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Earth Villains
Blackout
Blackout
Alter Ego: Marcus Daniels
Known Aliases: Mark Daniels, "Blacky," Bob Hofstedder
First Appearance: Nova #19 (May 1978)
Blackout is a super-villain who can manipulate Darkforce matter and energy and open portals to its dimension. He formerly worked alongside Moonstone and subsequently joined the Masters of Evil and later the Thunderbolts.
- Casting a Shadow: His Darkforce powers allow him to manipulate, control and generate extra-dimensional black gas like substance.
- Flight: He can fly at least 50 miles per hour unsupported.
- Freak Lab Accident: How he gained his abilities in the first place.
- Power Degeneration: His powers has fluctuated over the years several times, and this has lead to him harm on several occasions.
- This Is Your Brain on Evil: His power lead him to be egotistical and full of himself, performing robberies and trying to attack anyone who would stop him. However his power began to fluctuate and his conscience grew enough for him to question why he was doing what he is doing.
- Villain Teleportation: He can use the Darkforce dimension as transport.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: His powers lead his mind to degrade into madness.
Condor
Condor
First Appearance: Nova #2 (October, 1976)
Condor was a brilliant member of the Bird People who wanted to become a crime lord.
- Winged Humanoid: He's a member of the Bird-People, which Red Raven rules over.
Corruptor
Corruptor
Alter Ego: Jackson Day
First Appearance: Nova #4 (December, 1976)
The Corruptor was a worker at a pharmaceutical company who manufactured psychoactive substances. He was exposed to the chemicals in a fire and gained the ability to bring out others worst tendencies.
- The Corruptor: Pretty much his whole gimmick.
- Loss of Inhibitions: His touch flushes the victim's body with inhibition dampening psychoactive chemicals. This leaves them highly suggestible, moreso if already emotional, as well as acting highly selfish and immoral with no restraints if left to their own devices.
Diamondhead
Diamondhead
Alter Ego: Archibald Dyker
First Appearance: Nova #3 (November, 1976)
Diamondhead was mutated by a diamond-powered laser while attempting to steal some precious gems. He developed a hard,diamond-like body that was superstrong. He used his new abilities to enhance his criminal career.
- Berserk Button: Richard's very existence is this to him. He hates Richard so much that when Sam Alexander started out, he was so angered that anyone would dare continue Richard's legacy that he spent all of his money on tools to help kill Sam for no reason other than being another Nova.
- Literally Shattered Lives: Being made of of diamond, this happens to him often.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Though there was already some overlap, after Richard's power boost, Diamondhead would mostly be seen fighting the likes of Spider-Man or Daredevil instead. Though he did occasionally oppose Sam as well.
- So Last Season: He used to be Richard's arch-nemesis. After Annihilation, Rich is way out of his league.
Sphinx
Sphinx
Alter Ego: Anath-Na Mut
First Appearance: Nova #6 (February, 1977)
The first Sphinx, Anath-Na Mut, was the chief wizard under Ramses II. After his banishment, he discovered the Ka Stone. Granting him immortality and superhuman powers, Sphinx wandered the earth for 5000 years.
- Arch-Enemy: Considered one of Richard's greatest and deadliest foes even today. It's worth noting that after Richard Took a Level in Badass, all of his old rogues gallery were hopelessly outclassed by him except for Sphinx who remained just as deadly to him.
- Other Me Annoys Me: One storyline during Realm of Kings has Rich run into a version of the Sphinx stuck inside the Fault, where he'd gotten into a fight with a younger version of himself, who wasn't willing to listen to his future-self's advice on how to avoid ending up like him.
- Reality Warper: Courtesy of the Ka Stone.
Tailhook
Tailhook
Alter Ego: Melissa Paulsen
Known Aliases: Tailhook Killer
First Appearance: Nova (Vol. 2) #2 (February, 1994)
Tailhook kills rapists because her sister was raped and killed. Tailhook is armed with a whip covered in barbs, as well as a crossbow.
- Badass Normal: Unlike most of Nova's foes, she doesn't have any superpowers.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only appeared once and has never returned since 1994.
Larcenous Three
Badd Axe
Badd Axe
Known Aliases: Bad Axe
First Appearance: Nova (Vol. 3) #5 (September, 1999)
Cosmic Villains
Abyss
Abyss
First Appearance: Nova (Vol. 4) #8 (January, 2008)
The Abyss is the archenemy of the Luminals of Xarth III. Though they thwarted his plans many times, the Abyss always comes back.
- Hero Killer: He turns a lot of Luminals into his meat puppets.
- Joker Immunity: An in-universe version. The Luminals have tried everything to get rid of him, and never succeeded. Even death apparently can't keep him down for long. They brought him to Knowhere in the hopes that throwing him at the edge of existence would do it.
- Leaking Can of Evil: The Luminals imprisoned him in a high-tech coffin meant to nullify his powers, but he managed to put a small crack in it, letting him summon ghostly apparitions and turn his jailors into zombie thralls. Richard manages to patch the crack using the transmode virus, sealing Abyss back up, but it's stated that Abyss will get out eventually.
- Madness Mantra: "Ready or not, here I come."
- Necromancer: His magic powers allow him to Zombify the Living and conjure ghostly apparitions.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never see what Abyss looks like, just his coffin. Even the Worldmind doesn't seem to know what his deal is.
- Villain of Another Story: To the Luminals he's their archenemy, the greatest villain their world has ever produced, a foe that they have defeated many times but never permanently vanquished. To Nova, he's just a Monster of the Week.
- Zombify the Living: He can turn living people into undead thralls called meat puppets.
Garthan Saal
Garthan Saal
Known Aliases: Nova Omega, Nova, Super Nova
First Appearance: Avengers #301 (March, 1989)
One of the few survivors of the destruction of Xandar, Garthan Saal absorbed the vast majority of the entire Nova-Force, minus the tiny fraction Rich Rider contained. The power drove Saal insane, he subsequently attacked Earth and battled the Avengers.
- Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In his first appearance, he's s good thirty feet tall, for no adequately explained reason. Xandarians are typically human-size.
- Back from the Dead: ... maybe? He reappeared during vol. 4 when Malik Tarcel was a captive, claiming his agony drew Saal's attention. Then he never appeared again.
- Dark Is Evil: His Nova uniform is mostly dark purple.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: What with the insanity and all.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Went out sacrificing himself to kill the Dire Wraith Queen Volx, after she'd already wounded him.
- Insane Troll Logic: Somehow screaming, threatening and destroying an entire planet would bring him Nebula. Anyone who said they didn't know where she was was either clearly lying or in collusion with her. The Avengers try pointing out she wasn't a member, but had infiltrated the group, but Saal's too far gone to listen.
- The Juggernaut: In his first appearance, he's so powerful (and insane) that he can just shrug off the combined attacks of the Fantastic Four and Quasar. The only reason he doesn't burn Earth to the ground is Reed Richards gives him a lead on Nebula.
- Last of His Kind: He survived the destruction of Xandar by Nebula. The grief did not do him any favors.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: It probably wasn't meant to be a good sign that the supposedly revived Saal had glowing red eyes, since they were normally brown.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Taking all the Nova Force did a number on his sanity. It later served as the reason for Rich's reluctance to do the same.
Harrow
Harrow
First Appearance: Nova (vol. 4) #13 (May 2008)
A parasitic alien spree killer who feeds on pain and terror. He has formidable psychic powers which let him possess people.
- Anti-True Sight: He uses a telepathic "cone of psilence" to shield himself from Galactus's perception while hiding on the Planet Eater's ship.
- Astral Projection: He can project his consciousness out of his body to go in search of victims. In this state he can easily slip into another person's body and take control of them, unless the person is warded against psychic intrusion.
- Belly Mouth: His true form has a toothy maw in its abdomen, whereas his actual head has no mouth.
- Biomanipulation: He can morph his host's fingers into monstrous claws that are sharp enough to pierce Nova's uniform.
- Body Surf: Killing his current host doesn't inconvenience him in any way, as he can easily jump into another nearby body and continue what he was doing.
- Card-Carrying Villain: He describes himself as “the shadow that life casts” and other grandiose titles.
- Combat Tentacles: His grublike form can extrude slimy tentacles which he uses to restrain Richard.
- Demonic Possession: His whole MO is to project his consciousness out of his body and take possession of a random person, using the unfortunate victim as a tool to commit acts of mass murder. The possession grants his host superhuman strength and allows him to reshape parts of their body as he pleases.
- Extra Eyes: He has four eyes in total: two on his head, and two enormous compound eyes on the face that covers his torso.
- Flying Brick: His true form can fly at high speed and is strong and tough enough to go toe to toe with Richard, who had the entire Nova Force at his disposal at the time.
- Insectoid Aliens: His true form resembles a giant grub with a humanoid torso where the head should be. He can jettison the grublike tail, becoming a humanoid insect with wings.
- Not Enough to Bury: Galactus incinerates him in a single blast, leaving nothing behind.
- Perception Filter: He shields himself from Galactus's perception by surrounding himself with a telepathic “cone of psilence”. It only seems to shield him from casual inspection, however, and it doesn’t help him if you look right at him.
- Possession Burnout: It's strongly implied that the act of him possessing someone kills them, as his vessels always drop dead whenever he abandons them.
- Psychic Powers: He's a powerful psionic whose abilities include astral projection, possession, and telepathy.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His psychic form resembles a Rorschach blot with glowing red eyes on a bloody red background. Naturally, he's not a good person.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: His psychic manifestation has glowing red eyes, and anyone possessed by him will gain these as well. He has them in his physical form, too.
- Sadist: He revels in the suffering that he inflicts upon his helpless victims, as his many internal monologues attest.Harrow: (while gunning down people that are trying to board a ship) I am the stain that death leaves. This world has reached its end, but I will take my last pleasure in its dying moments. The pleasure is always most exquisite when the end is truly near. The panic. The terror. The brittle hopelessness of discovering that pitiless death has been heaped upon general calamity. It is quite delicious.
- Spree Killer: He uses his powers to possess people and go on murderous rampages.
Ravenous
Ravenous
First Appearance: Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1 (June, 2006)
Ravenous was one of Annihilus' highest ranking warriors and leader of the Seekers. He ruled the empire as a caretaker after Annihilus' death until losing the throne to Blastaar and becoming a prisoner of the Nova Corps.
- Characterization Marches On: In his first appearance, he leads the curs of Annihilus, strange dog-like things that hunt heralds of Galactus and regenerate when destroyed. This was entirely ignored thereafter.
- Co-Dragons: One of the highest-ranking warriors of the Annihilation Wave serving directly under Annihilus.
- Faux Affably Evil: Often affects a mocking, sneering tone of cordiality when dealing with the Silver Surfer.
- Jerkass: He is just incapable of being a wad for even a few seconds.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: You'd kind of have to be to walk away from a fight with heralds of Galactus.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: His armor is red and black and serves Annihilus as he destroys the universe.
- Two-Faced: Gets the right side of his face smashed in by Ronan's universal weapon, forcing him to replace it with cybernetics.
- Undying Loyalty: To Annihilus. Unlike most of the rest of the Wave, Ravenous serves willingly, even after Annihilus is dead, helping to resurrect him.
- You Are in Command Now: Became the ruler of the Annihilation Wave after the defeat of Annihilus, until he lost the title to Blastaar.
Siredam
Siredam
First Appearance: Nova Vol. 4 #11 (May, 2008)
The Siredam is a fully grown Technarch that returned to its homeworld of Kvch after it detected a signal emanating from a Babel Spire that had once been Drax and Gamora and tried killing Tyro, a very young Technarch who was being watched over and trained by the former New Mutant called Warlock. While it may once have been an intelligent being, countless centuries of traversing space and consuming worlds have turned it into nothing more than a feral monster fueled by rage and instinct.
- Combat Tentacles: Its body has lots of tentacles jutting out at odd places.
- The Juggernaut: It's a full-grown Technarch. It can quite easily eat entire planets. Standard fight strategy for dealing with it is just Run or Die. Even a fully powered Richard is unable to do anything more than annoy it.
- Mechanical Abomination: Well, an alien technological lifeform that looks like a huge monster.
- No Name Given: If it even has a name, it's never given.
- Super-Persistent Predator: As Warlock informs Rich, once it's got the scent of a meal, it will not stop chasing it, no matter where in the universe its quarry goes.
Suspensor
Suspensor
First Appearance: Nova (Vol. 4) #8 (January, 2008)
Suspensor was a member of the Luminals.
- Came Back Wrong: She was killed and reanimated by Abyss. Nova encountered her when he fist arrived at Knowhere and destroyed her immediately.
- Green-Skinned Space Babe: She has green hair and purple skin, and not bad looking.
Volx
Volx
Known Aliases: Jacqueline Zanca, Walter, Daniel Jones, Michael Jeffries
First Appearance: Rom #48 (November, 1983)
Dire Wraith Queen. Volx's daughters were practitioners of dark sorcery while most of her sons (except Dredd who preferred sorcery) were interested instead in science. Volx's interests also laid in science.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: While introduced as a Rom: Spaceknight enemy, she also faced the Annihilators.
