And yeah, I know I know, we're late. This entry was supposed to drop all the way back in April as an Avengers tie-in, but it’s finally here. We give you- NIGHTMASK!!
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| Nightmask original appearance courtesy of Google. Art by Phillip Tan I believe. |
And now, our Nu-Perspective twist...
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| Nightmask NuPerspective revamp by Shawn Alleyne |
Real Name:
Adam Blackveil
Current Alias: Nightmask
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Explorer
Place of Birth: Mars
Base of Operations: Cosmic
Affiliations: Avengers; A.I.M.
Current Alias: Nightmask
Identity: Secret
Occupation: Explorer
Place of Birth: Mars
Base of Operations: Cosmic
Affiliations: Avengers; A.I.M.
First Appearance:
Avengers #1 (2013) [gestating]; Avengers #3 (2013) [“born”]; Avengers #6 (2013)
[as Nightmask]
Original Creators:
Jonathan Hickman & Jerome Opena
Story: Born on
the planet Mars, “Adam” was created by the Promethean-like trans-galactic
extraterrestrial Ex Nihilo to be the perfect “human”. After a fierce battle
with The Avengers, Adam was shortly taken into custody by the Avengers to study
and decode his strange language. It was later discovered that Adam was to
herald the coming of the trans-reality occurrence known as “The White Event”,
which in turn heralded a new host of the “Star Brand” in the form of a young kid
by the name of Kevin Connor. Adam- now known as Nightmask- lead the Avengers to
the new Star Brand, but chose his own path and took Conner to confront Ex
Nihilo, who revealed is was he who had caused the White Event with the intent to
re-terraform Earth into a sentient planet.
The situation was found to be far
direr when it was announced that the universe was decaying, in an epic
trans-universe annihilation event that would be known as “The Incursion”. It
was in the best interest for Star Brand and Nightmask to join The Avengers. The
odyssey’s effect led to Nightmask” – to revert back to nothingness, but
simultaneously rejuvenated the Marvel universe of Earth 616. When the Incursion
was averted, and the universe was brought back to life, so was Nightmask.
Now
friends, the two nascent superheroes Star Brand and Nightmask tried to live a
normal college life, for which the universe and adventure had other plans.
While grieving over the death of Connor at the hands of Robbie Reyes (the
all-new Ghost Rider at the time), Nightmask escapes to the dream-like pocket
dimension of Liveworld. There, he finds the dimension on the verge of merging
with our reality. With his own powers compromised by the alien universe he now
occupied, he escapes with a Canadian mutant with the power to traverse realms
and realities at a whim, and her feral sister, to wage war against the
megalomaniacal Dream Queen and her endlessly invading horde of imaginary
monsters. But all this may just be a prelude to something far more calamitous,
a meta-dimensional cataclysm equivalent to the Incursion crisis, “The Black
Event”; one that will take Adam Blackveil and his new allies to the source of
the Enigma Force, at the heart of the sub-atomic quantum realm.
Powers/Abilities:
While created by Ex Nihilo, Adam’s true progenitor was the universe itself via
the “White Event”. As such, Nighmask’s very existence is tethered to the
universe’s seemingly sentient “Uni-Power” (an aspect of the omnipresent
subatomic quantum energy known as the Enigma Force), much in the same way as
Captain Universe, or more accurately the multiverse singularity known as the
“Star Brand”. Therefore, Nightmask has access to (or is himself capable of)
nigh-omnipotence. Nightmask possesses cosmic awareness equivalent to
omnipresence in his native universe only. He can also create spatial portals of
limitless distance and size. He can also discharge omni-directional energy
blasts from his hands, eyes and glowing halo “runes” on his body, or form the
energy into a barrier. Theoretically, Nightmask is capable of
matter/energy manipulation on a quantum level, akin to the Power Cosmic. By
design, Nightmask is functionally immortal and self-sustaining. He does not
need rest, food/water or oxygen to live and is capable of unaided flight in the
vacuum of space. His being is virtually indestructible, and the upper limits of
his senses, strength and speed remain unknown. Nightmask has also exhibited
vast techno-pathic and techno-kinetic abilities regardless of the machine’s
origin or composition (even “organic” and cosmic-level machines used by the
Eternals). Nightmask possesses super-genius level intelligence, enabling him to
comprehend new information near-instantaneously through exposure. Nightmask’s
only real hindrance is his novice level of experience and skills with his
powers as technically he is still an “infant”.
Paraphernalia:
N/A
And there you have it. Check out Nightmask's original look and story (he started as a Caucasian character actually) and let us know if you like what we did with him. Scroll down a bit for some a little Q&A with me and Fabian then see ya sooner than later for another Nu-Perspective entree.
Nu-Perspective is a bi-weekly column I started with my writing partner Fabian Wood with the purpose of spotlighting, revamping and updating various underdeveloped, underutilized and all-but-forgotten Nubian comic book and pop culture characters. Our goal is to showcase them in fresh, contemporary and exciting ways both visually and story-wise.
Fine Print: All characters are copyrights and trademarks of the respective publishers and creators. This column is used solely for artistic enjoyment. We aim to showcase Nubian characters in fresh, contemporary and exciting ways both visually and story-wise.
Q&A with Fabian and Shawn with bonus sketches
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| Nightmask first attempt by Shawn Alleyne. Just wasn't feeling it. |
What do you like most about the
character?
F: When god-like ETs decided to artificially
create the perfect man, he had to be Nubian.
S: Those amazing circular patterns mixed into the black. Love it!!
Did the character pose a challenge
to update and if so what was the hardest part of the redesign?
F: Like most nigh-omnipotent cosmic
characters ala Silver Surfer or say Dr Manhattan, it’s very difficult to find a
satisfying purpose or journey for these “event” characters (someone created for
or by a big story arc). As such it became about maneuvering in-story circumstances
to facilitate that inherent need in (and for) Nightmask.
S: From an artistic standpoint it wasn't too difficult. I knew going in I HAD to give him a shirt. I don't know what's up with creators making Nubian characters shirtless like our brown skin is a costume. smh
In hindsight is there anything you
would do differently now?
F: Wished I’d seen Shawn’s final design much sooner beforehand. It had me
thinking of a whole new (and more challenging) direction.
S: Sorry bout that Fabian. lol Personally I might have made him younger. And did something different with the crescent moon on his face.
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| Sketches and pose work |
Was there a challenge as far as the art itself?
S:I struggled with figuring out his look, both design wise and pose. I looked back at the original Nightmask, the Caucasian character, who had these tendrils coming off his costume. The modern twist of the scarf gave me that effect. I thought of him as a cool Nubian hipster/shaman. Hence the flowing robes and sandals. Getting his pose right proved problematic for some reason also.
S:I struggled with figuring out his look, both design wise and pose. I looked back at the original Nightmask, the Caucasian character, who had these tendrils coming off his costume. The modern twist of the scarf gave me that effect. I thought of him as a cool Nubian hipster/shaman. Hence the flowing robes and sandals. Getting his pose right proved problematic for some reason also.
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| Original Nightmask incarnation Keith Remsen |
What was the most fun part to redesign? S: The scarf
Would you want this character’s
powers?
F: To quote
one dead uncle; “With great power…yadda, yadda.” So no thanks. S: Nah, I don't think so.
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