Blazing Skull

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A long time ally of SHIELD who specializes in the supernatural, **Mark Todd** was an agent of the subgroup STAKE and helped solve numerous unexplained cases across the globe. With the rising of HYDRA into the 21st Century, Mark was one of the many people affected by the shocking revelation. After escaping the brink of death thanks to a group of satanists, he was sacrificed to a powerful demon-lord, who brought him back with a curse, creating the **Blazing Skull**. As a result of his transformation, Mark's sanity has been reduced to a significant extent, but his need to seek truth and justice still lingers within him.

## Biography

### Agent of STAKE

**Mark Todd** was an English-born SHIELD agent who would become apart of SHIELD's vast number of spies. Unlike most agents of SHIELD, Mark was assigned to a smaller division of the organization called STAKE, which had been created to monitor anomalies that could not be explained through scientific means such as the Man Thing. Mark would become one of STAKE's most skilled intelligence gatherers, being able to locate para-normal activities so that STAKE may contain and evaluate them. It is in one of these missions that Mark actually came into conflict with the Japanese criminal cult known as the Hand, which dealt in mystical feats.

### Rise of HYDRA

Merely days before SHIELD's HYDRA revelation would be uncovered, Mark was tasked with gathering intelligence on a group of satanists called the Skull Men who were rumored to be killing and sacrificing numerous victims in the devils name, and in these acts used a form of hellish magic. By the time HYDRA started to take control, some members of Mark's unit were revealed to be traitors and killed those who were loyal to SHIELD. Mark barely managed to get away, but was wounded by a gunshot hit. He got as far as several miles out into a forest where he collapsed after losing a large amount of blood, at which point a member of the Skull Men found and carried Mark to the rest of the Skull Men.

### Reborn from the Blaze

Upon awakening after captured by the Skull Men, Mark found that he had been restrained and kidnapped by the satanists. Apparently they believed that Mark was a perfect candidate as a offering to their dark lord, and so the Skull Men enacted an ancient ritual to sacrifice Mark's soul to the dread being. During this ritual Mark did indeed die, but his soul was returned to the realm of the living with a piece of the fallen one's (or Zarathos's) power. With this power, Mark transformed into a burning skeleton (which earned him the nick name **Blazing Skull**) and broke free of his restraints, but with such power Mark was also given the burden of all those blessed by the Hell-Lords, and so Mark killed all of the Skull Men and destroyed their souls. After performing this act, Mark began to go insane and stayed off of SHIELD's radar for a number of years, though there were a few sightings which were leaked onto the internet with most of them calling him the Blazing Skull.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Demonic Transformation:** Long-term connection to hellish magic has granted Todd the ability to make himself a living flaming skeleton. In this form he possesses superhuman strength, can generate heat and flame, and incredibly durable. In his normal form his aging process is reduced to a significant length and can go at least several days without food or water. Todd also possesses a healing factor which has caused him to heal from injuries that would kill normal people.