Sauron (comics)
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Sauron is a Marvel Comics supervillain, an enemy of the X-Men. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Neal Adams, he first fully appeared in X-Men #60 (September 1969).
Sauron is the alter ego of Karl Lykos, sharing a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde relationship with the physician. He is an energy vampire who resembles a humanoid pterodactyl after feeding. He often inhabits the hidden prehistoric jungle the Savage Land.
[edit] Character biography
Karl Lykos was the son of an explorer's guide. As a teenager, he accompanied his father to Tierra del Fuego as the elder Lykos guided a weathy client named Mr. Anderssen and Anderssen's young daughter Tanya. While defending Tanya from mutant pterodactyls, Karl was bitten by one of the creatures. During his recovery, he discovered that he could now drain the life-force of other organisms. He found himself repeatedly tempted to use his new power.
When Karl's father died, Mr. Anderssen took Karl into his home in thanks for rescuing Tanya. As the years passed, Karl and Tanya fell in love. But Tanya's wealthy father would not allow her to date Karl because of his lack of wealth. In an effort to win Mr. Anderssen's support, Karl went to medical school and became a physician. He aided patients through hypnosis, but secretly robbed them of energy at the same time.
Dr. Lykos was a colleague of Professor Charles Xavier, and first encountered the X-Men when they sought treatment for Havok. When Lykos absorbed energy from Havok, there was a horrible side-effect: he transformed into a vampiric, pterodactyl-like monster. He named himself Sauron, after J.R.R. Tolkien's villain (also reminiscent of the word saurus, Latin for lizard), and battled the X-Men. But when he realized that his transformation would threaten Tanya, he fled to Tierra del Fuego. Without energy to absorb, Sauron turned back into Karl. When Tanya tracked him down, Karl threw himself off a cliff to avoid harming her.
Presumed dead, Karl actually survived, merely unconscious on a ledge below. He journeyed to the Savage Land and survived in human form by only draining less developed animals. He befriended Ka-Zar and used his medical skills over many months to care for Ka-Zar's allies. But when several X-Men were stranded in the Savage Land, Lykos was overwhelmed with the desire to absorb the powerful life energy of mutants. He transformed into Sauron once again after absorbing Storm's energy. He reverted back to human form during a battle with the X-Men, and Ka-Zar explained that Lykos was an ally.
A notable appearance was in the first story arc of the series Marvel Fanfare (1982), written by Chris Claremont. In that story, Tanya learned that Karl had survived the leap from the cliff. She joined Angel and Peter Parker on a journey to find Karl in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, he had reverted to his Sauron form and joined the Savage Land Mutates. The X-Men traveled to the Savage Land and defeated Sauron and the Mutates. They brought Lykos back to the United States, and at the X-Mansion Professor X seemingly cured Lykos of his condition. Karl and Tanya decided to resume their relationship and a normal life.
Unfortunately, Lykos was again transformed into Sauron and joined the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, despite the fact that he is not actually a mutant himself. Sauron went on to menace the X-Men and other heroes on a number of occasions.
Sauron became a prisoner of the recent Weapon X program jumpstarted by director Malcolm Colcord. Being held there against his will, Sauron started up a revolution with fellow agent Brent Jackson and de-throned Colcord as director, giving that position to Jackson. Sauron in return became a more powerful villain on the team, but vanished after Weapon X rival John Sublime launched an attack on Weapon X, and the group had to go underground.
He recently appeared in New Avengers #5, in which he held the team hostage when they came to the Savage Land. The team then freed itself, and were about to interrogate him, when he was shot through the head by Black Widow. Fortunately for Sauron, he had absorbed Wolverine's regenerative healing factor and recovered from his injury, just in time to be soundly defeated by the New Avengers. He was taken back into custody, but not before returning the favor to Black Widow by burning her with his fiery breath. He is apparently still in the custody of Weapon X.
[edit] Powers and abilities
In human form Karl Lykos is fairly typical, except he keeps his ability to absorb the life forces of other living things to sustain himself. This often triggers his transformation into his pterodactyl form. If he absorbs the life force of a mutant he will absorb a portion of their powers temporarily. Due to manipulation by the Weapon X program, Sauron can expel the life force energy in concussive bursts from his hands.
In pterodactyl form he is superhumanly strong (able to lift approximately ten tons) and possesses the ability to fly at a natural winged flight limit. In battle, Sauron has several additional weapons: a lethal beak and sharp talons on his hands and feet.
At some point prior to his New Avengers appearances, he acquired an additional ability to breathe fire, which he used to burn the second Black Widow in revenge for shooting him.
He also has a powerful hypnotic ability that requires direct eye contact to complete. He frequently uses his hypnotic power to give his victims terrifying delusions that allies have become monsters.
[edit] Appearance in other media
Sauron became a major villain in the X-Men animated series after they first visited the Savage Land. Unlike his psychiatrist persona, in this version Karl Lykos was apparently an inhabitant of the Savage Land and was mutated by Magneto, though he later became a follower of Mister Sinister. This version of Sauron did not appear to possess the fire breath of his comic book counterpart. Despite this, he was a formidable foe in many episodes.
He also surfaced as a boss in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.
He makes an extremely brief appearance on a TV screen in Ultimate Spiderman.
