VIRBRANIUM

 

VIBRANIUM

First Appearance: Daredevil (Vol. 1) #13, February 1966 (Anti-Metal/Antarctic Vibranium); Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #53, August 1966 (Wakandan Vibranium)

History/Description: Vibranium is a rare, naturally occurring metallic substance, theorized to be of extraterrestrial origin, which exists in two forms.

The first, Wakandan Vibranium, is found almost exclusively in the tiny African nation of Wakanda. Wakandan Vibranium, though as yet unknown means, absorbs vibratory energy in its vicinity, such as sound waves, with in itself. The apparent observable vibratory rate of the molecules of the Vibranium itself does not increase when the Vibranium absorbs mechanical energy. The outside vibratory energy is stored within the bonds between the molecules making up the Vibranium. As a result, a chunk of Vibranium which has absorbed a considerable amount of vibratory energy would be exceedingly hard to demolish. If enough force were applied to this chunk to smash it, the Vibranium would explode, releasing much of the absorbed energy. There are limits to the capacity of Vibranium to absorb vibratory energy, although the exact extent of these limits has not yet been determined. For example, in recent years, the oil conglomerate Roxxon discovered that a certain small island in the South Atlantic had a foundation composed of Wakandan Vibranium. Roxxon found it necessary to destroy the island and blew it up with bombs. Unable to absorb the force of the explosion, the Vibranium was destroyed, but it did succeed in entirely absorbing the sound made by the explosion.

It was in the mid 1980s that the world learned of the existence Wakandan Vibranium, although its existence has been rumored for decades. In the early 1940s, a small amount of Wakandan Vibranium came into the possession of the young, brilliant scientist Dr. Myron MacLain. Through an accident, which cannot be duplicated, MacLain created an alloy of Wakandan Vibranium and a form of Adamantium steel. The sole specimen of this alloy now serves as Captain America's shield.

Sometime later the renegade scientist Ulysses Klaw, who had believed the rumors of Vibranium were true, found the great "sacred mound" of Vibranium in Wakanda. The chieftans, also known as kings, of the Wakandans had guarded the mound for generations as a sacred trust. Klaw failed in his attempt to steal Vibranium from the mound but killed the chieftan T'Chaka. T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, became the new king of the Wakandans and also adopted the sacred guise of the Black Panther. T'Challa strove to end Wakanda's isolation from the rest of the world. He made the existence of Vibranium known to the outside world and sold small quantities of it to foreigners whom he believed would not turn it to harmful ends. T'Challa used the profits to enrich and modernize his nation.

The other form, Antarctic Vibranium, has thus far been found in nature only in the isolated region of Antarctica known as the Savage Land. Antarctic Vibranium is also known as "Anti-Metal" due to its effects. Whereas Wakandan Vibranium absorbs vibratory energy into its molecular bond, Antarctic Vibranium, through a means that is not yet understood, emanates vibrations, which cause the atomic molecular bonds in nearby metals of other kinds to weaken. The result is to cause nearby solid metals to liquefy. If huge quantities of Antarctic Vibranium were gathered together, at some unknown point the accumulated mass would be so great that the vibrations given off by the entire mass would increase logarithmically as more Vibranium was added. Theoretically, if the enormous mound of Wakandan Vibranium were composed of Antarctic Vibranium instead, the resulting vibrations would therefore liquefy metals throughout Africa, and possibly beyond. A fraction of the sacred mound of Wakandan Vibranium was apparently converted to Antarctic Vibranium by particle bombardment.

Vibranium is not an element, despite various references to it as such. The properties of Vibranium do not qualify it to fill any gaps in the Periodic Table of Elements. Moreover, Vibranium could not be an element with a higher atomic weight than any known elements, since it is not radioactive as the elements with the highest atomic weights are.

GENTLE

 

GENTLE

Real Name: Nezhno Abidemi

First Appearance: New X-Men (Vol. 2) #23, April 2006

Powers: Gentle possesses the mutant power to guide excess energy through his musculature, causing it to expand to massive proportions. The rest of his body expands to some degree with his muscle mass, making him grow to upwards of 9-10 feet tall and at least Class 75 strength or higher. His power continues to grow incrementally every time he uses it, however, and it was originally thought that Gentle would not be able to survive his own full potential. As a result, each time he triggered his strength transformation, Gentle suffered considerable pain and can quickly exhaust himself by exerting his power.

It was inferred that he’d soon die from simply having his power, and each time he used it hastened his demise. Gentle has studied meditative techniques and imprinted his skin with Vibranium tattoos, both of which are used to dampen the overall effect that his mutant power has on his body. It was later revealed that his pain was psychosomatic, and his psychological trauma was cured with Jean Grey’s telepathy. He can now explore his mutant power’s potential without harm.

STORM

 

STORM

Real Name: Ororo Munroe

First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men (Vol. 1) #1, May 1975

Powers: Storm has the omega-level mutant ability to manipulate the meteorological energy patterns of the planet she is currently on, allowing her to manipulate and control the weather. She is linked to Earth specifically, and tends to require some time to readjust her powers to the different environments and biospheres of other worlds. Her power can be used in space, but somewhat sporadically. Storm is sensitive to the patterns of electromagnetic energy which influence and guide weather phenomena. She can both mentally and visually recognize how weather patterns are forming, and predict rain, snowstorms, or whatever with extreme accuracy. Storm commands the wind, allowing her to summon anything from a slight breeze to a hurricane force gale. She can form cyclones and tornadoes of various sizes, and direct them to move about at her will. Naturally, she is also able to use the wind to fly.

She is able to form cloud cover on command, blocking out the sun or creating a pea-soup fog at ground level. Storm is then capable of seeding clouds in order to summon any form of precipitation: Rain, sleet, snow, hail, etc. Her power over the wind allows her to aim skyfall at any target, and make it fly almost parallel to the ground if she chooses. She can summon thunder and lightning as well, calling bolts of electricity out of the sky to strike her targets. Combining wind and rain, thunder and lightning can create monsoons and massive storms within a matter of moments. Storm can also ionize the atmosphere around her hands, giving the impressions that she is firing lightning bolts from her own body.

She can manipulate the temperature of her environment, causing sudden heat waves or drop the temperature down to sub-freezing levels.

Storm has used her power over the weather for a number of specific feats as well. She is sensitive to electricity, and can alter her vision so that she perceives her environment solely in terms of electrical flow. Controlled generation of electrical energy can scramble psionic signatures, making her mind more difficult to read or control. She can create a quasi-force field with a pressurized mass of air. She is able to manipulate water, and influence currents and such, but water is a much thicker medium than air and takes a considerable amount of power to affect. Storm also has a certain resistance to the weather effects she generates: Her body is capable of absorbing electricity without harm, and she regulates her body temperature in different climates to remain comfortable despite super-tropical or sub-freezing environments.

Storm has an extraordinary ability for lock and pocket picking, she is also an excellent marksman with handguns.

KLAW

 

KLAW

Real Name: Ulysses Klaw

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #53, August 1966

Powers: Ulysses Klaw was originally a physicist who lost his hand to the child-king T'Challa (the future Black Panther) years ago. He had it replaced with a sonic blaster which absorbed ambient sonic waves and converted them into a blast of concussive force. After an encounter with the adult Black Panther and the Fantastic Four, Klaw leaped into his own Vibranium converter machine and his physical body was destroyed. However, his mind was reconstituted in a body created out of solidified sound (with the sonic blaster still in place as one of his hands).

Composed of solidified sound, Klaw does not need to sleep, breathe, eat, or drink, and is immune to diseases, impacts, and wounds. He can increase his size by converting surrounding sounds into mass and adding it to his form, and can decrease his size by discharging sound mass from it. Through unknown means, Klaw's prosthetic grows or shrinks in size with him. Klaw can alter his own shape, and has done so to form himself into a large sound train. He can also add other elements into his form as he grows larger, as he once mixed water in with his increased sound mass, appearing as a watery giant. Klaw is resistant, if not immune, to telepathic attacks. Klaw is super-strong, capable of lifting up to 10 tons. Klaw's form can be cut apart and fused back together without injury to himself. His form was once converted into a group of lenses before becoming corporeal again. Before his transformation, Klaw replaced one of his hands with a prosthetic sound converter, also called a sonic claw or sound horn, which can absorb sound and solidify it. When Klaw has been dissipated in the past, his form is generally absorbed by his own converter until a sound or vibration restores his form and sentience. Klaw, through unknown means, has attached his prosthetic to his sound form, and it has been known to increase and decrease in size with him. Though his prosthetic has at times been destroyed, Klaw has either reformed it or re-equipped himself with another. Klaw has occasionally upgraded his prosthetic, making it larger and once equipping it with a Vibranium lace (which ultimately proved unhealthy), but he has always returned to using his standard prosthetic.

Klaw can create various constructs of solidified sound which he can mentally control and which maintain cohesiveness until Klaw dissipates it, either willingly or because distracted, or because the construct is disrupted. Klaw can maintain these constructs even at a distance. He generally prefers to create giant constructs of various jungle animals, usually gorillas, panthers, and elephants, and has been known to call these constructs his “Sonimals”. Klaw has also created solidified suits of armor, walls capable of shattering bullets, balls that will continue to absorb sound mass independent of Klaw, diagrams, and even a baseball team. Klaw's constructs are capable of speech if he wills it. Klaw can reabsorb any of his constructs at will. Klaw's constructs are almost always crimson, but he has been known to create black and gold constructs and while under the influence of the Beyonder, dozens of multi-colored monsters. Though non-sentient and less powerful than him, Klaw's constructs are capable of vast damage and usually possess enhanced strength. When Klaw's prosthetic is damaged, he is unable to create sound constructs.

Klaw can manipulate sound vibrations to varying effects. He can amplify existing sounds up to an intensity of 170 decibels, capable of deafening anyone in a .6 mile radius. Klaw can utilize vibrations to cause vertigo in the inner ear of others, burst the ear drums of others, briefly hypnotize others, or drive animals into frenzies with high pitches. Klaw can mimic any sound, including music and others' voices. Klaw can fire concussive blasts of sound at others, sometimes referring to these blasts as his “immobilizer beam”, and can cancel out his other constructs with a “reversion blast” of sound. He can also fire steady streams of sonic pulses.

Klaw can transform himself into pure, non-solidified energy. While propelling himself through the air at the speed of sound he can smash through the hull of a battleship. Klaw can also utilize his constructs to fly with him at this speed, even if those constructs contain living beings, and he has used this as a method of transportation for various teams he's belonged to.

Klaw is extremely vulnerable to the vibration-absorbing ore Wakandan Vibranium which, when in contact with his, causes him to lose energy or parts of his corporeal form. Klaw has successfully been held in prisons with Vibranium bars or walls. Klaw was once briefly empowered by unstable Vibranium, which was weakened due to a “Vibranium cancer.” Klaw is also susceptible to the metal-disintegrating Antarctic Vibranium, which can destabilize his form. Klaw is vulnerable to sonics or vibrations that disrupt his own internal vibrations, and can be knocked unconscious by blows or blasts powerful enough to do this. Klaw cannot generally maintain his corporeal form in a vacuum, though he has been known to do so by drawing from the sound in his own body. Klaw's form or energy has been absorbed by super-heroes capable of doing so, such as Dazzler, Guardian (Heather Hudson), and Ms. Marvel. Klaw's ability to utilize his powers seems to depend upon his mental state, his inner vibrations harmonics, and his time spent recovering from wounds. Klaw's powers, when unstable, have caused his form to build to dangerously explosive levels. Using the right frequencies, Klaw was able to possess humans with sound vibrations, turning them into facsimiles of him with sound waves; these frequencies could be countered with the right counter-frequency.

Ulysses Klaw is a gifted intellect, holds a Ph.D. in physics and a Bachelor of Science degree in geology. He is an expert physicist specializing in applied sonics.

BLACK PANTHER

 

BLACK PANTHER

Real Name: T'Challa

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #52, July 1966

Powers: T'Challa became the Black Panther after he ingested a heart-shaped herb that grows only in the wild jungles of Wakanda. For some reason, only the descendants of Assyri the Wise, first king of the Wakandas, can safely partake of the herb. Anyone else runs the risk of falling into a coma and possibly even death. T'Challa gained peak human levels of strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, vision, hearing, and smell from the herbs. He particularly has excellent night vision and the ability to detect and sort thousands of different odors, identifying and tracking a man by his scent. For a brief period of time, T'Challa developed extrasensory abilities allowing him to read thoughts, sense people and objects in his immediate vicinity, and predict the future to a limited degree. These abilities have not been used in years and he relied on little more than his physical skills until recent times.

T'Challa's costume (or "habit") is woven out of Wakandan Vibranium, causing it to absorb and displace kinetic impact and vibration on contact to protect him from injury. His boot soles are forged from a more solid form of Vibranium, enabling him to run across water or straight up vertical inclines for short distances. They also generate a vibratory force field that increases the impact behind his kicks by reflecting vibratory force towards his target, and the force field is occasionally useful for protection as well. His costume comes with a cape that can be adjusted from full length, to half length, to non-existent, and the entire costume can be transformed into a three-piece black business suit. These changes are accomplished by mild vibrational surges triggered by his Kimoyo card. The size and shape of a credit card, the Kimoyo is actually a tiny computer with vast processing capabilities, and linked to the enormous techno-jungle under Wakanda to increase its capacity even further. It can be used for communication purposes, can summon up an encyclopedia's worth of data on any number of subjects, override electronic locks remotely, perform wide-spectrum sensory scans, etc. The Panther carries an ornately carved knife handle capable of producing phased energy daggers. These energy blades can be used for close quarters combat or fired as projectile shots. By modifying the intensity of the energy surge, Panther can kill a man instantly or merely mark him with a residual trace of energy, which the Kimoyo card can pick up and thus track. Finally, he has retractable claws on his costume made of a variation of Savage Land Vibranium, the "anti-metal". Generally, "anti-metal" radiates vibrations that liquefy any nearby metal objects. T'Challa has refined the substance so that his claws only break down metal on contact.

For a period of time, T'Challa wielded the Ebony Blade of the Black Knight. He also employed a collapsible armor that expanded over his body, thrice-blessed by the Panther God to make it magically protective and as lethal to vampires as a cross. Seriously injured in a crash, T'Challa lost the powers and protection of the Panther God when his sister Shuri arose to become the new Black Panther. T'Challa was confined to a wheelchair for a time, but employed forbidden Wakandan rituals to restore his body to health, recreate the physical prowess he previously possessed as the Black Panther, and affixed sigils to his flesh which warded off magical attacks. The power from these rituals eventually faded, leaving him healthy but with only the physical prowess of a normal man.

T'Challa reclaimed the power and title of the Black Panther in a meeting with the Panther God. Although Shuri remained ruler of Wakanda and the chosen Black Panther of the day, the Panther God made T'Challa champion of the dead, and king of the Wakandan necropolis and Panther Pavilion where the spirits of all former Black Panthers reside. He regained the enhanced physical capabilities, senses, and animal-like spirit he had in the past, as well as a near-conscious awareness of the knowledge, memories and wisdom of past Black Panthers through the Necropolis. T'Challa has also updated his weapons and uniform for a new era. He uses the phased energy ceremonial dagger once more, and his costume has stealth shielding to make him invisible to the naked eye. A disk-shaped energy shield can be projected from his glove for protection, and he is capable of "shunting", a form of teleportation that can cover several miles in one bound.

An accomplished gymnast and acrobat, T'Challa is also an expert tracker. In addition, he has mastered various African martial arts and holds a Ph.D. in physics. He is a genius in physics and advanced technology and is a brilliant inventor.