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Quote1 Maybe we are all just ants, waiting to be crushed by anyone more powerful? I'd like to think that it's easier to hold the ant in your hand or watch it build its hill without interfering... as it is to step on it. Power grants you the ability to stomp down, but not the right. Only courage and vision can keep your foot off that hill. I'd like to think I'm a dude with those qualities. I only wish the people who are more powerful than I am... shared them... Quote2
Genis-Vell[src]

History

Origins[]

After a falling out with Captain America, Rick Jones found himself mentally drawn to a pair of extraterrestrial golden bracelets: the Nega-Bands. Donning the bands, Rick slammed his wrists together with all his might and his atoms traded places with those of the exiled Kree, Captain Mar-Vell. Joined together, Rick and Captain Marvel lived a shared existence.[12]

During the epic Kree-Skrull War, Rick and Captain Marvel became pawns of the Kree Supreme Intelligence who unleashed the untapped psionic potential of Rick's mind - the Destiny Force - to put an end to the war.[13] Sometime later, however, tragedy struck as Captain Mar-Vell perished from incurable systemic cancer.[14]

Elysius (Earth-616) and Genis-Vell (Earth-616) from Silver Surfer Annual Vol 1 6 001

Bidding farewell to his mother

While Rick moved on with his life, Mar-Vell's love, Elysius, felt more alone than ever. Using Titanian science, Elysius sampled some of Mar-Vell's genetic structure to conceive a child: Genis. To protect him from Captain Marvel's enemies, Elysius had Genis artificially aged to maturity and then took him to an isolated world called Paraxis. There, they lived peacefully, safe from harm, with occasional visits from Eros, who Genis believed to be his father. When he was old enough, Genis left the planet and led a normal life until the day his mother told him the truth about his true lineage and gifted him the Nega-Bands worn by his father. After that, he was determined to carry on his father's heroic tradition as Legacy,[2] eventually changing to Captain Marvel.[1] Early in his tenure carrying his father's title, Elysius was killed by the villainous Syphonn.[15]

Bound to Rick Jones[]

When Rick's Destiny powers resurfaced, he became a pawn in a time-spanning conflict known as the Destiny War.[16] At the climax of the War, Captain Marvel found himself unwillingly merged with Jones, much like his father, a process which triggered his latent Cosmic Awareness.[17] During this time, while one of them remained on Earth, or Earth's dimension, the other was stuck in the Microverse (although they initially thought they were in the Negative Zone, as it had happened with Genis' father). The duo could communicate and see through each other's eyes and, to change places, the person on Earth simply had to bang the nega-bands together.[18]

Genis-Vell (Earth-616) from Genis-Vell Captain Marvel Vol 1 1 Jurgens Variant cover

Guided by Rick Jones

At first, the Cosmic Awareness proved very troublesome, as both Rick and Genis would see things before they happened, scaring all the bystanders, who were still not seeing any sort of danger,[19] but they soon realized what was happening and managed to use it for their advantage a few of times.[20] Still, Genis wasn't completely in tune with his abilities, so he accepted the help of Moondragon in handling this issue.[21] During this time, Genis also had a dream come true, after shortly meeting an alternate version of Mar-Vell and being able to hug his father for the very first time.[22]

Genis' next threat came in the form of Una and Zey-Rogg, the children of Yon-Rogg, Mar-Vell's greatest adversary and thought-to-be victim. They engaged Genis in battle, but both came out defeated, with Zey ending up with severe injuries in the Microverse and Una being taken by the Kree Bloodhounds, who hunted down any Kree women who had escaped the procedures to remove their psychic abilities.[23]

Captain Marvel Vol 4 13 Textless

Under Una-Rogg's spell

Rick's wife Marlo and Moondragon then tried to convince Genis to help Una, but he didn't feel like saving someone who had tried to kill him.[24] Nevertheless, the two did meet again, when Genis traveled to Hala to seek the Supreme Intelligence's help in restoring Rick Jones youth, after he had been prematurely aged by a death god. The moment Genis got there, he was thrown in a cell with Una-Rogg, who had already gone through the first phase of procedures and been stripped of her powers. Together, they were then sent by the Supreme Intelligence to retrieve rare radiation from a sun within the Negative Zone to heal Rick Jones. Una cheered Genis while he fought Burstarr, who then almost killed her. In the end, they managed to get what they sought, and, although Rick wasn't successfully cured, Una and Genis were allowed to leave unharmed.[25] In time, Rick regained his youth through mysterious ways.[26]

Insane[]

Now in tune with his cosmic awareness, Genis began to go insane under the strain of his powers after discovering the inherent difficulty in choosing who to help and who to let die.[27] Overwhelmed, he fell into a catatonic state that lasted a long time, while Jones remained stuck in the Microverse. When Rick finally asked him what his father would have thought, Genis snapped out of it and left to meet with the Punisher, who he asked to teach him 'discipline' and single-mindedness.[28]

Captain Marvel Vol 5 3 Textless

New Uniform

Ignoring Rick, Genis stayed with Castle for a while,[28] before venturing to the planet Toped, where he conquered its people to use them as an experiment before moving onto something on a larger scale. When the Kree arrived to conquer the planet, Genis met and killed Captain En-Vad, the man who had trained his father and who Genis blamed for everything. Genis then donned his uniform and joined the Imperial Kree Army, believing he could use them as his own personal army to aid him in spreading order.[29]

At one point, he seduced a colonel's mistress named Saria, who he came to know was pregnant (possibly with his child). When she was discovered to be a spy, the colonel ordered Genis to kill her and show his loyalty, but instead Genis killed the whole battalion present and then himself.[30]

Genis was buried beneath a grave that bore the inscription 'Here Lies Genis-Vell, Captain Marvel. Friend, Hero, Traitor. He Tried His Best.' However, before long, Genis dug free from his grave seemingly alive, encountering the spirit of his father, who he began severely beating in rage before crushing him with the aforementioned grave marker. Genis then met the cosmic being Entropy, who revealed himself to be behind Genis' insanity, claiming he was tired of waiting for the universe to die and requesting Genis' help in speeding up the process.[31]

The two succeed in destroying the universe and, by the time they were finished, only they, Rick and Entropy's sister Epiphany were left in a perfectly entropic universe. Still, Entropy was disappointment with the outcome, so Rick was able to convince Genis and Entropy to remake the universe. The remade universe was set back to months prior, when Genis was just beginning to sink into madness, and this time around Genis tried to make different choices regarding who to save, but, no matter who he picked, countless innocent people still died at some point down the line, a realization that drove Genis even more insane than before.[32] The new universe was later revealed to have suffered some temporal damage, including Genis having his Kree Navy Captain uniform and Rick being a Microverse Music Idol (both things that only happened in the previous timeline).[33][34]

Captain Marvel Vol 5 7 Textless

Fighting Thor

In his insanity, Genis, among other things: decided he was a god and should live in Asgard, picking a fight with Thor;[35] became a cosmic judge and empowered a super criminal, causing two armies to turn against him;[36] and conquered an entire planet to teach other conquerors a lesson.[37] But, at least, he finally struck a deal with Rick that would let him out of the Microverse every 24 hours.[38]

As Genis' fame spread through the galaxy, a council meeting was held between several different space-faring empires such as the Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar, and the Rigellians to decide what to do about Captain Marvel, but Genis interrupted their meeting to warn them that he was going to destroy them all to prevent them from becoming a united front and conquered the galaxy. He told them that they would have a week to get their affairs in order, but the Shi'ar countered by telling him that a representative from Titan had been called to the meeting as well, causing Genis to be surprised for the first time in forever as his mother stepped out of the shadows.[39]

Captain Marvel Vol 5 19 Textless

A hero once more

Not trusting his eyes, Genis attacked his mother and fled the scene in confusion, soon being apparently found by Epiphany, although no one but him (not even Jones) could see her. Hoping to clear things up, Genis returned to Titan to confront his mother, but found his sister Phyla instead, even though he didn't have any siblings. After a fight between the two, Genis opened a rift to get rid of Elysius and Phyla once and for all, but he and Eros were sucked as well. Finding themselves in Nth-Space, Elysius, Phyla and Eros joined forces to snap Genis out of his insanity and explained that the existence of Phyla and Elysius were more consequences of the temporal damage the new universe had suffered. Genis was then pushed to the limit by his mother and finally admitted he didn't want to be insane anymore, getting rid of his Kree costume to help him restart his life.[40]

Odyssey[]

Genis set up an office in Saturn's moon Hyperion, hoping people would have forgiven him for his behavior and would call for help, however, no one came. At least, not until the arrival of an alternate super-powered version of Marlo, who attacked Rick, Phyla and Genis before dissipating into nothing.[41] Captain Marvel then traveled to the future to investigate the situation, while Phyla was sent to the apartment of present-day Marlo to make sure she was safe. Captain Marvel arrived in the future he had predicted, where the Shi'ar, Skrull and Kree Empires had united to lay waste to Earth. Only a very small percentage of humanity remained. Captain Marvel met with his future self, as well as Ely-Vell, his and Songbird's future son, who was keeping Marlo frozen in order to prevent her from dying.[42]

Richard Jones (Earth-616) and Genis-Vell (Earth-616) from Captain Marvel Vol 5 19 001

In synch with Rick once more

Genis temporarily merged with his future self and, using his experience and skill, managed to defeat the coalition of Empires and scare them from ever returning. This made Captain Marvel a hero and a god in the eyes of the humans, who decided to build a statue in his honor. He leapt further in time, but learned the stories of his exploits had become fairy tales and only a small following led by Ely still worshiped him. Captain Marvel unsuccessfully questioned him for information about Marlo, and then switched places with Rick Jones who did some questioning of his own. However, Ely revealed some new powers and launched Rick into the future without the Nega-bands, although still maintaining his connection to Captain Marvel.[43]

There, they used Genis' bands to find Ely, who was revealed to be working for Magus together with the future Marlo. Ely gave Jones his Nega-Bands back and forcibly summoned Captain Marvel before attacking him by using Phyla's Nega-Bands. Ely revealed that the force created by their fight would free Magus from the limbo in which he was trapped, so Captain Marvel refused to fight him. Still, his son was unwilling to stop, so Genis was forced to kill him as an infant and erase this version from existence. A grief-stricken Captain Marvel then returned to the present.[44]

After all of this, the cosmic beings Eulogy and Expediency separated Genis from Rick to wrap things up.[45]

Thunderbolts[]

Thunderbolts Vol 1 100 Textless

Genis fighting Zemo

Knowing that Songbird was his future wife and mother of his children,[46] Genis paid her a visit when her team, the Thunderbolts, was in dire need of help. After the dust settled, however, her teammate Atlas beat Genis to death over his flirtation with her.[47] Helmut Zemo then used a pair of moonstones to create a cocoon around Genis to help him recover, but accidentally took energy from the end of time, damaging the fabric of reality.[48][8]

Genis did recover, displaying a remarkably different appearance and use of his powers. He renamed himself Photon when he joined the Thunderbolts, causing a slight quarrel with Monica Rambeau, who also called herself "Photon" and had already ceded the "Captain Marvel" name to Genis years before, but the two heroes worked things out.[49]

Eventually, both Genis and Zemo realized what had happened during Genis' recovery and that Genis would likely cause the end of the universe, but, unlike Genis, Zemo didn't think Genis could do anything to prevent it, embarking on a quest to end his life and save all of reality. Photon and Zemo fought over this subject and Zemo came on top, using the moonstones to scatter pieces of him across the Darkforce Dimension so that they could never be rejoined.[48][8]

Back in Action[]

Years later, Vox Supreme and his head scientist Ren-Varr realized that Marlo had Genis-Vell's molecules mingled with hers, after once teleporting alongside Rick with the Nega-Bands. Determined to recreate Genis, they captured Marlo and subjected her to experiments that allowed them to succeed in their plans. What they didn't expect was that Marlo was bonded with Lady Death at the time and thus they found themselves in the possession of a powerful cosmic entity.[50]

Captain Marvel Vol 10 33 Teaser Variant Textless

Back in style among the living

In the meantime, Genis was released by the combined efforts of Carol Danvers and an alternate reality Phyla-Vell. He had no memory, not even remembering who he was, but he followed his heroic instinct and joined forces with several heroes to defeat Vox and his army.[51] Still, Marlo remained at the mercy of Ren-Varr.[52]

Genis traveled to HalvaCenter hoping to relearn his own history. There, he met a psionic alien named Symon, who told him his memories were simply inaccessible and therefore easily retrievable. He went through a telepathic procedure that did indeed help him remember everything, but was taken by Boss Bragg, an old enemy of his, while recovering unconscious.[10]

Genis fought Bragg and his thugs, unleashing his full powers for the first time since coming back. After demolishing everything around him, Genis was taken by the skrull Jazinda, disguised as Thanos, who then told him she needed his help to rescue Death.[53]

At the same time, Rick Jones was fading from reality and thus went looking for his Nega-Bands. When he banged them together, he didn't notice any difference, but, light-years away, Genis gained more control over his powers and managed to hold himself against a Badoon ship. In addition to this, the alternate Phyla felt the whole thing and decided to meet Rick so she could reunite him to Genis.[54]

They all met in New Hala, where Marlo (and Death) was being held, and, in order to attain full control over their bodies, Genis and Rick bonded once more. When they finally freed them, Rick noticed a deep sorrow in Death and came to the conclusion that she was tired of her job. Feeling she owed Death for reviving her years before, Marlo decided to take over Death's job, leaving a heartbroken Rick to travel the cosmos alone with Genis once again.[55]

Attributes

Power Grid[65]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Multiple Types:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Virtually Indestructible:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Warp:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (25-75 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Omniscient:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Genis-Vell possessed latent power potential thanks to his unique inheritance. Being the offspring of a genetically-enhanced Kree Super-soldier, backed by vast cosmological bolstering and a genetically engineered Titan:[2]

  • Super-Humanoid Strength: Thanks to his unique hybrid nature Genis possesses enough strength to lift at leats 30 tons with an unknown upper limit.[56]
  • Super-Humanoid Durability[56]
  • Super-Humanoid Speed: Genis-Vell's speed and maneuvering abilities were impressively high. By focusing on a distant star, he could accelerate beyond light-speed (taking the necessary cosmical cautions to avoid time-traveling).[57]
  • Stellar Energy Metabolics: Genis-Vell could absorb and metabolize stellar energy, which gave him all sorts of phenomenal cosmic power that had to be regulated by the use of Nega-Bands.[10]
  • Flight[58]
  • Illusion Casting: By bending light with his abilities, Genis could project 3-D holographic images of himself into reality.[59][60]
  • Force Fields: Genis can use his light-manipulation abilities to generate a force field around him.[61]
  • Cosmic Awareness: After being Genis physically and mentally bonded to Rick Jones, Genis' latent Cosmic Awareness was activated,[17] granting him a sort of omnipresent consciousness that enabled him to perceive objects, individuals, and cosmic threats or anything of significance to him anywhere, even if they were cloaked by invisibility or illusion.[27][52]

Weaknesses

  • Despite being able to survive in the vacuum of space,[10] Genis can't survive underwater, as his powers only protect him in places with no oxygen.[62]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Weapons

Genis used to carry energy pistol of Kree design.[63]

Notes

  • Despite having been drawn by Joe Phillips in his first appearance, Genis-Vell was actually created by Ron Lim, as mentioned in the credits page of that same issue.

Trivia

  • Genis' name is a reference to genus, a level of scientific classification for all life forms.

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Captain Marvel (Vol. 3) #4
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Silver Surfer Annual #6
  3. New Thunderbolts #6
  4. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #0
  5. New Thunderbolts #15
  6. New Thunderbolts #12
  7. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #3
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Thunderbolts #100
  9. Captain Marvel (Vol. 10) #33
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #1
  11. 11.0 11.1 Captain Marvel (Vol. 11) #1
  12. Captain Marvel #17
  13. Avengers #8997
  14. Death of Captain Marvel #1
  15. Warlock (Vol. 4) #12
  16. Avengers: Forever #12
  17. 17.0 17.1 Avengers: Forever #12
  18. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #56
  19. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #01
  20. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #23
  21. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #410
  22. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #11
  23. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #1213
  24. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #15
  25. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #2225
  26. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #2627
  27. 27.0 27.1 Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #1
  28. 28.0 28.1 Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #2
  29. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #3
  30. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #4
  31. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #5
  32. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #6
  33. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #14
  34. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #18
  35. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #78
  36. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #912
  37. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #13
  38. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #11
  39. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #15
  40. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #1618
  41. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #19
  42. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #20
  43. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #2023
  44. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #2324
  45. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #25
  46. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #19
  47. New Thunderbolts #1
  48. 48.0 48.1 New Thunderbolts #18
  49. New Thunderbolts #59
  50. Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #24
  51. Captain Marvel (Vol. 10) #3536
  52. 52.0 52.1 Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #2
  53. Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #12
  54. Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #13
  55. Genis-Vell: Captain Marvel #5
  56. 56.0 56.1 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #9
  57. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #22
  58. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #1
  59. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #21
  60. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #16
  61. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #24
  62. Captain Marvel (Vol. 4) #2
  63. Captain Marvel (Vol. 5) #418
  64. All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #8
  65. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 9
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