Captain Universe
Notable Aliases: The Avenging Angel, God of Light, Guardian of Eternity, The Hero That Could Be You, Uni-Power, Enigma Force
First Appearance: Micronauts #8 (August, 1979)
Captain Universe is a Marvel Comics character, and one of the few truly unique superhero concepts. Specifically, Captain Universe is a superhero identity that keeps changing hosts — by itself!
To be precise, Captain Universe is actually a semi-sentient cosmic force called The Unipower, whose main purpose is to maintain the barrier between Earth and another universe in place. Secondarily, it will grant powers to single individuals temporarily so they can fulfill specific missions. Curiously, these missions range everywhere from saving the world to rescuing single, normal individuals.
The concept was introduced in The Micronauts comic book series. The first Captain appeared in issue #8 (August, 1979), created by Bill Mantlo and Michael Golden. It was established there that the universe the heroes came from, The Microverse, was separated from Earth's by a "space wall" that had to be supported on both sides. In the Microverse, it was maintained by the "Enigma Force" that was wielded by Commander Rann, the Micronauts leader; on Earth however, there was no specific wielder for the Enigma Force's counterpart, for some reason. Instead, the Unipower sustained itself by jumping from one person to another. Such a person would gain the powers and costume of Captain Universe, along with knowledge of the mission he or she had to fulfill (but no direct communication with the Unipower); after its completion, the host would return to normal.
Captain Universe is more a plot device than a character, since it has no regular host and the Unipower itself is rarely seen speaking (this varies by writer, however). It's mostly used to power up heroes when needed, or to give normal people a taste of what it's like to be a superhero, even if only for a short while. The concept's most famous use probably was in the Story Arc where Spider-Man gained its powers (but not its costume or knowledge of where they came from, due to a freak accident) leading the hero to gain post-Superman level powers during the Acts of Vengeance Crisis Crossover, where supervillains switched enemies, and thus gave Spidey a chance against much more powerful villains than he usually battled.
The "character" has also starred in at least one miniseries.
Currently, Captain Universe was Tamara Devoux, a young woman who attracted the malfunctioning Unipower after getting in a car crash and lying in a coma for ten years. She's a member of the Avengers and, as it turns out, a scion of The New Universe. The power has since separated and was recently bonded to Miles Morales to help save the multiverse from the Inheritors.
And now it has returned to Earth-616 to settle the score with an ancient enemy: The King In Black
Tropes related to Captain Universe:
- Another Dimension: Where the Space Wall and The Microverse are located.
- Awesome, but Temporary: Nobody can hold the powers and identity forever. Once the threat is defeated and/or neutralized, it leaves, although one story suggests that it always finds a new host quickly.
- Berserk Button: It doesn't like being summoned. When the Superior Spider Man did it in Spider-Verse, it chewed out the various Spiders for their failings.
- Blessed with Suck: Spider-Man didn't exactly like having these powers, as it was hard to control them, but then, this was because an accident made him have them longer than average. Indeed, when Miles Morales took hold of the power, Peter admitted he handled it a lot better than he did.
- Chosen One: What all of the wielders of the Unipower become. For a little while, at least. In the Chaos Theory arc of her ongoing series, the Enigma Force tells X-23 that she is the chosen future heir of the Enigma Force's power, suggesting she has a longer-term connection.
- Distaff Counterpart: There is none. Anyone can be Captain Universe, regardless of sex or species. The current one has an appearance
◊ that is this to the page image. - Eldritch Abomination: One of the functions of the Unipower is to maintain the seal imprisoning malevolent entities called Whirldemons, and preventing them from crossing over into reality.
- Even More Omnipotent: Knull, the god of darkness and the symbiotes, eats Celestials for breakfast either killing them or enslaving them. Even when the Enigma Force was weak, it still holds its own against Knull and later when the God of Light joined Eddie Brock - he was able to One-Hit Kill Knull.
- Flying Firepower: Pretty much living cosmic energy. It possesses a random person in the universe (including Spider-Man and X-23 at different points) and grants them Class 6 Super Weight cosmic powers.
- God of Light: In King in Black, it's discovered what the Enigma Force actually is. It's the alien God of Light that had battled Knull throughout the eons before one of its avatars got killed by Gorr the Godbutcher.
- Heroic Host: Different in that the entity bonds with a different person each time, until recently.
- Humans Are Special: apparently, since saving even single lives seem to matter to the Unipower. Guess it just likes us (note that in at least one case, an alien became Captain Universe).
- Instant Costume Change: Hosts of the Uni-Power spontaneously manifest a costume with a white lower body, a blue upper body and mask, and white constellation-like markings. The costume adapts slightly to each user — such as Peter Parker and Miles Morales' variants having larger eyes and displaying their regular masks rather than their mouths — but the theme is always the same.
- I Should Have Been Better: Just when Spidey was starting to adjust to his powers "going screwy", he fought and defeated the threat, and he lost the powers. He couldn't help but think what more he could have done. (And this was shown in detail in an issue of What If?)
- Kid Hero: One of its hosts was a toddler.
- Light Is Good: It's the god of light and helps the heroes whether its in minor problems or going against universe-ending threats.
- Power Incontinence: During the period when Spider-Man had the powers. He was given them in order to destroy the Tri-Sentinel, but the transfer happened during an experiment at his college, so it was interrupted. He was left with much of the power, but not the ability to properly control it or why he even had it in the first place. This was during the Acts of Vengeance crossover, so the powers came in handy against villains out of his weight class, but he often struggled with controlling himself. In the last part, a villain's attempt to negate these new powers instead fixes the transfer, allowing Spidey to finally learn why this happened and to complete the true mission.
- Powers via Possession: The Unipower grant powers to single individuals temporarily so they could fulfill specific missions. Though the Unipower doesn't really force the host to do anything, only tells him what he has to do. Presumably if you disobey, it'll just leave you.
- Reality Warper: In the What If? where Spidey kept his powers, he eventually developed cosmic awareness, the ability to shapeshift atoms (accidentally warping the Hobgoblin's face in a version of his own) and the like.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: The Unipower is the can, or at least the lid, keeping the Whirldemons sealed away.
- Story-Breaker Power:
- Super-Empowering: What the Uni-Power does to anybody selected to be Captain Universe. In 2016, this was exaggerated in a miniseries where 5 other superheroes, specifically Daredevil, the Invisible Woman, the Hulk, X-23 and the Silver Surfer each become Captain Universe and get the Uni-Power added to their repetoire, which ranges from Swiss-Army Superpower to When All You Have Is a Hammer…
- Superpower Lottery: You win it!! For a few minutes anyway.
- The Symbiote:
- The Enigma Force/Uni-Power acts like one, bonding to a host to turn them into Captain Universe — and it turns out this isn't a coincidence. King in Black reveals the Enigma Force emerged in opposition of Knull, the god of the symbiotes, and thus acts like one itself to oppose him.
- Mister E, the Living Shadow fought by Captain Universe in Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2 #9, is revealed to be a proto-symbiote created by Knull in Symbiote Spider-Man: King in Black.
- Symbol Motif Clothing: As seen in the page image, Captain Universe is frequently connected with the stars, and individuals with whom it bonds are frequently depicted with stars and constellations on their costume. That it was the Enigma Force that helped X-23 throw off Hellverine's influence in The Killing Dream arc of her solo book is strongly hinted at when the manifestation of her "self" is depicted as a starry void, and that in the aftermath, the symbol of a star is left on the palm of her right hand. The connection is largely confirmed in the Chaos Theory arc of her ongoing series when the Whirldemon King recognizes the marking.
- The linked molecule motif across the chest and arms represents the Microverse.
- This Loser Is You: Inverted. Anyone can be Captain Universe, even an old man in a coma. Or even the dead body of Eddie Brock.
Hosts
Ray Coffin
Alter Ego: Raymond Coffin
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Micronauts #8 (1979)
First Appearance:
Steve Coffin
Alter Ego: Steven Coffin
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Spotlight #9 (1980)
First Appearance:
Claire Dodgson
Alter Ego: Claire Dodgson
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2 #10 (1981)
First Appearance:
Ann Stanford
Alter Ego: Ann Dodgson-Stanford
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2 #10 (1981)
First Appearance:
Monty Walsh
Alter Ego: Montgomery Walsh
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Spotlight Vol. 2 #11 (1981)
First Appearance:
Commander Arcturus Rann
Alter Ego: Arcturus Rann
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Micronauts #35 (1981)
First Appearance:
Doctor Strange
Alter Ego: Stephen Strange
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Micronauts #35 (1981)
First Appearance:
Hulk
Alter Ego: Robert Bruce Banner
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Incredible Hulk Annual #10 (1981); Captain Universe/Hulk #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Unnamed Female Host
Alter Ego:
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Super-Heroes Contest of Champions #1 (1982)
First Appearance:
Delayne Masters
Alter Ego: Delayne Masters
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Fanfare #25 (1986)
First Appearance:
Dr. Evan Swann
Notable Aliases: Captain Universe
First Appearance: Amazing Spider-Man #310 (December 1988)
Dr. Evan Swann was once a professor of physics who worked at Empire State University and is one of the tutors who made Peter Parker into the man he is today. Swann was also a wielder of the Captain Universe powers.
Little Eddie
Alter Ego: Edward Price
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Web of Spider-Man Annual #6 (1990)
First Appearance:
Reader Submitted Name
Alter Ego: Hello, [Insert Name Here]
First Appearance/Possessed In: X-Men/Captain Universe: Sleeping Giants #1 (1994)
In the early 90s, Marvel had a special promotion where a reader could send in their name and gender along with a fee and receive a special customized comic where they would become the host of Captain Universe and team up with the X-men.
- Featureless Protagonist: The reader's civilian appearance is mostly kept hidden with the reader only being fully shown in Captain Universe costume which hides the host's features.
- Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The comic was customized with the reader submitted name. The reader would become Captain Universe and would be addressed by name by the other characters such as the X-Men.
- Purely Aesthetic Gender: There were two variants of the comic for male and female readers. The different versions featured Captain Universe drawn differently but were otherwise identical in terms of story.
- Wish-Fulfillment: The comic allowed the reader to gain superpowers and team up with the X-Men who at the time were Marvel's most popular characters.
-
Word of Dante: Some websites will list the character's name as Jeff Christiansen, the author of Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, but this is not officially acknowledged by Marvel.
Elijah Jackson
Alter Ego: Elijah Jackson
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Marvel Comics Presents #148 (1994)
First Appearance:
Roland Taylor
Alter Ego: Roland Taylor
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Cosmic Powers Unlimited #5 (1996)
First Appearance:
Ted Simmons
Alter Ego: Theodore Simmons
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Amazing Fantasy vol. 2 #13 (2005)
First Appearance:
Dr. Gilbert Wiles
Alter Ego: Gilbert Wiles
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Hulk #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Daredevil
Alter Ego: Matthew Murdock
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Daredevil #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
X-23
Alter Ego: Laura Kinney
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/X-23 #1 (2005); X-23 #16 (2011)
First Appearance:
Invisible Woman
Alter Ego: Susan Storm-Richards
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Invisible Woman #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Gladiator
Alter Ego: Kallark
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Invisible Woman #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Krosakis
Alter Ego: Krosakis
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Silver Surfer #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Silver Surfer
Alter Ego: Norrin Radd
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Silver Surfer #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
Gabriel Vargas
Alter Ego: Gabriel Vargas
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Captain Universe/Silver Surfer #1 (2005)
First Appearance:
William Nguyen
Alter Ego: William Nguyen
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Amazing Spider-Man #627-#629 (2010)
First Appearance:
Juggernaut
Alter Ego: Cain Marko
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Amazing Spider-Man #629 (2010)
First Appearance:
Tamara Devoux
Alter Ego: Tamara Devoux
Notable Aliases:
Possessed In: Avengers Vol. 5 #1 & #2 (2012)
First Appearance: Avengers Vol. 5 #1 (February, 2013)
The current Captain Universe, she was granted her power after a car crash and was recruited into the Avengers.
- Broken Hero: Both personalities, Tamara was in a car accident and was in a coma for a decade before Captain Universe took her body as her host. Captain Universe feels some is wrong with universe and a great disturbance coming from the Earth that warranted it/her taking on a full time host to confront the yet shown threat.
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Due to Tamara's brain damage, any time she's at the wheel she just talks about pie.
- Distaff Counterpart: She's a female version of Captain Universe.
- Flip Personality: Due to their circumstances Captain Universe is in control most of the times but Tamara will have moments where she returns to the surface.
- Legacy Character: Technically the Captain Universe power jumps from host to host, the current Captain Universe appearing Avengers is just one of a long line.
