Lunatik first appeared in Defenders #51, though a later retcon identifies him as an incarnation of Arisen Turk, a character who appeared in Creatures on the Loose #35-37, which was written by David Anthony Kraft and pencilled by George Pérez. According to Kraft, he had been trying to link Lunatik to the Creatures on the Loosestory arc during his time as writer on Defenders, and his successor Ed Hannigan picked up on this, but made a different connection between the two than Kraft had had in mind. Keith Giffen stated, "Lunatik was a character I came up with in high school. When it went radically wrong, I went to DC took the basic concept of Lunatik and... split into two characters: Lobo had his mercilessness, and Ambush Bug had his goofiness." The character was created and designed in a hurry, when Giffen suddenly left Marvel to work for DC Comics. The character subsequently appears in Defenders #51-53, #55-56, #61-62, #64-65, Marvel Premiere #45-46, and Defenders #70-73. A different character named Lunatik appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #172-175 and Lunatik #1.
Arisen Tyrk was the tyrannical god-king of the dimension called Other Realm. He seeks the power of the Godstone, which is bonded to John Jameson as the Man-Wolf. Tyrk hires Kraven the Hunter to attack Man-Wolf, but Man-Wolf fights Kraven off. Rebels from Other Realm bring the Man-Wolf to their land and he deposes Tyrk. Tyrk tries to escape through an extra-dimensional portal, but the portal is damaged and fragments Tyrk into a number of forms in a number of realms. Four of Tyrk's fragments go to Earth, becoming the crazed Lunatik. These four duplicates of Tyrk plague the Defenders until they re-merge Lunatik into a more-or-less-whole Tyrk. He fights the Defenders in this form, but they eventually defeat him. For a time he poses as drama professor Harrison Turk at Empire State University.
Other characters named Lunatik
There is also a cosmic mercenary by the name of Lunatik. He kills one of Tyrk's fragments, claiming that he doesn't like anyone else "using his name." He first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #172. This Lunatik is seen on a prison ship, the Dredge 01, on its way to the Kyln. It crashes on Earth with Drax the Destroyer, Paibok, and the Blood Brothers as the only survivors. He seemingly meets his end at the Destroyer's hand. This Lunatik or a possible fragment appeared as Dirty Wolff in Deadpool.
In other media
The Guardians of the Galaxy episode "Take the Milano and Run" features a different Lunatik voiced by John DiMaggio. He owns a nightclub on the Grandmaster's space station Conjunction, and is an old contact of Star-Lord's.
