Sunday, August 8, 2021

TIME BUBBLE

 

 

First Appearance: The Mighty Thor (Vol. 1) #372, October 1986 (first mentioned); Avengers (Vol. 1) #296, October 1988 (first seen)

History and Functions: In an alternate future timeline, the world devourer Galactus nearly died on Earth-8810, and Tiamut the Black Celestial (aka the Dreaming Celestial, who had long ago been expelled for the cosmic Celestials' ranks for unspecified crimes) restored him, but altered his makeup, such that his hunger had become ravenous and his appetite increased geometrically. The Black Celestial's intent was that Galactus would eventually consume the entire universe, including the other Celestials. Meanwhile, Tiamut summoned an army of Deviants to construct probability machinery that would ensure that they would still exist when all else had become void; Tiamut would then become the nucleus and founder of a new reality. As Galactus grew in size, he eventually utilized a machine which generated a black hole, drawing more and more mass into itself, which in turn caused both it and him to grow in size, and his hunger increased as well. Eventually, around 20 years after the modern era, the force generated by this massive black hole began to warp time around it.

Investigating the time warp, the infinitely bureaucratic cross-dimensional temporal regulatory agency known as the Time Variance Authority (TVA) unwittingly exacerbated it, creating a 15-year bubble of time around it. This bubble eventually extended across all timelines, limiting time travel in either direction past that point. Within the Time Bubble, the black hole's massive gravitation virtually halted time, such that only beings of massive power or possessing time-manipulation abilities could function. The Council of Cross-Time Kangs (an organization of beings who had usurped the identity of various incarnations of Kang the Conqueror throughout the multiverse) learned of the existence of the Time Bubble, and recognized it as containing a weapon of some sort. Infiltrating the Council, Kang-Nebula (Ravonna, the future Terminatrix) learned of the Bubble. Along with Kang-Nebula, a trio of Kangs (including a divergent counterpart of the prime Kang) attempted to use the Avengers to penetrate the Time Bubble, and they were lost forever while the Avengers escaped.

The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards later discovered the Time Bubble and, using his Radical Dodecahedron, Reed powered their timesled Rosebud II, with which the FF (assisted by Iron Man/Tony Stark and Thor) entered the zone around the Bubble, generating hundreds of divergences in the process (or perhaps just showing hundreds of divergent timelines converging on a single point). The aforementioned Kang trio latched onto Rosebud and were drawn into the Bubble. They were destroyed with the aid of the TVA-sent freelance peacekeeping agent Death's Head, who vanished from the Time Bubble when a blast from one of the Kangs damaged his craft's probability generator. As they headed for the nexus of the Bubble, they observed the mammoth form of Galactus and recognized his involvement.

The Fantastic Four tried to destroy the device generating the black hole via the weapons cache of the entire Shi'ar empire, aided by Gladiator (Kallark), but Tiamut revived and teleported the weapons directly into the black hole, destroying it in one fell swoop. Journeying to the Earth of that reality, Reed duped the computer of the Black Celestial into revealing his origins. Gladiator then crashed the remaining floating weapons depot into the Black Celestials' base, destroying it and apparently himself. However, the Invisible Woman (Sue Storm Richards) and the Human Torch (Johnny Storm), assaulted by Kang-Nebula, were trapped there and seemingly destroyed in the explosion, but Kang-Nebula had activated Sue's force field to save them all.

Meanwhile, thinking that Sue and Johnny had perished in the explosion, Reed vengefully taunted the Black Celestial with his plans to travel back in time and inform his brethren in the Celestials of his plans, so that they might stop him before he ever brought them to fruition. Teleporting back and forth with the space of that universe and within the time period of the bubble, Reed allowed the Tiamut to grow ever closer to them, until they led it to the point of no return from Galactus' event horizon/black hole. At the last second, Reed signaled Thor to form a magical warp to teleport them a safe distance away, while the Black Celestial was pulled into and destroyed by the black hole. For a brief instant, Galactus' raging appetite (and thus his sanity) were appeased, but this soon passed, and the consumption occurred at an even more accelerated rate from the vast influx of mass and power of the Celestial.

Learning of Sue and Johnny's survival, Reed led the group to Taa II, Galactus' worldship, where he located the Ultimate Nullifier. Kang-Nebula had been possessing Sue, and she attempted to usurp the Nullifier, but she fell for a trap set by Iron Man under Reed's direction, as Reed had suspected her involvement. Stunned by the electrical shock, Kang-Nebula was forced out of Sue and lost into the atmosphere of the Bubble. Returning to Galactus, the combined full energies of Thor, Iron Man, and the Torch's nova flame briefly restored Galactus' sanity, and he recognized the Nullifier as Reed gave it to him. Wishing to end his torment, Galactus activated the Nullifier, and a sphere of nothing consumed him and then the entire universe, effectively destroying the Time Bubble.

The Fantastic Four and their allies narrowly escaped the destruction; Thor and Iron Man fell off the timesled and back to Earth-616), while the Fantastic Four instead arrived in the divergent reality of Earth-9061, in which the Earth is ruled by a robotic Josef Stalin. All individuals who were seemingly destroyed by the Bubble eventually returned to existence.

Tuesday, August 3, 2021

PEACEMONGER


PEACEMONGER

Real Name: Talmadge Cobbleskill
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents (Vol. 1) #27, September 1989

Powers: The Peacemonger possesses the mutant ability to detect the negative empathic energy inherent in the hate of others around him. He can detect that emotional energy mentally, and apparently physically and then pinpoints its location and the amount. He can then absorb that energy into his body, directing it into his muscles, causing them to swell and increase his strength, endurance, and durability to superhuman levels. The Peacemonger has been shown to also increase in size, stature and mental instability when empowered. There is no established limit for his strength, though he has been shown to be strong enough to penetrate steel walls, bend metals, and easily rend human bone. However, without any hatred to siphon, the Peacemonger possesses only the size and strength of a regular person his age and build.

Absorbing negative psychic energy may also have had a rejuvenation effect. In his second recorded appearance, he had the appearance and vitality of a much younger man.


Sunday, August 1, 2021

AMP II

 


AMP II

Real Name: Zachary (last name unrevealed)
First Appearance: Iceman (Vol. 3) #2, August 2017

Powers: Amp possesses the mutant power to manipulate energy sources by strengthening or weakening them. He can suppress mutant powers, boost them, or cause them to rage out of control. He can shut down machines and technology, or overload their electric capacity.

TRINARY


 

TRINARY

Real Name: Shilpa Khatri
First Appearance: X-Men: Red (Vol. 1) #1, April 2018

Powers: Trinary has the mutant power of electronic telepathy, giving her the ability to mentally communicate with machines and electronic devices. Her mind interfaces with and copies the properties of electromagnetic signaling, allowing her to sense electronic information being passed or transmitted through her environment, interpret that information, and biologically replicate transmittable signals such as these to control and operate systems that rely upon them.

It's unclear how low-tech a device must be for it to be below her ability to influence. While she can sense and reprogram even signal-responsive nano-technology, electronic devices lacking wi-fi reception or computer programming (such as battery powered or corded devices) may be outside her power scope. She can mentally scan computer harddrives or databases, and can access wirelessly transmitted or "cloud" data. Trinary can exert direct control over computer-based systems or mentally reprogram them to function under new directives after she breaks direct contact.

LAVISH

 


LAVISH

Real Name: Charmaine Grand
First Appearance: Rogue & Gambit (Vol. 1) #5, July 2018

Powers: Lavish is a mutant sensitive to the minds of other people in her vicinity, unwillingly absorbing the memories and emotional connections of people nearby. She can only hold a finite amount of absorbed mental energy within herself, however, without being overwhelmed by the load she's carrying. It's not entirely clear if this is a physical limitation of her powers, or a psychological one due to not mastering her abilities. As a result, Lavish has a secondary ability to create "golems", constructs of pseudo-matter that materialize as humanoids indistinguishable from a normal person. These golems can act as duplicates of herself, "sharing the load" of mental energy when it gets beyond her ability to store the energy in just one body. The golems may demonstrate different aspects of Lavish's personality and desires as well, similar to Multiple Man's duplicates. Lavish has also learned to create golems of the people whose mental energy she absorbs, casting the accumulated energy from the original person out of her mind and into a duplicate of that person.

In practice, Lavish's abilities seem to have several side effects and consequences. When in control of her abilities, she can siphon particular memories or emotions from other people. Acting as a therapist, she can remove specific memories from someone's mind, or merely the emotional turmoil associated with that memory. Like Rogue, she also gains access to someone's mutant powers when she absorbs from them. This can weaken the original person's powers while allowing Lavish's golems to manifest the powers of the original as well. The golems exist to isolate Lavish from the accumulated mental energy, but she can mentally control the golems of other people she creates. She can also absorb the golems back into herself, and in doing so temporarily copy the powers of that person. The golems are somewhat less substantial than a normal person, and will break down under force. At that point, any person nearby may absorb the powers and emotions of that golem, regardless of whether it was the original person or not.

When her mutant powers originally manifested, she accidentally created a golem, "Dr. Grand" (left), from her own memories. However, the power was still too overwhelming for her, so she created "Lavish" (right) as well. She then utilized the pair to operate the ParaĆ­so Island Retreat Center as a front for mutant couples therapy so that she could strip their patients of their memories and further diffuse her power across an ever-increasing multitude of golems.

SINGULARITY


 

SINGULARITY

Real Name: Singularity
First Appearance: A-Force (Vol. 1) #1, July 2015

Powers: Singularity is a sentient cosmic phenomena, similar to Cloud the Living Nebula. Her body either contains or has access to multiversal space. This allows her to function as a teleporter, transporting herself instantaneously from place to place. She can absorb people and objects into her "space", holding them inside herself for later retrieval or to teleport them along with her. She also has a form of cosmic awareness or extrasensory ability allowing her to mentally pinpoint people (and possibly other things) that she wants to locate before teleporting to their position. She is also capable of flight via energy propulsion.

THIRST


 

THIRST

Real Name: Austin Deprez
First Appearance: All-New X-Men (Vol. 2) #1, February 2016

Powers: Thirst possesses the mutant ability to produce high-volume, high-pressure discharges of water from his throat cavity.

The amount of water he produces seems impossible to contain physically in his body, so he may call upon the water via an extra-dimensional source or through subspatial links to nearby bodies of water somehow.