Nobel (Dark Dimension rebel; Paradox component; Clea stories)

nobel-darkdim-fullish-tiny nobel-darkdim-dying-face NOBEL

Real Name: Nobel

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Dark Dimension)

Occupation: Revolutionary, freedom fighter

Group Membership: Dark Dimension rebels (Clea; presumably Lalla, Ral Rimba, Sharr)

Affiliations: The Mori, Strange (aetheric creation of Doctor Strange (Stephen Strange))

Enemies: Dormammu, Mindless Ones, Commander Wade, presumably other Dark Dimension forces;

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Paradox (current form)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
at least formerly the Dark Dimension

First Appearance: Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67 (July, 1994)

Powers/Abilities: Nobel was a courageous and loyal rebel warrior.

He was experienced in combat and combat strategy, and he was a highly skilled with the bendarrow, able to hit a flying rellig far above in the sky.

He was hopeful that peace could be negotiated.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 6'2")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 190 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (most images were very distant)
Hair: Blonde

History:

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67 (fb) - BTS) - After Dormammu was deposed as ruler of the Dark Dimension, freedom plunged the realm into anarchy. Many warring factions plundered the burning landscape, each claiming sovereignty. As Dormammu had murdered the realm's most powerful sorcerers except himself, those remaining had the power to kill but not to win the fight and end the conflict.

Nobel was a member of a group of freedom fighters led by Clea (Dormammu's niece) as their supreme adept. Clea considered Nobel to be her best advisor.

As they and the Dark Dimension suffered from the fallout of the War of the Seven Spheres, Clea resolved that they needed to travel to Earth to get aid from Dr. Strange.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#75 (fb) - BTS) - Hopeful for a relationship in eventual peacetime, Nobel was building a home for himself and Clea.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67) - As Clea sought the means to return to Earth to seek aid from Dr. Strange, Nobel argued that she was risking all of their lives with no assurance that their champion would join their fight. He reiterated that they should ally themselves with a sorcerer who had a stake in the conflict -- Dormammu.

Acknowledging that he was her best advisor, Clea nonetheless told Nobel that he was wrong. She countered that while they needed magic to survive the damage to their realm, she would never bargain with Dormammu. She was confident that Dr. Strange would come.

( Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme Annual#4 - BTS) - Sharr sacrificed his life facilitating Clea's travel to Earth.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67 (fb) - BTS) - Cursed by Salome', Strange was unable to return to the Dark Dimension with Clea, and she resolved that she would save the Dark Dimension without his aid.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#73 (fb) - BTS) - The ragged band marched on, with the youngest averting their eyes from the skeletal remains they passed, stepping to the flat pulse of their drummer and following the hopeful premonition on Clea's banner: "Two Dark Planets meet in Brilliance." They hoped after the treaty of monumental peace was signed, there would be food.

Nobel never let Clea get more than three paces at her side. nobel-darkdim-skewered

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#73 (fb) - BTS) - As Nobel championed a treaty, Clea reluctantly set of a meeting with Dormammu.

    Nobel taught Clea to live in hope instead of fear.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#73) - On the arid, battle-scarred Sarebbe Wastelands, alongside Nobel and the twelve members of Clea's army, she reiterated her concerns that Dormammu had made a career of betrayal. While she acknowledged that this era of anarchy had exhausted him as well as themselves, she still felt that given the chance, Dormammu would rather kill everything she stood for, as he wished a return to dictatorship. Nobel argued that Dormammu knew that there would not be a world left for him unless he cooperated with former enemies and that Clea and Dormammu needed each other.

    Nobel then fired a bendarrow that stuck a rellig flying above, which would provide a mouthful of food each for the rebels. He subsequently advised Clea that all Dormammu had was his magic, which was a very unreliable bargaining chip at that time. When Clea wondered aloud whether she would resort to such a desperate peace if Dr. Strange had not chosen to fight his own battles before hers. As he caught the following and retrieved his arrow, Nobel replied that he only hoped Stephen Strange thought half as much of her as she thought of him. Clea silently considered that while the treaty made political sense, she remembered how Dormammu had slain her father after years of service and had betrayed her mother, Umar (Dormammu's sister), as well.

    Nobel and the other rebels subsequently joined Clea as they entered the magic dampening field of the Mori, who provided sanctuary for every treaty in the Dark Dimension's history and who would transmit the meeting telepathically to every sentient being in the Dark Dimension. The Mori instructed them to deposit all weapons on a slab and enter the sanctuary, and Clea instructed her followers to comply. Nobel went first, noting that he would never forgive himself if the anti-magic field proved to be a trap. Nobel identified the treaty itself, printed on rellig's skin, floating on a platform and awaiting the signatures. nobel-darkdim-strangeblast

    Dormammu and his agents, including Commander Wade, next arrived and entered, and they were similarly stripped of magic. After Dormammu acknowledged that they must unite against their many enemies and they both prepared to sign, Clea asked her "partner" how she knew he would not stab her in the back. Indignant at Clea considering herself an equal partner, Dormammu then retrieved his hidden weapon, the spine which he fatally tore out of Wade, noting that he never turned his back nor took partners, and he hurled the spine at Clea. Nobel dove in the way and was impaled through the right side of the chest.

    Mortally wounded, he told her that she was right and that he had no contingency plan for bio-engineered weapons. Collapsing, he told her to please accept his resignation.

    As Dormammu ordered the death of these "arrogant figureheads," other rebels tried to rush Clea away, but argued that Nobel was still alive. They argued that her safety was the priority and that they would see to Nobel. Observing that negotiations had concluded, the Mori fled into the sand. Although his own power was still affected by the fading anti-magic field, Dormammu summoned Mindless Ones from below the ground and ordered them to exterminate the rebels.

    Also still affected by the anti-magic field, Clea ordered that they would hide Nobel in the rocks and seek out higher ground. When a young female rebel asked what then, as there were only six of them still on their feet, Clea considered silently that they would die.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#75) - Clea told the gravely wounded Nobel that all escape routes had been cut off, and they could only hold the rocky crag for a few minutes more. She asked his counsel, "Should I tell the others that their war was over?" Nobel took full blame, noting that his negotiations had slain them all. Clea countered that had Dormammu been a political strategist like Nobel, negotiations would have worked. Instead, Dormammu had preferred to slay his enemies before dying himself. She instead apologized, noting that even at full power, she could not have saved him, but that she would avenge his death. nobel-darkdim-strange-merge

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#75 (fb) - BTS) - Unable to assist Clea himself due to his ongoing battle with Salome', Dr. Strange instead sent his renegade creation Strange -- an aetheric magical being created at the time Salome' had cursed Dr. Strange, formed to act as one of his agents on Earth -- to the Dark Dimension where he could be a positive force and help Clea himself.

(Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#75) - Nobel told her not to cry, as tears would only entertain Dormammu, and he shared that he had planned for a relationship with her in peacetime and that he had been building a home for them. At that point, he at least lost consciousness or possibly even died.

As she considered the sweet gesture at the time when she was otherwise feeling empty, she was surprised when a burst of magical energy struck Nobel. Carrying the spinal spear that had wounded Nobel, Clea assumed Dormammu had struck him, and she threatened to return the spear to him. With only three rebels left standing, Clea's magic was still weakened, and she could only form a few magical spheres to deflect the Mindless Ones' blasts back at themselves. As the last of the freedom fighters fell, Dormammu confronted Clea, whose seeming last thoughts were on Nobel and the home he was building for them.

However, the energy that struck Nobel was not an attack, but rather Strange. The magical being's energies merged with Nobel's dying form, which considered that it had died and wondered why it had returned. The merged form replied that it was newly born and because life was meaningless until something or someone gave it meaning. nobel-darkdim-paradox-doc75

After blasting and shattering the axe of Clea's would-be executioner, the combined being noted itself to be a soul who loved and dared anything. As he flew down and picked up Clea, he continued "We...no I...my identity is not important right now! I will find us sanctuary! For now, call me...Paradox, for that it is what I am." Clea told Paradox that his magic reminded her of her old mentor but that his voice suggested more recent intimacy, and she asked if she could trust him and if he could explain that.

As they flew away from the cursing Dormammu, Paradox told her that he was both men she sensed and yet neither, "But what's certain is that I am for you."

Comments: Created by David Quinn and Mark Tenney

Paradox's story is continued in his own profile (or, at least it will be by the end of this event!)

This profile was completed 09/21/2025, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Nobel should be distinguished from:

NOBEL PRIZE - awards administered by the Nobel Foundation (in honor of Alfred Nobel) with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to mankind."--Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.#2
NOBELIUM - Elements of Doom--Thunderbolts I#6
NOBILITY (Landgrave, Lord Thunder, Neal Saroyan, Viscount)--[Wonder Man III#1 (2007)], 3
NOBILUS - New Immortal, cloned from cell samples of Thor taken while he was under the influence of Loki. Vast strength + durability, generate lightning and shields, savage warrior, trained in various forms of ancient + modern armed + unarmed combat, prone to fits of berserker rage --Thor I#420
NOBLE, ANDERS - see IMP. mutant, Xavier Institute student body, former pawn of Cassandra Nova--New X-Men I#126
NOBLE, HEATHER of Earth-982 - Midtown High School, dated Brad Miller and Jimmy Yama, antagonized May Parker initially. White female, blonde--Spider-Girl#22
NOBLE, NIA - see NIA. Queen of Neptunia, wife of Peter Noble (Fin), daughter of U-Man and Lady Lotus--Invaders III#2
NOBLE, PETER - see FIN. World War II and modern era, husband of Nia, original costume patterned after the Neptunian, frogman. Born with the ability to live on land or at depths of the ocean, wore grey costume with large fin on head--Daring Mystery Comics#7
NOBLE KALE - son of Destin, empowered and cursed by Mephisto and Uriel as Ghost Rider--Ghost Rider III#77
NOBLE ONE - Gramosian High Lord--Thor I#208
NOBLE PASTOR - see DESTIN KALE. Father of Noble, made deal with Mephisto that led to his descendants becoming the host of Noble as the Ghost Rider--Ghost Rider III#77
NOBILI, CARMEN - Inhuman, son of Gordon--Thunderbolts III#14
NOBILI, GORDON - see LINEAGE. Inhuman, son of Gorgon--Thunderbolts III#14
NOBILI, JOSEPH RAYMOND - Inhuman, son of Gordon--Thunderbolts III#14
other "Nobel" or "Noble" characters, groups, items, events, races or places

images: (without ads)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67, pg. 13, panel 2 (navigating trail; red-tinged memory)
    #73, pg. 12, panel 2 (rear upper, with bow and bendarrow);
       pg. 14, panel 1 (full, rear);
       pg. 15, panel 3 (fullish, frontal);
       pg. 18, panel 7 (skewered by Dormammu's spine spear);
    #75, pg. 16, panel 6 (dying face with Clea);
       pg. 17, panel 2 (Strange's energies merging with Noble);
       pg. 19, panel 5-7 (merged Nobel & Strange transforming into Paradox);
       pg. 21, panel 1 (as Paradox with Clea);

Appearances:
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme Annual#4 (1994) - David Quinn (writer), Kyle Hotz (artist), Evan Skolnick (editor)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#67 (July, 1994) - David Quinn (writer), Mark Tenney (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Evan Skolnick (editor)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#73 (January, 1995) - David Quinn (writer), Mark Tenney (penciler), Andrew Pepoy (inker), Evan Skolnick (editor)
Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme#75 (March, 1995) - David Quinn (writer), Mark Buckingham (penciler/breakdowns), Peter Gross (inker/finishes), Evan Skolnick (editor)

First posted: 09/30/2026
Last updated: 09/21/2025

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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