CALCULUS

Real Name: Jawaharal Patel

Identity/Class: Human (Hindu, 1940's to present), mutate

Occupation: Pupil of the Celestials, former mathematician

Group Membership: Young Gods

Affiliations: Celestials, Gaea, Hindu gods, Juniper, Katos, Space Phantom, Spider-Man

Enemies: Black insect swarm, Eternals (Ajak, Ikaris, Legba, Makkari, Sersi, Thena), Nauda

Known Relatives: unnamed parents

Aliases: "The Master"

Base of Operations: Celestial Mothership, mobile in space;
    formerly India, 1928-1948

First Appearance: (unnamed) Thor I#300 (October, 1980); (named) Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8 (1988)

Powers/Abilities: Calculus possesses telepathy and powers of precognition, enabling him to predict with near-total accuracy the outcome of future events, and how to manipulate events in order to achieve a desired result. He can also levitate, teleport, and render himself invisible. Even without his powers, Calculus is a brilliant mathematician.

History: (Thor I#301 (fb)/Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8/3) - Jawaharal Patel was born in India in 1928 and was watched over by a Hindu goddess, who recognized him to be a perfect specimen of humanity. Patel became a brilliant mathematician, and in 1948, he was contacted by a Hindu goddess, who recruited him into the Young Gods. He was watched over by the goddesses while they awaited the Fourth Host of the Celestials.

(Thor I#300) - Patel joined the 12 assembled Young Gods as they were presented to the Celestials by Gaea, and Arishm the Judge determined that, based on them, humanity should endure. The Young Gods were all taken aboard the Celestial Mothership with the Fourth Host.

(Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8 (fb) - BTS) - Patel adopted the name "Calculus" and began his training aboard the mothership under the guidance of Katos, who favoured a philosophy of defense.

(Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8) - Calculus was training aboard the mothership with the other Young Gods when they were spied upon by the High Evolutionary. Daydreamer became determined to halt his plans to reshape humanity's evolution. When Juniper's students all returned to Earth to fight the High Evolutionary, Katos sent Calculus and his other students to stop them. Calculus provided Moonstalker, Genii, Varua, Harvest and Cadeceus with battle tactics as they fought their Young Gods, and Daydreamer tried to take him out by creating a vision in which the world was just a dream. Calculus' logical mind was unable to handle the vision, and he went insane. Caduceus repaired the damage to Calculus' mind, and the Young Gods returned to the mothership together.

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#170 (fb)) - Calculus set the Space Phantom free from Immortus' Limbo in order to serve him, but hid his true identity from him. The Space Phantom knew him only as "the Master."

(Spectacular Spider-Man II#168-170) - Calculus became aware of the "black insect swarm," a carnivorous mass of insects buried beneath a building owned by Wilson Fisk. Using mathematical probabilities, Calculus was able to maneuver the Space Phantom, Spider-Man, the Outlaws and the Avengers into releasing the black cloud and then hurl it into space. He also arranged to have the Space Phantom sent back to Limbo. Spider-Man was able to sense Calculus observing him because of his spider-sense, and Calculus was impressed, and explained to Spider-Man why he had been manipulated.

(Marvel Comics Presents#101/2) - After Sea Witch had a dream which was invaded by an evil spirit, Calculus and the other Young Gods heard her distress and came to help her. Varua and Daydreamer became convinced it was tied to the creature they had fought in Israel. They decided that they would have to return to Earth to investigate, but Katos and Juniper told them they would have to bring their petition to the Celestials.

(Marvel Comics Presents#102/2) - Juniper and Katos led the Young Gods to the Celestials to present their request to visit Earth. They were granted 3 days on Earth in which to investigate the matter.

(Marvel Comics Presents#106/2) - Brightsword, Splice, Calculus and Varua investigated the evil threat in Sri Lanka, and fought a bull animated by the rogue god Nauda. Brightsword destroyed the bull, but they were then incapacitated by villagers who followed Nauda, and turned over to him.

(Marvel Comics Presents#107/2-109/2) - Brightsword, Splice, Calculus and Varua were held captive by Nauda, who forced the other Young Gods to turn over the mystical stones they had found in Ireland and Wisconsin. However, Daydreamer gave Nauda illusionary stones instead, and the reunited Young Gods formed a Uni-Mind which destroyed Nauda.

(Eternals Annual II#1 (fb) ) - Ignored by the Celestials the Young Gods slowly went mad. To get the Celestials' attention the Young Gods fought each other in vicious battles and had decadent bacchanals. Eventually Varua thought they were empowered to turn Earth's populace into a new Celestial. The Young Gods led by Varua returned to Earth and created an ever-growing Uni-Mind from the minds of Madripoor, which soon expanded ot other islands, consuming the minds of citizens in Indonesia and Singapore to its mass.

(Eternals Annual II#1) - Alerted by the growing Uni-Mind the Eternals Ajak, Ikaris, Makkari, Sersi and Thena went to Madripoor. Calculus and Splice worked on an armor for the new Celestial they wanted to create. Makkari was brought to them by Moonstalker and Harvest, but Ajak freed Makkari and togehter they fought Calculus, Splice, Harvest and Moonstalker until they lost consciousness due to their telepathic connection to Varua after the Eternal Legba had killed Varua. The Young Gods' plan had failed.

Comments: Created by Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, Keith Pollard and Gene Day; fleshed out by Gerry Conway, Mark Bagley and Keith Williams.

Although Calculus is not identified as the infant watched over by the unnamed Hindu goddess in Thor I#301's flasback, the family is Hindu and Calculus is the only Hindu amongst the Young Gods, so it must be him.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Calculus should not be confused with:


Images taken from:
Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8, page 54


Appearances:
Thor I#300-301 (October-November, 1980) - Mark Gruenwald & Ralph Macchio (writers), Keith Pollard (pencils), Gene Day (#300) & Gene Day (#301) (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man Annual#8 (1988) - Gerry Conway (writer), Mark Bagley (pencils), Keith Williams (inks), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#168-170 (September-November, 1990) - Gerry Conway (writer), Sal Buscema (artist), Jim Salicrup (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents#101-102 (1992) - Gerry Conway (writer), Tom Sutton (artist), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Marvel Comics Presents#106-109 (1992) - Gerry Conway & Eric Fein (writers), Scott Kolins (pencils), Jonathan Holdredge (inks), Terry Kavanagh (editor)
Eternals Annual II#1 (January, 2009) - Fred Van Lente (writer), Pascal Alixe (artist), Mark Paniccia (editor)

First Posted: 03/22/2005
Last updated: 04/01/2009

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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 Characters