Sublime (Marvel Comics)
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| Sublime | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | New X-Men Annual 2001 |
| Created by | Grant Morrison |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Sublime |
| Team affiliations | Weapon Plus Project, U-Men, Third Species Movement, Winterbrand Tech, Megacorp |
| Notable aliases | John Sublime, Dr. Sublime, Michael Grand, Kick |
| Abilities | Present within all human beings, capable of exerting at least some level of mental manipulation over those it inhabits; enhances the powers of mutants exposed to it and possesses them after repeated exposure |
Sublime, also known as John Sublime, is a fictional sentient "bacteria" from the New X-Men comic book series of the Marvel Universe.
Biography
Sublime is the self-appointed name of a sentient bacterial lifeform that arose during the beginings of life in Earth. With the arisal of multicellular lifeforms, Sublime found endless numbers of hosts it could infect. However, mutantkind, inmune to Sublime's infection, eventually arose and multiplied, becoming the first threat to Sublime's domination.
It was hinted that the very hatred and fear of mutants was caused by Sublime itself. But the bacteria took more direct actions in order to ensure that mutant population would be held check, if not exterminated, in order to keep it from becoming the dominant species of the planet.
The first step was the Weapon Plus Project, Sublime took over a human body, dubbed John Sublime, and became the director of the Program, overseeing the creation of living weapons created by each installation of the program, from Captain America (Weapon I) to the Super-Sentinels - Fantomex, Huntsman and Ultimaton (Weapon XIII, Weapon XII and Weapon XV).
For many years, Sublime remained behind the scenes, manipulating the Weapon Plus Project and installing Malcolm Colcord as the Director of Weapon X, which would eventually lead to the so-called War of the Programs between Colcord and Sublime.
As millions of mutants were born worldwide, Sublime, still under the identity of John Sublime, took other steps to ensure the extermination of mutantkind. One of these steps was the creation of the Third Species Movement a.k.a. the U-Men or Homo Perfectus, outwardly a group of mutants born in human bodies, though actually a cult of humans that sought to empower themselves by grafting mutant body parts to their own bodies and who also refused to have any sort of contact with the world, for which they sealed themselves in containment suits.
John Sublime was the victim of a number of apparently succesful assassination attempts, including forced suicide from Martha Johansson and incineration from Chamber. However, Sublime successfully resurrected his host body after each attempt.
Sublime also managed to plant a mole in the Xavier Institute, Xorn, the mutant healer rescued by the X-Men from one of Sublime's mutant prisons in China. Xorn, seemingly transformed into a duplicate of Magneto by the Scarlet Witch, became addicted to the drug Kick (which was actually Sublime's bacterial body in concentrated doses high-enough to finally enable the infection and possession of a mutant). Xorn dealt the drug to Quentin Quire, thus placing Quire under Sublime's influence, which would cause the Open Day Riots made by the Omega Gang, and which led to the death of Sophie of the Stepford Cuckoos.
Sublime was also responsible for sending Sabretooth against Mr. Sinister. Sublime wanted to obtain Sinister's latest creations: The Children.
Xorn assembled a new Brotherhood of Mutants to lay waste to the Xavier Institute and then New York City before their defeat by the X-Men. However, Xorn had consumed Kick to enhance his powers and, under Sublime's influence, killed Jean Grey, who was manifesting the powers of the Phoenix Force. Unbeknownst to all, the Phoenix was the ultimate threat to Sublime's plan.
Xorn was beheaded by Wolverine in retaliation for the murder of Jean.
Here Comes Tomorrow
In the Here Comes Tomorrow story arc it is revealed in flashbacks that after Jean's death and Xorn's apparent death that Professor X left the Xavier Institute to rebuild the island of Genosha, and a broken Cyclops declined Emma's offer to jointly run the Xavier Institute. Beast became the new Headmaster and faced many troubles in his attempt to teach new generations of mutants and to fight for the Dream. The stress resulted in Hank consuming Kick and, subsequently, becoming the new host for Sublime. In this new host body, Sublime waged a war against mutantkind and the X-Men, destroying the Xavier Institute in the process.
150 years after Jean's death Sublime was still making war, and Earth was filled with new species that were fighting for an ecological niche in the world including homo sapiens superior and homo sapiens sapiens (which was on the verge of extinction). Sublime longed to wipe out all other species, thus bringing evolution to halt, and replace it with the stagnation of his own mass-produced minions, including the Crawlers, genetic constructs made from the DNA of Nightcrawler and empowered with the genetic codes of Multiple Man and Cyclops. Sublime was aided by his champion, Appolyon, the last of the U-Men and the result of the separation of Fantomex from E.V.A.
Sublime stole the Phoenix Egg, in which a merged Phoenix/Jean Grey creature awaited her resurrection in order to bring "the judgement of the Phoenix". After emerging from the egg, the partially-amnesiac Jean/Phoenix became a minion of the Sublime (who she believed was the Beast), exterminating the race of sentient termites dominating the "Panafrikan" Basin and later attacking the mutant population of Megamerica on his orders.
Soon after, Sublime managed to duplicate the Jean's DNA and obtained her Phoenix-level telekinetic powers. The nearly all-powerful Sublime fought and defeated each one of the X-Men, who were actually buying time (with their lives) for Jean to act.
Jean had fully regained her memories and was now ready to convey the judgement of the Phoenix, to "Burn away what doesn't work". Jean purged Sublime from the Beast's body, destroying the bacteria once and for all.
Sublime's host, the Beast, was then beheaded by Appolyon, who did not realize that his former master was no longer inhabiting the Beast's body.
Jean then reached backwards in time, psychically, to encourage Cyclops to fall in love with Emma Frost and thus remain at the Institute; as a result, the original timeline that led to Sublime's possession of the Beast has been negated. However, it must be noted that Sublime still exists in the present, and that his current status and whereabouts are unknown.
That Which Endures
It is debated among fandom whether Sublime is the same as That Which Endures, an ancient organism seeking to test mutants as viable hosts. If that is the case, then Sublime's first appereance was in Avengers West Coast #46.