Ulysses (comics)

For the monster hunter, see Ulysses Bloodstone.

Ulysses is the name of three fictional characters in Marvel Comics. The first two are known members of the Pantheon while the third one is an Inhuman.

Publication history

The first Pantheon version of Ulysses debuted in Incredible Hulk #408 and was created by Peter David.

The Walter Charles version of Pantheon first appeared in Incredible Hulk #379 and was created by Peter David and Sam Kieth.

The Inhuman version of Ulysses first appeared in Free Comic Book Day 2016 Avengers and was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung.

Fictional character biography

Ulysses

The original Ulysses was much older than Walter Charles, his successor. When Ulysses became annoyed at Agamemnon's illogical leadership decisions Agamemnon ordered fellow Pantheon member Jason to kill Ulysses. Jason refused and the task went to Achilles instead. Ulysses and his future successor Walter Charles went to save a young Nathan Taylor (aka Paris) hoping to get to him before the Watts riots of 1959 began.^[1] Up to that point Walter had always worked with his mentor Achilles but Agamemnon made a last minute switch to the orders ensuring that Ulysses would be too distracted by the riot to prevent himself from being shot by Achilles. Presumably Ulysses became a member of the Endless Knights like the rest of Agamemnon's deceased offspring but this has never been stated.^[2]

Walter Charles

Achilles lied to the rest of the Pantheon and said that Ulysses wanted Walter to take his place in the event that anything happened to him. Walter then assumed the mantle of Ulysses as his own.^[3]

Ulysses seemed to have problems with several other members of the Pantheon. Paris hated him for letting his parents die in the Watts Riot. He and Hector often argued about Hector's homosexuality. Jason hated him for plucking out his eye with the handle of a mop. His predecessor thought he was incompetent.

Ulysses had an infatuation with fellow Pantheon member Delphi who had the habit of almost always being naked and had sworn to remain pure of body. Achilles mentioned that Ulysses's love for Delphi springs from the fact that she is unattainable. Achilles mentions that Ulysses is afraid to challenge himself so he conveniently falls for a woman he can never get so he doesn't have to face the challenge of actually trying to win her heart.

Delphi left the Pantheon shortly before Agamemnon's death to stay with her mother Andromeda. After Agamemnon's death, Ulysses left the Pantheon to track down Delphi.

Ulysses Cain

At the start of the Civil War II storyline, Ulysses Cain is a normal person attending Ohio State University with a student named Michelle. When the Terrigen cloud that was released in the aftermath of the Infinity storyline arrives at Ohio State University, Ulysses and Michelle are affected as they both enter Terrigenesis; Michelle emerges as a red-skinned beast, while Ulysses develops precognition.^[4]

At the Triskelion, Medusa and Crystal introduce Ulysses to Captain Marvel, War Machine, and Black Panther. There, Ulysses has a premonition that the villain Thanos is coming to steal a Cosmic Cube from a Project Pegasus facility. The heroes take Thanos by surprise when he arrives at his destination, but She-Hulk is severely injured and War Machine is killed during the fight. Thanos is still repelled.^[5]

After Ulysses reveals to the Avengers that he foresaw the invasion of the Celestial Destroyer, Iron Man protests the logic of stopping crimes before they occur, asking if they should lock people up because of what they might do, and leaves in frustration. Three weeks later, Iron Man arrives at the Triskelion and learns that War Machine died and She-Hulk was mortally wounded in battle with Thanos. When he learns that they used Ulysses' precognitive power to ambush Thanos, Iron Man vows to make sure that nobody uses it again.^[6]

Ulysses later has an encounter with Spider-Man upon being brought to Parker Industries to test his powers by Medusa and Human Torch. After being trained to use his powers the right way by working with him to stop a Vulturion attack and prevent a man killing his ex-girlfriend and her current partner, Spider-Man asks Ulysses if he has any visions about the future of Parker Industries. This prompts Ulysses to note that he sees ex-supervillain Clayton Cole returning to his Clash alias and attacking Spider-Man.^[7] Upon Ulysses' latest vision, Spider-Man stops five criminals piloting the Quintronic Man and leaves them webbed up by the police. Ulysses advised Spider-Man to confront Clayton about his possible return to the Clash alias.^[8] Spider-Man's subsequent efforts to investigate the vision apparently provoked Clayton's return to his old role as Clash at the time he was approached by Mendel Stromm.^[9] Spider-Man accepts that everyone made mistakes rather than blaming Ulysses specifically for Clayton's descent, but decides that they need to watch how reliant they become on Ulysses' visions to prevent a similar experience in future.^[10]

Ulysses later received a vision that tipped off Blue Marvel about Infinaut's ninth manifestation attempt enabling him, Giant-Man, and the Ultimates to work on a Pym Particle accelerator that ended up anchoring Infinaut and shrinking him down to human size.^[11]

Iron Man infiltrates New Attilan and takes off with Ulysses after defeating Medusa, Crystal, and Karnak. After scolding Ulysses for his vision about Thanos leading to War Machine's death, Iron Man plans to study how Ulysses' precognition works. The Avengers, the Ultimates, the Inhumans, and other superheroes arrive to confront Iron Man about his actions. Before they can discuss it, Ulysses has a vision of a rampaging Hulk standing over the corpses of the superheroes. Upon his powers enhancing, Ulysses projects the vision to everyone present which causes the younger Inhumans to weep.^[12]

During the Avengers-presided trial of Hawkeye after he had killed Bruce Banner, Friday informs Iron Man that the analysis on Ulysses is almost complete.^[13]

Iron Man later meets with Captain America, Black Bolt, Medusa, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange at the abandoned Funtime Inc. facility where he reveals the brain scan results on Ulysses. He tells them that Ulysses' power is based on probability calculations and not absolute truth. Captain Marvel is unpersuaded by Iron Man's discoveries and returns to the Triskelion.^[14]

As the battle between Iron Man's side and Captain Marvel's side begins, Medusa tells Ulysses to stay in New Attilan. While meditating with Karnak, Ulysses' powers act up where it manifests as tendrils that wrap around the Triskelion as his eyes turn red. The vision shows Miles Morales at the capital holding the impaled body of Steve Rogers.^[15] It is revealed that some of Ulysses' latest visions have been manipulated by Steve Rogers (now "reprogrammed" by Red Skull's clone using Kobik's abilities to believe that he has been a Hydra sleeper agent for years)^[16] to prevent Ulysses from foreseeing his long-term plan for Hydra by giving him more immediate "threats" to focus on, such as the possibility of Bruce Banner becoming Hulk again by anonymously delivering him gamma research information. Although Rogers acknowledges to Dr. Erik Selvig that Ulysses' latest vision suggests a new twist to this plan.^[17]

Ulysses later has a vision that takes him to an alternate future where Old Man Logan saves him from an unidentified grandchild of Hulk. Ulysses learns from him that the Inhumans have left Earth because of Tony Stark pushing "her" too far. Upon coming out of the vision, Ulysses tells Medusa and Karnak that they need to confront Iron Man and Captain Marvel.^[18]

Powers and abilities

Both Pantheon versions of Ulysses used an energy sword and shield as weapons.

Upon going through Terrigenesis, Ulysses Cain has precognition. However, the exact nature of this precognition is initially unclear, with Iron Man questioning what they should do if faced with the prediction of a hero doing something bad that they would not have done normally, rather than simply reacting to villainous assaults. His abilities enhance to the point where he projected the vision to anyone in range of him. According to Iron Man, Ulysses' ability has anything to do with algorithm; he does not see the future, but simply assembles vast quantities of data on a subconscious level and calculates the likelihood of certain outcomes taking place, which he then projects as a vision.^[14] Also, Steve Rogers and Dr. Erik Selvig have proven that Ulysses' ability appears to respond to bigger, more immediate threats rather than more distant ones, prompting them to prevent him from foreseeing their long-term plans for Hydra by creating more immediate problems for him to predict.^[17]

References

External links

• Ulysses I at Marvel Wiki
• Ulysses II at Marvel Wiki
• Ulysses (Inhuman) at Marvel Wiki