The Marine (Corporal) is an unnamed playable character in Doom II (he appears to be the inspiration for Flynn Taggart and he may have also been the inspiration for Stan Blazkowicz of Doom II RPG). The cover and title screen portray him without a helmet (and was the inspiraiton for the appearance of Marine in the Doom comic).
Background
Back in the 21st century, he was trained by Drill Sergeant, Sergeant Workman and his C.O Sergeant Swann.[1]
He was the only survivor of the invasion of Mars Base which took place concurrently or shortly after the invasions of Phobos and Deimos.
He was back on Earth at last, after days of hard fighting in space. He had returned home on well-earned leave. He was one of Earth's crack soldiers, hard-bitten, tough, and heavily-armed. When the alien invasion struck Mars, he was the first on the scene. By killing, killing, and killing, he won. He stopped the invasion, saved Mars base, and became a war hero.
What they don't talk about so much is that he was the only survivor. But that's all behind him now. He quit the military, and was heading home. His drop pod landed with a crunch. He opened, and looked out. He found that the city ahead of him was on fire. What the devil is going on? He staggered forward, clutching at his sidearm. Packs of refugees were fleeing the flaming metropolis. A band of them shriek in terror. He squinted. What's that? Someone was attacking the refugees. He rushed up and blasted away, killing the troublemaker. It looked like a human, but something's was wrong. His mouth was filled with half-chewed flesh, and he was all messed up, like a zombie from a bad horror movie. Hell, not again! The Marine could feel it. It had all starting again, just like on Mars. First, people were taken over, turned into cannibal Things. Then the real horror starts, the deformed monstrosities from Outside. But now it was on Earth.
He was quickly recommisioned back into the military, by his earth commanding officer Sargeant Swann, who issued him missions objectives to save as many people of Earth as possible, and to stop the invasion.
After helping the surviving humans escape the ruined planet, he found himself trapped in the room with the switch that turned off the barrier, and uanble to leave with the rest of humanity. He became the last human left on Earth. Everyone else was a zombie, dead, or in orbit. The High Command radioed down to him and told him their sensors had determined that all the dmeons' power comes from a single spot. He is ordered to find that spot and close it down so they would lose their strength.[2]
Titles and nicknames
- Maggot
- Devil Dog
- Fire Team Leader
Behind the scenes
Depending on the materials, the Marine of Doom II is a seperate character than the original Marine in Doom/Thy Flesh Consumed. Although some official sources, and later manuals often conflate the two characters (or even later characters in Doom 3/Resurrection of Evil) all into one character.
This article goes with the original background story covered in the Doom II manual, and expanded on in the Doom II: The Official Strategy Guide.
The Doom Marine in the Doom Comic appears to share the same armor design as that on the cover to Doom II (red circles on the shoulder pauldrons), although Comic Book DoomGuy has different colored hair, and a different hair style. Still Doom Comic Guy appears to be based off of Doom II's story being set on Earth, and containing some of weapons from Doom II.
Note: even some parts of Doom II Strategy guide ignore the manual story, and suggest its the same character from the orignal game, and 'following-up' from where Doom left off;
- At the end of Doom, Our Hero, having returned to Earth, is left staring at a flaming city, evidence that the demon agressors have arrived ahead of him.
The rest of the backstory more or less follows that of the manual, but an overview of the game's entire story. It's worth noting that it appears that the spacesport, and the marine base that "Our Hero" is trained in before he is deployed to the space port appears to be set in Hawaii. As Drill Sergeant ends his briefing with 'aloha', and Workman mentions taking an R&R at the beach. In Doom II Hell on Earth novel, Hawaii was the site of the military base, and last location of resistance in the story. Hawaii is also where Doom guy sent his commander back to in a full-body cast in the manual's story (though when Flynn Taggert did it, his Lieutenant was sent to Mars with him).
Also worth nothing that he is a 'Corporal' (like Flynn Taggart) and his commanders are Sergeants.
It is possible that the after Inferno the marine was sent back to Mars where anouther invasion took place (possibly the events of Doom 3) and then returns to Earth to find it too being invaded. This would likley be where Thy Flesh Consumed starts and then Doom 2 took place.
Similarly the trip to Earth via a drop ship is similar to the plot of Hell on Earth novel where Flynn Taggart and Arlene Sanders flies back to earth from Deimos using a modified mail rocket/shuttle. Amusing there is a reference to 'repelling back to the surface of earth' which is likely a nod to the repelling to surface of Hell in Doom 1 (as one of Flynn's sarcastic ideas).
The Box Art rendition of the Doom Marine for Doom II and PSX Doom has a hair cut slightly resembling the hair cut that Doom 1 Marine has at the end of Doom 1.