HYBRIDHYBRID
Real Name: Simon Carthan
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-93060/"Ultraverse") human advanced technology and magic-user
Occupation: Scientist, would-be sorcerer
Group Membership: Formerly Aladdin
Affiliations: Tracker
Enemies: Mantra (Eden Blake/Lukasz), Ultraforce (Contrary (possibly Mary), Ghoul/Jonathan Martin, Prime/Kevin Green, Prototype/Jimmy Ruiz Topaz)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
he was presumably taken to some sort of hospital following his defeat;
formerly an abandoned army bunker in an unrevealed location
First Appearance: Mantra I#24 (August, 1995)
Powers/Abilities:
Simon Carthan was an experienced research scientist at the highly
advanced Aladdin facility. His particular field was not defined. He
likely created but certainly could operate extensive amounts of
advanced equipment.
While apparently still in his prime, he acquired some unspecified degenerative disorder
the caused his hair to fall out and his body to atrophy and appear to
be geriatric. Although he could still work a keyboard or handheld
controls, he apparently required oxygen support (or else had other
tubing going into both nostrils) and nutritional support (he had tubes
going into this mouth), see comments.
He also had a larger cable going into the right side of his skull and a number of other small tubes going into the left side of his head and neck, and other tubes going into his chest. He had a panel on his chest and a screen on his wheelchair that indicated he may have had a pacemaker. The other cables may have indicated he had electrical nerve and/or brain stimulation.
He typically rode in a large,
motorized wheelchair, which had a keyboard via which he could control
many other pieces of his equipment and machinery. It likely had
numerous forms of life support and vital signs monitors. The chair also
had a number of servo-arms.
His bunker had numerous monitors and forms of technology as well as a variety of mystic artifacts.
He presumably created his tracker,
which could apparently be programmed to sense and locate certain
(notably magical) energies.
He had the means to transport
objects, even magical ones, such as the Sword of Fangs), across space
to him, as well as create multiple (at least two) replicas
of such items that were sufficiently similar to the original that
superhuman and/or magical beings intimately familiar with said device
could not determine whether any or all of the replicas were fakes.
After obtaining the Sword of
Fangs, he utilized a powerful robot form, riding in the middle of its
torso and using joystick-type hand controls to operate it. He
apparently had a transparent shield to protect him from harm, but it
was not resistant to the Sword of Fangs.
It is unrevealed whether he had
created the armor in advance of obtaining the Sword of Fangs or whether
he used the Sword's power to create it. If he had created it in
advance, it is uncertain what level of power it had independent of the
Sword.
With the Sword of Fangs' hilt locked into his right arm, he could fire energy blasts from his right arm, which apparently lacked a hand and just contained the blaster. These blasts could stun powerful foes such as the mystic warrior Mantra and the super-strong and durable Prime and he could certainly fire at least 3-5 such blasts in rapid succession.
While linked to the Sword of
Fangs, the armor could also fire similarly powerful blasts from its
head, which could at least stun the armored warrior Prototype and the amazonian Topaz.
These blasts Hybrid could fire blasts from both head and hand
simultaneously, allowing him to briefly subdue multiple powerful foes
in short order.
The armor's composition is
unrevealed, but the head, at least, could weather assaults from the
energy-charged staff of Topaz.
History:
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Simon Carthan many years in scientific research for the organization Aladdin.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Carthan developed a degenerative disease, and none of his scientific discoveries could find a cure.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - At some point, Carthan was retired by Aladdin.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Carthan turned to the supernatural in hopes of finding a cure for his disease.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Considering himself a hybrid of science and the supernatural, Carthan adopted the alias of "Hybrid."
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Still a scientist at heart, he sought objects to analyze.
He considered the mystic Sword of Fangs possessed by Mantra to be ideal.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) -
Hybrid sent a tracking robot after Mantra to steal the Sword of Fangs.
Although she did not know who sent the tracker, she disabled it and
then stored it in a dimension accessed via her cloak.
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Within Contrary's ship, after
Topaz confronted Mantra, trying to recover the Sword of Fangs (which
had originated in her realm, Gwendor, and had been known as Gwendor's
claw), Mantra suspected Topaz as having sent the thing that tried to
steal her sword. She retrieved the tracker, but Topaz insisted that she
had had nothing to do with it. Getting a "weird vibe" from the tracker,
Ghoul examined its form but found nothing within it. Unbeknownst to
those present, the tracker's head's visor and "forehead display" began
to glow as it began transmitting back to Hybrid again.
(Mantra I#24) - Sensing as the tracker had begun transmitting again, Hybrid was pleased that it was in the presence of Mantra and the Sword of Fangs. Appreciating that the Sword was an object of contention between Mantra and Topaz, he plotted anew to recover the sword. He had one of his devices send a beam of energy to tracker.
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - The tracker fired an energy beam from its head, while its various pieces assaulted Mantra, Prime, Prototype, and Topaz.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Hybrid sent another beam...
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - ...which struck the Sword of Fangs, seemingly duplicating it and leaving two swords, but it reality sending the true Sword of Fangs to Hybrid while the others were red herrings, distracting the others while he used the Sword of Fangs for his own purposes.
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Tracking
the two energy trails Hybrid had sent from the tracker's head and
assuming them to be associated with each of these swords sent the
heroes -- although they acknowledged that this was almost certainly a
trap -- on a pair of dead end quests to Egypt and to a
deserted aircraft carrier.
Ghoul and Prototype went with Mantra to Egypt, where they were attacked by
pharaoh Ahmed-Set who Ghoul unwittingly revived, though Mantra and Prototype
drove him off.
Prime, Contrary, and Topaz went to the carrier, where they were trapped inside a force field in the midst of a missile test. Prime successfully pushed the carrier out of the missile's trajectory and they escaped.
In both cases, the "Sword of
Fangs" they had brought were destroyed, leading each group to believe
that the other group had the true Sword of Fangs.
(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) -
Tracking a faint energy trail from the false swords led both groups to
a military bunker, leading them to surmise that their anonymous foe had
the true Sword of Fangs. 
(Mantra I#24) - Wearing a powerful exoskeleton bonded with the Sword of Fangs in its left arm, Hybrid revealed his presence as he blasted Prime in the face, incapacitating him just as he prepared to punch in the bunker's door. Noting that he had hoped such a confrontation would not be necessary, he nonetheless advised them that he would not give up what he had earned, as it meant his life.
As Hybrid blasted back Prototype,
Mantra, and then Prime, the mystic energies from the Sword of Fangs
progressively restored his previous youth and vitality.
After another
blast knocked Topaz back, Hybrid exclaimed how he had finally been
healed after all these years.
However, noting that Hybrid had
taken each of them alone, Mantra guided Prototype to attack him
together. Although Hybrid blasted Mantra again, she may have deflected this with an energy shield, and before he
could finish her off with another, she grabbed his left arm and shoved
the Sword of Fangs through his human body.
Hybrid rapidly regressed to his debilitated state just before his exoskeleton exploded.
As Hybrid lied prostrate on the
ground, Ghoul advised that he was still alive and that they should get
him to the hospital. 
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Seeing
an Aladdin symbol on one of Hybrid's screens, Prime considered that
they would not like it when this story hit the front page, and
Prototype suggested that they could use some leverage against the
group.
Considering Mantra to have proven herself the rightful wielder of the Sword of Fangs, Topaz returned it to her and told her that she would always have a place in Ultraforce if she so chose.
Comments: Created by Mike W. Barr, Dave Roberts, and Jim Amash.
There was a lot going on with this character for a one issue
appearance. Maybe someday we'll get more Ultraverse and learn a bit
more about him...one never knows...
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Hybrid should be distinguished from:
 
Based out of an undisclosed abandoned military bunker, Hybrid gathered
various forms of advanced technology for his use and surveillance, as
well as a number of mystical artifacts, intended to facilitate a
resolution to the disease that plagued him. It was from this location that he sent his tracker, which eventually sent information on the Sword of Fangs to him. He then sent a beam to the tracker that could its dismantled parts to reanimate and assault the gathered heroes, giving him the distraction to seemingly duplicate the Sword of Fangs, but actually to steal the true Sword of Fangs while replacing it with a pair of weaker replicas and tagging them each with energies to send the heroes on pointless quests while he used the Sword for himself. After the fake Swords had been exposed, the heroes traced energies from them to Hybrid's bunker, and Hybrid assaulted them as Prime prepared to smash the door in. --Mantra I#24  Note: The fate of the bunker following Hybrid's incapacitation and hospitalization is unrevealed. |
 
He presumably created his tracker, which could
apparently be programmed to sense and locate certain (notably magical)
energies. Even if dismantled, it could still sense the desired energies
and transmit them back to Hybrid. Via further energy transmission from
Hybrid's technology, the tracker's various body parts could reanimate
and attack: beams could be fired from the head's visor, and the limbs
and torso could fly through the air to assault foes.(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Hybrid sent a tracking robot after Mantra to steal the Sword of Fangs. Although she did not know who sent the tracker, she disabled the robot and then stored it in a dimension accessed via her cloak. (Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Within Contrary's ship, after
Topaz confronted Mantra, trying to recover the Sword of Fangs (which
had originated in her realm, Gwendor, and had been known as Gwendor's
claw), Mantra suspected Topaz as having sent the thing that tried to
steal her sword. She retrieved the tracker, but Topaz insisted that she
had had nothing to do with it. Getting a "weird vibe" from the tracker,
Ghoul examined its form but found nothing within it. Unbeknownst to
those present, the tracker's head's visor and "forehead display" began
to glow as it began transmitting back to Hybrid again. (Mantra I#24) - Sensing as the tracker had begun transmitting again, Hybrid was pleased that it was in the presence of Mantra and the Sword of Fangs. Appreciating that the Sword was an object of contention between Mantra and Topaz, he plotted anew to recover the sword. He had one of his devices send a beam of energy to tracker. (Mantra I#24 - BTS) - The tracker fired an energy beam from its head, while its various pieces assaulted Mantra, Prime, Prototype, and Topaz. (Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Hybrid sent another beam... (Mantra I#24 - BTS) - ...which struck the Sword of Fangs, seemingly duplicating it and leaving two swords, but it reality sending the true Sword of Fangs to Hybrid while the others were red herrings, distracting the others while he used the Sword of Fangs for his own purposes. (Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Tracking
the two energy trails Hybrid had sent from the tracker's head and
assuming them to be associated with each of these swords sent the
heroes -- although they acknowledged that this was almost certainly a
trap -- on a pair of dead end quests to Egypt and to a
deserted aircraft carrier. Ghoul and Prototype went with Mantra to Egypt, where they were attacked by pharaoh Ahmed-Set who Ghoul unwittingly revived, though Mantra and Prototype drove him off. --Mantra I#24Note: The tracker's remnants were last seen in Contrary's ship...and Contrary vanished during the reality warping of Black September, so its fate is unrevealed. |
|
(Mantra I#24 - BTS) - ...which struck the Sword of Fangs, seemingly duplicating it and leaving two swords. However, in it reality the beam sent the true Sword of Fangs to Hybrid while a pair of lesser replicas were left in its place. The others were red herrings, distracting the others while he used the Sword of Fangs for his own purposes. Neither Mantra nor
Topaz, both of whom were intimately familiar with the Sword of Fangs,
could tell that either was a fake. Each could transform into a ring and
back into a sword, just as the true Sword of Fangs could do. (Mantra I#24 - BTS) - Tracking the two energy trails Hybrid had sent from the tracker's head and assuming them to be associated with each of these swords sent the heroes. Although they acknowledged that this was almost certainly a
trap -- on a pair of dead end quests to Egypt and to a
deserted aircraft carrier. Ghoul and Prototype went with Mantra to Egypt, where they were attacked by pharaoh Ahmed-Set, whom Ghoul unwittingly revived. Mantra hurled her "Sword of Fangs" at Ahmed-Set, but he swiftly shattered it. Mantra and Prototype subsequently drove off Ahmed-Set. Prime, Contrary, and Topaz went to the carrier, where they were trapped inside a force field in the midst of a missile test. Topaz shattered her "Sword of Fangs" against the force field surrounding the carrier's control systems. Prime successfully pushed the carrier out of the missile's trajectory and they escaped. In both cases, the destruction of the "Sword of Fangs" led each group to believe that the other group had the true Sword of Fangs. (Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Tracking a faint energy trail from the false swords led both groups to a military bunker, leading them to surmise that their anonymous foe had the true Sword of Fangs.--Mantra I#24 | . |
Appearances:
Mantra I#24 (August, 1995) - Mike W. Barr (writer), Dave Roberts (pencils), Jim Amash (inks), Roland Mann (editor)
First posted: 06/16/2023
Last updated: 06/16/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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(Mantra I#24 (fb) - BTS) - Hybrid sent a beam into Contrary's ship...