Origin
Before the appearance of humankind, a race of winged humanoids known as the S’raphh lived on Earth’s moon. While the race was powerful and pure-hearted, they wondered what the meaning of life really was, just as we humans do now. After contemplating the question they embarked in a space quest to find the true answer. They found nothing more than pain and suffering, and they went on to commit collective suicide in a lava pit on the moon. In their despair and anguish all their souls came together to create the monster know as Null the Living Darkness, who sought to destroy creation. Right after his birth, which took countless centuries, Null targets the town of Christiansboro, Virginia, which is suffering economic depression. His goal is to destroy all humanity, then move out into space and continue his doctrine of anti-life.
Major Story Arcs
Defenders
He torments the citizens of Christiansboro with his supernatural powers, driving almost all of them away, until Gargoyle, the former mayor, happens to return with Hellcat, Clea, Devil-Slayer and Valkyrie. Null’s powers haunt them all as well, bringing them face to face with their own fears, as well as zombies of Christiansboro’s dead. Gargoyle is faced with his own dead family, whom he felt rejected and scorned by, but ultimately regains his self-respect and attacks Null directly.
Gargoyle tries to use his life-draining powers agents Null but they have no effect, as Null is anti-life: he has no life to drain. Gargoyle quickly realizes his mistake and reverses his strategy, pouring extra life-force back into Null, thus destroying him. Null’s zombies go back to dust, and his ghosts are released back to the netherworld.
Ghost Rider
However for Null this was a training exercise as he now knew how little he comprehend of life. So his next target is to take possession of a man, and he does so by housing himself in Adam, a bitter man. In Adam body he rampages through Cherry Hills, Illinois, using his new powers to levitate people, shrink them and even overwhelm them with his mind until Ghost Rider shows up. They battle back and forth, and eventually Adam is about to crush his wife. Realizing that he loves his wife after all, Adam regains a bit of control over himself, and Ghost Rider is able to take advantage of Null’s weakness, and defeats him.
Squadron Supreme
Null later finds a pawn in the form of the Overmind, who like Null is an aggregate of the minds of an entire race. Overmind is insane, and living in the Microverse in banishment after a confrontation with the Stranger. Null brings him to Earth-S, the Squadron Supreme’s universe. There, they take over, using President Kyle Richmond as a cat’s-paw. The 616 Defenders, along with six disembodied telepaths that were also from 616 Earth, ultimately intervene. The telepaths use their powers to bring all the Defenders and Squadron members together as one disembodied mind. However, Null is very difficult to defeat; he is able to slowly break a shield made through the combined might of Dr. Strange, Arcanna, and the Scarlet Witch; is to easily deflect a full-bore attack by the Silver Surfer; is able to drain the Overmind’s power away from him for his own use; and is even able to successfully battle the combined spiritual power of the Defenders (including mystic and cosmic beings like Daimon Hellstrom, the Surfer, and Gargoyle) and the Squadron, plus the six telepaths, They ultimately defeat him by making him realize that he has some small amount of good inside, and use it to extinguish him from the inside.
Powers & Abilities
Null is a mystic life-form created over time by the collective unconscious of members of the extinct race, the S’raphh. He has an extensive ability to manipulate the forces of magic for a wide variety of effects as follows:
- Levitation
- Intangibility
- Inter-Dimensional Teleportation
- Telepathy
- Physical Malleability
- Restoration of spirits to the physical plane
- Illusion-casting
- Reanimation and control of corpses
- Possession of bodies of physical beings
Along with his Magic Manipulation he is capable of the following:
- Shape Shifting
- Psychokinetic concussion blasts
Null also possesses enhanced stamina, durability, and intellect.
Null’s powers have changed in extent depending on the situation. When he first appeared, he was new to his powers and easier to defeat. When he met Ghost Rider, he was inhabiting a human host and seemed to have less control over his powers. When he drained power from Overmind, his power was amplified beyond its norm.
Weaknesses
Null is vulnerable to mystical forces controlled by specific beings such as Gargoyle and Ghost Rider.