JUGGERNAUT

Most people buy their best friend a drink. Cain Marko walked through an army and stole back a god’s gemstone. Feeling guilty that his partner Black Tom Cassidy had been left exposed — and wanting to fix Tom’s defenses — Cain fought his way through the Korean army to recover the Crimson Gem of Cyttorak, the very artifact that had made him the Juggernaut. Then, in Marvel Team-Up #150 (1985), he presented it to Tom as a birthday present.

The gem split the difference. Touching it transformed Black Tom into a second, hulking Juggernaut — but the power divided between them, leaving each man with only half of the original’s strength. Tom, who had not asked to be remade into a crimson giant, was furious at the gift and turned on Cain, and the two half-Juggernauts’ brawl was interrupted by Spider-Man and the X-Men. Rogue leeched the Juggernaut power out of Cassidy, and when Cain touched the ruby a second time, his full strength flowed back to him alone.

The experiment left a strange footnote in another timeline: Rachel Summers later reflected that in her reality, Tom’s transformation had been permanent — and the Juggernaut-powered Black Tom had fought Sentinels alongside the resistance. In the main timeline, the shared power lasted a single issue, and the friendship, remarkably, survived it: Cain and Tom went back to being partners in crime, half-power mishap and all.