Monday, October 5, 2015 • Evening Edition • "In this issue: an Outhouser will DIE!"

Your Top Marvel Heroes part 8

Two more pairs of two. Do you think these folks should be higher? Discuss.


202. Korvus/Mantis (7 points each)

Korvus is a descendant of Rook'shir, a citizen of the Shi'ar Empire who, centuries ago, controlled the power of the Phoenix Force through a blade. He was ultimately defeated by the Imperial Guard, a team which defends the empire and was formed for the purpose of stopping Rook'shir.

After he was defeated, only a portion of his power remained in his blade, which could only be lifted by one of his descendants. Korvus is the last surviving descendant of Rook'shir, and because of this he was kept in prison. K'tor, a loyalist of D'ken, offered to set Korvus free provided that he would work for him. Korvus easily overpowered the X-Men except for Rachel Summers, who also controls the Phoenix Force. With the help of Rachel he was able to break free from the control of K'tor. Since then, he has become a member of the Starjammers and is shown becoming more and more intimate with Rachel Summers.

Korvus wields the semi-sentient Blade of the Phoenix, a massive sword roughly 5' long by 2' at its widest point and weighing over 50 lbs, thought its size and weight vary at its discretion. The blade can be only be used by blood relatives of Rook'shir; it does not allow anyone else to lift it easily or to tap its true power, which is a portion of the Phoenix Force. The blade teaches its wielders how to use it, and can show them its pasts wielders' lives .It can easily cut trough most of the metals, and has the potential to rearrange matter at molecular level. The sword energy has charged a hyperspace jump engine for hours, and also can emit jets of blue flames to stun opponents as well repel energy attacks and create telekinetic shields. The blade can locate other Phoenix hosts, and has created an empathic link between Korvus and former host Rachel Grey. Being Shi'ar, he possesses super human strength, agility, speed and durability.

mantis.jpgThis entry comes to you from the main man, Amoebas:

The woman who would be Mantis started life out as an abandoned infant. Raised in a temple by the Priests of Pama, she is thought to be a possible Celestial Madonna, so they teach her advanced martial arts. (more on this later).

Once her training was complete, the Priests, wanting to give this young person who could be the mother of the most important person in the universe, a chance to experience life before she ascends, mind wipes her and sets her off in war-torn Vietnam. Here she becomes a prostitute.

One lucky John (or Jacques as the case may be) is the down on his luck, would be villain, disgraced ex-Avenger called the Swordsman. Mantis takes a shine to him (free of charge) and helps him rebuild his self worth. Together they travel to America where the Swordsman convinced the Avengers to give him another chance... and to let his ex-hooker girlfriend accompany them. They agree in a true WTF moment.

Mantis quickly established her martial arts in combat and became a notable Avenger in training (outshining the Swordsman a time or six). Two things set Mantis apart during this time – her penchant to say “this one” instead “I” or “me” and her lack of memory.

The latter was explained when the Avengers ran afoul with Kang who was seeking to mate with the Celestial Madonna (see, I told you get to it). Somewhere and somewhen, it was preordained that whoever mated with the Celestial Madonna would father the most important child in the history of history. Kang wanted that honor, but he (and others like the Priests of Pama) could only guess who the Madonna was. Through super scientific future science stuff, Kang found out it was either Mantis or Wanda Frank (the Scarlet Witch), so Kang captured both. Rama Tut (Kang before he was Kang (after after he was Kang)) helped the Avengers stop Kang and determine that Mantis was the Madonna. Defeated, Kang would have vowed vengeance but he was too busy being chased into the Old West by the terrifically bold & brave bow wielding archer Hawkeye.

Not long after this Mantis is given full membership into the Avengers and almost immediately after that Immortus (who used to be Rama Tut then Kang then Rama Tut again) officiated Mantis's ascension (as well as her wedding to an alien tree who had taken the form of the Swordsman (who was killed somewhere between the last couple paragraphs). Mantis leaves the Earth for a time to make whoopee.
She comes back (single, pregnant and on the wrong Earth) as Willow, where she teams up with the Justice League of America. She leaves Earth again.

She returns (again to the wrong Earth – must have been the eclipse that detoured her) with baby in tow as she calls herself Lorelei. Lorelei and baby show up on another Earth for just a fleeting image before they are gone again.

Somehow after all this she makes it back to the correct Earth and takes up domestic life with her son in the suburbs. The kid eventually is taken by his father. Mantis enlists the Silver Surfer for help and her adventure in space begins again.

She had a bit of a multiple personality disorder for a while (literally – she split into a bunch of different Mantis's) but after a while they all remerged as the true Mantis (who was green skinned now because of her tree given pregnancy).

She's pretty much stayed in space since then, with the rare team-up with the Avengers. Of late, after her involvement in the Ultron/Phalanx battles, she's been with the Guardians of the Galaxy. She's a valued member of the team (albeit untrusted by many). Most recently she was thought to be killed by the Magus (she's trying to escape him as we speak – go read GotG for future details) (really - go NOW - it's a good book!).

201. Texas Twister/Night Thrasher (7 points)

Texas Twister
Take it away, Amoebas: texastwister.jpg

A true son of the Lone Star State, Drew Daniels was just another ranch hand when he was struck by both a tornado and a freak radiation burst at the same time. Instead of dying, he found that he had absorbed the power to make localized tornado's (but thankfully ones that weren't radioactive).

With his new found and mastered abilities, he decided to do what every respectable person would do once given incredible powers. Sell them to the highest bidder.

Daniels made his first public appearance trying out for a spot with the Frightful Four. After a test he was offered the position but declined it because it didn't pay. From there he and signed up with a S.H.I.E.L.D. test program for super powered agents (apparently all he needed was a salary). After that group went bust he resorted to earning a buck on the rodeo circuit.

He met his true love in Victoria Star (a sharp shooter with the rodeo who goes by the sage name Shooting Star). Together they were the star attractions – until one day when Rick Jones sent out an SOS for help. Daniels and Star answered the call as did some other western themed heroes to battle the Hulk. They called themselves the Rangers and had a pretty unexciting career.

The Twister's powers had been to ebb, so Daniels somehow made contact with a demon that increased them at the cost of his soul. Once he had them back, Daniels begged to get out of the deal. The demon agreed and took Shooting Star's soul instead. It took a while but with the help of the fantastic and marvelous Hawkeye (the amazing Avenging archer) they ended of the demons ploy and Daniels and Star were reunited.

They were last seen in the Texas Avengers Initiative fighting a Skrull.

Night Thrasher
nightthrasher.jpgNight Thrasher's parent's were killed in front of him when he was very young. He started to hate lawbreakers, and began to train in the martial arts in order to punish them. He forgot about how his parents died and the face of their killer. He later learned that his parents had been killed as part of a plan orchestrated by an elderly Asian women named Tai. During the day, he ran the Taylor Foundation. By night, he trained and began to patrol the streets. Dwayne met two other vigilantes, Silhouette and Midnight's Fire, and the three began to try to lessen the gang population in New York. Both vigilantes were the children of Dwayne's guardian, Andrew Chord.

Their partnership ended when Silhouette was paralyzed from the waist down by a bullet. Midnight's Fire blamed Dwayne, and began to try to draw Dwayne into a confrontation. Silhouette sided with Dwayne, distancing herself from her brother's evil. It was because of the threat of Midnight's Fire that Dwayne built his power suit. Dwayne began to recruit member's for a new team (which he was basing off of the Fantastic Four, himself taking the role of Reed Richards.) He chose the supposedly de-powered Nova to be "The Thing" in his new team. He abducted Nova and dropped him off of a building, hoping it would ignite his powers. It did, and Nova was (understandably) cautious of joining, but the return of his powers by Night Thrasher's doing made him join. Night Thrasher then recruited Firestar to take the part of the Human Torch, and Marvel Boy to take the part of Invisible Women. Almost immediately afterward, Terrax began reeking havoc in downtown New York City. When the newly formed team arrived at the scene, they discovered Speedball and Namorita fighting Galactus' former herald. The six were able to win by using unorthodox teamwork, but the glory was stolen by The Avengers. The six then became The New Warriors. The team became mildly successful, but during the time, Dwayne unraveled the strange conspiracy that was his life. Also, both Folding Circle and Tai's true role were revealed. Thrasher became the official guardian of Rage during this time.

Thrasher pretended to join the Folding Circle as a means to infiltrate it. He, however, he neglected to tell his team about his plans, and he left the team. Dwayne became a slight ally to the Warriors, and the team's leader became disputable. At first, it was Namorita, and then it turned to Marvel Boy. Night Thrasher traveled to learn martial arts skills. He discovered a plot by the Hand against Iron Fist, and he brought back the team to save Iron Fist. He rejoined the team at the end of the volume. Dwayne retired, but stayed semi-active at the Taylor Foundation. He began searching for a cure for cancer. It appeared that the cure had been found, but it turned out that the biologist who created the cure actually was using his mutant son to "command" the cure. The Taylor Foundation fell through, and the biologist died trying the cure on him. Dwayne then adopted the biologist's son and announced that he was beginning a super hero reality T.V. show. Night Thrasher died along with Microbe (the biologist's son) in Nitro's explosion. That event started the Civil War.

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