Immortal Man

When first introduced, Immortal Man is reborn as a boy in modern times and has trouble remembering his origins. Found outside an orphanage, his caretaker finds a jeweled amulet around his neck and decides to keep it safe until the boy is older. Without it, the boy has no access to his power or previous life memories. Wanting freedom and confused by his expert level knowledge in a variety of fields (such as bullfighting, Japanese Samurai culture, and culinary arts), he runs away. After a few years, the now adult orphan returns to the orphanage to investigate his past and is finally given his jewel amulet, restoring his powers and memories. He recalls belonging to a "strange, ancient race" of cavemen who possessed superpowers. Thanks to a magical amulet given to him by the tribe chief, he is tasked to protect people from evil throughout eternity by constantly reincarnating in different bodies, sometimes older, sometimes younger. Over the millennia since, the Immortal Man has been a Babylonian, an Egyptian, a Greek, a Roman, a Carthaginian, an Arab, a European knight, a Mongol, and many others.[4]

The next day, a burst reservoir threatens the town and the nameless Immortal Man acts to protect the citizens. He saves many but dies when a school boiler explodes near him. A journal where he recorded his discovery of his origins is later found.[5]

The next story reveals that (following his death from the exploding boiler) the Immortal Man materializes as a clothed adult in an African jungle, the amulet around his neck. Unlike before, he immediately has access to his powers and memories, and it is revealed this is normally how his reincarnation works. After months of living as "Jungle Man," he meets a pair of explorers and treasure hunters, Helen Phelps and her brother Rodney. The Immortal Man tries to protect them from a criminal named Karat who later uses a mystical artifact to bring a mythical beast to life. The Immortal Man sacrifices his life to protect the Phelps siblings from the beast. A month later, the Immortal Man materializes in a new body in England, wearing a suit and his amulet. Assuming the name "Mark King", he meets the Phelps siblings again and chases down Karat. Helen is drawn to King and realizes he is Jungle Man, having the same powers, personality traits, and amulet. The Immortal Man protects them from Karat but is killed in the process.[6]

Reborn in America, the Immortal Man assumes the identity of "Jason Kirk" and coincidentally meets Helen Phelps again months later. She suspects his identity but he then dies again while saving people from great monsters.[7] Months later, Helen Phelps tracks down the Immortal Man in his new identity "Anton Carver." Realizing he loves her, the Immortal Man admits his identity and the two become engaged. When a dangerous dimensional rift threatens Earth, the Immortal Man asks Helen if he should risk himself again. Refusing to be selfish, she says yes and he sacrifices his life to close the rift. Helen hopes they will meet again soon.[8]

Reintroduced in 1984, the Immortal Man no longer has super powers beyond his unique reincarnation and is given a revised origin (with further detail added in History of the DC Universe, The Flash Vol. 2 #48, and Resurrection Man #25-27). His reincarnation power is now said to work instantaneously, meaning his death now causes him to immediately materialize elsewhere in a new body.

In the revised origin, the Immortal Man is born roughly 50,000 years ago as Klarn,[9] leader of the Bear Tribe.[10] Klarn is a mortal enemy of Vandar Adg of the Wolf Clan, their two clans repeatedly fighting. During one battle, a radioactive meteorite crashes nearby. Exposure to it makes Vandar immortal and invulnerable to injury while evolving his mind. After Vandar leaves, Klarn frees a glowing jewel from the meteorite and fashions it into an amulet. His mind also evolves and he later realizes he now has a unique form of reincarnation.[11] Throughout history, he fights to protect people from threats and repeatedly interferes with the schemes of Vandar Adg, who adopts the name Vandal Savage.

By the 1980s, the Immortal Man is living in the body of a middle-aged man of apparent European descent and has amassed great wealth and high-tech resources. Realizing Vandal Savage has a means to corrupt Superman, the Immortal Man attempts to contact the Justice League but the team is away on a mission. Rather than wait, he decides to deal with Savage's scheme and the mystery behind several strange golden pyramids by creating a team of "Forgotten Heroes", recruiting retired and semi-retired adventurers including: the Sea Devils, Cave Carson, Animal Man, Congo Bill, the time traveler Rip Hunter, Dolphin, and Rick Flag of the Suicide Squad. In the end, the heroes are triumphant and Superman recovers.[11]

Months after this adventure, Superman and the Immortal Man's Forgotten Heroes fight and defeat Vandal Savage's new team of "Forgotten Villains". Although the heroes win, the Immortal Man is killed while saving Dolphin from an attack by The Faceless Hunter From Saturn. Once the battle is finished, the Immortal Man appears again, now as a young man who appears to be of Asian heritage.[12]

During these 1980s stories, the Immortal Man's other powers do not play a major role. In the 1985-1986 crossover Crisis on Infinite Earths, the multiverse is threatened and all reality is in peril. During the final battles, Immortal Man sacrifices his immortal energies to help save the world, and is seemingly unable to return.[13]

Some time after the Immortal Man's sacrifice during Crisis on Infinite Earths, an adolescent girl named Steffi Jones suddenly gains the Immortal Man's memories, as well as the power of flight. She helps the Flash against Vandal Savage and the speedster hero asks if she is the Immortal Man ina new body. Steffi says she doesn't think so; while she has Immortal Man's memories and instincts (but not his amulet), she believes she is a new person and refers to herself as "The Immortal One". No mention is made of Stefi's parents or if she was a child found and adopted, so it is also unclear if she was already alive before the Crisis, in which case she could not be Immortal Man. After Savage's plan is defeated, Steffi confronts him and the two are caught in an explosion that seemingly destroys them.[14] Savage later turns up alive and continues battling Earth's superheroes. Steffi Jones is never seen again, making it unclear if she died in the blast or was reborn in a new body afterward or was indeed the original Immortal Man after all.

In the 1990s, the comic series Resurrection Man reveals that the meteorite that Vandar Adg and Klarn encountered empowered carried "tektites" (a form of nanite-based technology). These tektites infected the two men to different degrees, granting them their unique abilities (with Immortal Man's amulet apparently maintaining his "tektite field"). The meteorite was hurled through time by unknown agents, landing in what would become the Ardennes Forest 1.93 million years ago, during the Pleistocene Era.[15][16]

In the late 20th century, the amnesiac hero Mitch Shelley begins operating as the Resurrection Man. Like Immortal Man and Vandal Savage, he has tektites in his body that grant him a form of immortality: every time he is killed, he returns moments or minutes later, fully healed and with a different superhuman power). The Forgotten Heroes encounter Mitch Shelley and believe he may be the Immortal Man with altered powers. Trying to jog his memory, they talk about an adventure they shared with Immortal Man soon before the Crisis, during which the hero had the form of a middle-aged man with black hair and white temples. Encountering Vandal Savage, the villain admits he has fought Mitch Shelley Shelley many times over throughout history, but reveals the Resurrection Man is an entirely separate person from the Immortal Man. To prove it, he reveals the real Immortal Man has been his prisoner since soon after the Crisis. The Immortal Man still has the appearance he had before the Crisis, indicating he did not reincarnate as Steffi Jones afterward.[17]

Resurrection Man, Vandal Savage, and the Immortal Man then join forces against a creature that emerges along with a second tektite meteorite. This creature, a "Warp Child", alters time and erases many of the world's heroes from reality. The Immortal Man melds his tektite field with the creature's own, overloading it and destroying them both while restoring history in the process. Because he overloaded his tektites, the source of his immortality, it is implied the Immoral Man is now truly dead.[18]

Following the DC Rebirth 2016 relaunch of DC Comics, a new version of Immortal Man is introduced in the series Immortal Men. In the new history, Klarn Arg is born in the 47th century BCE, a member of the Bear Clan with siblings. One night, a radioactive meteorite strikes Earth and the four siblings investigate alongside Vandar Adg and the Wolf Clan. The five primitive humans are bathed in strange radiation that evolves their minds and makes them immortal. The five form a Council of Immortals and decide to help humanity but debate the best method to do so. Three methods debated are through knowledge, through harmony, or through expression. Klarn, who eventually takes the name Immortal Man, believes in saving humanity through action, specifically "the action of good people striving to save others." His sister Kyra, who adopts the name Infinite Woman, argues humanity rises best through conquest or when forced to face an enemy.[19]

Over time, the Council of Immortals (Immortal Man, Infinite Woman, Constant, Forever Child, and Vandal Savage) gain many followers, forming five different "Houses." The five immortals find they can also share some immortality (but not invulnerability) with those they choose, allowing some followers to remain with them for centuries. The Immortal Man is leader of the House of Action (based in a place called "the Campus"), and his followers sometimes refer to themselves as the Immortal Men. Infinite Woman and leads the House of Conquest (based in a place called "the Siege"). Other Houses include the House of Knowledge ("the Codex"), the House of Expression ("the Masque"), and the House of Harmony ("the Tabernacle"). Each House influences humanity and agrees through official treaties not to interfere with each other; the immortal Houses use different methods to block the memories of mortals who see them and learn of their secret operations. The Houses refer to their secret operations and battles as the "Eternal War" to save humanity. The House of Conquest and House of Action often clash.[19]

In the 21st century, the House of Conquest breaks the immortal treaties by attacking the House of Action. The Immortal Man, fearing his sister will succeed in killing him, initially plans to transmit his mind into a new recruit, a teenage boy named Caden Park who has the ability to read another's memories ("mind-swipes"). The plan fails and Immortal Man seemingly dies. Caden gains a "blood mask" device that the Immortal Man had developed before his death, and the computer mistakenly believes the teenager to be the Immortal Man reborn. With this, Caden can access Klarn's database and the memories of his dead followers. In retaliation for the House of Conquest's actions, and to prevent them from achieving victory, the Immortal Men disable the technology keeping their battle unseen, forcing the world and the Justice League to see evidence of the Eternal War.[19]

Empowered by a jewel he took from a meteorite (first said to be radioactive, later revised to be composed of microscopic technology called "tektites"), Klarn the Immortal Man possesses a reincarnation ability; if he dies, he soon materializes in a new body elsewhere on Earth, appearing from nowhere without having to be literally born again (as is usually the case with traditional reincarnation). His different bodies vary in age, physicality, and apparent nationality, but the basic personality remains the same. Although Immortal Man retains his learned skills and knowledge from previous lives, he sometimes has trouble remembering things at first, and the problem worsens if he does not have his amulet. The amulet seems to stabilize his power and knowledge (later comics say it does this by maintaining a "tektite field"). Due to his many lives across thousands of years, the Immortal Man is an excellent tactician, skilled in various forms of combat and survival, and is knowledgeable in many fields of study.

In his four original 1960s stories, the Immortal Man's amulet also grants him psionic abilities. With his limited pyrokinetic abilities, he can create and control flame around him. His limited telepathic abilities allow him to hypnotize weak minds and commune with animals. His telekinesis allows him to fly and reinforce his own physical abilities, giving him the effect of superhuman strength. None of these powers appear again after his reintroduction in 1984, though Steffi Jones (who either inherits his power or is the Immortal Man in a new form) has the power of flight.

During the series Resurrection Man, it was said the Immortal Man, Vandal Savage, and Mitch Shelley could all sense each other's presence due to their tektites reacting to each other.

Since DC Rebirth, Klarn does not repeatedly die and return in a different form. Instead, he is both ageless and invulnerable to harm following his contact with a radioactive meteorite. He can share his immortality but not his invulnerability to harm, meaning those he bestows with power are untouched by age or disease (the traditional definition of immortality) but can still be killed by physical damage or other outside factors.

As the new Immortal Man, Caden Park wore the blood mask, a device that worked with his own telepathy to grant him access to the skills and memories of all fallen Immortal Men of the House of Action.