Captain Universe
Captain Universe is the name of several characters in the Marvel Universe.
Contents |
History
As a living aspect of the universe itself, it served as the guide for the System and had been seen as a deity to the Builders who saw it as a goddess as well as their mother. (Avengers v5 #3) Long ago, it manifested as a force of light in reaction to the darkness and its creation Knull. When it was young, it battled the King in Black where at first the Enigma Force distributed its power into an army to fight its evil counterpart. This fight injured Knull but the god of light was defeated and began a process of empowering only a single host of its cosmic might to become Captain Universe. (King in Black v1 #4)
The Unipower sensed a great danger coming to Earth in the form of Mister E who was an inhabitant of the Shadowverse. The creature of pure darkness was the herald of an invasion who intended to turn people at Cape Canaveral into his shadow-slaves in order to retrofit a space shuttle. The spacecraft was designed to send a payload into the sun and transform in into a black star thus allowing the shadowverse to conquer the planet. In response, the Unipower returned to Earth where it attempted to bond once more with Ray Coffin. The elderly Coffin’s body could not take the strain and led to him suffering a heart attack. Thus, he was admitted into hospital where he fell prey to the shadow-slaves but the Unipower bonded to his son Steve Coffin turning him into Captain Universe. With the Unipower, he was able to defeat Mister E and stop the entity’s machinations. With its purpose fulfilled, the Unipower healed Ray Coffin and left Steve in order to seek out a new host that needed its power. (Marvel Spotlight v2 #9)
The Uni-Power's manifestation was detected by the secret U.S. government organization known as Division U that sought to weaponise the Captain Universe phenomena. The dispatched their Wraith Squad to capture Taylor who resisted with the Uni-Power being in agony due to his unstable mind. At the same time, Enigma Hunters from the Microverse arrived to track Captain Universe down as they wanted to send the power to the next recipient host. (Cosmic Powers Unlimited v1 #5)
Afterwards, the power of the Enigma Force detected that the King of the Whirldemons was breaking free from his ancient prison. Thus, the Uni-Power marked X-23 as a new champion to be able to fight it and briefly showed her, Spider-Man and the Invisible Woman a vision of the threat of the Whirldemons. (X-23 v3 #15) The King of the Whirldemons later possessed several host bodies that included Valeria Richards in an effort to manifest on Earth. However, X-23 convinced the demon to take possession of her body with this being a trick as she could resist the control over her body for a short time. She then used a dimensional gateway in the Baxter Building to trap herself in the Whirldemons dimension. Angered at being foiled, the Whirldemon King intended to torture X-23 for the rest of her days but the Uni-Power manifested around her turning her into Captain Universe which gave her the power to return to Earth. (X-23 v3 #16)
Two years later after the undocumented events of Gabriel's excursion into the Microverse, he resurfaced somewhere within the confines of the Kree Empire or rather what was left of it following the First Annihilation War and attacked a group of Kree Soldiers, whom he thought were slaughtering innocent people. After learning that these so-called innocent people were actually Annihilation Wave sympathizers, Gabriel allowed himself to be taken into custody, and was imprisoned alongside Bug, Deathcry, Mantis, Rocket Raccoon, and Groot while awaiting trial. Following the initial conquest of both Kree and Annihilation Wave territories by Ultron and the Phalanx, former Lunatic Legion leader Galen-Kor was ordered by Ronan the Accuser to create a low-tech task force capable of successfully infiltrating and destroying a new version of the Phalanx Technophage Virus capable of spreading it further and faster than they would be able to via their standard methods.Peter Quill, who had accidentally handed the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, to Ultron and the Phalanx when a group of infected Spaceknights were allowed to upgrade the Kree Defense Network with a program called A-Ware was forced to take on the mantle of Star-Lord once more and was paired up with Gabriel and the others to create the task force Ronan desired. Together, Gabriel and the rest of the "Dirty Half-Dozen" descended upon Hala without mercy and began viciously fighting their way through the heart of their newly conquered territories against Ultron's minions. In the process, several problems began to rise along the way, the first being the small feud between Gabriel and Deathcry, which continued to escalate until Deathcry went berserk and tried to kill Gabriel who, in self-defense, obliterated Deathcry using the Uni-Power. (Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord v1 #2)
Gabriel was mentally traumatized by the event after realizing exactly what it was he had done and went into a shell-shocked state of being, which he remained in until he decided to stay behind and hold off an army of flesh-eating insect-like Phalanx drones while the others made their escape. Mantis, who had cloaked herself to keep from being captured by the Phalanx along with the others, sent a telepathic message to Gabriel, who managed to survive the Phalanx onslaught and told him that he was now their only hope for victory. After meeting back up and conversing with Mantis, Gabriel detached himself from the Uni-Power and sent it on a mission to infiltrate and hack the Phalanx Datacore possessing the cure to the new Phalanx Virus, which Star-Lord had discovered was airborne and inside the bodies of Hala's inhabitants. The Uni-Power complied and headed towards the Datacore, where it merged with one of the Phalanx Planner Drones and corrupted its programming. The Uni-Power allowed the drone to think that it was in control of the Uni-Power and that upon accessing the Datacore it would be able to replicate the Uni-Power and create an army of Uni-Powered Phalanx drones, therefore making it the most favored Phalanx of all. When its fellow Phalanx refused to allow the Uni-Powered Planner Drone to access the Datacore, it became angry and destroyed them all, thus allowing it to enter the Datacore unhindered. However, when this happened, the Uni-Power revealed its ruse and not only retrieved the data it sought but also obliterated the Datacore, thus destroying every bit of data they had collected in the short time since the conquest of Hala. The Uni-Power then merged with Gabriel once more, allowing him to fend off the Phalanx while his teammates stole a getaway vessel. After returning to base, the Uni-Power shared the data it had collected with the Kree Science Division and amicably parted ways with Gabriel. (Annihilation: Conquest - Starlord v1 #4)
In an effort to stop Thanos, the Uni-Power came to bond with Deadpool making him an avatar of life in order to protect the endangered Eternity from the Death-empowered Mad Titan. (Deadpool vs. Thanos v1 #4)
The Unipower once more came to Earth where it possessed Tamara Devoux who had suffered from a serious car accident 10 years ago and left in a comatose state. It possessed her transforming her into Captain Universe where it was dying as a result of the state of the universe. (Avengers v5 #6)
Afterwards, the Enigma Force sensed the presence of its age old foe Knull having been freed from his prison and leading a hive of his Symbiotes came to attack Earth where he engulfed the world in its spawn. Manifesting again, the light travelled to the planet but was unable to pass through the barrier but was aided by the Silver Surfer allowing the cosmic force to seek out Eddie Brock as its new host. (King in Black v1 #4)
Overview
Captain Universe was the very essence of the universe itself. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #2001) In fact, the Uni-Power was said to be the protector of Eternity and responded when the cosmic embodiment of the universe was in danger. Thus, it was referred to as the Avatar of Life and was a representation of life. (Deadpool vs. Thanos v1 #4) One account claimed that the entity was known as a God of Light who stood opposed to the darkness. (King in Black v1 #4)
It was said that the god of light behaved just like a Symbiote as it bonded to hosts where it gave them incredible power. (King in Black v1 #4) Cosmic awareness allowed the wielder to feel the heat of a neutron star billions of light years away and even see radio waves travelling from long dead planets. (Deadpool vs. Thanos v1 #4)
When bonded to an unstable host, the Uni-Power could fragment under a warped psyche and be in a state of agony as it sought to abandon the user. (Cosmic Powers Unlimited v1 #5) A Captain Universe was bound to their respective universe and if they travelled to another alternate universe then they lost their use of the Uni-Power making them powerless. (Amazing Spider-Man v3 #9)
Hosts
- Steve Coffin : He came to join Division U and was part of its Wraith Squad where he attempted to get the Uni-Power back after it bonded with Roland Taylor. (Cosmic Powers Unlimited v1 #5)
- Roland Taylor :
- Gabriel Vargas :
- Ted Simmons :
- William Nguyen :
- Cain Marko :
- Laura Kinney: a female clone based on Wolverine who was known as X-23 where she was chosen by the Uni-Power to help stop the Whirldemon King from escaping his prison. (X-23 v3 #16)
- Tamara Devoux :
- Eddie Brock :
Notes
- Captain Universe was created by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden where it made its first appearance in Micronauts v1 #8 (August, 1979).
Alternate Versions
In other media
Video games
- In Spider-Man Unlimited, a Spider-Man as Captain Universe appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
Appearances
- Micronauts v1: (1979)
- Marvel Spotlight v2:
- Cosmic Powers Unlimited v1:
- X-23 v3:
- Avengers v5:
- Amazing Spider-Man v3:
- Deadpool vs. Thanos v1: (2015)
- Avengers v8:
- King in Black v1:
External Links
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