History
Origins[]
The alien being who became known as the Impossible Man was born on the planet Poppup and is a member of the Poppupian race. Living on a world fraught with danger the Poppupians evolved into a state where they could instantly transform into anything their imagination could create.[7] The race also developed into a collective species, with a group mind[9] and that their collective memories and genetic history could be preserved so long as only one of their race endured.[10] By the Impossible Man's accounts the people of Poppup had no names because they "knew who they were".[7]
Soon enough the Poppupians grew bored with living on their own planet and one of their number left the planet Poppup to find an ideal vacation spot to entertain them. This Poppupian eventually landed on Earth for the first time shortly after the birth of the Fantastic Four. The alien then began causing trouble in New York City, due to his prank behavior and his inability to fully understand Earth culture, however this alien relished the entire experience. Soon the Fantastic Four were called in to clash with the alien, who gave them chase across town. During the battle, the Fantastic Four's Thing called the alien "impossible" and he became commonly referred to as the Impossible Man ever since.[7]
While the Fantastic Four were giving the Impossible Man chase, both he and the heroes were pulled forward in time a number of years in the future by Dr. Yesterday,[11] a super-villain trying to destroy all time because he himself was dying of cancer.[12] Impossible crossed paths with the novice hero Turbo of the New Warriors and was instantly smitten by her. While the Fantastic Four were led back into their own era,[13] the Impossible Man stayed in the present following Turbo as she tried to assess the situation. They tracked down Dr. Yesterday who had the other New Warriors prisoner and attacked, but Dr. Yesterday was too powerful.[12] However the pair kept Dr. Yesterday distracted enough that Turbo's teammates Speedball, Rage, and Slapstick could break free. Speedball combined his kinetic powers with Dr. Yesterday's chronal energy to show him that he wasn't destined to die and Dr. Yesterday reversed his attack, restoring time to normal and leaving to seek a cure in the future. With Dr. Yesterday gone, the Impossible Man was shunted back to his proper place in time.[14]
The Impossible Man continued to run amok across New York City until the Fantastic Four's leader Mr. Fantastic realized that the Impossible Man craved attention. He convinced the entire population of New York to simply ignore the Impossible Man and sure enough the impish alien soon grew bored and left the Earth, vowing never to come back again.[7] However, the Impossible Man's fascination with Earth would prompt him to come back again and again over the years.
Living with the Fantastic Four[]
The Impossible Man stayed away from Earth for a few years. However he was contacted by the High Evolutionary and the Fantastic Four when the Evolutionary's world of Counter-Earth was threatened with consumption by the world devouring Galactus. Needing to find a suitable alternate world for Galactus to consume, the Impossible Man offered up his own planet of Poppup to be eaten. However when Galactus consumed the world and its population it caused digestive problems that seemingly slew the world devourer. With no homeworld of his own, and his interest in the planet Earth renewed, the Impossible Man invited himself to return home with the Fantastic Four.[9] However soon back on Earth the Impossible Man soon grew bored of hanging out with the Fantastic Four while they were trying to get back to their Baxter Building headquarters and decided to go seek amusement elsewhere. He happened upon the offices of Marvel Comics and learning how superheroes have their own comic books, demanded editor Stan Lee give him his own comic book series. When Stan refused, the Impossible Man went on a rampage across the office. When the Fantastic Four came more carnage ensued until Reed Richards convinced Stan to write a comic book series about the Impossible Man, Stan then lied to the Impossible Man staying that he would.[15] Reed found some instant use for the Impossible Man, by having him pose as the President of the United States in order to thwart Mentallo and the Fixer from using the Deathlok cyborg to assassinate the president.[16]
The Impossible Man then helped the Fantastic Four get to their headquarters quickly when Reed spotted an advertisement in the newspaper put in by the Frightful Four to recruit a new member.[15] While the Fantastic Four battled their foes, the Impossible Man became distracted when he discovered and instantly fell in love with television. While the Impossible Man was indisposed, the Fantastic Four were captured and the Frightful Four began their recruitment, ultimately settling on the Brute, a counterpart of Reed Richards from Counter-Earth.[17] When the Frightful Four made an ultimatum to the mayor of New York it caused an interruption the television broadcast. Oblivious to what was happening the Impossible Man then tried to boost the signal with more electricity, blowing all the power in the Baxter Building allowing the Fantastic Four to break free from their restrains. Although the Frightful Four were defeated, the Brute sent Mr. Fantastic through the portal to the Negative Zone and took his place.[18] The Impossible Man then went back to watching television with the Thing and Human Torch and their guests Tigra and Thundra until the four were pulled away from the television to stop the Mad Thinker's Metalloid robot.[19] When the quartet defeated the Metalloid and it ended up in New York Harbor, the Impossible Man used his unique powers to help pull it out of the water.[20] Impossible Man joined the group back to the Baxter Building but were sent back out by Reed to investigate why the Metalloid was robbing a bank.[21] When the Invisible Girl properly deduced that the Brute was posing as her husband, he attempted to kill her by throwing her out of the Baxter Building. The Impossible Man was convinced to save her. Having grown tired of being pushed around the Impossible Man stormed off in the middle of the battle, leaving the Fantastic Four to stop the Brute by themselves. Ultimately the Brute was sent into the Negative Zone and the real Reed Richards returned to the group.[22]
The Impossible Man soon returned after the danger was over, but promptly left again when the Thing explained to him that movies were bigger and better version of television.[23] After seeing the film "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre" the Impossible Man returned to the Baxter Building to tell his friends about it only to find them gone on a mission and promptly started watching television again.[24] It was while he was watching television that the Impossible Man was ambushed by Klaw and the Molecule Man.[25] The Fantastic Four returned home and revived the Impossible Man. Impy helped the Fantastic Four fight the two foes, trying to prevent the Molecule Man from reaching Reed's Psi-Am device and be able to restore his original body. However, while the Impossible Man was busy fighting Klaw, the Molecule Man made a break for the Psi-Am. However when Reed Richards disabled the device, the Molecule Man took possession of his body instead.[26] The Impossible Man then helped the Fantastic Four battle the Molecule Man possessed Mr. Fantastic. When the Impossible Man proved ineffectual in the battle he was asked to leave and he did. Ultimately, the Fantastic Four freed their leader and defeated the Molecule Man.[27]
The Impossible Man soon found his way to Hollywood, where he interrupted a film shoot of a film based on Henry VIII at Imperial Studios, during a period that Susan Richards was pursuing a career in acting during a time when the Fantastic Four had split up.[28] The Impossible Man proved to be the typical pain, interrupting shootings across the set.[29] Eventually, Sue got fed up with the Impossible Man constantly interrupting her attempts to contact her husband and angrily told him to leave her alone. Insulted, the Impossible Man left Hollywood to find fun elsewhere.[30]
The Impossible Family[]
Eventually, the Impossible Man returned to New York and came to visit his favorite member of the Fantastic Four: The Thing. The Impossible Man's arrival coincided with an art exhibit put on by Ben's girlfriend Alicia Masters. The Thing grudgingly agreed to allow the Impossible Man to tag along as long as he stayed disguised as a top hat on his head. The Impossible Man just barely stopped making his usual brand of mischief, but also deflected a prank attack launched on the Thing by his rivals the Yancy Street Gang. The art exhibit was crashed by old Fantastic Four foes the Terrible Trio who sought revenge against the Thing for putting them in jail years earlier. Impy helped capture the last of the Terrible Trio, Yogi Takor who was using his mystical powers to allow his teammates spirits possess the statues. In the aftermath of the battle the Impossible Man was intrigued by the love between the Thing and Alicia Masters and decided to create a female clone of himself, dubbed the Impossible Woman. The pair then left Earth to find a world of their own to live on.[32]
The Impossible Man and his wife the Impossible Woman then made a number of Impossible Kids. However being incapable of finding a new world to live on, they returned to Earth to seek the aid of the Fantastic Four. They arrived at the Baxter Building where they found the Thing babysitting his godson Franklin Richards. While Franklin and the Thing kept the Impossible Children occupied Impy and his wife managed to find a suitable world and took his family to another world.[33] Not long after this, the Impossible Man and his wife got into an argument and she ran away to Earth. Unable to find her, the Impossible Man sought out the aid of Spider-Woman who was a San Francisco private detective at the time. Although the Impossible Man got under foot, he did assist Spider-Woman in capturing a number of average crooks while searching for the Impossible Woman. Unable to find her they returned to Spider-Woman's office to find that that Impossible Woman was hiding there the whole time, and that Spider-Woman's assistant Lindsay McCabe convinced the Impossible Woman to work out the problems she was having with her husband.[34]
However because the Impossible Man made his wife and children slightly different than himself they soon came to argue against who was best to lead them. When a democratic election utterly failed they all agreed on going on a intergalactic scavenger hunt to see who could obtain the most unique collection of items. The Impossible Man went to the planet he was most familiar with: Earth and started stealing items there. One of the first items stolen was the X-Mansion, home to the mutant heroes known as the X-Men. This led the X-Men to chase the Impossible Man to get back their home while the Impossible Man continued on his hunt. He also succeeded in stealing the eye-patch worn by SHIELD director Nick Fury, Ka-Zar's pet sabretooth tiger Zabu, the Wasp's costume collection, the Sigil window from Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum, the costume formerly worn by the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, the Fantastic Four's Fantasti-Car, Iron Man's first suit of armor, the Hulk's pants, among other items.[36] Trying to add Marvel Comics' own Stan Lee to his collection, the Impossible Man ran amok in the Marvel Comics offices where he learned that Stan now lived in Hollywood. However before he could go he was subdued by the X-Men who forced him to take them to his collection of stolen goods. There they were stopped by a council of various alien races who demanded restitution for the damages caused by the Impossible Family while on their intergalactic scavenger hunt. However, the X-Men's ally, Shi'ar Empress Lilandra convinced the aliens to allow her to judge who the winner was on the condition that the Impossible Man and his people returned everything they took. The aliens agreed and Lilandra ultimately chose another one of the Impossible Family's collections, bringing the Impossible Man to tears.[35]
Going Solo[]
The Impossible Man then went through a brief period away from his family. Having had fun with the X-Men in his last trip to Earth, the Impossible Man returned to the X-Mansion again only to find that the X-Men were away on a mission and only their young students the New Mutants in attendance. When the New Mutants showed no interest in playing his games, he issued a challenge which the New Mutant's alien teammate, the Technarch known as Warlock accepted. The two then got caught up in a shape-shifting battle that took them across the world where they caused damage to the Hudson River water front in New York, the beaches of Rio De Janeiro, London England, Moscow Russia, and Tokyo Japan. It was in Japan that the New Mutants deduced a way that their teammate could defeat the Impossible Man. Warlock then proved that he was the superior shape-changer by being able to change colors, an ability that the Impossible Man was incapable of replicating. The Impossible Man was a sore loser but accepted his defeat and left Earth once again.[37]
In space he caused trouble for the queen of the Ergonar race who sent a fleet of her greatest soldiers after the Impossible Man. Fleeing from the warships, the Impossible Man crossed paths with the Silver Surfer. He could not help but to play pranks on the stern and serious surfer. However when the Ergonar caught up and demanded that the Impossible Man be handed over for execution, the Surfer was duty bound to protect the Impossible Man's life. He disabled the Ergonar ship and convinced them to let the Impossible Man go if he repaired the damages done and promised not to bother the Ergonar again. They agreed and the Surfer undid the damage done. However, wanting to prove a point to the Impossible Man, the Surfer then put the scare into him by disguising himself as the leader of the Ergonar fleet. The Impossible Man then promised to the Surfer that he would not cause trouble again. However as the Surfer flew away, he was unaware that the Impossible Man had his fingers crossed.[38] The Impossible Man then secretly followed the Silver Surfer,[39] and witnessed the rebirth of Thanos[40] and how easily Thanos manipulated the Surfer.[41] When the Surfer went to the moon of Titan to learn more about his foe, the Impossible Man intercepted the Surfer and began playing his usual tricks to try and show the Surfer that he needed to develop a sense of humor in order to be able to defeat Thanos -- someone the Impossible Man pointed out was much more humorless than that Surfer himself. Convinced that he had taught the Surfer at least a rudimentary understanding of humor, the Impossible Man departed to find amusement elsewhere.[39]
Summer Vacation[]
The Impossible Man later returned to his homeworld where it appeared as though his family decided to let him lead them. He then decided to take his family of over 4000 children to the planet Earth for a summer vacation. Upon arriving on Earth, the Impossible Man decided to pay a visit to his old friends the Fantastic Four and stopped by their new headquarters the Four Freedoms Plaza, only to find that they weren't home at the time. Finding a photography book on the hero Spider-Man, the Impossible Man decided to have fun with that hero instead, interrupting Spider-Man's stake out for some illegal ivory importers. After playfully posing as a number of Spider-Man's various foes, the Impossible Man gave himself away when he couldn't replicate the colors of his foes. When he offered to help Spider-Man in his stakeout, the hero fled. Impy next paid a visit to Dr. Strange with Ralf, the Impossible Dog running amok in his Sanctum Sanctorum and finding a small kinsmanship with Strange's student Rintrah over their mutual appreciation for Earth films. The Impossible Man refused to leave until Dr. Strange was able to second guess what shapes he was going to assume next, making the Impossible Man grow bored and leave. Impy next caused trouble of the vigilante known as the Punisher by taking the shape of his gun while he was trying to eliminate a gang of drug dealers. Although the Punisher managed to kill the dope pushes, the Impossible Man got the last laugh by turning into a pie and hitting the Punisher in the face before fleeing. The Impossible Man then reunited with his family for a trip to Dizzy World where the family caused chaos all over the park. With their vacation time up, the Impossible Family then left Earth and took a pit stop on the Skrull world of Satriani where the Impossible Man tormented Empress S'Byll and her subjects with his family's vacation slides.[4]
Back home the Impossible Man then had his children write essays on their summer vacation when he notices that one of his children, #4682, had gotten lost while they were on Earth. The Impossible Man then rushed back to his favorite planet to try and find his missing son. He first stopped on the Blue Area of the Moon where he pestered the Watcher to tell him where his son might be. Fed up with the Impossible Man's antics, the Watcher suggested that he try the Microverse. There the Impossible Man crossed paths with the Psycho-Man who was recovering from mental trauma from his last encounter with the Fantastic Four. After providing brief counselling from the disturbed villain, the Impossible Man returned to Earth appearing in the laboratory of Henry Pym. When he tried to convince Pym to help him on his quest, the former hero instead dumped the Impossible Man in a trash can and walked away. Having no luck finding his son, the Impossible Man crossed paths with the Asgardian thunder god Thor and was inspired to search Asgard for his son. There he caused trouble of Heimdall and the Warriors Three and the entire Asgardian army before Queen Frigga stopped her people and delivered the Impossible Man an much needed spanking.[5] Returning to Earth, the Impossible Man tried looking for his son in Hell's Kitchen. There he encountered Daredevil, interrupting his one-on-one battle with the Kingpin. Daredevil sent the Impossible Man on a seemingly "impossible" mission to find the contestants for the Miss Universe pageant. When the Kingpin cheated in their fight, the Impossible Man came to Daredevil's rescue. After saving Daredevil's life he left to continue looking for his son, leaving Daredevil to deal with the disgruntled Miss Universe contestants.[42] Impossible Man found that his wife and other children had returned to Earth as well, adopting a Skrull named Samuel along the way. Together they finally found #4682 who had started his own rock-and-roll band: Impy and the Wimpy Gimps. After running amok at the concert (briefly encountering the hero known as Speedball) the Impossible Family decided to take their son's musical talent on the road as part of an intergalactic music tour and left Earth once again.[5]
Back to Basics[]
The Impossible Man then left his family again to return to his usual prankster behavior on Earth. First he appeared at the Bar With No Name where he disguised himself as an ace of spades making it appear as though the Ringmaster had cheated in a card game, causing a huge brawl in the bar that was stopped by Angar the Screamer the bars bouncer.[44] The Impossible Man later found a wedding invitation for the Hulk's friends Rick Jones and Marlo Chandler and feeling left out believed that others would feel the same was as well[45], sending the invitation out to various super-villains causing chaos and confusion at the wedding day.[46] The Impossible Man ended up in the Jones wedding album.[47] Some time later, the Impossible Man had found that some of his children had grown up to be Impossible Teens with almost no motivation. Seeking help, the Impossible Man tracked down Cable and his team of mutant mercenaries X-Force while they were on vacation on the island of Kali-Kali. Cable and his team refused to help sending the Impossible Man away, but kept on pestering them until Cable finally agreed to help. However their attempts to inspire the Impossible Teens proved fruitless until the giant beast known as the Kalinator attacked the island. The Teens were inspired to do something when their father was hurt and helped Cable and X-Force stop the creature. Afterwards the Impossible Teens took on images similar to Cable and left with the Impossible Man to go defend the universe.[8]
The Impossible Man's powers required him to enter a dimensional void whenever he changed shape or teleported and soon discovered Mr. Mxyzptlk another fellow trickster and resident of a distant cosmos. The two agreed to play a game to attack a champion of the others to see how long it would take for that hero to mistake one for the other. In order to do so, the two tricksters needed to use their powers in unison to transport their respective heroes to the opposite universe. The Impossible Man was tasked into tricking Superman into thinking that he was Mr. Mxyzptlk. With the help of Mxyzptlk's magical powers the Impossible Man was able to disguise himself as the Super-Skrull and made the planet Bridoon appear to be his native Krypton. While the Silver Surfer was pulled into Mr. Mxyzptlk's universe where he and the city of Metropolis was trapped in a bottle within Superman's Fortress of Solitude. When Superman believed that the "Super-Skrull" was really his old foe Mr. Mxyzptlk, the Impossible Man revealed the truth and when they returned to Superman's universe they found that Mr. Mxyzptlk refused to abide by their original rules. The Impossible Man then defeated Mxyzptlk and both Superman and the Silver Surfer restored Metropolis to normal and saved the people of Bridoon from a Skrull invasion. With the crisis over, Superman returned to his native universe and the Surfer flew away, leaving the Impossible Man and Mxyzptlk to duke it out.[43]
Eventually the Impossible Man and Impossible Women's children left home. Unwilling to deal with the loss they tried to create new children. This new batch was meaner and more inclined to destruction and immediately went to Earth and started causing havoc in New York City. While the Fantastic Four were busy dealing with the crisis, the Impossible Man and his wife kidnapped their children Franklin and Valeria to try and cope with the loss of their children.[48] With the help of Marvel Comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa they defeated the new breed of meaner Impossible Children eventually found the Impossible Man and Impossible Woman and helped them deal with their loss. Reed Richards than gave Impossible Man a device that would allow him to find his family anywhere across the multiverse.[49] The Impossible Man later contracted the hiccups which caused him to change shapes out of control. Seeking the Fantastic Four's help, the Impossible Man returned to Earth where he caused much damage to the the ancient village of Shemballa until the Thing was able to frighten him out of the hiccups. After he was cured of his condition, the Impossible Man was later invited to the Thing's Bar Mitzvah.[50] When the Impossible Man returned to Earth once again it was in the aftermath of the super-hero Civil War. Learning that it tore the Fantastic Four apart, he sought out the Avengers. He then learned about various other changes that occurred while he was gone. Furious, he blamed Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee and sought him out for answers. Going to the Marvel Comics office, editor-in-chief Joe Quesada informed the Impossible Man that Stan was in Hollywood. There he finally confronted Stan Lee at the Ivy. There Stan Lee convinced the Impossible Man that change is always good.[1] The Impossible Man next returned to Earth when it was about to be menaced by the H'Mojen who merged with a planet's population to create a fusion race before moving on to another world. Seeking out the Fantastic Four, the Impossible Man found Spider-Man instead and enlisted his help. However when they attempted to stop the the H'Mojen's Imperator, the Impossible Man was seemingly incinerated.[2] However, Spider-Man inhaled some of the smoke from the Impossible Man's seeming destruction which continued to grow inside him while Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four tried to stop the H'Mojen invasion of Earth[51] until Spider-Man finally keeled over and began to throw up.[52] What Spider-Man vomited was the reconstituting form the Impossible Man. Apparently the last of his race at that time his near death caused his long dormant hive mind to activate turning him into a massive "Body Conglomerate", which began attacking the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man and the Imperator and then began separating the H'Mojen from human hosts, killing the H'Mojen. With the heroes seeking to stop the H'Mojin without killing them, and stopping the newly forming Poppupian race from overpopulating the Earth, the made a deal with the Imperator to allow the H'Mojin to possess the Poppupians. Now in seemingly inexhaustible bodies, the Poppupian/H'Mojin hybrids left Earth for a habitable world of their own. This was not the last of the Impossible Man either, as some where in New York City a stray cat hacked up a hairball, which reformed into the Impossible Man.[10]Impossible Man then got into a partnership with the assassin known as Arcade who claimed to have gone straight and opened up Arcade Toys. Arcade convinced the Impossible Man to providing portions of his own body mass to help create a new line of licensed Impossible Man toys. The Arcade Toys toy store in New York had a product launch party with the Human Torch, his nephew Franklin and the Fantastic Four's ward Leech present. As it turned out, Arcade hadn't turned over a new leaf at all and used the Impossible Man inspired toys to attack the Human Torch. Realizing that he had been duped, the Impossible Man helped the Torch and Franklin destroy all the rampaging toys. Impossible Man then promised the Torch to hold Arcade until the authorities arrived.[53]
The Impossible Man later assisted the Fantastic Four during the so-called Chaos War, pitting his powers against the rogue Japanese god Amatsu-Mikaboshi the so-called Chaos King. The Impossible Man proved to be no match for Amatsu-Mikaboshi's power and was seemingly slain once again by seemingly being unravelled into nothingness.[54] The Impossible Man survived and returned to Earth as a correspondent for the "galactic consortium" whose members sought to defeat the Hulk. Using a teleporter, they sent Woodgod to fight the Hulk, but he erroneously attacked Hulk's opposite the Red Hulk. The green Hulk came to the red's assistance and their true attacker revealed himself: Xemnu the Titan who sought to reclaim the title of "The Hulk" by defeating his old foe.[55] The Impossible Man tried to help the two Hulks defeat Xemnu and his horde by using Valizian Compounder to temporarily merge both Hulks into one composite being. The two Hulks were forced to work together and vanquished Xemnu's creation Kluh and drove Xemnu back. With the battle over, the Impossible Man restored both Hulks to normal and returned to space.[56]
Sometime later, members of the Future Foundation were attempting to locate the Fantastic Four who were lost in time and space. Their attempt to travel through time to find their missing colleagues was intercepted by the Impossible Man who transported them to his world. There he offered to give them information regarding the Fantastic Four in exchange for them taking his son Adolf Impossible and educate the unusually intelligent Impossible Kid. They were convinced to accept Adolf and convinced the reclusive boy into joining them back to New York. Before they left, the Impossible Man informed the FF that the Fantastic Four were currently beyond their reach, as they were currently in a parallel dimension and warned them to be ready when they did return to avert a coming danger.[6] This threat came in the form of long time Fantastic Four foe Dr. Doom, Kid Immortus, Teen Annihilus, and Ravonna. The Impossible Man came to the Future Foundation's rescue teleporting the group and their youthful charges to the Watcher's citadel on the moon for their safety.[57] Ultimately the Fantastic Four returned and Dr. Doom was vanquished. Later the Impossible Man joined the Fantastic Four and their allies for a party on the moon.[58][59] The Impossible Man was most recently seen causing havoc across the multiverse by using Kree Zen-Facist Yoga text in the Dark Dimension threatening to destroy all existence. This plan was thwarted by Dr. Strange and the Beast.[60]Attributes
Powers
- Omnifarious: The Impossible Man, like all Poppupians, has the ability to rearrange the molecules of his body at will into any form he chooses. He can simulate some of the abilities and functions of the object or living being he imitates, depending on what that object or being is. For example, He can become a working electric fan, water hose, or jet-propelled engine (although they empower these objects by their own molecular energies rather than by electricity, water, or jet fuel). However, if he imitates an object such as Thor's enchanted uru hammer, Captain America's vibranium-adamantium shield, or the Silver Surfer's cosmic surfboard, he can only take on the appearance of said objects, and not their special properties. The degree to which he can imitate the superhuman powers of other beings is unknown.
- The Impossible Man can even separate himself into various parts in changing form, such as when he becomes a large number of flowers, or when he becomes a bag of water, which then spills its contents. He retains his full consciousness in whatever form he takes, and can control all the parts into which he divides, and reassemble them into his own single, natural form.
- The Impossible Man can temporarily discard unnecessary molecules of his bodies when imitating objects or beings of considerably less mass than his own: a fountain pen or a hat, for example. (He customarily disperses his spare molecules over a large enough area that they cannot be discerned, and regains them on returning to his original form.) He can also draw additional molecules from an undisclosed, perhaps extradimensional, source to increase his size. In order to clone the Impossible Woman from his own body, for example, the Impossible Man had to draw enough additional molecules to create a being from himself who had the same amount of mass as he did. There are apparently limits to the amount of mass that he can temporarily add to his own at any one time. It has been theorized that the Impossible Man employed technology to help him impersonate the gigantic Galactus on one occasion. (It is also theorized that he employed technology to teleport many of the items,' some of them enormous, that he gathered in his "scavenger hunt" to different locations.)
- The Impossible Man's transformations occur within a fraction of a second, and are accompanied by a "pop" sound.
- The Impossible Man and Impossible Woman can travel through hyperspace by transforming themselves into an imitation of a starship. They can survive in the vacuum of space for months without food, water, or oxygen by inducing in themselves a low metabolic state similar to hibernation. (During that time, if they are in starship form, their subconscious will guide them to their destination.)
- Levitation: The Impossible Man can psionically levitate himself in any of his forms.
- Serial Reproduction: Like all Poppupians, the Impossible Man reproduces by dividing himself into two identical beings. This is a form of cloning, involving a mitosis-like process undergone by all the cells of his body.
Abilities
- Self-Molecular Manipulation: Impossible Man has total control over his own molecules and can manipulate his molecular structure.
- Molecular Adjustment: Impossible Man has full control over his molecules which allowed him to fight Molecule Man and resist his powers.
Trivia
- In DC Comics' Superman Vol 2 50, super-villain Mr. Mxyzptlk comments that in another universe he is "having fun with [his] new fantastic friends," of which he later mentions there are four. He also shape-shifts into an appearance similar to Impossible Man's.
See Also
- 56 appearance(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 14 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 8 minor appearance(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 9 mention(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 60 image(s) of Impossible Man (Earth-616)
- 6 quotation(s) by or about Impossible Man (Earth-616)
Links and References
- Impossible Man on Marvel.com
- Fantastic Four #11 (Feb 1963) - First Appearance
- Marvel Directory
References
- ↑ As revealed in Fantastic Four #11, Poppupians don't have names because they know who they are.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange #1
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #1
- ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #86
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Impossible Man Summer Vacation #1
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Impossible Man Summer Vacation #2
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 FF (Vol. 2) #11
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 Fantastic Four #11
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 X-Force and Cable '95 #1
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Fantastic Four #175
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #4
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #160
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Marvel Comics Presents #162
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #161
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #163
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Fantastic Four #176
- ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #27. This story depicts the Impossible Man posing as President Gerald Ford, however as per the Sliding Timescale of Earth-616 this should be considered a topical reference relative to the time this issue was published.
- ↑ Fantastic Four #177
- ↑ Fantastic Four #178
- ↑ Fantastic Four #179
- ↑ Fantastic Four #181
- ↑ Fantastic Four #182
- ↑ Fantastic Four #183
- ↑ Fantastic Four #184
- ↑ Fantastic Four #185
- ↑ Fantastic Four #186
- ↑ Fantastic Four #187
- ↑ Fantastic Four #188
- ↑ Fantastic Four #193
- ↑ Fantastic Four #194
- ↑ Fantastic Four #195
- ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #60
- ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #60, In 4 #24 Marvel Comics writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa finds a Fantastic Four authorized comic book that depicts the Impossible Man as discovering the Thing and Alicia's love for one another after spying on them while on a date at Central Park and creating the Impossible Woman there. This should is clearly based on the actual events depicted in Marvel Two-In-One #60, but not an accurate depiction of those events
- ↑ Marvel Two-In-One #86. 4 #24 states that Impossible Man and Impossible Woman were inspired by Reed and Sue's two children Franklin and Valeria. However, this is likely inspired on true events as Valeria Richards initially stillborn in Fantastic Four #268 and not brought to live until Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #50.
- ↑ Spider-Woman #45
- ↑ 35.0 35.1 X-Men Annual #7
- ↑ Which included the massive key that stands outside of Superman's Fortress of Solitude, the giant penny from Batman's Batcave, and the Millennium Falcon
- ↑ 37.0 37.1 New Mutants Annual #3
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #33
- ↑ 39.0 39.1 Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #36
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #34
- ↑ Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #35
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #91
- ↑ 43.0 43.1 Silver Surfer / Superman #1
- ↑ Marvel Comics Presents #97
- ↑ Incredible Hulk #417
- ↑ Incredible Hulk #418
- ↑ Incredible Hulk Annual #20
- ↑ 4 #23
- ↑ 4 #24
- ↑ Thing (Vol. 2) #8
- ↑ Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #2
- ↑ Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #3
- ↑ Fantastic Four #580
- ↑ 54.0 54.1 Chaos War: Chaos King #1
- ↑ When Xemnu first appeared in Journey Into Mystery #62 he was originally referred to as "The Hulk"
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 2) #30
- ↑ FF (Vol. 2) #13
- ↑ Fantastic Four (Vol. 4) #16
- ↑ FF (Vol. 2) #16
- ↑ A + X #15
- ↑ [citation needed]
- ↑ All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z: Update Vol 1 1