Stranger (comics)

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caption=The Stranger battles the Avengers in "Avengers" vol. 1, #138. Cover Art by Gil Kane Fact|date=April 2008.
comic_color=background:#8080ff
character_name=The Stranger
real_name=
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Uncanny X-Men" vol. 1, #11 (May 1965)
creators=Stan Lee
Jack Kirby
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=
aliases=
powers= Energy manipulation|

The Stranger is a cosmic entity that appears in the fictional Marvel Universe. The Stranger first appears in "Uncanny X-Men" #11 (vol. 1, May 1965), and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Fictional character biography

The Stranger first visits Earth out of curiosity, and after an encounter with the mutant X-Men departs, taking the supervillain Magneto and his servant Toad off-world for further study. ["Uncanny X-Men" vol. 1, #11] Soon after, Magneto escapes and returns to Earth, although is then recaptured by the Stranger. ["Uncanny X-men" vol. 1, #18] Almost nothing is learned about the entity's motivations, which would become his trademark. The Stranger then becomes convinced that mankind is dangerous and sets out to destroy the Earth, but is dissuaded from this course of action by Bruce Banner and his alter-ego the Hulk, ["Tales To Astonish" vol. 1, #89 - 90] and later the cosmic being Silver Surfer. ["Silver Surfer" vol. 1, #4]

The Stranger returns several years later to aid the Fantastic Four against the villain the Overmind. ["Fantastic Four" vol. 1, #113 - 116] He is later impersonated by the Toad, who battles the superhero team the Avengers. ["Avengers" vol. 1, #137 - 138] The true Stranger encounters the Kree warrior Captain Marvel ["Captain Marvel" vol. 1, #42] and later Spider-Man and the Gardener when trying to obtain the Soul Gem from the corpse of Adam Warlock. The Stranger, however, recovers the Reality Gem. ["Marvel Team-Up" vol. 1, #55] The Stranger then aids superhero team the Champions to contain a Null-Life bomb he left on Earth during the first encounter with the Silver Surfer. ["Champions" vol. 1, #12 - 13] After enlisting the aid of the Thing and the Hulk to fight against the threat of the Olympian god Pluto, ["Marvel Two-In-One" Annual #5 ] the Stranger is not seen for some time.

The Silver Surfer eventually encounters the Stranger once again, and questions him about his motivations and origins. The entity the Living Tribunal manifests, and claims that the Stranger could have represented its fourth face (each face signifies a different aspect of its being). ["Silver Surfer" vol. 3, #31]

The only other fact known about the Stranger is that he acquires sentient beings - unwillingly - from across the universe for his collection on "Labworld." Past specimens have included the sentient island Krakoa, Magneto and the Toad, and the villains the Abomination and Mercurio the 4-D Man. The hero Quasar later frees many of the specimens. ["Quasar" #14-16 (Sep. 1990 - Nov. 1990))]

The Stranger recently posed as the entity The Beyonder in the series "Beyond!" and captured several heroes and villains who were then manipulated into fighting each other for the purpose of study. ["Beyond!" #1 - 6 (2006)]

Powers and abilities

The Stranger has the ability to channel and manipulate cosmic energy for virtually any use, with feats including size shifting, ["Uncanny X-Men" vol. 1, #11] molecular manipulation, ["Uncanny X-Men" vol. 1, #11] space travel, ["Silver Surfer" vol. 1, #4] intangibility, ["Silver Surfer" vol. 1, #4] energy projection, ["Captain Marvel" vol. 1, #42] virtual invulnerability, ["Silver Surfer" vol.2, #27] and assembling a planet from segments of inhabited worlds from across the universe. ["Beyond!" #1 - 6 (2006)]

References

External links

* [http://marvel.com/universe/Stranger The Stranger on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]