The Great Beasts

• Core Identity: The Great Beasts are an ancient and malevolent pantheon of primordial entities of immense mystical power who seek to reclaim the Earth and transform it into the desolate, chaotic wasteland it was before the rise of humanity.
• Key Takeaways:
• Role in the Universe: The Great Beasts, also known as the Triumvirate of Beasts, are elder, god-like demons from a forgotten age who serve as the primary antagonists for Canada's premiere super-team, Alpha Flight. They are elemental forces of nature, each embodying a different aspect of destruction, such as ice, fire, decay, and the unhallowed dead.
• Primary Impact: Their most significant impact is the creation of the Wendigo curse through the beast Tanaraq, and by extension, their indirect role in the origin of Sasquatch. Their repeated attempts to escape their mystical prison and conquer Earth have positioned them as one of the most persistent and dangerous mystical threats to the planet.
• Key Incarnations: The Great Beasts are a concept rooted deeply in the lore of the Earth-616 comic universe and have no direct counterpart or appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) to date. Any potential MCU adaptation would likely draw from mythological or interdimensional concepts introduced in films like Thor or Doctor Strange.

The Great Beasts were conceived by writer and artist John Byrne during his character-defining run on Alpha Flight in the early 1980s. While hinted at earlier, their first collective, on-panel appearance as a group was in Alpha Flight (Vol. 1) #24 (July 1985). Their creation was part of Byrne's effort to build a unique and compelling mythology for his Canadian superhero team, distinct from the more established pantheons and cosmic entities seen in other Marvel titles like Thor and Fantastic Four. Byrne drew heavily from Inuit mythology and folklore to craft the Beasts, giving Alpha Flight a set of adversaries that felt geographically and culturally specific to their Canadian setting. This grounded the team's struggles in a unique mystical tradition, establishing that the threats they faced were not simply regional problems but cosmic dangers with deep roots in the land itself. The concept of powerful, primordial beings imprisoned long ago and threatening to return is a classic mythological trope, which Byrne masterfully adapted to the Marvel Universe, making the Great Beasts an instant and enduring part of Alpha Flight's legacy.

The in-universe history of the Great Beasts dates back millions of years, to an era when the Earth was a raw, primordial world. They are not native to Earth, but were among the first powerful mystical beings to arrive on the young planet. Ancient, malevolent, and possessing power on par with that of elder gods or high-level demons, they immediately began to reshape the world to their liking—a chaotic, desolate landscape where they held absolute dominion. Their reign of terror was eventually challenged by the ancient gods of the North, the deities of the Inuit people. In a cataclysmic war that raged for eons, the Inuit gods, led by figures like Hodiak, were finally able to defeat the Beasts. However, the Great Beasts were too powerful to be destroyed outright. Instead, the gods sealed them away within a mystical prison dimension, known as the Realm of the Beasts. This realm exists on a mystical plane parallel to Earth, accessible only through a handful of magical nexuses. One of the most significant of these nexuses is the medicine pouch of Shaman of Alpha Flight, which acts as a miniature, portable gateway to countless mystical dimensions, including the one holding the Beasts. For millennia, the Great Beasts remained trapped, their rage and hunger growing. An ancient prophecy foretold that their prison would one day weaken, allowing them to return to Earth. According to this prophecy, their return could only be thwarted by a being of great power, born of the gods themselves. This prophecy led to the birth of Snowbird, the daughter of the Inuit goddess Nelvanna and a mortal man, who was explicitly created to be Earth's champion against the Great Beasts should they ever escape their confinement. Their modern-day story is intrinsically linked to Alpha Flight's, as Shaman's attempts to draw power from his pouch inadvertently weakened their prison, and Snowbird's very existence is a direct response to their threat.

As of the current phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Great Beasts have not appeared, nor have they been mentioned or alluded to. Their story is deeply intertwined with Alpha Flight and Department H, none of which have been formally introduced into the MCU. However, the MCU has laid the groundwork for how such entities could be introduced. The existence of mythological pantheons (Asgardians, Olympians, Egyptian Gods), mystical dimensions (the Dark Dimension, Ta Lo), and powerful, ancient beings (Dormammu, the Dweller-in-Darkness) creates a precedent for the Great Beasts. Should Marvel Studios choose to introduce Alpha Flight, a potential adaptation could portray the Great Beasts in several ways:

• Interdimensional Beings: Similar to Dormammu, they could be the tyrannical rulers of a hostile dimension that seeks to merge with or conquer Earth. This would align well with the mystical elements established in the Doctor Strange films.
• Ancient Earthly Gods: They could be presented as a forgotten, malevolent pantheon that once ruled a part of Earth before being imprisoned by other gods (perhaps even Odin and the Asgardians, or the ancestors of the Ta Lo villagers).
• Cosmic Entities: A more cosmic interpretation could link them to the Elder Gods of Earth, like Chthon or Set, positioning them as agents or rivals of these more established cosmic horrors.

A key element to adapt would be their connection to the Wendigo curse. With the introduction of characters like Wolverine and the broader mutant world expected, the Wendigo curse offers a compelling, horror-tinged storyline that could serve as the perfect gateway to introduce its ultimate source: the Great Beast Tanaraq. Thus, while not yet present, the Great Beasts represent a rich well of lore that could provide a formidable and unique threat in a future MCU saga.

The Great Beasts do not have a complex organizational structure or a nuanced mandate. They are united by a single, terrifying goal: to escape their prison, destroy modern civilization, and terraform Earth back into the primordial, elemental chaos they prefer. They view humanity and all life that has evolved in their absence as a blight to be burned, frozen, and devoured. They function less like an organization and more like a pantheon of destruction. While they can work together, they are often prone to infighting and jockeying for power, each believing themselves to be the strongest. Their collective power is immense, capable of overwhelming nearly any single hero. Their primary strength lies in their elemental natures; they are living manifestations of the planet's most destructive forces.

The core group of the Great Beasts is comprised of several immensely powerful entities. While their exact number has varied, the most prominent and dangerous members are:

Tundra is often considered the most powerful and the de facto leader of the Great Beasts. He is a colossal humanoid mountain of rock, soil, and vegetation, embodying the untamed, wrathful spirit of the land itself.

• Powers and Abilities: Tundra possesses immense superhuman strength and durability, making him physically capable of matching beings like the Hulk or Sasquatch. His primary power is geokinesis; he can control the earth, create earthquakes, summon rockslides, and generate vast fields of razor-sharp thorns and muck. He can also project immense gouts of mud and summon lesser elemental creatures from the earth to serve him. As a being of the land, he is effectively immortal and can regenerate from almost any injury so long as he is in contact with soil.
• Weakness: His greatest weakness is being separated from the earth. If airborne or removed from solid ground, his power and physical form diminish rapidly.

Kariooq is the embodiment of the spirit world's darker aspects, a skeletal, wraith-like being who commands the spirits of the dead.

• Powers and Abilities: Kariooq's domain is the soul and the dead. He can reanimate corpses, command legions of spirits, and project potent blasts of ectoplasmic energy. His most insidious power is his corrupting influence; he can possess the living and twist their souls, turning them into monstrous reflections of their former selves. He was the force behind the creation of Pestilence, one of Alpha Flight's first major villains, by possessing the body of an explorer.
• Weakness: Kariooq is vulnerable to potent spiritual and holy magic, which can disrupt his control over spirits and harm his ethereal form.

A being of pure fire, lava, and molten rock, Tolomaq is the Great Beast of heat and destruction. He appears as a gigantic demon wreathed in eternal flame.

• Powers and Abilities: Tolomaq has absolute control over fire and heat. He can project devastating streams of plasma, create volcanic eruptions at will, and raise the ambient temperature of an entire region to unbearable levels. His body is a living inferno, making physical attacks against him nearly impossible, as most materials melt before they can make contact.
• Weakness: He is extremely vulnerable to intense cold, which can quench his flames and solidify his molten form, rendering him inert.

The antithesis of Tolomaq, Kolomaq is the master of ice and cold, a towering beast of living snow and glacial ice.

• Powers and Abilities: Kolomaq commands the cold, able to generate instantaneous blizzards, create weapons and constructs from solid ice, and fire blasts of absolute-zero energy that can freeze almost anything solid in an instant. His presence alone is enough to plunge a vast area into a deep freeze.
• Weakness: His obvious weakness is intense heat, which can melt his icy form and dissipate his power.

Perhaps the most terrifying of the Beasts in a visceral sense, Ranaq is a corpulent, vaguely reptilian or demonic entity who personifies decay, gluttony, and consumption.

• Powers and Abilities: Ranaq's powers revolve around consumption and corruption. He can devour any substance—physical or mystical—and his touch can cause rapid aging, decay, and disease. He is known for his insatiable hunger and has been shown to be capable of devouring even magical energies. He possesses a long, prehensile tongue and acidic saliva.
• Weakness: Ranaq's gluttony can be used against him, as he can be tricked into consuming things that are harmful to him. He is also philosophically opposed to Somon, the creator.

While not the most physically powerful, Somon is the most intelligent and manipulative of the Great Beasts. He represents twisted creation and dark intellect.

• Powers and Abilities: Somon is a master strategist and a powerful sorcerer. He can alter the perceptions of others, create complex illusions, and manipulate events from behind the scenes. He is often the one who formulates the Beasts' plans for escape and conquest. He also possesses formidable telepathic and telekinetic abilities.
• Weakness: Somon relies on his intellect and schemes, and he can be outmaneuvered by unpredictable or chaotic actions that he cannot account for. He is physically less imposing than his brethren.

Tanaraq is a special case and one of the most impactful of the Great Beasts due to his influence on the wider Marvel Universe. He is the mystical entity responsible for the Wendigo curse.

• Powers and Abilities: Tanaraq's primary power is to bestow a fraction of his own essence upon a mortal, transforming them into a Wendigo, a feral, cannibalistic monster of immense strength and savagery. This curse is mystical in nature and typically affects those who commit acts of cannibalism in the Canadian wilderness. Tanaraq's connection to the Wendigo is what led to the accidental transformation of Walter Langkowski into Sasquatch. Langkowski, seeking to replicate the accident that created the Hulk, bombarded himself with gamma rays, but unknowingly opened a mystical link to the Realm of the Beasts, allowing Tanaraq to possess and empower him, creating the Sasquatch persona. For a time, Sasquatch was essentially a more controlled, benevolent “super-Wendigo.”
• Impact: Through the Wendigo curse, Tanaraq's influence has been felt by characters such as the Hulk, Wolverine, and the X-Men, making him arguably the most famous of the Great Beasts.

The Great Beasts do not have allies in the traditional sense. They view all other beings as either food, tools, or obstacles. However, they have occasionally entered into temporary and tenuous alliances of convenience.

• Avatars and Worshippers: Their most common “allies” are mortals they corrupt or empower to act as their heralds on Earth. The most notable example is Pestilence, the possessed form of explorer F.R. Crozier, who was turned into a decaying monster by Kariooq and acted as the first major threat to Alpha Flight.
• Amatsu-Mikaboshi (The Chaos King): During the Chaos War event, the Great Beasts were resurrected by the Chaos King, a Japanese god of evil representing the void before creation. They served as powerful generals in his army, seeing his goal of returning the universe to nothingness as aligned with their own destructive desires. This was an alliance of mutual interest, not loyalty.

• Alpha Flight: The Great Beasts are the definitive arch-nemeses of Alpha Flight. The team was practically formed to combat threats like them, and their history is inextricably linked. Key members of Alpha Flight have deeply personal connections to the Beasts:
  • Shaman: As the guardian of a mystical pouch that serves as a portal to their prison, Shaman is the first line of defense against them. His magic is one of the few forces consistently able to bind and repel them.
  • Snowbird: As the demigoddess daughter of an Inuit deity, Snowbird was literally born to fight and destroy the Great Beasts. Her ability to shapeshift into any animal of the Canadian north gives her the versatility to counter their elemental powers, and her divine nature makes her uniquely suited to harming them.
  • Sasquatch: His origin is a direct result of Tanaraq's influence. For much of his history, Walter has had to fight for control of his own body against the feral beast within, a beast powered by one of his greatest enemies.
• Doctor Strange: As the Sorcerer Supreme and protector of the Earth dimension, Doctor Strange has clashed with the Great Beasts when their threat has escalated to a global or mystical crisis. He recognizes them as a top-tier mystical threat.

• The Realm of the Beasts: This is less an affiliation and more the name of their prison dimension. It is a harsh, chaotic reality shaped by their own malevolent nature.
• The Army of the Chaos King: During Chaos War, they were a high-ranking contingent of the multiversal army assembled by Amatsu-Mikaboshi to extinguish all of reality.

This was the seminal storyline that introduced the Beasts and established their threat. The arc was built slowly, beginning with the emergence of Pestilence and the mystery of Sasquatch's origins. Shaman, during a moment of spiritual crisis, inadvertently drew too much power from his mystical medicine pouch, weakening the barriers to the Realm of the Beasts. One by one, the Beasts began to push through into the mortal world. The climax saw Tundra rise from the earth in Canada, with the rest of his brethren soon to follow. Alpha Flight was completely outmatched, but Snowbird, fulfilling her destiny, transformed into the form of a giant, mystical Sasquatch to battle Tanaraq. In a final, desperate act, she slew him and the other manifested beasts, seemingly at the cost of her own life, forcing the remaining entities back into their prison.

Years later, during the Chaos War storyline, the universe-ending threat of the Chaos King saw him lay siege to all pantheons and afterlives. He resurrected countless dead heroes and villains to serve him, including the fallen members of Alpha Flight. He also tore open the Realm of the Beasts and brought them back to full power, unleashing them upon Canada. A newly resurrected and fully powered Alpha Flight (Vindicator, Shaman, Marrina, and Sasquatch) was forced to confront their greatest foes once more. The battle was cataclysmic, but Alpha Flight, aided by the return of Snowbird, managed to defeat the Beasts and use powerful magic to seal them within their realm once again, proving that even in death, their duty to protect Canada from this ancient evil never ended.

During the 2011 Fear Itself event, the long-time Alpha Flight villain known as the Master of the World orchestrated the “Unity” program, which took control of Canada's government. To eliminate Alpha Flight, he struck a deal with the Great Beasts, offering them freedom in exchange for their servitude. He managed to harness their immense power to fuel a new weapon and turn them against Alpha Flight. This storyline re-established the Beasts as a major threat and demonstrated that even without their full power, they could be weaponized by technological means, posing a new kind of danger. Ultimately, Alpha Flight thwarted the Master's plans and the Beasts were contained.

The Great Beasts made a brief but highly significant appearance in the critically acclaimed Immortal Hulk series. As the Hulk, now a vessel for the primordial gamma entity known as the One-Below-All, rampaged through a government facility, his sheer power and connection to this primal, hellish force resonated across mystical dimensions. The Great Beasts, from within their prison, sensed his presence. They recognized the Hulk not as a hero or monster, but as a kindred spirit—a “devourer” and a force of pure destruction. They called out to him, acknowledging his power and seeing him as a potential peer or even a superior. This moment brilliantly connected the scientific/gamma side of the Marvel Universe with its deep mystical lore, validating the Great Beasts' status as fundamental forces of nature.

The Great Beasts are a threat deeply specific to the Earth-616 continuity and its unique mystical history involving the Inuit gods. As such, they do not have prominent, well-documented counterparts in major alternate realities like the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610) or the Age of Apocalypse (Earth-295). However, their influence, particularly that of Tanaraq, can be seen in other realities through the existence of the Wendigo curse.

• Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610): A version of the Wendigo appeared in Ultimate X-Men, attacking the team. While this creature was shown to be the result of a mystical curse, its direct connection to Tanaraq or a wider pantheon of Great Beasts was never explored, making it a thematic echo rather than a direct counterpart.
• Video Games and Animation: The Wendigo has appeared in various forms in video games (e.g., Marvel Super Heroes: War of the Gems, X-Men Origins: Wolverine) and animated series. These adaptations almost always focus on the feral monster aspect of the curse, typically omitting the deeper lore connecting it to the Great Beasts. The full pantheon has yet to be adapted outside of the comics.

• Alpha Flight
• Shaman
• Snowbird
• Sasquatch
• Wendigo
• Department H
• Chaos War

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