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| Bartak | |
| Aliases: | Silver Surfer |
| Continuity: | Marvel Universe |
| Notability: | Antagonist |
| Type: | Spy |
| Gender: | Male |
| Race: | Skrull |
| Location: | Andromeda Galaxy |
| Associations: | Skrull Empire |
| Status: | Deceased |
| First: | Silver Surfer, Vol. 3 #11 |
| Final: | Silver Surfer, Vol. 3 #14 |
Bartak is a fictional alien warrior and a minor recurring antagonist featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is associated with the Silver Surfer line of titles and made his first actual appearance in Silver Surfer, Volume 3 #11 in May, 1988.
Biography[]
Bartak was a member of the Skrull Empire. He impersonated the Silver Surfer and used power transmitters to grant him energy powers in an approximation of the true Silver Surfer's power set. Bartak found himself trapped in the Silver Surfer's form, and set out destroy agents of the Kree - the sworn enemies of the Skrulls. After battling the true Silver Surfer, Bartak was eventually killed by Ronan the Accuser. [1]
Abilities[]
- Shape-shifting: A Skrull's innate primary ability is the power to completely alter its form down to a molecular level. This includes alteration's of body size, skin texture, pigmentation, etc. This ability is primarily cosmetic in nature, as it does not allow a Skrull to imitate the physical properties of what it duplicates. For example, a Skrull may be able to shift into the form of a solid steel cube, but it does not develop the durability of a block of steel. However, a Skrull's physiology does allow for other physical permutations to bestow it additional abilities.
- Elasticity: A sub-set of shape-shifting, a Skrull's body is exceptionally pliable allowing it to stretch, mold, and re-form its limbs.
- Size-alteration: A sub-set of elasticity, a Skrull can flatten or expand its body, to appear larger than it would when in its natural state. Also, a Skrull can condense its body mass to assume a form significantly smaller than when in its natural state. There are limits to this however. A Skrull cannot expand its body any larger than 1.5 times his or her original mass and volume, an by contrast, cannot condense its mass or volume by more than 0.75& of its original measurements.
- Bio-weaponry: A sub-set of shape-shifting, a Skrull can transform parts of its body into any number of bladed or blunt force weapons. However, the effective damage such a weapon can administer is no greater than the overall strength and durability of the Skrull itself.
- Flight: By their nature, Skrulls cannot fly. However, a creative Skrull may alter its form to flatten out sections of its body to give itself wing which can be used to glide or fly. A Skrull who takes the form of a bird can fly just as easily as a bird does.
- Mimicry: A Skrull can alter the shape of its vocal chords so that it can imitate the voice, sounds, or cries of any living person or creature that it duplicates. This is an excellent application to their power as it allows for a Skrull to more effectively impersonate its target without risk of obvious detection.
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Bartak was created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Joe Staton.
- Bartak has been retroactively attributed to the Silver Surfer who appeared in "The Death of Captain Marvel" from Marvel Graphic Novel #1. The presence of the true Silver Surfer in that story creates an error in continuity, as the Surfer would have still been trapped on Earth due to Galactus's cosmic barrier.
- Bartak has also used his shape-shifting abilities to impersonate Devil-Slayer.
Final Fate[]
- Incinerated by Ronan the Accuser using the Universal Weapon.
See also[]
Appearances[]
- Marvel Graphic Novel 1 (Earliest chronological appearance)
- Silver Surfer Vol 3 11 (1st appearance)
- Silver Surfer Vol 3 13
- Silver Surfer Vol 3 14 (Dies)