Who Is Marvel’s Taegukgi? Meet South Korea’s Prime Superhero

Marvel has superheroes from almost all walks of life, and the artists and writers always strived to represent every possible skin tone, race, identity, and story. Even more so in recent years. Asian superheroes are a vital part of Marvel comics, so it doesn’t surprise us that more are added to the roster. In 2021, Tae-Won was introduced as South Korea’s prime superhero, and today, we’re going to tell you all about him. 

Tae-Won was orphaned and, due to his tough life, turned to a life of crime 

Before Tae-Won was South Korea’s prime superhero, he was many things, and not a lot of them positive. Tae-Won was born in a small South Korean village around 1950 at the start of a terrible skirmish that would later turn into a full-on Korean War. Naturally, during the ordeal, his parents are killed, and he is left orphaned. Luckily, he was adopted by a young girl who had just recently lost her brother during the ordeal as well, and she took him in, even naming him as her younger brother, Tae-Won. 

The two formed a small but poor family, and Tae-Won often referred to the unnamed girl as his aunt. Being a child on the street, Tae-Won often went hungry, and one day, he came across a vendor selling kal-guksu. He wanted the food but knew he couldn’t afford it. 

In that moment of temptation, he unfortunately met Min-Jae, a young delinquent who managed to pull him on the bad side. Min-Jae managed to talk Tae-Won into stealing a bowl of kal-guksu, and the rest was history. 

Eventually, his adoptive aunt found out about his theft and ran him from the house. Min-Jae replaced Tae-Won’s aunt as his second adoptive family, and the two formed a small-time criminal duo known as Kal Duo. 

Sixteen years later, they were regularly robbing places, and by 1978, Kal Duo went on to become a powerful criminal syndicate. 

Tae-Won got his powers from Psylot Gem during a heist gone wrong

Eventually, Kal Duo learned that US DoD was working on a top-secret program in Hanam. Tae-Won was chosen to lead the raid on the facility in hopes of hosting the project to steal the pricey equipment. They discovered loads of machines in the facility, among them an Actuator glowing with faint green light. Tae-Won and his group were eventually discovered by security guards, and while they were attempting to steal the machines, chaos broke out. The machine restrained Tae-Won and held him in place while the rest of his group managed to escape. 

The machine exploded, destroying the facility and firing one powerful blast of green energy straight into Tae-Won. The rest of his group believed him dead, but this was far from the truth. The machine was empowered by the Psylot Gem, a source of exotic energy that was, at one point in time, even used by Loki. Psylot Gem belongs to a group of magical Asgardian Artifacts and was actually hidden in Korea by Loki, but he never came about to retrieve it, so it went to a museum and, eventually, to a secret facility.

Tae-Won survived the ordeal but not without consequences; he was unharmed physically but drastically changed. Not only was he a lot stronger than before, he soon found out he had superpowers. 

Tae-Won decided to abandon his criminal ways and join Tiger Divison 

The authorities soon found buff Tae-Won and returned him to the care of his aunt, who helped him explore his newfound powers and brought him back to the path of light again. She showed him how his former gang members (who abandoned him) were extorting and harassing money from poor people around his neighborhood. At that moment, Tae-Won realized that he was getting richer based on the suffering of others and decided to become a superhero and use his superpowers for good. 

Even after his aunt died, he still performed “miracles” as a superhero and even took on the name Taegukgi. He was recognized as the national hero of South Korea and eventually even rose to become the leader of Tiger Division, South Korea’s prime superhero team. But there is a catch: even though Tae-Won personally recruited every single member of Tiger Division and became quite a close friend to them, at first, he hid his past in shame. His aunt returned ocassionaly as a ghost and tried to talk him into coming clean with his team members. 

How powerful is Taegukgi? 

Due to the empowerment of Psylot Gem, Taegukgi has various superhuman physical abilities and other powers. Taegukgi is incredibly physically strong, capable of lifting 100 tons easily, with the upper limits of his strength being unknown. He can fly, and he has superhuman durability and a healing factor that allows him to recover from devastation attacks. 

Taegukgi can also fight a lot longer than a regular human being, having superhuman stamina. But the most deadly thing about him is the fact that he can fire incredibly destructive energy beams from his eyes. He is also immortal, and due to his past and the fact that he is sanctioned by the government to fight crime, he is the master of martial arts and hand-to-hand combat. 

All in all, Taegukgi is the most powerful member of Tiger Division.  Have something to add? Let us know in the comments below!