Graviton | |
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Graviton confronts the Thunderbolts on the cover of Thunderbolts #17 ((Aug. 1998). Art by Mark Bagley. |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Avengers #158 (April 1977) |
Created by | Jim Shooter Sal Buscema |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Franklin Hall |
Notable aliases | Master of the Fundamental Force |
Abilities | Gravity manipulation Genius level intellect |
Graviton is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character first appears in Avengers #158 (April 1977) and was created by Jim Shooter and Sal Buscema.
Contents |
Fictional character biography
Franklin Hall is a physicist involved in an experiment in a private research facility in the Canadian Rockies. A mistake in Hall's calculations causes graviton particles to merge with his own molecules, and Hall later discovers that he can mentally control gravity. Hall at first tries to hide his newfound ability, but becomes tempted by the potential power, and donning a costume adopts the alias "Graviton."
When Graviton takes over the research facility and forbids all communications with the outside world, a fellow scientist sends a distress signal to the superhero team the Avengers. A furious Graviton then lifts the facility several thousands of feet into the sky and threatens to kill the scientist. The Avengers then arrive and attack, but with the exception of the Black Panther are all defeated when trapped in a gravity field. The Panther escapes and summons the Thunder God Thor, who battles Graviton to a standstill until Graviton is tricked into thinking a fellow scientist he cares for has committed suicide. Graviton then panics and causes the entire facility to collapse on him, forming a giant stone sphere that is dropped into a river by the Avengers.[1]
Graviton later reappears, although is suffering from amnesia and is flickering in out of existence. Somehow guided to the female scientist he has feelings for, Graviton attempts to abduct her but is stopped by Fantastic Four member the Thing and the Inhuman Black Bolt. During the battle, Graviton describes himself as becoming a "living black hole" and morphs into a 50-foot (15 m) humanoid. Graviton is then attacked until he loses concentration, and then apparently implodes and is considered dead.[2] Graviton is eventually able to reform his body, and decides to seek a bride. Elevating a Bloomingdale's store into the sky, he takes several women hostage until tricked by Thor. Thor then maroons a defeated Graviton in an alternate dimension.[3]
Graviton is able to return when an anomaly opens a portal to Earth. Arriving in Los Angeles, Graviton attempts to unite all criminal elements under his leadership, but is defeated by the West Coast Avengers.[4] Graviton was among the villains recruited by Mister Bitterhorn into Mephisto's Legion Accursed. They were used in part of a plot to kill the Beyonder with Mephisto's Beyondersbane weapon, but were delayed by the Thing until the weapon melted down.[5] Graviton then recruits the supervillains Halflife, Quantum, and Zzzax as allies, but they are once again defeated by the West Coast Avengers.[6] Graviton then defeats Spider-Man,[7] and after a skirmish with the Fantastic Four,[8] is defeated in turn by a cosmic-powered Spider-Man.[9]
Graviton then attacks the Avengers again, but is defeated when they overload his powers, banishing him to yet another alternate dimension.[10] He then sends out a distress signal, which is noticed by the villains Techno and Baron Zemo. Graviton is eventually freed and attacks the teams the Thunderbolts and Great Lakes Avengers, but is persuaded by Thunderbolt Moonstone to rethink his priorities.[11] Desiring still more power, Graviton recruited a team of criminals and looted the city of San Francisco, until eventually defeated by the Thunderbolts with the use of technology from Machine Man), whose flight capabilities cancel gravity.[12]
Banished once again to the same alternate dimension, Graviton becomes insane from the constant defeats and exile from Earth, and returns with the goal of total world conquest. Seeking revenge on the Thunderbolts, Graviton storms their headquarters to discover they have disbanded and been replaced by the group the Redeemers. Graviton kills almost the entire team before being defeated by a reformed Thunderbolts. Graviton apparently dies stopping an alien invasion and saves the team.[13]
Graviton re-enters Earth's dimension one final time, and after battling the Avenger Iron Man, ends his own life.[14]
It has also been revealed that Graviton has an evil son with the same powers as he has, named Singularity.[15]
Powers and abilities
Franklin Hall was a normal human until empowered by an explosion that intermingled his molecules with sub-nuclear graviton particles generated by a nearby particle generator, which gave him the ability to manipulate gravitons (the subatomic particles that carry the force of gravitational attraction) and anti-gravitons (similar particles but with opposite force and spin of gravitons). Graviton can surround any person or object, including himself, with gravitons or anti-gravitons, thereby increasing or decreasing the pull of gravity upon it. Hall is able to manipulate gravitons for various uses, including the projection of highly-concussive blasts, formation of gravitational force fields and levitation, and has also proven capable of generating gravitational fields in various objects, making them attract any nearby matter (or individuals) not heavy enough or physically strong enough to resist. By decreasing the pull of gravity beneath him, he can fly at any speed or height at which he can still breathe. By increasing the pull of gravity beneath his opponents, he can pin them to the ground, having made them too heavy to move, or cause sufficient gravitational stress to impair the normal functioning of the human cardiovascular system. He can also cause an inanimate object (such as a 1-foot diameter rock) to radiate enough gravitons to give it its own gravitational field, able to attract nearby matter and energy.
By rapidly projecting gravitons in a cohesive beam, he can generate a force blast with a maximum concussive force equivalent to the primary shockwave of an explosion of 20,000 pounds of TNT. He can also create a gravitational force field around him capable of protecting him from any concussive force up to and including a small nuclear weapon.
On a large scale Graviton could exert his gravitational control over a maximum distance of 2.36 miles from his body. Thus, the maximum volume of matter he could influence at once is 6.88 cubic miles. He once exercised this control by lifting into the air an inverted conic frustum-shaped land mass whose uppermost area was 4 miles across, and causing it to fly as though it were a dirigible. He can also erect a gravitational force-field of similar proportions. Graviton can perform as many as four separate tasks simultaneously - he has not only lifted a 4 mile wide land mass as high as cloud level above San Francisco, but he has also surrounded himself with a force-field, ascended on a small rock down and hurled some policemen and helicopter 10000 miles up into the Orbit all at the same time.[16] Graviton can use his power at maximum capacity for up to eight hours before mental fatigue significantly impairs his performance, and considerably longer (up to eighteen hours) if he conserves his energy during that time.
He was somehow also able to bestow the power of self-propelled flight to at least 70 people independent from his location, however he was also able to take this power away with a thought.[17]
With time an training his power further advanced as he was able to somewhat reshape mountains on the Moon[18] and demonstrated the ability to lift a small stone in China while residing in L.A. and deposit it in Australia through a victims head just to see if he could so.[19]
Hall's single most ambitious display of power was when he held almost every Marvel hero in stasis and began using his powers to try reshaping the Earth in his image.[20]
He also had the ability to detect extra-dimensional-shiftings and phased or invisible objects through his immediate awareness of gravitational shiftings[21][22] and while he was not able to invoke dimensional portals[23] he is at least able to close them [24]. He can simulate vast superhuman strength and durability using gravitonic fields to surround his body, but he cannot actually manipulate density or increase his physical strength.
Aside from his powers to manipulate gravity, Hall had a PhD in Physics and is intellectually brilliant, with expertise in advanced physics, including teleportation. His greatest limitation was that he was emotionally and mentally very disturbed.
In other media
Television
- Gravitron will appear as the main villain in the first two episodes of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes,[25] voiced by Fred Tatasciore.
Video games
Graviton appears in the Game Boy game, The Amazing Spider-Man 2.
References
- ^ Avengers #158 - 159 (April 1977)
- ^ Marvel Two-In-One Annual #4 (1979)
- ^ Thor #324 (Oct. 1982)
- ^ West Coast Avengers #2 - 4 (Oct. - Dec. 1984)
- ^ Secret Wars II #7 (January 1986)
- ^ West Coast Avengers Vol. 2, #12 - 13 (Sep. - Oct 1986)
- ^ Amazing Spider-Man #326 (Dec. 1989)
- ^ Fantastic Four #322 (Jan. 1989)
- ^ Amazing Spider-Man #329 (Feb. 1990); Web of Spider-Man #64 - 65 (May - June 1990)
- ^ Avengers Unplugged #2 (Dec. 1995)
- ^ Thunderbolts #17 (Aug. 1998)
- ^ Thunderbolts #27 - 30 (June - Sept. 1999)
- ^ Thunderbolts #53 - 58 (Aug. 2001 - Jan. 2002)
- ^ Iron Man #21 - 23 (2007)
- ^ Young Allies #1 (2010)
- ^ Thunderbolts #28
- ^ Thunderbolts #28
- ^ Thunderbolts #53
- ^ Thunderbolts #54
- ^ Thunderbolts #57
- ^ Thunderbolts #17
- ^ Thunderbolts #58
- ^ Thunderbolts #17
- ^ Thunderbolts #58
- ^ Iverson, Dan (2010-07-25). "SDCC 10: The Avengers Assemble On The Small Screen". IGN. http://tv.ign.com/articles/110/1108401p1.html. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
External links
- Graviton at Marvel.com
- Graviton's at MarvelDirectory.com