by Bevan Thomas
The next installment in the Name Game, where I take the name of some DC or Marvel comics character, and construct a totally new entity from it (for either Universe-D or Universe-M, respectively), with the final result illustrated by some talented artist I know.
I don’t really have a story for this one, except that I needed an especially dramatic name for someone standing against the Sun Emperor, and “Immortal Man” seemed to do the job. In the regular DC comics, he’s a former cave-man who whenever he dies comes back in a new body with new powers.
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Immortal Man
Real Name: Kal of the House of El
Aliases: Jonathan Kent. Clark Kent. Many others.
Occupation: Former seer of Atlantis. Current head scientist and CEO of the Global Peace Agency.
Group Affiliation: Global Guardians (secret leader)
Image by Reetta Linjama
The last time the Sun Emperor came to Earth, it was thousands of years ago, before recorded history. At that time, the greatest of all civilizations was Atlantis, and among the mightiest of Atlantis was the seer and sorcerer, Kal of the House of El.
It was thanks to him that the Sun Emperor’s invasion was predicted and prepared for and it was thanks to Kal-El and his cabal that the Sun Emperor was driven back. But in the result cataclysm, Atlantis vanished beneath the waves and much of its knowledge was lost forever as humanity reverted into savagery. Thanks to his magic, Kal-El was able to survive Atlantis’ destruction, but only as a spirit: a ghostly Immortal Man that floated over the Earth, trying to guide humanity back towards civilization and arm it with the weapons it would need to overcome the Sun Emperor when that solar tyrant returned.
Many of the greatest advances of science, civilization, and magic came from the Immortal Man’s involvement, but sadly humanity is imperfect at best, and many of the gifts have been misused, causing pain and suffering. The Immortal Man also modified humanity’s genetic code to increase the chance of metahumans developed, individuals with super-powers, because the Immortal Man feels such beings would be necessary in the war against the Sun Emperor.
In the middle of the 20th-century, the various Watchtowers that the Immortal Man had built over the Earth sensed that the Sun Emperor had arisen and was heading in the general direction of Earth. Because of that, the Immortal Man realized he needed to move quickly.
He possessed a scientist named Dr. Jonathan Kent and used him to found the organization known as the Global Peace Agency (GPA), a group dedicated to improving the lot of humanity through various methods, scientific and otherwise. The GPA delved deep into metahuman studies, and after a few years of work produced the Global Guardians, a team of superheroes dedicated to protecting the Earth and which the Immortal Man intends to use against the Sun Emperor.
As Dr. Kent has now passed away, the Immortal Man is currently in the body of the doctor’s son: Clark Kent, the current head of the Global Peace Agency. The Immortal Man knows that the Sun Emperor is getting much closer, that he doesn’t have much time left, and the Global Guardians, as powerful as they are, are nowhere near the might of the Sun Emperor and his Sun-Eaters. Thus, Kal-El is feverishly trying to produce still more powerful agents, and is especially focused on “Project Waverider.”
Powers: In his natural form, the Immortal Man is a spirit, a ghost. This being is invisible and intangible, unable to interact with the world in any direct way. However, this spirit is able to teleport to any part of the globe instantly and also enter a strange realm of shifting colours that the Immortal Man refers to as the Astral Plane. Generally nothing else can be seen on the Astral Plane, and the Immortal Man finds it very relaxing to meditate there.
If the Immortal Man wants to directly interact with the world, he must possess a human body. When he does so, he gains all the memories, powers, and skill of the individual. When the Immortal Man leaves, the person remembers everything that he did while being possessed, but assumes he made all the choices himself, not realizing he was being directed by an entity in his brain. Because of this, Kal-El generally does not do actions that are too obviously out of character with the person he was possessing, so the person does not get suspicious, or suffer a mental breakdown by having done things the person is sure he would never do.
The Immortal Man has been around for thousands of years, and in that time has developed an extensive proficiency of virtually every skill and is one of the mightiest sorcerers ever. Any of these abilities can be brought into play, but he prefers to rely on his host’s own abilities to avoid attracting attention. If necessary, he can cast a spell that blanks out his host’s memories for a limited time so that he can do things without making his host too suspicious (the host will generally assume he had suffered black-out). One of the Immortal Man’s most important creations are the Watchtowers, which are placed all over the globe, and form a mystic web that served as a warning system when the Sun Emperor and his forces get closer.
As befits his name, the Immortal Man cannot die. His spirit form is immune to harm and if his host is ever killed, his spirit is simply sent to the Astral Plane, where it must remain for three months before returning to Earth.