Hyung... you're right... I hid from my past. I left you behind. I was ashamed of the things we did... the crimes we committed. When you disappeared...I think part of me was relieved you were gone. Because it made it easier to forget about that life...to let it all go. But that was wrong. The past made me who I am. And you were an important part of my past... In fact, you were the best part. You were my family. That's why I fight so hard now... For my family. 
- —Tae-Won[src]
History
Origin[]
The man that would become Tae-Won was born in a small village around 1950, at the start of the Korean War. His birth mother was killed during a skirmish, leaving him an orphan until a young girl found him. The girl, who had also lost her brother, decided to take the baby and named him after her missing brother, Tae-Won.[3]
Seven years later, Tae-Won now lived with the girl, who he referred to as his aunt. Their life went on normally until one day when Tae-Won was walking back home he saw a vendor selling kal-guksu at the market. He wanted to eat it but had no money to buy it. It was then that he met a young delinquent named Min-Jae who persuaded Tae to steal a bowl. Even though Tae-Won knew what he was doing was wrong, the naive boy did what Min-Jae asked. Min-Jae appointed himself as Tae-Won's "older brother" and referred to themselves as the Kal Duo.
Their criminal streak continued into their teenage years, when in 1966 the Kal Duo committed a heist at a store, with Tae-Won serving as a distraction while Min-Jae stole money from the counter, but they got caught and were forced to run away while the shopkeeper continued to chase them. They deliberately lured the shopkeeper into an alley where their friends were waiting to gang up on him, forcing the shopkeeper to flee. Back at home, Tae was confronted by his aunt, who scolded him since she already knew what he was doing. She pleaded with Tae to stop his criminal activities, but he reasoned that he was doing all that to help their economy. After a heated argument, his aunt asked Tae to choose between stopping his criminal activities or leaving the house. Feeling offended by his aunt's words, he finally chose to leave.[4]
By 1978 the Kal Duo had expanded their criminal activities into a powerful crime syndicate. Learning that the South Korean government and the US Department of Defense were working on a top secret joint-project in Hanam, Tae-Won led a raid of the facility hosting the project to steal the pricey equipment. While attempting to strip a machine that was empowered by a magical gem, Tae-Won got trapped by a restraining device while the machine activated. Min-Jae and their lackeys were forced to abandon Tae-Won as the machine fired a full blast of energy onto him, which destroyed the facility and left Min-Jae believing Tae-Won perished. However, Tae-Won miraculously survived with no injuries or ill effects from the explosion and even gained a tall, muscular physique. The authorities returned him to his aunt's care. Tae-Won eventually discovered that he gained superpowers from the incident, including superhuman strength, flight, slowed aging and other abilities.
Tae-Won's aunt helped him learn how to harness his powers and showed him one of his former lackeys violently extorting a neighbor for money. Since then, Tae-Won committed himself to helping people and to atone for his criminal past, and continued doing so after his aunt's death. Tae-Won took on the name Taeguki and was recognized as the national hero of South Korea and the field leader and heart of the Tiger Division, South-Korea's government-sanctioned superhuman response team. Still feeling that his heroic actions alone were inadequate, Tae-Won personally recruited the other members of the Tiger Division, hoping that they could make more of a difference than him. However, Tae-Won did not disclose his criminal past to his teammates out of shame.[5][6]
At some point in the past after making his public debut with the Tiger Division, Tae-Won disappeared in the Quad Dimension and returned decades later.[2]
Twenty years before the present, Tae-Won attempted to apprehend telepathic serial killer Wrenley Fischer and tracked him down to his boat in the ocean with two kidnapped victims. Fischer threw one hostage overboard and while Tae-Won was preoccupied with rescuing her, Fischer killed his other hostage. Tae-Won destroyed Fischer's boat, but Fischer hit his head and drowned before Tae-Won could capture him. Tae-Won was haunted by his failure to save Fischer's last victim and for not bringing Fischer to justice.[7]
Tiger Division[]
When Taskmaster sought to infiltrate the Tiger Division Base in Buramsan Mountain to copy the kinesic signature of NIS director Ami Han, he ratted out a group of local terrorists to the authorities, shrunk himself using Pym Particles and rode back to base on Taegukgi's neck after he defeated them. Once the intruder was found in the air vents Taegukgi fired an energy beam into the ventilation shaft but didn't hit Taskmaster, who managed to escape.[1]
_and_Mongdal_(Earth-616)_from_Black_Cat_Annual_Vol_2_1_001.jpg){kind=link}
Tiger Division fighting a controlled Taegukgi
As part of a plan to stage a coup, a gangster family called the Choi Faction provided the body-snatcher villain Mongdal a power boost to take over Taegukgi's body. They threatened to let him loose on Seoul if the government didn't cede control to them. In response, Tiger Division led an attack on their base. While Mongdal used Taegukgi's body to defeat most of the team in a quick battle, White Fox and their conscripted ally Black Cat infiltrated the building he was controlling him from. Noticing the intruders Mongdal returned to his own body but was killed by Black Cat, which gave Tae-Won full control of his body again.[6]
While being haunted by the spirit of his deceased aunt, Tae-Won and the Tiger Division were sent by White Fox to track down the stolen Psylot Gem. While investigating the storage unit where the Gem was stolen from, the Tiger Division was ambushed by a legion of killer robots waiting for them. The Tiger Division was able to escape the ambush although the General was badly damaged. The team noted that the robots seemed to be targeting Tae-Won and Gun-R II discovered that they were manufactured by the MTO Corporation. Upon hacking into their servers, Gun-R announced that MTO had allocated most of its resources to "Project Kal Duo", which alarmed Tae-Won. Not wanting the rest of the team to know about his past, Tae-Won snuck out and infiltrated MTO's headquarters, where he discovered a replica of the Amplifier that gave him his powers and an elderly Min-Jae waiting for him. Min-Jae revealed to Tae-Won how he founded the MTO Corporation and the history behind the Psylot Gem that gave Tae-Won his powers before immobilizing him in a force field. Despite the efforts of Lady Bright, who followed Tae, Min-Jae was able to use the Amplifier to steal Tae-Won's powers and return them to the Psylot Gem. Just as the rest of the Tiger Division were summoned, Min-Jae's benefactor Doctor Doom arrived to take the Gem for himself. As the Tiger Division fought Doom, a powerless Tae-Won was confronted by Min-Jae for abandoning him and proceeded to beat him with his armored suit. After experiencing a flashback of his aunt on her death bed telling him to own up to his past, Tae-Won apologized to Min-Jae and pleaded with him to help the Tiger Division. Min-Jae and his robots fended off Doom as the Tiger Division used the Amplifier to restore Tae's powers, although the Gem was destroyed in the process. With the Gem gone and Tae-Won repowered, Doom left while Min-Jae fled. Lady Bright was hurt that Tae-Won withheld his past from her and the rest of the team, which prompted him to apologize and and disclose his entire personal history during Tiger Division's next mission briefing.[8]
When Wrenley Fischer's ghost emerged in his hometown of Santa Cruz, California and began another killing spree, Tae-Won traveled to America to put an end to his killings. Tae-Won encountered the Ghost Rider Johnny Blaze, who was also investigating the supernatural murders and the two agreed to team up as Tae-Won recounted his history with Fischer to Blaze. The two confronted Fischer at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, who used his abilities to possess the passerby into attacking them. Blaze was able to fight them off but Fischer possessed Tae-Won and used him to attack Blaze. Blaze freed Tae-Won from Fischer's control with his hellfire and at Tae-Won's urging, banished his ghost. Unfortunately, they were too late to stop Fischer from drowning another victim and as Tae-Won mourned the bystander's death Blaze comforted him.[7]
Tar-Won went on a mission in New Jersey to go after the Jersey Devil, meeting Moon Knight who also was hunting the creature. The two of them were soon surrounded by Etsium Crystals filled with Chaos Magic which caused them to fight each other and take the appearance of their alternate selves. As the battle ensued, Moon Knight was forced to surrender, resulting in Tae-Won's victory.[9] Tae-Won was soon taken by Harkness who began mind controlling him, alongside other heroes she had abducted, in order to use them as part of her ritual to create a new Darkhold. Tae-Won and the other mind controlled heroes were brought to the Bermuda Triangle where they were set to protect Harkness while she was performing her ritual. They battled the Avengers who came to thwart Harkness' plan, but despite this the team managed to interrupt the ritual. In the aftermath, the heroes who fell under Harkness' control were freed and returned to their lives.[10]Attributes
Powers
Artificially Enhanced Physiology: Tae-Won was a normal human until he was accidentally exposed and bombarded by an exotic energy of the Psylot Gem, a rare Asgardian artifact that was once owned by Loki. As the result, all of his physical attributes were enhanced to a perfect human condition and granted him with superhuman powers and abilities. [2]
- Superhuman Strength: Taegukgi possesses vast superhuman strength, capable of lifting over 100 tons. While the upper limit of his strength is still unknown, he was considered to be on par with Blue Marvel and Sentry.[6] Tae-Won has been shown to be able to stop a 3000 ton cruise ship from crashing into a shore with no effort[3] and evenly matched Thor strength in fight.[10]
- Flight: Taegukgi is able to fly at amazing speeds.[3]
- Nigh Invulnerability: Taegukgi's enhanced physique is much harder and more resistant to physical injury than a normal human. While he was under Mongdal's control, the entire Tiger Division was unable to take him out.[6]
- Superhuman Stamina: Taegukgi's enhanced musculature produces considerably less fatigue toxins during physical activity than the musculature of a normal human being. He can exert himself physically at peak capacity for several days before the build up of fatigue toxins in his blood could impair him.[9]
- Energy Beams: Taegukgi can fire powerful energy beams from his eyes.[1]
- Longevity: Tae-Won was born in 1950 and still retains the health, appearance, and physical vitality of a young man in the physical prime of his life. It can be assumed that he ages much slower and lives much longer than normal human beings.[3]
Abilities
- Multilingual: In addition to his native Korean, Taegukgi is fluent in English.[7]
- Swimming:[7]
- Martial arts: Taegukgi is quite skilled in hand-to-hand combat.[9]
Weaknesses
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Notes
Trivia
See Also
- 18 appearance(s) of Tae-Won (Earth-616)
- 24 image(s) of Tae-Won (Earth-616)
- 1 quotation(s) by or about Tae-Won (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Taskmaster (Vol. 3) #3
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Tiger Division #3
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Tiger Division #1
- ↑ Tiger Division #2
- ↑ Tiger Division #3–5
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Black Cat Annual (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Ghost Rider (Vol. 10) #14
- ↑ Tiger Division #1–5
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Moon Knight Annual (Vol. 4) #1
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Avengers Annual (Vol. 5) #1