| Overshadow | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | DP7 #1 (1986) |
| Created by | Mark Gruenwald Paul Ryan |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Philip Nolan Voigt |
| Team affiliations | Quasar, Headhunters |
| Abilities | Can duplicate the powers of other paranormals he encounters, amplifying them beyond their owner's own power |
Philip Nolan Voigt is a fictional character from Marvel Comics New Universe, first appearing in D.P. 7 #1 in 1986.
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Philip Nolan Voigt, occasionally referred to as Overshadow, was one of the most powerful paranormals created by the White Event. Voight, a psychologist by training, had been climbing in the Rocky Mountains at the time of the White Event. He speculated that his greater proximity to the source of the event resulted in his powers. After discovering the existence of paranormal abilities, including his own, he founded the Clinic for Paranormal Research. The Clinic's publicly stated mission was to help paranormals learn to control their abilities, but Voight intended to gather them around him in order to exploit their powers for his own use. When a group of seven patients escaped, as detailed in the comic D.P. 7, he originally sought to recapture them. Eventually defeated by some of the paranormals, Voight left the Clinic, later resurfacing as a successful politician, using mind control to coerce subordinates into helping him.
Voigt became President of the USA in 1988 running on the Democratic Party ticket. His running-mate was a mind-controlled Michael Dukakis. After assuming office he was stripped of his powers by Star Brand. He later appeared as one of the Paranormals aiding Quasar in the Starblast crossover, having somehow regained his powers.
Voigt possesses the ability to duplicate the powers of any paranormal he encounters. The copied powers are also amplified to some degree, allowing him to perform tasks that the original owner of those powers would not be capable of. Voigt used these powers during his campaign appearances to win the Presidency in a landslide vote.
Voigt's power does not allow him to duplicate the Star Brand.
An alternate version of Philip Voigt (however, this time named Philip L. Voight) is introduced in issue #2 of Warren Ellis's reimagining of the New Universe, newuniversal. Voight has displayed no paranormal powers, but is part of Project Spitfire, a government agency tasked to kill superhumans when they show up. Philip Voight apparently harbors a deep-seated fear of superhumans, stemming from his belief in Darwin's evolutionary theory that an emergent (new) species will inevitably prey upon weaker species in order to flourish.
In 1955 Voight was recruited into a covert department of the NSA called Project Spitfire by then current head Luke Randolph, who felt that Voight's scientific background in mathematics and evolutionary theory was a valuable asset. Randolph explained that in 1953, as a direct result of the "The Fireworks" event, not only had their entire computer network been destroyed, but three superhumans had been created. Since then, the mandate of the NSA had been expanded to include all intelligence related to the The Fireworks due to initial fears that it had been a deliberate attack by the USSR.[1] Over the course of the next 24 months two of them, Lester Robbins and Veronica Kelly, engaged in a series of violent confrontations that caused extensive damage, though thankfully no one had been injured. Project Spitfire determined then that its goals were to identify and monitor any and all superhuman activity within the USA, and intervene should superhumans ever meet (or if there was ever a chance of their meeting).[2]
Voight believes in Darwinian Imperatives so completely that he convinced Randolph that all superhumans needed to be killed before they could have the chance to band together for mutual defense and begin reproducing.[3] Voight personally murdered each of the three superhumans: shooting Anthony Stark (Cipher) in the head, blowing up Lester Robbins, poisoning Veronica Kelly, and shooting Robbins and Kelly's newborn child.[4] Voight justifies this drastic action by arguing that superhumans don't think and rationalize like humans, citing their violent confrontations and the fact that Veronica seemed to be murdering criminals (while criminals they were still being murdered), and that in comparison humans are mere "monkeys with phones". Voight argued that superhumans were mere animals operating solely on the basis of Darwinian Imperatives believing that they would eventually hunt and kill humans as an inferior species, therefore the human race needed to protect itself by any means necessary.[5] Voight's tactical approach to killing superhumans are well planned assassinations that use stealth and subtlety in order to avoid the collateral damage of a direct confrontation. That said, in Shockfront #2, Voight used a none-too-subtle suitcase bomb to kill a suspected superhuman named Jack Magniconte that was unequivocally powerful enough to kill any civilians in the immediate area (namely Magniconte's coach and the Chairperson of his football team). However, it remains to be seen if any innocent civilians, much less Magniconte, were hurt or killed in the blast.
Voight is a study in contrasts: his scientific knowledge seems to impede his search for the truth behind the origins of superhumans. While he argues that Darwinian Imperatives define and control the actions of all superhumans, his steadfast belief in these scientific principles blinds him to alternate possibilities. For example, despite the overwhelming genetic evidence that humans carry in their DNA the basis for superhuman-like abilities, and that superhumans were the next evolutionary step for all humanity, he refuses to see superhumans as anything other than an unnatural threat to the survival of the homo sapiens species.[6] As is common for the newuniversal comics, Voight engages in a very real and complex debate with Jennifer Swann, who argued that the White Event triggered the latent superhuman genes artificially, thus superhumans would not act as per Darwinian biological imperatives and present no threat to humanity. Voight dismissed her arguments as unscientific and groundless, arguing that there is no way to know the mind of a superhuman because they were too different, and that they needed to act now to save humanity.[7] As of newuniversal: Shockfront #2 it remains unclear if this is merely a character flaw in Voight, or if he has superhuman powers himself and is acting for some ulterior motives.