History: (Fantastic Four III#17, 18) - Lockdown and his partner, Rosetta Stone, were prowling Shadow City when the news broke about the Tetrad's arrival (The Tetrad were in fact virtual reality alter egos of the Fantastic Four, see the Shadow City profile for more detail). He ordered Rosetta to set the car to autodrive, and leapt into action. Using his advanced weaponry and skill he single-handedly defeated Richard Reed (Mr Fantastic), Matchstick Johnny (Human Torch)and Grim Ben (The Thing). While supervising their arrest, he stopped a police officer from beating on them. While Lockdown was otherwise engaged, Stormy Sue freed her team-mates and they teamed up with the Twisted Sisters. Lockdown tracked them down and defeated them. He accompanied them to Bedlam Pergatorium to make sure they were incarcerated, before retreating to his secret base of operations. However, it wasn't long before the Tetrad staged a break-out. Lockdown and Reed faced off while Stormy Sue (The Invisible Woman) freed herself from her life support pod and set her comrades free. Lockdown and Rosetta Stone left the virtual reality world of Shadow City to track down the Fantastic Four, perceiving them as a threat to the sanctity of their people.

(Contest of Champions II#3, 4) - A temporal distortion, accidentally caused by the Scarlet Witch's Hex power, brought Lockdown, Rosetta Stone and the Night Cruiser from the Negative Zone into the Earth dimension. They found themselves inside the carcass of one of the Acanti. The Night Cruiser crashed into a Brood hunter, killing it outright. Lockdown discovered the prone body of Spider-Woman (Mattie Franklin) underneath the creatures body. Before they could get her to safety, they were attacked by more alien creatures. They fought hard for some time until they found help in the shape of Iron Man and Psylocke. Iron Man convinced Lockdown to aid them against the Brood, who had orchestrated a Contest of Champions in order to eliminate Earth's heroes while at the same time finding suitable hosts for their embryo's. They started by gathering the other heroes incarcerated in the Acanti's carcass (losers of the various elimination rounds in the contest)

(Contest of Champions II#4 - BTS) - For reasons yet to be revealed, Lockdown put aside his distrust of the Fantastic Four when he encountered the Human Torch amongst the various hero's of Earth. See comments.

(Contest of Champions II#4,5) - Then they split forces, the majority of the heroes remaining in the carcass of the Acanti and causing a distraction while Lockdown, Rosetta Stone, Iron Man and Psylocke infiltrated the enemies vessel. Encountering resistance from the Badoon's shock troopers, Lockdown and Psylocke fought them back in order to buy Iron Man and Rosetta time to complete their mission. Meanwhile the Brood Queen had successfully possessed Rogue and absorbed the powers of the winners of the contest. During the confusion, Lockdown and Pyslocke switched armours. This subterfuge enabled Psylocke to get close to the Brood Queen and psionically remove the stolen psyches from Rogue's mind. With some help from Warbird, Rogue was freed too.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca, and Art Thibert

During the Contest of Champions appearances, both Lockdown and Rossetta did briefly rub shoulders with various members of the Fantastic Four. However, no mention of their previous encounter (while the FF were in their Shadow City identities as the Tetrad), or Lockdowns' quest to track the team down, was made. It's not too hard to believe that Lockdown's efforts to track down the FF revealed to him that they were in fact honourable sorts, and no real threat to Shadow City, or that he resolved his differences with them off-panel.

When facing off against Psylocke, Rossetta suggests Lockdown uses mindbolts against her. While Lockdown was never seen to use that ability, I doubt Rossetta would've made the suggestion if it wasn't possible. I have assumed the mindbolts are a function of his armour.

Furthermore, I've speculated that the Night Cruiser may be capable of dimensional travel because at the end of Contest of Champions Lockdown doesn't seem at all concerned about being stranded away from the Negative Zone.

Profile by Changeling

Clarifications:

This character, Lockdown, has no known connections to

• LOCKE, ALEXANDER of earth-cassandra, tranquility city, father of cassandra, assisted gene in exposing history of skrull treachery @ Marvel: Lost Generation#8
• LOCKE, CASSANDRA of earth-cassandra, daughter of alexander, @Marvel: LostGeneration#12
• LOCKE, TED special effects man, missing both hands, ally of human fly @Human Fly#1
• LOCKE, JEREMY K. coalition, agenda against Elektra, paraplegic, fiancé killed by Elektra, captured her and forced her to see what she was, released her into the desert, kidnapped by the Hand, killed by Elektra to take down the last of the Hand @Elektra II#11
• LOCKER, Mr. lawyer, defended scarlet spider @Amazing Spider-Man I#403
• LOCKHART, BECKY shield financial agent, fell in with intelligence cabal bent on controlling shield, val found her leaking information to punisher and eliminated her @Fury of SHIELD#1
• LOCKHEED extra-terrestrial dragon, companion to excalibur, came to earth with xmen after encounter on broodworld @Uncanny X-Men#166
• LOCKJAW of the inhumans, pet of crystal, immense dog @Fantastic Four I#45
• LOCKLIN, BEN band member of lila cheney, played bass guitar @New Mutants An1
• LOCKS, PETE of Earth-Shadowline - Shadow, former lover of Bets, killed by Buddy’s creations. @Powerline#4
• Locksmith escape artist and lock designer, former employer of Tick Tock, believed super-powered beings have overshadowed the achievements of ordinary humans, @Spider-Woman I#47
• Lockup of the Brood Mutants, killed by X-Men. @Uncanny X-Men#232
• or to anyone else with a similar name.