Kaluu

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caption=
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Kaluu
real_name=Kaluu
species=Human
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Strange Tales" #147 (Aug 1966)
creators=Stan Lee, Denny O'Neill and Bill Everett
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=
aliases=
powers=|

Kaluu is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe and first appeared in "Strange Tales" #147 (Aug 1966). He was created by Stan Lee, Denny O'Neill and Bill Everett, and is a powerful practitioner of black magic.

Fictional character biography

Kaluu was born over five hundred years ago in the mystic city of Kamar-Taj, a village in the Himalayan Mountains in the land now known as Tibet. He and the Ancient One became fellow students of the mystic arts.

Varnae, the eldest of the true vampires, met with Kaluu and imparted to him knowledge from the primeval compendium of black magic known as the Darkhold. Subsequently, Kaluu set about to make himself ruler of Kamar-Taj. While the Ancient One continued his studies, Kaluu used his sorcery to influence the minds of the people of Kamar-Taj. Eventually, Kaluu and the Ancient One together cast a spell that eliminated disease, poverty, and suffering from Kamar-Taj and granted its people immortality. Shortly thereafter, the people of Kamar-Taj, responding to Kaluu's magical influence on their minds, crowned him as their king. For over a year Kaluu organized the men of Kamar-Taj into an army of conquest. Meanwhile, Kaluu slowly increased his mystic control over the minds of the people of Kamar-Taj so that they become little more than his placid puppets. The Ancient One attempted to warn the people of Kamar-Taj about Kaluu, but Kaluu's magic prevented them from heeding him. Kaluu struck the Ancient One with a magical bolt from behind which paralyzed him. Then Kaluu had his soldiers conquer a neighboring village and reduce it to slavery.

While Kaluu plotted further conquests and the people of Kamar-Taj fell into decadence, the paralyzed Ancient One, whom Kaluu had placed in the public square as an object of ridicule, mentally called upon mystical forces to defeat Kaluu. However, the Ancient One was not yet a master of the mystic arts, and, although he did not intend it, the mystic forces he summoned created a pestilence that wiped out virtually the entire population of Kamar-Taj. Kaluu fled to the dimension of Raggador, where he remained for five centuries, increasing his mystical knowledge. With Kaluu gone, the Ancient One was freed from his paralysis. The population of Kamar-Taj, however, was no longer immortal, and the Ancient One himself would now age, although at a greatly slowed rate. ["Strange Tales" Vol. 1 #111, and 147]

Kaluu continued his studies in the dimension of Raggador, gaining a mastery of magic greater than the Ancient One's, and emerged centuries later to fight both the Ancient One and Doctor Strange, attempting to steal the Book of the Vishanti. Defeated, he was hurled into suspended animation and his body banished into another dimension. ["Strange Tales" Vol. 1 #148-150]

The forces unleashed in a battle between Doctor Strange and Urthona eventually freed Kaluu from his imprisonment. When he returned from exile he became a businessman and amassed a large fortune. He formed an alliance with the embattled Doctor Strange, and tutored him in the practice of black magic. Alongside Strange, he battled Shuma-Gorath and various other ancient evils. ["Strange Tales" Vol. 3 #8-10] He also witnessed doctor Strange's defeat of Shuma-Gorath. Kaluu, Strange, Rintrah, and Enitharmon the Weaver, returned to the Earth dimension where he cast a spell to remove the physical and astral pollution from Strange caused by using black magic. ["Strange Tales" Vol. 3 #14-17]

Kaluu plans to live a quiet, enjoyable life, while living off money he made by influencing the stock market.

Powers and abilities

Kaluu has the ability to manipulate magical forces for a vast number of effects, including levitation, teleportation, energy projection, conjuration of small physical objects, physical transformation of objects, and the tapping of extra-dimensional energy by invoking entities or objects of power existing in dimensions tangential to Earth's through the recitation of spells. He also has the powers of mesmerism, thought-casting, illusion-casting, and astral projection.

According to the back story of the character, Kaluu is possibly the most powerful living human black magician. Kaluu's magic derives not only from personal, universal and dimensional powers: he has powers gained through the tapping of the life forces of living beings and the manipulation of the environment in certain ways that have destructive side effects.

Kaluu has used mystical means to render himself immortal. He does not age, but he can be killed by external means.

Kaluu is a master of various Asian martial arts, but prefers not to engage in physical combat. He has extensively studied sorcery and possesses vast knowledge of black magical lore.

Kaluu formerly wore an eyepatch covering his left eye, though this eye has since been restored.

References