Black Mass’s bracers allow him to increase his own mass and size and manipulate gravitons. He can make objects and/or himself float weightlessly in the air or even fly, or suspend the effects of gravity on a mass of earth or a building, resulting in its explosive disintegration under the strain (Bomb).

Black Mass presumably can increase Gravity to, say, pin opponents to the ground or collapse floors. He also seems able to shoot jet black beams of gravitational force that act as a concussive blast. He can extrude and push ’waves’ of matter from the ground (even if that is a rigid metallic floor) using a gravity ripple ; he often uses that to create an obstacle or crush and immobilize opponents.

At the Slab, the insane Black Mass demonstrated an ability to trigger a sort of black hole by banging his wristbands, Captain Mar-Vell style. This black hole could suck in the entire island where the Slab was located, but somehow nothing was destroyed or killed and the island was just spit back into a blank dimension called a singularity space.

Black Mass could also create a gravity distortion in front of his chest, to send projectiles elsewhere or maybe just collapse them and their momentum down through gravity (Force Shield).

After he was killed, Black Mass became a very potent energy negator - though this effect was only manifest within a short distance of his body. He later demonstrated the ability to form a black hole and selectively suck energy into it. It took less than thirty seconds for him to drain Dr. Polaris, who was at that point tapping into the comic power of a Controller.

Early on Black Mass was then tangling with the Elongated Man in a way that suggested enhanced STR and BODY. One the other hand, he has been consistently knocked out by blows to the head, even when delivered with human strength.

A note

This entry lists all the things Black Mass was ever seen doing, which may convey the impression that he’s a powerhouse. It is thus important to note that :

• Most of the Powers appeared after he was brain-damaged
• After he was brain-damaged, he evidences a low degree of initiative and doesn’t really know how to use most of his Powers
• Many of his abilities are, in DCH terms, Marginal and he can’t afford using them in most circumstances.

History

Formerly a pencil-necked physics prodigy at MIT, Thibodeux was recruited by an alien menace called the Overmaster to join the Cadre. As a Cadre member, he fought the JLA in its Detroit version. See our Overmaster’s Cadre article for more.

Prison breakdown

Arrested in unrevealed circumstances, Black Mass was incarcerated at the massive prison for superhuman and inhuman criminals, the Slab. He was shackled with Promethium alloy restraints, which wasn’t quite necessary as he behaved as a model prisoner.

However, his good behaviour changed radically when the Joker triggered a prison riot and exposed all other prisoners to a special gas making them Joker-like, violently insane and loyal toward the Joker. Black Mass gleefully agreed to warping the entire island, starting with himself, into a black hole. Thought the expected result was annihilation, the Slab remained intact but was marooned in an empty dimension.

Still under the effects of the Joker chemicals, Black Mass other demented inmates tried to kill Slab staff persons Shilo Norman (formerly the second Mister Miracle) and Dina Bell. Thibodeux was accidentally killed when a stray bullet hit him in the head. His corpse was later used to shift the Slab back to Earth, by having Multi-Man reanimate it and letting Mister Mind take over the zombie Black Mass’s superhuman powers.

Black Mass’s corpse was then used by Norman as a black body to absorb excess energy from Doctor Polaris and prevent global electromagnetic catastrophe.

Always bet on black

Tibodeux’s corpse was thus left to absorb Dr. Polaris’ fantastic energies for month, which somehow healed and eventually resurrected him. When Polaris finally escaped, he magnetically made Black Mass capable of movement and restarted his brain, granting him a very small degree of speech (grunts, mostly) and initiative (like a very smart dog). Polaris then assembled most of the Overmaster’s first Cadre, including Crowbar, Fastball and Nightfall as well as a new Shrike called Starshrike and a new Shatterfist.

Polaris’s Cadre conducted a series of thefts in high technology companies around California, but were hounded by Skyrocket and some other members of the Power Company. Polaris used the stolen tech to assemble his master weapon — a satellite which could transmit a magnetic pulse over the entire planet. However the Cadre, minus the passive Dark Mass, turned against their boss since they did not want to end civilization, but rule it. They did not fare very wel since Polaris was tapping into the power of an alien Controller, giving him Magneto (Max Eisenhardt)-level power.

The crafty Manhunter (Kirk DePaul) attempted to spur Black Mass into action against Dr. Polaris. He verbally provoked the shambling Thibodeux with elements from his past, hoping that something would stick. Manhunter randomly discovered that Thibodeux remembered about Bobo, the kitten he had when he was in third grade. Exploiting this, DePaul told Thibodeux that Polaris wanted to kill Bobo. Furious, the brain-damaged Black Mass took down Polaris single-handedly to defend his pet, and was then knocked out by Manhunter who hit him on the head with an iron bar. The addled Thibodeux never realised that Bobo had long since died of old age.

The Mass age

Even without exposure to Dr. Polaris’ magnetism, Black Mass seemed to continue recovering his mental faculties and agency - albeit at a very slow rate. He continued to associate with the Cadre villains. For instance, he was present when Crowbar and Nightfall tried to flee the US but were stopped by Black Lightning, and later accompanied Fastball II and Shatterfist II when they tried to rob a truck stop and were stopped by Flash (Wally West).

For some odd reason, Nightfall and Black Mass were also spotted in a crowd when many aliens living on Earth were summoned to Metropolis. Perhaps they were in Metropolis at that point and their alien bracers reacted to the summon due to that proximity.

Description

The illustrations are arranged from most recent (top) to oldest (bottom).

Personality

Black Mass always has been a rather quiet person ; the only appearances where he spoke more than a few words were a comedy appearance and while driven crazy by a Joker chemical. Since he was brain-damaged he’s even quieter and more passive. Thibodeux never seemed particularly aggressive, though he was loyal to the Overmaster.

Black Mass’s recovery from death is very slow - it took over a decade. Early on he was slow, clumsy, and could only grunt and follow simple orders. Some random parts of his brain were more intact than the others, and when those were simulated he could form rough sentences such as “Nooooo ! Nodd Bobo ! Yuu won’d hurdd Bobo ! I won’dd ledd yuu!” or “He falled down. Bobo safe now ?”.

By the late 2000s Thibodeux seemed mostly recovered, though he still doesn’t speak much - making an assessment difficult. He seems to be on the level of a slow, but not actually mentally handicapped, person with an IQ in the 70s or 80s. It is possible that he’s still rebuilding his ante-mortem level of intelligence.