Leviathan (Marvel)

Latest revision as of 17:49, 11 June 2024

Leviathan is an organization that features in Marvel Comics.

History

Leviathan (Russian: Левиафан) was an organization that was formed by as the shadow counterpart to the Soviet Union's public-facing intelligence operations. (Secret Warriors v1 #12) Valentina de Fontaine's parents, as well as the young girl herself, were Leviathan agents stationed in Rome, Italy. After they were assassinated, Viktor Uvarov approached her, letting her know that she would soon be recruited into the nascent spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D., and asked her to become Leviathan's mole in the organization. (Secret Warriors v1 #14)

Later on, two former KGB officers named Vasili Dassaiev and Viktor Uvarov of the Soviet Union in the decade after World War II. Uvarov and his agency was among various intelligence groups that were brought together by Leonardo Da Vinci as he formed the Great Wheel of the Zodiac. The group was among the best covert intelligence agents in the world that were assigned a mission by Da Vinci. This involved the acquisition of key resources of great value but each did so secretly for their own separate agenda. Vasili was deployed alongside John Garrett, Kraken and Shoji Soma to infiltrate a Brood ship at Giza in Egypt to acquire its power source. Upon the mission's success, Vasili then began to conspire with Viktor to betray the Great Wheel as they stole the technology that they had acquired. This was because the Leviathan intended to use the Brood energy source in combination with stasis pods acquired by Uvarov in order to create an army of superhumans. The result of this betrayal saw the factions of the Great Wheel broken up leading to the formation of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, the Zodiac and finally Leviathan. Dassaiev submitted to the authority of Uvarov where they used their combined resources to form Leviathan. This saw the pair taking on the identities of Magadan and Orion within their organization. However, Leviathan's installation came under attack from Hydra where Baron Strucker managed to severely wound Viktor Uvarov. This led to Magadan rushing to his allies aid and taking him into a stasis chamber to save his life by making him undergo the superhuman transformation process. Before it could be completed, Hydra stole the Brood power source with Vasili attempting to revive Orion and even managing the kill Hydra's ally Shoji Shoma. This came too late as Soma hid the power source with its location being unknown after which Magadan with Leviathan went into hiding for many years. (Secret Warriors v1 #25)

One day, the entire organization went into cryogenic stasis in their Siberian base, codenamed Long Winter. (Secret Warriors v1 #12) Magadan continued to search for the power cell for years, looking to revive the rest of Leviathan. At one point he hunted down Shoji Soma; Soma refused to reveal the cell's location, and Magadan killed him. (Secret Warriors v1 #26) Fourteen years later, Magadan was awakened from stasis to begin reviving the rest of Leviathan. (Secret Warriors v1 #12) Norman Osborn arrested Seth Waters, a Leviathan agent who'd infiltrated the Department of the Treasury. During interrogation by Bullseye, he admitted he worked for Leviathan; he was then immediately assassinated by John Garrett, under orders from Nick Fury. Fury then absconded with a device full of Leviathan data. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1) During the events of the Dark Reign, Leviathan was responsible for attacking Agarashima that was the stronghold of Clan Yashida with Silver Samurai attacked by their mysterious demonic warriors. Magadan and a Leviathan squad attacked the Yashida Clan stronghold in Japan, looking for the Brood power cell which was no longer there. Afterwards, they moved on to Hydra's Nemesis shipyards, where they encountered the Gorgon. (Secret Warriors v1 #11) Gorgon slew a number of Hookworms, but Magadan scuttled two Hydra ships and captured the Viper, escaping with her on their aircraft. They returned to Long Winter, where they attempted to torture her to determine the location of the power cell. However, she also did not know where it was located. (Secret Warriors v1 #12)

S.H.I.E.L.D. was investigating possible Leviathan bases when Hydra took over America under the leadership of Supreme Leader Steve Rogers. (Secret Warriors v2 #1)

Overview

It possessed a number of installations that included:

• Ursa Major : Leviathan Secret Base 1 was a shipyard. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• Ursa Minor : Leviathan Secret Base 2 was a weapons facility. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• The Righteous Path : Leviathan Secret Base 3 was an intelligence centre specialising in signal interception and decryption. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• The Pillar : Leviathan Secret Base 4 was a testing ground. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• Proletariat : Leviathan Secret Base 5 was an abandoned Cold War era recruitment facility. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• Vanguard : Leviathan Secret Base 6 was an elite operatives training school. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• Revolution : (Leviathan Secret Base 7 was a detention facility. Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• Motherland : Leviathan Secret Base 8 was a Hookworm production facility. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)
• The Long Winter : Leviathan Secret Base 9 was a long term storage facility. (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)

Members

• Orion :
• Seth Waters : (Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1 #1)

Notes

• Leviathan was created by Jonathan Hickman and Stefano Caselli where they made their first appearance in Secret Warriors #11 (February 2010).
• In an interview on Newsarama, Jonathan Hickman said, "What I’m hinting at is the final days of World War II. You have the Allies on one side, the Soviets/Communists on the other and Germany in between them. Fury represents the Allies, while HYDRA are the remnants of Imperial Japan and Germany. Leviathan are old friends with the Russians."

In other media

Television

• In Agent Carter, an organization referred to as Leviathan was referenced in the episodes episodes "Now is Not the End" and "Bridge and Tunnel". They were shown as being a shadowy Russian covert organization that was not well known and operated in 1956 following the defeat of Hydra where it was seeking to purchase weapons. Their operatives were tasked with entering the vaults of Howard Stark and stealing his advanced 'Bad Babies' weapon designs. Its operatives were shown to had a tattoo on their neck and were unable to speak without an aid such as an electronic device pressed to the throat to make an electronic voice. The agent Leet Branis responsible for stealing the Nitramene formula went rogue and decided to sell it for profit leading to him being pursued by another operative. This operative was shown to communicate with his masters through a type writer that would write text messages for him and he would respond in kind. Their plans were thwarted by secret intervention of Strategic Scientific Reserve (S.S.R.) agent Peggy Carter. Leviathan was responsible for kidnapping a scientific savant to build a Stark weapon known as the photonic amplifier which they had the schematics for but not the knowledge on how to build. The facility holding the scientist was raided by Agent Carter and the Howling Commandos.

Films

Leviathan in Avengers Confidential.

• In Avengers Confidential: Black Widow & Punisher, Leviathan appeared as the primary antagonist who were shown as a group that formed out from the Soviet Union. They were stated to had been once been part of Russian intelligence until the collapse of Russia whereupon they dispersed to become a terrorist organization. Leviathan was stated to had set themselves up in economically deprived locations where they aided in the spread of conflict. It was said that they were responsible for numerous evil acts such as weapon smuggling, drugs, terrorism and other such acts Former S.H.I.E.L.D. scientist Elihas Starr secretly defected from the peacekeeping organization where he stole blood samples from various superhumans such as the Hulk with him bringing this information to Leviathan. They would kidnap various civilians and brainwash them where they had these individuals blanked and had their bodies re-engineered turning them into Bio-Soldiers. One Bio-Soldier was deployed publically to showcase their capabilities whilst Leviathan created a weapon sale for these super-soldiers at Madripoor with this being headed by Orion. However, the sale was interrupted by Black Widow and the Punisher with the former summoning the Avengers that battled both Leviathan as well as the various supervillains that came for the sale.

Appearances

• Secret Warriors v1:
• Dark Reign: The List - Secret Warriors v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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