A History Across the Cosmos
When Mr. E, a native of the Shadow Realm, attempted to turn Earth’s sun into a black star, the Uni-Power manifested itself in Ray again to face the threat, but the strain on Coffin caused a heart attack. The Uni-Power chose his teenage son Steve Coffin instead, and Steve defeated Mr. E. The Uni-Power healed Ray before departing.
The Uni-Power later empowered twin siblings, homemaker Ann Stanford and private detective Clare Dodgson, who shared the Captain Universe powers to defeat the crimelord Nemesis, revealed to be Ann’s own husband, Edward.
The Uni-Power entered cat burglar Monty Walsh, who had been shot by agents of the gangster Guido Carboni. Walsh succeeded in bringing down Carboni and hoped to use the Captain Universe powers to become a crime boss, but when the Uni-Power left him, he apparently died from his gunshot wounds.
When a crazed military officer named Jamie Custer attempted to launch a nuclear missile, the Uni-Power transformed Bruce Banner into Captain Universe. Banner’s other self, the Hulk, manifested itself as a separate entity, and its natural enmity towards Banner led to a struggle between the two, but when Banner destroyed the missile, the Uni-Power remerged Banner and the Hulk to protect them; Banner neutralized the nuclear fallout before the Uni-Power departed.
When the Microverse was imperiled by a merging with Earth-616’s dimension caused by the reawakened Whirldemons, Wayfinder’s descendant Arcturus Rann and Earth’s sorcerer supreme Doctor Strange found Wayfinder’s tomb, and the Sword in the Star empowered them both to become a merged Captain Universe. They used the Uni-Power to halt Earth’s merging with the Microverse and were restored to their own bodies when the crisis ended.
An unidentified female Captain Universe was among the heroes of Earth assembled by En Dwi Gast, AKA Grandmaster, to serve as potential participants in his game against Death, but she was not selected.
Later, young student Delayne Masters became Captain Universe to save his teacher from a schoolyard bully named Willie Johnson. Although the Uni-Power left Delayne before he had beaten Willie, Delayne had gained enough confidence from the experience that he was able to defeat Willie on his own.
The Uni-Power once transformed physics professor Evan Swann into Captain Universe to halt the Quantum Mechanic, an extraterrestrial who believed that the law of probability was a flaw that should be corrected by breaking the Earth down into subatomic particles. Swann destroyed the Quantum Mechanic to save Earth.
The Uni-Power’s next known recipient was Peter Parker, secretly Spider-Man. When the Uni-Power first possessed Parker, he was struck by electricity in a laboratory accident while working with Professor Max Lubisch. The accident blocked some of the Uni-Power’s energy from reaching Parker, and he mistakenly believed that his increased powers were a result of the accident. Spider-Man found himself facing increased threats from Super Villains due to the God of Mischief Loki’s so-called “Acts of Vengeance” conspiracy, in which the villain community traded opponents. Spider-Man found he needed his new powers to face Peter Petruski, AKA Trapster; Mary MacPherran, AKA Titania; Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto; Barton and Percival Grimes, AKA the Brothers Grimm; Erik Josten, AKA Goliath (later Atlas); the Hulk; Aleksei Sytsevich, AKA the Rhino; Herman Schultz, AKA Shocker; Morris Bench, AKA Hydro-Man, TESS-One, Dragon Man, Terminus, and Franklin Hall, AKA Graviton. When Loki’s plot was foiled by Earth’s heroes, he attempted new mischief by merging three mutant-hunting Sentinel robots into the Tri-Sentinel. This proved to be the threat the Uni-Power had chosen Spider-Man for, and he gained full access to the Uni-Power.
With the Tri-Sentinel’s defeat, the Uni-Power departed, and Parker found himself wiser for the experience, having remained true to himself even with the cosmic powers of Captain Universe. Peter’s tenure as Captain Universe led to further troubles when nearly all of his foes from “Acts of Vengeance” returned for rematches; he was also kidnapped along with other former Captain Universe hosts by the Psycho-Man, a tyrant of the Microverse who was after the Uni-Power, but Spider-Man and his fellow prisoners escaped and defeated him.
Another Captain Universe was a toddler named Eddie Price, chosen to end the threat of the demons Gart and Rath. The Uni-Power next empowered the dog Casey, allowing him to think at human-level intelligence so that he could save his master Glenn and Glenn's fiancée Laura from a flaming hot air balloon crash. Once Glenn and Laura were saved, the Uni-Power left Casey and the dog returned to normal, living out the rest of its life under Glenn's care.
Later, time-traveling members of the Guardians of the Galaxy (Earth-691) visited the modern era, and they attempted an attack upon the Badoon, hoping to prevent the Badoon invasion of their own timeline. Presumably to prevent a potentially reality-damaging manipulation of history, the Uni-Power transformed a Badoon named L’Matto into Captain Universe to defeat the Guardians. The Guardians’ absent leader Vance Astrovik, AKA Major Victory, came to their aid alongside Dr. Strange, and Dr. Strange forced the Uni-Power to depart L’Matto so that the Guardians could escape back to their own time.
The Uni-Power’s next known host was the paralyzed Elijah Jackson. When he became Captain Universe to save his daughter from attackers, his paralysis was temporarily healed and he had a chance to express his love for his daughter before the Uni-Power departed, restoring him to his paralyzed condition. Though accounts vary, perhaps due to reality distortion, a University of Tennessee veterinary student, Jeff Christiansen, became Captain Universe to aid the X-Men against the mutant Roger Fieldston, who was using his power to mutate others. Captain Universe used the Uni-Power to reverse Fieldston’s powers so that he could heal everyone he had affected in his rampage.
An unusual Captain Universe was Roland Taylor, a schizophrenic writer. The Uni-Power healed his mind, but he found himself pursued by Division U, a scientific team trying to analyze the Uni-Power, whose ranks included Steve Coffin, angered to find another person with his one-time powers. The Uni-Power was also pursued by the Enigma Hunters, extraterrestrials from the Microverse who sought its power for themselves. When the Uni-Power tried to leave Taylor, his schizophrenic side reasserted itself, forcing the Uni-Power to remain. The Uni-Power eventually departed Taylor through unrevealed circumstances.
The Uni-Power went on to possess police officer Ted Simmons, but it began to suffer inexplicable power fluctuations. While Simmons was battling gunmen, the Uni-Power briefly deserted him, and one of Simmons’ fellow officers was shot dead as a result. The Uni-Power could not understand what had happened to it and began to search for answers. Needing more power, it also began to seek individuals who were already superhuman so that it could duplicate their powers.
It first returned to Bruce Banner, this time possessing him and the Hulk as a single entity. They sought out Gilbert Wiles, who was still researching the Uni-Power, and he attempted to assist it, but agents of the anarchist Advanced Idea Mechanics (A.I.M.) attempted to seize the Uni-Power, and while the empowered Hulk fought them, an A.I.M. agent using invisibility technology killed Wiles’ business partner, David Garrett. To help clear Gilbert’s name, the Uni-Power joined with Daredevil, who had taken Wiles as his client. Bonding with the Uni-Power enhanced Daredevil’s superhuman senses to such a degree that he could barely function, but he also regained his eyesight as a result. Murdock proved Wiles’ innocence in court and suggested that the Uni-Power attempt to study AIM’s findings on its situation, hoping it might shed light on the power fluctuations.
To invade an A.I.M. base, the Uni-Power joined with the mutant Laura Kinney, AKA X-23, who was sympathetic to the Uni-Power’s plight, having been a victim of experimentation herself. They were also assisted by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Carmilla Black, AKA Scorpion, and destroyed all of A.I.M.’s intelligence on the Uni-Power in the hopes that they would cease pursuing it. The Uni-Power sought aid from Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, but the Four were attacked by Kallark, AKA Gladiator, of the Shi’ar Imperial Guard, who believed that the Uni-Power’s fluctuations made it a threat to the universe. The Uni-Power possessed FF’s Invisible Woman, to hold off Gladiator, and finally joined with Gladiator briefly so that he could see its recent fluctuations were uncontrolled. Gladiator offered to bring the Uni-Power back to the Shi’ar with him to seek answers.
As they traveled to the Shi’ar empire, Gladiator, and the Uni-Power were captured by Krosakis, an extraterrestrial who fed upon cosmic energies, and he forced the Uni-Power to bond with him so that he could have its power. The Silver Surfer sensed the Uni-Power’s distress and came to its aid. In battle with Krosakis, the Surfer was able to drive the Uni-Power from his body. The Uni-Power then bonded with the Surfer, and he was able to use his Power Cosmic to halt the fluctuations temporarily.
After freeing Gladiator and Krosakis’ other slaves, the Surfer brought the Uni-Power to human Gabriel Vargas, a soldier who had been crippled while on a tour of duty. The Uni-Power chose Vargas as its new host while it continued to investigate its power fluctuations. Vargas became embroiled in the Phalanx invasion of Kree space, and was conscripted by the Kree to aid Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, in a mission to destroy a Phalanx pathogen production facility. During the mission, the inexperienced Vargas unintentionally killed honorary Avengers member Deathcry in self-defense when she attacked him in a berserker rage. The Uni-Power briefly left Vargas to inhabit a Phalanx so that they could obtain the antidote to the pathogen; the Uni-Power destroyed the Phalanx after finding the cure, returned to Vargas, and Star-Lord’s team returned to the Kree. The Uni-Power then left Vargas to respond to another emergency. Vargas’ full mobility was restored by Kree scientists, and he continued to fight alongside Star-Lord, ultimately perishing at the hands of a Phalanx-infected Blastaar.
To undo damage the Juggernaut inadvertently caused to Manhattan’s bedrock years ago, the Uni-Power first possessed William Nguyen, a suicidal man whose life had been ruined when the Juggernaut destroyed his place of business. Nguyen sought out and attacked the Juggernaut for revenge, but the Uni-Power ultimately transferred itself to Marko, who used it to repair the damage he’d caused. Later, when a university experiment apparently released the King of Whirldemons from his imprisonment, he renewed his efforts to destroy Earth. However, the Uni-Power reached out to former hosts X-23, Spider-Man and the Invisible Woman and drew them together to oppose the impending Whirldemon invasion; X-23 became Captain Universe again, battled the King of Whirldemons and stopped his plans.
Sometime later, the Uni-Power claimed the body of Tamara Devoux, who had been comatose for ten years following a car accident that also apparently killed her daughter, Ella. Sensing Earth would be the axis of future events that would result in the premature death of the universe, the Uni-Power's sentience dominated Devoux's body as Captain Universe; as the embodiment of the universe, she was often called "goddess" or "Mother."
Somehow coming to the attention of Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, Captain Universe was invited to join the Avengers. As a member, the Uni-Power has aided the team in their protection of Earth and warned them of the impending universe-ending event. However, at periodic times, an amnesiac Tamara would briefly awaken, believing the times the Uni-Power was sentient were simple black outs. Devoux was aided by Shang-Chi in remembering portions of her life, the car accident and re-acclimating to life.
When Eternity was threatened by Thanos, the Uni-Power/Captain Universe comes to its aid by possessing Deadpool. Deadpool faced off with Thanos, and as Captain Universe, he defeated the mad Titan.
Later, the Spider-Totems summon the Uni-Power to help them battle the Inheritors. The Uni-Power chose Miles Morales, AKA Spider-Man, as the next Captain Universe and with enhanced powers, he helped defeat the Inheritors, though the Uni-Power left Miles post victory.
