Ezekiel (Marvel)
Ezekiel is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Ezekiel Sims was a male human born in the modern age where he came to suffer from some personal tragedy. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #508)
Using his talents, he was able to parlay them in order to gather a considerable fortune. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32) He later spend considerable money and resources to find a hidden temple located in Peru. A nearby village though faced a threat of being bulldozed by the government with Ezekiel stepping in to save them along with their shrine. This led to Miguel being indebted to Ezekiel who then wanted payment as he wanted the power of the spider that lay within the temple. A painful ritual was enacted where Ezekiel was imbued with magic that sustained him but was warned that in the future that the Gatekeeper would look to consume him for being a fake totem and that this would happen when the true chosen one emerged in the world. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #507) He soon learnt that, being totemic in nature, he would be beset by those of orders higher up the totemic hierarchy. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32)
Through his sources, he was able to uncover the existence of the Inheritors with one of their kind being known as Morlun. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32) Afterwards, Peter Parker and Cindy Moon came to be bitten by a spider that had been irradiated by a particle accelerator used in a demonstration of the safe handling of nuclear laboratory waste materials that had been sponsored by the General Techtronics Corporation. Ezekiel would later contact Cindy and trained her in the use of her powers until he realized that Morlun was tracking her. He then locked her away in one of his special rooms at the bottom of his tower to protect her from the Devourer of Totems. (Amazing Spider-Man v3 #4) He also monitored Peter's progress as the superpowered vigilante Spider-Man. When it became apparent Morlun would target Peter, Ezekiel confronted him, claiming to have hired several detectives to discover certain parts of his real identity and pieced them together. After they spoke a few times, Ezekiel tried to convince Peter Parker to hide in the specially constructed room, as Morlun was soon to arrive in New York, trying to find the one with the most powerful spider-totem powers. His pleas were in vain, as Parker decided to confront Morlun himself to prevent anyone from dying as a by-product of him not being eaten. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32) At 57 years old, Ezekiel had managed to build a financial empire with his spider-abilities. By this point, he had decided to do something useful with his life and looked to help Peter the way Parker had helped others. However, his board members did not agree with his actions as they were afraid that this could lead Morlun to them in a talk that implied that they too might have spider-powers. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #33)
He approached Spider-Man when he was swinging through the city where he demonstrated his knowledge of Peter Parker's life but showed no malicious motives. Instead, he had Spider-Man question the nature of his powers and whether there was a greater meaning behind the radioactive spider biting him before disappearing. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #30) When Spider-Man refused his offer of sanctuary, he was badly beaten and came back to Ezekiel for help. Ezekiel said that the hideout was now useless and that he could not risk himself in the battle against Morlun as the vampiric totem eater did not know of his existence, and he wanted to keep it that way. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #33) However, Simms seemingly changed his mind and looked to sacrifice his life to buy Peter the time to beat Morlun. After the battle, Peter headed to Ezekiel's building to relate the news of his death to his partners, but he found the building was emptied except for a rubber spider left on the window. Down on the street, Ezekiel and his board members left in a limo, and he hinted that he had to keep on helping people. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #35)
Afterwards, Spider-Man was going through a struggle with the mysterious other-dimensional creature called Shathra. By this point, Ezekiel had been watching a television report where he concluded that he had been away too long and that a certain event had started as a result. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #47) Simms would find an unconscious Spider-Man and took him to Africa to a temple built for a Spider-God, where they waited for Shathra to come. Ezekiel then told the story of the first Spider-Man. In Ezekiel's story, he said that the first Spider-Man ascended this earthly level and now lived on the Astral Plane as a spider-god. He also said that it was this spider-god that caused the events which led to Peter Parker getting bitten by a radioactive spider and getting his spider powers. It was then that Shathra came and was defeated. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #48) In the aftermath of Shathra's defeat, Ezekiel tried to convince Spider-Man some more of his mystical origin. Ezekiel explained though that another threat was coming, since these things come in threes with the first being Morlun and the second being Shathra. After Spider-Man left, Ezekiel began to speak to himself about how he was hiding the truth from Spider-Man. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #49)
Overview
Personality and attributes
In terms of food, he said that he generally liked to eat pizzas. He believed that New York had the best pizza and thought it had something to do with the quality of the mozzarella. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32)
Ezekiel was reluctant in engaging in fights that could see him killed as he felt that there was much he still had to live for namely his company, his board and stakeholders. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #34)
According to him, everything was dangerous but risks were worth taking if the goal as big enough. His ambitions led him to seeking power even if it meant stealing it. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #507)
He had noted that he and Peter Parker were similar in many ways. However, he said that his path had been different and that his journey had not been as pure as Parkers. He had said that he had come to admire Peter Parker and the feats he had managed to achieve with the use of his abilities. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32)
Powers and abilities
Originally, Ezekiel was a non-powered human until a ritual was conducted in a temple in Peru that imbued him with the magic of a spider totem and sustained him over the years. (Amazing Spider-Man v1 #507) As a result, Ezekiel had many traits that were similar to that of Spider-Man. Despite being twice Spider-Man's age, he was still impossibly fast allowing him to move quickly at superhuman speeds. Furthermore, he could stick to a vertical surface allowing him to stand on walls without falling. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #30)
He was part of the bridge between man and spiders with these being totemistic powers that dated back to the dawn of time. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32) It was said though that he was not a pure totem. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #34)
The company was a hub that imported and exported products to every country around the world. He was known to own a number of subsidiary companies that included manufacturing, textiles and clothing. Such was his fortune that he could devote resources into projects that could buy him a small Latin American country. (Amazing Spider-Man v2 #32)
Notes
- Ezekiel was created by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita, Jr. where he made his first appearance Amazing Spider-Man v2 #30 (June, 2001).
Alternate Versions
- In Edge of Spider-Verse v1 #5 (2014), an alternate version of Ezekiel Simms called Old Man Spider appeared in a reality designated as Earth-4 in the Multiverse. Following the death of Peter Parker at the hands of Morlun, Ezekiel Sims carried on in his name as the new Spider-Man.
In other media
Films
- In Madame Web, Ezekiel Sims appeared in the setting of the 2024 live-action Sony's Spider-Man Universe (SSU) film where he was portrayed by actor Tahar Rahim.
Novels
Video games
Appearances
- Amazing Spider-Man v2: (2001)
- Amazing Spider-Man v1:
- Silk v1:
External Links
This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.
