Origin
Sublime has been around longer than any other sentient life form native to Earth, and most non-sentient life as well. The sentient bacteria that makes up Sublime gained sentience 3 billion years ago, not long after the formation of the planet but long before any complex life forms developed. Sublime functioned with one mind, it was the first genome, fully evolved and as a result of its bacterial nature it was virtually indestructible. Simple life forms gave way to more complicated life forms, and finally humanity arose to become the dominant species of the planet. This did not bother Sublime, as humans were easily controllable. Sublime could live inside humans, and could be transmitted between humans–controlling their behavior and silently, invisibly dominate and species however it saw fit.
The inception and rise of homo superior, or Mutant kind was the first true challenge to Sublime’s dominance. Mutants were stronger than humans. The larger evolutionary leaps between parents and offspring in mutants allowed stronger mutants to be born each generation, mutants that were capable of wielding power on a cosmic scale and mutants that were impervious to Sublime’s infection. Sublime saw this shift as a threat to its very survival, and for the first time feared for itself.
In what it perceives as a fight against extinction, Sublime has put itself in direct opposition to mutant survival and success. It wishes to prevent continued mutancy and engineer the destruction of the mutant species permanently.
Creation
John Sublime was created by Grant Morrison and Leinil Francis Yu and first appeared in the New X-Men Annual 2001 issue 1. In his first appearances Sublime was a seemingly ‘human’ dealer in mutant-organs. His extraterrestrial origin was only later revealed.
Major Story Arcs
John Sublime
The primary possession by Sublime was an assistant of the Professor. He aided in the research in the Weapon Plus Program when the launching of Weapon X (the program that made Wolverine what he is, and would eventually function independently of Weapon Plus) was to take place. He later became the new head of Weapon Plus closed down the Weapon X project.
Weapons XI-XV were created during his leadership in The World with the intention to create a team of Super Sentinels that could exterminate the mutant population. John is in a way responsible for the death of long time X-man Jean Grey, which happened at the hands of Xorn, a mutant under the influence of Sublime by way of the drug Kick thinking himself a mad Magneto).
It was revealed that he had created the group of mutants, who sent the group of Predator X to Utopia.
X-Men Ally
Sublime next reemerged following the former X-Man Jubilee, who had recently taken in a young, presumably orphaned baby named Shogo. A former orphan herself before joining the mutant team, Jubilee went to her former teammates for help, leading Sublime right to the X-Men. Surprisingly, Sublime sought them out not for a battle but for help against his sister Arkea, who had returned to Earth and was in fact possessing Shogo, who was a patient of a hospital that gave cybernetic parts to humans who were ailing or critically injured in some way.
The X-Men immediately distrusted the man whom they’ve run into battle with several times in the past. Psylocke and Rachel Grey detained and interrogated Sublime until Arkea attacked the school from within by possessing the comatose the Omega Sentinel, also known as Karima Shapandar. With the school under siege, several X-Men banded together and with the knowledge of Sublime were able to temporarily defeat Arkea.
Attraction began to form between Rachel and Sublime through casual flirting on the x-jet with Rachel being taken in by Sublime’s charms. This highly disturbed Rachel’s fellow X-Men but nothing physical came of it as Sublime would return to his own duties afterward while Rachel remained at the school. Storm would bring up this mutual attraction up with Rachel during one of their arguments much to Rachel’s disappointment and anger as she considered this a low blow.
Sublime would later be attacked by the Sisterhood and was saved by Psylocke as they need his help to deal with his genocidal sister. While recovering Sublime would be granted an opportunity to speak of Rachel alone which even Rachel felt was a poor decision on her part. Eventually the two of them acknowledged that there was a moment that they shared while they were on the x-jet together and Sublime wondered if Rachel wanted more than that. Rachel instead told Sublime that they were a bad idea and both would mentally apologize to each other. The contents of their apologies is never made known.
After Sublime’s sister died Sublime prepared to leave the school and when questioned over his departure by Rachel he told her that it was complicated and that no matter what Rachel’s team still killed his sister even if he willingly gave them the means to do so. With that Sublime left while looking at Rachel through his window. Rachel later reveals afterward, when she’s alone, that she now knows that Sublime had killed her mother and is shown to be physically saddened over the entire thing that her own teammates hadn’t spoken to her about it.
Sublime’s current whereabouts following this are unknown.
Powers and Abilities
Sublime is a sentient bacteria that functions with one mind and consciousness. Sublime has the ability to infect other life forms, and can influence their behaviors and even gain complete control over those he infects. While Sublime easily infects humans, he has problems infecting mutants and sees their rise as a threat to his dominance and even believes they will cause his extinction.
Sublime has been known to infect mutants by way of the mutant-enhancing drug “Kick“. While kick was believed to originally be a drug that enhanced mutant abilities and give them a feeling of power and elation, it was eventually revealed that kick is the Sublime bacteria in aerosol form. This form allows him to influence the actions of mutants and amplify their mutant abilities, and with prolonged exposure even allows him to take complete control over their bodies.
As a living disease the sublime entity can not only control and manipulate the actions of it’s host but can freely, radically alter the biological structure of whichever container it is currently housed within, showcasing enhanced regenerative capability after horrible incineration and again when hurled from a several story building only to completely reconstruct it’s broken host. As well as alter the containers appearance at will coming off as a dessicated elder and transforming back to it’s former semblance.
Alternate Universes
Earth-15104
In the alternate future known as Here Comes Tomorrow the X-Men disbanded after the death of Jean Grey at the hands of Xorn (who was coincidentally under the influence of Sublime by way of the drug Kick). Beast attempted to keep the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning together for a time, but was quickly run down as a result. He turned to the drug kick for a boost, which eventually allowed Sublime to take control over his body. In this alternate future, Sublime attempts to gain control over the Phoenix Force in order to destroy all mutant life.
Earth-5700 Weapon X: Days of Future Now
In this timeline where Sentinels ruled the world,Sublime was being haunted by Fantomex, when his host is killed,Sublime tricks Fantomex into getting closer to “hear a secret” and is quickly possessed.
Many years later, Wolverine discovers a mean of going back in time and tries to keep his current timeline from happening,by doing an all out attack with the last mutants alive (who were nothing but distractions) a small team manages to enter the bulding,with Fantomex being one of then.
When Wolverine finds Rachel Summers she sends him to the past and the rest was suposed to stay and give then cover,however Sublime killed then and possessed Logan causesing him to destroy Concord’s face again. But Wolverine rejects his control and the bacteria find its host, a scientist of the Weapon Plus Program, John Sublime. And then the timeline converges with Earth-616.