Adam Destine

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Background

Powers and Abilities

Due to the enchantments placed upon him by his Djinn wife, Elalyth, Adam has been gifted with everlasting life. He does not age, is immune to disease and does not require nourishment, sleep or to even breathe.

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He possesses seemingly inexhaustible endurance and stamina. He is completely invulnerable to both physical and mental harm. There isn’t a weapon in existence that can damage his body. Psychic attacks merely seem to wash over him like a gentle rain (though he can be affected by illusions and the like).

As a side effect, Adam’s invulnerability is accompanied with a sensation of numbness. This reduces his ability to feel or experience physical pleasure.

As punishment for the murder of their child Vincent, Elalyth cursed Adam with an additional enchantment. Adam is tormented by precognitive images of his children’s deaths. These images come unbidden to his mind, without time-frame or reference. These are the only thing in existence that can still cause him pain or discomfort.

Outside of his enchantments, Adam has centuries of experience in war and combat backed by a genius level of intellect. Over the years, He has become a formidable strategist and tactician with literally hundreds of lifetimes of experience to call upon.

History

Adam of Ravenscroft was born in the year 1168 AD. That took place deep within the English country side in the sleepy Village of Ravenscroft. His youth was completely unremarkable, and he grew into a teenager with little to no ambition. This all changed in his 16^th year, when he was accidentally impaled on a scythe.

Adam spent days in a feverish state. All the while he was haunted by dreamlike images of a strange and inhuman woman who whispered unintelligible words to him. She filled his head with visions of glory and danger. Eventually Adam awoke from the fever, miraculously recovering. He was renamed Adam of Destine by the townspeople, who felt the young man was destined for greatness.

Crusade

In 1189, Adam felt an overwhelming need to join the Third Crusade . While other men followed their conscience or duty into battle, Adam answered a call all of his own, though at the time he didn’t know what it was. Over the next two years Adam became a seasoned veteran of war, having successfully participated in the battles of Acre, Arsuf and Jaffa.

His achievements were made even more impressive by the fact that Adam was never once injured in any of the fights. He secretly believed that the “angel” he dreamt about had granted him divine protection making him immune to danger.

With his faith in his own invincibility strong, he became overconfident and reckless. As a result, he was captured by a warlord named Al Kadhdhaab. Kadhdhaab claimed that he needed Adam’s help to defeat an evil wizard called Sujanaa Min Raghbah. Apparently, Sujanaa had captured a large gem with mystical powers that fulfilled his wishes many centuries prior.

In the process of gaining his wishes, Sujanaa had gained the gift of prophecy. One of these omens revealed that Adam was destined to kill him. Somehow, Kadhdhaab had gained knowledge of this prophecy. Thus, he hoped that Adam would aid him in defeating the evil wizard and removing the gem from his possession.

Wicked wizard in the East

Though Adam had misgivings over trusting Kadhdhaab, he couldn’t resist the sudden urge he had to confront Sujanaa. Without delay, Adam traveled to Sujanaa’s palace. He explored it briefly. But he found himself easily captured by the rogue wizard.

To his confusion, Sujanna ranted that his gem loved Adam, and would not allow him to hurt Adam. Adam managed to distract the wizard by telling him that Sujanaa had wasted his life, using all his power merely to protect his power.

The wizard realized that he had become trapped by his own desire for power. During this moment of doubt, the his concentration faltered. For a brief moment, Adam was free to act and in a blur of motion he killed the wizard.

As his adrenaline levels dropped to normal, Adam felt a strange yet familiar presence emanating from the gem. In an instant he realized that the gem was not an artifact, but instead it was a prison.

A real gem

Resolute, Adam raised the sword he had murdered Sujanna with and prepared to smash the massive gemstone. But even as he started his swing, Kadhdhaab appeared. He shot the Englishman in the back with a crossbow and immediately followed with a knife in the gut.

As Adam lay bleeding to death on the ground, Kadhdhaab approached the gem slowly, savouring his imminent rise to power. With the last of his strength, Adam sliced the rope that suspended the gem from the ceiling, bringing it crashing to the ground and shattering it into a million shards. A storm of elemental energy burst from the gem, and instantly immolated Kadhdhaab.

As the mystical power surged over Adam, his wounds were healed and his vigor was renewed. To his own amazement, Adam found himself raised from the earth. He was craddled into the arms of the awaiting Djinn who was finally free from her imprisonment. Elalyth, who had sent Adam his vision all those years ago, was finally free and in the arms of the man she was destined to love.

The Good Old Days, part 1

In order to ensure that their love would last for eternity, Elalyth enchanted Adam, making him immortal and invulnerable. The two then became lovers. Over the next few centuries Adam and Elalyth had many children, all of whom inherited superhuman abilities and were extremely long-lived.

Adam shared a great many adventures with his children as they grew into adulthood, but only a few have been mentioned.

One such adventure took place in the year 1374. Adam and two of his sons, Thaddeus and Albert, first encountered the Inhumans while attempting to reach the Shalu Monastery in Shigatse, Tibet. The three Destine’s had a brief battle with a rogue inhuman that resulted in Thaddeus’ death.

The Good Old Days, part 2

Another of Adam’s adventures took place in 1615. While riding through the Sayan Mountains en route to Japan to aid his children Albert and Grace, he encountered a trio of armored insectoid extraterrestrials. These were attempting to construct a teleportational portal through which to bring an army to claim the Earth.

The aliens attacked Adam, and brought all of their advanced weapons to bear upon the seeming mortal. For the first time in centuries Adam actually feared for his life, having never encountered anything like the weapons he was attacked with. But Adam’s invulnerability proved to be too great for even these weapons. The resulting backfire killed all but one of them.

The remaining alien departed Earth, never to return. He had been brought to believe that Earth was inhabited by an invulnerable race of superhumans.

Over time, civilization and technology advanced. That made it far more difficult for members of the Clan Destine to disappear or pass themselves off as their own descendants. One of Adam’s children, a genius named Newton, set up the Relative Stranger Protocol for the family.

The protocol would create new identities for the long-lived family members whenever they required it. It would also protect the family should one of them be uncovered.

Family Feud

Though there were turbulent times, the family stayed focused and together until the mid 20^th century. This is when Adam was forced to kill his own son Vincent. Though the details have been lost to time, Vincent had become unstable in his use of his gifts. He eventually destroyed the family manor.

When push came to shove, Adam felt that Vincent had fallen to evil. He thought that the only way to contain his madness was to kill him.

Adam’s actions tore a rift in the family. Some of his children defended his actions while other refused to accept that Vincent’s death was the only solution. To make matters worse Elalyth, devastated by Vincent’s murder and furious at Adam’s betrayal, returned to her mystical home Yden.

Before she left, she cursed Adam with one final enchantment. It was the ability to see and experience precognitive visions of his remaining children’s pain and the moment of their death.

Adam, despondent over his own actions and his abandonment by many of those whom he loved, exiled himself to the dark reaches of space using a vehicle created by Newton. He left behind his newborn twin children Rory and Pandora.

Cosmic passerby

Over the next decade and a half, Adam hurtled aimlessly through the vacuum. He desperately searched for something to end his existence. Eventually, his craft ran out of power. Thus, he found himself stranded on a passing asteroid. Bored and tormented by his own ghosts, Adam simply sat and waited.

He was eventually found by the passing Silver Surfer. The Surfer, curious over the strange craft (which closely resembled the Scooby Gang’s Mystery Machine), investigated. Imagine the Surfer’s amazement as he discovered not only a perfectly preserved human within the van, but one that was alive.

The two spoke briefly. Meanwhile the Surfer recharged the van’s power cells. As their conversation concluded, Adam was stricken by a horrific vision of several of his children’s imminent deaths. With his sense of purpose renewed, Adam thanked the Surfer and returned to the earth.

Back planetside

When he arrived, he found out that Newton had sent several of his surviving children into the lair of Lenz. Lenz was a scientist mutated into a monstrous new form by Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.). One of the twins, Rory, had been captured by Lenz in retaliation for his inadvertent theft of the Gryphon. The mutate  was ready to kill over ownership of this artefact.

Adam commanded Newton to send him after his children. He arrived just in time to find them all at the mercy of the powerful mutate. At Adam’s arrival, Lenz sent his entire army of mutates to attack Adam. They fell upon him in a flurry of teeth and claws. Adam ignored them and walked over to Lenz demanding his children’s release.

Lenz himself set his own superhuman strength and clawed limbs against Adam, to no avail. Lenz, with broken knuckles and claws, was trapped deep in unreasoning rage. He psychically drew strength from all of his mutates, disintegrating them and much of the cave around him in the attempts to kill the seemingly indestructible human.

Waves of destructive force washed over Adam, but didn’t so much as mess up his hair. Adam continued to wait in stoic silence, giving Lenz some time to consider his predicament. Eventually Lenz slumped, defeated and dejected by the realization that his foe was truly invincible.

Rather than killing Lenz, Adam released him to his own vices, realizing that Lenz had been fighting for the survival of his own species and wasn’t truly evil.

Reunited

The Destines returned to their restored home, reunited as a family. Adam met his two youngest children, Rory and Pandora, for the first time. Despite the fact that he was their biological father, Adam agreed to respect Walter’s status as the twins’ guardian.

However, the twin’s “heroing” had brought onto the family and themselves. Thus, Walter wanted the children to return to school and live normal lives, even going so far as to threaten to split them up after they got into trouble at school and ran away from home.

Adam stepped in at that point. He convinced Walter to allow the twins and a chaperone to go out at night on “crime patrol” confronting only petty crime. He realized that the twins would not stop using their abilities. Thus, they would only get into greater trouble without the supervision of one of the adults.

Griffin

Adam’s life returned to a semblance of normalcy, or at least as normal as an enchanted immortal being with superhuman children can be. That lasted until the family was attacked by Dr. Griffin and the Omegans. Dr. Griffin was the original creator of the Gryphon device that Rory had stolen from Lenz.

During the course of the attack, Adam was stricken repeatedly by suffering and visions of his and Elalyth’s most painful moments in life. He assumed that she had once again decided to punish him. As the pain grew worse, Adam found himself whisked magically away from the battle. He reappeared in the mountain sanctuary of his son Albert.

Albert revealed to Adam that his mother, Elalyth, had become trapped within her own grief. Adam had been sharing in her pain through their empathic bond. Albert then opened a mystical doorway for Adam who travelled to Yden. When Adam eventually found Elalyth, his presence allowed her to break out of her grief induced trance. As a side effect, Adam’s pain and visions dissipated.

With Elalyth’s peril removed, Adam returned triumphantly to the Destine manor. He came in just in time to see Griffin absorb the mystic powers of his children. Channeling Elalyth’s magical powers, Adam waved a single hand. This reduced Griffin not only to his mortal form once more, but regressed his age to that of an infant.

He then ordered the remaining Omegans to never threaten his family again. With that Adam bid his children fairwell once more and returned to Yden to be with Elalyth.

Description

Adam appears to be an attractive 20 year old man, with long blond hair that falls just shy of his shoulders and clear blue eyes. Adam is in fantastic physical condition, with a body covered in lean athletic muscle. It was hardened by a life of labour and combat before his magical enhancements.

He can usually be found in practical (if not formal) clothing that suits his surroundings, unless he is taking the twins out on “patrol”. Then he wears an all black ensemble made up of black cargo pants, a simple black shirt and sturdy black boots.

What really makes Adam stand out though is the manner in which he interacts with the environment that surrounds him. He no longer exhibits the basic responses of survival instinct, such as scanning his surroundings or flinching in anticipation of danger.

He doesn’t twitch or fidget because he never tires. In most instances, he appears completely aloof. In almost all instances his face utterly lacks expression or emotion.

Personality

Due to the insulation provided by his invulnerability, Adam has grown emotionally detached from life over the centuries. Anyone who observed him for a short period of time would assume that he was a being of cold passionless intellect. Or perhaps that he had grown bored with the human condition due to his eight plus centuries of life.

That is only part of the truth though. While Adam has admitted that his sensory deprivation may have changed the way he acts or thinks, he still feels intense emotion, especially when it comes to his family. Having watched his children grow old and die, he has come to see his long existence as both a gift and a curse.

Moreover he is still tortured by guilt and remorse over his killing his son Vincent. He is currently struggling to make amends with his other children, in particular Dominic, who can’t bring themselves to forgive his actions.

Other traits

Woe be it to them who would consciously attempt to hurt his children. Adam has been a warrior/soldier for more years than possibly anyone alive and is quite capable of dispensing death. While he is a man driven by conscience, Adam is not above killing his foe should the situation demand it.

Finally, Adam possesses a keen curiousity over anything new, especially since over his long existence he has seen nearly everything. Things such as computers and the internet are fascinating toys for him to experience. He was offworld since their introduction to the mainstream.

Quotes

Silver Surfer: “Forgive my curiousity but your very existence is an enigma. According to the chronometer aboard this craft you left Earth more than 11 years ago. Yet there is no life support. No source of nourishment. Moreover, to my cosmic senses, you are human… without benefit of biological or mechanical augmentation.”
Adam: “If what you say is true, then I CAN die.”
Silver surfer: “Of course.”
Adam: “Please, tell me how.”

“Centuries ago, when I was like other men, the instinct to survive was strong in me. I killed many men in the belief that my life was of greater value than theirs. Then my beloved granted me the gift of immortality — gift and curse. In my time I have discovered one is the other. I have lived too long… watching my children grow old and die… while I remain untouched by time ! Feeling nothing. Neither pleasure or pain — save the pain of loss … and of guilt !”

“In my mind … images of my children… suffering… dying !”

“Be warned creature… any who harm my children must face my wrath.”

Adam: “Honor demands that I warn you… I am invulnerable to all physical harm. Your minions cannot hurt me.”
Lenz: “Boastful human, my prowess far exceeds that of my progeny.”
Adam: “No matter. It will prove equally ineffectual. Now, submit.”

Cuckoo: “Then why didn’t you kill him. You’ve killed before — for less reason.”
Dominic: “You were even able to kill your own son.”
Adam: “I had no choice, Vincent was evil.”

“What you say is true, Dominic… I accepted that my invulnerability insulates me from pain — and pleasure… that I have only a vague awareness of what I touch. But I never considered how sensory deprivation might have changed the way I act… or the way I think. I will try to be more aware in future.”

DC Universe History

The clan is such a minor group within the Marvel Universe, they could conceivably be inserted wholesale into the DC universe with very little modifications to their backstory.

Instead of encountering the Inhumans, they could have encountered the Amazons or some far flung group of Legionnaires on a trip to the past. Lenz could have been created by Intergang or Professor Ivo or even been one of Luthor’s experiments.

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Clan Destine Series published by Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Darci, Roy Cowan.