VOYAGER
VOYAGER
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extradimensional magic-user (Distant Past - modern era)
Occupation: Former wanderer
Group Membership: Unrevealed, possibly the angels of Heaven
Affiliations: Sam Wantling
Enemies: Harriet
Homerstone;
formerly Samuel Wantling
Known Relatives: Elise Abakan,
William Nicholls,
Sam Wantling, many unidentified ("Children" of the
Voyager);
Eternity (possible parent)
Aliases: Eternity's Bastard, He Who Walks, the Body Magician, the Endless Voyager
Base of Operations: Unrevealed, possibly Heaven;
formerly Earth;
formerly numerous Hell realms
First Appearance: Children of the Voyager#1 (September, 1993)
Powers/Abilities: The Voyager is a being of great magical power. Incredible ancient, it was immune to aging, disease, and conventional injury. Its ectoplasmic form could only be sensed by its spawn, and presumably by other mystic sensitives. It required knowledge of humanity to escape its imprisonment on Earth, but could not obtain this on its own. It spawned fragments of itself that took human form to interact with humanity, and it eventually reabsorbed these beings to gain their knowledge. It could alter perceptions, disrupt spells, etc. Most of its powers were unrevealed.
History:
(Children of the Voyager#2 (fb) - BTS / 3 (fb) - BTS / 4 (fb) - BTS) - The
Voyager originates from an extradimensional realm...possibly Heaven.
(Children of the Voyager#2 (fb) - BTS) - "...after the time of
the yawning gulf, after Ymir and Pangu, was the essence of eternitie's bastarde
trapped in clay..."
(Children of the Voyager#4 (fb) - BTS) - The Voyager was cast from the upper realms to the lower realms. It took an eternity to climb up through a labyrinth of Hell-worlds and half dimensions below to the Earthly plane.
(Children of the Voyager#4 (fb) - BTS) - Since the dawn of human history, the Voyager walked the Earth, apparently imprisoned there, preventing it from ascending back to its state of grace.
(Children of the Voyager#3 (fb) / Children of the Voyager#4 (fb) - BTS) - The Voyager shadowed and sought to understand humankind from the moment that their earliest ancestors stood on their hind legs.
(Children of the Voyager#3 (fb) / Children of the Voyager#4 (fb) - BTS) - Seeking to detect the one vital clue that would free it, at intervals the Voyager spawned a fragment of itself that took human form and lived amongst humanity.
(Children of the Voyager#3 (fb)) - Eventually the Voyager
would call its spawn back to itself, and it would consume their form and
memories, adding to its experiences as it sought understanding that continued to
elude it. Both sexes and every color and creed of humanity were imitated. Most
of the Voyager's children were simple, slow-witted unfortunates, unable to
understand or function in the society where they had been deposited. There were
rare exceptions, however, who developed self-awareness and who blossomed a soul
from the tiny life seed the Voyager had given them; these fought battles for
their freedom with the Voyager, though there were no winners.
Some of the Voyager's spawn had children of their own, and
these children possessed true life...the Voyager never attempted to absorb them.
Still, the force that drove humanity eluded the Voyager.
(Children of the Voyager#3 (fb) - BTS) - William -- one of the Voyager's
self-aware children -- married a witch, Alicia Harker, and they had a daughter.
Eventually the Voyager returned for the man; Alicia fought it as best she could,
but she could not stop it from consuming her lover. Alicia spent much of her
remaining time making a detailed study of the Voyager, and she passed on her
knowledge to her daughter.
Alicia's daughter eventually had a daughter, and so on,
through the generations, with the most recent daughter being Harriet Homerstone.
(Children of the Voyager#1) - The Voyager welcomed home Elise,
one of its spawn, reabsorbing her back into its self.
Sam Wantling, one of the spawn who had taken on true life as
a horror writer, began to have nightmares of being consumed by the Voyager.
(Children of the Voyager#2) - Sam's editor, Mona St. Croix, sent him to her half-sister, the witch Harriet Homerstone, for help with his nightmares. Mona had Sam sleep, protected by one of her dreams, but she was nearly overwhelmed when she attempted to explore Sam's creation; and she was forced to awaken him suddenly. She protected Sam with a binding spell and then asked Sam to tell her of his dreams. As Sam visualized his dreams, the Voyager reached through her mirror, mistaking Harriet for her ancestor who had previously interfered with its affairs. It told Harriet and Sam that it was futile to try to keep Sam from it, but Harriet temporarily dispelled it by shattering the mirror.
(Children of the Voyager#3) - Harriet brought Sam to a hideaway college which would serve as a hollow, having a protective cloaking effect that would dampen the Voyager's ability to home in on him. Sam briefly considered committing suicide to deprive the Voyager of his soul, but Harriet bade him sleep again. They shared his dreams and observed the life-cycles of the Voyagers' spawn throughout the ages, after which Harriet realized that Sam had grown into something far more than what the Voyager had made him. She encouraged him to believe that he could break free from the Voyager, as it was its psychic power over him, and his fear of it that rendered him vulnerable to it. Harriet formed a protective circle, shared her own relationship to the Voyager, and then sent Sam to sleep, at which point the Voyager arrived to claim Sam.
(Children of the Voyager#4) - Harriet tried to contain the
Voyager with a "genie in the bottle" spell, but it turned the spell back on
them, trapping them within a magical sphere. Nonetheless, the sphere was
sufficiently strong to keep the Voyager out, and the Voyager demanded Sam's
soul, as its own voyage was coming to an end. It cast illusions, making the
magic sphere seem afloat in the cosmos. Sam argued with the Voyager -- who
insisted he only existed because the Voyager had created him and that he was
therefore its to retake -- telling it that he had grown far beyond what it had
given, and asking it what one little spirit meant to its mighty form. The
Voyager angrily told them how the secret of humanity had continued to evade it
despite its lengthy efforts. It stated that Wantling was its accidental
masterpiece, so fully alive and so human, far beyond any of its other creations.
It felt that consuming Wantling would fuel its ascent into the cascade of
dimensions above.
Sam continued to fight with all his might, as did Harriet,
though she was becoming physically ill from the effort, and the Voyager suddenly
collapsed. It's life force faded, and so did Harriet's. Taking a leap of faith,
Sam reached out of the circle to grasp Harriet's arm in his one hand, and the
Voyager's arm in his other hand. He offered to give back what the Voyager had
given him, believing that everything else would remain with him. The splinter of
the Voyager within Sam then flared, and Sam gained the memories of the Voyager.
The Voyager, in turn, turned into an angelic beam of light, rising like a
shooting star (in reverse) as it passed the celestial pagodas, past increasing
spheres and sedimentary layers of Heavens that encrust the tiny shell of the
physical universe. It passed oceans of higher dimensions until it pulsed and
burst, scattering a chorus of voices, the freed spirits of his sisters and
brothers. The spirits formed a constellation of souls across the heavens, and
then the link to Wantling was severed, leaving him alone on Earth...forever
changed.
Comments: Created by Nick Abadzis and Paul Johnson.
As the Voyager has no connection to any other Marvel characters, I would prefer to put his adventures at the time of their publication, circa 1993, making him a pre-modern era character.
Voyager represents the last of the Frontier Comics &
Marvel UK
title characters to be profiled at the Appendix!
Now on to the non-title characters!
The exact origin of the Voyager is never stated...whether it is a true scion of Eternity, or an angel cast from Heaven, or something else altogether is left for speculation.
The references to Pangu & Ymir presumably are both meant reference myths of creation, meaning the Voyager was given physical form and cast to the lower planes after the creation of the Earth.
Ymir is well known in the Marvel Universe.
Pangu:
http://www.livingmyths.com/Chinese.htm
Pangu and the Creation of the World
This myth is similar to many creation myths worldwide, in which the world is formed out of the body of a primal being.
In the beginning there was darkness everywhere, and Chaos ruled. Within the darkness there formed an egg, and inside the egg the giant Pangu came into being. For aeons, safely inside the egg, Pangu slept and grew. When he had grown to gigantic size he stretched his huge limbs and in so doing broke the egg. The lighter parts of the egg floated upwards to form the heavens and the denser parts sank downwards, to become the earth. And so was formed earth and sky, Yin and Yang.
Pangu saw what had happened and he was pleased. But he feared that heaven and earth might meld together again, so he placed himself between them, his head holding up the sky and his feet firmly upon the earth. Pangu continued to grow at a rate of ten feet a day for 18,000 years, so increasing the distance between heaven and earth, until they seemed fixed and secure, 30,000 miles apart. Now exhausted, Pangu went back to sleep and never woke up.Pangu died, and his body went to make the world and all its elements. The wind and clouds were formed from his breath, his voice was thunder and lightning, his eyes became the sun and moon, his arms and his legs became the four directions of the compass and his trunk became the mountains. His flesh turned into the soil and the trees that grow on it, his blood into the rivers that flow and his veins into paths men travel. His body hair became the grass and herbs, and his skin the same, while precious stones and minerals were formed from his bones and teeth. His sweat became the dew and the hair of his head became the stars that trail throughout heaven. As for the parasites on his body, these became the divers races of humankind.
Although Pangu is dead, some say he is still responsible for the weather, which fluctuates according to his moods.
Voyager has an entry in Marvel Zombies: The Bok of Angels, Demons & Other Monstrosities. Elise's last name was revealed in this entry.
Marvel Frontier TPB cover added by Loki.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:
images: (without ads)
Children of the Voyager#3, p22 (main)
Children of the Voyager#4, Cover (head shot)
Children of the Voyager#3, p12, pan1 (consuming spawn)
Children of the Voyager#3, p13, pan1 (Voyager's children)
Children of the Voyager#3, p13, pan2 (fighting religious offspring)
Children of the Voyager#1, p1, p8 (Elise)
Children of the Voyager#4, p7, pan5 (attacking Sam Wantling)
Marvel Frontier Comics: The Complete Collection, Cover (body shot with face)
Children of the Voyager#4, p16 (failed trap for Voyager)
Appearances:
Children of the Voyager#1-4 (September-December, 1993) - by Nick Abadzis
(writer), Paul Johnson (artist), Michael W. Bennet (editor)
Marvel Frontier Comics Special#1/3 (January 1994) - by Nick Abadzis
(writer), Paul Johnson (artist), Michael W. Bennet (editor)
First Posted: 08/12/2006
Last updated: 02/17/2019
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!