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Aaron Nicholson (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

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Real Name
Aaron Nicholson
Current Alias

Identity

Alignment

Universe

Base Of Operations
The Raft, Ryker's Island prison, New York; formerly Fisk Towers, Manhattan, New York; formerly the atmosphere around Earth; formerly Las Vegas, Nevada

Characteristics
Gender

Height


Eyes

Hair

Status
Citizenship

Occupation
Former hitman and field agent

Origin
Origin
Mutate

Contents

History

The Answer first came to work for the father and son team of Wilson and Richard Fisk when they controlled the Las Vegas division of HYDRA. He was their top hit man, but he also had an angle, or an answer, to any problem.

At some point, he volunteered to be the guinea pig for Fisk's attempt to grant superhuman powers, via the equipment of the late Harlan Stillwell. The process seemed to have no effect initially, but sometime later, when cornered by enemy assassins, he instantly developed super-strength and overpowered his attackers. Upon returning home, he found his strength faded. Later, he briefly developed the power of flight to escape an exploding boiler. This and a few other incidents led him to understand the nature of his powers: he had gained the ability to come up with whatever power was necessary to resolve a given situation.

From the shadows, the Answer observed the struggle between Spider-Man and the Blob, gaining information on Spider-Man's powers and skills, as well as his new (alien) costume.

The Kingpin sent the Answer to engage Spider-Man and test his abilities. At first, the Answer seemed to be a pushover, but each time Spidey attacked him, he gained the ability to counter such attacks, such as with great speed or fantastic stamina/durability. Soon, the Answer had Spidey at his mercy, pummeling him with thousands of punches within a few seconds. The Black Cat jumped between them and stopped the fight, but the Answer knew of her bad luck powers, recently gained at the hands of the Kingpin, and so he avoided them by simply avoiding her attacks, but not attacking her back. As the Answer dodged the Black Cat, Spidey webbed him to the floor, but his frictionless costume prevented the webs from sticking to him, and he simply broke the spots on the floor holding the web to escape. In addition, he tossed the still-sticky web onto Spidey and the Cat, and her bad luck powers acted on Spidey when he tried to push her away. Spidey and the Cat ended up trapped in the web, and the Answer, having taken their measures and finding them wanting, flew away.

The Answer observed a fight between Spider-Man and the Black Cat. Because of the Kingpin's plans to use long term exposure to the Cat's bad luck power to cause problems for Spidey, he had the Answer arrange things to keep them together. Coercing the Black Cat to agree to the harmless plot because of her debt to the Kingpin, the Answer held her prisoner with a bomb, and then allowed Spider-Man to "save" her. The Answer escaped, and the bomb was merely impressive fireworks, but the plan worked, and Spidey and the Cat were friendly once again. In addition, the Kingpin had the Answer use the distraction to steal the corpse of the cyborg Silvermane, to use as a potential assassin.

The Answer detailed to the Kingpin his theory on why Silvermane was not truly dead, and then the Kingpin's agents succeeded in partially reviving him. The Answer applied a submission collar on Silvermane's neck to force his compliance. Silvermane's test mission was a success in that he overpowered Spider-Man, but he lacked subtlety and attracted a large crowd in the process.

When Silvermane went out of control, the Answer correctly figured that he was seeking Dagger, whose energies had incapacitated him before, and which held a connection to his life force. He also reasoned that the energy manipulated by Dagger might be able to revive the nearly comatose Vanessa Fisk. The Answer then made arrangements through the Rose to set a trap to attract Cloak and Dagger. The plan worked, and the Answer swooped down in the middle of a struggle between Cloak and Dagger, Silvermane, Spider-Man, and the Black Cat, and flew away with Dagger.

The Answer returned to the Kingpin with Dagger, but found that she was too depleted to save Dagger, as Silvermane was draining them off via their connection. As the rampaging Silvermane followed Dagger to Fisk Tower, the Kingpin decided to use Dagger's energies anyway, even though it might kill her. Cloak arrived to free Dagger, but he, too, had been weakened by Dagger's energy deficit, and the Answer dropped him with a single punch. As the Kingpin tried in vain to stop Silvermane, the Answer deduced that Dagger had to return the energy she had taken from Silvermane, in order to break the link, and to stop his attacks. Though Dagger was too weak, the Answer deduced a solution and infused his own light energy into Dagger. The infusion went out of control and Dagger absorbed all of the Answer's life force, apparently killing him. The energy released in the process did break the link with Silvermane, and restore him fully to life. However, Dagger refused to give any energy to the wife of the Kingpin, and instead restored her partner, Cloak, and the two teleported away.

The Kingpin lamented the loss of his loyal agent, and the failure to revive Vanessa. He blamed the interference of Spider-Man and the Black Cat, and vowed vengeance. The Answer did not die, but rather was left as a discorporated, unconscious being of energy. However, the "implosion of the Multiverse Matrix" caused an energy disturbance that restored the Answer to awareness.

Seeking the answer to his current existence, he discovered the means to communicate with the corporeal world via a computer chip, formerly used by Doctor Octopus to control his adamantium arms. He made a deal with Octopus, promising to free him from prison and restore his destroyed mechanical arms, in exchange for helping him regain his physical form. Their plan hinged on a nuclear blaster designed at the U.S. Atomic Research Company, where Octopus had first been mutated and bonded to his arms. However, the blaster was stolen by the Sinister Syndicate, who sought it for their own reasons.

Octopus formulated a new plan, in which he duped a wannabee-scientist Guardsman into creating the machine which restored the Answer to life. The Answer sought to betray Octopus and leave him trapped in the Vault, but Octopus maintained their former mental link, and used his superior will to force the Answer to free him.

Octopus built himself a temporary set of arms, and then proceeded to recreate his previous arms. The Answer's abilities allowed them to break into the labs at Empire State University, and recover the computer chip for the adamantium arms. In the process the Answer fought off both Spider-Man and a squadron of Guardsman trying to protect the chip. After regaining his previous arms, Octopus tried to kill the Answer, using the mental link to prevent him from fighting back. However, their battled was interrupted by both Spider-Man and Swarm.

Octopus escaped the struggle and returned to one of his old labs to recreate his adamantium arms, but the Answer tracked him there. The Answer finally managed to create an interference field that neutralized their mental link, and the two fought on an equal playing field. However, while the Answer's powers were divided between the interference field and directly engaging Octopus' temporary arms, Dr. Octopus managed to nail him with his recreated previous arms. The Answer was granted a reprieve when Octopus' pawn, Mr. Hargrove, arrived and tried to take vengeance for his manipulations. Octopus stopped Hargrove, but then fled as the police drew near, leaving the Answer defeated, but alive. He was presumably taken into police custody and imprisoned in Rykers Island. At the Rykers Island Breakout he was one of the escapees.

The Answer began to rob banks with an unnamed sidekick in order to impress the Owl, then current ruler of New York's underworld. He managed to get the Owl's attention, and was waiting in a bar with his sidekick before phoning him back, but was confronted by Toxin, the heroic symbiote, and Toxin told the Answer that if he gave him the answer to his problem, he would let him walk away. Toxin revealed to the Answer that he was a former police officer bonded to a symbiote, and that he couldn't seem to keep the symbiote from misbehaving, and that it was bringing out the worst in him. The Answer told Toxin that the solution was to kill himself. Toxin didn't keep his word, and sent the Answer back to the Raft. Toxin did attempt suicide, as per the Answer's solution, but the symbiote saved him.

He had a brief romantic liaison with Ruby Thursday at some point in the past, to which she called an end. She recently approached him and asked him to fetch AIM's procurement budget for her, which he did. Soon afterward, word got to him that Bullseye was out to assassinate him, but he later discovered that Bullseye was actually hired by AIM to assassinate Ruby instead, and wanted to get to her through him. Bullseye decapitated Ruby, but he let the Answer keep her head. The Answer went into hiding to search for a way to reactivate her head.[1]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

His powers are the answer to whatever he needs at the time. At rest, he may not demonstrate any superhuman powers. However, in the middle of a fight, struggle, etc., he will develop whatever abilities he needs at the time (USUALLY only one or two powers at a time): superhuman strength, speed, durability, flight, formation of force fields, heightened senses, etc. Flight may be an ability he retains at all times. In some cases this is a conscious effort, as when he deliberately enhanced his own hearing, and in other cases, it is his body's response to a situation. Also, in most cases his powers respond almost instantly, although there have been situations when he has been surprised and overwhelmed before his powers could adapt.

Abilities

He is highly intelligent and able to mentally determine the answer to a number of problems, without the use of his powers. He can analyze data (scientific, legal, physical, etc.) and discover solutions much more quickly than most.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

His costume is specially designed so as to be virtually frictionless (presumably with the exception of the soles of his boots and the palms of his gloves), so that Spider-Man's webs will not stick to them.

Notes

Links

Discover and Discuss

  1. ↑ I ♥ Marvel: Outlaw Love #1
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