#genis-vell

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Adam Neramani Summers is an alien hybrid antihero, best known as Adam X or X-Treme; genetically engineered by the alien Shi'ar (cloned from their DNA mixed w/ human Katherine Summers), he's gifted w/ the mutant power to make blood heat and ignite, at will; stolen from Shi'ar royal custody as a baby & raised as a warrior, he's been manipulated, at times, by villains, but at his best, the journey to discover his true origins has led him to team up w/ X-Force (led by his half-nephew Cable) & the X-Men (including his half-brothers Cyclops & Havok)!

Ah, Rick Jones. The man without whom the Avengers would never have been formed and, as you say, a perpetual "sidekick" himself. (Although we'd never use that word to describe him, he's insistent upon it, always giving proper glory to the heroes he worked with. Good man, that one.)

(album cover to Rick Jones's folk album, Sidekick)

Jones's life has been marked with a lifelong fascination with danger and generally being close to situations that no normal human should ever be in. Of course, his first claim to fame was being on the site of the gamma bomb that would turn Bruce Banner into the Hulk - and not only that, but being the catalyst for that transformation, as Banner risked his life to save Jones from the fallout.

Jones, in turn, was the Hulk's secret-keeper for the first part of his career: the only person who knew Bruce Banner and the Hulk were one and the same. That lasted until it became untenable for the secret to continue - and more crucially, until he met Steve Rogers.

With the Hulk out of the picture, wandering the American Southwest alone, Jones adhered himself to Captain America instead. For a time, he wore the costume formerly belonging to Bucky Barnes (or a replica of such) and trained with him to become a new Bucky.

That went over about as well as you'd think it might - the wound of losing Barnes was too fresh for Rogers, who'd recently come out of the ice - and so again, Jones had to move on.

And move on he did, to perhaps his best-known and longest-lasting partnership. Cosmically bonded via the Kree Nega-Bands to the first Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell), Jones accompanied him on his adventures for a time - trapped in the Negative Zone while Mar-Vell was on Earth, or vice versa. After a time, they were separated, and Jones left to focus on his budding music career.

Some time later - after a hit folk album, marriage, paralysis, and recovering from said paralysis - Jones ended up bonded to Mar-Vell's son, Genis-Vell, another Captain Marvel, in much the same way he was before. Rick's time with Genis was marked with tragedy, as Genis couldn't cope with the immense amount of power he held and slowly descended into insanity from it. Eventually, this led to Genis and Rick's separation.

Since then, Jones has written a book, been divorced, become a gamma mutate, died, come back to life, and was most recently seen attending the birthday party of current Captain Marvel, Carol Danvers.

All that to say, the man has had an absolutely wild career for someone who's rarely put on a costume or had superpowers of his own, and there's no way to tell where he'll show up next.