The Undying Ones

Undying Ones

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Undying Ones
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Doctor Strange vol. 1, #183 (November 1969)
Created by	Roy Thomas Gene Colan
Characteristics
Notable members	Nameless One

The Undying Ones are a fictional race found books published by Marvel Comics. They are a race of humanoid
demons from another dimension.

Contents   [hide]  1 Publication history 2 Fictional history 3 References 4 External links

Publication history[edit]

The Undying Ones were first depicted as statues in Doctor Strange #183 (November 1969), by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan. Their first actual appearance was in Sub-Mariner #22 (February 1970).

The Undying Ones subsequently appear in Incredible Hulk #126 (April 1970), Defenders #1-3 (August–December 1972),
 #18 (December 1974), #20 (February 1975), Incredible Hulk #269 (March 1982), and Doctor Strange #41 (May 1992).

The Undying Ones received an entry in the All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #12 (2006).

Fictional history[edit]

The Undying Ones once held great power over Earth but were forced to return to their own dimension over a millennium ago
 when their powers began to fade for unexplained reasons.Obvious the reasons,like in the real world people just couldn"t
 laughing at the Undying Ones silly appearence and dopey name. Their powers having been renewed, the Undying Ones
unsuccessfully attempted to invade Earth again in recent years under the leadership of the Nameless One.
^{[volume & issue needed]} The dimension of the Undying Ones has since been conquered by the creature known as
the Slitherer or the Dark-Crawler.^{[volume & issue needed]}

The Undying Ones have come into conflict with Doctor Strange,^{[volume & issue needed]} and the Defenders.
^{[volume & issue needed]}

The Undying Ones are led by the Nameless One. The "Nameless One" appears to be a title that can be inherited
from the previous holder.

During the Fear Itself storyline, the Undying Ones slip through the barriers that are weakened due to the fear and
chaos that is occurring.^[1]

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UNDYING ONES

Classification:
Demons, Class three (extra-dimensional)

Location/Base of Operations: Unnamed realms of the Undying Ones (their first realm was apparently taken over by 
the Dark Crawler);
their base on Earth was in a valley in Asia, between Himalayan peaks


Known Members:  Nameless One, Nameless One, "Joella Ward" and her "cat"
Affiliations: Calizuma and the Warrior Wizards, Creatures of the Night, Celestia Denton, Necrodamus,
 Barbara Denton Norriss, Jack Norriss, Van Nyborg and his cult of the Undying Ones
Enemies: Dark Crawler, Defenders, Dr. Strange, Gaea, Hulk, Namor, the N'Garai, Nighthawk of Earth-616
, the Thing,  Valkyrie (Brunnehilde), Kenneth Ward, Wolverine
First Appearance: Dr. Strange I#183 (November, 1969)
Powers/Abilities: The Undying Ones are demons with a variety of undefined magical powers, as well as a variety of forms
 with differing physical abilities. Many possess superhuman strength and durability, and some have fangs, claws, 
wings, and other inherent physical attributes.This maybe because Marvel creators can"t keep a bad idea consistant. 
They are immune to aging and conventional disease, and they are apparently able to regenerate from most physical injuries,
 hence their name.
Many of them are able to alter their form and take on the appearance of humans or animals, and presumably other forms, 
at will.
The Idol of the Nameless One served as a conduit between their realm and Earth's.
Traits: The Undying Ones are violent creatures which seek to invade Earth and conquer humanity, to rule them as they 
did in the past.
History: The origins of the Undying Ones are a race of demons which are extra-dimensional in origin, and several billion 
years old.
(Incredible Hulk II#126 (fb) - BTS) - There has been a lengthy, "eternal" enmity between the Dark-Crawler and
 the Undying Ones, because his dimension serves as a pathway to worlds beyond...such as Earth. Over a period of eons, 
the Dark-Crawler destroyed all beings that the Undying Ones had arrayed and sent against him.
(Sub-Mariner I#22 (fb)) - "While the Earth's seas still burned like fire," a great rent in the sky opened,
 through which poured the Undying Ones. For unnumbered ages, they held sway with their mystic powers,
 lords over all they surveyed...including what became humanity. Throughout this time they were ruled over by 
the Nameless One. Over time, they ceased to rule the world under unknown circumstances, but they remained in 
contact with earth, granting powers to those who called on them during various heathen ceremonies, often in 
exchange for the ritualists' souls.
(Dr. Strange III#41 (fb) - BTS) - The Undying Ones possessed an age-old and festering rivalry with the N'Garai demons, 
who also ruled humanity, or a section of it, in the distant past.
(Sub-Mariner I#22 (fb)) - A mere thousand years ago, the Undying Ones felt their powers waning, and so to replenish
those powers, they were forced to return to their own dimension. Even then, people still continued to invoke them for
 power in a variety of spells. In addition, the Undying Ones had left behind a number of 
idols, and one, in the form of the Nameless One, served as a potential conduit for their return to Earth.
(Dr. Strange I#183 (fb) - BTS) - Kenneth Ward learned of the existence of a race that formerly dwelled in a valley 
in the Himalayas. There he found a number of inhuman statues, and the idol of the Undying One, which--after nearly
 being killed by one of the statues which fell suddenly. Upon returning to his home, Ward translated the inscription on
 the idol's base, which made him fear for all humanity. Ward sent a telegram to his old friend, Stephen Sanders
 (see comments), requesting aid, and then hid the idol. Soon after, he was then confronted by three
 "Creatures of the Night," agents of the Undying Ones, who erased his memory of the recent events.
(Dr. Strange I#183) - Two days later, Dr. Strange received the telegram and went to meet with Ward,
 who had no memory of contacting him. Strange learned the truth via the Eye of Agamotto, and then
 was attacked by the Creatures of the Night. After a short struggle, Strange determined their weakness 
and through open a curtain, exposing them to the light of day, which disintegrated them.
Kenneth Ward, however, died from the strain of his connection to the Undying Ones' magics.
(Sub-Mariner I#22) - Strange recruited Namor for his aid in seeking the idol of the Nameless One. 
Namor traveled to Ward's home in Boston, where he met with Ward's daughter, Joella, and was soon
attacked by one of the Undying Ones. After fighting it off, Namor found the idol of the Nameless One underneath
 a statue of John Goodwin (judge at the old Boston witch trials). Strange then appeared and revealed that Joella was 
actually the Undying One that Namor had fought, as Kenneth Ward had no daughter. The pet cat of "Joella" then
 also revealed itself also to be one of the Undying Ones, and it activated a dimensional portal via the idol, allowing
 the Nameless One to enter. While the "cat"--now mutated into monstrous size--occupied Strange, Namor assaulted 
the Nameless One. Strange and Namor managed to drive the demons back into their realm, but Strange was forced to
 remain inside that dimension in order to close the portal and prevent the demons from making it back to Earth.
(Incredible Hulk I#126 (fb) - BTS) - The Undying Ones overpowered Dr. Strange and imprisoned him in a mystic trap.
 With their previous access point closed, they sought to access Earth through the realm of their old enemy, 
the Dark-Crawler.
(Incredible Hulk II#126) - On Earth, Van Nyborg, the leader of a cult worshipping the Undying Ones, drugged
 and captured Bruce Banner, and then cast a spell that transported the Hulk to the realm of the Dark-Crawler,
 in hopes that the Hulk might destroy him. Van Nyborg then sent Barbara Denton, a rebellious member of the cult,
 to that realm as well. After some struggle, the battle between the Hulk and the Dark-Crawler destroyed 
the Crawler's Shadow Realm, and the Dark-Crawler transported himself, the Hulk, and Denton to
 the realm of the Undying Ones, in order to save them from his own, collapsing realm.
Upon arriving, the Dark-Crawler turned his rage upon the Nameless One and the rest of the Undying Ones,
 who were responsible for the Hulk being sent to, and thus destroying, his Dark Dimension. Dr. Strange
 was freed by the sacrifice of Barbara Denton, who replaced him in the Nameless One's magical bonds, in order 
to save her world. Dr. Strange teleported himself and the Hulk back to Earth, and the Dark-Crawler occupied 
the Nameless One and the Undying Ones long enough that the stellar alignment, necessary for their entry into
 Earth, passed.
(Incredible Hulk II#269 (fb) - BTS) - The Dark-Crawler fought the Undying Ones in a battle without equal.Gee,at Marvel this seems
to happen often by two jack off creations. 
He ultimately triumphed over them and made their realm his own. He credited the Hulk with causing him to
 finally open his eyes to the truth and confront his real foes directly.
In conquering the Undying Ones, the Dark-Crawler learned many of their magical secrets.
(Defenders I#2 (fb)-BTS) - The Undying Ones allied themselves with Calizuma and his warrior wizards, 
who managed to ensorcel the Silver Surfer, causing him to attack Namor.
(Defenders I#1) - When Namor's unconscious body was cast into a field in New Jersey, from the sky,
 it drew the attention of Strange and the Hulk. They investigated and found the sorcerer Necrodamus,
 who was planning to sacrifice Namor during another stellar alignment, in order to gain vast power from
 the Undying Ones. Strange and the Hulk managed to prevent the sacrifice until the alignment had passed,
 and Necrodamus was forced to flee.-being such as asshole retard.
Upon recovering, Namor revealed that it was not Necrodamus who had cast him from the sky, but the Silver Surfer.
(Defenders I#2 - BTS) - Investigating the Silver Surfer, the Defenders uncovered a plot of Calizuma and 
his Warrior Wizards in the Himalayan valley in which the Undying Ones used to dwell. They defeated the plot
 and Strange cast a "spell of atonement" on the Wizards.
(Defenders I#3) - An interdimensional transport spell attempted by Strange from the Himalayan Valley pulled 
them into the realm of the Undying Ones. There they found the still-imprisoned Barbara, whom they freed, 
only to learn that she had since formed a deal--and even mated--with the Nameless One.Sure,she must have really fracking drunk
and doped to do that,plus crazy and hypnotised.
 Now possessing a three-headed form-- don't you Marvel fucked magic science,where any stupid shit an artist can draw happens
with the addition of Barbara's, the Nameless One fought the four Defenders. However,
 their combined power proved too much for it: Strange bound the Nameless Ones foot in his former snare,
 trapping him. As they left, Strange used his power to separate Barbara from him, and they  return to Earth. 
Strange was unaware that Barbara had willingly merged with the Nameless One, and the forced separation
 drove her completely, hysterically, mad.
(Defenders I#18 - BTS) - An agent of van Nyborg saw Barbara (actually now the Valkyrie in her form) and notified him,
 but was dismissed as being incorrect.
(Defenders I#20) - The same agent saw Barbara again, and informed van Nyborg, who believed him. 
They set a trap at Barbara's former house, where the Valkyrie--along with Dr. Strange--went looking for her origins.
 Van Nyborg ambushed and captured them both, and prepared to sacrifice them to the Nameless One.
 This was interrupted by the Thing--who had recently joined the Valkyrie and Strange on related adventures--
and fellow Defender Nighthawk. The Thing held off the Nameless One while Nighthawk piled into the cultist, and the
 Thing then stopped Barbara's mother, cultist Celestial Denton, from blowing the Harmonica of Destiny--
what do you expect with Gerber writing??  :)  --which was holding the mystic forces which allowed the Nameless One's
 presence on Earth.Maybe this explains why the Nameless Ones-whose true is Billy Bob Jones,by the way,is one stupid guy on anothers shoulders,just
just the Charles Bronson character,in Once Upon a Time in the West.Why Steve Gerber,forgot to ad a character
saying ''GIVE YOUR LOVING BROTHER COMPANY is beyond me.
 Without this, the Nameless One was banished back to his realm once again.
(Dr. Strange III#41 (fb)) - After his most recent defeat, it was hinted that the Undying Ones slew the Nameless One.
 After this, a new Nameless One rose to power.
(Dr. Strange III#41 (fb)) - The Undying Ones took possession of the mutant Wolverine--although not without 
a bloody fight when some human worshippers gassed him--and sent him to slay Dr. Strange. Learning of the Sa'arpool
 (a magical gateway to Earth created by the N'Garai), the new Nameless One sent Wolverine through it.
(Dr. Strange III#41) - Strange freed Wolverine from the demons' control, and learned the nature of the attack. 
Strange and Wolverine traveled to the dimension of the Undying Ones, where they were ambushed and attacked 
by the demons. Wolverine again came under their control by swallowing some of their demon water while nearly 
drowning in it. Strange, however, had brought his own weapon, the Gaea Shard, a crystal containing a sliver of the 
essence of the elder Earth Goddess. Using this, he filled Wolverine with her energies as well, and he mutated into an 
even more powerful form which shredded the Undying Ones, including the Nameless One.
Strange returned Wolverine to normal, and they fled back to Earth, pursued by the Undying Ones--whether there 
were more of them, or the others proved able to heal from even the magical wounds they had received was unclear.
 The heroes made it back to Earth, using the Gaea shard to implode the Sa'arpool as they passed through it, cutting 
off that portal to Earth forever.
Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and Gene Colan.
The age of the Undying Ones on Earth is uncertain.

• Having ruled Earth in millennia past could classify them as one of the Elder Races who ruled humanity millennia
•  before the age of Atlantis, etc. Strange told of them coming to Earth when the Earth was still covered in molten rock,
•  which would actually be several billion years ago.
• References to their struggles with the Night/Dark-Crawler are supposed to take place over eons.
•  Eon can just mean an immeasurably long time period, or it may refer to a period of 1 billion years, as in geology.
• They may have been battling the Dark-Crawler long before ever coming to Earth, and were just trying to get through 
• his realm to conquer other worlds.
• Alternatively, the Dark-Crawler may have been exaggerating and his struggles with the Undying Ones took place only over the last millennium.
• OR time moves differently in the semi-mystic realms of the Undying Ones and/or Dark Crawler.

In Defenders I#20, van Nyborg and his followers are worshipping the Nameless Ones. While this isn't technically
 incorrect, as the Nameless One is two-headed, two-minded creature, it is still usually referred to in the singular.
 It was probably just confusion of the Undying and Nameless One(s) names.
It also seems that Barbara would have remained trapped in the Undying Ones' original realm, which was overtaken 
by the Dark-Crawler.
 However, when the Defenders later encountered the Nameless One, she was in the same dimension as he. So,
 either she was taken to their new realm when they fled the Dark-Crawler (that's my guess), or they eventually 
retook their own realm, which is in contrast to info from the Dark-Crawler at a chronologically later date--both Marvel 
and real time.
The name Stephen Sanders comes from the brief period when Eternity erased all knowledge of the name Stephen Strange,
 in order to preserve the secret identity of the Sorcerer Supreme, who had blurted his name out in a crowd. He replaced all 
memory and written evidence of the name "Stephen Strange" with "Stephen Sanders." This is when Strange first wore
 that funky blue face mask with his costume. Strange briefly retired shortly thereafter, but when he returned to activity,
 the Ancient One returned his powers, and erased all memory of Stephen Sanders from Earth.
    Incidentally, when the Ancient One's spell crossed the Earth, Murdoch Adams, who was imprisoned in mystic energy
 alongside Ningal, retained his memory of Sanders, and...ah, it's not worth explaining any further.
The first Undying Ones story is actually the first "grouping" of the classic Defenders, although they are not named as such,
 nor do all three get together at the same time. Similarly, the Hulk, Namor, and the Silver Surfer get together in
 Sub-Mariner I#35, where they are described as "Titans Three." These stories all precede the actual first appearance of the Defenders,
 which is in Marvel Feature#1.
Here's a little piece of trivia some of you younger fans may not know. Barbara Denton--the woman who was in the Cult of the Undying Ones,
 but was then sent to the Dark Dimension as punishment by Van Nyborg--may be better recognized by her married name: Barbara Norriss. 
She's the one whose body was converted into the form of the Valkyrie, of the Defenders, and who served as the form of Brunnehilde 
until she eventually regained her true form in Defenders I#109(?)Guess,because both had large boobs.
The next issue blurb in Dr. Strange#183 mentioned a story called "The Searchers!" Do go looking for it, b/c it don't exist. Dr. Strange#183 was the last issue, 
and Strange next showed up as the lead character in a series in Marvel Premiere#3. Definitely go read that!
The Undying Ones have an entry in OHotMU 2006 A-Z#12.
Clarifications:
The Undying Ones have no known connection to:

• UNDYING (Aentaros, Azazel, Semijan, etc.) - malevolent entities, millions of years old, have possessed people since dawn of history
      - aka DYBBUKS, RESTLESS DEAD--Cable II#79

Elder Race--this also covers demon classifications, Old Ones, etc.

The Nameless One, the two headed leader of the Undying Ones--and his successor for that matter--should be differentiated from:

• NAMELESS ONE - voodoo lord, zombie, formerly served Mambo and Calypso, destroyed self to escape control of Calypso
      --Daredevil I#243(244,310
• NAMELESS ONE - see DAREDEVIL. briefly controlled by Calypso when she possessed his gros-bon-ange
      --Daredevil I#311
• UNNAMEABLE - powerful evil sorcerer, menaced inhabitants of Tunnelworld until defeated by combined might of the Defenders
      --Defenders I#72, 83
• NAMELESS ONES (Lloigoroth                                ) - a race of demons, possibly another name for the Old Ones?
      --Avengers I#353
• NAMELESS GOD of Brak’s world - deity of monotheistic religion, worshipped by Nestoriamus--[Savage Tales I#7/2]
• NAMELESS ISLE of the Hyborian era - off the coast of Kush, former base of Serpent Men, held a copy of the Book of Skelos and an idol of Tsathoggua
      --Conan the Buccaneer; Savage Sword of Conan#40 (41

The Creatures of the Night have no known connection to:

• CREATURES of the NIGHT - possible name for a pack of 16th century werewolves associated with the Silver One
      --mentioned in Savage Sword of Conan#14/4
• any other "Creatures" of "Night" dealy-o's

---

Nameless One

He was the leader of the Undying Ones untold millennia in the past, when they first came to and conquered Earth. 
He maintained rule during their exile from Earth, and during their several attempts to return to Earth in the modern era. 
He mated/merged with Barbara Denton Noriss, but was defeated by the Defenders, and Barbara was forcibly separated from him.
He was last seen after being banished back to his realm after failing to consume the life forces of the Valkyrie and Dr. Strange
With the appearance of his successor, also known as the Nameless One, it was ASSumed that he was slain for his failures, 
although this is unconfirmed.
The Nameless One is a powerful sorcerer (possessing greater power even than Dr. Strange) and he is appears to possess Class 100 strength
 (or close to it) and durability, as well as being nearly immortal. He found himself unable to stand against the combined power of
 Dr. Strange, the Hulk, Namor, and the Silver Surfer.
--Dr. Strange I#183-BTS, Sub-Mariner I#22
(Sub-Mariner#22 (fb), [Dr. Strange#183], Sub-Mariner#22, Hulk#126, Defenders#1, [2], 3, 20

References[edit]

1. ^ Fear Itself: The Deep #2

External links[edit]

• Undying Ones at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

[hide] v   t   e Namor Creator Bill Everett