Torgo (Earth-616)

Torgo was the first of the race of semi-humanoid sentient robots known as Mekkans.^[1] He was built on Maarin, the second planet from the sun in the Kirthom system of the Milky Way galaxy, by an organic humanoid race known as the Maarin^[2] who were that planet's original inhabitants and closely resembled pale-skinned humans from Earth. Once their technology had become sufficiently advanced, the Maarin chose to use it to create mechanical servants for themselves. However, after building Torgo, the Maarin modified their design so that all later Mekkans were smaller than him.^[1]

When the Mekkans proved to be very efficient, the Maarin decided to begin the "mekkanization" of their whole world. In time, all of their planet's surface was overlaid with metal, artificial plants had been developed, and all true plant-life had been allowed to die off. Unfortunately, this proved to be a fatal mistake because these artificial plants were especially vulnerable to a certain type of spore-virus that drifted in from space. When oxidized by those plants into the atmosphere, this alien virus infected and killed the entire Maarin population. It was Torgo who buried the last of the dead and renamed the planet Mekka.^[1]

For centuries, Torgo and the other Mekkans lived their lives in tranquil sterility, never birthing or dying. During this period, Mekka's atmosphere mostly cleansed itself of the virus until it was no longer lethal to organic beings.^[1]

In recent years, Torgo was abducted by Skrull slavers and taken to the planet Kral IV where he was sold to a Kralian gang leader known as Lippy Louie who used him as a gladiator in the Great Games. Torgo proved to be a very capable fighter, defeating and killing every opponent he was forced to fight.^[3] Like all the other enslaved aliens, Torgo was forced to fight and kill in the arena because those Skrulls possessed a Sonic Disruptor that could be used to destroy the home planets of any slaves who rebelled.^[4] Since these Kralian Skrulls used their slaves to decide disputes over territory, one of Lippy Louie's rivals, Boss Barker, paid an exceptionally high price to have the Slave-Master abduct Ben Grimm (a.k.a. the Thing) from Earth to be his fighter in the Great Games.^[3] On Kral IV, Torgo and Grimm shared the same cell while Grimm was being trained and Torgo later told Grimm about the Sonic Disruptor.^[4] Eventually, the Great Games began and Torgo's fight with Grimm began but a possible violation of the rules caused the battle to be voided so that the fight could be started over. During this second fight, with new weapons, there was a moment when Grimm could have killed Torgo but chose not to do so. As a result, when Torgo later managed to turn the tables on Grimm, he refused to murder someone who had shown him mercy. Angered by this defiance, the Skrulls prepared to destroy both of their home planets but were prevented from doing so by the arrival of Crystal, one of three of Grimm's Fantastic Four teammates who had come to Kral IV to rescue their kidnapped friend, who hurled shock waves that destroyed the Sonic Disruptor. With the safety of their home planets no longer threatened, Torgo freed the other enslaved gladiators and led a rebellion against their Skrull masters.^[5]

The revolt that Torgo led against the Skrulls succeeded.^[6] Some of the liberated gladiators wanted to wipe the Kralian Skrulls out altogether for their crimes but they wanted to go home to their loved ones even more so they settled for killing the leaders of the old society before leaving.^[7] Upon returning to Mekka, Torgo was hailed as a hero and named "First among equals." As the leader of Mekka, his word was law as long as it did not violate their primal directive.^[6]

Some months later, Ben Grimm and Reed Richards were sent by the High Evolutionary to a planet to see if it was one whose inhabitants would be willing to sacrifice themselves to the cosmic hunger of Galactus in place of Counter-Earth. After arriving on the planet, the duo learned that it was called Mekka and were soon greeted by Torgo who revealed that he was his planet's leader. After Grimm and Richards revealed why they had come, Torgo denied their request and, when they were preparing to leave, he ordered that they be detained so that they could not reveal Mekka's location to Galactus. The two Earthlings were soon subdued by Torgo and some other Mekkans, restrained by elektro-clamps and sentenced by Torgo to face the Ultimate Resolution.^[6]

After revealing the origin of his race, Torgo left to go to the Tower of Life, the building from which the energy that powered the Mekkans was generated and broadcast, to make preparations for the Ultimate Resolution that would transform the humans into true Mekkans. In his absence, the Earthlings freed themselves and hurried to the Tower of Life. While Grimm battled Torgo, Richards managed to reach the lever that controlled the planetary energy levels and pulled it, turning off the entire Mekkan race. Unwilling to leave them in that state or to sacrifice their planet to save Counter-Earth, Grimm turned the power back on and prepared to resume his battle with the revived Torgo, However, Torgo had been able to sense their deeds even while he had been inanimate and, feeling shame that he had misjudged them, was now willing to accept their word that they would keep Mekka's location a secret.^[1]

A few months later, Boss Barker, who had survived the slave revolt by imitating a corpse so that Torgo had left him for dead, sought revenge against both Torgo and Ben Grimm. Barker captured Torgo and cut off his head, then brought it with him to Earth. When he confronted Grimm, Barker showed him Torgo's head before stunning him into unconsciousness with brain-blast rays. Although left behind by Barker, Torgo's head was found by Grimm's ally, the Kree Captain Marvel, whose cosmic awareness told him that it was still alive. Mar-Vell wrapped the head and brought it with him when he went to prevent Barker from rubbing out Grimm but both of the heroes ended up trapped by Barker's Skrull starship. However, as Barker prepared to execute them, Torgo's head came to life and saved them by firing an energy beam killed Barker. Although this blast drained the head of the last of its energy, Mar-Vell was able to program the starship to return him to Mekka to be repaired.^[8]

Torgo, Amphibion, and the Dark-Crawler were later recruited by the Sagittarian Empress Daydra to help her destroy the recently-returned Galaxy Master. Unfortunately, the three of them were decisively beaten back by the Galaxy Master's green-skinned new champion, the mysterious Ravager of Worlds. Realizing that a more powerful fighter would be needed, the empress decided to recruit her old ally, the Hulk. Having heard of the Hulk's savage strength even on Mekka, Torgo had his world's computers redesign him so that he would be equal to the task of confronting the Hulk. However, calling themselves the Hulk-Hunters because they had come to Earth in search of the Hulk proved to be a mistake because the Hulk assumed that they had come to hunt him down and reacted violently. Unable to defeat the enraged Hulk, the trio called upon the empress to explain the situation and she managed to convince the Hulk to join them in battling the threat, mostly because he wanted to meet this champion who was supposedly stronger than him.^[9] After the Hulk recognized the Ravager as his old enemy the Abomination, he became more invested in the mission so the three Horror-Hunters battled the Galaxy Master to keep him occupied while the Hulk fought the Abomination. Ultimately, both the Abomination and the Galaxy Master were defeated.^[10]

Torgo was later employed by the Collector to be in charge of security on a small artificially-created planet where the Collector was holding representatives from a thousand races that were mostly on the verge of extinction.^[11] Torgo had an unfriendly encounter with Wolverine when the mutant was brought to the planet against his will in order to free the captives.^[12] Unfortunately, Wolverine succeeded in disabling the cloaking shield around the planet before learning that it had been hiding the world from Galactus. When the world-devourer came for the planet, Torgo was among those who battled him in an attempt to give the other residents enough time to escape. While doing do, Torgo was blasted by Galactus and seemingly destroyed.^[13]

Fin Fang Foom's followers captured Torgo and placed an Agony Circlet Control Collars on him to force him fight gladiatorial battles in order to bathe Makluan eggs in blood. He eventually set to fight fellow gladiators Drax and Terrax, but damaged Drax's collar, allowing him to free both of Torgo and Terrax.^[14] The three of them fought back against Fin Fang Foom, but upon seeing the eggs turning to dust they decided to leave, with Torgo joining Drax in returning the children kidnapped by the Makluan's followers o their home.^[15] Aboard the Space Sucker, Torgo assisted Drax, Ora and R304 in going planet to planet and give families their children back. While being celebrated for returning the latest child, the crew was suddenly attacked by Killer Thrill and her fellow space pirates who were paid to claim the Makluan egg Drax got as a souvenir. The crew barely managed to escape, and resumed their quest to bring the children back to their homes.^[16]

In the middle of the road, they were all frozen by Cammi and Planet Terry who then brought them to Pip the Troll. Despite the manner he encountered them, Pip only wished to help Drax and his crew in returning the children home.^[17] They continued their quest, while battling other space pirates, which Torgo greatly enjoyed experiencing.^[18] Unfortunately, Killer Thrill revealed that she had hidden herself in their ship and attacked them, forcing Ora to eject both herself and Killer Thrill out of the ship. The crew landed on the planet the two women had fallen into, but found Ora severely injuried while Killer Thrill forced Pip to teleport both of them away. Soon they were confronted by six Makluans who wished to reclaim the egg that had recently hatched. Torgo attempted to tell everyone that fighting the Makluans would prevent them from saving both Ora and Pip, only to realize there was no other choice.^[19]

They fought the Makluans but Torgo was quickly taken out. Luckily, Fin Fang Foom and Terrax arrived to their rescue and together fought the Makluans away. They then realized that Killer Thrill had successfully kidnapped the Makluan hatchling, forcing the crew to go after her, while Torgo tended to Ora.^[20] Arriving to the planet Killer Thrill had taken the hatchling to, Fin Fang Foom wished for the newborn to not turn out a monster like its fellow Makluans, inspiring Torgo to become more than a killing machine. They fought against Killer Thrill's forces and with hatchling's help took her down. Following that, Torgo remained by the crew's side while Drax went on his separate way.^[21]

Torgo eventually joined the Ravagers, a band of mercenaries led by Yondu Udonta. The Ravagers became involved with a group of refugees from a species that possessed the natural ability to materialize their prayers into diamonds, helping them move from planet to planet to evade Chargazel's Raiders, and they eventually settled on Ego the Living Planet. The Asgardians of the Galaxy stumbled onto the Ravagers shortly before the Raiders caught up with them.^[22] Both teams worked together to repel the Raiders, and parted ways; the Ravagers remained on Ego while the Asgardians continued on their way.^[23]

Attributes

Power Grid^[26]

Powers

Superhuman Strength: Torgo is the largest and strongest of the Mekkans and possesses incredible superhuman strength that enables him to lift 85 tons. He was considered an equal of the Thing and, after a redesign, of the Hulk.^[24]

Superhuman Durability: Made up of an unknown metal Torgo possesses vast levels of superhuman durability.^[24]

Immortality: As a living robot Torgo can always be rebuilt as long as his head remains intact.^[24]

Optic Blast: Torgo can project beams of energy from his eyes.^[24]

Universal Translation: Like all Mekkans, Torgo can speak any verbal or mental language once he has heard a mere syllable of it.^[6]

Abilities

Experienced Combatant: Torgo is a skilled warrior and has knowledge of Skrull weaponry.^[24]

Torgo can communicate with other Mekkans by using high-frequency sounds that humans cannot hear^[1]

Weaknesses

Reed Richards was able to disable Torgo by turning off Mekka's power supply.^[1]

Paraphernalia

Weapons

A 6'5" battle stave which has a choking rectangle on one end. Powered by electricity, it can be used to electrocute targets. .

Notes

Although all Mekkans were instilled with a primal directive by their creators that prevented them from taking a human life, at some point Torgo was altered by electronic means so that he could disobey that directive.^[1]

Torgo stated that, as First Among Equals, it was his duty to protect the Tower of Life from any potential intruders and implied that it was to carry out that duty that he had been altered so that he could disobey the primal directive. However, Torgo had previously revealed that he had been named First Among Equals after returning to Mekka from Kral IV, a planet where he had been forced to fight a number of battles to the death in the arena and where he had killed Skrulls while leading the slave revolt. This would seem to be an inconsistency.
- One possibility is that Torgo had actually been altered at some point before he was abducted by the Skrulls. It's possible that the fact that he was able to kill was the reason why he was abducted in the first place.
- Another possibility is that the primal directive may only be effective in preventing Mekkans from taking lives that they recognize as being as "human" as their Maarin creators who instilled the directive. If this is true, then there would be nothing to prevent Mekkans from killing non-human beings, like the other enslaved gladiators or the Skrulls.

In his more recent appearances, Torgo has exhibited a more aggressive personality than he had in his earlier appearances.

So far, Torgo is the only Mekkan who has been shown being active when at locations that are not on Mekka. Whether he is the only Mekkan who has ever left his home planet or the only one who is capable of doing so has not been established.

Trivia

Torgo (or an alternate version of him) has a bit of a sweet tooth, as can be seen in Hostess Ad #34, "The Thing and the Ultimate Weapon."^[25]

Links and References

Torgo on Marvunapp

References

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_174-1] 1.0 ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 ^1.7 Fantastic Four #174

[Official_Handbook_of_the_Marvel_Universe_Vol_1_6-;_Mekkans_entry-2] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #6 ; Mekkans entry

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_91-3] 3.0 ^3.1 Fantastic Four #91

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_92-4] 4.0 ^4.1 Fantastic Four #92

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_93-5] Fantastic Four #93

[Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_173-6] 6.0 ^6.1 ^6.2 ^6.3 Fantastic Four #173

[Black_Panther_Vol_4_33-7] Black Panther (Vol. 4) #33

[Marvel_Two-In-One_Vol_1_45-8] Marvel Two-In-One #45

[Incredible_Hulk_Vol_1_269-9] Incredible Hulk #269

[Incredible_Hulk_Vol_1_270-10] Incredible Hulk #270

[Wolverine_Vol_2_134-11] Wolverine (Vol. 2) #134

[Wolverine_Vol_2_135-12] Wolverine (Vol. 2) #135

[Wolverine_Vol_2_138-13] Wolverine (Vol. 2) #138

[Drax_Vol_1_4-14] Drax #4

[Drax_Vol_1_5-15] Drax #5

[Drax_Vol_1_6-16] Drax #6

[Drax_Vol_1_7-17] Drax #7

[Drax_Vol_1_8-18] Drax #8

[Drax_Vol_1_9-19] Drax #9

[Drax_Vol_1_10-20] Drax #10

[Drax_Vol_1_11-21] Drax #11

[Asgardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol_1_6-22] Asgardians of the Galaxy #6

[Asgardians_of_the_Galaxy_Vol_1_7-23] Asgardians of the Galaxy #7

[Official_Handbook_of_the_Marvel_Universe_A_to_Z_Vol_1_12-24] 24.0 ^24.1 ^24.2 ^24.3 ^24.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #12

[Amazing_Spider-Man_Vol_1_194-25] Amazing Spider-Man #194

[26] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 12

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