Terrance Sorenson (Earth-616)

Origin[]

Terrance "Terry" Sorenson was the son of two well-achieved research scientists. Though his mother Margay was successful, his father David was widely disregarded due to his wild theories on altering thermodynamics. His father became frustrated and started drinking and abusing his wife and son. Eventually Terry, who was seventeen at the time, and his mom tried to leave David. While they were leaving, one of David Sorenson's experimental devices caused an explosion which killed him and mutated his son who had tried to save him.^[2]

Terry's mother tried to cure her son's induced mutation, but he eventually mutated further and not only became more powerful but also mentally unstable. Terry turned to crime after his mother used up their money with her experiments, taking on the name "Equinox." After a brief fight with Spider-Man,^[3] Equinox went up against Human Torch and Iceman,^[1] but managed to escape. He again fought against Spider-Man, who teamed up with Wasp, Yellowjacket, and Margay Sorenson by negating his powers with a thermic stabilizer that had been built in the Fantastic Four's lab.^[2]

Terry was later seen able to control his powers after serving as a test subject at Project: PEGASUS and joining a support group for former criminals called Vil-Anon. He renounced crime and started a family, though his wife died and his daughter Janet inherited his powers, unintentionally causing several fires. Terry became frustrated trying to teach his daughter to control her powers, and became physically violent with her. Suspecting that Terry was hurting his daughter and that he had caused the fires, Sam Wilson, a.k.a. Falcon, intervened and had a quick skirmish with Equinox. After learning the truth of the situation, Falcon appeared on Terry's behalf in court, and Terry was able to go free. Afterwards Falcon also helped the Sorensons contact someone who could help Janet control her powers and help Terry overcome his abusive tendencies.^[4]

Civil War[]

Terry joined a group of super-villains during the first superhuman Civil War, preferring to leave the country with them, but was arrested by the Heroes for Hire and incarcerated in the Negative Zone Prison 42 where he remained after the breakout enacted by Captain America's forces.^[5][6]

Freedom Force[]

Equinox joined Freedom Force, the Montana Initiative, and was kidnapped by the Skrulls and a Skrull replacement who took his place.^[7] This imposter was killed during the Secret Invasion.^[8]

Equinox re-joined the team and, under Osborn's administration, participated in the sanctioned attack of the Initiative against the seceding Heavy Hitters.^[9]

Back to Criminality[]

With the dissolution of Osborne's Initiative, Terry wreaked havoc in East Harlem, hoping to extort money out of people by torching buildings, demanding protection money, and threatening responding firefighters. To stop him, Spider-Man produced bombs filled with thermoreactive foam which quickly contained him.^[10]

After the Avengers vs. X-Men conflict, a riot started at Terry's prison, and the only heroes able to respond were Rogue and Mimic. Quickly outnumbered, it was proposed by Armadillo, Man-Bull, and Equinox that the heroes borrow their powers in order to defeat their fellow inmates. Terry explained to Rogue that he wanted to repent so he might get out of jail sooner to take care of his daughter.^[11]

Honor the Dinasty[]

Equinox was later part of a Mr. Gryphon's plan. Gryphon was secretly an alternate Kang the Conqueror, so he used his time-powers to summon a lot of "Equinoxes" from some futures where Gryphon have won in order to fight the Avengers.^[12] The various Equinoxes were winning, before Spider-Man decided to pretend to betray the Avengers, all of the Equinoxes were not surprised of that...except for one of them: the present Equinox, who was at that point knocked out by Spider-Man; this event changed the future, so the other Equinoxes disappeared.^[13]

• Transformation: Equinox can enter a state of thermodynamic flux in which waves of heat and cold shift across his body, granting him several superhuman abilities.^[14]
  • Heat and Cold Generation: Equinox can generate intense heat and cold within his body at the same time. With his powers active, waves of heat and cold cover him with alternating sheets of flame and ice.^[14]
    • Fire and Ice Constructs: He can create constructs of fire and ice, such as fireballs or ice slides, and is also able to generate waves of intense heat or cold.^[14]
  • Temperature Immunity: Even with his powers inactive he is immune to temperature extremes.^[14]
  • Superhuman Strength: These thermic shifts also increases his physical strength to superhuman levels and allow him to lift over 20 tons.^[14]
  • Superhuman Durability: These thermic shifts also increases his physical durability to superhuman levels and make him bulletproof.^[14]

Formerly used a metallic containment suit designed by his mother.

There is evidence that Equinox could be a merger of David Sorenson and his son Terry: In Marvel Team-Up #59, Yellowjacket stated that "Equinox's tone of voice, adult one moment young the next, as if...".