Daniel Whitehall, the Kraken, was a legendary Hydra figure and a close friend of Baron Strucker.[2][3] He was also invited to Leonardo da Vinci's Great Wheel as Leo.[4]
The Kraken was an extremely successful recruiter for Hydra: he taught the Viper,[5] oversaw the creation of the Hive,[6] and gifted Godkiller to the Gorgon,[7] who was considered the Kraken's prize pupil.[8] All three of them eventually became members of the High Council of Hydra.[9] The Kraken described his work as helping people become what they are supposed to be.[7]
Dying from his declining health, Daniel Whitehall was eventually found and murdered by Jake Fury. Thanks to Whitehall's detailed notes and the voice-changing properties of the Kraken Armor, Jake Fury was able to impersonate the Kraken, later infiltrating the High Council of Hydra.[10][8] When Elisa Sinclair assembled a new incarnation of Hydra's High Council, she recruited another Kraken imposter.[11]
History
Origin[]
Daniel Whitehall was an English secret agent,[10] one of the oldest friends of Baron Strucker, and had been in Strucker's Hydra since the beginning as the Kraken. There was no one in Hydra Strucker trusted more than the Kraken.[3] Whitehall wrote down almost all of his activities.[10][12] As a Hydra agent, his status was both legendary and unverifiable. Anyone outside Hydra who tried to document his existence simply disappeared.[2]
Great Wheel[]
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The Great Wheel
The Kraken was contacted by the Brotherhood of the Shield and was brought to the Immortal City to meet with Leonardo da Vinci in Pieta. Along with other intelligence agents from around the globe—Jake Fury, Magadan, John Garrett, Shoji Soma, Cornelius van Lunt, Nick Fury, Baron Strucker, Dum Dum Dugan, Thomas Davidson, and Orion—they formed the Great Wheel. Each member was assigned a codename from the zodiac, the Kraken being Leo. Leonardo da Vinci was the leader as Aries, sent the rest of the Wheel on three key retrieval missions, and promised them resources that would be of great value to their own separate agendas. The Great Wheel later fell apart due to the betrayal of Orion and Magadan of Leviathan.[4]
Hydra Recruiter[]
The Kraken preferred to work behind the scenes, seeing it as his mission to help people become what they are meant to be, usually with dangerous results. For decades he was responsible for developing Hydra's best assets, training their best talent. This involved a lot of human trafficking, theft and murder. He was the head of the school that trained orphaned girls, including a young Viper, into human weapons.[5]
Six years before Hydra's latest war with Leviathan, he met with a young Tomi Shishido, who would become the Gorgon, in Kobe, Japan. There he gave the boy the Godkiller, as part of his mission to help people become what they are meant to be.[7][8] Around this time he also arranged for a simple Hydra recruit to be subjected to a genetically engineered parasite, becoming the creature known as the Hive. Again this was part of his self-appointed mission.[6]
A year after that, he met with Baron von Strucker at his home on Hydra Island. There he informed Strucker of Tomi's existence, but he also told Strucker that he, the Kraken, was dying. Strucker promised that one day, they would stand atop Fury and Uvarov's bodies in Pieta.[1]
Death[]
Three years later Jacob Fury went to the Kraken's home in London. Jacob knew Daniel Whitehall, but did not know him as the Kraken. In the London house, Jacob found the Kraken's journals, and learned his entire evil history. Jacob tracked down Whitehall, who lay dying in a hospital. There he took the Kraken's helmet, over Whitehall's objections, and wore it himself. The helmet grew down Jacob's body, covering him in the Kraken's green armor. The new Kraken killed Daniel Whitehall by shutting off the machines keeping him alive. Jacob then infiltrated Hydra's leadership.[10]Paraphernalia
Equipment
Kraken Armor: Upon donning the Kraken's helmet, the wearer's body becomes covered in armor of a magical or advanced technological nature. The helmet may also affect the mind of the wearer, as the Kraken described feeling like he was "slipping into a new persona—a new face, a new voice... and the vision to see the world in a new light."
The helmet also protected the Kraken from Gorgon's stone gaze, though that may have just been by dint of preventing eye contact.Notes
- "The Kraken" first appeared in Secret Warriors #2. As the series progressed, however, readers learned that the original Kraken, Daniel Whitehall, died years before the Kraken's modern debut and was replaced by Jake Fury. Consequently, the first appearance of Daniel Whitehall wasn't until the flashbacks from Secret Warriors #11.
See Also
- 6 appearance(s) of Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) of Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 6 image(s) of Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
- 2 item(s) used/owned by Daniel Whitehall (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Secret Warriors #13
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Secret Warriors #3
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Secret Warriors #13–14
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Secret Warriors #25
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Secret Warriors #15
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Secret Warriors #12
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Secret Warriors #11
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Secret Warriors #26
- ↑ Secret Warriors #2
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Secret Warriors #16
- ↑ Captain America: Steve Rogers #14
- ↑ Secret Warriors #25–26