BUBONICUS
BUBONICUS
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extratemporal (Earth-691, circa 21st to 31st century AD) being of unidentified origins
Occupation: Cosmic eradicator
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: None
Enemies: Aranians, Eternity, Firelord,
Galactic Guardians, Hollywood, Mainframe, Major Victory (Vance Astro), Martian
Masters, Martinex, Phoenix (Giraud), Replica,
Ripjak,
Spirit of Vengeance;
residents of Sanctuary, natives of numerous worlds, and all
life in general
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Plague-Bringer
Base of Operations:
First Appearance: (Behind the Scenes) Guardians of the
Galaxy#34 (March, 1993);
(Seen) Guardians of the Galaxy#35 (April, 1993)
Powers/Abilities: Bubonicus uses his pulse wand to analyze and infect others with virulent microbes, which swiftly adapt to the host body with agonizing results; the symptoms vary, but the prognosis is always fatal without advanced treatment. In additional to microbial assaults, Bubonicus can also unleash destructive computer programs ("viruses"). The wand's features include an internal omni-bacterial generation, a mutable proton induction flux chamber capability, a probable sub-atomic modification capacitor, and a psi-linkage to the wand bearer. He has sufficient power to infect cosmic/abstract beings such as Eternity.
Bubonicus wears a suit of armor of undetermined construction. He is extremely long-lived (about a millennium, at minimum) and can survive and navigate in space.
History:
(Guardians of the Galaxy#35) - Bubonicus believes that life is a disease and
that death is the cure. His sole purpose of universal eradication.
(Guardians#55 (fb) - BTS) <24th century?> - Bubonicus engineered an incurable plague that began to rampaging across Mars, affecting the aliens who were using Mars as their base in their invasion of Earth. The plague poisoned the inner-life fluid network and the Martian Masters' own blood became acitoxic and ate away at them from within. While testing proved that Earth was not the cause, the Masters' pre-eminent scientist thought that Earth might provide the cure. By ingesting and/or transfusing himself with the blood from Spider-Man's preserved body, the scientist entered an extended period of transformation that allowed him to survive the plague. Upon its completion, the scientist found that all of his fellow Masters had succumbed to the plague. The scientist took the name Ripjak and began seeking the cause of this plague.
(Guardians#57(fb) - BTS) <24th century?> - Ripjak spent
decades probing, dissecting, and researching the bodies of his fellow Martians
with no success. However, when he clandestinely expanded his research grid to a
galactic scale, a breakthrough occurred. He found that the malady was
synthetically produced, came from without, and was spreading. Ripjak constructed
a subspace vessel in an effort to locate the source of the virus and to exact
vengeance. He traveled to all parts of the galaxy and found that a large number
of worlds had been similarly afflicted.
He continued his search and his analysis for centuries. As he
found worlds dying from the disease, he used the weapons aboard his ship to
destroy all life on those worlds, bringing an end to their suffering.
Eventually, around the 31st Century, Ripjak's actions drew
the attention of intergalactic media. Seeing only the end result of his actions,
he was assumed to be a genocidal serial killer. Finally, Ripjak learned the name
of his target: Bubonicus.
(Guardians
of the Galaxy#35 (fb) - BTS) - Bubonicus infected Eternity itself with a case of cosmic
consumption.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#34 - BTS) - The Galactic Guardians (Firelord, Hollywood, Martinex, Phoenix, Replica, Spirit of Vengeance) came upon a section of decaying starscape in the universe. Phoenix recognized this as the work of the legendary Bubonicus.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#35) - Ignoring orders to wait until
they could gather further information, Phoenix explored the decayed region, at
which Bubonicus appeared and infected him with his viral plague. Maddened by the
infection, Phoenix attacked his teammates and then sought to feed on an
inhabited solar system. Firelord and the Spirit both engaged Bubonicus but
swiftly fell before his assault. Hollywood rushed out and recovered his fallen
comrades only to be infected as well. Meanwhile, Mainframe -- who was supplying
information to Martinex -- was struck down by a computer virus of unprecedented
complexity. Mainframe used every iota of his energy to contact Eternity himself,
who told Mainframe that unless the cancer that afflicted him was halted, all
life in the universe would perish. Eternity stated that their only hope lay in
the Phoenix.
The Phoenix Force communicated directly with Giraud, guiding
him to heal himself of the infection. Soon thereafter, Phoenix appeared before
Eternity and used his power to cauterize the cancer within Eternity, leaving
behind only a scar.
Meanwhile, Martinex had dropped the Icarus ship's shields and
cloaking fields to bring his sickened allies in for treatment, but this allowed
Bubonicus to detect and then enter the ship as well. Seeing Martinex first,
Bubonicus infected him with a Plutonian parasite, but had fallen for a
deception, as Replica had impersonated Bubonicus, and the real Martinex then
blasted Bubonicus with ice. Transforming into a Jadroxxian, Replica then punched
Bubonicus through a wall. Martinex and Replica placed Bubonicus within a
stasis-lock and separately contained his pulse wand, after which Phoenix
returned and cleansed the Icarus of disease. Firelord, Hollywood, and the Spirit
were cured, while Bubonicus and his pulse wand both vanished.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#57 (fb) - BTS) - Icarus' computers analyzed Ripjak's pulse wand.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#49-53-BTS) - Charlie-27 was mistakenly identified as Ripjak, due to misinformation spread to the Constabulary by Rancor and her lieutenants.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#55 - BTS) - Ripjak traveled to the orbit of the planet Aran IV, whose natives were in the early stages of Bubonicus' plague. He used his ship to fire a pulse of radioactive energy into the planet's core, which resulted in the destruction of every indigenous life form on the planet.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#56 - BTS) - The Guardians, having managed to teleport away from the exploding base at the last second, tracked Ripjak to a planet in the Tombaugh system. Ripjak showed them the people suffering from the plague, and told the Guardians that they had stopped him from preventing this disaster.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#57 - BTS) - The Guardians shared with Ripjak their computer data on Bubonicus, whom they had also previously encountered. As they studied the information, they were confronted by the their reality's 31st Century incarnation of the High Evolutionary, who also wished to put a stop to Bubonicus.
(Guardians of the Galaxy#58) - Despite significant internal
strife/disagreement from the Guardians, Vance Astro/Major Victory joined forced
with Ripjak and the High Evolutionary, who traveled to the planet Sanctuary,
which they correctly predicted as Bubonicus' next target. Vance was chosen to go
alone, because sending multiple life forms against Bubonicus would lead him to
create a bacteriasphere, a condition that his teammates' atmo-suits could never
withstand, while Astro's body suit would render him impervious to disease. As
the residents of Sanctuary began to succumb to infection, Ripjak and Vance
assaulted Bubonicus, while the High Evolutionary was forced to devote all of his
attention towards accelerating the immune systems of Sanctuary's multiracial
pilgrims. The struggle that escalated, but the two eventually gained the
advantage over Bubonicus. However, when Ripjak prepared to deliver a deathblow,
Vance stopped him, insisting that Bubonicus must be brought in and tried for his
crimes. Taking advantage of his foes distraction, Bubonicus that blasted them
both, incapacitating Vance.
When Vance recovered, the High Evolutionary told him that
both Ripjak and Bubonicus had left the planet, and that he had managed to cure
the people of Sanctuary while Vance was out. The High Evolutionary then departed
to continue the struggle against Bubonicus, but he left Vance behind,
considering him a liability (primarily due to his failure to comprehend the
nature of Vance's body suit).
Comments: Created by Michael Gallagher, Kevin West, and Steve Montano.
Due to lack of medical knowledge, the terms bacteria and viruses and used interchangeably in these stories. One can presume that Bubonicus can use multiple types of microscopic pathogens.
Bubonicus certainly looks like a human-sized version of a Celestial, though his power level seemed to be much less than their level.
The name Bubonicus comes from the Bubonic plague, a.k.a. the
Black Plague/Black Death.
Here's a web site for more info:
http://www.themiddleages.net/plague.html
Could he be an Earth-691 counterpart of Impasse, superhumanized by the High Evolutionary? Perhaps, by briefly devolving him to a primitive hominid state, so that a hypnotic suggestion could be telepathically implanted, making him think he was a hyper-evolved chimpanzee? And, then, used (however futilely) against the "Martians" of Earth-691?
--Carycomic
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:
images: (without ads)
Guardians of the Galaxy#34, p13, panel 1 (cosmic consumption)
#57, p16, panel 1 (main image)
Appearances:
Guardians of the Galaxy#34-35 (March-April, 1993) - by Michael Gallagher
(writer), Kevin West (penciler), Steve Montano (inker), Craig Anderson (editor)
Guardians of the Galaxy#55 (December, 1994) - by Michael Gallagher (writer), Kevin West
(penciler), Steve Montano (inker), Craig Anderson (editor)
Guardians of the Galaxy#56-58 (January-March, 1995) - by Michael Gallagher
(writer), Kevin West (penciler), Steve Montano (inker), Craig Anderson (editor)
First Posted: 11/12/2006
Last updated: 11/12/2006
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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