History: (Marvel Boy II#5 (fb) - BTS) - Noh-Varr, as a member of the 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt, was one of the people to negotiate the Skrull/Kree ceasefire of his dimension, ending millenia of war and hostility. But on their way home, the group encountered 3 astro-gods syphoning energy to explore the Hypoverse. During the encounter, spacetime collapsed, and the group was forced to escape through Macrospace. They explored a multitude of realities while trapped there, but finally found a way home...

(Marvel Boy II#1) - Noh-Varr and his crew finally closed in on their home dimension, but the alien-obsessed Midas caught their SOS signal, and locked them into his dimension. Upon reaching it, Midas ordered his soldiers to shoot the Kree ship with missiles, knocking it from the sky. Other than the ship's living databank, Plex (the We-Plex Supreme Intelligence System, or Plex Intelligence), Noh-Varr was the only survivor.

As Noh-Varr came to, he found he was trapped in an orange womblike structure called the Bubble, and came face-to-face with his captor, Midas. It seemed as though Midas was a collector of aliens, extra-dimensional creatures, and the such. While Midas threatened him, Noh-Varr spat at the man, but his helmet blocked it from physical contact, and a scientist immediately rushed the sample to the labs. After revealing to Noh-Varr (in typical villain fashion) that he needed the cosmic radiation that his ship used for fuel to further mutate himself, Midas departed. Soon after, another man was sent for a blood sample, but Noh-Varr spat on him, and the man hallucinated about his wife and set him free from the Bubble. While this was going on, Noh-Varr grew his thumbnail out and jabbed the man with it, before making a break for it. Gunning his way through, Noh-Varr eventually found his ship and escaped, but decided to return to give some going away presents (in the form of missiles) to the building (the Midas Foundation) that held him captive. Retreating to the NY subway system with his ship, Noh-Varr decided he'd fix this planet to his liking.

BTS - Noh-Varr learns English by reading through some dictionaries.

(Marvel Boy II#2) - While Plex kept the people out of the way, Noh-Varr unleashed his rage on New York. SHIELD, obviously not too happy with this situation, sent their new experiment -- the Bannermen -- to bring Noh-Varr to them. Using the Pocket Battlefield, Noh-Varr was able to confuse the Bannerman and easily defeat them. Up in the SHIELD Orbiter, Dum Dum Dugan looked down on a satellite view of downtown New York, and received Noh-Varr's message to humanity in big flaming letters... (CENSORED) YOU. Satisfied, Noh-Varr sat down to watch some TV.

(Marvel Boy II#3) - Looking through his ship, Noh-Varr found that one of the tanks in the Concept Dungeon had been broken. Plex told him that what was missing was a living concept, Hexus--a corporation which takes over planets, until it reproduces by sending it's employees into space. Noh-Varr, after a detour at their old office, finally found the main Hexus building, where he was attacked by kamikaze eyebeam employees. Noh-Varr was able to hold them off, while Plex sent their trade secrets to every other megacorp in the world, effectively making them obsolete, and killing the entity.

A beaten and bruised Noh-Varr stumbled into a back alley and began to eat some trash, before some cops came to help him/chase him off. But before they could do much, Midas' head assassin and daughter, the Exterminatrix showed up.

(Marvel Boy II#4) - Exterminatrix chased Noh-Varr around the subway system, but he was eventually able to escape. She found him running up the side of a building, and shot a window out from under his feet, sending him dropping. The two fell until Exterminatrix caught a flagpole and Noh-Varr caught... the flag. Exterminatrix shot the flag, and Noh-Varr went crashing through a bus. Still alive, Noh-Varr commandeered the bus, but immediately drove into a trap set by Midas. The bus was shot off the road, and a tired Noh-Varr was beaten down by a group of Midas' thugs, while cameras rolled to make the onlookers believe this was all a movie. Midas, deciding he didn't like the way Noh-Varr was staring at his daughter, decided to pound him to death, but Exterminatrix shot her father through his arm, which made him drop Noh-Varr, and gave the two an opportunity to escape.

(Marvel Boy II#5) - Back at his ship, Noh-Varr got a quick checkup at the ship's computer, before he revealed his past to the Exerminatrix, who then replied in kind. Exterminatrix then exposed her "hideously scarred" face to him, but in reality, other than a short scar across her cheek, she was a normal woman. Noh-Varr kind of stood by while Exterminatrix went off on her father, until a group of her father's agents shot Plex's casing. Noh-Varr and Exterminatrix barely escaped yet again, but were confronted with Midas' monster, one of the Dark Dimension's Mindless Ones.

(Marvel Boy II#6) - Managing to escape from the monster, Noh-Varr returned to find Cosmic Man, the newly christened and powered up Midas, draining Plex's memory banks. Noh-Var immediately shot him in the head, but Cosmic Man merely flinched. He then used his control over the air to crush Noh-Varr, but Exterminatrix returned, and using the Mindless One's head, blasted her father in half. While Exterminatrix mourned, in a way, the death of her father, SHIELD captured Noh-Varr and Plex. As Noh-Varr was dragged away to the Cube, a giant prison for supervillains, he promised that in five months, this would be the capital of the new Kree Empire.

(New Avengers: Illuminati#4) - The Illuminati contacted with Xavier's help Noh-Varr within the Cube. They tried to change his mind about conquering Earth. Namor used violence to reason with him, Black Bolt and Xavier showed him the vast past between Earth and Kree empire with the Inhumans as an example and Mr. Fantastic and Iron Man offered him the possibility to become the next Captain Marvel. In the end they told Noh-Varr to earn his way out of the Cube and he started to like the idea to become the new Captain Marvel.

(Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#2 (fb) - BTS) - Plex was killed, but because Noh-Varr seemed lost without him the Cube's Warden began to mimic Plex's voice and gained full control over Noh-Varr.

(Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#4 (fb) - BTS) - To further control Noh-Varr he was put into constant pain by mangling his operating system with foreign code.

(Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#2) - At the Cube the Warden introduced Maria Hill to Noh-Varr as their tool to capture Runaways. Later the Warden accompanied Noh-Varr to Los Angeles because he was the only one Noh-Var listened too. Warden put a capsule with Skrull scent into Noh-Varr's nose and pulled the Kree at his nose to a chamber. Noh-Varr was kicked inside and released like a bomb from the plane. A short time later Noh-Varr crashed on a sidewalk in Los Angeles. His sudden appearance caused a car accident and he saved a child from one of the cars before continuing on his mission to find the Runaways (especially their Skrull member Xavin). When he found the Runaways and the Young Avengers he took out Xavin first by running past him with his incredible speed and breaking his neck.

(Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#3) - Noh-Varr's mind went into whitespace. He didn't want to kill more of his current enemies and just knocked out Karolina, Wiccan and Hulkling in quick fashion. Then Vision solidified his hand in Noh-Varr's chest and although it caused Noh-Varr incredible pain he felt like home and ripped off Vision's arm in mid-air. With Vision's arm still in his chest he landed to find Victor Mancha, but he saw him as one of his former Kree allies who asked him to kill him. Before Noh-Varr could kick in Victor's face he was kicked away by the giantess Stature like a ball. Warden was upset by Noh-Varr's failure and threatened to activate his psycho-arthritic pain incentives. Noh-Varr got back on his feet and attacked the young heroes again. He clotheslined Patriot and Stature, who was in her normal size at the moment. Kate Bishop tried to shoot him with a tranquilizer arrow, but he stepped aside and it hit Stature instead. Her next arrow was caught by Noh-Varr with ease. He strangled her until she passed out and then grabbed Nico at her throat. Meanwhile Warden had ordered to retrieve Noh-Varr and before he could hurt Nico he was pulled back into Warden's plane with a big grappling hook where Warden was immediately informed about the arm that stuck in Noh-Varr's chest.

(Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#4) - Back in the Cube Noh-Varr with Vision's arm his chest was put into shackles and shown to Warden by two scientists. They told Warden that the nanites in Noh-Varr's blood reacted negatively to the technology in the arm and asked for authorization to use the phasecutter, but the Warden told them to leave it to see what happens. When the uncaptured members of Runaways and Young Avengers attacked the Cube Noh-Varr was activated again to attack them. He attacked Old Lace first and not only took the dinosaur out of the game, but also Chase, who had a psychic connection to the animal. Molly, who tried to stop Noh-Varr, was just tossed away with the dinosaur. Patriot and Kate were no game for Noh-Varr either. He took a piece of debris to smash Chase, but Vision took over Chase and stopped the deadly assault. Suddenly the advantage was on the side of the heroes again because their captured allies were free and Noh-Varr was alone, but they were still not able to stop him. He fought off the attacks of Hulkling, Xavin, Karolina and Wiccan by himself and then used Vision, who could be controlled by Noh-Varr because Vision's arm was still in his chest, to shoot the young heroes with repulsor rays. Victor saw a chance to beat Noh-Varr and touched Vision. Like the first time they met it short-circuited them both, but Noh-Varr was also down afterwards because of Vision's arm in his chest. Vision realized that Noh-Varr's operating system was influenced by foreign code and that he probably was in constant pain and didn't even know who he was. He fixed Noh-Varr's operating system.

  Moments later Warden and his guards appeared. The heroes were gone because Noh-Varr let them escape. Warden got angry and wanted to know what was wrong with Noh-Varr, but he felt much better now. Noh-Varr was now in control of the Cube and declared it the capital of the New Kree Empire. Warden was nothing more than a stool to him now.

Comments: Created by Grant Morrison and JG Jones

In continuity?
There is some confusion over whether or not the Marvel Boy limited series actually took place in the Prime Marvel Universe, or in an alternate dimension of it. Iron Man 2000 had a specific reference to the series for more information about one of the characters peripherally involved, which is good enough for me; personally, I feel the series had too many cool things in it for it to be just another dimension.
It's been suggested by some people that MARVEL BOY may be a covert Ultimate title, because some of it seems to fit in better with Ultimate continuity than Earth-616. I'm not hugely clear on where they get this from; the only similarity I've noticed is the SHIELD space stations in both are very similar. Dum Dum Dugan, on the other hand, is totally different on Earth-Ultimate (unless that was *another* Dugan working for SHIELD assigned to the Ultimates project...). The clincher for me is how they've been working on recreating a super-soldier serum for half a century on Earth-Ultimate, while in MARVEL BOY the U.N. has gamma-enhanced, adamantium-laced clone super-soldiers.(Flank McLargehuge)
I agree with Flank on this issue, although it was written to be vague enough to go either way.

Cameos?
Zzutak was among Midas' collection of aliens in Marvel Boy II#1. A Skrull and possibly a Badoon were also visible (and a Xantha). Midas' monster was one the Mindless Ones from the Dark Dimension.

The television section in the end of Marvel Boy II#2 seemed to be a tribute of sorts to Veidt's monitors in Alan Moore's The Watchmen. Also, amongst the screens, Rorschach, a character from the book, is visible.
The Teletubbies, The Thing, The Vision, The Mole Man, hieroglyphics, a samurai, a lizard with a flamethrower and several monkeys were also visible.

In one of the Macroverse dimensions, a tribute to Wildstorm's The Authority is shown, and in another, a large group of Popupians are seen.

Marvel Boy?
Despite the book name, Noh-Varr was never referred to as Marvel Boy in the series, though he was known as Ensign Marvel to his teammates in the 18th Kree Diplomatic Gestalt.
However, as pointed out by Proto-Man and Jim Sharpe, he also received the name in the Marvel Encyclopedia--Snood.

Morrison to Gruenwald Dictionary
Superspectrum = Omniverse - "The immense rainbow of realities, where everything you ever imagined is just as real as everything else and all at once" I think they also call it Macrospace, but that may just mean the nexus point.

(CENSORED) ME???
Noh-Varr's message to Earth is definitely one of my favorite alien announcements. "What happened to 'Take me to your leader'" indeed.

When SHIELD finally captured Noh-Varr, Dum Dum Dugan's words to Noh-Varr... "And (CENSORED) you to you too, kid."

Cockroach DNA, eh?
Of course, I have to make a Cockroach Conspiracy mention for Snood here.
Oh, absolutely...and the technology that created this is likely to be along the lines of the Pursuer technology, which created both the Pursuer, and later Korath the Pursuer--Snood.

The name Rogue Fantastic comes from the Marvel Knights/Marvel Boy Genesis Edition#1. He is the guy with the white temples seen in Marvel Boy II#1 and #5.
--Markus Raymond

I really don't like the New Avengers: Illuminati title. My problems with this issue start with the Illuminati fearing revenge from the Kree, if they found out that Noh-Varr was imprisoned on Earth. I honestly don't think they know about him and I doubt they would care much for an alternate realities' Kree mutate, but what do I know? Later Noh-Varr knew that Mar-Vell betrayed the Kree in this reality. Sure, there is the possibility that Mar-Vell betrayed the Kree in Noh-Varr's home reality too or maybe Noh-Varr heard about it somewhere during his stay on Earth in....prison or maybe as a slumber story from Plex during the Marvel Boy title. So many possible No-Prized aside, I think Bendis just ignored (or didn't know) that Noh-Varr was not born within the Marvel Universe. Oh, and the deal between Noh-Varr and the Illuminati should've died the second when the original Mar-Vell returned in one of those Civil War specials.
--Markus Raymond

Noh-Varr received entries in All-New OHotMU#7 and the Civil War: Battle Damage Report#1.

Profile by: Zerostar

CLARIFICATIONS:

Noh-Varr, star of Marvel Boy volume II, should not be confused with...

• Marvel Boy: Martin Burns, a golden-ager with "shazam-like" abilities, @ Daring Mystery Comics#6 and USA Comics#7
• Marvel Boy: Robert Grayson, AKA the Crusader, the 1950s hero who acquired the Quantum Bands from the Uranian Eternals, @Marvel Boy I#1
• Marvel Boy: later Justice, Vance Astrovik, @Thor I#411
• Marvel Boy: David Bank, mutated by Adreamix, @Justice: Four Balance#3,4
• Blue Marvel: duplicate of the Robert Grayson Marvel Boy, @Quasar#26,41
• any other "Marvel" character

images: (without ads)
Marvel Boy II#1, Cover (main image)
  p19, pan5 (head shot)
  #2, Cover (armed and dangerous)
  #3, Cover (in barbed wire)

Appearances:
Marvel Boy II#1-5 (August-December, 2000) - Grant Morrison (writer), J.G. Jones (pencils), J.G. Jones (#1-4) & Sean Parsons (#5) (inks), Joe Quesada (editor)
Marvel Boy II#6 (March, 2001) - Grant Morrison (writer), J.G. Jones (pencils), Sean Parsons (inks), Joe Quesada (editor)
Civil War: Young Avengers & Runaways#2-4 (October-December, 2006) - Zeb Wells (writer), Stefano Caselli (artist), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Avengers: Illuminati#4 (September, 2007) - Brian Michael Bendis & Brian Reed (writers), Jim Cheung (pencils), John Dell, David Meikes & Mark Morales (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

Last updated: 03/09/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com