EFFIGY
Real Name: Velmax
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Skrull Deviant (late 1940's-1950s, pre-modern era; also active for undefined time period prior to 1947 off Earth in service to Skrull Empire))
Occupation: Adventurer;
formerly undersecretary of the State
Department; National Security Agency (NSA) operative; town councilman;
lieutenant in the 21st Skrull Observation Corps
Group Membership: First Line (Black Fox/Robert Paine, Blackjack, Doctor Mime, Eternal Brain/William Carmody, Firefall, Flatiron/Russell, Frank (see comments), Katyusha/Anya, Liberty Girl/Beverly, Major Mercury/Makkari, Mr. Justice/Tim Carney, Morph, Nightingale, Oxbow, Pixie, Positron/Veronica, Rapunzel, Rebound, Reflex, Templar, Vulcan, Walkabout, Yankee Clipper/Pat Carney, Yeti)
Affiliations: Mary
Carmody,
Jim Fitzpatrick, Gadfly
(T. Ruth MacRae), Captain
Hip (Fred MacRae),
Princess Khadijah, Mako,
Monster
Hunters (Ulysses
Bloodstone, Dr.
Druid/Anthony Ludgate, Namora/Aquaria Nautica Neptunia, Zawadi),
Namor the Sub-Mariner, President Richard Milhous Nixon, NSA agent Mac
Curry (Makkari), Riot-Act,
Squire,
Sunshine (Autumn
MacRae), Thor, Venus
(Aphrodite; see comments), Bob
Woodward;
formerly
Commander Zuhn;
limited alliance of convenience with the vampire Nocturne
against the Skrull armada
Enemies:
Axis,
Chimera (Zuhn), Howler
(Luke Garrow), Kang the Conqueror (Nathaniel Richards), Red Front, Rumor,
Scimitar,
the Scythe,
Jacob
"Jake" Scott, Skrull invasion forces, Typhoon,
Yellow Claw (Plan Chu), Fritz von Voltzmann (Karl von Horstbaden), Zankor;
formerly Blackjack, Positron,
Dr. Schreiber, Venus;
presumably Nocturne (though no direct encounter
between the two has been recorded)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: Jacob "Jake" Scott (assumed civilian
identity), Deep Throat;
"Mr. Stretch" (nickname given by Kid Justice),
"Scottie" (nickname used by Makkari)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed,
formerly Carmody Institute, New England;
formerly First Line Headquarters, Colorado Rockies;
formerly mobile throughout the Skrull Empire
(Andromeda galaxy)
First Appearance: Marvel: The Lost Generation I#12 (March 2000)
Powers/Abilities: Like all Skrulls, Effigy could change his shape to duplicate the appearance of any person or object roughly the same volume as himself (see comments). He was able to transform his body to create functioning wings or claws, but in order to conceal his alien origin he refrained from turning into creatures not native to Earth. In combat, he often stretched out his limbs, battering enemies with enlarged fists or restraining them with his elongated arms.
During his forced stay on Earth, Velmax over the years developed a deep affection for the ideals and principles of the United States of America. By the summer of 1969, he considered himself a naturalized US citizen, even symbolically attending a naturalization ceremony.
As Effigy:
Height: 5'8"
Weight: 156 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
As Jacob Scott
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 156 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Graying, originally black
As Velmax
Height: 5'4"
Weight: 156 lbs.
Eyes: Pink
Hair: Bald
History:
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 (fb) - BTS) - Zuhn was a commander in
the Skrull 21st Observation Corps.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Along
with his underling, Lieutenant Velmax, he visited alien worlds in their
research vessel, prospecting the planet and its population for
potential use for the Skrull Empire.
In the Summer of 1947, Zuhn and Velmax reached Earth. Somewhere over the American southwest, their craft was spotted by an airforce pilot who was in the middle of a test flight. Not wanting to risk blowing their cover, Velmax to engage the fighter -- the encounter ended with both ships crashing in the desert.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4) - Commander Zuhn was first to recover, and he dragged Velmax out of the ship, while the still groggy lieutenant tried to apologize for crashing the ship. Just then, they ran into Jacob Scott, an inebriated ex-soldier who had come to check out the crash site, figuring he would find Russian spies. When Scott spotted movement, he immediately fired his shotgun, hitting Zuhn in the chest, before realizing he was facing aliens. Critically wounded, Zuhn ordered Velmax to follow priority seven. He complied and shifted into a monster, ready to attack Scott. However, Scott managed to reach his car and sped away before Velmax could catch up with him. As luck would have it, Scott was so drunk that he rammed his automobile into a nearby rock and ended up killing himself. When Velmax examined the body, which he noted reeked of ethanol, he chanced upon Scott's wallet which included his passport and army discharge papers. Figuring Scott, a single man with no family, would be an ideal cover should the need arise, Velmax took the wallet before disposing of the corpse. Returning to Zuhn, he placed the dying commander in a med-pod when he spotted the arrival of the US military. Quickly assuming the form of Jacob Scott, Velmax played along and managed to avoid being captured, though he was powerless to prevent the military from taking custody of his ship. Velmax, as Scott, was eventually allowed to go free because of his good service record.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 (fb) - BTS) - Stuck on Earth with no hope of returning home, Velmax decided to work towards locating his confiscated vessel. Figuring the best way to achieve this would be through gaining influence and power, he embarked on a political career. Using Scott's military background to bolster his reputation and popularity, Velmax successfully ran for his local town council. He then entered the federal bureaucracy, joining the National Security Agency (NSA), where he served in various unrevealed capacities.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#5 (fb) ) - Sometime in 1952, special NSA agent Scott had an encounter with Venus (Aphrodite). Though the specifics of their meeting have not been revealed, it remained particularly memorable to Velmax.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#1) - In 1955, Scott was working as a security officer at Project: Deep Freeze in the American south. There, the mentally unstable Captain America (William Burnside) and Bucky (Jack Monroe) of the 1950s were being kept in cryonic stasis. One day after work, one of the Deep Freeze doctors visited Scott in his office, carrying Captain America's shield. He recounted to Scott how one of his engineers, Patrick Carney, had suggested looking for replacements. Promising to pass this suggestion on to his superiors, Scott took the shield. After the doctor left, he pondered the idea of assuming the mantle of Captain America, figuring the role might be useful to him. He even briefly turned into the star-spangled hero, before quickly reminding himself he was at heart a Skrull and could never be America's greatest hero. If he was even going to consider playing a hero, he'd have to concoct an entirely different persona.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 (fb) - BTS) - By 1958, Scott had gained a high enough security clearance to allow him access to information on the whereabouts of his impounded ship. The vessel had been taken to a Long Island research facility, though a large number of parts had been taken to other facilities across the country. He also learned that the med-pod containing Zuhn was considered lost in a laboratory fire (the fire actually had been started by Zuhn to cover his escape).
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#2 (fb) - BTS) - Scott received reports of security breaches at the Long Island facility at which his ship was being kept (caused by Zuhn in human guise). Eager to make sure his ship wouldn't fall into the wrong hands, Scott decided to enlist the aid of the vigilantes Black Fox, Liberty Girl and the Yankee Clipper. The heroes agreed to help out Scott and traveled to Long Island, where he joined them on a stake out of the building.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#2) - That night, the Monster Hunters arrived at the facility to investigate Dr. Druid's psychic emanations that hinted at a monster possibly being present. Mistaking them for enemies, the Fox, Liberty Girl and the Clipper attacked their fellow heroes, until Scott broke them up. Recognizing his underling NSA agent Mac Curry (secretly the Eternal Makkari) with the Monster Hunters, there was an immediate trust established, although Liberty Girl scoffed at the notion of "big, bad monsters." Just then, a giant, monstrous creature burst out of the facility and attacked them. While the others kept it busy, Scott used the gaping hole in the wall left by the creature to enter the facility. There, he spotted his saucer and several researchers held hostage by an unidentified man (Zuhn) and the wanted mercenaries Blackjack and the Scythe. Not wasting a second, Scott pulled a gun on his enemies, but the Scythe easily deflected Scott's bullets with his massive blades. If not for the timely intervention of the Yankee Clipper, Scott would not have survived the encounter. Later, when the Monster Hunters and the other heroes joined the fray, Scott spotted the unidentified man entering the saucer. As he followed him in, he was hit with a bio-moleculizer that Zuhn planned to kill him with. The Moleculizer's energies destabilized Velmax's form, briefly revealing his Skrullian traits to the Clipper before lapsing into a coma. After the Scythe and Blackjack had been dealt with, Fox and the other heroes rushed Scott to Suffolk County General Hospital for treatment. When Scott's condition defied medical analysis, the Yankee Clipper decided to bring in a healer he'd recently met in the Caribbean. When the healer arrived, Liberty Girl was more than a little curious about the origins of this "Florence Nightingale" (thereby indirectly coining her codename). After the Clipper explained a little about "Nightingale," she was allowed to proceed.. She sensed an unnatural symmetry and great pain within him and proceeded to take it away, inadvertently causing Velmax to lose control over his shape-shifting. After Nightingale had restored him, Velmax realized the blast from the moleculizer was an ideal cover for his Skrullian origin and pretended the accident had given him shape-shifting powers. Inspired by the encounter, Velmax took on the codename Effigy (also coined by Liberty Girl) and joined the other heroes into forming the First Line.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3 - BTS) - The First Line quickly gained traction. Presumably in part thanks to Scott's connections, the team was granted government clearances in the late '50s or early '60s, as well as the "Hideaway," a fully equipped and outfitted base in the Colorado Rockies. Over time, the Black Fox joined up and the team accepted the Clipper's younger brother, Tim Carney, on the team as Kid Justice, albeit on a preliminary basis.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3) - In the Spring of 1961, Effigy was monitoring how Liberty Girl and Nightingale were helping the Yankee Clipper test the limits of his endurance. Their session was interrupted when Kid Justice excitedly ran into the First Line's training room. Justice had just learned President Kennedy had launched an initiative to put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. Effigy called Earth's first real commitment to interplanetary exploration an historic time, unaware the news didn't sit well with the Yankee Clipper (who realized the predictions made by Cassandra Locke -- a time-traveling historian from Reality-700's 22nd century -- back in 1955 were about to come true).
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3 - BTS) - First Line member Black Fox was in San Francisco where he was investigating the latest scheme of the Yellow Claw and his lackey Fritz von Voltzmann. When some the Claw's men happened to run into the super-powered beatnik hero Hipster and Pixie the Eternal, the Fox was annoyed at having so many loose cannons involved and decided to call in the First Line for backup.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3) - The First Line met the
Black Fox in San Francisco's warehouse district where he led them to the
lair of the Yellow Claw. As the team engaged the Claw's armored forces,
with Effigy knocking the Claw's flunkies about using his massive fists,
they were joined by the Hipster, who had discovered the Claw's hideout
on his own.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3 - BTS) - While the First Line fought
on, Nightingale sensed a wrongness in one of the Yellow Claw's soldiers
(actually the amnesiac Namor the
Sub-Mariner); she "cured" his illness, undoing the Claw's
conditioning. Unseen by the First Line except for Black Fox, the enraged
Sub-Mariner attacked Yellow Claw directly. The master villain was forced
to detonate a massive explosive hidden underneath his lair in an effort
to escape.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3) - Effigy, Hipster and the others
survived thanks to the sudden appearance of force field courtesy of the
Yankee Clipper's power-belt (inadvertently
activated by Cassandra Locke, who was present during the events and
severely injured by the explosion as she continued to jump further
into the past). In the aftermath, Effigy was impressed to see
the Fox had lived through the explosion and had even managed to take Von
Voltmann prisoner.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4) - On the morning of
November 21st, 1963 Nightingale was puzzled by the unexplainable
sensation that a great wrongness was about to occur in Dallas, Texas.
When she informed the First Line of this, Effigy was immediately alarmed
when he realized President John F. Kennedy was scheduled to speak there
the next day.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 - BTS) - When wanted super-criminal
Howler (Luke Garrow) accepted an offer from Texas industrialist Winget (secretly Zuhn, who by now was also posing
as the omnimorph Chimera) to come to Dallas for a mission, he
was spotted by the FBI, who immediately alerted the First Line.
Correctly figuring that Winget and Howler might target the local Stark
Industries facility that held a new type of guidance system, the team
planned an ambush there.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4) - Howler fell for the
ambush at the Stark Industries plant and was attacked by the heroes.
Yankee Clipper managed to knock him out, leaving Chimera to fend for
himself. Quickly shifting his shape to dart away, Chimera mortally
wounded Liberty Girl when she got in his way. While the others tended to
their fallen comrade, Effigy gave chase and faced down Chimera. As the
polymorphic villain altered his shape, turning into alien creatures
Effigy recognized, Velmax figured something was off. Matching Chimera's
shifting, he didn't realize he was fighting his old commander until
after he had already dealt the fatal blow. Zuhn, shocked to see Velmax
working as a champion for mankind, called his former underling a
traitor. Velmax desperately tried to explain to the dying Zuhn what he
had been trying to do on Earth, finally learning Zuhn had started the
lab fire himself. As he held Zuhn, Velmax wondered to himself what he
had become.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 - BTS) - While Effigy destroyed Zuhn's body to get rid of the evidence, he missed the meeting his teammates had with Cassandra Locke, who had time-warped near their location. Her presence caused the Yankee Clipper's power belt to flare out of control, hurtling them both decades into the future. However, due to a counter-wave emanating from the 22nd century to prevent the creation of alternate realities, the First Line instantly forgot all about Locke and what had happened to the Clipper.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4) - After assuring the team and the authorities that Chimera would no longer pose a threat, Effigy took the First Line home. On the plane ride back, he mentioned to the Black Fox that they needed to figure out what to tell the press, figuring the death of Liberty Girl and the disappearance of the Clipper would probably fill the papers for weeks.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#4 - BTS) - While the First
Line departed Dallas for their Hideaway headquarters, Lee Harvey Oswald
made preparations to later that day successfully assassinate President
Kennedy (or, at least that's the official story).
(Marvel: The Lost
Generation I#5 (fb) - BTS) - As the 1960s continued, Effigy and the
Black Fox stepped up to become the backbones of the First Line. Effigy
was especially determined to continue the legacy of the Clipper, even as
the team itself was expanded with new recruits like Oxbow, Pixie,
Rebound, Major Mercury and Frank.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#5 - BTS) - During 1967's "Summer of love," acting on a tip from Captain Hip and his partner, Sunshine, Effigy decided the First Line needed to investigate a music festival hosted by Venus. Suspecting there might be mind-control at work, Pixie and Effigy joined Hip and Sunshine on a fact finding mission to the event. There, Effigy used his shape-shifting powers to blend in the crowd and infiltrate the organization, while Sunshine fell prey to the mental persuasion of both Venus and Rumor (the latter controlling and magnifying the powers of the former), and Captain Hip in turn fell under Sunshine's control. Pixie learned of Rumor's involvement moments before running into Thor (who had been ordered to Earth by Odin to deal with the situation as a lesson in humility).
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#5) - Shortly after Rumor had launched his so called "children's crusade," Effigy managed to get backstage at the festival where he spotted Venus and the old Nazi. Instantly recognizing her from their previous encounter in 1952, Effigy changed into a young, partially deaf boy and pretended to be lost and accidentally wandering around. Rumor decided to keep the child around even as he and Venus went to the streets to observe how the crusade was progressing. Effigy held back while Rumor turned First Liner Frank and Thor against the team, but finally acted when the aged enemy sent the mob to kill the First Line. However, covering Rumor's mouth with his extended arm didn't break his control over the crowd. Effigy was assisted by the Black Fox, who slightly damaged Rumor's throat, thereby disabling the subsonic mind-control pulse he generated.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 (fb) - BTS) - After locating his old ship back in 1958, Effigy had spent the next decade trying to restore the vessel to its former glory. Using his connections within the state department, he had the craft brought to the First Line's Hideaway headquarters for study, even as he continued the repairs during his off hours. While the saucer's interstellar drive was damaged beyond repair, Effigy still found a way to recharge the fuel cells to make it space-worthy again.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 - BTS) - A few days before NASA's Apollo-11 mission would put the first man on the Moon, Effigy picked up signs of Skrull activity--figuring the empire might try and stop mankind's expansion into space by destroying the mission, he decided to act.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6) - On July 20th, 1969 at 4:58 in the morning, Effigy summoned the First Line for an important mission. After cursing out Black Fox for being incommunicado (he was enjoying a romantic interlude with the Russian defector Katyusha), Effigy explained the situation and the return of the alien race that had built the saucer. He then showed his team the restored saucer. As they made preparations for launch, Mr. Justice wanted to know why NASA had spent billions on the Apollo mission when this craft was just lying around. Effigy revealed that NASA wasn't even aware of its existence, even claiming it was better that the U.S. had figured out a way to reach the Moon without it being handed on a silver saucer. En route, Oxbow wondered how Effigy had mastered all those alien control systems, but the secret Skrull claimed they were all pretty straightforward. He then told the team about the craft's "lifeboat technology"--this creation temporarily supercharged the body's natural electro-magnetic aura, while hyper-oxygenating its tissues, thereby precluding the need for space suits. Arriving on the lunar surface, the First Line quickly ran into the super-villains Positron, Typhoon, Howler, Axis and the Scythe who had been hired by three disguised Skrull agents to destroy the Apollo mission. While the team engaged their enemies, Effigy went solo to find their mothership. Thoroughly impressed by how far the Skrull Empire's technology had progressed in the past two decades, Effigy entered the craft, noticing that even the air of the atmo-field lock smelled like home. After the four Skrull agents spotted him, Effigy shifted back into his base form, while sharing his story with them. Moved by his suffering, the Skrull agents promised Velmax he'd be welcomed as a hero back home. That all changed when they spotted the First Line fighting their agents. Quickly realizing Velmax was responsible for bringing them, they angrily demanded an explanation. Dumbstruck, Velmax confessed that they were his team.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 - BTS) - Velmax quickly killed his fellow Skrulls and rigged their saucer to self destruct above the lunar surface--Typhoon was unlucky enough to board the craft moments before it took off.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6) - The First Line proved ultimately victorious, taking Positron and the Scythe back home on the saucer as their prisoners. On the way back, Effigy lied to his team about the events aboard the Skrull ship, claiming the aliens were the ones who set the self destruct rather than surrender their ship for study. He then told Oxbow, who kept referring to them as Bug-Eyed Monsters (B.E.M.'s), that the aliens were known as Skrulls and that they had been aware of Earth for a long time. Even as their ship entered Earth's orbit, Effigy assured the First Line this wasn't the Skrulls' first and most certainly not their last mission against Earth, stating they all needed to be vigilant, both as a team and a nation.
Several days later, moved by the fact he had chosen Earth over his own people, Velmax attended a naturalization ceremony in Washington D.C. as Jacob Scott. Quietly speaking the official swearing in pledge along with the other citizens to be, Scott became teary-eyed when he realized that after all these years he had finally found a home again.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#7 (fb) - BTS) - Despite his continued adventuring as Effigy, Velmax also found time to advance Jacob Scott's political career. Following Richard Nixon's victory in the 1968 presidential elections, Scott was eventually appointed undersecretary of the State Department.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#7) - In the early 1970s, US president Richard Nixon's paranoia grew rampant. He announced plans to send the First Line against his political enemies. When undersecretary Scott (Velmax) attempted to change Nixon's mind, the President blatantly stated that the team would either cooperate or he'd revoke their security clearances and privileges. At that moment, the Black Fox entered the Oval Office to tell Nixon off, saying to his face he was sick of both him and his lies. Later that day, the Fox (as Paine) met up with Scott, who still couldn't believe he'd dared to speak to the President like that. The Fox repeated his earlier statements, wondering if Effigy could replace Nixon. When his shape-shifting teammate refused, the Black Fox angrily claimed that Effigy was the only one of them on the inside--either he stopped "Tricky Dick," or the Fox would do it himself.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#7 - BTS) - Following his
confrontation with the Black Fox, Nixon planned to send the FBI after
the vigilante on a trumped up charge. He was dissuaded from doing so by
Scott, but even the undersecretary couldn't prevent Nixon from ending
all federal authorization for the First Line, effectively turning the
team into outlaws.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#7) - Moved by the
Fox's passionate plea, Effigy considered replacing Nixon while having a
drink in his Georgetown apartment. Though convinced he would be able to
pull it off without anyone noticing, he abandoned that plan when he
realized the impact that it would have on Nixon's family. Shocked to
find he had become part of an administration that rivaled the Skrull
Empire in paranoia and deceit, he decided to act. Contacting Washington
Post reporter Bob Woodward by phone, Scott revealed classified
information that would lead to the Watergate scandal and Nixon's
eventual downfall.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9 (fb) - BTS) - Scott kept himself appraised of any and all new super powered beings. Around 1980, the brilliant bio-geneticist William Carmody was turned into a sentient, powerfully telepathic living brain (aka the Eternal Brain) following an attack on his life. Scott learned of Carmody's new status before too long.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9 - BTS) - Sometime in 1980, Halwan's ruler Princess Zafina had three American diplomats kidnapped, and the CIA sent Mr. Justice on a solo mission to retrieve them. However, his jet was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz, with Justice himself being captured by Halwani forces and brought to the royal palace outside of Kamillabad. Effigy, as undersecretary Scott, was tasked to deal with the situation. While the CIA planned to send in a team of operatives (led by Colonel Fury) to extract the dignitaries, Scott figured it would be best to bring the First Line together to free Justice. Because unexpectedly heavy solar flare activity was disrupting satellite traffic, he decided to seek out Carmody, hoping he would be willing to use his telepathy to keep the team connected during the mission.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9) - Effigy was able to penetrate the Carmody estate's security systems by posing as Carmody's assistant Jim Fitzpatrick. Gaining access to the lab as Carmody, in his new robotic body, his daughter Mary and Fitzpatrick were meeting, Effigy quickly revealed his morphing abilities before explaining why the Eternal Brain's help was necessary. When Carmody agreed to aid Scott, the undersecretary called in the First Line who had been working outside. After Velmax led the mission briefing as Scott, he changed back to Effigy and joined his old team on the mission.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9 - BTS) - Well before the First Line arrived in Halwan to rescue him, Mr. Justice had managed to convince his physician, Princess Khadijah, to help him escape Zafina's torture chambers. On the way out, Justice also discovered and freed the American diplomats, who had been moved to the royal palace prisons as well. Together, they headed for a nearby airfield to commandeer a jet.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9) - After the First Line traveled to Halwan and managed to gain access to the Halwani royal palace, they soon realized they were fighting a useless battle when it became obvious Mr. Justice was not there.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9 - BTS) - Effigy took Oxbow aside, and together they came up with an escape plan. After finding and overpowering the real Princess Zafina, Effigy assumed her form and pretended Oxbow was holding her hostage.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9) - Effigy (as Zafina) and Oxbow managed to put an end to the hostilities (though, sadly, after his teammate Blackjack had been killed). The team used "Zafina" to escape Halwan safely, with Effigy only revealing the ruse after they were in the air and headed for Israel, where Mr. Justice was being treated at Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Medical Center. There, the Black Fox became furious at Effigy and his bosses at the state department for using him and the First Line as pawns to help destabilize the Halwani regime. Effigy then joined Nightingale, Pixie and the Black Fox in visiting Mr. Justice. He was witness to the team's healer restoring Justice to full health. When he tried to smooth over the death of Blackjack by commending everyone on a job well done, the Black Fox grew furious and quit the team in protest.
(Marvel: The Lost
Generation I#10 (fb) - BTS) - At some point during the 1980s, Effigy and
the Eternal Brain decided to reboot the First Line, figuring there was
still a need for them. Reimagining the team as a loose confederation
operating more covertly rather than as tightly-knit team like in their
previous incarnation, the two started to lay the groundwork to achieve
this goal. Construction started on the Carmody Institute, an impressive
structure off the coast of Maine in New England.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#10 - BTS) - Unbeknownst to Oxbow and the others, CIA operative Nicholas Fury was trying to infiltrate the Carmody Institute in an attempt to get a handle on the new First Line, who were stationed there. At the same time, Deviant Warlord Kro decided it was high time to act on rumors he'd received about an Eternal (most likely Pixie, possibly Makkari) trying to encourage humanity's interest in "super-heroics." He took a small army through the subterranean tunnels in order to deal with the problem, even as Cassandra Locke time-warped into the First Line's Maine base.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#10) - At roughly the
same time the Carmody-created automaton Walkabout detected and
apprehended Nick Fury when he tried to enter the Carmody
Institute, Kro ordered his Deviant forces to attack the Eternal (Pixie) he had detected on his
gouger. Moments before the Deviant troops entered
the Institute, Pixie picked up on their presence, which caused Oxbow
to be on high alert. The Deviants immediately recognized their quarry,
classifying Pixie as "just a pup" who only needed a good z-ray to be
dealt with. As Pixie dodged the blasts, Oxbow told her to go airborne
while the Carmody Institute's claxons went off alerting new recruits
Morph, Yeti and Rapunzel to the crisis, and they came a-running,
evening out the odds. In the midst of this confrontation, Cassandra
Locke popped up again, but, after confirming where and when she was,
decided to stay out of the way. She watched how Effigy confronted
Pixie during the battle, demanding to know if and how Pixie knew their
assailants. Enraged by this, Oxbow forcefully pushed the First Line's
leader aside which caused the shapeshifter to threaten to retaliate.
Just then, Cassandra Locke ran out in an attempt to stop the fight,
surprising Oxbow and the others with her presence. Before they could
hear her story, Morph alerted Effigy and the others that Yeti was
running wild. While Rapunzel calmed the feral First Liner, Oxbow shot
a net-arrow that covered the hole into which the Deviants were trying
to retreat.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#10 - BTS) - Unwilling to have his
troops captured or interrogated, Kro decided they should not further
contaminate the gene pool and purified his forces, killing them on the
spot.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#10) - With the immediate threat passed, Effigy and the other First Liners listened to Cassandra Locke's story. Initially full of disbelief, Effigy became frantic when Locke mentioned how she had just (from her temporal point of view) witnessed a Skrull invasion. Shocked to hear his people's future plans, Effigy grabbed Locke and tried to shake more details out of her. When his slightly startled teammates wanted to know just what made the normally even-keel Effigy fly off the handle, he called the matter classified. Even as the First Line discussed what they had learned amongst themselves, Locke decided to continue her journey into the past. Moments after her departure, Effigy and everyone else who met Cassandra instantly forgot about her due to a counter effect set in motion in the 22nd century (designed to limit the risk of temporal divergences caused by visiting the past).
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#11 - BTS) - When an unidentified menace threatened Manhattan (which turned out to be Nocturne and his Alchem-Tech virus), Effigy sent Firefall, Pixie and Walkabout to New York to investigate. With them gone, Oxbow and Mr. Justice away on solo missions, and Rapunzel and Dr. Mime off on a shared adventure of their own, Effigy was alone in the Carmody Institute when authorities brought in the recently captured Skrull infiltrator Zankor.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#11) - By the time the others returned from their various assignments, Effigy had already managed to learn Zankor was an advance scout for a widescale Skrull invasion. Effigy assured Zankor the empire wouldn't win and that the First Line would call in every super-powered ally available to oppose the invasion.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#12 - BTS) - When Effigy and the First Line obtained sufficient evidence the Skrull invasion was imminent, they assembled an undisclosed but considerable number of Earth's metahumans. They boarded several space-worthy vessels to combat the alien threat head on.
(Marvel: The Lost Generation I#12) - Effigy was aboard the one vessel to reach and penetrate the Skrull flagship, which left the First Line hopelessly outmatched compared to the Skrulls' superior firepower. In the end, Effigy, Oxbow and Pixie were the only members still left alive. Effigy managed to set up a resonance overload in the ship's warp-feed phase-shifters that would cause the engines of every ship in the armada to explode. He ordered Oxbow and Pixie to take one of the remaining escape pods, assuring them he'd still have time to make it out as well. However, he was fatally shot before he could activate the sequence. As he lay dying, Pixie finally learned the First Line's leader had been a Skrull all along. With his dying words, he told her that during all his years on Earth he always tried to be a good American. He then asked her to throw the switch, but revealed he'd lied about there being a time delay, fully planning to sacrifice himself for the sake and safety of his adopted world. He left it to Pixie to throw the switch, which she did, albeit after a brief encounter with Cassandra Locke, who started her journey into their past after this meeting. Effigy's body was presumably vaporized in the subsequent explosion.
(Secret Invasion: Skrulls!) - Several years after his death, Velmax received an entry in the Skrull Warbook files, comprised by Skrull Chancellor Kal'Du by order of Queen Veranke. Calling him a filthy traitor, Kal'Du noted that Velmax was instrumental in the utter destruction of one of the largest invasion fleets the Skrulls ever sent against Earth. He also noted that Velmax, albeit an extreme example, was part of an alarming trend of espionage agents becoming caught up in Earth culture and losing sight of their true objectives.
Comments: Created by Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks).
Effigy's codename always tickled me because of its obvious reference to the fact his supposedly true identity was also a front. The shapeshifter's blonde-haired, blue-eyed "all American" base form was actually an effigy, hiding a "damn dirty alien." Having Rapunzel ask Effigy if the captured Skrull Zankor was a distant cousin was a decidedly tongue in cheek moment.
It is unclear to me whether
Skrulls can change their masses or not. They typically stay within
some range of their volume, but stories are inconsistent with
limitations in this regard, as the early Fantastic Four I#2 showed a
Skrull seeming to turn invisible by suddenly shrinking to a tiny
size, and we've seen Skrulls increase their volume by a factor of 2,
5, or even 10+ in some stories. Perhaps these Skrulls had
enhancements that exceeded the Skrull norm. I'm not sure.
--Snood.
1. According to various editions of the Official Handbook, the average Skrull cannot distend his or her mass any more than 1.5 times as large a volume as his or her original volume, nor can he or she contract his or her mass any more than .75 a volume as his or her original. However, as far as I know, these limitations have NEVER been part of any story featuring Skrulls.
True...Skrulls' abilities and limitations vary with each writer and whatever plot device is needed for the story.--Snood
2. For example, in Reality-2300's 24th Century, Skyppi, the elderly Skrull who befriended Hercules, demonstrated size and mass changing abilities which greatly exceeded the "official" limitations. On one occasion, he escaped his pursuers by changing into an insect and riding on the pants of a security officer. Furthermore, the fact that Skyppi had been a maintenance worker for 200 years because he was considered to be unfit for warfare means that he wouldn't have been given any enhancements. And that means that his abilities were entirely natural.
--Yep, and even in the very first Skrulls story, one of them could "turn invisible" by shrinking out of visual range almost instantly--Snood.
3. This is just my own fanfic theory but I've always believed that the unstable molecules which comprise every Deviant Skrull's body might contain some that function like Pym particles. If so, then Skrulls would be able to greatly change their masses by either accruing or shedding extradimensional matter simply by willing it as part of their shape-changing.
Don CampbellFor my money, it seems perfectly logical that some/most Skrulls are limited by their mass/volume, and others aren't. Perhaps it's a matter of a certain number being granted unlimited size-changing ability, while the rest have a racial norm. Or perhaps there are whole sub-races of Skrulls with certain abilities; it makes perfect sense to me that the Skrull Empire, which covers/covered hundred, if not thousands, of worlds, had solid sub-sects of Skrulls with variant abilities.
--Snood again....
Effigy's clothing effortlessly shifted
shape with him. Seeing as the events of M:TLG
took place years before Reed Richards would discover and patent unstable
molecules and it's unlikely he wore his Skrull military uniform for 40+
years. Perhaps Velmax eventually used technology from his crashed ship
to produce the Skrull equivalent of molecularly unstable cloth.
Pretty much all Skrulls' outfits change with them...if they didn't
develop clothing that had such adaptive properties, perhaps, like
Mystique, they were actually naked and just made their outer surface
appear as clothing.
--Snood
Black Fox's request to have Effigy replace Nixon was presumably a reference to the 3-D-Man story in Marvel Premiere#37, circa 1958, in which the Skrull Zirksu (aka Diabolik) impersonated Nixon, who was then the vice-president of the USA. A Skrull also impersonated Nixon in Reality-9904, a reality in which 3-D Man had been part of a group of Avengers in the 1950s (counterparts to Reality-616's Department Zero, the original name for what would become the Agents of Atlas, neither of which included the 3-D Man as a member).
Just how Effigy's exploits on Earth became known to the Skrull Empire has not been made clear. In #12, the Skrull soldiers who killed Effigy already called him a traitor when he was still in human form. How did they know? After all, every single Skrull he encountered in the series up until that point was either killed by him (Zuhn, the four Skrull agents in 1969) or prevented from returning home (Zankor). It's possible that in between issues #11 and # 12 of M:TLG the female Skrull Korya somehow learned the First Line's leader was actually Lieutenant Velmax. It's also possible Velmax revealed himself to the leaders of the Skrull armada, pretending to side with them while he made sure the First Line could approach the flagship and fight off the invasion.
Effigy is pretty
much the only member of the First Line present from start to finish,
involved in almost all of their adventures, and associated with all of
their members and enemies (short of
Diablo, anyway). Still, there are untold numbers of
adventures we have yet to see.
--Snood
Effigy is largely
unaffected whether the First Line's chronology is tethered to "just
before the Modern era" or not. As Skrulls have a much longer lifespan
than humans, it makes little difference whether he was -- assuming he
was born around 1900 -- 90 years old at the time of his apparent death (as M:TLG#12's battle against the Skrull
fleet would have occurred just shy of 1990), or whether he was
more like 105 years old (as of 2014,
courtesy of the sliding timescale).
Ultimately, however, my vote would be to make the
interactions with Reed Richards and Ben Grimm as being topical (just
like them being shown to have been active in World War II in early
Marvel stories was shown to be) and to keep the end of the
First Line as having occurred in the late 1980s.
--Snood
Effigy received profiles in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - Book of the Dead (2004), Skrulls! I#1 and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z I#3
The Rumor profile in Thor: Asgard's
Avenger, erroneously notes the Venus who was involved with Rumor to
have been the siren. The Venus/Aphrodite/goddess profile in her
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe entry confirms this to have
been the goddess. The Rumor entry is in error.
--Snood.
Additionally, it's not clear whether
Frank from the First Line is definitely the Frankenstein
monster or not. The First Line and Frankenstein Monster profiles
in the OHotMU are contradictory in this regard, with the former saying
they are the same and the latter saying it is "unknown."
As the head writer of the Official Handbook of the
Marvel Universe at that time, I can tell you, the official policy is:
Frank of the First Line is apparently either a Frankenstein
monster - meaning a creature created in the manner of Victor
Frankenstein's first creation - or just a being with a similar
appearance and abilities who adopted the name Frank due to the notable
similarities. However, it as yet remains unrevealed whether Frank is
actually the original creation of Victor Frankenstein, aka "the
Frankenstein monster." Previous entries referencing Frank as
"Frankenstein monster" were unclear in specifying/clarifying this
point.
--Snood.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Effigy should not be confused with
In the early 1970s, Effigy was persuaded by the Black Fox to stop the out of control Richard Nixon. It took a lot of will power for the patriotic Velmax to turn against his president. When he did, he contacted Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward and shared some rather sensitive information with him. Thanks to Effigy's leak, Woodward and his colleague Bernstein eventually uncovered evidence Nixon (a Republican) was behind a break-in at the Watergate Hotel, headquarters of the Democratic National Party. Because of this (and due to the deep voice he used in his phone conversations with Woodward), Effigy became known as "Deep Throat" in later years. Woodward and Bernstein's ongoing investigation eventually forced the U.S. Senate to start hearings that would have inevitably led to the impeachment of the President. Deciding to keep his final political fate in his own hands, Nixon stepped down willingly.
Over the years, the success of Woodward and Bernstein had caused journalists to be extremely vigilant, fired up and eager to uncover a scoop of similar magnitude. This forced intelligence agent Colby in the mid '70s to treat the possible return of the supervillain Nocturne with extreme secrecy, explaining to the Black Fox and Pixie that following Watergate, most reporters considered themselves the next Woodward and Bernstein.
-- Marvel: The Lost Generation I#7, Marvel: The Lost
Generation I#8 (BTS)
images: (without ads)
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe - Book of the Dead (main image)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#4, p1, pan1,2,3 (crash)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#1, p6, pan5 (considers becoming Captain
America)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#2, p17, pan4 (faking it)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#3, p18, pan2 (fights the Claws minions)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#5, p12, pans 2&3 (turns into a little
deaf flower child)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#6, p18, pans 4&5 (fakes the Skrulls)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#6, p22, pans 6&7 ('officially' becomes
a US citizen)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#10, p9, pan4 (goes from Scott to superhero)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#11, p21, pan4&5 (and his 'distant
cousin')
Marvel The Lost Generation I#12, p18, pan 1 & 3 (dies)
Marvel The Lost Generation I#6, p21, pan3 (Bob Woodward)
Appearances:
Marvel:
The Lost Generation I#12 (March 2000) - Roger Stern (writer),
John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel:
The Lost Generation I#11 (April 2000) - Roger Stern
(writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks),
Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel: The Lost Generation I#10 (May 2000)
- Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al
Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel: The Lost Generation I#9 (June 2000)
- Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al
Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel:
The Lost Generation I#7
(August 2000) - Roger Stern
(writer), John Byrne
(pencils), Al Milgrom (inks),
Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel: The Lost Generation I#6 (September 2000) - Roger Stern
(writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio
(editor)
Marvel: The Lost Generation
I#5 (October 2000) - Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne
(pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel:
The Lost Generation I#4 (November 2000) - Roger Stern (writer), John
Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel: The Lost Generation I#3 (December
2000) - Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom
(inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel: The Lost
Generation I#2 (January 2001) - Roger Stern (writer), John Byrne
(pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Marvel:
The Lost Generation I#1 (February 2001) - Roger Stern (writer), John
Byrne (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Ralph Macchio (editor)
X-Men: The Hidden Years I#16 (March 2001) - John
Byrne (writer, pencils), Tom Palmer (inks), Jason Leibig
(editor)
First Posted: 04/21/2014
Last updated: 06/26/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
Copyright info
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Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you
should check out the real thing!
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