Marcus Michael Fenix

Marcus Michael Fenix is the main protagonist from the Gears of War games.

Marcus is a former Gear soldier in the Coalition of Ordered Governments army. A legendary war hero, Marcus served with distinction in the Pendulum Wars, which earned him the Embry Star, the COG's highest military award, for his actions during the Battle of Aspho Fields. He is also a convicted "coward" for his actions at the Battle of Ephyra. Like the rest of humankind, he saw everything change on Emergence Day. Marcus bravely fought against the Locust for ten years until the Battle of Ephyra, where he abandoned his post to rescue his father, Professor Adam Fenix, but could not reach him in time. With his father presumed dead, Marcus was tried for dereliction of duty and sentenced to 40 years in Jacinto Maximum Security Prison. He was incarcerated for four years before being released by his longtime friend, Dominic Santiago. Marcus was later promoted to replace Lt. Minh Young Kim after the squad leader's death. Along with the rest of Delta Squad, he successfully detonated the Lightmass Bomb and destroyed much of the Locust Hollow. With his reputation restored, Marcus continued fighting against the Locust, culminating in the Sinking of Jacinto. After the COG moved to Vectes, Marcus fought against Stranded insurgents and the rising threat of the Lambent. After the COG collapsed under the constant struggle to survive, Marcus and the rest of Delta banded together with other Gears and civilians aboard the CNV Sovereign, seeking a way to survive in the new world. Eighteen months later, Chairman Prescott returned with the startling news that his father was alive. Marcus led humanity to victory over the Locust and the Lambent, but was at a loss of what to do next after losing both his father and Dom along the way. He was in a relationship with Anya Stroud, and was the father of James Fenix.

Personality
A totally professional soldier, Marcus Fenix is generally gruff and aggressive. He is a natural leader; being promoted to Corporal not long after he joined the army, and was promoted to Sergeant after the death of Lt. Kim; despite Hoffman’s disappointment in him due the fact he deserted his post during the Battle of Ephyra . However, there have been several times when Marcus has put friends and family before the call of duty; he deserted his post to try and save his father, as well as going with Dom to look for Maria despite that not being their mission. He frequently displays great loyalty to his friends. While serving time in the slab, he would tattoo his prison tag on his right arm.

While Marcus was a dedicated soldier in the COG Army, he came to see the mistakes the COG had made politically during his years of service. Noticing the propaganda and cover ups the COG had been involved with, Marcus grew a sense of distrust towards the government's agendas to the point of seeing some of its ideals as lies, a trait which annoyed or angered COG soldiers who believed it stood for something like Lieutenant Kim while they were at the House of Sovereigns. However, he did not let his distrust of the government get in the way of his duties as a soldier and continued to take orders regardless of their sometimes suspicious nature which aimed to boost the political agenda of the COG. After the Locust War, Marcus continued to serve until his tour was over and choose to leave the COG behind with Anya, seeing it become something he wanted nothing to be apart of. When First Minister Jinn declared marital law on Sera, she allowed Marcus to live outside the COG, though this did not change his low opinion of the new COG, going so far as to urge his son James not to enlisting the Army.

Following Marcus taking her home after Operation Leveler, Marcus and Anya began a secret relationship that lasted twelve years until Marcus was sent to prison. Marcus never outright declared his love for Anya and never stayed the whole night, but part of the reason he wouldn't be open about their relationship is he worried about ruining Anya's career as an officer being in a relationship with an enlisted man could get her put up on charges and he wouldn't stay a whole night due to not wanting to worry Anya with his bad nightmares. She was unaware of this and thought it might be a sign he didn't love her, but when Dom revealed the truth, Anya wished he would've stayed anyway as she believed she could've handled his nightmares. Despite this, Marcus loved Anya and never even looked at another woman. Despite the relationship being a secret, Dom, Hoffman, Adam Fenix and Prescott at least all learned about it at some point, but did nothing to stop it, indicating that the relationship may have actually been an open secret, at least after Emergence Day. A few other people displayed knowledge after Marcus went to prison, furthering the idea that everyone knew, but did nothing to stop it. After he was sent to prison, Marcus asked Anya to forget about him and move on as he didn't want her to wait for him. Anya was shown to be frustrated by this as she wanted to be with Marcus despite regulations, but Dom affirmed the fact that Marcus loved her and despite having to potentially wait forty years, Anya refused to give up on him. Being separated from Anya and in prison affected Marcus to the point where he found it hard to read the few letters he got from her, though after he did he was shown to reread them which helped keep him sane. However, Marcus was adamant in Anya moving on without him and even refused an opportunity to call Anya directly by the senior warder as he didn't want to learn she'd moved on with her life and then have him remind her of their past. However, when the prison came under Locust siege and he learned that Anya had been the one to answer the call for help and asked to have Marcus told she loved him, he lamented not being able to tell her the same and was happy to learn that the senior warder had taken the liberty of doing so for him, one of the few occasions where he openly showed that he did love Anya. Upon briefly reuniting with Anya in Embry Square, Marcus is relieved to find out from her reaction to his presence that she did wait for him after all. After he flooded Jacinto, Marcus was desperate to reach Anya over the radio and was clearly devastated when she didn't respond, leading him to presume her dead. After Anya is revealed to be alive and well, Marcus is relieved and the two have a brief talk about his time in prison and Anya's letters to him with Anya telling him that her feelings for him hadn't changed. Anya later comforted him over the deaths of Dom and his father, even taking his hand saying they now had a future to look forward too. Despite Marcus rarley displaying emotion and never openly showing affection for her, he didn't reject her actions.

Marcus was a very cold person, and he rarely displays any emotions other than anger. Part of his cold demeanor stems from the loss of his best friend Carlos Santiago and a strained parental relationship during his childhood and adolescent years although, as Maria Santiago points out, his father at the very least cared deeply about him but apparently didn't know how to truly show it. Before he died, his father was shown to be very happy to see Marcus and Marcus was completely devastated by his death despite their strained relationship, especially since it was so soon after he lost Dom. It is shown that Adam did love his son deeply and threatened to kill himself if the Locust harmed Marcus rather than go with them. A condition of his surrender was that Marcus was to be safe which Queen Myrrah agreed with. Marcus never learned that his special treatment in prison was done by Prescott to keep Adam happy and cooperating. However, on occasions a glint of caring is seen under the hard exterior. He is able to show sorrow when losing a teammate. After Carlos died, Marcus is seen digging a hole in his grave, and then placing his Embry Star in the hole. This was one of the few occasions where Marcus was known to cry. After Gil was killed he headed for The Rusty Nail which is the only place to find him after a mission. He tells Ben Carmine that he will get out of the Hollows, and later appears distressed by his death, as he was about Tai Kaliso’s suicide. He also cares a great deal about Dom. He appears shocked and saddened by the discovery of Maria Santiago in the Hollow. He initially refuses to search for her because of the mission, but when reminded of how he was willing to throw everything away for his own father, he agrees to help. When Dom is unsure what to do, Marcus reassures him and then walks away to leave him alone with her and briefly seems distressed when he hears Dom put her out of her misery. Despite finding a way to sneak into Nexus and thus accomplish the mission easier and with less risk, Marcus offers Dom the choice to go in "guns blazing," understanding his need for revenge. When Dom sacrifices himself to save him and the rest of Delta Squad, Marcus is shown to be completely devastated and irrationally tries to race into a fire to save Dom despite the fact that he is clearly dead, only stopping when Anya manages to talk some sense into him. Marcus is so devastated by this that the rest of his squad is shown to be extremely worried about his mental state soon afterwards. After the apparent death of his father, Marcus would have consecutive nightmares of his father's death. Marcus also doesn't react well to people making fun of or hurting those he cares about: he beats up two men in The Rusty Nail for getting too rough with Anya, he nearly beats Campbell to death for calling Anya a bitch and he kills Queen Myrrah after she mocks his father and all of his work, telling her that he was doing it for Dom and everyone else she killed. The deaths of Dom and his father seem to break Marcus as he tells Anya that he doesn't know what to do anymore after so much loss and wonders what they even have to look forward to now, but Anya reminds him they now have a future to look forward to and that his father had wanted him to live and embrace that future. In a rare display of affection, possibly showing him moving on towards that future and still needing comfort, Marcus doesn't reject Anya holding his hand, even in front of all the other survivors of the battle.

At some point following the end of the war, Marcus and Anya marry and have a son, moving to Anya's family estate. While the details of this period are not known, Marcus is seemingly treated with an immense amount of hero worship by the survivors of the vicious conflict, and he seems to become a public figure whose opinions are taken seriously within the government of the newly reformed COG. However, Marcus seemingly appears to withdraw from public life to care for his family. At some point within this period of time, Anya passes away, and his son JD goes against his wishes and joins the COG, leading to a rift between the two men. Marcus becomes 'famously disgruntled' and allows the once immaculate family estate to turn to ruin, refusing even to appear for the twenty-fifth anniversary memorial of the end of the Locust War. Shortly after his son returns, and while their short lived reunion is tense and angry, Marcus eventually relents and decides to help his son. Over the course of the following events Marcus and his son seem to take large steps towards repairing their relationship.

Abilities
Marcus Fenix is in peak human shape, and is an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, and is a formidable marksman. He is known for taking out many Locusts by himself, and is not easy to take down.

Trivia

 * Marcus is voiced by John DiMaggio.
 * Marcus was named Fenix because Cliff Bleszinski lost everything from his first failed marriage and was rising from his own ashes.
 * It took over a year for Marcus to be taken from the concept art and placed into the game.
 * Before the game's release, Marcus' face looked a lot thinner and closer to normal proportions and scarless.
 * The game's designers said that they gave Marcus his scars as a way to give him a "used" look, a way of showing that he's seen combat and war before.
 * Marcus, along with Dom, appear in the multiplayer of the Capcom game Lost Planet 2.
 * Marcus was included in the Gears of War 3 HeroClix Toys.
 * Marcus's prisoner number was mentioned in Gears of War: Destroyed Beauty as being 098356-GX however this was retconned in the novel The Slab where it was mentioned as being B1116/87.


 * Marcus is a playable character in Gears of War multiplayer matches for the COG team in all three Gears of War games.
 * In Gears of War 3, three Marcus multiplayer skins are available: his Gears of War 3 model, Classic Marcus from Gears of War 1 and 2, and Unarmored Marcus.
 * In Gears of War: Judgment multiplayer, Young Marcus can be unlocked through a pre-order code from Gamestop/Game, among other retailers.
 * In Gears of War 4, seven Marcus multiplayer skins are available: Armored Marcus, Biker Marcus, Classic Marcus, Day of the Dead Marcus, Old Man Marcus, V-Day Marcus and Vintage Marcus. His Biker and V-Day skins are only available in the Marcus Fenix Gear Pack, his Classic skin is only available in the Classic Delta Squad and Classic Marcus Gear Packs, his Day of the Dead skin is only available in the Day of the Dead Gear Pack, his Old Man skin can only be unlocked via the Brothers to the End Elite Gear Pack players receive for pre-ordering the game, and his Vintage skin is only available by crafting scrap.