MYSTERIUM

 

MYSTERIUM

Real Name: Thomas Joseph Lightner

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #21, August 1976 (as Blacksun); Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #58, September 1979 (as Nth Man); Squadron Supreme: New World Order (Vol. 1) #1, August 1998 (as Mysterium)

Powers: Originally a baseline human with no superhuman powers, Dr. Thomas Lightner was a solar physicist and the son of Nobel Prize winning astronomer Dr. Raymond Lightner, designer and builder of Sky Cannon observatory. The elder Lightner vanished (and was subsequently declared dead) and the Sky Cannon was destroyed after he used it in an attempt to draw upon the power of an imploding universe, to theoretically manifest the raw power of a black hole. In adulthood, his son used his inherited fortune to rebuild the Sky Cannon to recreate his father's lost experiment. Believing he could tap into the other-dimensional Darkforce Dimension and infuse its energies into a human host (himself), his experiment was disrupted when the Fantastic Four accidentally flew into the path of the Sky Cannon just as it fired. The beam reflected onto Thomas Lightner, creating a temporal twisting whereby his era and that of his father’s overlapped, merging the two Lightners into the ultra-powerful being known as Blacksun the Stellar Man.

As Blacksun, he internalized massive amounts of stellar energy, partially recreating the point singularity effect within his own physical form. Thus altered, he developed a tremendous molecular density, giving him roughly Class 85 strength and near-invincibility. The merged form of Thomas and Raymond Lightner possessed density so gravitationally compact that it could warp time, energy, and matter around them. This made projectiles or other assaults curve harmlessly around his physical form. He could release his energies in order to fly, create areas of total darkness by feeding off of all ambient light and stellar energy, and discharge concussive force bolts from his hands. Though immensely strong and durable, he never attained full control of their powers before burning them out. Thor, in his Dr. Donald Blake guise, revived him in a hospital as the depowered Thomas Lightner; but what became of the previously merged Raymond Lightner is unrevealed.

Later, Dr. Lightner became an operative for the Roxxon Oil Company, going undercover at Project: PEGASUS, a U.S. government energy research facility. Lightner’s mission was to smuggle components for the Nth Projector, a device capable of transporting objects to other realities, into PEGASUS to remove the facility from Earth-616’s dimension, thus allowing Roxxon to maintain control over the energy market. He attempted to reactivate his powers as Blacksun using the Nth Projector. His power returned, after a fashion, transforming him into the living black hole known as the Nth Man, whose multi-dimensional existence threatened to consume all realities. 

As the Nth Man, his physical dimensions were converted into a space warp effect that was constantly drawing matter and energy from his environment into him. The physical structure of objects bent and collapsed inwards as they came closer to him, so that even enormous mass could be sucked in. Though essentially a sentient singularity, he possessed limited control over this state: He could slightly accelerate or slow his rate of absorption, and could, in atmosphere, manipulate sound waves to speak. As he absorbed more, he grew exponentially, until upon absorbing the entirety of a universe, he would collapse in upon himself and emerge reborn into another dimension, where the process would began again. In this manner, the metacosmic Lightner consumed seven universes. The eighth universe was Reality-712, also known as Earth-S, the home of the Squadron Supreme.

In that reality, he reached a size equal to the entire solar system. Before completely destroying the galaxy, though, he mystically traded places with Arcanna's infant son, Benjamin, giving the boy his power while adapting the infinite sorcerous potential of the child for himself. Now, as Mysterium, he operates as Wizard Supreme (the Sorcerer Supreme equivalent) of their universe with all that it entails. The full range of his abilities is unrevealed, but they include teleportation, manipulation of dimensional barriers, extra-dimensional communication, levitation, possession, illusions, and matter transmutation, among others. He draws his energy from his own psychic resources and from the ambient energy of his new universe and others.

Dr. Thomas Lightner is a gifted intellect who earned a Ph.D. in solar physics and was an expert in the study of the Sun, its internal processes, magnetic fields, atmosphere, and the solar wind's interaction with the solar system and Earth. He is immensely knowledgeable about the fundamental mystical and physical natures, as well as of the residents of his new home universe and others.

SHADOWOMAN

 

SHADOWOMAN

Real Name: Jillian Marie Woods

First Appearance: Quasar (Vol. 1) #45, February 1993

Powers: Jillian Marie Woods has a baseline human who gained superhuman powers at the moment of her death. The lover of Doctor Druid, a small fragment of her ebbing soul was sustained through magic and used to animate her own living shadow via energies from the Darkforce Dimension. She could now appear as flesh and blood, and manifest any set of civilian or costumed garb for herself. Jillian could transform herself into a shade of darkness, immune to physical harm, capable of flight and of passing through solid objects. She could also manifest her shadow-form externally, expelling streams of tangible darkness as blasts from her hands, creating a giant shadow that could cast darkness over wide areas, elongating and enlarging her limbs or transforming them into claws, blades, or tendrils of dark matter. As Sepulcre, she was also capable of creating intangible "zones of null perception" which engulfed her opponents and blocked out all their senses in an area of total blackness and silence. Even the Silver Surfer's cosmic senses muffled by this, and it was suggested that this zone was actually a separate pocket space of reality, meaning an opponent could wander about endlessly within it.

EON

EON

Real Name: Unknown

First Appearance: Captain Marvel (Vol. 1) #28, September 1973

Powers: Eon was a sentient, quasi-physical entity, roughly 20 feet in height, that resembled a tree with certain humanoid features and possessed great power and considerable knowl­edge of the cosmos. Almost as old as the universe itself, Eon was among the first sentient entities formed in the wake of the Big Bang and has ex­isted for 8 billion years. Eon claimed to be the offspring of Eternity, which is the entity that embodies all life forces in the universe, the Celestial Axis, which is the pattern of organic energy threading itself through the known universe, and Time itself, which appears to be another aspect of the entity called Eternity.

Eon dwelled in a pocket dimension adjacent to Earth's universe, from which it could observe this universe. However, Eon could materialize anywhere in the uni­verse it chooses. Eon appeared to be a sort of cosmic custodian that monitors life in the universe. Beings with an abundance of power particularly attracted Eon 's at­tention. Eon is believed to be respon­sible for certain phenomena on Earth, a planet that lies along the Ce­lestial Axis. Eon apparently had something to do with certain other di­mensions in which beings of godlike powers dwell. In most of these di­mensions, the Celestial Axis mani­fests itself as a physical object. In the dimension of Asgard, for example, the Celestial Axis becomes Yggdrasil the World Tree.

Eon's principal function was to nur­ture the evolution of the sentient life forms of the universe and to maintain conditions conducive to life within the universe. Eon regarded Earth and its human denizens as having partic­ular importance to the history of the universe. Eon regarded the present time as a crucial one in Earth's his­tory due to the emergence over re­cent decades of growing numbers of superhuman beings. Eon believed that a superhuman race is quickly evolving on Earth that would bring a "golden age" to the entire universe.  

One of Eon's major functions was the appointment of a protector of life in the universe. Since its creation, Eon anticipated major threats to life and chose champions to de­fend the universe against these threats. It is not known how fre­quently Eon appointed these protec­tors, if there is a virtually unbroken progression of them, or if they are only selected when the need arises. Eon appointed numerous such guardians, selecting them from vari­ous sentient races, including one from the Elan. All but one of these champions wore devices called Quantum-Bands, wristbands that Eon created that enable the champions to manip­ulate energy at will and serve as a symbol of his or her station as Protector of the Universe. Eon also be­stowed other powers upon the guardians it has chosen. The first Protector of the Universe that Eon appointed was Glakandar, about 5 billion years ago.

Eon selected Captain Mar-Veil of Kree as a Protector of the Universe. Mar Veil, who distin­guished himself both in the Kree mili­tary and as a defender of Earth was appointed protector to combat the menace of Thanos, one of the Eter­nals of Titan, who sought to destroy the universe. Mar-Veil led the Earth's staunchest champions against Thanos, who ultimately was de­feated by them. Eon granted Mar-Vell the heightened consciousness called "cosmic awareness" to aid him in his crusade against Thanos. Mar-Veil was the only one of the champions chosen by Eon who did not wear the Quantum-Bands, which had fallen into the possession of the costumed Marvel Boy duplicate calling himself the Crusader.

Following Mar-Vell's death from cancer, Eon selected Wendell Elvis Vaughn, also known as the costumed champion Quasar, as the next Protector of the Universe. Quasar had already acquired the wristbands following the Crusader’s death. Eon told Quasar that he was to defend both the universe and Eon itself from an unidentified menace to them both that originates on Earth. To better protect Eon, Quasar brought Eon back to Earth, and concealed it in an office in Four Freedoms Plaza in Manhattan. Eon remained there for a time, advising Quasar in his mis­sion against the unidentified men­ace.

DEATHURGE

 

DEATHURGE

Real Name: Unknown

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #71, June 1981

Powers: Deathurge is a wraith-like superhuman entity whose origin is unknown and who appears to be a messenger of death. Deathurge can fly at great speeds, become intangible at will, and draw forth from his non-reflective ebony body a variety of simple weaponry such as spears, axes, and bows and arrows. These weapons, also non-reflective black, appear to be made of the same unknown substance as Deathurge's body. When these weapons strike Deathurge's target, the target dies, a blackness spreading from the spot where the weapon bloodlessly struck and passed through the target's body. If the weapon happens to pass through someone other than Deathurge's target, that person will feel the sensation of numbing coldness but will not blacken or die. Deathurge's targets are apparently only those who have at least to some degree craved death and oblivion.

Deathurge's origins are not known. He may or may not be a supernatural being such as a demon or ghost. He may or may not be an abstract entity like Master Order or the In-Betweener. He may or may not be a physical being granted new life in a quasiphysical form such as the Eternal Chronos or Drax the Destroyer. It is not known what connection, if any, Deathurge has to the personification of Death.

Deathurge was first observed in the employ of the superhuman offspring of an Inhuman and a Deviant named Maelstrom. Although Maelstrom sometimes treated Deathurge as if he were a personal messenger or minion, Deathurge clearly served Maelstrom for reasons of his own. Deathurge was dispatched to slay the clonal bodies of Maelstrom's three prime minions and twice was commanded to slay clonal bodies of Maelstrom himself. A third clonal body of Maelstrom dismissed Deathurge when he realized they were at cross purposes. He later appeared on the planet Uranus in an attempt to convince the costumed super-hero Quasar to commit suicide.

GEOMETER

 

GEOMETER

Real Name: Unrevealed

First Appearance: Quasar (Vol. 1) #51, October 1993

Powers: A member of an extinct alien race of scientists, the Geometer was the first to create a mathematical equation which described the workings of the universe. Obsessed with mathematical perfection, he began searching for a universe that would fit his ideal.

The Geometer is an angular crystalline being who utilizes the Lathe of Perfection, a device which conducts a form of metamorphic force that manipulates matter and energy for him. The effects it made on matter and energy typically changed them into symmetrical constructions and geometric shapes.

He is virtually immortal, can form gravimetric shields, and even travel across time and dimensions.

PHYLA-VELL

 

PHYLA-VELL

Real Name: Phyla-Vell

First Appearance: Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #16, January 2004

Powers: Phyla-Vell is the artificially-engineered daughter of Captain Mar-Vell and Elysius of Titan, and the inheritor of the legacies of Captain Marvel and, more recently, Quasar. Phyla first appeared after her brother Genis went mad and helped the cosmic being Entropy destroy the universe, then recreate it -- her existence was one of many relatively small inconsistencies between the previous version of Earth-616 and the reconstructed one.

Phyla possesses the augmented physiology of her mother and minor solar processing abilities inherited from her father, giving her Class 10-15 strength, moderately superhuman endurance and reflexes, and the ability to fly under her own power. She also possessed an extremely limited form of cosmic awareness which increased her natural intuitive abilities. Her powers were augmented by a set of nega bands, which harnessed her psionic energy to amplify her strength, endurance, durability and flight speed. The bands also made her an energy sponge, allowing Phyla to absorb energy assaults directed against her, and then amplify and return the energy as photonic blasts. Although she could produce a small amount of photonic energy through the bands on her own, she was primarily reliant on outside attacks or energy sources to "power up" in combat.

After confronting Annihilus in battle, she stripped him of the Quantum-Bands he had stolen from Wendell Vaughn's corpse, and so became Quasar herself, the new Protector of the Universe. The Quantum-Bands absorbed the nega bands as they attached permanently to her wrists, replacing her old powers with new ones. Somehow, Phyla lost her cosmic awareness in the process of gaining the Quantum-Bands, and so if the bands were somehow disabled, she only possesses her natural strength and flight powers. With the Quantum-Bands, however, she could do virtually anything Wendell Vaughn could do with them. She often forged a quantum sword as her signature weapon. During a trip to the afterlife, Phyla lost the Quantum-Bands as Wendell Vaughn returned to life. She also made a deal with Oblivion to become the Avatar of Death in exchange for saving Heather Douglas from the Dragon of the Moon. Now calling herself Martyr, Phyla's natural strength, durability and flight powers were enhanced by Oblivion. She also carries a death-metal sword in place of her old Quantum Sword. This blade can cut through most anything, and discharge concussive blasts from its tip.

STARHAWK

 

STARHAWK

Real Names: Stakar and Aleta Ogord

First Appearances: Defenders (Vol. 1) #28, October 1975 (Stakar); Defenders (Vol. 1) #29, November 1975 (Aleta)

Powers: Stakar is the son of the Avenger Quasar and the artificial woman known as Her, born in the future of the parallel reality designated Earth-691. He was left in the care of Arcturian Mutants, a poverty-stricken caste of malformed humanoids on the planet Arcturus. When another group of Arcturians, the Reavers, slaughtered the Mutants, one Reaver named Ogord found the human-looking baby Stakar, and adopted him as his own son, raising Stakar alongside his biological daughter, Aleta. Upon reaching early adulthood, Stakar and Aleta journeyed into a ruined city to the Temple of the Hawk-God, where they found a giant "statue" of the Hawk-God. In a fit of anger, Aleta threw a brainwave helmet to the ground, and when it exploded it consumed her physical body and her living essence was transferred into the "statue". It turned out that the statue was the actual the Hawk-God, a rogue cosmic entity of vast power who was sentenced to stand there immobile on Arcturus for all eternity by the Living Tribunal and the Cosmic Congress. Aleta had accidentally reanimated him, and he went on a rampage through Arcturus. Stakar tried to use the brainwave helmet to communicate with Aleta's consciousness inside the Hawk-God, but only managed to get his essence absorbed in as well. The Hawk-God was eventually calmed and restored his rescuers to a new form of life as gratitude, making them a composite energy being.

As Starhawk, Stakar and Aleta are a photonic entity that perfectly mimics the actions and appearance of a human being. They are sustained by a self-regenerating energy matrix, and so do not require food, water, air, or sleep in order to survive. They can operate in the vacuum of space or any number of extreme environments. Also, Aleta (and presumably Stakar) can become intangible and pass through solid objects as pure energy. Only one of them was active at a single time, with whichever one was conscious capable of willing the change into their counterpart, "morphing" their photonic state to become the other one. The inactive partner would mentally reside in a "void", unaware of what was going on in reality while the other was in charge of their body. Aleta was the source of the pair's light energy, generating it within their shared body. She could then shape her light energy in a number of ways: Aleta could produce illumination as a soft glow or blinding flash, create solid photon battering rams, construct protective shields or domes to prevent people or objects from coming to harm, form ramps, bridges, cages, rings, etc. She could not fly on her own, but produced platforms or small disks under her feet which she then levitated and propelled through air or space for transportation. Stakar tapped into the light energy Aleta generated and manipulated it to various effects. He could reinforce the photonic energy of his own body, effectively increasing his density at will to augment his physical strength and durability to the point where he could battle Thor hand-to-hand.

Stakar could sense energy emissions across the electromagnetic spectrum, registering the presence of energy phenomena, powerful beings or technology, and mentally detecting a variety of transmissions signals and the like. He could produce light energy and alter it to produce blinding light, penetrating laser beams, concussive or explosive blasts, intense heat, and even expressing it as "living light" in order to heal the injuries of other people, restoring even critically wounded allies to full health. Stakar could fly, by generating his solar sails (a set of energy streamers extending out from his back). He could accelerate to the speed of light in under 10 seconds, and could even fly that fast in atmospheres since he was made of energy and not matter, so he wouldn't cause environmental problems by moving at supersonic speeds. Stakar was also the self-styled “One-Who-Knows”. At some point in his future, Stakar was destined to be killed and his consciousness projected back in time to possess his own infant body not long before the Reavers attacked the Mutants and Ogord adopted him. Thus, he would relive his own lifeline up until his consciousness was projected back in time again, starting the whole process over in a perpetual loop. From his perspective, our Stakar has lived his own life countless times already. In the past, he has tried altering the events of his life, but has found that it is virtually impossible for him to change his destiny. By this lifetime, Stakar has become almost depressingly resigned to his fate, living through an existence he has already completed countless times. This was until Mephisto manipulated events in this timeline, causing Stakar to shift into an alternate reality where his knowledge of all events became less undeniably true. Stakar and Aleta were destined to separate from another, but Mephisto arranged for it to happen earlier in the timeline than Stakar expected it to happen. During battle with the Stark, they were blasted with a high-energy weapon in the middle of their transformation, causing the two to split into two autonomous beings again. Stakar was troubled by this turn of events, as for once he no longer knew where he was going in life. Additionally, he could not survive being separated from Aleta: Without her constant supply of generating light to sustain him, Stakar was becoming more and more insubstantial as time went by. In a panic, he forcibly rejoined with Aleta, which triggered their Dark Metamorphosis. The two remained insubstantial energy until Stakar was able to exert his control over their combined form.

As Dark Starhawk, Stakar was now the primary mind and body in control of their existence, and they no longer regularly switched back and forth. He commanded dark-light energy, which he could manipulate in all the ways that both he and Aleta could previously manipulate light. Aleta was no longer oblivious in the "void", she could see, hear, and experience everything that was going on in the real world through Stakar's senses. With concentration, she could also cause him psychic pain and assume control over the body, speaking through his mouth and directing their actions. Eventually, Aleta reasserted her control and became Starhawk II as the sole mind in the body. She commanded light energy now, in all the ways Stakar and she had used it in the past. Stakar was separated from her, but eventually returned and reclaimed his half of their shared power. Aleta was reduced to an upgraded version of her original powers: She could generate hard-light constructs, fire battering laser pulses, fly under her own power at light-speeds, and possessed a type of proximity sense which alerted her to matter and energy in her environment as it moved through and disrupted ambient light patterns. She adopted the new practice of shaping hard light body armor on portions of her costume for additional protection.

QUASAR

 

QUASAR

Real Name: Wendell Elvis Vaughn

First Appearance: Captain America (Vol. 1) #217, January 1978

Powers: S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage agent Wendell Vaughn is Quasar, the Protector of the Universe, and wears the Quantum-Bands on his wrists as the symbol of his station.

The Quantum-Bands are jeweled metallic wristbands, unique cosmic artifacts designed by the being known as Eon to empower the person he appointed as Protector of the Universe. When he first donned the bands, Wendell had no concept of their full capabilities. They molecularly bonded to his wrists, making it impossible to remove them. Using the bands, Quasar could initially just manipulate quantum energy as visible, yellow light. He could produce intangible radiant light as a soft glow or blinding flashes from the bands. By projecting quantum energy and using it to bind particles in the atmosphere together, he could create solid constructs, seemingly out of pure energy. Through willpower, Wendell could shape these constructs into different forms, making them hollow or solid through-and-through. He could project battering rams of force, create a personal energy sheath for protection, generate spheres, domes, cages, scissors, ramps, giant drills, nunchuka, etc. Each construct was also laced with anti-gravity properties, so that he could levitate and propel himself through the air and lift virtually any amount of weight with his constructs by placing one underneath something and willing the construct to rise and move about.

After meeting his benefactor, Eon, Quasar unlocked a far greater potential in the bands, including the ability to access the full range of electromagnetism, not just visible light. Wendell can now sustain his life functions indefinitely with his bands while out in space, and can Quantum Jump through the Quantum Zone (the source of his powers and all electromagnetic energy in the universe), enabling him to cross intergalactic distances in a matter of moments. Because of the adverse effect this has on the environment in atmospheres, Quasar only Quantum Jumps while in space. He can, however, overcome this difficulty by shaping a Q-construct around himself before Quantum Jumping, containing the vacuum backwash. Using his bands, Quasar can sense the full range of electromagnetic and cosmic energies. This allows him to pick up radio transmissions, detect signals sent by microwaves or other means, register the presence of people or objects that produce energy, and identify and recognize energy signatures he has felt before. Quasar has pre-programmed his bands to alert him to sudden flare ups of energy happening in his general area, and wove an invisible lattice of quantum energy around Earth, alerting him to incoming extra-terrestrial threats.

Because his control over electromagnetic energy now extends into non-visible ranges of radiation, Quasar can make his force fields or constructs invisible to the naked eye. He can also use this power to make his bands invisible, to disguise himself in his civilian identity. Quasar's bands can absorb any form of electromagnetic or cosmic energy in his immediate area -- he does not need to make direct contact with it, he can draw the energy to his bands. When it comes to living beings who generate energy, he can only drain them of their power when they are actively using it. Quasar cannot directly affect mystical or psychic energy, but he has set up a defensive field around his brain which naturally protects him from mental attack. Because each band has seven gems on it, Wendell is technically capable of performing 14 different tasks at once. This includes flying, his force field, each new energy construct, tapping into different radio transmissions, etc. Practically, however, Quasar has difficulty maintaining three different types of constructs at once. Firing 14 identical energy balls in a single direction is no problem, but holding some allies aloft on a platform, caging one opponent in a sphere, and redirecting the assaults of another opponent proved taxing.

Quasar lost the Quantum-Bands during a time when he was temporarily dead, but was resurrected thanks to the residual energy of the Star Brand, which he had picked up on a trip to the New Universe. The Star Brand is a zero point energy collector and a self-perpetuating temporal paradox, but suffice it to say that while Wendell possessed the Star Brand he had superhuman strength, considerable resistance to physical injury, infinite self-healing abilities, the ability to survive in the vacuum of space, flight, and the power to radiate explosive and destructive bursts of force from his body. The Star Brand itself was a small tattoo which the wielder could move from one place on their body to another by touching the Brand to a different area of their skin and willing it to move over. By placing the Brand over his eye, Quasar could visually see and track energy signatures. Because the Star Brand was intrinsically linked to its own universe, its power ultimately faded away in our universe, luckily just as Wendell was able to reacquire his bands.

Quasar was temporarily dead again, and was resurrected as a quantum-phasic entity. He essentially exists as a living Quantum Construct now, able to direct and manipulate quantum energy even without the bands, also he has since reacquired them as well.

Wendell Vaughn has had basic espionage training through S.H.I.E.L.D. and has had extensive hand-to-hand combat training through both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America, though little experience in using it. His military and espionage training have given him some ability in the areas of modern weaponry, piloting small aircraft, tactical skills, combat tech, surveillance, and cryptography.

CRUSADER

 

CRUSADER

Real Name: Thelius

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #164, November 1975

Powers: Thelius was originally a member of the Eternals (Homo Sapiens Immortalis), an evolutionary offshoot of humanity created by the extraterrestrial cosmic beings known as the Celestials. All Earth-born Eternals typically possess long lifespans, indestructible bodies and vast physical and cosmic energy-manipulation powers due to a mass cosmic bombardment during their 3rd or 4th generation, however Thelius was from of a generation of Eternals born on the planet Uranus descended from the 1st generation of Eternals. As such, his sole natural abilities include enhanced strength, longevity, and possible mind reading.

Thelius was surgically altered by Eternal High Council scientists to look and sound exactly like the young Robert Grayson, the Earth-born Uranian-raised human who became the first super-hero known as Marvel Boy. After the physical transformation was completed, they rewrote his memory. Through the headband he wore as Marvel Boy, everything Grayson had experienced on Earth was fed into Thelius' slowly forming mind while he lay in a dormancy chamber. The Eternals also implanted him with the notion that the High Council was infallible. Thelius was also given the real Quantum-Bands to wear.

As the Crusader, he wielded the Quantum-Bands, unique cosmic artifacts created by the abstract cosmic being Eon to empower the individual he deems worthy as his appointed Protector of the Universe.

He was limited in their usage as he lacked the proper skills, insights and mental capacity to harness their full capabilities, falsely believing them to be solar powered. He used their power to fly and project intense, blinding light beams capable of melting steel. His mental transformation into Bob Grayson was aborted prematurely, leaving him permanently confused about his origins and prone to irrational anger.