Hiroim (Earth-616)

Origin[]

Originally, Hiroim was a Shadow Priest, dedicated to the story of the Sakaarson, he who would unite the people of Sakaar, and trained to join the other Shadows. However, for his blasphemy of daring to dream that he could be the Sakaarson, he was expelled from the order. He was then chosen to be the personal guard of the Emperor of Sakaar, and to uphold an alliance between the Shadows and the Empire. He broke this vow however, when the Emperor ordered Hiroim to kill his adolescent son, due to the belief that he would bring ruin and devastation to Sakaar (a prediction that ended up coming to pass).^[5] For breaking that oath, he ended up in the Empire's gladiator training school, the Maw, where he fought alongside such other warriors as Miek, No-Name of the Brood, Korg, and the Hulk. After two victories in the arena - during which their teammate Lavin Skee was badly injured - having heard the stories of his allies, Hiroim formed a Warbound pact with them, vowing that they would always stand together. Having been freed from their obedience disks by the Silver Surfer, the Warbound went on to vanquish the Red King, Hiroim concluding that the Hulk was the true Sakaarson (although he briefly thought that the Surfer might be the Sakaarson).^[6]

With the destruction of Sakaar following the detonation of the shuttle that brought the Hulk to Earth, Hiroim having absorbed the powers of all the Sakaar Shadow Priests as he was the only one left accompanied the Hulk to Earth to wage war against the Illuminati. During the subsequent conflict with Earth's heroes, Hiroim defeated Luke Cage during the Warbound's initial attack,^[7] but was defeated by Doctor Strange when the sorcerer called on the power of his old enemy Zom. Hiroim's left arm was shattered by Dr. Strange.^[8]

Following the revelation of Miek's treachery that he had allowed the destruction of Sakaar, the remaining Warbound surrendered to S.H.I.E.L.D custody. They managed to escape during tremors caused by Manhattan Island breaking up due to the damage Hulk had caused. Channeling the rock-based powers of his fellow Warbound Korg, as well as Earth hero Thing, Hiroim was able to heal the damage before he and the others departed, escaping into the sewers.^[9][10]

Hiroim and his fellow Warbound confronted S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while attempting to protect a badly wounded Elloe Kaifi. Unfamiliar teleportation technology took all the Warbound and agent Kate Waynesboro to Nevada. Hiroim was not found with the others because he had been separated from them by the Leader. Basing the two in a seemingly abandoned factory, Leader used Hiroim's powers to create a gamma-dome encapsulated environment called Gamma World. Kate and the Warbound tried to save him but the deadly shields went up despite their efforts. Hiroim eventually sacrificed himself to stop the Leader, and transferred his Old Power to Kate.^[11]

He returned to the realm of the living during the Chaos War and helped the Hulk and his fellow Warbound fight off the forces of the Chaos King. After the Chaos War he returned to the realm of the dead.^[12]

• Old Power: After the deaths of Caiera and his people he inherited the stone-based Old Power, drawing power from the planet itself, enabling him to turn his body into immensely hard and strong mystic rock.
  • Superhuman Strength: Hiroim can use the old power to enhance his strength to vast superhuman levels, at his peak he was able to gravely injure even the likes of Korg.^[13]
  • Superhuman Durability: By enhancing his durability through the Old Power Hiroim can make himself bulletproof.
  • Earth Manipulation: Thanks to the Old Power Hiroim can manipulate the earth and as an extension of this power, he can absorb energies from rock like beings to regenerate the damage caused to the planet, but on a limited scale. He could also stop a huge chasm that was going to destroy Manhattan.
    • Regeneration: Thanks to the Old Power Hiroim can recover from wounds at an accelerated rate by rebuilding the damaged body part with stone. This ability was so developed that he could regenerate entire limbs and could even heal other rocky beings as he did with Korg.^[4]

Like all Shadow People, Hiroim at his base possesses physical traits slightly superior to the human maximum, and ages more slowly after reaching adulthood at the age of 13. Beyond this he has received quasi-mystic training as a Shadow Priest, and is an experienced warrior, strategist, and philosopher.

Further demonstrated talents include sensing and unravelling powerful mystic wards cast by Doctor Strange.^[3]

• Hiroim and Korg were in a homosexual relationship.^[14]
  • Since he also had an attraction to Katherine Waynesboro this may imply he was bisexual.^[15]