KRIMONN the POWER PRISM

Real Name: Krimonn

Identity/Class: Extra-terrestrial (Skrull) transformed into sentient power object

Occupation: Would-be conqueror; weapon

Group Membership: Member of the Squadron Sinister (Earth-616 versions of Nighthawk, Hyperion, and Whizzer)

Affiliations: One-time agent of the Grandmaster;
unwilling agent of Nebulon;
weapon/partner of Kinji Obatu;
creator of Rokk;
unwilling weapon of Billy Roberts
Hosts: Kinji Obatu, Eddie March/Iron Man, Billy Roberts, Wasp, Thor

Enemies: Avengers (particularly Iron Man (Tony Stark)), the Defenders, Emperor Dorrek VII, Kinji Obatu, Eddie March/Iron Man, Nebulon, Billy Roberts

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: The Power Prism

Base of Operations: Formerly the Skrull Throneworld; later mobile throughout Earth

First Appearance: Avengers I#69 (October, 1969)

Powers: Originally, Krimonn possessed the usual powers of a Skrull, including shape-shifting.Following his transformation into an inanimate object, he could telepathically communicate with others. Later, the Grandmaster granted Krimonn duplicates of the powers of the Power Prism of Earth-712, but allowed Krimonn's sentience to remain in the prism. In this form, Krimonn could project various forms of energy and generate constructs of coherent light much as Joe (Dr. Spectrum) Ledger's Prism could. Some of these constructs, like Rokk, were semi-sentient and independently functioning entities in their own right. Krimonn was vulnerable to ultraviolet light and, presumably, mystical energy much as the Earth-712 Prism was. Both of these phenomena would weaken Krimonn mentally and disrupt his powers.

Initially, Krimonn was limited to communicating with his "host" and directing its powers in tandem with its host's will. As time went on, Krimonn gradually gained the ability to assert his own will over his hosts. At his peak of psychic strength, Krimonn could actually control his hosts, and even project his mind into another being's body provided that being was mentally weakened in some way. Krimonn was dependent on the existence of either the Prism or his host body to maintain his presence on the material plane.

 

History:

(Iron Man I#65 (fb)) - Krimonn was an ambitious Skrull, and sought to displace Emperor Dorrek. However, his coup failed and he was brought before the Emperor for punishment. Dorrek ordered Krimonn permanently forced into a small crystalline form, and rocketed into the universe for all eternity.

However, the game-obsessed Elder of the Universe called the Grandmaster learned of Krimonn's predicament, and decided to grant Krimonn a number of great energy-manipulation powers, but Krimonn could only access these powers in tandem with a human wielder. As such, the Grandmaster directed Krimonn's rocket to Earth, where it was recovered by Kinji Obatu. Obatu created the identity of Dr. Spectrum for himself, and was summoned to act as a pawn of the Grandmaster's in one of the Elder's "games."

(Squadron Supreme LS#8 (fb) - BTS) - The Grandmaster granted Krimonn his powers and arranged his need to bond with a human all in imitation of the Dr. Spectrum of Earth-712, a member of the Squadron Supreme.

(Avengers I#69) - Obatu and Krimonn, acting together as Dr. Spectrum, joined other pawns of the Grandmaster in the Squadron Sinister against the Avengers, who were being used as pawns by Kang the Conqueror.

(Avengers I#70) - Krimonn and Obatu were sent to battle Iron Man at the Taj Mahal in India. As Dr. Spectrum, the pair dominated Iron Man and had him at their mercy, but then began to bicker about the best way to finish the Avenger off. This gave Iron Man time to deduce that ultraviolet light was beyond the Prism's range of control, and he summarily blasted Dr. Spectrum into helplessness, thereby winning his round of the Grandmaster's game.

(Iron Man I#63) - Obatu arranged a meeting with Stark, but Stark was out of town, in Detroit on business. Obatu instead met up with Eddie "Iron Man" March, one of Stark's employees. Obatu, secretly using the Power Prism/Krimonn, created a group of semi-humanoid attackers, which March aided him in "defeating." Obatu then convinced March to accompany him to Detroit, hoping to recruit March as his bodyguard.
A short time later, Dr. Spectrum (Krimonn/Obatu) appeared in Detroit, attacking Stark and drawing out Iron Man. Dr. Spectrum overpowered Iron Man, collapsing a building on him and leaving him for dead. The battle would have been even shorter, but Krimonn kept distracting Obatu, trying to convince him to enslave, rather than destroy, Iron Man.

(Iron Man I#64) - Surprisingly enough, Iron Man had not died. After recovering, he constructed a new building (as Iron Man) to replace a worn down building in a poorer part of town. Dr. Spectrum again arrived and attacked Iron Man, but this time Iron Man was more prepared, and used his ultraviolet light beam against him. Dr. Spectrum was forced to flee.
Soon, Obatu and March located Stark, but they were then attacked by the monstrous Rokk. Rokk swatted the others present aside, and abducted Obatu. Stark, as Iron Man, pursued Rokk, but was overpowered. Rokk had Iron Man all but defeated, when he faded away and was revealed as another creation of Dr. Spectrum. Spectrum had used Rokk against Iron Man since Iron Man knew Spectrum's weakness, but Dr. Spectrum wished to finish off his enemy himself.

(Iron Man I#65) - Krimonn and Obatu together battled Iron Man as Dr. Spectrum, and managed to shatter Iron Man's chest-mounted ultraviolet weapon despite their bickering. They related their origin to the hero, ostensibly to show their superiority to him. In actuality, Krimonn had manipulated the series of battles to weaken both Iron Man and Obatu in preparation for taking Iron Man's body. As Obatu readied his death-blow, Krimonn leapt from the Prism, leaving it powerless, and took over Iron Man's body. Taking advantage of Iron Man's abilities, Krimonn went on a brief rampage, only to be confronted by Thor.

(Iron Man I#66) - The Krimonn-prism possessed Iron Man (actually Eddie March who put on a memento Iron Man suit (?!!) to help deal with Dr. Spectrum. The real Iron Man (Tony Stark) flew away from the scene of battle to repair his suit AND to contact the Avengers for help to deal with Spectrum while he was away - turns out Thor answered the call) battled Thor using Iron Man's weaponry and its own Skrull ability to turn invisible but to no avail. Reeling from the battle strain (mostly because of Eddie March's blood clot), Iron Man/Eddie March was defeated. However, a pair of cops brought Dr. Spectrum close to the prism to ask Thor what to do with him, and he was able to re-take control of the prism and escape. Dr. Spectrum, now in full control as the prism was weakened in its battle with Thor, created a giant imitation of Thor's hammer to pummel Thor with, but the real Iron Man appeared and smashed it. Ordering Thor to go assist the injured Eddie March, Iron Man went after Dr. Spectrum. Dr. Spectrum retaliated, using the Krimonn-prism to create a giant metallic hand to swipe at Iron Man, an electrically charged net, a giant robot, an explosive ray device, and white heat that turned to flame. Iron Man thwarted every attack, so Dr. Spectrum used the prism to create an escape vehicle. Iron Man smashed through it, and Dr. Spectrum fell, barely able to use the prism to buffer his fall. Iron Man took the prism and crushed it, and Dr. Spectrum/Obatu was taken away by the authorities. However, Iron Man foolishly left the remains of the prism on the ground, and in the last few panels, we see the prism pieces slowly moving together to reform...

(Avengers Annual#8(fb)) - A sanitation worker found Krimonn's inert form at the site of the battle with Iron Man and Thor, and brought it to evangelist Billy Roberts. Roberts took possession of the prism, and soon discovered its abilities. Roberts' megalomania allowed him to suppress Krimonn's weakened mind to some extent, enabling him to wield the prism's full powers without interference.

BTS - Nebulon and the criminal Hyperion, who were seeking the members of the Squadron Sinister, recruited Roberts. Nebulon further suppressed Krimonn's sentience.

(Defenders I#13) - Roberts, acting as Dr. Spectrum, joined the Squadron Sinister in aiding Nebulon's scheme to flood the Earth and wielded Krimonn against the Defenders. However, they were opposed by the Defenders and renegade Squadron member Nighthawk. Spectrum was on the verge of defeat at Dr. Strange's hands when Nebulon interceded to trap the heroes.

(Defenders I#14) - Krimonn, still wielded by Roberts, was seemingly destroyed along with Nebulon and the other Squadron members when their icecap-melting laser weapon was turned on them.

BTS - In actuality, Nebulon transported them all to the other-dimensional realm of Zaar. The Squadron gained an energy-draining weapon there, and eventually returned to Earth.

(Giant-Size Defenders#4) - Shortly after their return to Earth, the Squadron was attacked by the Defenders, who angrily accused them of hurting their comrade Nighthawk with a car bomb (in actuality, it had been Egghead's work; it was sheer coincidence that the Squadron had also returned). The Squadron defeated the Defenders, and promptly went after Nighthawk. Krimonn was used to create a large hand that snatched Nighthawk from his hospital bed. Their assault was interrupted by the Defenders and Henry (Yellowjacket) Pym. Using Krimonn, Roberts managed to trap Dr. Strange in an airless cube of energy, and was asphyxiating the mage. However, the Hulk generated a massive shockwave in defeating Hyperion, and that shockwave shattered Krimonn and knocked Roberts unconscious.

(Avengers Annual#8) - Many months later, Yellowjacket decided to restore the Prism, which he believed was inert, as a birthday gift for the Wasp. The Wasp, sneaking a peek at her presents, inadvertently became Krimonn's latest host as Dr. Spectrum. Krimonn swiftly blasted the investigating Quicksilver into unconsciousness, and mesmerized Wonder Man. Believing that only Iron Man knew his vulnerability to ultraviolet light, Krimonn used the Wasp's form to catch him off-guard and defeat him as well. Krimonn then deposited the three Avengers in a force-bubble submerged off the New Jersey coast. However, the other Avengers arrived at the Mansion. Working from Iron Man's accounts of battles with Spectrum, the Vision used ultraviolet lamps to defeat Spectrum.

Krimonn, seeking to regain his strength, bonded the Prism to the Wasp's nervous system, prompting the Avengers to seek the Squadron Sinister's past members for information about removing the gem. The Beast brought Billy Roberts to Avengers Mansion, but he simply reasserted his control over the gem and attacked the Avengers himself. Roberts was winning when Thor appeared on the scene. At this, Krimonn detached the Prism from Roberts and attached it to Thor's hammer, thereby gaining Thor's body. Disdaining his own powers, Krimonn used Thor's body to defeat the Avengers again. However, Krimonn/Thor was forced to drop Mjolnir, as he was not worthy to hold it under Odin's enchantments. Thor was transformed back into Don Blake, and the hammer (with the Prism attached) vanished and was replaced by Blake's walking stick. With both his host and the Prism lost, Krimonn's mind apparently ceased to exist on the material plane.

Comments: Created by Roy Thomas and John Buscema; fleshed out (or crystallized, as it were) by Gary Friedrich and George Tuska

Every other member of the Squadron Sinister has received an OHOTMU entry except Krimonn. With this text, I feel a bit of closure in giving Krimonn a full history like his peers.

There's really no reason Krimonn should vanish forever. If guys like Amahl Farouk and the Answer can survive without bodies, so can Krimonn. Maybe he could meet the Contemplator imposter and form the League of Bodiless Skrulls.
--I like it, I like it!--Snood.

In Thunderbolts#44-46, Fabian Nicieza created the Lifestone Tree, which linked numerous gem-powered characters to a pre-universal artifact. Among the characters depicted as having Lifestone fragments was Dr. Spectrum. If this is the Earth-616 (that's regular Marvel Earth for all you non-Excalibur fans out there) Spectrum, then the origin given in Iron man I#65 is a big pack of lies. I like that origin, and I theorize that the Earth-712 (Squadron Supreme's Earth) Spectrum wields a Lifestone fragment. Nicieza has said that the pieces shattered across time and dimensions, and I'd guess that one piece ended up on the Skrull Throneworld in the Earth-712 timeline and was eventually given to (and absorbed by) Joe Ledger, their Dr. Spectrum. The Grandmaster, seeking to create his own Squadron Supreme for games (after the originals refused to be his pawns a second time) then manipulated "our" Dorrek into punishing Krimonn as he did. Thus, he too could have a Skrull-created Power Prism for his games. After all, if he could give inanimate matter memories and powers as his Hyperion, he could certainly mind-control a Skrull Emperor and grant a crystallized Skrull Dr. Spectrum's powers.
--I also don't think it's such a stretch that Dorrek couldn't have just transferred Krimonn's mind into the Lifestone fragment, unaware of its true nature and power, or perhaps thinking Krimonn would be punished by being stuck in the crystal, as a pawn to others.--Snood.

Krimonn's power really only blossomed when he ditched his human wielders. Without their wills opposing his own, he could lay out the Avengers in seconds.

Though I shouldn't need to tell you, the Squadron Sinister members were an evil Justice League, with Spectrum taking Green Lantern's place. Interestingly, DC's own evil Justice League, the Crime Syndicate, has a Green Lantern double named Power Ring. In their most recent incarnation, his ring contains...an evil, possessive intelligence. Grant Morrison's been reading Silver Age Marvel again, I think.

Profile by Omar Karindu, Snood, and Hugo V. Negron.

Clarifications:
Krimonn, the Power Prism of Earth-616, is not to be confused with:

Rokk has no known connections to:

Earth-712, the home of the Squadron SUPREME, is also known as Other-Earth.
It has no known connection to:

Kinji Obatu and Billy Roberts, who successively acted as the Dr. Spectrum of Earth-616, are not to be confused with:

the Squadron Sinister is not to be confused with:

Nighthawk of Earth-616, Kyle Richmond, is not to be confused with:

Roger Slifer, writer of Avengers Annual #8 (among other comics), is not to be confused with:

Billy Roberts

He was a revival preacher who gained the Prism by chance. More than a little power-mad, he believed that the Prism was a sign from God that he was fit to conquer. He replaced Kinji Obatu as Dr. Spectrum in the Squadron Sinister for both of their clashes with the Defenders. After the Prism was shattered, Roberts and the other Squadders were ensorcelled by Dr. Strange to forget their criminal pasts and return to normal life (That trick never works, but Doc keeps using it). Roberts returned to his revival shows until the Beast restored his memories. He briefly regained control of the gem and battled the Avengers, but Krimonn soon abandoned him for Thor.

Billy Roberts created by Roger Slifer and George Perez

He technically first appeared in Defenders I#13, but this wasn't revealed until Avengers Annual#8 when Roberts was actually introduced. It appears that Slifer created him in order to explain how Dr. Spectrum could wield the gem after Krimonn rejected Obatu. Of course, Len Wein was trying to do the same when he had Spectrum claim Nebulon removed the gem's personality in Defenders I#13, so I tried to resolve the conflicting explanations in the history section.

Billy Graham + Oral Roberts = Billy Roberts

 

 

 

 

Rokk

 

 

Rokk, the Living Mountain, was a creation of Dr. Spectrum (Krimonn/Obatu). Since Iron Man knew Dr. Spectrum's weakness to ultraviolet light, Spectrum secretly created Rokk, knowing Iron Man would have no idea that he would have the same weakness. Rokk drew out Iron Man and physically overpowered him, but then Dr. Spectrum dissolved Rokk, wishing to finish off Iron Man himself.
Rokk possessed great strength (Class 50?) and durability. As a creation of the Power Prism, he would have none of the normal human limitations and weaknesses, although he did feign weakness to a clap to the ears, presumably to prevent Iron Man from realizing his true nature. Rokk also demonstrated telepathy, which was most likely performed directly by Krimonn himself.
--Rokk was created by Mike Friedrich and George Tuska.
--Iron Man I#64

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Appearances:
Avengers I#69-70 (October-November, 1969) - Roy Thomas (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Saim Grainger (inks), Stan Lee (editor)
Iron Man I#63-66 (October, 1973 - February, 1974) - Mike Friedrich (writer), George Tuska (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Defenders I#13-14 (May-July, 1974) - Len Wein (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Klaus Janson (#13) & Dan Green (#14) (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
Giant-Size Defenders#4 (April, 1975) - Steve Gerber (writer), Don Heck (pencils), Vincent Colletta (inks), Len Wein (editor)
Avengers Annual#8 (1978) - Roger Slifer (writer), George Perez (pencils), Pablo Marcos & Ricardo Villamonte (inks), Roger Stern (editor)
Squadron Supreme LS#8 (April, 1986) - Mark Gruenwald (writer), Bob Hall (pencils), Sam de la Rosa (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)

Last updated: 08/02/02

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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