Brew’s Crew: Makkari

(Editor’s note: This is another in a series of irregularly-scheduled columns by Managing Editor Byron Brewer, mainly dealing with cosmic comics and its many denizens. Mr. Brewer’s opinions do not necessarily reflect that of CosmicBookNews.com. He welcomes both raves and opposing views.)

 

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Thanks to the late great Mark Gruenwald, not Jack Kirby this time around, I will always love Makkari, the speediest Eternal. Guenwald took Kirby’s creation and paired him for a long time with Quasar in a memorable series of adventures that to this day offers great reading for the Marvel Cosmic fan.

Makkari is the son of Veronaand Mara, born in Olympia, capital city of the Eternals of Earth. He is a member of the Eternals’ Technologist’s Guild and is skilled at designing and building high-speed vehicles.

Makkari has involved himself in Earth’s affairs more often than most Eternals. Under the name Thoth, he taught writing to the Egyptians. He was taught philosophy by Plato. He rescued Sersi from “Nero’s big bonfire,” and spent some time as the charioteer of Darius I of Persia. He witnessed the Trojan War, the reign of Vlad the Impaler (Dracula) — and the Alamo!

In the 1940s, he worked on Earth, per Zuras’ request, under the aliases “Hurricane” and “Mercury” (an example of retcon; these Golden Age characters were not originally supposed to be related), and fought Warlord Kro and Deviant Mutates alongside the Monster Hunters, a team he formed using his identity as National Security Agent Jake Curtiss.

In more recent times, Makkari accompanied Ikaris on his mission to assemble the Eternals to wage war against the Deviants. Makkari then encountered Lord Ghaur. Makkari accompanied the other Eternals to Lemuria to battle the Deviants and battled Ghaur alongside the Eternals, Thor and the West Coast Avengers, and participated in the defeat of Ghaur.

Makkari was later rescued by Quasar when he began running rampant, literally. He revealed that he had traded his other Eternal abilities for greater speed and endurance. He became friends with Quasar when he enlisted Quasar to go to Lemuria to help him save Master Elo, who was tutoring Makkari in how to channel his cosmic energy into more speed. He then accompanied Quasar to the Stranger’s Labworld. There, he encountered the Star-Dancer and battled Trikon, the Whizzer and Gorr. Makkari later worked in Quasar’s office under the alias “Mike Khary.” He participated in a marathon to the Moon (a great story arc!) sponsored by the Runner, and nearly won; he bested Quicksilver, Captain Marvel (Monica Rambeau), Whizzer, Speed Demon, Black Racer and Super-Sabre, only to lose the race in the last moments to an amnesiac, dimensions-spanning human being called Buried Alien (a thinly-disguised homage to DC’s Flash and Barry Allen).

Makkari then became Quasar’s roommate. He was killed when his heart was stopped by Maelstrom, but returned to life as part of an agreement struck between Eternity, Death, Infinity and Oblivion. However, he soon found he had become so fast that he could no longer move in synch with the rest of the universe. Maelstrom later attempted to seize more power by draining the kinetic energy from Makkari, but Maelstrom was ultimately defeated by the other Eternals.

In a later Eternals limited series, the Eternals were the victims of memory and reality manipulation by Sprite, and have forgotten their true identities. Makkari believed himself to be a medicine student named Mark Curry. By issues #2 and #3, he finally begins to experience his powers of super-speed. However, Sprite tricks Curry into opening a passageway to the long-dormant “Dreaming” Celestial underneath San Francisco, and in doing so incapacitates Curry. During this time, the Dreaming Celestial and Makkari began to talk in his dreams. By the end of the series he has become the Dreaming Celestial’s prophet.

When it is time to gather the speedsters of the MarvelU.or the Eternals, or if Quaze should ever get another mag, I hope Makkari is part of any or all.