Origin
The man who would become Garokk was an English sailor who when on an expedition to find new land, discovered the Savage Land. It was there he drank from the cup of Garokk and was attacked by the natives. Upon returning to England he noticed he wasn’t aging. Back in the Savage Land, Zaladane took over the cult worshiping Garokk, the Sun People. Meanwhile the sailor’s skin slowly took on a petrified look. While Zaladane killed several worshipers in order to bring Garokk back he started to feel their pain and came back to the Savage Land. Once there he touched the idol of Garokk and obtained the ability to project flames, astral projection and somewhat energy absorption. He projected his image to Zaladane who stopped killing due to it. When Garokk was made unable to die, he attacked the Savage Land dwellers and was then attacked in return by Ka-Zar, who pushed him into a molten lava pit where he became no more.
Major Story Arcs
Versus the X-Men
Some time later Zaladane sought to revive Garokk and captureed an adventurer known as Kirk Marston, using the combination of her magic and the now solidified remains of Garokk into a potion to resurrect him, in Marston’s body. Marston’s body quickly transformed into a duplicate of Garokk’s own. Garokks new plan was to unite all Savage Land tribes by forcing them to create a colossal city for him and Zaladane. He was confronted by the might of the X-Men and Ka-Zar; depleted of energies Garokk ran down to the city’s thermal shaft but a blast from Cyclops‘ optic blast knocked him out and he fell into the pit.
The X-Men believed he was dead and left, only for their enemy Magneto to later find him and made him the guardian of his Antarctic base. But Garokk was changed; he was larger and half his body had turned into crystal while the other half became like molten rock, and his intelligence was dulled. He came in conflict with the X-Men again and this time it was Storm who blasted him into another pit. This time the extreme heat melted him completely but also helped him, as he regenerated his body and his intelligence reverted back to normal.
In his molten form Garokk was witness to the Savage Land being destroyed by the alien Terminus, who was then defeated by the Avengers. Terminus’ armor was ruptured and left to die; but this Terminus was an imposter, a Deviant weapon master named Jorro. Garokk took his opportunity and bonded himself with the armor. He started to destroy the reminder of the Savage Land. The X-Men were called in and M’rin came to Storm’s aid and helped to defeat the Garokk-Terminus, with the help of M’rin they destroy the armor revealing Garokk. It was at this moment that Rogue entered the armor and met with Garokk who was shocked to see her and started to absorb his vast energies.
The X-Men then took him down. But the shock had completely erased his memory and the High Evolutionary, give him the option to revive the Savage Land by placing him inside a machine that drained his energies. This process infused Garokk’s essence into the land, causing him to cease to exist as an individual entity. However as time when by Garokk grew distant and sought to return to his original self, he caused massive earthquakes, flooding and animals to go berserk. Eventually a fraction of the Sun People, known as the Death Cult, wished to free him in order to gain his praise and stop the destruction. Ka-Zar saw that the cult collected several innocents that they planned to kill in order to make them into his new vessel. Ka-Zar fought the Death Cult and destroyed their base and Garokk remained in a temple were others sought his aid.
Alternate Versions
2099 : World Of Tomorrow
A more human-like Garokk makes an appearance as a villain here.
T.V.
X-Men The Animated Series
Garokk appeared in the two-part episodes Savage Land & Savage Heart. He was once a threat to the Savage Land until he was defeated by the High Evolutionary and imprisoned in the Earth. He worked with Zaladane, whom used Sauron to remove Storm’s self control in order to feed on her elemental energies in order to be free.
Video Games
X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse
The X-Men find him looking for Destiny in the Savage Land. With the help of Mystique, the X-Men defeated him. He is later seen in a stasis cell in Avalon where he states that Mikhail Rasputin hired him to hunt Destiny in exchange for becoming ruler of the Savage Land.