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Quote1 Ex Nihilo built Adam to be the perfect human...a fabricated product of a life-creating system. Even better than the real thing. The last White Event changed Adam into something more--a Nightmask capable of navigating the dreamspace of human potential. But the cost of this power is temporal regression--a gradual return to his prefabricated, primordial state. This is believed to be a flaw--some accidental glitch in one of the universal systems that made him what he is. But that's a simple, microscopic way of looking at a much broader dilemma. Don't you understand? Here at the end times, they're all broken systems. Quote2
Narrator[src]

Adam, an artificial perfected human created by Ex Nihilo, is one of two people who were ascended by "The Last White Event," the other being Starbrand (Kevin Connor). Upon his birth, he became Nightmask.[3]

This abnormal White Event was hastily fired from the Superflow due to the catastrophic, multiversal phenomenon known as the "incursions." The Builders, creators of the universal systems that blessed Nightmask, attempted to stabilize the Multiverse by destroying Earths.[4] With this new Builder threat,[5] Nightmask and Starbrand, as well as fellow Builder systems Ex Nihilo and Abyss, were recruited into the Avengers.[6] Following the Builder War, Nightmask, Starbrand, Ex Nihilo, and Abyss joined Sunspot's Multiversal Avengers to traverse the Multiverse and find out what was causing the Multiverse to collapse.[7] Their inquiry led them to the source of the incursions, the Ivory Kings a.k.a. the Beyonders, but the process caused Nightmask to cease to exist.[8][9]

Nightmask returned to life when the Multiverse was restored,[10] and he enrolled in a college with Starbrand under the name Adam Blackveil,[11] until Starbrand's untimely death.[12]

History

"Adam" was the first humanoid being created by Ex Nihilo in his effort to create life anew on Earth. But as soon as he emerged from his cocoon, his ability to speak in Builder Machine Code made Nihilo and his sister Abyss think something was wrong. He was later taken into custody of the Avengers in order to study him and try to decode his language. Tony Stark managed to decode his name into "Blackveil."[13]

After a therapy session with the new Captain Universe, Shang-Chi was told the presence of it was because the universe was dying. Captain Universe and "Blackveil" met, and as she managed to translate his language correctly, she discovered his name was Nightmask and he was announcing that the White Event was coming to Earth. In that moment, a blaze of lightning from outer space hit the Earth.[14]

Starbrand[]

Nightmask led the Avengers in finding the Starbrand host, Kevin Connor, who was located at the ruins of a college, and aided them in destroying his empowerment.[15]

After a brief battle with the Avengers, Kevin Connor was taken by Nightmask to Mars, in order to seek help from Ex Nihilo. In the meantime, he explained to Starbrand what caused his powers and what his purpose was.[16]

Kevin Connor (Earth-616) and Adam Blackveil (Earth-616) from Avengers Vol 5 9 001

Nightmask and Starbrand confront Ex Nihilo

Nightmask teleported Connor and himself to Croatia, one of the places modified by Ex Nihilo, where strange creatures started forming a brain-like structure. The "brain" tried to absorb Nightmask, but he was rescued by Starbrand, who accidentally killed the organism in the process, "killing" the Earth's potential consciousness. The Avengers arrived on the scene and attempted to stop them. They fought back until Starbrand surrendered. As they were out of options, the heroes decided it would be better for Starbrand to be off the Earth and placed him in Tony Stark's Dyson Sphere which was under construction around the Sun, in the company of Nightmask.[17]

When Captain Universe sensed a new threat coming to Earth, her own children, the Builders, she advised the Avengers to recruit Nightmask and Starbrand into the team, which they did.[18]

Time Runs Out[]

After the Avengers fell into S.H.I.E.L.D. authority, Starbrand and Nightmask left the team to investigate the decay of the universe. For some reason, Nightmask began to rejuvenate. They returned to Earth when they received a message from Sunspot, inviting them to join his own Avengers team as there had been new progress on the research related to Incursions.[19]

Using A.I.M.'s resources, Sunspot managed to put into operation a machine capable of transporting individuals across the Multiverse, in hopes of finding the source of the decay of the Multiverse, and a group of them, the "Multiversal Avengers," embarked in said mission. Nightmask was among this heroes.[20]

Nightmask (Earth-616) from Avengers Vol 5 35 001

Rejuvenated Nightmask

In their journey, the Multiversal Avengers arrived to the base of the Black Priests, whom they believed to be enemies, as they would destroy alternate Earths. After discovering their true motivation, that of saving the Multiverse, the Multiversal Avengers allied with the Black Priests, and were informed of the true enemies they had to face, the Ivory Kings and Rabum Alal. While the Black Priests tried to find Rabum Alal, the Multiversal Avengers would set out to find the Ivory Kings (also known as the Beyonders).[21]

The Avengers traveled across numerous universes, navigating the map left by the Mapmakers. The use of his powers caused Nightmask to rejuvenate, and the final jump across universes caused him to revert into non-existence.[8]

All New All Different[]

When the universe came back to life, so did Nightmask and the rest of its inhabitants, with no memory of their temporary demise. After defeating Blizzard in China, he was offered membership by Sunspot in his New Avengers, but he declined and, instead, he started attending Empire State University along with Kevin Connor.[1]

On the first day of college, they were attacked by mind-controlled Nitro, Graviton, and Blizzard twice,[22] and the second time almost cost Kevin's life, because he was fighting the three of them on his own. Meanwhile, Adam was tracking the source of their control and found out the responsible were the Eternity's children Explosion, Gravitation, and Entropy. After taking away their control over the Earth criminals, he returned to Earth and both he and Kevin attended their first college party.[9]

Starbrand & Nightmask Vol 1 3 Textless

Fighting the mind-controled villains

The next day, Kevin and Adam met with Kolobus, after Libra brought them together. Then, Kolobus helped them prevent the Kree Starbrand from killing Kevin and destroying Earth, although, in the end, it was revealed that there was a fail-safe in the Starbrand power that caused them to become attracted to one another and kiss. Because of this, they called off the fight and Va-Sohn agreed not to attack any more worlds, as Kevin would be there to "make things cosmically awkward".[23]

Some time later, as trillions of Chitauri were approaching the Earth, heavy-hitter superheroes prepared to hold the line while Iron Man and Ironheart fixed the Planetary Defense Shield. Meanwhile, it was revealed the Shield's malfunctions were actually purposefully caused by Captain America, with superficial damage of Hydra's attack covering that up. Rogers activated the Shield,[24] leaving Starbrand, Nightmask, and the rest of the heroes in Earth's orbit exiled on the other side.[25]

The Defense Shield was eventually brought down by the new Quasar Avril Kincaid, though it resulted in her being temporarily comatose.[26][27]

Loss of a friend[]

One day, Starbrand was fighting Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes, when Robbie awakened his Penance Stare and accidentally killed Starbrand after subjecting him to it.[12]

Out of grief for Kevin's death, Adam became a test subject for the Arcadium, a fantasy-fulfilling simulation program created by Arcade and Mentallo.[28] Due to being strapped in the Arcadium, Adam was missing for several days.[29] Within his simulation, Adam found himself once again as Nightmask and reunited with a still alive Kevin as Starbrand, with the two of them fighting against Thanos in Space. Adam and the Arcadium's other test subjects were freed from the program after it was disabled by the Spider-Men, who were investigating the disappearances linked to the Arcadium.[30] During a group therapy session held by the other Arcadium survivors, Adam confessed that the whole ordeal just made him miss Kevin more.[31]

Attributes

Power Grid[34]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Poor:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Warp:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Genius

Powers

Nightmask is a genetically perfect human being artificially created from Ex Nihilo's machine with the purpose of being the first of a new race of humans. Yet somehow, he was altered with aspects not programmed into his genetic code. This change may somehow be related to the universal transcendent advent called the White Event, bestowing upon him strange new powers.

Superflow from Starbrand & Nightmask Vol 1 6 001

Nightmask navigating through the Superflow

Techno-Communication: Nightmask has the ability to control and radically alter machines.[15]

Energy Halos: Nightmask's powers often manifest themselves as light-blue energized patterns gravitating around and off of his skin and clothing. These halos are the source of many abilities, such as:

  • Portals: Nightmask possesses vast matter/energy transportation abilities, being able to create portals in and out of the Superflow, an extra-dimensional dream-scape which is a shortcut between any two points in space. This also enables him to communicate and see people through space.[9]
  • Energy Blast: Through his halos, Nightmask can disperse and direct concussive force blasts from his person.[2]
  • Clothes Changing: Nightmask is able to change is clothes at will.[1]
Adam Blackveil (Earth-616) from Starbrand & Nightmask Vol 1 1 001

Displaying information

  • Holographic Projection: Nightmask can also use his Halos to access databases.[1]

Abilities

Genius Intelligence:[2]

Bilingual: Nightmask speaks english and builder machine code.[2]

Weaknesses

Notes

  • His name was originally just Adam.[13] "Blackveil" is a mistranslation of "Nightmask" from Tony Stark.[14] However, he later adopts the name "Adam Blackveil" in order to blend in.[1]

Trivia

Builder Machine Code from Avengers Vol 5 6 001

See Also

Links and References

References

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