Blastaar

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Background

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Powers and Abilities

Blastaar’s alien organism can generate and withstand impossible amounts of pressure. This makes him practically indestructible and gives him great physical power. He can release this enormous pressure through his fingertips – as a tremendous deflagration.

These blasts can be used as a weapon, capable of harming even very powerful superhumans. Tney can blast giant space octopoids miles away (in DC Heroes RPG terms that was a Planned Knockback manoeuvre) or of vanquishing the potent force fields of the Invisible Woman. They can also be used as a sort of rocket exhaust, propelling him at great speeds.

Those explosions decohere as they travel, though – limiting their range, though this is rarely a significant drawback for Blastaar. Blastaar’s blasts once managed to deflect even Mjolnir, though that likely required luck and unusual precision.

Although he’s not a very technical hand-to-hand fighter, Blastaar has enough speed, and of course enough power, to engage a high-end fighter such as the Thing. Given this power, Blastaar routinely eschews weapons, feeling there is more glory in fighting with his bare hands.

Durability, part 1

While he’s not quite as strong as high-end bricks , Blastaar is extremely hard to damage through blows and impacts. He has taken punches from a relatively calm Hulk and did not seem even dazed, though Thor’s hammer seemed able to hurt him.

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The warlord of Baluur can instantly adapt to fantastic extremes of heat or cold, and has pretty much proved immune to fire. When blasted by the Human Torch, Blastaar temporarily looked like a creature of living flame as his adaptation powers went into overdrive. Blastaar did not evidence any discomfort, though, so his limits are likely higher than what the Human Torch can usually deliver.

This ability to absorb/adapt to energy-based assaults also allows Blastaar to feed and increase the power of his force blasts (and thus his flight speed). However, said increases seem fairly modest in most circumstances. Usually he just releases the extra pressure he created from the absorbed energy through a incoherent pressure front/shockwave (in DC Heroes RPG terms, Super-Breath).

Under highly controlled conditions, with his body scientifically fed with calibrated energy, Blastaar can be super-charged. Under such circumstances he could radiate energy auras (as described in the High Energy section in our gale stats) and his blasts were so potent as to shatter walls made of an Adamantium  alloy (though it took three consecutive blasts).

Durability, part 2

Blastaar’s durability is such that he ignores physical exertion, or go for weeks without eating or drinking. He can even will himself into suspended animation, for instance when drifting in deep space. This state of suspended animation is extremely difficult to distinguish from death, barring a very competent examiner using superior technology.

It was once demonstrated that Blastaar could fairly easily come back from death, as long as he was exposed to appropriate types of radiation.

Blastaar said he had made himself stronger using the Cosmic Control Rod, likely by absorbing regular doses of its cosmic energy. As often in those cases it was fairly hard to spot any difference. Likewise he once boasted that he was more powerful in the Negative Zone, but there is very little evidence of that. And he *also* boasted that he was more powerful in Universe-616 than in the Negative Zone.

In any case, Blastaar has repeatedly proven able, by himself, to challenge such groups as the Fantastic Four or the Avengers and has been seen single-handedly razing entire cities.

The nuclear option

In 2002 the Kree Supreme Intelligence described Blastaar as a ’living fusion reactor‘ and as ’a sun on legs’. That was likely an attempt by Peter David at making Blastaar’s powers sound more modern.

This change in the description of Blastaar’s power doesn’t change anything important. Plus, fusion power sounds cooler than enormous internal pressure. It will also avoid fart jokes from gutter-minded players at your table.

It is entirely possible that all descriptions are true – our No-Prize Hypothesis  would be that Blastaar originally had pressure-based power but mutated himself to become a living fusion reactor using the Cosmic Control Rod he once stole from Annihilus.

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Baluur

Blastaar’s home world is a large planet with what seems to be a warlike culture. The locals live underground in heavily-armed, buried complexes — perhaps because those are more easily defended.

Baluur is a very hard military target. Even the original gargoyle armies of Annihilus could not hope to conquer the planet. The entrances to the underground cities are extremely well-camouflaged – they may in fact be impossible to find without a native guide.

Baluurian soldiers.

The people of Baluur are big, grey humanoids. Both males and females have full manes, like Blastaar’s, though the females tend to be slightly smaller, less massive and a bit more curvaceous. From a throwaway, early comment by Blastaar it would seem that their martial arts do not include fist-fighting.

In DC Heroes RPG terms perhaps they all have a BODY higher than their STR, making submission hold wrestling much more effective than pointlessly punching.

Power and technology

The power level of Balduurans is unclear (STR 05 and BODY 08 ?), but it seems that they do not possess the same blasting powers as Blastaar and his son. They may have a few APs of Blastaar’s durability-oriented Powers, and it seems likely that the energy absorption abilities are racial abilities.

There is an apparent “army” on Baluur’s surface, with soldiers armed with halberds and the like. Those guys are actually just exiles and political prisoners – the *real* underground defenses are far tougher, and carry potent energy guns.

Furthermore, they usually have an edge against invaders who just scored an easy victory against the poor chumps living on the surface – and now have an entirely wrong idea about what sort of opposition to expect.

Blastaar had Baluuran scientists develop special system that would alert him when breaches and portals appeared between the Negative Zone and the positive matter universe (Earth-616 and possibly others). He has thus been known to react rapidly to such glorious opportunities for… CONQUEST !

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History

Blastaar used to rule a planet, or possibly a space empire, in the Negative Zone, with an iron fist. Eventually a conspiracy among his subjects managed to overthrow him and imprison him. But even with all the means at their disposal they did not find a way to kill the powerful space tyrant.

Pumping him full of sedatives and enclosing him within an adhesion suit, they put Blastaar aboard a fast vessel that dumped him within the debris belt. This is the front where the antimatter of the Negative Zone meets with the normal universe in perpetual annihilation.

Most of Blastaar’s family and associates were killed. However his queen Nyglar and his faithful adviser, Scrupulo, managed to flee. It is possible that at that point Blastaar’s son Burstaar was already born ; if so he was saved by his mother and Scrupulo.

The attempt to kill Blastaar in the matter/antimatter front did not work. Minutes if not seconds before he would hit the energy fields, Blastaar (hit by the increasingly powerful explosions which revived him) beat the sedatives, tore free of the adhesion suit and used his great power to propel himself free from the gravity field of the debris belt.

Furthermore, he caught a glimpse of the Inhumans and the Fantastic Four working to rescue Reed Richards, who was trapped in the debris field. Salivating at the thought of new realms to conquer, Blastaar somehow managed to slip through the FF’s Negative Zone Portal in the commotion, then escaped from the Baxter Building.

Into the positive matter universe

Blastaar then ran into the super-villain the Sandman, whom he decided to recruit as a native guide to help with his glorious conquest. Not too sure of what was going on, the Sandman decided to play along. As he had hoped, the situation soon degenerated into a fight with Sandman old enemies the Fantastic Four.

Blastaar and the Sandman gave a solid account of themselves, but at the end of the day the Thing still outmatched the Sandman. Furthermore, Reed Richards just happened to have a special helmet that would prevent Blastaar from building pressure up within his body, thus making him powerless and vulnerable.

Despite some difficulties in shoving the helmet on Blastaar’s head, the space tyrant was defeated and dumped back into the Negative Zone.

Frightful

Now wanting to conquer Earth (and beyond !), Blastaar was somehow contacted by the Frightful Four – who, as often, were actually down to three (the Wizard, Trapster and Sandman). An occasion soon arose when Doctor Doom invaded the Negative Zone and stole Annihilus’ Cosmic Control Rod. The Fantastic Four went in after Doom, and left Sue Richards behind to protect the portal.

As soon as the male FF had left, the FrightFul Four launched a two-pronged attack, with Blastaar coming in from the Zone and taking out Mrs. Richards while she was busy fighting his Earthly allies. Rick Jones, who had come to warn the FF of Doom’s plot, switched places with Captain Mar-Vell, but even the Kree champion was summarily blasted out of the air by the Living Bomb-Burst.

The Frightful Four discussed switching off the portal to the Negative Zone to exile the other three FF there, and Blastaar reacted violently at the thought at being unable to go home. As Blastaar fought against the villains, Sue reopened the portal and used her force field to shove Blastaar through it. Her husband then shut the portal down.

Anti-matter

Knowing that even with his might, he could not to take back his former empire alone, Blastaar lived in hiding in sub-space, near the debris belt. From some points he could even see Earth, but as an anti-matter being could not hope to reach it.

However a freak accident with a matter-transmission radio developed by Professor X hurled Blastaar from the Negative Zone into our space. It also switched his atoms just in time to avoid annihilation.

Appearing at the X-Men’s mansion, Blastaar found little challenge in the X-Men and might very well have killed them. But soon the phenomenon that brought him to Earth reversed itself and somehow electrocuted him, rendering him inert.

Professor Pentecost’s revenge

Blastaar’s seeming corpse was encased in super-strong plastic and stored in an upstate research lab. Secondary sources would later identify this site as an early version of Project : PEGASUS. However, one criminal scientist, professor Paxton Pentecost, had androids steal the alien body and bring it to him.

For two years, Pentecost laboured to discover how to resurrect the indestructible Blastaar. He finally succeeded by exposing him to precise amounts of gamma radiation.

Blastaar burst free from the plastic holding him. He was about to raze everything when Pentecost triggered machines that, based on his study of Blastaar, could generate tremendous mental pain in the resurrectee.

Thus Blastaar was forced to serve Pentecost, though learning that he had been resurrected by the doctor allowed him to do so without losing face. Extremely bitter, the doctor wanted Blastaar to use his awesome might to raze an entirely automated, artificially intelligent factory he had invented, named F.A.U.S.T. – the ownership of which had been stolen by his business partner.

F.A.U.S.T. being built with a special Adamantium alloy (so it could run forever without maintenance), destroying it was something few forces on Earth could do.

F.A.U.S.T.

The gamma-charged Blastaar proved able to shatter the walls of F.A.U.S.T.. When Pentecost’s business partner came with some local cops, they were swatted away by the alien. The Human Torch also tried to intervene, but was likewise blasted away.

Pentecost forced his traitorous partner to accompany him inside F.A.U.S.T., while telling Blastaar to keep blasting everything into rubble. The Negative Zone conqueror happily obliged.

The Torch came back with the incredible Hulk. The jade giant was annoyed by the gamma radiation Blastaar was emitting and decided to smash. The Torch did bring Pentecost to his senses, but the Hulk did not go very far against Blastaar, being weakened by the gamma radiation from the charged conqueror.

The repentant Pentecost and the Torch designed a plan whereas the Hulk wrapped Blastaar in Adamantium alloy from the walls of F.A.U.S.T.. The Adamantium alloy around Blastaar was then crushed tight into a ball and hurled into the sea by the emerald giant. Trapped, Blastaar willed himself into hibernation.

Kree havoc

The sleeping Blastaar was eventually freed from his Adamantium prison by a mysterious powerball falling from the sky/ In return for his freedom, the energy sphere telepathically gave him instructions. Blastaar flew straight to Attilan (then in the Himalayas), easily swatting aside Inhuman defences and members of the Royal Family to reach his goal.

Using a procedure his Kree benefactors had described to him, Blastaar reactivated ancient Kree robots, the Kaptroids, deep below Attilan.

He was then captured by the counter-attacking Inhumans, who also managed to destroy the huge Kree robots as they were capturing dozens of Inhuman citizens. Blastaar apparently fled in the confusion of the Kaptroid rampage, having repaid his debt to the Kree who had sent the powerball.

Back to the factory, part 1

In a bizarre twist, Blastaar then allied with F.A.U.S.T, who had repaired the great damage previously inflicted by the Living Bomb-Burst.

F.A.U.S.T. had the means to control Blastaar (via Pentecost’s pain inducer), and wished to keep one of the few beings able to destroy it under its control. The sentient factory sweetened its conditions by promising the homesick Blastaar it would build a portal to the Negative Zone, and would make him king there.

Whilst waiting for the Negative Zone portal to be built, Blastaar helped with F.A.U.S.T.’s master plan – to leave Earth. F.A.U.S.T. needed rare isotopes for its project, which were soon to be moved by helicopter. The sentient super-factory and Blastaar recruited the Stilt-Man and equipped him with a far more powerful, Adamantium-reinforced version of the Stilt-Man armour – uniquely suited to boarding a low-flying helicopter.

Back to the factory, part 1

However, the unlucky Stilt-Man stumbled upon Thor during the heist, and was repelled. Blastaar, as F.A.U.S.T.’s enforcer, then swooped in and fought Thor, keeping him away from his enchanted hammer for a full minute with his bludgeoning power.

Blastaar did not know that it would force Thor to revert to his human form. When his opponent seemingly disappeared Blastaar had little left to do but to wonder what had happened while flying the isotopes back to F.A.U.S.T.

Thor located F.A.U.S.T., but the sentient factory had pretty much completed its plans and, while Blastaar and Thor were busy fighting, it hurled itself into orbit. Going berserk, Blastaar charged to reach the Negative Zone portal built by F.A.U.S.T. before it was too late.

While it did take him to the Negative Zone, it did not switch the polarity of his atoms right. Blastaar found himself irresistibly pulled toward the explosive debris belt once again, where he likely would be disintegrated.

Back and forth

Blastaar somehow managed to escape this predicament, of course. What happened next is uncertain – it may be the point at which the following episode only seen in a flashback occurred.

Blastaar had allied with Annihilus and a Terran, the Red Ghost. Their plot was to duplicate Captain Mar-Vell’s nega-bands using alien science, so they too could switch between the Negative Zone and the positive matter universe. However, Rick Jones and Captain Mar-Vell outmanoeuvred them, leaving them with nothing but the Red Ghost and his super-apes, now trapped along with them in the Negative Zone.

It was an act of sabotage that latter allowed Blastaar to return to Manhattan. A possessed H.E.R.B.i.e. opened the outer portal, leaving Blastaar free to blast the much weaker inner portal open and waltz in.

The Fantastic Four had just been rejuvenated and their power increased, resulting in a stalemate where neither Blastaar nor the FF could conclusively vanquish the other. Blastaar disengaged from the fight and started to prowl outside the Baxter Building. Spotting the hyper-evolved Futurist nearby, Blastaar manipulated the naïve being into thinking the Fantastic Four were attacking them both.

As the Futurist battled the FF, Blastaar went back inside to find a way to keep the Negative Zone portal permanently open. At that moment Franklin Richards found his unconscious mother near Blastaar. Using his psionic  powers in anger, he rendered Blastaar intangible and shoved him though the still-closed Negative Zone portal.

War on Baluur, part 1

Blastaar soon became solid again, and plotted anew to recover his Negative Zone kingdom. Since he could not hope to reconquer Baluur alone, he decided to renew his alliance with another great warlord of the Negative Zone — Annihilus, the Death That Walks.

Blastaaroffered his services as a guide and frontline general to Annihilus, with the first objective being the joint conquest of Baluur. Annihilus, true to his character, intended to betray Blastaar as soon as Baluur fell.

To celebrate their “alliance”, Annihilus had arena games organised. Random Baluuran captives were thrown into the arena to be killed by a giant space octopoid. Blastaar recognised his wife Nyglar and his advisor Scrupulo in the arena and rocketed to their rescue, blasting the monster into orbit. Frustrated, Annihilus disintegrated all Baluurans in the arena save Blastaar and Nyglar.

Seeing his folly and certain that Annihilus would betray Blastaar, Nyglar used a sub-space transmitter and informed the computers of the Fantastic Four that a genocidal alliance had been struckin the Negative Zone. At that point the Thing’s famous floating poker game was in session, and he and a number of poker-playing Avengers decided to intervene to prevent massive carnage.

War on Baluur, part 2

The heroes soon ran smack into Blastaar and Annihilus’s army, and were routed. Those who had not been captured by Blastaar attempted to break up the war on Baluur. Meanwhile, Nyglar set the captured Avengers free on Annihilus’ flagship, only to be killed in return by Annihilus.

Blastaar was aghast. But he decided to ignore her death and forge ahead in his alliance with Annihilus. Annihilus’ army soon launched its main attack in a spot designated by Blastaar and charged underground… only to be slaughtered by the Baluuran armies.

It all had been a trap. Blastaar had secretly regained his throne months ago and had just reeled his main competitor into a cunning machination. As a crestfallen Annihilus watched, Blastaar even stole his Cosmic Control Rod and rocketed away. The Living Bomb-Burst was now the master of the known Negative Zone !

It likely was in this general time frame that Blastaar was reunited in his son, whom he then kept hidden from his enemies.

Return to power

Armed with the Rod, keeping Annihilus as a helpless prisoner for his amusement, and controlling a fearsome empire, Blastaar still longed for more conquest. He decided to have his revenge against the FF.

Learning that the Baxter Building had been shot into orbit and destroyed, he had his scientists send abnormal energy pulses through the damaged Negative Zone portal. Reed Richards took the bait and was captured as he investigated. The rest of the FF soon came to the rescue.

The fight did not go as Blastaar. The Invisible Woman took the Cosmic Control Rod from him and used it to augment her field to fully stop Blastaar’s attacks. Thinking on his feet, Blastaar made an extremely crude attempt at reverse psychology. This actually worked, on account of the Human Torch being a hotheaded idiot.

Johnny threw the Rod into something that turned out to be Annihilus’ prison. Meanwhile the energies of the Rod started widening the portal, with the Negative Zone pouring into the normal universe.

Doom is bad news

The situation predictably degenerated into a fight between Annihilus and Blastaar. Blastaar was then felled by a Baluuran senior military officer, who hated him for his murderous reign years before and wanted to take his place. Annihilus disintegrated the officer and his men while the FF retreated and closed the portal to contain the Negative Zone.

Not too long after that, an unusual Fantastic Four team (the mutated, “spiky” Thing, Ms. Marvel II as the She-Thing, the Human Torch… and Doctor Doom) went into the Negative Zone. They were intercepted by Blastaar’s ship.

Doom had brought an anti-Blastaar weapon, however – a collar that would contract whenever Blastaar used his power. Dr. Doom blindsided Blastaar to put the collar on, neutralising him. Blastaar was left to float helplessly in the Negative Zone.

Against the Avengers… and the Eternals

Improbably enough, Blastaar drifted through a wormhole to another part of the Negative Zone. He ended up passing close to Olympia, the city of the Eternals of Earth. It had been accidentally shifted there by one of the Eternals, Sprite.

Intrigued by their new environment and the arrival of Blastaar, the Eternals fished the conqueror out of space and reanimated him. Predictably, once he awoke Blastaar decided to conquer his benefactors. As they refused to submit after his initial display of power, he attacked them and disintegrated them all.

Soon after that, the Avengers came to Olympia to obtain care for a wounded member, the Eternal Gilgamesh. They discovered a sinister, deserted city and fought Blastaar. At that point the Eternals reintegrated themselves through willpower and defeat the surprised Blastaar, who had never imagined that it was possible.

What the Eternals did to contain Blastaar is unknown, but they apparently just left him behind when Olympia returned to the positive matter universe.

Blastaar eventually came to Earth again. An Earth scientist had managed to open a breach to the Negative Zone using both published and stolen papers by Reed Richards. Blastaar charged through and forced the scientist to pretend that he was a mad bomber whose demand was to meet the Fantastic Four.

The FF showed up and soon uncovered the deception, but did not fare well against Blastaar. However, the Living Bomb-Burst accidentally destroyed the frame of the building and was burried under thousands of tons of rubble.

Dusk’s resistance

Blastaar managed to return to the Negative Zone and to his empire. Perhaps he made it into the portal before it was crushed by the collapsing building. He then worked on extending his conquest among the antimatter worlds. However one planet within the empire, called Tarsuu, kept being a problem.

The resistance there was originally led by a couple. Blastaar had exiled them years ago, but their son, wearing a featureless black costume as Dusk, took over the partisans and the problems resumed in earnest. Dusk went MIA against Blastaar’s forces, but one of his captain started wearing the costume and pretended to be the original Dusk.

The resistance was remarkably competent, and Blastaar apparently greatly respected Dusk as an opponent.

Dusk’s rebels received unexpected reinforcement when Spider-Man came looking for three teenagers who had been sucked into the Negative Zone. Since the alien wearing the Dusk mantle had been wounded in battle, Spidey became Dusk and led a successful attack on Blastaar and his forces.

The Earthman succeeded by taunting and irritating Blastaar, dodging the mighty blasts from the conqueror so that they would damage key systems in his own base. Blastaar’s fortress was destroyed when the Living Bomb-Burst smashed the cooling systems whilst trying to kill Dusk/Spider-Man. This setback on Tarsuu may have sparked other rebellions throughout the empire.

Accursed Richards !

Blastaar later found some undisclosed way to force open the Negative Zone portal at the Four Freedoms Plaza, and came in charging – perhaps he came for revenge after learning that Dusk had been impersonated by an Earth person.

While Mr. Fantastic was alone and outmatched, he managed to reprogram an hologram generator to dupe Blastaar, making him think that the Negative Zone portal was a breach he had just opened into a wall. Thinking he was jumping through the breach to conquer New York City, Blastaar actually leapt back into the Negative Zone. Mr. Fantastic likely corrected the weak point of the portal ASAP.

However, the scientists of Genetech were working on technology similar to that of the Negative Zone portal — perhaps using the same leaks that had been used by the anonymous scientist mentioned some paragraphs back. While they were planning to discover a new dimension akin the Negative Zone, they just managed to open a warp to the known Negative Zone, and Blastaar soon stepped through.

The crisis was responded to by an ad hoc group of New Warriors, who semi-inexplicably defeated Blastaar.

They then deported the Living Bomb-Burst back to the Negative Zone, on a completely inhabited planet. Apparently they weren’t aware that Blastaar could fly at interplanetary speeds, and this exile would mean little.

From Dusk ’till Carnage

Whilst chasing Cletus Kasady (aka Carnage), Spider-Man ended up crossing the distortion zone again. He arrived in the Negative Zone just in time to recover the original Dusk, who had been cast into the distortion zone by Blastaar to be destroyed. Spidey saved the wounded and exhausted alien from Blastaar’s wrath – but they then landed right in front of him.

When they came in, Blastaar was using special equipment to magnify his blasts and blow up one of the two Tarsuu planets, only to then learn that the rebels had already evacuated that planet.

Blastaar decided to immediately use the magnification equipment again – this time to shoot through a window in the distortion zone and destroy Earth. Dusk talked him out of him at the last second, telling him the Earth was the keystone of creation and that destroying it would destroy everything, leaving nothing for conquest.

Blastaar believed him and renounced his plans, to the furore of his ally Carnage. The psychotic Carnage sabotaged the equipment and foolishly attacked Blastaar. Blastaar disappeared among explosions while Spider-Man dragged Carnage with him back to Earth-616.

A new exile

When Blastaar was next seen, he had apparently been deposed again – perhaps the rebellion led by Dusk eventually succeeded. He and his son Burstaar fled into sub-space, close to the debris belt. They hid in the asteroids around an abnormal star, and Blastaar grandiosely gave stewardship of the star to his son.

It was near this star that they encountered Kree adventurers Una-Rogg and Captain Marvel (Genis-Vell). As a matter of pride the Baluuran exiles opposed the Kree approaching “their” star for any reason.

During the fight, Una-Rogg managed to take Burstaar (whose power level was considerably weaker than his father’s) hostage. Seeing that his impossibly prideful father refused to back down on an entirely symbolic matter and would rather have him have his son’s throat slit than negotiate, Burstaar lashed out at his father in anger. He then fled, now an enemy of Blastaar.

Blastaar was next seen very briefly. Apparently he clashed once again with the FF, was imprisoned, managed to break free from Reed Richards’s prison and was cast back by Mr. Fantastic in the Negative Zone. He later joined the armies of the General (one of the Sentry’s archenemies), along with such people as Danny Boy.

Annihilation

Perhaps due to his hatred of Annihilus, Blastaar was later seen in the positive matter universe, having joined the anti-Annihilation Wave resistance on the Canticus Prime planet (in the Kree fringe systems). He fought alongside an odd mix of Kree soldiers and Space Knights from Galador. He once provided support for a team of heroes composed of Nova, Phyla Vell and Peter Quill.

Blastaar’s raw power and untamed determination proved to be precious assets to the beleaguered anti-Annihilation resistance. Blastaar was made an officer among the United Front partisans, perhaps the equivalent of a captain. He stuck around the Kree space even after the Annihilation Wave was halted.

Thus, Blastaar was present when the Kree empire was taken over by the Phalanx. He joined the anti-Phalanx resistance, which counted in its ranks many of the same officers that had led the United Front. Blastaar came to direct a group of Kree soldiers, using low-tech weapons against overwhelming odds, but was eventually captured when a city-block-sized Phalanx war engine repeatedly stomped on him.

But Blastaar was not truly defeated — for Blastaar is power !! It was actually a ruse to get him into the core Phalanx structure.

Conquest

The Phalanx tortured him and killed him, but this too was a trick – Blastaar is much harder to kill than that, and had simply willed himself into a death-like state of suspended animation. His seeming corpse released invisible spores all through the core Phalanx structure, which were used by a special Kree commando team led by Peter Quill to map out the building.

Quill’s commando unit entered the structure ASAP and started sabotaging it. They knew that the Phalanx would soon realise that Blastaar was not dead and would make him into a Select, one of their elite servants. This did happen more quickly than anticipated, and Blastaar as a Select stomped Quill’s irregular troops.

The commandos still managed to weaken the core Phalanx structure using plan B. That happened right in time to facilitate the return to Kree space by Nova and several key allies. Thus was Blastaar instrumental in a key special forces strike that allowed for the defeat of the Phalanx.

With the Phalanx defeated, Blastaar was purged of the transmode virus that made him into a Select, and recovered his free will. The Living Bomb-Burst then somehow returned to the Negative Zone, perhaps as payment from the restored Kree empire. They had no interest in keeping around a loose canon such as Blastaar anyway.

Barbarian warlord in the anti-matter universe

Soon, Blastaar built himself a new power base in the Negative Zone, assembling a horde of space barbarians with a mostly medieval tech level, supplemented by some bought or bartered-for energy smallarms. Having heard of the 42 high-security prison built by Earth into the Negative Zone, Blastaar predictably decided that this was an intolerable infringement on his territory and laid siege to the prison.

The American authorities, already stretched thin from the Civil War events that had led to the opening of 42 in the first place, had the guards vacate the prison. They shut off the portal and left the super-powered prisoners fend off for themselves.

As the prisoners kept repulsing attempts at storming their bastille, Peter Quill, now a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy, ended up teleporting right into Blastaar’s army due to unrelated circumstances. Having been previously impressed by Quill’s cunning and resourcefulness, Blastaar made him his right-hand man under threats of death.

Blastaar then sent Quill in to parlay with the Earth prisoners and find a way to bring down the defences.

Hoping that the other Guardians of the Galaxy would come to help, Quill instead allied with the prisoners. The Guardians did end showing up and helped evacuate the Earth people, but Blastaar was left in control of the empty 42 prison. He then had captive Earth villain Skeleton Ki start working on restoring the portal to Universe-616.

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Description

According to Marv Wolfman, Blastaar has a “strident gait”. According to Speedball and Nova he smells pretty bad. The main illustration is the new look he sported during the Annihilation crisis ; everything below is his classic look.

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Personality

The leonine Blastaar is entirely about power, conquest, pride and glory in battle – to a point that would be an all-consuming, pathological obsession for a human being. He does not care about *anything* but POWER and CONQUEST… and his pride.

In one shocking moment (at least for humans), he just shrugged and refused to modify his current bid for power even after his then-ally Annihilus killed his old advisor and then his wife. Everything is secondary to the glory of conquest !

Blastaar does have an eye for “mere females”, though – even alien ones such as humans. He’s incredibly macho about it and cannot conceive they may even wish to resist him. In fact he’s pretty good at underestimating female opponents – though he will certainly not pull punches when it comes to attacking women of any sort.

For power is Blastaar !

His power-drunk, bombastic, over-the-top rants are a key aspect of the character. However, for all his grandiose, cliché-ridden, over-the-top proclamations, Blastaar actually has a level of barbaric cunning. He is quite able to pretend that he’s cooperating or even serving somebody who can actually hurt him badly.

It is always a sham, of course. Blastaar is merely waiting for an opportunity to get what he wants… and what Blastaar wants is POWER !

Other traits

He has even proven willing and able to manipulate others with simple but credible lies. His brutal appearance and over-the-top manner lead most people to assume he’s far more stupid than he actually is.

Blastaar seems to honour a common Negative Zone tradition, the “joining of life forces” (actually projecting a tiny blast of energy that collides with the other person’s beam). Under this simple ritual one may not betray the terms of agreement that were just reached, unless the other person betrays them first.

Like any good space tyrant, he has a tendency to vaporise unsuccessful servants out of anger and frustration. Like any good space tyrant, while he will blast enemies without thinking about it, he has a tendency to resort to death traps instead for adversaries he respects too much to vaporise outright, such as Dusk.

Before her death Nyglar noted that in his exile, Blastaar was becoming less inclined to use violence as his first, best and last resort, and was more open to reason. It is true that he slowly became less one-dimensional as time went by ; in particular by the time of the Annihilation Wave he seemed craftier and far less obsessive.

By that time, Blastaar also noticeably toned down his bombastic Silver Age  tirades about planet-shattering power and the like.

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Quotes

“So !! This is how they thought to rid themselves of Blastaar ! No such puny device can long trap the most deadly of all living beings !”

“I know not what puny world I have entered… But I can plainly see that the beings therein will be no match the bludgeoning power of Blastaar !”

“Back, you flaming, flying fool !! Back !! No matter what the extent of your mortal power may be… it is as nothing compared to the might of Blastaar ! The power of ultimate destruction lies within my hands !! The power to wipe out an enemy… to devastate an army… to obliterate a world !! I fear nothing !! I can be stopped by no one ! I am a law unto myself !! I am supreme !! I AM BLASTAAR !!”

“Why do crowds of shouting humans surround us ? Explain, Sandman — before I blast every last one out of existence !”

“For that you will perish as none as ever perished before !”

“I breathe ! I live ! Blastaar is free once more — and Blastaar shall have his revenge !”

“Insignificant gnats ! You haven’t heard the last of Blastaar ! I will return — to destroy you all ! I WILL RETURN !”

“That first blast was only a demonstration, fool — something to show how little your power (…) and the power of your precious justice — mean against power such as mine ! The power of BLASTAAR, THE LIVING BOMB-BURST !”

“But Blastaar did not fail ! Blastaar never fails ! For Blastaar is POWER INCARNATE !”

“Bah ! You will soon learn, golden-hair, that there is *nothing* more terrible than the battle fury of Blastaar ! And it is a lesson which will cost you your life !”

“Come, you orange-skinned abnormality ! Launch yourself mindlessly onto the twin reefs of destruction embodied by Blastaar’s blasting hands !”

“No computer, no machine, no living or unliving entity has the power I wield at my very whim ! I am Blastaar, the Living Bomb-Burst !! And whatever I touch — I destroy !!”

“Pathetic, mewling Earther ! Did you think a puny tap like that could possibly hurt the all-powerful Blastaar ?”

“Come out, self-styled lord of the Negative Zone ! Come out… and face the blistering, bludgeoning might of Blastaar — the Living Bomb-Burst !”

“I do not know the full extend of your monstrous might… but it is nothing when compared to the power of Blastaar ! My rage knows no limits ! My strength knows no bounds ! The power to annihilate armies… to shatter entire civilisations… lies within my explosive-filled fingertips ! Begone monster ! With a single earth-shuddering burst I send you back — back to the black void that birthed you — back to the nether regions of Negative Space… where you will drift forever carrying the scars and the bitter memory of your battle with… Blastaar !”

(To Nyglar) “No ! I play for the greatest stakes of all ! Blastaar will alter his plans for no one ! Not even for she who holds my heart a willing captive !”

“In a realm of creatures you weak-willed humans call brutes, I have made myself monarch of all I survey !”

“I will crush all rebels ! As I have countless worlds before this one ! As I will crush YOU !”

“I shall erect your battered and bloody corpse as a warning to all who would exploit our realm !”

(2002) “I will strike you a bargain, silverhair, for I am becoming merciful in my old age — guide my son and me to your sphere. Provide me with a list of worlds or peoples important to you… worlds you desire me to spare, and they shall remain forever untouched. Furthermore, if there are races you wish to see disposed of… that can be arranged as well.”

(2002) “ What ? My son… my son…. says such things ? You would have me sacrifice my pride… just to save YOUR life ? Have I taught you nothing about the pointlessness of such indulgence ? This is my fault… I spent too much time hiding you… protecting you from danger… rather than letting you face it head-on. It made you weak.”

(2007) (sarcastically, as the Nova Corps had been almost entirely destroyed months before) “So tell me, ’Nova Officer‘, is there still a price on my head ? Does the Nova Corps still think me a public menace ?”

(2008) “Strike like you mean it, Kree-dogs ! They stole your whole empire from you !”

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DC Universe History

There’s no reason why Blastaar and a host of Negative Zone raiders couldn’t one day barge in in the DCU – the Negative Zone is vast, and might actually be the dimension where Qward is.

A possibility is that Blasaar, in a bid to conquer unexplored areas of the Negative Zone, runs into the forces of Qward and triggers a huge conflict that eventually involves the PCs, some Green Lanterns, and perhaps some guest stars from the Marvel Universe, such as the FF or the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Alternatively, Blastaar’s invasion of Qward might have started years ago, between Legends and Millenium. This event would be what prompted Herupa Hando Hu to return to our universe in order to create the New Guardians.

Even more alternatively, Blastaar *does* have the Apokolips look. Since I can’t see Blastaar serving anybody, not even Darkseid, he would be a renegade and exiled god – perhaps confined to our dimension.

In fact it would make sense for Blastaar to be one of the very few beings who cannot be destroyed by Darkseid’s Omega Effect, forcing the big D to exile him rather than destroy him – and leading to attempts by Blastaar at returning to Apokolips… to conquer and overthrow !

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By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe (mostly Fantastic Four issues).

Helper(s): Michael Davis, John Colagioia, Jackson.