Resurrection Man (DC)
Resurrection Man is a male comic character who features in DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Mitch Shelley
Miraculously, Mitch managed to survive but was brain-damaged and suffered from amnesia leading to him wandering the streets as a homeless man. Months later, he was kidnapped by a clandestine organization simply called the Lab. Along with many other homeless people, Shelley was forced to be a test subject of Hooker who was a brilliant surgeon and director of the Lab. Suffering from an inoperable brain tumor, Hooker was determined to achieve immortality through a form of nano-technology called Tektites that were sub-atomic robots which could heal and rebuild the body even resurrecting it upon death. All of the test subjects were injected with Tektites and then killed but only Shelley who was Sample 268 actually managed to resurrect. (Resurrection Man v1 #11)
Unable to determine what makes Shelley special, a desperate Director Hooker takes a sample of Mitch's blood and injects it into himself. Rather than duplicating Shelley's full resurrection, Hooker becomes invincible to death but is unable to heal from wounds, losing his sanity in the process. In a rage, he attacks the Lab personnel, causing enough chaos that Shelley escapes. Once again living on the streets, a confused and still amnesiac Shelley discovers he can fly. Meanwhile, Hooker escapes, in pursuit of Shelley, able to sense him due to the tektites in their respective bloodstreams. His subordinates "Mr. Fancy" and Cliff DeWitt take over the tektite experiments. They send the Body Doubles to retrieve Shelley, wishing to know why he gained a resurrection ability not seen in any other test subject, and also hoping to understand why he gained super-powers, as the Lab's tektite technology should not have been able to grant superhuman abilities. (Resurrection Man v1 #12)
He then decided to find out about his past where he went to the library where Irma decided to help him out. They came to find an article about Mitch Shelley where he learnt that he was a lawyer who was presumed dead following a gas main explosion two months ago. (Resurrection Man v1 #1)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Mitch Shelley is born in the late 20th century but has no memories of any past lives and there is no indication he has ever lived past lives. An amnesiac Mitch Shelley wanders America, gaining different powers with each death, encountering the angel Suriel, who targets Mitchell because she insists that his soul is overdue to enter the afterlife. (Resurrection Man v2 #2)
The Resurrection Man is horrified to learn he is a copy of a cruel villain. He concludes that the tektites brought him to life to make amends for the evil the original Shelley has caused. During their confrontation, forces of Heaven and Hell come to claim Mitch Shelley's soul. The angel Suriel takes the soul of the original Mitch Shelley, while a demon takes Resurrection Man and Kim Rebecki to safety back in Metropolis. The demon remarks that Resurrection Man's soul grows more powerful with each resurrection, and is curious to see what the result of this will be. After he leaves, Resurrection Man and Kim ponder their future. (Resurrection Man v2 #0)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Over time, he became akin to an urban legend where a Reverend came to refer to him as Resurrection Man. (Resurrection Man v1 #1)
After his seeming first death, he came to suffer from amnesia and a loss of his memories leading to him becoming a homeless man. (Resurrection Man v1 #1)
Upon learning he had powers, he became determined to sharing his gift to help others. (Resurrection Man v1 #1)
Powers and abilities
He later gained powers through his body consisting of Tektites that were nanotechnology which represented the ultimate application of robotics and the key to the next technological era of mankind. These were robotic construction units roughly one-trillionth of a nanometer long. Individually, they were incapable of accomplishing much but millions working together in a concerted effort were capable of remarkable feats. The theoretical branch of robotics had been achieved by the Lab 3 years ago when they perfected fabrication devices capable of producing the Tektites. The Tektites were made to store enough information about the body they inhabited that they were able to rebuild it allowing the host to resurrect even after death. (Resurrection Man v1 #11)
It was shown that each time he killed he simply revived a moment later. After resurrecting, he came to inherit a random superpower as a result. The ability remained with him until he was killed where upon his next revival he gained a new entirely different random power. (Resurrection Man v1 #1)
Notes
- Resurrection Man was created by Andy Lanning, Dan Abnett and Jackson Guice where he made his first appearance in Resurrection Man v1 #1 (May, 1997).
- In an interview, Lanning and Abnett revealed that their conception of the character stemmed from their work at Marvel Comics in the 1990s when they considered reviving the Great Lake Avengers and thought that Mister Immortal's only power being immortality being boring and suggested an alternative where he gained random powers after each resurrection.
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Resurrection Man v1: (1997)
- Resurrection Man v2:
External Links
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