When you consider talents like flight and telekinesis, having superpowers sounds wonderful. Jono, on the other hand, did not have such a fortuitous mutation. Unfortunately, he ended up with a large hole in his body, and his internal organs were replaced by psychic flames.
His character first appeared in Generation X #1 in September of 1994. Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo collaborated on his creation.
Jono, sometimes known as Chamber, is a fictional superhero created by Marvel Comics and serialized in the X-Men and New Warriors series. Jono began his career as a British man from London with a girlfriend and enough social life to accompany her to the club. When his mutant abilities manifested, everything changed.
His body became shredded as a result of the mutation, and he had a huge hole in his heart (both literally and metaphorically). He eventually joined forces with Charles Xavier, although he struggled to control the huge quantity of telepathic energy at his disposal.
Despite this, he was able to rekindle his relationship with women, including Paige Guthrie, better known as Husk, and Sugar Kane, a teen music star. However, life is not easy for a guy who has trouble forming ties with others.
We will look at how Jono became Chamber in this video, as well as some of his interesting tale arcs that followed.
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Chamber: Origin
Before becoming Chamber, he was Jonothon Evan Starsmore or Jono. A native of London, Jono’s chest harbored a furnace of psionic energy, an energy which often gave its hosts psychic powers such as telepathy and telekinesis.
He manifested this ability at a nightclub while he was with his ex-girlfriend Gayle Edgerton. The psionic energy tore his body open, starting from his mouth to his navel, and destroyed his internal organs. Gayle’s legs got crippled as collateral and Jono ran away.
Following the accident, Jono lost his ability to speak normally and could only communicate via telepathy. Such a terrible experience made Jono adopt a bleak and nihilistic outlook toward life. Soon after, Charles Xavier or Professor X offered him an opportunity to join his school – Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters.
Jono accepted the offer to be a mutant trainee in Generation X. At the United States airport, an evil, vampiric mutant named Emplate attacked Jono. Emplate is required to feed on mutant genetic material for his survival. Before anything could happen to Jono, he was saved by the other mutant trainees from Generation X – Skin, Jubilee, Synch, M, and Husk.
The trainees fought Emplate off, saving Jono in the process. After the team was attacked by a crazy Penance, Jono got her to stop the attack as he could empathize with her over their shared freakish appearance. His pleas worked and Penance decided to live with the team.
At the Academy, Jono maintained his distance from the people and lived in the basement. During this time, he adopted the moniker ‘Chamber’, as he was a chamber of volatile, psionic energy.
Meanwhile, Jono’s ex-girlfriend Gayle harbored negative sentiments towards Jono and wanted revenge. Can’t really blame her for that since his mutation destroyed her legs. Because of her resentment towards him, Gayle helped Emplate out with capturing Jono in return for her empowerment. Too bad the evil mutant imprisoned the both of them.
During this time, Gayle revealed to Jono that she blamed him for her life getting ruined. Ultimately, the two were able to communicate and get past their differences once Generation X freed them.
Meanwhile, Jono would develop a romantic connection with Paige Guthrie or Husk from his team. However, their relationship was far from perfect and they had their on again off again moments.
Jono often struggled with controlling his powers. In fact, his involvement with Husk caused one of those big moments where he lost control. After an inebriated Husk kissed him, Jono panicked and ended up destroying the girls’ dormitory.
Jono was already a depressed guy who struggled with control. His teammate Synch had the ability to duplicate another mutant’s power. After he saw Synch copy his powers and use it better than he ever could, his mental condition only got worse. However, Synch ended up dying soon due to an attack orchestrated by an anti-mutant group. After the loss, Jono and the rest of Generation X realized that it was time for them to step up and dedicate themselves to saving people.
Major Story Arcs
House of M and Decimation
One of the most notable events in the X-Men verse was M-Day. After Scarlet Witch warped reality, most mutants lost their mutant abilities and got depowered. Things got complicated here as Jono’s internal organs such as his heart and his lungs were destroyed. This bionic energy regulator kept him alive but after being depowered, he was completely out of action and had to be kept in the hospital on life support. He was then relocated to a hospital in England.
A few weeks passed by and things took a turn. Jono had a therapist, Frederick Slade. However, he was oblivious to Slade being a member of Clan Akkaba. Frederick abducted Jono, working under the orders of Ozymandias. Fortunately for him, the Clan healed Jono completely. Unfortunately for the others, Jono was made to be a young version of the super-powerful anti-humanity cosmic entity, Apocalypse. Around this time, his powers also evolved to the coveted Omega-level. Not bad for a guy who couldn’t control his powers when kissed by a woman.
New Warriors as Decibel
With his new avatar, Jono adopted a new codename – Decibel. He became a part of the New Warriors alongside ex Generation X teammate Jubilee.
Jono made his first appearance as Decibel in New Warriors Volume 4 Issue 3 as a part of the Night Thrashers.
Decibel has a high-end suit and can create solidified constructs using sound. Jono wanted powers that could create instead of destroyed after spending a good chunk of his life as the volatile Chamber.
During this time, Jono also got really close to Jubilee. Their friendship flowered and deepened. At this point, Jubilee was a second-in-command of the New Warriors team. However, during a raid at the Machinesmith’s headquarters, Jono proved his leadership as well.
While the team got separated during the raid, Jono finessed his mission and helped the trapped warriors with their technology and fight against the Machinesmith. With Jono’s help, they were able to hold off Machinesmith long enough until their reinforcements arrived to help them out. This was a huge achievement as Machinesmith was initially too powerful for the members who commenced the raid.
Age of X
Charles Xavier has a very overpowered son with Gabrielle Haller named Legion. Legion has a terribly powerful split personality condition where he has thousands of personalities and all thousands of them manifest different mutant powers.
One of his personalities had rewritten the history of the X-Men into one where Legion was a hero. In this world, Jono went back to being Chamber from Decibel. This meant that his previous powers were back and with that, his body had retained its destroyed form. The situation was reversed and normalcy restored. Everything went back to what things were before Legion rewrote history. However, Jono’s body remained the same as Chamber’s.
Jono was once again the guy with a hole in his chest and without his organs. So, he was kept under the observation of Dr. Kavita Rao, the X-Men’s resident biologist.
Jean Grey School for Higher Learning
A few months passed by. Jono was recruited as a junior staff member at Wolverine’s Jean Grey school. He returns as Chamber and this time, he has total control over his powers.
Once, Jono is asked a question from one of the students, Rockslide, about sex. Even though the question was super blunt, Jono responded with a heartfelt speech about how love is uncertain and how one should keep their heart open, and all of that. It’s easy for him to say that since his chest is a gaping hole that is always open.
Just then, an out-of-control weapon bursts into their room, looking to absorb mutant energy as it was addicted to it. However, Chamber blasted it back with his now well-controlled psionic energy.
Why Is Chamber So Dangerous?
Jono has wielded different types of powers as both Chamber and Decibel. While Chambers’ powers were more destructive in nature, Decibel tended towards creation. However, he was always a force to be reckoned with. Even when Jono could not control his powers, his volatile energy would be a formidable one to battle.
As Chamber, Jono possessed
Psionic Biokinesis – His mutant powers were basically pure psionic energy while his physical body was nothing but a shell. Even though he did not need to eat, drink, or breathe, the psionic flame in his body helped with his blood flow. The flames did not even require fuel to burn as it only required Jono’s psionic energy.
Biokinetic Flame – Chamber used psionic energy against his opponents. He charged at them with it and it struck with concussive force. With control, it could be used as a flame or a laser that disrupts molecules and molecular bonds. He could make objects explode unless the molecules were of carbon. He could affect carbon but it wasn’t as vulnerable to his biokinetic flame as other molecules. It is also implied that with better control, Chamber could use his flame to fly and even restore his body. However, Chamber’s main struggle was always his lack of control which turned out to be quite the handicap for a guy who does not like to have a gaping hole on his chest.
Projection Telepathy – Chamber was a hub of psionic energy and could do more than wielding a biokinetic flame. He was kind of like a radio in the sense that he could send out signals. However, he could not receive them. Basically, he could talk to others using telepathy but others couldn’t talk to him that way if they were out of his line of sight.
He could also use this power to create psionic illusions. Due to his lack of control, they were initially not focused. So anyone in his surroundings would be subjected to it, provided they could physically see and hear. However, he did manage to gain some control over it and occasionally, make this ability more focused as he sent out illusions across soundproof walls.
Psionic Blasts – With all that psionic energy, it is only natural for him to project psionic blasts. Of course, it had zero physical repercussions on the person and relied on mental effects, which is worse in a way. It could render his opponents unconscious and even kill them.
As Decibel, Jono uses a lot of sound-based attacks. His body had been restored. He could fly, create sonic blasts, force fields, solidify sound, and emulate telekinesis. These powers are possibly due to Renascence’s gadgets and not some mutation.
Chamber’s Appearance in X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Jono appears as Chamber in the live-action movie X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Here, he is a former test subject of the notorious Weapon X program. He was one of the mutants who were seen escaping from the Three Mile Island as they were led by Emma Frost and Cyclops.
In the movie, Chambers has similar powers to his comic counterpart. Even though he is not seen in his full potential, he is shown to possess psionic energy charges that had physical effects and psionic blasts that affected the opponent mentally.
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