaut's invulnerability is also magnitudes weaker against magic, so that higher power magic attacks will harm him.
  • As a human juggernaut, his soft tissues, particularly those related to his nervous system, are somewhat vulnerable even without employing magic or psionics. His eyes can be cut by mundane objects should they be sufficiently sharp (as Shatterstar proved) and though he cannot feel pain, strong enough concussive force to his head can render him unconscious. A macroscopic annihilation reaction or gamma ray bust is of course well outside of the range of most X-Men BUT is an energy level The Hulk or Thor could potentially put out (and was by the New God Mantis in a DC Comics crossover...which also knocked out Mantis). Atmospheric vibrations, such as ultrasound can also pulverize Juggernaut's brain and leave his body immobile (which is how Nimrod dealt with him).
• Adam Westing: Lightly so, as the Avengers Academy title revealed that he has become something of a meme in youth circles, much to his exasperation. Despite this, he agrees with a roll of his eyes to yell "Nothing can stop the Juggernaut!" when Reptil asks him to.
• The Ageless: Due to the gem of Cyttorak, he does not age.
• Anti-Villain: Very occasionally played as a type IV Anti-Hero. As of 2014, he looks to be staying this way. Even after returning to being the Juggernaut, his goal is to avenge his brother's death, even if his methods are insane.
  • Since then, he's consistently portrayed as an Anti-Hero of sorts, even joining the X-Men again. Twice.
• Ascended Meme: In X-Men: The Last Stand: "Don't you know who I am? I'M THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH!"
• Attack Its Weak Point: His helmet is his main protection against psi, his primary weakness. This has led to plenty of fights with Juggernaut that consist mostly of everyone distracting Cain long enough for someone to get his helmet off.
• Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other: After the making of Krakoa and Cain's snorting of the powdered gem of Cyttorak, their brotherly relationship has become real though Cain does sometimes snark at Charles.
• Badass Boast: "Nobody/Nothing stops the Juggernaut!".
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Because his powers are granted to him by a malevolent extradimensional entity, they actually fluctuate depending on how evil he is at any given time.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: During the Gauntlet storyline, he helped Spider-Man after the wall-crawler tried to help him when he was attacked by the latest Captain Universe.
• The Berserker: Once the Juggernaut starts moving there is little that can stop him.
• Big Brother Bully:
  • He pretty much tormented his stepbrother incessantly to the point that when a villain peered back in time for moments in Xavier's life it could exploit during Rise of the Powers of X, the only positive memory he could find in his childhood was when he was able to actually fight back a bit against Cain. As time went on he was given a Freudian Excuse to at least somewhat explain his unrelenting Jerkassery.
  • This side of Cain was particularly explored in an X-Men Unlimited issue released around the time he was undergoing his first attempted Heel–Face Turn. While attempting to be a big brother figure to Morality Pet Sammy the Squid Boy, Juggs and Sammy cross paths with a group of human kids who torture animals for fun. While Sammy is shocked and appalled, Cain shrugs it off easily with "boys will be boys" sentiments and openly admitting he did the same as a child. In comes Jean Grey, who decides to educate the bullies and Cain via full Phoenix-powered Mind Rape, making them all experience every torture they'd inflicted on an animal from the animal's point of view◊. While this was treated at the time as a lesson that would stick with Cain for a very long time, later storylines would see him predictably revert to form for some time. Since then, he's mostly portrayed as an Anti-Hero, joining the Thunderbolts and, eventually, the X-Men again.
• Big Brother Instinct: Surprisingly enough, his first return after Charles's death has him wanting to find out who did it to get revenge, explaining that Charles is one of the few people who ever gave him a second chance.
• Boxed Crook: During the 90s he became one when he brokered a deal to become the CSA's duly appointed bounty hunter. Later he was drafted into an incarnation of the Thunderbolts led by Luke Cage (his powers were on the wane at the time).
• Breakout Villain: He's one of the more popular X-villains, appearing in numerous games and spinoffs.
• Brought Down to Badass: On occasions where he has been depowered he still tends to acquit himself well in fights, though the degree to which he is truly ever "depowered" is unclear (for instance, in a 2014 storyline he still retained enough Super-Strength to punch Man-Killer through a roof, despite supposedly being stripped of his Juggernaut powers at the time).
• The Brute: Typically serves this role as this whenever he's on a team.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Basically applies to his role in the Gauntlet storyline, as he's attacked by the latest Captain Universe because he ruined the man's life during a past rampage without ever being aware of it; Cain remembers the fight in question as it was his first fight with Spider-Man, but he doesn't remember the man currently attacking him.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Juggernaut has one, repeated in the Animated Series, which he can recite to affirm his oath to Cyttorak and regain his power.
  Juggernaut: Whosoever possesses the sacred gem shall prepare himself to receive the power of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak! Read these words and go from this place: A Human Juggernaut!
• Cain and Abel: With Professor X.
• Character Development: Cain in his original appearances was just a stock example of The Bully villain, without any positive qualities to be found. Starting in The '80s and continuing into The '90s, writers progressively gave him more layers. They first gave him Noble Demon qualities, such as a Villain Respect for worthy foes and explaining that he did have lines which he would not cross. There wasn't much that fans liked about the Chuck Austen X-Men era, but one move that was positively received was the additional development Cain got at the time, stemming from his Heel–Face Turn. While the Status Quo Is God Reset Button was inevitably pushed, Cain stayed on the hero side for a good few years, and even having returned to villainy, he's now closer to Magneto and Deathbird on the scale of developed X-villains.
• Collapsible Helmet: His newest helmet in the 2020 series can collapse and reform at will.
• Cool Helmet: Like Magneto, Cain has a helmet that protects him from Psychic Powers. Very handy when your stepbrother is the world's strongest telepath.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: For all that Juggernaut often ends up Worfed, on paper, he's one of the heaviest non-Reality Warper hitters in the Marvelverse. And what does he use his incredible power for? Basically thuggery. In some stories like the Black Panther (2010) animated series, this is lampshaded and thankfully averted, as stated by Klaw to Batroc that if Juggernaut had any higher ambitions, the world, despite all its superheroes and defenses, wouldn't stand a chance:
  Batroc: Why is it that the muscle in any operation always has to be so stupid?
  Klaw: The Juggernaut fought the Hulk and walked away. God help us all if he had a brain.
• Dismotivation: Juggernaut is one of the most powerful beings in the X-Men universe, as his powers aren't mutations so much as a law of physics unto themselves. Despite this, he's still Cain Marko, and his ambitions usually loft no higher than petty thievery, thuggery, and the occasional spot of fraternal bludgeoning. Essentially, Juggernaut isn't one of the big players for the simple reason that he doesn't feel like it.
• The Dreaded: Treated as this by Professor X in his first appearance, and rightly so. It took all five X-Men, Professor X, the X-Mansion's defenses and the Human Torch lending a hand to defeat Juggernaut the first time. Even then, the heroes were nearly killed. To this day, if he’s not being worfed or a X-Men punching bag, he’s treated with absolute fear.
  • As an example, he once returned to New York to recover something for an employer. Spider-Man encountered him, and when Juggernaut offered an ultimatum (basically let him get the thing he came for and leave, or he could rampage through the city, then take the thing and leave), Spidey agreed to step aside. He was called out on this, but rightfully pointed out that Juggernaut is so out of his league that getting him to leave with minimal damage to the city was already a win.
• Dumbass No More: As the leader of the Unstoppables, he's had to put his brain to use and he's shown to be a skilled tactician and fairly good at diplomacy.
• Dumb Muscle: How dumb varies Depending on the Writer. Sometimes he's simply Book Dumb, other times his head's the only thing thicker in-story than his nigh-invulnerable body.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He's got a fairly developed code of conduct as bad guys go. Theft and property damage might be A-OK in his books, but hurting kids, backstabbing people after they've helped you or hurting people purely for the sake of being a Sadist are all no bueno as far as he's concerned. During the Gauntlet storyline, he was even chosen by the Enigma Force to become the latest Captain Universe to repair the tectonic plate damage he had caused while digging his way out of concrete after his original battle with Spider-Man (albeit after the Enigma Force's originally chosen host preferred to try and vent his vendetta against the Juggernaut rather than complete his assigned mission).
• Evil Redhead: He has red hair, which matches his armor and helmet, and while more of a greyish character, he's still considered a bad guy.
• Eye Scream: Was once inflicted on him by X-Force's Shatterstar. Having a Healing Factor, Juggs recovered quick, but boy was he ever pissed.
• Foil: To his brother Xavier. While Xavier is a paraplegic, telepathic Guile Hero, Cain is an able-bodied, superhumanly strong brute.
• Force and Finesse: The Force to Black Tom Cassidy’s finesse. Unlike his partner, everything he does is through sheer brute force without any hints of subtlety. His Unskilled, but Strong works hand in wand with Black Tom Cassidy’s Weak, but Skilled.
• Freudian Excuse: The reason he hates his stepbrother so much is that their father always preferred Charles over Cain.
• Friend to All Children: Not all children everywhere, but generally he has a soft spot for kids and will pull his punches in battle with them if not refuse to fight them outright. This first cropped up with his befriending of Sammy the Squid Boy, but was later made a running trait during his time with the Thunderbolts and when he gave (surprisingly good) life advice to the kids of Avengers Academy.
• Giant Mook: Often used this way in the various X-Men video games. He's actually a Starter Villain in X-Men (1993), for example.
• Good Is Impotent: As noted below, Juggernaut's Power Creep, Power Seep (towards the Seep side) were stated in-universe to be caused by his attempts to find redemption, as his powers stem from an evil entity who wants him to use them for selfish destruction.
• Healing Factor: It rarely gets brought up, because Juggernaut is almost impossible to hurt in the first place, but his ability to regenerate may even equal Wolverine's. After Shatterstar thrust his enchanted sword into Juggernaut's eyes, it took him all of two panels before it had regrown. In one famous incident, being reduced to nothing but bones not only failed to kill him, he kept on fighting even as a bare skeleton.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: During World War Hulk, the evil god who gave the Juggernaut his powers made him realize that the reason he was losing his powers was because he'd become soft and weak. In response, Juggernaut fully embraced his evil nature and the evil nature of the god who empowered him, returning to (and finally accepting) his true villainous self. But as of 2020, the Juggernaut has once again joined the hero side of things by joining the Punisher Kill Krew and later the X-Men up until Magik turned on him. He's still on friendly relations with his brother Charles despite not being allowed on Krakoa and he's had a moment with the Savage Avengers. He also leads his own hero team, the Unstoppables and even awarded Krakoan living rights for saving everyone there.
• Heel Realization: Goes through a twisted version after Charles' death. He decides that Xavier was the only person who ever tried to help him, and wants to make the X-Men pay for his death. He gets a further realization after he decided to go straight and work with online celebrity superhuman D-Cell in taking down the Immortal Hulk. The Hulk admitted demolishing homes and scaring people to death, but that was when he had a near-animal intelligence. Hulk tells Cain that he did the same thing and was conscious of how bad that was plus he only took on the Hulk because he was getting paid. The Juggernaut could only hang his head in shame.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: He and Magneto are the two main trope codifiers for this among X-villains.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Black Tom.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: The beginning of his Heel–Face Door-Slam begins in an issue of New Excalibur where the Wrecking Crew beat the pus out of him while lamenting how he used to be badass.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Often shown beside Nocturne in group shots, foreshadowing their dual Heel–Face Turn. They worked together after that too, with Nocturne becoming something like a replacement Morality Pet to Cain for a while.
• Immortality: He does not age, he requires no sustenance to survive, he is immune to poisons, disease, and radiation, he can survive as a skeleton, and he has a potent Healing Factor. These attributes, along with his extremely durable forcefield and armor, make him very hard to kill even for other heavy-hitters like Thor and the Hulk, and allow him to go on living for centuries.
• Immune to Mind Control: Whenever he's wearing his helmet, at least.
• Implacable Man: He literally cannot be stopped (one of his official superpowers is "once in motion, cannot be stopped" — he took a mystic blast from The Mighty Thor and it only staggered him for a few seconds), he's Nigh Invulnerable, and he officially has "infinite stamina". He never needs to stop. Ever. He doesn't eat, he doesn't sleep, he doesn't feel fatigue, he doesn't even breathe. Once, the demon D'spayr tried sucking all the magic and life away from Juggernaut. He managed to reduce him to a skeleton, but Juggy still kept coming, fueled by pure anger and rage. D'Spayr could have destroyed this skeleton too though, once he got over the shock it was still alive if not for a different Cosmic Entity with it's own grudge against the demon taking notice.
• Infernal Retaliation: Happens to him frequently, see the page for some of these times.
• Invincible Boogeymen: The Unstoppable Juggernaut got his name for a reason. Aside from a select few immensely powerful individuals, he is impervious to physical harm, even more than Thor or Hulk. The one way to put a halt to his rampage is to get his helmet off and let the resident telepath subdue him or teleport him somewhere he can’t hurt anyone. Even then he’s managed to come up with counter measures to these weaknesses over the years.
• Irony: For how unstoppable he is, even the Juggernaut cannot escape the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, a magical spell that's used to stop and restrain a target and is sourced from the same god that empowers him.
• The Juggernaut: Well, it is his supervillain name. Not only does he have the above mentioned super-powers, he is literally unstoppable; once in motion, there isn't a power on the planet (and a good deal of the universe) that's supposed to be capable of stopping him. He once took a direct hit from a blast of "mystic Asgardian force" from Mjolnir and it only succeeded in slowing him down for a few moments. And then there was the time when the demon D'Spayr vaporized his flesh and muscles — cue the still-animate skeleton of Juggernaut continuing to come after him. His official superpowers include literally infinite stamina, and no need to eat, sleep, drink or even breathe.
  • This is made even worse in the Fear Itself event: Juggernaut becomes possessed by an ancient being in service of an Asgardian god, The Serpent, and becomes "Kuurth, Breaker Of Stone". In this incarnation he is even more unstoppable. Not only are all his usual weaknesses removed (telepathy and draining his powers did not work and teleporting him away will result in him teleporting back where he was before immediately), the X-Men's attempts had failed so much that Colossus, Magik and Shadowcat had to appeal to Cyttorak himself to remove the Juggernaut powers from Cain and transfer it to Colossus in order to stop him.
  • He gets a similar, yet somehow STRONGER upgrade after he gets his powers back courtesy of Cyttorak at the end of Amazing X-Men. Due to Colossus trying to sacrifice himself by goading Cytorrak into re-empowering him and making him strong enough to kill the god, Cyttorak instead gives the power to Cain. The resulting behemoth is larger, more heavily armored, guarded against psychic abilities even without the helmet, and easily curbstomps the X-men in seconds, with Colossus barely defeating him by sending him tumbling of a cliff, a fate he escapes soon after.
• Keep the Reward: Played with in X-Men Unlimited after he and Deadpool kill the Warden/Human Adaptoid to save the entirety of Krakoa and its inhabitants, they (or at least Cain Marko) are rewarded with the right to live on Krakoa (Cain has visitation priviledges from his relations with Charles and Black Tom but is otherwise unwelcome). Cain is grateful but temporarily declines, he knows that the incident involving the Warden's organization isn't over so he'll see that through first and do some more missions with his Unstoppables. After he'll take up residency, but only when he really needs it.
• Killed Off for Real: In the Ultimate Marvel universe, during Ultimatum.
• Kryptonite-Proof Suit: He usually wears a helmet that blocks out telepathy, which the X-Men usually work to knock off. After this happened enough times he started wearing a smaller, tighter skullcap under the main bulky helmet for extra protection.
• Loved by All: On Krakoa, he’s so popular there that he’s encouraged by Jean Grey to throw his name into the X vote at the third Hellfire Gala and is voted onto the team despite the fact that he’s not even a mutant. This is particularly notable considering how he used to be an enemy of the X-Men.
• MacGuffin: The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, a relic that imbues whoever holds it while invoking ritual words the power of "a human Juggernaut". Occasionally Juggs has had his power stolen by upstarts who find the gem, to the point of throwing it into deep space once to ensure no one would ever again have that opportunity. Being the manifestation of a malevolent deity, it turned out to be a little harder to get rid of than that.
• Meaningful Name: Let's put it this way; there's a reason he has the Name of Cain.
• Missed the Call: It's occasionally stated that Cain wasn't the intended recipient of Cyttorak's power, but that it was meant for Charles Xavier. As one What-If story shows, this is a good thing, as an Xavier Juggernaut killed all non-mutant superheroes, nearly destroyed America and could only be stopped by being launched into space.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Invoked: The demon D'Spayre, who feeds on, well, despair, was once able to physically manifest on Earth by tricking Juggernaut into thinking he had killed Black Tom Cassidy. Tom was alright but Juggernaut wasn't forgiving.
• The Needless: The Juggernaut does not require food, water, sleep, or air; he's about as close to immortal as you can get.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: He once demonstrated the ability to fire energy blasts from his forcefield, an ability that was never used before. It was never used afterwards either, suggesting it was retconned out of existence.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Juggernaut is, to all practical purposes, totally indestructible. While he can still be thrown, knocked back, or hit by blows, he cannot actually be damaged by brute force or physical in nature. Only magic can hurt him physically, he doesn't feel pain, regenerates any damage done to him... he's even got a forcefield he can erect to make himself even harder to hurt.
• No-Sell: During X-Men: Legacy, when Sinister's Cronus Machine activates and tries to turn Cain into a new vessel for Essex, his Cytorrak given powers prevent it from happening (which, given Cain's lack of a mutant gene might well have killed him otherwise), but needless to say, Cain was pretty pissed.
• Odd Friendship: He's got friends among the superhero and supervillain community alike, including the Punisher who's notorious for being unsocial.
• Older Than They Look: Even without Cytorrak, he could pass for someone in his 30's when actually he's Professor X's older brother.
• Only in It for the Money: Occasionally, when Juggernaut is a hired gun rather than pursuing a personal vendetta, a bigger pile of cash than what his employer has offered can stop him.
• Perpetual-Motion Monster: He has been stated to have infinite stamina, does not require any sustenance, and can go for months without stopping.
• Pet the Dog:
  • In his villainous career, Black Tom was the only person he has shown concern.
  • During his Heel–Face Turn phase, Juggernaut has also shown his soft spot for Squid Boy in Chuck Austen's X-Men and Nocturne in New Excalibur issues.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: His power level depends on Cyttorak's whims. He can be weak enough to be trounced by the Wrecking Crew or strong enough to punch through dimensions. After Magik had removed his powers before the creation of Krakoan society, he was only able to regain a portion of his power by using shards of the crushed Gem of Cyttorak. He no longer has a force field, he's weaker and not as invulnerable and he now has to breathe, but he's no longer at the whim of Cyttorak.
• Power Loss Makes You Strong: Despite being by all accounts an ordinary human prior to being empowered by Cyttorak, Cain has consistently maintained a level of Super-Strength even on the occasions when he has been depowered. He is also consistent in his freakishly large size, which was also a blessing from Cyttorak he should logically lose when depowered.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Not to the same degree as the Blob, but Cain is somewhat underdeveloped emotionally and, Black Tom aside, seems to have an easier time befriending and relating to children that he does adults.
• Ramming Always Works: Since Juggernaut can't be stopped once he start moving, much of the time he just needs to look at whatever he wants to pulverise and start running. In most video games where he makes an appearance, this will be at least one of his moves, and often the one that does the most damage to boot.
• Redemption Rejection: Played with post-Avengers vs. X-Men — it certainly looks like Cain has done this when he turns his back on the new peaceful life he has built for himself to chase after the Gem of Cyttorak again, but as it turns out he's only trying to get it for the same reason that Colossus is, to destroy it so no one else can claim the Juggernaut power. Ironically, in spite of this Cyttorak chooses to empower him once more, making him fall into this anyway.
• Red Is Violent: He has red hair, and he wears red armor and a red helmet. When reduced to a skeleton, the skeleton was shown to glow red from the red energy of the crimson gem of Cyttorak. He is also a brutish character.
• Revenge Before Reason: Early in the All-New X-Men days, Juggernaut and Black Tom lure the X-Men into a trap at Cassidy Keep. Juggernaut doesn't particularly care that the team he's facing have no idea who he is or what he wants, save Cyclops. They're Charles's students, and that makes them fair game in his eyes.
• Rogues' Gallery Transplant:
  • He occasionally clashes with Spider-Man and the Hulk.
  • The entity Cyttorak that Juggernaut derives his powers from is actually one of the powers frequently invoked by Doctor Strange, and due to this connection the two characters have crossed paths multiple times.
  • Captain Britain and The Mighty Thor have also had their share of tussles with him. As X-villains go, he Really Gets Around the superhero circuit.
• Signature Headgear: Juggernaut's helmet is easily the most recognizable feature of his look.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: For Exodus' Brotherhood. Turns out he was The Mole the whole time.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: Cain's outfits almost never have sleeves.
• Smarter Than You Look: He might not be book smart, but Depending on the Writer, he can be more than just a meathead. He's usually shown to possess an average intellect, and was capable of creating a metal skullcap to provide additional protection from mental attacks.
• Sole Survivor: During the events of the 2023 Hellfire Gala, Juggernaut was one of the new members elected to join the new X-Men team, along with Cannonball, Jubilee, Frenzy, Dazzler, and Prodigy. However, almost immediately after the new team was announced, almost all of them were instantly killed in a surprise attack by Nimrod, with only Juggernaut surviving the attack. This is also a case of Audience Participation, since in the leadup to the event, fans got to vote for one of the six to join the X-Men as in the two previous years, but the twist being that they were all going to join the new team regardless and the winner instead was the survivor of the attack, with Juggernaut winning the vote.
• Status Quo Is God: After having his powers restored by Cyttorak in 2014, Juggernaut was shown to be stronger than he has ever been, to such a degree that the only way the X-Men could 'beat' him was by using the environment to drop him into the ocean and then escape. Despite this, in his next appearance Juggernaut had completely reverted to form as a petty criminal working with his longtime partner-in-crime Black Tom, and seemingly back at his normal power level to boot. Kind of a letdown after all that buildup...
• Super-Speed: Juggernaut's hyper-strong muscles officially allow him to run at top speeds of 110 miles per hour.
• Super-Strength: With it he has immense strength that far exceeds the ability to lift 100 tons effortlessly. Due to the mystical nature of his powers, Juggernaut can increase his physical strength to immeasurable levels with a simple thought when he needs it. In this sense, Juggernaut has the strength-increasing option due his potential to draw on the limitless power of the mystical energy of Cyttorak, which makes him a truly unstoppable force. Juggernaut has been able to subdue through his physical force or knock out several powerhouses such as Thor, the Thing, Hulk and many others. Also, the limits of Juggernauts strength are unknown simply because of the fact it stems from his Cyttorak himself.
• Super Team: At the end of his 3rd solo outing and into X-Men Unlimited, he has his own superhero team called the Unstoppables which includes Quicksand and Primus plus some help from Arnim Zola.
• Super-Toughness: He's arguably even more well known for this than he is for his strength. Even without his helmet, armor, or forcefield, his skin and bones are durable enough for him to fight and defeat the Professor Hulk (who is somewhat stronger than regular Hulk's base powers and much smarter, though lacks his ability to increase his strength with anger) while shrugging off his blows. His armor is tough enough for him to take a beating from Thor for a full minute while his forcefield was disrupted. He can transform his civilian clothes into his armor at will and turn objects into new helmets in case his gets removed or destroyed, making it pointless to even destroy either in the first place. He has an incredibly powerful forcefield that is said to be completely indestructible to any physical blow and is powerful enough against energy attacks to take a low level Godblast from a severely weakened Thor (the same attack that at full power can even drive away Galactus). Finally, assuming you manage to get through all of this protection and natural durability and actually harm him, he can easily regenerate. All of this makes him possibly the most physically durable being on Earth.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Currently that's part of his ethos as the leader of his own superhero team. Though he will relax this rule if the enemy is too powerful such as Kulan Gath and the Warden/Human Adaptoid.
• Token Good Teammate: For a given value of "good" and "team", Juggernaut was this to the Exemplars, eight humans chosen by the magical beings known as the Octessence to serve as their avatars and compete in a contest; unlike the other seven Exemplars, the process that empowered Cain was interrupted, with the result that Cain Marko was still basically himself where the other seven were fully committed to the planned contest between them.
• Token Human: Cain was one of the first non-mutant X-villains and has never been strongly invested in mutant rights, yet he is often affiliated with the Brotherhood in adaptations. The X-Men Film Series deliberately changed him from a mystically-empowered man into a mutant to avoid this trope. X-Men: Evolution likewise presents him as a mutant, but whose X-gene only became active after some sort of "mystic ritual". In Marvel Comics parlance, that actually makes him more of a mutate (i.e. someone who gained powers thanks to an outside source) like Spider-Man or the Fantastic Four.
• Took a Level in Kindness: During his first Heel–Face Turn, and it stuck throughout the subsequent Heel–Face Revolving Door he went through. In modern times he can be considered a Gentle Giant by his allies, a lot of whom are his former enemies in the X-men.
• Tranquil Fury: After raging at and dominating a team of X-Men (while depowered!) Northstar finally spits it out that it was Cyclops who murdered Charles Xavier. Cain's response, after all that, is to simply narrow his eyes and drop his hostages.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Not much hand to hand skill despite former military service, but he has tremendous amounts of strength and divine support so he doesn’t need much. Thor once defeated him by sacrificing his own god powers to remove Juggernaut's and then casually beating Cain Marko to a pulp.
• Use Your Head: He uses this mode of attack. In the Capcom vs. series, it's his one and only Hyper Combo.
  • Likewise, in Marvel Strike Force this is his Ultimate move.
• Villainous Friendship: He and Black Tom are genuinely good friends. In the aftermath of Spider-Man's famous first battle with Juggernaut (which ended with Juggie trapped under tons of concrete), Tom confidently waited for his friend to reemerge... and then started getting concerned when he didn't. He maintained a vigil on his yacht until he was finally forced to leave to his own safety. Threatening or actually harming Black Tom is a very easy way to get on Juggernaut's bad side.
• Walk, Don't Swim: This is Juggernaut's default way of crossing water. One of the most famous examples of this was after his first battle with Spider-Man in which he was buried in concrete so he simply tunneled his way into the Hudson River and walked out to sea.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: In one What If? story he accidentally caused the nuclear extinction of humanity, condemning himself to a Fate Worse than Death as he had his usual Complete Immortality.
• The Worf Effect: An oft-Worfed character, due to his great power and somewhat limited intelligence. Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard gave him his most classic Worfing, shrugging off a blow from him and throwing him out to sea in a panel so memorable it was adapted into the animated series. Other villains have since tried to piggyback off that panel, among them Post, Onslaught and the Hulk in his Horseman of War and Green Scar incarnations. He was even Worfed by Superman in Marvel Versus DC, knocked down by one punch.
• Worf Had the Flu: Sometimes, explanations are offered as to why he's the victim of the Worf Effect. In DC Versus Marvel, Juggernaut found himself in the DC Universe, where Cyttorak doesn't exist and thus cannot empower him. While still strong and durable, he was no match for Superman.
• Worthy Opponent: Curiously, the Juggernaut has been known to show respect to people who put up a good enough fight against him. Although Colossus and Dazzler both lost their battles against him, they managed to win his respect.
• You Are Not Alone: One storyline revealed that Juggernaut is an "Exemplar", a mystically-empowered avatar, and that there were in fact a number of other Exemplars in the world. Unfortunately, the other Exemplars ended up being C-List Fodder and this storyline fell by the wayside, but it's obvious parts of it were cribbed from by the writers of Fear Itself.

Benefactor

Cyttorak

Cyttorak

Notable Aliases: Lord of Oblivion, Master of the Raging Storm, One True Rage-Father

First Appearance: Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme #44 (April, 1992)

"I am the destroyer of worlds. I will not be denied."

A malevolent being variously described as both demon and god, Cyttorak was worshipped in prehistoric days but was banished into the Crimson Cosmos, a dimension in the Outer Places that he eventually came to rule. Fashioning a gemstone with which to empower a worthy being on Earth into his avatar, Cyttorak patiently waited and eventually obtained that avatar in the form of Cain Marko. Delighting in Cain's baser qualities, Cyttorak happily gave him power, but when Cain decided he wanted more out of life their relationship began to sour.

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• The Corrupter: His modus operandi is to offer fallible individuals inclined to violence the power to destroy everything around them and defeat anyone who challenges them.
• Disappointed in You: On the whole Juggernaut has been an unsatisfying avatar to him, and he has given Cain more than one "The Reason You Suck" Speech, but since Marko is his most reliable herald Cyttorak keeps infusing him with power.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: In his first official appearance as a character and not just a statue he looked like a mortal human sorcerer. Later appearances gave him his stony demonic behemoth look fans typically associate with him, but it is possible he was originally human and that the bearded mortal appearance was in fact his original one.
• Enemy Mine: During Fear Itself, Colossus and Kitty Pryde were able to convince Cyttorak to remove his power from Cain and bequeath it to another instead because Cain had fallen into the sway of the titular Serpent and was no longer obeying solely Cyttorak's will.
• God of Evil: He wants his avatars to use their powers for selfish destruction and has no higher goal for them than that.
• Humanoid Abomination: His usual form is that of a gigantic being made of red stone with an exposed ribcage and a head shaped exactly like Juggernaut's iconic helmet.
• In Love with Your Carnage: When Colossus became his avatar he was tickled pink, since Colossus as a hero was constantly getting in fights while Cain as a villain spent large amounts of time laying low from the law. When Colossus asked to return his power, Cyttorak flatly refused for this reason, and it took the mystical meddling of Magik to finally free Colossus from Cyttorak's 'favor'.
• Mysterious Past: It's not clear if he was originally human and then ascended into his present state or if he was always some sort of demon/godly being, nor is it known who originally banished him to the Crimson Cosmos or how.
• Only the Chosen May Wield: Averted, as anyone who picks up his titular gem will receive his power. This has actually been a huge hindrance to Cyttorak, as Cain wasn't even his first choice for herald (he had his eye on Professor X actually) and over the years this has allowed various lesser beings to claim his power, however briefly.
• Orcus on His Throne: As powerful as Cyttorak is, he's fortunately a retiring sort and content to just hang out in his own dimension letting his avatar wreak destruction for him.
• Red Is Violent: Red is definitely his color and he is every bit as brutish as his herald is at his worst.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: Cyttorak's sole saving grace is that he is sealed into the Crimson Cosmos and cannot manifest on Earth. If he could, he'd be a threat on par with Shuma-Gorath.
• Weaksauce Weakness: His crimson bands are almost indestructible, but can be severed by the Black Knight's Ebony Blade or Magik's Soulsword. It is unknown if either of these weapons could harm Cyttorak directly.

Allies

Black Tom Cassidy

Thomas Samuel Eamon Cassidy / Black Tom Cassidy

Black Tom's original look.

Post-secondary mutation Tom.

Nationality: Irish

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: X-Men #99 (1976)

Tis about time, it is, then... I was beginnin' t'wonder when y'r actions would match y'r reputation! Sorry t'say f'r you , boyo — my actions speak louder than y'r words!

A mutant thief and career criminal who tends to work either alone or with his longtime partner the Juggernaut. The X-Men initially clashed with them at Cassidy Keep, and would have to contend with their schemes off and on over the years.

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• Affably Evil: See Heterosexual Life-Partners and Pet the Dog.
• Archnemesis Dad: Averted. Even though his adopted daughter Siryn chose the hero's lifestyle and bio-dad she never knew over him, Tom never held a grudge and even wrote a letter gentlemanly exonerating her of any crimes.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Black Tom's secondary mutation allows him to merge himself with nearby plant life. On more than one occasion, he's used it to become a nearly-impervious floral dreadnought sporting Combat Tentacles and the ability to regenerate From a Single Cell.
• Bad Boss: The 90s Deadpool miniseries shows readers why Black Tom normally works alone: he's downright brutal to the hired mercenaries in his employ.
• Beard of Evil: Of the classic Evil Twin goatee variety.
• Blood Knight: A downplayed example, but he discovered a taste for crime and the mercenary life as a young man, and has spent most of his life since in action.
• Cain and Abel: With his cousin Banshee, of course. It translated over to the 1992 animated series too, though it was left out of the films (as was Black Tom himself).
• Deadly Upgrade: Given one by the villain Genesis in his guise as Arms Dealer Tolliver. As with fellow Brotherhood member Unus the Untouchable, the joke was on Black Tom as the upgrade ended up being deadly to him.
• De-power: Marvel used M-Day to hit the reset button on Black Tom. He lost his secondary mutation, but retained his original powers somehow.
• Disney Villain Death: His first appearance has his fight with Banshee end when Tom goes falling into a storm-lashed ocean from atop Cassidy Keep. Soft Water turns out to be in effect, and he eventually turned up alive. Didn't stop Cain having a Freak Out and leaping in after him, though.
• Energy Weapon: This was his original mutant ability, one that he needed wood to conduct. He could use any piece of wood, but preferred to use his shillelagh.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Pre-secondary mutation Black Tom was very much a Gentleman Thief, and following his M-Day power loss he expresses remorse for murdering Sammy the Squid Boy, telling Cain that he wasn't in his right mind and "that mad life, it was like some kind of dream".
• Evil Versus Evil: See his profile quote? He says that to Gideon.
• Foil: Interestingly enough, Black Tom is one of these to Mystique, not as a character in general but as a parent. He and Raven both adopted a young mutant girl and both raised their adopted daughters to follow in their criminal footsteps, but while Tom was able to accept that Siryn had no taste for crime and let her go to make her own way in the world as a hero, Mystique was never able to accept Rogue's Heel–Face Turn and continued meddling in her life long after she had matured into a grown woman.
• Force and Finesse: The Finesse to Juggernaut's Force. He lacks the sheer strength of his partner, his durability or any of his other extreme physical abilities. But acts as the more rational, logical and strategic fighter with great skill in his abilities.
• Gentleman Thief: In his earlier appearances. He spent a while as more of a generic Ax-Crazy villain, though as of 2017, he's returned to his old ways, working with Cain.
• Green Thumb: Even before his secondary mutation kicked in he had a strange connection with plant life, fighting at his best in the woods.
• Handicapped Badass: Pre-secondary mutation he had a lame leg, hence his shillelagh. It doubled as a walking stick.
• Heel–Face Turn: As of Jonathan Hickman's X-Men, he's apparently been recruited into the X-Men's ranks.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: His long-standing partnership with the Juggernaut.
• Honor Among Thieves: He and Juggernaut watch each other's backs unfailingly.
• Kick the Dog: Not so much original flavor Tom, but after experiencing his secondary mutation he's all over this. Northstar takes him apart for murdering the school's mutant cook Marilyn, but unfortunately for him Tom can now regenerate From a Single Cell.
• Kick the Morality Pet: He murders Juggernaut's Morality Pet, Sammy the Squid Boy.
• Life-or-Limb Decision: During the Deadpool mini Black Tom was dying after his powers were increased to unstable levels by Genesis. In order to stabilize them, he sought out Deadpool for his healing factor, only to be stymied when his mercs could only bring him back Wade's severed hand. Desperate and minutes away from death, Black Tom hacked off his own hand and attached Deadpool's to his stump. It worked.
• Love Makes You Evil: As children, he and his cousin Sean competed for the affections of Siryn's mother. Sean won that battle, and Tom has never forgiven him for it.
• Morality Pet: Siryn (see below for more on her) is about the only person alive who can shame Tom into being an honest man, even if it never sticks.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After his secondary mutation was taken, his appearance in New Excalibur has him break down crying at Cain over the aforementioned murder of Squid Boy.
• Nothing Personal: Towards the X-Men, pre-secondary mutation. Being a fairly professional career criminal, Black Tom was mostly just interested in turning a profit, the notable exception being with his cousin Banshee where it very much was personal.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: He's spent most of his history working solely with the Juggernaut and is an outlier in modern incarnations of the Brotherhood for his focus on profit over mutant rights (a focus that is shared by Juggy, who isn't even a mutant).
• Oireland: Has one of those written-out Oirish accents that can be very painful to try and read through. He's indeed Irish though, for the record.
• Pet the Dog:
  • When he's captured early on in his villainous career along with Siryn (Theresa Cassidy, Sean's daughter, who he had raised in secret), he gentlemanly exonerates her and writes to Sean explaining who she is.
  • The guy does genuinely like Juggernaut, to the point of being legitimately concerned for his happiness and safety. It goes both ways, as a deeply hacked off Cyclops successfully bluffed the Juggernaut into backing down by threatening to obliterate an unconscious Tom.
• Psychotic Smirk: Just look over at his profile images. He's noticeably smirking in both incarnations.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Again, just take a gander up top.
• Red Right Hand: A near-literal example occurs in the Deadpool mini, where he exchanges his own hand for Wade's.
• Remote Body: At the height of his powers Tom was strong enough to use this. Multiple times the heroes would take him apart, only to find it was Actually a Doombot and the real Tom was elsewhere.
• Third-Person Person: Starts referring to himself in the third person when brought back in Hickman's X-Men run.
• Those Two Guys: Him and Juggernaut, of course.
• Took a Level in Badass: For a long time Black Tom was just Juggernaut's sidekick. Then the Turn of the Millennium came around and with it came a new and much more powerful Tom, taking a few levels in badass thanks to a new secondary mutation.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The secondary mutation also seemed to make Tom more bloodthirsty, to the point where he crosses into Would Hurt a Child territory. He lost both the power and the Jerkassery later.
• Toxic Friend Influence: He advises Juggernaut to cast away his personal doubts and embrace supervillainy, leading to Cain's Heel–Face Door-Slam.
• Weak, but Skilled: Compared to Juggernaut's Unskilled, but Strong, he has incredible skill in his heat blasts and is no fool in his wood usage.
• When Trees Attack: His secondary mutation again.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Formerly a classic Only in It for the Money villain, Tom experienced some steep Sanity Slippage after his secondary mutation kicked in.
  • Gets it again when he uses his powers symbiotically with Krakoa. The amount of sensory information streamed from everywhere on the island down to spores is eroding his rationality to the point that, combined with Power Incontinence when he's not paying attention, makes him paranoid that the island is absorbing his identity.

D-Cel

Miranda Manuel / D-Cell

Nationality: American, Krakoan

Species: Human mutant

First Appearance: Juggernaut (Vol. 3) #1 (September, 2020)

A young mutant Cain Marko meets in New York who refuses to leave for Krakoa, becoming his sort of sidekick.

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• Alliterative Name: Miranda Manuel.
• Barrier Warrior: Instead of actual barriers she has the ability to stop momentum, which compliments Juggernaut's unstoppable force.
• Cool Shades: She prefers to use sunglasses when going out.
• I Am a Monster: The reason why she didn't consider herself a mutant was because when her powers first activated, they caused a car accident that killed her parents, so she considered herself a monster.
• Intergenerational Friendship: She's a teenager who becomes friends with the much older Cain Marko.
• Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: She actually managed to briefly stop the momentum of The Juggernaut when they first met.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: For Sammy the Squid Boy, Juggernaut's original "kid sidekick" character.

Damage Control

See Damage Control

Enemies

Arnim Zola

Arnim Zola

Notable Aliases: The Bio-Fanatic, Scientist Supreme

First Appearance: Captain America #208 (April, 1977)

"Revenge is good. As good a fire to move forward as any. Remember those who stood on your fingers as you climbed the craggy cliffs."

Born in the early 20th Century, Dr. Arnim Zola became one of the first biochemists in history after finding notes and equipment belonging to the offshoot race of humanity, the Deviants. He learned many things from his studies, including the ability to transfer people's essence into clones of their original bodies. Allying with the Nazis during World War II, Dr. Zola survived the war by transplanting his consciousness into a robotic shell. He was a regular associate of the Red Skull during WWII, and still works with him on occasion in the present day.

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See: Captain America: Central Rogues Gallery.

Quicksand

Primus

Absolution Solutions

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