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A former member of the Nazi Party of Germany during World War II, and pursued as a Nazi criminal by Nazi hunter Ernst Sablinova after the war, Trefkov was responsible for the death of Ernst's wife, Anastasia Sablinova, which motivated Ernst and her daughter Silvija to pursue him with special zeal; she had however promised her mother, on her deathbed, to abandon violence after avenging her. Reconverted into an agent of Hydra, Trefkov apparently killed Ernst Sablinova in Tokyo and took his corpse, emotionally affecting Silvija. In reality, Ernst was still alive and Trefkov attached him to a machine to use as a living battle computer.

Ernst's twin brother, Fritz Sablinova, posed as Ernst to allow himself to be captured and attract Trefkov's attention. Fritz was tortured, but convinced Trefkov to create a faction in Hydra, the Genesis Coalition, which would then secede, destroy Hydra and take its place, with Trefkov in command - or at least that was the plan that Fritz told Trefkov. In reality, Fritz intended to use this maneuver to destroy Hydra and the Coalition; but Fritz spent several years undercover as co-leader of the Coalition and went insane.

Over the next few years, the Coalition initiated several plans that Trefkov ensured followed the Reich's ideology, including the development of hybrid supersoldiers, the use of cyborgs to attempt to capture Mount Wundagore, and various plans that would harm Hydra. Hydra's leader, Baron Strucker, hunted down those who deserted his ranks to go to the Coalition; and as soon as Silver Sable learned that Trefkov was with the Coalition, she went the extra mile to find him. Trefkov had several problems with an ambitious Coalition officer, Dmitri Petrovich, and eventually had him arrested for his constant failures, because the Coalition was going to launch an attack on Bosnia pretending to be Hydra so that Hydra would be blamed, and he didn't want Petrovich to ruin it. Petrovich managed to escape and lured Sable to the Coalition so she'd destroy it, although he died in the process, and then Fritz tried to convince Sable not to interfere because he had started a plan to both destroy Hydra and the Coalition; instead Sable allowed Fritz to capture her, much to Trefkov's glee. During the battle in Bosnia, Trefkov attempted to kill Baron Strucker, but failed; and then Sable reached Trefkov's battlecruiser and killed him in cold blood; shortly afterward, Fritz was also killed in battle. The deaths of Petrovich, Sablinova, and Trefkov marked the end of the Coalition, and for a time Sable had moral problems for having killed Trefkov.

History

Ivan Trefkov was a member of the Nazi Party of Germany[6] and war criminal[8] who escaped the country when the Nazis were defeated in the World War II.[6] After 1959, Ernst Sablinova, veteran of the war[12] and former intelligence minister of Symkaria, founded Wild Pack,[8] a military unit[13] of Nazi hunters,[8] especially war criminals,[14][13] under the orders of the King of Symkaria.[5] Ernst's wife, Anastasia, found her husband's work worrying[14][5] and tried to hide the details from her young daughter Silvija, wishing to keep her away from the violence. When Silvija was seven years old, she saw Trefkov talking to other Nazi agents about a plan to assassinate her father and ran to warn him.[5] In doing so, she inadvertently revealed to the Nazis where her father's base was. The Nazis began a firefight against the Wild Pack, during which Anastasia was killed in the crossfire,[5][13] explicitly shot by Trefkov.[8][14][12][5] Trefkov escaped through the sewers, swearing[5] that he would track down and take revenge on Sablinova.[5][12] Anastasia expired in her preteen daughter's arms, asking the little girl to swear not to continue her father's violent fight;[13][5] Silvija agreed to stop violence, but only after avenging Anastasia's death.[5] After that, Ernst trained Silvija in all kinds of forms of combat,[5][14] so that she would join the Wild Pack in her teens and became Ernst's second-in-command;[13] or so she thought: Secretly, Ernst's supposedly missing brother, Fritz,[5] was his right-hand man, posing as Ernst at any time.[3] The shock of losing her mother at the hands of Trefkov, and the efforts to perfect herself in defiance of her mother's wishes, caused Silvija's hair to prematurely turn silver.[5][13]

Trefkov later joined the neo-Nazi criminal organization Hydra,[5][13][6][15][16] led by Baron Strucker, at a time when multiple factions of the Nazis where reappearing.[5] Both Ernst and Silvija Sablinova jumped at the chance to hunt down Trefkov,[5][13] and Ernst was also especially eager to destroy Hydra. Sablinova's intelligence found Trefkov in Tokyo, Japan. Ernst organized the operation so that he could go alone after Trefkov, and thus be able to kill him in revenge for the death of his wife, with Silvija and the rest of the team as a mere diversion for Hydra troops. However, Silvija decided to defy her father's orders and follow him. This led to[5] a distraction by Ernst at a critical moment, which gave Trefkov the opportunity to stab him,[17][5] apparently killing him.[17][13][5][12][14] Trefkov then escaped[5][13] with Ernst's body,[5] despite Silvija's efforts to stop him.[9] Silvija ordered his men to finish off each of the enemies,[5][9] but Trefkov had the numerical superiority and a boat, and gave orders to his agents to sacrifice their lives until he had escaped by ship across Tokyo Bay. An agent of Silvija, Yanover, warned her that Trefkov had surely set a trap in the hold, but, emotionally affected by the loss of her father, Silvija dismissed his advice, insisted on her orders, and caused her own soldiers' deaths,[9] while Trefkov managed to flee with Ernst's body.[5][9][18] Silvija cried, affected by the situation, the last time she cried for a long time[5] and, convinced that Ernst had died because emotions had clouded both his and her judgment, she decided not to be guided by her feelings in the future.[13][14] Adopting the name "Silver Sable",[13] she took command of the Wild Pack, turning it into an elite mercenary corps,[8][13][14] and swore revenge on Trefkov.[14]

In reality, Trefkov had kidnapped Ernst and kept him alive to use him as a living battle computer,[3][12] connecting him to advanced Hydra technology[3] to take advantage of Ernst's tactical genius.[3][13] Ernst tried hard to sabotage this effort by focusing his mind for years on gambits that he knew were destined to fail, so that Hydra would lose the battles in which they trusted him. During his captivity, Ernst was confident that one day his daughter would find him and rescue him.[3] Trefkov also knew that Silvija was still alive and that one day she would come for him.[18]

After Ernst's funeral, Fritz Sablinova decided to infiltrate Hydra, taking advantage of the fact that her brother's body had not been found. Posing as Ernst, Fritz attacked a Hydra outpost, hoping to attract Trefkov's attention, and was captured, then brought before Trefkov, as Fritz himself had anticipated. Trefkov had Fritz tortured for months, without telling him anything about Ernst's body; but during his ordeal, Fritz developed a desperate plan to destroy Hydra, which he presented to Trefkov[3] as his way of joining him[12] and defecting from the Wild Pack:[8] Create a faction within Hydra, Genesis Coalition, to eventually secede,[12][8] stealing equipment and personnel from Strucker, and seeking a time to annihilate Hydra to take its place[3] when in reality Fritz's plan was to provoke a civil war[12] that would destroy both organizations.[3][12] Trefkov however was convinced by the plan and supported Fritz,[3] after which Trefkov personally convinced a former faction of Hydra to form the Genesis Coalition.[1]

Thanks in part to acquisition specialist Dmitri Petrovich,[9] the Genesis Coalition obtained some of Hydra's most advanced technology[19] at a time when Hydra was especially weakened following the death of Strucker.[15][16] The Coalition took advantage of the moment to openly secede[19] before Strucker resurrected and reorganized Hydra, opposed by the Genesis Coalition.[15][16] Becoming a Hydra splinter group,[20][13][15][16] the Genesis Coalition was persecuted by Strucker, who branded them traitors.[19] Trefkov and a large group from the Genesis Coalition, including Fritz Sablinova, Petrovich, and geneticist[21] Franz Lubischt,[7] established a secret base hidden behind a waterfall[7] in the lush rainforest of South America, with multiple low-level agents and scientists at their command. The Genesis Coalition captured humans and animals to subject them to[21] very painful experiments[21][7] in an attempt to create extraordinarily powerful hybrid super-soldiers, with support from international investors and advanced equipment stolen from Hydra.[21] Trefkov made sure of maintaining Nazi ideology in the Genesis Coalition.[7]

Petrovich had attracted Silver Sable's attention on Long Island,[17] and she sent the mercenary Paladin to track him down.[22] Paladin found Petrovich in South America with the Genesis Coalition, and reported to Sable,[21][13] who traveled there with the Wild Pack to stop them; the purpose of the operation was to stop Lubischt 's experiments[7] since Silver Sable did not know that Trefkov was with the Genesis Coalition.[1][13] The Wild Pack infiltrated the base, but set off alarms; Sablinova and Trefkov reproached Petrovich for his security system having allowed an intruder to get so far. Petrovich assured them that he would eliminate the intruders quickly, even after discovering that they were Silver Sable and the Wild Pack; Trefkov insisted that Petrovich was to, or Trefkov would punish Petrovich by putting him in Lubischt 's hands for his experiments. Trefkov left the base then, but Petrovich failed: Sable and the Wild Pack stopped the experiments, freed the test subjects, and killed Lubischt before destroying the base. They would have also killed Petrovich, but he managed to escape from her by confusing Sable[7] when he told her that her father was alive.[7][13][14] Trefkov worked with smuggler Leviathan, previously linked to Hydra, to provide stolen Hydra technology to the Genesis Coalition through Petrovich. Trefkov intended to attack several Eastern European countries with weaponry provided by Leviathan.[1] Petrovich also stole a mobile base from Hydra for the Genesis Coalition,[9] and they bought a shipment of Cyberwarriors, mindless weaponized cyborgs, from Harlan Ryker and his people;[10] Trefkov planned to send the Cyberwarriors on an attack on Wundagore Mountain, in Transia,[9] which they intended to use as the Genesis Coalition headquarters from where they could expand their base, ambitiously considering an invasion to Latveria.[18] Trefkov was also satisfied with the mobile base stolen by Petrovich.[9]

Silver Sable tracked down Leviathan through his contacts with Petrovich,[1] and Leviathan revealed to Silver Sable that Trefkov was with the Genesis Coalition.[1][13] Shortly after, collaborating with Deathlok against Harlan Ryker in Paris, Sable discovered that the Genesis Coalition had purchased Cyberwarriors, and decided to focus her efforts on pursuing them.[10] Baron Strucker's Hydra also tracked down the Genesis Coalition,[9] hiring the mercenary group Next Wave to recover the stolen base.[9][23][24][13]

Silver Sable and Next Wave simultaneously attacked the Genesis Coalition base; Petrovich reacted by sealing off the affected areas and sending some of the Cyberwarriors there. Trefkov ordered the area to be flooded during the fighting, since this would kill the intruders while the Cyberwarriors, who did not need to breathe, would survive; but at the same time he assigned another group of Cyberwarriors,[9] thirty in total, to the mission of attacking Transia.[18] Fritz Sablinova suggested personally taking care of his niece Silver Sable, and Trefkov did not object, since he did not doubt his colleague's loyalty.[9] However, seeing that there was danger, and although Petrovich insisted that the Cyberwarriors would be enough to end the threat, Petrovich and Trefkov evacuated towards Transia in a mobile battlestation. Meanwhile, Fritz Sablinova tried to keep Silver Sable at bay. In Transia, however, the cyborg Siege attacked the Genesis Coalition Cyberwarriors and, due to his appearance, everyone initially took him for another Cyberwarrior, granting him the element of surprise. The Cyberwarriors then faced the Knights of Wundagore, defenders of Wundagore, and were unable to gain the advantage. Petrovich and Trefkov retreated, with the latter criticizing the former for yet another failure, while the Wild Pack arrived to help the Knights against the Cyberwarriors. All Genesis Coalition Cyberwarriors were destroyed on Wundagore by the Knights, the Wild Pack and Siege, with the participation of Next Wave.[18] The Genesis Coalition settled in an old underground base abandoned by Hydra, and there they set up a plan to cause a war in Bosnia and blame it on Hydra[11] by sending Genesis Coalition agents disguised as Hydra agents. Fritz Sablinova had developed this plan, with the idea of provoking a conflict that would destroy Hydra and the Genesis Coalition in a large-scale war with multiple collateral casualties[3] and the participation of the U.S. military and law enforcement agency SHIELD,[3] but Trefkov believed that the plan would leave the Genesis Coalition unscathed and in a privileged position to obtain the spoils of Hydra. However, Trefkov wanted to get rid of any possible impedance during this operation, including Silver Sable and also Dmitri Petrovich, whom Trefkov considered too incompetent for the authority he had in the Genesis Coalition. Trefkov sent hitman Deadpool after Silver Sable,[11] although Fritz convinced him to[3] order Deadpool to capture her alive, claiming that if she died, her Wild Pack would seek revenge and they would have a bigger problem, while if they captured her, they could hold her hostage. Trefkov accepted, although he would have preferred to see Silver Sable dead. Simultaneously, Trefkov had Petrovich arrested at the base, sending him to a cell until they could decide whether it was better to execute him, or hand him over to Strucker as a bargaining chip.[11]

Deadpool failed to defeat Silver Sable, and revealed to her that the Genesis Coalition had hired him.[11] Additionally, Petrovich escaped thanks to several Genesis Coalition agents being on his side.[25] Petrovich attacked Silver Sable in Symkaria[25][13][8] in a daring plan doomed to failure; Petrovich planned it so that she would defeat him and then he pretended to be intimidated and agreed to take Sable and her Wild Pack to the Genesis Coalition's secret base where her father was. Petrovich hoped that Sable would kill Trefkov for having attacked and kidnapped Ernst Sablinova; and then Petrovich's followers would kill Sable and his Wild Pack, so that Petrovich could take over the Genesis Coalition.[25] At the base, however, Fritz Sablinova intercepted Sable, explaining his presence[3] and assassinating Petrovich[3][13] before he could insist that Ernst Sablinova was alive and at the base. Implying that the confusion was due to his own resemblance to Ernst, Fritz falsely told Silver Sable that Trefkov had killed Ernst, and told him that his plan to attack Bosnia was vital to destroying Hydra and the Genesis Coalition; and then he convinced Silver to allow herself to be captured, with the Wild Pack, so that Fritz would take them to Trefkov so he could protect them. Silver was suspicious, but accepted, keeping two secrets: That his enemy and occasional ally the Foreigner was infiltrating the Genesis Coalition base in order to free her, and that a second group of Wild Pack, the Intruders, would go to Bosnia to stop the conflict.[3]

Sable and the Wild Pack were locked[3][13] on a submarine that Trefkov was using as a base in the Black Sea for the military operation. Trefkov agreed to keep them alive as hostages, but assured Silver that he intended to kill her for all the inconvenience she had caused, and that he regretted not having killed her at the same time as Ernst (Trefkov was also lying, because he knew that Ernst was still alive). Silver told him that SHIELD and Baron Strucker would go after him; but Trefkov told him that he had incorporated them into his plan.[3]

By then, Trefkov's agents had already begun the attack on Bosnia,[25] although SHIELD had noted that their tactics were too mediocre to be obeying Strucker. Strucker, for his part, saw the attack not only as a ploy, but also as an insult, and decided to go to Bosnia to combat the Genesis Coalition forces, all following Sablinova and Trefkov's plan. Trefkov personally traveled to Bosnia aboard a battlecruiser stolen from Hydra to maintain the deception, with the purpose of using it to destroy Strucker and his people before Strucker could realize that the vehicle was not manned by agents of Hydra. One of Strucker's soldiers pushed him to protect him, and Strucker understood the deception, immediately ordering the cruiser to be destroyed. Sablinova realized the problem and contacted Trefkov to have Trefkov activate the cloaking of the cruiser before Strucker destroyed it.[3]

Meanwhile, in the submarine, the Foreigner rescued Sable and the Wild Pack,[3][13] and took them to Ernst.[3] Sable rescued her father,[3][12][14][13] and quickly developed a plan: Just as Trefkov used technology stolen from Hydra to approach Hydra and attack them by surprise, Sable and the Wild Pack stole one of Trefkov's mini-submarine to reach Trefkov's battlecruiser without being detected. Once on board, while the Wild Pack dealt with the defenses, Sable arrived at the command room and confronted Trefkov. Trefkov defended himself with a semi-automatic weapon, but Sable dodged the blasts and pummeled the man he hated,[3] breaking his bones with her bare hands and seeking to kill him.[3][13] Trefkov resisted and drew a knife, but Sable took it from him and stabbed him in the belly,[3] killing him.[3][14][13]

Fritz Sablinova immediately realized that Trefkov had stopped responding, and teleported to the command room, where he confronted Sable, also accusing her of having ruined his plan with the Intruders' intervention in Bosnia. The Foreigner[3] killed Fritz Sablinova,[3][8][13] and the day ended with the apparent destruction of the Genesis Coalition, although Strucker and Hydra escaped.[3]

Although she had managed to avenge her mother,[14] Silver found that her murdering Trefkov had been useless in satisfying her desires[14][26] and had caused her to stoop to his level.[26] Tormented by guilt after that death,[13][27] Silver felt that she could not continue with her field work,[28][14] especially thinking that the act had made her careless,[28][29] and she temporarily abandoned her mercenary work,[13][26][29][30] thus fulfilling her promise to her mother.[27] Silver made peace with herself and resumed command of the Wild Pack shortly after.[31]

Personality

Trefkov was a Nazi war criminal[5][6] and retained that ideology during his whole life, incorporating it in the Genesis Coalition and furthering the goal of a world under the Aryan race's control.[7] He was willing to perform any criminal deed to that end, as proved when he tortured Fritz Sablinova for months until he was convinced he had broken his prisoner.[3] Trefkov was also a ruthless murderer, never regretting having killed Anastasia Sablinova or any other victim of his actions, and always threatening his enemies;[5] Trefkov did regret not killing seventeen-year-old Silvija Sablinova when they had fought[3] in Tokyo,[18] and for years he kept the pretense that he had killed her father Ernst Sablinova, knowing that it unnerved Silvija and put her in a revenge path against him.[3] This was fitting for him, as vengeance was also a driving force for Trefkov.[12] While Trefkov respected Silvija's skills,[7] he was not afraid of her.[3]

Attributes

Abilities

Trefkov was a competent leader of an underground criminal organization[7] and a good strategist, thou not as good as geniuses like Baron Strucker.[3] He was able to hide from Nazi hunters for decades and to obtain adequate funding for his goals.[21]

Trefkov demonstrated a number of other skills, including the capacity to navigate in a motor boat[18] and to operate a huge flying battlecruiser stolen from Hydra.[3] In combat, he has been seen using melee weapons,[3] fireweapons of different types[3][5] and military gear.[18] He was able to fight without weapons to some extent, although in his old age he was not a match for Silver Sable. However, he was able to withstand punishment without complaining, keeping on fighting even when several of his bones had been broken.[3]

Trefkov spoke German[5] and was competent in English, with a strong accent.[7]

Weaknesses

Due to his old age, Trefkov was weak, and his bones were brittle.[3] He also wore glasses due to an unrevealed sight problem.[5]

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Trefkov has been seen using different kinds of weapon in combat, including a knife for short-range combat, a hand-held submachine gun[3] and a rocket launcher.[18]

Notes

Trivia

  • Ivan Trefkov has a Russian first name and a Russian-sounding surname; but he is confirmed to be a German citizen.[6] He may have been a Russian migrant or descendant of Russian migrants.
  • Trefkov never spoke fluent English and through his life he always retained a strong German accent,[7] including occasional words in German while speaking.[9]
    • Once, he addressed Silver Sable as "Fraulein".[3] The word "Fräulein" is currently condescending except when referring to little girls and would not be appropriate to refer to Silver Sable.
  • Trefkov never learned the name of the Cyberwarriors and referred to them as "cyborg super-soldiers".[9]
  • The Taskmaster's talent pool listed Trefkov's name in a list of former agents of Hydra.[32]
  • Silver Sable claimed that Trefkov was the first man she killed in cold blood.[3] However, shortly before that, she had killed Franz Lubischt with a premeditated shot after having disarmed him. Lubischt had had tried to surprise Sable with a hidden weapon, and considering the situation Trefkov was attempting some similar maneuver.[7]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #10
  2. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #1112
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 3.18 3.19 3.20 3.21 3.22 3.23 3.24 3.25 3.26 3.27 3.28 3.29 3.30 3.31 3.32 3.33 3.34 3.35 3.36 3.37 3.38 3.39 3.40 3.41 3.42 3.43 3.44 3.45 3.46 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #25
  4. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #2325
  5. 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 5.16 5.17 5.18 5.19 5.20 5.21 5.22 5.23 5.24 5.25 5.26 5.27 5.28 5.29 5.30 5.31 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #9
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Marvel Atlas #1 ; Germany's profile
  7. 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #8
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 8.9 Marvel Atlas #1 ; Symkaria's profile
  9. 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 9.16 9.17 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #11
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #19
  11. 11.0 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #23
  12. 12.00 12.01 12.02 12.03 12.04 12.05 12.06 12.07 12.08 12.09 12.10 Avengers NOW! #1 ; Silver Sable's profile
  13. 13.00 13.01 13.02 13.03 13.04 13.05 13.06 13.07 13.08 13.09 13.10 13.11 13.12 13.13 13.14 13.15 13.16 13.17 13.18 13.19 13.20 13.21 13.22 13.23 13.24 13.25 13.26 13.27 13.28 13.29 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10 ; Silver Sable's profile
  14. 14.00 14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 14.05 14.06 14.07 14.08 14.09 14.10 14.11 14.12 14.13 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Women of Marvel 2005 #1 ; appendix
  15. 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #5 ; Hydra's profile
  16. 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #5 ; Hydra's profile
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #1
  18. 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 18.9 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #12
  19. 19.0 19.1 19.2 Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 3) #42
  20. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #10 ; Sandman's profile
  21. 21.0 21.1 21.2 21.3 21.4 21.5 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #6
  22. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #3
  23. All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1 ; Baron Strucker's profile
  24. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1 ; Baron Strucker's profile
  25. 25.0 25.1 25.2 25.3 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #24
  26. 26.0 26.1 26.2 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #31
  27. 27.0 27.1 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #30
  28. 28.0 28.1 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #29
  29. 29.0 29.1 Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #32
  30. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #33
  31. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #35
  32. Taskmaster (Vol. 2) #1
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