jacob-pilgrims_rock-dter3-front JACOB

Real Name: Jacob (surname presumably Tennyson) 

Identity/Class: Extradimensional (Negative Zone) human (source of abilities unrevealed; see comments)

Occupation: Leader of the Puritans of Pilgrims Rock

Group Membership: Puritans of Pilgrims Rock (Kenneth Tennyson/Hellscout, Martha (deceased), Brother Tyndale, many unidentified)

Affiliations: Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm), Gornkai

Enemies: Annihilus, Doctor Doom (Victor von Doom);
    indirectly Gideon Trust (Colonel, Janus, other), N-Explorers (Trapster (Peter Petruski), Travers, Travis, Vasquez)

Known Relatives: Kenneth Tennyson (Hellscout; son), Martha (wife, deceased)

Aliases: "Old One" (from Dr. Doom)

Base of Operations: Pilgrims Rock (see comments), Negative Zonejacob-pilgrims_rock-ff3-41-face-alert

First Appearance: Fantastic Four III#41 (May, 2001)

Powers/Abilities: Blind, Jacob possesses a form of clairvoyance, allowing him to sense the presence, location, and nature of beings, energies, and presumably objects, as well. He can apparently look into the spirits of others.

    Jacob sometimes smokes a pipe.

Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'7"-5'9"; he varied between looking several inches shorter than Reed Richards to just a few inches shorter than the armored Dr. Doom)
Weight:  Unrevealed (approximately 135 lbs.)
Eyes: Unrevealed (he wears a red blindfold)
Hair: Gray (male pattern baldness)

History:
(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) - Jacob is one of the Puritans of Pilgrims Rock, descended from those who set forth from Amsterdam in search of the New World in the 17th century A.D. aboard The Pandora, only to be pulled through some sort of interdimensional warp into the Negative Zone. Although they initially considered this realm to be Hell, accepting that the Lord worked in mysterious ways, these Puritans settled there, and they found their lot to be as gatekeepers and discoverers, exploring and learning from the machines and tools left behind by beings unidentified. 

(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) - The tale was handed down from generation to generation.

(Fantastic Four III#41) - Either born blind or losing his vision at some point, Jacob possessed some degree of clairvoyance. 

(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) - The Puritans occasionally had to fight off Negative Zone residents, whom they considered demons.jacob-pilgrims_rock-ff3-41-full-distant

(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) - In recent years, Jacob became the leader of the Puritans of Pilgrims Rock, while his son, Kenneth, became the most recent Hellscout, guardian of the portal to the Negative Zone.

(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) <Shortly before the main story> - Jacob's wife, Martha, perished under unexplained circumstances.

(Fantastic Four III#40 - BTS) - Seeking to investigate the N-Explorers (who sought to plunder the Negative Zone for energy), three of the Fantastic Four (Invisible Woman/Sue Richards, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm) headed into the Negative Zone. After the N-Explorers blew up their ship in the Distortion Area, the Fantastic Four escaped via aid from resident dragon-creatures, who song opened a dimensional wormhole, transporting them into the Negative Zone and onto Pilgrims Rock, although they had no idea of their position within the Zone. They were surprised to find the Pandora, an old and terrestrial ship.

(Fantastic Four III#41) - The Fantastic Four explored the Pandora and soon discovered a group of Puritans -- led by Jacob -- conducting a funeral service for their lost member Martha. After another man quoted the Lord's Prayer, Jacob said "Amen" and then noted that the Good Book said she was in a better place, and he asked the Lord to protect and keep her. An alarm suddenly sounded, interrupting him, and Jacob noted the presence of intruders. Although Sue turned the Four invisible, the other Puritans urged Jacob to use his "second sight" to guide them, and he advised the Puritans to seek the intruders within the bowels of their ship, and he encouraged them to smite whatever demons had come to test their faith yet again. 

    As the Puritans fired blaster weapons, Reed asked Sue to maintain the force field but to drop her invisibility cloak from himself and Ben. As Ben and Reed appeared before the Puritans, asking them to lower their weapons as they meant no harm, the intruders' inhuman forms and/or powers only convinced the Puritans that they were facing demons. Assuring the Puritans that Satan had nothing to do with this and that they were from Earth, Reed asked them to cease fire so they could speak to each other. After the Puritans complied, Reed snared the Bible (King James edition) from Jacob; while another of the Puritans denounced Sue as a witch, Jacob silenced him, suggesting they let the intruders reveal their true natures, and -- at Sue's guidance -- Reed eased the Puritans' concerns by reading from the Bible with impunity. jacob-pilgrims_rock-ff3-41-pipe

    Jacob considered that no demon could read from the Good Book without bursting into flame and he told the Four that "mayhap" he had judged the intruders too quickly. After Reed countered that it was his own group that should apologize for the intrusion at an apparent burial service, Jacob confirmed that it was for his wife, Martha. Reed offered his condolences and asked that she rest in peace, and Jacob blessed him. 

    As the Puritans welcomed the Four into their settlement, Jacob noted, "When our forefathers set forth for a new world, this was hardly what they intended."  Reed asked what was the place, if they were from Earth, and how they entered the Negative Zone. Although not having heard the realm called that, Jacob lit his pipe and related the tale he had been told by his ancestors. 

    When Jacob noted that they stood in Hell and kept the devil himself from leaving their God-forsaken place, Reed correctly surmised that Jacob was referring to Annihilus. Reed subsequently confided in Jacob that Ben's condition was a result of a miscalculation on his part, while Sue changed the subject, noting her hunger and asking what they had to eat.

    Returning to Pilgrims Rock, Hellscout saw the monstrous Thing with a number of children, and he shot the Thing. After a brief struggle, Reed and Sue arrived alongside Jacob, who told Kenneth to cease, after which he proclaimed Grimm to be a guest in their house, not a foe; Hellscout noted that if Ben was a friend of his father's, he would be his friend as well.

    Later, as the N-Explorers began to access an energy source they found in the Negative Zone in the process of slaughtering the beings who utilized it, a powerful energy wave racked Pilgrims Rock, and Jacob uncomfortably sensed a disturbance, as if some great evil had been unleashed. After Reed noted his concerns that others from Earth were weakening the infrastructure of the wall/barrier between Earth and the Negative Zone, jeopardizing both universes, Hellscout noted that the Four must join him and that he would track those others down.

(Fantastic Four III#42-44 - BTS) - The Fantastic Four and Hellscout thwarted the N-Explorers' efforts, with Hellscout slaying Annihilus in the process (although a new Annihilus soon developed).

(Doom: The Emperor Returns#2 - BTS) - Seeking to return to Earth from Franklin Richards' Counter-Earth with power usurped from that latter world's Franklin Richards' manifestation, Doom traveled though a portal to the Negative Zone. 

(Doom: The Emperor Returns#3 - BTS) - Hellscout and Gornkai watched as an immense creature (see comments) assaulted Doom's ship, and they considered him to be (for lack of a better term) doomed. After Gornkai noted that the ship had jettisoned a pod containing a lifeform (the Counter-Earth replicated form of Cynthia von Doom), Hellscout  and Gornkai pursued the pod to be certain the intruder could not threaten the colony.
jacob-pilgrims_rock-dter3-poisoned
(Doom: The Emperor Returns#3 (fb) - BTS) - Considering the being in the pod to be a soul in need, Hellscout and Gornkai brought it back to Pilgrims Rock.

(Doom: The Emperor Returns#3) - Examining the pod, Brother Tyndale (a non-human resident of Pilgrims Rock apparently) asked if Hellscout would bring evil to their very doorstep, and he continued that a spell or incantation held the woman in her unliving state. Jacob subsequently appeared, asking "What be acting here? Whither be Hellscout? Whither this artifact from the void beyond." Hellscout assured his father he had done as he would wish and that he sensed no evil in this woman. Jacob concurred, but further noted that there was no good, either, as she had no soul. Hellscout asked how he knew, and Jacob assured him, "I be knowing...I be sensing emptiness...the absence of good be akin to evil."

    Further discussion was interrupted by the arrival of Doom, who easily overpowered local assaults. Shattering Hellscout's sword, Doom then blasted both him and Gornkai away; however, after Doom approached the pod and noted that his mother was still safe, Hellscout instructed Gornkai to stand down until they knew what was going on. When Doom told them that his mother's current state was his fault and that he was just trying to return to his home with her to reunite her body and spirit until the space-going beast attacked, Hellscout instructed Gornkai to prepare the ship for Doom.

    Unheard by Hellscout, however, Jacob placed his hand on Doom's shoulder and noted, "I say thou tellest lies. I have looked into your soul and found Satan." Stating that he spoke only the truth and that Jacob must believe him, Doom grabbed Jacob's wrist, secretly injecting him with a short-acting toxin and causing him to collapse. Doom alerted Hellscout that the old one had fallen ill, and he told Hellscout that his father had collapsed after wishing him well. One Puritan noted that Jacob was cursed with second sight and that this could be a seizure, while another assessed his weak heartbeat and shallow breathing.

    Eyeing Doom suspiciously, Hellscout had his father taken to their house to rest.

(Doom: The Emperor Returns#3 - BTS) - The Counter-Earth Franklin Richards archetype then appeared and exposed Doom's true motives in seeking to steal their ship. Doom nonetheless overpowered Hellscout and Gornkai and escaped in the ship, but Franklin forced Doom to accept that this was not his real mother but just a program, and he/it seemingly cast Doom into the void, although Doom eventually arrived through the Negative Zone portal into the Baxter Building replica constructed by Noah Baxter and his men.

Comments: Created by Carlos Pacheco, Jeph Loeb, Rafael Marin, and Jesus Marin.

(Fantastic Four III#41) - "The Lord hath taken thine eyes...but gifted thee with second sight."
    The source of Jacob's second sight is unrevealed. I'm sure he considers it God-given, but he may be a mutant, or perhaps he was mutated under unspecified circumstance...or perhaps he has some mystic or psychic discipline. I'm not sure why that wouldn't be considered the work of the Devil, but perhaps his apparently priestly nature and ability to read from the Bible earned the trust of the other Puritans.

    Hopefully Jacob recovered from Doom's short-acting toxin.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Jacob should be distinguished from:


Martha
jacob-pilgrims_rock-ff3-41-martha-graveThe wife of Jacob and presumed mother of Hellscout (Kenneth Tennyson).

(Fantastic Four III#41 (fb) - BTS) <Shortly before the main story> - Martha perished under unexplained circumstances.

(Fantastic Four III#41) - The Puritans conducted a funeral service for Martha. After another man quoted the Lord's Prayer, Jacob said "Amen" and then noted that the Good Book said she was in a better place, and he asked the Lord to protect and keep her. The ceremony was disrupted by the detection of the presence of the Fantastic Four.

     After the Puritans and the Four had made peace, Reed apologized for the intrusion at an apparent burial service, Jacob confirmed that it was for his wife, Martha. Reed offered his condolences and asked that she rest in peace, and Jacob blessed him. 

---Fantastic Four III#41

Note: Her married surname was likely Tennyson.


images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four III#41, pg. 5, panel 5 (full; distant; Martha's funeral);
            panel 8 (face; alert);
        pg. 14, panel 3 (pipe, telling history)
Doom: The Emperor Returns#3, pg. 8, panel 1 (frontal; knees-up body);
        pg. 13, panel 2 (drugged by Doom)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four III#41 (May, 2001) - Carlos Pacheco (artist, co-plotter), Jeph Loeb (script), Rafael Marin (co-plotter), Jesus Merino (inker), Andrew Lis (assistant editor), Bobbie Chase (editor)
Doom: The Emperor Returns#3 (March, 2002) - Chuck Dixon (writer), Leonardo Manco (artist), Klaus Janson & John Stanisci (inkers), Andrew Lis, Jeff Youngquist, & Mark Sumerak (assistant editors), Bobbie Chase & Tom Brevoort (editors)

First posted: 04/09/2022
Last updated: 04/09/2022

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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