History
Capabilities
The Cosmic Cube is an item that control matter and energy, answering to the will of the sentient beings that use them. They require practice to be used properly, but a skillful user can alter all reality to answer to its thought, granting anything they desire.
Most Cosmic Cubes are cube-shaped matrices. However, similar objects with different shapes are known as Cosmic Containment Units.
Sentient beings wanting to create a Cosmic Cube must generate a force field to open a rift to another dimension inhabited by the Beyonders, allowing the extra-dimensional energy to filter through the rift. When entering the Earth's dimension, the energies can be held in a matrix, and the force itself would shape the matrix into a perfect cube. It would also provide the Cube with its almost-unlimited power.
A Cube would eventually develop its own intelligence, commonly influenced by the beings who had manipulated it. Mephisto has postulated that the Cubes are hosts to a semi-sentient will and that, even in Cube form, they can choose how they want to be used, and deny certain wishes. Mephisto also has proposed that a billion-sentient universally-linked will could overcome this problem, and that the Cubes could be as powerful as the Infinity Gems.
Other types of Comsmic Cubes can be created by other meanings, but are extremely less powerful.
The Cube Cosmic was classified by the Initiative as an Omega Class Weapon, with the Tactigon possibly at its level.[1]
Important Known Cosmic Cubes
A.I.M.'s Cosmic Cube
Evolved into Kubik
First appearance: Tales of Suspense #79
The first Cosmic Cube created on Earth. A.I.M. managed to create a matrix of force fields which concentrated a flux of energy of the Beyonders and transformed it into a perfect cube with immense and vast powers: the Cosmic Cube.
Time later, it was revealed that this Cosmic Cube was a living being in embryonic form. Eventually it developed its own consciousness patterning it after the consciousness of the sentient being with whom it was in mental and physical contact. Finally, the Cosmic Cube would become a mature sentient being capable of independent will and action. Kubik was one such cube.
Red Skull's Cosmic Cube
First appearance: Super-Villain Team-Up #16
Years after the creation of A.I.M.'s Cosmic Cube, the Red Skull tried to recreate the powerful device. Using different slaves from his island the Skull got enough mental power to create the Cube.
It was destroyed after Korvac took it to an alternate 31st Century Earth and returned it to the present time, the Cube was destoyed by exposure to anti-matter energy.
A.I.M.'s Second Cosmic Cube
First appearance: Avengers #386
A third terrestial Cosmic Cube was created again by A.I.M. in the Boca Caliente island. The unstability of the Cube caused its warping ability to leak out onto the surrounding island, creating versions of people anyone nearby thought of. The Avengers attempted to stop the Cube, and a dying Captain America was who willed to do so.
Finally, an Adaptoind, which was accompanying the Captain, was impressed by the heroic nature of the Avenger and decided to transform itself into a non-sentient containment chamber for the cube's energies.
Skrull Cosmic Cube
Evolved into Shaper of Worlds
First appearance: Incredible Hulk #155
Thousands of years ago, alien species Skrull developed an artifact to modify reality following the wishes of the user. It was the first Cosmic Cube, apparently created by forming a meta-singularity or gray hole, which was really an opening to the Beyonders reality.
An X-Element from that universe crossed the grey hole and was trapped in a perfect force cube created by Skrull scientists. The Skrull emperor took the cube and declared himself a god. He reigned for many years but, unbeknownst to all, the Cube had potential to become a sentient being itself. Through the years of use, the emperor involuntarily printed some of his own traits in the embryonic consciousness of the Cube, thus the Cube began to develop his own personality. Since the Skrull emperor was a megalomaniac madman, the Cube also became a megalomaniac.
Kosmos
Before evolving into Kosmos
First appearance: Fantastic Four Annual #23
When the Beyonder and Molecule Man were said to be parts of a failed Cosmic Cube, they agreed to be reshaped into a Cosmic Cube, which soon evolved into the cosmic entity called Kosmos.
Kree Cosmic Cube
Kree Cosmic Cube
First appearance: Cosmos Cubed
A Cosmic Cube developed by the Kree. With the adequate power source, it was able to destroy anyone. When the Skrull tried to intercept the Kree courier and get the Cube, they accidentally landed in Ego. Uatu, the Watcher summoned a team of cosmic-level heroes to investigate.
That cube was used by the Super-Kree to power himself.
Other cubes
- Thirty different Cosmic Cubes gathered by Magus and Goddess in order to fuse them and create a Cosmic Egg.[2]
- A malfunctional Cube given to Mephisto by Thanos as a payment for his knowledge about the origins of the Cubes.[3]
- A Cube part of twelve items the Avengers and the Justice League had to recover in a bet betweeen the Grandmaster and Krona.[4]
- A human-crafted less powerful Cube created by the U.S. Army which was stolen by Thanos' Zodiac.[5] It was actually an advanced dark matter generator which was created using stolen A.I.M. formulas.[6]
Alternate Realities
Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610)
Thanos and the first Cosmic Cube
An Ultimate Cosmic Cube first appeared when it fell to the home planet of Thanos. After discovering its power, Thanos attempted to control the whole creation, but he was hardly defeated, at the cost of numerous lives. After helping the group of alien super-soldiers Seed Nineteen to rescue one of their members, Tesseract from Thanos, the Fantastic Four encountered Thanos for the first time.
Thanos knew that Reed Richards would be able to construct the Cosmic Cube. Thanos first personally met Reed by possessing Ben Grimm and "requested" him to construct the cube with coercion by killing a weakened Johnny Storm. Fortunately Ben was able to resist Thanos' possession. Though Reed refused to build the Cube for Thanos, he however, intended to build it to use it against Thanos.
Eventually the Fantastic Four came into a second conflict with Thanos in which he was able to harness Reed's Cosmic Cube and once again used it to express his will by conquering Earth and brainwashed Earth's heroes as his pawns to fight against his enemies. However, when Thanos attempts to utilize the Cube to ascend into godhood, he suddenly realized that there was something wrong and was instantly killed. His permanent death was elaborated that Reed had built a "cut-out" into the Cube so that it would only respond to conscious, willed thoughts, and that he removed this "cut-out" while Thanos was distracted and which allowed his death. With Thanos' death and the restoration of his past actions of utilizing the Cube, Reed disposed the Cosmic Cube in a time-rift, accidentally landing in the home planet of a young Thanos, creating a paradox in which the present events were the cause of Thanos getting the Cube in the past. In this paradoxical move, the Cosmic Cube which Reed developed would be the original Cube that Thanos had discovered and nearly destroyed the universe with so long ago.
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Red Skull and the second Cosmic Cube
A second Cosmic Cube was built by A.I.M., who after the Ultimatum Wave raided the Baxter Bulding and stole the blueprints of the Cube, while working along the Red Skull, in order to remold the democratic society into their own version of the world. The Red Skull convinced other A.I.M. agents to betray an A.I.M. leader and get the Cube for their own purposes. S.H.I.E.L.D. gathered a new black ops unit called the Avengers in order to stop him.
The Skull easily overpowered the Avengers, but is ultimatelly defeated by his father, Captain America, who used a jet with teletransportation technology to stab his son. Before being killed by Wasp, Red Skull revealed that he wanted the Cube's power to alter reality and prevent the disappearance of his father in the World War II, so they would be a happy family.
Marvel Cinematic Universe (Earth-199999)
The Tesseract of this reality is a powerful Asgardian artifact created by Odin which possesses the potential to create infinite energy, which can be used to create wormholes to other parts of the universe and different dimensions. For unknown reasons the Tesseract was hidden on Earth.
During World War II it was found by Red Skull and Hydra as part of their plan for world domination. Hydra's lead scientist Arnim Zola managed to harness the energy of the Tesseract to power weapons to be used against the Allies. Captain America foiled Schmidt's plan to use the Tesseract to launch an aerial attack on the United States in a highly advanced plane by damaging the conduits transferring the Cube's power to the ship. In a desperate attempt to use the Tesseract for himself, Red Skull is apparently disintegrated after the Cube briefly opened a portal to another dimension. Captain America managed to crash Schmidt's plane (seemingly) at the cost of his own life. The cube is recovered by Howard Stark while seeking out the fallen Steve Rogers.[7]
Years after being in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody for investigation, Nick Fury asked Dr. Erik Selvig to examine the Tesseract, to potentially harness the energy. Some time later, the Tesseract started "misbehaving," before it opened a portal that brought Loki to Earth. Loki had made a deal with an alien race known as the Chitauri, he would give their master the Tesseract in exchange of an army with which he could conquer the Earth. The Chitauri's representative, only known as the Other stated their intention to use the Tesseract to access "greater worlds".
Loki allowed himself to be defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly formed team of superheroes called the Avengers, so he could distract them in order to give his allies the time necessary to build a machine which could concentrate more energy of the Tesseract in order to open a bigger and more stable portal to let the Chitauri invade Earth. Loki escaped from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier and arrived to Stark Tower, where not only could he activate the cube, but be seen defeating the Avengers completely as his great triumph over Earth. The Avengers managed to defeat Loki and his invading forces, nuking almost the whole Chitauri army before closing the portal, when the machine was deactivated.
In the aftermath, Avengers member Thor used the Tesseract to return it, himself and Loki back to where they belonged, Asgard.[8]
It has been revealed that the Tesseract is one of the Infinity Gems.[9]
The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (Earth-8096)
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In this reality, A.I.M. was hired by Hydra to create a powerful artifact. M.O.D.O.K. planned to use the Cosmic Cube project as a smoke screen to swindle money from Hydra. After the Cube was revealed to be a success, and a very powerful weapon, M.O.D.O.K. decided to return the money to Hydra, claiming that the Cube failed, in order to keep the Cube for himself. Hydra's leader Baron von Strucker realized A.I.M. was lying and started a war for its possession.
The Avengers were involved as Black Widow, who was a Hydra double agent, revealed them the existence of the Cube. The clash ended when Captain America seized the cube simultaneously with Baron von Strucker, and nothing appeared to happen. But unknown to the heroes, the Cosmic Cube altered reality upon Captain America's desire, changing the path of his sidekick Bucky, to survive the explosion which originally killed him and caused the Captain to be trapped in ice for decades.
Trivia
- In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the Cosmic Cube is called the "Tesseract", and is the analogue to the Space Gem.[10]
See Also
- 256 appearance(s) of Cosmic Cube
- 11 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Cosmic Cube
- 68 minor appearance(s) of Cosmic Cube
- 113 mention(s) of Cosmic Cube
- 17 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Cosmic Cube
- 104 image(s) of Cosmic Cube
Links and References
References
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #5
- ↑ Infinity Crusade
- ↑ Infinity Crusade
- ↑ Avengers/JLA
- ↑ Avengers Assemble (Vol. 2) #5
- ↑ Avengers Assemble (Vol. 2) #8
- ↑ Captain America: The First Avenger
- ↑ Marvel's The Avengers
- ↑ Thor: The Dark World
- ↑ Reference Needed
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