NOSTRADAMUS

Real Name: Michel de Nostradame

Identity/Class: Human (French) (11th-17th centuries to modern era) (real life character)

Occupation: Former apothecary/physician, author, translator, astrological consultant

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: The Brotherhood of the Shield (Leonardo da Vinci, the Forever Man/Michelangelo Buonarotti, Leonid, the Night Machine/Nikola Tesla, Nathaniel Richards, Howard Stark, others), the Last Caliphate (Haider Ibn al-Haytham, Hamza Ibn al-Haytham, Hasan Ibn al-Haytham)
    formerly the Star Child

Enemies: Sir Isaac Newton, the Star Child

Known Relatives: Jaume de Nostradame, Reyniere de Nostradame (parents, deceased), Anne Ponsarde (wife, deceased), unidentified wife (deceased), Delphine (sister, deceased), Antoine, Bertrand, Hector, Jean I, Jean II, Louis, Pierre (brothers, deceased), three unidentified daughters (deceased), three unidentified sons (deceased), two other unidentified children (deceased), Jean de St. Remy (maternal great-grandfather)

Aliases: Michael Nostradamus (English translation of name), "The Architect of Revelation," "the Catalyst," "Master" (titles)

Base of Operations: The Immortal City;
    formerly Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France

First Appearance: Avengers I#210 (August, 1981)

Powers/Abilities: Having been forced to drink the Forever Compound, Nostradamus is extremely long-lived, aging much, much slower than a normal human being. While the compound vastly extends his lifespan, it also deteriorates his body and mind, leaving looking somewhat emaciated and mentally unstable.

    While not a true superhuman psychic, Nostradamus has knowledge of the occult and occasionally experiences prophetic visions, possibly due to the tattoos covering portions of his body.

Height: 5'6"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Gray

History:
(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 - Nostradamus entry - BTS) - Michel de Nostredame was born in 1503 in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, France to Jaume and Rayniere de Nostradame, a grain dealer and notary. Most of his childhood was undocumented until he reached the age of 15, at which point he entered the University of Avignon. After the University was closed due to the plague, Michel became an apothecary and traveled the countryside, eventually marrying and fathering two children that ultimately died. Years later, Michel remarried and had six more children before moving away from medicine and more into the occult, changing his name to a Latinized version: Nostradamus.

(Avengers I#210 (fb)) - During the 16th century, Michael Nostradamus wrote several disaster prophecies, one of which involved the weather and a supposed entity named Samarobryn that existed hundreds of leagues above Earth.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 - Nostradamus entry - BTS) - Nostradamus bound the first of his prophecies into an almanac and persons of nobility and other prominent people soon began seeking him out for "psychic" advice, including Sir Isaac Newton of the Brotherhood of the Shield. Nostradamus continually refused to provide the specific prophecies Newton demanded.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4 (fb)) - Nostradamus was visited by the Forever Man in 1645 and when he requested that Nostradamus allow himself to be taken captive by Sir Isaac Newton, Nostradamus claimed the Forever Man was asking too much of him. The Forever Man replied to Nostradamus that he never asked more than someone could give, even if it was everything. Nostradamus then noted that the Forever Man's request would leave him tortured for hundreds of years and when the Forever Man noted that torture in this scenario was too light a word, Nostradamus asked why he should allow such a thing. The Forever Man then touched Nostradamus' forehead to provide a portion of insight into what was coming and told Nostradamus that he was neither a prophet nor a seer but rather, the catalyst of what was to come.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Nostradamus then decided he would do as the Forever Man asked and allow himself to be imprisoned.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 (fb)) - When the Forever Man lingered, Nostradamus asked why he remained there, to which the Forever Man replied that he had one last thing to tell Nostradamus, that in some ways, a part of Nostradamus would remain chained forever, never free. A grumbling Nostradamus then asked why the Forever Man was telling him such a thing and the Forever Man responded by noting that, in that very same way, Nostradamus would always remain free.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 (fb) - BTS) - Knowing that he would eventually be imprisoned, Nostradamus warned his servant about Sir Isaac Newton and the Brotherhood of the Shield.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 (fb)) - When Sir Isaac Newton and agents of the Brotherhood of the Shield visited Nostradamus in 1652, he was informed by one of his servants and quickly ordered his servants to leave the room before Newton and the Brotherhood agents entered. Claiming that he had found "it" and they now had all the time in the world for divination and words, Sir Isaac Newton asked what Nostradamus had to say about Newton's discovery. Remarking on how what was then called a prophet was once called a seer and claiming to be neither, Nostradamus solemnly remarked that he was merely cursed with the knowledge of why Newton was there. As Nostradamus stood up, Newton ordered Nostradamus chained.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4 (fb)) - Imprisoning Nostradamus in a hidden room beneath the Brotherhood of the Shield's Immortal City headquarters, Sir Isaac Newton prepared a diluted version of the so-called Elixir of Life intended to extend one's lifespan. Explaining that the version of the Elixir he had prepared for Nostradamus was called the Forever Compound that would grant immortality at the cost of one's body and mind, Newton commented that Nostradamus would go mad as the years went by but he could avoid such a fate by providing Newton with the prophecy he had requested. Nostradamus refused and Newton injected Nostradamus with the Forever Compound, grimly remarking that he would simply wait for the prophecy. As hundreds of years passed, Nostradamus progressed into madness, still occasionally vocalizing various prophecies.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#∞) - In 1806 A.D., the Forever Man tasked three of his followers with checking on Nostradamus and after reading apocrypha and coming to view Nostradamus as one of their masters, the three men decided to sneak into the Immortal City to accomplish the Forever Man's task. They quickly located Nostradamus in the hidden chamber and bowed before him, claiming they had found Nostradamus' secret words mentioning them and providing them with a purpose. His mind having deteriorated, Nostradamus received a brief premonition before informing the men that he still persevered. After hearing Nostradamus' words, the three men departed the Immortal City but they were all hit with arrows, two dying in the process. The third man, with two arrows sticking out of him, managed to make his way back to the Forever Man to inform him that Nostradamus still persevered.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 (fb)) - After being imprisoned for hundreds of years in the underground chamber, Nostradamus was visited by the now-immortal Sir Isaac Newton in the 1950s, who prepared another syringe for Nostradamus with the Forever Compound and monologued about discovering the Silent Truth that all change came with a cost, a price that had to be paid. Noting that Nostradamus had lived almost five hundred years at that point, Newton then asked Nostradamus if he should continue or if Nostradamus would finally give him the information he desired. The weakened Nostradamus agreed to give what Newton demanded.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#2) - Newton ordered Nostradamus to drink and asked for his prophecised word. After drinking, Nostradamus began rambling off prophetic words until a loud boom shook the room, at which point Nostradamus proclaimed that change was not just coming, it was already there.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 / S.H.I.E.L.D. II#2 (fb)) - Nostradamus remained chained up as Newton departed Nostradamus' cell to investigate the boom.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4) - Informed of the underground chamber in the Immortal City, the human/Deviant hybrid Leonid accessed the passage and followed it to Nostradamus' cell.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4 / S.H.I.E.L.D. II#6 (fb)) - Horrified to see Nostradamus, Leonid asked how long Nostradamus had been imprisoned there and when Nostradamus claimed it had been 500 years (see comments), Leonid asked how Nostradamus could stand it.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4) - Nostradamus replied that he knew that he would be freed on that exact date by a boy with stars beneath his skin. Leonid then asked who Nostradamus was and he introduced himself, explaining that he was the Catalyst and the Architect of Revelation.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#5) - Leonid brought Nostradamus out to see Sir Isaac Newton's Century Machine that predicted the end of the world and as they viewed it alongside the newborn Celestial known as the Star Child, Nostradamus began reciting a prophecy about war and asked Leonid to pay attention, as it was about to get interesting.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. I#6) - After Sir Isaac Newton's and Leonardo da Vinci's factions of the Brotherhood of the Shield erupted into war, Nostradamus and the Star Child watched as Leonid erected an energy shield in between the two factions.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#2) - When Sir Isaac Newton transported himself into the future following a ruling against his leadership of the Brotherhood of the Shield by Leonid, the frantic Nostradamus brought the Star Child to Newton's office and began ransacking it, searching for more Elixir of Life. As Nostradamus searched, the Star Child stumbled upon Newton's Quiet Math equation and it drove him mad, prompting the maddened Star Child to rampage through the wall of Newton's office and out into the Immortal City.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#3) - While the Brotherhood of the Shield rushed outside to deal with the rampaging Star Child, Leonid spotted Nostradamus in the rubble of Sir Isaac Newton's office and the time-traveling Leonardo da Vinci helped pull Nostradamus free. Nostradamus immediately fell to his knees, experiencing another premonition, as the Star Child turned its attention towards the Brotherhood of the Shield. When the Star Child disappeared into the future like Isaac Newton himself, the addled Nostradamus marveled at the Human Machine craft later created by the Brotherhood of the Shield to pursue Newton and the Star Child into the future.

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#4) - Nostradamus was present in the Immortal City as the Brotherhood of the Shield reawakened the Last Caliphate, a group of brothers who embodied branching time. Once all the necessary people were in place, Nostradamus and the other specific Brotherhood members entered the mechanical Human Machine, each playing their role in guiding and moving the vehicle. Leonid then powered up the Human Machine and transported all into the future (see comments).

(S.H.I.E.L.D. II#6) - After experiencing events in three different potential futures circa the year 2060 A.D., Leonid escaped back in time and gave both Sir Isaac Newton and the Forever Man the ability to experience the entirety of human history through the eyes of a god, going all the way up through Leonid's past rescue of the imprisoned Nostradamus and the Brotherhood of the Shield using the Human Machine to travel into the future in their pursuit of Newton and the Star Child. This time, however, Leonid chose not to send the Human Machine and its inhabitants to Newton's world-ending scenario circa 2060 A.D.

(Avengers I#210 (fb) - BTS) - In the modern era, as an old space station was being refitted and rebuilt into a weather-monitoring station dubbed Samarobryn by the US government, one of the computer programmers installed not only weather-monitoring data but also data on his own personal interests in Nostradamus' weather disaster prophecies into the station's artificial intelligence.

(Avengers I#210 - BTS) - When the modern day heroic Avengers learned of strange weather disasters across the globe from the Samarobryn space station, Beast recalled the name sounding familiar before the team rushed off into action, unaware that their teammate Jocasta had been left behind to see Beast's computer search results pulling up the name Samarobryn in Nostradamus' disaster prophecies. Jocasta subsequently ventured to Samarobryn herself and learned from the station's artificial intelligence that it had been fed and corrupted by Nostradamus' prophecies.

(Web of Spider-Man I#44 - BTS) - While rescuing the unconscious Marlo Chandler, Spider-Man swung her over to the nearest hospital wondering to himself why he attracted so much trouble, ultimately figuring he probably forecasted more disasters than Nostradamus.

(Knights of Pendragon I#1 - BTS) - During a meeting of the W.H.O. organization, Dai Thomas noticed a different person among them and asked Alystaire Stuart who it was, to which Stuart replied that Templemen of the ESPer Corp., who had been having nightmares like "Nostradamus on magic mushrooms" ever since the meeting's situation had begun.

(X-Factor III#7 - BTS) - While explaining X-Factor Investigations' young associate Layla Miller to Scott Summers, Theresa Cassidy referred to her as "If Nostradamus were reborn as Wednesday Addams, that'd be her."

Comments: Adapted into Marvel Comics by Bill Mantlo, Gene Colan and Dan Green.

    We see Sir Isaac Newton visiting Nostradamus in 1652 A.D. in S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 but the real Sir Isaac Newton was born in 1642 A.D., which would have made him ten years old in 1652 yet he appears as an adult when he meets with Nostradamus in the issue...Additionally, Nostradamus' profile in S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 confirms that he was born in 1503 A.D., which would make him...149 years old when Isaac Newton imprisoned him and we are shown that Nostradamus did not receive the Elixir of Life until after Newton imprisoned. Your guess is as good as mine as to how Nostradamus lived to 1652! Maybe he had independently discovered some sort of lifespan-extending...something? Perhaps the occult tattoos he gave himself had some sort of mystic properties that slowed his aging? The tattoos always seemed to glow when he received a premonition.

    Is it me or are the dates kinda all over the place in the first S.H.I.E.L.D. mini-series? Maybe it's just because there was so many flashbacks but I read issue#1-2 and thought the main story was taking place in 1953 but S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4 says 1956? Also in #4, Nostradamus tells Leonid that he had been imprisoned for 500 years (which would be since 1496 A.D. by that math) but then it shows a flashback where Newton imprisons Nostradamus in 1652 A.D., which only be 304 years until 1956, when the main story is supposedly taking place...Then again, Nostradamus WAS pretty much mad by the time Leonid met him so he could've just incorrectly stated that he'd been imprisoned for 500 years due to his fractured mental state. Am I the only one who found the first mini-series a bit hard to follow? The second seems to streamline it better and the profiles of the characters in the back of II#1 really helped me grasp what exactly had happened in the first mini.

    Some of the events seen in S.H.I.E.L.D. II#4-6 occur in potential future realities that Leonid later diverged from the Earth-616 timeline when he gave Isaac Newton and the Forever Man the opportunity to view the entire course of human history. Here's how I'm understanding the events and someone stop me if I have it incorrect: Nostradamus and several of the Brotherhood of the Shield members departed 1960 A.D. in the Human Machine in pursuit of both Sir Isaac Newton and the maddened Star Child. While time traveling, the Last Caliphate, who embodied branching time, temporally diverged the group inside the Human Machine to where each set of temporally divergent people traveled to a different potential future reality circa 2060 A.D.: One was a reborn paradise Earth with no technology (Earth-12024), one was a technologically advanced utopia (Earth-19895) and one was a barren wasteland (Earth-89311). In each of these realities, they encountered the time-traveling Sir Isaac Newton and Star Child and a fierce battle ensued that resulted in the deaths of those inside the Human Machine except for Leonid. As far as Nostradamus is concerned, he was killed by Sir Isaac Newton on Earth-12024 and Earth-19895 but on Earth-89311, Newton convinced Nostradamus to turn on his allies and he bludgeoned one of the Last Caliphate with a rock before Sir Isaac Newton finally received the prophecy of the Quiet Math from Nostradamus and ultimately killing him in that reality too. The Forever Man then convinced each of the temporally divergent Leonids to escape the end of the world in the Human Machine and when he did, all of his divergences merged back into his main Earth-616 timeline self. Having also acquired immense power from Nostradamus' prophecy, Isaac Newton and the already-powerful Forever Man met with the powered-up Leonid, who gave them both the opportunity to view the entirety of human history from the perspective of a god, granting them each immense knowledge and a new outlook on life. The viewing of this history went all the way up to the point in which the Brotherhood of the Shield first entered the Human Machine to pursue Newton and the Star Child but this time, Leonid used his newfound powers and understanding to stop the Human Machine in the modern era instead of the future of 2060 A.D., thereby diverging the three futures in which everyone had died from the Earth-616 timeline and preventing the deaths his temporal counterparts had witnessed. Does that track? I just thought I would lay all of this out there so readers will understand why I didn't include Nostradamus' experiences in the three divergent realities in this profile, as they would've been experienced by his temporally divergent counterparts who were all killed in those future realities. It's my understanding that the actual Earth-616 Nostradamus is still alive and well in the modern era thanks to Leonid's diverging the futures from the timeline.

    Nostradamus has a Handbook-like profile in S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 (2011).

    This profile was completed on 09/01/2026 but its publication was delayed, as it was intended for the Appendix's 25th anniversary celebratory event.

Profile by Proto-Man.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Nostradamus should be distinguished from:

•  other "Nostradamus" characters, groups, items, races or events
  

Appearances:
Avengers I#210 (August, 1981) - Bill Mantlo (writer), Gene Colan (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Web of Spider-Man I#44 (November, 1988) - Peter David (writer), Alex Saviuk (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Knights of Pendragon I#1 (July, 1990) - Dan Abnett, John Tomlinson (writers), Gary Erskine (pencils), Andy Lanning (inks), Steve White (editor)
X-Factor III#7 (July, 2006) - Peter David (writer), Ariel Olivetti (art), Andy Schmidt (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. I#2 (August, 2010) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. I#3 (October, 2010) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. I#4 (December, 2010) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. I#5 (February, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. I#6 (April, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#∞ (June, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Nick Pitarra, Zachary Baldus, Kevin Melton, Gabriel Hernandez Walta (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#1 (August, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#2 (October, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#3 (December, 2011) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#4 (February, 2012) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#5 (July, 2018) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
S.H.I.E.L.D. II#6 (August, 2018) - Jonathan Hickman (writer), Dustin Weaver (art), Nick Lowe (editor)
Rogue & Gambit II#1 (May, 2023) - Stephanie Phillips (writer), Carlos Gomez (art), Sarah Brunstad (editor)

First posted: 09/26/2026
Last updated: 09/01/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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