Slightly Misplaced Comic Book Characters Case File #458: Black Swan

Last week, I covered the one member of Thanos’s Black Order who didn’t make the cut to get into the movies.  Well, I was somewhat wrong.  There was another member of the Black Order who didn’t get into any of the movies, but I may have left her out because she wasn’t an original member of the Black Order.

Then again, Black Swan seems to be something of a follower.

Black Swan, real name Yabbat Ummon Turru and not even the first Marvel character to go by that name, first appeared in New Avengers #1 in January of 2013.  Written by Jonathan Hickman as the first part of his build-up to his Secret Wars with art by Steve Epting, Black Swan was an alien woman of an unknown species from an unknown, now destroyed alternate universe.  Black Panther found her on his world as a second Earth appeared in the sky, but Black Swan destroyed it for reasons that weren’t explained right away.  Panther captured her despite her vast array of powers (basically, if you can think of it, she probably has it), took her to the City of the Dead, and then summoned up the rest of the Illuminati.

Essentially, the multiverse was being destroyed thanks to an experiment being conducted by the Beyonders.  Yes, plural.  They were finding Earths from various universes and tossing them at each other.  Unless one of the Earths was destroyed before it made contact with the second, both universes would instantly explode into nothingness, leaving maybe a survivor here or there.  Black Swan was one such survivor, and her “Black Swan” name was actually more of a title as there were other Black Swans, all working in service to a mysterious benefactor that they were insanely loyal to.  The captured Black Swan would answer questions cryptically depending on which member of the Illuminati asked her.  Dr. Strange she wouldn’t speak to as she hated magicians, but Reed Richards she would.  She ended up saying there were various factions out there doing what they could to destroy or save universes, often by trying to destroy various Earths.  There were the Mapmakers, the Black Priests, and the Black Swans’ mysterious leader.

By the by, just to make a couple quick notes on the three groups:

• The Mapmakers were robots, often multiversal super-adaptoids from various versions of AIM that were working for the Beyonders.  Any sufficiently advanced robot that entered the multiverse was instantly programmed by the Beyonders to be new Mapmakers.  They would adapt to any defenders on any Earth and destroy them to allow the Incursion to happen.
• The Black Priest were basically wizards with a hive mind where each member knew one word from one spell and were removing some Earths to save others, including Black Swan’s original, hence her hatred for magicians.  Their secret leader turned out to be Dr. Strange.
• And the Black Swans were a cult of survivors working for Dr. Doom in his own attempt to save the multiverse in the most Doom-way possible.

Anyway, Black Swan was being held in the City of the Dead alongside an alternate universe version of Terrax and the “frozen in amber” Thanos with his two remaining lieutenants Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive.  After a particularly demoralizing “victory” that ended with the destruction of another Earth, most of the Illuminati decided to stop trying to stop the next Incursion only for Namor to decide to do so himself by forming a new Cabal with the various prisoners in the City of the Dead, including Black Swan.  During the final Incursion Event between Earth 616 and Earth 1610 (the Ultimate Universe), the relatively small number of survivors from both realities would find themselves on a new Battleworld, one formed by Doom with the remnants of whatever Earths he could find, installing himself as God Emperor Doom with the power of the Beyonders at his fingertips thanks to the Molecule Man, and Black Swan would eventually find herself working for Doom since, well, she is the type to work for powerful bad guys, and Doom was her original cult leader.

It is probably worth noting that most of the Cabal came to bad ends as did a Phoenix-force powered Cyclops, but this being one of those reality altering events, everyone was revived and A-OK when it was over with the added benefit of Miles Morales, another survivor who happened to have a cheeseburger on his person to give to the Molecule Man, finding himself on Earth 616 with his parents alive again.  Or so Jimmy tells me.  I haven’t really ever read one of Miles’s solo books…

Anyway, those bad ends for the curious:

• Doom killed Cyclops personally just to show the Phoenix didn’t measure up to him
• Doom also ripped Thanos’s spine out when the Mad Titan tried to basically tell Doom to just hand the power over
• Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive were captured off-panel
• Terrax was just stepped on by Galactus

As for Black Swan, she took on Star-Lord next to Doom’s throne, carved from Yggdrasil the World Tree.  Star-Lord had been chewing on a toothpick for the entire Secret Wars to to that point, and as Black Swan was basically kicking Peter Quill’s ass all over the room, he tossed the pick into the throne because, it turned out, there was one more survivor of the destroyed Universe 616 the whole time, made clear in the single coolest moment in the entire Secret Wars when the World Tree said, “I AM GROOT!” and crushed Black Swan as Groot took control of the World Tree to enter the fight.  And this was a mini-series that included the Black Panther leading an army of zombies while wearing an Infinity Gauntlet to fight Doom and the reveal of Doom’s actual scarred face for the first time in comics history.

However, once Secret Wars ended, everyone who’d been killed was basically resurrected because otherwise the Marvel Universe would have been missing a lot of recognizable characters, and Black Swan would end up joining the Black Order and serving Thanos because, well, she’s the type that follows powerful bad guys.  It’s probably why I wasn’t all that aware that she’s still around.  Who pays attention to followers?

That said, her look doesn’t look too weird.  I am somewhat surprised she wasn’t in a movie.  She’s probably be easier to put in live action, than, say, any of the other members of the Black Order.

By the by, I have no intentions of covering the other members of the Black Order since…well, they’re not that interesting.