Blue Marvel

Adam Brashear was created by Kevin Grevioux and Mat Broome. He first appeared in Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1.^[3][4][5]

In 2013, Blue Marvel appeared as part of Luke Cage's new team of superheroes during the "Infinity" crossover, in the Marvel NOW! relaunch of Mighty Avengers.^[6]

Adam Brashear is a former fullback at Cornell University as well as a veteran of the Korean War, where he served in the Marine Corps.^[7] Brashear later led efforts to harness anti-matter from the Negative Zone as a source of power. The reactor used in the project became unstable, exposing Brashear and his friend Conner Sims to radiation. Sims dissolved into energy, while Brashear became a superpowered "antimatter reactor".^[8]

Brashear operates as the hero Blue Marvel until 1962, when he is outed as black and forced to retire. He leaves the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which he received from President John F. Kennedy, on the Blue Area of the Moon. Shortly afterward, Brashear confronts an alien armada, with the United States government using this final mission to fake his death.^[9] Brashear later became a tenured professor of physics at the University of Maryland.

Brashear confronts Conner Sims when he returns as the villain Anti-Man, seeking to end racism.^[10] Brashear returns as a full-time superhero in the series Age of Heroes, where he helps the Winter Guard battle King Hyperion.^[11]

During the 2013 "Infinity" storyline, Uatu visited Blue Marvel in his Undersea Science Fortress which he had previously modified. Blue Marvel talked with Uatu about his family life and how he could have taken up the opportunity to join the Avengers.^[12] After a one-sided conversation, Blue Marvel took up his costume and flew through Shuma-Gorath's head during its fight with Luke Cage's team. He was able to heal Spectrum, who had been incapacitated by Proxima Midnight's spear, and boost her powers temporarily. Subsequently, Blue Marvel was among those Cage declared to be part of his Mighty Avengers.^[13]

As part of the 2015 All-New, All-Different Marvel initiative, Blue Marvel appeared as a member of the Ultimates.^[14] Blue Marvel's first mission with the Ultimates involved retrieving the incubator that Galactus was brought out of prematurely. Once they put him back into it, he fully emerged as a lifebringer.^[15] While in Exo-Space with the Ultimates within their ship the Aboena, Blue Marvel finds that Anti-Man has reassembled there.^[16]

During the 2016 "Civil War II" storyline, Ulysses Cain experiences a vision that warns Blue Marvel about the impending arrival of the inter-dimensional traveler Infinaut on Earth, which will endanger the planet. This warning gives sufficient time for Blue Marvel, Giant-Man, and the Ultimates to devise a Pym Particle accelerator with which they can shrink Infinaut down to the size of a human.^[17]

Blue Marvel has the ability to absorb energy from matter-anti-matter annihilation, which originates from the inter-dimensional universe called the Negative Zone.^{[citation needed]}

Blue Marvel possesses vast superhuman strength. He has been observed moving a meteor the size of Arkansas and routinely lifting and flying an aircraft carrier a considerable distance with ease. The uppermost limits of Blue Marvel's strength is unknown, but it is in the same category as Hulk, Sentry, and Thor.^[18] He possesses nigh-invulnerability and durability, being capable of withstanding tremendous impact forces, exposure to temperature and pressure extremes, and powerful energy blasts without sustaining injury.^[19][20] Blue Marvel flies by manipulation of gravitons, manipulation of magnetic fields, control of his absolute molecular movement, and utilizing his superhuman speed. Blue Marvel can easily attain escape velocity (or escape speed, which is about 34 times the speed of sound) and fly far beyond supersonic speeds, but it is not known if he can achieve speeds beyond the speed of light.^[19][2] Blue Marvel possesses the ability to sense and comprehend things on levels that far exceed human capabilities.^[19] Blue Marvel has the ability to generate and control negative matter energy based on antimatter for various effects, including creating energy constructs. He can release his energy in the form of energy blasts, including concussive force bolts, stunning bolts, and energy pulses.^[13] Blue Marvel is able to affect matter at a molecular level with a great degree of precision and control, as he did when he not only healed Monica Rambeau, but further boosted her electromagnetic abilities. It is not known if this ability is limited to electromagnetic particles only, or if the Blue Marvel is able to affect all matter, allowing him to alter an object's molecular composition or transmute elements.^[21] Blue Marvel has exhibited the ability to emit light from his body.^[22][23] Blue Marvel ages much slower and lives much longer than normal human beings.^[24][25] He has been trained by the US Marines in armed and unarmed combat.^[26][27][28]

Brashear holds a PhD in Theoretical Physics and a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from Cornell University.^[7] He maintains a massive undersea headquarters in the Marianas Trench at a location known only to Namor the Sub-Mariner.^[8] Brashear normally wears gauntlets on both arms that channel and augment his vast powers. Blue Marvel is able to create portals from technology that he invented that far exceeds any technology currently on earth. Blue Marvel's main weakness is Neutronium, a substance from the Exo-Space.