Back Issues: Behold Rintrah, Marvel’s Magical Minotaur

The people of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have gone through a lot in the past few years. First, the Avengers essentially formed on Earth in the span of a week, eventually leading to a conflict in which half of all life on the planet was decimated. What started as very real and human threats has since expanded to the cosmos and soon enough, will hop across universes. In fact, the franchise is even about to get its very own magical minotaur, the sorcerer known as Rintrah.

Despite taking the shape of a minotaur, Rintrah technically isn’t a version of the mythological beast. Instead, he hails from an extradimensional plane called R’Vaal. There, R’Vaalians take the shape of green minotaurs, even though they have a background more akin to science-fiction than fantasy. Outside of being a practitioner of the mystical arts, Rintrah doesn’t necessarily have an extra superpowers. He is a member of an alien race, of course, which gives him above-average endurance and strength. He’s also one of the smartest to ever study at Kamar-Taj.

In the grand scheme of things, Rintrah hasn’t be around all too long — but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t be absolutely integral to the Sorcerer Supreme and other mystical users. The character first appeared in Doctor Strange #80 (September 1986) having been created by Peter Gollis and Chris Warner. In his first arc, Rintrah and his mentor Enitharmon — a being resembling an anthropomorphic dinosaur — repaired a damaged Cloak of Levitation for Doctor Strange. Upon returning the magical MacGuffin to the Sorcerer Supreme, the duo resided at Greenwich Village’s Sanctum Sanctorum for a time, helping Strange fight various magical beings. Before too long, Rintrah pleaded Strange to take him on as an apprentice, and eventually, the former became a full-on sidekick to Marvel’s most famous wizard.

In total, Rintrah has appeared in roughly 65 comics throughout his existence in the Marvel source material, all of which, were released between 1986 and 1993. Although Rintrah hasn’t been featured in any major storylines since the 90s, an Easter egg for him was most recently spotted in Skottie Young and Humberto Ramos’ Strange Academy.

When it comes to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Rintrah has been heavily featured in the film’s marketing efforts so far. He’s the Build-A-Figure included in the film’s Marvel Legends wave from Hasbro. Funko even included a toy for him in the Multiverse of Madness POP! line. He’s played in the movie by Adam Hugill — and as of right now, there’s no telling when he’ll appear next.

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