X-TREME

 

X-TREME

Real Name: Adam Neramani

First Appearance: X-Force Annual (Vol. 1) #2, October 1993

Powers: X-Treme is a mutant hybrid of human and Shi’ar genes. He possesses enhanced strength, being able to press somewhere in a range above the average Shi’ar, bordering on superhuman. His physical endurance is about more than 20 times that of a human. His speed, reflexes, agility, athletic skills, and dexterity are far superior to both human and Shi’ar. He has pointed ears and his eyesight is superhuman, allowing him to visually perceive objects at least 1 mile away with precise clarity.

His mutant power is to generate a biochemical energy blast that ignites the electrolytes present in a person’s blood, causing the person to burn from the inside out. The intensity of the burn is variable, being anywhere from just a warming sensation to incinerating a person within a matter of seconds. X-Treme can affect multiple targets with this power and the average intensity of it is enough to stun. This does take a tremendous effort for X-Treme and will usually leave him in a weakened state, so he doesn't utilize it very often. Also, in order for X-Treme to ignite the electrolytes he must first oxygenate the blood. This is usually done by cutting the target and exposing their blood to the air. Any person with an open cut becomes a target for him. X-Treme uses a trigger word of "Burn" to activate his power and his eyes will glow with a reddish light.

He often uses a variety of Thet’je blades as well as two retractable blades on each arm, just located above the wrist. He is also a skilled fighter and swordsman.

SABRA

 

SABRA

Real Name: Ruth Bat-Seraph

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #250, August 1980

Powers: Sabra's mutant power infuses her with a form of passive bio-energy which grants her superhuman physical attributes. 

 

She possesses Class 50 superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, leaping ability, considerable durability and regenerative powers. She can also "lend out" the bio-energy that sustains her powers to another person in the immediate vicinity, giving that person superhuman strength and physical abilities of their own indefinitely until Sabra chooses to remove the energy, regardless of the distance separating them. She is resistant to impacts up to high caliber rifle fire, and recovers from injuries at three times the normal rate.

She is outfitted with a cloak that produces anti-gravitons and propulsion, allowing her to fly at little over 300 miles per hour. Sabra also wears wrist-shooters which alternately fire razor sharp quills filled with a paralyzing chemical or low-density bundles of plasma energy.

Sabra is a graduate of the Israeli Super Soldiers Program, where she was trained in myriad forms of armed/unarmed combat and intelligence gathering. She is also trained in police methods and skills, as well as anti-terrorism techniques.

STEVIE HUNTER

 

STEVIE HUNTER

Real Name: Stephanie Hunter

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #139, November 1980

Powers: Stephanie “Stevie” Hunter is a baseline human who possesses no superhuman powers.

She is, however, a gifted dancer and teacher who owned and operated her own dance studio located in Salem Center, New York prior to becoming a United States Congresswoman. 

 

A former ballerina, she is also trained in physical fitness, re-validation and massage techniques. She has extensive knowledge on the strains placed on developing bodies operating at peak efficiency. After wrecking her right knee in an undisclosed accident, Stevie regained most of her mobility and range as a dancer (her injury ended her professional career), although her knee is likely to give out when she overexerts herself.

COLE, MACON, & REESE

 

COLE, MACON, & REESE

Real Names: Wade Cole, Angelo Macon, and Murray Reese

First Appearances: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #133, May 1980 (as guards); The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #152, December 1981 (ss cyborgs)

Powers: Wade Cole, Angelo Macon, and Murray Reese were originally human mercenaries employed as guards by the Hellfire Club’s Inner Circle. After the three were severely wounded in battle against Wolverine, they were converted into cyborgs by the Inner Circle (with later modifications provided by Donald Pierce).

They each have cybernetic implants, a nature which is further evidenced by the wiring and circuitry visible along their bodies. Their physical attributes are bionically-augmented to enhanced human levels of strength, speed, and reflexes. The highly advanced level of cyborg, robotic, and computer technology implanted into their bodies also gives them infrared scanners and the ability to interface with computers, allowing direct data access to their brains’ memory centers. All three also carry machine guns, explosive shells, plasma cannons, electrified nets, and rocket propulsion packs.

MADAME WEB

 

MADAME WEB

Real Name: Cassandra Webb

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #210, November 1980

Powers: Madame Web’s was born with a debilitating neurological disease that had the side-effect of leaving her with an array of limited psionic powers, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, and psychometry. She can read the minds of other people in close quarters and project her thoughts long distance in order to communicate with someone mentally from miles away. She can plant strong compulsions in the minds of others to influence their behavior to a small degree, such as getting someone to travel in a certain direction or to a specific location without them even realizing it. By focusing on people or objects, she can pinpoint their locations to a certain degree. This power works best with targets she is personally familiar with. She also can receive visual images in her mind that represent future events and probabilities, the intensity and clarity of the vision often determines how likely it is to actually occur. Her power works best through psychometric activity, meaning she reads the psychic residue left on people or objects. Therefore, she can most easily predict the events of someone's future when they are in her presence or touching her, will pick up on the most psychically intense thoughts or memories of others, and can receive thoughts or empathic impressions off of solid objects, detecting what another person was thinking or feeling when they were in contact with that object in the past.

Madame Web was stricken with myasthenia gravis, a baffling disease that gradually erodes the central nervous system which left her physically blind and partially paralyzed from birth. She was cybernetically linked to a spider web-like life-support system designed by her husband which attends to all of her bodily needs by augmenting her weakened autonomic nervous system. By simple cybernetic command, she could shift her chair to an upright or reclining position for sleeping. The system was equipped with robot arms that take the place of her now useless arms.

ION

 

ION

Real Name: Voletta Todd

First Appearance: Machine Man (Vol. 1) #15, June 1980

Powers: Dr. Voletta Todd was a scientist experimenting with electromagnetically charged gases when she was caught in an accidental explosion of said gases. The explosion permanently altered her body on a mutagenic level, transforming her into an ionized cloud of hydrogen surrounded by an electromagnetic field, untouchable by physical means.

Her cloud state was too charged with energy to move through solid objects, but she could shatter concrete walls or reinforced glass by ramming through them. Ion could maintain a semi-humanoid mass with four loosely formed limbs, and could solidify portions of her body with effort, such as materializing her facial features in the cloud or making her human hands tangible again for a brief period of seconds. She would later design a containment suit which enabled her to maintain a completely human shape and appearance at all times. In her gaseous or contained states, she could fly, project electromagnetic force blasts, generate ionic containment fields to grab, levitate and guide objects through the air, and fire magnetic inducer beams which magnetized objects so that all metallic substances in the area would be magnetically drawn towards her target. Ion also has extra-sensory abilities in the form of her "elemental awareness". The full extent of this power is unknown, but presumably it allows her to mentally detect and catalogue all the elements in her vicinity, locating specific objects or analyzing the elements composing anything she focuses on. She was shown using this power to pinpoint a single human being floating in the ocean.

Ion's electromagnetic field could be disrupted by a sufficiently powerful electric current and exposure to extreme cold can cause her to revert to her human form.

Dr. Voletta Todd holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. She is an extremely gifted nuclear physicist specializing in hydrogen fusion.

DEATH ADDER

 

DEATH ADDER

Real Name: Roland Burroughs

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Roland Burroughs was selected by agents of the Roxxon Oil Company to be a special agent in covert operations. At the Mutagenic Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary company, the Brand Corporation, Burroughs underwent extensive surgery to give him gills and a bionic tail. He was then provided with a special costume and code-named "Death Adder". As a result of the extensive bio-engineering and surgery performed on his body, the Death Adder gained numerous superhuman powers:

He was amphibious, able to breathe underwater (by extracting oxygen molecules from water through the artificial gills in his throat) as well as in the air. These gills used fabricated polymer gill-cloth which was approximately eight times as efficient as average fish gills. There was no limit to the amount of time that he could spend underwater; in fact, he could sleep safely underwater. His entire anatomy was bionically bolstered by the transplantation of synthetic bone and tissue, permitting him to withstand the water pressure variations of a descent to 400 feet and back. A special membrane was grafted over each of his retinas, which rendered his eyes sensitive to the blue-green region of the visible spectrum (predominant in ocean depths to about 650 feet), allowing him to see clearly in those depths. He possessed enhanced strength on land (lifting up to 1 ton) and his swimming speed was in the superhuman range (between 50-60 knots).

The largest modification to his body was the implantation of a 4-foot-long, spike-studded tail attached to his lower spine and made of synthetic flesh and bone. Connected to his central nervous system, this tail could be whipped at speeds up to 60 miles per hour and acted as a fifth limb. Death Adder could swim at speeds up to 30 knots (34.5 miles per hour).

The Death Adder's costume was a full body-suit specially treated with a silicon compound that approximated fish-oil's viscosity to minimize water resistance. In the five fingers of each glove were special inch-long capsules containing highly concentrated venom of a death-adder, which he could release through the talon-like fingertips. One scratch of poison was sufficient to paralyze a 200-pound man within 90 seconds. Without an antidote (which he carried in his belt), death by asphyxiation would follow within an hour.

Roland Burroughs was a college graduate with a degree in engineering. Due to an accident involving his larynx during the surgical implantation of his gills, the Death Adder was mute and rendered unable to speak.

ANACONDA

 

ANACONDA

Real Name: Blanche Sitznski

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Blanche "Blondie" Sitznski was a steelworker selected by executives in the Roxxon Oil Company to be a special agent in covert operations. At the Mutagenics Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary, the Brand Corporation, Sitznski was bioengineered to have various permanent serpentine adaptations.

Anaconda has scales on her face, neck, back, and chest, and small fins on her cheeks. Anaconda possesses the ability to elongate her limbs, entwine them around persons or objects, and constrict. The entire skeletal structure of her arms and legs has been replaced by artificial Adamantium alloy-based bones in the basic configuration of a snake's bodily skeleton. Her arms, normally 24 inches from armpit to wrist, and her leg, normally 35 inches from hipbone to ankle, are able to elongate to about one and a half times their normal length. When she extends her limbs in this fashion, the muscle tissue gorges with blood, swelling the limbs so that each looks like a massive, powerful, unarticulated snake. These four constricting limbs are capable of exerting enough pressure to radically deform a one inch-thick steel tube, two feet in diameter. Once Anaconda has fully entwined her serpentine limbs around a human-sized foe, there are few human beings able to get sufficient strength to break her grip.

She possesses superhuman strength enabling her to lift (press) approximately 2 tons on land under optimal conditions. Her serpentine limbs are capable of exerting enough force to contain and injure even Class 85 opponents for some time.

Anaconda has been surgically given artificial gills to enable her to extract oxygen from water in order to breath. She can now breath while underwater indefinitely, as well as breath on land. As a by-product of the extensive bio-engineering done to her body, Anaconda possesses superhuman recuperative abilities. Her body can heal from ant non-fatal wound many times faster than a normal human beings.

SIDEWINDER

 

SIDEWINDER

Real Name: Seth Voelker

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #64, June 1980

Powers: Seth Voelker was a financial analyst for the Roxxon Oil Company who volunteered for training and mutagenic alteration at the Mutagenic Laboratory of Roxxon's subsidiary company, the Brand Corporation. A small device was surgically implanted in Voelker's body which would permit him to mentally activate the dimensional aperture opening circuitry incorporated in a specially-designed cloak. Given the name "Sidewinder" because of his ability to travel "sideways" through inter-dimensional space, Voelker became the leader of the new Serpent Squad.

His cloak contains highly sophisticated electronic equipment that, in some manner, creates a dimensional discontinuity between this reality and a certain other reality. This inter-dimensional aperture is formed within his cloak. The particular dimension into which he creates a portal has a slightly differing space/time congruence so that one foot traversed there equals five feet traversed in this reality. By moving into and out of this reality and that one, it is possible to cover great distances in this reality with relatively little effort. The cloak's equipment is cybernetically controlled: By thinking specific sequences of thoughts, he is able to control the parameters of the dimensional aperture within certain limits. Sidewinder experiences severe disorientation upon re-emergence into this reality after covering about 20 feet within the other dimension. Thus, he seldom travels farther than that extra-dimensionally.

Sidewinder's cloak allows him to move partially into the other dimension. He can extend a small part of this body back into his home dimension. He can extend a small part of his body back into his home dimension; for example, his eyes, so that he might take his bearings. He can send other objects or humans to the other dimension by draping his cloak over them. He cannot transport anything larger than what he can completely drape his cloak over. If he leaves anything in that other dimension, he must note landmarks in this reality corresponding to a position in that reality in order to retrieve the object from where he has placed it.

The circuitry of Sidewinder's cloak is a solid-state version of the more advanced Nth Projector equipment developed by Roxxon's subsidiary "Nth Command". It differs from that much larger device in having a smaller capacity of mass transfer, not having on-board computers, and lacking location-sensing and inter-dimensional communication devices. Sidewinder's cloak is a refinement on the principles behind the construction of the Nth Projector and is very power-efficient, requiring only watts of power to transfer Sidewinder out of and back into this dimension.

Seth Voelker has a master's degree in economics and is a skilled financial expert, business planner, and strategist of above-normal intelligence.

SAGE

 

SAGE

Real Name: Tessa

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #132, April 1980

Powers: Sage’s mutant ability is a highly developed psychocentric power template that gives her an enormous capacity for absorbing, storing, and retrieving information.

She has a photographic memory, kinetic memory, and total recall: She perfectly remembers everything she has ever seen or heard, and can exactly duplicate any physical movement or action she has seen done before (within the physical limits of her human body). Sage can analyze body language in order to predict what an opponent's next move will be, allowing her to anticipate and counter attacks in combat almost instinctively. Her computer-like mind enables her to analyze situations and conceive of highly elaborate and efficient battle plans and strategies.

Sage's capacity for analysis extends to the genetic level, she is capable of visually probing living beings and determining what if any genetically-enhanced attributes they possess. She can not only detect mutants and latent mutants, her analyses also enable her to determine the mutant's full range of potential and possible capabilities. Using her jumpstart power, Sage is capable of activating any potential capability in a mutant's genes. She can temporarily increase power levels, boost a mutant's control and finesse with their powers, and even cause latent mutants' abilities to permanently rise to the surface.

Sage was also a telepath, possessing the full range of standard telepathic abilities. She could read the minds of people in her vicinity, and arrange communication between herself and other people psionically. Sage could create illusions to disguise or alter the environment, take full mental control over another person's thoughts and actions, and project her astral form in order to explore the psychic plane.

After encountering the dangerous mutant telepath known as Elias Bogan, however, Sage was "marked" by him and in order to escape his psychic touch she caused her telepathic powers to fold in on themselves. This effectively disabled any active telepathy by her, but it had the beneficial side-effect of rendering her phenomenally resistant to psychic detection and probing. Sage's mind from then on emitted a reflective effect that turned other psychic's abilities against them if they tried to attack her. Thus, a psychic blast would mirror off of Sage's mind and strike her attacker, or an attempt at mind control would end up allowing Sage to control her opponent's mind instead. After being imprinted with Roma's god-like knowledge, Sage's telepathy returned.

She later began demonstrating other powers, such as flight, before ultimately merging with the Panoptichron, losing her human form in the process. Sage existed as a being of pan-dimensional cybernetic energy as part of the Crystal Palace, operating as a matter-energy projection able to change appearances at will, fly and pass insubstantially through barriers, as well as cosmic awareness through her mental connection to the reality-scanning supercomputers of the Panoptichron. Combining the Panoptichron with her computer-like mind, she can record and analyze massive amounts of data at blinding speeds. She eventually reverted back to her human state.

SHE-HULK

 

SHE-HULK

Real Name: Jennifer Susan Walters

First Appearance: Savage She-Hulk (Vol. 1) #1, February 1980

Powers: Jennifer Walters was originally a baseline human who received a transfusion of gamma-irradiated blood from her cousin, Bruce Banner (aka the Incredible Hulk). This gave her the power to mentally trigger a transformation into a gamma mutated form: Taller, more muscular and well-developed, and possessing superhuman Class 100 strength, endurance, durability, recuperation, and a high tolerance for disease, poison, and the effects of radiation. Unlike her cousin, Jen was capable of transforming back and forth at will, with no change in personality. There is a theory that the secondary form created through gamma mutation is governed by the psychology of the subject. Jennifer Walters' She-Hulk form is a result of her desire to be confident, assertive, and powerful. During her time with the Fantastic Four, however, She-Hulk received a dose of gamma radiation that froze her permanently in her gamma form. This was later explained as a psychological event, with Jen subconsciously blocking her own ability to turn back to normal since she truly preferred being She-Hulk.

After that point, She-Hulk was briefly reverted into a smaller, weaker, gray form and a stronger, more massive and aggressive "Savage She-Hulk". Both of these occasions were extremely temporary, resulting from some outside force affecting her, and apparently the changes manifested from Jen's knowledge of her cousin's transformations.

Some time back, Jen's gamma powers were upset by prolonged exposure to the Zero radiation powering a fellow Avenger named Jack of Hearts. This led to a brief change of status where she transformed from Jennifer Walters to a "Savage She-Hulk" in times of fear. Though she soon stabilized back to a normal She-Hulk mind and body, she retained the ability to transform back to Jen Walters. At this point, fearing for her safety in this weakened state, Jen had the Scarlet Witch cast a hex spell over her which prevented anyone from recognizing Jen Walters as the She-Hulk if they meant to do harm to her alter-ego, thus protecting Jen from her enemies when in human form. Further, it seems her "She-Hulk" strength level was now relative to that of Jennifer Walters, an exponential increase in the physical power she possessed as a normal woman. After a period of three months training herself vigorously as Jen, she gained a tremendous increase in her She-Hulk strength, greatly exceeding Class 100 strength levels. With the help of Reed Richards, she began employing John Jameson's old Jupiter Suit to inhibit her strength down to manageable levels. After a major fight with Titania, the Jupiter Suit was destroyed and Jen could no longer change into She-Hulk. Apparently, this is another psychological situation, with Jen having become far more comfortable in her normal form thanks to her time spent at GLK & H practicing law as Jen Walters and not "She-Hulk".

Doc Samson helped construct a bracelet device called a "gamma-changer" which could artificially trigger her transformations for her, but it required time to build a sufficient gamma charge between uses, limiting the amount of changes she could make. Eventually, a consultation with Doc Samson and Dr. Strange led to a fuller understanding of Jen's psychological inhibitions relating to her powers. By removing Wanda's hex spell over Jen, Dr. Strange fully restored her ability to transform between Jen and She-Hulk. However, it remains unclear whether She-Hulk's strength level has diminished back to its classic level or not. She also learned the body-mind transference technique from the extraterrestrial race known as the Ovoids, but she rarely employs this ability.

Jennifer Walters is a practicing attorney who holds a Juris Doctor degree from UCLA. She has extensive knowledge of the American legal system.

HEATHER HUDSON

 

VINDICATOR II

Real Name: Heather MacNeil Hudson

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #139, November 1980

Powers: Heather MacNeil Hudson wore an armor suit virtually identical to that of her husband, James MacDonald Hudson (aka Guardian I). As Guardian II, her suit possessed a few additional features added like an ultrasonic burst to disorient her opponents or scramble mechanical systems, and a flare effect to summon aid or blind targets.

Following her husband's second disappearance, Heather was given a new body suit and joined Alpha Flight as Vindicator II. Her suit was based on some of the same principles as the original suit: It enhanced the user's strength and reflexes, enabled Mach 1 flight, and a force field. The offensive focus of this suit was geothermal, though, not electromagnetic. She could now sense heat fluctuations in her environment, as well as sudden geological activity. The costume used geothermal super-heating effects to help project high-temperature flames, steaming streams of vapor, or volatile plasma bursts. Vindicator could also manipulate tectonic plates to trigger earthquakes, seismic upheavals, or summon forth volcanic activity.

Heather MacNeil Hudson is a master combat strategist.

TASKMASTER

 

TASKMASTER

Real Name: Anthony Masters

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #195, May 1980

Powers: The man who became the Taskmaster was biochemically enhanced by a mnemonic primer, an experimental solution which opened his mind to rapidly assimilating new skills and abilities. This gave him an ability most commonly referred to as "photographic reflexes". Through observation, Taskmaster can break down any form of simple or complex action and imprint it onto his implicit muscle memory. He can duplicate any action he sees, including playing a musical instrument, preparing a gourmet meal, performing rope tricks, etc. His skills are limited to what he can see: He can mimic the ability to play the piano, but not how to read sheet music, and watching someone play Beethoven's 2nd would not allow him to play Beethoven's 9th.

Taskmaster has mastered the fighting styles of numerous super-heroes and villains through personal contact or watching videos of them in action. Short exposure to their skills allows him to mimic specific moves, but extended observation has enabled him to perfectly duplicate their entire set of movements, attacks and counterattacks as one smooth fighting style. As a side-effect of his studies, Taskmaster can predict and reflexively defend against the attacks of anyone he has observed in-depth. He also mastered the skill of breaking down a fighting style after he intuitively learned it, enabling him to "manually" teach the style to the students at his various Academies.

Taskmaster is limited by his human physique in some cases: He cannot duplicate the Iron Fist, for instance, or Spider-Man's more elaborate leaping and bouncing. He can assimilate and "map" techniques onto his reflexes that are beyond his physical capabilities, but cannot fully mimic skills that require a superhuman physique to accomplish. He has accelerated his reflexes to near superhuman speeds at times by mimic techniques by video while watching them on fast-forward, but attempting to force his body to move that fast is extremely unhealthy and quickly exhausts him. He was also able to assimilate Redshirt's Shi'ar avian physique-based fighting style to predict his moves and mimic at least some of his actions, but not all of them.

In his original costume, Taskmaster employed a variety of weapons patterned after those used by super-heroes, letting him combat them with their own tricks. This included duplicates of Captain America's shield, Daredevil's billy club, Black Knight's sword, Hawkeye's bow and arrow, Punisher's guns, etc. Later on, he adopted a tactical body suit equipped with an image inducer for holographic disguises, a standard set of handguns and swords, and photonic weapon systems in his gauntlets that could generate energy-based shields, sais, and even webbing. Taskmaster was briefly able to augment his abilities through a procedure enabling him to outright mimic superhuman powers by observation, but this modification quickly faded away.

Eventually, the full side-effects of Taskmaster's powers were revealed. The "implicit" muscle memories he has assimilated over the years have largely overwritten his "explicit" memory: His personal history, childhood and so forth. He may be able to perfectly identify someone's accent, down to the country and region, but can't remember if he's ever personally been there. These personal memories still exist, but are buried deep within his subconscious most of the time. Learning new skills with his power buries any further memories he has developed since the last use of his powers. Taskmaster makes his way through life using a combination of his reflexive actions and the guidance of his wife Mercedes Merced, who poses as a representative of "The Org" that gives Taskmaster his assignments. Beyond that, he apparently relies upon elaborate bluffs and acting to make it through his every day existence.

U.S. AGENT

 

U.S. AGENT

Real Name: John F. Walker

First Appearance: Captain America (Vol. 1) #323, November 1986 (as Super-Patriot II); Captain America (Vol. 1) #333, September 1987 (as Captain America VI); Captain America (Vol. 1) #354, June 1989 (as U.S. Agent)

Powers: John F. Walker began his career just out of the Army. He underwent the Power Broker Process to enhance his musculature, giving him Class 20 strength, superhuman endurance, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury. Outfitting himself as the Super-Patriot, he used a set of American throwing stars and a Liberty's Torch which produced a jet of flame out from its hilt. After being chosen by the Commission to replace Steve Rogers, Walker was given the patriotic chain-mail uniform of Captain America and the unique steel/Vibranium alloy throwing shield. After Rogers returned, Walker was given a new identity as the U.S. Agent and a new shield forged out of Vibranium.

When he joined Force Works years later, Agent adopted a new set of weaponry, replacing his solid shield with photonic energy generators mounted in his gauntlets. By calling out "Shield -- Ignite!", the generators projected a photon shield onto the back of his arm, which could disperse any energy directed at it. Saying "Shield -- Release!" would discharge the shield's photonic energy as a destructive blast, and he would require a few moments to let the generators recharge before he could form a new shield.

After taking a job with Edwin Cord and the Jury, Agent began using a new eagle badge shield that he could throw and then control its trajectory in midair using control studs in his gloves. He also employed Jury flight disks, mechanical plates strapped to his boots that enabled him to fly with great speed and maneuverability.

At one point, he went back to using his Vibranium shield only to have it shatter into pieces during the aftermath of Battleworld. After being heavily beaten and stabbed through the chest by Protocide, Agent underwent surgical procedures to save his life, which also apparently augmented his strength to some degree in the process. Shortly after this, Walker was approached by the Commission again to head a new department known as STARS. He agreed, and was given a set of modified weaponry. His new crash helmet protected his head from impact and was equipped with built in radio transceivers. His energy truncheon could produce painful surges of energy on contact, at varying levels of intensity, and his new shield was in the eagle badge design but reinforced by tangible photonic energy.

During his period with the new Invaders, Walker frequently utilized grenades and semi-automatic weapons, along with a disk-shaped shield which could extend razor sharp spikes around its border. He later returned to using a stylized version of his discus shield.

In battle with the Thunderbolts, Agent lost an arm and leg to Scourge, who was wielding the Asgardian spear of Odin, Gungnir. Although still super-powered, Walker was forced to use a wheelchair and a mechanical hand for utility. While trapped in a pocket dimension with the Dark Avengers, Toxic Doxie cultivated some symbiote bio-mass to recreate his missing limbs. These limbs seem to look and act exactly like his original limbs, with all their strength. It's unknown if his limbs have a traditional symbiote's vulnerability to fire and sonics.

BARON KARZA

 

BARON KARZA

Real Name: Baron Karza

First Appearance: Micronauts (Vol. 1) #1, January 1979

Powers: Baron Karza rose to power in the sub-dimensional Microverse using lost arts of cyber-genetics and bio-engineering. He transformed himself into pure mental energy, and cast his essence into a shell of living, nigh-invincible armor. After assuming control of Homeworld, he constructed the vast genetic manipulation laboratories known as the Body Banks, which converted the poor and downtrodden into raw materials for the rich to keep themselves alive, and to create his endless series of Dog Soldiers. The Body Banks were powered by the atomic fires from the core of the planet itself, and through them, Baron Karza's armor was constantly enriched with raw energy, giving him nearly inexhaustible stamina. Karza's body also gave him superhuman strength and armored durability, reinforced by an impenetrable force field he could summon with a thought. Karza could launch his fists at opponents as projectile weapons, animating them from a distance to either strangle or pummel his victims into submission. The disembodied hands could also discharge a portion of Karza's own energies, immediately incapacitated someone on contact. He possessed a number of offensive weapons built into his hands, eyes, four chest nodules, and the ruby symbol in the center of his stomach, including blinding light flashes, heat beams, force blasts, and a molecular disintegrator effect. His hands, at least, are capable of firing off multiple blasts simultaneously which can each seek out individual targets. Karza was also capable of self-levitation (though not propulsive flight), long-range teleportation, and forging power-shackles of pure energy to hold his foes trapped. Baron Karza could transmogrify his armored body at will from a humanoid to a centaur form, altering his speed and mobility while also unsheathing mace-like tail and a set of side-mounted engines that could blast him across the landscape.

Karza's power is not limited to his armored body alone: As a being of pure energy, he possesses telepathic powers enabling him to sense and probe the minds of others at will, induce a "mind-bind" to block out certain thoughts, or a "mind-shock" that could have a potentially deadly effect on anyone within range. What's more, he can separate from his body and enter a state of disembodied energy, similar to an astral form. This energy state is still visible to the naked eye, though, and is capable of performing a "mind-merge" and imprinting Karza's essence onto the body of another being. Through this process, Baron Karza can literally transform another person into a replica of himself, complete with all his armor's capabilities. This enabled him to survive his first death by merging permanently with Force Commander to give his spirit a new host, but he was also able to temporarily possess the Earth-created Professor Prometheus. This meant that, while the Microverse natives normally grow only to about 6 inches tall after passing through the Spacewall to Earth, Baron Karza was able to manifest on our world as a full human-sized armored warrior.

CAPTAIN UNIVERSE

 

CAPTAIN UNIVERSE

Real Name: Variable ("Captain Universe" is the generic name for recipients of the Uni-Power, which constantly transfers from one person to another.)

First Appearance: Micronauts (Vol. 1) #8, August 1979

Powers: Captain Universe is not a person. It is the generic name for the recipient of the Uni-Power, a special kind of energy that endows an individual with a host of superhuman powers. The Uni-Power is a manifestation of the Enigma Force, an extra-dimensional energy originating in the subatomic realm known as the Microverse, wielded by the ethereal Time Travelers. The Uni-Power appears to be a floating globule of luminescent energy that appears seemingly from out of nowhere to engulf an individual, conferring upon him or her the costume, powers and knowledge of Captain Universe. The Uni-Power only manifests itself at a time of crisis, be it personal or worldwide, and then withdraws when the crisis has abated. How it chooses the individual who gets full possession of the Uni-Power to solve his or her crisis is yet known. The Uni-Power does not remain with one person for very long. It transfers from one person to another across the face of the world with no perceptible time lapsing between. At all times somewhere on Earth there is a Captain Universe (once, a pair of twins were Captain Universes simultaneously). The Uni-Power first empowered a NASA astronaut named Captain Ray Coffin, which is why the super-powered individual it creates is called "Captain Universe".

The Uni-Power can be manipulated by each Captain Universe in a variety of ways, dependent upon each recipient's imagination and strength. The Uni-Power amplifies strength about fifty times. Thus, if a person can normally lift (press) 150 pounds, he or she would now be able to lift approximately 7,500 pounds. Each Captain Universe is also granted the ability to fly by harnessing the Uni-Power's energy to generate anti-gravitions. The Uni-Power also grants the ability to manipulate the molecular structure of objects, changing one shape into another, or even transmuting the elements of an object from one substance to another. This power of molecular manipulation extends to both organic and inorganic matter. Thus, the Uni-Power can be used to heal wounds by rearranging the molecules of flesh, tissues or organs, or it can be used to alter the physical characteristics of a person (enlarging the hands or changing their features). The Uni-Power can also be wielded like an energy-beam, generating a luminous burst of energy with a concussive force determined to an extent by the user's ability. The Uni-Power also grants each Captain Universe Uni-Vision which enable the user to see the molecular structure of an object, to see through walls, or to see long distances away. The Uni-Vision is emitted by Captain Universe's eyes and produces a visible beam of energy. This energy has certain hypnotic-side-effects: a skillful wielder of the Uni-Vision can use it to hypnotize people into telling the truth.

SASQUATCH

 

SASQUATCH

Real Name: Walter Langkowski

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #120, April 1979

Powers: Dr. Walter Langkowski was a physicist attempting to recreate the gamma exposure that turned Dr. Bruce Banner into the Hulk, but under controlled laboratory conditions. This resulted in a massive explosion in the northern Canadian wilderness. This explosion was severe enough that it briefly created a tear in the inter-dimensional barrier protecting Earth from the Great Beasts, and one of the Beasts named Tanaraq reached through to "touch" Langkowski. Awakening after the explosion, Walter discovered that he now had the power to transform into an orange-furred bigfoot creature. He reasoned that he had become a gamma mutate, and the normal green coloration caused by gamma radiation was altered by the methods he employed. In fact, Sasquatch was actually Tanaraq's body, and Walter was transpositioning his own mass with that of the Great Beast himself, and each time he did so, Tanaraq's influence on Earth was becoming stronger and stronger. As Sasquatch, Walter stood over 7' tall and was covered with shaggy orange fur. His strength level reached Superhuman Class 100, in addition to increased foot speed, agility, endurance, reaction time, and tremendous resistance to physical injury. He did possess some level of enhanced senses and his fingers ended in claws, but he was rarely interested in employing them. After Tanaraq eventually waxed full control over the Sasquatch body, Snowbird was forced to kill Walter's physical form in order to annihilate the Great Beast. His spirit was recovered and placed inside the Box Mark II robot for a time, but was later lost on the Crossroads to All Realities. Eventually, Walter's spirit found its way into the void inside Shaman's medicine pouch, and possessed the diminutive body of the brain-dead Smart Alec, who was being stored in there. Crawling out of the pouch, Langkowski then transferred his mind briefly into the Box Mark III to combat Pestilence, an evil spirit who had possessed Snowbird's body, which at that point was both dead and transformed into a recreation of Langkowski's Sasquatch body.

After Pestilence was driven out, Walter possessed the Snowbird-Sasquatch and impulsively attempted to transform back into his human self. Snowbird's power was that she always transformed into female, white-haired versions of different animals. By attempting to morph into his human self, Walter ended up transforming into a female version of himself with white hair. This process seemed to disrupt Snowbird's powers, and so Langkowski was never able to access any of Snowbird's other morphing or psionic powers. Now, the he//she combination could only morph back and forth from the white furred female Sasquatch to the white haired "Wanda Langkowski". In the end, though, Narya's patron gods intervened and remove all traces of Snowbird from Sasquatch's body, restoring him to his male human form and orange-furred Sasquatch form. Since that time, Walter has referred to himself as a gamma mutate again, so it seems that the gods transformed him into the very thing he originally thought himself to be. The second Sasquatch was an actual "missing link", one of a hidden race of creatures resembling Langkowski's altered form. He had considerable mass, standing over at least 7' tall, in addition to superhuman strength, running speed, endurance, and resistance to physical injury. He also possessed razor sharp claws and teeth, and presumably had enhanced senses as well.

Walter Langkowski holds a Ph.D. in physics and is also a genius-level intellect with expertise in the effects of radiation on human physiology. He also has extensive knowledge of physics and was a talented football player.

GYPSY MOTH

 

GYPSY MOTH

Real Name: Sybil Dvorak

First Appearance: Spider-Woman (Vol. 1) #10, January 1979

Powers: Known as Skein or as the Gypsy Moth, Sybil Dvorak is a mutant, possessing a version of telekinesis that she has apparently subconsciously limited so that she can only affect "soft" materials like hair and various forms of cloth, fabric, and textiles. Skein is capable of lifting people off the ground and moving them about through the air by hefting them by their clothes. She can cause someone's clothing (or long hair) to turn against them, wrapping them up in a cocoon, constricting to cut off blood flow, or throwing them into a wall or solid object.

While operating in her previous identity as Gypsy Moth, Sybil wove a set of moth-like wings out of soft material and mentally knitted them into the flesh on her back, using them to fly. Skein can manipulate fabrics on an individual thread-level, letting her unweave clothes into individual strands, and mentally weave loose material into new costumes or garments through concentration. As Skein, she keeps thick bundles of fabric around her arms at all times as a constant source of material to work with, sending it out as ropes and lassos or to bind her opponents in place.

PROTEUS

 

PROTEUS

Real Name: Kevin MacTaggert

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #125, September 1979

Powers: Proteus is an omega-level mutant able to manipulate and alter reality in any way he can imagine via psionic influence exerted over fundamental forces and principles. His power was limited by line-of-sight and could only affect matter within his visual range. He most commonly used his ability to ripple space and matter around him, like objects seen through swirling water. This can be extremely disorienting and even maddening to living beings. He can dramatically restructure matter and energy, such as turning a rifle into a snake or Cyclops's optic blast into a harmless spray of flowers. This effect could also animate non-living matter, turning buildings into anthropomorphic constructs or making objects seemingly come to life and attack people. He could make solid structures crumble to the ground or explode violently. Proteus could also manipulate gravity in order to levitate and fly or increase the weight of other people and objects.

Proteus also possesses telepathic abilities that enable him to read minds and attack at psychic levels. He could use his telepathy to communicate telepathically or erect mental shields to block other telepaths. Proteus could also absorb information from people or computer systems by touching them, and cross dimensional barriers at will.

In his natural form, he existed in a vulnerable, but dangerous state of pure psionic energy. Originally, he could take possession of human bodies to contain his vast energies and could possess anyone within a few feet of his position. Possession gave Proteus access to all his victim's memories and emotions. His energies would eventually “burn out” his host bodies (as he did with his own natural body), killing them in the process. His energies quickly ate away at their physical frame, causing them to shrivel like a used up husk until the body could sustain him no more and he needed to find another.

His energy form had a natural aversion to metal, making it the only thing that could block his powers or possession, and disperse his energy state. Upon his first resurrection, Proteus had bonded with the energy-absorbing mutant known as Piecemeal, effectively removing his weakness to metal and need for host bodies, until he committed suicide and returned to discorporation. He was resurrected again under the House of M reality with all his classic weaknesses, but later escaped Wanda's reordering of the universe by traveling to another dimension. During the Exiles' hunt for Proteus, he possessed Angel of House of M, Mimic of the Exiles, Justice of the New Universe, and Hulk of 2099 in turn, assimilating portions of their psyches in the process. The Exiles ultimately caged him when he found a non-degrading host body in the Exile known as Morph, and the Exiles used the Behavior Modification machine from Earth-S to reprogram him to believe himself to actually be Morph. His return to the 616 Universe during the events of Necrosha left him with the ability possess multiple host bodies at once.