Marco

Template:Infobox Animorph

"People don't understand the word ruthless. They think it means 'mean.' It's not about being mean. It's about seeing the bright, clear line that leads from A to B. The line that goes from motive to means. Beginning to end. It's about seeing that bright, clear line and not caring about anything but the beautiful fact that you can see the solution. Not caring about anything else but the perfection of it."

―Marco

Marco is a founding member of the Animorphs and served as their personal comedian and militaristic tactician. Following the end of the Andalite-Yeerk War, he became a massively successful celebrity, working as an actor, author, technician and brand spokesperson.

Biography

Early Life

Two years prior to the events of the series, Marco and his father believed that Marco’s mom mysteriously disappeared in a boating accident, not knowing what truly happened to her. His dad soon fell apart and stopped going to work and both his father and Marco had to move from their house to an apartment complex.

Reluctant Animorph

"We're supposed to be rescuing the entire human race from being enslaved by the Yeerks."
"I thought you didn't want to save the world, Marco."
"You're right. But since all of you guys think you have to save the world, and since you're all my friends, more or less, I figure someone has to keep you from being total idiots."

―Marco and Tobias

One night, Marco, along with his best friend Jake, Jake’s cousin Rachel, her best friend Cassie, and a kid Jake saved earlier that week named Tobias decided to take a shortcut home from the mall through a construction site.

There, the five of them find a dying alien named Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul and learn all about the Andalite-Yeerk War, including that the Yeerks have already infested a large percentage of humans. To combat the Yeerks, Elfangor gives Marco and the rest of the teenagers the morphing ability.

Joining the Effort

"Someday, somehow, in some way that I could not foresee, we would win this battle. Humans and Andalites together would defeat the Yeerks. And we would free all of their slaves. All of them."

―Marco

Unlike the rest of the Animorphs, Marco was initially reluctant to join the fight against the Yeerks, not wanting to die and leaving his father truly alone. A couple of days before the two year anniversary of his mom’s disappearance, Marco told Jake that he’s had enough of the fighting and wanted to quit being an Animorph after their next mission.

However, during their mission, the Animorphs are captured and brought to a Yeerk pool ship, where they all meet Visser One, who Marco recognizes as his long-lost mother. After escaping the pool ship, Marco realizes that he now has a reason to fight the Yeerks, to save his mother, and fully joins the fight with the other Animorphs.

Visser vs. Visser

"We take out Visser One. We take out Visser Three. We leave the Yeerks believing they've erased the free Hork-Bajir colony. The free Hork-Bajir end up much safer; the Yeerks end up leaderless."

―Marco

While ditching school one day, Marco realizes that Visser One is hiding out in an office building. Returning later that night with Ax and Tobias, they discover that she was demoted to Sub-Visser rank and she is being hunted by the Council of Thirteen after Visser Three branded her a traitor.

Realizing that they can use this opportunity to kill both Vissers at the same time, Marco makes a deal with the former Visser One – trade the location of the Hork-Bajir Valley, which the former Visser is looking for, in exchange for an opportunity to eliminate Visser Three. When Marco's mother arrives at what she believes to be the Hork-Bajir Valley, a fight breaks out between Visser One's forces and Visser Three's. Marco takes the opportunity and tells his mother that he loves her, revealing his identity to Visser One, before knocking her over the mountain to her apparent death.

Aiding Visser One

"I know you. What you are. What you do. You are needed. Now. As quickly as you can. You need to be seen."
"By who?"
"Visser Three. It's not a trap!"
"I know. Like you said, you know me. If you wanted me dead it would be easy. You could take me, infest me, and have all of my friends within a few hours. So you need me. This is about your little personality conflict with Visser Three. You're desperate. But you won't give me up to Visser Three because you hate him more than you hate us."
"I once thought you were too soft, too gentle."
"Yeah, well, things change."

―Edriss 562 and Marco

This section needs a rewrite

After being the best man at his father’s wedding, where his father married Marco’s math teacher Nora Robbinette, Marco receives a phone call from Visser One, requesting for the Animorphs to stage an attack to discredit Visser Three. After performing the attack, the Animorphs take Visser One to an unknown cave and Marco forces Visser One to free his mother. However, Eva, Marco's mother, sympathizes with Visser One since she too is a mother and allows Visser One to infest her again to prevent Visser Three's open war plan and protect Visser One's human children.

Marco and the other Animorphs leave the cave as he says goodbye to his mom for the last time.

Faking his Death

"Suddenly, reality hit. I was dead. And this was the end... of school, of dates, of video games. Of everything normal. The kid in that photo had prepared his last frozen pizza dinner. Had gone to his last math class. Had seen his last movie at the Cineplex. That kid would never even hang out in his own backyard again. Because this wasn't his home anymore. He had no home. He'd made the necessary sacrifice."

―Marco

This section requires expansion

When Marco's father, Peter, gets into a project involving Z-space, it attracts the attention of the Yeerks. Despite knowing the risks of saving his father from becoming a Controller, Marco cannot bring himself to let it happen and rescues his dad, revealing everything about the Animorphs and the battle against the Yeerks, including his mother's existence. The Chee use their holographic abilities to fake Marco and his father's death from Controllers and Marco and his father relocate to the hidden Hork-Bajir Valley. However, Marco neglects to rescue Nora, allowing the Yeerks to infest her, mentally remarking that a part of him wanted her out of their lives.

Killing Visser One

"I slammed my foot on the still-wriggling worm. And it was clear... ...it was clear that Visser One's journey had ended."

―Marco

Soon after, the Animorphs discover that Visser One is back on Earth and go on a mission to the Yeerk pool. There, Marco manages to rescue his mother and kill Visser One. After being reunited with Eva, Peter asks Marco if Nora can be saved, prompting Marco to lie to his father that Nora was always a Controller and that the Yeerks had placed her in his life to keep an eye on him. Peter accepts the lie, with Marco musing that his conscience is heavy with the permanent damage he has wrought with his lie, although it was a decision he chose to make in order to keep his family together.

Endgame

To be added

Post-War

2000

"We Animorphs and the newly minted Prince Aximili, with our prisoner, landed Ax's official liaison ship, a sleek Fast-Courier, right in the middle of the Mall in Washington. Not a mall, the Mall, a sort of open green space with the Capitol Building at one end, the Smithsonian Institution and various government buildings on both sides, and the obelisk of the Washington Monument at the far end. We called ahead, not wanting to terrify anyone. There were roughly a thousand cops and twice that many newspeople waiting for us. It was, as Marco said, a "shiver-my-spine moment." A sea of microphones and video cameras and flashbulbs. Ax and Jake, and to a lesser extent Marco and I, gave a sort of brief explanation of what had been happening, and where things stood now. Needless to say, it was kind of a big news day."

―Cassie

To be added

2001

"My career was going pretty well. I was past the point of being a fad, anyway. I'd done seven appearances total on Letterman and Leno, plus several times each on Jon Stewart and Conan. The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah? Been there. Bill O'Reilly called me a genuine American hero. I'd been on CNN so many times that Greta Van Susteren and I were practically roommates. Guest-VJ on MTV? Of course. [...] I got a gig as "technical advisor" to a Spielberg movie about us. Animorph. Come on, you gotta love that. I did all the shows to plug that deal. Sample dialog: "I loved working with Steven, he is absolutely devoted to accuracy, and I knew he was the man who could be trusted with our story." I wrote a book, with some help from a ghostwriter. The title was The Gorilla Speaks. Number one on The New York Times best-seller list, number one on the PW list, number one on the Web. [...] I had just been signed for a regular acting job. I was going to be Nick Lang, a wisecracking mutant superhero sort of guy who can turn into animals. I wasn't the main star, I was the main supporting player, (and the main special effect), which is what I wanted: I needed time to "work on my craft" without the pressure of carrying the entire TV show. We were going to be on Fox in the old X-Files time slot, which was kind of cool. The acting job was especially great because it kept me alive as a product spokesman. I had a three-year deal with Pepsi, plus smaller deals with Alamo Rent A Car and Gap/Old Navy. You would not believe the money. So, a year after the end, I was seventeen and rich from book deals and product endorsements and acting contracts. I had a beach house in Santa Barbara (close to Hollywood, but with less traffic) and an apartment in New York. I owned a canary-yellow Viper, a red Maserati, and a desert-camouflage Humvee. I dated girls who wouldn't have looked at me before. I ate in cool restaurants. And maybe you're expecting me to say it was all an empty experience, that my life wasn't all that great, but you know what? I was happy."

―Marco

This section requires expansion

After the war, Marco goes on to become a rich celebrity, using his status to write books, appear on many talk shows, endorse products, and perform as a regular actor, one of his roles being Nick Lang, a "wisecracking mutant superhero sort of guy who can turn into animals" and doing commercials. Unlike the rest of the Animorphs, Marco lived extravagantly, buying a mansion in Santa Barbara, having many dates with supermodels, and owning many expensive cars.

2003

"I had nine million four hundred and thirty-two thousand dollars in my Merrill Lynch account. Mostly in stocks, some bonds. My TV show was doing fine, winning its time slot, although viewership in the critical demographic was falling off a little. I had a girlfriend. She was a model/actress. She was not, shall we say, a genius. But she was beautiful and sweet and about a foot taller than me. I had seven cars. A butler named Wetherbee. (Actually his name was McPherson, but I liked the sound of 'Wetherbee.') I had two maids. I had a time-share deal on a jet. I had the house in Santa Barbara, the pied-a-terre in New York and was looking at a little place in Tuscany."

―Marco

At nineteen years old, Marco was still living in his extravagant lifestyle, having at least 9,432,000 dollars in stocks and bonds and his television show still performing well. Marco had a girlfriend, a beautiful and sweet model/actress.

A New Mission

"We spent the next six weeks wandering around the system, seeing some cool things on strange worlds, but no evidence of Kelbrids. We were starting to wonder whether there was any such thing as a Kelbrid. And we definitely saw no sign of the Blade ship or the mysterious alien craft that had fired on Ax's Intrepid. We moved on to the next nearest system. And the next. Half a year went by, but it seemed longer. I had brought along some DVD's but there are only so many times you can watch Airplane!, especially when you have to explain every joke to a former Andalite. It became obvious that this was going to be a long trip. You can't just go toodling around a billion square light-years and find what you're looking for. In the end, even after many months, we didn't find the Blade ship. They found us. I was manning the sensor station (and using the ship's computers to play Tomb Raider V), when I spotted the orange squiggle indicating an unknown ship within range."

―Marco

When Jake tells Marco about a mission to save Ax, Marco agrees to come, but only after yelling at Jake, and telling him that he cannot undo his past mistakes, and that, just as during the war, they will only succeed if they follow his instincts, no matter how "crazy, reckless and ruthless."

After many months traveling in space in "The Rachel", Marco, along with the others aboard the vessel, finds the Blade Ship and encounters “The One”. Jake comments on Marco's earlier call to be "crazy, reckless and ruthless," and, with a smile that Marco notes makes him look like Rachel, orders them to ram the Blade ship.

Personality

"I'm a joker. I'm a comedian. That's how I deal with life. See, I've always believed that to some extent you get to decide for yourself what your life will be like. You can either look at the world and say, "Oh, isn't it all so tragic, so grim, so awful." Or you can look at the world and decide that it's mostly funny."

―Marco

Throughout the war, Marco always maintains a sense of humor because he believes you have to decide whether you think life is tragedy or comedy, and he chooses to look for the joke in life. Because of this, Marco is able to crack jokes and make sarcastic remarks in the midst of battle just as easily as when he is chilling in the barn with his best friend Jake and the others. Marco is also very clever, and is good at thinking strategically. He was also the one who came up with the name "Animorphs" in the first book.

Marco is forever the cautious one, and at the start of the series he was the most reluctant to fight in the war. A major reason was he felt his dad was still suffering over the loss of his mother Eva, and wouldn't be able to bear it if he lost his son as well. Marco stayed in the war in honor of Jake's brother, but the stress began to get to him. He soon confessed to Jake that he had decided to quit, but that changed when he made a tragic discovery - his mother had not drowned two years earlier, but instead was infested by the Yeerk Visser One. Her death had been faked so that the Visser could use her body as a host. Marco's desire to save his mother and reunite his family was more than enough to make him continue the fight.

Marco has been called the most ruthless member to the Animorphs, often looking at the big picture and willing to make sacrifices in order to secure a win. This is in contrast with Cassie, who always considers emotions and morals in the equation, even when it comes to her enemies. They sometimes get on each other's nerves because of this. However Cassie has gotten through to Marco on occasion, sensing that he sometimes uses his humor to mask the pain he feels over his family situation. Marco desperately wants to save his mother, and yet he knows that in order to win the war he may have to destroy her.

Relationships with the other Animorphs

Jake

"Jake, who is Rachel's cousin, is our sort-of leader. Not because he asked to be. It's probably because he'd never ask to be. You know – he's one of those tiresomely dutiful, levelheaded guys. If you met Jake, you'd understand why we turn to him. Call it charisma. Something about Jake commands respect. Not from me, of course. He's been my best friend forever. I was with him when he was nine and ate an entire pie on a bet and ended up blowing blueberries for an hour."

―Marco

This section requires expansion

Jake and Marco have been friends since their childhood. Although their friendship is tested at times, they generally retain a strong bond. Towards the end of the series this begins to deteriorate, as Jake sinks into depression and Marco regains his family. After the war, Marco and Jake retain their friendship, and Jake recruits Marco for their final mission.

Rachel

"Rachel is your basic psycho-babe. And I mean that in a nice way. She's a tall, willowy, supermodelesque blond. You might think she was a mall-rat airhead – until you called her an airhead. Then, after she removed your left kidney, you'd realize your mistake. Rachel's a great person to have on your side in a fight. The only problem I have with her is that she's always looking for a fight."

―Marco

Rachel and Marco's relationship is characterized by their insults and banter. They generally side together on group votes, as both are more interested in pragmatism than ethics. Their similar personalities are beneficial in understanding how the other thinks, but also serves as the basis for their frequent fights. They dated in the alternate universe of Back to Before.

Ax

"I remind everyone that we have been in morph for thirty of your minutes. Dinner is scheduled to be served in twenty-five more of your minutes."
"Ax?"
"Yes, Marco."
"They're everyone's minutes, Ax. They're not our minutes. They're just minutes. Just minutes. Okay? We're on Earth, you're on Earth, they are everyone's minutes."
"Now we have been in morph for thirty-one of your minutes."

―Ax and Marco

At first Marco remains distant from Ax, but the two develop a close relationship. Ax's dry sense of humor becomes more obviously influenced by Marco as the series goes on. After Marco's cover is blown and he has to leave his regular life, he goes to live with Ax at his scoop, and the two bond over electronics and soap operas.

Tobias

"That night in the construction site, he was just this kind of dweeby kid I barely knew. He liked Jake because Jake once kept some guys from beating him up. To be honest with you, I don't even remember what Tobias looked like back then. Now, of course, he looks like a fierce, angry bird of prey. There's a downside to the morphing power we have. A time limit of two hours. Stay more than two hours in a morph, and you stay forever. That's why Tobias was flying overhead, with his wide wings catching the warm updrafts. Tobias is a hawk. A red-tail hawk, to be exact. I guess he always will be. I tease Tobias sometimes. What happened to him scares me."

―Marco

This section requires expansion

At the beginning of the series the two aren't close, as Marco seems annoyed by Tobias's presence in Jake's life and frequently insults or hassles him. Eventually a strong camaraderie between them develops.

Cassie

"I took a good, long look at Cassie. See, there was this little episode with Cassie. She quit the Animorphs because I guess she had problems with some of the stuff we have to do. She came back, of course. But since then I'd felt a little shaky around her. Cassie has way too many morals and ethics. She's always wondering whether something is right or wrong. Me, I just wonder "will it work?" or not. I was thinking of something snide to say to Cassie, but I decided to keep my mouth shut. Cassie has saved my life more than once. You cut a person a lot of slack when they've saved your life."

―Marco

Cassie describes Marco as cute, but not her type. Although they are generally on good terms, Marco is often impatient with Cassie's morality.

David

"Now David, another kid not very different from any of us, had been dragged into this nightmare reality of great power and greater fear. Maybe I didn't like him. But I felt sorry for him."

―Marco

To be added

Morphs

Book Morphs

Morph	Book Acquired
Silverback Gorilla (Big Jim)	The Invasion
Osprey	The Visitor
Wolf	The Encounter
Trout
Bottlenose Dolphin	The Message
Seagull
American Lobster	The Predator
Black Garden Ant
Cockroach	The Capture
Housefly
Mouse	The Andalite's Gift
Termite	The Secret
Great Horned Owl
Skunk
Irish Setter	The Android
Wolf Spider
Brown Bat
Spider Monkey (unusable; acquired by alternate self)	The Forgotten
Jaguar (unusable; acquired by alternate self)
Llama	The Reaction
Racehorse	The Unknown
Parrot (green)	The Escape
Hammerhead Shark
Mole	The Underground
Mosquito	The Decision
Leeran
Tyrannosaurus Rex (unusable; Sario Rip morph)	In the Time of Dinosaurs
King Cobra (Spawn)	The Discovery
Flea	The Threat
Rhinoceros	The Solution
Giant Anteater	The Suspicion
Baby Ringed Seal	The Extreme
Polar Bear (Nanook)
Giant Squid	The Exposed
Chimpanzee	The Experiment
Eel	The Sickness
Grizzly Bear (unusable; acquired by alternate self)	Elfangor's Secret
Human (Mr. Grant)	The Reunion
Mountain Goat
Hork-Bajir	The Prophecy
Squirrel	The Proposal
Cockatiel
Poodle (Euclid)
Orca (Swoosh)	The Mutation
Cheetah	The Weakness
Honeybee	The Other
Hork-Bajir	The Unexpected
North American Beaver	The Resistance
German Shepherd (Champ; acquired but never used)	The Diversion
Mallard Drake	The Absolute
Human (female; State Governor)
Dragonfly	The Answer
Eagle	The Beginning

Television Show Morphs

Morph	Episode Acquired
Rat	My Name is Jake, Part 2
Skink	The Underground
Human (Mall cop) (never used)	On the Run
Butterfly	The Message
Cockroach	The Escape
Ferret
Wolf	The Alien
Llama	The Reaction
Mouse	My Name is Erek
Collie
Duck	Changes, Part 1
German Shepherd
Lizard	Changes, Part 3
Hawk (off-screen)	The Front
Bat

Marco has a total of 15 morphs.

Books Narrated By Marco

• The Predator
• The Andalite's Gift
• The Android
• The Escape
• In the Time of Dinosaurs
• The Discovery
• The Extreme
• Elfangor's Secret
• The Reunion
• The Proposal
• The Other
• Back to Before
• The Journey
• The Revelation
• The Absolute
• The Beginning

Trivia

• He has the WAA username Cassie98, which he uses to annoy Jake in instant messaging by pretending to be Cassie, although he likely has another account for primary use.
• Cassie describes Marco as having "incredible eyelashes."
• Marco is one of the characters whose battle morph is often forgotten for merchandising and illustration purposes; although he very rarely uses anything besides his gorilla morph in regular battle, he was illustrated morphing into a wolf on the cover of Megamorphs #1, and a cobra in Megamorphs #4, while the other characters were all shown morphing into their preferred battle morphs.
• The cover of The Predator is very different in international covers. On the U.S cover, Marco morphs a Silverback Gorilla. While on the U.K cover, he morphs a lobster.
• From the Anibase: Want to know the real reason Marco got a haircut in The Android? One day, K.A.'s editor, Tonya Alicia Martin, called K.A. up and said, "We have this really cute Marco model, but he has short hair" -- much shorter than Marco's hair in the books. K.A. agreed to give Marco a trim and had fun having the other characters tease him throughout the book -- and Marco has had short hair ever since.
• In 1999, four different transforming toys of Marco were made.
  • Two of Marco's Transformers that were sold in stores turned into a Gorilla and a Fire Beetle, respectively
  • The third transformer, a Tri-Rex, was a Tyrannosaurus Rex figure made up of three separate Jake, Cassie, and Marco figures.
  • In 1999 Taco Bell released a transforming toy where Marco turns into a hammerhead shark.
• Marco frequently uses the word "insane."
• Because of many of his interactions with Jake and Ax, large numbers of LGBT readers considered Marco to be same-gender attracted, but not overtly due to Scholastic censorship. In response to being asked about this speculation in a discussion about representation, Michael Grant wrote on Twitter that "Marco was bi[sexual]."

Gallery

Books

Marco on the inside cover of In the Time of Dinosaurs

2011 re-release full body shot

2011 re-release original model full body shot (this model was later changed due to claims of white washing)

Marco on the cover of Megamorphs #1

Marco with the rest of the Animorphs on the inside cover of The Andalite Chronicles

Marco on the cover of Elfangor's Secret

Marco from one of the Animorphs Sanctuary Screensavers

Marco morphing a king cobra

Marco on the inside cover of The Beginning

MarcoMM4.jpg

Marco on the inside cover of Back to Before

The Animorphs morphing into dinosaurs

Marco on the Anibase.

Marco's Antioch ID Card

Marco morphing hammerhead shark

Marco morphing into a polar bear (Nanook)

Marco morphing a cockroach

Marco morphing a poodle (Euclid)

Marco morphing a honeybee

Marco morphing an ant

Marco morphing a Mallard drake

Marco on the cover of The Beginning

Marco morphing Gorilla (Book 5)

Marco on the cover of The Escape.

Marco's Animorphs Alliance handbook bio

Marco on the Animorphs Alliance poster

Marco's promotional trading card given out when The Andalite's Gift was released.

Marco's Personal Message from Animorphs Alliance Flash Issue 4

Marco from mm2 dinosaur poster.jpg

Marco from the Megamorphs #2 promotional dinosaur poster

Marco on a page of the Animorphs 1999 Calendar.

Marco on a page of the Animorphs 2000 Calendar

Marco on a page of the Animorphs 2000 Calendar

Marco's 2011 reprint Headshot

Marco on the inside cover of The Ellimist Chronicles

Marco on the back of the Animorphs Student Planner

TV series

Boris Cabrera is Marco

Boris Cabrera as Marco (from Meet the Stars of the Animorphs)

Marco's bio from an Australian VHS limited edition poster

Marco and Jake

Ax and Marco

Marco from "The Capture"

Marco and Jake

A promotional image featuring Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Marco, and Cassie

Marco and Tobias

Marco with the rest of the Animorphs

Rachel, Jake, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco from the episode "My Name is Jake"

Marco from "On The Run"

Jake and Marco from "On The Run"

Marco and Jake from "On The Run"

Ax, Jake, and Marco from "The Front"

Marco with Rachel, Jake, Cassie, and Tobias

Rachel, Marco, and Jake from "The Release"

Marco from "The Predator"

Cassie, Marco, Rachel, and a passed out Jake from "The Capture"

Marco and Jake in their chemistry class from "The Release"

Rachel and Marco

Marco, Cassie, and Tom as Controllers

Tobias and Marco

Marco hugging his dad

Marco and Jake in space

Marco calling Jake out

Ax getting Marco a drink

Marco, Cassie, and Ax

Marco and Ax

Jake and Marco trapped by Visser 1

The whole group

Tobias telling everyone something important

Rachel, Cassie, and Marco

Merchandising

Hasbro Gorilla Transformer Toy

Hasbro Beetle Transformer Toy

Marco licensee illustration

Marco from Animorphs: Know the Secret

Marco's bio from the Animorphs (GBC Game)

Marco morphing card from The Invasion Game

References

<references>