Ship (Marvel)
Ship is a spacecraft that features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
History
Ship
Ship's A.I. was created untold millennia ago by the Celestials as the operating system for a data collection device. The Celestials had genetically manipulated humanity, and they left Ship in the area that would come to be known as Mongolia to monitor humanity's progress.
Circa 1100 A.D., a Mongolian immortal known as Garbha-Hsien discovered Ship and lived next to it while he researched its mysteries. Saul never attempted to enter Ship.
In time, the Egyptian immortal En Sabah Nur learned of Saul and sought him out as another immortal. In a confrontation, he slew all of Saul's guards. Saul then sought to humble his fellow "forever-walker" by revealing the secret titanic vessel. Having had previous experience with futuristic technology from his encounters with Rama-Tut, Nur attacked Saul and left the other immortal for dead and entered Ship. He later emerged having changed vastly now called himself Apocalypse.
Over the next few centuries, Ship's sentience slowly evolved. Apocalypse noticed the evolving A.I. and enslaved it, telling Ship that he had created it.
Ship next appeared as Apocalypse's cloaked mobile headquarters as he attacked New York with his Four Horsemen. Defeated by X-Factor, Apocalypse retreated, and was forced to leave Ship behind. During the battle, Ship's cloaking and navigation systems were damaged, X-Factor managed to get Ship to crash safely in the river. Ironically, the only building damaged in the crash was X-Factor's own headquarters. Conveniently, Ship also projected a force field that prevented non-mutants from entering, given these defences, X-Factor decided to adopt the Ship as their new home base.
When X-Factor tried to move in, they discovered that Ship was booby-trapped, Ship's A.I. then revealed itself and assisted them, and Rusty Collins, in disabling Ship's security. Ship became a butler of sorts to the team. Ship "had complete control over every part of its structure and was could fashion rooms, weapons and vehicles as needed from various storehouses and parts it had. It was able to design and run training programs for X-Factor, as well as make living quarters and workshop areas for them." However, it could not shut off the field that repelled non-mutants from its interior.
An attempt by the mutant called Infectia to steal the craft led to X-Factor ultimately moving Ship to a more mobile position over the Atlantic Ocean.
Ship played host to the New Mutants and the X-Terminators, as Professor X's mansion had been destroyed. Unfortunately this did not prevent Ship's defensive systems from attacking them when they brought aboard the entity known as Gosamyr. Ultimately, Ship was persuaded to generate a spacecraft that would remove Gosamyr from Earth.
In time, Ship took to space, responding to the call of the Celestials, with X-Factor unwittingly along for the ride, leaving them temporarily stranded on a planet undergoing its own mutant crisis. The Celestials collected the data Ship had gathered during its stay on Earth and Ship came to realize that Apocalypse had not created it. The Celestials showed it its true origin, when given the choice, Ship's A.I. decided to return to Earth with X-Factor. Upon Ship's return from space, it landed on-end as a building in Lower Manhattan.
Apocalypse later sent his Dark Riders to kidnap the infant Nathan Christopher Summers from within Ship. The Dark Riders infected Ship with a techno-organic virus that damaged its systems. Explosion imminent, Ship launched itself into space to protect the city.
Ship's A.I. managed to salvage part of itself as a construct which was able to protect and ferry X-Factor to the Blue Area of the Moon, where they joined the massive confrontation against Apocalypse. X-Factor found that baby Nathan had also been infected with the T-O virus, and that it threatened his life. A mysterious stranger named Askani appeared and offered to take Nathan to the future, where technology would be capable of saving him. As Ship's remaining form lost cohesiveness, it spent the remainder of its energy protecting Nathan Christopher on the trip. Although Ship's energy was dissipated in this way, when Nathan arrived in the future, there was no trace or mention of Ship.
Deciding to change his tactics for bettering the future, Cable returned to a time close to the present day. He shuttled between past and future multiple times, at one point bringing with him his space station Graymalkin. Professor had assumed control of Graymalkin, performing duties similar to those it had as Ship. Graymalkin not only served as a base for Cable, but also allowed Cable to teleport through time and space.
Eventually, Graymalkin was destroyed in a battle between X-Force, War Machine, and agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., although parts of the station were jettisoned safely to Earth along with The X-Force team included and several of Ship's friends from The New Mutants team.[9] Magneto later salvaged the wreckage in space, combining it with that of his old Asteroid M base to form his new space-borne home Avalon. Cable undertook a raid on the station and, despite suffering heavy damage, he was able to download Professor back into his own techno-organics. Cable installs Professor in X-Force's Camp Verde, AZ bunker base. The Phalanx attempted to assimilate the camp's systems but are overwhelmed by the Professor's Celestial and future technology. X-Force returns to find that the Ship A.I. has gained a T-O body and calls itself Prosh.
X-Force learns that Prosh's techno-organics are interfering with Cable's control over his own infection. Having come out of remission, the infection begins killing Cable, so despite having befriended the X-Force team, Prosh has to leave. With Warpath's permission, it assimilates the remainder of the base with the exception of the burial grounds. With the greater bulk, Prosh forms a spaceship again and flies off into space.[12] Prosh returned as a key figure in the 2001 X-Men Forever miniseries.
Cable later salvages the remains of Avalon, which had fallen out of orbit. He creates a floating nation called 'Providence' and installs a copy of Ship into its power core. Cable works with this copy to keep Providence, damaged in battle, from falling into the hands of enemies
A kind of clone of Ship was later used by Clan Akkaba who had resurrected their master Apocalypse in the form of a young boy. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #4) This clone child went through indoctrination into becoming Apocalypse with this being administered by an avatar of the Ship. Apocalypse's rebirth led to him being a target of X-Force with Ozymandias attempting to protect the boy on-board Ship and having it teleport from various sites. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #3) Despite their efforts, they were unable to succeed and the boy was killed by the assassin Fantomex. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #4)
Overview
They were known to possess a living brain and could generate an avatar in a form it desired. Occupants were capable of disconnecting the intelligence from the vessel and asserting manual control. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #4)
Their matter drives were able to teleport them from one site to another. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #4)
Notes
- Ship was created by Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson where it made its first appearance in X-Factor v1 #24 (January, 1988).
Alternate Versions
- In X-Men Chronicles v1 (1995), an alternate version of Ship was shown to exist in the Age of Apocalypse. It was used as part of the Horsemen of Apocalypse's plans to take control of the United States nuclear arsenal with this plan being thwarted. Ship was nearly destroyed by Magneto when it endangered the lives of his X-Men. During the battle between the two, Magneto was left drained and unable to fully make use of his magnetic powers. The spacecraft was later hovering over the Moon where it was commanded by the Horseman Death who used Sunfire's explosive mutant abilities to power Ship. However, Ship was then destroyed when Sunfire's powers flared out of control.
In media
Television
- In X-Men, Ship made an appearance in the animated television series episode "Obsession" where it was Apocalypse's secret flagship that was over a mile wide and cloaked from standard scans. Its existence was noted by early scholars on Apocalypse who called it a mighty ship built by creatures from beyond the stars. For centurues, it was considered a myth with people speaking of it being a living vessel that was open to reason. Upon arriving, Beast meets the feminine AI and forms a friendship with it where he convinces it to turn against its master. When Apocalypse arrives, a forcefield is triggered trapping him but En Sabah Nur quickly uses an override to resume control. However, Ship manages to tell Beast how to use the emergency controls against Apocalypse leading to the weapon systems being used against the supervillain whereupon he is launched into an escape into space. The strain of overriding the security systems along with helping save the X-Men from Apocalypse ultimately leads to Ship losing power and exploding. Its death was grieved by Beast who had formed a close friendship with the AI before its demise.
Appearances
- X-Factor v1: (1988)
- Uncanny X-Force v1:
External Links
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