COBALT

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Human mutate (Russian)

Occupation: None

Group Membership: Masters of Alchemy (Carbon, Hydrogen, Neon, Phosphorus, Plutonium);
    formerly Elements of Doom (Carbon, Chlorine, Phosphorus, Radium, Vanadium)

Affiliations: Diablo (Esteban Corazan de Ablo), Elements of Doom, Masters of Alchemy

Enemies: Avengers (Beast/Hank McCoy, Black Knight/Dane Whitman, Black Panther/T'Challa, Captain America/Steve Rogers, Crystal/Crystalia Amaquelin, Falcon/Sam Wilson, Hercules/Heracles, Ms. Marvel/Carol Danvers, Scarlet Witch/Wanda Maximoff, Vision/"Victor Shade," Wasp/Janet Van Dyne, Wonder Man/Simon Williams), Baru, Monica Lynne, Taylor Madison

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: "Ugly" (insult from Black Knight)

Base of Operations: Wakanda;
    formerly an unidentified nuclear power plant in Russia

First Appearance: Avengers I#188 (October, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: Cobalt's body was composed of pure elemental Cobalt, providing him with a superhuman degree of strength and durability. He could fire sharp shards of pure Cobalt from his body.

Height: Various
Weight: Various
Eyes: Red (no visible irises) (originally yellow)
Hair: None

History:
(Avengers I#188) - When the transformed Elements of Doom built a device within a Russian nuclear plant to transform other humans into elemental beings like themselves, the heroic Avengers were drawn to the plant on their way home from the Inhumans' Great Refuge. When their first attack against the Elements of Doom failed, the Elements captured one of the Russian plant technicians and placed him within their machines, transforming him into the element Cobalt. Still adapting to his changes by now serving the other Elements of Doom, Cobalt was soon destroyed when the Avengers' Ms. Marvel used a laser to pierce the plant's fusion reactor, burying the Elements of Doom in the reactor's molten core and breaking down their atomic structure.

(Avengers Collector's Edition#1 (fb)) - The Russian nuclear plant experienced a meltdown and the entire facility, including the individual atoms of the former Elements of Doom, was covered in concrete to protect the public from the fallout. The atoms of the surviving three Elements of Doom including Cobalt were somehow shunted extradimensionally, perhaps due to force of the meltdown's blast. Years later, the master alchemist Diablo crossed the dimensional barriers and used his sorcery and alchemy to resurrect Phosphorus, Cobalt and Carbon from their base atoms. Upon resurrection, Cobalt's form became more jagged and large. With the Elements restored to Earth once more, three new elemental beings (Neon, Plutonium, Titanium) were created and together, they formed a new elemental group calling themselves the Masters of Alchemy.

(Avengers Collector's Edition#1) - When the Avengers arrived in Wakanda, they were ushered to Diablo, who revealed the Masters of Alchemy and their origins. Explaining how they had taken Wakandan hostages to keep the Black Panther at bay as they sought enough Vibranium to transform someone into a Vibranium being for their team, Diablo quickly noticed that both Vision and Black Knight were missing and he ordered Neon and Cobalt to find the two missing Avengers and bring them to Wakanda's Vibraniu Mound, permitting them to destroy the Avengers if they resisted. Soon tracking Black Knight to the Wakandan airstrip, Cobalt fired elemental shards from his body at the hero, who used Captain America's shield to block the shards. Neon quickly joined in the attack but Black Knight managed to disperse neon by reversing the polarity of his energy blade, leaving himself defenseless against Cobalt. The Vision soon came to Black Knight's rescue, phasing through Cobalt and shattering him into pieces.

Comments: Created by Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, John Byrne, Dan Green and Frank Springer.

    A note from Avengers Collector's Edition#1: Diablo refers to the original Elements of Doom as aliens that supplanted humans with energy constructs based on elements but we clearly see a human male being physically transformed into Cobalt in Avengers I#188 so the Elements were not aliens that had replaced humans with energy constructs resembling elements but rather, they were human beings physically transformed into pure elemental forms. Of course, it's not like Diablo is the most trustworthy person....it's possible he was lying to the Avengers, though it could also be that the ancient Diablo might not have understood the Elements' true nature...then again, perhaps Diablo resurrected the Elements of Doom that he could and the three new elemental beings in his group (Neon, Plutonium & Titanium) could have an extradimensional aliens like Diablo claimed...

    Another thing of note regarding the truthfulness of Diablo's statements: In the flashback we see while Diablo is talking, we see Quicksilver with the Avengers during their encounter with the original Elements of Doom but Quicksilver did not encounter the Elements. He was in the issue at the beginning but he stayed behind in the Great Refuge while the rest of the Avengers went on to encounter the Elements....

    The Marvel Database Wiki mentions that Cobalt appears in a flashback in Thunderbolts I#7 but the only Element of Doom that actually appears in that flashbacks is Vanadium, who is seen holding part of a Russian tank, just as he had done in Avengers I#188. The other original Elements of Doom are not mentioned by name by Dr. Vasily Khandruvitch remarks that he created all of the original Elements of Doom (aside from Cobalt, whom we know the Elements themselves created).

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Cobalt should be distinguished from:

• COBALT - member of the Ravens--X-Factor I#56
  
• COBALT - Elements of Doom, pure element given humanoid form--Thunderbolts I#6
• COBALT of Earth-9602 - Magnetic Men member--Magneto & the Magnetic Men I#1
• COBALT of Earth-81111 - member of Khan's Inhuman rebels, Exiles ally--Exiles III#1
  
• COBALT-MAN (Ralph Roberts) - inventor, built suit of armor, eventually increased in size due to radiation & exploded after reaching critical mass--X-Men I#31
• COBALT MEN - pro-Norman Osborn extremists using inferior Cobalt-Man armor, defeated by American Eagle--Thunderbolts I#112
  
• other "Cobalt" characters, groups, items, races or events
  

Appearances:
Avengers I#188 (October, 1979) - Jim Shooter (plot, editor), Bill Mantlo (script), John Byrne, Dan Green, Frank Springer (art)
Avengers Collector's Edition#1 (1993) - Pat Garrahy (writer), Mike Gustovich (pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Glenn Herdling (editor)

First posted: 11/09/2025
Last updated: 11/09/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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