TOM LENNOX

Real Name: Thomas Lennox

Identity/Class:  Human psionicist, probably mutant.

Occupation: Fugitive, (former) agent of S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi Division

Group Membership: member of the fugitive Psi Division of S.T.R.I.K.E., (former) agent of S.T.R.I.K.E.

Affiliations: lover of Betsy Braddock, ally of Captain Britain and Captain U.K.

Enemies: Mad Jim Jaspers (Earth-616), Slaymaster, S.T.R.I.K.E., Vixen  

Known Relatives: None 

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Basement in unspecified part of London, (former) S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi Division Headquarters, (former) Braddock Manor 

First Appearance: The Daredevils#3 (March, 1983)  

Powers/Abilities: Telepath, telekinetic -- needs to be able to concentrate to use this ability, making it less than totally effective in combat situations. 

History: (bts) - Tom Lennox was recruited into S.T.R.I.K.E. Psi Division. There he met fellow telepath Betsy Braddock and the two became lovers. When the agency was infiltrated by operatives of the crimelord Vixen, the Psi Division were the only ones who realised what was happening. The group went on the run, Tom amongst them, and Vixen hired the assassin Slaymaster to hunt them down and silence them.

(The Daredevils#3) - Tom cared for Alison Double, who had collapsed in psychic shock after the death of one of their number at Slaymaster's hands. Meanwhile his lover Betsy Braddock called her brother Brian for help. While she went to meet him at the McBurgers on Oxford Street, Tom and the other survivors of the Psi Division hid out in the Forbidden Planet comic shop just off the Charing Cross Road.  But Slaymaster caught up with them there, and murdered the rest of the group, leaving only Tom and Alison. He closed in on Tom, knowing that the telekinetic could not use his power without time to concentrate, time he didn't have. Before he could administer the fatal blow, Betsy's brother arrived in his guise as the superhero Captain Britain, distracting Slaymaster from his mission.

(The Daredevils#4) - As Captain Britain and Slaymaster duked it out, Betsy and Tom discussed what was happening telepathically. They noted that the assassin was armed with S.T.R.I.K.E. weapons, meaning that the Vixen must now control that agency completely. Betsy revealed to Tom that the hero currently ignoring a flamethrower in the face was her brother, which shocked him. As the fight progressed, it becomes clear that Captain Britain was losing. Using her precognitive abilities, Betsy predicted that Slaymaster would soon cross over to just outside the smashed window of the comic shop, and when he did Tom blinded and confused him by hitting him with a storm of comics and magazines. Given an opening, Captain Britain pounded the villain into submission.

(bts) - Tom, Alison and Betsy moved into Braddock Manor.

(The Daredevils#5) - The Special Executive came from another dimension to take Captain Britain back with them to Saturnyne's trial. Zeitgeist infiltrated the mansion and using Cobweb's psychic prediction, he located the insomniac Tom Lennox in the kitchen pouring himself a glass of milk. Surprising Tom by phasing his arms through the wall behind the telepath, Zeitgeist smashed the telepath's head against the wall, knocking him out.

(The Daredevils#8) - Tom and Betsy were having a heated telepathic discussion about the insanity of her brother's life when Captain Britain returned from his extradimensional jaunt accompanied by deposed Omniversal Majestrix Saturnyne and the varied non-human members of the Special Executive. As Fascination started hovering around him, Tom expressed the opinion that the place was an asylum, prompting an angry reaction from Captain Britain. Just seconds later Linda McQuillan, the former Captain U.K., arrives to warn them all of the impending genocide that Sir James Jaspers was about to initiate.

(The Daredevils#9) - The group in the mansion watched Sir James Jaspers on the television, making an anti-superhuman speech. Fascination continued to fuss over Tom, much to his and Betsy's annoyance. As the evening progressed, Tom tried to get Betsy to leave with him while they still could, but she was having a vision of the future, one which contained pain, suffering, and death camps.

(The Daredevils#10) - The arrival of the killer cybiote the Fury in the manor's ground caused the psychic Cobweb to experience a violent fit. Tom watched helplessly as the Special Executive tried to help her. Betsy sensed her brother's terror when he confronted the Fury, and the rest of the group heard the roar of the creature's blast weapon. Most of the Executive raced outside to investigate, and Tom again tried to talk to Betsy, but she was still connected to her brother and the battle outside.

(The Daredevils#11) - The battle raged outside, while in the manor Zeitgeist was trying to help Cobweb, still suffering from her violent fit. Meanwhile Tom was trying to console Betsy, who had been reduced to tears by her telepathic impressions of the fighting and death so nearby. After the Fury was temporarily defeated, buried under tons of rock in the caverns beneath the manor, the group debated what to do next. The Executive decided that it was time to cut their losses and bury their dead, leaving Captain Britain, Saturnyne, Betsy, Alison and Tom to head to London to deal with the Jaspers' situation.

(The Mighty World of Marvel#8) - Britain had become a police state under the control of Prime Minister Sir James Jaspers. The fugitive group were hiding out in a London basement, in a city under curfew. When Tom asked Betsy if she was all right after she returned with Saturnyne from raiding a chemist for medicine for Alison, she cried out that of course she wasn't alright -- England had gone insane, and none of them could remember how long this had been the state of affairs -- days, or even months?

(The Mighty World of Marvel#9) - Captain Britain departed to confront Jaspers, leaving his friends undefended when a group of "Beetles" (S.T.R.I.K.E.'s armoured anti-superhuman squads) found the hideout. Betsy sensed them just before they started to break in. Tom ordered the others to run, while he waited behind to buy them time. As they fled and the Beetles entered the basement, he surrounded himself with a telekinetic storm of detritus. But he was cut down in a hail of gunfire. Betsy was telepathically linked to him when he died. 

Comments: Created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis.

As we discover years later in the Excalibur comic, Fascination feeds off of strong emotions, particularly negative ones, which finally explained why she hovered around poor Tom in The Daredevils#8 and#9 -- she was feeding off his annoyance! Given the brief nature of his encounter with the Special Executive and his attitude towards them, I haven't counted them as an affiliation.

At first Tom comes across as a bit of a selfish character, trying to convince Betsy to leave with him and let her brother deal with the impending Jaspers situation on his own. In fact he is just a normal man (albeit a telekinetic one) unable to cope with the bizarre and stressful situation he has been thrown into, and he reacts to this with anger -- much like Captain Britain. But his true nature shows through in his final stand against the Beetles; all along his priority has been Betsy, the woman he loves. Sadly his sacrifice has been forgotten by the writers who have handled her since; after Alans Moore and Davis stopped handling her, Betsy never spared another thought for the man who gave his life for hers.

Profile by Loki

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Other appearances:
Daredevils#4-5 (April-May, 1983) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Daredevils#8-11 (August-November, 1983) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Bernie Jaye (editor)
Mighty World of Marvel#8-9 (January-February, 1984) - Alan Moore (writer), Alan Davis (artist), Tim Hampson (editor)

Last updated: 12/11/02

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