le Bete Noir

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial energy being

Occupation: Symbiote/parasite

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Formerly bonded to Bishop

Enemies: Bishop, Cable, Gambit, Stryfe, Witness

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, or Satan

Base of Operations: Currently unrevealed;
    formerly trapped within Earth;
    formerly the known universe;
    possibly the universe existing before the present one

First Appearance: (Behind-the-Scenes) Bishop: The Last X-Man#14 (November, 2000);
    (seen) Gambit/Bishop: Sons of the Atom: Alpha (February, 2001)
    (named) Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#5 (May, 2001)

 

 

 

Powers/Abilities: Le Bete Noir is an entity of incalculable power, comparable to the Phoenix Force. In order to escape its prison, it had to find a human host that could contain its energies. From there it would first strike at those around its host, corrupting them as its powers grow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Eventually it would corrupt/contaminate every being on Earth. Once all life on Earth had been destroyed, it would have the strength it needed to mature, disposing of its host/outer shell, leaving it free to once again wreak havoc on the universe as it searched for the Phoenix Force.

 

 

 

 

History:
(Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#4 (fb)) - Le Bete Noir is an ancient being, having allegedly warred with the Phoenix Force since before the universe existed (see comments). As the planet Earth began to cool, the Phoenix Force trapped le Bete Noir within the planet's molten core.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5 (fb)) - For "centuries" many different cultures sought to free le Bete Noir from its tomb, sometimes knowing it as Beelzebub, Mephistopheles, or Satan, but all were unsuccessful. However, le Bete Noir's evil remained eternal, making its way from time's dawn until its end with impunity, forever seeking a new vessel into which to hide itself.

 

 

 

 

 

(Bishop: The Last X-Man#14 - BTS / Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5 (fb)) - As Bishop made his way through the timestream from Chronomancer's time (Earth-9910) back to the modern era of Earth-616, le Bete Noir was able to link itself to him without him being aware of it. Being a living energy cell, Bishop was seemed to be the most perfectly suited host body for it to incubate its energies within and return to the universe.

(Bishop: The Last X-Man#15 - BTS / X-Men Unlimited#29 - BTS / Maximum Security#2-3 / Bishop: The Last X-Man#16 - BTS) - Le Bete Noir was within Bishop as he returned to Earth-616, occasionally manifesting itself as a glow around his body during his subsequent adventures.

 

 

 

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5 (fb) - BTS / Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5 (fb) - BTS) - Stryfe plotted to use le Bete Noir and Bishop to destroy Earth. He subtly manipulated Bishop to release le Bete Noir's power.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom Alpha) - Bishop had a vision--unbeknownst to him this represented the consequences of his possession by le Bete Noir--of himself and Gambit being attacked by the X-Men. In the vision Bishop slew Cyclops, but both Bishop & Gambit were then slain by Iceman.
    Professor X later detected that Bishop's mind was displaced, and further tests showed that Bishop was infected with a symbiote that had grafted itself onto his circulatory and nervous systems as well as taking root within his brainstem.
    Gambit entered the Xavier Institute to discover what appeared to be Beast, Nightcrawler, Professor X, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm performing tests on Bishop. However, Gambit had just left the real Rogue outside the X-Mansion following a date...

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#1) - When Gambit tried to leave the testing to the others, they tried to stop him, and he and Bishop quickly determined that they were not what they seemed. Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm were revealed to be illusions, while Beast, Nightcrawler, and Professor X were revealed to be under the control of Stryfe. Gambit convinced Bishop to flee the Institute with him so they could investigate the entity within Bishop.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#2 - BTS) - Gambit led Bishop to a New Orleans mausoleum, a portal to the base of the Witness, where they found Stryfe, helpless and asking for their help.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#3) - Gambit & Bishop listened to Stryfe's pleas to save him from Cable who was seeking to slay him.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#4) - Cable attacked Bishop & Gambit, abducting Stryfe.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5) - Bishop and Gambit confronted Cable, intending to convince or force him to spare Stryfe. To prove Stryfe's guilt, Bishop commanded Stryfe to tell of his plans. Stryfe shared the origins of le Bete Noir, after which the Witness gave Bishop a shirt that would allow him to monitor le Bete Noir's activity and enable him to prevent himself from summoning its power. Stryfe revealed how he had plotted to use le Bete Noir, but seconds later its power began to flare within Bishop who screamed in pain.

(Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#6) - Realizing he would be unable to control le Bete Noir, Stryfe nonetheless tried to use his telekinetic powers to trap it. Cable accused Stryfe of treachery, but when Bishop began to lose control of le Bete Noir's energies, Cable joined Stryfe in trying futilely to hold it back. As Bishop begged the others to kill him to stop le Bete Noir's spread, Stryfe instead pulled it into him. Lacking Bishop's energy absorption powers, Stryfe knew he would be swiftly consumed by le Bete Noir, but he also knew that without a foothold on Earth that it would be destroyed forever. Stryfe thus sacrificed himself to make amends for his past crimes, explaining this to Cable before being devoured by le Bete Noir, which then apparently perished.
    However, Bishop & Gambit were left to wonder whether Cable might have mentally controlled Stryfe, forcing him to sacrifice himself.

 

 

Comments: Created by Joseph Harris, Scott Lobdell, Joe Pruitt, Georges Janty, Ray Snyder, Nathan Massengill, Thomas Derenick, Team X, Sean Parsons, Cary Nord, etc.

    As the Phoenix Force was reborn with the creation of the current universe, it is possibly that the Phoenix Force of the previous universe warred against le Bete Noir.

Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom was a bi-weekly series, and some of the issues were given the wrong months.

Per the Wikipedia: Bête noire is a phrase assimilated from the French, literally meaning "black beast." It refers to someone or something which is particularly disliked or avoided; an object of aversion, the bane of one's existence.

It always annoys me when something that has been around for billions of years is described as "millennia" or "centuries." Why not just say seconds?

Le Bete Noir looked like and energy creature, so corporeal wouldn't be quite right, but I get that its body--such as it is/was--was trapped in the Earth.

Sorry about the image quality. My computer crashed yesterday and I've been working non-stop to get back to a functional state. Pain in the @$$!

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

images: (without ads)
Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#1, p6  (possessing Bishop)
Bishop & Gambit: Sons of the Atom#5, p16-17 (le Bete Noir vs. Phoenix, trapped within Earth, linking to Bishop, corrupting others, destroying Earth)

Other Appearances:
Bishop: The Last X-Man#14 (November, 2000) - by Joseph Harris (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Ray Snyder (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Bishop: The Last X-Man#15 (December, 2000) - by Joseph Harris (writer), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Nathan Massengill (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Bishop: The Last X-Man#16 (January, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell & Joe Pruitt (writers), Thomas Derenick (penciler), Nathan Massengill & Team X (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom: Alpha (February, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Cary Nord (penciler), Mark Lipka (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#1 (March, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Sean Parsons (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#2 (March, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Cary Nord (penciler), Mark Lipka (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#3 (April, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Sean Parsons/Team X (inkers), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#4 (April, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Thomas Derenick (penciler), Cannon/Team X (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#5 (May, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Georges Jeanty/Cary Nord (pencilers), Mark Lipka/Holdredge/Sean Parsons (inker), Mike Marts (editor)
Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom#6 (May, 2001) - by Scott Lobdell (plot), Joe Pruitt (script), Georges Jeanty (penciler), Cannon/Mark Lipka/Holdredge/Sean Parsons (inker), Mike Marts (editor)

First Posted: 04/30/2006
Last updated: 04/30/2006

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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