Gates
49 years ago - Ti'julk Mr'asz is born on Vyrga. He is one of the few free-thinkers among his people's hive-mind.
37 years ago - 12-year-old Ti'julk's separation from his people's hive mind allows him to access a latent ability of his people to forge teleportation gates through space. He tries to hide his ability.
31 years ago - 18-year-old Ti'julk's gating powers are found by his people, who give him over to the Citadel. He is surgically brutalized, his abilities removed and recorded in an effort to copy them artificially. He is held in the Starlag while they perform their experiments.
19 years ago - 30-year-old Ti'julk is befriended by Vril Dox, who surgically reactivates his powers, allowing them to escape. He joins Vril's resistance fighters the Omega Men, knowing he will not be safe until he can find a home for himself. Medphyll gives him the nickname 'Gates'.
17 years ago - 32-year-old Ti'julk & the Omega Men liberate the Gordanian planet of Slagg with the help of the slave dancer Felicity who becomes their newest member.
11 years ago - 38-year-old Ti'julk and the Omega Men defeat Calculators of Colu.
10 years ago - 39-year-old Ti'julk's powers are replicated by Vril Dox using cloned fungal growths sharing his DNA. He is able to retire from the Omega Men to Hardcore Station in Citadel space.
7 years ago - 42-year-old Ti'julk is joined on Hardcore Station by Ferrin Colos & the Durlan when the Omega Men are disbanded after the successful overthrow of the Gordanian regime in the Vega system.
2 years ago - 47-year-old Ti'julk, Ferrin Colos & The Durlan, are attacked by the forces of Lady Styx. Ti'julk is able to escape, and helps recover Adam Blake's newly spawned body.
The Omega Men was a team built out of a lot of really alien-looking characters, and the book was further populated by a whole community of strange alien designs. Part of getting the vibe of that team correct is to find some bizarre aliens of our own, but we wanted to find characters that presented a more robust narrative contribution, and we think we've found one of the best examples of that in this particular Legion character.
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Gates's StoryGates was a new character in the Reboot timeline of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the new timeline started by Mark Waid in 1994 after the Zero Hour crossover. He appeared in Legion of Super-Heroes #66, which has the new timeline Legion do something the classic Legion did all the time; hold a membership drive. In a clever Mark Waid twist, Gates was introduced as someone who didn't WANT to join the Legion, but was in fact being conscripted against his will. He was a pacifist, fundamentally against any sort of violence, even in service to the greater good, and while he came to appreciate the Legion over time, he originally referred to it as a "Teenage Death Squad".
Gates is a really interesting character with a unique look and motivation and a really useful power set, but we actually have a much more useful role for him. We're going to move him into the modern era, and make him one of the weird aliens in the Omega Men. He can be hunted for his powers, a pawn in a larger game. I really like how Vril Dox sees the tactical utility of Gate's powers and DOES manage to take advantage of them, but without manipulating him, exactly... he befriends him and gives him a chance to help them in a deliberately non-violent fashion, treating him like an ally rather than a conscript. Later, when Vril successfully reproduces his powers, Gates can retire, knowing he's helped his friend and still held true to his beliefs. This is one of the times we've sort of fully repurposed a character, but he steps into a role that was filled in the original Omega Men comic by a lot of weird alien designs... he just does it better than any of them ever did, and brings a cool arc for both himself and for the rest of the team in the process. |