He might not be the X-Men's most famous foe, but the Juggernaut has been around for
over 50 years, with a complicated history that ties him to everyone from Spider-Man
to Professor X to Doctor Strange.
If you want to know his story, here's the truth behind Cain Marko, the unstoppable Juggernaut.
The Uncanny X-Brothers
Before the Juggernaut even appears on panel in Uncanny X-Men #12, Professor Xavier fills
the X-Men in on his origin story.
As a youngster, the smart and sensitive Charles was bullied by his older stepbrother, Cain
Marko.
They were rivals their whole lives, although Xavier was able to get the upper hand when
his psychic powers manifested.
When the pair happened across "the sacred, lost Temple of Cyttorak,", however, Cain grabbed
a ruby from a strange-looking statue, and it transformed him into the unstoppable behemoth
known as the Juggernaut.
The cave collapsed and buried Marko, but it turns out that "unstoppable" wasn't
just a catchphrase.
Years later, Marko returned to hunt down his step-brother with a distinctive helmet which
made him immune to Professor X's psychic powers.
That first battle with the X-Men, like many that followed, was all about getting that
helmet off, enabling Xavier to lay down the psychic whammy.
"I'm trying to attack his mind… but I can't get through.
His helmet protects his mind from probes"
The power of Cyttorak
It wasn't mentioned in the early stories, but in 1992's Doctor Strange: Sorcerer Supreme
#44, Cyttorak was revealed to be a demon who had been banished to another dimension.
He's a being of destruction and chaos, which is why he chooses Earthly avatars like Cain
Marko and grants them the power to cause untold devastation in his name.
In a 2015 storyline, Cyttorak's appearance was redefined, mirroring the Juggernaut's
traditional red armor and domed helmet by making him a big red creature with a large
domed head.
By giving shape to the character and motivations of Cyttorak and showing the Juggernaut as
his earthly avatar, Cain Marko's actions were given a whole new meaning.
They were chaotic, to be sure, but they were exactly as chaotic as Cyttorak wanted them
to be.
Black Tom's BFF
In Uncanny X-Men #101, Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum introduced one of the weirdest
partnerships in comics when the Juggernaut teamed up with Black Tom Cassidy, the cousin
of the X-Man known as Banshee.
In the first story, their alliance really only existed to justify the Juggernaut's surprising
presence in Cassidy Keep, but the pair remained allies for years, and it's safe to say that
Black Tom got the better end of that deal.
The Juggernaut is, after all, a legendarily unstoppable supervillain who can level mountains
and bring down buildings with a single punch.
Black Tom Cassidy, on the other hand, is more of a schemer, and at one point suffered from
a disease that was turning him into a tree.
Not exactly the most threatening mutant, but when your real power is being best friends
with the Juggernaut, you don't really need to be.
Juggernaut versus everybody
While he tends to square off against the X-Men, the Juggernaut's path of destruction isn't
just limited to the mutant corner of the Marvel Universe.
After all, a huge guy who smashes through walls and can't be stopped by any known force
is a useful sort of all-purpose villain to have around.
He met Doctor Strange for the first of several battles in 1969, since getting his powers
from a demonic artifact made him a natural villain for the sorcerer supreme.
While the X-Men were taking a break in the early 1970s, the Juggernaut fought the newly
blue Beast in Amazing Adventures #16, and took on Marvel's other famous unstoppable
behemoth in The Incredible Hulk #172.
He would throw down with Thor several times, including a story that also introduced a team
of young heroes known as the New Warriors, and even fought his share of bad guys during
a brief stint as a member of the X-Men.
And of course, he's slugged it out with Deadpool on plenty of occasions.
The Juggernaut's greatest battle, however, might also have been the single best story
he ever appeared in: "Nothing Can Stop the Juggernaut."
In that story, Juggernaut arrives in New York City in an attempt to kidnap the psychic Madame
Web.
Spider-Man tries to stop him, but finds out that the title of the story is pretty accurate.
Fortunately, stopping the unstoppable is what Spider-Man does.
For all of his spidery abilities, one of Peter Parker's most important traits is his unwillingness
to give up, no matter how hopeless things might seem.
Rather than trying to match the Juggernaut physically, Spider-Man eventually outsmarts
his unstoppable foe by tricking him into burying himself in 40 feet of wet cement.
The greatest bar fight ever
The Juggernaut has met the X-Men on plenty of different battlefields, but the most memorable
might be a dive bar in Manhattan.
It happened in Uncanny X-Men #183, and was set in the aftermath of the original Secret
Wars.
Among other things, that crossover saw Colossus falling in love with an alien who promptly
died, leading him to break up with his long-time love interest Kitty Pryde once he returned
to Earth.
Unfortunately for Colossus, Wolverine has always been protective of Kitty, and decides
to take his Russian teammate out to a bar, get him drunk, and then beat him up.
He's spared the trouble, however, by the coincidental appearance of an out-of-costume Cain Marko.
Wolverine manipulates the two into fighting, and then he and Nightcrawler stand back and
watch as the two super-strong giants have one of the greatest barroom brawls of all
time.
The entire establishment is destroyed in the fight, although the Juggernaut surprises everyone
by donating a massive roll of cash to fund its reconstruction.
He takes off, Colossus learns his lesson, and Wolverine is satisfied with the night
out.
X-Men: The Last Stand
The Juggernaut made his cinematic debut in 2006's X-Men: The Last Stand.
With a very charitable 58 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that movie is commonly regarded
as a bit of a mess, partly because it introduces a ton of characters from the comics without
taking the time to actually make them characters.
The Juggernaut, played by Vinnie Jones, definitely suffers from this problem, although there's
one pretty memorable scene.
"Don't you know who I am?
I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!"
When Juggernaut is chasing Kitty Pryde through a large building, Kitty uses her mutant powers
to pass through the walls, but the Juggernaut simply smashes through them like the battering
ram that he is.
And as cool as that action is, the Juggernaut dropping a reference to a viral video featuring
a fan-dubbed episode of the X-Men cartoon is even cooler.
Deadpool 2
The Juggernaut's surprise appearance in Deadpool 2 wasn't advertised, but at this point the
word is out.
Unlike The Last Stand, Deadpool 2's Juggernaut is an entirely digital creation, and gets
to have a massively over-the-top fight with his old comics rival, Colossus.
In the credits, Juggernaut is listed as playing himself, but screenwriter Rhett Reese revealed
to Comic Book Resources that Juggernaut's voice and facial capture are actually performed
by the same actor as Deadpool: Ryan Reynolds.
Colossus, Negasonic Teenage Warhead, and Yukio manage to knock the Juggernaut out at the
end of the film, but his return for future sequels seems inevitable.
After all, nothing can stop the Juggernaut.
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