Elijah Snow
| Elijah Snow | |
|---|---|
| File:ElijahSnow.jpg Elijah Snow from Planetary #16, art by John Cassaday. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Wildstorm |
| First appearance | Planetary #1 |
| Created by | Warren Ellis |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Elijah Snow |
| Team affiliations | Planetary |
| Abilities | Cold manipulation Ageless |
Elijah Snow is a fictional character from the comic book Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday.
Fictional character biography
Little is known about Snow's life and even what is known is fairly patchy. Born at midnight on New Year's Day 1900, Snow was one of the Century Babies, humans born at this exact moment who were all extraordinary in some way. It has been theorised that these people are analogous to an immune system for the planet Earth. Other notables include Axel Brass, Lord Blackstock and Jenny Sparks. As Jenny Sparks has been called "The Spirit of the 20th century", Snow has been called "The Ghost of the 20th century".
Almost nothing is known about Snow's childhood, but he grew up somewhere in North America and was neither well-educated, nor wealthy.
By 1919, Snow had become something of a wanderer, encountering various paranormal beings and events. In 1919, he travelled to a castle in Europe, where an unnamed doctor (presumably Frankenstein) had been resurrecting the dead. There, he discovered a map of the world that featured those things kept from public knowledge. He then travelled to London, where he found Sherlock Holmes and Count Dracula. After Snow used his powers to castrate (and possibly kill) Dracula, Holmes admitted to him that they were part of a conspiracy of various extraordinary people who had attempted to reshape the world. Wanting to understand the secret history of the world, Snow then studied as the great detective's apprentice for the next five years.
After Holmes's death in 1925, Snow again began to wander, aware by this stage that he had ceased to age. His adventures included stowing away on a submarine called the Nautilus in 1959, though it is unclear whether this was the first US Nuclear powered submarine (USS Nautilus (SSN-571)) or Nautilus from Jules Verne's Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, although the image that refers to this event appears to indicate it would be the latter. Snow also discovered the Lost City of Opak-Re and used Uluru (Ayers Rock) to gate into another dimension of reality. All of these adventures were recorded and catalogued in "The Planetary Guide."
Eventually, Snow formed The Planetary Organization to further his explorations. By the early 1990s, this Organization came into contact with The Four, who wished to keep as much hidden information and technology for themselves as possible. Snow came close to successfully defeating The Four, but was eventually captured and forced to submit to various memory blocks that would prevent him from remembering key aspects of his life, including Planetary and his mission in life. Prior to being wiped, Snow gave his disciples strict orders to not look for him or try to bring him back to Planetary under any circumstances.
Approximately 10 years later, his orders were finally disregarded and he was "recruited" by the Planetary field team in an attempt to gently restore his memory. This was successful, though the trauma of this experience has made Snow a far more single-minded and dark individual.
Powers and abilities
Elijah's abilities have been described by teammate Jakita Wagner as "heat subtraction". What this means is that he can affect the temperature around him, producing immense cold. The limits of his powers have not been explored, but it has been implied that he is incredibly powerful. Unlike many other "superheroes" with ice-based superpowers, Elijah Snow does not often attack enemies by hurling ice at them and has never used an "ice-beam." Often he prefers to freeze the fluid in their brain, hamper movement by freezing them in water, or simply freeze them solid and shatter them with a well-placed strike.
Awards
- 2001: Won "Character Most Worthy of Own Ongoing Title" Eagle Award
References
- Elijah Snow at the Grand Comics Database
- Elijah Snow at the Comic Book DB (archived from the original)
- Elijah Snow at the International Catalogue of Superheroes