The Impossible Man was born on the planet Poppup, and is a member of a race of beings who reproduce asexually and could alter their molecularly malleable bodies at will to temporarily assume any shape imaginable. Poppup was a particularly harsh and dangerous world, and the Poppupians' shape-changing abilities enabled them to survive its many perils. By the time of the Impossible Man's birth, the Poppupians had evolved a collective consciousness, linking the minds of the entire race in a group mind. Hence, Poppupians have no names because they were, in effect, all the same being.

Endowed with a slight mental variation that permitted him a degree of individual thought, the Impossible Man acted upon the boredom that his entire race experienced. He did so by transforming himself into a space vessel and leaving Poppup. Eventually he arrived on Earth, and found the planet to provide a great source of amusement potential, especially since he had shape-changing powers and ordinary human beings did not. It was during this first visit to Earth that he first met the Fantastic Four and that he was dubbed "the Impossible Man" after the Thing commented on how the absurd ways that the alien used his shape-shifting powers made him "impossible." The Impossible Man made a major nuisance of himself until the Fantastic Four pretended to be bored with him, and persuaded other people to act the same way. Convinced that Earth was dull, the Impossible Man departed^[1].

After touring other inhabited worlds, the Impossible Man returned to Poppup to share his experiences with his people. When the world-devouring Galactus threatened to consume other inhabited worlds, the Poppupians sent the Impossible Man to lead him to their world, which Galactus then consumed. Bored by existence to the point of, despair, the Poppupians welcomed the death of their world and their physical bodies. With the Impossible Man's survival, the minds and souls of the Poppupian race would live on in the person of their most adventurous member^[2].

The Impossible Man accompanied the Fantastic Four back to Earth, where he became fascinated by Earth's popular culture. At first he became jealous that he did not have his own comic book and went on a rampage at the Marvel Comics offices until Stan Lee agreed to have at least a single comic featuring the Impossible Man^[3]. Observing the feelings of the Thing and his then-girlfriend Alicia Masters for each other, as well as the emotions of others, the Impossible Man learned the human concept of love. Lonely for someone else like him to share love with, the Impossible Man cloned himself a mate, the Impossible Woman, from his own body. The two aliens then left Earth to explore the frontiers of love and to recreate the Poppupian race.

File:FF 11 p1.jpg

The Impossible Man and Impossible Woman each cloned many offspring from themselves. Eventually, however, the Impossible Man returned to Earth, where he asserted that his mate and their children had all developed minds unlike his own, and that the question had arisen as to who should lead these new Poppupians. The Impossible Man said that to prove his own worthiness, he agreed to compete in a large-scale "scavenger hunt," in which he accumulated many items connected with the super-powered beings of Earth. However, the Impossible Man was judged to have lost the contest. (Whether the Impossible Man was telling the truth about his family and his reasons for the scavenger hunt is not known.)

The Impossible Man reappeared to defend Earth from the Chaos King during the Chaos War.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Shapechanging: The Impossible Man, like all Poppupians, has the ability to rearrange the molecules of his body at will into any form he chooses. He can simulate some of the abilities and functions of the object or living being he imitates, depending on what that object or being is. For example, He can become a working electric fan, water hose, or jet-propelled engine (although they empower these objects by their own molecular energies rather than by electricity, water, or jet fuel). However, if he imitates an object such as Thor's enchanted uru hammer, Captain America's vibranium-adamantium shield, or the Silver Surfer's cosmic surfboard, he can only take on the appearance of said objects, and not their special properties. The degree to which he can imitate the superhuman powers of other beings is unknown.

The Impossible Man can even separate himself into various parts in changing form, such as when he becames a large number of flowers, or when he becames a bag of water, which then spills its contents. He retains his full consciousness in whatever form he takes, and can control all the parts into which he divides, and reassemble them into his own single, natural form.

The Impossible Man can temporarily discard unnecessary molecules of his bodies when imitating objects or beings of considerably less mass than his own: a fountain pen or a hat, for example. (He customarily disperses his spare molecules over a large enough area that they cannot be discerned, and regains them on returning to his original form.) He can also draw additional molecules from an undisclosed, perhaps extradimensional, source to increase his size. In order to clone the Impossible Woman from his own body, for example, the Impossible Man had to draw enough additional molecules to create a being from himself who had the same amount of mass as he did. There are apparently limits to the amount of mass that he can temporarily add to his own at any one time. It has been theorized that the Impossible Man employed technology to help him impersonate the gigantic Galactus on one occasion. (It is also theorized that he employed technology to teleport many of the items,' some of them enormous, that he gathered in his "scavenger hunt" to different locations.)

The Impossible Man's transformations occur within a fraction of a second, and are accompanied by a "pop" sound.

The Impossible Man and Impossible Woman can travel through hyperspace by transforming themselves into an imitation of a starship. They can survive in the vacuum of space for months without food, water, or oxygen by inducing in themselves a low metabolic state similar to hibernation. (During that time, if they are in starship form, their subconscious will guide them to their destination.)

Levitation: The Impossible Man can psionically levitate himself in any of his forms.

Serial Reproduction: Like all Poppupians, the Impossible Man reproduces by dividing himself into two identical beings. This is a form of cloning, involving a mitosis-like process undergone by all the cells of his body.

Power Grid ^[4]

Strength level

The Impossible Man ordinarily possess the normal Poppupian strength of a Poppupian of his age, height, and build, who engages in exercise only when it is not boring. Presumably he can increase his strength by changing form.

NotesEdit

Mr. Mxzptlk has implied that he regularly travels to the Marvel Universe to torment his "four friends", suggesting that he poses as the Impossible Man while in the Marvel Universe. This is not substantiated, and raises further questions considering the fact that the Impossible Man and Mxzptlk once made a bet that led to the Silver Surfer clashing with Superman.

TriviaEdit

he was in the fantastic four episode "impossible"

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Impossible Man (Earth-616)

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