YOUNG GODS

 

YOUNG GODS

Roster: Bright Sword (Carter Dyam), Caduceus (Mark Cadmon), Calculus (Jahaharel Patel), Daydreamer (Catherine Moranis), Genii (Jason Kimball), Harvest (Chi Lo), Highnote (Raoul Hernandez), Mindsinger (Gregor Buhkarov), Moonstalker (Kiana), Sea Witch (Bridget O'Hare), Splice (Chandra Ku), and Varua (Mira)

First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #202-203, August-September 1972 (Genii and Bright Sword); The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #300, October 1980 (remaining members)

Powers: The Young Gods are a dozen Earth humans chosen by Gaea, mother spirit of Earth, and the various pantheons of gods over the last 1,000 years to prepare for the Fourth Host of the Celestials. Most were held in suspended animation until the coming of the Host, when they were presented to the Celestials as an example of humanity's greatest potential. They were accepted, had their superhuman powers fully unlocked, and taken under the guidance of the Celestials' servants for training.

Varua was born in 15th century Polynesia. She has developed psychic abilities including levitation, clairvoyance, precognition, telepathy, and teleportation. She has a spiritual intuition which expands her senses so that she can be aware of coming events or situations of particular significance. Her teleportation abilities are strong enough to carry herself and others across intergalactic space. She also has the ability to form the Uni-Mind, much like high-ranking Eternals do. Varua produces a blue flame of energy that makes her the receptive center of the Uni-Mind, after which other members of the Young Gods can make contact with her and they all will merge into the floating Uni-Mind construct, where their thoughts and viewpoints merge into a cohesive whole.

Bright Sword was a modern-era Israeli soldier. He was given superhuman strength, endurance, reaction time, and resistance to physical impact. Bright Sword wears a suit of metallic armor that further protects him from injury, and can project a short lance of energy from his gauntlet which can be used as a plasma sword in combat.

Caduceus is an American physician from the early decades of 20th century Chicago. He is primarily a healer, capable of producing bio-energy that cleanses diseases and viruses, repairs physical injuries, and can even properly undo psychic damage done to the mind and expel outside mental influences. His power can also be used as a "booster" effect to temporarily increase the vitality and physical prowess of others, or reverse the effect to leech strength from people to physically weaken them or render them unconscious.

Genii is a modern-day American. His power allows him to animate and manipulate unliving materials. This can act for practical purposes as telekinesis or molecular manipulations. He can levitate matter and cause it to move on its own accord, and can reshape raw materials into different shapes that he visualizes. Genii could, for instance, animate a pile of sand and mud into a statue of a horse, then compel the statue to run and move just like a real animal. Genii accomplishes his effects by projecting his own life energy partially into the matter he is manipulating -- this limits the amount of matter he can animate at a time and could possibly cause a psychic backlash if something he is manipulating is destroyed.

Sea Witch was a 12th century Irish barmaid. She was given amphibious abilities, allowing her to breathe underwater, swim at great speeds, survive the greater ocean pressures, and see more into the green spectrum of light to modify her vision for underwater activity. She could also manipulate water in solid, liquid, or gaseous forms. Sea Witch could generate waves, waterspouts, directional currents, whirlpools, and any other aquatic phenomena she could imagine. Presumably, her powers could also be used to dehydrate objects, coalesce liquid water out of vapor in the atmosphere, among other tricks.

Highnote was a 19th century Spaniard. He developed sonic abilities, allowing him to produce a wide range of sub- and super-sonic frequencies by modulating his vocal chords. He could produce deafening wails, concentrated blasts of sound which carried physical impact or could shatter or disintegrate objects at a molecular level, or even employ highly controlled sonic waves to lift and manipulate objects from a distance. Somehow, Highnote was capable of teleportation as well, producing sonic waves which transported him and his teammates across the galaxy.

Daydreamer is a 19th century Canadian farm woman. She is able to manipulate minds in different ways, such as controlling the actions of other people or projecting psychic visions into their consciousness. These visions can share information she or others have with her target, warp their minds to drive them mad or render them comatose, alter their perceptions of reality, or even reconstruct their entire life history with a false set of memories and identity. Daydreamer once used her powers to make the Gwen Stacy clone believe she was a woman named Joyce Delaney. There was no such woman, even though Daydreamer believed there to be, which means the "Joyce Delaney" identity the clone developed was a complete fabrication, probably developed from subconscious impressions both the clone and Daydreamer had over what the woman should be. She also had certain precognitive and psychic communication powers.

Mindsinger was from 18th century Russia. He is a polymorphic shape-shifter with the power of trans-substantiation, enabling him to alter his body into different physical constructions. Mindsinger can stretch portions of his body like taffy to increase his reach or shift his mass to one side in order to avoid harm. He can also absorb physical assaults to some degree, morphing with the impact to dampen its effectiveness. He can dramatically reshape his body into nonhuman objects, vehicles, or shapes, or form his hands into pincer claws, bludgeons, etc. He also has limited telepathic abilities.

Harvest is from modern-era Japan. She is able to telepathically communicate with and manipulate plant-life. She can sense changes to her natural environment, both recent and presently-occurring. Harvest can animate trees, bushes, grass, and other forms of vegetation, causing them to move and act according to her direction, or grow at a highly accelerated rate.

Calculus was chosen from 1940's India by a Hindu goddess. He was given a range of psychic powers much like Varua, including telepathy, levitation, illusion-casting, precognition, and self-teleportation. His intelligence has been enhanced as well and, as a naturally talented mathematician with precognitive powers, Calculus can measure future probabilities to predict the likelihood of different future events, then work to manipulate present day events properly in order to ensure different futures. He also serves as a strategist for the Young Gods, monitoring situations and telepathically projecting suggestions and analyses to his teammates.

Splice is from an 18th century Zulu tribe in Africa. Similar to Genii, she was able to manipulate matter, using bolts of transmogrifying energy fired from her eyes. Splice could rearrange molecules and transmute elements, converting raw materials into any object or device she could imagine, apparently permanently unless she chose to reverse the process. She was seen using her eye-beams to reconstruct vegetation and soil into highly complex technology. Splice could also animate uniform surfaces, such as causing giant hands to reach out of an otherwise smooth wall to grapple with her opponents.

Moonstalker is from an 11th century Inuit tribe. She is a speedster, possessing a metabolism adapted for running at probably a few hundred mph, and augmented perceptual abilities and reflexes that allow her to recognize threats or obstacles and react fast enough to avoid them. She can also blend in with her surroundings thanks to a camouflage power that renders her virtually invisible against any background.