Rage (comics)

Rage (Elvin Daryl Haliday, sometimes misspelled "Holliday", first name sometimes given as "Eldon") is a fictional character, a comic book superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is African American. Rage was created by Larry Hama and Paul Ryan in The Avengers vol. 1 #326 (November 1990). Rage has been a member of the Avengers and the New Warriors, and appeared in the pages of The Avengers, New Warriors, Night Thrasher, and Avengers: The Initiative.

Fictional character biography

Origin

Elvin Daryl Haliday was born in Brooklyn, New York. At age 13, he was exposed to toxic waste after coming home from basketball practice. Returning to his grandmother's home, Elvin was nursed back to health. The chemicals caused Elvin to grow in strength and invulnerability, until he appeared to be a muscular man in his mid-30's. Encouraged by his grandmother to use his newfound abilities for good, Elvin adopted a costume and name: Rage.

Avengers

Soon after his transformation, Rage confronted the Avengers demanding to be made a member. He scolded Captain America for the team's lack of any black members. Rage left after a brief scuffle, but ended up assisting the Avengers in their next mission against L.D.50. Alongside the Avengers, he battled other-dimensional alien prisoners.^[1] After the team was reorganized under a new United Nations charter, Rage was invited to join as a probationary member.

In one of his first adventures as an Avenger, Rage battled Doctor Doom, and discovered that this Doom was actually a robot duplicate.^[2] During his Avengers career, he fought Ngh and the Tetrarchs of Entropy,^[3] the Brethren, the Collector,^[4] Brutus, and Grotesk.^[5] Rage was also shown, along with the Sandman, being trained by Captain America.^[6]

After racial tensions escalated due to the machinations of the energy vampire called the Hate-Monger, Rage and the New Warriors battled the Sons of the Serpent. The Avengers joined the fray, and Captain America was ultimately able to calm the situation and forced the Hate-Monger to retreat. During the battle, though, it came out that Rage was, in fact, only a teenager. Because of this, Cap told Rage that he could not be an Avenger, but could continue as a trainee if he wished.^[2]

New Warriors

Rage was dejected with the demotion. He soon helped the New Warriors and Darkhawk steal one of the Avengers' Quinjets for a mission to Cambodia to battle Tai and the Folding Circle. This Quinjet ended up being stolen by the Folding Circle, the very villains the New Warriors had gone off to fight.^[7] He was ultimately fired from the Avengers complete with a parting punch in the jaw from Hercules himself. About an hour later, he joined the New Warriors as a full member, and was given a new costume.^[8]

With Speedball, Rage battled an evil duplicate, and defeated it by absorbing it into himself.^[9] As a member of the New Warriors, he battled Force of Nature, the Trans-Saballian army,^[10] and, with Spider-Man, Archangel, and Doctor Strange, went up against Darkforce.^[11]

During his time with the New Warriors, Elvin's grandmother Edna Staples was killed right before his eyes by a street gang called the Poison Memories, bent on revenge against the team, leaving him an orphan. He donned a new costume after that, complete with a metal helmet.^[12] Andrew Chord, the legal guardian of his teammate Night Thrasher, became Elvin's legal guardian. For some time, Rage was in legal trouble with the authorities, as he had been accused of murdering Kimeiko Ashu, the leader of the Poison Memories. He was ultimately cleared of all charges with the assistance of Night Thrasher, who later took him to Paris for a memorial service for his grandmother.

Rage was part of the attacking force that traveled to a duplicate Earth on the far side of the moon during the Infinity Crusade. He teamed up with the X-Men member Cyclops and they were the closest to get to the villain's cathedral headquarters. Rage was swiftly dropped with a nerve pinch by Gamora and was out for the rest of the battle.

Later, Rage and Night Thrasher were voted out of the New Warriors after they had been absent during the team's battle with the paramilitary group Undertow who had enslaved their teammate Namorita.^[13] After their expulsion from the New Warriors, for a short time, Rage and Night Thrasher acted as mentors to their former foes, Psionex.^[14]

Later, Rage and Night Thrasher took it upon themselves to free Namorita from Undertow.^[15] After doing so, all three returned to the New Warriors.^[16] Eventually, though, the team began to drift apart and Night Thrasher formally disbanded them.^[17]

Reserve Avenger

After the New Warriors broke up, Elvin left for boarding school.^[18] Speedball contacted him to join a new version of the team, but Elvin turned him down, preferring to concentrate on his studies.^[19]

Elvin remained inactive as an adventurer and only returned a couple of times when called on as a reserve Avenger. First, he assisted the team against Morgan le Fay after the heroes returned from the Heroes Reborn universe.^[20] He later assisted them during the Avengers Disassembled situation.^[21]

"Civil War"

Rage and former teammate Justice learned that people were hunting down former New Warriors members because of the deaths^[22] caused by Nitro.^[23] They both sought the legal services of Jennifer Walters in protecting the allies of the New Warriors. They eventually discover that former New Warriors member Carlton Lafroyge (Hindsight Lad) was responsible for the persecution and exposure of their teammates. Hindsight had been operating a website outing the identities of the twenty or so remaining Warriors; he was also operating a dead pool. When John Jameson arrives, he arrests Hindsight. Rage remains on the scene until Jameson asks She-Hulk to marry him. Both Rage and Justice decided to side with Captain America during the Civil War, and refused to go along with the proposed Superhuman Registration Act. Rage is seen escaping from the containment van that held those that refused to comply with the Act.^[24][25]

The Initiative

Sometime later, Rage is seen on board a bus of new recruits arriving at Camp Hammond.^[26] During his time in the Initiative program, Rage is subjected to constant verbal abuse by Gauntlet about his former teammates, the New Warriors, due to the Stamford tragedy. Rage is among the recruits helping people get to safety during World War Hulk.^[27] After witnessing the battle between the Hulk and Iron Man, Rage orders the recruits to follow him and help battle the green gamma monster. However, they only see Hulk and his Warbound with the defeated Avengers lying at their feet. The recruits are defeated and imprisoned at Madison Square Garden and fitted with obedience disks to prevent their escape. They are subsequently rescued by the Shadow Initiative.^[28] The recruits (except for Komodo, who had obeyed orders not to engage the Hulk) are then subjected to even more verbal abuse and more intense training by Gauntlet as punishment for breaking ranks. Shortly thereafter, Gauntlet is found beaten nearly to death with a New Warriors "NW" scrawled across his chest in his own blood.^[29] All former New Warriors members and associates on base are detained for questioning. During the S.H.I.E.L.D. investigation, Rage reveals that he had an altercation with Gauntlet the day before the assault and that Gauntlet was about to recommend washing him out of the program and that his powers be removed until he turns 18.

During the Dark Reign storyline, Rage quits the Initiative along with other New Warriors-associated cadets (Justice, Debrii, Slapstick, and the remaining Scarlet Spiders) to form Counter Force.^[30] He later returned to Camp Hammond with the team, now calling themselves the New Warriors again,^[31] and battled Ragnarok, the clone of Thor.^[32]

Fear Itself

During the Fear Itself storyline, Rage appears at a meeting held by Prodigy regarding magical hammers that have crashed into the Earth.^[33] He is seen with Debrii rescuing survivors and helps the team in their battle against Thor Girl, who had recovered her designate powers.^[34]

Secret Wars 2015

During the Secret Wars storyline, Demolition Man met Rage and Edwin Jarvis at Avengers Mansion during the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. The two enjoyed a brief career as Luchadore wrestlers.^[35]

Powers and abilities

Elvin's exposure to unknown biochemical radioactive wastes gave him superhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability and resistance to physical injury. He becomes exponentially stronger with applied force, such as hitting. He is able to use his enhanced strength to leap great distances. In his first appearance, Rage was shown outrunning a speeding subway train, but this ability has not been used again.

Rage possesses basic street-fighting skills, and has received some combat training from Captain America and Night Thrasher.

Rage usually wears a costume of synthetic stretch fabric and body armor, and formerly wore a helmet of unspecified material, all of which he designed for himself.

Other versions

House of M

Rage appears as a member of the House of M's version of the Wolfpack alongside Speedball, Turbo, Zero-G, Darkhawk, and Lightspeed.^[36]

In other media

Television

• Rage makes a cameo in the Fantastic Four episode "To Battle the Living Planet."

References

External links

• Rage at the Marvel Universe wiki
• World of Black Heroes: Rage Biography