| Capricorn | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Avengers #72 (Jan 1970) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Willard Weir |
| Team affiliations | Zodiac |
Capricorn is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe.
Contents |
The original Capricorn first appeared in Avengers #72 (January 1970), and was created by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema.
The character subsequently appears in Avengers #80-82 (September–November 1970), Daredevil #69 (October 1970), Iron Man #33-36 (January–April 1971), Daredevil #73 (February 1971), Avengers #120-125 (February–July 1974), Iron Man #184-185 (July–August 1984), and West Coast Avengers #26 (November 1987), in which he is killed.
Capricorn appeared as part of the "Zodiac" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #20.
Willard Weir is a founding member of the Zodiac criminal cartel, and his base of operations was Detroit, Michigan. The Zodiac Cartel was founded by Cornelius van Lunt (Taurus), handpicking the eleven other members; van Lunt concealed his own identity, while he was the only one who knew the identities of the others. Each member was based in a different American city as part of his nationwide criminal network, with the ultimate goal of world economic and political domination.
The Zodiac was infiltrated by Nick Fury, posing as Scorpio; the Zodiac fought the Avengers and escaped.[1] Aquarius, Capricorn, and Sagittarius sought to recapture the Zodiac Key, but lost it to the Brotherhood of the Ankh.[2]
Led by Taurus, the Zodiac later attempted to kill all Manhattan residents born under the sign of Gemini as a show of power, but were thwarted by the Avengers. Taurus's faction attempted to kill the Zodiac dissident faction, but all twelve leaders were captured by the Avengers.[3]
A new android version of the Zodiac later appeared, led by Scorpio in a new android body, massacred the human Zodiac, and took over their criminal operations.[4]
A android Capricorn was a Life Model Decoy created by Scorpio (Jacob Fury) in his "Theatre Of Genetics" to be part of his Zodiac crime organization. The first Capricorn and Pisces androids, however, died due to imperfections soon after their activation.[5]
After the "death" of the first Capricorn LMD, Scorpio created a second version of the Capricorn LMD. The Zodiac LMD's were recruited by Quicksilver during his bout with temporary insanity, and Quicksilver ordered the Zodiac LMD's to destroy Avengers for their imagined wrong doings. The Avengers managed to defeat the group and most were remanded into federal custody.[6]
The android Zodiac were soon released, and the Scorpio LMD rebuilt a number of them. Scorpio used the Zodiac Key to create LMDs that exemplified the forces and personalities inherent in each sign, hoping to create great strength in the combination of all twelve traits of the Zodiac. She arranged the ambush in which the android Zodiac killed all of the remaining human Zodiac leaders except Cornelius van Lunt, alias Taurus. Immediately afterward, Van Lunt sought out the services of the Avengers' West Coast branch to confront and defeat the android Zodiac. In their initial foray, the Avengers failed, although several androids were destroyed.[7]
The Zodiac Key immediately resurrected the Scorpio LMD. Claiming superiority and believing that the Zodiac would eventually kill the Avengers as the androids could never be stopped, Scorpio wanted to use the Key to transport everyone on the scene to the Key's native dimension where the conflict, he believed, could be prolonged indefinitely. However, when the androids were in the other dimension, they ceased to function because each of them were aligned with a particular zodiacal energy, energy that did not exist in the other dimension. The Avengers found Hawkeye and Tigra had been sent to the same dimension and, reunited, the team was sent back to Earth by the Brotherhood. However, secretly the Brotherhood waited so that someday they could also send the Key to Earth again and create new conflicts for them.
Ecliptic Capricorn was another Zodiac man-animal, as violent as the others and did not take kindly to being mocked. He accompanied Leo and Aries in their theft of Department H's super-organism. He was killed with the rest of the Zodiac by Weapon X.
Capricorn dresses in a goat-like costume. Through unknown means, Capricorn can cause his costume's horns to extend, wrap themselves around opponents, and throw the opponents about. He was also an expert in karate and sometimes carried a hand-held blaster.
The android Capricorn had goat-like horns and demonstrated no abilities. In its second form, Capricorn is an expert climber and has a set of wings that allow her to soar. She has a set of hooves which she can use as a weapon. This form was later modified into a hairy female form which retained the climbing ability and gained powerful hooves.
Ecliptic's Capricorn possessed superhuman strength, uses it's horns to attack, wields a gun, and possesses the Zodiac's teleportation device.