Hyperion (Marvel Comics)
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Hyperion is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe, and a member of the Squadron Supreme. There are actually several different Marvel incarnations of Hyperion, at least two (possibly three) of which were supervillains. Hyperion was created by Roy Thomas as part of an homage to the Justice League, with Mark Gruenwald and J. Michael Straczynski each crafting iconic versions of the character. All incarnations are essentially based on the DC Comics character Superman[citation needed].
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[edit] Fictional character biographies
[edit] "Zhib-Ran" of the Squadron Sinister
Hyperion first appeared in The Avengers #70 (November 1969) as a member of the Squadron Sinister of Earth-616, a group of supervillains assembled by the alien Grandmaster to fight the Avengers. This Hyperion believed himself to be an alien from a subatomic parallel universe, pulled from his world by the Grandmaster for his own purposes, though later comics (Squadron Supreme #8, 1986) established that the Grandmaster simply created this Hyperion as an inorganic duplicate of Earth-712's Hyperion, implanting a false personality and memories.
After his initial clash with the Avengers, he had repeated clashes with the Defenders. Eventually he later fell in love with the heroine Thundra, although this, as seen in Marvel Two-In-One #67, was a brief love affair. Finally, he met the Hyperion of Earth-712 through the machinations of that world's Emil Burbank (also known as Master Menace). On this occasion Burbank battled Hyperion while holding captive the visiting Thor. Suffering defeat once more, Hyperion was taken captive on Earth-712 but later found himself in an interdimensional vacuum as he attempted to escape confinement.
During the Squadron Supreme's domination of their world, Master Menace pulled Hyperion back through the interdimensional portal to Earth-712 and revealed his true origins. He was actually an inorganic duplicate created by the Grandmaster based on the physique of the Hyperion of Earth-712. As such, he was revealed to be Marvel's version of Bizarro, although retaining sufficient, though uninspired, intellect.
Master Menace caused the two Hyperions to swap places for several weeks, with the good version in the interdimensional void. The evil Hyperion proceeded to quickly fall in love with Zarda, (also known as Power Princess), who reminded him of Thundra. The evil Hyperion secretly murdered Zarda's husband, the death appearing to result from natural causes. Forming a romance with the distraught heroine. This caused her confusion when the heroic version returned from the interdimentional void to battle his counterpart. During an epic struggle, with both emitting full intensity of their atomic vision, the Hyperion of Earth-616 began to degrade rapidly, revealing his true nature. After his death, however, his counterpart resumed the romance with Zarda.
[edit] Mark Milton of the Squadron Supreme
In Avengers #85–86 (March–April 1971), Roy Thomas created the Squadron Supreme, a group of heroes from Earth-712 that were the opposites of the Squadron Sinister, and even more broadly based on the Justice League. One of their members was Hyperion, with a human secret identity of Mark Milton, a cartoonist. He was thought to be an alien for years, but in the comic series Quasar, he was revealed to be the sole surviving member of his dimension's race of Eternals.
The character was highlighted in the Squadron Supreme limited series by Mark Gruenwald which began in 1985. In this series, the Squadron decides that they have the knowledge, wisdom, and power to make the world a better place, and decide to implement a project to turn their world into a utopia. Hyperion was nominally the group's leader and was a driving force behind the Utopia Project. The battle to change the world was hard-fought and ended only after significant loss. See below for this Hyperion's history with his clone.
In the aftermath of the wars fought to take over their worlds, Hyperion and the Squadron were stranded on Earth-616. It was while on this Earth that Hyperion met the Eternals and learned that he himself was an Eternal from his home universe, apparently the last of his kind. He was attempting to search out his origins by interacting with his sister culture, however events led him to depart from the 616 Eternals. Having been freed from their exile by the Avengers, a reformed Squadron returned to Earth-712 and were afterwards fighting to free their world from a global dictatorship which had taken it over in the team's absence. After the Exiles came to help the squadron finally managed to save their world.
[edit] New Thunderbolts
A seemingly new Hyperion appeared in the pages of New Thunderbolts (first published appearance on the final page of #15, first issue-length appearance in #16), amidst an apparent regrouping/reunion of the Squadron Sinister. This new Hyperion and a new, female incarnation of Squadron member Doctor Spectrum broke into the Thunderbolts' warehouse headquarters intending to either recruit or kidnap the two remaining original Squadron Sinister members, Speed Demon (originally known as the Whizzer, and at the time a member of the Thunderbolts) and Nighthawk (who had since made a name for himself as a costumed crimefighter and member of the Defenders). A battle ensued, resulting in Nighthawk's abduction and Speed Demon's apparent change of alliegance to the erstatz Squadron (which later turned out to be a stall for time).
As Spectrum and Hyperion explained their intentions to Nighthawk and Speed Demon, mostly grandious and vague plans for "saving the world" by force, it is explained that this Hyperion was the elected leader of a world that existed in the sub-atomic dimensional space known as the Microverse. His planet's axis had been disrupted by the effects of multiple incursions into the Microverse by another Thunderbolt, Photon, and it exploded, leaving Hyperion the only survivor. (This story is a variation on the origin that the Grandmaster had imprinted on the Hyperion he had constructed when first forming the Squadron Sinister.) Hyperion is now determined that no other world suffer his home planet's fate, even if extreme measures were necessary. Just as Nighthawk and Speed Demon were attempting to either escape from or defeat their captors, the Thunderbolts tracked them down, but Hyperion and Spectrum vanished before they could be apprehended.
After Speed Demon was dismissed from the Thunderbolts for criminal acts, he was quickly contacted by Spectrum and Hyperion, and it was revealed that they were being backed by the Grandmaster, the alien who had brought the original Squadron Sinister together. The Grandmaster stated that the trio would be key players in a "contest of great importance" that would happen on Earth. This "contest" turned out to be a struggle between the Grandmaster and Thunderbolts leader Baron Helmut Zemo for control of the Wellspring of Power, an interdimensional energy source for superhuman abilities. In the ensuing battle with the Thunderbolts, Hyperion was incapacitated by the Radioactive Man, who manipulated and drained the energy wavelengths that fueled Hyperion's powers. The defeated Hyperion was lost in the confusion of the Wellspring's sudden empowering of millions of human beings, and his current whereabouts and condition are unknown.
[edit] Alternate versions
[edit] Earth X
In Paradise X, the third story of the Earth X trilogy, X-51 recruited a Hyperion for his squadron of interdimensional heralds. This Hyperion wore a black and gold costume and came from a world that had been devastated by nuclear war that governments unelashed in response to Squadron Supreme's utopia program. He accompanied X-51 to another Earth where Kulan Gath ruled. There, Hyperion killed him and X-51 left data regarding Celestials for the people. This Hyperion's reward for aiding the team was the death he deeply desired.
[edit] Exiles
In Exiles, Hyperion was a member of Weapon X (a team like the Exiles not to be confused with the Weapon X Program). This was a group of superheroes and supervillains who traversed between dimensions to repair the time/space continuum. However this psychopathic version of Hyperion, instead of performing his mission as dictated by the Tallus, tried to take over Earth. He was from an Earth where he had killed every single living thing on the planet.
Hyperion later decides not to take over that reality's Earth and waits, instead, to move on to new realities and take over several worlds. In the next reality Hyperion is in the middle of taking over Earth by eliminating its superhero teams when the Exiles appear. The Tallus says the mission is to kill off six members of the interdimensional travelers (the Exiles and Weapon X). In the end, Hyperion is killed by Gambit in a sacrificial attempt to complete the mission and save that reality. Hyperion's lifeless body is placed in a stasis gallery, where his body slowly regenerates itself, reviving him. Hyperion gains control of the dimensional teleporting technology responsible for sending the Exiles on their missions, and he tries sending the Exiles on several missions that will kill them. The Exiles managed to track him down, but he killed the team members Holocaust and Namora. Another member, Beak, managed to travel a little in the multiverse and retrieved two versions of the heroic Hyperion, one of them the Hyperion from Earth-712, to incapacitate their evil counterpart. Their battle was enormous and long, but in the end Blink teleported a ton of sand into him. The other Hyperions began their final attack against him, but Mimic convinced them that killing him is not the only way, instead they beamed back the evil Hyperion onto the dead Earth of his own dimension. When he awoke, he begged for them to take him anywhere but his own dimension, but with no avail.
This character can be distinguished from the other versions of Hyperion in that, over the course of the story, he becomes completely bald. During the story it is mentioned that he was not from Earth, suggesting that he is not an Eternal, as other versions, but an alien. He also adopts a different costume than the earlier variants following his initial appearance.
[edit] Supreme Power
In August 2003, Marvel's mature-readers imprint MAX Comics started Supreme Power by J. Michael Straczynski, ostensibly chronicling a rebooted version of the Squadron Supreme. In this version, Hyperion is an alien sent to Earth as a baby and raised by agents of the United States government in a secret government compound by a pseudo-family, under the auspices of a normal childhood. His powers began developing early on and he and the scientists observing him discovered that he had superhuman strength, resistance to injury, and speed. Government agents began to manipulate him into becoming a weapon for the U.S. government, and he is publicly revealed to be a hero, dubbed as Hyperion. Eventually Mark questions his role, and seeks out proof of his origin hidden by the government. This leads to his attempted murder by the government and his current alienation from humanity.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Hyperion is one of the most powerful heroes (or villains) in the Marvel Universe. He has powers that are very similar to other Marvel Universe characters such as,Gladiator and the Sentry.
He has superhuman strength, stamina and durability that rivals that of such notable powerhouses such as Thor and the Hulk. He has superhuman speed and reflexes. In all incarnations, he can shoot intense plasma beams ("Flash vision" or "Atomic vision") from his eyes. It has been noted that these beams are radioactive and potentially hazardous to bystanders in the vicinity. He can see outside the normal visible spectrum. Despite his resistance to injury, it is possible to injure him. Hyperion VI was notably wounded when Speed Demon smashed the Power Prism into his face. He is also particularly vulnerable to argonite radiation and his own plasma beams. He can fly at escape velocity speeds. His senses are superhumanly acute, but the various versions have widely differing levels of sensory enhancement.
In previous versions, in the event that he is actually killed, his corpse enters a state of suspended animation. If his bodily mass is left alone long enough, it will eventually reconstitute itself and he will return to life. As a member of the Eternals, he has a superhuman regenerative healing factor and a greatly extended life span.
Aside from his superhuman advantages, the Hyperion of Earth-712 is highly intelligent and a talented professional artist.
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