
The
PLAGUE
(Earth-4935)
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (Earth-4935 circa
37th Century A.D.) mutate
Occupation: Bio-weapon;
previous career of the person whose corpse was made
into the Plague is unrevealed
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Diamanda Nero
Enemies: Ch'vayre, Luminesca, Qua, The Scavengers
Colony, people of the Skyfall Crater Enclave (2752 unidentified humans
and mutants)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly Apocalypse's royal citadel
First Appearance: X-Men:
Phoenix#2 (January, 2000)
Powers/Abilities: The Plague was a reanimated
and mobile corpse that carried an extremely virulent and fatal
(typically within seconds) disease that spread into a cloud surrounding
the central form.
Plague's disease could kill a
population of thousands within 48 hours, although the contagion itself
died within 24 hours, after which the region would be safe for others
to visit.
Height: Unrevealed (his
corpse-form
may have only been 10-15' tall, but he took on an immense
form (perhaps 30-50') that was somewhat like a cloud filled with
"bio-toxin," although it appeared to be solid enough to climb up and
over a cliff...or perhaps it was just floating)
Weight: Unrevealed (his
unrevealed composition makes weight approximation virtually impossible)
Eyes: Unrevealed (within a
gas-filled tank, they looked solid yellow, but solid black in other
images; most likely his corpse-form did not have eyes anymore)
Hair: None (hair of host body
while living is unrevealed)
History:
(X-Men:
Phoenix#2 (fb) - BTS) - Circa the 37th Century A.D. in Reality-4935,
Plague was formed -- presumably by agents of Prelate Diamanda Nero, who
led while Apocalypse was in a regeneration process -- from the animated
corpse of a man made into a shambling monster.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2 (fb) - BTS) -
Prelate Diamanda Nero used the Skyfall Crater Enclave as a test of
Plague as a weapon in their arsenal. Plague's virulent disease rapidly
wiped out the 2752 people, both human and mutant living there.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2 - BTS) -
Forty-eight hours later, Nero led her agents the siblings Ch'vayre and
Luminesca to investigate. Confirming no survivors, Diamanda was pleased
to have another weapon in their arsenal and informed her agents that
she wished them both in her chambers at midnight as she wanted to
celebrate.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2 (fb) - BTS) - After
a temporal variant of Rachel Summers (who would become Mother Askani)
destroyed a converter feed in Hellhole that cut power across half of
the continent, including the megalopolis of Crestcoast, only
Apocalypse's royal citadel remained lit.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2) - Nero
noted it to be fortunate that their generators were independent of the
Hellhole feed, because if the containment cell regulating their toxic
friend (Plague) were to suddenly lose power, they would be
disease-ridden and dying in no time. After Luminesca noted that this
was likely the work of a group of insurrectionists known as the Askani,
Diamanda instructed that they would find these Askani and show them
that no one was outside of her rule.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2 (fb) -
BTS) - Nero unleashed Plague on the Scavenger Colony, a group of
nomadic humans who learned to survive on the discarded remains of
previous generations.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2 - BTS) -
As Rachel Summers and her associates -- Blaquesmith, Malachi Hark,
Lexii, Ozana and Qua -- visited the Scavenger Colony, Rachel sensed
only the dying thoughts of a few scavengers holding on to life but
apparently delirious with fever; she was unable to soothe their pain.
Qua, an Atlantean elemental existing in watery
form, investigated the colony, believing herself immune. However, Qua
was infected as well and only had time to inform Rachel that Plague --
an abomination that carried a fatal disease -- was responsible, before
perishing. Rachel appreciated that this was Diamanda Nero's doing.
After Ch'vayre and Luminesca advised Nero that they
believed that the Askani were near the Scavengers Colony, and that
three of them were mutants (with one being a telepath, one robotic and
one unclassifiable), Nero told them them to go bring their heads back
on a platter.
(X-Men: Phoenix#2) - Malachi
Hark subsequently noted as Plague came over the hill: "The
air's gone dead. I never imagined corruption would have such a distinct
scent. How does one fight an ambulatory disease?"
Lexi replied that the thing was a man once, just
like all of Apocalypse's agents, and than men could be killed, they
just had to know the right spot and one of them had to get close enough.
Rachel ordered her associates to fall back to put
some distance between them and that thing until they knew how to deal
with it, but they were then confronted by Ch'vayre and Luminesca who
advised the Askani that they were not going anywhere. However, the
ground then began to shake, and Luminesca appreciated as seismic charges
went off that Nero had set them up to fall before the plague as well.
Ch'vayre blamed Luminesca for being insubordinate to Nero for this fate.
After Blaquesmith found a pair of glider wings
invented by his past associate Grevuss Angel, Rachel had Hark fly
Blaquesmith and Lexii to safety. She then convinced Ch'vayre and
Luminesca to work together with her and her android ally Ozana to stop
the Plague; she suggested that they could work out their ideological
differences later.
Despite Ch'vayre's warning, Luminesca rushed toward
Plague, insisting that she could change the structure of the toxic gas
with a simple photonic burst. For a moment, the Plague stopped,
overcome by the searing intensity, but then the winds shifted and toxic
cloud surrounded Luminesca, who swiftly perished. While Ch'vayre rushed
toward the cloud in a vain effort to save his sister, Ozana stopped him
at Rachel's instruction, hoping they might make an ally of him in the
future.
Rachel then instructed Ozana that if she failed in
what she was about to attempt, that she and the others were to carry on
the fight against Apocalypse and Nero. Although her physical form was
overcome by the toxins, Rachel purified Plague's lethal biology.
However, Rachel was then restored/reborn via the Phoenix Force
Comments: Created
by John Francis Moore and Pascal Alixe.
Chronology of
Earth-4935 is complex and most likely contradicted in subsequent
stories, some of which are total time travel shenanigans that really
should be diverging other realities.
Circa 2005 when we wrote the Official Handbook of
the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005, information indicated
that the temporally divergent Rachel in this story arrived there 100
years before the psyches of Scott Summers/Cyclops and Jean Grey/Marvel
Girl were brought forward in time and placed in the clones Redd and
Slym, and then they raised young Nathan for several years before the
Christmas 3806 A.D. date, so that would seem to put the arrival of the
Rachel that formed the Askani sometime in the 37th Century
A.D.
This profile was
completed 12/23/2025, but
its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th
anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Plague should be distinguished from:
- PLAGUE - see PESTILENCE.
Morlock-->Apocalypse's Horsemen--Uncanny X-Men I#169
- PLAGUE of
"Earth-1043" -
Brotherhood, daughter of Rogue and Magneto (or possibly Gambit).
Create
and control MicroSentinels--X-Men Millennial Visions 2001 -
"Brother(hood)'s Keeper"
- PLAGUE (Lucien) of
Earth-2182 - combined illness-absorbing power
along with Cerebro and other telepaths to try to neutralize the Legacy
virus but was transformed into Legacy virus-emitting skeleton--X-Men
Millennial Visions - "Professor W's X-Men Story"
- PLAGUE, JOSHUA
- see SUPER-SKRULL (Kl’rt) - identity used while with Rat Pack--Marvel
Chillers#3
- PLAGUE-BRINGER
of Reality-691 - see BUBONICUS--Guardians
of the Galaxy I#35
- PLAGUE CASK - contained all
the captured evils of Asgard, including a snow giant and some mindless
ones--Thor I#308
- PLAGUE DOGs -
superhuman agents of Pandemic, captured Rogue, apparently consumed by
Sabretooth. Metamorphs--X-Men II#194
- PLAGUEDOG
of Reality-5555 circa 8162 A.D. ( ) - assassin bioengineered by , used
by Undertaker, killed by explosion while attempting to slay Spratt.
Giant killing machine--Death's Head I#4
- PLAGUEOSAUR of Reality-7614
- Witch-World--Marvel Preview#7/2
images: (without ads)
X-Men: Phoenix#2, pg. 8, panel 3 (in tank);
pg. 15, panel 7 (rising over edge of cliff
behind Lexii);
pg. 18, panel 3 (Luminesca blasting
Plague);
pg. 19, panel 1 (Ch'vayre charging);
pg. 20, panel 4 (dying)
Appearances:
X-Men:
Phoenix#2 (January, 2000) - John Francis Moore (writer), Pascal Alixe
(penciler), John Czop, Mark McKenna & Larry Stucker (inkers), Mike
Marts (editor)
First posted: 09/24/2026
Last updated: 12/23/2025
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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