Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Burning Tiger

Base of Operations: The Brilliant City;
    formerly mobile throughout various alternate realities

First Appearance: X-Man#67 (September, 2000)

Powers/Abilities: Qabiri has vast energy powers, sufficient to cause the destruction of entire worlds. He can withstand powerful physical or energy assaults. He can fly at great speeds, survive in space, and travel interdimensionally

Height: Unrevealed
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Black sclera, white irises
Hair: Black

History:
(X-Man#67 (fb) - BTS) - Fearing that the lower worlds had learned of their existence and would try to interact with them and thus corrupt the Brilliant City, Qabiri resolved to destroy these worlds to prevent this.

(X-Man#67) - Melchior and others told Qabiri that the lesser worlds were not of their concern and that contact with the lower worlds was forbidden as it would corrupt them. Qabiri responded that they placed little faith in their own purity, and he asked them if they should wait until the lesser beings overran them and danced in the stained rubble of the Brilliant City. Qabiri acknowledged that while the people of the Brilliant City were infinitely more powerful, that the undercreatures vastly outnumbered them, and if they learned that the City was more than just a dream then they would be unable to stop the undercreatures. Qabiri further noted that as some of the undercreatures had learned to travel the spiral and access other planes that they were indeed a threat to the Brilliant City. Melchior warned Qabiri that his actions would bring disaster, but Qabiri told Melchior he would do what he must to save the Brilliant City, then leapt off its edge and began traveling down the spiral.
    Melchior stated that Qabiri now belonged to the darkness.

(X-Man#72 (fb) - BTS) - Qabiri devastated four parallel Earths in succession.

(X-Man#71 (fb) - BTS) - Qabiri arrived on Earth-253. Though only Professor X and Zeitgeist were the direct threats because they could travel interdimensionally, Qabiri realized that once one of them could do something that others would want to do it as well.

(X-Man#72 (fb)) - Qabiri appeared above Manhattan. Fatally beautiful, he was thought to be an angel by many. He hovered there for a minute, covered in flames, then released his flames and Manhattan burned; soon Manhattan was destroyed and its people dead.
    Having been in their sub-space headquarters, the Foldcastle, Earth-253's heroes, the Protectorate (Citydweller, Nightfighter, Technocrat, White Bird) then arrived and found Qabiri waiting for them. He told them to give him the "world-walkers" but acknowledged that they all had to die anyway. He blasted and injured Nightfighter and White Bird, but Technocrat shielded himself and Citydweller. Professor X (Nate Xavier), Thor, and Zeitgeist then returned from a mission to a parallel Earth, and Zeitgeist demanded that Qabiri leave their world alone. Qabiri flew up into the atmosphere, and Zeitgeist sent Thor and Professor X after him while Technocrat took Nightfighter and White Bird back to the Foldcastle to heal them. Technocrat named him Burning Tiger for his striped face and for the way he set the cities aflame.

(X-Man#72 (fb) - BTS) - Moscow and the White House began arming their missiles, but Qabiri swiftly leveled Washington DC, Reykjavik, Osaka, Nairobi, and apparently all of the major cities. 

(X-Man#71) - Earth-253's Professor X and Thor confronted Qabiri. Ignoring Professor X and Qabiri's advice to the contrary, Thor flew into Qabiri at full speed and was destroyed by the energies swirling around him. Qabiri identified Professor X as the cause of his assaults and one of the ones he was looking for. Professor X formed a dreamball to short out Qabiri's psyche but as the fearless Qabiri allowed him to get close enough, Professor X released Technocrat from the dreamball. Having analyzed Qabiri's force field as pure energy, Technocrat released scorpion-like techno-toys he had concocted to devour that energy. Qabiri destroyed the dreamball, blowing off Technocrat's legs and Professor X's right hand in the process, and then began crushing the techno-toys that swarmed over him. Zeitgeist unleashed an energy blast at Qabiri who then blasted her in return, neutralizing her powers. As Zeitgeist fell, she was caught by Nate Grey-295 (active as a hero on Earth-616) who had been given a vision of Qabiri's threat by Sister Perpetua-616, an apparent counterpart to Zeitgeist.
    Qabiri was furious at the arrival of another "world-walker" and prepared to end this Earth. Nate brought Zeitgeist to Citydweller and the crippled Technocrat (plus Sister Perpetua), and they found that Professor X had died from shock and blood loss. The heroes of Earth-253 had no reason to trust him, but Nate told them they needed to tell him what he needed to know or they would all die.

(X-Man#72) - After telling Nate of Qabiri's assault on Manhattan, Citydweller perished, and as Technocrat finished the story, Citydweller crumbled into pieces. As Nate went to confront Qabiri, a healed Nightfighter reported that they had the rest of Australia was wiped out, but that he had found perhaps 100 Aborigines and were shunting them back to the Foldcastle. From Idaho, White Bird reported that she was being fired upon by survivalists she had found in Idaho, and was losing interest in saving them.
    Nate confronted Qabiri and warned him against fighting him, but Qabiri blasted him, to no effect. Reading Qabiri's mind, Nate told him he was mad, but Qabiri read Nate's mind in return, then told that every world beneath the Brilliant City was broken and must be destroyed. Nate and Qabiri battled, and after an explosive struggle, Nate was defeated, and he fell to the Earth. Figuring it was Qabiri, Zeitgeist had Technocrat transport them to the projected site of impact  in South Central Nebraskato make sure he was dead, after which Technocrat's badly damaged form exploded. Zeitgeist rushed down the crater to slay Qabiri but was shocked to find that it was Nate. Meanwhile, Qabiri unleashed his power on the Earth, destroying Nightfighter and White Bird as he blew the planet into rubble.

(X-Man#73) - Zeitgeist and Sister Perpetua's powers interfaced, enabling them to escape Earth-253 with Nate Grey, arriving in a downspiral world, a "broken," improperly formed world with an acid sea and exploding acid air. Nate's power protected them from the planet long enough for them to encounter Hassan, champion and explorer from the Emirate, who was also an apparent counterpart to Zeitgeist and Perpetua.
    Qabiri meanwhile arrived on Earth-616 in Edinburgh and began to set its people aflame. Military jets approached and prepared to attack him, but he destroyed them all with an energy blast. He told a young boy to gather with those he loved and that he did what he was doing to protect his own world. He further noted that he wouldn't destroy Earth-616 until Nate Grey returned so he could be certain that he died with it so that he couldn't taint other worlds.
    Nate then brought the three women to Earth-616 on the Himalayas, away from civilization so that they wouldn't risk anyone else while confronting Qabiri. Nate then noted the connections between the three women and determined that they were not alternate dimensional counterparts of each other but rather fragments of the same woman, and he merged them back to their true form.
    Meanwhile, Qabiri sensed Nate's arrival and flew to confront him. After a short battle, Qabiri overpowered Nate and prepared to execute him, but then he was blasted out of the skies by Idris of the Brilliant City, the combined form of Hassan, Sister Perpetua, and Zeitgeist. Recognizing Idris, Qabiri decided that she had been corrupted by the darkness of the lower worlds. Knowing he was not powerful to stop Qabiri and that there were still too many voids in Idris' mind to oppose Qabiri effectively, Nate took Idris and left Earth-616, telling Qabiri that if he stayed to destroy Earth, he would waste time that would allow Nate to act on Qabiri's greatest fear, the corruption of the Brilliant City.

(X-Man#74) - Nate brought Idris to the Brilliant City where he tried to help her regain her memory of what trauma had caused her to flee the Brilliant City so long ago. The other members of the Brilliant City then appeared, commanding Nate to leave or be extinguished, and denouncing Qabiri as no longer being one of them or any of their concern. Nate departed, telling them to ask Idris why he had brought her there.
    As Qabiri prepared to destroy Earth-616, Nate projected himself into Qabiri's mind, avoiding another confrontation. Nate warned Qabiri that he must find Nate before the Brilliant City was destroyed, and told him that as the City was stagnant and bereft of emotions that it might actually be a lower world. Nate thus led Qabiri back to the Brilliant City, arriving in time to save Idris as Melchior and the others judged her as corrupted and moved to exterminate her. Qabiri arrived soon after, but Melchior and the others told him he was corrupted by his interactions with the lower worlds and was no longer welcome either. Melchior and the others struck at Qabiri, and Qabiri fought back. Nate used the time and distraction to heal Idris' mind (which was still spread out across countless fragments on countless worlds).
    Qabiri overpowered Melchior and the others, shattering the Brilliant City in the process, then confronted Nate and Idris anew. Nate, having viewed Idris' restored memories, told Qabiri that the Brilliant City was nowhere near perfection. He then told Qabiri and the others to do what Idris had done: look up. Looking up, they saw that there was a spectrum beyond the top of the spiral they could see. They viewed beings so great that the people of the Brilliant City were less to them than the lowliest creature in the spiral was to the people of the Brilliant City. They realized that the Brilliant City was no less of a broken world than any other.
    Qabiri collapsed, weeping and having nothing left to fight for, and Nate took Idris away as per her request. Nate noted that the Brilliant City would survive, as all that had happened was that reality had caught up to them and they had thus lost their arrogance.

Comments: Created by Warren Ellis, Steven Grant, and Ariel Olivetti.

    The story is told as if the Brilliant City is an alternate Earth, though it seems more of a higher plane of reality. A big part of the final (and best) arcs of X-Man involved the idea of a spiral pathway to the omniverse (or cosmos?) with some realities being  higher and more evolved (upspiral) and others being lower and more primitive (downspiral).

    Qabiri named Earth-616 as Earth-612 after he had destroyed four Earths below it, and then after he destroyed Earth-253, he called Earth-616 "Earth-611." Regardless of whether the other Earths are destroyed, however, realities' designations aren't changed. The rest of the universe still exists after all.

    Regardless of the downspiral descriptions, I don't think the Core Continuum Designations refer to each world's advancement status. We've seen harsher worlds with higher numbers and more advanced worlds with lower numbers. I think the downspiral world in X-Man#73 could be identified as Earth-16137. I'm not going to designate the Brilliant City, b/c it didn't see anything like an Earth dimension, just a higher plane of existence in the cosmos.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
No KNOWN connections to:

• other "Burning" or "Tiger" characters

images: (without ads)
X-Man#67, p4, panel 1 (upper body & face)
          panel 3 (face close up)
    #72, p1 (full body)
    #73, p8 (full body with sword)

Appearances:
X-Man#67 (September, 2000) - Warren Ellis (basic plot), Steven Grant (writer), Ariel Olivetti (artist), Jason Liebig (editor)
X-Man#71-73 (January-March, 2001) - Steven Grant (writer), Ariel Olivetti (artist), Lysa Hawkins (assistant editor), Jason Liebig (editor)
X-Man#74 (April, 2001) - Steven Grant (writer), Quique Alcatena (artist), Lysa Hawkins (assistant editor), Jason Liebig (editor)

Last updated: 04/09/08

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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