Hyperion

Current Events

Currently there are three Hyperions roaming the mainstream Marvel Universe. The Earth-616 counterpart is unaccounted for following a conflict between Baron Zemo and the Grandmaster, while the villainous Hyperion from Earth-4023 had a recent altercation with the Thunderbolts and another Hyperion from Earth-13034 is a member of the Avengers.

Origin

Earth-616’s Hyperion’s civillian name is Zhib-Ran and he inhabited the microverse. He later became a member of the supervillian team; the Squadron Sinister. By his own account, this Hyperion was the elected ruler of a world in the Microverse. When his planet was inadvertently destroyed by Genis-Vell, he was swallowed up by a powerful Galactic Maelstrom, which he was rescued from by The Grandmaster.

Hyperion, Earth 13034

The super-being that would become known as Hyperion came to Earth as a baby, sent as the only survivor of the race of Eternals from a dying world. A human named Father raised him under the name of Marcus Milton, teaching him the morals of society. As an adult he became the super hero known as Hyperion, and protected the world along a team of superhumans known as the Squadron Supreme.

One day, his universe and another started colliding. While he was trying to prevent the destruction of his reality, he was left in the void his destroyed universe once occupied, as the only survivor, floating in nothingness.

Avenger

The group of scientists known as A.I.M. from another universe managed to pull him to their reality. He spent most of his time in captivity, until he was freed by the Avengers, who offered him a place in their ranks.

His first mission as an Avenger was to rescue the captured members that were being held by Ex Nihilo, Abyss, and Aleph. After rescuing them he returned to Earth and accompanied the other Avengers to the areas hit by Ex Nihilo’s Origin Bombs. During his trip to the Savage Land, he found the Children of the Sun, a race of evolved beings created from an Origin Bomb. He began spending a deal of his time caring for and educating them.

Time Runs Out

After the Avengers fell into S.H.I.E.L.D. authority and Steve Rogers tried to use them to hunt down the Illuminati, Hyperion left the team and dedicated to keep on teaching the Children of the Sun. At the request of Sunspot, Marcus joined da Costa’s own Avengers team, in order to investigate the incursions.

Using A.I.M.’s resources, Sunspot managed to put into operation a machine capable of transporting individuals across the Multiverse, in hopes of finding the source of the decay of the Multiverse, and a group of them, the “Multiversal Avengers,” embarked in said mission. Hyperion was among these heroes.

In their journey, the Multiversal Avengers arrived to the base of the Black Priests, whom they believed to be enemies, as they would destroy alternate Earths. After discovering their true motivation, that of saving the Multiverse, the Multiversal Avengers allied with the Black Priests, and were informed of the true enemies they had to face, the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal. While the Black Priests tried to find Rabum Alal, the Multiversal Avengers would set out to find the Ivory Kings (also known as the Beyonders).

The Avengers traveled across numerous universes, navigating the map left by the Mapmakers. After one last jump across universes that cost Nightmask’s life, the Avengers found themselves face to face with a fissure in time and space. From it, two Beyonders emerged and demanded the heroes to fall back. Upon denying their request, the Avengers faced the Beyonders. In an attempt to reprogram one of the Beyonders, Abyss and the Ex Nihili sacrificed themselves, and after being stabbed by the second Beyonder, Star Brand used his last breath to unleash the energy within him and destroy it. The only surviving Avengers, Odinson and Hyperion found themselves against an incoming wave of countless Beyonders, and faced their deaths with delight.

When Earth-616 came back into existence, so did Hyperion and the rest of the world. A few months after these events, he left the Avengers and joined the Squadron Supreme. His first mission with the Squadron Supreme was to punish Namor for destroying Doctor Spectrum’s world and cooperating with the Cabal as well as numerous attacks upon the surface world. During the attack, Hyperion yanked the city of Atlantis from the ocean, lifted it high into the air, and hurled it down utterly destroying it. Hyperion then decapitated Namor with his Atomic Vision. This called the attention of the public, who either thought they were too dangerous or the only way to find real justice, as well as S.H.I.E.L.D.’s, specially Namor’s long time allies, agent Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, and Steve Rogers, formerly known as Captain America.

Later, tormented by his violent actions, Hyperion decided to take some time to himself, not letting any of his teammates know where he went. While in Lawton, Oklahoma, he entered a diner where he met a trucker named Juan. After a brief talk about how lost he felt, Hyperion seemed to take Juan’s advice about living on the roads to help him understand things better to heart. Soon after, he received a signal from Nighthawk, who was about to have a confrontation with the Avengers Unity Division.

Arriving at the place, he was confronted by Steve Rogers, who claimed that he didn’t believe that Hyperion could act the way he did from their time together as Avengers. Since talking wouldn’t solve the problem, the two teams ended up fighting each other. While battling Human Torch, both were taken down by a fire blast from Jim Hammond, the other Human Torch, who arrived together with an army of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. However, before the Squadron Supreme could be captured, Thundra and Tyndall appeared to save them, teleporting the group to Weirdworld.

Weirdworld

Thundra carrying a wounded Hyperion

Once at Weirdworld, they were immediately attacked by Arkon, who was possessed by some individual. He struck a shocked and powerless Hyperion with a lightning bolt that pushed him off a cliff. Thundra later rescued him, after barely escaping from Arkon and Warrior Woman, who revealed to be a traitor posing as Power Princess and captured the rest of the team. Thundra and Hyperion, who survived the fall with only a few wounds even without his powers, wandered aimlessly for a moment until they were saved from a group of Magma Men by Skull the Slayer.

Skull explained that Doctor Druid was the one behind the mind control of all the inhabitants of Weirdworld. Doctor Spectrum, who was thought to be dead after exploding in light, revealed to be alive and aware of everything that happened while she was gone, reappearing in front of them. Actually her power prism was overloaded by the magic atmosphere of Weirdworld and needed to adapt, which was also the reason for Hyperion’s sudden power loss. This motivated her to create an aura that would protect him from the magic around, granting a part of his powers back.

Recovered, Hyperion took another shot at fighting Arkon, this time with his powers restored. After Doctor Spectrum weakened the mind controlling crystal, Hyperion used his own strength as well as Arkon’s to destroy the gem, shattering it to pieces and freeing everyone from Doctor Druid’s spell. The Squadron Supreme was greeted by the Weirdworld’s people, as Hyperion seemed to be confused about his team’s forceful tactics. Finally, they went back home, with Thundra accompanying them as a new member.

Back to Earth

Hyperion then went on a few missions with the other members of the Squadron Supreme, following Nighthawk’s investigations of an alien scheme being put in place on Earth. According to Doctor Spectrum, the team worked well despite of the members’ lack of common characteristics and the fact that both Hyperion and Nighthawk assumed they were the leader. Between missions, Hyperion became a truck driver just like he planned to.

Upon his arrival at a diner on Fallon, Nevada, he met a waitress named Sally and her son from a strained previous relationship, Chris.

The Carnies

Taking some more time away from the Squadron Supreme, Hyperion struggled with his identity and morale, questioning his place on Earth at the same time. The fact that he murdered people because of his team’s ideals still haunted him, who feared falling into obscurity.

While at a truck stop in Merkel, Nebraska, he was approached by a teenage girl named Doll, who was adamant about getting a ride with him in his truck. Reluctantly, he accepted to take her somewhere far from there. While Doll was asleep, Hyperion found a gun in her purse and threw it away, claiming that he was no longer so sure that violence was the only way to solve problems.

In the middle of the road, he was stopped by a broken down car to see if the driver needed any assistance; however, he was hit in the back of his head by a man that Doll recognized as Bennie, an employee of the Valentine County Carnival, the mobile group she was running from. After apparently being taken out, Hyperion attacked back using a tree branch as a bat to hit Bennie. While on the run, Doll explained to Marc that the people pursuing her were called “The Family”, a team of individuals within the carnival that had special abilities.

As some members of the Family were getting closer to them, Doll asked Marc to do something other than driving away and revealed that she had been investigating him for a while after hearing some stories and knew that he was actually a hero. Marc; however, keep denying, much to Doll’s dismay, who started thinking she got the wrong guy. When Connie, a contortionist, grabbed Doll through the window of the truck, Marc used his Atomic Vision to save her and fled from the road flying, thus revealing his identity as Hyperion. After placing Doll in a safe place, he returned to where he last saw the carnies and attacked them with a tractor-trailer.

Hyperion then engaged the fight with the carnies, but was defeated by Worm-Boy, and brought into the Haunted House as hostage. When Doll came to save him, she encountered a mysterious alien creature that had changed the carnies and tried to change her too, but she able was to resist it, after promising to free it from the Family. After recovering from injuries to his eyes, Hyperion then shot his Atomic Vision to the mirrors around him, all at once hurting his opponent. He then took Doll out of the Haunted House, while destroying the Carnival and killing Worm-Boy before they fled.

After he brought Doll to a safe place, Hyperion met with Thundra who was looking for him. Hyperion explained that he needed time to be alone. Thundra told him that there was someone who survived after he destroyed the Carnival. Hyperion suspected that it was Junior and felt he would come for Doll again. He and Thundra decided to team up to look for Junior and stop him once and for all. He found the Strongman, one of Junior’s men, in a bar and asked him where his boss was. Strongman said that Junior had set up an army to get Doll back; meanwhile, Iron Man suddenly appeared at the motel where Hyperion and Doll were staying, and asked her where Hyperion was.

Iron Man met with Hyperion and asked him to be put on trial for crimes that had been committed by the Squadron Supreme. Hyperion replied by throwing him out of the motel and both of them engaged in a fight. Iron Man managed to hold off Hyperion’s attack until Thundra appeared and helped him. After a brief argument they agreed to put aside their problems and Marc asked for Iron Man to bring Doll to a safe place when Junior and his army appeared. Hyperion destroyed Junior’s army and then discarded the rest of his body into space so that even if he survived he wouldn’t be a threat anymore.

After a superhuman civil war (which started due to Thanos’ arrival on Earth) and a looming Chitauri invasion, the idea to build a Planetary Defense Shield came up, and, after it was built, Hyperion was asked by Monica Rambeau to test it alongside other superheroes.

Secret Empire

When the Chitauri invasion arrived, Hyperion was among the superheroes who prepared to hold the line against them while Iron Man and Ironheart fixed the malfunctioning Planetary Defense Shield. However, it was soon revealed that the Shield’s malfunctions were actually purposefully caused by an alternate Captain America, who used it as a distraction for his own operations. Rogers activated the Shield, leaving Hyperion and the rest of the heroes exiled in Earth’s orbit while Hydra assumed control over the United States of America.

Though Hyperion was seriously injured fighting the Chitauri onslaught, he recovered by the time that the Defense Shield was brought down by the new Quasar Avril Kincaid, allowing him to return to Earth. Hyperion later joined the rest of America’s superheroes in their final attack on Washington, D.C., helping to end Hydra’s occupation of the country.

Creation

Hyperion was first introduced in The Avengers #69 as a member of the villainous “Squadron Sinister” superteam and was created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema. This version was later revealed to be a clone. There have been countless Hyperion’s introduced since and most incarnations of the character are at least loosely based on the DC Comics character Superman, the two of them sharing similar looks, powers and origins.

The second, and most popular, Hyperion, this one from Earth-712, is a member of the heroic “Squadron Supreme.” This version was also created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema. Thomas also created the Squadron Supreme (a Marvel superteam analogous to DC’s Justice League of America) which first appeared in The Avengers Vol.1 issue 85 (1971). The creation of this heroic version of the Squadron Sinister caused much confusion in the production office, as the workers kept getting the two teams and Hyperion’s confused.

Earth-616’s Hyperion was introduced into several decades later in New Thunderbolts, where he was a villain who joined the Squadron Sinister, much like the earlier clone.

The latest version of Hyperion (Earth-13034) was introduced in the pages of Avengers Vol.5 issue 1 and became a member of the Avengers-team. After the events of Secret Wars he joined a new incarnation of the Squadron Supreme.

Major Story Arcs

Guardian Protocols

Emerging from the Microverse, Hyperion joined forces with the new Doctor Spectrum and aided her in her plan to conquer the planet Earth and rule it with an iron fist in order to “save the people from themselves”. The two “recruited” Speed Demon and Nighthawk, two members of the original Squadron Sinister, into their plans. The two new recruits betrayed them, however, and along with the rest of the Thunderbolts, defeated them. Before they could be apprehended, however, the pair were whisked away by the Grandmaster.

The Grandmaster had a plan to use an extra-dimensional energy source (the Wellspring of Power) to give himself god-like omnipotence. Baron Zemo was preparing to stop him, so the Grandmaster recruited the Squadron Sinister to be his agents in the upcoming conflict. During the inevitable confrontation, Hyperion was defeated in battle by both The Fixer and The Radioactive Man, who managed to bring him down by using high-pitched sound frequencies and a radioactive frequency that drained Hyperion of nearly all his powers, leaving him with just enough power to keep the cold hands of Death from taking him. Hyperion somehow managed to escape from the Thunderbolts and hasn’t been seen since.

Powers and Abilities

Hyperion is an Eternal with various superhuman powers.. When Earth-13034 Hyperion he came to Earth-616 he stated that Earth-616’s Sun being less filtered for some reason. This made him even stronger due to the fact that his powers are coming from the Sun.

Super Strength

Hyperion has an extremely high level of superhuman strength and is able to lift at least 90 tons, if not far more. Hyperion’s strength has wavered over the years being as low as class 75 and high enough to match the Hulk, Thor and Gladiator in battle. The 13034 Hyperion recently was shown to be strong enough to slow down a speeding planet single handededly, lift and throw Atlantis and also stop the collision of two alternate Earths by himself for a short time (this feat equates him to pushing back over 13 sextillion tons). He was also capable of one shotting Terminus who Thor was having a struggle with and ridiculously overpower the High Evolutionary.

Super Speed and Reflexes

Hyperion can move and react at superhuman speeds. He was moving and reacting at the period of nanosecond while fighting Gladiator but this was the Earth-712 version of him.

Superhuman Stamina and Self Sustenance

Hyperion has superhuman stamina which the limits of are unknown but it seems that it is limitless as long as his body absorbs solar energy. He is immune to toxins, poisons and does not tire. Hyperion also does not require air, food or water to survive and is self sustenance while he absorbs Solar energy.

Nigh-Invulnerability

Hyperion is almost invulnerable to all types of damage including heat, energy or blunt force. Though he can heal from nearly any wound eventually, the rare times he incurred any, there was a limit to his powers of recuperation. Hyperion’s invulnerability is at a very high level yet he is not entirely indestructible. He shrugged off multiple blasts from a weapon capable of melting granite like nothing. He was also capable of taking blows from strongest powerhouses in Marvel Universe like Hulk, Thor or Gladiator and also survived being cut by Glaive of Corvus which is capable of cutting atoms (even tho he was KOed).

One of his most impressive durability showing is when he survived the incursions, the destruction of two Universes by destroying their respective Earths.

Flight

Hyperion is capable of flight on massive speeds. While on Earth he can fly at speeds of 3080 miles per hour (Mach 4) but is capable of flying faster than lightning, moving from Earth to the vacuum in seconds.

Atomic Vision

Hyperion can project very intense beams of heat energy from his eyes capable of generating up to 5000 degrees at least. He has been shown capable shoot concussive blasts of solar energy from his eyes capable of hurting even Thor and the Hulk as well as incinerate Corvus Glaive, and swiftly decapitating Namor. He was able to examine a dead skin cell at the atomic level and find the culprit of the abduction using his heightened hearing and sight in the span of a few moments.

Enhanced Senses

Hyperion possesses x-ray and miscroscopic vision, allowing him to see everything in Electro Magnetic Spectrum as well as see through solid matter.He also has superhuman hearing allowing him to hear anything he wants from whatever planet he is on, and not on.

Alternate Universes

Squadron Supreme Universe (Earth-712)

The Hyperion of Earth-712 is the last Eternal left on Earth. As a young child he was adopted by the Milton family and raised as their adopted son Mark Milton. His adoptive parents raised him very well, instilling in him certain values that led to his career as a hero and proactive approach towards human affairs. Upon finishing college, Mark decides to become a costumed hero to use his powers to protect others, he chooses the name Hyperion, after the greek titan. Mark chooses to move to the city of Cosmopolis and gets a job as a newspaper’s staff cartoonist. Mark would later start a relationship with his work colleague Lonni Lattimer.

While living a life of heroic adventure and crime-fighting, Hyperion meets many other metahumans, several of them decide to join forces and form the superhero team Squadron Supreme. Hyperion is chosen as the leader of the Squadron.

During one of their early missions they encounter four of the Avengers from the 616 universe, who had accidentally crossed into the Earth-712 dimension. The Squadron battle the Avengers, but the two teams eventually unite against the planet-wide threat posed by the Brain-Child, before they return to their own universe. Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme later battle the Avengers once again, who help to free the Earth-712 from the influence of the artifact the Serpent Crown.

Due in part to failing governments and poverty, Hyperion and the Squadron plan a program called Project Utopia. The project involves taking over the Earth through peaceful means by convincing the people to allow them to transform the world into a paradise, they state the project will take one year. It’s during the Squadron’s implementation of the Utopia Program that Hyperion and Power Princess begin a romantic relationship in the wake of the clone masquerading as Hyperion’s death.

Nighthawk, who had strongly opposed the Utopia Program from the start, left the Squadron after he failed to convince his team mates the project was morally wrong. After several crises, Nighthawk leads his rebellion which eventually culminates in a deadly battle with both sides suffering several casualties and fatalities including Nighthawk himself who is killed. After the battle, Hyperion realizes the error of his ways and promptly begins dismantling the Utopia Program.

He and the other surviving members of the Squadron Supreme later travel into space to protect their Earth from the Nth Man, at the cost of being exiled to the Earth-616 universe. While stranded in the 616 dimension, the Squadron Supreme resided at Project Pegasus and periodically responded to the sites of emergencies and disasters to help protect people and save lives. It was during such efforts that the Squadron was manipulated into yet another conflict with the Avengers, battling them in person (Hyperion battled Thor) and in the media. After some investigation the Avengers and the Squadron Supreme determined it was Imus Champion who had been manipulating them. The two teams confronted Imus Champion and were forced to team-up and combine their efforts to defeat him. During this team-up Hyperion and Thor put aside their usual enmity and even seemed friendly toward each other. The two teams of heroes managed to defeat Imus Champion’s plan and, as an added bonus, stumbled across a prototype Nth projector he’d had in his possession which gave the Squadron the means to return to their universe.

Upon their return home the Squadron discovered the members who’d remained had disbanded. Later, Hyperion reassembles the former members of the Squadron after he learns a new government had assumed power after the Squadron’s exile and had continued the Utopia Program. Hyperion and the other Squadron members immediately begin an assault on the Global Directorate cementng the now reunited Squadron vow to overthrow their world’s oppressive government dictatorship and restore their world.

Sometime later Hyperion and another blind Hyperion from Earth-5764 were brought in by Barnell Bohusk a.k.a. Beak of Earth-616 to help the dimension-hopping Exiles defeat yet another albeit a mentally deranged version of himself from Earth-4023. After defeating their evil twin Hyperion and his Earth-5764 counterpart considered wresting control of The Panoptichron from The Exiles and The Timebreakers as neither party were considered trustworthy by any stretch of the imagination to either version of Hyperion. Beak, whom they trusted, was able to convince them that The Exiles were responsible enough to handle The Panoptichron without them and so Hyperion and his counterpart returned to their respective Universes. A few weeks later Hyperion would once again encounter The Exiles as they chased the body-snatching, reality manipulating Mutant called Proteus (who was in the form of Hulk 2099) across The Multiverse. Proteus convinced Hyperion and The Squadron Supreme that The Exiles had ditched Beak, went insane and were hunting Proteus down because he had tried to stop them from conquering The Multiverse. Hyperion and The Squadron Supreme defeated The Exiles while Proteus hopped Universes and had them placed on trial. Eventually Heather Hudson, in the guise of The Timebroker, would convince Hyperion of their innocence and in return for their freedom Hyperion and The Squadron were given the means to expose the tyrannical government now ruling over their Earth for what they truly were and how they had rigged the election process which had put them in control of Earth in the first place.

Hyperion and the Squadron Supreme were next seen in the Ultimate Universe. The Scarlet Witch of Earth-1610 accidentally brought Hyperion and The Squadron Supreme of Earth-712 from some point in their past to Earth-31916 (The Supremeverse circa 2007) where he briefly fought Earth-1610’s Wolverine, his own Earth-31916 counterpart and then eventually would lead his Squadron Supreme alongside Earth-31916’s Squadron Supreme and The Earth-1610 Heroes into battle against The Hulk of Earth-1610. After the fight ended The Scarlet Witch, with the aid of the Earth-712 Arcanna and Earth-31916’s Arcanna, returned Hyperion and The Squadron Supreme back to the proper moment in time on Earth-712 that they were pulled from.

Earth-1121 (Earth X)

The Hyperion of Earth-1121 is an elderly man that comes from a world where all life was eradicated by nuclear holocaust, save for him, whose Eternal heritage made him impervious to the destructive power unleashed by a fear-consumed humanity.

Hyperion was recruited by the robot X-51 of Earth-9997 ( Earth X) for his squad of interdimensional heralds in return for the knowledge required to “kill a Superman”. During his mission with X-51 to find the Reed Richards of a world that has been returned to a Hyborean state of being by the dark mage Kulan Gath, Hyperion single-handedly annihilates Kulan Gath’s armies and, after discovering that Gath has been drawing all his power from The Celestial Embryo growing at the heart of the Earth, incinerates Kulan Gath himself.

Hyperion later became embroiled in several conflicts with The Watchers, The Guardians of The Galaxy, Annihilus’ expedition crew and The Police of Earth-9997 and was eventually reunited with his lost love Zarda after entering Mar-Vell’s Paradise, but is shocked and dismayed to find her in the arms of the evil duplicate Hyperion the Grandmaster had created to battle the Avengers. Zarda explained to Hyperion that it was his duplicate she’d fallen in love with first, and it was always him whom she’d truly loved. Heartbroken, Hyperion ran away and was never seen or heard from again.

Earth-4023

For more details: see King Hyperion.

The Hyperion of Earth-4023 is a genocidal villain, a former member of Weapon X and the Thunderbolts and a chief adversary to the Exiles.

Earth-5764

This blind incarnation of Hyperion was seen for a few issues in Exiles when he and Earth-712 Hyperion were brought in by Beak to help the Exiles battle and defeat the evil Hyperion of Earth-4023. Going by the fact that he is still blinded from his fight with The Grandmaster’s Hyperion, he seems to have come from a world that never came under attack from The Nth Man. Because of this The Squadron Supreme of that reality would have never ended up being tossed into The Multiverse and stranded on a world where Hyperion would have been able to meet Makkari, a fellow Eternal, and learn how to heal injuries such as the one that left him blind in the wake of his fight with the duplicate.

Earth-13034

An incarnation of Hyperion from Earth-13034 first appeared in the pages of Avengers Vol.5 issue 1 and was brought into Earth-616 when he was saved from his dying universe by A.I.M., who intended to use him for their atypical generic evil plots. It is revealed in his origin issue that this Hyperion’s Earth was destroyed by a universal incursion, a problem that the Illuminati where dealing with in New Avengers. Hyperion was liberated by the Avengers and afterwards was offered to become a member of the team. Hyperion accepted the Avengers’ offer to join their ranks and subsequently joined the team to battle the Garden.

Joining the Avengers Hyperion aided them on many missions helping fight beings such as the Builders. He even played a role in the Infinity event being a key fighter in the final battle against Thanos.

Hyperion stayed with the Avengers as the incursion threat became larger and larger. Together with Thor, the Builders and Star Brand, they tried to stop the masterminds behind the Incursions, the Beyonders. They battled a number of them at the edge of the Universe and managed to take out some of them. However, at the end it was just Thor and Hyperion left and a whole new wave of Beyonders had arrived. They failed to stop them but went down fighting and seemed to have been killed by them right before all of reality was destroyed and then re-shaped into a new reality, as seen in the events of Secret Wars.

Joining the new Squadron Supreme

After Secret Wars, Hyperion found himself alive and well and soon joined a group of other misplaced heroes that had lost their home-reality and had found themselves stuck on Earth-616. The group soon agreed that they would become a group of heroes that would protect their new earth by any means necessary. In doing this, Hyperion and his team first sought out Namor the Sub-mariner, for his crimes during the incursion conflict that had lead up to the Secret Wars and the destruction of all reality. A fight broke out between the Squadron and Namor and his Atalantian forces in which Hyperion eventually took the entire city of Atlantis and rose it up from the ocean. After lifting it up, he threw it down again towards earth. An enraged Namor attacked Hyperion, but Hyperion used his laser-eyes to decapetate Namor’s head from his torso, killing him instantely. After this, their message to the world had become clear, but Hyperion’s actions also gained him the distrust of the American society and his former allies, the Avengers.

Earth-31916 (Supreme Power)

The infant who would later become known as Hyperion was sent to Earth from an alien starship in an escape pod to avoid being killed along with the rest of his people. The pod crash landed somewhere in Midwest America, and was found by a middle age couple who upon reaching the flaming wreckage were shocked to discover a baby boy amongst the debris. Believing he was sent to them by god, they decided to take the infant home and raise him as their own. However, U.S. government agents soon arrived and took the infant and ship into custody. It quickly became apparent that the child was developing different abilities, such as great strength and impenetrable skin. Realizing the boys great potential as a military asset, they decide to raise him in a carefully controlled environment with government appointed guardians, under the pretense of a normal childhood, with the name Mark Milton.

The ship sings softly of its journey. The ship sings of partings and passings and farewells. The ship whispers: “You will never be alone.” — Hyperion’s journey to Earth.

In Issue #1 Contact Hyperion is sent to Earth as a child, and taken into US custody. He is studied by military scientist who quickly discover the child possesses inhuman strength and near impenetrable skin. Realising the boys great potential as a military asset, President Carter declares that any children orphaned without next of kin are considered wards of the state, and that the boy is now a child of the United States, he orders that he be raised as one. Naming the child project Hyperion and giving him the day to day name of Mark Milton, the officials in charge find suitable adopted parents for Mark and moves the new family into a remote government controlled compound which is monitored at all times, they are given express instructions that Mark’s upbringing must be as non-stressful, idealized, and as all American as possible.

All seems to be going well until Mark’s third birthday when his flash-vision manifests and completely incinerates a puppy given to him as a present. Throughout his childhood, Mark is exposed to frequent pro American propaganda. Some years later Mark has a conversation with his father where he expresses his desire to go into the world outside the compound, he reveals that he can see for miles, and asks his father if the guards are there to stop him from going out, to which his father replies that they are. Mark then reveals that he is able to fly and that the guards can’t keep him in, however, he says that if his parents love him and they love each other he has a reason to stay and let the guards make a difference.

Mark begins feeling isolated from the world and other kids his age, his frustrations boil over during a history lesson with his tutor when he burns the book in her hand with his flash vision. During a talk with his father, Mark again voices his desire to interact with other kids his age, saying that with everything he is capable of and everything that could go wrong, it would be a good idea for him to learn to relate to normal people. The government officials controlling Mark’s upbringing have no intention of allowing him into a public school which they would have know control over, so instead they create a mock school environment which they have complete control over. They use the teenage relatives of the officials in charge of project Hyperion and enroll them in the government controlled school.

However, in private the officials warn their relatives to steer well clear of Mark, as they all share a common fear of him. Mark’s first day does not go well, first he is taken to the school in a tank, and then is ignored by his fellow pupils. The day continues to go down hill, Mark uses his X-Ray vision and hearing to listen in on a conversation between some of the other students who are discussing how they can just tell Mark is different from them. Later Mark tells his parents he never wants to go back there, and comes to realise that there really is know one else like him.

Mark is asked to the White House for a one-on-one meeting with President George H. W. Bush. The President tells Mark that he could be of great service to his country, and asks if he would participate in a military operation in the Mideast, called Desert Storm. He is told that he would have operate in secret, never being seen or taking credit for his work. Mark replies that it would be an honor. Mark is soon dispatched to the battle field and effortlessly annihilates the enemy forces, tearing through tanks with his bare hands. This pattern continues for several years, until a reporter for a major American news paper gets to close to the secret, leaving the officials in charge of Project Hyperion with two choices, kill the reporter or give the story to him in the hopes of better controlling the situation to their advantage. At the age of Eighteen, Hyperion’s existence is revealed to the world but not his extraterrestrial origin, which even he is not aware of.

Now that his existence is known to the world, the military are unable to use Mark in secret overseas operations, much to their chagrin. Hyperion takes on the role of Americas first superpowered hero, and is given a colourful red, white, and blue costume. The general public quickly embrace Hyperion as a hero, and he begins his new role helping out in everything from fighting crime to public accidents such as car crashes. During this time his adopted parents decide they want to leave the life they had lived for twenty years and move on, the government agrees with this as they deduce that losing his parents at this delicate stage of his life, coming into adulthood, would cause Mark to rely more on his country as his spiritual mother and father. To accomplish this they send Mark off on what they believe to be a false mission, investigating an urban legend known as the Atlanta Blur. Unbeknown to the government, the Atlanta Blur was in fact very real and Mark was able to track him down, finally after twenty years he has proof that there are others with powers other than himself. However, while off on his mission, the deaths of Mark’s parents are staged in a boating accident.

After discovering that he had been lied to and manipulated by the people he had trusted all his life, Hyperion goes to confront his superiors and demand answers. The panicked officials evacuate the workers on the military base, however, they consider the soldiers expendable and deploy them in an effort to slow Hyperion down.

Despite being able to fly, Hyperion does not fly straight into the base, but lands outside it and proceeds to enter the base on foot. The soldiers begin attacking Hyperion with their most powerful weapons, using tanks, machine guns, flame-throwers, and bombs, none of which have any effect, as Hyperion completely ignores them, casually walking past as if they were not there. He breaks through all thirteen floors of the underground complex, quickly finding General Alexander, who despite the seriousness of the situation, appears flippant and unfazed. Mark asks the General who he had known all his life why they had used, lied, and manipulated him, to which the General simply replies “Why Not”, he goes on to say that Hyperion isn’t human and they had no obligation to treat him as such. The General tells Mark that they had never trusted him to act in their best interests and that he only ever saw Mark as a weapon and nothing more, he says it was his job to make sure Mark was pointing in the right direction. Enraged, Mark asks the General if he knows what he could do to him if he wanted to, the general replies that he knows what he could do to us all (meaning the human race) and states that’s why Mark is here. General Alexander then sets off an explosion of nuclear force, sacrificing himself in an attempt to kill Mark.

The plan fails, but leaves Mark severely wounded and unable to move. He is rescued by a beautiful woman, who says her name is Zarda, and that she had been waiting for two thousand years for his arrival on Earth. She flies Mark high into the sky and heals him with a kiss, using some kind of energy transference. She then tells him that they are of the same race, sent to Earth to concur and kill, preparing the way for the others. However, Hyperion says he wants to help the people of Earth, as they believe in him and think of him as their hero. Zarda agrees to allow Hyperion to return back home, saying she will wait for him and has 2000 years of life with which to reacquaint herself with. Mark ask how he will find her again, to which she answers “I have waited so long for you. What took so much to bring together will not lightly be broken apart. When you call, i will come.” As Hyperion flies away Zarda cryptically whispers “And when i call…You will come.”

Other Media

Television

• Hyperion (alongside the Squadron Supreme) appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode “Whom Continuty Would Destroy!”, voiced by Travis Willingham.
• Hyperion appears in the Avengers Assemble episode of the same name, voiced by Brian Bloom. In the show, Hyperion is established as having been a member of Squadron Supreme, a team of heroes from an Earth-like planet (rather than an alternate reality). After a civil war destroyed their world and left Hyperion as the sole survivor (mirroring Superman), he fled to Earth in order to find a fresh start. There, he allies himself with the Avengers, and quickly wins the hearts of the American people. However, after nearly killing the Wrecker, Hyperion becomes an object of suspicion, and the Avengers eventually learn that he had in fact destroyed his own planet after they refused to bow down to his tyrannical rule. He attempts to kill the heroes and conquer Earth, but ends up defeated and imprisoned. Later in the series, Hyperion is freed from prison, and joins the rest of his teammates.

Video Games

• Hyperion is a playable character in the Marvel Avengers Alliance game.
• Hyperion is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight, an IOS and Android game.
• Hyperion is a playable character in the Marvel Contest of Champions mobile fighting game.

• Hyperion is a playable character in Lego Marvel’s Avengers, but is only available in the Avengers Adventurer DLC pack.

Merchandise

• Hyperion was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Hit-Monkey Build-a-Figure wave.
• Hyperion was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Universe line.
• Hyperion was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• Diamond Select released a Hyperion figure (based on his Avengers Assemble incarnation) as part of their Minimates line. The figure was released in a two-pack with Captain America as part of a
• Bowen Designs released a Hyperion bust.
• Hyperion was featured in the “Avenjet Space Mission” kit from Lego.