PSIPHON

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human (source of powers unknown, but not mystical)

Occupation: Terrorist

Group Membership: Leader of a team of terrorists

Affiliations: Sam Buchanan, Vengeance (Psiphon fed on him)

Enemies: Sam Buchanan, Rebecca Taylor, Vengeance (Michael Badilino)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: New York City

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents I#147/1 (early February, 1994)

Powers/Abilities: He psionically feeds on negative emotions to increase in size, strength and durability. Powered up, his white hair was transformed into cables which he was able to control and use to hit or hold something or someone.
    Later when he was equipped by Sam Buchanan, he wore a yellow armor with machine guns on his wrists and the ability to fly through rocket boots for some time. He continued to use the rocket boots and machine guns after he broke the armor.

History:
(Marvel Comics Presents I#147/3 (fb) - BTS) - At some point Psiphon became for the leader of a ruthless terrorist group whose main reasons were money.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#147/3) - Psiphon and his band of terrorists infiltrated an office building in Manhattan and killed 70 people without a second thought. Vengeance took some of Psiphon's men out and wanted to know why they did it; Psiphon told him he had done it just to get his attention. Psiphon killed Jack Kelly, the 71st victim (on the picture above), and Vengeance attacked him. He put Psiphon to the ground with the hellfire, but Psiphon just became stronger and threw Vengeance around with his cable-like hair. Psiphon crushed Vengeance with a huge filing cabinet, but he didn't kill him. Psiphon needed Vengeance and his negative feelings as his power source.

BTS - Psiphon tied Vengeance up in chains and carried him around with his hair. Psiphon with Vengeance and the remaining terrorists went to the Statue of Liberty and took hostages. They took the hostages to the top of the statue and hung them from the crown.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#148/3) - On top of the Statue of Liberty, Psiphon screamed and demanded 50 Million Dollars for the hostages. Psiphon still had Vengeance with his hair in a grasp and was feeding on him. He destroyed a helicopter that came too near to the statue, and Vengeance became so angry that he was able to free himself. Vengeance knocked Psiphon to the ground with the hellfire and killed some terrorists. Psiphon again became stronger and Vengeance couldn't beat him. Psiphon mocked Vengeance that as long as Vengeance existed he was invincible. Vengeance transformed into his human form and Psiphon became a weak human in a flash. Badilino kicked the weakened Psiphon from the Statue of Liberty.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#164/3 (fb) - BTS) - Somehow Psiphon survived the fall from the Statue of Liberty and was taken away by the men of Sam Buchanan. Psiphon was cured and put into an armor.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#164/3) - Sam gloated about the new personnel he had acquired and watched his new agent lying on a table in a yellow armor. Psiphon was sent out to provoke Badilino to become Vengeance. With the weapons of the armor he killed some innocent bystanders in front of Badilino and Rebecca Taylor. Badilino turned into Vengeance and Psiphon became strong again. He cracked the armor and flew away with his destination being Washington D.C..

(Marvel Comics Presents I#165/3) - Psiphon started an attack in Washington at the Pentagon City Mall. Uno informed all listeners of her symposium about the attack, and Badilino, who was among them, left Rebecca and turned into Vengeance to fight Psiphon. Vengeance ran into the trap of Psiphon and Buchanan. Psiphon was just the bait, but he used the hatred between Vengeance and Buchanan to become so strong that nobody could defeat him.

(Marvel Comics Presents I#166/3) - Psiphon stood before his former partner Buchanan, his enemy Vengeance, and Rebecca Taylor, and told them that he would bring the capitol to its knees. They all attacked Psiphon and were able to hurt him. Buchanan burnt him, Rebecca shot off some of his hypersensitive hair and Vengeance tried to attack Psiphon directly. Psiphon squeezed him and Buchanan reconfigured his gun to make Vengeance stronger. Vengeance was now able to battle Psiphon, and after some hard punches Psiphon was knocked to the ground. Vengeance ripped out Psiphon's cable-like hair, leaving Psiphon again a weak powerless human. Vengeance didn't kill him, but left Psiphon behind for the authorities.

(New Avengers Most Wanted Files - BTS) - Psiphon was reported as having remained in prison since his initial capture.

Comments: Created by Chris Cooper, Reggie Jones and Fred Harper

Could it be? For me it looked like his hair/tendrils were deploying the strengthening feelings into his body to which they were connected to on different places. I'm not sure about this but if this was indeed the way how his whole body got so strong he is just like Samson in the bible. Powerless without his hair.

by Markus Raymond

CLARIFICATIONS:
Psiphon has no known connections to:


Terrorists of Psiphon

They were the team of Psiphon and infiltrated the office building in Manhattan. Together with Psiphon they killed 70 people there. Some of them became victims of Vengeance. He burnt them with his hellfire and even through one of them from the building. The remaining terrorists went with Psiphon to the Statue of Liberty were the rest of them were killed by Vengeance when he broke free.

They all wore these nice green suits, goggles and used machine guns. They also had black backpacks with unknown content.

--Marvel Comics Presents I#147/1 (148/1

 

 

 

 


images: (without ads)
Marvel Comics Presents I#147, p5, pan3 (main image)
Marvel Comics Presents I#147, p8, pan4 (headshot)
Marvel Comics Presents I#167, barcode side, p7, pan3 (with armor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#147, p3, pan4 (terrorists)


Appearances:
Marvel Comics Presents I#147-148 (February, 1994) - Chris Cooper (writer), Reggie Jones (pencils), Fred Harper (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents I#164-166 (October, 1994) - Chris Cooper (writer), Reggie Jones (pencils), Fred Harper (inks), Richard Ashford (editor)
New Avengers Most Wanted Files (December, 2005)


First Posted: 04/04/2004
Last updated: 04/07/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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