History
Nick Collins was the pre-teen son of Michael Collins,[6][7] a software programmer from Philadelphia,[7] and his wife Tracy,[6] who studied for a PhD.[6] Jokingly, Michael said that they had had Nick so that the latter would wash the dishes for them. The family lived with their cat[2] Pascal[5] in a suburban house in Paterson, New Jersey, because Michael worked at a company based there, Cybertek Systems,[7][2] but they often visited Coney Island - Michael taught Nick how to swim there.[8] Nick attended to the Paterson Elementary School[9] and occasionally missed his homework because of his fondness for videogame, which had led him to stay awake overnight more than once.[2] Nick's skills with computers also allowed him to enter cyberspace.[8]
Some other employees at Cybertek captured Michael and transplanted his brain into Deathlok, a powerful but hideous military cyborg. Michael's brain obtained control of the body but, when he tried to return home, Tracy was unable to recognize him and, taking him for a monster, chased him away.[2][7] At that time, Nick enjoyed the videogame HeroQuest with customizable player characters, and Michael hacked into Nick's game to try and teach him moral values, especially the value of life and how he should do the right thing, not the easy one.[2] Soon after, Nick was present, playing with Pascal, when Tracy was visited by Michael's boss Harlan Ryker, who was involved in Michael's transformation and lied to Tracy, claiming that Michael had suffered an accident - but promised Tracy that Cybertek would pay her Michael's salary.[10] Soon afterward, Michael collaborated with law enforcement agency SHIELD to arrest Ryker[11] and close up Cybertek.[6] At Michael's request, SHIELD director Nick Fury told Tracy that Michael was collaborating in a top-secret government mission, to justify his absence.[11][7] Michael moved to Coney Island,[1] but stalked his own family[6][7]
Lacking a father figure suddenly,[9] Nick got involved with gangs[7] and collaborated with his classmate Donny in drug dealing activities,[12] distributing crack[4] and giving income for crimelord Silvermane. When Donny showed too much initiative for his handler Sal Dileo's liking, Dileo arranged a shootout in the school to try and murder Donny and scare any other - Donny survived, but other kids were killed. This attracted the attention of Michael and of vigilante Punisher, both of whom tracked the responsibles, and Nick, to Coney Island Subway Yard. Silvermane had executed Dileo and decided to not kill Donny, a valuable asset - but he had no such compunction about Nick. Before he could murder Nick, both Michael (as Deathlok) and Punisher revealed themselves; Silvermane kidnapped Nick and ran away while Michael fought Punisher about whether killing enemies was acceptable or not.[9] They both eventualyl found Silvermane in their laboratory, and once there Donny aimed at Nick and Silvermane tried to use Deathlok's plasma gun on Michael - but the gun could not operate in Silveermane's hand due to security measures. Silvermane was defeated (though he escaped), and Nick recognized his father in Deathlok - but Michael lied to his son, saying that Nick's father had asked him to keep an eye on the Collinses to protect them.[12] Punisher also noticed that Nick was Deathlok's son and, later, while recalling this encounter, regretted not having killed Silvermane at that point.[13]
For the following months, Michael avoided his family, but always kept them present and, when the demon Nightmare tried to control him with illusions, he made him see Tracy and Nick;[14] soon after the illusion included Tracy and Nick in Deathlok-like bodies, but by then Michael was beginning to get over it and recognized them as fake.[15]
Two months after Michael's disappearance,[16] Tracy correctly deduced that her husband had become Deathlok[17][7] and found out that she was pregnant by him. She sent him a letter, through SHIELD, asking him to come home,[17] then asked her sister Arlene to visit her at her Paterson house, and shared with her all this information[17] that she had not shared with Nick (Nick did not know that his mother was pregnant).[4] Deathlok returned home with his hideous body, and Tracy did her best to welcome him. Michael spent some time with his son, lecturing him and also justifying himself when Nick asked him about Deathlok lying when he said he was not Michael. Nick accepted Deathlok as his father and accepted him readily, taking a chance to learn about technology and listening to his origin history.[4]
The next day, with Aunt Arlene still present, they were visited by a clone of Billy Hansen.[16] Hansen had been Michael's co-worker at Cybertek, later murdered.[6] When Michael acknowledged that Hansen was dead, Arlene pulled out a gun and threatened him. Hansen met with Michael, with Tracy and Arlene present - but Nick was sent to his room upstairs, where he spent a time reading Fantastic Four comic-books. Hansen was hosting a hostile monster, Biohazard, who wanted to kill Deathlok. When the monster revealed himself, Arlene went to start her car while Tracy went to pick up Nick upstairs and Deathlok confronted the monster. Tracy sent her son outside through the window so that he wouldn't have to go through the fight zone, but she tried to help her husband.[16] After the fight, S.H.I.E.L.D. helped lock Biohazard away, but the Collins' house had been damaged and the repairs would last a month, during which Tracy and Nick moved into Arlene's house in Manhattan.[18] Realizing that he couldn't live with his family without endangering them,[7] Michael moved back to Coney Island,[7][18] where he had nightmares about not being a good example for Nick.[19]
Michael was then hired by Clayton Burr, of the Roxxon Oil Corporation (formerly Cybertek's mother company), to go to Paris and stop former Cybertek employees who were building weapons; in exchange, Michael would have the chance to retrieve his original body and find a cybersurgeon who could return him there. Before going to Paris, he visited his family to tell them about it; Tracy thought the quest looked dangerous, but Nick gave his father his full trust, and Tracy agreed to let Michael go, even if he didn't get his body back, as long as he came back alive.[20] Michael survived the mission, though his original body was lost and thought destroyed,[21] after which he got used to the idea that he would never stop being Deathlok;[7] but he returned happily to his family. Meanwhile, Burr was arrested for various crimes.[21]
Michael's Coney Island roommate Jesus Badalemente[1] hosted a cookout to which he invited the Collinses, at which point they were interrupted by a Wakandan aircraft: W'Kabi, chief of Wakandan Security, wanted[22] to hire Collins for a temporary computer security position, which he accepted,[7][22] but only if he could take his wife and son to Wakanda on vacation (Badalemente did not want to go).[22] Michael told Nick how much he admited T'Challa who, as the Black Panther, had saved the whole world without killing anyone.[23] In Wakanda, Nick was harassed by a snake but then befriended its weird-appearance owner Venomm,[22] who was then invited to dine with them.[24] After a confrontation , Michael suffered damage and underwent a healing process at the hands of the prestigious Wakandan Cybernetics Unit; Nick watched the operation from outside the operating room, then tried to distance himself from Deathlok, claiming that he wasn't really his father - but Venomm convinced him that Deathlok was not a monster.[25]
Yet the crisis was not over: Wakanda's enemy Moses Magnum had seized control of neighboring Canaan[24][7] and invaded Wakanda in a military attack.[23][7] T'Challa had Tracy hide in the basement of the palace, where they would be safe, while Michael searched for Nick. Michael found a dead kid, cheered up that it was not Nick, then suffered from guilt for that. When Michael found Nick, Nick reminded him of the value of life that Michael himself had taught Nick, and compared T'Challa saving the world with Deathlok saving a country, convincing Michael that he could stop the battle without killing. Michael had Venomm take Nick to the palace for his protection. Magnum was then expelled from Wakanda, and T'Challa decorated Collins.[23] However, while the Collinses were in Wakanda, Cybertek's parent company, Roxxon, canceled the health insurance that Cybertek had provided to Tracy and her family, something she only discovered when she returned to Paterson. This left the family in a bad situation, since Michael's job only paid expenses, but not Tracy's studies, and the house was still not fully repaired; so Tracy decided to interrupt her studies to look for a job.[3]
Nick visited his father at Badalemente's, where they played the videogame "Borgs n the Hood" programmed by Michael - and Nick won by using his wits. When Michael drove Nick back to Paterson through the George Washington Bridge, again Michael lectured Nick, this time about how their black skin color was a disadvantage, but not a devastating one - something that Michael had not lectured Nick about before his transformation. Once they reached home, they found the building attacked by the Hobgoblin, a villain hired by Clayton Burr. Michael went to fight the enemy and asked Nick to phone the police, but Nick decided not to because he thought the police may try to arrest his superhero father. During the fight, the Hobgoblin noticed Nick at the car and threw a bomb at it; Nick dodged it, but the car was wrecked. The house was on fire and, when Nick heard his mother was inside, he entered to take her out. The Hobgoblin escaped, then Tracy went into labor and Michael took her to the hospital,[3] where she gave birth under the protective custody of Michael's friends Misty Knight and The Thing. While baby Patricia was born without an issue,[7] she was sent to the incubator for a few weeks due to her premature nature; and Tracy was to be treated due to smoke inhalation. Michael then threatened Burr, who was still in jail, because of his role in the attack.[3] Still, the house had been destroyed, and Tracy and the kids went back to live with Arlene again[26] while Michael lived with Badalemente.[27] During that time, Nick found amusing that Aunt Arlene would gave her phone number to a salesman she had just met.[26]
Nick had expressed an interest in the Coney Island Amusement Park,[3] and Michael took him there, even if his cyborg body was unsuitable to ride himself. There was a sabotage on a crane and Deathlok, who was thought to be Robocop and Terminator much to Nick's amusement, saved many people, a number of whom wanted to give him money. Michael returned Nick home, and soon after Patricia was sick and they took her to the hospital; Michael went to visit as soon as he could.[28]
Tracy commissioned a birthday gift for Michael: A painting by Badalemente depicting Michael in his previous human form with his wife and kids -something that realistically would not have happened, as Michael had turned into Deathlok before Patricia had been born. Tracy gave Badalemente a number of photographs to use as a reference. Michael saw Badalemente working on the painting before it was finished. During that time, he met with his family midway between Arlene's and Badalemente's, at Michael's other friend Jim Dworman home in Riverdale.[29]
Despite Michael's work as a consultant,[30] the Collins family had money problems, having lost their home, their savings[26] and their insurance,[30] and with new expenses for the baby;[26] Tracy was unable to find a job and confessed to Nick the predicament they were in; Nick was optimistic, believing his father would get money as a programmer, and offering to deliver newspapers himself.[30] However, when Michael left on another mission to Australia despite Tracy's insistence that he should stay with his family,[26] ultimately she decided not to raise her children near Michael, since Michael was often surrounded by powerful enemies, and she left him for the western United States,[7][8] without telling Michael where they would be.[7] Michael discovered this only when he went to visit them at Arlene's house, finding only her sister-in-law, who explained the situation, praising Tracy's decision. En route, Tracy had to deal with reluctance from Nick, who disagreed with her decision. Nick tried to contact Michael through cyberspace without telling his mother,[8] and Tracy got a job at Mega Burger, but she and Nick often cried together.[31] When Michael finished his mission, he contacted Nick[32] and decided to respect Tracy's decision and stay away from her family.[32][7] Michael has led a more proactive superhero life ever since[7] but he eventually disappered when he was transported by an alien intelligence to another planet,[33] where he remained for years[34] until he could return home; due to the changes happening during this adventure, he was again in Michael Collins' body, apparently unable to become the cyborg Deathlok again. Collins then returned with his family. The family attended to the funeral of Gravity, a superhero who had died in the same mission that returned Michael home.[35]Attributes
Powers
Abilities
Nick has shown ability with videogames,[2] to the extent of defeating his own father on a game that the latter had programmed himself, because Nick understood the reasoning he was to follow to win.[3] This talent was partly due to him losing several night's sleep playing and sometimes skipping his homework.[2] Still, Nick managed to get straight A's in his grade (except for a C- in P.E.).[36] Nick's skills with computers also allowed him to enter cyberspace.[8]
Michael and Tracy assigned Nick to do the dishes, as he had some ability for it.[2] He offered to work delivering newspapers, but it is unclear whether he was good at this.[30]
At one time, Nick worked as a drug dealer with no little success.[9]Notes
- During the battle in Wakanda, Nick was lost in the city and Deathlok looked for him. Seeing from a distance another kid in danger, Deathlok believed he had found his son, but was unable to save the child's life. Deathlok felt relief when he noticed that was not Nick,[23] but he then felt shame for having felt that, something he would remember later.[23][37]
See Also
- 25 appearance(s) of Nicholas Collins (Earth-616)
- 3 minor appearance(s) of Nicholas Collins (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) of Nicholas Collins (Earth-616)
- 4 image(s) of Nicholas Collins (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #2
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 Deathlok #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #26
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #13
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Deathlok Annual #1 ; "Deathlok's Scrapbook"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #1
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3 ; Deathlok (Collins)'s profile
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #31
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #6
- ↑ Deathlok #2
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Deathlok #4
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #7
- ↑ Spider-Man: Power of Terror #3
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #9
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #10
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #14
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 17.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #12
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #15
- ↑ Deathlok Annual #1 ; "Show and Tell"
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #17
- ↑ 21.0 21.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #21
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #22
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #25
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #23
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #24
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #27
- ↑ Deathlok Annual #2 ; "Quarry"
- ↑ Deathlok Annual #1 ; "Quarry"
- ↑ Deathlok Annual #2 ; "One Day At A Time"
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 30.3 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #28
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #32
- ↑ 32.0 32.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #34
- ↑ Beyond! #3
- ↑ Beyond! #4
- ↑ Beyond! #6
- ↑ Deathlok Annual #1 ; "One Day At A Time"
- ↑ Deathlok (Vol. 2) #29