Relic (DC)
Relic is a male comic extraterrestrial supervillain who features in DC Comics.
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Biography
Relic was the name given to a male extraterrestrial scientist who was native to the universe prior to the emergence of the current one. Long ago, he was born in a cosmos where sentients had harnessed the Emotional Spectrum that transformed their way of existence. Those that wielded the various aspects of its power became known as the Lightsmiths who used its power to achieve various feats from healing to creating constructs. Entire civilizations were built upon light itself due to the influence of the Lightsmiths though they fought one another or united against an external threat. In this time, a scientist began to study the Emotional Spectrum and came to conclude that it was a finite resource whose depletion threatened entire existence. Thus, he called a meeting among the various Lightsmith factions to meet on neutral ground with them answering the call as they held great respect for the scientist. Despite his warnings, he was not believed with the assembled masses coming to consider him a relic that sought a return to more primitive times and demanded proof in order to pay heed to his words. Thus, the scientist constructed a vessel and embarked on a long odyssey across space to study the light to find the reservoir of its power to showcase to the Lightsmiths. His travels led to his discovery of the Source Wall which he studied for a time but came no closer to finding the wellspring of the Emotional Spectrum. During this time, a period impacted this universe that was known as the Dimming that began on the Blue Lightsmith world of Axylund. The scientist by this point had taken on the name of Relic and investigated the Converter that distilled the Emotional Spectrum into power that the Lightsmiths used where he uncovered that the great device had become powerless. A war over dwindling light erupted in the universe as various groups fought one another to claim this rare resource. Ultimately, Relic's fears were proven true as the Emotional Spectrum had become exhausted and the Lightsmiths gradually all died out with the last one of their number perishing in his arms. By this point, their universe had begun to collapse as existence was falling apart just as Relic's fears had manifested as the Source Wall began to crumble to dust. He then wondered whether the reservoir he sought lay past the Wall and decided to embark where every molecule in his body was disassembled. Relic believed he had been killed at his universe collapsed but he was embedded with a cosmic membrane that emerged past the Source Wall into a new universe that formed afterwards. He remained within this state for billions of years in a space-time anomaly as his body was transformed where he stayed undisturbed in all those years. (Green Lantern v5 #23.1)
After passing through the Godwall, he was remade in the next universe as a giant when he was unintentionally freed by White Lantern Kyle Rayner and the Templar Guardians. (Green Lantern: New Guardians v1 #22) Upon learning the existence of the Lantern Corps and vowing to prevent history from repeating itself. This saw Relic deciding to targeting the various corps with his first act being wiping out the Blue Lantern Corps. (Green Lantern: New Guardians v1 #23)
The surviving Lantern Corps fought Relic and he was finally defeated when Kyle Rayner imprisoned him in the Source Wall. (Green Lantern Annual v5 #2)
Relic was later sought by Highfather and Metron to determine how the Source had been contaminated. New God technology allowed him to speak despite being stuck in the wall. He informed them that the Lantern Corps, and specifically Kyle Rayner, had breached the Source Wall to save the universe they had unknowingly damaged. Relic seemingly was unfamiliar with the existence of the New Gods. (New Gods: Godhead v1 #1) His imprisonment within the Wall came to an end when Relic along with the other beings trapped in it were awakened by Black Hand. He used his powers to awaken the dead as members of his Black Lantern Corps that were sent to attack the home of the New Gods of New Genesis. However, whilst attacking the city, the Source-Titan's began to go through a change where they turned from undead into living beings with Kyle Rayner banishing them back to the normal universe when he regained the powers of the White Lantern. Thus, Relic came back to life and returned to the location of the Source Wall where he noted a change in the titanic structure that he decided to investigate. (Green Lantern Annual v5 #3)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He had taken the name of Relic when he was referred to as a relic of the past by the Lightsmiths of his universe. (Green Lantern v5 #23.1)
Powers and abilities
After the collapse of his universe, he passed through the Source Wall and was transformed as his molecules were torn apart after which they were reassembled. He was then turned into a giant being that towered over humanoids. (Green Lantern v5 #23.1)
The machinery relic brandished long before his universe came to an abrupt end enabled him to absorb, harness, study, replicate, assimilate and otherwise repurpose not only the lights consistent of the Emotional Electromagnetic Spectrum but other forms of life, technology and/or otherwise to use at his leisure. (Green Lantern: New Guardians v1 #22)
Created from the remains of a galaxian host which he reshaped into a massive vessel using femtotechnology gleaned from Exeter's harness. It, like his own devices, withhold a great many useful system parameters, such as gleaning information from the minds of others via convincing holo-simulative immersion displays to control a subjects inception of reality. (Green Lantern: New Guardians v1 #23)
Notes
- Relic was created by Robert Venditti and Billy Tan where he made his first appearance in Green Lantern v5 #21 (August, 2013).
- In an interview on Comicvine, Venditti detailed Relics creation, "As part of my preparation for writing Green Lantern, I read the entirety of Geoff Johns's run. After spending so much time steeped in the amazing mythology of the various Lanterns and the emotional spectrum, it seemed to me that there was a next logical step in the evolution of that mythology. Relic was born out of that next step. He's sort of come to embody it, in my mind... Relic has been learning how to fight Lanterns his entire life. He just never realized it until it was time for him to go to war. His Villains Month issue shows his journey from scientist to combatant, and by the end I want readers to sympathize with his cause on some level, though probably not his methods."
Alternate Versions
Appearances
- Green Lantern v5: (2013)
- Green Lantern Corps v3:
- Green Lantern Annual v5:
- Green Lantern: Lost Army v1:
External Links
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