NITRO (COMICS)

'Nitro' is a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Comics universe. He first appeared in ''Captain Marvel'' #34 (September 1974) and was created by Jim Starlin.
Nitro is best known for being part of the tragedy that started off Marvel's Civil War crossover. He is also known by comic fans for playing a part in the death of the Kree superhero Mar-Vell.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Civil War

Trivia

External links

Fictional character biography

Robert Hunter was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Due to genetic alteration carried out on him by the Kree Lunatic Legion, Robert gained the ability to explode and reform himself at will. Some time later, he exposed Captain Marvel to a nerve gas, which later ultimately gave him cancer. Since then he has clashed with Earth's superhumans, and been defeated by the "fractioning (separation) of his exploded mass" (essentially, if he can't reform himself after an explosion, he can't explode again).
One such appearance was Iron Man, v3 #15, where he was hired to kill Tony Stark. A fight developed between Nitro and Iron Man. Iron Man, whose sensors and telecommunications gear had been recently upgraded, noticed that every time he exploded, a high-frequency pulse was emitted by his body. Experimenting, Iron Man duplicated the pulse, causing Nitro to explode. After he exploded several times in a minute, he passed out from exhaustion (presumably, it takes energy to explode, and he could only spare so much before he passed out). Iron Man handed him over to S.H.I.E.L.D., along with a recommendation on constructing a null-harness. He was sent to prison.
Later, Nitro was hired as a hit-man to kill Matt Murdock, but was apprehended by police^[1].

Civil War

The New Warriors performed a videotaped raid of a house containing the Cobalt Man, Speedfreek, Coldheart and Nitro, who had recently escaped from the Ryker's Island Incident. The New Warriors attacked each member, with Namorita (the Sub-Mariner's cousin) going after Nitro. Slamming him into a school bus, Namorita continued to taunt him until Nitro let off a massive explosion. This explosion apparently killed Namorita, Night Thrasher, Microbe, and the supervillains he was with during the raid, along with sixty children at the nearby elementary school and the surrounding neighborhood in the town where the fight took place.
The aftermath was picked up by the superhero teams, who were already split over the issue of superhero registration, none more so than Spider-Man, who was recently recruited by Iron Man into joining his side. Wolverine began hunting Nitro after he escaped in the back of a pickup truck.
Recently, Nitro was found by Wolverine and a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, but Nitro used his powers to kill the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and seemingly kill Wolverine. Nitro then took a phone call to an unknown government official who may be involved in the Stamford Incident. After the phone call, however, Nitro found himself in the grip of a nearly fully regenerated, and enraged, Wolverine. As Wolverine pounded on him, theorizing correctly that Nitro's powers cannot affect anyone or anything in very close proximity, Nitro revealed that he had been taking Mutant Growth Hormone to increase his powers. Nitro also hinted that there was someone bigger behind the events of Stamford, but before the name was given, the two were confronted by the three mystery agents. They were revealed to be Atlantean royal guard sent by Namor to apprehend Nitro for the murder of Princess Namorita.
During his battle with Namor, Wolverine was knocked unconscious and the Atlanteans move Nitro to New Pangea for torture and interrogation. Wolverine pursued them in Tony Stark's armor and "negotiated" with Namor to see Nitro, only to find Nitro had killed his interrogators. Wolverine cut off Nitro's arm at the elbow, and as Nitro begged for mercy, Wolverine recanted on his promised protection. He allowed Namor to do what he wanted with Nitro. Nitro is currently a "guest" of Atlantis.
His secret benefactor turned out to be Walter Declun, the CEO of Damage Control.

Trivia

★ Nitro has not made an appearance in the Ultimate Marvel universe. However, there was a member of Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy called Detonator, whose powers were the same as Nitro's.

★ Despite a standing policy by Marvel and DC to not use their house villains as antagonists for the famous Hostess ads in the seventies, Nitro is one of the few who actually was used (possibly due to his obscurity) in an ad featuring Captain Marvel.

★ Nitro loves Twinkies.

★ Scranton, Pennsylvania and Stamford, Connecticut, two important places in his life, are also important locations in the NBC show The Office.

External links

★ Marvel.com's ''Marvel Universe'' bio on Nitro

★ ''Grand Comics Database'' article on comic containing Nitro's debut

★ Nitro's Hostess Ad