Robert Nicolle (Earth-616)

Robert Nicolle was the brother of Danielle Nicolle, and both were fated to become pawns of Thog the Netherspawn. Robert was born with no sense of touch, and constantly struggled through life coping with his inability to feel. Further, he had amazing recuperative powers that allowed him to heal from his injuries. As a young adult, Robert's inability to feel eventually drove him mad, and he attempted to commit suicide and was institutionalized.^[1]

Robert was institutionalized for fifteen years before he was visited by Thog, who was preparing his next major plot to take over the universe. Part of this plot was filling a series of Nightmare Boxes which retained emotional energy. A tower of these boxes would be constructed and used for his purposes. In order to fill more of these boxes, Thog turned Robert into the Scavenger. As the Scavenger, Robert had a deadly embrace which caused the memories, feelings and physical substance of people to be absorbed into his body. His victims were left lifeless husks, and he was granted extreme feelings of pleasure. These feelings were transmitted to his sister Danielle, who transferred these excess feelings into Nightmare Boxes.^[2]

Eventually, Scavenger came into conflict with Thog's old foe, the Man-Thing, who interrupted one of his potential victims. When getting revenge on the Man-Thing, the bog-creature burned his perfect face.^[3] However, this was fleeting and soon the burns faded and Scavenger began his murderous deeds anew. After murdering Elsbeth Duhl (the wife of another pawn of Thog), the Scavenger rested for the night.^[1]

That same night Thog's plot was foiled by the Man-Thing, and Thog seemingly destroyed.^[2] The whereabouts of Robert Nicolle following this, and if he is still cursed with the powers that Thog granted him remain to be revealed.

Before being given additional powers by Thog, Robert Nicolle could not physically feel anything. His body would not be alerted to outside stimuli touching his body, be it painful, pleasurable, etc. In addition to this, he also had an uncanny healing process that would allow his wounds to heal without any scars. He has been able to heal off burns, and scratches, he even survived an attempt to stab himself through the heart. The extent and origin of these abilities (be they genetic, or another manipulation by Thog) remain unrevealed.

When Thog made a deal with Robert and changed him into the Scavenger, he granted him with more powers: Superior strength, enough of which to be able to fight the Man-Thing and over-power humans of average strength. He also gain the ability to fly, the limitations of either ability have yet to be determined.

In addition, he has the unique ability to drain the life-forces of people by a simple kiss. The process consumes a person's memories, and combined feelings experienced in a lifetime. Prolonged exposure to embrace causes the victim's flesh to disintegrate leaving behind only a skeleton and their clothing. The result of this life drain would cause the Scavenger feel extreme pleasure.

Through unrevealed means, this emotional energy would be transferred to his sister Denielle Nicolle. Thus creating a need for the Scavenger to seek out new victims in order to retain the feeling.

He cannot feel pain, nor anything else, therefore he has to absorb people's life energy in order to actually feel something.