History
When Axel Asher was 7-years-old, he wandered into his parent's bedroom, and found his younger sister playing with the gun of their father. He scolded her and tried to grab away the gun. The gun was loaded and unleashed a shot at his leg. He looked down at the leg of his pants and saw it soaked in blood, though the gravity of his situation eluded him. He glared at his sister for having gotten him into trouble, and she glared at him for taking away her "toy".[3]
Years later, the only outward reminder of his gunshot wound was Axel's slight limp. But he still carried the memory with him, along with the anger and the pain. It was the most traumatic experience of his life, until the Brothers started appearing in his consciousness. The enmity of these beings made his sibling enmity with his sister pale in comparison.[3]
Axel Asher first became aware of his extraordinary powers when the two cosmic entities called "The Brothers", who represent the DC Universe and Marvel Universe, became aware of each other (as a result of the previous "crossover" events) and hurled their respective heroes into conflict with each other's.[citation needed]
Axel was just a normal teenager living in New York who came across an old bum in an alley, who protected what seemed to be a cardboard box but was actually a portal between the universes. He also revealed that Axel was next in line to bear the powers and responsibilities of being "The Access", the person in charge of preventing the universes from merging into one. This happened because they were originally one universe that split in two when The Brothers first fought; certain "fragments" of the original universe remained. The "box" was one of them; Access was another.[citation needed]
Access was now a native of both universes and his duty was to keep them separate. If they start to overlap, the universes will merge into the Amalgam Universe again. Access must move from one universe to the other keeping people from crossing over. Access usually worked out situations like this without anyone noticing that he is involved. (This explains how the subsequent crossovers occur. Adventures where heroes appear on a "shared Earth" are believed to be dimensional fluxes where the two universe have begun to merge again. It has also been explained that once Access has restored the timelines, the participants forget about the crossover.)[4]
At the height of the Brothers' battle, the universes were combined into a single Amalgam Universe by The Spectre and the Living Tribunal to delay their fight. Access used shards of each universe hidden inside Batman and Captain America to separate and restore both universes. Aided by Batman and Captain America who, in many ways, were the Brothers in miniature, Access helped stop the fight between The Brothers, saving the two universes from destruction.[citation needed]
Access then later helped prevent Dr. Strangefate from re-merging the two universes and had a version of the Amalgam universe created by Doctor Strange placed within himself.[5] Access later discovered that the "old bum" was actually his own future self who had lied about their being a long line of a hero named "Access", and that an alternate version of himself had joined forces with Darkseid. He also discovered his powers were greater than he believed and that by staying in one universe too long his presence would cause crossovers to happen.[4] Access absorbed his evil self by causing them to become an amalgam and then helped the heroes of both universes defeat Darkseid's scheme.[6]Attributes
Powers
Cosmic Awareness: Access is able to sense the presence of beings and objects in the universes that are somehow of importance to him or that that have crossed over from the other universe.
Teleportation: Access is able to teleport at will, and can use this ability in many ways, including:
- Can teleport from the Marvel Universe to the DC Universe and vice versa
- Able to travel through time and across alternate timelines[7]
- Can teleport up to 8 people along with him
Reality Manipulation: Access can manipulate reality on a cosmic scale, which allows him to repair universes that have combined themselves by moving bits and pieces of each universe around. His presence alone can cause dimensional crossovers to occur.
- Amalgamation: Access can combine two people from different universes together to share their powers. He is also able to change them back to their normal states.[8]
Weaknesses
Notes
- Access is a fictional character owned by both DC Comics and Marvel Comics. He was intended both as a way to explain the events of the story as well as a means to enable more such crossovers in the future.
- Access appeared in two follow-up miniseries, "DC/Marvel: All Access" and "Unlimited Access".
- In the Avengers/JLA crossover, no mention is made of Access, who should logically have been involved. On the other hand, the events of JLA/Avengers have been referenced by DC comics (see Crime Syndicate); this may imply that the Access stories are no longer considered to have been part of either company's continuity. However, Access has been referenced in the Green Lantern, among other older comics. So both maybe considered canon.
- Access is briefly mentioned in a Superman/Fantastic Four #1 crossover. When Superman receives a (false) holographic message he thinks is from his father Jor-El, stating that a being from another universe, named Galactus was the one who destroyed Krypton, he flies off uttering the phrase "I need expert help to find him. I must find Access."
- Access is mentioned again by the Impossible Man in the crossover Silver Surfer / Superman #1.
- Access' first appearance was foreshadowed in the 1995 DC/Marvel comic Green Lantern/Silver Surfer: Unholy Alliances #1. The final frames of the comic show an alleyway in New York where a large cardboard box is beginning to emit powerful beams of energy.
See Also
- 13 appearance(s) of Axel Asher (Earth-616)
- 2 mention(s) of Axel Asher (Earth-616)
- 23 image(s) of Axel Asher (Earth-616)
Links and References
- Axel Asher on Wikipedia.org
- Access at the DC Database Wiki
- All Access at the DC Database Wiki
- Access at the Marvel Appendix