Cain Marko was once a man of violence. God gifted him with great physical power and he squandred it on murder. Dozens of murders. Hundreds. He knew so many ways to make people die and none to help people live. All that was before he found his faith in Avalon, the Antartic haven where humans and mutants peacefully co-exist. Now, after others take the same leap of faith and a long ferry ride to the ends of the Earth, Cain Marko is the escort that greets all those who gain passage to Avalon. From the drop off point, Cain guides the refugees to their haven on a trek that trudges on with hours that slowly bleed into days.

When the Pale Riders assaulted Avalon, Cain was hit with a hand-launched rocket attack from behind the tall grasses. While he survived the blast, he would die from an aneurysm as Nightcrawler attempted to persuade Marko to defend Avalon against their invaders. Though Nightcrawler made it abundatly clear to Cain that if he did not take up arms, all of his friends in Avalon might die, Marko was unable to fight because of his religious integrity. Pitting his almost psychopathic need for peace hard against a deep-seated lust for violence, Cain was unable to take the strain and popped a brain vein.