46 – JUGGERNAUT

Subject: Juggernaut
Real Name: Cain Marko
Height: 6’10″ Weight: 900 lbs
Group Affiliation: None
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #12, July 1965

Power Ratings:

• Energy Projection: 2/7
• Mental Powers: 1/7
• Strength: 6/7
• Fighting Ability: 3/7
• Intelligence: 2/7

Juggernaut is one of the X-Men’s oldest foes, appearing 2 years after our heroes debuted, and from the beginning he was established as Professor X’s step-brother. And despite not being a mutant (his power comes from a mystical crystal of which he had come into possession), surviving both an unfunny meme and minor bastardization in X-Men: The Last Stand, Juggernaut’s sheer unilateralism as an unstoppable bitchy battering ram, makes him one of the most iconic X-Men villains of all time.

Too bad the Jim Lee seems to have spent more time illustrating the carnage Juggernaut was ejecting than Cain Marko himself. It is a pathetically loose rendering that doesn’t do justice to the character’s massive power and pales in comparison, say, to the over-the-top portrayal by Todd McFarlane when Juggernaut took on Spider-Man and X-Force in the seminal Spider-Man #16, in which Juggernaut couldn’t even be stopped by Shatterstar LITERALLY and graphically stabbing him directly in the eye:

Quick digression: Spider-Man #16 was actually a notable issue for several reasons: First and foremost, it was Todd’s last issue before jumping Marvel (Todd claims the eye-stabbing incident was his final fuck-you to the House of Ideas). Second, unlike many of the other Image artists at this point, including and probably most notably Jim Lee, the art in it is fantastic (if you were into their style at all), not rushed at all. And finally, the pages were composed in landscape format, something that apparently irked the editors as much as all of the rest of Todd’s transgressions.

Anyway, back to this card. The Power Ratings are pretty spot-on, displaying Juggernaut’s incredible strength mainly. I’d tell you the Energy Projection rating was weird, but I had just recently reread a 60′s era issue during which Juggernaut literally just started exploding with little balls of energy. I’d actually almost want to give him a higher Mental Power rating, since his helmet even gives him the power to resist any psychic attacks. Basically while it’s too easy to make Juggernaut the heavy sidekick in another villain’s plans, it really should be worthwhile to know that even without much cunning, Cain Marko is easily one of the most powerful villains Marvel has.