| “ | Tonight is the full moon! We perform the ceremony tonight! The coffins are already laid out--the General is upstair. | „ |
| ~ Matthias Jäger to his aide Dunkelvolk. |
Doctor Matthias Jäger is the main antagonist of the 1994 comic book series Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix, the fifth Indiana Jones comic series published by Dark Horse Comics, based on an unproduced sequel to the 1992 point-and-click adventure video game Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis.
He is a ruthless Nazi scientist who, following Germany's defeat in World War II and Adolf Hitler's death in 1945, decides to find the Philosopher's Stone to restore the Nazi Germany's "glory". In 1947, through his men, Jäger is able to find all of the Stone's pieces, but his plans are discobered by the American archaeologist Indiana Jones, who teams up with Major Nadia Kirov to stop Jäger's machinations.
History[]
Past[]
During World War II, Doctor Matthias Jäger started working for the Nazi Party, becoming known for conducting reanimation experiments with dead tissue. Following Adolf Hitler's suicide and Germany's defeat, Jäger became wanted for war crimes, but successfully fled with some fellow Nazis, like General Heinrich of the Schutzstaffel (SS). Aspiring to restore the "glory" of Nazi Germany, Jäger employed several former SS officers or thugs, like Dunkelvolk, to assist him in finding the Philosopher's Stone, which had the capacity to bring back the dead.
Over the following years, Jäger became so infamous to the point of earning the nickname "The Monster of Minsk" due to how hideously disfigured and corpse-like he became, sending Dunkelvolk and other of his henchmen after the three pieces of the Philosopher's Stone as he waited for them at his hideout in Klobenz, Germany. At some point, Major Nadia Kirov of the Soviet Union became aware of his activities and pursued Jäger for his crimes, but the wicked doctor always yet barely managed to get away from Kirov's grasp.
Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix[]
In 1947, however, Matthias Jäger's plans become threatened when the American archaeologist Indiana Jones comes across Dunkelvolk in a Soviet prison. After learning from Jäger's interest in the Philosopher's Stone from Dunkelvolk, who had been catched by Soviet authorities just like him before escaping, Indy and his friend Marcus Brody decide to look after the three pieces at the respective churches of Kiev, Ireland and Tibet. During their search, Indy comes across Dunkelvolk once and Kirov and her men track Indy down and decide to take the Philosopher's Stone as a bait for Jäger. However, Dunkelvolk catches them and massacres all of Kirov's men save for herself, stealing the Philosopher's Stone for his master. With the Stone now in his possession, Jäger arranges a train of Brazilian weaponry to go to Klobenz, but Indy blows up all the ammunition. This leads Dunkelvolk to kidnap and take Kirov to Jäger.
Once with Kirov at his office, Matthias slaps Nadia and orders his guards to take her to his tower so she could become one of his acolytes, assuring Dunkelvolk that they would hold hold the ceremony that night, taking advantage of the full moon and how all of Klobez is distracted by the opening of the Medieval Museum of Bitsburg. Said and done, Jäger performs the ceremony by uniting the three pieces of the Philosopher's Stone, planning to bring back to life the corpses of nineteen Nazis he unearthed from a German cemetery just after Indy kills Dunkelvolk while Heinrich holds Nadia at gunpoint. Indy tries to warn Jäger about the Stone's dangers, but Jäger refuses to listen and Heinrich temporarily knocks him out.
Jäger continues with the ritual and the nineteen dead Nazis he brought to his tower come back to life as undead, swearing to take over and the rule the world along with Matthias and Heinrich. However, Indy recovers consciousness and touches the Philosopher's Stone, disrupting the ritual. Desperate, Jäger runs to retrieve the Stone, but because he wasn't pure of heart, Jäger can't handle the awesome power of the Philosopher's Stone and gets fried alive, claiming his own life and those of the Nazi zombies he had just created, who burn away as the tower's destruction is triggered.
Trivia[]
- In the original plans LucasArts had for their Indiana Jones and the Iron Phoenix video game before cancelling it due to issues with Germany, Matthias Jäger was a lot more callous and sadistic that he was in the comic book adaptation, in addition to having a personal connection to Major Nadia Kirov. In video game's plot, Jäger would have been responsible of murdering all of Nadia's family in a concentration camp years before the events of the game, fled to Bolivia after World War II's end and would have kidnapped both Indiana Jones and Nadia Kirov during the climax, brainwashing the latter before resurrecting Adolf Hitler, which would have resulted in his death by a single blow from his Führer once Hitler learned Jäger didn't have a strong military he could use to recover his power.
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 Villains
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Nazi Party Thuggee Soviet Union Others | ||