MISTER JIP

 

MISTER JIP

Real Name: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Strange Tales (Vol. 2) #8, November 1987

Powers: Born in the 15th century, the man who would become Mister Jip was an amoral seeker of knowledge and the first student of the Ancient One in Kamar-Taj. Seeking immortality in order to continue his quest for knowledge sans interruptions, Jip developed a process through the black arts of absorbing the body of another person into his own, adding their remaining lifespan to his. The unequivocal evil behind the spell came with a number of restrictions and side effects. First, Mr. Jip could only possess the bodies of people who already contained a potent level of evil or darkness. Anyone of particularly high selfishness, sadistic, or malevolent intent would qualify, although "darkness" also seemed to qualify anyone in possession of the Darkforce, even an essentially noble soul like Cloak (Tyrone Johnson). Second, anyone aware of Jip's existence and intent would reject the possession process, instinctively creating psychic barriers to repel the festering malevolence of his soul before it could grab hold of theirs. As a result, Jip needed to catch his victims unawares in order to assimilate them as a host body.

Having survived over five hundred years through this process, Mr. Jip's body had suffered a toll. His hunchbacked, decaying true form reeks of evil, with the residual features of his past hosts rippling through his flesh as if still trying to escape. Jip can temporarily assume the appearance of any of his past hosts in order to appear in public. He can also manifest portions of their bodies in other ways. Mr. Jip has been seen with functional eyes and mouths on his back side and manifesting on other areas of his flesh as well. He can sprout hands from his hump to hold a book so that eyes on his back can read it. Jip has sprouted multiple arms or tentacles of living flesh to grip his opponents or snare objects in close quarters. He can also detach portions of his mass and retain a remote link to them. His familiar, YipYap, is a pair of eyes attached to long stalks that is capable of flight. YipYap's small size allows it to covertly observe events for Mr. Jip, transmitting its observations back to Jip through their shared link. YipYap can also separate into two individual eye-stalks to track separate events simultaneously. Mr. Jip also once removed one of his many eyes and installed it in Brigid O'Reilly's eye socket. This allowed him to remotely track her activities and influence her behavior.

Mr. Jip is a highly skilled master of the black arts, having demonstrated a number of spells and mystical abilities. He is capable of feats such as teleportation, body swapping other people, casting bolts of force, creating enchanted shackles, shaping remote viewing screens out of his flesh, and so on.