Vanguard
Personal Information
Name: Vanguard Thakka
Real Name: See above
Former Aliases: Van
First Appearance: Savage Dragon #2 (Back-Up)
Group Affiliations: Brigade
Height: 6′ 6″ (7′ 4″ at top of antennae)
Weight: 391 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blue
Date of Birth: Inapplicable to Earth standards
Place of Birth: The planet Kalyptus
Base of Operations: His spacecraft, a deep space interstellar reconnaissance vehicle. Frequent visitor to Chicago, Illinois, home of his girlfriend
Other Distinguishing Features: White skin, four fingers, three toes, ribbed ears, and twin antennae on his forehead.
Marital Status: Single, going steady with TV reporter Roxanne Wells
Known Relatives: Kazi (younger sister, deceased); Luma (sister-in-law); Zar (brother, deceased); mother (name unknown); father (name unknown, deceased); General Thakka (uncle)
Powers: Vanguard’s uniform is a combat suit designed to support life in space and in alien environments. It also contains an exoskeleton that enhances the wearer’s normal strength by ten times, and boot jets that enable him to fly vast distances. The suit is extremely impervious to heat, pressure and energy blasts, generating a force shield that covers even Vanguard’s unprotected face. Even without the suit, Vanguard’s alien musculature is denser that that of humans, giving him strength and endurance beyond those of normal earthlings, capable of lifting (pressing) four tons and leaping in a distance of about 60 yards. Vanguard trains daily in weapons use and hand to hand combat on his ship and is improving.
Weapons: Van’s space ship is a fully armed battle cruiser manned by “Morphlings,” laboratory born and bred servants that can alter their appearance to duplicate anyone or anything else. Morphs don’t eat, drink or sleep, and are supposed to be incapable of independent thought. Morphs are controlled by Vanguard’s friend and lone companion Wally, a robot drone that is linked with the ship’s computers, who runs the ship, oversees Van’s training and watches a lot of Earth T.V.
Special Equipment: Vanguard’s helmet contains a universal translator. The tripod device strapped to his right leg is a teleportation device and may have other functions.
NOTE: Vanguard is owned by Erik Larsen and Gary S. Carlson.
History
Vanguard comes from the planet Kalyptus, where everyone is in the military. Kalyptans are the architects of the Grand Alliance, a coalition of planets dedicated to ensure that no other worlds fall under the control of their enemies, the imperialistic Tyrrus Combine. A state of war, both hot and cold, exists in what they consider the known universe as each side jockeys for control of neutral planets, especially those with exploitable natural resources. The War-Wardens of the Alliance recently became aware of an inhabitable planet in a solar system on the edge of the known universe. They decided to dispatch a Vanguard recon ship to both scout this new planet and to stand as a first line of defense against its discovery by the Tyrrus Combine. The unlucky soldier assigned to this barren outpost in the middle of nowhere was Vanguard, a young untested warrior who had requested combat duty in the hot zone to avenge the death of his only brother. The unlucky barren outpost: Earth.
Vanguard arrived for his tour of duty defending Earth in the middle of 1993, placing his vessel in a cloaked orbit over his new home. He quickly grew board of his assignment and the teenaged warrior found himself increasingly drawn to terrestrial television and used this strange device to occupy his time. The brief peace was soon broken by the entrance of Supreme, the arrogant hero who had spent nearly five decades exploring the galaxy and met the Kalyptan people along his travels. Fearing that Vanguard’s presence could draw Earth into the war with the Tyrrus Combine, Supreme ordered his inexperienced opponent to abandon his post and return to his people. A battle broke out when the alien refused to leave, resulting in Supreme knocking out his foe and dropping him off at the Chicago Police Department to answer for the deaths of innocent civilians caught up in the superhero fight.
Wally, the robotic companion of Vanguard, attempted to teleport his best friend back aboard their battle-damaged vessel but is shocked when he beams up television reporter Roxanne Wells. The beautiful woman had discovered the broken translator helmet of the fallen alien and accidentally activated the homing device, causing Wally to start up the transporter device. A new plan is formulated with Wally replacing his companion with a Morphling, shape-shifting androids, called Lurch. Vanguard became a fugitive from the law and the Dragon was sent in to retrieve him.
Dragon tracked his target down, by following an escaped Lurch, and manages to defeat Vanguard in combat. Wally and Roxanne quickly teleport down to the alien’s aid and hand over a reconstructed translator helmet to Vanguard, allowing him to clear up the whole event, explaining Supreme caused much of the damage. Dragon cleared his new ally’s name and allowed him to resume his role as protector of the planet.
Over the next few months, Vanguard found himself involved in battles with a number of various threats including Modem, Berzerker, Imagineer, clones of Freak Force, the Matrix Swarm, the rampaging Bludgeon and a powerhouse alien creature called Amok. He even joined a pantheon of heroes called Brigade along with Glory, the second Supreme, ShadowHawk, Troll and Tremor.
When the Dragon was stranded in another dimension, Vanguard was recruited to track him down. Rock, the new leader of the government’s superhuman team, the Special Operations Strikeforce, refused to give up hope that his predecessor was lost, and with Vanguard, hoped to prove this. In the end, Dragon managed to make his own way home, but the efforts of Vanguard were not overlooked as he was recalled to aid the S.O.S. in retrieving operatives abducted by the denizens of Godworld.
Vanguard’s most recent mission was to aid in the evacuation of various abducted super-powered children that the villainous Covenant of the Sword had taken. Joined with Brute Force, the Deadly Duo and the two remaining Vicious Circle members, PowerHouse and Fever, the heroes came to the aid of the Dragon to successfully reclaim the children.
During the reign of CyberFace, Dragon was going to be executed live on television but he was teleported away at the last moment by Vanguard. He provided Dragon with a place to heal his wounds before transporting him back to Earth. CyberFace sent up a fleet of flying saucers to Vanguard’s spaceship and captured the hero.
Vanguard remained a prisoner of the world’s leader until Dragon removed CyberFace from power, leaving him locked up in cell within his spaceship. Wally felt himself coming under the influence of CyberFace and so he killed the villain. Vanguard helped him cover up this murder by depositing his corpse in the Sun.
With the fall of CyberFace, Vanguard had more freedom to interact with the people of Earth more. He assisted Dragon and the new Liberty League on a number of matters over the years including providing a place to incarcerate Universo and Mother Mayhem. Vanguard then provided Dragon with somewhere to live for a year whilst Mister Glum enslaved humanity.
Glum’s arsenal destroyed Vanguard’s vessel which released Universo and his herald but they were killed by a returning Solar Man. A number of heroes combined their efforts to assist Vanguard in rebuilding his spaceship so that he could maintain vigil over the planet. He was unaware that the Tyrrus Combine had reached Kalyptus and conquered their ancient enemies. They were then calling back all vanguard units but Vanguard and Wally loved Earth too much and claimed that their vessel was damaged and could not make the journey just yet.
Vanguard is later robbed of his teleporting device by the evil Kurr. Vanguard later goes after Kurr, but after a long and brutal fight, Kurr is able to dominate Vanguard and makes him his captive while taking over his ship. Kurr makes full use of Vanguard’s ship in his plans to kill all life on Earth. Vanguard is rescued by Dragon after Kurr has already killed all life on Earth and Vanguard finally heads back home, not knowing his planet is now under the control of the Tyrrus Combine. However, Dragon travels back in time to the point before Kurr attacks Earth and kills Kurr inside of Vanguard’s ship and free’s him. Dragon is killed in front of Vanguard who has to break the bad news to Malcolm and Angel.
He is next briefly seen at Dragon’s funeral. While watching TV at Rock’s diner he sees a man turning freaks back into humans. It turns out to be Galian, the former Ethrian and after a short battle Galian flees and all the former freaks, revert to being freaks. Later the villain Modem takes over circuits in SuperPatriot and has him attack Vanguard in his ship. During the battle Modem tries to take over Lurch but unknown to Modem, Lurch had a chip designed to repel her and Vanguard is able to capture Modem and free SuperPatriot of her control.
Vanguard is in conflicted state as he is constantly being hounded to head back home, but doesn’t want to. Using Lurch and his other morphlings, Vanguard creates a home video of Universo destroying Earth and his ship. However, the desired effect of the Kalyptans leaving him alone, does not happen as Vanguard’s sister, Kazi sees the video and decides to come rescue him. However, right before she reaches Vanguard her ship is attacked by the Tyrraneans and she dies. Her body is recovered and thanks Lurch’s new abilities he is able to transform into Kazi for a few moments so she can emit her final thoughts to Vanguard.
Vanguard is then attacked by a swarm of Tyrraneans, but is able to fend them off briefly thanks to an assortment of friends and former foes. Vanguard then transmit a message to the Krylan mothership to a now resurrected Dragon that the Tyrraneans have invaded Earth. He also informs Dragon that Kalyptus has been taken over by the Tyrraneans. Instead of going to Earth, Dragon heads to Kalyptus which is closer and wipes out the Tyrraneans with the scourge virus.
Vanguard’s ship is destroyed by a huge mass of Tyrraneans ships, but Wally teleports Vanguard and his group into a Tyrranean ship. After the Tyrraneans attack on Earth fails, Vanguard destroys the fleeing ships.
Vanguard later briefly returns to Earth after some discussion he decides to finally head back to his former planet of Kalyptus. He also takes a large crew with him including his girlfriend Roxanne Wells and his former nemesis Modem. He arrives at his home planet, but sees that everything is dead there. He gets into an argument with Lt. Barakkus and decides to leave his people behind for the time being. He encounters his old home servant/robot Mek who has Wally (who had vanished). Thanks to MODEM taking control of Wally they are able to destroy Mek and get Wally back in their control.
Vanguard also encounters Deathwatch who had manipulated the Mekka’s to revolt. Thanks to the help of Roxanne, Wally, Lurch, and Modem he is able to defeat Deathwatch. He then begins to rebuild his ship with all his friends.
Appearances
BIG BANG ADVENTURES
5, 11, 19
BLOODSTRIKE VOL.1
18
BRIGADE VOL.2
17 (Cover and intro page), 18, 19, 20, 21, 22
DIE!DIE!DIE!
14
DV8
2
EXTREME DESTROYER EPILOGUE
One-Shot
FREAK FORCE
4, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15
KNIGHTSTRIKE
One-Shot
MARS ATTACKS IMAGE
3
MARS ATTACKS SAVAGE DRAGON
1
MEGATON
1, 2, 3, 4
MEGATON HOLIDAY SPECIAL
One-Shot
MIGHTY MAN
One-Shot
NEW FORCE
1
NEW SHADOWHAWK
5
SAN DIEGO COMIC CON COMICS
3 (Unofficial)
SAVAGE DRAGON
2, 6, 11, 14, 41, 44, 45, 46, 53, 54, 58, 63 (Dream), 69, 75, 86, 93 (Savage Tales), 94, 95, 96, 100, 103, 104, 115, 116 (B/U), 117 (B/U), 126 (B/U), 127, 128, 129, 130, 144, 146 (F/B), 150 (B/U), 157, 163 (T/F), 164, 165, 168, 169, 172 (B/U), 173 (B/U), 174 (B/U), 175 (B/U), 176 (B/U), 177 (B/U), 178 (B/U), 179, 180, 181(B/U), 182(B/U), 183(B/U), 184(B/U), 197(B/U), 198(B/U), 199(B/U), 200 (B/U), 201 (B/U), 202 (B/U) , 253 (B/U) , 254 (B/U), 255 (B/U), 256 (B/U), 257 (B/U), 264 (AU F/B)
SAVAGE DRAGON: RED HORIZON
3
SHADOWHAWK VOL.1
18
SHATTERED IMAGE
2
STAR
1
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES VOL.3
11, 12, 13, 14
VANGUARD: ETHEREAL WARRIORS
1
VANGUARD: STRANGE VISITORS
1, 2, 3, 4
WILDC.A.T.S
14
YOUNGBLOOD VOL.1
9
YOUNGBLOOD VOL.2
3