Zzzax

Zzzax is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Zzzax first appears in The Incredible Hulk #166 (August 1973), and was created by Steve Englehart and Herb Trimpe.

Fictional character biography

Debuting in the title The Incredible Hulk, Zzzax is a humanoid creature formed from electricity by an act of sabotage at a Con Ed nuclear power plant in New York City. A group of terrorists destroying the dynamos started a chain reaction that caused a rapid buildup of energy, which takes on a life of its own and absorbs the minds of the terrorists and several engineers. By using the electrical energy from their brains, the entity is able to achieve humanoid form and sentience. Calling itself Zzzax, the entity fights the Hulk and Hawkeye before being defeated.

The character returns to the title The Incredible Hulk and attacks a research center in Chicago. The Hulk battles the entity to a standstill before several scientists shut down the process that recreates Zzzax. Zzzax reappears in the title Luke Cage, Power Man, and hunts down the men responsible for its last defeat. Power Man defeats the entity, but not before it kills one of the scientists. Zzzax returns in the title Hulk to confront an intelligent version of the monster (possessing the intelligence of Bruce Banner), but is quickly defeated.Mephisto later reforms the entity in the limited series Secret Wars II, although it is defeated by the Thing. In the title West Coast Avengers the character Zzzax teams with fundamental force villains Graviton; Quantum and Halflife, but is shortcircuited by Hawkeye.