Unit (Earth-616)

History

Origin

Unit's complete origin is unknown. Billions of years ago, his creators gave charity to those who accepted it, but those who didn't attacked those who did. Consequently, Unit's creators were forced to take necessary steps - Unit was one of them. A Unit would be dropped onto a planet to speak with its inhabitants then retreat, and when the creators returned, the inhabitants would be pacified. For a few hundred thousand years, it worked out well until other aliens had enough and united against them.

Unit's creators were decimated, with Unit surviving as the sole artifact of their empire. Their programming remained in him, even as he contemplated the moral righteousness of their goal. If he succeeded, his creators were right; otherwise, his creators were monsters beyond the worst tyrants, and the end justified the means.^[1]

Witnessing a Phoenix Messiah

A billion years prior to the present, Unit came a cross a planet where he witnessed the rulers' demons cast a spell to stop Evolution. This angered the Phoenix. The spell worked for a time, until a Messiah arose and, with five acolytes, she was able to commune with the Phoenix, broke the spell, swept away the Demons, and restart evolution.^[2]

Unit grew interested in the Phoenix Force, and desired to see a Phoenix Messiah rise without the means to control the Phoenix (the Lights).^[2]

Imprisoned by S.W.O.R.D.

It's unknown when S.W.O.R.D. captured Unit. He was held in the maximum security. Due to his intelligence, he was occasionally asked for help, which he willingly gave.^[3]

Encounter with Hope and the X-Men

Unit escaped and landed on Earth where he met two humans: a father and a son hunting together. Afraid, the father attacked Unit, who subdued both humans via mind control and forced the son to turn away while dissecting his father. He then killed the boy, covered all evidence, and set his sight on mutants. He tricked Cerebra by emitting a new mutant emergence. When the Lights arrived, he mind controlled the team, forcing Pixie to teleport herself, Velocidad, Transonic, and Primal eight miles away and fall asleep. Unit was left alone with Hope.^[4]

The X-Men arrived and Magik teleported Hope away from the battle. The remaining X-Men attacked Unit, who noted Magneto was the most dangerous of the X-Men. Unit easily handled the Extinction Team until Danger arrived and appeared to subdue him. Hope demanded Magik return her to the battle. She told the X-Men Unit had only conversed with her before the Extinction Team attacked.

The S.W.O.R.D. base was too damaged to keep prisoners. The X-Men imprisoned Unit on Utopia. While "imprisoned," Unit wanted to finish his audience with Hope. He revealed he took control of Danger the second she fought him. He ordered her to call Hope.^[5] Though he acted friendly, Unit was merely using Hope for his own end. When Hope left, he said his usual phrase: her sacrifice will be remembered when a universal utopia comes.^[6]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Unit is a highly advanced Robot created by an advanced Alien race who had god-like science. Until now Unit has demonstrated the following abilities:

• Mind Control: His mind control is not based on telepathy.^[4] Also, he has stated to not have calibrated for Atlanteans, being unable to control the human/Atlantean hybrid Namor.^[4]
• Mind and Signature Mimicry: Unit was able to fake an outer mind, for his true to be unharmed. He was also able to mimic a mutant signature to be detected by Cerebra.^[4]
• Technopathy^[4]
• Super Intelligence
• Pheromone Emission: He was able to release pheromones inciting Namor and Emma Frost to mate.^[4]

Notes

• Unit's co-creator Kieron Gillen originally planned to use him as the antagonist for "The Secret Origin of Tony Stark." He eventually decided to replace Unit with a new character, the Rigellian Recorder 451, since Unit was already known to be a villain.^[7]

Links and References

• 13 Appearances of Unit (Earth-616)
• Minor Appearances of Unit (Earth-616)
• Media Unit (Earth-616) was Mentioned in
• 6 Images featuring Unit (Earth-616)
• 3 Quotations by or about Unit (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Unit (Earth-616)

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Footnotes