Alpha (Mutant) (Earth-616)

Creation[]

Alpha was created in a long-deserted subterranean^[1][5] Deviant city^[1] in Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico,^[1][5] where the half-Deviant half-Inhuman criminal Maelstrom had hid^[1] a wide array of ancient but advanced devices and information^[1][5] about experimental evolutionary technology.^[1] The mutant terrorist Magneto accidentally found the abandoned place^[1][5] while escaping from his imprisonment in the center of the Earth^[5] and studied the resources. He discovered a way to create,^[1][5] through the use of bio-engineering,^[2] his own "ultimate mutant"^[1][5] with powers far beyond anything known.^[4]

Deciding that this project was too important for him to endeavor upon alone, Magneto summoned his trusted people -- the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants including the Blob, Mastermind, Unus the Untouchable, and Lorelei -- whose powers Magneto restored for the occasion.^[5] Magneto also attracted the unwanted attention of his enemy Professor X, who intended to oppose him.^[1][5] As Professor X's X-Men were unavailable on a different mission,^[5] Professor X recruited another superhero team, the Defenders (Doctor Strange, Hulk, Nighthawk, and Valkyrie),^[5] but they were all defeated and captured by the Brotherhood. The Defenders escaped and turned the tables on the Brotherhood, but by then Magneto had finished the growth of his "ultimate mutant"^[5] and Alpha rose from his uterine pod.^[1]

Initially, a mute, giant brute, slow in movement,^[1][4] Alpha was quickly attacked by Dr. Strange with mystical energies. Newborn Alpha first knew about pain but was unharmed. Professor X prompted the Defenders to press the attack and prevent Alpha from being released, but Doctor Strange^[4] and Hulk failed to stop Alpha.^[1][4] Seeing Alpha's superior power, Magneto happily allowed Professor X and the Defenders live so they could see his victory, but he imprisoned the Defenders in the cave using his powers to collapse the cave's entrance.^[4] Magneto then ordered Alpha to teleport himself and the Brotherhood to the United Nations Headquarters in New York City,^[1][4] leaving the Defenders behind; the Defenders escaped from the cave and followed Magneto to New York more slowly.^[4]

Magneto and the Brotherhood, along with Alpha, invaded the United Nations; Magneto took the podium and^[4] demanded the Earth government^[1][4] which was of course denied. Magneto asked Alpha for help,^[4] and Alpha used his telekinetic powers to levitate the whole building, and its occupants,^[1][4] some three kilometres from the ground.^[4]

The Defenders arrived and assaulted the flying fortress. Detecting them, Magneto ordered Alpha to destroy them all.^[1][4] Ever-evolving Alpha, already developing a conscience, started doubting about this approach, but nonetheless he generated concrete monsters to fight the Defenders; but the Defenders prevailed. Magneto insisted that Alpha destroy the Defenders, but Alpha was reluctant to murder. Magneto tried to convince his creation that the Defenders were evil and that Alpha would be un-created if he resisted his commands. Still, Alpha fought but did not destroy the Defenders, instead he halted their ability to fight in a variety of ways: petrifying the Hulk, ensnaring Nighthawk in a whirlwind, and paralyzing the Valkyrie by mutating her legs. He then gave the Defenders a chance to surrender.^[4]

Perceptive Professor X understood that Alpha was confused and prompted a debate, suggesting that Magneto was morally wrong.^[1][4] Alpha was curious and allowed for the conversation: Magneto denied the accusation, but Dr. Strange pointed to Alpha that Magneto was clearly afraid. By then Alpha already admitted that one of the sides was lying. Professor X asked Alpha to judge by himself, and Alpha used his very advanced telepathy to compare intentions and actions, finally understanding that Magneto had lied to him. Magneto declared that he had been paternalistic because Alpha, still a child emotionally speaking, had been unprepared to understand the nuances of real life, and because he really believed in the unity of mutants. Alpha, having evolved far beyond any other mutant on Earth -- both biologically and emotionally -- denied this charge.^[4]

Alpha stated that Magneto and the Brotherhood had behaved as if they were egotistical children, particularly in comparison with the now much more mature Alpha,^[4] and used his powers to reverse their aging process, turning the Brotherhood^[1][4] -- including Magneto -- into crying babies.^[1][4][7][8] Alpha then apologized to the Defenders, restored the building to its previous position and wiping the event from the minds of most the human population. After meditating, Alpha decided that Earth had become too small for someone like him,^[4] and flew away to the stars, looking for his destiny.^[2][4] He asked the Defenders to think about him from time to time.^[4]

Space Exploration[]

Alpha became a scout until he was captured by the cosmic scientist and surveyor known as the Stranger and imprisoned in the Stranger's Laboratory World,^[1][6] along with the Futurist, another Earth-born super-evolved being.^[1] The Stranger was keeping several beings in individual ecosystems for his barely fathomable purpose -- likely to perform some kind of experiments on them -- and retained them all using force barriers. Alpha and the Futurist were retained, floating on a vacuum-like controlled environment, by a Double Helix lock they had to unravel before being released; but even two highly-evolved, highly-intelligent beings like them were unable to do this on their own. During their confinement, Alpha and the Futurist communicated with each other telepathically and tried to work together, calling each other "my dear". Alpha concluded that the Futurist was right more often than Alpha himself.^[6]

The Stranger's enemy Overmind attacked the Stranger's Laboratory World^[1][6] with an army of mind-controlled heroes from Earth-712's Squadron Supreme (at that point the Stranger was not even there), and in turn they were followed by Supreme Squadron's Hyperion, who wanted to release his partners, and Hyperion's Earth-616 superhuman friends, the Eternal Makkari and cosmic hero Quasar. These three heroes combed the planet, and Hyperion found Alpha's cell after visiting fourteen other containers. Seeing the newcomer, Alpha suggested to communicate with him about their plight; but the Futurist convinced Alpha that Hyperion, clearly a barbarian, would surely be unable to solve the intellect-based problem.^[6]

The Overmind took over the Stranger's Command Citadel and successfully released all of the Stranger's test subjects, intending to spoil the Stranger's experiment and to get new minions.^[6] The Overmind decided to keep only some of the escapees, who were particularly powerful, under his control; and allowed the others to escape. Alpha and the Futurist flew away from the planet together, with Quasar seeing them off.^[9]

Legacy[]

After Alpha left Earth, the de-aged Brotherhood^[10] were sent to the Muir Island Mutant Research Center and placed under the care of Professor X's friend Doctor Moira MacTaggert,^[8][11] who detected an anomaly in baby Magneto's central nervous system as he constantly tried to handle an influx of energy too large for him. She secretly manipulated Magneto's genetic structure in an attempt to prevent his electrochemical degradation, causing a potential alteration to his future free will.^[8]

Magneto and the Brotherhood^[10] were later restored to adulthood by Eric the Red,^[7][8][11] an alien agent^[7] of the Shi'ar species.^[8] Magneto in particular was turned into a younger adult than he had been, although Magneto now kept the memories of all the decades of his life.^[3] Magneto then returned to his old ways.^[11]

Although Alpha had removed his own public appearance from the minds of the general public,^[4] Magneto's attack on the U.N. and Alpha's decision reached public knowledge: When Magneto stood trial in Paris, journalist Neal Conan of National Public Radio reported the event, explicitly mentioning Alpha; and Magneto's defense council Gabrielle Haller included the encounter in her plea, arguing that Alpha had forced Magneto to restart his life, thus any charges against Magneto dating to before the de-aging event were to be stricken from his record. After long deliberation by the judges, Chief Judge Michelle Deveraux agreed with Haller, despite the unargued opposition of attorney general James Jaspers and the audience.^[3]

Magneto eventually arranged a video repository of his previous defeat, including his encounter with Alpha, to analyze the situation and improve his own performance; Magneto was strong-willed enough to not fall into depression when watching those.^[12]

Alpha had very advanced superpowers^[4] whose limits have never been determined^[1] but go beyond those of any other mutant known by the time he left Earth.^[4]

• Air Control: Alpha can alter the air to generate a man-sized whirlwind. This allows Alpha to ensnare a single enemy.^[4]

• Body Transformation: Alpha can use this power to transform the biology of other beings, turning them into stone or modifying their bodies partly (ex., turning a person's legs into putty) or totally (most famously when he transformed Magneto into a baby). Humans, mutants, altered humans, and Asgardians have proved to be vulnerable to this power.

• Earth Control: Alpha can animate concrete to generate monsters and lead these to attack his enemies. However, Alpha's creatures have demonstrated to be not particularly sturdy or effective when confronting superpowered beings.

• Evolution: The Alpha mutant was in a state of constant evolution from the moment of his creation,^[1][4] changing physically and mentally whenever he used his powers: Initially a beastly caveman-like mute, Alpha quickly became a more svelte, athletic humanoid, with a bigger cranium every time probably due to a growing brain, and developed advanced skills by himself -from speech to the ability to use creatively powers, to advanced intelligence and morality. Whenever a mutation happened, Alpha glows. Although Alpha mutated expeditiously during his first hours of live,^[4] his physical appearance has been quite stable since he left Earth, apparently having reached his evolutionary potential.^[6]

• Flight: Alpha can fly in atmospheric and space conditions.^[4][9]

• Force Field: Alpha can generate an invisible force field that can withstand even Hulk's charges and magic-based attacks (specifically the Ruby Rays of Raggadorr).^[4]

• Life Support: Alpha can survive indefinitely in outer space without air, food or water.^[4][9]

• Resistance: Alpha can withstand physical attacks without suffering real damage (although not without suffering pain).^[4] He can also withstand the vacuum of space.^[4][9]

• Super-intelligence: Alpha possess a deeply advanced intellect,^[1] quickly learning and understanding nuances and implications.^[4] This, however, has limitations: The Stranger imprisoned Alpha using a Double Helix that Alpha was to unravel in order to be released, and the challenge went beyond Alpha's skills.^[6]

• Telekinesis:^[1] Alpha has telekinetic powers of very high level: He can lift huge buildings from the ground without harming the occupants, and later leave them as they were.^[4]

• Telepathy:^[1] Alpha is a super-advanced telepath that can reach the thoughts and inner motives of any being, including superpowered mutants; and wipe memories of several hours to many humans, probably on a planetary level.^[4] He can also use telepathy to communicate in a non-hostile way with his friends.^[6]

• Teleportation:^[1] Alpha can teleport himself and other beings at whim, even if he has never seen the destination. He can cover a distance of thousands of miles^[13] on a single jump. When teleporting, Alpha and his travel companions disappear with a blinding blink.^[4]

Flight under his own power.^[4][9]

• The origin of the technology used to create Alpha (a Deviant city with Maelstrom's stash) was only revealed in All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1 (2006): In Defenders #15, Magneto only identifies it as "remnants of a civilization that was ancient when homo sapiens were still living under rocks"; and Alpha's appendix entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #1 (1983) only mentions the "ancient knowledge and technology of a mysterious benefactor".

• Alpha's encounter with Magneto, being relevant to Magneto's history, appears in several flashbacks when Magneto's history is revisited: In Uncanny X-Men #149 (1981), Professor X remembers it at a time he's doubting whether Magneto is really dead or not; and in X-Men: Alpha #1 (1995), Bishop forces Magneto from Age of Apocalypse to remember Earth-616's Magneto's history, including this event.
• Magneto's recording of his encounter with Alpha, as seen in X-Men Unlimited #24, shows Alpha with golden skin, which is not consistent with Alpha's other appearances.
• When Quasar glimpses Alpha in Quasar #15 (1990), the former cannot identify the later. This is weird, because Quasar famously swats the Avenger's files about known superhumans, and Alpha is public domain as seen in Uncanny X-Men #200.