Merge:Blink

Blink (Clarice Ferguson) is a Marvel Comics superheroine featured in various X-Men-related series. Created by Scott Lobdell and Joe Madureira, she first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #317 (1994).

Blink has made one of the most impressive transitions from throwaway character to star heroine in comic book history.

A mysterious, unstable mutant with the ability to teleport, Blink died within a month of her first appearance in 1994. However, Lobdell and Madureira redefined Blink as a more confident and assertive character in the parallel universe storyline "Age of Apocalypse" (1995). After that storyline, Blink became a fan favorite and readers wrote thousands of letters, requesting that the character return.

Eventually, Marvel launched the outlandish parallel world series Exiles in 2001, which has featured Blink prominently.

Age of Apocalypse/Exiles Blink


In the Age of Apocalypse storyline, Professor X was killed years before he ever formed the X-Men. An alternate reality unfolded into which the 5,000-year old super mutant Apocalypse gained control of North America and implemented a genocide campaign against regular humans.

Clarise Ferguson was born in Cartusia, Bahamas. Her purple skin complexion revealed her to be a mutant at birth. Her parents accepted this fact but feared their daughter would not be accepted by the local population. When Clarice was four, the Fergusons moved to Miami, Florida, United States. They hoped Miami would be home to a mutant population where an older Clarice would be able to socialize.

Clarice was a child when Apocalypse took over Miami. Blink was discovered by Apocalypse's Horseman Mister Sinister and his right-hand, the Dark Beast, who experimented on her, refining her powers (thus explaining the differences in the abilities of the regular Marvel Universe Blink and her Age of Apocalypse counterpart).

However, Sabretooth and Weapon X, members of the of the resistance force, the X-Men, raided Beast's laboratories and rescued Blink. She then became the adopted daughter of Sabretooth.

Blink grew into adulthood with the X-Men. She was impulsive and not always willing to follow orders, but became an important X-Man. In a limited series which focused uniquely on her character, Blink was briefly transported into the Negative Zone, where she became romantically involved with the amnesic Annihilus, although he forced her to leave when he began to transform back into his original form.

Eventually, the X-Men encountered the time traveling X-Man Bishop, who set a course of events that prevented the death of Professor X, eliminating the Age of Apocalypse reality.

Before it ended, however, Blink was mysteriously transported to a strange desert plateau, where she met a group of other mutants from various realities who had been unstuck in time. A cosmic monitor called the Timebroker explained that each had become "unhinged" from reality, and their new mission was to visit various parallel worlds and "correct wrongs."

Blink became the leader of this group of Exiles and has formed a relationship with her teammate Mimic. They went to many worlds, fighting the Hulk, Galactus, Weapon X, Mojo, and the Vi-Locks. On the world where the Legacy Virus was taking over, Blink was infected by it. She was later cured, however. They were celebrating when the Timebroker appeared, saying that Blink was going home. She was replaced by Magik. She landed in Sabretooth's reality and helped him destroy Sentinels, but then, David Richards hijacked her teleporting ability and made her kill dozens of humans. Blink was scarred by the experience, and would have kept going had Sabretooth not saved her. She then came back to the Exiles after Sunfire died. For the next mission, they fought Hyperion and Weapon X. While fighting Hyperion, Blink teleported Hyperion's laser attack back at him. Then, Gambit blew himself and Hyperion up, thus completing the mission. Then, she was replaced by Mystique on one of the next missions, but she escaped. When the Exiles raided Panoptichron to rebel against the Timebroker, she helped defeat the resurrected Hyperion by teleporting a lot of sand into him. She is also able to teleport things into space, such as Ego's footsoldiers, Doctor Doom's imploder, and Sabretooth. She recently lost Mimic when Proteus withered his body away. Proteus also took the body of Morph, causing Blink to become more hardened and serious, as indicated by calling Sabretooth "Victor" instead of "Mister Creed". Blink was finally able to trap Proteus in Morph's body by blinking a behavior modification crown onto his head, causing him to believe he really is Morph. With the hunt for Proteus at an end, Blink remained an Exile to continue fixing damaged realities. She and the other Exiles returned everyone in the Stasis Gallery to their home realities, dead or alive. Blink was going to bury Mimic in the Panoptichron desert until Power Princess suggested that she check with Mimic's family on burial wishes. Blink returned Mimic to his home reality for burial.

Ultimate Marvel
In the Ultimate Marvel universe, a pink-skinned young girl with purple hair and a diamond in the center of the forehead is one of the mutants who appear onscreen as potential candidates for Emma Frost's mutant group. In fact, the President's dialogue ("Her, her, him, and him. And this idiot with the idiot MTV hair, I guess.") seems to imply she was chosen for the group, as the "idiot" is Dazzler, so the pronouns account for two more females. One is clearly Karma, and Blink was the only female candidate in the group who the President had not ruled out. However, Blink did not appear with the group later; it remains unknown whether this was a mistake of the writer or artist.

Later, Blink is mentioned as having participated in the premier episode of a mutant-hunting game show run by Mojo Adams. This implies that she may have been killed, but her fate in this universe remains unclear.

Original Blink
In the primary Earth-616 continuity of the Marvel Universe, Blink was first introduced in the "Phalanx Covenant" storyline, in which the extraterrestrially-derived techno-organic beings called the Phalanx captured her and several other young mutants to assimilate their powers. This version of Blink was tense and panicky and frightened of her powers (having "woken up in a pool of blood" after her first use of them). Clarice could not properly control her powers, and apparently was unable to teleport anything in an intact form. Instead, any object or person caught in Blink's teleportation field, also known as a "blink wave", would be shredded. She eventually used her abilities to "cut-up" Harvest, a Phalanx entity guarding her and her peers, but apparently was caught in her own teleportation field and died in the process. Because of her sacrifice, the remaining captives were set free and became the X-Men junior team Generation X. It is uncertain where the shredded remains of Harvest and Blink ended up.

Blink survives
An alternate version of this Blink appeared in What If? vol. 2 #75. In this story, Blink survives, but the other young mutants die in her place. Blink ends up in the realm of the cosmic entity known as the In-Betweener, and amazingly seems to kill him in battle. Blink uses her newfound reality-warping powers to "improve" the world, and among other things causes human/mutant conflict to end. However, when she attempts to save the members of Generation X from their deaths, the resulting paradox (if Generation X survived, then Blink could never gain her new powers in the first place) caused reality itself to begin disintegrating. Ultimately, Blink undid all the changes she had made, and the In-Betweener revealed that he had not died at all. He then took Blink on as his apprentice, training her in the proper use of her new powers.

Ancestors
In the Apocalypse Vs Dracula mini series written by Frank Tieri, it is revealed that in London, 1897 Apocalypse's genetic descendants called the Clan Akkaba had a member called Frederick Slade. Slade was characterised with pink hair and eyes that were tinted green, and he had the ability to teleport himself, others and selected objects with a 'blink' effect. In the hope that the Clan Akkaba would still continue, Apocalypses' servant Ozymandias, made sure that Frederick would sire a child with a woman known as Miss Ferguson. Given the similarity in powers and allusions made within the mini series, it is assumed that Clarice Ferguson/Blink is a descendent of the 19th Century Frederick Ferguson and therefore a descendent of Apocalypse.

As the Age of Apocalypse diverged from Earth 616 decades later, with Charles Xavier's death at Legion's hands, it is obvious that the AoA Blink is also a descendant of Apocalypse.

Powers and abilities
Blink has the ability to teleport herself and others at will. While the regular Marvel Universe version of Blink had little control over her abilities, the Age of Apocalypse/Exiles Blink had mastered several methods of utilizing her powers.

Blink can teleport large masses, including sizable groups of people. She can also teleport only parts of objects. She can open portals that displace projectiles and even enemies that threaten her. She can focus her ability into short, transparent, crystal-like javelins, which teleport whatever people or objects they touch. She usually keeps a supply of these in a quiver around her back. Her teleportations are always accompanied by a "blink!" sound, from which she takes her codename.

Blink also has a somewhat unusual appearance with lilac skin, dark pink hair and glowing green eyes (this was a change in Exiles: both MU and AoA Blink had white eyes with a blue sheen). She also has pink marks across her face: these were present at birth, and are not scars, tattoos, etc.

Other media
Blink appeared briefly in a non-speaking cameo in a fifth season episode of the 1990s X-Men animated series titled Bloodties.

Blink is an essential non playable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, providing her teleportation abilities for the player.