Showing posts with label The Mighty Thor. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Mighty Thor. Show all posts

Thursday, November 10, 2022

EARTH FORCE

 

 

EARTH FORCE

Roster (from top to bottom): Skyhawk (Winston Manchester); Earth Lord (Kyle Brock); and Wind Warrior (Pamela Shaw)

First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #395, September 1988

History and Powers: The Earth Force is a team of three human beings who were granted superhuman powers by the Heliopolitan death god, Seth. The leading gods of Heliopolis were once worshipped by the people of ancient Egypt.

Policeman Kyle Brock, businessman Winston Manchester, and housewife Pamela Shaw were all patients in the same New York City hospital to which the injured Asgardian god, Hogun, had been brought. Brock had been shot by criminals, Manchester had been hospitalized due to overwork, and Shaw had attempted suicide after her baby had died and her husband had left her.

Seth brought the three patients to his own "dimension of death," healed them, and infused the three with energy to mutate them into superhumanly powered forms, claiming he wanted to transform them into "a force to preserve and protect the Earth." Thus, Brock became Earth Lord, Manchester became Skyhawk, and Shaw became Wind Warrior.

Skyhawk possesses superhuman size, strength (Class 10), and can fly by means of his powerful under arm-to-rib cage wings.

Earth Lord possesses superhuman size, strength (Class 100), and his power draws strength and mass from the ground to become a giant. Besides his superhuman strength, he is highly resistant to physical injury.

Wind Warrior possesses superhuman size, strength (Class 10), and can transform her body to become winds and whirlwinds of strengths ranging up to tornado force. She can fly by summoning winds strong enough to bear her aloft.

Thursday, September 30, 2021

ARES

 


ARES

Real Name: Ares
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #129, June 1966

Powers: As an immortal god, Ares possesses vast strength (up to Class 70) and endurance. His physical capabilities are superior to those of the majority of Olympian gods. He has virtually inexhaustible stamina, and does not tire appreciably after any exertion.

Like all Olympian, Ares is immortal, possessing a life essence that cannot be ended by any conventional means. He can be wounded in battle, but his godly life force gives him incredible recuperative abilities. He can fully recover from penetration wounds (such as by knife, sword, or bullet) in anywhere from minutes to hours, depending on their severity. Only an injury of such magnitude that it incinerates him or disperses a major portion of his bodily molecules could cause him physical death. Even then, his life essence may still be unharmed, and his father Zeus may be able to resurrect him.

As with many gods, he can hear the calls of his worshippers, or those who worship the principle he embodies, allowing him to telepathically sense all outbreaks of war and violence around the globe. Ares also has other godly powers that he rarely uses. Among these are the ability to transport himself to and from Olympus and Earth and walk among the mortals undetected -- in this state, he can only be seen, heard or touched while interacting with other gods. Ares has also demonstrated the power to possess mortal beings, entering their bodies and taking over their actions as his own. Naturally, Ares is a master of combat, both unarmed and in the use of all forms of weaponry. Part of this is his immortal experience, but as the God of War, he can magically draw upon any knowledge of warfare he desires instantaneously. He has made frequent use of axes, swords, and javelins, but in recent times has also begun making use of modern tools such as assault weapons and grenades. Originally, Ares' skill was limited to the use of all implements of war used in the time of ancient Greece and Rome. such as javelins, swords, axes, and flails. Over the years, he has come to master all forms of weaponry, modern and ancient.

Sunday, June 13, 2021

THE FLAME

 


THE FLAME

Real Name: Hrinmeer
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor Annual (Vol. 1) #18, August 1993

Powers: Hrinmeer, The Flame, is a hybrid being from the Asgardian worlds. He is the son of a fire-demon of Muspelheim and a light elf of Alfheim. His elfen heritage grants him a fair complexion and pointed ears, yet the raw power of his demonic side gives him at least Class 75 strength and superhuman endurance, reflexes, and resistance to all manner of physical injury, including a near invincibility to conceivable levels of flame and burning. His head is constantly lit with a small glow of fire, and his father's sword produces an aura of mystical flame for itself as well.

Sunday, May 16, 2021

THUNDERSTRIKE

 


THUNDERSTRIKE

Real Name: Eric Kevin Masterson
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #391, May 1988 (as Masterson); The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #408, October 1989 (merged with Thor); The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #432, May 1991 (as Thor II); Thunderstrike (Vol. 1) #1, June, 1993 (as Thunderstrike)

Powers: Eric Masterson was a friend of Thor's who was mortally wounded by his foe Mongoose. Thor plead for Odin to save Masterson's life, and the All-Father did so by combining Thor's godly life essence with Eric's, effectively merging them into a single being. Each man was now fully cognizant of the other's entire life, having full access to each other's memories and feelings, and even carrying the same pattern of thought between transformations. However, only one could remain corporeal at a time. Eric Masterson could trade places with Thor by striking the wooden Mjolnir cane on the ground, and Thor could perform the reverse. As decreed by Odin, Masterson was capable of transforming himself and his wooden cane into Thor and Mjolnir (and the reverse) simply by striking the cane/hammer once on a surface. The enchantment, however, held that if Mjolnir left Thor's grasp or was removed from his person for more than 60 seconds, both would revert back to their mortal states until they were reunited.

After Thor was temporarily banished from this plane of existence, Mjolnir was left in Eric's possession and he gained the power to transform himself physically into a Asgardian powerhouse body virtually identical to Thor's, through the same cane/Mjolnir stamping process. His Asgardian body was composed of carbon matter many times denser and heavier than even a normal Asgardian native. He possessed Class 100 strength, superhuman endurance, and resistance to physical injury, toxins, and disease. He was mystically rejuvenated with each transformation, with any wounds he suffered as Eric or Thor vanishing completely whenever he switched appearances. He had access to all of Thor's and Mjolnir's regular powers until the real Thor returned and claimed his hammer. Eric was given a new weapon, a mace named "Thunderstrike", a name which he also adapted as his code name.

Thunderstrike's powers were slightly different from Thor's: He could not summon or control the weather elements and was no longer as strong as Thor in his Asgardian state, with his strength level reduced to Class 50. His Thuderstrike mace was made of mystic uru metal, and given enchantments by Odin: By stamping the mace, Thunderstike could revert to his mortal human form, dressed in whatever clothes he wore in that form while the mace transformed into a wooden cane (the 60 second rule was still applicable to Masterson). By stamping the cane, Masterson transforms into his superhuman form, bearded and garbed in his Thunderstrike costume while the cane becomes a mace. By throwing the mace and gripping its strap, Thunderstike could fly, create dimensional transportation fields, and hurl the mace like a boomerang. Thunderstrike could also project mystical thunder blasts of devastating force from its face, blasts which could also be used as blinding energy flares. The mace also magically enabled him to survive the adverse conditions of outer space, including its lack of oxygen.

Eric Masterson has a graduate degree in architecture and is a highly skilled architect.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

BETA RAY BILL

 


BETA RAY BILL

Real Name: Beta Ray Bill
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #337, November 1983

Powers: Beta Ray Bill was an extraterrestrial being bionically engineered into his esquine-faced cyborg appearance by his people, the Korbinites, giving him near-Class 100 strength, superhuman stamina, reflexes, and durability, and the ability to survive in space.

He was granted powers virtually identical to Thor's by Odin, thanks to his uru hammer Stormbreaker. By stamping the hammer on the ground, he could transform from his Asgardian-enhanced cyborg form back into his original cyborg form (with Stormbreaker turning into a Don Blake-style cane). He also had Thor's various powers including weather control, elemental lightning blasts, flight, dimensional transportation, and enchantments on the hammer so that it could not be lifted by the unworthy and always returned to his hand after being thrown.

In recent times, Bill's spirit was fused with the body of a recently deceased human on Earth. The transformation power of Stormbreaker now shifts him back and forth between this human's body and his Beta Ray Thor form. The hammer disappears when he converts to human mode, and his reverse transformation is triggered by "miming" the act of stamping an invisible hammer as a human.

Sunday, January 24, 2021

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.

Saturday, January 9, 2021

TIME-TWISTERS/TIME-KEEPERS


 

TIME-TWISTERS/TIME-KEEPERS

Members: Ast, Van, and Zanth
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #243, January 1976 (Time-Twisters); The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #282, April 1979 (Time-Keepers)

Powers: The Time-Keepers (above) or the Time-Twisters (below) are the last living creatures to be born before the end of time (the common endpoint for all surviving timelines in the multiverse) prior to the heat death of the universe.

The infinitely bureaucratic Time Variance Authority accumulated vast amounts of temporal energy through their work, storing it as a "pension plan" for their retiring employees to draw upon. At the end of time, the last surviving director of the TVA known as He Who Remains used the pent up temporal energy to create three hyper-evolving lifeforms to survive into the next universe and pass on the knowledge of the current one. He miscalculated, however, and created the vicious Time-Twisters who rampaged through the timestream. Thor and Jane Foster travelled to the end of time prior to the Time-Twisters creation and convinced He Who Remains to abort their creation. He agreed, and after Thor departed He went on to create the more benevolent Time-Keepers.

The act represents the last divergence in the timestream of the universe: In one alternate reality, the Time-Twisters were aborted and the Time-Keepers came to prominence (Earth-794282), while in the other (Earth-761243), the Time-Twisters emerged as planned. The Twisters and Keepers are therefore locked in a struggle for control of time itself, both trios attempting to manipulate the timestream to ensure one "final future" or the other gains prominence at the end of time, and determine which trio will pass on to the next universe. By manipulating the flow of events in all the alternate realities and possibilities leading up to the end of time, they influence which of the two final outcomes of the universe is more likely.

Both the Keepers and the Twisters are embodiments of massive amounts of temporal energy, giving them god-like powers over time. They can travel through eras at will, transporting to any point in time, space, and variant dimensions. They can "freeze" time relative to themselves, in order to passively observe a particular moment in time, and allow other beings to exist in that frozen moment with them. By shifting partially out of synch with a specific time zone, they become virtually undetectable by all manner of senses or contact. The Keepers and Twisters can manipulate the flow of time on a given person or object, causing them to unnaturally age into dust or revert to an earlier stage in their lives. They have also demonstrated a variety of other skills such as cross-dimensional telepathic observation and communication, projection of energy as destructive blasts or protective fields, levitation, etc.

TIME VARIANCE AUTHORITY (TVA)

 


TIME VARIANCE AUTHORITY (TVA)

First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #372, October 1986

Description: The Time Variance Authority (TVA) is an infinitely bureaucratic agency whose function is to monitor all realities throughout the multiverse and limit temporal incursions. They are of unrevealed origin, presumably self-appointed, and operate in a dimension called the “Null Time Zone” where time cannot be interfered with.

The TVA’s highest authority is its director, currently Mr. Alternity. Beneath him are various administrators, each of them clones produced from the same genetic material, and thus all identical. This managerial class cloning increases efficiency and enables them to promote from within expeditiously without friction. These administrators are Mr. Mobius M. Mobius, Mr. Orobourous, Mr. Paradox, and Mr. Tesseract. The most numerous TVA employees are the Chronomonitors, faceless men who sit before computers that monitor every event of the timeline to which they’ve been assigned. There’s a TVA Chronomonitor for every timeline in existence, with one created every time a reality comes into being. For all intents & purposes, Chronomonitors are infinite in number and their workplace, the Hall of Chronometry, is as large as the omniverse.

When time-travel or reality warps occur within their assigned timeline, a Chronomonitor will alert administrators through tachyon impulses and the administrator determines how to proceed. The TVA has the power to discontinue timelines, virtually erasing them from history. The enforcers of the TVA are the Minutemen, an army of soldiers produced via cloning and cybernetics, and wearing suits of power armor. The Minutemen are led by Justices, temporal patrol officers with the power to time-travel and solve the TVA’s problems; the most well-known of their number is Justice Peace. The TVA also employs various freelance operatives.

For the eternity of its existence, the TVA has accumulated (and continues growing) vast amounts of temporal energy. Retired TVA employees can draw upon that energy for quality of life purposes, living a near-immortal life in any time and at any location of their choosing. At the end of time (the final common endpoint of all surviving realities in the multiverse) just prior to the heat death of the universe, the final director of the TVA (known as “He Who Remains”) is fated to use all of the TVA’s accumulated energy to create a triad of hyper-evolving beings known as the Time-Keepers.

Thursday, January 7, 2021

INFINITY


 

INFINITY

Real Name: Unknown
First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #185, February 1971

Powers: Infinity is the supreme embodiment of space, personifying the sum totality of all that exists along the spatial axis. She possesses within herself near-omnipotent cosmic powers to manipulate time, space, matter, energy, and magic.

As an abstract entity, Infinity can't even be seen or perceived: Her most common form is actually an M-Body from the Dimension of Manifestations, living beings who are willingly "borrowed" to serve as an embodiment of the conceptual beings. This allows conceptual beings to confer with mortals or with each other on a shared plane of existence (The evil doppelgangers the Magus created during the Infinity War, such as the Spider-Man Doppelganger from Maximum Carnage, were also M-Bodies). On any occasion in which Infinity is seen in her humanoid form, it's actually an M-Body. "Harm" can be translated between M-Bodies and the true abstract being, but only through higher-dimensional forms of conflict or attack.

When merged with Eternity, Infinity possesses the combined power of the entire space/time continuum.