Merge:Rick Jones

Richard Milhouse "Rick" Jones is a character in the. He is presumed to have been named after Richard Milhous Nixon. Rick Jones' career might be summed up in one word: "super-groupie". He has appeared in nearly 400 comic books. Although not an actual superhero, Rick has acted as a sidekick to the Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel I (Mar-Vell), Rom, and Captain Marvel (Genis).

History
Rick lost his parents at a young age and grew up at an orphanage. He first appears in The Incredible Hulk #1 gaining notoriety when he accepts a dare to drive out to a bomb testing ground in New Mexico. As luck would have it, the gamma bomb designed by Dr. Bruce Banner is being tested. Dr. Banner pushes Rick into a protective trench, saving his life but absorbing the gamma rays that first transforms him into the Hulk.

Early days with the Hulk and the Avengers
Rick's guilt over the incident (and lack of any other place to go) leads him to stay close to Dr. Banner and his alter-ego, spending some time as the Hulk's sidekick. For a time, he even gains mental control over the Hulk. Eventually the dangerous unpredictability of the Hulk forces Rick to keep his distance. When Iron Man, Ant Man, and Thor are brought together to capture the Hulk by Loki, Rick forms the Teen Brigade, a loose network of teenagers with ham radios throughout the United States. Loki's plan backfires and the Avengers are formed.

After the Hulk's departure from the team, Rick remains close to the Avengers, earning a position as an honorary Avenger. He became close to the recently revived Captain America although his guilt leads him to seek out Banner and the Hulk for a time. Returning to Captain America, he briefly takes the title and uniform of Bucky, Cap's long-dead partner. This was on Jones' own insistence: Cap continues to have guilty objections, noting that others have lost partners and it was time to move on. Rick's brief time as Bucky gave him the training to survive around superheroes to this day.

Captain Mar-Vell
Shortly after his split with Captain America, Rick joined with the Kree Captain Mar-Vell (Marvel) when he finds himself drawn to the mystical Nega-Bands. Donning the Bands, he is immediately linked to Captain Marvel. Once joined, one of the two remains in a protective bubble in the Negative Zone. After either the person not in the negative zone strikes the Nega-Bands together or a certain amount of time passes, the two switch places.

Rick and Mar-Vell play a critical part in the Kree-Skrull War. Mar-Vell is released from the Negative Zone while Rick is still in the regular world without the use of the Nega-Bands. The bond between the two is broken. At the height of the conflict, the Kree Supreme Intelligence briefly unleashes the Destiny Force from within Rick. Rick uses his newfound ability to summon images of various Golden Age heroes. While at full power, Rick single-handedly stopps both the Kree and Skrull fleets long enough to put an end to the conflict. Injuries that Rick sustains lead Mar-Vell to willingly bond with Rick in order to save his life.

Rick and Mar-Vell serve as a duo for several years while Rick pursues his musical career and love life. Eventually, the two are again freed from their bond and placed in the "normal" universe. Rick begins to spend his time with the Hulk again and briefly forms a new Teen Brigade. Shortly after Rick returns Mar-Vell dies of radiation-caused cancer. Coincidently, Rick himself contracted cancer shortly after an attempt to turn himself into a second Hulk with gamma radiation.

Sick, Rick still serves as a sidekick to the Galadorian spaceknight Rom during the height of the conflict with the Dire Wraiths. Shortly after the Wraiths are banished from Earth, the Beyonder cures Rick's cancer and briefly grants him super powers.

Further encounters with the Hulk
Yet again, Rick joins the side of Dr. Banner and the Hulk. This time, however, Rick is taken over by the personality of the Savage Hulk after falling into a "nutrient bath" meant to fuse the separated Bruce Banner and the Hulk. This also suggested that the Beyonder cures not only Rick's cancer, but allows him to be unharmed by gamma radiation. Banner is soon transformed into the Grey Hulk who is manipulated by Sam Sterns, along with Banner, into siphoning the radiation from Rick into Sterns. Sterns is then turned back into the Leader, drastically altering his appearance.

Rick stays with Banner, the Grey Hulk, Betty Banner, and Clay Quartermain for several months as they travel the country looking for a government supply of gamma bombs. The group splits after the apparent death of the Hulk at the hands of the Leader.

Rick authors the book "Sidekick," an autobiography of his time with super-heroes. While on a book tour, he meets Marlo Chandler without realizing that she had only recently broken up with the Hulk (then acting as a Las Vegas leg breaker with the alias "Mr. Fixit"). Rick is kidnapped by a Skrull vessel and the Hulk aids in Rick's rescue. This starts another period with Rick and the Hulk, this time with Marlo and Betty.

Rick and Death
Rick came in touch with death in several ways during this time with the Hulk. First, Rick dies at the hands of Thanos, along with half of the universe, when Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to impress Death. Rick and the others are brought back in ensuing events.

Rick's second major encounter with death occurrs when Jackie Shorr comes into his life and claims to be his mother. It is still not known for sure whether this claim is true or not, as the same claime is made by many others. She, however, insists that they were substitutes for Rick. Shorr is discovered to be insane, but not until after she kills Marlo.

Rick attempts to bring her back using a resurrection device known as the "deus ex machina" that the Leader developes, but the Hulk destroyes the equipment partway through the process. Marlo is left in a catatonic state. Fortunately, Rick's care eventually helps Marlo return to full health.

Shortly after Marlo is revived, the two become engaged and quickly marry. Neither of them realize, however, that a portion of Death remains in Marlo. This piece of Death attracted many strange visitors to the wedding, including Mephisto and Death herself.

The married couple soon finds success in a popular talk show called "Keeping Up with the Joneses", cut short when Rick is crippled by the Hulk during a period of Hulk's brainwash by Apocalypse into Horseman "War". The injury confines Rick to a wheelchair and the debilitation strains his relationship with Marlo. The strain increases with the tragic death of Betty Banner by radiation poisoning to the point that the couple split shortly thereafter.

Rick joins Dr. Banner again after his reappearance. His serious health problems force him to be brought by the Avengers to the now-captive Supreme Intelligence for aid. This marks the beginning of the Destiny War. Over the course of these events, Rick's injury is healed and he is joined with the Genis (the recently endowed Captain Marvel and son of Mar-Vell.

Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell)
Rick's bond with Genis works in about the same way as his bond with Mar-Vell. The largest difference is that the two switch in and out of the Microverse rather than the Negative Zone. Genis-Vell's unique birth and accelerated aging makes him the opposite of Rick: full of power but without experience. They compensate for each other's weaknesses with Rick taking on the role of mentor. He helped Genis learn to control his cosmic awareness and accept his role as a super-hero. As Rick's confidence grew, he also attempted to rekindle his romance with Marlo.

It wasn't until this point that Marlo's connection with Death is finally revealed. Thanos aids in separating the two, but Rick is prematurely aged and loses an arm in the process. He is later yanked back in time to the Destiny War, where he aids his younger self in the conflict leading to his bond with Genis.

Marlo tries to aid the elderly Rick the way he had helped her when she was catatonic. Rick's pride, however, just causes more problems. The Supreme Intelligence attempts and fails to restore Rick to his normal condition, but he is spontaneously restored to his normal age and health shortly thereafter. Rick believes this was divine aid while Genis believes it was a delayed reaction to the Supreme Intelligence's procedure. No definitive explanation has yet been determined.

For a while, Rick and Genis are yanked back and forth through time. Rick encounters two older versions of himself: one an aging collector surviving under the rule of the Maestro; the other a super-villain named Thanatos. The super-villain Rick was in the process of creating the "ultimate Rick Jones". He is stopped by the elder Rick's ability to wield Thor's hammer.

It is, however, unclear if Rick will become either of these older versions of himself. It has been established that the specific timeline that the old Rick lived in will not come to pass due to the Hulk having been drawn into the future to defeat his future self.

Rick and Marlo again split when Marlo becomes romantically involved with Moondragon. Shortly after, Genis goes insane when his cosmic awareness reaches its peak. Rick's attempts to continue as Genis's guide are fairly unsuccessful. Genis becomes a callous, homicidal maniac believing himself a god. Rick's friend even destroys the universe just to rebuild it with Rick and Genis as sole survivors.

In the rebuilt reality, Genis again loses his mind. Rick develops an ability to mentally attack Genis through their psychic bond (although the pain is reciprical). For a time, Genis uses this same link to control Rick. He goes as far as 'convincing' Rick to kill himself on a whim. Just as easily, Genis brings Rick right back to life.

In part due to Rick's influence, Genis' madness calmed to a point where he was able to maintain a veneer of sanity, albeit with some unpredictablility. He creates a recording studio for Rick which allows for fame and fortune at the sake of Internet based sales of a song written for Marlo. The same song also acts as a catalyst for the two to reunite, with Marlo ending her relationship with Moondragon.

At the end of the series, it is revealed that Rick has a "comic awareness" that the Captain Marvel comic series was coming to an end. He pushed for several of the loose ends of the series to be resolved: Rick and Genis were separated again, and Rick was reunited with Marlo at last report. This ability was primarily created for the needs of this one issue, and it seems unlikely that it will see future usage.

Runaways
Rick was recently revealed to be the mysterious benefactor of Excelsior. The group is comprised of former teenage superheroes dedicated to reforming other superpowered kids from following down the same path. Their first targets are the underaged Runaways patrolling Los Angeles in the wake of the supervillain power vacuum since the defeat of the Runaways' evil parents, the Pride, who once controlled the city.

Partial appearance list
This list is not intended to be complete. Rather, this list is intended to indicate time periods where Rick frequently appeared throughout a series of issues of a book. There may be other issues in which Rick appeared that are not listed, and there may be a handful of individual issues within a specific series that Rick did not appear in. For a detailed and complete appearance list, see the Marvel Chronology Project.
 * The Incredible Hulk (vol. 1) #1-6
 * The Avengers (vol. 1) #1-17, 89-100
 * Tales to Astonish #68-92
 * The Incredible Hulk (vol. 2) #103-106, 245-282, 319-346, 373-419, 441-470 (intermittently)
 * Captain America #110-118
 * Captain Marvel (first series) #17-62
 * Marvel Spotlight #1-3 (continuing the story of Captain Marvel)
 * Marvel Graphic Novel #1: The Death of Captain Marvel
 * Rom #54-72
 * Avengers Forever (limited series) #1-12
 * Captain Marvel (vol. 3) #0-35
 * Captain Marvel (vol. 4) #1/36-25/60
 * Runaways (vol. 2) #6

Other notes

 * Rick has been a regular or recurring character in numerous series from Marvel, including The Avengers, Captain America, two or three Captain Marvel series (depending on how you choose to count them), Rom, the Avengers Forever limited series, and, most commonly, The Incredible Hulk (and the related Tales to Astonish).
 * When Marvel characters are being "matched" to their equivalents in DC Comics, Rick is usually associated with the Justice League of America's former mascot Lucas "Snapper" Carr. Rick shared his form with Captain Mar-Vell, in homage to the character's DC Comics namesake.
 * When Rick first appears at the gamma bomb test site, he is playing a harmonica. It was later established that he had been playing the song "That'll Be the Day" by Buddy Holly.
 * During Jones' most recent string of appearances in The Incredible Hulk, a fan campaign was started to give Rick Jones his own trading card. Although this campaign (which for a long time consisted of one persistent individual) was less than successful, Jones did receive a Marvel value stamp in the back of one issue of the Incredible Hulk.  Also, a baseball card of Jones (along with cards of Marlo, Betty, and the Hulk) was printed on a page of an issue of The Incredible Hulk in which the Hulk briefly joins a baseball team.
 * In the alternate future of the Maestro, Rick has a great-granddaughter named Janis. Rick has chosen the name himself, naming her after Janis Joplin.  In the present, Rick has not yet had any children.  However, one version of Janis traveled back in time to shortly before the time Rick was handicapped by the War Hulk.  She is still believed to be in this time period.
 * Thanatos originally appeared in Spider-Man 2099. It was only established years after the series was cancelled that Thanatos was actually Rick Jones.  Thanatos' plan to create the "ultimate Rick Jones" was author Peter David's attempt poke fun at the Ultimate Marvel universe.  Shortly after this story finished, another issue of Captain Marvel had the cover text The Ultimate Captain Marvel and imitated the cover style of the Ultimate books.
 * Runaways (vol. 2) Issue #4 reveals that Rick has released a few music singles. This fact is also evident in an early 2000's issue of "Avengers", in which Ant-Man says, "He owns both (of Rick's) albums". Rick promptly responds, "So you're the one".