Merge:Sauron

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.

Character biography
Karl Lykos was the son of an explorer's guide. As a teenager, Lykos 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 rescuing Tanya, Lykos was bitten by a mutant pterodactyl. During his recovery, Karl discovered that he could drain the life force of other organisms. Lykos found himself repeatedly drawn to use his power on the vulnerable.

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. Lykos absorbed energy from Havok and was transformed into a vampiric, pterosaur-like creature, and named himself Sauron, after J.R.R. Tolkien's villain (also reminiscent of the word saurus, Latin for lizard). Sauron battled the X-Men. But when he realized how his transformation had threatened Tanya, he fled to Tierra del Fuego. Without an energy to absorb, Sauron reverted back to Karl Lykos. When Tanya tracked him down, Lykos threw himself off a cliff to avoid harming Tanya.

However, Lykos actually survived, merely unconscious on a ledge below. Lykos journeyed to the Savage Land and survived in human form by only draining less developed animals. There, Lykos befriended Ka-Zar and used his medical skills over many months to care for Ka-Zar's allies. But when Lykos later discovered several X-Men stranded in the Savage Land, he 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 Lykos in the Savage Land. Unfortunately, Lykos was 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.

Lykos became a prisoner of the recent Weapon X program jumpstarted by director Malcolm Colcord. Being 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 nose by nearby villains. Fortunately for Lykos, he has absorbed Wolverine's regenerative healing factor and recovered from his injuries, just in time to be soundly defeated by the New Avengers and taken back into custody but not before returning the favor to Black Widow by burning her with his flame breath. He has been given back into the custody of Weapon X, which was apparently, mysteriously enough, being controlled by Colcord.

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 fraction of their powers temporarily. In pterodactyl form he is superhumanly strong and possesses the ability to fly at a natural winged flight limit. At some point prior to his New Avengers apperances, he aquired an additional ability to breathe fire, which he used to burn the second Black Widow when she shot him in the head. It is also noted that he can enhance his body density and strength through some sort of Psionic enhancement that can be noted by his hands covered in a thin reddish-energy field. He also has a powerful mind control ability that may require eye contact to complete. He frequently uses his mind control power to give his victims terrifying delusions that allies have become monsters. He is also able to project a scream enhanced by pure psychic energy.

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 psychic scream and fire breath of his comic book counterpart. Despite this, he was a formiddable foe in many episodes.

He also surfaced as a mini-boss in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.

He makes an extremely brief appearance on a TV screen in Ultimate Spiderman.

Sauron comes from the main antagonist of The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien.