Marvel Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen of My Favorite Marvel Comic Book Characters:

1. Spider-Man
Powers: Peter can cling to most surfaces, has superhuman strength and is roughly 15 times more agile than a regular human. He has been able to lift 15 tons under optimal conditions, but his current strength level after his rebirth has yet to be determined. The combination of his acrobatic leaps and web-slinging enables him to travel rapidly from place to place. His spider-sense provides an early warning detection system linked with his superhuman kinesthetics, enabling him the ability to evade most any injury, provided he doesn’t cognitively override the autonomic reflexes. His powers have recently been enhanced after his transformation from the Queen to include a stronger psychic alignment with his environment, especially with other arachnids and insects. He can now create organic webs from his wrists, limited by his body’s health and nutrition. Recent new abilities resulting from his rebirth after battling Morlun include night vision, increased sensory awareness via vibratory patterns transmitted on his web lines, and twin retractable stingers within his forearms. He can use the hairs on his body to detect subtle changes in the wind. His skin’s adhesive ability, previously concentrated mainly on his palms and soles of his feet, is now more greatly present throughout his body including his face (previously used to prevent undesirable mask removal) and back.
Abilities: Peter is an accomplished scientist, inventor and photographer.

Paraphernalia:Spider-Man designed and constructed several devices that he traditionally carried as part of his full costume before obtaining his recent costume from Tony Stark. This included twin artificial web shooters (before being able to produce organic webbing) worn at the wrists, spare web cartridges attached to his belt, spider-tracer devices attuned to his spider-sense, the spider-signal light, and a compact camera. He has reconstructed his web shooters out of a high density plastic to avoid metal detectors, and has added modifications to detect low web-fluid levels, and propel spider-tracers.
Spider-Man’s new costume is equipped with filters in the mouth area to keep out toxins and allow him to breathe underwater, audio amplification, visual amplification (including vision in the infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths), a short-range GPS microwave communication system (with a built-in fire, police, and emergency scanner), and retractable webbing under his arms that allow short bursts of gliding. The costume is made of a material that can serve as a bulletproof jacket against small caliber bullets. For the first upgrade to the costume, Stark added three mechanical waldo arms, which can grab and move objects as well housing cameras which transmit images back to the costume’s eyepiece. The waldoes also can be used offensively in combat. The costume is now built out of a liquid metal nanofiber material allowing it to quickly change in appearance upon mental command into anything from Spider-Man’s civilian clothes to his former costumes, as well as providing camouflage by blending with the surrounding colors.

2. Nightcrawler from the X-Men – A priest with a humble heart who just happens to look like a demon.
Powers: Nightcrawler is a mutant who can teleport by opening a portal into another dimension, travelling through it via an unconscious direction-finding sense, and returning to his own dimension. When teleporting, Nightcrawler leaves behind a small portion of the atmosphere of the other dimension that escapes with a muffled “bamf” sound and smells of brimstone. On returning, his power automatically displaces any extraneous liquids and gases.
Abilities: Nightcrawler is an Olympic-class acrobat thanks to his flexible spine that allows him to perform contortionist-like feats and to go long periods in a semi-crouching position without injury. He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and a master at fencing, which he can even perform with his tail, which is strong enough to support his entire body weight.
Paraphernalia: Nightcrawler occasionally uses an image inducer to disguise his true appearance with a holographic form.

3. Angel/Archangel from the X-Men.
Powers:Archangel has fully feathered wings that span 16′ and have a very flexible skeletal structure. He can fly by flapping his wings, and can reach speeds of up to 150 mph. Though he generally flies below the height of clouds at 6,500 feet, Archangel can reach a height of 10,000 feet with little effort. His wings are strong enough to carry aloft at least 200 pounds in addition to his own body weight. Archangel’s entire anatomy is adapted for flight, having hollow bones; a body virtually devoid of fat, granting him enhanced proportionate muscle strength; eyes that can withstand high-speed winds; enhanced eyesight enabling him to see at distances far greater than the average human; and a special respiratory membrane that extracts oxygen from the air at extreme velocities and altitudes. Following his secondary mutation, Archangel can heal fatal injuries and cure most known diseases at an accelerated speed by mixing his blood with that of the victims, so long as they have a compatible blood type.
After genetic alteration by Apocalypse, Archangel’s wings became composed of a razor-sharp organic steel-like material, allowing him to use them as slashing weapons. He can also expel his feathers at great speed and with tremendous force, enabling them to pierce even steel. The feathers are tipped with a paralyzing chemical generated by his body (he is immune). He also briefly possessed the ability to convert his life-force into solid light to form a pair of energy wings.
Abilities: Archangel is a skilled combatant, especially in aerial hand-to-hand combat. He is also a talented businessman whose wealth ranks him in the lower part of the Fortune 500 list.
Paraphernalia: Archangel often wears a harness to help conceal his wings underneath his clothes. When blue-skinned, Archangel used a holographic image inducer to grant him a normal appearance.

4. Colossus from the X-Men.
Powers: Colossus can transform his body tissue into an organic, steel-like substance that grants him superhuman strength and a high degree of imperviousness to injury. His armored form can withstand ballistic penetration as well as temperature extremes from 70º above absolute zero (-390º F) to approximately 9000º F. Colossus cannot become partially or selectively armored; his body is either entirely converted, or not at all. Even his eyes become steel-like.
Through an act of will, Colossus can transform virtually instantaneously into his armored state, and can remain in that form for an as yet undetermined amount of time. Once in his armored form, Colossus remains so until he consciously wills himself back to normal. If he is rendered unconscious, however, he spontaneously reverts to his normal form. In his armored state, Colossus retains his normal human mobility, though his endurance and speed are enhanced. He does not need to breathe while transformed, but it is believed that he could not survive for long in a vacuum.
Abilities: Colossus is talented in drawing and painting.

5. Chamber from Generation X/X-Men.
Powers: Chamber’s body acted as a storehouse for vast amounts of psychic energy. He could project the psionic energy as a standard energy bolt, which had led to his disfigurement when first manifested. In addition, he could communicate telepathically (including projecting destructive mind blasts) and perform limited telekinesis. It was once suggested that Starsmore’s physical form disintegrates a little more with each use of his power. The full range, extent, and nature of Starsmore’s psychic abilities remain unrevealed.
Abilities: Starsmore is a talented guitarist and is skilled at picking locks.

6. Mystique from X-Men/Brotherhood of Evil Mutants/etc.
Powers: Mystique can psionically shift the atoms of her body to duplicate any humanoid of either sex, wearing any kind of clothing. She can precisely duplicate another person’s retina pattern, finger, palm and skin-pore patterns, and vocal cords. She can increase her volume, but not her mass. Mystique’s power grants her age retardation, increased healing, and immunity to drugs and poisons.
Abilities: Mystique is a highly skilled combatant, actress, marksman, and strategist in terrorist and commando operations.

7. Madrox/Multiple Man from X-Factor Investigations.
Powers: Madrox creates an identical physical living duplicate of himself upon any physical impact, possibly via extradimensional mass acquisition similar to the process used by Ant-Man or the Hulk. This process is spontaneous and cannot be prevented by Madrox. Although he can create multiple duplicates, and the duplicates themselves can also replicate, each is only able to create one duplicate at a time; he has been seen to produce around forty duplicates before no more would be created. The duplicates think, feel, and act independently, though usually guided by the original. Each tends to manifest one aspect of Madrox’s personality, which increases in strength with lengthier separation from the original; these traits have recently become more extreme. Madrox is telepathically and empathically linked to his duplicates, suffering severe, potentially fatal, trauma if one dies. Madrox can “reabsorb” his duplicates, gaining their new knowledge and skills. Similarly, he will acquire any physical injury – though not any actual toxin – from a duplicate; symptoms are typically lessened by half during absorption. If Madrox himself were killed, it is not known whether any existing duplicates would continue to function independently; it is virtually impossible to distinguish the original from the duplicates.
Abilities: Madrox has acquired extensive knowledge and skills via his duplicates’ experiences, such as human anatomy, speaking Russian, and Shaolin monk stealth techniques.

8. Icarus from the New X-Men.
Powers: Flight via feathered wings; superhuman vocal cords; accelerated healing.
Abilities: Icarus is a skilled guitar player and a talented singer.

9. Captain America
Powers: Captain America represents the pinnacle of human physical perfection. He experienced a time when he was augmented to superhuman levels, but is no longer. Captain America has a very high intelligence as well as agility, strength, speed, endurance, and reaction time superior to any Olympic athlete who ever competed. The Super-Soldier formula that he has metabolized has enhanced all of his bodily functions to the peak of human efficiency. Most notably, his body eliminates the excessive build-up of fatigue-producing poisons in his muscles, granting him phenomenal endurance.
Abilities: Captain America has mastered the martial arts of American-style boxing and judo, and has combined these disciplines with his own unique hand-to-hand style of combat. He has also shown skill and knowledge of a number of other martial arts. He engages in a daily regimen of rigorous exercise (including aerobics, weight lifting, gymnastics, and simulated combat) to keep himself in peak condition. Captain America is one of the finest human combatants Earth has ever known.
Weapons: Captain America’s only weapon is his shield, a concave disk 2.5 feet in diameter, weighing 12 pounds. It is made of a unique Vibranium-metal alloy that has never been duplicated. The shield was cast by American metallurgist Dr. Myron MacLain, who was contracted by the U.S. government to create an impenetrable substance to use for tanks during World War II. MacLain was never able to duplicate the process due to his inability to identify a still unknown factor that played a role in it. The shield was awarded to Captain America by the government several months after the beginning of his career.
The shield has great aerodynamic properties: it is able to slice through the air with minimal wind resistance and deflection of path. Its great overall resilience, combined with its natural concentric stiffness, enables it to rebound from objects with minimal loss of angular momentum. It is virtually indestructible: it is resistant to penetration, temperature extremes, and the entire electromagnetic spectrum of radiation. The only way it can be damaged in any way is by tampering with its molecular bonding.

10. Iceman from the X-Men.
Powers: Iceman is able to lower his external and internal body temperature without harm to himself, thereby radiating intense cold from his body. Iceman is able to reach -105 degrees Fahrenheit within a few seconds, and is immune to sub-zero temperatures around him.
In addition, Iceman can freeze any moisture in the air around him into unusually hard ice, and thereby form simple objects such as slides, ladders, shields, and bats. Iceman can also augment his ice form with extraneous moisture to enhance his strength and durability, and can reshape his body’s ice form at will by using any available moisture from his surrounding environment. Similarly, Iceman can rebuild his ice form if any part of it is broken or if it is shattered completely without suffering any permanent damage.
Previously, Iceman was able to transform his body into solid ice and back to human form at will. Recently, however, his body has since permanently transformed into solid ice as a result of a secondary mutation.
Iceman also possesses the potential to transport himself quickly over great distances through nearby flows of water by merging his body’s molecules with those of the stream.
Abilities:Bobby is a Certified Practicing Accountant.

11. Silver Surfer
Powers: The Silver Surfer wields “the power cosmic,” absorbing and manipulating the universe’s ambient cosmic energies. He can augment his strength to incalculable levels, and is almost totally indestructible. He can navigate space, hyperspace and dimensional barriers, and can fly at near-limitless speeds on his board, entering hyperspace when he exceeds light speed. He has even proven capable of time travel on occasion. The Surfer does not require food, drink, air or sleep, sustained entirely by converting matter into energy. He is immune to temperature extremes and most radiation, and can survive in vacuum environments such as outer space and hyperspace. He can analyze and manipulate matter and energy, and restructure or animate matter at will, even transmuting elements. He can heal living beings (though he cannot raise the dead), and has proven capable of revitalizing or evolving organic life on a planet wide scale. He can alter the size of himself or of other matter, cast illusions, fire energy blasts, form and manipulate energy constructs, manipulate gravity, absorb and discharge most forms of energy, and phase through solid matter. His senses enable him to detect objects and energies light years away, and to perceive matter and energy in subatomic detail; he can even see through time, and with concentration can achieve limited perception of past and future events in his general vicinity. The Surfer has demonstrated limited telepathic ability on occasion, and has proven able to influence human emotion and sensation.
Paraphernalia: The Surfer’s board is composed of the same impervious, cosmic-powered silvery material as its master’s skin, and is mentally linked to the Surfer; it moves in response to his thoughts, even when he is not in physical contact with it. The board is almost totally indestructible, but on those rare occasions where it has been damaged or destroyed, the Surfer has been able to repair or even re-create it. The Surfer can attack opponents remotely by directing the board against them, and the board is capable of absorbing and imprisoning other beings, at least temporarily.

12. Sub-Mariner – King of Atlantis.
Powers: Namor possesses a high level of superhuman strength, enabling him to lift/press up to 100 tons while in contact with water; his strength gradually decreases according to the length of time he is out of water and can eventually dwindle to no more than slightly above human level.
In addition to his great strength, Namor possesses superhuman stamina and durability, a result of his body’s adaptation to underwater pressures. He also possesses superhuman agility, reflexes, and speed, with a maximum swimming speed of roughly sixty miles per hour. Namor is able to fly via the finlike wings on his ankles, and he possesses a telepathic rapport with many, but not all, forms of marine life. Like all Atlanteans, he has a prolonged lifespan and his body is specially developed for underwater conditions, granting him specialized blood circulation to withstand freezing temperatures and highly developed vision to see clearly even in murky ocean depths. This hybrid physiology means he can survive indefinitely underwater or on land (though he would still need occasional contact with water to survive). Namor possesses an empathic bond with his cousin Namorita.
In the past, Namor has demonstrated additional powers similar to the attributes of various forms of sea life, including the electricity-generating capabilities of an electric eel and the radar sense of cavefish; however, he has demonstrated such abilities only sporadically, suggesting that they depend upon some factor of his Atlantean mutant nature that is not yet understood.

When not exposed to water, Namor’s physical attributes gradually decline and can diminish over time to near-human levels, robbing him of his strength and rendering him vulnerable to conventional injuries; renewed exposure to water will immediately restore his abilities. Complete lack of contact with water will prove fatal in about a week’s time. Namor has demonstrated a vulnerability to oxygen imbalance when remaining too long in either water or air, resulting in manic-depressive mood swings; he can prevent this imbalance by dividing his time between the two atmospheres. He has occasionally used scientific or magical means to regulate his oxygen levels.

13. Iron Man
Powers: Formerly none, but after being critically injured during a battle with the Extremis-enhanced Mallen, Stark injected his nervous system with a modified techno-organic virus to save his own life. This fused Stark’s armor to his body, allowing him to store the inner layers of the Iron Man armor in the hollows of his bones as well as control it through direct brain impulses. He is also able to remotely connect to external communications systems such as satellites, cellular phones, and computers throughout the world. Because the armor’s operating system is now directly connected to Stark’s nervous system, its response time has been significantly improved. The Extremis armor grants him superspeed reactions and a healing factor able to regrow whole organs.
Abilities: Genius level intellect, which allows him to create a range of sophisticated inventions, notably including the Iron Man armor. Also posesses a keen business mind.
Weapons: The Iron Man armor provides Stark with superhuman strength, and physical protection. It also allows Stark to fly using the jetboots. The armor contains a variety of weapons including repulsor rays, pulse beams, missile launchers, lasers, tasers, and flamethrowers. The unibeam in the center of his chest can emit various types of light energy and his helmet contains communication devices, scanning equipment, and recording devices.


Notice that there aren’t a lot of Marvel females that are in my top picks. DC has my favorite female heroines: Wonder Woman, Supergirl, etc. But that’s for another list.