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Learn the origin, synonyms, and examples of juggernaut, a word for a massive force or movement that crushes everything in its way. Find out how juggernaut is related to the Hindu god Vishnu and his procession in India.
Juggernaut (Cain Marko) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, he first appeared in X-Men #12 (July 1965) as an adversary of the eponymous superhero team.
- Cain Marko
- The X-Men #12 (July 1965)
- Overview
- History\r Early Life
- Attributes
- Paraphernalia
I'm the Juggernaut! Ain't nothin' -- ain't nobody -- can beat me!
—Juggernaut
Cain Marko, better known as Juggernaut, is a long time enemy and sometimes ally of the X-Men. As a child, Cain was regularly abused by his alcoholic father. His stepbrother, Charles Xavier, on the other hand was treated much better while also exceeding him in studies and sports. All of it caused Cain to hate Xavier for years. While serving in the US army, Cain accidentally found the Temple of Cyttorak and obtained the Crimson Gem. The Gem's mystical power transformed Marko into Cyttorak's avatar on Earth — the Juggernaut. Marko used his powers to spread chaos and cause destruction often together with his partner-in-crime Black Tom Cassidy.
After years of being a villain and terrorist, Marko started to reform. He reconciled with Xavier, joined the X-Men and later the Excalibur.
Early Life
Cain Marko is the son of Dr. Kurt Marko, who was an atomic researcher, and Marjory Marko. Cain's parents separated, and his mother died when he was three. Cain was eventually sent to boarding schools, which he continued to get expelled from.[citation needed] Dr. Marko's wealthy colleague, Dr. Brian Xavier, another atomic researcher, died in an accident, and Dr. Marko eventually married his widow, Sharon Xavier, for her great wealth. On marrying Sharon, Dr. Marko moved into her large Westchester County mansion, and, after yet another expulsion from school, eventually moved Cain in also. Dr. Marko favored his gentle, smart stepson, Charles Xavier, to his own son, which led to Cain bullying the young Charles and Dr. Marko secretly beating Cain. Cain was abusive to his stepbrother at every opportunity. Charles' telepathic powers began emerging when he was still a boy, around ten, and, on one occasion, he found himself experiencing the anguished thoughts and emotions of Cain; after Cain had been beaten by his father. The inexperienced young Charles could not control or end his contact with Cain's mind at this time. Somehow, Cain sensed that Charles was reading his mind and had discovered his secret shame. Sharon died shortly thereafter, of a broken heart, leaving Charles to live with his stepfather and abusive stepbrother. During an argument in Dr. Marko's private laboratory over money, Cain accused him of having a hand in Dr. Xavier's "accidental" death, at the disaster at Alamogordo. Dr. Marko was quick to be steadfast in defending himself, taking Cain by the collar of his coat and yelling at him to "never say that again". Charles was stationed outside the door, however, and overheard the conversation. When Cain realized, he intended to cause a ruckus, by destroying some of his father's chemical experiments, throwing a vial of green liquid that caused similar containers to shatter, spilling the chemicals throughout the laboratory. The collision of the different substances caused a violent explosion that left the lab aflame. Though Dr. Marko managed to rescue both Cain and Charles from the fire, he himself died of smoke inhalation. In his dying words, Dr. Marko begged forgiveness for not saving Dr. Xavier when he had the chance and telling Charles to keep his powers secret from Cain. Cain was standing over, however, and heard of Charles' gift, which led him to believe that Charles had invaded his thoughts deliberately. From then on, Cain regarded Charles as his enemy. Cain continued to live in the Xavier mansion, growing increasingly resentful of his stepbrother's scholastic and athletic achievements as well as his telepathic powers (which Charles mastered as he grew older), while Charles entered England's Oxford University. Cain even pushed Charles too far one day and the two got into a fight, which Charles easily won. What happened to Marko after he left home was unclear. However, it was known that Cain became a mercenary and was eventually imprisoned in a Third World jail when the revolutionary forces he was fighting for were defeated.[citation needed]
Birth of a Juggernaut
Later, Marko and Xavier found themselves serving together in the same U.S. military unit in Korea. Marko deserted under fire and Xavier went after him to bring him back. Xavier followed Marko into a cave, that housed the lost secret Temple of Cyttorak, a powerful mystical entity. Marko impulsively grabbed a glowing ruby from the lap of an idol and read the inscription (which mystically appeared to his mind to be in English): "Whosoever touches this gem shall possess the power of the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Henceforth, you who read these words shall become forevermore a human juggernaut." As Xavier watched, the gem's mystical power transformed Marko into a larger, superhuman being. Just then, enemy high explosive bombardment caused a cave-in and Marko was buried under several thousand tons of rock. Xavier survived and returned to his unit. Due to the fact that he did not need air or food to survive, Marko, now the Juggernaut, eventually dug himself free with his new-found, immense strength and invulnerability. He then confronted the previous man to hold the mantle of the Juggernaut, the local Jin Taiko. He killed Taiko in order to fully embrace the powers of the Juggernaut, and under the influence of Cyttorak slaughtered Taiko's entire village, since they ceased their worship to him. After many years, Marko made his way to America to use his newfound power to kill Xavier, leaving the gem in Korea. As the Juggernaut, Cain had released his soul to the deity Cyttorak, becoming his human avatar.[citation needed] Marko attacked Charles, now a professor and founder of the Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, at their old home and learned that his new helmet protected him from psychic attacks. Professor Xavier and his group of X-Men were helpless to stop him, until Professor Xavier asked for the assistance of the Human Torch, who burned the rivets of Cain's helmet, allowing for the X-Men to removed it. After Professor Xavier sent Cain into a coma, he locked him in a room in the basement of the mansion. While attempting to remove the mystic powers of Cain, Professor Xavier placed the two of them in a device and, due to the intervention of the Factor Three, Cain was revived and temporarily retained Professor X's telepathic powers. After defeating the X-Men, Cain was contacted by the Factor Three for membership. While attempting to join them, Juggernaut was tricked by the X-Men, and sent to the Crimson Cosmos of the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak.
Prisoner of the Crimson Cosmos
While attempting to find a pathway back to Earth, Cain made his way to the Dream Dimension and aided Dr. Strange in battling Nightmare to rescue Eternity. After successfully rescuing Eternity, Cain attempted to destroy him and was banished back to the Crimson Cosmos. Due to a number of mystic coincidences, it being Halloween, and his desire for revenge, Cain was briefly returned to Earth, in Rutland, Vermont. The powers that be in the Crimson Cosmos, to teach him an abject lesson, made Cain believe that he was aging rapidly until death. Due to the circumstances of his arrival, Cain was pulled between the Earth dimension and the Crimson Cosmos, while causing chaos in Vermont to regain his youth through hate. Coming to the aid of the citizens of Rutland, the former X-Man Beast battled Juggernaut, who was winning until he realized that Beast's new beastly appearance was real and not a costume. Due to Cain's hate turning to fear, he began to age again and, before he could perish, another portal appeared, returned Cain to imprisonment, and restored him to life when he was brought back to the realm. While attempting to seal away another rampaging beast, the Hulk, Dr. Peter Corbeau sent the Hulk to Cain's mystical dimension and accidentally warped Cain in his place. After Cain attempted to break-out of the Hulk's Hulkbuster Base I cell, Dr. Corbeau attempted to reverse the procedure and resulted in the Hulk and Juggernaut in the cell. Together, the pair broke-out of the prison and made short work of all the military force that Colonel John Armbruster threw at them, but, when Cain began to terrorize civilians, the Hulk and Juggernaut began an epic battle. The pair were evenly matched until the Hulk grabbed Cain by the helmet and began to spin him around. The speed and force of Hulk's attack was enough for Cain's helmet to snap loose and send him into a mountain. Before Cain could begin his sneak attack retaliation, the X-Men arrived, and Professor Xavier mentally subdued him again.
Powers
•Demonic Empowerment: After losing the the Gem of Cyttorak along with his powers, Cain bonded to the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak found on Earth and repowered using the pieces of the Gem of Cyttorak, seemingly giving the following powers: •Superhuman Strength: Cain is strong enough to easily tear down buildings and cause shockwaves by hitting the ground. He could disperse Primus' body with a handclap. •Superhuman Leaping: Cain's great strength extends to his legs and can use it to make incredible jumps. •Superhuman Stamina: Cain can fight for prolonged periods of time without getting tired. •Invulnerability: Cain can easily resist a building collapsing on him and can take blows from the likes of Hulk and Quicksand without major damage. •Force-Field: Cain can generate and extend a personal force field from his body to furtherly enhance his durability. •Irresistible Force Embodiment: Once Cain starts to advance in a direction it is virtually impossible to stop him. Even D-Cel ability to slow down kinetic motion was unable to completely stop him and could only slow his advance. Texas Twister was also unable to significantly slow down Marko's advance, despite pushing himself to his limits. •Summoning: Juggernaut can summon his specialized armor at any time he wants. While it was originally believed that he summoned his armor from another dimension he revealed that his armor is actually stored inside of his body. •Regenerative Healing Factor: The Gem of Cyttorak allows Cain to recover from injuries at an accelerated rate. He was able to recover from the near-lethal beating that Nimrod gave him with no sign afterward. Former Powers Demonic Empowerment: The Crimson Gem of Cyttorak bonds to the user's soul and makes him the Avatar of Cyttorak, an Exemplar, by giving him this new body. He was stated to be a Thor-class threat. According to Prosh, his Comparative Mutagenic Power Register was of 8.9. As far, he has displayed the following powers: •Limitless Strength: The Juggernaut is sometimes listed to possess virtually limitless superhuman strength, being endowed with endless kinetic energy coming from Cyttorak, and other times simply as class 90 or 100. The Juggernaut's power proceeding from Cyttorak is connected to his function as the avatar of destruction. Using this strength he was able to knock out the Thing with three blows, Colossus, and even the Merged Hulk (through repeated surprise ambush tactics) and Thor (Thor was in a fragile state). The Juggernaut proved strong enough to match the highly strong Prime in a fight, knocked out several mutants with a thunderclap, and even toppled the Stranger with one punch after he grew to about 50 feet tall. He was able to stalemate a moderately angry World War Hulk, as well as the Mighty Thor (before Cain's bond with Cyttorak was ruptured). Moreover, Cain was able to stalemate a relatively angry Savage Hulk, hurt the powerful King Hyperion while in a weakened state, injure Skaar and gain the advantage before being outsmarted, etc. However, in a weakened state, after being severely depowered by Cyttorak, he has been defeated by foes such as Iron Man. Also, when empowered greatly by absorbing energies from a magical universe, Cain broke multiple dimensional barriers and could split the space-time whose fissure was expanding through the universe in which he was. •Limitless Stamina: Juggernaut's body generates no fatigue toxins during physical activity, granting him unlimited stamina in all physical activities. •Invulnerability: With his force field active, Cain is virtually invulnerable to all forms of physical injury. Cain can only be harmed by high-level mental attacks, mystical attacks, or weapons with mystical properties. In fact, when the Juggernaut's force field was negated by Mjolnir, he was still durable enough to exchange blows with Thor. Even while weakened, he proved able to withstand a blast from the cosmic entity Stranger. •Force-Field: The Juggernaut is capable of generating a personal force field around himself, which greatly enhances his physical durability, to the point that the field was even able to withstand Mjolnir and Thor's god-blast. Thor's attacks were completely ineffective against the Juggernaut, and Thor was explicitly not holding back. Indeed, Wolverine's Adamantium claws proved absolutely unable to hurt the Juggernaut. •Energy Absorption and Redirection: The Juggernaut's invulnerability also allows him to absorb energy-based attacks and redirect them at opponents. •Immortality: The Juggernaut is immune to aging and has sometimes been depicted or implied to be unkillable under normal means. •Self-Sustenance: The Juggernaut is completely self-sustained, he has no need to breathe, eat, or drink. He does not tire, hence he cannot sleep, however his self-generating mystical energies provide him with the nourishment of sleep, nutrition, hydration, and oxygen. He is sustained by his mystical energies alone. He once even kept talking and fighting after being reduced to a skeleton. •Contaminant Immunity: The Juggernaut is also immune to all toxins, poisons, and disease.[citation needed] •Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite of his invulnerability, it is possible that Juggernaut can be injured. If damaged, Cain possesses a regenerative healing factor that enables him to completely regenerate with superhuman speed. For instance, he has been injured by Shatterstar's sword and healed instantly. The demon being D'Spayre once flayed the Juggernaut down to a skeleton after draining him, and even then, the Juggernaut was able to regenerate all the damage done once he regained his full power. •Irresistible Force Embodiment: Once he begins to advance in a certain direction, it is virtually impossible to halt his movement. Some obstacles such as many tons of rocks and plasma-discharge cannons have slowed his pace but can't completely halt him. Thor's use of his god-blast allowed him to stop Juggernaut in his tracks. During a battle with "War Hulk", the mutant Apocalypse increased the Hulk's strength by grafting Celestial tech to him, which allowed Hulk to increase his strength at will, thereby enabling him to stop the Juggernaut. Spider-Man was able to defeat Juggernaut by blinding him and forcing him into a building foundation with newly-poured cement. As a result, Juggernaut sank to the bottom and was unable to move for months. •Size Manipulation: It seems like the Juggernaut can increase in size to 80 feet (as seen during the Trion saga), and greatly decrease his size, when battling Nightmare. •Levitation: When given enough power by the Gem, the Juggernaut can also levitate above the ground and possibly fly.
Abilities
•Hand-to-Hand Combat: As a result of his days in the military and his experiences as a superhuman, the Juggernaut is a formidable hand to hand combatant preferring to use street fighting and brawling techniques that allow him to make full use of his great strength.
Weaknesses
Cain was susceptible to exceedingly high levels of mental and mystical attack. For example, Mjolnir once was able to absorb and negate Cain's formerly impenetrable magic force field. Both types of attacks were able to harm him, but neither were shown to cause any type of permanent injury. His weakness to mental attacks was typically nullified by his helmet, but after his latest upgrade, he is now completely immune to psychic assault even without his helmet. If Juggernaut does not use his powers in a manner approved of by Cyttorak, the power of the gem does not work correctly, essentially making him a human with only a portion of some of his powers. Also, being infused with unstoppable force can be used against him, as Hulk did during one of their battles, deflecting Cain's charge, causing him to speed away, unable to stop himself. Furthermore, by halting his movement, or putting him in a situation where he cannot use any leverage, the strength Cain gains from his charge is rendered useless.
Equipment
•Juggernaut Armor: After being stripped of his powers, Cain was imbued with new powers after bonding to the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak, which formed a new armor that Marko could manifest at will. His armor furtherly enhances his durability and it is completely bulletproof. Unlike his previous armor this new one can allow telepathic communication.
Weapons
Former Weapons Hammer of Kuurth
A juggernaut (/ ˈ dʒ ʌ ɡ ər n ɔː t / ⓘ), in current English usage, is a literal or metaphorical force regarded as merciless, destructive, and unstoppable. This English usage originated in the mid-nineteenth century and was the early rendering in English of Jagannath , an important deity in the Hinduism of north-east India.
Juggernaut definition: any large, overpowering force or object, such as war, a giant battleship, or a powerful football team.. See examples of JUGGERNAUT used in a sentence.
The official Marvel page for Juggernaut (Cain Marko). Learn all about Juggernaut both on screen and in comics!
Mar 30, 2024 · Juggernaut is one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe, rivaling Hulk in terms of raw power – and given the nature of his abilities, once set in motion he is as close to "unstoppable" as any superpowered individual in the Marvel Universe; though, of course, over the years, many heroes and villains have found novel ways to ...
