Protege

Character History

Protégé was a cosmic entity and the child-like ruler of the Universal Church of Truth in the 31st century of Earth-691. He had a Skrull playmate, Replica, and an advisor, Jiltrin, and a matriarch, Aleta (who later became a Starhawk).

Protege was later captured by the Beyonder, along with Malevolence, who had become his new matriarch. The Beyonder captured them just for amusement's sake.

Mephisto broke them out and Protege battled the Beyonder, copying his powers. As he grew in power, the Living Tribunal and Eternity became concerned with his potential to upset the multiverse. The Beyonder, seeing that he could not defeat him directly, left. Malevolence and Mephisto stayed and tried to influence Protege for their own uses. They began by planning a take-over of the Beyonder's Beyond-realm. However, the Beyonder transported the Guardians of the Galaxy to the Beyond-realm and they all battled.

The Living Tribunal intervened and brought Protege and the Beyonder to him for a trial, judged by the Tribunal, Eternity, the Hawk God, and the Celestial, Scathan the Approver. Protege and the Beyonder attacked them, but to no avail.

During the trial, Protege continued to duplicate all the powers he saw on display, until he reached a high level of omnipotence and declared himself the new One-Above-All, demanding that the others supplicate themselves to him.

More characters appeared during all of this, and Protege, Mephisto, and Malevolence battled the Guardians and the Hawk God. Finally, Scathan, officially not approving of the proceedings, blasted Protege and locked him in an energy muzzle. The Living Tribunal then created an Eternal Hourglass and trapped Protege inside, where he was absorbed by cosmic time. The Tribunal then absorbed the Hourglass.

Powers

Protege was able to copy any powers he saw manifested in front of him. This ability seemed to have almost no limit, and he was able to copy much of the power of some of the great cosmic beings of the multiverse, including the Beyonder, the Living Tribunal, the Hawk God, Eternity, and Scathan the Approver. However, he was still able to be bound and defeated by the combined powers of Scathan and the Tribunal.

One limit on this ability was that he could not copy powers until he saw them being used. For instance, when the Beyonder held him in a crystal prison, Protege was not able to copy the Beyonder's powers to break out, even though the Beyonder was nearby, because the Beyonder was not using his powers. Later, when the Beyonder used his powers to fight Protege, Protege was then easily able to copy them. Eternity stated that protégé has the potential for infinite omnipotence no matter how much he mimics powers.