Flux (comics)

Flux is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He is a gamma empowered soldier and is one of the Hulk's enemies.

Publication history

Flux first appeared in Incredible Hulk Vol. 2 #17 and was created by Paul Jenkins and Ron Garney.

Fictional character biography

Private Benjamin Tibbits, a soldier with unresolved mother issues, was a Private First Class in the United States Army. He, along with a platoon of soldiers, were exposed to a gamma bomb by General Ryker, who wished to test its effects on humans. Tibbits was the sole survivor.

He was transformed into a Hulk-like creature with superhuman strength. The only differences were that Tibbits, nicknamed Flux, looked more misshapen, his forehead and joints significantly more pronounced, and his transformation was more erratic, parts of him sometimes transforming while the rest of him remained human. Convinced by General Ryker that Banner was responsible for his condition, and had sold gamma technology to the Iraqis, Flux was sent after the Hulk, but the fight proved one-sided and Banner was able to talk him down. Benjamin Tibbits underwent psychiatric evaluation thanks to Doc Samson, but he was subsequently recaptured and broken by Ryker. Regressed to a childlike mentality and vocabulary, apparently perceiving Ryker as his 'mommy', Flux was once again pitted against the Hulk, but the fight ended when General Ross forced Ryker to stand down. Without Ryker's commands, Flux stopped fighting and broke down, reverting to Benny as he wept for his mother.

Flux

Flux is a simple and ubiquitous concept throughout physics and applied mathematics describing the flow of a physical property in space, frequently also with time variation. It is the basis of the field concept in physics and mathematics. There exist two common usages of the term flux, each with rigorous mathematical frameworks: For transport phenomena, flux is defined as a vector, whereas in electromagnetism, flux is a scalar quantity, as defined by the surface integral. The terms "flux", "current", "flux density", "current density", can sometimes be used interchangeably and ambiguously, though the terms used below match those of the contexts in the literature.

Origin of the term

The word flux comes from Latin: fluxus means "flow", and fluere is "to flow". As fluxion, this term was introduced into differential calculus by Isaac Newton.

Flux as flow rate per unit area

In transport phenomena (heat transfer, mass transfer and fluid dynamics), flux is defined as the rate of flow of a property per unit area, which has the dimensions [quantity]·[time]⁻¹·[area]⁻¹. For example, the magnitude of a river's current, i.e. the amount of water that flows through a cross-section of the river each second, or the amount of sunlight that lands on a patch of ground each second is also a kind of flux.

1 Month 2 Live

One Month to Live, also called 1 Month 2 Live, was a 5-issue limited series comic book produced by Marvel Comics on a weekly basis in 2010. It was written by Rick Remender in collaboration with Stuart Moore, John Ostrander, and Rob Williams. The original concept was devised by Marvel editor Steve Wacker with the premise "What would you do with one month to change the world?" The storyline centers on a protagonist with terminal cancer, in response to Wacker's aunt having been diagnosed with cancer.

The four writers found the experience of writing the story to be especially poignant, as all had personal experiences with cancer—in particular, Remender, whose father survived a bout with cancer in 2008, and Ostrander, whose wife Kim Yale died of cancer in 1997.

Plot

In an accident with toxic waste, Dennis Sykes gains superpowers and an untreatable cancer. With a life expectancy of barely a month, Sykes launches himself on a brief career as a superhero, in an attempt to make a difference in the world while he still can, assisting the Fantastic Four in saving Ego the Living Planet from a cancerous infection and averting Hammerhead's attempt to take control of his neighbourhood. Although use of his powers made his condition worse, Sykes made a positive impression on many heroes with his dedication to doing the right thing, accepting training from Spider-Man and receiving honorary membership with the FF and the Avengers before he finally died of stress from his final battle.

Flux (biology)

In general, flux in biology relates to movement of a substance between compartments. There are several cases where the concept of flux is important.