Empyrean (comics)
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Empyrean (Jonathan Bartolomew Chambers) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Comics Universe. His first appearance was in X-Men Annual #2, created by Fabian Nicieza and Aron Wiesenfeld.
[edit] Fictional character biography
When Jonathan Chambers was thirteen, his father, Timothy, died in a car crash. Years later, Jonathan Chambers wrote the book about mutants, "Fatal Attractions". To promote the book, Jonathan went on various television talk shows, where he was hit by a chair on The Geraldo Rivera Show. Chambers then used the money from the sales of his book to purchase an island in Florida's Big Pine Keys and hired Dr. Josef Kleinbaumm and Dr. Nancy Alter to work on the island.
Jonathan Chambers broke up a fight between Avalanche, Crimson Commando, and Toad's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, as Avalanche and Commando claimed to have come to Chambers' Florida island to visit their old teammate Pyro, who was a member of the Brotherhood. He explained to the Brotherhood that Avalanche and Commando that their reason for being there was as friends, not as enemies. Later, as the Brotherhood relaxed inside Chambers' mansion and began to argue, Jonathan warned the Blob to act civilized and when the Blob asked Jonathan what he planned to do about it, Jonathan blasted Blob with an energy blast that forced him to feel the agony that was being felt around the world. After explaining what he had done to Blob, Jonathan explained that he was only seeking to create a haven for those in pain.
Soon after, Jonathan welcomed Cyclops, Rogue, and Beast of the X-Men to his Florida island, where he invited them to stay the night. Once inside, Jonathan met with the X-Men and discussed his interest in reading a book written by Cyclops. Cyclops then claimed that he would like to believe that Chambers meant his claims about helping diseased mutants, but that Chambers' association with the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants did not look good. The Beast then asked about the Brotherhood's whereabouts, to which Jonathan replied by informing them that the Brotherhood were currently in the sub-basement levels of his mansion. Realizing that the Brotherhood were battling Revanche, Gambit, and Psylocke (who were secretly sent to spy on Jonathan while the other X-Men distracted him) down in the sub-basements, the other X-Men rushed to their teammates' aid. As a battle began to erupt, Jonathan used his mutant powers, forcing both the Brotherhood and the X-Men to stop in their tracks with agony. He then explained that he would stop fighting between mutantkind by draining the powers from those who fuel the fighting. Cyclops demanded to know what was going on, but Pyro interrupted him and revealed that he was dying of the Legacy Virus, and that Chambers' island was a haven for those waiting to die. The Beast reminded them all that Chambers did not appear to be as noble as he put on, and that he was simply just an energy vampire of sorts, draining the energy from those in agony to fuel himself. Chambers responded by saying that his absorption of the agony brought nothing but peace to those in agony, but the X-Men argued that Jonathan was just using mutants as guinea pigs. Revanche interrupted the arguments, claiming that the X-Men had no right to judge how anyone should die and then revealed that she had also contracted the Legacy Virus. Chambers, or Empyrean, as he had begun to call himself, agreed with Revanche and admitted that he could not deny that he had ulterior motives in creating the haven. After admitting that, Empyrean asked what difference it made if he made a profit from the suffering of mutants, as long as the mutants got comfort of body and peace of mind from the haven. Just as Empyrean finished his speech, Henry Peter Gyrich and a group of government agents arrived on the island, accusing Empyrean of forcing people to stay on the island against their will. The X-Men could not say that they were being kept against their will and Empyrean decided not to press charges against Avalanche and Crimson Commando, who had, in reality, been hired by Gyrich to infiltrate the island, since they had decided to stay as well. Gyrich refused to allow Avalanche and Commando stay, as he had wasted several billions hiring them. Empyrean replied that his talk show friends would love to hear about how Gyrich had stolen a Drug Enforcement Agency helicopter to enter the island and how taxpayer money was being spent on projects like Project: Wideawake. Gyrich agreed to leave without Avalanche or Commando, grunting that Empyrean had not seen the last of him.
After Gyrich left the premises, Empyrean explained to the X-Men that no matter how they perceived his motives, mutants were welcome on his island. He then invited Revanche to stay, but she declined, instead wanting to die fighting the virus as opposed to staying on the island awaiting death. The X-Men then took their own leave of the island, warning Empyrean to practice what he preached in his mutant books.
As the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants spied on the X-Men from the home of Jonathan Chambers, they discovered that the Beast had designed a "Time Glider" that he thought would aid him in curing the Legacy Virus. Desiring the machine so that he could travel back in time and release the Legacy Virus earlier to create new victims, Empyrean managed to dupe the Brotherhood into stealing it for him. That night, Commando broke into the X-Mansion and was temporarily halted by Cyclops until he managed to escape back to Chambers' island home with the Time Glider.
Since Commando's last known whereabouts were at the island of Jonathan Chambers, the X-Men travelled there, where they split up. While Wolverine battled the Blob on the island, Jonathan and Commando attempted to operate the Time Glider. At the same time, the Beast began working on a second Time Glider to replace the one that was stolen. As Beast finished work on the second Time Glider, Empyrean and Commando managed to get the stolen one working as well.
While the X-Men battled the organized Brotherhood of Evil Mutants on Jonathan's island base, the Beast arrived to stop Commando and Empyrean from using the stolen Time Glider. Just as Beast defeated Commando, Jonathan activated the stolen Time Glider and escaped into the timestream. Once Empyrean had arrived in the prehistoric era, the Beast activated a retriever for the Time Glider, calling it back to the present and leaving Chambers stranded in the age of the dinosaurs, about to become food for a hungry tyrannosaurus.
[edit] Powers
Empyrean could absorb the agony and painful emotions given off by dying individuals around the world and project it outward in energy blasts that caused those affected by them to feel the same agony that was being absorbed.
