Tanaraq (Earth-3470)

Tanaraq
Name	Tanaraq
Aliases	Sasquatch
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Great Beasts
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Hair	Orange
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Great Beast
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-3470
Personal Information
Identity	No Dual
Occupation	Embodiment of death and decay
Base of Operations	Realm of the Great Beasts
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Tony Bedard, Jim Calafiore
First	Exiles #57 (December, 2004)
First	Exiles #57 (December, 2004)

History

Tanaraq is one of the Gods of the Elder Night with strength born of sorcery ancient as winter and black as night. Thirteen years ago, Heather Hudson was conducting experiments with gamma radiation in the Arctic, applying it to a hole in the ozone layer. With this experiment Heather was trying to find a cure for cancer, collecting ambient gamma rays to see how such tumors responded compared to natural radiation. However, the ozone hole was a window to Realm of the Beasts, in which the Great Beasts reside. During the experiment lightening hit their satellite receiver and caused a massive explosion. Heather would have died that day, except that the Great Beast Tanaraq appeared to her and made a deal. Tanaraq offered to heal her and give her great power. However, the catch was Heather would one day provide him with her body as a host for his spirit. When she awoke, Heather had turned into Sasquatch, a representation of Tanaraq's powerful form. Heather also had no recollection of the deal she made with Tanaraq and believed her newfound powers to be a result of the bombardment of gamma-radiation she had received during the explosion.

Lord Morbius goes "squish"

When the Exiles traveled to a world controlled by the sorcerer Kulan Gath, Heather became ill and was noticeably weakened. Her team members suggested she take her Sasquatch form to activate her healing factor. Heather knew that if she transformed something would go wrong. Kulan Gath’s master spell transformed Manhattan into this medieval heaven and only Spider-Man was the one who remembered what it once was. When the spell first started only Manhattan was affected, and the folks outside couldn’t tell what happened because the city was hidden behind a magical barrier. Anyone who crosses was instantly transformed such as his or her clothes and memories. Kulan Gath rounded up anyone in the city with special powers, and used his magic to bring out the worst in them. The Avengers, X-Men, New Mutants and Morlocks joined the ranks of the Vizier’s Guard, while supernatural beings from all over the world were drawn here like a magnet. Gath used his spell to unleash their inner-bad, and their power was twisted and augmented by one’s connection to the supernatural. Such as his biggest mistake releasing the evil in Johnny Blaze and unleashed Zarathos, who immediately stole Gath’s amulet becoming the new master. Zarathos' Night Watch consists of Lord Morbius, Captain Russell whose powers were greatly augmented and the Wendigo. The Exiles were recruited by Spider-Man who in reality was Kulan Gath in disguise and Magik who’s blade returned the Exiles back to their normal selves. During the siege in Zarathos’ castle, Blink teleports the necklace off the demon. The revived Russell who was near death under the penance state of Zarathos due to punishment for his failed attempt to capture the necklace attacked Zarathos only to be killed by his hellfire. In the confusion Spider-Man throws Magik out of the room and attacks Blink stealing the necklace and revealing to be Kulan Gath. Beak, Magik and Heather Hudson are now trapped into a room where the Wendigo and Morbius stand guard. In the battle Morbius killed Magik. He then threatened Heather and Beak, she had no choice but to take her Sasquatch form. Due to the magical nature of this reality, Heather knew taking the Sasquatch form would release Tanaraq, completing their deal. Tanaraq fully unleashed defeated Morbius and Zarathos, and stopped Kulan Gath. Tanaraq now referred to himself as one of the Exiles, and traveled with them to the next reality.

The Exiles next mission was on a world where an experimental fuel cell factory, on Vancouver Island, was going to ignite earth's atmosphere. Tanaraq's solution was to murder the entire staff of the plant, thereby saving the reality. This outraged the rest of team and tried to battle him, but were unsuccessful. To force the Exiles to do his will, Tanaraq set the factory to ignite, should they tamper with the controls. Forced into complying with him, the Exiles traveled the world "inviting" the world's greatest criminal minds to join him at the factory enticing them with the aspect of studying the Tallus and himself. Such villains arrived were Mandarin, Master, Dr. Doom, Leader, Dr. Octopus, Mad Thinker, Wizard, and Fixer. Tanaraq planed to use their experience to find and bring down the Timebroker to free himself from the Exiles. Beak sought the Shaman of that reality, who entered the scene disguised as Kang. Mandarin took out several of the geniuses with his disengrator beam, while he in turn was knocked out by Awesome Andy. Dr. Octopus and Master left on their own accord seeing no point to this allowing Doom to pursue his investigations on his own. When Kang seemingly appeared, Doom was skeptical and Tanaraq knowing who Kang really was brushed Doom aside. Doom outraged let out a blast hitting Tanaraq. The Great Beast turned around and with his massive strength hits down Doom into unconsciousness. Once Shaman was close enough to Tanaraq, Shaman hit him with a spell that separated Heather from his body. With the assistance of the Great Beasts of that reality, Shaman banished Tanaraq to that world's Realm Of The Beasts. Heather was freed of Tanaraq, but was no longer able to assume her Sasquatch form.

Attributes

Powers

Tanaraq has incredible strength and durability. He is capable of walking through powerful magical attacks. The full extent of his powers were never stated, but his strength is born of sorcery ancient as winter and black as night.

Durability: Tanaraq is indestructible and can’t be killed. Shaman stated, "well...creatures like him can't be truly destroyed." When Tanaraq takes control of his avatar; his durability and strength increase to an extreme level. He took full blasts from Zarathos without fazing him, to which Tanaraq stated, "clearly you know nothing of the Great Beasts, else you would realize the folly of testing a god." With that he crushed Zarathos with his foot. Mimic unleashed a full optic blast on Tanaraq to no effect. He beat Kulan Gath with his amulet of power. This Dr. Strange-level mystic sent everything he could at Tanaraq to no effect.

Senses: Tanaraq has an unknown level of super senses. His sense of smell is so great, he can smell magical energies.

See Also

• 3 appearance(s) of Tanaraq (Earth-3470)
• 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Tanaraq (Earth-3470)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Tanaraq (Earth-3470)
• 7 image(s) of Tanaraq (Earth-3470)
• 1 quotation(s) by or about Tanaraq (Earth-3470)
• 3 victim(s) killed by Tanaraq (Earth-3470)