Immortal Man, also known as Klarn Arg, is a superhero in the DC Comics Universe. He first appeared in Strange Adventures #177 (June 1965). Multiple versions of his origin connect him to the villain Vandal Savage, with both gaining immortality by encountering a strange meteorite during prehistoric times. Immortal Man was also a founding member of The Forgotten Heroes. In the 2018 comic book series The Immortal Men, Klarn's title "Immortal Man" is passed on to teenager Caden Park. Traditionally, the Immortal Man has a unique form of reincarnation. Each time he dies, he soon materializes somewhere else on Earth in a new, fully-clothed body. A jeweled amulet that grants him power and allows him to remember his previous lives follows him, transporting away from the recently deceased body and materializing alongside each new body.
Publication history Immortal Man first appeared in Strange Adventures (Volume 1), one of the flagship science fiction anthology series of National Comics (now DC Comics) during the Silver Age of Comics. Published in issue #177 in June 1965, the 8-page story "I lived a Hundred Lives" was drawn by Jack Sparling. It is not clear who created him or if Sparling wrote the story as well. The story introduces the hero as a member of an ancient race of prehistoric superhumans who is given a magical amulet by the tribal chief so he may continue fighting evil for eternity. The amulet allows him to reincarnate repeatedly, grants superhuman abilities, and preserves his memory of all past lives. The story ends with the character seemingly dying while helping others. A year later, Immortal Man was brought back to life in Strange Adventures #185 (1966) in a 16-page tale. While the original story had implied his reincarnation ability meant he would start each life as a newborn, the new story revealed that each death Immortal Man experiences is followed by him soon materializing elsewhere on Earth in a grown or near fully-grown body, complete with clothes and his magical amulet in his possession. The character then appeared again months later in Strange Adventures #190 (1966) and then in #198 (1967), which marked his final appearance not only in the series and but in DC Comics publications in general until 1984. Jack Sparling drew all four of the stories featured in Strange Adventures, while Dave Wood wrote at least two of them (#185 and #190). Immortal Man featured on the covers of all four issues of Strange Adventures in which he appeared. In these four stories, the amulet also grants him the powers of telekinesis (allowing for flight and enhanced strength), pyrokinesis, and hypnosis. 17 years after his final story in Strange Adventures, the Immortal Man appeared again in Action Comics #552 – #553 (February – March 1984), fighting alongside the new Forgotten Heroes team in a story by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane. This story gave the Immortal Man a new origin, one that said he had been a normal primitive human named Klarn in his original life rather than a member of a superhuman race. The new origin also connected him to the immortal villain Vandal Savage, saying they had both gained their powers of long life by encountering the same meteor (a piece of which became the Immortal Man's amulet). The story removed Immortal Man's superhuman abilities beyond reincarnation, but maintained that the amulet was connected to his reincarnation ability and preserved the memories of his old lives. A follow-up story appeared in DC Comics Presents #77 – 78 (January – February 1985) by Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan and Dave Hunt, the epilogue of which directly linked into DC Comics major crossover event Crisis on Infinite Earths, also written by Wolfman. In this crossover event, the Immortal Man sacrifices his immortal energies to help save Earth from destruction, seemingly bringing his life to an end at last. Following his apparent death, Animal Man #23 (May 1990) featured the title hero traveling back in time and encountering a younger Immortal Man during the 1960s, before his death during the Crisis. In The Flash (vol. 2) #48 – 50 (March – May 1991), written by William Messner-Loebs with art by Greg Laroque and Jose Marzan Jr., a young girl named Steffi Jones was introduced as "the Immortal One", a character claiming to be a new person who had inherited the Immortal Man's memories and power of flight. Jones seemingly dies in an explosion at the end of the story, leaving her true nature unclear. The Immortal Man returned alive and well eight years later in Resurrection Man #25 – 27 (June – August 1999) by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. The storyline connected him to the hero Mitch Shelley and indicated he had never lived as the character named Steffi Jones. Immortal Man then dies at the end of the same storyline, and the circumstances imply he may not be able to reincarnate again. Following the DC Rebirth relaunch event in 2016, the Immortal Man is reintroduced in the comic book Dark Days: The Forge. The comic gave the character a new supporting cast of agents and followers, the House of Action. Immortal Man and his new supporting cast then appeared in the 2018 series The Immortal Men, which lasted six issues. The series presented a new canon wherein Immortal Man is one of five beings who make up the Council of Immortals, all of whom gain immortality after discovering a meteorite. In this continuity, Klarn has no reincarnation ability and is simply ageless and invincible to injury like Vandal Savage. He can also share some of his immortality, making his agents in the House of Action into "Immortal Men" who are ageless and immune to all disease, though still vulnerable to injury. The House of Action wages a secret "Eternal War" not just against evil but specifically against Klarn's sister Kyra, the "Infinite Woman", and her agents known as the House of Conquest. The first issue of The Immortal Men introduces Caden Park, a seventeen-year-old boy with limited telepathy whom the Immortal Man hopes to use as a host body to escape death in battle. Instead, Caden inherits Klarn's resources and alias.
Fictional character biography
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