Executioner (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=The Executioner
real_name=Skurge
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Journey into Mystery" #103 (April, 1964)
creators=Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Masters of Evil I, Mandarin's Minions, Legion of the Unliving II, Einherjar (warriors of Valhalla)
aliases=Hans Grubervelt, The Evil One
powers=Superhuman strength, stamina, and durability
Extended lifespan|

Skurge, The Executioner is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. He hails from Asgard, the extra-dimensional home of the Norse gods. He is an original creation rather than taken from mythology. Like the Enchantress, at first he is only known by his title. It is only in the 80s that he gets a name.

Fictional character biography

Skurge was born in Jotunheim, and later became a warrior. Skurge has always had feelings for Amora, the Enchantress, and regularly aided her in various evil schemes to gain control of Asgard. However, the Enchantress only manipulates him, using her charms to keep Skurge under her thrall. Loki, the trickster God, also has used Skurge many times.

In his first appearance, the Executioner teamed with the Enchantress to battle Thor at the behest of Loki. ["Journey into Mystery" #103] The Executioner and the Enchantress were exiled to Earth by Odin. They became members of Baron Zemo's original Masters of Evil against the Avengers. ["Avengers" #7] Skurge functioned as part of Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil for some time. Again and again he would battle the Avengers. Once, during a payroll robbery, the assistance of the new hero Wonder Man. This was simply part of a trick to destroy the Avengers. The gloating Skurge was derided by Wonder Man, who didn't like the need for trickery and deceit. The group's plan to kill the Avengers was soon thwarted by Wonder Man, and Skurge and his allies were defeated.

The Executioner menaced Jane Foster, and fought Balder as any ally of Loki. ["Journey Into Mystery" #116-117]

The Executioner was later among the legion of villains assembled by Doctor Doom to destroy the Fantastic Four. ["Fantastic Four Annual" #3]

Apart from the Enchantress, Skurge attempted to establish an empire by the conquest of an alternate future 25th Century Earth. He battled the Hulk there. ["Tales to Astonish" #76-77]

He was reunited with the Enchantress, and joined the Mandarin's attempted world conquest, and fought Hercules. ["Avengers Annual" #1]

He next led a Troll invasion of Asgard. ["Hulk" #102] Odin banished him to the realm of Casiolena. Skurge abandoned the Enchantress to become Casiolena's co-ruler. ["Avengers" #83] He led Casiolena's forces against the Defenders, and resumed his alliance with the Enchantress. ["Defenders" #4]

He later battled the Defenders and the Thing as the Enchantress's ally. ["Marvel Two-in-One" #; "Defenders" #20]

Skurge led an assault on Asgard, and fought Balder again. ["Thor" #258-261] With the Enchantress, he serves as Loki's lieutenant during his brief rule of Asgard. ["Thor" #263-264]

With the Enchantress, he joined with the forces of Asgard against the legions of Surtur. ["Thor" #350]

Once Amora the Enchantress set her sights on Heimdall as a potential lover, Skurge sought to ease the wounds of his heart in battle, joining Thor, Balder, and the Einherjar on a rescue mission into Niflheim. A group of souls belonging to living humans had been trapped there by Malekith the Accursed, and Hela had refused to permit them to return to Midgard (Earth). ["Thor" #360]

Despite initial misgivings, Thor permitted Skurge to accompany the group. He soon vanishes after Amora appears to him, saying that Heimdall had slain her. This was not Amora, but Mordonna, a shape-shifting sorceress in the employ of Hela. This disguise was only broken when Skurge managed to trust Balder more than the desires of his own heart. Hela whisks Mordonna away before Skurge could gain revenge. Skurge attacked Dr. Strange alongside Enchantress, but they were defeated.

Naglfar, the ship of the dead, was nearing ready to sail, and Hela promised Skurge a place of honor beside her on it at the battle of Ragnarok. In a rage at being manipulated, Skurge destroyed the ship with the sacrifice of his axe, forestalling the end of days. The group was pursued out of Hel, and at the bridge Gjallerbru Thor swore to hold the bridge as long as he could that the souls of the mortals could reach freedom. But then Skurge struck down Thor from behind, and amidst cries of traitor begged Balder to hear him speak. Hoping to enact vengeance upon those who mocked him, and to do what was right in the end, he would stay behind. He asked Balder to promise that Thor and he would drink to the memory of Skurge. Balder consented to Skurge's wish, and he, the Einherjar and the mortal souls departed Hel, taking the unconscious Thor with them.

Skurge remained alone at Gjallerbru, armed with automatic rifles the Einherjar had brought from Earth. Though the armies of Hel marched upon the bridge, none crossed past where Skurge stood. As he fought down demon after demon, his stand impressed Hela herself, who would later sometimes tell of Skurge; "He stood alone at Gjallerbru. And that answer is enough." He was then killed by Hela's forces. ["Thor" #362]

Following his death, his spirit was summoned from Valhalla by the Grandmaster as a member of his Legion of the Unliving, and he battled Thor. ["Avengers Annual" #16] His spirit was freed from Hela's prison when he led the other escaped Einherjar to join an assault on Hela's forces by the Asgardians and New Mutants. ["New Mutants" #85] He earned for himself a place in Valhalla, Asgard's place for honored dead. After his death, the Enchantress realized that she truly possessed feelings for Skurge and mourned his demise.

Once, Amora gave the Executioner's axe to a mortal man called Brute Benhurst. Thor, believing him Skurge (this second Executioner wore a mask), tried not to fight him until the Executioner hit Kevin Masterson (son of Eric Masterson). Thor recognized hitting a boy as an unnoble thing which Skurge would never do, and defeated the new Executioner.

Odin later recruits Skurge to aid Eric Masterson in fighting off the influence of the Bloodaxe, the former weapon that Skurge wielded.

Powers and abilities

Skurge possessed the superhuman abilities of a typical male Asgardian. Due to his unique hybrid physiology, with a half Frost-Giant and half Skornheimian pedigree, Skurge's physical strength, stamina and durability were considerably greater than those of the average Asgardian male. He also possessed superhuman visual acuity.

Skurge was extremely long-lived, aging at a much slower pace than human beings, though not truly immortal. His body was highly resistant to physical damage, and he was immune to terrestrial diseases. In the event of injury, Skurge's godly lifeforce would allow him to recover with a superhuman rate.

Skurge had proficiency at hand to hand combat, and mastery of most Asgardian weapons. He would often fight wielding his large, enchanted, double-bladed battle axe that allowed him a number of abilities including cutting rifts into other dimensions and control over fire and ice that he could project at his enemies.

Skurge also sometimes wore an enchanted impregnable horned helmet that completely covered his head.

Other Executioners

Another Executioner was a member of Mad Jim Jaspers' Crazy Gang. He carries and wields a large pole axe.

Captain Britain was sent to an alternate Earth, known as Earth-238, by Merlyn. Together with Saturnyne, he hoped to save this world from the corruption that threatened it. Instead, they encountered Earth-238's Mad Jim Jaspers, a lunatic with the ability to warp reality. Serving Jaspers were the Crazy Gang which included Executioner. This group of superhumans were based on characters from Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking-Glass". Captain Britain and Saturnyne individually managed to escape this Earth and Jaspers and the Crazy Gang, including Executioner, were killed when Earth-238 was destroyed by Saturnyne's successor, Mandragon.

In other media

Television

* Skurge, The Executioner appears in The Mighty Thor portion of "The Marvel Superheroes".

Video games

* Skurge, The Executioner appears as a villain in the video game "" voiced by Peter Lurie. He is a member of Doctor Doom's Masters of Evil. He and Enchantress will battle the heroes after Balder is freed. In battle, he attacks the player's heroes while the Enchantress casts a spell on them. He has special dialogue in the dialogue between Enchantress and Thor and Enchantress asks Executioner if he is jealous of her love to Thor.

References