Superhero Wiki
Nexus

Real Name
Horatio Valdemar Hellpop
First Appearance
Nexus (Vol. 1) #1 (January, 1981)
Creators
Mike Baron, Steve Rude
Team Affliations
None
Aliases
None
Base of Operations
Ylum
Powers
Fusion-kasting that brings a variety of effects, including energy projection, super strength, flight, force fields, and Telepathy.
When Merk selected a target, Nexus would receive severe headaches and maddeningly distressing dreams (the extremely intense episodes of which caused physical injuries to Hellpop's body that emulated the violence of the dream) from his target's victims until he fulfilled his duty.
Skills and Abilities
Fighting Experience
Tools and Weapons
Spaceship

Nexus is a cosmic comic book superhero created by writer Mike Baron and illustrator Steve Rude.

Origin[]

Given power by the cosmic entity Merk, Horatio Hellpop was tasked to use his power to kill mass murderers (to atone for his father's crimes) but soon also became a cosmic hero, protecting a large number of intergalactic refugees.

Biography[]

His Father[]

Theodore Hellpop was a communist dictator on the planet Vradic who ruled the world with an iron fist.  When his brother-in-law's religious uprising was proving successful, Theodore, convinced to uphold the law at any cost, detonated a planet-destroying bomb that wiped out Vradic and 10,000,000 inhabitants.

While escaping, Theodore Hellpop's ship was sucked into a black hole, transporting him and his wife's ship to an empty sector of space.  The two had a child, whom they named Horatio and when he was born a mysterious tank full of liquid appeared and Theodore felt compelled to throw his son in it.  His son survived but Theodore would put him in the tank every so often for reasons unknown even to himself.

Horatio Hellpop[]

Horatio Hellpop grew up with his parents on the ship, unaware of his father's sins.  As he grew older, Horatio met Alph and Beta, two members of the Merk, a group of Godlike alien beings.  Only Horatio could see him, so everyone he told about them assumed they were imaginary friends.  Horatio, around age nine, would suffer from mysterious crippling headaches that forced him to spend time in the tank, which would soothe him.  Soon, Horatio developed strange energy-based powers, referred to as fusion-kasting, in which he drew energy from the Merk via nearby stars.  Alph and Beta, over time, lead Horatio to the truth of his father's crimes and though was hesitant to believe it and eventually did, using his fusion-kasting to kill his father.

The Weapon of the Merk[]

The Merk then appointed Horatio as the primary bearer of the mantle of "Nexus", and was chosen to use his powers to be the executioners of the most evil murderers in the universe. This was not a mantle Horatio had power over; whenever Nexus refused to kill, the Merk would give him incapacitating headaches until he was brough to heel. Soon, Nexus would be seen as a hero by many, a dangerous destablizing force by others, while he himself would rather be free from his duty.