|
It's suburbs vs. the city. Hempstead vs. the Lower East Side. (Both tough neighborhoods! Don't be fooled!)
It's the final Matchup in the Primary Superheroes Bracket of the Marvel Conference. Call the neighbors! Wake the kids! For God's sake, get your votes in!
| [fimg=265]http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20120310084723/marveldatabase/images/c/c6/Nova_Vol_4_36_Textless.jpg[/fimg] | | [fimg=280]http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11113/111130081/4270296-0760989918-41370.jpg[/fimg] | | Character Name: | Nova | Character Name: | The Thing | | First Appearance: | Nova #1 (September 1976) | First Appearance: | Fantastic Four #1 (1961) | | Creator(s): | Marv Wolfman, John Buscema | Creator(s): | Stan Lee and Jack Kirby | | Alter-Ego: | Richard Rider; aka Nova Prime, Kid Nova, Nova #11249-44396, The Human Rocket, Quasar; a later Nova was Sam Alexander | Alter-Ego: | Benjamin Jacob "Ben" Grimm; aka Blackbeard the Pirate, Angrir: Breaker of Souls, Dr. Josiah Verpoorteen, El Morrito | | Place of Birth: | Hempstead, NY | Place of Birth: | Yancy Steet, New York, NY | | How He Came to Be: | When the last surviving member of the planet Xandar's elite Nova Corps, Rhomann Dey, is dying, he selects New York high school student Richard Rider to replace him. Rider is given the uniform and powers of a Nova Centurion but little instruction on how to use them. | How He Came to Be: | You finish school, you become a pilot, your friend takes you to outer space, you get swamped by cosmic rays, and you become an antropomorphic pile of orange rocks. It happens more times than a man can count. | | Base of Operations: | Mobile on Earth, but also works on Xandar; formerly New Warriors headquarters, New York, NY | Base of Operations: | Baxter Building, Manhattan, New York City, New York; formerly Pier 4; Antarctic lab; Four Freedoms PlazaAvengers Compound, Los Angeles, California. | | Teams/Affiliations: | United Front, New Warriors, Defenders, Champions of Xandar, Secret Avengers, Nova Corps | Teams/Affiliations: | Mainly Fantastic Four; but also Future Foundation, UCWF, the US Marine Corps, NASA, West Coast Avengers, Avengers West Coast (it's stupid, but they're somehow a different group), New Avengers, The Worthy, Thunderiders, Empire State University, the ESU football team, and of course, the Yancy Street Gang | | Signature Lines: | "Sometimes I still feel like an average joe from Long Island." | Signature Lines: | "It's CLOBBERIN' TIME!" | | Arch-Enemy: | Diamondhead? | Arch-Enemy: | The Yancy Street Gang? | | Sidekick(s): | Speedball, for a bit. | Sidekick(s): | None | | Paramour(s): | Nita Prentiss/Namorita, Laura Duham, Mickey Musashi/Turbo (flirtation), Gamora | Paramour(s): | Alicia Masters, Sharon Ventura/Ms. Marvel II/She-Thing, Debbie Green | | Has Been Played By: | Just in cartoons | Once Played By: | Michael Bailey Smith, Michael Chiklis, Jamie Bell | | Could Have Been Played By: | Mark Hamill | Could Have Been Played By: | Richard X. Slattery | | Song I Think Of: | "Champagne Supernova" | Song I Think Of: | "Fred and Barney Meet the Thing Intro Theme" | | Supernatural Powers: | As host of the entire Nova Force, a vast energy source that he can access to grant himself a number of superhuman attributes. He has super strength (enough to rassle Silver Surfer to a stalemate), super speed (several hundred miles per hour, and at time, in bursts faster than light), super stamina, [super accuracy (that's almost unfair), a nigh-invulnerable durability (takes bullets, high impact, extreme temps and acid without injury), super agility and reflexes, healing factor, and flight. Yeah, that's about all anybody can ask for, but he also, along the way, becomes host of the Xandarian Worldmind, the sentient collective created to govern and maintain all forms of Xandarian culture, containing all knowledge collected by the Xandarian people including art, science, history, and philosophy. I'm going to have to borrow from another site in dilineating what that can do: [list][*]Helps Rider contain the whole Nova Force while keeping his mind and sanity intact.[/*:m][*]Downloads profiles of opponents directly into Rider's mind[/*:m][*]Detects nearby energy surges, including those used in teleportation[/*:m][*]Can assume control of Rider's body as he sleeps[/*:m][*]Access other computer systems, including heavily-protected terrestrial computer networks (such as S.H.I.E.L.D. records)[/*:m][*]Analyze attackers, including detecting adrenaline surges in their bodies[/*:m][*]Detects approaching super-humans with energy-based powers (like Penance)[/*:m][*]Enables Rider to hack into satellite TV broadcasts, and transmit his voice and image to individual TV sets[/*:m][*]Can protect Rider from psionic manipulation using Psi-shields/[/*:m][/list:u] Might as well just chill out and let the Worldmind take over. | Supernatural Powers: | The Thing is mostly known for his rock-like skin. The cosmic rays he was exposed to caused all his tissue, inside and out, to harden, toughen, grow more dense. With this, come superhuman strength (85 on the Marvel scale going to 100) where he has lifted an oil rig and wrestled with a space ship hurtling toward earth. His tough skin comes with superhuman stamina and durability where a bazooka shell to the gut just pisses him off. And he IS pissed off. He gets dazed by punches from the Hulk, but he shakes 'em off. And the Hulk hits hard (over 100+ strength). He also has super sense endurance where blinding light and deafening sound that would take out a lesser being doesn't take the Thing out. He's tough. | | Non-Super Abilities: | Like he needs it! But he's a trained combatant, learning his stuff under the tutelage of Chord, and wouldn’t you know it, if he gets in a pinch he can access more martial knowledge from the Worldmind (but I guess we covered that). | Non-Super Abilities: | Big Ben's an expert pilot, an experienced astronaut, and the holder of several tech and engineering degrees. Even before becoming the Thing, he was an expert combatant, growing up a street fighter and honing those skills through the more disciplined millieu of college boxing and wrestling and football. Most notably is that his high intelligence is belied by a pigheaded stubbon-ness that has become an asset. While his defining characteristic is his ability to take a licking and get back on his feet, that's not just his superpower, that's his character. His is an indomitable will. | | Stuff: | He's got a particulary cool uniform that helps him channel the Nova Force. This is no small thing as that force is quite the burden. It helps him survive in space, it repairs itself, and can change appearance to suit his needs. It also has A/V built into the helmet to aid him in his intelligence-gathering and ass-kicking. | Stuff: | Swim trunks, mostly, but he has access to all the things Reed makes for the Fantastic Four, and that usually means a cool plane. Plus, he carries a flare pistol that can spell the number "4" in the sky. He HAS used this as a weapon in dire straits. | | Weaknesses: | He's got so much freaking Nova power that he would go cuh-razy if not for the Worldmind to stabilize the burden on his mind. But the Worldmind is a burden of it's own. Try and throw off the equilibrium between his own biological makeup, the Nova Force, the Worldmind, and the dampeners in his suit/helmet, and you might just get him on a bad day. | Weaknesses: | His stubborn-ness can be a detraction, choosing often to clobber his way out of a situation, rather than a subtler strategy, which can often do more damage than is necessary. He's also prone to angst and self-pity which can take him out the game while he wrestles emotionally with his unique nature. Physically, his super density can be a problem. He can't float or swim or walk across surfaces that aren't at least a little re-inforced. |
|
