We could arrange for your exile without lifting a finger, whelp. We could make ashes of your Council if we choose, could rule mutantkind from the shadows as we have done in the past-- 
- —Nicodemus[src]
History
Origin[]
The man known as Nicodemus is a member of a rare subspecies of immortal mutants called Externals, to which he represents Wisdom in the Thread in the Tapestry of the Infinite.[10] Nicodemus is a caring soul despite having suffered centuries of hardships[1] and is said to be “as old as the Swiss mountains themselves” that he'd one day call home.[3]
High Lords[]
It is unknown when but Nicodemus joined fellow External Garbha-Hsien and possibly though to a lesser extent Crule to form the self-fashioned “High Lords”. Together they manipulate events behind the scenes on a global scale, with the sole goal of political and monetary control over the destiny of Earth.[1][11]
During the Twelfth Century C.E., despite fellow External Candra declining to join the High Lords prior,[12] Nicodemus along with other Externals Selene, Saul, Crule, and En Sabah Nur aided her in performing a ritual to extract the life energy of her own immortal heart into a stone.[12][13]
Tomorrow Starts Today[]
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Having grown in numbers with the soon to be External Absalom, Nicodemus together with the High Lords had become a type of authority among their kind. Especially if it interfered with their plans.[14][15] So in 1891 when they learned that Candra planned to stop En Sabah Nur rise to power and take the ability to fold space for herself. He and the others unwilling to physically act against her sent Dr. Nathan Milbury, who worked for En Sabah Nur, deal with Candra.[16][17][14]
After Candra made it to En Sabah Nur's sanctum beneath the pyramids outside of Banī-Mazā in Egypt, thanks to her Thieves Guild and their leader Jean-Luc LeBeau so began to translate the text. Dr. Nathan Milbury with a time traveling Gambit and Courier arrived to stop her via Milbury's transport ship. Choosing to bring down En Sabah Nur sanctum instead of fighting and steal his powers another day, Milbury quickly overpowered her with his new found metamorphic ability. Defeated she begs for him to stop and as he does while revealing Nicodemus and the other four High Lords who appeared as the reason behind her loss. Candra tried to explain her actions but Nicodemus and the others, knowing En Sabah Nur's citadel was not to be touched, his slow glacier's rise to power was not to be interrupted. For their greater glory awaits the Millennial Dawn[18][19][20] and Candra's actions put that at risk punished her.[17][14]
Mystery Of The Externals[]
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In more recent years, Nicodemus and the rest of the High Lords were searching for the next External to ascend and their next member. For a time thanks to Gideon believed it was Roberto Da Costa,[21] but when Cannonball came back to live moments after his death Garbha-Hsien and the other four sensed it. Now knowing Samuel was the next External they had been looking for they gathered.[22][1]
Nicodemus held the gathering at his Chalet in the Switzerland mountains of the Swiss Alps, to discuss this new revelation. Though Absalom displeasure with Gideon for having wasted their time in recruiting the wrong person, they listened to Gideon's plan to unleash Krule to kill the X-Force leader Cable. Despite their shock he'd involve Krule and Burke's concerns that he's plan would only lead Cable, who was aware of Gideon being an External right to them or Xavier, his X-Men, X-Factor, or X-Force learn of their existence Nicodemus and Garbha-Hsien allowed him to go through with the plan.[23][1]
Legacy Virus[]
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When Crule went off plan and choose to attack Cannonball in an attempted to kill him, and X-Force came to Ophrah research facility to save Sunspot from Gideon he promised that as long as Cannonball stayed out of the High Lords affairs they would leave him alone.[24][25] But little did Nicodemus know that a new threat would come, Stryfe tricked Sinister into unleashing his Legacy Virus and Nicodemus an External found that he was not even safe.[26][3]
Despite Nicodemus's vast wealth and resources, round the clock care and Gideon by his side Nicodemus found his immortality no salvation. In his final moments he became quickly over heated as his pyrokinetic powers began to overwhelm his body. As the Legacy Virus turned his powers against him, Nicodemus died in an explosion of his own power taking the doctor and nurses with him.[3]
The Newer Mutants[]
Eventually Nicodemus, along with all the Externals previously killed by the Legacy Virus or Selene returned.[4] But 10 years later, sensing the sudden death of Candra by an unknown fellow External he, Crule, and Absalom agreed to work with Selene to stop this threat. While at Selene's hideout in the Manhattan's Hellfire Club, he and the others confronted a Cable from 13 years later,[27] Shatterstar, Doop and Longshot who had been fighting Selene. But once convinced that neither had or know who was behind Candra's death let them leave with the warning to stay out of External business. Later Crule and the others accompanied Selene to the Atlantic Ocean of the Coast of Greenland, there they watched as Selene pulled Blink back from death to aid in their travels.[10][27]
The next day sensing the death of Saul they had Blink teleport them to Orkhon Valley, Mongolia to see if they could discover who was behind this. Once there Selene, Blink, and Nicodemus stayed behind with Saul's body while Crule and Absalom went on ahead. Finding only dead monks they happened across Shatterstar, X-23,[27] not happy Cable continued to stick his nose in their business attacked.[27][28]
With Saul's body they went to Burke's cabin in the woods of Tonasket, Washington. There they found Burke had died without struggling, and came to believe that the one capable of all this was the only one left, Gideon.[28] After Nicodemus set the cabin on fire to give their fallen brethren a funeral and headed to Colorado to find Gideon but are confronted by Gideon, but not the Gideon they knew but one from 3000 years in the future.[29] Watching as Selene fought an empowered Gideon, Crule was about to take action when she called for help only to be impaled through the heart by Absalom. Revealing like Burke[27] he wanted to die and helped Gideon to make that happen then turned on Nicodemus, shooting him in the chest with his bone clawed fingers. But before either Absalom and Gideon could finish Selene she had Blink teleport them to Black Canyon of the Gunnison, Colorado where Cable and the others were.[29][5]
But with the powers of Candra, Saul Burke, Crule and Nicodemus combined Gideon was too much for Cable and his team of Shatterstar, Longshot, Armor,[27] Doop and X-23. Selene with all her strength fought Gideon as Cable with Doop's help distract Gideon as Blink quickly opened and closed a portal decapitating Gideon. Having stopped Gideon from achieving the godhood Selene once tried to attempted by stealing the essence of Crule and the others, Cable revealed that an External can only kill another External so Gideon failing means they'll be back.[5]
External Gateway[]
After receiving a summons through their shared psychic-link from Apocalypse he went to the Eternal Caldera of Krakoa, and there joined seven of his fellow Externals who were waiting for Apocalypse. When Apocalypse arrived not wanting to play his games they learned of his plans for them, but they were unwilling to go along with his belief of what their purpose should be nor willing to sacrifice themselves for his goals. Apocalypse would force Nicodemus and the others to be sacrificed by playing his trump card in a newly enhanced Rictor. Rictor erupted from the ground in a blast of lava killing Crule. Nicodemus angry at his arrogance blasted Apocalypse forcing him to call out for Selene, Rictor, and Gideon to his side. After a brief exchange of words were Absalom attacked, Rictor turned to face Nicodemus, Absalom, Candra, and Saul. Even as Saul turned into a great dragon Rictor blasted them with a wave of lava unintentionally killing Nicodemus along with Candra and Saul.[6]
Nicodemus's ancient bones, thus his life energy, along with the three others turned into the stones that powers the External Gate,[30] trapping them, and allowing the whole of Krakoa to enter Otherworld as Apocalypse planned.[6]
Fall of X[]
Following the Mutant Massacre at the Hellfire Gala at the hands of Orchis, the mutant population of Earth was scattered. And with Krakoa nearly abandoned, Selene, working with Sebastian Shaw and Orchis, took the External Gate that still contend Nicodemus, Crule and Saul trapped within.[31][32] Once free Nicodemus along with Absalom, Burke, Gideon and the other newly resurrected Externals were made to gather mutants (and depowered mutants) from across the globe and bring them back to her base in Nova Roma for her ascension to become a True High Lord.[33]
Despite knowing Selene was using them, Nicodemus went with Absalom, when sent to London's His Majesty's Young Mutant Containment Facility. After finishing up there and sending the mutants to Nova Roma, they were confronted by X-Corps members Captain Britain and X-Corps' Shatterstar and Rictor.[7] Nicodemus recognized Rictor as the one how boiled their flesh, and forced Absalom to help create the En Sabah Nur' External Gate, chose to stay and fight. He and Absalom proved to be too much for the heroes, and he would give them more then and Absalom wanting to keep fighting. Nicodemus had enough, and with a snap of his fingers he caused an eruption of fire from beneath the group, and destroyed the building. Luckily, Rictor was able to shield the group in rock but at the cost of being horribly burned.[34]
Later on, and as preparations for ascension continued the remaining Externals found X-Corps had come to Nova Roma to stop them. With Captain Britain, Rictor, Shatterstar, Thunderbird and Mirage unable to get through the magic shield Saul placed over Nova Roma. In a suspicious move, Nicodemus and Absalom went to confront the X-Corps team, as Saul opened a path to allow the heroes through. As the heroes split up, Nicodemus and Absalom faced Shatterstar and Rictor again. But this time the fight would not go down the same way as before. Both Nicodemus and Absalom would be defeated, with Nicodemus being cut up by Shatterstar, resulting in his death. With Shatterstar mentioning to the other X-Corps team the jungle fauna will eat well on the pieces of Nicodemus tonight, and how he expected Nicodemus' rebirth will be painful and complicated.[35]
It was later revealed that Nicodemus was again alive, and being kept in a stasis pod along side Saul, Crule, Absalom and Selene on the X-Corps Island. The pods were created by Wiz-Kid and Trinary, with Tempo's time-distortion gifts and Somnus' mastery over dreams to keep them pacified. But unlike Selene, Nicodemus and the others were put in an endless cycle of their worse nightmares.[9]Attributes
Powers
Immortal: He is effectively immortal and since Nicodemus's immortality became active after his first death he no longer ages. Though he can be put out of commission or seemingly destroyed for various periods of time, Nicodemus can not be permanently killed.[1][3][4][29]
- Rapid Healing: Ability to endure injuries (within unknown limits) without lasting harm or even feeling pain, he could apparently regenerate injured or missing cells from even near-fatal injuries.[27][5]
- Resurrection: As an immortal, Nicodemus has shown to be able to resurrect himself from death.[3][4]
Psychic-Link: As an External, he shares a telepathic-link with his fellow Externals that allows them to not only sense each other and where, but can call on each other at will from great distances.[13][6] He is also able to sense when one rises from their first death and when one is killed by another External.[1][10][4][36]
Fire Manipulation: Nicodemus has been shown to create and manipulate flames but the full extent of this power is unknown, and whether this power is pyrokinesis in nature also remains unknown.[3][28][6] He has shown to be able to melt the cells in Block X of His Majesty's Young Mutant Containment Facility, create a barrier of fire, arc a stream of fire towards foes, use it like a whip, dance flames around in mid air, blast a beam of fire strong enough to tear up the ground, and throw up a wall to block a seismic energy blast from Rictor.[37] He has also shown capable of flight, possibly not unlike Human Torch. With a snap of his fingers, he can cause an eruption of fire from beneath the group, and was able to torch and destroy His Majesty's Young Mutant Containment Facility in an explosion of fire with seemingly ease.[34]
Weaknesses
Notes
- Many Externals had distinctive text bubbles, and Nicodemus' one had rough edges in X-Force #10.
- It was said (by the comics narrator, and co-creator Fabian Nicieza) that Nicodemus is as old as the Swiss mountains themselves.[3] If true and given that the mountains are over forty-four million years old, and the first mutants being discovered over a million years ago,[38][39][40] and the reveal of survivor's from the time displaced mutants of Threshold over 2 billion years ago,[41] he could be the oldest living mutant.[42][41] Apocalypse once made a possibly off handed remark about him, saying the intelligence of eons, and you still get it so wrong.[6]
See Also
- 15 appearance(s) of Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 4 mention(s) of Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 13 image(s) of Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 3 quotation(s) by or about Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 1 victim(s) killed by Nicodemus (Mutant) (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 X-Force #10
- ↑ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #127
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 X-Force #20
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Cable #150
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Cable #154
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Excalibur (Vol. 4) #12
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #126
- ↑ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #138
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #142
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 X-Force #37
- ↑ X-Force #14
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 X-Men (Vol. 2) #60
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Excalibur (Vol. 4) #11
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Gambit (Vol. 3) #14
- ↑ X-Force #53
- ↑ Gambit (Vol. 3) #12
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Gambit (Vol. 3) #13
- ↑ X-Force #12
- ↑ X-Force #17
- ↑ X-Force #25
- ↑ New Mutants #99
- ↑ X-Force #9
- ↑ X-Force #8
- ↑ X-Force #15
- ↑ X-Force #23
- ↑ X-Force #18
- ↑ 27.0 27.1 27.2 27.3 27.4 27.5 27.6 Cable #151
- ↑ 28.0 28.1 Cable #152
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 Cable #153
- ↑ X-Men (Vol. 5) #12
- ↑ Marvel's Voices: Pride (Vol. 3) #1
- ↑ Immortal X-Men #14–16
- ↑ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #121–128
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #127–128
- ↑ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #136–138
- ↑ Cable #152–154
- ↑ X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #126–127
- ↑ Marvel Fact Files #8
- ↑ Eternals (Vol. 5) #1
- ↑ Avengers (Vol. 8) #39
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 Marauders (Vol. 2) #7–12
- ↑ Avengers (Vol. 8) #1