Kubik
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Kubik is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. It is a highly evolved Cosmic Cube, a sentient entity that is among the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe.
[edit] History
Kubik's ultimate creators were the mysterious otherdimensional entities known as the Beyonders. The Beyonders study the development of life in Earth's dimension. As one of their experiments, they allow vast energies to enter the Earth dimension through interdimensional portals created through the use of a certain kind of force field. Such energies can be entrapped within a matrix of force fields that form a perfect cube. The result is the entity known on Earth as a Cosmic Cube. A Cosmic Cube can alter reality according to the desires of its wielders. However, a Cosmic Cube is also a living being in embryonic form. Eventually it develops its own consciousness, patterned after the consciousness of the sentient being with whom it is in mental and physical contact. Finally, the Cosmic Cube will become a mature sentient being capable of independent will and action. Kubik is one such cube.
The cube that would evolve into Kubik was 'created' by Advanced Idea Mechanics, a terrorist organisation that supplied advanced weapons to other cabals, such as HYDRA and the Secret Empire. It was used by both MODOK and the Red Skull, primarily as a mind control device. Later, it was used by Set the Serpent God to try to enter the Earth-616 reality. The demon was defeated, however, and the Cube fell into the hands of a man named Bernard Worrell, who became the new leader of a splinter cell of AIM scientists.
Wielded by Worrell during a battle with Captain America, the Cube was affected by the man's hatred and aggression, and began to distort. At this moment, the Shaper of Worlds arrived, under orders from the Kree Supreme Intelligence to nurture the Cube and stop it from destroying reality, as the Shaper (as a cube) almost had when it was controlled by the Skrull Emperor. Allowing the Captain to hold the cube, the Shaper could tell that it was impressed by the man's heroism and courage, and took it from Earth to further raise it.
During a bid for personal power, the original Adaptoid engaged in a scheme to absorb the powers of Kubik. The Adaptoid had learned that the power-theft/adaptation powers he possessed originated from a "sliver" taken from the cosmic cube while it was still in AIM custody. At the end of this effort, Kubik defeated the Adaptoid and removed the sliver of the cube, absorbing it into his own body.
Some years later, during the Secret Wars, Kubik and the Shaper arrived in the Beyonder's pocket universe to confront the cosmic being. Now morphed into a humanoid form, Kubik showed the Beyonder and the Molecule Man that they were both parts of an incomplete Cube, and merged their powers to form a new being called Kosmos.
Kubik was last seen as overseer of Kosmos' guidance. His current whereabouts are unknown.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Kubik's power seems virtually infinite by the standards of the human beings of Earth. The question remains, however, as to how Kubik's power level compares to that of the other beings known to be among the most powerful entities in the universe.
Since they are all evolved "Cosmic Cubes," Kubik's might is presumably equal to that of the Shaper of Worlds and to that of Kosmos, the entity that is the combination of the Beyonder and the super-powers of the Molecule Man. Due to differences in mental capacity, personality, creativity, and self-imposed limitations there may be some variance in the effectiveness of these beings despite having equal power and ultimate potential. Even so, though the Cosmic Cube once called the Beyonder believed itself to have the powers of an entire Universe at its disposal (and in fact believing itself to be an entire, sentient Universe), it was revealed within the pages of Secret Wars II that the Great Powers of the Universe had only allowed the evolving being to think that it had defeated such noteworthies as the Celestials and even Death, as part of an unspecified "growing process" for nascent Cosmic Cubes.
A Cosmic Cube, upon reaching maturation, takes a humanoid form based on the sum of the individuals who have handled or utilized its powers. Kubik's original "matured" form was that of a hulking, crystalline being. When he reappeared to confront the Beyonder in his pocket reality, he was a lanky pink humanoid with an oversized cranium dressed in a green tunic. While it is likely Kubik merely adjusted his form to meet some personal aesthetic, his true form would then be unknown. Given that his previous masters were the Red Skull and various other humans, the second form seems more likely to fit his "true" form.
Kubik's power was capable of creating at least a duplicate of Earth (and its people) and the sun from the matter in a pocket dimension. Hence, Kubik may be more powerful than beings such as Odin, Zeus and the Watcher Uatu, who have not been shown to be capable of such feats.
Kubik has stated that his power, and thus that of Kosmos and the Shaper of Worlds, pales in comparison to that of the "Great Powers of the Universe." Some of those beings considered to be the "Great Powers" by Kubik are the Celestials, Eternity, Death, Galactus, and the Living Tribunal. Presumably, Kubik is also less powerful than the "true" Beyonders who created him in the first place - though there is no real evidence to support or debunk this assumption.
