Blue Marvel

Origin

Adam Brashear was a young man who served his country as a U.S. Marine. When he discovered his super-powers, he fashioned a secret identity with which to protect his country; the Blue Marvel! He served as a hero for years, and was one of the most popular heroes of his time. Yet Adam had a secret, he was an African-American, a fact not lost on the government. As a precaution against so much power in the hands of a black man, they took steps to control him, even going so far as to plant a spy for him to date, whom he eventually married. His career as the Blue Marvel ended after he faced the Anti-Man. During the battle his mask was damaged, revealing his ethnicity, outraging portions of the U.S. population.

After being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom (after agreeing to give up adventuring) he retreated to the moon, where he threw away his medal. There he encountered Uatu the Watcher. While discussing his problems Uatu, and how they made him feel, the encountered an alien invasion force when Adam discovered a scout, defeated it, and followed it back to its armada. Leaping into action, Adam saved Earth by destroying their force, a fact that would remain secret.

Years went by without Adam donning the cape and cowl again, he lived a normal life raising a family and working having earned a PhD in Theoretical Physics; Electrical Engineering Degree from Cornell, before the return of the Anti-Man. Though because of his bitter history with the government he refused to help. Things grew even worse when his wife revealed her part in the plot to keep him under wraps, and her job as a spy. She was formerly an undercover agent sent to watch Brashear. She explains why she reluctantly took the job of spying on him, and later, how she eventually fell in love with Adam, despite the prevailing racism and prejudice of the era. Brasher, feeling shocked and betrayed by his wife’s revelation, once more retreats to the moon. Where, his solace is interrupted by the Watcher. The two have a conversation, in which the Watcher helped him remember why he had become a hero in the first place, though he vowed that he would never take the fall again.

During there talk The Watcher reminds them of the first time that they met. At that time (1960’s) an alien invasion task force assembled over the moon with the Earth within its sights. Blue Marvel dispatches the armada with relative ease, saving the Earth. However, his victory is unrecognized for no one besides himself, the Watcher, and any possible surviving aliens know of it . Cut back to the present, Adam leaves to talk to Tony Stark aboard the Helicarrier. After Adam talks with the Mighty Avengers, he eventually decides to resume his Blue Marvel identity. Answering Tony Stark’s call to defeat the re-emergent Anti-man.

Creation

Blue Marvel was created by actor/comic writer Kevin Grevioux and artist Mat Broome.

Major Story Arcs

Anti-Man Returns

Later, The Blue Marvel is confronted by Anti-Man (who was revealed as Brashear’s best friend and a fellow member of the US Armed Forces) and they have the classic “hero trying to talk the misguided villain down” discussion, wherein The Blue Marvel tries to reach Anti-Man by reminding him of all the good times they spent together with both of their families at picnics and BBQs and such, and how they are the godfathers to each others children. Unfortunately, Anti-Man seems to have grown much stronger since Adam defeated him decades ago, and the Blue Marvel is unable to put him down.

It is revealed that Adam received his powers while, as a scientist, conducting a test on an anti matter device which exploded and gave him (and his former friend who would later be known as Anti-Man) his superpowers. Notably, in some of the Blue Marvel’s escapades, Namor & Adam had a few run-ins and team-ups in the 1950’s, and are old friends. Some time later, Anti-Man is seen talking to himself about how man kind previously has hurt and killed others for stupid reasons – WW2, Stalin, Civil Rights riots,Vietnam, and that how he is going to change everything. He is flying over the planet literally blasting various countries with antimatter. Adam has explained that Conner (a.k.a Anti-Man) was able to tap into more power than Adam since he is unstable and that is why he is harder to contain. Adam explains that he could link to his power since they are drawing from the same source, and then send a positive plasma charge back out to disperse Conner’s form through implosion.

The Mighty Avengers

However, Reed Richards argues that the plan is too risky since it could blow up the planet. Brashear gets mad that the Avengers don’t want him to use that plan, Adam flies out regardless and they chase after him. Each one takes their respective shot at him, then Sentry launches at him and explains how he was like him, prideful and not willing to listen.

Sentry then really lays out a barrage of punches and brings Brashear down to the floor, then Adam lets loose a punch that knocks Sentry into space. Then Adam takes out the other Avengers, when Sentry flies back to Earth and they both seem tired. Adam passes out, while Sentry falls to his knee’s from the previous shot.

The Antimatter storms caused by Anti-Man persisted and were causing the Negative Zone itself to spill out into mainstream Marvel Universe. Reed and Iron man later come together to build a negative gamma cannon that supposedly will polarize Anti-man’s energy and keep him from coalescing or coming together after he is taken apart.

Adam is seen in a stasis tube to be kept from going out again. Sue Richards brought Adam’s wife to see him, she argues as to why he is kept like that. The antimatter storms start hitting on parts of Manhattan. Adam wakes up and breaks through the chassis, his wife begs him to be straight forward and face that he is angry at himself for letting others boss him around and not follow his own instincts.

That he was afraid of causing tension for races or government. She tries to persuade him to just let the Avengers deal with this, he tells her he can’t just leave it like that. He kisses her goodbye and flies away. Anti-man is seen taking everything from the Avengers and just giving it back in return. Adam appears and knocks him back. Adam then tells the Avengers he has a plan.

Stopping Anti-Man

He has certain members holding other people back for safety, Iron Man and Ms. Marvel flying around him in circle as fast as possible, while hitting him with plasma bursts, She Hulk and Wonder Man and Ares take the low ground and hit him with everything so he can expend as much energy as possible. Then Reed realizes that Adam is trying to create an artificial cyclotron particle accelerator so as to disperse him. While Sentry and Adam go straight at him from the high ground.

Adam then syncs up with Anti-Man’s energy and starts weakening Conner. Candace is in the crowd and runs to Adam, Conner yells. Saying he has more power than anybody and he is going to show it. He lets out an energy wave that knocks out most Avengers. Then Candace get’s caught in the blaze, turning her into a burned/deformed dying meat sack.

Than with her dying words she makes Adam promise that he won’t hide from the world anymore. Anti-Man then hits Adam again and the antimatter storms are now all over the planet and Conner say’s how he will give the world hell. Adam and Anti-man then trade blows as Adam say’s he has become like all others, in justifying genocide for a point of view.

Adam takes Conner into space and sync’s with him and is about to disperse his energy as Conner begs for his life. Adam says he feels sorry for Conner, but forgives him for all he has done. Adam than releases the energy saving the Earth and destroying Anti-Man. After the funeral for Candace, Stark visited Adam to apologize for his loss and to invited him to join the Avengers. Adam says he wants time to think it over. At home, he finds a box with a letter from his late wife. In it is a new uniform she made for when he one day goes back as the Blue Marvel.

Heroic Age

Recently, Adam’s fear of not being able to fit into the new Heroic Age was shattered when his old friend, Uatu, convinced him to confront the world-destroying tyrant known as King Hyperion, a mentally deranged version of The Squadron Supreme’s Hyperion who had served as one of The Exiles’ primary arch-nemesis’ long ago. As they fought, King Hyperion managed to get the upper hand and viciously beat Adam while the inhabitants of a village ruined by their fight watched and came to the mistaken conclusion that Adam was just another tyrant like King Hyperion. As Adam lay there in the mud while the villagers tossed things at him, King Hyperion took a little girl hostage and threatened to rip her apart. Adam became furious and managed to find the strength to continue fighting the mad God Emperor of Earth – 4023.

By allowing himself to cut loose and unleash his anti-matter energy powers, Adam managed to bring King Hyperion down and save the village. After defeating King Hyperion, the little girl whose life Hyperion threatened thanked Adam for saving her and in turn, changed the way the villagers viewed Adam. No longer was he considered a villain and was praised for saving their small village from annihilation, giving Adam the confidence to try and fit his way into the new Heroic Age.

Civil War II

Blue Marvel is warned by Ulyesses about the approaching cosmic being Infinaut and his danger to the planet Earth. Blue Marvel teams up with Giant Man (Raz Malhotra) to use Pym Particles to shrink Infinaut to a safe human size.

Ultimates Squared

Ms America secretly reassembles the Ultimates after Civil War II at the request of Galactus. Eternity has been chained and it is up to Blue Marvel and the Ultimates to free him and to find out who had the power to do so.

Reforming the Three Xs

When Jimmy Woo began investigating a man who had been wearing the Eternity Mask and posing as the Masked Raider, he reformed the Three Xs with Blue Marvel and Night Thrasher, in order to help with the investigation. They also helped several heroes with the mystrious murder of an unknown man.

Doctor Doom

Following the explosion of the Antlion Space Station caused by terrorists disguised as Latverians, creating a Black Hole, Blue Marvel was asked to recapture a recently escaped Doctor Doom. He, along with H.E.R.B.I.E., were able locate Doom at Morgan Le Fay’s apartment, however, after Doom was shot by Taskmaster. Le Fay tried to convince Blue Marvel that Doom was innocent this time, but upon his revival, Doom blasted Marvel unconscious. After relocating Doom at the house of Fruzsina Markovich, he battled Silver Sable, Victorious, and Kang who were there to aid Doom in reclaiming his throne. Blue Marvel tried to capture Doom, however, Doom was able to escape him once again.

He and Reed Richards were later able to contact Doom and help in how to deal with the Black Hole, with Doom convincing them that Marvel’s powers were more than enough to fix the problem. After donning a suit for Black Hole Exploration he went inside the black hole in order to fix the problem. However, after entering the black hole his powers were tapped out and was stuck inside, while the black hole kept existing. Suddenly, Blue Marvel was approached by Doctor Octopus from an alternate reality who was sent by his reality Doctor Doom to help in fixing the problem with negative energy bombs. While Otto told Blue Marvel that his reality’s Doctor Doom, the benevolent ruler of the world, had horrific visions of Marvel’s Doom, they were attacked by the Brood. Otto himself was killed by the monsters, but Blue Marvel somehow couldn’t die, and so escaped to the other side the singularity that was within the hole.

Blue Marvel would land in the alternate reality, where he would find the reformed Doctor Doom that Otto spoke about. Brashear was taken back to a futuristic version of Doomstadt and discussed the Antlion and Octavius with the alternate Doom and the Doom of the Prime Universe. Later, in a fit of rage, Victor would murder his alternate self and take an encased Ultimate Nullifier to destroy the reality. However, he spared Blue Marvel, dropping the angry hero into a remote ocean on Earth-616.

Characteristics

• Height: 6’4 (193m)
• Weight: 230 lbs (104.33 kg)
• Eyes: Brown
• Hair: Black, with gray highlights
• Occupation: Former Marine, Professor, Adventurer
• Citizenship: American
• Headquarter: Kadesh
• Relationships: Candace Brashear (Wife, deceased), Max Brashear (Son), Kevin Brashear (Son) Adrienne Brashear (Daughter)

Powers

Blue Marvel’s powers are a result of being mutated, by radiation generated from the then unstable event horizon to the Negative Zone. His powers make him a force to be reckoned with, and one of the strongest beings in the Universe. He was considered to be an Alpha Level Threat by Captain America and Tony Stark.

Antimatter Manipulation: Blue Marvel is the first Antimatter Generator and Reactor; the source of his power is the energy released from anti-matter. Anti-matter releases energy with 100% efficiency. One gram of anti-matter contains the same energy as the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. One droplet could power New York City for a full day. Antimatter is the same as normal matter, except that the sub-atomic particles are the opposite charge. Therefore, antimatter and normal matter cannot coexist without exploding.

• Concussion Beams: Blue Marvel can release beams of pure solidified antimatter that causes concussive damage. The effects of these beams rang from slight push, hard hit, knock-out, minor and major damage, shattering, and total annihilation of the target.
• Concussive Force Bolts: Blue Marvel can release anti-matter energy from his hands as bolts of concussive force.
• Stun Bolts: Blue Marvel can project low-energy of antimatter bolts that render human beings unconscious.
• Optic Blast: Blue Marvel can project antimatter beams from his eyes, of various intensity.
• Energy Constructs: Blue Marvel can turn antimatter into any item he’s seen, can imagine, or has a good idea how it functions.
• Energy Enhanced Punches: Blue Marvel can focus antimatter into his fists, which he can then use to shatter substances.
• Energy Pulse: Blue Marvel can produce a surge of antimatter from his entire body, as a massive omnidirectional pulse of devastation power.
• Energy Shields: Blue Marvel has been seen creating antimatter shields, around himself ad others.The shields are strong enough to deflect and absorb charging attacks from King Hyperion.
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Antimatter Stabilization: According to Blue Marvel himself, 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 Blue Marvel has retained his powers 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 powers, or exotic particles generated by the experiment somehow became quantum entangled with Blue Marvel. He is able to stabilize antimatter, where anti-matter and matter would normally annihilate each other upon physical contact; Blue Marvel can prevent such an occurrence for a variety of effects, ranging from matter-antimatter constructs to the cohabitation of matter and antimatter beings.

Incalculable Strength: Blue Marvel possesses vast levels of superhuman strength, and is stated to be in the same league as Sentry, Hulk, and Thor strength wise; Blue Marvel has the potential to be the most powerful hero on Earth. He was seen effortlessly lifting the 1960 era’s American warship ‘Enterprise’ which weighs over 93,000 tons, but is capable of greater feats of strength, as shown when he easily moved a meteor “easily the size of Arkansas”. Blue Marvel is capable of lifting far in excess of 100 tons easily, as shown when he’s lifted a disabled battleship weighing 100,000 tons and flew it back to port for repair. The Watcher said that Blue Marvel could have “split the moon in two” with one blow. Prince Namor himself stated that after Blue Marvel’s long hiatus, that only the Hulk and Thor have hit him as hard. Blue Marvel went toe to toe with Sentry, as well as with the rest of the Avengers; he knocked Sentry unconscious into orbit in a single blow, for several minutes. Sentry barely beat Blue Marvel, requiring the distraction of a prolonged and exhausting fight with The Avengers including Wonder Man, Ms. Marvel, Ares and Iron Man to deliver a solid blow. The uppermost limits of Blue Marvel’s strength is unknown, but it equals or exceeds the likes of a enraged Hulk, Sentry and others.

Invulnerability: Blue Marvel possess nigh-invulnerability similar to Sentry, and has no physical weaknesses; he can withstand: tremendous impact forces, high-caliber bullets, exposure to temperature and pressure extremes, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury. When swimming to his base in the Mariana Trench (deepest part of ocean), he remains unaffected by the Ocean’s pressure. Blue Marvel has also withstood a nuclear detonation at ground zero, without any apparent physical trauma whatsoever.

Superhuman Durability: Blue Marvel’s tissue, skin, muscles, bones, etc. are extremely dense/solid, allowing him to withstand harmful strains on his body; he’s has survived a 1 megaton atomic bomb exploding in his hands without suffering any type of damage. He also withstood blows from a large collection of superhumans such as: Ms. Marvel, Ares, Iron Man, Wonder Man, and Sentry while remaining unharmed.

Regenerative Healing Factor: Despite his nigh invulnerability, 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.

Superhuman Reflexes: Blue Marvel reflexes are superior to those of the finest human athletes. He’s capable of catching bullets and dodging projectiles.

Superhuman Agility: Blue Marvel’s natural balance, agility, and body coordination are enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

Superhuman Stamina: Blue Marvel’s enhanced musculature is far more efficient than that of a humans. His muscles produces very no fatigue toxins, thereby granting limitless stamina.

Self-Sustenance: Blue Marvel can survive in harsh environments without air, food, or water. He’s also able to survive in the deepest parts of the ocean and unaided in space.

Superhuman Speed: Blue Marvel is capable of thinking, moving, and reacting vastly faster than any normal human being. He’s shown to be fast enough to keep up with Sentry, which means he can move and think thousands of times faster than an average human.

Flight: Blue Marvel flies by manipulation of gravitons, manipulation of magnetic fields, control of his absolute molecular movement, and utilizing his superhuman speed. He can fly far beyond supersonic speeds, reach speeds of at least escape velocity (7 miles per second), and has been seen flying into space unaided under his own power. He’s also been seen traveling to the moon in less than 20 minutes, flying at a casual speed. This would indicate that he is at LEAST capable of flying at 675,000 mph (187miles per second).

Superhuman Sense: Blue Marvel possesses sensory abilities that exceed far above normal human capabilities.

• Enhanced Vision: Blue Marvel can see down to the quark level.
• Enhanced Sense of Smell
• Enhanced Sense of Taste
• Enhanced Hearing
• Enhanced Sense of Touch
• Enhanced Mental Perception: Blue Marvel possesses the ability to sense & comprehend things on levels that far exceed human capabilities.

Energy Manipulation: Blue Marvel was able to re-arrange the photons inside Spectrum’s, to stop the anti-photons from destroying her body, thus making her stronger and more powerful. Afterwards, she was strong enough to take down a tiny shadow of Shuma Gorath.

Molecular Manipulation: Blue Marvel is able to affect matter at a molecular level with a great degree of precision and control. He displayed this ability, when he not only healed Monica Rambeau, but further boosted her electromagnetic abilities. It is not known if this power is limited to electromagnetic particles only, or if Blue Marvel is able to affect all matter, allowing him to alter an object’s molecular composition or transmute elements.

Light Generation: Blue Marvel has exhibited the ability literally “create his own light”. He can control its direction, intensity, and duration.

Longevity: Blue Marvel ages at a vastly slower rate than normal humans. Because of this, his life-span is greatly expanded. Despite being centuries old, Blue Marvel remains at his physical prime.

Abilities

Athlete: Adam is a highly talented Football Player, and former Fullback at Cornell University.

Combat: Adam has been trained by the US Marines in armed and unarmed combat at Montford Point. He was able to directly engage Iron man, Ares, Wonder Man and Ms. Marvel in combat at the same time, and casually overpower them.

Super Genius: Adam has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics and a Bachelors of Science Degree in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, where he graduated Magna cum laude. Adam is a genius in the field of Theoretical Physics, and has made extraordinary strides in the study of antimatter; Spider-Man is familiar with Adams work, and is impressed. Adam is also a Physics Professor at the University of Maryland. He’s capable of creating complex battle plans on the fly with teams he’s never worked with, and also creates portal technology on his own for fun.

Alternate Version

In the What If Secret Invasion, we see Blue Marvel fighting along side the Avengers against the Skrulls and Red Hulk. Blue Marvel was seen working as the resident scientist/powerhouse of the team. In this universe the Skrulls had taken over Earth.

In Other Media

Video Games

• Blue Marvel appears in Marvel Avengers Alliance.
• Blue Marvel appears as a playable character in Lego Marvel’s The Avengers.
• Blue Marvel appears as a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.

Merchandise

• Blue Marvel was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Blue Marvel was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Controller Build-a-Figure wave.