Origins and Biography. UNDER RENOVATIONS
Nathan was born in the year 1886 in Houston Texas, and when the time came that America declared war on Germany in the first world war, he did not hesitate to sign up and fought through that bitter war, earning him two purple hearts, an army service cross, and a silver star for valour, Nathans came home to marry his sweetheart Jennifer. Later on Nathan Graves became an ordinary man during the year of 1923 working in Houston while living in the peaceful suburbs, always coming home every day to spend time with his wife Jennifer, occasionally he would see his neighbor Bill eye his wife, but he thought nothing of it, but fate would soon deal him a cruel hand.
For one day when he came back he found his wife dead on the floor in his living room, apparently shot to death, and before this fact could sink in, the police arrived and arrested him, wrongly thinking that he was the one who killed Jennifer. When the police took him away, he said nothing, he says nothing as the gun is found, he says nothing as he is told that his fingerprints were found on the pistol's hand grip, he says nothing as the police come to bring him to the electric chair on that cold morning, he says nothing as they strap him into the electric chair, and when they ask if Nathan Graves has any last words, he says nothing. Nathan saw the face of Bill, his neighbor and the man who called the police on that fateful night one year ago, and on that face he sees a bitter smile.
"He's always lurking around, I don't like the way he looks at me" says Jennifer in Nathan's memories, and with that realization he finally speaks "Good god!?! Can it be?" but his words are muffled by the rough fabric of the execution hood. "Wait! Stop the execution! It's him! He killed my darlin'!" he shouts, but just as the executioners press the fatal buttons, a surge of Mutagenic Energy known as energy X hits the transformer powering the Electric Chair.
"Good gravy! Some kind of strange energy is in the circuit breaker, it's surging into the prisoner!" shouts the executioners while Nathan convulses in agony. But as he dies, the Energy X begins to fill him, creating a ghostly blue apparation of a skull around his body, and when the apparation fades, the corpse of Nathan rises from it's chair, snapping the straps that held him in place with ease.
Tears in his prison suit reveal Pale white skin with a ghostly glow, while his executioner's hood has clung to his head, depressing near his empty eye sockets and nose cavity, leaving pitch blackness in those areas. Nathan reaches out his hand towards the audience, pointing at bill "Yooouuuu, the innocent die while the guilty laugh!" he says as the onlookers, especially bill show faces of shock and horror, with bill trying to melt behind the rest of the witnesses, but he sees Nathan begin to fade and disappear, only to reappear right behind the window, smashing through the glass and gliding towards him.
"Who's laughing now?" asks the ghostly figure in a threatening tone. Before Bill can escape he feels the powerful hands of the Dead Nathan graves clench around his throat, "Why? Why did you kill her?" he demands while the police fire at Nathans, only to see their bullets harmlessly phasing through his body. "Bullets...going right through him, as if he wasn't there!" gasp the officers as the watch helplessly. "Arghhnnngrrhh!" Bill chokes, trying desperately to avoid justice. "The power of the grave compels you!! Why did you kill her!??!?" snarls the Ghostly Nathan. As Nathan continues to choke him, the youth and life begin to drain out of Bill, his hair rapidly turned white while wrinkles and creases form all over him as the ghostly glow of Nathans gets stronger,
"I didn't! I didn't I ahhckk!....Yes I killed her, when I tried to catch her, she pushed me away and said she was going to tell you, when you got home! Now get yer cold hands off me you fiend!" he shrieks, but when Nathans finally lets go of him, the last bit of life leaves his body while his soul and psyche were sent shrieking into the lower planes for their just punishment.
"Runnn fools! Tell the wicked that their lies shall be brought into the light! For where Nathan Graves once stood, only Tombstone remains" he chillingly warns the police. After leaving the Prison, Tombstone roamed the world, bringing justice to those who dared to avoid it, bringing death to those who sought to cheat it, particularly other forms of undead, ESPECIALLY Liches.
Tombstone has been active for nearly ninety years now, and the evil undead of the world who know of him both hate and fear him, for he relentlessly comes to bring their dooms to bring them to the graves that they so desperately try to avoid. But evil is not limited to the undead, and Tombstone has never hesitated to bring justice to the living as well. He considers his proudest moment being fighting in America's super brigade during the second world war, taking the fight to the Third Reich, Mussolini's Italy, and Imperial Japan.
His acts earned him a distinguished service medal, an army achievement medal, and what he's most proud of, the Congressional Medal of Honour for single handedly storming a Nazi fortress that was working on time travel technology that would have won the war in hitler's favour and in Patton's words "Punching a power armoured Heinrich Himmler in the jaw in the damned funniest manner I've ever *EXPLETIVE EXPUNGED heard", but was denied any further purple hearts as his undead status made it difficult to determine what was really "injury received during valiant action" for him. He remains proud of his war medals even to this day.
During the second world war, he fought deadly foes such as the italian Maestro, the Red Sun of Japan, Blitzkrieg of Germany, Sturmhound of the Waffen SS, the atrocious Der Kommandant, The grand Shinobi, Mussolini's favoured supervillain Caesar, Lord Frost of Japan, Tyrannicus of Italy and others, the superpowered battles between the Super Brigade which came to be known as Freedom Force and the Axis Uber Alles, their counterparts on the other side of the war, deciding many campaigns across the second world war.
Over the war, he watched as many heroes learned the painful lesson that just because they could take bullets like a champion did not mean that they could take a tank shell or a bomb to the face and not be reduced to a bloody smear. When ten percent of Freedom Force died in the battle of the Kasserine pass, Kharkov, and in defense of the phillipines, Tombstone began lobbying for freedom force to be used as special forces rather than a lynchpin of the conventional armies, as set piece battles would only give the Axis a nice way to slaughter members of Freedom Force wholesale.
He fought in the Korean war where he achieved even more war glory, but began to be disillusioned with the government due to the increasing paranoia concerning communists in the country, with McCarthyism proving to be the last straw for him, though continued good relationships with President Eisenhower meant that his discharge from the armed services was very much an honourable one.
He found the cold war to be in bad taste, as he had fought along side many Chinese and Soviet heroes whom he considered to be honourable men and women. And having to fight some of them in the Korean war distraught him. However in the sixties, he still fought Communist super villains and apolitcal ones all the same, but earned himself a position in the legion of merit for uncovering a nazi remnant scheme to overthrow America headed by the diabolical Sturmhound.
The battle between Sturmhound and Tombstone lasted for a day, the two old foes trading blows with one another, the twenty years of time that had passed being meaningless to the two old combatants. But eventually, he overcame Sturmhound, but before he could bring him to justice, Sturmhound threatened to detonate a series of bombs in the city's nuclear power plant, forcing Tombstone to break off his attack to stop a nuclear meltdown, and thus allowing Sturmhound to flee to Argentina.
He refused to participate in the Vietnam war, preferring to remain on the streets and clearing it of villainy, remaining apolitical as he was not loyal to the government of America but to the *ideal* of America and Democracy. He continually rebuffed offers by the government to work more directly for them, believing that the best way to help the people was right at their level, rather than working for the government; whether Republican or Democratic.
Powers
- Super strength: Tombstone can exert about twenty five tons of force.
- Immense durability: Tombstone is extraordinarily durable, he has taken tank shells to the chest, though they do rattle and damage him heavily.
- Servant of the grave: Tombstone cannot be permanently destroyed, if his form is discorporated, he will return within a week.
- Incorporeality: Tombstone can become Incorporeal at will, which causes the objects of the material world to phase through him, while the objects of the spirit world become fully material to him, this also allows him to astrally project himself.
- Possession: Tombstone can possess an object or person, taking total control over them, this however takes effort and rare is the mind that he can overwhelm completely.
- Dead mind: Tombstone is immune to mental attacks and effects.
- Wave of terror: Tomb stone can emit an area burst of sheer terror that panics his foes within a ten meter radius for a minute. This can still be resisted however.
- Temporary life: Tombstone can give slain allies a temporary life for two minutes so that they can finish the fight even if killed.
- Teleportation: Tombstone is capable of teleporting himself and others anywhere he desires, he does need to have a clear idea of where he and any compatriots is going lest he end up teleporting into the ground..
- Immunities and resistances: Tombstone is immune to Poison, Fatigue, Cold, Magic, and Heat. He is resistant to blunt force and current electricity.
- Energy charging: Tombstone can charge his attacks with electricity, sound, or darkness, which greatly harms energy and spirit beings as well as machines. Once he uses this power, his attacks become much more powerful against the undead, with incorporeal undead being destroyed with a single blow. This also increases the potency of his blows against other targets, though not quite as much.
- Life Drain: Tombstone is capable of draining the life of those he touches, rapidly aging them, when used on machines this power drains the energy from them, when used on the undead, he robs them of their life giving force. This takes quite a bit of time however, about five seconds for a normal human male in his thirties at full throttle and longer depending on how much life force they have. However, against the undead, the effect is instantaneous regardless of power level, thus other undead have named him the "bringer of the death touch." He can use the energy from those whom he has drained to enhance his own powers temporarily. Those exposed to the life drain in any capacity must tell the truth and MUST answer any question asked of them truthfully. Knowing this, he is capable of adjusting how quickly he drains a being of life.
- Undead: Tombstone has no biological needs, he does not eat, drink, sleep, or breathe.
- Seeing: Tombstone can see in all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and hear all pitches, and do so far better than any human can, he can even see and hear the spirit world.
- Ambient terror: Tombstone's simple presence inspires fear, a fear that intensifies if Tombstone fixes his gaze upon someone or wills it to do so. The more a person has committed evil, the stronger this power is on them.
- Electricity manipulation: Tombstone is capable of manipulating electricity, and is about as capable with it as the villain Electro is, Tombstone can also use "soul lightning" that attacks the soul as well as the body, bypassing immunities to electricity.
- Sound manipulation: Tombstone is as skilled with manipulating sound as he is with controlling electricity. He can also use spirit thunder, which is akin to his soul lightning power.
- Umbralkinesis: Tombstone can manipulate the dark, even making solid matter out of it for projectiles and armor or coatings for his fists, or charge himself with Dark Energy.
- Swift as death: Tombstone can move at speeds of over a hundred and twenty miles per hour and can react about fifteen times faster than an ordinary human, giving him a speed that belies his nature as an undead Ghost.
- Hearing of the damned: Tombstone can function much like an EVP reader, and is always capable of hearing the whispers of haunting ghosts, in addition, he is capable of preforming exorcisms and house blessings by literally going incorporeal and beating the haunting spirits out of the place.
- Magic resistance: Tombstone is highly resistant to magic, and completely immune to mind affecting spells. He has no special resistance to psionics that do not directly target his mind however, as they are not supernatural.
- Magic: Over his years, Tombstone has studied a bit of magic, though so far his skill is mostly limited to dispelling and counterspells.
- Intelligence: Tombstone has gained considerable knowledge over the years, and his undead status has enhanced his intelligence. He's more than smart enough to build his own set of fantastical gadgets and deduce cunning puzzles and solve tricky traps. He also posseses a great deal of tactical and strategic genius.
- Skilled fighter: Having been fighting for nearly a hundred years, Tombstone is one of the greatest fighters of human origin there is. There's literally nothing he hasn't seen.
- Wealth: Over Nathan's time, he's amassed a considerable personal fortune, which is aided by the fact that he doesn't spend any of it on anything but crime fighting. With a net worth of twenty five billion and an income of roughly a billion a year, most of which he spends quite rapidly, he has very deep pockets for his war on crime.
Weaknesses
- Raw Energy: Tombstone is vulnerable to raw energy as this disrupts his form, doing extra damage.
- Ionizing radiation: Ionizing radiation also disrupts tombstone's form.
- Exorcism: Tombstone can be exorcised with unholy rituals and spells that temporarily banish him from the material world for up to a week.
- Ghost touch weapons: Ghost touch weapons can harm Tombstone even if he's incorporeal and deal extra damage to him.
- Unholy weapons: As a spirit of good, weapons charged with evil deal extra damage to his ghostly form.
- Nth metal: As a spirit, Nth metal is especially damaging to him.
- Anti-magic: Tombstone winks out of being when brought into anti-magic fields and only returns when the anti-magic field is removed.
- Other incorporeals: Other Incorporeal beings can hurt Tombstone as if he were a physical being.
- Radioactive materials; Tombstone cannot phase through any naturally radioactive material as the ionizing radiation disrupts his form. Nor can he teleport through them.
- Heroics first: Tombstone's desire to ensure that no one else suffers like he has leads him to often make bad decisions to try and save innocents.
- The innocent need not beware: Those who are naturally good are affected much less by his spirit thunder, soul lightning, penance stare, life drain, waves of terror, and other supernatural abilities.
- Light Energy: Light energy, when weaponized, deals greater damage to tombstone than it would do to someone else of his durability level that lacks such a weakness.
- Oathbound: When Tombstone makes an Oath, as the spirit of justice, he must follow it to the letter.
- Unholy symbols: Tombstone is warded away by symbols of evil religions much as how evil spirits are warded away by symbols of good religions.
- Undead weaknesses: Tombstone is harmed by positive energy and can be turned by a priest like any other form of undead, and Holy water, as it is charged with positive as well as good energy, hurts him, though not quite as badly as it does other undead.
- Proton beams: Much like any other ghost, the beams fired by the proton packs popularized by the Ghost busters can suck in and trap him.
Equipment
- Tombsuit: Deciding that the rags of his prison outfit would not be suited for him, the ghostly avenger crafted himself a special Carbodanium-Titanium-Kevlar weave suit that greatly enhances his durability, especially against blunt trauma and bullets. The suit is more heavily armoured at the shoulders, gauntlets, elbows, knees, and shins to help him deflect edged weapons. This suit also comes with a special Vibranium-Spider silk weave cape that can deflect just about any attack, useful against massive gouts of flame. His hood is made out of the same weave as the rest of his suit
- Lightning pistols: Tombstone carries two pistols that can shoot two powerful bolts of lightning capable of harming both the material and the incorporeal, they are extremely effective against machines, spirits and energy beings. His pistols have special enchantments that mean they always home in to their targets if used on the undead and cause vastly more damage against the undead, allowing him to rapidly down even mighty liches and vampires while bypassing their defenses. They can also be charged with soul lightning instead of regular electricity
- Grenades: Tombstone carries a large array of grenades of all kinds, these collapsible grenades can be thrown either as discs or as standard spheres or even sticks. Some of these extend can even extend blades to form "death frisbees" made out of Mithril, the celtic equivalent of Uru, death frisbees can be self propelled and even remote controlled and can carry a large number of warheads.
- Explosive gel: More portable and controllable than C4, this gel is carried in special dispensers than allows him to rapidly spray it for quick demolitions work.
- Cryptographer: A potent hacking device, this allows tombstone to crack into all but the most secure of communications and security systems.
- Grapple hook launcher: Primarily meant for long ranged disarmament, this launches a hydraulic claw that can quickly grab and rip a weapon or shield away from the user; leaving them painfully exposed to a beat down from Tombstone.
- Tombcycle
- A custom made bike crafted by Graves, this motorcycle is capable of running at about half the speed of sound and is equipped with dual tesla-cannons, one in each "eye", a sonic-repeater in it's nose, and a pair of automatic grenade launchers that can be extended from it's sides. It can also turn incorporeal as he does, and has an advanced A.I that obeys the undead vigilante's thoughts. Against airborne targets, it also bears a pair of modified Stinger anti-air missiles that can be fired from it's rear. The tombcycle is made out of unknown, but incredibly durable alloys, and Nathan seems to have a large number of replacements.
- The Grave runner:
Best described as a tank on wheels, the Grave runner can go at up to two hundred miles per hour, and is equipped with advanced stealth technologies, and like Tombstone, can also turn incorporeal. The Grave runner has a large number of weaponry, including a gatling grenade launcher, a triple tesla cannon, dual sonic repeaters, a high-powered extra long range heavy laser, a battery of SAMs, and a hyper-electrified hull to ward off would be car thieves. The Grave Runner is immensely durable and has withstood attacks from the hulk and sergeant arch dornan, and Nathan keeps a fleet of them around. Like his cycles, they are guided by advance A.Is that can follow his thoughts.
The Dead flier:
Grave's personal fleet of combat aircraft: The Dead fliers are state of the art VTOL jets developed by Graves himself with the aid of SHIELD. The Dead Fliers have state of the art cloaking and stealth technology as well as being able to turn incorporeal along with him. They can reach hypersonic velocities and rain death with volleys of missiles, a nose-mounted gatling grenade launcher, a pair of tesla cannons, and a rear mounted sonic repeater cannon complete the Dead Flier's aresenal. They aren't quite as tough as the Grave runners, but they also have advanced A.I systems that can respond to telepathic commands from graves.
For all of those who want to know what I look like
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