Chief Examiner
| Chief Examiner | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Questprobe #1 (Aug 1984) |
The Chief Examiner was a fictional character, an alien appearing in the Marvel Comics universe. It would study a superhuman, often by forcing them to run through some sort of deathtrap scenario, then used the collected data to create duplicates of the superhuman being. It appeared in the Questprobe comic book. These comics were a promotional vehicle for the computer games of the same name which featured Marvel characters.
Fictional character biography
On the planet Scadam in the Gogol System, the leaders of a peaceful humanoid race called the Scadamites watched in horror as the invading Black Fleet of starships destroyed world after world, moving towards the humanoids’ own solar system. The leaders of the humanoid race did not know how to cope with the approaching invaders, for their race had been pacifists for centuries. Not only had the race no weaponry for defense, but its members were so dedicated to their pacifist philosophy that they found the very idea of warring against the invaders abhorrent. Among the leaders, only Durgan the Philosopher sought a means of fighting back against the Black Fleet. He had used the race’s advanced technology to observe the superhumanly powerful beings of Earth, and wondered if somehow their powers could be turned to the service of his race.
Sometime later, a helmeted, robed figure calling himself the Chief Examiner began to appear from time to time on Earth. The Chief Examiner would observe superhumanly powerful beings in action, and attempt to lure them through a strange, floating black portal. Once inside the portal, the superhumanly powerful being would also temporarily lose his or her powers to some extent. The superhumanly powerful being would then emerge from the portal back upon Earth. The entire process would take no more than moments. The superhumanly powerful being soon thereafter would again reach his or her normal power level. However, the Chief Examiner could now duplicate that being’s powers for his own uses with his technology, having analyzed and drained part of them.
It is known that the Chief Examiner was sent to Earth by Durgan. However, the Chief Examiner’s identity remains unknown. It first examined the Hulk battling the U.S. Army, and analyzed the Hulk.[1] It next witnessed Spider-Man battling Mysterio, and analyzed Spider-Man.[2] It then battled the Human Torch and She-Hulk, and analyzed the Human Torch. It witnessed the Thing battling a wizard on Battleworld, and analyzed the Thing.[3]
Later, the Chief Examiner battled the X-Men and Magneto. It rebelled against Durgan's programming, and then analyzed Magneto.[4]
The Chief Examiner released the Angler and set him after Kayla Ballentine, the then-girlfriend of superhero Quasar.[5] The Examiner had Quagmire send Kayle Ballantine and Holly Steckley to Scadam.[6] Kayla was the wielder of the vastly powerful Star Brand at the time, and did not fully understand her abilities. The Chief Examiner seemingly destroyed itself when it overloaded its analysis capabilities while attempting to analyze and duplicate Kayla's Star Brand powers.[7]
Powers and abilities
The Chief Examiner is an artificial computer facsimile programmed by Durgan the Philosopher into which he projected a portion of his own consciousness, causing the Chief Examiner to evolve its own individual intelligence and personality. The Chief Examiner has genius level intelligence and the powers of self-levitation and hovering, invisibility, intangibility, and the ability to reprogram computers by touch. It carries a hand-held analysis device, and a mobile rectangular portal into a small pocket dimension containing alien technology capable of analyzing, draining, and duplicating superhuman powers and of probing memories of superhuman beings; the portal absorbs most kinetic energy directed against it.