When it comes to the X-Men villain Juggernaut, “share” doesn’t seem like a word that would be in his vocabulary. Cain Marko spent most of his early life bullying his stepbrother Charles Xavier and deserting his army unit during the Korean War. Then, when he stumbled onto the ultimate power by touching the Ruby of Cyttorak and becoming the human Juggernaut, he used it for the pettiest of reasons – robbery and revenge.
That being said, Juggernaut does have a few redeemable qualities. He’s reformed multiple times and showed the X-Men he could be a team player. He formed genuine friendships with fellow criminals and kids. And he’s even shared his unstoppable power with others, giving them a taste of what it’s like to be as strong as he is.
Unfortunately, when Cain began showing his generous side, he learned there was a heavy cost to sharing his “Juggernaut mojo.” Way back in Marvel Team-Up #150, Cain decided to give his friend and partner-in-crime – the unfortunately named “Black Tom Cassidy” – a special birthday gift. After accidentally screwing up Tom’s plan to kidnap the psychic Madame Webb, Juggernaut ended up buried alive in dozens of feet of cement by Spider-Man that took him months to dig his way out of. Feeling bad for spoiling Tom’s plans to gain more power through Madame Webb’s psychic powers, Juggernaut hit on a novel idea.
After chartering a plane to take him to the same jungle where he first found the Ruby of Cyttorak, Juggernaut re-obtained the magic ruby and took it back to the U.S. where he had Tom touch the ruby. As Juggernaut suspected, the ruby bestowed its magic on Tom, who grew into a similarly massive Juggernaut. Unfortunately, the transformation angered Tom who was upset that his clothes didn’t fit him anymore and that his girlfriends were all afraid of him now.
Annoyed that his friend didn’t like his “gift,” Juggernaut fought the now-super strong Tom, but quickly discovered a downside to giving him the ruby. Because Tom and Cain had both touched the ruby, the power of the Juggernaut was now halved. Cain was smaller than he was originally, and he could actually feel the pain of gas explosions and blows that he would normally just shrug off. To make matters worse, Spider-Man and the X-Men tracked down the Juggernaut and Tom and engaged the two in battle.
This, however, proved to be a blessing in disguise as Tom and Cain redirected their anger toward the heroes – with Tom quickly learning to enjoy ripping buildings off of their foundations and bringing them down on his enemies. Things quickly shifted, however, when Rogue touched Tom and used her power-stealing ability to absorb his Juggernaut power into herself. This caused Tom to shrink down to his usual size while giving Rogue the power to trade blows with the original Juggernaut. Unfortunately, the power left Rogue within a few minutes, leaving her at Cain’s mercy.
With no other options, Rogue touched the Juggernaut and took all of his power – reducing Cain to a normal human. However, the flood of Cain’s memories proved too much for Rogue and she began attacking the X-Men. Fortunately, the power – and Cain’s psyche – soon left Rogue, but when Cain saw that neither Tom nor he got their powers back, he realized the power had returned to the Ruby of Cyttorak. Grabbing the ruby, Cain took back his full power and then flung the ruby into orbit so no one could use it again.
In the resulting confusion, Juggernaut and Tom made their escape – with Tom actually thanking Juggernaut for his “birthday gift.” Tom confessed he was always jealous of Juggernaut’s power, and being able to use it to beat up the X-Men made it the best birthday he ever had. Chuckling over the fight, the two friends returned to Tom’s yacht and continued their criminal ways.
Although Juggernaut and Tom remained friends for years, by the alternate future presented in the MC2 universe, the two had a falling out when Juggernaut fell in love with and married a district attorney named Sachi Yama. Cain fathered a son with Sachi, whom he treated with surprising affection. He even joined the X-Men but sacrificed himself to save the team on one mission, resulting in him being imprisoned in another dimension and tortured endlessly.
After being tortured for years, Cain unknowingly willed a large portion of his strength to his son, Zane Yama. Although Zane was normally a stereotypical 98-pound weakling, he found he could transform into a 1000-pound “Juggernaut Jr.” and perform many of the feats his father could. However, since Cain had only given his son part of his power, the transformation wasn’t permanent and Zane found himself shifting back to his regular form after spending too much time as “J2.”
Zane also found that he didn’t have his father’s impenetrable force field which protected him from all harm, making his Juggernaut form more vulnerable and “stoppable” than his father. Nevertheless, he was still a powerhouse and joined the next generation of Avengers. Eventually, his new superhero contacts helped him break into the dimension his dad was held prisoner in and broke Cain out.
Although Cain was relieved to be freed from his years-long prison, when he learned his son had been given some of his power, he challenged Zane to a mock “battle” for the right to be the Juggernaut. J2 wound up punching out his old man who was thrilled that his son was as tough as he was. Satisfied the Juggernaut legacy was in good hands, Cain told Zane that he could keep the power and formally retired from being the Juggernaut.
Despite his reputation as a cruel and merciless monster, the Juggernaut has many fans in comic book readers who fantasize about what it must be like to be truly unstoppable. Having Cain engage in moments of generosity and share his power with friends and family helps feed this power fantasy, as more than a few fans have probably wondered what it would be like to get on Juggernaut’s good side and enjoy a day as an all-powerful behemoth. Sharing his power might make the Juggernaut somewhat less unstoppable, but for many fanboys and fangirls, even half of the Juggernaut’s strength is enough.