Vortex

VORTEX

Real Name: Unrevealed

Class: Extraterrestrial?

Occupation: Superhero

Group Affiliation: Doom Patrol, formerly Tenth Circle

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Million of year into the future, formerly Key Mordaz, Florida

First Appearance: JLA #94 (May, 2004)

Powers: Vortex was composed of chronotropic energy. He could release a force-blat from his mouth that he called his Silent Scream. No human could gaze upon Vortex' unmasked face without going insane.

History: (Doom Patrol IV #18 (fb, BTS), JLA #94-99) - Vortex traveled millions of years into the past to collect Negative Man, a phase 0 of his people that had bonded itself with Larry Trainor. Crucifer and the Tenth Circle abducted Vortex, because they were assembling metahumans so Crucifer’s vampire lords would have worthy vessels to possess. Under Crucifer’s mental domination Vortex assisted in the kidnapping of other young metahumans, but he made friends with fellow abductees Nudge and Grunt, and with his help they contacted the JLA and Doom Patrol, who destroyed Crucifer. Vortex was invited to join the Doom Patrol, and he accepted to be near team member Negative Man.

(Doom Patrol IV #1, 2) - Vortex and the Doom Patrol responded to a disturbance at the abandoned penitentiary where the Chief kept old DP villains. Wormhole had freed Barrage, Megalith, and Snake, and they allowed themselves to be possesed by vampire masters of the Tenth Circle. Nudge and Faith teamed up to expel the vampires from their host bodies, exposing them to sunlight and destroying them.

(Doom Patrol IV #3, 4) - Chief sent the DP to the Soames Lake Project in the South Pole, but left Vortex behind to finish his training.

(Doom Patrol IV #5, 6) - Nudge showed Vortex and the DP a broadcast of an underground fight club using robots with human brains, and Chief sent her, Rita and Cliff undercover to infiltrate it.

(Doom Patrol IV #7, 8) - Vortex and the DP celebrated Christmas together, but the party was cut short when the Chief located Harbor City, Oregon as the center of a string of dinosaur attack. The DP went to Oregon and fought prehistoric creatures that had been devolved from a dog and pigeons. The Devolutionists devolved Rita and Cliff into mindless apes, and they turned against their teammates. Nudge used her telepathy to call the JLA for help, and Martian Manhunter responded, but was also devolved, but soon shook it off. Vortex captured two Devolutionists, and Manhunter pried the location of their master from their minds. While mot of the DP confronted an army of dinosaurs, Vortex and Nudge confronted the Devolutionists mater. Nudge was taken out of the battle, and Vortex confronted the master, who he noticed was very similar to him, and the master commented that Vortex was a third stage member of hi race” Vortex killed the master, afterwards claiming he’d escaped.

(Doom Patrol IV #9-12) - As a favor to Nudge, Martian Manhunter located Grunt, who was in police custody and on his way back to Gambol’s circus. Nudge dragged Vortex along and confronted Gambol. They helped Grunt escape, and Grunt revealed himself to Nudge as her high-school friend Matt Butcher. The police arrived and shot Grunt down, but his life was saved by the DP, who returned Grunt, Vortex, and Nudge to hq. Chief’s old enemy T’Oombala broke into Key Mordaz, freed a number of imprisoned DP villains, and tortured the Chief. The DP and Metamorpho defeated T’Oombala’s servants, and Nudge’s ghostly friend Elihu stabbed T’Oombala, releasing his hold over the Chief.

(Doom Patrol IV #13, 14) - Chief’s robotic drones repaired his body, and he showed the DP an experiment that let a mouse’s mind travel back in time to inhabit its’ past body and apply its’ future learning. Vortex loved the idea, even though his teammates worried about the ramifications of changing the pat, and Chief used a scientific device to examine Vortex and discovered that he was a mass of chronotropic energy. Cliff used Chief’s time machine to prevent his accident that made him Robotman and unintentionally created a series of divergent timelines. He became unstuck in time, going from timeline to timeline, and in the present day the Chief realized the damage Cliff had done. He sent Rita back in time, but tethered her to the present so he could retrieve Cliff. The Justice League of an alternate timeline helped Cliff and Rita return to their rightful timeline, and Cliff made sure he was in the accident that made him Robotman. This eliminated the new timelines, and Chief decided to destroy his time machine.

(Doom Patrol IV #15-18) - Nudge visited Vortex when he was out of uniform, and the sight of his true face shut down her mind. Vortex took Nudge to Chief, and she seemed brain-dead, but soon revived with the five separate minds he’d absorbed when he amplified her powers with Boost possessing her body. She made short work of the DP, but Vortex’ people, who’d been looking for him, arrived and took her out of action. They determined that Larry’s Negative Man was one of their own, a phase 0 that had been affected by its contact with Larry. They accidentally merged with Negative Man, causing him to grow to gigantic proportion and burst from DP hq, before going to Florida’s mainland an sapping the lifeforce of its citizens. The DP rallied, and Rita grew to her maximum size to fight Negative Man, but was exposed to enough radiation to severely injure her. Cliff shared the life energy that powered his body to save her. Chief stopped the Negative Man’s rampage using a device that sapped chronomorphic energy, once again separating Vortex’ people, who returned to their own time with Vortex and Negative Man. Vortex promised to try and visit the DP if he could, and kissed Nudge before he left.

Comments: Created by John Byrne & Chris Claremont