Sauron!

I'm really enjoying the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies right now. But it occurred to me while viewing them that my first awareness of them was by courtesy of Roy Thomas when he borrowed the name "Sauron", the arch-nemesis of Tolkien's epic fantasy for one of his own X-Men villains.


"Sauron" was a man named Karly Lykos. The last name was supposed to suggest he'd become a werewolf, but the Comics Code forbid it. So he became a psychic-vampire-pterodactyl-human monster instead. That's much better. Here's a link with definitive information on Lykos/Sauron.


It goes to show how the cultural understanding of Tolkein's works has transformed since that time, as I doubt it would occur to a writer today to lift such a name. Thomas might've thought he was paying respect to the original, but I get the feeling it was like many of his literary nods, a bit of an inside joke meant to amuse those familiar with Tolkien's work. The epic is referenced in Sauron's origin story, so the he's up front about the lift, but I bet the name rankles him today, since the original Sauron has become so ubiquitous.


But say "Sauron" to me and I of course think of the unblinking eye, but I also glimpse out the side of my memory a human-pterodactyl hybrid, a flying horror.


Neal Adams first designed Sauron. Here's an original page by Adams from that debut story.


John Byrne added his variation later in the X-Men run. Here's one of the iconic Sauron images.



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