Pandemic (comics)

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comic_color=background:#ff8080
caption=Cover art for "X-Men #195".
Art by Humberto Ramos
character_name= Pandemic
real_name=Richard Palance
species=Human Mutate
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="X-Men" #195 (January 2007)
creators= Mike Carey
Humberto Ramos
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=Plague Dogs
aliases=unknown
powers= He has the ability to copy other mutant's powers|

Pandemic (Richard Palance) is a fictional character, primarily an X-Men villain, created by Mike Carey in his recent "X-Men" run.

History

He created a serum which allowed him to manifest the powers of many of the mutants he had worked with and treated over the course of his career- he was at one time a physician to the X-Men- although the serum worked in the manner of a virus. He then infected Rogue with the same virus, hoping to gain her powers for himself as well, but was defeated by Rogue's team of X-Men when Sabretooth tricked Pandemic into coming in contact with him, thus resulting in Pandemic absorbing Sabretooth's healing factor and his body thus automatically curing the virus.

He makes a small appearance in the early stages of "" where he was among the nine supervillains Beast asks for help in reversing the effects of Decimation.

Powers and abilities

Pandemic could absorb mutant powers by touch due to a mutated virus within his body. He possessed over 300 super-powers including those of Rogue (power absorption), Jean Grey (telepathy and telekinesis), Nightcrawler (teleportation), Alchemy (elemental transmutation), Sunfire (pyrokinesis), Husk (omnimorphing), Iceman (cryokinesis), Cannonball (thermochemical energy generation) and 17 kind of invulnerability until he absorbed Sabretooth's healing factor, which ironically cured the virus in his veins.