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Quote1 Knowledge is power, Vic--in your case, that's a literal fact. From where I'm standing, it looks like the more you know about your surroundings, the more chi you can draw from them. Quote2
Spectrum (Monica Rambeau)[src]

History

Early Life[]

Víctor Álvarez was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen, New York City.[2] He is the son of Reina Alvarez and former criminal Shades. His father was sent to Seagate Prison when Victor was very young. Victor was raised by his mother alone. However after many years of crime his father returned to turn over a new leaf. He became a community organizer, fighting for decent housing for the locals. Victor worked with his father, but the relationship soured when Victor learned Shades was cheating on his mother. After that Reina moved to his Uncle Ignacio's place and took Victor with her. His father remained in contact with Victor as best as he could.[3]

The Explosion[]

Norman Osborn decided to remove the riff raff from the area so he could build a new Oscorp Building. He sent Bullseye after Daredevil, and also told him to blow up the building that Shade and the protesters were in. He rigged the building to explode but Daredevil tried to stop him, but because Daredevil refused to kill him, 107 of the residents were killed. Shades and his son were both in the building. However Victor was the sole survivor, having absorbed fragments from his father's visor. Victor became the new Power Man as he absorbed the Chi life force of the 107 killed, including his father. He could also see the chi ghosts of the 107 victims on the site of the wrecked building, including his father. Shades told him to open up and absorb more chi from the area, giving his son enough power to fight back.[3]

Shadowland[]

Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616) from Mighty Avengers Vol 2 5

New York Tiger-Style Kung Fu

Daredevil extended the Hand's power over Hell's Kitchen, creating a blanket of fear. Victor chose the identity of Power Man to protect his neighbors. This drew the attention of Luke Cage, the previous Power Man, and Iron Fist, who was intrigued that he could use one of his signature moves without ever seeing him. Victor has expressed disdain for both men, in particular Luke Cage, who he accuses of "selling out". Luke Cage left him, but Iron Fist decided to stay and learn more of his past and his potential powers. Together they found out of how he survived the collapsing of the building and how he knew of the power only Iron Fist and his students knew. Before he died, the chi of all the residents flowed into him, one of those residents being one of Danny's students. Nightshade revealed she created the visor. It could generate optic blasts by pulling in bioelectric energy from the environment. According to her the absorbing crystal became embedded in Victor's skin.[4] Together they battled the Flashmob and Cottonmouth.[5]

Shadowland Power Man Vol 1 2 Textless

The Hand kidnapped his cousin Sofia, and he traveled to the Shadowland Fortress to save her. However on the way there Victor confronted by the Chi ghost of his father and his neighbors. It was revealed that Shadowland was built on the site of the old building. He learned that the spirits were now within him, giving him his abilities. Victor absorbed Javier de Paz martial art skills, a student of Iron Fist. Victor vowed to fight for their memories. In the chamber, Victor confronted his cousin Sofia. She exclaimed that it is obviously a trap, just before the Retainer attacked him. Victor was knocked senseless, almost passing out. In a haze, he saw his father's ghost, making an "exploding" motion with his hands. Victor saw what he meant, and drew on the power of the city, the neighborhood, and the people, places and memories of them, and used it, turning his body into a thing of iron. Iron Fist made his way to Victor, having fought Daredevil. Iron Fist rescued Sofia and found Victor recuperating. Iron Fist offered to be his teacher, and Victor agreed, on the condition that Iron Fist take care of his mother.[citation needed]

Shadowland Power Man Vol 1 1 page 00 Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616)

One week later, Mrs. Alvarez was shown around the Rand Foundation by Joy Meachum. It turned out that Victor was given a job with them, and they will be helping her from now on. Mrs. Alvarez approved of this, because she wanted Victor to stay out of fights. It was from there that Victor began his training.[6]

Spider-Man[]

Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616) from Power Man and Iron Fist Vol 2 1 0001

When training with Iron Fist, he revealed that the only superhero he never managed to defeat was Spider-Man, because of his spider-sense. He decided that the only way to prove himself was to take down Spidey. He found him at an event where Mayor Jameson reluctantly presented Spider-Man the key to the city, a request made by Captain America. He however disrupted the event and attacked the hero. Victor landed a punch and started gloating about how he's better than Iron Fist now. However Spidey just webbed him to a tree, and asked him why he attacked him. When he learned that Victor was present due to a tip he got about the key, they realized it had been stolen during the fight. Alvarez told Spidey that the one who gave him the tip is named Norton G. Fester, who Spider-Man knew as the Looter.[7] The criminals attacked the Federal Hall on Wall Street, but the heroes teamed up to stop them. The criminals were there to find a hidden secret locked in the building. Fester used a old key from the 1700's to open a floor chamber and used his dazzle gun on the heroes to temporarily disorient them. Fester found the fallen star that was discovered by Freemason Benjamin Franklin which was used for their rituals for centuries. Fester planned to use the vapors from the fallen meteor to increase his power when it started to crack. The meteor was actually an egg and an alien octopus creature emerged. Power Man killed the alien creature with the American flag while Fester and his men were taken into custody.[8]

Training with Iron Fist[]

Iron Fist took Victor under his wing and together he helped him on many adventures including fighting the organization Commedia Dell'Morte,[9] Pokerface,[10] and the Penance Corps.[11]

Fear Itself[]

Power Man ended up in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with Spider-Girl, X-23, Thunderstrike, and Amadeus Cho.[12] The heroes battled a group of Samurai Shark-Men.[13] After the battle it was revealed that Cho brought together the young heroes in the hopes that they would join his new super team. The young heroes were not happy because he has manipulated them, and they turned his offer down.[14]

Avengers Academy[]

Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616) from Avengers Academy Vol 1 33

Power Man in the Avengers Academy

Victor is recruited to join the Avengers Academy.[15] He joined the young trainee heroes on many adventures.[16][17] The team went up against the Phoenix Five.[18] Though they ultimately won, many of the students including Victor decided to leave the school.[19]

Mighty Avengers[]

Victor joined Danny in joining the Heroes for Hire, along with Luke Cage and White Tiger. They all started believing they were meant for something more and decided to create their own Avengers team.[20] Based off a hashtag, they named themselves the Mighty Avengers.[citation needed]

Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616) from Young Avengers Vol 2 12

Power Man in the Young Avengers

He and White Tiger worked with the Young Avengers to battle Mother the Interdimensional Parasite.[21] He later celebrated at the superhero club known as Thin Spandex Club.[22]

Since joining, Victor and Ava have bonded tremendously, together they discovered two new abilities to fuse her White Tiger God based powers and his chi manipulation. The first being him able to move chi from people within their area into Ava creating a White Tiger made out of chi.[23] The tiger was so powerful that it was able to destroy Shuma-Gorath.[24]

Víctor Álvarez (Earth-616) from Mighty Avengers Vol 2 5 002

Power Man in the Mighty Avengers

Feeling grateful that Victor enabled her to control that kind of power, she later repaid him by transferring some of her power to him. Being that Ava has a lot more chi than the average person, it gave Victor tremendous amounts of power, enough to take out a Cerberus or demonic three headed dog. Him and Ava called their combo the "New York Tiger-Style Kung Fu."[25]

He helped White Tiger when she tried to kill Gideon Mace for the death of her parents, and was being possessed by the Tiger god that gave her powers.[26] With the intervention of the Mighty Avengers White Tiger was prevented from crossing the line and killing Mace.[27]

New Avengers[]

Once the Mighty Avengers were shut down,[28] Power Man and White Tiger followed each other to joining the ranks of the rebranded A.I.M., forming part of its New Avengers.[29]

After fighting alongside the New Avengers for many adventures, Víctor felt he had relegated his home neighborhood for too long, and decided to return to New York and protect Spanish Harlem again. He was joined by Max Brashear, a partially-reformed supervillain and A.I.M. scientist who had befriended Víctor.[30]

Attributes

Power Grid[39]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Master: Single Form of Combat:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Short Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Bulletproof:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (25-75 ton):Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Chi Manipulation: As a result of absorbing fragments of his father's visor, Victor can draw into himself chi and cultural energy from his environment, enhancing his body.[31] He can demonstrate superhuman strength, speed, agility, durability, generation of personal force fields and accelerated healing; Victor glows when empowered in the same way when Iron Fist powers up his chi fist punch. He sometimes experiences memories of those who died in the tenement's explosion.[32] Captain America (Sam Wilson) and Tony Stark considered him to be a Gamma Level Threat.[33] The level of Victor's enhancements is proportional to the amount of cultural energy he can draw from the environment, meaning the older the location, the longer history it has, therefore it possesses more energy for Victor to absorb.[31] Victor's powers also work better the more he knows about his surroundings, especially if he has a personal connection to them.[26] Because of this, he wears a pair of goggles that directly feed into his brain information about his surroundings.[34]

  • Power Augmentation: Victor can use chi to enhance the vitality or superpowers of others while in direct contact with them. He recently displayed enhanced abilities of chi in conjunction with White Tiger: he was able to track her by her chi signature, and transfer the chi from the entirety of New York City into the spirit of the White Tiger to defeat Shuma-Gorath.[24]
  • Energy Absorption: Reacting on instinct when first matched against Iron Fist, Vic managed to absorb and nullify his signature strike leeching off his chi energy into himself. He's since learned to control this aspect of his abilities more openly with training and practice.
  • Skill Mimicry: Danny says that when Vic's building exploded, he absorbed the lifeforce (chi) of all the deceased people in self-defense, including one of Iron Fist's Thunder Dojo students, Javier de Paz. Javier was the only student who mastered the "Screaming Eagle Slap" but was killed in Bullseye's blast. Danny surmises that this is how Victor knows the K'un L'un technique without ever having practiced it himself. Victor absorbed the life-force (chi) of 107 people. The only added skill that we know of is his innate martial arts abilities gained from Javier. In a city like New York it would be normal that Victor would also have other innate skills. This has yet to be seen but different languages, political and legal knowledge, medical/nursing skills, Detective/deductive skill or computer/hacking skills would all be more likely than mastering the "Screaming Eagle Slap.[32]
  • Memory Condition: Victor's powers stem from reading and assimilating chi from the surrounding area by gleaning all manner of information and ancient knowledge from anything or anyone by which he can draw esoteric information. Victor turns that information into raw power, learning everything he can through this and gaining new, greater levels of power from it.[26]
  • Size Manipulation: With a proper influx of Chi, Victor can temporarily augment his bodily mass and tissue density making his attacks stronger, enabling him to hit infinitely harder than normal.[25]
  • Superhuman Strength:: Victor can manipulate Chi to gain Class 25 superhuman strength.[32] His strength allows to go toe-to-toe against powerful opponents like Agony.[1]
  • Superhuman Durability: Victor can use Chi to generate a personal force field.[32] Weapons like arrows break upon impacting his skin and even Hawkeye's explosive Trick Arrows fail to deal any damage.[35]
  • Accelerated Healing Factor: Victor can use Chi to heal faster than a normal human.[32]
  • Energy Projection: He can explode Chi outward through punches, and can channel messages through bioelectric frequencies.[32] By enhancing his blows with his Chi he has been able to draw blood from powerful demons like Nightmare.[36]

Abilities

Skilled Martial Artist: Through absorbing De Paz's memories and from direct training from Iron Fist, Victor is a skilled martial artist.[32]

Bilingualism: Víctor is able to speak both English and Spanish.[citation needed]

Weaknesses

Bioelectric jamming devices can temporarily inhibit Victor's power.[32]

Areas that are daily scrubbed clean and or constantly remodeled on a regular basis leaves Power Man powerless as he needs fresh memories to draw power and information from.[37]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Víctor Álvarez wears a yellow and black bodysuit with metal embellishments, similar to the look of Luke Cage, the first Power Man.[32] As a member of Avengers Ideas Mechanics, Víctor Álvarez had a set of goggles designed for him that download information from the Internet directly into his brain by a GPS link, giving him one hundred years of local knowledge per second to vastly enhance his powers.[34]

See Also

Links and References

http://marvel.com/universe/Power_Man_(Victor_Alvarez)

References

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