Man Mountain Marko (Michael Marko) is a Marvel Comics supervillain. Marko was and remains an affiliate of numerous organized-crime entities in the Marvel universe, including the Maggia. He was originally introduced as the right hand man of Silvermane in The Amazing Spider-Man #73 and created by Stan Lee and John Romita, Sr..

He was allied with Silvermane, Caesar Cicero, the Eel, and Nightshade. His most frequent enemies were Spider-Man, Power Man, Iron Fist, Thunderbolt, and Boomerang.

Fictional character biography

Marko is first seen as Silvermane's loyal lieutenant in an incident dealing with an ancient tablet. He is quickly defeated by Spider-Man.

Marko, along with the villains Eel, Discus and Stiletto rob the Debutante Ball of Millie Hogarth. Unfortunately, for them, Millie's father is the agent for Power Man and Iron Fist, who were called in to defeat the villains.

During a trip to gather protection money, Marko has some sort of breakdown and trashes an entire bar, with Spider-Man inside of it. Investigative reporter Ben Urich tells Spider-Man that Marko has apparently also kidnapped a child. Ben knows of a facillity where Marko is known to work out. Spider-Man finds steroids in Marko's locker. The owner of the gym tells him that the Maggia genetically altered Marko in order to make him stronger. Spider-Man steals information from the Maggia and confronts Marko at his home. Eventually Marko is subdued and it turns out the kid he 'kidnapped' simply had a twisted sense of hero worship, admiring Marko's size and strength.

Man Mountain Marko is later seen as a sexually threatening hitman sent after private investigator Jessica Jones. This was part of a conspiracy by a powerful business magnate who wished to use Jones and Captain America as a way to humiliate the current President of the United States. Jones severely beats Marko, then literally throws him at the feet of the businessman, who was in the middle of a golf game. Marko and his bosses are soon arrested by Clay Quartermain and the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Marko is then in the employ of an albino mafia don, who under his orders physically assaults Luke Cage before being defeated.

Civil War

He was visible among an army of super-villains organized by Hammerhead that was captured by Iron Man and SHIELD agents.

Powers and abilities

Marko has been shown to have superhuman strength and endurance, roughly comparable to if not slightly exceeding that of Spider-Man. It has been said this is a result of steroids and genetic manipulation.

Other versions

MC2

Amazing Spider-Girl #17 shows that Marko is still active in the MC2 universe, and is in charge of the Maggia of New York.

Other media

Television

Man Mountain Marko appeared in the 1981 Spider-Man cartoon voiced by Jack Angel. He is shown to be Silvermane's henchman and was the first to notice Spider-Man at Kingpin's meeting with Silvermane, Hammerhead, and Caesar Cicero on a yacht. He was easly defeated by Namor and later webbed by Spider-Man.

References