Void (comics)

Void is a fictional comic book character in the Wildstorm Universe.

Fictional character biography

Void was the evolution of a woman named Adrianna who was born in Arkhangelsk, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Union. She was raised with her sister Svetlana by their father after the death of their mother. Her father encouraged Adrianna's ambition to become a cosmonaut and told her that the Archangel, after whom their home city was named was a creature made of silver who would take the chosen ones to the stars.

Her sister died in a car accident when Adrianna was sixteen. After grieving for her sister, Adrianna entered the military and achieved the rank of major. Three months after her father died of heart failure, she was sent into outer space. In space, during extra-vehicular activity, Adrianna saw a sphere made of silver, which collided with their space shuttle, destroying it. The sphere bonded with Adrianna, giving her new abilities and turning her into Void. A second sphere landed on Earth in Antarctica where it was collected by an American government organization called International Operations (IO).

In the distant past, the spheres had been part of Omnia, Mistress of Light. Omnia would lose her final battle against the darkness, but could not be destroyed. Instead, her power was dispersed into many small Orbs of Power. Another of these Orbs was bound to Cassandra Newland, who would turn into the enigmatic 'Providence'.

Void had precognition allowing her to see the future, but her control was imperfect and she could see only fragments. In 1990, Void met Jacob Marlowe, a homeless drifter who suffered amnesia. Void informed Jacob about his past as the Kherubim Lord Emp. Over the next two years, Emp would build a financial empire and gather a group of warriors to form the WildCATs. To prevent the Daemonite Helspont from abusing the Orb of Power that IO had found. Before Helspont could use it, a criminal known as the Gnome stole the Orb. He too tried to abuse it, but Emp threw the Orb into a cold fusion reactor. Void revealed that in a previous timeline, the Gnome had killed her, but part of her was able to go back in time and influence herself to get help before battling the Gnome.

During her time with the WildCATs, Void came to learn of two other Orbs of Power: Providence had become a member of Helspont's Cabal and often came in conflict with the WildCATs. The other Orb was in the possession of the Kherubim Lord Entropy. When Entropy kidnapped Emp and restored his memory, Void sensed the use of the Orb and took the Wild CATs to him. They defeated Entropy and he and the Orb disappeared. Shortly after, Void fought Providence, who had allied with the witch Tapestry. Tapestry betrayed Providence by refusing to hand over the captive Void to her. Tapestry used her magic to merge Providence and Void, enslaving them both. Tapestry was defeated, and Providence and Void returned to normal, though now they could no longer sense each other's presence.

When the WildCATs faced the alien Crusade, Crusade hit Void, dislodging her face. Her face fell like a mask to the floor and human reporters saw that there was nothing but emptiness behind it. Confronted with her loss of humanity, Void fled. When she returned Savant helped her deal with her loss by talking to the reporters telling them about the sacrifices she made for the human race. Void convinced Lord Emp to return to the WildCATs and her powers of time travel were essential during their following mission battling the time-traveling Puritans who wanted to prevent the Kherubim and Daemonites from ever landing on Earth. The strain of being a temporal anchor and making several time-jumps was too much for Void and she disappeared, leaving the WildCATs stranded in ancient Rome. She eventually made her way back to the present due to the Gnome trying to recreate his Orb of Power. Void's essence was used for the Orb, but DV8 interfered with his plans and their member Copycat, guided by Providence, managed to restore Void to her regular self. Soon afterward, the WildCATs disbanded following the apparent death of Zealot.

Void became more and more inhuman over the years; where Void and Adrianna were once one and the same, now their personalities started to diverge. Finally Adrianna had enough; Void's inhumanity was driving her insane. Inside her mind, Adrianna and Void met and Adrianna asked Void to finally release her soul. Void agreed as she no longer needed a human host.

Adrianna's spirit moved on and Void appeared in the Halo Corporation, home of former WildCAT Spartan, now known as Jack Marlowe. Void started working for Jack Marlowe, who was studying Void's ability to teleport. When she teleported, Void moved through Otherspace, a dimension filled with energy. Marlowe's assistant, Noir, saw the possibilities in harvesting Otherspace, but he saw Void as a threat. He sabotaged a nuclear reactor, causing a leak. The leak caused Void's physical form to slowly break down. Marlowe did what he could to cure Void, but in the end found out that without Adrianna, Void had no will to live. Marlowe offered his robotic body as a new host and Void and Marlowe merged, vastly increasing Marlowe's already impressive powers.

See Spartan for more about Jack Marlowe's time as host of the Void-entity.

In recent issues of Majestic and in the mini-series Captain Atom: Armageddon, it appears that Jack Marlowe has lost the Void Entity. How exactly this came to be is currently unknown. Void later bound itself to a new host, a paramedic named Nikola Hanssen, while another part of it bound itself to Captain Atom. Knowing what it feels like to be weak and scared in the Wildstorm Universe, Nikola willingly claimed her full powers from Captain Atom, with whom she shared a bond of love and trust, and used it to destroy and recreate a new Wildstorm Universe, known as the WorldStorm, as the Captain's universe was recreated in the same moment during the events of Infinite Crisis.

Due to the quantum jumping powers of Captain Atom, Nikola was able to see him in her new Universe, but could not explain to him the creation of a new Universe. Apparently, Nikola Hanssen is the only one in the whole Wildstorm Universe to remember the reboot.

Shortly before the nuclear holocaust that immolated the whole planet Nikola is seduced by Tao and falls under his mental domination, there are also hints that Void is now sexually submissive to Tao, along with another supremely powerful being Providence. After the apocalypse Tao appears to be planning his rise to power in the devastated world using the two beings abilities, or at least preventing anyone using the two women to restore the world to how it had been prior to the event, but Void is found by Lynch before Tao's plans reach fruition.

Powers and abilities

Bound to the Void entity Adrianna had several powers. Her primary power was teleportation; she could teleport herself and numerous additional persons to any location on the planet. Most importantly, Void could see fragments of the future and was thus instrumental in guiding the WildCATs. A downside to her powers was that Void suppressed Adrianna's emotions. As the Void entity became stronger, Adrianna became more and more inhuman.

Her human appearance was deceiving; when sleeping, Void removed her face as if it were a mask and behind her face, there was only pink energy filling her metal form.

Alternate versions

• In the 2015 future of Spawn/Wildcats, Void had been de-powered and been forced into the harem for the world's dictator, an evil version of Spawn. Angered at such treatment of the entire harem, Void murders the future version of 'Troika'.^[1]

In other media

• Void appeared as a major character in the animated WildCATs series. Here Void was an android and a Kherubim artificial intelligence that functioned as the main computer for the Kherubim ship that crashed on earth. She is discovered by Marlowe, here a mere human, and explains the threat of the Daemonites and helps him form the WildCATs. She is voiced by Janet-Laine Green.
• A Void figure from Playmates Toys was released in 1995.^[2]

References