Taegukgi (Tae-Won) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by Jed MacKay and Alessandro Vitti, first appeared in Taskmaster (vol. 3) #3 (February 2021).
Taegukgi is a South Korean superhero and field leader of the Tiger Division, the country's superhuman response team, and is regarded as its greatest national hero.[1]
Orphaned as a baby in 1950 during the Korean War, Tae-Won was adopted by a similarly orphaned young woman whom he saw as his ajumma. Despite her best efforts, a young Tae-Won fell in with a group of thieves, which eventually became a criminal gang as they got older. In 1978, when the gang broke into a government facility to steal valuable materials, Tae-Won was exposed to energies created by the Psylot Gem, an Asgardian artifact left behind in Korea by Loki many years ago, which was being experimented on by the South Korean government. Instead of harming him, the Psylot Gem granted Tae-Won superhuman abilities. After his ajumma helped him control his powers and showed him the pain and misery inflicted upon civilians by the gang he created, Tae-Won vowed to use his powers to help people in need and to atone for his criminal past, eventually becoming the nation's greatest superhero, Taegukgi.[2]
When Taskmaster infiltrates Tiger Division's base to copy White Fox's kinesic signature, he is forced to flee when Taegukgi intervenes and nearly kills him with his heat vision. Despite this, Taskmaster still succeeds with his objective.[3] As part of a coup, a criminal cult known as the Choi Faction employs Mongdal, a criminal with the ability to transfer his consciousness into the bodies of others, to possess Taegukgi and threatens to have him destroy Seoul unless their demands are met. However, Mongdal double-crosses the Choi Faction and has Taegukgi kill them before possessing him into taking over the country. The Tiger Division is nearly defeated until their ally Black Cat provokes Mongdal's consciousness into returning to his original body and kills him, freeing Taegukgi.[1]
Taegukgi and the Tiger Division are sent to recover the Psylot Gem when it is stolen from its storage unit and track the theft to the mysterious MTO Corporation. The true leader of MTO is revealed to be Min-Jae, Taegukgi's childhood best friend and former partner-in-crime, who reveals the truth behind the Psylot Gem. Despite the efforts of the Tiger Division, Min-Jae steals Taegukgi's powers and seals them back in the Gem. At this moment, Min-Jae's benefactor Doctor Doom arrives to take the Gem's powers for himself, but Taegukgi convinces Min-Jae to help fight against Doom. Taegukgi is able to reclaim his powers from the Gem, which is destroyed during the battle; Doom leaves empty-handed while Min-Jae flees. Taegukgi's relationship with his teammates becomes strained due to him not disclosing his past to them, but they forgive him when he opens up about his ajumma.[2]
Taegukgi travels to Santa Cruz, California, when the ghost of Wrenley Fischer, a telepathic serial killer who once terrorized Seoul until his death twenty years ago, resurfaces and begins killing again. With the help of Ghost Rider, Taekguki is able to exorcise Fischer's spirit.[4]
Due to exposure from the mystical Psylot Gem, Taegukgi possesses superhuman strength, durability, speed and stamina, flight, and the ability to shoot energy beams from his eyes.[3][1][5] Taegukgi's strength and powers are noted to be on par with Hyperion, Blue Marvel, and the Sentry.[1] Taegukgi also possesses superhuman longevity, as he still retains the health, appearance, and vitality of a young man in his prime well into the 21st century despite being born during the Korean War.[5] Taegukgi is fluent in both his native Korean and English.[4] Despite his strength and invulnerability, Taegukgi is highly susceptible to psionic abilities, including mind control, body possession, and psychic attacks.[1][4]
Tagak is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. Tagak is a blind extra-dimensional humanoid with a pet leopard.
Tagak was summoned to Earth to catch a thief from his home dimension. Daredevil mistook Tagak for the thief, whom he was also trying to find, and subdued Tagak. After Tagak explained his mission to Daredevil, the two teamed up, allowing Tagak to capture the thief and return with him to his world.[6]
Tagak was later one of a number of heroes who applied to become a member of the Defenders. Tagak accompanied these Defender-applicants on a single adventure before they all quit during the "Defenders For a Day" storyline.[7]
Following the Civil War storyline, Tony Stark listed Tagak's status as 'undetermined'.[8]
Tai is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Tai was like a mentor for the New Warriors in the first 25 issues of their first series.
Tai is an elderly Cambodian mystic who was indirectly responsible for the formation of the New Warriors. She was born into a cult called the Dragon's Breath. Her people derive mystical energy from a well inside their temple that was a nexus into various alternate dimensions. The temple is constructed around the nexus point where vast amounts of mystic energy are constantly released. Throughout the centuries, Tai's people absorb the energy from the well. In a plan called 'The Pact', they devise a detailed program of interbreeding, the goal of which is to enable each successive generation to tap more energy from the well than its previous generation; eventually, one generation would use that power to rule the world. Tai's generation is actually able to harness the energies of the well, and is led to believe that they are the ones to rule the world. Tai refuses to share powers and slays everyone in the cult, except six maiden brides and a series of temple guards.[9]
During the Vietnam War, a unit of American soldiers calling themselves the 'Half-Fulls' encounter the temple but are captured by Tai. Tai tells them the story of her people and that the six soldiers had to marry and procreate with the six maiden brides. All but one of them agree to do so (Daryl Taylor was already married).[9] After their tour, the soldiers return home to America with their new brides, while Tai remains in Cambodia. Tai marries her only daughter, Miyami, to an African American soldier named Andrew Chord. Miyami soon gives birth to two children: Silhouette and Aaron (Midnight's Fire). To prevent her children from being used as Tai's pawns, Miyami fakes their deaths as well as her own, and leaves her children to be raised in Manhattan's Chinatown.[10]
Chord, thinking his family is dead, becomes a mercenary and travels the world. Eventually, he arrives in Cambodia and renews his association with his mother-in-law. Together they return to America. Tai worries her son-in-law fears his place in the pact is moot now that his son is dead. Tai urges Chord to resume his friendship with army buddy Daryl Taylor (the one who rejected the pact). Chord does so and becomes godfather to Daryl and his six-year-old son Dwayne. Tai then demands Chord kill Daryl and his wife Melody; Chord does so, unwillingly, in front of Dwayne. Dwayne is then introduced to Tai and his memory is wiped.[11] Chord and Tai raise Dwayne and train him to be a crime fighter. They also manage Daryl's charitable organization, the Taylor Foundation, often using it to finance questionable activities around the world. Dwayne becomes Night Thrasher and is briefly part of a team with Tai's grandchildren Midnight's Fire and Silhouette. At the time, the three are unaware of the relevant biological relationship. Later, Night Thrasher finds the New Warriors. Tai influences the group from behind the scenes. In "New Warriors" #8, she bets the safety and security of the Warriors on a conflict with Emma Frost. Frost commands her own team of super-powered teens to bring back one of the Warriors, who used to be her student; however, Frost's team is defeated.[12]
Tai hopes to sacrifice the New Warriors to the well instead of the super-powered members of the Folding Circle (the children born from the mating of the soldiers and the brides). Tai and Chord's illegal business dealings are exposed, and Chord attempts suicide rather than admit the truth. While in the hospital, his wife Miyami visits him. Tai discovers this and is enraged that her daughter had faked her death and the deaths of her grandchildren. Tai murders her daughter in a fit of anger. Tai also uses her power to heal Chord of his brutal injuries, though she is unable to completely restore him.[13]
Tai later returns to Cambodia. She is soon followed by the Folding Circle, now led by the Left Hand, a rogue-powered villain influenced by the energies of the well. The New Warriors also follow in an Avengers' Quinjet. Tai attempts to sacrifice both groups to the well. They work together to try and save each other, but it all comes down to Dwayne, who uses an Uzi submachine gun to injure and seemingly kill Tai. Both she and the Left Hand are sucked down into the well.[11]
Tai has appeared a couple times since her death in time travel storylines. In a storyline in Darkhawk, Tai's granddaughter Silhouette is sent back in time to stop Tai from murdering Miyami.[14] In a storyline in the Night Thrasher comic book series, Silhouette is sent back in time to Tai's childhood, where she encounters Tai and her peers as children in the cult. The five-year-old Tai tells Silhouette she can send her home if Silhouette will murder one of her rivals. Silhouette refuses and murders her grandmother as a child.[15]
Talon is a fictional character in the Earth-691 timeline of the Marvel Universe. He is a feline Inhuman and sorcerer apprentice to Krugarr, and a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Talon debuted in Guardians of the Galaxy #18 (November 1991).
According to creator Jim Valentino, he wanted to use Wolverine in a storyline where the Guardians had briefly returned to Earth, but Bob Harras, the X-Men editor of the time, did not want it established that Wolverine could live that long. Thus, Valentino created Talon, influenced by Steve Englehart's take on the Beast during his time with the Avengers.[16] Valentino later stated that Talon "wasn't gay, as some people thought. I thought it would lighten things up to have a happy-go-lucky screw-up on the team since, when looked at properly, the Guardians were not a superhero team, but rather a light army."[17]
Talon has some superhuman abilities thanks to his genetically superior Inhuman physiology; he has also possibly been exposed to the mutagenic Terrigen Mist. He has a feline form: an orange fur-covered body, razor-sharp talons on his hands and feet, pointed ears, pronounced canine teeth, and a 3+1⁄2-foot prehensile tail. He has superhuman strength, is an Olympic-level acrobat and gymnast, and is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant. The talons on his hands and feet can be detached and hurled as weapons, then regrow instantly.
Tanaraq is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
Tanaraq is a member of the Great Beasts.[18] He is responsible for the symbiosis that turned Walter Langkowski into Sasquatch during his gamma ray experiment.[19]
In flashbacks, it was revealed that Tanaraq was a member of the Avengers of 1000 A.D.[20]
Tangerine is a fictional character appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics. She appears in two separate future timelines and in the present day as a member of MI-13.
Tar Baby is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.
A member of the Morlocks who can secret tar-like substances, he once tried to help Annalee capture Power Pack and force them to become her children.[21] He helped another group of Morlocks in a second attempt, which was thwarted by the X-Men.[22]
Tar Baby survived the "Mutant Massacre", where the Marauders hunted down and killed many Morlocks.[volume & issue needed]
Tar Baby was later captured by the Weapon X program, which was led by Malcolm Colcord, and put to death in "Neverland", Weapon X's concentration camp.[volume & issue needed]
Tara the Girlchild is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Mike Friedrich and Paul Gulacy, she first appeared in Adventures into Fear #20 (November 1973).
Tara is a genetically engineered psychic vampire with the ability to use an older avatar of herself with superhuman abilities. She is used as a weapon for Reverend Daemond and the Caretakers of Arcturus IV, and battles alongside Morbius, the Living Vampire, against her creators before dying from the confrontation.[23][24]
Tarot (Marie-Ange Colbert) is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe who first appeared in