Captain Collider
American
Once a brilliant physicist with a view for changing the world for the better, Malcolm Parton's life was changed forever when a freak accident caused him to fall into a highly experimental particle collider mid-collision. Though he should have been killed, an unknown variable caused the hyper accelerated particles to destroy and reconstruct Malcolm's body, merging with his physiology at a subatomic level. The process radically altered Mal, granting him the power to manipulate the very particles that make up the universe itself. Imbued with power beyond his wildest imagination, Mal vowed to use it responsibly in keeping with his pacifistic beliefs and became Captain Collider, the immeasurable Master of Molecules!
A gentle and reserved soul at heart, Captain Collider considers himself a scientist and human being first and a superhero second, always prioritising thought and diplomacy over unnecessary violence and confrontation. Though his levelheadedness may make him a hero among heroes, however, his idealistic pacifism occasionally borders on naivete. Still, with the potential for absolute power constantly present within him, Captain Collider strives every day to ensure it doesn't corrupt him absolutely.
Contents
Biography
Born to renowned physicist Gerald Parton and medical doctor Regina Parton, Malcolm Herschel Parton was the middle of three children, his elder brother, Nicholas, and his yet to be born younger sister, Melinda. Born into well-educated, well-off family, Mal wanted for little and received all the love and support he needed from parents, siblings, friends and teachers growing up. From a very early age, the true value of companionship and community were instilled within him.
Inheriting his father's natural genius, Mal showed a staggeringly high intellectual capacity very early in his childhood. Inheriting his father's love of science and his mother's compassion for others, he would often spend his free time studying the world around him in the hopes that he could somehow use what little knowledge he possessed at the time to make the people in his life happier.
Far away from his brother who favored the arts over science and his sister who simply preferred to socialise with her friends, Mal grew to become more and more enamoured with science and, before long, was off at one of the better high schools in the country, an honour roll student with aspirations of becoming a physicist even half as acclaimed as his father. There he met the woman who would go on to be the love of his life, fellow honour roll student Vanessa Morello.
Becoming fast friends and, eventually, unlikely sweethearts, Mal and Vanessa both graduated from high school and attended Millennium City University, with Mal studying physics and Vanessa studying chemistry. It was during their study at the university that a twenty-one year old Mal proposed to Vanessa. Engaged to be married following the receipt of their respective PhDs in Particle Physics/Engineering and and Analytical Chemistry respectively. When their years of studying came to a well-deserved end, the two long-time lovers marked the occasion with a small wedding ceremony of family and friends.
A year later, their first and only child -- a healthy girl -- was born. Settling on the name 'Luna', Mal and Vanessa agreed that Vanessa would temporarily put aside her scientific career while Mal secured a job working within the physics lab of Millennium City University both as a particle physicist and as a lecturer. In this position, Mal quickly established himself as a brilliant physicist, helping to make a number of breakthroughs in the field of particle physics and gradually making a name for himself via his own personal discoveries and theories. One such theory would go on to form the basis of his later work, and that theory was the 'Power Particle'.
Quickly becoming a popular name for his various theses and books on the Power Particle, it wasn't long before Mal received the support he needed to turn his theory into a reality. Approaching the bold, young physicist with an offer of his own lab stocked with resources, a team of diligent, intelligent physicists at his disposal and all the money he needed to make sure he made the most of them, Olivier Dreyfus, President and CEO of Unlimited Dynamics, enlisted Mal's brilliant mind in the search for his much vaunted Power Particle, establishing a professional and personal friendship that would span throughout the following years.
Not all was well in Mal's personal life, however. Though he had always tried to be a loving and attentive husband and father, his commitment to his work on the Power Particle put a notable strain on his relationship with Vanessa and the now nine years old Luna. Their relationship was pushed to its full limit, however, when Luna was hit by a speeding car while playing outside. Though she survived the experience, she became permanently crippled from the waist down, confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Consumed by grief and guilt, Mal devoted himself to finding the Power Particle even faster in the hopes that he could use it to allow his daughter to walk again.
Though he insisted he was doing it for Luna's benefit, Mal's increased fervour towards his work inevitably had its toll on Vanessa, who was left alone to cope with the grief and added burden of Luna's accident. Eventually, the couple had a heated argument on Mal's thirty-eighth birthday and quickly filed for divorce soon after. Vanessa won sole custody of Luna on the grounds that Mal wouldn't have the time to look after her properly. Though reluctant to give Luna up, Mal was forced to concede that she was correct.
Without a family to go home to, Mal increased his work hours and devotion to the Power Particle over the next year. Eventually, as if through sheer determination, his efforts bore fruit and he created the Power Collider -- a particle accelerator that hoped to uncover the mystery behind the Power Particle through the collision of various other particles theorised to be related to it. On the precipice of finally proving the legitimacy behind his life's work, Mal immediately called a press conference for the first attempt at giving birth to the Power Particle.
With scientists from all over the world, the Unlimited Dynamics board of executives and news crews all gathered for the momentous occasion, Mal and his team readied the Power Collider and prepared to make the final preparations for what may have been a life changing world event. As the collider powered up and prepared to fire, however, a walkway on the upper levels suddenly gave way, causing one of the scientists working on the collider to slip, narrowly grabbing on to the dangling walkway. With the walkway rapidly coming loose, Mal acted before thinking. Hoisting himself up to the walkway despite protestations from the rest of his team, he hurriedly pulled his fellow scientist to safety. As he turned to follow her to stable ground, however, the walkway finally came loose, sending Mal plummeting into the collider just as it fired off. As the horrified guests and scientists watched helplessly, Malcolm Parton was atomised before their very eyes.
As the rest of Mal's team ran to shut down the collider in an attempt to save their leader, however, something unexpected began to happen. As the collider continued to smash particles into one another, a form began to coalesce within the light of the lofty machine. As if particles of energy were beginning to come together of their own sentient will, the collider's particle beams gave way to an indistinct, humanoid shape. Startled, the team activated the collider's emergency shut down and watched as the shape within the collider fell to the ground, revealing itself to be a stark naked Malcolm Parton.
Though Malcolm appeared to possess the same memories and basic physical features he had prior to falling into the collider and being atomised, his body had been completely altered during the reconstruction process. Going from a lean, brown-eyed 5'11" man, he was 'reborn' with extremely dense and well-developed musculature, almost unnervingly blue eyes matching the hue of the collider's particle beams and all with an extra five inches added to his height.
Further study of Mal's physiology quickly yielded even more shocking results. For all his altered looks and musculature, the most radical change to his body came at a more subatomic level: indeed, his blood, bone marrow and even saliva all radiated a unique type of energy which indicated that the very building blocks of his body themselves had been manipulated completely. In his effort to create the Power Particle, Mal had become the Power Particle -- or at least the closest thing science had seen to it by that point.
Desperate to replicate the conditions that led to the particle manifesting itself within his own molecular structure, Mal ignored any further requests to detain and study the changes to his body and hurriedly attempted to figure out just what the variable or catalyst was that led to the creation of the particle last time but which could not be found in more controlled settings. Though he devoted a large deal of time to trying to rediscover the particle over the coming month, he eventually conceded defeat, realising that it would be impossible to find the one-in-a-million fluke that crated the first Power Particle.
