- Source: Lunatik
Lunatik is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Publication history
Lunatik first appeared in Defenders #51 (September 1977), though a later retcon identifies him as an incarnation of Arisen Turk, a character who appeared in Creatures on the Loose #35-37 (May-September 1975), by writer David Anthony Kraft and artist George Pérez. 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 picked up on this, but made a different connection between the two than Kraft had had in mind. Keith Giffen stated "Lunatik was a character I came up with in high school. When it went radically wrong, I went to DC [Comics and] took the basic concept of Lunatik and ... split [it] into two characters: Lobo had his mercilessness, and Ambush Bug had his goofiness."
The character was created and designed in a hurry, with his appearance based on Alice Cooper, when Giffen suddenly left Marvel to work for DC Comics.
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, also named Lunatik, appears in Marvel Comics Presents #172-175 and Lunatik #1 (December 1995). He is a cosmic mercenary who is later killed by Drax the Destroyer.
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 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 Defenders before eventually being re-fused.
For a time, he poses as drama professor Harrison Turk at Empire State University.
In other media
Lunatik appears in Guardians of the Galaxy, voiced by John DiMaggio. This version is an old friend of Star-Lord who owns a nightclub on the Grandmaster's space station, the Conjunction.
References
External links
Lunatik (Arisen Tyrk) at The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe