This Beastly Creature Has Been a Constant Enemy for the Fantastic Four!
Blastaar, the super-villain with a name that means “destroyer,” is one of Marvel’s best-written characters. He is the member and King of the ‘Baluurians’ community, and runs against the Fantastic Four under the moniker ‘Living Bomb-Burst.’ Baluurians are a race of aliens who live on the planet Baldur. According to Stan Lee’s credits, Baluur was a part of the ‘Negative Zone,’ an anti-matter realm that, unlike our own, had already begun contracting and is a frequent mention in the Marvel Universe.
Blastaar was ruthless, and he governed his planet with the same inclinations, sparking an uprising against him. He was eventually dismissed from his position of power and barred from ever returning to the Negative Zone. His punishment was to float in space alone, with no way of escaping until he received assistance.
We want to know if he received assistance, how he got it, and what happened after Baluur’s denunciation.
BLASTAAR: Criminalistic Background
Blastaar is unsurprising, a big menace. He not only made the lives of The Fantastic Four quite hard, but he also makes enemies with no filters, it seems. While he was in the Negative Zone the first time around, he gets a chance to escape with Mr. Fantastic – who was also stuck there alongside one Inhuman Triton – and he does so through a portal. After having escaped, he teams up with Sandman, who is one of the Fantastic Four’s biggest enemies.
Their next battle against the Four sends Blastaar back to the Negative Zone where he starts to rule Baluur again, this time focused on the expansion of territory. It was on that expedition that he made an enemy out of Annihilus, another monarch in the Negative Zone who possessed the ‘Cosmic Control Rod’, a device that permitted the holder to control matter and energy, as well as slow their aging process. This Rod was at one point seized by Blastaar, but in true superhero style, the Fantastic Four had him surrender it soon enough.
Being stranded in the Negative Zone wasn’t a one-time experience for Blastaar though; there was a second time! This time around, he got access to Olympia, a place where the Eternals – an extra-terrestrial race of humanoids – were temporarily displaced into the Negative Zone called home.
Upon recovery, Blastaar destroyed the Eternals by atomizing them and subverting their molecular control through his concussive flashes of tremor. Blastaar was only put under control when the Avengers came to rescue the Eternals, and their disintegration was undone when they regained control over their molecular arrangement, as Blastaar was defeated, once again.
Blastaar had evil contributions to make to Earth as well when he crossed over to here via a portal made by scientists to research the Negative Zone. At that stage, he was fought against by a group of brave young individuals called the ‘New Warriors’. They were smart enough to use Blastaar’s own map of the Negative Zone to finally cause him to be stranded on an abandoned planet in the Zone.
BLASTAAR: The First Comic Appearance
Way back in 1961, the Marvel timeline unraveled to us that Reed Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic, had battled against Sandman and as a result was hurled into the Negative Zone. Issue 62 of the Fantastic Four series takes off from this point, as Mr. Fantastic is rapidly moving towards the core of the Zone – an area which is labeled explosive as that is where anti-matter and positive matter come together.
The impending doom upon the family of the Fantastic Four only sees a ray of hope in Crystal, a member of the Inhumans who was a species of changed humans created as a result of the alien race’s experimentation on primordial humans. Crystal says that she and her dog Lockjaw could perhaps, help. The panel then shifts to the Zone again, where Mr. Fantastic caught sight of some alien beings dropping off a caged shipment on the asteroid he himself was on one side of. Needless to say, this asteroid was on its way to being destroyed.
Right after, Crystal was seen as asking for help from her fellow Inhuman, Triton who had exceptional swimming abilities. Plans all explained, Triton ‘swum out’ to the Zone and managed to reach Mr. Fantastic. While their backs were turned and they attempted to escape through the portal Triton came from, the package that aliens had dumped on the other side of the asteroid sprung open to reveal Blastaar. He went unnoticed in that transfer time through the portal and followed the other two to Earth.
As the Fantastic Four were reunited and decided upon going out to celebrate, Blastaar followed them and decided upon the Earth as a whole new world to conquer. As he was climbing out, he made contact with Sandman who he was initially intent upon physically fighting. Sandman then revealed his desire to work together alongside Blastaar, against the Fantastic Four, which he then considered and agreed to help with.
BLASTAAR: Beating the Mighty Thor
In the 270th Issue of ‘Thor’, Blastaar proved himself to quite a force against Thor. He was in no way as powerful, but he had figured out a way to keep Thor at his worst levels of strength, that is, depriving him of Mjolnir. He certainly did not know how bad it could get if Thor was without his famous hammer, but he certainly knew enough to determine that without Mjolnir, Thor could not fight as strongly.
However, it is significant to note here that even before Thor was deprived of Mjolnir, Blastaar was being a thorn in his path. The latter managed to corner Thor, deprive him of Mjolnir, AND projected his entire being to a dark back alley, from where Thor managed to escape as Don Blake by telling Blastaar that Thor had escaped by jumping over the fence. As Don ran to Tony Stark in search of help after obtaining his cane from a gang on the street and meeting Stilt-Man for some questions to be answered, he described Blastaar’s use of force to be quite powerful and damage-inflicting.
In the three fights that Thor and Blastaar seem to have had so far, despite Thor’s immense strength, Blastaar seems to have had an upper hand. In fact, Thor’s dependence on his hammer and friends like Tony Stark have only gone on to show how capable Blastaar actually is, of causing long-term damage to an enemy of his.
BLASTAAR: What Makes Him Near-Invincible?
It is quite obvious that Blastaar carries the genetic advantages served upon him, being one of the race of Balurrians, his plant’s inhabitants. His superior physical strength, agility, and other powers have given him the capability to destroy city after city. He was in fact, known to have defeated the likes of the five original X-Men at one point. The Fantastic Four remain his biggest enemy and ended up having the superior hand over the biggest superheroes we know of – Captain Marvel, Thor, etc. Multiple members of Nova too, have left him absolutely unfazed.
At the massive height of 6’6” weighing more than 500 pounds, this giant man has immense strength that allows him to lift weights as heavy as 75-80 tonnes. Blastaar also seems to have advanced powers to control the release of toxins causing fatigue in his body, as he is seen capable of fighting for HOURS on end with no visible signs of tiredness. This of course, is evidence of his strengths to endure more than an average human and have remarkably high stamina. Speed is something that need not be elaborated on here because it is projected in every comic panel Blastaar has been a part of.
Resisting machine-gun shells, bullets of quite a high caliber, strongest physical attacks during hand-to-hand combat, extreme temperatures, and falls from huge heights – Blastaar is the living example of being able to withstand attacks like no other. His lung capacity is advanced as well, he can hold his breath for quite a long time and sustain himself for long periods on little to almost no food, water, air, or sleep.
Blastaar’s the biggest strength is his immediate weapon – the ability to generate explosive energy that is pretty violent in nature and can cause immense damage. It is akin to nuclear energy being blasted out of his fingertips and he can control and direct it as he pleases. In fact, that control is what enables him to be able to fly at high speeds and use other equipment to blast off entire planets if he wishes to.
BLASTAAR: In The Animated Media
The years of 1967, 1978, and 1994 are significant in terms of Blastaar’s appearance against the Fantastic Four when the latter’s TV series was released. He had a cameo in ‘Spider-Man and his Amazing Friends, but his next major appearance was against Hulk in ‘Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H.’
As per usual, he is seen creating absolute chaos before the appearance of Iron Man therein. Once defeated by Hulk and She-Hulk joining forces, Blastaar goes back to the Negative Zone, only to appear again a few episodes later and paralyze several S.M.A.S.H. Agents atop Hoover Dam, with the help of snakes from the Zone. He continues to appear as a roadblock in several following episodes as well.
With Spider-Man, Blastaar is next seen in the ‘Ultimate Spider-Man: Web Warriors’ where he is put up against the likes of Captain America, Red Hulk, Iron Fist, and of course, Spider-Man. He managed to remove Red Hulk from the ‘Capture The Flag’ game that they were playing before he has ousted himself.
Blastaar’s presence in the world of video games is since 2005 when the first Fantastic Four movie was adapted into a game. He was not a part of the movie, though. In the game, he is shown as an imprisoned being who attempted to invade the Earth but failed. He managed to escape from captivity during a power outage and cause further wreckage.
BLASTAAR: Closing In
Annihilus is the only being in the Negative Zone who is strong enough to oppose him and wants to take over. Blastaar has been back to this universe to help in the battle against the Annihilation Wave. He has also been back to help the Kree – a race of blue-skinned humanoids, militaristic by nature, and inhabitants of planet Hala. He helped them in their battle against the Phalanx, another humanoid race. It is not known whether he survived or not after being stepped on by a giant Phalanx during the battle.
It was later revealed that he survives and the battle is then taken forward in the ‘War of Kings’. He then conquers the Negative Zone and goes ahead calling himself the King. Currently, he is on a mission to invade conquer, and conform the Earth to his own whims and fancies. He is also in control of the ‘ceded territories,’ a region of the Kree Empire. Blastaar also campaigns to take over other Kree worlds which are currently ruled by Queen Medusa and the Inhumans.
Marvel deemed Blastaar important enough to have a recurring presence in their storylines, and it goes without saying that this character COMMANDS attention with his mere presence. With a history of defeating superheroes like Thor and others on multiple occasions, it is quite interesting to see his villainous character arc remain intact throughout. The Marvel cinematic universe is yet to explore the layers of this intriguing character and hopefully, we get to see this terrifying monster in his true glory – something that is long due and highly anticipated.