I believed...I believed in an idea. Of a place where knowledge was boundless and the only thing greater was the imagination that fueled it. A place beyond ingrained ideas. Beyond limits. Beyond the things that made us normal. A place where a man could become more than the sum of what he had been taught. I thought it would be this place...this city...my home. I was wrong. 
- —Leonid[src]
Leonid is a Deviant-human hybrid with vast cosmic powers. Born in Ashomia, he was abandoned by his father, Sir Isaac Newton, and was given to Michelangelo by his Deviant mother, Morda, to save his life.[5][4] Leonid was then raised under the loving care of his adoptive parents, Nikola Tesla and Mina.[2]
Discovering Leonid's existence, Newton sent Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark to retrieve him and bring him to the Immortal City beneath Rome, where Leonid was recruited into the Brotherhood of the Shield, led by Newton. Three years later, he encountered a time-travelling Leonardo da Vinci, a former patriarch of the Shield.[1]
Newton believed that everything is preordained and the world is fated to end in 2060; he had forced his views onto the Brotherhood for over 300 years. Leonardo rejected that notion, preferring free will and hope, the Brotherhood's original ways before Newton. Caught in the middle, Leonid sided with Leonardo which prompted Newton to go to the future to the year 2060.[6] The Brotherhood of the Shield pursued Newton with the Human Machine and it ascended Leonid, allowing him to defeat his father and resolve the conflict.[7]
History
Origin[]
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Leonid being given up by his mother, Morda, before being adopted by Tesla and Mina
In 1625, Isaac Newton was captured by Deviants outside of their city Ashomia and was forced to mate with a Deviant female named Morda, impregnating her. He endured the humiliation of living with them for years so he could get close to the "Hidden Arts" known only to the Deviants. Newton betrayed his patrons, stealing the words of their holy book, burning their city, and abandoning Morda.[5]
Morda gave birth to a human-looking infant with starry skin around 1630 before Newton fled. She was blamed for his treasonous acts and confronted by a mob. In order to save her child, Leonid, she gave him to Michelangelo, also known as the Forever Man. Through Michelangelo, this infant was taken to the Sinkhole and came into the custody of the shapeshifting pigeon Mina, whom Leonid's cosmic powers transformed. Thanks to the abnormal temporal properties of the Sinkhole, centuries passed before they were found by the "Night Machine" Nikola Tesla, who took them to New York City and raised Leonid as his own.[4] Aware of Leonid's true father, Tesla warned his son that the Brotherhood of the Shield would come for him one day.[1]
Brotherhood of the Shield[]
Leonid at the Immortal City
In circa 1951, Nikola Tesla resurfaced after having been missing for almost a decade and caught the attention of the Brotherhood of the Shield.[8] Learning that Leonid was alive, Isaac Newton sent Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark to both track down Tesla and bring Leonid to him.[9][10] The two Shield agents accomplished this task and intercepted a teenage Leonid on his way home from school in 1953. He was taken from New York City to the Immortal City beneath Rome, where he was brought before the High Council of the Shield and was told to join their secret society by his biological father and the leader of the Brotherhood, Newton.[1]
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With Leonardo da Vinci at Newton's Council Room
Leonid studied under Newton for three years.[11][3] Finally, Leonid's adoptive parents, the Night Machine (Nikola Tesla) and Mina, came to visit him in secret, with Tesla explaining that had been killed and brought back. Before attempting to take down Newton's corrupt High Council, Tesla gave his son the key to the Iter, the door that cannot be opened in the Immortal City. Passing through it, Leonid went up a stairway where he was blinded by the sudden arrival of Leonardo da Vinci, a former Patriarch of the Shield from the past, holding a proto–Human Machine.[1] Identifying Leonid as the Eternal Dynamo and the Source of the Machine, Leonardo unlocked Leonid's deepest memories before witnessing the explosion that sent Tesla, Mina, Richards, and Stark to the far future. Leonardo disclosed that all of the recent events had been carefully orchestrated by Michelangelo, the glowing Forever Man from Leonid's memories.[6] After confronting Newton, Leonardo warned Leonid that he should fear Newton if he knew where Newton's "Truth" leads and then sent Leonid to find and free one of Newton's darkest secrets: a chained up Nostradamus.[3]
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Before the civil war, with the Star Child and Nostradamus
Over the course of four years, tensions grew between Newton and Leonardo, with the former believing in fate and the latter in free will. Leonid watched at the sides along with Nostradamus and the Star Child, a Celestial that Leonardo had retrieved from the Sun. By 1960, the schism escalated into full-on war. Leonid attempted to stop the fighting by constructing an energy barrier between the two armies, but he ultimately failed.[12] Michelangelo appeared and explained both sides, as well as the concept of non-linear time. The battle was then interrupted by the sudden return of Leonid's father Tesla, Mina, Howard Stark, and Nathaniel Richards from the future.[4]
According to Newton, the world is preordained to end in the year 2060; it is an unescapable fate. Tesla, who had just been to the future, disagreed and a trial was held with Leonid selected as the judge. Despite not wanting to choose, Leonid sided with Leonardo. Anticipating this, Newton had stolen Leonardo's time-travelling suit to go to 2060 and witness the world's end, but he left behind his Quiet Math, the mathematical proof that the world will end in 2060. When the Star Child read it, he went mad and began destroying the Immortal City; Leonid used his own cosmic powers to shield himself and others from the rampage. The Star Child was stopped when Michelangelo convinced him to also travel to 2060.[13]
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Michelangelo leading Leonid to the Human Machine
The Brotherhood prepared the Human Machine to follow Newton and the Star Child into the future, with Leonid as its source. Leonid powered up the machine and the group travelled across the timestream, arriving at three different versions of 2060 simultaneously: a lush paradise ("The Rebirth of Man"), a technological utopia ("The Height of Modernity"), and a desolate wasteland ("The End of the World"). Newton assaulted them across all three timelines, with the Star Child by his side.[14]
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Inside the Human Machine
As the Brotherhood fought Newton and the Star Child, Michelangelo was perfecting the Human Machine in the background. Although most of Leonid's party got wiped out, including his parents, Michelangelo completed the Human Machine and led Leonid inside it. The three Leonids across the three simultaneous timelines collapsed into one; Leonid teleported the surviving Michelangelo and Newton inside the womb of the deceased Celestial Modonna by the Sun and emerged out of the Human Machine as an ascended god-like entity.[7]
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Exiting the Human Machine
After easily subduing Newton, he offered him and Michelangelo the solution to appease both their respective philosophies. By collapsing time into a single forever moment, there was no separation between fate and free will, where all of man's choices were of his own making and the result of those choices is a destiny that he was always going to achieve. It would be a united, evolving history that would constantly rewrite itself, not to serve a singular truth but a greater universal one. When both parties accepted the proposal, Leonid made it so and restored everyone. He gifted his father and the Star Child with a second doomed Earth, destined to end as Newton desired. Meanwhile, on Leonid's Earth, the Brotherhood found themselves in present-day Italy and were welcomed by Leonardo da Vinci.[15]
Attributes
Powers
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Leonid has incredible cosmic powers which he has possessed since his birth.[4] Stars naturally appear on his skin and clothes, although he can hide them in public.[1] He is the "Eternal Dynamo" and the Source of the Human Machine.[2]
- Cosmic Energy Manipulation: Leonid can manipulate cosmic energy, primarily for defensive purposes. His barriers are strong enough to block devestating attacks from the Star Child.[16] He can expand the range of his energy shields to spread across city blocks.[17]
- Transfiguration: As a baby, Leonid touched Mina, a pigeon of the Sinkhole, and gave her humanoid form and intellect, as well as the ability to turn back into a pigeon.[4]
- Levitation: Leonid is able to levitate a few feet above the ground.[1] It is not clear if he has full flight.
Notes
- Due to a change in colorist, Leonid's hair color changes from blond in S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 1) to brown in S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2), though it remains blond on covers.
Trivia
_from_S.H.I.E.L.D._Vol_1_1_004.jpg){kind=link}
Leonid sleeping
- Leonid levitates in his sleep. He hovers above his bed instead of lying on it.[1]
See Also
- 13 appearance(s) of Leonid (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) of Leonid (Earth-616)
- 85 image(s) of Leonid (Earth-616)
- 6 quotation(s) by or about Leonid (Earth-616)
- 1 item(s) used/owned by Leonid (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 S.H.I.E.L.D. #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 S.H.I.E.L.D. #2
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 S.H.I.E.L.D. #4
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 S.H.I.E.L.D. #3
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #2
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #4–6
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. #5
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #1 - Nathaniel Richards & Howard Stark's profile
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. #5–6
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. #1–2
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. #4–6
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #2–3
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #4
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #6
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. (Vol. 2) #3
- ↑ S.H.I.E.L.D. #6