Elijah Snow (Wildstorm Universe)

Elijah Snow, also known as the Ghost of the 20th Century, is a "Century Baby" who has the ability to freeze objects with his mind. He is the founder and leader of the Planetary Organization.

History

Origin

Like a handful of other, equally gifted individuals, Elijah Snow was born on the first day of the Twentieth Century. Coming from an underprivileged background, his innate intelligence soon made him realize how different he was from everyone else, and an interest developed in discovering what other mysteries where hidden from the public. Elijah began to track down such curiosities, and kept a journal of his discoveries, and as time passed he soon began to notice patterns which led him to believe that some kind of grand conspiracy was seeking to direct human affairs, manipulating world events on an unimaginable scale to do so. Around 1919 he found his way to Castle Frankenstein, home of the infamous scientist, and there discovered a map which told of the locations of other parts of this conspiracy. Following this lead, he came to 221B Baker Street, where he faced down two of the leaders of the conspiracy - Sherlock Holmes and Dracula. When Dracula attempted to attack him, Snow froze him solid, then shattered the vampire's crotch with a well-aimed kick. Holmes, an elderly and infirm individual, admitted his part in the conspiracy to Snow, explaining how he and others of great power and intellect had sought to direct mankind for their own good...and how things had become perverted over time. Seeing potential in Snow, Sherlock Holmes agreed to teach him.^[1]

If Snow gained nothing else from his time with the great detective, it improved his articulation. He continued to hunt down the mysteries of the world, and in the mid-1930s came across the hidden city of Opak-Re, where he befriended jungle lord Kevin Blackstock, and fell in love with a native girl, Anaykah. Leaving for a short time, he returned to find Blackstock had fathered a child with his beloved, and that this child was to be left to die while the people of Opak-Re, obsessed with keeping themselves pure and untainted by the outside world, sealed off their city. Snow took the child, and gave her to a German couple to raise. She would grow up to be his ally, Jakita Wagner.^[2]

At some point after this, Snow founded an organization, Planetary, dedicated to furthering his personal research into Earth's secret history. With several local field offices dotted around the globe, the group could alert him whenever evidence of something interesting arose. For field investigations, he organized a team of special operatives, each with superhuman powers, who could handle the more interesting cases. The team had three members, with Snow, the coordinator, gaining the title "The Fourth Man" as a result. His informal journals were now more organized, as each year he would publish the Planetary Guide to the secrets uncovered.

As time passed, Snow noticed the familiar signs of another conspiracy, this one tracing back to a group of astronauts, the Four Voyagers, who had come back from a 1960's space flight...changed. Each had gained incredible powers, but they were also no longer quite human. Convinced of their evil intentions, Snow turned Planetary into a weapon to stop The Four. He lured one of them, Kim Suskind, to Planetary's Antarctic base, where his team took her down. When a second member of The Four, William Leather, followed Suskind into the base, he too was swiftly dealt with. However Snow's team simply weren't ready for the Four's leader, Randall Dowling, who used a flying saucer to teleport the entire base into his custody. Snow awoke to find himself restrained, and was offered a choice by Dowling: have much of his memory wiped to stop him being a threat, or see his agents die. Snow acquiesced.^[3]

Snow's Return

Snow's second-in-command, Jakita Wagner, attempted to lead the remaining field team against The Four, with limited success. When one mission ended in the death of Ambrose Chase, she decided that it was time to disobey orders and look for Elijah Snow.^[4]

She found him in a diner in a rural part of the United States, with no memory of her or of Planetary. She "recruited" him into the group, ostensibly as the new third member of the field team.^[5] He accompanied her and The Drummer on several missions, learning about the organization. Wagner's true goal, however, was to remind him of who he was so that he could fight The Four.

In his search for the missing pieces of his life, Snow met with super-spy John Stone, who was able to prod Elijah's mind carefully enough to bring Dowling's memory blocks down.^[6]

The Fourth Man

With his memory restored, Elijah Snow began a systematic attack against The Four, sabotaging their work and uncovering their secrets. He discovered that they were working with an extra dimensional army which was planning to occupy Earth in the early days of the 21st century. He organized the Planetary team to capture or kill the agents of The Four, ending in the deaths of two of them. The other two have been incapacitated, and Snow is presumably now able to continue the work he started nearly a century ago with the aid of The Four's obtained knowledge base.^[7]

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Immortality: He was born "with the century" - on the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve of 1900. As he grew he displayed certain superhuman abilities and skills, as well as immortality (not aging beyond his 30's). It has been theorized that they act as an immune system for the planet, his very existence protecting Earth. As such he supposedly represents an aspect of the century into which he was born.
- Decelerated Aging: Some degree of retarded aging as he is over 100, but looks to be in his late thirties.

Cryokinesis: Able to control temperatures, specifically able to extract heat to freeze things, and able to generate winter-like weather conditions. His main power is heat subtraction, allowing him to congeal poison gas, selectively freeze an entire city block or freeze the water in an opponent's brain. He can drop the temperature around him at will, freeze someone while the maintaining the normal temperature around him; create frost and ice; turn water to ice; turn things or beings to ice.
- Energy Resistance: He is immune to changes in temperature that he controls or by natural or other occurrences as it relates to cold.

Abilities

Genius Level Intellect
Investigation: Elijah's natural aptitude for analytic thinking makes him quite exceptional at solving and deducing clues to solve mysteries. He was also trained for 5 years by Sherlock Holmes himself, making him one of the best detectives alive.
Multilingualism: Elijah can speak English, Japanese, and possibly a large number of other languages known and forgotten from around the world. He apparently is a quick study and learns most languages quickly.

Trivia

Elijah met John Griffin, the Invisible Man, Lady Van Helsing and H.G. Wells.
Elijah has found the forgotten Lab of Baron Frankenstein.
Elijah was a protege of Sherlock Holmes.
Elijah fought Count Dracula and killed him.
Elijah published his first planetary guide in 1923.
Elijah was the former lover of Anaykah, mother of Jakita Wagner.
Elijah had a one night stand with Jenny Sparks.
Elijah is an acquaintance of The High.
Elijah was present during an event similar to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, which he described as a "partial multiversal collapse. Several universes got folded into one -- multiple Earths occupying the same space." When asked where he was when he saw this, he answered "Somewhere I wasn't supposed to be." However, unlike the Crisis seen in the DC Multiverse, this event lead to the deaths of a third of the population on the recombined Earth, as they were merged together into non-viable lifeforms.^[8]
Elijah Snow is also known as The Fourth Man and Ghost of the 20th Century.

Elijah Snow (Wildstorm Universe)

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