Genis-Vell

Superherobox|

caption=Genis-Vell as Captain Marvel.
Art by ChrisCross.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Genis-Vell
real_name=Genis-Vell
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Silver Surfer Annual" #6 (1993)
creators=Ron Marz
Ron Lim
alliance_color=background:#cccccc
alliances=Avengers Kree Space Navy Thunderbolts
aliases=Legacy, Marv, Captain Marvel, Photon
powers=Flight,Super strength and durability,Energy blasts, absorption, and manipulation,Dimension transportation,Cosmic awareness|

Genis-Vell, also known as Legacy, Captain Marvel and Photon, is a fictional character, a superhero (and sometime anti-hero) in the Marvel Comics universe. He is depicted as the son of Mar-Vell of the extraterrestrial Kree Empire, who was the first character to be known as Captain Marvel in the Marvel Universe. Genis-Vell would become the third to carry the name.

Publication history

Genis-Vell first appeared in "Silver Surfer Annual" #6 (1993) using the codename of "Legacy". He appears in the various Marvel titles in 1994 and 1995, primarily Silver Surfer and the "Cosmic Powers" miniseries. A six month guest appearance in the former culminated with the launch of his own series.

Legacy was featured in "Captain Marvel" by writer Fabian Nicieza and artist Ed Benes with an initial publication date of December 1995. The series was abruptly cancelled after only six issues; the unpublished issues #7-12 were later summarised by Nicieza in a fill-in issue (#14) of the next "Captain Marvel" series in 2000.

Legacy appeared in "Avengers Unplugged" #5 (June 1996) wherein he meets Monica Rambeau, who at that time was the bearer of the "Captain Marvel" title. Monica cedes the title to Genis and adopts the codename "Photon" instead. After a single appearance in "Silver Surfer" later that year Genis-Vell wouldn't appear for another two years, when he was included in a new Warlock title for four issues. An appearance in the Avengers Forever 12 issue miniseries led to a new partner with his father's former companion, Rick Jones, and the second "Captain Marvel" series featuring Genis-Vell starting in the fall of 1999. The numbering would last for 35 issues, until October 2002.

In 2002 Marvel launched the U-Decide campaign in an attempt to bolster sales on several comics. Although critically popular, sales for "Captain Marvel" were flagging. U-Decide was initiated as a contest between "Captain Marvel", "Marville" (written by Bill Jemas) and "Ultimate Adventures" (written by Ron Zimmerman), in which the comic that sold the most copies would remain while the others would be discontinued. In order to compete against the other two series, Captain Marvel was renumbered to issue number one, and Peter David, its head writer, took the book in a new direction. The "Captain Marvel" series won by a decidedly strong margin, and "Marville" and "Ultimate Adventures" ended after seven and six issues, respectively.

Eventually the "Captain Marvel" ongoing series was cancelled with issue #25 in 2004 due to low sales. Peter David was given the chance to wrap up the plot in a single over-sized issue. He brought back the pastiche of the Endless, and joked that Rick Jones could sense the impending end of the series via his "comics" awareness. Genis-Vell appeared sporatically until the character was killed off in Thunderbolts #100 (May 2006).

Fictional character biography

Birth and early life

After the death of Mar-Vell (Captain Marvel), his lover Elysius decides to have a son. As one of the Eternals living on Titan, she uses the advanced technology of her race to impregnate herself with some of Mar-Vell's genetic material. Elysius seeks to protect her new son, Genis-Vell, from Mar-Vell's powerful enemies by taking him to a distant planet. There, she artificially ages him and implants false memories in his brain, making him believe that he had a natural childhood and that he is the son of Starfox.

Avengers Forever (the Destiny War)

When the Destiny Force resurfaces in Rick Jones for a second time (the first time occurring during the Kree-Skrull War), it triggers a time-spanning conflict known as the Destiny War. A motley crew of Avengers are gathered. Among them is a future version of Genis, now known as Captain Marvel. At the climax of the Destiny War and with Rick Jones' life in jeopardy, Genis re-creates the Nega-Band connection with Rick in order to save him. After the war, Rick returns to the current day and the Genis of the present finds himself unwillingly bonded with Jones, a process which triggers his latent Cosmic Awareness.

Bonded

Rick and Genis spend a considerable time adventuring together, in an arrangement somewhat reminiscent of the one that existed between Genis's father, Mar-Vell, and Rick years before. During their time together, Mar-Vell and Rick exchanged places with each other between the regular universe and the Negative Zone and could hear each other's thoughts unaided.

Genis-Vell and Rick, however, alternate between the Microverse and the regular Marvel Universe and can not only hear each other's thoughts unaided but can also see each other in reflective surfaces or as red ghostly visions.

Whereas Mar-Vell and Rick formed a strong friendship during their time together, Genis-Vell and Rick have a much harder time getting along. Genis' alien (and immature) perspective make him unfathomable to Rick's jaded-sidekick sensibilities. Their ability to see and hear what the other is experiencing lead to awkward situations with Rick's wife, Marlo Chandler, and Genis's many amorous partners. Eventually, however, they become good friends.

Insanity

Genis, now known as Captain Marvel, suddenly acts in an unpredictable and volatile fashion. The cause of Genis-Vell's irrationality is his inability to deal with the potentially infinite information generated by his Cosmic Awareness. Furthermore, foreseeing the potential outcome of any action shows Genis that all of the good he does results in just as much, or more, evil.

Genis goes on a self-destructive spiral, joining the Kree space navy, and eventually destroying the universe at the behest of Entropy and Epiphany. Captain Marvel also helps the two recreate the universe with a Last Thursdayism effect on the new universe's population, although with several alterations. The Captain Marvel of the new universe becomes the hero that Genis-Vell had always wanted to be. This Genis-Vell had never gone on the insane binge that resulted in the universe's destruction.

In the new universe, Genis's mother Elysius still lives. In fact, Genis's recreation of himself is such a success, that Elysius genetically engineers another offspring with the DNA of herself and Mar-Vell: a daughter named Phyla-Vell. An ironic twist to this redemption results when the original Genis, seemingly cured of his insanity by Epiphany, re-enters the timestream: the original self "overwrites" the healthy, recreated self of the new reality. Reversing the incident which had caused him to snap, Genis finds the "new" future "still" embroiled in a galaxy-wide war. He promptly breaks down in insane laughter, transforming his red and blue costume into the Kree uniform once more in the process.

Delirious with power, Genis orders Rick's death while giving the Kree, the Shi'ar and the Skrull coalition aligned against him three days before he kills them all. In response, they call in a delegation of Titans - including the mother he still thinks dead.

Confused and enraged by the discrepancies of the new reality, he raises Rick from the dead, and leaves for Titan with Elysius and Eros in pursuit. Elysius warns Titan of their impending arrival, and tells Phyla that the Captain Marvel title will now belong to her. When Genis arrives, he finds that all the other Titans are unreachable and out of phase with reality. Their elusiveness angers Marv further.

As Genis begins doubting his own perceptions of reality, Phyla makes her presence known, and he becomes further disoriented. The two fight, and Genis eventually gains the upper hand. Before he can hurt her too severely, Elysius and Eros intervene. In response, Captain Marvel opens a portal which sucks in Phyla, Eros, and Elysius. As Phyla is sucked in, she forms an energy lasso and pulls Captain Marvel into the portal with them.

Now in a realm of different physical laws, the more experienced Eros, Elysius, Phyla, and Rick Jones overcome the less experienced mind of Captain Marvel, leaving him a crying heap. He then changes to a white and navy version of the costume which was first seen in the series, "Avengers Forever". Although he swears to do good throughout the universe, a hallucination of Epiphany tells him that he is still insane.

Odyssey

Genis sets up an office for his superheroing activities on Hyperion. Phyla arrives to mock his efforts, but they are interrupted by an alternate version of Marlo, who attacks Rick. During the battle, the alternate Marlo deteriorates into nothing.

Captain Marvel travels through time to resolve the conflict with the future Marlo. Phyla takes the Earth-616 Marlo to Titan for protection, where they witness the Magus attacking and badly injuring Moondragon. Via a time portal, Captain Marvel reenters the present day. However, he is in great anguish from being forced to swear to kill his son in the cradle as soon as he is born. Phyla tries to get him to confide in her, but he refuses.

One issue after Odyssey concluded, the series ended. Moondragon told Rick that her and Marlo's attraction to each other was a "spill-over" from psychic tampering by Magus (although this was apparently a lie on Moondragon's part, to make the others happy). Marlo got back together with Rick, and Phyla-Vell showed up hooked up with Moondragon. Al showed up and revealed the he was really "Eulogy," one of the "Seven Friendless" (including Eternity, Entropy, Epiphany, Empathy, Enmity, and Expediency). As he oversaw the wrap-up of the set, props, and costumes, Expediencey separated Genis-Vell from Rick Jones. Genis waited, all alone, on an empty set, for someone to call who needed his help. No one did, he gave up, and left the set. Then the phone rang.

Photon and the New Thunderbolts

Genis travels to Earth and joins the Thunderbolts. During this time, he develops an interest in Songbird. [alluding to their relationship as depicted in "Avengers Forever" and the "Captain Marvel" series by Peter David] The manipulations of the Purple Man cause Atlas to attack Genis in a rage, apparently killing him and throwing his body into the Hudson River. Though Genis would have recovered on his own, former Thunderbolt Baron Zemo uses a pair of alien moonstones to form a cocoon of energy, feeding him energy from the beginning and end of the universe to speed his recovery. When he emerges, he has absorbed the Nega Bands into his body.

Genis' subsequent adoption of the name "Photon" causes him to quarrel with Monica Rambeau, who had also called herself "Photon" and "Captain Marvel." In the end, Genis is allowed to use the name "Photon" and Monica decides to use the codename "Pulsar".

However, Zemo realises that his mistake of siphoning energy from the beginning and end of time created a link between Genis and the universe that threatens to end existence. Zemo explores all future timelines with the moonstones, but fails to find a way to save both Genis and the universe: In every possible future timeline, Genis destroys the universe. Genis is aware of this, but keeps trying to tune his cosmic awareness in order to find a way to prevent this from happening. Finally, in a fight with Zemo, Genis is defeated. Zemo traps Genis in a moment in time. He then uses a combination of Blackout's Darkforce powers and the moonstones to separate Genis into individual pieces, trapping them in separate, far-off parts of the Darkforce Dimension so that they cannot be reunited.

Powers and abilities

Due to his Titanian Eternal mother, Genis is far more powerful than his father, although he still needs the Nega Bands to make full use of his abilities.

Initially, he only uses the Nega Bands for flight, energy blasts and transportation to and from the Negative Zone. After bonding with Rick, his latent Cosmic Awareness, inherited from his father, is activated. His link to another dimension is redirected from the Negative Zone to the Microverse.

Originally, he can focus his cosmic awareness, allowing him to realize exactly what he needs to know at a particular time. When his powers grow, however, he is driven mad by the vast scope of his awareness. While insane, he returns from the dead, raises Rick Jones from the dead, controls other dead bodies, creates holograms, empowers an alien serial killer and survives a combined assault from multiple alien spacefleets.

After Zemo accidentally links him to other areas of time, Genis absorbs the Nega Bands and develops teleportation powers that could transport him through both time and space.

Photon's fellow Thunderbolt, Dr. Chen Lu, the Radioactive Man, theorises that he could control the photons of which everything is composed, implying large scale reality altering powers.

In other media

Video Games

Genis-Vell appears as a playable character in the PSP version of "".

Toys

In 2006, Toy Biz released its last wave of Marvel Legends action figures with Genis-Vell being released as a variant figure of his father Mar-Vell.

References

External links

* [http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/captainmarveli.htm MarvelDirectory.com's article on his father, and Genis' unnatural conception]
* [http://www.captainmarvelculture.com Captain Marvel Culture]
* [http://www.geocities.com/mailittomarvell/genis.htm Legacy/Captain Marvel/Photon (Genis-Vell) Appearances in Publication Order]