NULL CASCADE

Classification: Extraterrestrial (Shi'ar) technology

Creator: Unrevealed

First Appearance: X-Men Legacy#257 (December, 2011)

Powers/Abilities/Functions: The Null Cascade has been referred to as a factory for anti-matter, an anti-matter cascade, and an anti-matter particle gun.

    It essentially projected anti-matter, which explosively destroyed all matter it contacted, and the wave was allegedly effective at any range, including interplanetary.

    Once it was activated, its own operation would provide all the power it needed.

    The more matter it encountered, the faster it would propagate; by the time most targets saw it coming, it would already be upon them.

    The device was highly durable, intended to withstand earthquakes.

    It moved on treads and had a "cockpit"/control section from which it could be presumably directed.

    It required both voice recognition and retinal scans from an authorized person, such as Commander Gemet.

History:
(X-Men Legacy#257 (fb) - BTS) - The Null Cascade was developed by unidentified Shi'ar scientists.

Presumably due to its immense destructive power, it was locked in the Anathema Vault aboard the Gul Damar space station, where they stored the weapons banned from use in normal conflicts but still available in times of direst emergency.

    The existence of the Null Cascade was unknown to anybody outside the Shi'ar Imperium.

(X-Men Legacy#257) - Aboard the Gul Damar, the Grad Nan Holt known as Friendless manipulated the Grad Nan Holt janissaries and Commander Gemet to unite against the Terrans. To that end, Gemet showed the Grad Nan Holt to the Anathema Vault.

(X-Men Legacy#257 - BTS) - Gambit (Remy LeBeau), Magneto (Max Eisenhart), Starjammers members Havok/Alex Summers, Polaris/Lorna Dane, and Korvus Rookshir; and Sovel Redhand and his crew (Glitter, Horse, Jat-Vor-Thrul) worked to build a functional ship from the remains of the ships in the Gul Damar's dockyard to escape the doomed vessel (whose gravity generators had been destroyed and/or sabotaged, causing it to be pulled toward the sun it orbited)

(X-Men Legacy#257) - Manipulated by Friendless, Commander Gemet and the Janissaries located their enemies in the dockyard, and Gemet had the Null Cascade set up and instructed the janissaries to set a three-quarter perimeter, and that no one was to pass spinward of the machine.

    After Gemet noted that the shipyards were 10 units spinward (see comments), one of the janissaries questioned whether the weapon was effective at such a range, and Gemet assured him that it was effective at any range, including interplanetary.

    Gemet further detailed the assault's self-propagating nature and its swiftness.

    Starjammer/X-Man Rachel Summers' astral self listened in on this discussion, but she was discovered by Friendless, who unleashed his own astral self to attack her.

    Commander Gemet subsequently activated the Null Cascade, at which point the pirate Sovel Redhand abandoned his crewmates and transported 10,000 miles away to where Rogue (Anna Marie) and Frenzy (Joanna Cargill) were trying to repair the station's gravity generators.

    Those left behind immediately saw and fled from the destroying effects of Null Cascade.

(X-Men Legacy#258) - Rachel helped Rogue recognize the nature of the teleport shunt, and she transported the rest of the X-Men, Starjammers, and Redhand's crew to the generator alongside herself. Magneto subsequently placed his helmet on Rachel's head, and its psi-resistance severed the contact between herself and Friendless.

    Having absorbed the knowledge of Shi'ar technician B'ket Imstari and having been mentally linked with Rachel, Rogue sought the the Null Cascade to them so they could use the anti-matter to force the sun to fully collapse into a black hole.

    Rachel warned that Friendless was with the Null Cascade and could go with it to attack her again, but Rogue nonetheless had Rogue had Magneto and Polaris rip through "maybe a hundred bulkhead walls" to bring the multi-ton device to the gravity array, with which Redhand had attempted to abscond.

    As the Null cascade approached them, Rogue used Imstari's knowledge to push the system's sun all the way to collapse.

   While Rogue's mind struggled to complete the equations from B'ket Imstari's mind, Friendless - riding the Null Cascade -- fired on them. Rachel shared her psychic powers with Rogue and then joined with her to enslave Friendless' mind and force his genius-level intelligence to solve her equations.

    Using this, Rogue finished her adjustments of the sun via the gravity generator, after which she had Magneto reposition the Null Cascade it fired into the already-gravity-afflicted sun.

    This caused the sun to collapse into a wormhole with the far end pointed at Earth.

    The entire Gul Damar station was then transported to Earth orbit.

Comments: Created by Mike Cary, Khoi Pham, Tom Palmer

    Spinward means moving in the same direction of the space station's rotation...seems to be more of a direction than a location, but it was used as a location

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Null Cascade should be distinguished from:

• NUL - one of the Worthy spirits that served the Asgardian god of fear known as the Serpent (Cul) and whose most recent host body was the Hulk (Robert Bruce Banner) - aka BREAKER of WORLDS*--Fear Itself#2
• NULATRONS - robotic agents of Baron Rockler, created by Lord Professor Teller, destroyed by Iron Man--Iron Man I#80
• NULL - giant android designed to oppose Galactus; part of the technology usurped by the Dawn of the White Light--Wolverine II#30
• NULL the LIVING DARKNESS - demon spawned by desires for revenge on the cosmos that lay in the collective unconscious of S’Raph race, possessed Adam Henderson + Overmind, used Overmind as pawn in plot to takeover Earth-S--Defenders I#103
  
• NULL-BANDS - power item, formerly used by Tomazooma robot, later used by Cougar--Fantastic Four I#80
  
• NULL-BOX - created by Beetle, dampens Spider-Tracer signals--Deadly Foes of Spider-Man#2
• NULL-LIFE BOMB - a weapon capable of destroying planets that the Stranger created to destroy humanity (and Earth along with it)--Silver Surfer I#5
• NULL SPACE dimension -  a pocket dimension discovered by the alien scientist Osch where the Darkhawk ship was later based--Darkhawk I#25
• NULL-TIME ZONE - base of Time Variance Authority--Fantastic Four I#346; (identified) Deathlok II#31
• NULL-TRON - Microverse robot, Verus' squad, agent of Marquis Radu--Minimum Carnage Alpha#1
  
• NULL-TRONS - Kree killer robots, used against natives of Deneb IV, defeated by the underground of Deneb IV assisted by Captain Mar-Vell--Captain Marvel I#44
• NULLA, KABUL - Hyborian Era, a ruler of Hilltown--Savage Sword of Conan I#11 (adapted into the MU from the El Borak short story "The Country of the Knife" that was published in the pulp magazine Complete Stories)
• NULLA Thanos #2 (2017) Centron system; home to Nullans, haven to ill and needy; its varied flora had healing properties
• NULLANS Thanos #2 (2017) Short and stocky greenish-blue-skinned humanoids
• NULLET - simian(?)-techno formerly in charge of maintaining the Supreme Intelligence's systems, slain by the SI under suspicion of being a traitor--Silver Surfer III#6
• NULLIFIER - used by Dr. Octopus to somewhat control Spider-Man--Amazing Spider-Man I#53
• NULLIFIER WAR of Earth-98120 - involved Captain Marvel, Dr. Strange, Magus, Silver Surfer, Adam Warlock, ended with Magus trapped in the Betwixt--Captain Marvel VI#23
• NULLIFIERS (a.k.a. nullifier charges) - devices used by Karel that could "eat" whatever metal with which they came into contact--Uncanny X-Men I#358
• NULLITRON - robot created by Zarrko, overpowered Thor, destroyed by Thor Girl/Tarene. Immense superhuman strength + durability, create force field around itself + other objects or beings- aka NULLITOR--Thor II#33
• CASCADE (Ross Kincaid) - mutated and mind-controlled by Leader. Transform into superhuman form & back, project bursts of water-like liquid--Alpha Flight TSR module
• other "Null" or "Cascade" characters, groups, items, events, races, or places...
  

images: (without ads):
 X-Men Legacy#257, pg. 6, panel 1 (Anathema vault)
        pg. 13, panel 1 (weapon being delivered);
       pg. 14, panel 1 (close up of control section);
       pg. 15, panel 2 (activating);
          panel 3 (firing);
       pg. 17 (destructive wave);
       pg. 20, panel 2 (X-Men and Starjammers fleeing its energies)--->I ran out of space for this image in the main part of the profile, so I included it here-->
X-Men Legacy#258, pg. 10, panel 4 (erupting from space station);
       pg. 12, panel 5 (Friendless firing at gravity array);
       pg. 17, panel 1 (wormhole)

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

First posted: 05/23/2023
Last updated: 05/23/2023

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other 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

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

Back to Items