Entertainment
 

Karl Mordo (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Character Template Help
Real Name
Current Alias

Identity

Alignment

Affiliation

Relatives
Baroness Sara Mordo (mother), Baron Nikolai Mordo (father), Astrid Mordo (daughter), Viscount Heinrich Krowler (grandfather)

Universe

Characteristics
Gender

Height


Eyes

Hair

Status
Occupation
Sorcerer

Origin
Origin
Human magician trained by the Ancient One.

Place of Birth
Varf Mandra

First appearance

Contents

History

Mordo gained an interest in magic and the occult from his grandfather.

Mordo began his tutelage under the Ancient One as early as the 1930's, already an adult; residing in the Ancient One's lair brought him reduced aging. The Ancient One realized that Mordo's lust for power made him dangerous but chose to teach him anyway feeling that he could at least keep a watchful eye on him.

Mordo was immediately resentful of Stephen Strange and magically restrained him from speaking when Strange accidentally walked in on Mordo's plot. The plot failed, Strange became the Ancient One's disciple, and Mordo eventually left.

Mordo continued his studies and became a fierce rival of Doctor Strange. They battled many times. Dormammu has employed Mordo as a pawn to try and enter Earth.

At some point, Mordo had an encounter with Dracula, saving a woman from him only to use the woman as a sacrifice. Considering Mordo's ancestral castle is also in Transylvania, this is not all that surprising.

It is not clear whether Astrid was born before or after Mordo's magical studies, but he apparently instructed her in magic. When he later became ill, she attacked Doctor Strange. Baron Mordo discovered he had cancer. Attempts to heal this failed, and he returned to Tibet to seek forgiveness from everyone, including Strange. He was forgiven, and died at peace.

However, after Spider-Man and Doctor Strange were involved in a time traveling adventure, it seemed that a younger, evil Mordo existed.

Additional History by Unofficial Handbook Website

Karl Amadeus Mordo always had some affinity for magic, his father was a powerful black magician and so was his grandfather. When his grandfather the Viscount Crowler and his mother killed the father of Karl they took him to castle Crowler her he received tutoring in the mystic arts by the Viscount himself.

When he learned all there was to learn from the Viscount he went on a quest in search for the Ancient One, he who was known to be very powerful. And it was power Mordo was searching for. Power to revenge his father.

Determined to find this master of the mystic arts, Mordo made his way through the frozen wastes of the Himalayan Mountains. When he finally reached the palace, he only was accepted as the Ancient One's disciple because the latter felt in Mordo the ability for evil and decided that this was the best way to keep Mordo in check.

While Mordo was plotting against the Ancient One, during a session in which Mordo had contact with Dormammu, he was discovered by Stephen Strange who, at that time, was the guest of the Ancient One's. Trying to warn the master of his pupil's treachery, Strange was discovered by Mordo and mystically restrained. But because of the fact that the Ancient One knew of the nature of Mordo, this act merely resulted in Strange becoming the Ancient One's new disciple.

Leaving the Himalayan palace, Mordo ended getting his revenge when he sacrificed Viscount Heinrich Crowler and his mother baroness Sara Crowler-Mordo. With this act Mordo burned all his former feelings except those he had for his father and his hatred against the Ancient One and his new found pupil. Mordo remained a bitter foe of Strange, now Sorcerer Supreme of the Earth dimension. As such, the two have clashed repeatedly over the years. At one point, Mordo served the extra dimensional entity known as Dormammu, seeking to amass more power for himself, although Dormammu was defeated by Strange.

Then came the day that all the dark magic he used over the years to keep himself young finally betrayed Mordo by giving him terminal cancer. This changed him dramatically. Feeling his end come near, he sought forgiveness for his deeds from Strange. But Mordo's daughter Astrid, who followed her dad's old footsteps, transferred the cancer into Strange's body. Only after Mordo redeemed himself by defeating and banishing his own daughter followed by taking the cancer back, did Strange found it possible to forgive him. That's when the cancer sapped the last breath out of Mordo. He died knowing that his old enemy could forgive him.

Baron Mordo returned and joined the Red Hulk's Offenders.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Baron Mordo had the ability to tap this universe's infinite store of ambient magical energy and manipulate this to a variety of effects. The skill derived from three major sources: personal powers of the mind/soul/body, powers gained by tapping the universe's ambient magical energy and employing it for specific effects, and, finally, powers gained through the tapping of extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power existing in tangential mystical dimensions. (The latter means of power is usually gained by reciting incantations.) Some of these effects included:

  • Forming magical energy bolts with a high degree of potency and control and erecting energy shields or screens with a high degree of imperviousness to both physical and magical damage.
  • The art of astral projection, the mental ability to separate the astral self-the sheath of the soul, or life essence-from his physical self, and in this form traverse through space unbounded by physical laws but fully retaining human consciousness. The astral form is invisible, intangible, and incapable of being harmed except by the most rigorous of mystical means. The astral form only possesses those magical powers residing in the sorcerer's mind: thought casting, psychokinesis, etc. He has such mastery that he can remain in astral form for up to 24 hours and even more before there is corporeal deterioration of his physical form. The physical form is quite vulnerable to attack when the astral form is absent. If harm were to befall the physical form while in astral form, the astral form would be stranded in the wraith-like state. While the astral form is absent, the physical form remains in an inert death-like trance.
  • Thought-casting over short or vast distances in a manner virtually identical with telepathy. The entire Earth was within the reach of the Ancient One's mind, providing he knew where to contact the specific mind he is seeking. He could simultaneously communicate with more than a dozen minds at a time.
  • Utilizing local magical energy to teleport across the face of the Earth or into a mystical dimension (certain higher dimensions beyond height, width, depth, etc. where the physical laws can be based on magic rather than science). Oddly enough, teleportation within a dimension is more taxing than teleportation between dimensions. Such expenditure of energy leaves all sorcerers mystically debilitated for a varying length of time, making teleportation a dangerous and seldom used ability. Physical teleportation across time rather than space is the most power-draining feat of them all.

Aside of the above mentioned manipulations he had been known to use spells capable of opening dimensional gateways, levitating, creating life-like illusions, mesmerizing others, and conjuring objects, elements, and beings. Mordo also dabbled in necromancy-- magic of the dead. He once used the spell book of Cagliostro but since lost it, and later possessed occult books of his father's and those that were owned by Viscount Crowler.

Trivia

Mordo appears as one of Dr. Doom's lieutenants in Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Eventually, he and Ultron are left behind and forced to face the heroes. He also stars in the simulation disks of Ghost Rider and Dr. Strange, and in both, he is a minion of Mephisto.

Links

Discover and Discuss

Retrieved from "http://marvel.wikia.com/Karl_Mordo_(Earth-616)"