Prester John first appeared in Fantastic Four Vol.1 #54 (September 1966).[1] He has mostly appeared as a villain, opposing Thor and Deadpool as well as the Fantastic Four.
Fictional character biography
Prester John is a centuries-old explorer who was born in an unnamed kingdom in Eastern Asia, which he once ruled. He has been a priest, king, adventurer, traveler, and explorer. He was an ally of King Richard the Lionheart and served in his court. He is the possessor of the Evil Eye of Avalon, a mystic object of power bestowed upon him in the extra-dimensional land of Avalon, and which can project vast amounts of energy.
The alchemists of Avalon preserve John from the 12th century until the modern era using the Chair of Survival. When he awakes, John meets the Human Torch and Wyatt Wingfoot and witnessed the seeming destruction of the Evil Eye.[2] John is later possessed by an alien power-stone and battles the Thing and Iron Man.[3]
John later time-travels by unknown means back to the 12th century. There, he recovers the Evil Eye, which was reassembled in the present and brought to the past by the Defenders.[4] It is later revealed that John was transported back in time following an encounter with Kang the Conqueror.[5]
John is allied with the would-be messiahCable, serving as the "Head of Multi-Religious Studies" for the island nation of Providence.[6]
An alternate universe variant of John from Earth-11127 works with the Knights of Wundagore, claiming to be a harbinger of Nul, the Breaker of Worlds.[7]
Powers and abilities
Prester John is an athletic man with a gifted intellect, but no superhuman powers. He is an excellent swordsman and is proficient with most known weapons of 12th-century Europe and Asia. He has many years of experience as a priest, a king, a warrior, and an explorer. He wears a special suit of medieval body armor. He is usually armed with a sword and a staff.
John has sometimes carried the Evil Eye of Avalon, a magical power object able to project bolts of concussive force, to disintegrate matter, and to create and destroy force fields. He has also used the Chair of Survival, a device that places John in suspended animation. John once briefly possessed superhuman strength and durability conferred upon him while he was possessed by an alien power-stone, the Stone of Power. Once freed from its influence, his abilities returned to normal.
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