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Blue Marvel (Marvel Comics)

Character Overview Show – Blue Marvel (Adam Brashear)

A look at one of Marvel’s more obscure and new characters. 

Blue Marvel (on right) vs King Hyperion, from Age of Heroes #3, artist M.C. Wyman

Blue Marvel (Adam Bernard Brashear) is a fictional character, a comic booksuperhero published by Marvel Comics. The Blue Marvel debuted in Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel # 1, (November 2008), and was created by Kevin Grevioux. Grevioux originally had the idea for the character as a kid, being a fan of superhero comics.

Publication history

Adam Brashear debuted in the five issue Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel mini-series created by Kevin Grevioux.   A different version later appeared briefly inWhat If? Secret Invasion #1 (February 2010). In 2013, Blue Marvel will appear as part of Luke Cage‘s new team of superheroes during the Infinity crossover.

Fictional character biography

Adam Brashear is a former fullback at Cornell University who graduated magna cum laude, and a veteran of the Korean War, a member of the Marine Corps with two Silver Stars.   While in the Marine Corps he met Conner Sims, the friend he would later know as “Anti-Man”. Brashear later became the project lead on a scientific attempt to harness anti-matter through the creation of a “Negative Reactor” which created a bridge between the Negative Zone and the positive matter universe. This reactor would then allow for an almost unlimited source of clean energy by allowing devices to tap the energy generated by a stable event horizon balanced between these positive and negative universes. Due to the unexpected explosion of the reactor, both Brashear and Sims were subjected to mutagenic radiation generated by the then unstable event horizon. While Sims’ body decohered into energy, Brashear became a stable “antimatter reactor” and developed a set of superhuman abilities.

In 1962 Adam received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President John F. Kennedy on the day the President asked him to retire; it had been discovered by the public that he is an African-American. As the Blue Marvel, Brashear wore a full-face helmet – but when it was damaged in a battle, his identity was revealed. A massive controversy ensued as the America of 1962 was too racist to accept a black super-man. The President reluctantly decided to ask Brashear to step back. Torn between myriad considerations, the Blue Marvel conceded.

He came back for one final mission and defeated the herald of an alien armada bent on enslaving the Earth. After that fight, he left the Medal of Freedom in the Blue Area of the Moon, where he first met Uatu the Watcher. His conversation with the Watcher was interrupted by the late arrival of the alien armada, which he defeated. The United States Government used this final mission to fake his death. The government later sets up S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Marlene Frazier as Brashear’s monitor under the cover name Candace. Frazier eventually became his lover, his wife and the mother of their two children.   Brashear later became a tenured professor of physics at the University of Maryland.

Connor Sims, the Anti-Man, is a radical who, partly because of his history with Adam Brashear, violently hates racism (himself, incidentally, being caucasian), and in his power-fueled insanity seeks to eradicate it, and probably humanity right along with it. When Anti-Man returns and defeats the Avengers, Tony Stark (Iron Man) tracks down Brashear and with the help of Reed Richards they come up with a plan to stop Anti-Man. After a surprise confrontation with Sims on the moon, Brashear is left unconscious. Later an extended fight with Anti-Man results in Candace Brashear’s death. At the conclusion of their battle, Brashear takes Anti-Man up to the edge of the ionosphere and siphons off his remaining “anti-matter energy” which causes his waveform to permanently decohere and collapse.

Afterward, Brashear returns to action as a full-time superhero in Age of Heroes #3. After a discussion with Uatu the Watcher, he travels to Uzbekistan to help the Winter Guard subdue the extra-dimensional King Hyperion.

During the Fear Itself storyline, Blue Marvel was exploring the Neutral Zone when he returned and discovered a submarine lodged into Kadesh, his undersea base. Both the Chinese and American forces blamed the other, and they seemed on the brink of war. Blue Marvel manages to save his anti-matter samples from being exposed to water, and relations between the Chinese and Americans returns to normal. Though Blue Marvel is left wondering how a submarine got into his Kadesh; he soon discovers that the sea dragon that was guarding the Serpent’s undersea prison was responsible for sending a submarine into his base.

Powers and abilities

The Blue Marvel has incredible powers that allowed him to fight the Sentry, one of the most powerful beings on the Marvel Earth.

  • Superhuman Strength: Blue Marvel possesses vast superhuman strength that is on par with Sentry.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Blue Marvel possesses highly efficient musculature which produces almost no fatigue toxins, granting him almost limitless stamina in all physical activities.
  • Flight: Blue Marvel flies by manipulation of gravitons, manipulation of magnetic fields, control of his absolute molecular movement, and utilizing his superhuman speed. Blue Marvel can fly far beyond supersonic speeds, but it is unknown if he can achieve nearly the speed of light.
  • Superhuman Senses: Blue Marvel possesses superhuman senses of sight, smell, taste, touch, and hearing.
  • Enhanced Mental Perception: Blue Marvel possesses the ability to sense & comprehend things on levels that far exceed human capabilities.
  • Invulnerability: Blue Marvel seems to possess nigh-invulnerability & durability, being capable of withstanding tremendous impact forces, exposure to temperature and pressure extremes, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury. He is even capable of surviving in the vacuum of space unaided.
  • Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his nigh invulnerability to injury, it is possible to injure Blue Marvel. If injured, his body is capable of quickly repairing damaged tissue with much greater speed and efficiency than the normal human body.
  • Energy Generation: Blue Marvel has the ability to generate and control negative matter energy based on antimatter. He can manipulate this energy for various effects. – Creating energy constructs
  • According to Brashear he is a stable “antimatter reactor”, but from his broader explanation what he appears to do is channel exotic particles generated by a stable event horizon caused by the interaction of opposing positive matter and negative matter (Negative Zone) universes. Because Brashear has retained his abilities all this time, it would seem that either the specific generative reaction, that granted him his powers continues at an unseen or subatomic level in the facility where he first gained his abilities, or exotic particles generated by the experiment somehow became quantum entangled with Brashear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Marvel_(Marvel_Comics)

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