GRAVITON: Page 3 of 3

BIOGRAPHY - Page 3

Graviton eventually returned to Earth and became a prisoner at the super-villain holding facility on the Raft. It’s uncertain if he was among the prisoners seen during the riot when Electro attacked the island prison to break out Sauron. [New Avengers (1st series) #1-3] Only half the prisoners managed to escape, though, and Graviton was not among them. He made another attempt to escape the Raft weeks later and was opposed by the new Avengers. Hall seemed more unstable than usual, preaching radical, self-aggrandizing monologues that barely even acknowledged his opponents as he flung the Avengers around the battlefield. Surgical staples and a deep wound on his brow suggested head trauma or possibly something more sinister. Spider-Man was seriously wounded before Iron Man finally arrived at Mach 3. Stark’s new Extremis enhancements allowed him to stand one-on-one against Graviton. His boosted Uni-Beam brought down Graviton and Iron Man actually had to be held back by Captain America before he could finish the job and kill Hall. [Iron Man (4th series) #8]

Weeks later, Iron Man became director of S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Fifty-States Initiative, but his former collaborator Maya Hansen went underground to perfect her creation, Extremis. She began working in Nebraska at a secret research facility funded by the Department of Defense and led by Tem Borgjin, who unbeknownst to all was actually the Mandarin. Tem had accelerated human trials on Extremis without Maya’s knowledge, leading to hundreds of missing persons in and around Nebraska. With little super-villain activity to keep her busy, Gadget of the Nebraska Initiative began looking into the missing persons cases in her spare time, and came dangerously close to the Mandarin’s operation. Working through his contacts in the D.O.D., Tem Borgjin orchestrated Graviton’s escape from custody to use him as a fall guy.

Gadget’s Initiative partner Paragon was secretly one of Mandarin’s Extremis enhanciles, with multi-faceted gravity manipulation powers. With his mother held under Tem’s care for the Extremis trials, Paragon infiltrated the Initiative, posing as a standard superhuman with only strength, invulnerability and flight in his power set. On a call for a disturbance, Gadget and Paragon found a dazed and displaced Graviton in an abandoned building. Paragon then unobtrusively used his gravity powers to horribly but quickly kill Gadget by compressing her and her suit into a small ball. The intent was to leave Graviton as a patsy for her murder, ending Gadget’s investigations into the missing persons, and letting the Extremis trials continue.

The case didn’t add up when it crossed Director Stark’s desk, though, and Iron Man took a more active role in the investigation than the Mandarin intended, circumventing the local Initiative and the Commission on Superhuman Activities to question Graviton. The fact that Franklin Hall was found unconscious at the murder scene and collected without incident only furthered Stark’s suspicions. Graviton’s babbling rhetoric under interrogation convinced Stark he had nothing to do with the murder, and he soon identified Paragon as the real culprit. Paragon fled back to Tem Borgjin, who used his Mento-Intensifier Ring to program Paragon with the memory of Graviton killing his mother. Paragon flew back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier in a rage, and Graviton killed him in self-defense. Stark was upset that the only lead to the conspiracy was now dead, but Graviton knew he was living on borrowed time. Franklin Hall chose to go out on his own terms and directed a micro-gravitational burst into his own head, causing an instant (and fatal) cerebral hemorrhage. [Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. #21-23]

But “death by gravity” will never be the end of Franklin Hall. Graviton recovered from this injury and, further, refocused his mind for the first time since the P’Tah incident. Having long sought a purpose for his life and his abilities while alone, Graviton changed directions and participated in a group endeavor instead. At the request of Andrew Forson, Scientist Supreme of Advanced Idea Mechanics, Graviton joined the new High Council of A.I.M. as their Minister of Science. He sat with others like Yelena Belova, Mentallo, Taskmaster, Superia and Jude the Entropic Man on this council, looking to reinvent themselves and their organization. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #2]

A.I.M. Island had some success in this regard, for Forson was a charismatic figure and managed to secure officially recognized U.N. status for their island nation of Barbuda. Graviton and the other Ministers had to fend off a kill squad from S.H.I.E.L.D.’s Secret Avengers Initiative intent on assassinating the Scientist Supreme. However, Graviton’s interest lay in their great works, not in Forson’s politicking and personal Cult of Entropy that worshipped nihilism. Franklin and Superia in particular grew closer as they tried to focus on the science of their endeavors rather that Forson’s increasing theatricality. Graviton’s ego was still his paramount feature, although he was now willing to take part in acts of greatness by his peers rather than directing them all on his own. He developed a zen-like meditation practice where he turned inward to attune with the fundamental force, rather than let himself be distracted by earthly pursuits. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #7-8]

The day came when A.I.M.’s great works came to light. Scientists under Forson’s guidance had made contact with the future and began importing scientific advances back down the timeline. Barbuda grew overnight, expanding in size, defenses and rampant technology. Graviton was thrilled at their endeavor’s success, though he feared they would face setbacks in their recent public relations efforts now that A.I.M. seemed overtly threatening again. The Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. made several attempts on Barbuda’s defenses, but the High Council managed to capture several Avengers and even brainwash one into their messenger. Director Maria Hill made her own future contacts, bringing back the Next Avengers, heroes of tomorrow. They infiltrated Barbuda and were opposed by Graviton and Superia, but managed to use their own future tech to neutralize A.I.M.’s advances. The great work failed, and Barbuda reverted back to its conventional tech levels. [Avengers World #1-14]

With this endeavor a failure, Graviton apparently cut his ties with A.I.M. and returned to his own pursuits. When next he surfaced, Franklin Hall was a puppet being controlled by Gravitation, the child of Eternity and abstract entity who represented the pull of gravity throughout the universe. In the birth of the Eighth Cosmos, many fundamental principles were new or being reconsidered. Three children of Eternity representing the Big Bang, the Big Crunch and the Heat Death of the Universe selected avatars to determine which phenomena would win out in this new multiverse, empowering Graviton, Nitro and Blizzard as their envoys. For reasons that only made sense to them and their patron, the In-Betweener, they attacked Starbrand and Nightmask of Earth. Once Nightmask identified the extra-planar power fueling the super-villains, he severed the connection, which allowed Starbrand to defeat the three villains. [Starbrand & Nightmask #1-4]

Graviton ended up in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, where Director Maria Hill used him as a test subject for the Pleasant Hill program. S.H.I.E.L.D. experimented with Cosmic Cube fragments and accidentally merged them into a sentient being called Kobik. Through Kobik, they turned the small town of Pleasant Hill, Connecticut into a new prison for super-villains by re-writing their personal reality to make them productive members of a small-town society. Containment inevitably failed when Baron Zemo and the Fixer regained their senses and began restoring other super-villains. Graviton stood with Zemo in the resulting riots against S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers who also became aware of Pleasant Hill. In the chaos, Kobik disappeared and many of the super-villains escaped recapture, including Graviton. [Standoff: Assault on Pleasant Hill crossover]

Baron Zemo began working for the new Hydra Supreme to take control of America. He intended to gather a new Masters of Evil to support Hydra’s efforts, and Eric Selvig of Pleasant Hill provided him the means through tracking chips implanted in all the super-villain inmates. Baron Zemo assembled a veritable Army of Evil largely from former residents of Pleasant Hill willing to seek vengeance against the establishment which played with them like pawns. [Captain America: Steve Rogers #13] When the day of the uprising came, Graviton acted as spokesman for the Army of Evil’s attack on New York. He denounced S.H.I.E.L.D.’s secret prison and attack on civil liberties as justification for the carnage that followed. [Secret Empire #0]

However, the Army of Evil was essentially betrayed by the Hydra Supreme and kept in stasis until the heroes rose up and defeated Hydra and their High Council. [Secret Empire #9-10] Graviton emerged from stasis in time to witness the Cosmic Cube in use during the final battle, and he was struck by its absolute power. Compared to the Cube, Graviton found everything else to be virtually meaningless. He embraced a new philosophy of nihilism and brought that revelation to the Avengers Unity Squad recovering from the Hydra ordeal at Avengers Mansion. An egomaniac who believed in nothing, Graviton styled himself as an “agent of chaos” who attacked the Avengers just to prove that sometimes random perils would kill people. Despite (or because of) his madness, Graviton was still a major threat to the team.

After disassembling the mansion’s roof, Graviton cast the Scarlet Witch into low orbit. She only survived thanks to Doctor Voodoo’s elemental spirits of air. Hall was unprepared for the neuropathic neophyte member named Synapse, who disrupted his concentration enough to make him drop the Avengers he was holding aloft. Graviton deflected several follow up attacks and attempted a hypergravity force to pin the team leader Rogue to the ground. Channeling the power of Wonder Man, however, Rogue was strong enough to continue stepping towards Graviton, despite his fundamental force. His focus on Rogue allowed Wanda to return from space, and her hex distraction allowed Rogue to absorb some of his power. She also absorbed some of his madness, but Synapse was able to talk Rogue through it. After all, Rogue had something to anchor her which Graviton never did… friends. [Uncanny Avengers (3rd series) #26-27]

Graviton did not remain incarcerated for long, and briefly turned up among the Hood’s reunited gang of criminals fighting against Iron Man and Doctor Doom. [Invincible Iron Man (1st series) #600] He quickly moved out west after that, renewing his ties to the California underworld just as a new West Coast Avengers formed there under the command of the two Hawkeyes. [West Coast Avengers (3rd series) #4] Graviton had plans to join a West Coast Masters of Evil, but was somehow replaced by Noh-Varr, the former Young Avenger called Marvel Boy. Noh-Varr infiltrated the Masters disguised as Graviton to undermine their attack on the Avengers. The West Coast Masters discovered the spy and Graviton genuinely joined them but, despite planning, they never made a second attack on the West Coast Avengers. [West Coast Avengers (3rd series) #7]

Ever the egotist, Graviton actually claims to have copyrighted his powers through legal action. As dubious as this idea may be, he became aware when a brilliant teenager named Augustin Torres mechanically replicated his powers through quark manipulation to become Collision. Augustin’s gloves had the unfortunately side effect of occasionally creating unstable black holes, and his effort to control his tech drew the attention of Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel and Shuri, princess of Wakanda. Graviton showed genuine respect for the boy’s talent, if not his audacity, and stole Collision’s gloves to use as a conduit for enhancing his own powers. Collision helped Shuri and the other young heroes sabotage his work, creating a feedback loop which prevented the glove from creating any more event horizons. Warned that the full Avengers’ roster was coming after Shuri and the others, Graviton made his departure, complimenting Augustin on his potential as he went. [Shuri #6-7]