Marvel Universe trivia

[Lord Liaden]

I've had a concept in the back of my mind for a long time, and something on the boards recently reminded me of it. I've never been able to work it out to my satisfaction, though, so I'd like to ask for help from the MU mavens among ye:

 

There's something in the Marvel Universe called the Unipower, which can manifest in anyone at times of great crisis, whether that crisis is world-threatening or purely personal. The recipient becomes the cosmically-powered hero called Captain Universe, roughly in the same league as Thor or the Silver Surfer. You might recall some years ago a story arc in which Spider-Man temporarily gained the Unipower, performing such feats as one-punching the Hulk into orbit.

 

I've been toying with a story arc in which Captain America became Captain Universe. Frankly it seems like a logical upgrade to me , and I've always wanted to see how the ultimate human-level hero would handle suddenly being among the superheavyweights power-wise.

 

What I was thinking of was for the Unipower to come to him in response to a similar powerup for Cap's nemesis, the Red Skull. However, I'm having trouble devising a reasonable and logical way to do that. Note that I'd like to steer clear of "ultimate power" gimmicks; no Cosmic Cubes, Infinity Gauntlets or Ultimate Nullifiers. The result should be a Red Skull able to give "Cosmic Cap" a very fierce one-on-one fight when they finally confront each other.

 

What sort of power objects, sources or processes are out there in Marvel-Land that the Red Skull could reasonably get his hands on, given his resources? I welcome any suggestions including the inevitable bizarre ones.

[red_eagle123]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Well, without access to devices (No Cosmic Cube, Infinity Gauntlet, Serpent Crown, Infinity Gems), the only ways I can think of to give the Red Skull powers on the scale you're talking about are to either:

 

A) Have him become the recipient of the Power Cosmic. This is the power source that gives Captain Mar-vell and Silver Surfer their powers

 

Have him recieve the Starbrand

 

or

 

C) Have a cosmic entity increase the Skull's powers to the level you want (The Beyonder, One of the Elders of the Universe, a Celestial, etc).

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

You could have the Red Skull borrow a trick from Dr. Doom and steal the powers of a Cosmic Powered individual such as Silver Surfer.

 

Or maybe imbue himself with massive reality-altering powers by attempting to infuse himself with the power of a Cosmic Cube, but only partially succeeding.

 

Or possibly he could put his brain in the Hulk's body or some such nonsense.

 

Hmmm... expose himself to Gamma Radiation? Genetically modify himself with DNA from every mutant on earth? Bask in the glow of depleted uranium tank shells until he becomes a terrifying Abrams Tank/Human hybrid?

 

Those are the ones that spring to mind...

[OddHat]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Tell the players that this month Millar and Bendis are the creative team on the comic, and that therefore all continuity and logic are suspended.

[Fox1]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Disallowing the use of the cosmic cube for this storyline including the Red Skull is almost the same as taking Cap's shield away...

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Yeah, Skull really should be able to use the Cube. He's used it many times before, even absorbed all of it's power into himself at one point.

 

As for other "Items of Power" in the MU:

• The Casket of Ancient Winters (contains mystical forces that could reproduce the overwhelming frigidity of another of the Nine Worlds, Niffleheim, the realm of ice)
  
• The Darkhold (written by Chthon eons ago, is the most powerful book of arcane and black magic on Earth. The Darkhold contains the vast majority of all of the Earth's ambient occult lore, collected and written down by Chthon ages ago. It also contains original creations by Chthon, like the formula for the creation of Vampires)
  
• Gungnir, the Spear of Odin
  
• Infinity Gems (already mentioned)
  
• The Mandarin's Ten Rings (a Fascist using the Alien weaponry of a Communist-turned-Capitalist!)
  
• Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor (perhaps Skull could get some fomrer Nazi occultists to forge him an Evil version of it)
  
• Serpent Crown (already mentioned)
  
• The Terminus Armor (it's several hundred feet tall)
  
• Terrigen Mist (the stuff that gives the Inhumans their powers)
  
• Thurdstrock, the Mace of Odin
  
• Twilight, Surtur's "Sword of Doom"
  
• Ultimate Nullifier (already mentioned)

[dorwaystudios]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Another "Item of Power" could be Quasar's Quantum Bands. Currently, they're attached to Wendall Vaughn, but perhaps Skull could whack him and take possession of the bands.

 

I remember during Quasar's solo series, he battled the cosmic spidey, so the precedent is already there.

[Eyendasky80]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

He could sell his soul to Mephisto for power. I think there's a precident, but it may not be quite a "cosmic" level power boost.

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

D'oh, can't believe I forgot the Quantum Bands!

[Andrea]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

and what about this crazy idea having him became an Herald of Galactus and then put Captain Universe against this herald in order to save a planet full of peaceful people from being eaten.

 

You asked for crazy ideas.......

[shaunclinton]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Well, last time I checked I thought the Skull was destroyed in a beam of anti-matter alongside the physical form of the cosmic cube? No?

 

Well, if I'm right then surely the Skull's conscience could have merged with some of the energy of the cube thus recreating himself as...

 

The Cosmic Skull!!!

 

Anyway, Cap always seems to fight cosmically powered Red Skulls, so why not reverse the roles and have regular ol' Red Skull fight Cosmic Cap? We all know plain old human ingenuity and determination defeats these lazy ass all-powerful types every time, don't we?

[McCoy]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Yeah, Skull really should be able to use the Cube. He's used it many times before, even absorbed all of it's power into himself at one point.

 

As for other "Items of Power" in the MU:

• The Casket of Ancient Winters (contains mystical forces that could reproduce the overwhelming frigidity of another of the Nine Worlds, Niffleheim, the realm of ice)
  
• The Darkhold (written by Chthon eons ago, is the most powerful book of arcane and black magic on Earth. The Darkhold contains the vast majority of all of the Earth's ambient occult lore, collected and written down by Chthon ages ago. It also contains original creations by Chthon, like the formula for the creation of Vampires)
  
• Gungnir, the Spear of Odin
  
• Infinity Gems (already mentioned)
  
• The Mandarin's Ten Rings (a Fascist using the Alien weaponry of a Communist-turned-Capitalist!)
  
• Mjolnir, the Hammer of Thor (perhaps Skull could get some fomrer Nazi occultists to forge him an Evil version of it)
  
• Serpent Crown (already mentioned)
  
• The Terminus Armor (it's several hundred feet tall)
  
• Terrigen Mist (the stuff that gives the Inhumans their powers)
  
• Thurdstrock, the Mace of Odin
  
• Twilight, Surtur's "Sword of Doom"
  
• Ultimate Nullifier (already mentioned)

To which I would add

• The Key to the Zodiac, simular to a lower powered cosmic cube
  
• Dr. Spectrum's Power Prism, a Green Lantern ring of a different shape and color
  
• Interface with Galactus' computers al la Korvec/Michael
  

But IIRC the team that built the Cosmic Cube was brought together by the Red Skull, and he has tried to reproduce that experiment. There is a connection to the Cosmic Cube.

 

Or have Kubik power one opponent, Kosmos the other.

[Redmenace]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

I don't believe details were ever given, but, Count Nefaria under went some kind of procedure which gave him superman's power.

 

Alternatively:

1.) The gem that made Juggernaugt so tough

 

2.) Whatever ionic beam weapon that made Wonderman an Ionic being

 

3.) Somehow stealing one of Iron man's suits of armor, especially the nuke equipped Hulkbuster armor.

 

4.) Gamma irradiation

 

5.) Exposure to the inhuman's terragin mist

 

6.) His x-genes being purposely activated

 

7.) The uniforce of an alternate universe

 

8.) Radioactive Viagra

[McCoy]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

I don't believe details were ever given, but, Count Nefaria under went some kind of procedure which gave him superman's power.

 

Alternatively:

2.) Whatever ionic beam weapon that made Wonderman an Ionic being

I believe that was it. IIRC Nefaria was charged up by the same machine as Wonder Man and Power Man.

[casualplayer]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Well, since this isn't for publication and there are no licensing horrors to overcome, I would have the Red Skull and Baron Karza merge similar to how the Baron has done before. It would be amusing to have the Baron expect to totally dominate and have to seriously contend for control of the young (compared to the Baron) but palpable evil of Johann Schmidt. Karza tusseled with Captain Universe on his own; Captain Ameriuniverse vs. Skullkarza could be fun.

[Enforcer84]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Didn't marvel try to run an "Epic" story in which someone recieved the Captain Universe power but was hopelessly insane?

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Well' date=' since this isn't for publication and there are no licensing horrors to overcome, I would have the Red Skull and Baron Karza merge similar to how the Baron has done before. It would be amusing to have the Baron expect to totally dominate and have to seriously contend for control of the young (compared to the Baron) but palpable evil of Johann Schmidt. Karza tusseled with Captain Universe on his own; Captain Ameriuniverse vs. Skullkarza could be fun.[/quote']

 

I believe Devil's Due Publishing actually still has the rights to the Micronauts comics & characters, including Baron Karza. They were the last ones to publish said comic, after Image lost (or gave up, I can't remember which) the rights.

[Superskrull]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

I believe that was it. IIRC Nefaria was charged up by the same machine as Wonder Man and Power Man.

Sort of. Count Nefaria had the powers of the Whirlwind, the Living Laser & Power Man (Eric Josten , later Goliath & Atlas) amplified a "hundredfold" or "tenfold" or some such hard to truly gauge power level. They then went on a crime spree and afterwards got their powers siphoned into Nefaria himself. This granted him better than Thor-level strength, laser eye beams, an ionic-body giving him better than Wonder Man-grade durability and the enhanced movement, speed & reflexes of the Whirlwind only able to actually run in straight lines. He could also, due to his new strength and speed, jump farther than the Hulk. Oddly, in later appearances, he wourld also have learned to fly, kinda modeling the Earth II Superman's learning to fly after only being able to leap tall buildings. The count also got burned by the scientist he betrayed after recieving his power and his newfound might burned him out in like a couple hours. Unfortunately for the good guys, he had been turned into an ionic being like Wonderman and Power Man and so, he returned from his grave just as Simon Williams had before. Now, however, he needed to drain the ionic energy from other similarly enhanced people like the Crazy Eights from the Wonder Man comic and Therak, that wierd superstrong spider-humanoid from the villain group Deathweb. As a bonus, he could also now control the minds of Atlas and Wonder Man.

 

Funny, only one villain escaped that power theft unaffected in the long term. Whirlwind is still just a guy who spins at high speeds as his mutant power. Josten wound up getting enhanced again from his new even lower power level by Dr Malus who injected him with Pym Particles and became Goliath while the Living Laser found himself turned into living light energy and went nuts.

[aylwin13]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

LL, I have to agree with Fox1 and Dr Archeville and suggest using the Cosmic Cube. It's definitely a part of the Skull's history. It wouldn't be out of place at all for him to make another attempt at using it.

[Iuz the Evil]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Nefaria rules! I remember the Byrne illustrated Avengers where he got his powers... one of my favorites. The two part episode had Nefaria just absolutely TRASH the Avengers (sans Thor), throws Cap's shield into space, gets dropped on from near earth orbit by Vision at max density and shrugs it off (while dragging K.O.'d vision out of the crater by his cape), and pretty much laughs off everything they throw at him. Then Thor shows up in the last panel and he gets all pasty faced "oh no".

 

Next issue is him smacking around Thor as he realizes he greatly outpowers the God of Thunder as well. His flinching block of Mjolnir inches from his face, look of surprise, and then laughing backhand biatchslap of Thor is a great couple of panels. I love those issues...

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Thank you, everyone, for all these great suggestions! I really appreciate your input. I'll just respond to folks in order:

 

red eagle123, the Star Brand had occurred to me too. I don't know what its current disposition is, though. Last time I saw it, Ereshkigal was using it to face off with the Living Tribunal! (If I were to use it I'd ignore the implications of that little scenario.) Empowerment by a cosmic entity is possible in theory, of course, but one would have to come up with a reason for any of them would want to grant that power to the Skull.

 

Iuz: power stealing is an obvious route; the Red Skull has hired scientists for all sorts of similar projects. There are certainly enough appropriate candidates wandering around Marvel. I doubt that he'd take a route with such unpredictable results as exposure to gamma radiation, but accidental exposure? Hmm...

 

Oddhat:

 

Fox1, Dr Archeville: you've pointed out one of the main reasons why I'd prefer not to use the Cosmic Cube. It's such a Red Skull gimmick that it's become cliche, almost like using the Ultimate Nullifier against Galactus. Dr, as to your other suggestions, that's a pretty thorough list. Many of these are either too powerful for my purpose, or stretch the credibility of the Red Skull getting his hands on them. Now, if the Skull were more into magic the Darkhold would have great potential. The Serpent Crown usually enslaves the wearer to Set, so I don't see Reddy going for it. The Mandarin's rings were one idea I had, but they really are identified with him, and the Skull lacks the experience to use their full potential as the Mandarin did. I hadn't thought of Terrigen Mist - nice one - but again, the results tend to be unpredictable.

 

dorwaystudios, the Quantum Bands would fit my desired parameters well, but they're deucedly tough to remove from Quasar, at least while he's still alive. That would make for a better Quasar story than a Cap story IMHO.

 

Eyendasky80, that's a cool notion, but I can't help feeling that the Red Skull would be too cagey to cut a "deal with the Devil" knowing how cunning and treacherous Mephisto is.

 

Andrea, that's not crazy at all. I could see something like that leading to an epic conclusion. It's hard to imagine why Galactus would entrust the Power Cosmic to a backstabber like the Red Skull, though, or why he'd volunteer - treacherous ex-heralds of the Big G tend to suffer for it.

 

seanclinton: The Cosmic Skull! That has potential. He wouldn't have to have absorbed the full omnipotence of the Cube. As for your other idea, I think "Cap vs. the all-powerful foe" has been done a bit too often for my taste.

 

McCoy: I forgot about the Zodiac Key. It's been a long time since I've seen it in use - is it really that powerful? I rather thought that the Power Prism wasn't quite oomphy enough, but if I knew everything I wouldn't ask for help. It's harder to justify the Skull getting aboard Galactus's ship, let alone being able to interface with his computers.

 

Redmenace: I thought of Nefaria myself. The machine which empowered him is long destroyed, but he'd be a prime candidate for the power-stealing scenario mentioned above. I keep seeing this image of the Red Skull in Nefaria's costume, with the "N" on his belt buckle replaced with a swastika. As for your other suggestions: You'd need power greater than Juggernaut's to get the Crystal of Cyttorak away from him. Wonderman's "ionic" powers fall under Nefaria's heading. I'd rather not involve another major hero like Iron Man in this storyline, for the same reason as Quasar above. Other suggestions have been covered, but the "alternate universe Unipower" is an intriguing concept - thanks for that. I prefer at most an "R"-rated story, so I think I'll pass on radioactive viagra.

 

 

casualplayer: Red Skull fuzed with Baron Karza! That's a very cool concept, and quite poetic in its symmetry. Since this idea isn't meant for publication, there's no reason why I can't consider the ramifications of that.

 

This is all great stuff, gang! I'm grateful for your input. You've given me much to consider, but I'm certainly still open to more suggestions. Just to round things out, can anyone apprise me of the current status of:

 

The Star Brand

 

The Destroyer armor

 

Annihilus' Cosmic Control Rod

 

The Norn Stones

 

Thanks again!

[Agent X]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Didn't the Red Rajah have some sort of powerfull ruby?

[Agent X]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Or how about he finds something (you make it up) in the Nexus of All Realities? Or he gets a gift from Loki? It's not like everyone Loki gives powers it screwed.

[Superskrull]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Didn't the Red Rajah have some sort of powerfull ruby?

 

That's the Star of Capistan. Doc Strange has custody of it at the present time.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Marvel Universe trivia

 

Nefaria rules! I remember the Byrne illustrated Avengers where he got his powers... one of my favorites. The two part episode had Nefaria just absolutely TRASH the Avengers (sans Thor), throws Cap's shield into space, gets dropped on from near earth orbit by Vision at max density and shrugs it off (while dragging K.O.'d vision out of the crater by his cape), and pretty much laughs off everything they throw at him. Then Thor shows up in the last panel and he gets all pasty faced "oh no".

 

Next issue is him smacking around Thor as he realizes he greatly outpowers the God of Thunder as well. His flinching block of Mjolnir inches from his face, look of surprise, and then laughing backhand biatchslap of Thor is a great couple of panels. I love those issues...

 

Iuz, I'm a fan of Nefaria myself. IMO he's the best "evil Superman" in comics, not just for his power set but for his stylish arrogance. His most recent appearances in The Avengers were very impressive - he showed himself to be not just powerful but a very clever fighter, and not lacking for courage and determination.

 

I'm afraid your memory of his first fight with the Avengers is a little rose-colored, though. He had succeeded in trashing the Avengers before Thor showed up, but even he commented on it being a much tougher fight than he'd anticipated. He grabbed Cap's shield out of the air but didn't throw it into space, and in fact was quite suprised when his new strength was unable to crush it. The Vision's max-density fall catching Nefaria by surprise, after him being dazed by the other Avengers' attacks, actually did take Nefaria out; it was the Vision dragging the Count out of that crater by his cape.

 

Nefaria's fight with Thor wasn't quite that one-sided. Thor hurt him plenty, but Nefaria did deck him in the end. You're right in that Nefaria caught a blow from Mjolnir with his bare hand... the only other person to do that being Superman, in the recent Avengers/ JLA crossover. One more reason why I'd love to see a fight between Supes and the Count.