Who Is Marvel’s Lord Ennui? Origin & Powers Explained
Marvel Universe has its fair share of villains, and they keep creating more. In the newest ‘Avengers’ run, a team of the most horrifying villains you can imagine has been introduced. They seemingly cover every aspect of horror you can imagine, and their origins are mysterious and disturbing. One of them is Lord Ennui, who had enough juice to paralyze an entire city. Let’s see who Lord Ennui is & how powerful he can be.
Who are the Ashen Combine?
Following the events that took place at the God Quarry, Captain Marvel made it her task to recruit Black Panther, Thor, Captain America, Scarlet Witch Vision, and Iron Man back to the team. She was also chosen to be the chairman of the new iteration of the Avengers, and one of their first missions was to stop Terminus, who was trying to absorb P.E.G.A.S.U.S.’s Black Hole reactor into himself.
The Avengers managed to stop Terminus, but the reactor proved to be highly unstable, threatening to unleash a Black Hole upon the world, something that would prove to be devastating.
Captain Marvel and Scarlet Witch managed to deal with the reactor safely, but not before Captain Marvel was sucked into the black hole and transported into a void seemingly nowhere, this is where she met a dying Kang the Conqueror who warned her that something terrible was coming before seemingly succumbing to his injuries after which Captain Marvel brought him to a hospital to be treated.
Around the same time, a group of interdimensional villains that called themselves ‘Ashen Combine’ attacked five big cities across the globe simultaneously. The origins of the Ashen Combine are mysterious and terrifying, but it seems that they target cities and superheroes for their own amusement, and they are stationed within the Impossible City, a sentient city that they modified to serve them as a slave.
Who are the members of the Ashen Combine?
There are five members of the Ashen Combine, each more terrifying than the other:
- Lord Ennui
- Idol Alabaster
- Citysmith
- The Dead
- Meridian Diadem
Lord Ennui attacked Manila. He had the powers of living atrophy, meaning that he could sap the energy and willpower of every organic being within the distance. Captain Marvel was sent to deal with him, and she soon learned that he was absolutely impossible to harm. Lord Ennui himself admitted that his only weakness was feeling emotion, and this was an impossibility.
The second member of the Ashen Combine was Idol Alabaster, that attacked Vatican City. She thrived on worship and was able to mass brainwash people to follow her. Thor, being a god, was sent to defeat her. The worst thing was, as long as her worshipers were worshiping her, she was invulnerable and all-powerful; Thor had a choice between losing the fight or killing humans around them who worshiped Idol Alabaster.
The third villain was Citysmith, who attacked Toronto. Citysmith was an artist by trade who had the power to twist cities like clay, forming monstrosities out of them. Iron Man, being an engineer, was sent to deal with him.
The fourth villain was The Dead, a necromancer who had the power to raise the dead and conjure up ghosts of both the living and the dead. The Dead attacked Sydney, and the Scarlet Witch was sent to deal with him, but he conjured up the ghosts of her mental illness and proved to be quite a challenge.
The fifth villain was Meridian Diadem, who targeted Helsinki in Finland. She was a synthetic being, and thus, Vision was sent to defeat her. Meridian Diadem had the power to consume people and transform them into her prisoners; she could also manipulate codes, and thus, Vision was susceptible to her attempted manipulation.
Black Panther and Captain America were sent to the Impossible City to blow the place up but soon learned that the poor city was enslaved by the Ashen Combine against its will.
What happened to Lord Ennui & Ashen Combine?
Well, Captain Marvel tried to throw just about anything at Lord Ennui, and everything failed because he didn’t feel anything at all, even if her attempts amused him. Captain Marvel started evacuating the residents of Manila, and Lord Ennui simply laughed at the attempt.
And this is when he revealed his weakness. He told Captain Marvel that he wanted to feel something that was impossible, and this is when Captain Marvel ignited herself; since Lord Ennui was an endless, bottomless void and she was the opposite of that, she figured that by supercharging Lord Ennui with something, she might be able to make him feel something.
After Ignition, Captain Marvel attacked Lord Ennui and overloaded him with power, he felt everything at once and collapsed, thanking her for feeling something for the first time in forever.
In Vatican City, Idol Alabaster was defeated by Thor, who used his thunder to knock her worshipers unconscious so she would turn vulnerable. In Toronto, Iron Man defeated Citysmith with science, which was the opposite of art (it was really a fancy weapon that defeated him.) Scarlet Witch figured that The Dead was considerably less powerful when he wasn’t surrounded by corpses and skeletons, and she transported him to Antarctica, where there were no graves, and defeated him there.
Meridiam Diadem was defeated when Vision overloaded her with Ultron’s poisonous code when he attempted to “hack him.”
Meanwhile, Black Panther and Captain America managed to stop Impossible City from “committing suicide,” and the rest of the Avengers gathered at the fortress to imprison the Ashen Combine there in stasis. Impossible City asked to join the Avengers to have a purpose once again, and they agreed. The city currently serves as their base.
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