PAIBOK THE POWER-SKRULL
Real Name: Paibok
Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial (Skrull), mutate
Occupation: Skrull espionage agent, captain in the Skrull armed forces
Group Membership: Fearsome Foursome (Devos, Huntara, Klaw)
Affiliations: Blood Brothers, Centaurians, Chandra, Delinquent, Multi-Colored Symbiotes
(see comments), Terrax;
formerly Devos, General Kalamari, Istvan, Lunatik,
Lyja
Enemies: Annihilation Wave, Avengers, Devos, Drax the Destroyer, Fantastic Four, General Kalamari, Istvan, Kree, Lyja, Space Parasite, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Spider-Man (Ben Reilly), Staak, Talmadge, Xandarian Nova Corps
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Paul Balk
Base of Operations: Mobile in the known universe
Formerly, Clarkston, Michigan
Formerly, the Skrull Throneworld
Formerly, War World
First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#358 (November, 1991)
Powers/Abilities: Paibok possesses superhuman strength (class 25), flight, the ability to transform his skin into a steel-like form, and the ability to project blasts of electricity and ice. He also possesses the natural shape-shifting powers of the Skrull race.
Following enhancements made by the Centaurians, Paibok gained the ability of hypnosis, but his body has taken on a decomposed-like appearance.
Paibok also has access to sophisticated Skrullian weaponry, including energy pistols.
Height: 6' 2"
Weight: 615 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: None
History: (Fantastic Four I#358 (fb)) - As the Skrull Empire schemed to find the means to defeat the Fantastic Four, Paibok suggested to them that they replace their friend Alicia Masters with one of their agents. He chose Lyja, a woman he had once had a relationship with, but had ended badly. After Lyja had mastered her mimicry of Alicia Masters, she was sent to earth and replaced her, while the real Alicia Masters was held captive by Paibok.
(Fantastic Four I#358) - Some time later, the Fantastic Four discovered the deception, and came to Paibok's base on War World to save Alicia. By this time, Paibok had undergone bio-engineering to grant him superhuman powers, making him almost the equal of the Super-Skrull. Calling him the "Power-Skrull", Paibok led his forces against them, and managed to battle the Fantastic Four to a standstill. Just as he was about to strike down the Human Torch from behind, Lyja leapt in the path of his blast, and he seemingly killed her. Enraged, the Thing buried Paibok beneath a section of War World.
(Fantastic Four I#390 (fb)) - After escaping the wreckage, Paibok found Lyja's body, and carried her to safety aboard his vessel.
(Fantastic Four I#366) - Paibok set off to have his revenge upon the Fantastic Four, and soon came across Devos, who had also been defeated by them. The two of them forged an alliance, and Paibok showed him the body of Lyja.
(Fantastic Four I#369, 390 (fb)) - While Devos watched, Paibok genetically enhanced Lyja, granting her superhuman powers with an organic power receiver so that she could destroy the Fantastic Four.
(Fantastic Four I#370) - With Lyja's enhancements completed, Paibok, Devos and Lyja prepared to combat the Fantastic Four together.
(Fantastic Four I#371) - Paibok joined with Lyja and Devos in assaulting the Human Torch at Empire State University. When the Torch called for help from his teammates, they pressed their attack, and the Torch prepared to release his Nova Flame. Devos' sensors registered the Torch's power build-up, and the three of them escaped before he went nova.
(Fantastic Four I#372) - The trio monitored the Human Torch as he was arrested for setting fire to Empire State University, and determined to worsen the situation. Disguised in the crowd outside the station where the Torch was being brought, Paibok and Lyja opened fire at him, causing a panic. No longer trusting the police to protect him, the Torch flew away.
(Fantastic Four I#374) - Paibok and Devos observed as the Torch became a fugitive from the law, but were surprised when Lyja turned against them, and went to help the Fantastic Four.
(Fantastic Four I#377) - Paibok and Devos assaulted the courtroom where the Human Torch was being tried, and found themselves joined by the Fantastic Four's enemy Klaw, and the amnesiac Huntara. The four of them (dubbed "the Fearsome Foursome") joined forces in assaulting the Fantastic Four.
(Fantastic Four I#378) - Paibok battled the Fantastic Four, but found he also had to contend with Spider-Man. Although the four villains managed to hold their own, with the arrival of the Avengers, they decided to escape using one of Huntara's portals.
(Fantastic Four I#379) - Again aboard Paibok's vessel, Paibok showed off his ship to Klaw, as they schemed their next attempt at revenge against the Fantastic Four.
(Fantastic Four I#382) - With the aid of one of Huntara's portals, the four villains invaded Four Freedoms Plaza, and Paibok and Devos set a trap for the Fantastic Four when they returned, knocking them unconscious with gas. They then teleported the Thing, Human Torch, Invisible Woman and Lyja to his ship, and Paibok presented their captives to the Skrull Empire (including Kalamari) at their new Throneworld. Having now reestablished contact with the Empire, Paibok realized that Devos had a price on his head and attempted to arrest him, but by then Devos had contacted his Arsenal Planet, and had it assault the Throneworld in an attempt to destroy the Skrull military.
(Fantastic Four I#383) - As the Death Cruiser assaulted Throneworld, the Skrull Empress branded Paibok a traitor for bringing Devos to their world, and sent her armies to kill him. Paibok chased after Devos as he returned to his Death Cruiser, and snuck aboard, hoping to reclaim his honor by defeating him. He sabotaged Devos' stardrive, resulting in the vessel being sent into sub-space, far away from the Skrull Empire.
(Spider-Man/Human Torch#5 (fb) - BTS) - Eventually Paibok escaped from sub-space, but remained an outcast in the Skrull Empire. At one point, he returned to Earth and joined forces with the Multi-Colored Symbiotes to battle the Human Torch and Spider-Man (Ben Reilly).
(Thing: Freakshow#3 (fb) - BTS) - Paibok sought out Centaurian scientists to enhance his powers, which resulted in him taking on a new appearance, similiar to that of a corpse. He eventually came to lead a band of other outcast Skrulls. Assuming the identity of "Paul Balk", the head of a freakshow, he set out to obtain Talmadge, a newly-born Watcher being held by Kree who were hiding in the town of Clarkston, Michigan.
(Thing: Freakshow#1) - Balk's freakshow was discovered by the Thing, who had been subconsciously guided to Clarkston by Talmadge to help save him. Among the attractions at Paibok's freakshow was Itsvan, an albino who the Thing had encountered as a child.
(Thing: Freakshow#2) - Paibok assumed that the Thing's presence meant that he was aware of his plan, and ended the deception in order to confront him with his Skrulls.
(Thing: Freakshow#3) - However, the Thing had been fed Staak, a Kree Evolver in egg form. After vomiting her out, she attacked Paibok's forces, killing several of his agents.
(Thing: Freakshow#4) - Paibok used his hypnosis to turn Itsvan (who allied himself with the Thing) against the Thing, as he and his forces battled Staak and the Kree for Talmadge. Paibok killed several of the Kree but was finally defeated, and taken captive by them. The Kree soon departed earth, with Paibok in their custody.
(Drax the Destroyer#1 (fb)) - Paibok eventually regained his original appearance through unrevealed means.
(Drax the Destroyer#1 (fb)) - At some point, Paibok was captured and arrested by an intergalactic police force and sentanced to imprisonment at the Kyln Prison station near the edge of space. He was put on a large prison transport ship in a cell that dampened his powers, alongside Lunatik, the Blood Brothers, and Drax the Destroyer.
(Drax the Destroyer#1) - But en route to the prison, the ship had a massive malfuntion and crashed on earth (more specifically, Alaska) with the aformentioned superpowered specimens the only survivors. While the Blood Brothers fought Drax, Paibok and Lunatik went off in search of resources.
(Drax the Destroyer#2) - Paibok and Lunatik wandered into a small nearby town and enslaved the local townspeople. They ordered the townspeople to go to the crash site of their prison ship and, working under their directions, salvage enough from the crash to prepare an offworld transport. Paibok had Lunatik kill an old woman to prove that the aliens meant buisness. Later on, as the workforce was assembling, the fight between the Blood Brothers and Drax moved into the town. Paibok shapeshifted his form to resemble Thanos in order to distract Drax, and then while Drax was distracted, Lunatik attacked him from behind, and Paibok killed Drax by transforming his arm into a sharpt spike and shoving it through Drax's brain.
(Drax the Destroyer#3) - A psychologically unsound 10 year old named Cammi asked for possession of Drax's body. Paibok shooed her away. The Blood Brothers interpreted his shooing as compliance, and they gave Cammi Drax's body as she had asked. Paibok ordered the work force that he had assembled to go to work salvaging whatever they could from the wreck, and Lunatik oversaw their work, killing many out of frustration and amusement.
(Drax the Destroyer#4) - Paibok killed the principal of the local school, where most of the town's children were staying, and replaced her using his shapeshifting powers. Cammi came by the school and told him of Drax's rebirth. Paibok rushed, with Cammie in tow, to the crash site, but by the time he had gotten there, Drax had already killed Lunatik and one of the Blood Brothers.The other Blood Brother was screaming in his grief over his brother's death, so Paibok knocked him unconsious with a hard punch. Then, realizing he had nothing to gain from fighting Drax, and that he was stuck on earth because the crash site was unsalvagable, Paibok activated an emergency beacon that alerted the intergalactic police as to his whereabouts. They then came and arrested him, put him on another ship, and sent him to the Kyln prison where he had originally been slated for incarceration. He had turned himself into the police rather than face the justice of Drax the Destroyer.
(Annihilation Prologue#1) - Paibok was placed in the custody of the Xandarian Nova Corps. However, shortly after his capture the facility was destroy by the arrival of the Annihilation Wave led by Annihilus from the Negative Zone.
(Annihilation#2-3) - Paibok was placed under the control of insect creatures so that he would serve the Annihilation Wave. Alongside fellow minions Terrax and the Delinquent, they were sent to Daedallis 5 to combat the resistance forces led by Nova. The forces of Annihilus ultimately drove the resistance off-planet just before its destruction by Galactus.
(Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1) - After Annihilus' defeat by Nova, Terrax, Paibok and the Delinquent found themselves freed from the parasites' control. Terrax slew Admiral Deko, the officer who they had been placed under the command of, and went on to destroy Deko's ship. The three crashed on the planet "New Xeron," and were rescued from the ship's wreckage by Chandra, a Centaurian. She revealed how the planet was ruled by the Space Parasite, who was feeding on the energies of the locals. Terrax, Paibok, Chandra and Delinquent confronted the Space Parasite and Terrax slew him, although Chandra also died. Paibok hoped to take command of the colony and use it to rebuild the Skrull Empire, but Terrax angrily destroyed the entire planet, considering the Space Parasite's former slaves to be unworthy of freedom. Terrax departed, while Paibok was able to make the Delinquent create a spaceship so that they could escape the planet's destruction.
Comments: Created by Tom DeFalco, Paul Ryan and Danny Bulanadi. It might be noted that Paibok's powers were patterned after those
of four X-Men (Colossus, Angel (flight), Storm (electrical bolts), and
Iceman), just like the Super-Skrull's were patterned after those of the
Fantastic Four. Skrull technology for duplication of the X-Men's powers,
including those of Angel, Colossus, and Storm, first appeared in Fantastic
Four I#249-50. The Multi-Colored Symbiotes that Paibok was said to have teamed-up with
are presumably those which were introduced in Venom: Lethal Protector#4, and
whose human hosts were Donna, Leslie, Ramon, Carl and Trevor. However, by the
time that Ben Reilly became Spider-Man, the hosts had been all killed off
during the events of Venom: Separation Anxiety (with the exception of Donna).
The symbiotes later took Hybrid as their host, but possibly they teamed up
with Paibok prior to that? Maybe Paibok infiltrated the Life Foundation, during the clandestine early stages of the Secret Skrull Invasion, and dropped off the symbiotes as a "confiscated" sample of the Venom symbiote. In real world chronology, he came to Earth with Devos the Devastator between January and March of 1993. Which is a good two-to-four months before the debuts the multi-colored symbiotes. But, with the new sliding-time scale of the post-Inheritor Marvel Multiverse, Paibok's alliance with Devos could have been the former exploiting the latter (for the Secret Invasion) as much as vice-versa.
Who knows? It might even have been the symbiotes psionically homing in on Dreadface that led Paibok to Devos in the first place! Profile byPrime Eternal CLARIFICATIONS: Images taken from: Appearances:
First Posted: 02/15/2004 Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know. Non-Marvel
Copyright info Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
--Omar Karindu
--Carycomic
Paibok should not be confused with:
Fantastic Four I#358, page 29, panel 1
Fantastic Four I#377, page 28, panel 2
Thing: Freakshow #2, page 22, panel 1
Fantastic Four I#366 (July, 1992) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Raph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#369-372 (October, 1992 - January, 1993) - Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#374 (March, 1993) - Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#377-379 (June-August, 1993) - Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#382-383 (November-December, 1993) - Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Fantastic Four I#390 (July, 1994) - Tom DeFalco & Paul Ryan (writer), Paul Ryan (pencils), Danny Bulanadi (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Thing: Freakshow#1-4 (August-November, 2002) - Geoff Johns (writer), Scott Kolins (pencils), Andy Lanning & Doug Hazlewood (#3) (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Spider-Man/Human Torch#5 (July, 2005) - Dan Slott (writer), Ty Templeton (pencils), Drew Geraci & Gred Adam (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Drax the Destroyer#1-4 (November, 2005 - February, 2006) - Keith Giffen (writer), Mitchell Breitweiser (pencils/inks), Andy Schmidt (editor)
Annihilation Prologue#1 (May, 2006) - Keith Giffen (writer), Scot Kolins, Ariel Oliveti (artists), Andy Schmidt (editor)
Annihilation#2-3 (November-December, 2006) - Keith Giffen (writer), Andrea Divito (artist), Andy Schmidt (editor)
Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus#1 (April, 2007) - Christos N. Gage (writer), Giuseppe Camuncoli (penciler), Stefano Landini (inker), Andy Schmidt (editor)
Last updated: 07/08/2019
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