Skullmaster
Skullmaster was a ten-thousand-year-old Lemurian who somehow came into possession of the Crystal of Souls. 5000 years ago, rumors began that the end of a great island-nation (probably Lemuria itself) was nigh and that all would perish. Skullmaster played upon their fears, claiming that he and he alone could save them. He convinced the king that if all his people yielded up their souls to the Crystal they would survive, for where the souls go the people would soon follow. The king ordered his people to give their souls to the stone, but they hesitated, so Skullmaster used his dark powers to tumble the very walls of the city. Terrified, they quickly gave their souls to the Crystal. Skullmaster killed the king and excaped with the Crystal. He never released the souls inside, condemning them to the torment of being neither alive nor dead.
With the power of the Crystal, Skullmaster ruled the Earth for centuries, until the original Capbearer led the last of the free people against him. In the end, the hero tricked Skullmaster into falling through the portal to the Earth's core, leaving his cap behind so he and Skullmaster could never return. At the Earth's core, Skullmaster used the Crystal to imprison Lava Lord and took control of his kingdom. After that, he began to plot his release.
Soon, a prophecy appeared that Skullmaster would be destroyed by the Chosen One, also known as the Mighty One. By the 1990s, Skullmaster created a digging machine in the hopes of tunneling his way to the surface. At that point, the Mighty One was selected, and upon meeting him, Skullmaster was amused that the Chosen One was merely a young boy named Max. He attempted to kill Max, and his new friends Norman and Virgil. They used the Cosmic Cap to escape, but in the process they destroyed his tunnels and digging machine.
Skullmaster next tricked the Norse necromancer Ravendark into believing that he was Loki. He ordered him to awaken the Doom Dragon, which would shatter the Earth and release him. Upon realizing that he'd been tricked, Ravendark gave his life to put the Dragon back to sleep. Skullmaster then used the Crystal to send the zombified bodies of those trapped within it to steal the Cap. That plan was foiled when Max tricked them into falling through a portal that led to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
Max then gathered a group of heroes- Beowulf, Yoni-Ya-In, Hanuman, and Mujaji- and led them on a mission to destroy the Crystal of Souls. They succeeded, but the heroes gave their lives to allow Max, Norman and Virgil to escape. Upon the destruction of the Crystal, Lava Lord was freed and a civil war took place in Skull Mountain between those loyal to Lava Lord and those who stood with Skullmaster. Max, Virgil and Norman all came to the center of the Earth on a mission to end the prophecy by killing Skullmaster. Virgil manipulated all to ensure this would happen, but upon learning that Skullmaster's death would also kill Virgil, Max refused to go through with it. He instead allowed Skullmaster and Warmonger to escape to the surface with him. Skullmaster's pet dragon awoke and he escaped, vowing that the final battle had begun.
Skullmaster journeyed to Dragon Island and tricked the natives into drinking the Blood of the Dragon. He claimed it would make them immortal, but instead it transformed them into Skullmaster's new minions- the Zillards. Skullmaster then located another kid named Max (or rather, Maximillian), who shared the Mighty One's birthday. He thus attempted to confuse Virgil, so that he would put the two Maxes through tests, and allow him to break into a Lemurian city and steal the Lemurian Arcana. While Skullmaster did succeed in acquiring the book, the real Mighty One tore out a large section of pages with important spells.
Next, Skullmaster journeyed to Zero Island to fake his own death, by manipulating Warmonger into betraying him and taking control of Hydra. Back on Dragon Island, Skullmaster used the Arcana to reforge the Crystal of Souls and had his Zillards give their souls to the Crystal. He than prepared to unleash armageddon.
Skullmaster chased Max, Virgil and Norman around the Earth to steal the Cap, and awakened many evil creatures to help him. After the death of Norman in New York City, Skullmaster captured Virgil and forced Max to come to Stonehenge before sunset- or Virgil would die. Max instead journeyed to Skull Mountain and teamed up with Lava Lord. They went to Stonehenge, and while Lava Lord distracted Skullmaster, in the end he was no match for the Crystal of Souls. He was banished back to the Earth's core.
Skullmaster then killed Virgil and took Max's cap, where he revealed his plan. When the sun set on that night (the Winter Solstice) he would stand at the center of Stonehenge and hold forth the Crystal and wear the cap, and he would be granted power over time itself. The past, the present and the future would bow to him- he would be God. He executed Warmonger and stood at the center of Stonehenge, where he donned the Cap (which changed into an Egyptian-style crown) and began absorbing the power. Max jumped into the fray, and disrupted the power flow, making time loop back in on itself. He reverted things back to when Max first discovered he was the Mighty One, and their journeys started all over again.
Comments
- Skullmaster's name is spelled Skull Master, two words, in the toy line.
- He has a different story arc in the toys. In the comic version of the Skull Mountain toy Skullmaster is depicted as wearing black and orange robes and being literally two-faced. One face is an ordinary, bald-headed human, but when he loses the Crystal of Souls (after Mighty Max shoots his hover pod with a hammerhead shark sub missile) his face becomes skeletal because without the Crystal he is powerless.
- He is then seemingly killed when Skull Mountain blows up, but turns up later on Dragon Island (looking more like he did in the cartoon). Here, seemingly to make up for having lost the Crystal of Souls, he is in the thrall of a mysterious deity called the Lord of Eternal Fire, who calls for Max as a sacrifice. However Max escapes with Virgil's help. While Norman holds off Skullmaster's Zilard minions Max rides on one of Skullmaster's hover ships while Skullmaster himself rides the Necrosaur. Max crashes the pod into the Necrosaur, sending Skullmaster plummeting into the sea where he is declared drowned.
