A magical creature from another dimension, Rintrah is a sorcerer who trains under two powerful mystics, Enitharmon the Weaver and Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Stephen Strange, AKA Doctor Strange.
An Extra-dimensional Origin
Though he resembles a creature out of human myths and legends, Rintrah is apparently considered to be very normal looking by the standards of his extra-dimensional home planet, R’Vaal. While his appearance does not make him stand out on his world as “unique,” Rintrah’s powerful latent mystical abilities does. This immense magical potential brings him to the attention of Enitharmon the Weaver, an ancient other-dimensional sorcerer who had learned the arts of mystic weaving from such entities as the Norns, the Ginnuga-Ghosts, and “those who dream the suns.” Enitharmon takes Rintrah in and begins training him as an apprentice.
The names Enitharmon and Rintrah both appear in the writings of 18th century visionary and poet, William Blake. Introduced in “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell,” Blake’s Rintrah is the personification of revolutionary spirit. The character returns again in “The Vision of the Daughters of Albion”. Enitharmon and Urthona are both characters in Blake’s “Vala, or the Four Zoas.” How Blake is connected to Rintrah and his master is unrevealed, but there is little chance that this is just a coincidence as Blake also makes reference to Rintrah’s eventual opponent, the demon sorcerer Urthona.
Enitharmon brings Rintrah back to his house on the Weaver’s home planet, where Rintrah learns some fundamental magic skills, as well as mastering the advanced arts of sewing and weaving.
Magically Inclined
Due to his alien physiology, Rintrah possesses superhuman strength (Class 10) and endurance, particularly in the muscles of his legs. His horns and hooves can be used as weapons, although the imposing man-beast tended, ironically, towards pacifism and he generally tries to resolve situations in less violent ways before resorting to his built-in weapons.
Rintrah is a moderately powerful magician though he has the potential to someday become as powerful as Doctor Strange or Enitharmon the Weaver. Rintrah can manipulate magical energies to create a variety of effects. Some of these effects include the formation of magical energy bolts, the erection of energy shields or screens, telepathic communication, astral projection, levitation, and teleportation. He can summon further energy from extra-dimensional entities.
Rintrah possesses a special aptitude for weaving realistic illusions. His personal disguises are so skillfully constructed that on more than one occasion he fools his own master, Doctor Strange.
Rintrah’s first mentor, Enitharmon, uses unfamiliar magic to Doctor Strange. Enitharmon can mystically see the “threads of destiny” or “life-threads” that float around all living things. He can instantly learn the entire history of anyone or anything just by touching one of these threads and through careful manipulation of these threads, Enitharmon can prevent an undesirable fate from coming to pass. Whether Enitharmon passes these special skills on to Rintrah is unknown. When Rintrah is taken by surprise, he exclaims, “By the warp and woof of the Woven World!” Rintrah may have picked up the phrase from Enitharmon, who also uses the expression.
Rintrah possesses the lesser Amulet of Agamotto, a weaker version of Doctor Strange’s talisman, the Eye of Agamotto. This item allows Rintrah to cast mystical light that is capable of dispelling illusions and darkness, even darkness of a mystical origin. In addition to the Amulet, he possesses the purple Cloak of Levitation. Also a lesser cousin to one of the artifacts used by Doctor Strange, this cloak gives the boyish man-bull the unlikely ability to fly.
Demonic Entities and Mystical Enemies
As an apprentice to Doctor Strange, Rintrah faces many demonic entities and extraterrestrial mystics as well. He assists Strange in battles against Dr. Michael Morbius, AKA Morbius, the Living Vampire, and Jason Macendale, AKA Hobgoblin. Though he provides minor assistance in those adventures, he proves himself to be a true asset when he impersonates Strange in order to protect Strange from Amora the Enchantress.
Magical Allies
As an apprentice to both Enitharmon the Weaver and Strange, Rintrah is a reliable and loyal ally to them both. Once he learns all he can from the Weaver, he commits himself to being Strange’s companion, protecting and saving his mentor.
A Magical Life of Adventure
During his apprenticeship to the Weaver, Rintrah first encountered Earth’s Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange. Strange asked Enitharmon to repair his Cloak of Levitation, which had been torn in a battle. After he repaired the Cloak, Enitharmon sent Rintrah to return the garment to Strange.
Rintrah found Strange just after the sorcerer’s physical body had been badly wounded in a battle with a warrior sent by Urthona, an extraterrestrial mystic from Strange’s own dimension. Mortally injured, Strange had been forced to release his astral form and take possession of the bodies of two of his friends, Morgana Blessing and Sara Wolfe. While in these two other forms, Strange was just able to defeat Urthona’s demon. During the battle, Urthona had transported Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum, and everything inside it, to his home planet, Gevaltu. At the time, the Sanctorum housed Strange’s closest colleague Wong, the empath Topaz and many of Strange’s most powerful magical items. There, Rintrah used his magic to help heal Strange’s body.
After he had recovered, Strange asked the gentle beast-man to go with him on a mission into outer space to rescue Strange’s friends and belongings. Though he barely knew this man or his friends, Rintrah agreed to go. The two borrowed a spaceship from the Fantastic Four’s Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, and traveled across the galaxy. They eventually reached Gevaltu and Rintrah bravely stood beside Strange, while the Sorcerer Supreme confronted the alien wizard. During the battle, it appeared as if Strange had sacrificed his magical books and mystical talismans to deprive Urthona of their use. In actuality, the books and talismans were saved by the magical entity Agamotto of the Vishanti. Agamotto later returned the unharmed items to Doctor Strange. Strange and Rintrah were able to defeat Urthona and free his captives, Wong and Topaz. They then returned to Earth. Rintrah decided to remain with Doctor Strange for a while and accompanied him on several adventures.
Rintrah was a staunch supporter of Strange’s during the troubling times that followed. As Earth was invaded by a number of evil entities from beyond, Doctor Strange was forced to turn to black magic to help defeat them. During this time, Strange allied himself with the black magician Kaluu. After defeating the various dark forces, Strange attained godhood and slowly became detached from humanity. Kaluu, Enitharmon, and Rintrah were able to restore Strange’s sense of his own humanity. Rintrah decided Strange needed time to heal and study on his own, so he returned with Enitharmon to the Weaver’s dimension.
After a brief absence, Rintrah returned to Earth. He told Strange that Enitharmon had taught him all he could or all he cared to, and he asked Strange to accept him as an apprentice. Strange agreed, and Rintrah relocated to Earth, living with Strange in his sanctum in Greenwich Village. While serving as Strange’s apprentice, Rintrah aided Strange while he negotiated with Mephisto and Satannish to save the life and soul of Karl Mordo, AKA Baron Mordo, and assists Strange against Morbius, the Living Vampire, Hobgoblin, and especially against Amora the Enchantress. Taking the full brunt of several life-stealing kisses that the Asgardian sorceress had intended for his master, Rintrah was rendered unconscious. As he was no longer able to maintain the necessary mental focus, Rintrah’s Doctor Strange disguise faded. The real Doctor Strange arrived and took advantage of the Enchantress’ confusion and horror at having kissed an “animal.” Strange launched a mystic attack that put her on the defensive long enough for Strange’s first apprentice, Clea, to cross over from the Dark Dimension and finish off the Asgardian sorceress. Strange then used his magic to heal his injured apprentice. Rintrah was again injured in battle with the similarly minotaurian demon, Dragonus, summoned by the Voodoo priestess Marie Laveau, but again recovered with Strange’s aid.
Rintrah suffered a more serious injury while he helped Strange search for a cure for the empathic Topaz who had been possessed by Mephisto’s daughter, Mephista. Mephista was posing as Ullikummis, an ancient Mesopotamian demon. The spell to banish the demon required a number of unique ingredients. One such ingredient was the flame from a demon’s head. The search for the demonic fire led Strange and Rintrah to Daniel Ketch, AKA Ghost Rider, with whom they joined forces and battled the demonic villain Norman Harrison, AKA Zodiak. During the battle, the heroes were not only able to banish Zodiak, but they were also able to steal some demonic flame from his allies, the Dykkors. Hoping to protect the beautiful Topaz from harm, Rintrah cast an illusion to make himself look like Topaz and vice versa. Zodiak mistakenly struck the disguised Rintrah with a mortal blow intended for Topaz. Doctor Strange and Topaz returned to Strange’s home with the wounded Rintrah, where Strange promptly used a spell to remove any taint of black magic from Rintrah’s grievous wound. Strange then used his earthly medical abilities to operate on his wounded apprentice. Luckily Rintrah recovered, but his brush with death left him in a highly weakened condition.
Doctor Strange rewarded his apprentice’s courage by bestowing upon Rintrah his own former talismans, the lesser Amulet of Agamotto and the purple Cloak of Levitation. Rintrah quickly mastered the use of these artifacts and continued his training, both directly under Strange and on the occasional solo mission, such as his encounter with the House of Shadows when it had taken condominium form.
Rintrah met with a sad fate when he attempted to safeguard the Earth by destroying a dangerous magical artifact. While cloaked in the guise of the movie star, Humphrey Bogart, Rintrah came across a cult who worshiped the Talisman of Tartessus. The talisman could summon a portal, which allowed a powerful evil serpentine entity called Tartessus access to Earth’s dimension. The creature possessed Rintrah and used him as bait to draw out Doctor Strange. Not wanting to harm his possessed apprentice Doctor Strange was put at a disadvantage, and Tartessus was able to capture the Sorcerer Supreme, taking Strange back to its home dimension to consume his energies. Recovering his senses, Rintrah followed Strange into Tartessus’ dimension and freed his master, but he knew that he needed to destroy the talisman in order to keep Tartessus from returning to Earth. Unfortunately he did so with his bare hands, forgetting that the item could be magically booby-trapped. A potent protective spell was unleashed when Rintrah made contact with the artifact, draining the life force from Rintrah. Strange placed his apprentice’s seemingly lifeless body in a suspended state and sent him to another dimension, hoping to eventually discover a way to revive him.
The fairies who live in sorcerer Ian McNee's ficus tree speculated that Rintrah, when last seen, was a "cowterpillar in cowcoon" and would soon return in a more advanced form.
