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Nikola Tesla is a brilliant inventor who is publicly believed to have disappeared in 1943.[1] He dons an electrical suit as the Night Machine. He is the adoptive father of Leonid and has a pigeon lover, Mina.[3][2]

Formerly with the Brotherhood of the Shield,[4][5] he turned against the Brotherhood led by Isaac Newton, calling it a "perversion."[6] He hid with Leonid and Mina until he resurfaced in circa 1951. The Brotherhood sent agents Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark to track him, which resulted in Nathaniel killing Tesla a few years later. Tesla was saved by Michelangelo and was merged with his suit, turning him into a cyborg.[7]

Reuniting with Leonid at the Immortal City, Tesla planned to take down the corrupt High Council.[3] However, in a rematch against Stark and Richards, his suit's quantum core accidentally gave Nathaniel Richards time travelling abilities and they were sent to the far future.[6][8][7] Setting aside their enmity, they worked together to return and Tesla aided Leonid and the Brotherhood in defeating Isaac Newton.[7][9]

History

Early Life[]

Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia). He became an inventor, best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current electricity supply system.[2]

"Tunguska Event"[]

Tesla was experimenting with ionizing the Earth's atmosphere, and realized that his "scalar technology" could produce giant bolts of lightning around the globe. It was explained that Tesla was responsible for the Tunguska Event in 1908, as a test run for his new weapon.[10] Other explanations have been provided.

Night Machine[]

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616), Mina (Earth-616), and Leonid (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Raising Leonid with Mina

Tesla was deemed a mad scientist by the scientific community due to his eccentric ideas, which included directed-energy weapons. He invented a suit which he wore as the Night Machine that allowed him to fire bolts of electricity. His research and notes were deemed global security risks, and he disppeared in the year 1943. During this period, Tesla was recruited by Michelangelo to raise a special boy. Tesla found the Sinkhole and met a humanoid shape-shifting pigeon named Mina as well as the boy, Leonid. Together, the three of them became a loving family.[2]

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616), Nathaniel Richards (Earth-616), and Howard Stark (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Nathaniel Richards, Howard Stark, and Tesla's dead body

Leonid's biological father was Sir Isaac Newton, the corrupt leader of the Brotherhood of the Shield.[2] When Tesla resurfaced in around 1951, the Brotherhood sent agents Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark to track him, eventually finding him in New York City. Their orders were to retrieve his Forever Machines, but there was also a personal aspect to it: Leonid. When the duo confronted the Night Machine and Mina (as a pigeon), they requested the location of the child but Tesla attacked them and told Mina to flee. Nathaniel Richards shot Tesla and killed him, though Richards did not mean to kill him.[7]

Michelangelo Buonarroti (Earth-616) and Nikola Tesla (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Michelangelo saving Tesla

Tesla's corpse was retrieved by the omnipresent Michelangelo, the Forever Man, who brought him back to life but he was fused to his suit as a result.[11] Michelangelo tasked him to do two things. First, Tesla journeyed to the Zargos Mountains to find the forgotten Last Caliphate, who had been perserved after centuries of sleep. The second was a secret that Mina had kept: a key to Iter, a door that cannot be opened in the Immortal City. It was given to her by Michelangelo for their adoptive son Leonid to use.[12][2]

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616) and Mina (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Coming to see Leonid at the Immortal City with Mina

While Tesla was gone, Leonid had been taken to the Immortal City beneath Rome by Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark. He was indoctrinated into the Brotherhood of the Shield and made a home for himself there. After three years of absence, in 1956, Tesla and Mina infiltrated the Immortal City and visited him while he was sleeping in his room. Leonid questioned his father what took him so long to which Tesla replied that he had died and came back. He guided Leonid to the Iter, the door that cannot be opened, and gave him the key to open it.[3]

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616), Nathaniel Richards (Earth-616), and Howard Stark (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Nathaniel Richards gaining time travelling abilities

After using his suit to reduce of some the city's guards to ash, Tesla was once again attacked by agents Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark, who were surprised to see him still alive. Tesla was trying to take down the High Council of the Shield, but before he could, he suit was damaged, exposing his quantum core. As Tesla was about to self-destruct, Nathaniel Richards attempted to displace the core, but direct exposure bestowed Richards time-travelling abilities. Coupled with the explosion, Richards uncontrollably sent himself, Stark, Tesla, and Mina roughly 600,000 years into the future to a ruined Earth supervised by Immortus.[13][8] Tesla was dying and being taken care of by Mina. Days later, they were found by Stark and Richards. In order to get home, the parties called a truce and the two agents replaced Tesla's damaged core. They then worked together to use Nathaniel Richards' newfound power to travel back to the past.[7]

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616), Nathaniel Richards (Earth-616), Howard Stark (Earth-616) and Mina (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Return to the Immortal City with Mina, Nathaniel Richards, and Howard Stark

When they returned, four years had passed in the Immortal City. The Brotherhood of the Shield was in the middle of a civil war between Sir Isaac Newton and the time-travelling Leonardo da Vinci, and Leonid was caught in the middle. Newton believed that the world was fated to end in 2060 but Tesla, having been to the future himself, objected this. Leonardo suggested Leonid to resolve this as it was a dispute between his two fathers, his biological dad Newton and his adoptive dad Tesla. In a trial, Leonid sided against Newton, which prompted him to travel to the future to verify his Silent Truth.[14] Soon after, Newton's Quiet Math corrupted the Star Child with Newton's ideology and also travelled to the future to the year 2060 after wrecking the Immortal City.[15] Tesla showed Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark to the Zargos Mountains where they awakened the Last Caliphate. Together, the Brotherhood used the Human Machine to persue Newton to three different timelines of 2060. Although most of them died in the battle, the Human Machine ascended Leonid, who resolved the conflict with Newton and then returned everyone home fully restored.[16]

Attributes

Powers

Nikola Tesla (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D
Tesla has a quantum power source inside himself. He uses a suit to harness its energies and give himself superhuman powers. His eyes glow the same red as his electricity blasts.[6]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Tesla uses a power suit giving him superhuman speed and electricity manipulation. Other powers have not been depicted. He is accompanied by a talking pigeon.

Notes

  • There is a possibly a mistake in the Tesla's timeline. In S.H.I.E.L.D. #1, Leonid is picked up by Nathaniel Richards and Howard Stark in 1953. Tesla and Mina visit him three years later in the Immortal City in 1956; when Leonid asks why did it take so long, Tesla responds that he had died and came back. However, in the flashback in S.H.I.E.L.D. #6, Richards and Stark kill Tesla in 1955 and they were looking for a "child" (presumably Leonid). If the 1955 date is correct and not a mistake of 1953, it would mean Tesla avoided visiting Leonid for two years for no discernible reason and it begs the question of what is this "child" Richards and Stark were looking for, as they had already picked up Leonid two years earlier.

Trivia

Mina (Earth-616) and Nikola Tesla (Earth-616) from S.H.I.E.L.D

Real life Tesla loved pigeons and nursed them back to health; Mina is based on this

See Also

Links and References

References

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