Terminus (comics)

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caption=Art by John Byrne.
character_name=Terminus
alter_ego=Inapplicable
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Fantastic Four" #269 (August 1984)
creators=John Byrne
alliances=Terminex, Garokk
species=Fonabi
aliases=Despoiler of Planets, Ulterminus
powers =Superhuman strength, and resistance
Body part substitution,
Regenerative healing factor,
Interplanetary travel,
Weapon capable of splitting open the crust of a planet.

Terminus is a fictional character, a supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe.

Fictional character biography

Terminus was first encountered by the superheroes Mister Fantastic and She-Hulk when the two were investigating the purpose behind a powerful beam from outer space. The beam proved to be from Terminus, who used his "power lance" to carve, in enormous letters one-half mile wide, a message stretching across the United States that read: "I claim this world--Terminus." Upon his arrival from outer space, Terminus began an enormous cracking process that devastated the land and all life on it until Mister Fantastic improvised a device that used the Earth's motion through space to drive the alien hundreds of miles into the planet. ["Fantastic Four" #269-270]

Terminus reappeared months later in the South Atlantic Ocean, destroying a ship that was transporting his power lance (which She-Hulk had caused him to drop in his initial battle prior to his propulsion into the planet). Summoned to investigate, the Avengers tracked Terminus to Antarctica and the Savage Land therein, to which he was drawn by the advanced technology maintaining the tropical environment there. Though Terminus destroyed the Savage Land in his cracking process, he was defeated by the Avengers when Hercules tore his armor apart, revealing Terminus's bloated body and stunted appendages. Hercules left Terminus to die in the encroaching Antarctic snow, while the Savage Land was later restored to its former condition by the High Evolutionary. ["Avengers" #256-257 (June-July 1985)]

Despite this defeat, Terminus later reappeared. He has alternatively been depicted as a giant bloated alien inside an immense suit of power armor, or as a hive-like entity composed of a great number of man-sized aliens. At one time, Garokk the Petrified Man inhabited the Terminus armor and was compelled to operate it.

One incarnation of Terminus used Moloids, the Mole Man's mindless servants, to construct a body for himself. This incarnation of Terminus was ultimately defeated by the Silver Surfer with the help of the Fantastic Four, and the Moloids were set free.

During the "Acts of Vengeance" crossover, Quasar and Spider-Man (with the powers of Captain Universe) push Terminus into outer space.

Terminus reappeared again in a cross-over story arc appearing in several Avengers-related titles. In this story arc it was revealed that Terminus had seeded the core of the earth with spores that were released onto the surface by a manned probe sent into a volcano. Iron-man became infected by the spores when he had to rescue the probe and was driven into a berzerk rage by them. Captain America was able to save him by drawing him into a protracted battle in the cold mountain range. (The spores at that time required heat to stay viable.)

Although Iron-man and other human infectees were freed, at least one grizzly bear became infected. It began seeking out metal which it began consuming as the spores turned the animal into a techno-organic monster. During this time it came across Machine-man and attempted to consume him. The creature was defeated with the help of Iron-Man, but again the spores survived.

As more of the "Termini" began appearing, the Mighty Thor and Hercules found themselves fighting a small army of the creatures that were demonstrating more than animal-level intelligence. Leaving Hercules to fight the beasts, Thor took to space to find Terminus in an attempt to stop the creatures at their source. Before leaving, however, he removed one of the enchantments from his hammer, [Mjolnir] . Specifically the enchantment that made the hammer return to its owner when thrown. Thor found, battled, and apparently lost to Terminus who then absorbed Mjolnir into himself and headed towards Earth.

Meanwhile, the damage Hercules was inflicting upon the Terminoids caused the creatures to begin consuming each other. The result was the creation of an Terminus-like monster that was now fully sentient. The West Coast Avengers, accompanied by the newly reactivated [Original Human Torch] engaged the New Terminus, only to find that it seemed much stronger than the original Terminus (they were unaware that some of the Terminus' they had fought in the past were fakes). The situation became more complicated when Terminus descended to Earth and challenged his offspring to mortal combat. The West Coast Avengers attempted to separate the two giants by use of illusions, but their ruse was short lived and the two monsters finally clashed. The original Terminus eventually defeated his "child" and then consumed him. This resulted in Terminus transforming into a larger, four-armed "ultimate" form. The West Coast Avengers were unable to immediately follow as Terminus set off towards St. Louis.

As the two main branches of the Avengers marshalled themselves, Hawkeye (comics) called upon Mockingbird (comics) and the Great Lakes Avengers to delay Terminus for as long as possible. Although the GLA looked at this as an opportunity to prove themselves worthy of a full membership into the Avengers the encounter was a debacle for the team as Terminus swatted their plane from the sky, briefly killed team member [Mr. Immortal] and generally ignored them. When the assembled Avengers task force finally arrived, Mockingbird became incensed at Hawkeye's comment that they were just a delaying action.

Meanwhile in space, Thor, who had been left for dead by Terminus drifted into a small asteroid field with sufficient gravity to have a thin atmosphere. Taking heart that he could enact his stratagem, Thor began to speak an incantation in [Asgardian] .

Back on Earth Terminus generally ignored the Avengers and protected himself behind a force-field as he used his lance to begin draining Earth of its energy. Quasar lead the team in an effort to push Terminus out into space as he and Spider-man had before, but Terminus stalemated them. Just before Terminus could begin a counter-offensive, Thor finished his incantation which re-established the retuning enchantment upon his hammer. Since Mjolnir was part of Terminus now, Terminus found himself, and the heroes nearest to him sucked into space towards Thor.

Once in space the Avengers were able to separate Terminus from his lance, and this time Quasar used his quantum jump ability to send it too far away from Terminus to reclaim it. As a result, it was discovered that Terminus was much more dependent on his lance than his previous forms and his body collapsed in upon itself. As he condensed into a black hole, Mjolnir returned to Thor, and the Avengers returned to Earth.

Terminus appeared in the "JLA/Avengers" crossover event. In it Terminus attacked the DC Universe's Earth. It faced the Justice League of America and showed he was able to hurt some of the more powerful members, to their surprise. Terminus had the upper hand until Batman realized the power he contained was in the staff he held. Once Batman realized this, he was able to trick Terminus by making him think they were trying to take the staff, but in truth the Justice League was redirecting the blasts from his staff back at Terminus himself, which knocked him out.

In other media

*Terminus appeared in the 2006 Fantastic Four TV series, in the episode "Scavenger Hunt". Like an earlier depiction of Terminus in the comic books, this version was merely a small alien operating a massive battlesuit.

References

External links

* [http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/terminus.htm Terminus at marvunapp.com]