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    Rick Jones

    Character » Rick Jones appears in 1417 issues.

    A scrappy, rebellious orphan, Rick Jones stumbled into the test site for the Gamma Bomb and inadvertently caused Bruce Banner to be caught in the blast that transformed Banner into the Hulk. Rick became the Hulk's closest confidant, a member of the Avengers, and a friend and sidekick to multiple heroes. Rick eventually became an immortal gamma mutate and has undergone multiple transformations.

    Short summary describing this character.

    Rick Jones last edited by JillC on 02/16/24 02:35PM View full history

    Origin

    Helping Bruce banner
    Helping Bruce banner

    Rick Jones is an orphan who eventually became an honorary Avenger. At the character's pinnacle usage, the Marvel Universe is often seen through his eyes as the reader. He is often portrayed as the "ultimate sidekick" character, however the character's raw roots are of a more angst ridden nature. Rick Jones is a musician, a fighter, and a rebel...with the underlying potential to be a hero.

    As a teenager, Rick Jones knew no fear. When he was dared to sneak onto a military testing facility, he didn't give it a second thought. What he and his friends did not know was the facility was a test center for an experimental Gamma bomb. When scientist Bruce Banner noticed Rick sneaking on, he raced out to save him seconds before the bomb was to detonate. Time only allowed for Banner to push Rick into the safety of a trench as the explosion irradiated his shocked body. Thus the incredible Hulk was born. Rick Jones swore never to leave Dr. Banner again.

    The sacrifice that Banner had made caused Rick to grow up fast. He knew it was his fault and took the responsibility to assist Banner and the Hulk, knowing how dangerous it would be.

    Character Creation

    Rick Jones was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 (1962).

    Major Story Arcs

    Pirate Radio

    Rick Jones and the " Teen Brigade", an underground network of what may be described as "pirate radio" or a group of angst ridden teens, heard of the Hulk's rampage and summoned the Fantastic Four. However, instead a few of solo heroes simultaneously answered the call, thus directly or indirectly giving birth to the legendary super team known as The Avengers.

    Bucky

    Rick would soon become good friends with Captain America. So much to the point that Rick would become his partner and call himself Bucky. The two would have a few adventures together, but it was cut short when the Red Skull used the Cosmic Cube and transferred his mind to Captain America's body and Captain America's to his body. Rick would walk in on the Red Skull in Cap's body and received a big smack in the face. Thinking that it was actually Captain America Rick decides to quit being Cap's partner and once again becomes a wanderer.

    Rick and Captain Marvel and the Destiny Force

    Bonded with Captain Mar-Vell
    Bonded with Captain Mar-Vell

    Rick and Captain Mar-Vell had many adventures together, they even fought his old partner Hulk and the Zodiac Cartel along with the Avengers. Mar-Vell and the Fantastic Four was in a battle with Annihilus, when Mr. Fantastic managed to free Rick from the Negative Zone which allowed both men the freedom from each other. During a misunderstanding with the Avengers, Mar-Vell was hospitalized, and he and Rick were abducted by the Skrulls. This would lead into the Kree/Skrull War. This is were Rick discovered his own latent

    For the first time, Rick Jones realized his own worth beyond being the "perennial sidekick", after a life of rejection. Through his experiences of living vicariously through the hero Mar-Vell, Rick realized he had the power within himself.

    At the end of the Kree/Skrull War, Rick and Mar-Vell would once again become bonded to each other, to save Rick's life, he became Mar-Vell's "host body", so they could exchange atoms for three hours for Mar-Vell to fight evil, yet maintaining a mental link of conversation.

    The Space Knight

    Soon after Ricks' guilt made him decide to expose himself to gamma rays in hope to make a Hulk like being to stop Bruce/Hulk who was on a rampage. It backfired and gave himself Gamma poisoning. Rick was going to undergo a massive blood transfusion to treat his sickness, when the hospital was attacked by monsters created by the Dire Wraiths. Rick was saved by the Space-knight, Rom and began to team with Rom, Brandy Clark now known as Star-shine, Forge, and Cindy Adams against the threat of the Dire Wraiths. He did this, despite the fact that he was slowly dying. Upon the final defeat of the Wraiths, Rom along with other of earth's superheroes banished them all to Limbo and then bade farewell to Rick Jones and the Earth. Rick Jones and Brandy Clark met the alien called the Beyonder (a Secret Wars 2 tie in issue of ROM). The Beyonder briefly granted Rick superhuman powers but Rick realized he couldn't handle them, and the Beyonder stripped him of his powers but left him cured of his cancer.

    When Rick wasn't playing sidekick to a hero he was playing guitar and singing with his band trying to make it big.

    Back With Hulk

    During an experiment to try and save Bruce and Hulk, Rick was knocked into a chemical vat that turned him into a mindless Hulk like creature. Trying to save Rick, Grey Hulk allowed Leader to siphon all of the excess gamma radiation from Rick's body into his own leaving the Leader further mutated and creating a mental link between the two. Rick began to hang-out with the Hulk again during the period that Hulk's skin turned gray and his persona retained some of Bruce Banner's intellect. Rick and and Clay Quartermain began traveling across the country with the Hulk trying to find and destroy all remaining gamma bombs until Hulk was believed killed by the Leader.

    After the Hulk's return, Rick begins dating Joe Fixit's ex-girlfriend Marlo Chandler. After the Hulk personalities merged into one, a secret team of heroes called the Pantheon approached Hulk with an offer to join them, and Rick accompanies Hulk on most of his missions for the group. As a favor to their friend Jim Wilson, Rick and Hulk agree to help out at an AIDS benefit concert with Rick headlining and Hulk providing security. The concert was disrupted by the drug-addicted assassin Speedfreek who was sent to kill one of the concert's attendees, Jim was stabbed defending the man and the Hulk got rid of Speedfreek before he could kill anybody. Rick wanted to help Jim but he had also been slashed by Speedfreek and couldn't risk getting infected with Jim's blood, luckily Hulk was able to help Jim because of his enhanced immune system. When Hulk and Rick returned to the Pantheon they were sent to the Florida Everglades to investigate the disappearance of two teens that may have been tied to a missing Pantheon scientist. While there they battled both the Man-Thing and the missing scientist who had transformed himself into the Glob, he was killed by the touch of the Man-Thing when he burst into flame. During one of their missions with them they fought alongside a rebel force in Trans-Sabal against both S.H.I.E.L.D. issue Mandroids and the new government super team X-Factor. The country was being ruled by Farnoq Dahn ,a dictator who had promised the US government energy assistance if they helped him keep his place as unchallenged ruler. He was exposed as a psycho when he tried to win the war by tying a mother and child to two separate missiles and threatened to launch them if the Pantheon didn't stop, he was stopped by Hulk and X-Factor. The tyrant was forced to face his people for the crimes he committed but most of them still saw him as a god and bowed at his feet, he was then shot and killed by a traumatized Rick Jones who had taken a Mandroid suit. After wards Rick returned to his apartment and cut off all contact with the outside world until Marlo and Betty came over and forced him to go back out into the world.

    The Wedding Day
    The Wedding Day

    Out of nowhere a woman showed up claiming to be Rick's mother, she had pictures of him together as a child and claimed to have put him up for adoption while she was on the run from some criminals. After Rick finally accepted the woman claiming to be his mother, she drugs him and chains him up in her basement. Marlo and Betty follow Jackie when they see her speed away from Rick's apartment, and Betty thought she saw Rick in the passenger side. Marlo was killed by Jackie leaving Rick heartbroken. The police told him that she used to work at an orphanage but she was fired when they found out she was unstable. Rick goes to everyone for help bringing back Marlo, from Doctor Strange to Mister Fantastic. The emotional pain in Rick caused the Leader extreme annoyance and he decided to resurrect Marlo to make it go away. The process was disrupted and her mind didn't return immediately with her body, she was alive but she couldn't do anything without somebody guiding her. They have Doc Samson examine her and he believes that she could just be in some kind of coma. Her brothers show up after they find out about her and try to get her away from Rick, but drowning in grief he fights back. When he refuses to hand her over they have Captain America help talk some sense into him but the Hulk shows up and a battle ensues. Just before Rick is arrested by the cops her mind returns and their life returns to "normal". When he is at home his granddaughter from the distant future, Janis, showed up and took the Hulk to the future to defeat the tyrant Maestro. Rick proposes to her a few weeks later and she says yes. At the bachelor party they watch a porno and are shocked to see Marlo in it, the next day Rick confronts her about it and she accidentally sells her soul to Mephisto in order to make Rick forgive her. There wedding is sabotaged by the Impossible Man who sends out invitations to all of Rick's enemies and allies from the Skrulls to Rom, but rather then ruin the day Rick allows everyone to stay as long as their is no fighting. The ceremony is interrupted by Mephisto who comes to claim Marlo's soul but Hulk beats him down and sends him back to hell. After their marriage Rick and Marlo even get their own talk show called "Keeping up With the Joneses". Months later when the Hulk is under the control of Apocalypse, the Absorbing Man shows up and takes Rick and Janis to Cairo to help stop the Hulk. Rick jumps in during the battle and is crippled by Hulk, seeing his best friend's crippled body causes Hulk to break the mind control and flee in shame. The loss of his legs causes trouble to start in his relationship with Marlo.

    When all of earth's missing heroes return, Bruce is returned too and is bonded with the Hulk once more. Bruce is able to gain a secret presidential pardon with the help of the returned Thunderbolt Ross and so Bruce, Betty, Rick, and Marlo all move into the secret government facility Area 102. Bruce is able to get Reed Richards and Tony Stark to build an exoskeleton so that Rick can walk. When Bruce sees his friend walk again, Hulk is overcome with guilt and takes over. He jumps from the base but he is followed by a superhuman Rick, unfortunately he has a heart attack because his body can't keep up with the exoskeleton and Hulk returns them both to Area 102. The next morning they receive news that Betty died to to gamma poisoning and that Bruce has attempted suicide. Rick goes to talk to his friend to find that he has gone completely insane and is talking to hallucinations, Bruce then transforms into the Hulk and flees the base. Betty's death and Bruce's insanity destroy Rick and Marlo's already shaky relationship and they split. Rick stays at Area 102, the new Hulk-buster base and becomes deathly ill and the Avengers are called in to help him.

    Bonding to Genis

    Nega-bands
    Nega-bands

    After teaming-up with the Avengers during Avengers Forever Rick bonded with Genis, who was the late Captain Mar-Vell's son. They were bonded with the Nega-bands that once bonded him with Mar-Vell, except instead of transporting between earth and the Negative Zone they transported between earth and K'ia in the Micro-verse. Their bond brought out Genis' latent cosmic awareness. Rick and Marlo were trying to get back together after their split . During one of their first adventures together they encountered a young girl who was losing control of her nigh-omnipotent abilities, the Skrulls wanted to use her as a weapon and the Silver Surfer wanted to kill her because she had the power to destroy the universe. Rick was able to save her by telling her to use her powers to alter the time stream so she would never get the powers. Rick and Marlo decide to give their relationship one more shot and begin seeing each other again.

    Bonded with Genis
    Bonded with Genis

    When the alien death god Walker starts trying to kill Death, Thanos reveals that Marlo has been her host body since she was restored to life by Leader. In order to protect her Marv, Thor, Thanos,and Marlo travel to purgatory but Walker follows them. Since it is impossible to die in purgatory he forces Marv to switch places with Rick blows off his arm and ages him nearly 100 years. An angry Death takes over Marlo and tears all of Walker's power away from him. Rick's transformation had a major effect on Genis, his mind was thrown into various points in his future. Marv found out that he would go on to marry Songbird, have two kids, resurrect his mother and destroy Magus. Upon return to earth Rick becomes extremely depressed and tries to kill himself. Meanwhile Marlo's comic shop is in financial trouble due to a new competitor that is being run by the magician Maha Yogi. Yogi built the store so that he could gather enough sacrifices to summon the demon Grendel's Mother. Unfortunately for Yogi, Grendel's Mother doesn't want to help him and she leaves him to fight Marv and Moondragon by himself. The fight is about even until Rick uses his vast knowledge of cliche ways to defeat a villain to help them deflect a spell back at Yogi destroying him.

    In order to find a way to return Rick to his actual age Marv travels to the Kree home world to ask the Supreme Intelligence for help. He is defeated by Ronan the Accuser when he arrives and he is placed in a cell. He frees himself from the cell and confronts the Supreme Intelligence. He agrees to help Rick if Marv travels in to the Negative Zone and brings back a rare type of radiation, but the radiation only comes from a sun under the watch of Blastaar's son Burstaar. After Marv retrieves the radiation the Supreme Intelligence tries to restore Rick but it appears to fail. While walking around LA Rick sees a woman giving birth in an alley and helps deliver the baby. The baby is born dead but Rick performs CPR and revives the baby, shortly after he is returned to his real age. Rick believes that it was divine power working with karma but Genis insists that it was a delayed reaction to the radiation. Rick and Marlo split during this time due to her relationship with Moondragon.

    Stranded in the Microverse

    After Moondragon removes the mental blocks on Marv's cosmic awareness he begins training to handle the power, and after months of meditation he feels that he is ready. Rick goes into the Microverse to let Marv try out his new ability. Marv is immediately overwhelmed when he now sees every crisis in the universe happening every second and has to make a choice of which to attend to, and after he made his decision he sees every possible outcome of what could have happened had he chosen differently. But this ability eventually drove him mad after he chose to save an entire race of peaceful aliens from being slaughtered over saving one woman from being murdered by her boyfriend. Immediately after she was killed he was shown her future as the universe's greatest peacemaker and that under her there would have been galactic peace for generations. Rick tries his best to help his troubled friend but it does no good. Marv becomes desensitized to the problems of the universe and strands Rick in the Microverse for months and refuses to speak to him while he goes out and tries to find a way to take over the universe. While stranded in the Micro-verse Rick is imprisoned in a cave by Entropy, and he meets Epiphany. Epiphany helps him escape and awakens his creativity making him a rock star in the Microverse. Marv feels that joining the Kree military will help him, but his insanity causes him to kill his commanding officer and commit suicide. In death Marv meets Entropy and they destroy the universe together, he keeps Rick alive and tries to talk to him for the first time in months and Rick tries to talk them into recreating the universe. Entropy begins having second thoughts and agrees with Rick, the universe is reset to before Marv goes insane and he is given a second chance. Marv decides to save the peacemaker this time around, after he sees that in the future after she dies a great war breaks out killing billions and Marv goes insane again leaving Rick stuck in the Micro-verse.

    Marv the Mad god...Genis, not Mar-Vell.

    Genesis goes mad
    Genesis goes mad

    In order to keep Marv in line Epiphany teaches Rick how to use the Nega-Band connection to "Psy-Fry" him and cause Marv extreme pain. The drawback to the technique is that the same damage is felt on Ricks end too. Marv and Rick agree to switch places every 24 hours. Bored and insane once again Marv decides to play the role of mad god. On earth a convicted murderer, Coven, is executed but amazingly comes back to life immediately after and he is set free since technically he has served his sentence. He decides that the first thing he is going to do is kill a key witness who testified against him against him in court, Rick Jones. He shoots Rick from afar but when he comes closer to finish him off he finds that Rick has swapped places with Marv. Marv is intrigued by the situation and how the policy of the earth court system to ignore all evidence that isn't directly presented, he bestows Coven with a fraction of his cosmic power and they set out to find a crime in progress to adjudicate. Rick wakes up in the Micro-verse to find himself surrounded by concerned groupies. Rick goes to his balcony and sees thousands of his alien fans camped on his lawn. Flying around New York Marv and Coven find Spider-Man fighting an alien, they use their cosmic power to knock them both unconscious and force them to go to "trial". The smaller alien that Spider-Man was protecting reveals that it was just a weird sexual game between he and the larger alien, an embarrassed Spider-Man agrees to leave but the larger alien threatens Marv and Coven snaps his neck. The smaller alien flees and swears revenge against Captain Marvel.

    Back in the Micro-verse Marv continues playing Judge, Jury, and Executioner when he puts himself in between two lovers in a dispute over Rick, the woman has fallen in love with Rick's music and wants to call off her engagement. Marv decides to abuse his power once more and after performing a quick marriage and divorce he threatens to kill the man if he doesn't leave the planet, but before leaving the man threatens vengeance. Back on earth Rick is attacked by the empowered Coven but he is able to fight him off using a gun he received from one of his Micro-verse groupies, Marv takes his powers away from Coven in retaliation but he is able to overcome Marv and take all of his powers. At that moment on earth and in the Micro-verse the two aliens who swore vengeance against Marv return to the respective planets with massive fleets backing them up to kill Marv. In the Micro-verse the aliens found the de-powered corpse of Marv and left, on earth the aliens saw Coven who had taken on the appearance of Marv after stealing his powers. Coven threatened the aliens and they attack him, seconds before they fire Marv takes his powers back and Coven is killed. Marv tells Rick that because of his cosmic awareness he had known the outcome to the entire situation and there had never been any danger.

    No Caption Provided

    Some time later Rick tries to talk Marv out of slaughtering all the Kree, Skrulls, and Shi'ar because he deemed them all a threat to humanity. Marv takes over Rick's mind and forces him to kill himself but brings him back to life soon after. The three species decide to annihilate Marv but are convinced by the Eternals to give them a chance to save him from his insanity. Marv and Epiphany travel to Titan and find that everybody is gone, Rick talks to Marv and tells him that Epiphany isn't there and he is just hallucinating.Marv is ambushed by his younger sister Phyla. Rick is confused because Marv never mentioned that he ever had a sister before but he is talking about having memories of them growing up together. The rest of the Eternals show up including Marv's thought deceased mother Elysius, she tries explain to him that when he remade reality with Entropy they altered it. Marv rips reality in half on Titan to get rid of his sister and mother but he is also pulled through into the pocket universe where his powers are gone. Elysius explains everything that is happening around him, when Marv remade the universe he brought multiple time lines together into one contradicting one. His mother and sister were brought from a reality where Marv had become a great hero and never gone insane, this also explained how all of the events that happened before he remade the universe were still true even though they never technically happened. She also forces Marv to face the fact that he was never insane but had used it as an excuse to escape liability for his actions because he knew he couldn't live up to the expectations placed on him. Marv returns them all to Titan and swears to live up to the name Captain Marvel, Rick tries to congratulate Marv but he seems distracted, because the hallucination of Epiphany is still there telling him that he is insane.

    Into the Future

    Newly reformed, they set up shop on Hyperion and now only go where asked. Due to the entire galaxy fearing Marv nobody will contact him for help so he decides to help out Rick with his marital problems by secretly broadcasting Rick's song for Marlo from his a private studio to every TV, computer, and radio on earth. Marv also set up a website to download the song from to make Rick money, in less than an hour their are over three million downloads and Rick becomes a millionaire. Marlo hears the song and her already shaky relationship with Moon-dragon crumbles when she decides to go back to Rick. When Rick hears about the broadcast he is at first furious but quickly forgives Marv when he finds out about the money, Marlo then walks through the door and attacks Rick and Phyla. Marv intervenes and she turns to dust, Marv uses his cosmic awareness to determine that she is from the future and he uses Titan technology to set out and prevent her fate.

    Back together
    Back together

    Marv jumps into the future a few hundred years and finds over ninety percent of earth's population annihilated, the earth was attacked by the Kree, Skrulls, and Shi'ar as soon as earth tried to colonize another planet because they deemed Humans too dangerous a species to be allowed to live. Even though Marv is traveling into the future the Titan technology allows him to keep in contact with Rick in the present. Marv meets his immortal but otherwise powerless son Ely and a future version of himself. They are keeping Marlo in a coma in their bunker until they can find a cure for a mysterious disease she contracted centuries earlier. Marv used the Nega-Bands to fuse his two selves together to combine his limitless power with the incredible knowledge of his future and he kills all the aliens on earth. His future self then tries to annihilate the alien species as revenge but Marv takes control and expels him from his body. The people of earth are eternally grateful for his deeds and build a statue in his honor, Marv jumps even further into the future to find the moment when Marlo went insane but instead end up in a strange medieval type earth where Ely is the leader of a ridiculed church dedicated to Captain Marvel. Ely tells him that Marlo was taken from her stasis chamber earlier but Marv sees that he's lying and tries using his cosmic awareness to determine what really happened but Ely reveals that he learned how to turn cosmic powers against their users so Marv switches places with Rick and allows him to interrogate Ely. After a serious beating, Ely fights back by tapping into the power of Rick's Nega-Bands and sending him farther into the future where humans have long since died out and earth is being colonized by aliens. Rick lost his Nega-Bands when Ely sent him to the future and finds that the last record of human existence is a hologram left by Doctor Doom. Rick talks with the aliens and they direct him west to find what he is looking for. In this time Ely is with Marlo and they are the last people on earth, Ely is also trying to resurrect Magus. Marv resolved to kill his son in his Cipro, thus preventing him from ever growing into the evil, powerful dictator.

    No More Adventures

    After everyone returns to Hyperion Rick and Marlo get back together which allows for Moondragon and Phyla to begin a relationship. Unfortunately the end of their adventures are signaled when Marlo's former employee at Comic Castle, Al, shows up to collect everything. Rick sees everything for what it really is due to his "Comic Awareness"and starts to throw a tantrum. Al is actually Eulogy one of "the seven friendless", a group of cosmic entities that control the universe. Eulogy shows up at the end of all comics to settle all loose ends and collect everything so it can be used again later. He sends Moon-dragon and Phyla away through a portal before talking to Rick and Marlo. Eulogy undoes the bond between Rick and Marv, takes away Marlo's death-wish ability, and tells them what their futures would have been had their adventures gone on. He pulls Marv out of the Micro-verse and explains to him that the adventures are over. Marv takes some convincing but he agrees to follow Rick and Marlo through the portal. Rick and Marlo are returned to earth as millionaires because of Rick's song and go on with their lives.

    Life After Genis

    Rick's new Appearance
    Rick's new Appearance

    Rick provided funding for a group of former teen heroes known as the Loners and tried getting them to help the new group of young heroes, the Runaways.

    Rick was also present in Captain America's funeral. In the events of the World War Hulk, Rick reunited with the Hulk and supports him about the Illuminati's atrocities against him, but reasons to his friend that vengeance is not the answer. After the Hulk defeated Sentry, Miek tried to stab him but Rick protected Hulk and was the one who got stabbed. He was later rushed into the hospital.

    Next, Rick woke and found himself in burning Alaska pipeline. When he traveled into the site where Bruce Banner became the Hulk, he was suddenly attacked by the Red Hulk. In self-defense, Rick turned into a creature that resembled the Abomination, calling himself A-Bomb. After Rulk is defeated A-Bomb reverts back to Rick and is about to tell Hulk who Rulk is but he is shot in the back and dragged off by Doc Samson.

    Red Hulk explaining how Rick became A-Bomb
    Red Hulk explaining how Rick became A-Bomb

    It is revealed that Rick was transformed into A-Bomb by the Intelligencia under command of the Leader and MODOK. Using Abomination's blood they changed him to become their weapon, but soon learned that he could not be controlled as easily as they planned. Instead, they gave him one simple command with a certain trigger - kill Bruce Banner. Bruce suspected this and was able to trigger Rick at an appropriate time and talk him down, making it so Rick would not be triggered in the future when his plans were to be carried out.

    Cured from A-Bomb

    Later, the Hulk's newly-developed Doc Green persona creates a gamma "cure" that takes away Hulk abilities from those injected with it. Seeking to rid Rick of his A-Bomb persona, Doc Green tracks him down and attacks him. A fierce fight ensues, but in the end, Rick is given the cure and loses his powers. Though Rick angrily chastises him for taking his powers away, Doc Green claims that he did him a favor.

    Totally Awesome Hulk

    Rick was seen again helping out Bruce Banner, whom was now cured of the Hulk when Amadeous Cho absobred all his Gamma Radiation and became an all-new Hulk himself.

    Whisperer

    Whisperer revealed
    Whisperer revealed

    A lingering side effect of his gamma mutation was increased intelligence. His mind was a sponge, and he used this new ability to study communications becoming the hacktivist, Whisperer.

    As Whisperer, Rick hacked SHIELD and discovered the Kobik project, SHIELD's attempt to use shards of the Cosmic Cube to reshape reality to their whims. After leaking this information to the public, he was helped by Sam Wilson (Captain America, at the time) to avoid SHIELD custody. He was eventually captured but rescued by Sunspot's New Avengers.

    When Steve Rogers returned to his role as Captain America, he convinced Rick to use his skills for him. However, at the time Cap had been replaced with a twisted version of himself loyal to Hydra. Rick was tricked into solidifying Hydra's grasp on America, so he leaked as many files as he could to a fellow hacker, Rayshaun Lucas.

    For his crimes, Hydra-Cap made an example of Rick, sentencing him to a televised execution by firing squad.

    Immortal Rick Jones

    Rick combined with Abomination
    Rick combined with Abomination

    Rick's body was exhumed by Shadowbase to be used in their quest to eliminate the Hulk. Rick was surgically combined with the remains of the Abomination creating a whole new creature living in agony. When this new creature attacked the Hulk, Hulk won by ripping Rick from the rest of the creature. As he recovered, Rick's body developed a new ability to emanate gamma radiation, but his mind had been taken over by The Leader.

    The Leader puppeteered Rick and another gamma mutate, Del Frye, into manipulating the Green Door to the Below Place, so that Leader could get full control of gamma energy, ultimately combining them into one giant monstrous body. Leader would abandon the creature when he had no more use for him, but Gamma Flight came across its ailing body while searching for Samson's body among the rubble of Shadow Base. Shaman, who had been traveling with Gamma Flight, was able to spellcast Rick and Del's pain away, but he was unable to separate them. So, they would fall in with Gamma Flight, who were now fugitives for disobeying their new supervisor, Gyrich.

    Gamma Flight

    Rick went on the run Gamma Flight hoping Doctors McGowan and Samson would be able to find a way to separate him from Del. They usually hung around McGowan's makeshift lab, while the team investigated gamma mutate sighting's in Texas. When they discovered Abomination creating gamma mutates, Rick volunteered to help them fight.

    Using a cathexis ray, they are able to cure most of the townspeople from their gamma mutation. Unfortunately, it exploded before they could use it against Abomination, but Absorbing Man was able to mimic its properties enough for one shot. He decided to use it to separate Del and Rick. Now an individual, Rick decides to leave the team needing a break from the gamma business.

    Return of Genis-Vell

    Rick and Genis back together
    Rick and Genis back together

    Seemingly returned to some kind of normal, Rick went looking for his wife, Marlo, only to determine that she is not on Earth. He suddenly experiences a dizzy spell and passes out. He was brought to the ER, but while he was comatose his body became intangible. Meanwhile, his mind connected with a newly cloned Genis-Vell. Genis informs Rick that he needs to get the nega-bands to Genis so that he can stabilize both their energy levels. He also tells Rick that the many different changes he’s been going through proves he didn’t clear that first gamma bomb like he thought.

    Rick returned to his apartment to retrieve and clang the nega bands together. Nothing seemed to happen, but the new Phyla-Vell sensed it and came to him. Rick was going to give them to Phyla to get to Genis, but without the bands, he started turning intangible again. Phyla hoped to appeal to his heroic nature and convince Rick to re-merge with Genis, but he initially refused. So, Phyla knocked him out and took him to space herself. While unconscious, he connected to Genis again. Genis informed him that Marlo was on New Hala being experimented on, so Rick awoke with more motivation to follow Phylla into space.

    When they finally caught up to Genis, he was fighting Shatterax, the hired gun for Ren-Varr, the scientist responsible for Genis' cloning. The more Genis fought, the more they both destabilized until Rick used the nega-bands to merge with Genis once again. Together, they are able to defeat Shatterax and free Marlo from Ren-Varr. Unfortunately, Marlo agreed to take merge with Death, whom became disillusioned by all the resurrections. Thanks to their mergers, Rick and Marlo had to separate after finally reuniting.

    Character Profile

    No Caption Provided
    • Height: 5'9"
    • Weight: 165 lbs
    • Eye Color: Brown
    • Hair Color: Brown
    • Citizenship: American
    • Place of Birth: Scarsdale, AZ
    • Marital Status: Separated, due to his death
    • Occupation: Adventurer; formerly fugitive, talk show host, musician, author
    • Known Relatives: Albert Jones (father, deceased), Elizabeth Jones (mother, deceased), Polly (aunt), Marlo Chandler-Jones (ex-wife),

    Powers

    Skilled Human: Rick Jones is an athletic man that previously had no superhuman powers.

    • Superhero Training: He has received training in combat gymnastics by Captain America and developed a strong courageous spirit.
    • Musician: He is also a skilled self-taught folk and rock n' roll singer and guitarist.
    • Latent Psychic: During the Kree-Skrull war, Rick demonstrated vast psionic powers which the Supreme Intelligence claimed were latent in all humans.
    Rick with Nega Bands
    Rick with Nega Bands

    Temporary Superhuman: As a consistent friend of the superhero community, Rick would often find himself in possession of temporary superpowers

    • Mar-Vell Bond: Rick would receive further training by the hero Mar-Vell as they would be bonded symbiotically. He temporarily had one of the Nega-bands, which provided him with the same powers as Mar-Vell, such as flight, energy blasts, and simple matter manipulation.He was also, for some time, able to shift spacial/temporal positions with Mar-Vell and later Genis-Vell.
    • Destiny Force: Rick would learn how to further his inherent heroism due to his experiences with Captain Marvel. However, this display of power was retconned as the Destiny Force acting through Rick, and not his own innate power.
    • Beyonder Gift: He was temporarily given superhuman powers by the Beyonder, including strength, flight, durability, and energy blasts.
    • Incredible Rick: Also when Joe Fixit was around, Rick Jones fell into the mineral bath that was intended to merge the Hulk and Bruce Banner causing Rick Jones to gain Hulk-like powers. During the day Rick Jones was an average human, but at night The Incredible Rick manifested. His appearance was like the green Hulk's: gamma-powered behemoth of great strength and limited intellect but with mullet.

    Gamma Mutate: It was believed that Rick Jones was mutated with gamma radiation by MODOK leading to a number of gamma mutations over the years. After Genis-Vell's resurrection, Genis hypothesizes that Rick didn't clear the gamma bomb that created the Hulk, and that exposure has led to his constant mutations.

    Rick as A-Bomb
    Rick as A-Bomb
    • A-Bomb: Rick Jones was turned into a creature resembling the Abomination, calling himself "A-Bomb." Through his transformation, he gains protective plates of armor, vast superhuman strength and durability ( as Rick would put it, he is in the strongest there is club), and the ability to track both Hulk and Red Hulk (by zeroing in on their gamma signature). He also has a camouflage ability, being able to turn nearly invisible to match his environment.
    • Whisperer: After he was cured of his A-Bomb mutation, a lingering side effect of his gamma mutation was increased intelligence. His mind was a sponge, an he used this new ability to study computers and communications, becoming a skilled hacker.
    • Abomination Hybrid: When combined with the corpse of Abomination, he had Hulk-like strength, speed, and endurance. He also secreted an acid capable of dismembering the Hulk.
    • Immortal: As a gamma mutate, Rick Jones is immortal. When he dies, he goes to the Below Place and is capable of returning through the Green Door. As he recovered from his separation from Abomination's corpse, Rick's body developed a new ability to emanate gamma radiation, allowing him to fly and project energy blasts.

    Alternate Earths

    Earth-62

    In Spider-Gwen's universe, Rick had gone to an experimental rehab program where he was approached and manipulated by Dr. Bruce Banner. Banner made him into the Hulk, where he'd black out every time he transformed. Banner used him to kidnap Lila Cheney, Dazzler, and Em Jay.

    Earth-224

    Rick Jones was the only survivor of the destroyed reality. Not much is known about the reality, but Rick Jones was a cyborg calling himself "Rik" who joined Proctor's Gatherers.

    Earth-1610

    Ultimate Rick Jones
    Ultimate Rick Jones

    An Alien race, The Watchers decided that the Earth was on the brink of destruction. Uatu, one of the race, said all this to the Fantastic Four in the Project Pegasus building. The Watchers have decided to choose one of the humans and make him a Herald, to help the human race with the New World Order. Immediately after that, Rick Jones began to glow in his backyard. He fell into a coma and woke up six months after the Ultimatum. When he returned home, neighbors said that the coma was caused by drugs. May Parker wanted to help Rick after his mother told her that it was caused by him being a mutant. May said this to Peter, Johnny and Bobby, who lived in her house and asked that they wear suits and talk to Rick. Rick was experimenting with his powers when they arrived so he threw them into the air, then teleported himself and

    Rick as the new Captain Marvel
    Rick as the new Captain Marvel

    Peter to a restaurant in Ann Arbor, before teleporting them back to his backyard. During the conversation with Peter, Johnny and Bobby, he told them that he was not a mutant, that the floating eye gave him powers. Then Jonny remembered Uatu, he told all of this to Rick and the boy decided to meet with the Watchers. However, Jonny said that they left the Earth and Rick teleported all of them to the Project Pegasus building. They found that it was attacked by Serpent Squad. Serpent Squad attacked them and Rick has successfully used his powers. When the boys returned home, Rick realized that he must use his strength. He said goodbye to his family and took the pseudonym Nova.

    During the coming of Galactus, Rick helped combat the creature's army of insect drones. After Captain Mahr Vehl sacrificed his life to temporarily stall the invasion, Rick took up his armor and became the new Captain Marvel.

    Earth-7812

    In this reality Rick Jones became the Hulk instead of Bruce Banner.

    Earth-9200

    In Maestro's reality, Rick has a great-granddaughter named Janis.

    Earth-9309

    Thanatos
    Thanatos

    Rick Jones of Earth-9309 called himself Thanatos and had various superpowers. At some point he crossed over to Earth-928 and became an enemy of Spider-Man 2099.

    Rick Jones chose to stay with the Supreme Intelligence in Kree-Lar after the Kree-Skrull War and eventually learn everything he needed to know about the Destiny Force. It was then that he slay the Supreme Intelligence and chose a path of evil; causing several crises. One of the many erase the heroes of Earth-928 also know as 2099, this event would be referred to as the Eon War. He killed an alternate reality Thor, and also entered the New Universe and was automatically sought by Justice who saw all the evil he had done. While trying to escape from Justice he ventured into the 2099 reality but was discorporate and using the Destiny Force he took over the body of Aaron Delgado who fallen to his death thanks to Spider-Man 2099. He then use the Innerspace to shape the body of Aaron Delgado to his likes and reform his old body. By using a combination of both, he brought for Justice but the transport mutate him into the Net Prophet.

    Other Media

    Television

    • Rick initially appeared in the 1966 Incredible Hulk segment of The Marvel Superheroes.
    • Rick was also a regular character on the 1982 The Incredible Hulk, voiced by Michael Horton. There, Rick was blond, wore a cowboy hat, and had a girlfriend named Rita.
    • Rick appeared alongside Hulk in the 1994 Fantastic Four episode "Nightmare In Green", voiced by Benny Grant.
    Rick with Gray Hulk
    Rick with Gray Hulk
    • Rick was a regular character on the 1996 animated program The Incredible Hulk, voiced by Luke Perry. In the season finale of the first season, Rick Jones falls into the radiation-saturated Nutrient Bath, (which had been used to separate Hulk and Bruce Banner, and was at that moment being used to fuse them back together), Rick soaks up enough of the gamma radiation to become his own teenage version of the Hulk. Rick is later cured after The Leader absorbed his power in order to restore his own with the help of the Gargoyle.
    • Rick appeared in the Iron Man: Armored Adventures episode "Uncontrollable", voiced by Andrew Francis. Alongside the Hulk. The Controller found the task on controlling the Hulk himself impossible instead he tried to control Rick and use his friendship with Hulk to make him carry out his revenge on A.I.M. when both attempts failed, the latter due to Iron Man's intervention, he decided to take control of Iron Man to carryout his revenge. Rick and Pepper are eventually able to convince Hulk to Smash the Controller's disk on Iron Man causing the Controller to pass out with the thought of being smashed by Iron Man's Dynamo Buster armor and Hulk simultaneously
    A-Bomb
    A-Bomb
    • Rick stars in the show Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., deciding to use mobile cameras to record the Hulks adventures to improve their reputation, and naming the group. Rick becomes A-Bomb but like Hulk retains his full intelligence and is unable, or unwilling to change back to human form. He has shown all the powers of his comic version, including strength, armor, and camafloug. He is often the main narrator of the show, and adds every man humor to the Hulks adventures. He is voiced by Seth Green.

    Film

    The reference to Rick
    The reference to Rick
    • Although he does not appear in The Incredible Hulk, Rick's name is briefly shown on a list of Bruce Banner's known associates during the film's opening credits. He was featured in earlier drafts of the script, but was cut in the subsequent rewrites.

    Video Games

    A-Bomb in Ultimate Alliance 2
    A-Bomb in Ultimate Alliance 2
    • Rick Jones appears in The Incredible Hulk video game voiced by Jon Curry. In the game, he is a faithful ally of the Hulk and seems to share his comic book counterpart's back story as a sidekick.
    • Rick Jones's A-Bomb form appears as an NPC in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. He ends up under the control of The Fold when he is encountered in Wakanda on the path to the Black Panther's palace. He is assisted in battle by Justice. His powers were later copied by the Nanite Nick Fury along with Electro, Firestar, Multiple Man, and Bishop.
    • Rick is featured in Lego Marvel Super Heroes as both Rick Jones and A-Bomb.
    • A-Bomb is a recruitable character during the Gamma Attack event of the mobile app game Avenger's Academy.

    Merchandise

    Marvel Universe
    Marvel Universe
    • Hasbro released a Marvel Universe A-Bomb figure.
    • Rick Jones was featured in the HeroClix figure game.
    • Hasbro released a Marvel Mashers A-Bomb figure, based on his appearance in the Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. cartoon.
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