





King Ghidorah (キングギドラ, Kingu Gidora?), also dubbed Monster Zero, Titanus Ghidorah or just simply Ghidorah, is a giant extraterrestrial three-headed dragon daikaiju created by Legendary Pictures that first appeared in the 2019 film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, as its main antagonist.

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Name

Ghidorah's full name is likely based on Zmey Gorynych from the 1956 Soviet film Ilya Muromets, the inspiration source of the monster who was called King Dragon in Japan.[4][5]

The word "Ghidorah" itself is a direct translation of the pronunciation of Hydra in the Russian language.

The names given to Ghidorah's heads during production, Ichi, Ni, and San (the middle, right and left heads respectively)[3], are the Japanese words for "one", "two", and "three". San is also given the nickname "Kevin", which likely refers to how he is easily distracted. This has become a joke amongst the Godzilla fanbase and a source of numerous memes.[6]

Design

Appearance

Like most of his past incarnations, Ghidorah is larger than Godzilla. His middle neck has two rows of spines while his left and right necks only have one. Each head has a crown of ten horns similar to the Heisei incarnation, with subtle differences in each head's horn array. The horns of the middle head are notably longer, more curved, and more decorative than the other two, while the left head has straighter horns than the right head. Furthermore, one of the right head's left horns is chipped. The horns tend to flare depending on Ghidorah's current mood. Ghidorah's heads each have crocodilian-looking jaws with flaring nostrils, forked tongue, and brows with a generally furrowed appearance. His eyes are beady and have a fiery reddish-orange color and circular pupils, and they tend to glint or glow yellow at a distance (particularly noticeable in the dark). Ghidorah's necks glow yellow whenever he charges up and fires his gravity beams.

Ghidorah's wings are much larger and more bat-like in appearance than most incarnations - the membrane of each wing is supported by four bat-like phalanges extending from Ghidorah's wrists, and an additional three phalanges that extend from the sides of Ghidorah's torso. All these phalanges end in blade-like tips that emerge from the wing membrane. Though Ghidorah takes on a bipedal stance when standing still, when moving on his legs he uses his wings as forelimbs for crawling, to support his massive body. Ghidorah still has his traditional twin tails with spiked bludgeons at their tips that can rattle as an intimidation display. His legs are digitigrade and stocky with avian-like feet, similar to the 2001 incarnation. When Ghidorah's left head is ripped off, his blood is shown to be black and oil-like.

Portrayal

Ghidorah is portrayed through a mix of motion capture and CGI. Jason Liles, who starred in Rampage, performed the mo-cap for Ghidorah's middle head, with Alan Maxson and Richard Dorton portraying the other two, while unnamed colleagues play the monster's body.[7][8]

Roar

Ghidorah possesses a high-pitched, wailing roar with an underlying scratching quality - it is similar to some of the vocalizations of Vastatosaurus rex in Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie. He also at times produces low growls not dissimilar to a lion's.

According to Michael Dougherty, Ghidorah's roar in the MonsterVerse is meant to emulate his original high-pitched cackling roar from the Showa series, but far more intense and louder. The unique point of this incarnation's roar is that sometimes Ghidorah's heads will roar one by one continuously three times. The filmmakers recorded sounds of snakes such as pythons and rattlesnakes to emulate Ghidorah’s serpentine traits.[9] There is even one moment where Ghidorah let out the roar of his Heisei incarnation.

Personality

As with most of his previous incarnations, Ghidorah is an extremely malevolent entity, which is supported by the skulls depicted surrounding him in the cave painting and the fact that ancient cultures barely wrote anything about him as if they wanted him to be completely forgotten. His sadistic and ruthless nature is established when he willingly obliterates soldiers with his gravity beams instead of ignoring them. There are also glimpses of his heads seemingly smiling at his potential victims as he pursues or attacks them (more information on that below).

Unlike most Titans, who tend to attack humans somewhat broadly when enraged by them (such as Rodan, or such as Godzilla at the Golden Gate Bridge), Ghidorah has multiple times gone out of his way to attack, murder and pursue individual humans; such as pursuing Emma and Madison Russell respectively when they were alone, and blasting the G-Team upon awakening in spite of them proving to be no threat. Ghidorah also initially displayed a willingness to toy with or curiously investigate humans before killing them, such as when his heads attempted to slowly crush the human-filled Osprey in Antarctica. Ghidorah preferred killing humans with his gravity beams. Unlike other Titans, Ghidorah seemingly couldn't settle for dismissively killing humans and had to relish in the act of hunting and killing them.

Alongside his goal to take command of Earth's Titans and alter the planet's environment to his liking - an act which involves attacking and obliterating human cities around the world and disrupting the planet's ecosystems, showing the full extent of Ghidorah's lack of regard for other life - Ghidorah possesses a strong rivalry with Godzilla. Ghidorah's right and middle heads were particularly confrontational and exchanged scowls with his ancient enemy when Ghidorah and Godzilla met again after Ghidorah's awakening, and the Titans attempted to size each-other up before engaging. Ghidorah likewise maintained a one-on-one battle against Godzilla for the position of Alpha in Boston despite Mothra's interference, allowing Rodan to keep Mothra occupied.

Each of Ghidorah's three heads, though capable of working in sync towards Ghidorah's overall goals (particularly in combative situations where they work as a single creature), has a level of independent thought from each-other and a distinct personality.

The middle head (Ichi) is the most dominant and intelligent-seeming head of the three, and appears to be the leader over the other two. It's also debatably the most gleefully sadistic of the heads and the most determined to go out of its way to be cruel; pulling a lopsided smirk directly before obliterating the G-Team, likewise seemingly grinning when Ghidorah was attacking the Argo, and targeting and devouring Vivienne Graham in Antarctica. The middle head appears to be more focused on pursuing Ghidorah's grand-scale goals and generally quicker-acting than the other two heads; being the most attentive head when Ghidorah first sensed Godzilla's approach in Antarctica and upon Emma Russell's apparent death, and twisting its neck slightly quicker than the other two heads when pursuing Emma and the ORCA. Because of this, the middle head appears to take Ghidorah's rivalry with Godzilla more personally than the other heads when challenging the terrestrial Titan. The middle head is somewhat creative in battle, such as when it bit down on a power station in Boston. The middle head was only known to show fear at the end of Ghidorah's life, being visibly terrified by a thermonuclear Godzilla's advance after the latter destroyed the other two heads.

The right head (Ni) is the most irritable and aggressive of the three, often producing snarling or scowling facial expressions. It appears to be particularly bloodthirsty and eager for battle based on these expressions, such as when it feebly attempted to fend Godzilla off while the other heads were incapacitated by Mothra's webbing. The right head displays pragmatism and better spatial awareness of its foes while fighting, such as when it destroyed the Fenway Park speakers broadcasting the ORCA's signal (although this may have been frustration), and when it was attempting to free the other heads from Mothra's webbing (first checking Mothra wasn't in a position to immediately strike again before the head got to the task, and quickly noticing Godzilla's approach in a building's reflection). This head is a loyal and obedient follower towards the middle head and is capable of interacting with the middle head without violence; often chirping suggestively to the middle head or being consulted by the middle head first (such as when Ghidorah was confused by the ORCA's deactivation in Antarctica). It also appears to rank second on the trio's pecking order, devouring the crushed ice falling from the middle head's jaws when it devoured Vivienne Graham.

The left head (San, also called "Kevin") seems to be the least intelligent and least aggressive of the heads; and based on its facial expressions (or lack thereof) compared to the other heads when Ghidorah is engaged in action, it appears to be somewhat docile. The left head is easily distracted and unfocused, to the frustration and disappointment of the middle head who has to forcibly get its companion back on task. Possibly because of its behavior, the left head appears to be at the bottom of the three heads' pecking order. This head notably displays more of an inquisitive side than the other two, most prominently when Ghidorah first awakened. Its unique first reaction among the heads was to immediately look around when they were emerging from the ice, and it responded to the G-Team shooting at it by bending its neck to get a closer look (even nuzzling one of them with its chin). It attacked the G-Team in unison with the other two heads only after the middle head had forcefully pushed it back to get it back on task, and immediately afterward it spent time off-task licking the team's ashy remains. Its curiosity towards humans seemed to ebb after this, although it still seemingly scented the air with its tongue when the heads were approaching Emma Russel after injuring her, seeming mildly curious about the human who'd broadcasted the ORCA's signal. The left head appears to be somewhat timider than the other two when the heads aren't working together, at times casting worried looks towards the other heads such as when facing Godzilla in Antarctica - the left head furthermore openly displayed fear of Godzilla at the time of Emma Russell's death when Ghidorah sensed Godzilla's approach (unlike the other two heads, who never openly showed such emotion except when Ghidorah was about to be killed). However, the left head behaves much more confidently when engaging alongside the other two in battle with Godzilla, since it does not hesitate to strike. The left head seems to function as a sentry, mostly rearing back and watching while the other two heads engaged Godzilla in Antarctica (and observing when Godzilla's tail-fins lit up before he used his atomic breath), and at other times scanning in the direction Ghidorah's back is facing. Despite its docile streak, the left head does at times display its savagery; being particularly eager to bite down on Godzilla's neck compared to the other two heads when Ghidorah was draining Godzilla's energy, and smiling when Ghidorah was attacking the Argo. The left head also fired its gravity beam in a slightly more unfocused manner than the other two at Fenway Park. This head seems to be more eager for food than the other two, based on its aforementioned action after the G-Team's deaths, and when it turned its attention to the remaining humans after watching the other two heads devour Graham and the ice she'd been standing on.

Despite the heads' differing personalities (or perhaps because of the middle head's dominance, given its aforementioned focus), Ghidorah tends to be persistent to a point bordering on obsessive when something has his attention. This was seen when, after being briefly and painfully distracted by the ORCA's signal from investigating a nearby Osprey, instead of pursuing the source of his pain once it ceased, Ghidorah resumed approaching the Osprey and toying with the humans inside. However, this can also be a weakness for Ghidorah, as seen when the Russells used the ORCA to draw him away from a downed Godzilla and kept him chasing the ORCA through Boston until Godzilla recovered.

Origins

“ From the Hydra to the Rainbow Serpent, myth was the compass that led us to the resting place of the three-headed Titan. A name, unspoken through millennia of whispered nightmares. A living extinction event, named "the One who is Many". We call it Monster Zero.



At a Monarch containment facility deep in the frozen tundra of Antarctica, a three-headed winged serpent of ancient yet unknown origin lies frozen within a glacial tomb of ice. This is without question the largest superspecies ever discovered, easily dwarfing Godzilla at a height of over five-hundred feet tall.



Cranial scans reveal a divergent frontal lobe density in the brains of the three heads, denoting each head has disparate levels of cognitive functions and possibly even independent thought.



Monster Zero's dermal layer is gilded with trace amounts of aurum (See Ark Record # 73.126). Metallurgical studies theorize the scales act as a conductor capable of carrying bioelectrical currents through the creature's body. Injuries have been discovered on several locations on the beast's body, reminiscent of claw and scorch marks. Exo-Forensics are currently investigating.



Muscle tendons on the wings are so hyper-tensile that their massive aerodynamics could generate hurricane-force winds when in flight. Coupled with its body's electro-receptor molecular biology capable of conducting electrical currents, water vapor in the air would be heated at extreme levels creating its own localized storm system as it travels. Simply put, if Monster Zero were to fly again, the stratosphere would be torn open by an otherworldly tempest of thunder and lightning our sky has never seen. Cryptolinguistics has analyzed translations of every worldwide case study of Monster Zero in the Monarch database across tens of thousands of years. The ancients called it Ghidorah. „ — Cryptid Profile[2]

The MonsterVerse incarnation of King Ghidorah returns the character to his original roots as a villainous extraterrestrial life form. For a time, Monarch initially believed that Ghidorah was part of Earth's natural order as one of the many Titans roaming the Earth until it was discovered that Ghidorah survived the Oxygen Destroyer blast and regenerated his severed head in seconds. According to information pieced together from ancient mythological texts by Ilene Chen , Ghidorah "fell from the stars", which Monarch subsequently took as indicating alongside Ghidorah's non-terrestrial biology that he was an extraterrestrial lifeform acting like an invasive species. Numerous mythological deities such as the Hydra from Greek mythology and the Rainbow Serpent of the Aboriginal Australian religion are credited as misremembered encounters with Ghidorah by ancient civilizations.

If the aforementioned ancient texts are to be believed, Ghidorah was responsible for slaughtering humans and Titans alike. He established himself as a rival alpha to Godzilla, and the two battled each other several times before they vied for supremacy in ancient Antarctica. The latter battle ended with Godzilla's victory, and Ghidorah being rendered inert and left in icy waters to freeze solid[10][11][12] near the tip of the continent (specifically the Scott Mountains)[2].

History

SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.

In 1971, Houston Brooks and San Lin briefed James Conrad and Mason Weaver on multiple other monsters who once ruled the world alongside Kong. This included Ghidorah, along with Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan, who were all shown to the two via classified Monarch cave paintings.

Ghidorah was discovered under the ice via the Reolus satellite, which detected an extreme electromagnetic pulse fluctuation from the frozen creature.[2] In 2016, Vivienne Graham led an effort to build a containment and research facility around Ghidorah. Her classified field notes contained the mysterious footnote, "The devil has three heads."[1] The creature was later dubbed 'Monster Zero' by Monarch scientist Dr. Emma Russell.[13]

Ghidorah is first seen frozen in Antarctic ice, with the designation 'Monster Zero'. Eco-terrorist organization leader Alan Jonah and rogue Monarch agent Emma Russell free him with explosives and awaken him with the ORCA.

Upon awakening, Ghidorah slaughters the G-Team forces on the ground before turning his attention to a grounded Osprey aircraft. Shortly after, Godzilla emerges from the ice and the two Titans engage in battle, decimating the Monarch outpost. Ghidorah then eats Graham alive and gains the upper hand, but escapes into the sky before Godzilla has the chance to retaliate.

Ghidorah later reappears in a massive storm near Mexico, shortly after Rodan, is freed from his volcanic nest. Monarch attempts to goad the two monsters into fighting each other, with Ghidorah easily defeating Rodan by sending him falling into the ocean. He proceeds to attack the Monarch crew, but Godzilla emerges from the sea to fight him off. Godzilla tears off Ghidorah's left head. Desperate and left with no options, the military is forced to detonate the Oxygen Destroyer missile, seemingly killing both Titans. However, Ghidorah is unaffected by the effects of the missile, which was specifically designed to eliminate all lifeforms in the area by removing all surrounding oxygen.

Ghidorah flies to Rodan's volcano, where he regenerates his missing head. He then calls out to the other Titans around the world, Rodan included, who all acknowledge him as their new alpha. Ghidorah instructs the Titans to behave hyper-aggressively, attacking major cities across the world and forms a roost in Washington DC, with Rodan acting as his vanguard. Ilene Chen deduces that Ghidorah is an extraterrestrial, who seeks to destroy all life on Earth and terraform the planet in his image. Realizing they need Godzilla more than ever, Dr. Serizawa sacrifices himself to detonate a bomb to bring Godzilla back to full strength.

Ghidorah is lured to Boston by Madison Russell, who broadcasts the ORCA's signal from Fenway Park. Godzilla appears to challenge his rival once more, with Mothra and Monarch joining by his side. However, Ghidorah calls upon Rodan to distract Mothra while he takes on Godzilla himself. The battle is at first a stalemate, both Titans being evenly matched. Ghidorah manages to absorb massive amounts of electrical energy by biting down on a nearby transformer and proceeds to incapacitate Godzilla, nearly succeeding in doing so. In the process, he picks up Godzilla in his talons, carries the injured Titan all the way up to the edge of space, and then drops him, making him plummet tens of thousands of feet down to Earth. After slamming into the ground, mortally wounding himself, Godzilla lies defenseless. Mothra, who is grievously injured from her fight with Rodan, attempts to defend him but is killed by Ghidorah's gravity beams. As she dies, however, she releases a cloud of energy, which Godzilla absorbs, causing him to glow fiery orange.

Seemingly realizing the threat posed by this energy, Ghidorah grapples Godzilla and begins draining it through his bite. However, a repentant Emma Russell uses the ORCA to distract Ghidorah, who then chases her into the city and mortally injures her with his gravity beams, destroying the ORCA.



The few moments were enough for Godzilla to recover, who then enters the scene supercharged and glowing a burning red. Ghidorah manages to shield himself against Godzilla's first thermonuclear pulse, which incinerates his wings in the process. Panicking, Ghidorah tries to stop Godzilla with his gravity beams, which fails as this inadvertently charges Godzilla up with a second pulse, incinerating Ghidorah's two side heads. The remaining middle head struggles vainly, as Godzilla ferociously roars and steps on the fallen Ghidorah's chest, bursting out all of his energy from his body, as well as triggering a final thermonuclear pulse that obliterates Ghidorah's body.

After the storm ceased immediately when the pulse dissipates, Godzilla rises from the rubble with Ghidorah's middle head dangling from his mouth, still frantically struggling. Godzilla fires his atomic breath through Ghidorah's neck, incinerating it, seemingly leaving behind no remains and presumably killing him for good.

It is revealed that Ghidorah's left head that was severed by Godzilla during their battle in Mexico has been recovered by fishermen from the ocean, and is now discolored and swarming with flies, seemingly dead. Alan Jonah, seeing a potential use for it upon being shown it, purchases it from a trader.

Abilities

Bio-electrical nature

Ghidorah had electro-receptor molecular biology, and his skin was covered with traces of gold that acted as a conductor that carried bioelectrical currents throughout his body.

Durability

Ghidorah's golden scales made him highly impervious to any form of weaponry. He was also able to withstand a full-force charge from both Rodan and Godzilla. Even a radiation-overloaded Godzilla's atomic breath couldn't cause any noticeable damage to Ghidorah, merely forcing him backward.

Ghidorah's middle head survived the destruction of the rest of his body completely conscious (possibly due to Ghidorah's alien biology) and was only destroyed by Godzilla's atomic ray firing up through the head's severed neck to atomize it. Ghidorah's severed left head, by comparison, appeared to be dead and rotting by the time it was dredged up.

Energy drain

Ghidorah could drain energy and electricity directly into himself by biting down on power sources. He gained a catastrophically-immense burst of electrical power by biting down on a live power station in Boston; and he was also able to slowly drain and siphon Godzilla's excess radiation by biting down on the latter, an act which caused the orange-colored excess energy to visibly flow down Ghidorah's heads and necks from Godzilla.

Flight

Ghidorah's massive and powerful wings allowed him to fly with great speed over long distances, and he only needed to pump them downwards to get airborne off the ground. This allowed him to easily chase down Emma Russell and attempt to attack the Osprey Mark Russell boarded.

Gravity beams

Hurricane winds

Ghidorah could shoot yellow gravity beams (concentrated, lightning-like beams of electricity) from his mouths. Much like how Godzilla's dorsal plates glow whenever he is about to release his atomic breath, Ghidorah's necks, throats, and sometimes his eyes glowed before he fired his gravity beams. The beams were extremely powerful, as they could easily obliterate buildings, seemingly caused humans to instantly combust to ashes, singed Godzilla's scales, and incinerated a weakened Mothra within seconds during their battle in Boston. They were also able to generate a great amount of static electricity that shorted out the circuits of all nearby electronics, as happened in Antarctica.Immediately after absorbing electricity directly from a city transformer, Ghidorah blasted gravity beams from the bladed tips of his wings, disabling numerous aircraft in the surrounding skies.

Ghidorah had hyper-tensile muscle tendons in his wings that were capable of generating hurricane-force winds while in flight. This was most notably seen when rhythmic bursts of wind seeming to indicate his wing-beats caused a flag in Boston to fly and fall ahead of his (and his main storm's) arrival.

Intelligence

Cranial scans indicate each of Ghidorah's heads possessed different levels of cognitive function and independent thought. The middle head was the most intelligent; acting as the leader and being quicker-acting, more resourceful, as well as more goal-oriented than the other two. Meanwhile, the right head displayed a combative spatial awareness when the other two were incapacitated in combat, and the left head was an observant sentry.

Loud call

When Ghidorah became the alpha, he was able to let out an extremely loud and powerful call that could be heard by the other Titans all around the world. Upon hearing said call, the Titans would immediately come to Ghidorah's aid, assisting him in destroying the Earth, minus Kong, who chose to ignore the call, not wanting anything to do with it.

Meteorokinesis

Ghidorah could conduct electrical currents, making water vapor heat up to extreme levels and creating localized storm systems, as well as otherworldly tempests of thunder and yellow lightning. As a result, Ghidorah was effectively constantly wrapped in or accompanied by such alien storms, which seemed to worsen the longer Ghidorah was active after escaping the ice - starting as anomalous winds and near-constant flashes of thunder and lightning in Antarctica, afterward progressing to the equivalent of a tropical storm the size of Central America, and subsequently to a Category 6 hurricane when Ghidorah invaded Washington DC. Ghidorah's cyclone-like storms also produced tornadoes or water spouts in his immediate surroundings. Ghidorah's storms seemed to be somewhat radiation-influenced, as a radiation-supercharged Godzilla's presence in Boston caused the lightning to turn blue like the latter's bioluminescence.

When Ghidorah's body apart from its middle head was obliterated by Godzilla's thermonuclear pulses, his storms immediately dissipated - whether this was due to the destruction of Ghidorah's body or the thermonuclear pulses' effects is uncertain.

Oxygen independency

Due to being an extraterrestrial alien, Ghidorah did not require oxygen to survive, which made him completely immune to the Oxygen Destroyer. He appeared to produce some fogged exhalation in Antarctica however, though notably not as thick as Godzilla's breaths.

Rattling

The spikes on Ghidorah's tails could be used to create a rattling sound as a form of intimidation, similar to a rattlesnake.

Regeneration

Using the radiation from Rodan's volcano,[14] Ghidorah was able to regenerate the head that was decapitated by Godzilla almost instantaneously. The process was somewhat brutal, requiring that the severed head's tongue regrow first, followed by the skull (producing a bright-golden membrane, which the middle head seems to tear away from the regenerating left head prematurely), then muscle, skin, and scales. During the battle in Boston, after absorbing the Boston power grid's energy and blasting the military's airborne vehicles out of the sky, Ghidorah was able to regenerate holes in his wing membranes within seconds.

Speed and agility

Each of Ghidorah's heads was very nimble and quick; able to lash out and quickly strike their intended targets like snakes, and also using their flexible necks and numbers to dodge attacks such as Godzilla's atomic ray. When flying, Ghidorah's top speed could reach up to 550 knots[2] - however, unlike Rodan and Mothra, he appeared to be a somewhat heavy flyer without their aerial agility, making up for this with strength, speed, ferocity, as well as his electrical and meteorokinetic abilities.

Strength and combat

Ghidorah's intimidation style was very similar to a king cobra. Much like cobras that raise their heads and spread their necks, Ghidorah's heads arched their necks and spread his wings to make him appear twice as large as Godzilla. His fighting style was similar to that of a snake, with his heads quickly lashing out and biting onto opponents.

Ghidorah was a tactical combatant. Ghidorah's jaws and his gravity beams were his primary and preferred weapons, with all three heads tending to work together (and often firing their gravity beams in unison) to combat Ghidorah's foe. Though Ghidorah initially mainly fought Godzilla with bites, his heads' ability to combine teamwork and ingenuity was disturbingly shown when the side-heads held Rodan pinned by either wing with their jaws, whilst the middle head blasted him at close-range with its gravity beam. The fact Ghidorah's heads could act independently of each other was also an advantage, limiting his opponent's ability to keep track of all three heads' actions. During the Boston battle, Ghidorah not only relied on his jaws but also used his wings to dislodge Godzilla from the ground while biting him. Ghidorah also severely weakened Godzilla by using his wings, legs, and tails' strength to lift the 99,634-ton Titan seemingly above the Earth's troposphere and then drop him.

Ghidorah tends to use his wings as shields against such projectiles as manmade missiles by tucking them over his body and heads.

Weaknesses

Even though Ghidorah is extremely powerful, he has several notable weaknesses.

Freezing temperatures

Ghidorah was neutralized by freezing solid in ice after being rendered inert by Godzilla in Antarctica - this incapacitated him for centuries to millennia, and Ghidorah only recovered due to human interference deliberately freeing him from the ice.

Thermonuclear pulses

Despite Ghidorah's immense durability, he could not withstand the thermonuclear pulses that Godzilla released in his burning form, which incinerated Ghidorah's wings and two of his heads in a matter of seconds.

Water

Since Ghidorah's physical structure was that of an airborne creature, he was not entirely suited to move underwater. When Godzilla dragged him into the ocean near Isla de Mara, Ghidorah struggled to fight back and got his left head easily decapitated by the former.

Trivia

List of appearances

Films

Comics

Novels