MYSTERIUM
Real Name: Thomas Joseph Lightner
First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #21, August 1976 (as Blacksun); Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #58, September 1979 (as Nth Man); Squadron Supreme: New World Order (Vol. 1) #1, August 1998 (as Mysterium)
Powers: Originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers, Dr. Thomas Lightner was a solar physicist and the son of Nobel Prize winning astronomer Dr. Raymond Lightner, designer and builder of Sky Cannon observatory. The elder Lightner vanished (and was subsequently declared dead) and the Sky Cannon was destroyed after he used it in an attempt to draw upon the power of an imploding universe, to theoretically manifest the raw power of a black hole. In adulthood, his son used his inherited fortune to rebuild the Sky Cannon to recreate his father's lost experiment. Believing he could tap into the other-dimensional Darkforce Dimension and infuse its energies into a human host (himself), his experiment was disrupted when the Fantastic Four accidentally flew into the path of the Sky Cannon just as it fired. The beam reflected onto Thomas Lightner, creating a temporal twisting whereby his era and that of his father’s overlapped, merging the two Lightners into the ultra-powerful being known as Blacksun the Stellar Man.
As Blacksun, he internalized massive amounts of stellar energy, partially recreating the point singularity effect within his own physical form. Thus altered, he developed a tremendous molecular density, giving him roughly Class 85 strength and near-invincibility. The merged form of Thomas and Raymond Lightner possessed density so gravitationally compact that it could warp time, energy, and matter around them. This made projectiles or other assaults curve harmlessly around his physical form. He could release his energies in order to fly, create areas of total darkness by feeding off of all ambient light and stellar energy, and discharge concussive force bolts from his hands. Though immensely strong and durable, he never attained full control of their powers before burning them out. Thor, in his Dr. Donald Blake guise, revived him in a hospital as the depowered Thomas Lightner; but what became of the previously merged Raymond Lightner is unrevealed.
Later, Dr. Lightner became an operative for the Roxxon Oil Company, going undercover at Project: PEGASUS, a U.S. government energy research facility. Lightner’s mission was to smuggle components for the Nth Projector, a device capable of transporting objects to other realities, into PEGASUS to remove the facility from Earth-616’s dimension, thus allowing Roxxon to maintain control over the energy market. He attempted to reactivate his powers as Blacksun using the Nth Projector. His power returned, after a fashion, transforming him into the living black hole known as the Nth Man, whose multi-dimensional existence threatened to consume all realities.
As the Nth Man, his physical dimensions were converted into a space warp effect that was constantly drawing matter and energy from his environment into him. The physical structure of objects bent and collapsed inwards as they came closer to him, so that even enormous mass could be sucked in. Though essentially a sentient singularity, he possessed limited control over this state: He could slightly accelerate or slow his rate of absorption, and could, in atmosphere, manipulate sound waves to speak. As he absorbed more, he grew exponentially, until upon absorbing the entirety of a universe, he would collapse in upon himself and emerge reborn into another dimension, where the process would began again. In this manner, the metacosmic Lightner consumed seven universes. The eighth universe was Reality-712, also known as Earth-S, the home of the Squadron Supreme.
In that reality, he reached a size equal to the entire solar system. Before completely destroying the galaxy, though, he mystically traded places with Arcanna's infant son, Benjamin, giving the boy his power while adapting the infinite sorcerous potential of the child for himself. Now, as Mysterium, he operates as Wizard Supreme (the Sorcerer Supreme equivalent) of their universe with all that it entails. The full range of his abilities is unrevealed, but they include teleportation, manipulation of dimensional barriers, extra-dimensional communication, levitation, possession, illusions, and matter transmutation, among others. He draws his energy from his own psychic resources and from the ambient energy of his new universe and others.
Dr. Thomas Lightner is a gifted intellect who earned a Ph.D. in solar physics and was an expert in the study of the Sun, its internal processes, magnetic fields, atmosphere, and the solar wind's interaction with the solar system and Earth. He is immensely knowledgeable about the fundamental mystical and physical natures, as well as of the residents of his new home universe and others.
