SkurgeExecutioner

From Giant-Killer to Giant Sacrifice

Seeking mortal guidance, Amora contacted Heinrich Zemo, offering to join his Masters of Evil to help defeat Thor and the Avengers. Disguised as Zemo’s allegedly repentant former aid Hans Grubervelt, Skurge led Captain America (Steve Rogers) to depart to his archenemy Zemo’s base. Amora then bewitched Thor, making him fight the Avengers, but Iron Man (Tony Stark) disrupted Amora’s influence with reflected sunlight. The Masters fled in Zemo’s ship, which Thor warped away. Trapped between the “sixth” and “seventh” dimensions, Skurge battled Zemo’s ship free from the immense and lonely resident Vertiplasm’s destructive embrace, and Amora transported them to Zemo’s base.

Skurge assisted Zemo in further failed plots against the Avengers involving alliances with Wonder Man (Simon Williams), time-master Immortus (Nathaniel Richards), and the savage Hulk (Bruce Banner). During the latter encounter, Skurge used replicas of his axe and helmet fashioned by Amora and Zemo. After Skurge and Amora freed former Masters the Black Knight (Nathan Garrett) and Melter (Bruno Horgan) to assault the Avengers, Zemo apparently died battling Captain America. Amora and Skurge retreated to escape banishment to the Reverse Dimension by Thor, and the Masters disbanded.

To distract Thor from an impending Odin-sponsored competition between Thor and Loki, Loki persuaded Amora and Skurge to threaten Jane Foster. Odin dispatched the light god Balder to protect Jane until Thor arrived, and Skurge and Amora again fled. Seeking to disrupt the wedding of Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic) and Sue Storm (Invisible Girl), Doctor Victor von Doom used his Emotion Charger to summon Skurge and numerous Super Villains. Skurge battled both the heroic mutant X-Men—during which Skurge lost his axe and helmet replicas—and Captain America before Richards used the Sub-Atronic Time Displacer to banish the villains back to their prior locations. Skurge somehow arrived in the alternate Earth-6676’s 25th century. There, as “the Evil One,” he led warriors using giant tripod walkers against King Arrkam, hoping to return to Asgard as a conquering hero. Coincidentally transported there by a T(ime)-Ray weapon used against him by the U.S. military, the Hulk nearly defeated Skurge before the T-Ray’s effects faded, returning the Hulk to his own time.

Back in his own time and after recovering his axe and helmet, Skurge joined Amora as minions of the Mandarin, who sought large diamond quantities to power his allegedly world-conquering weapon. In Asia, Skurge and Amora were aided by Asgardian trolls and opposed by the Avengers’ Hercules (Heracles/Alcaeus) and Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff). Hercules shattered Skurge’s axe handle and then used Skurge to disrupt Amora’s magically created warrior, incapacitating both Asgardians. The Avengers foiled the Mandarin’s plot. Back in Asgard, Skurge joined Amora and the trolls in a plot to conquer the kingdom, whose warriors Amora magically weakened.

However, the Hulk, transported to Asgard by Loki and secretly aided by Odin, stopped Skurge and the troll army. For these crimes, Odin banished Amora and Skurge to a netherworld. Its ruler Casiolena seduced Skurge, and he ruled by Casiolena’s side while gaining magical powers. Skurge and his army defeated and imprisoned all traveling to that realm, including Amora and the entranced Black Knight (Dane Whitman), and the heroic Defenders with the demon- maddened Barbara Norriss. Amora bonded Norriss to the essence of the Valkyrie Brunnhilde, who helped them defeat Casiolena, Skurge, and his forces, after which Skurge departed with Amora. The pair soon sought the metaphysical destiny power somehow instilled in the harmonica of Celestia Denton (Barbara’s mother), but were thwarted by Doctor Stephen Strange, the Thing (Ben Grimm), and Valkyrie.

They later joined Loki in a plot to conquer Asgard. After they failed to intimidate Asgard into surrendering via a massive army of magically animated armor, Loki earned Asgard’s respect by “defeating” the army and claimed its empty throne. Loki had Skurge and Amora abduct a weakened Odin to prevent him from retaking the throne, but the villains fell into a deep firepit during an ensuing struggle with the Warriors Three (Fandral, Hogun, and Volstagg). Odin reclaimed his throne.

When the fire demon Surtur threatened the entire universe, Skurge and Amora joined Asgard’s forces in battling Surtur’s massive fire demon army on Earth. Skurge and war god Tyr Odinson led armies that were instrumental in the fire demons’ defeat. When Skurge sought out Amora in Asgard, however, she humiliatingly spurned Skurge, having become infatuated with the god Heimdall. Seeking solace in battle, Skurge joined Thor in traveling to Hel to retrieve trapped mortal souls. However, Hela’s agent Mordonna impersonated Amora and led Skurge away, and Hela subsequently sought to disgrace Skurge as a traitor to force him to join her.

Skurge exposed Mordonna’s duplicity and used his axe to shatter Hela’s ship, Naglfar, which she planned to use to destroy Asgard; the axe was also destroyed. As the gods fled Hel with the freed souls, Thor prepared to protect their flank at Gjallerbru (the bridge at Hel’s boundary), but a redemption-seeking Skurge struck down Thor and took his place. Armed with automatic weapons from Earth, Skurge met Hel’s ceaseless armies, using guns as clubs and then bare hands when bullets ran out. Though Skurge perished in the effort, none of Hela’s forces touched the bridge, and Skurge’s stand became legend.

Hela kept Skurge imprisoned in Hel before releasing him to Valhalla (home of the honored dead). Skurge later suggested Amora save her dying sister, Lorelei, from Hela by dying in her stead and being reunited with him. When Amora refused, Skurge angrily hurled his re-formed ax at her feet before departing. Seeking a protective champion, Amora briefly granted the Executioner’s ax, form, and power to prisoner “Brute” Benhurst until Thor defeated him. Amora did so again (with Benhurst or another) against Doctor Strange, but both Amora and her Executioner were defeated by Strange and his sorceress wife, Clea.

Hela later plotted to slay Odin via the Deathsword, created under duress by the dwarf Eitri. This resulted in the imprisonment of the Einherjar (Valhalla’s warriors), including Skurge. Liberated by the heroic young New Mutants (former Xavier School trainees) and Eitri, the Einherjar opposed Hela’s forces until the Deathsword was destroyed via an Eitri-designed flaw. Amora later lost Skurge’s axe on Earth during an enemy ambush. It was found by architect Jackie Lukus, who was transformed into an Executioner duplicate. Corrupted by the axe’s evil, accumulated via Skurge’s misdeeds, Lukus adopted the Bloodaxe identity. Thunderstrike (Eric Masterson) eventually defeated Bloodaxe, and claimed the axe, hoping to defeat the powerful Egyptian/Heliopolitan death god Seth. Corrupted by the axe, Thunderstrike savagely overpowered Seth and assaulted the Avengers. Skurge met Masterson within his mind and helped guide Masterson to oppose the Bloodaxe persona. Ultimately, Masterson sacrificed himself to stop Bloodaxe.

Hela later granted a demon Skurge’s form and power, but Thor—having accessed the Odin-power following Odin’s recent death—sent the imposter back to Hela’s realm, claimed the axe and returned to Asgard. Thor later used the axe to stop god-slayer Desak. Yearning for Skurge, Amora cast a spell to cause Skurge to be reborn through the dimension-spanning tree Yggdrasil, which warped and threatened all reality. Thor, Balder, and Loki tracked Amora to Yggdrasil, and Thor—knowing Skurge would be dishonored upon his return—used Skurge’s axe to destroy his nigh-emergent wooden form.