The Presence | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | Defenders #52 (Oct 1977) |
Created by | David Anthony Kraft and Keith Giffen |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Sergei Krylov |
Partnerships | Starlight |
Abilities | Energy blasts Flight Manipulation of nuclear energy |
Sergei Krylov is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe.
As a younger man, Sergei was a Russian nuclear physicist born in Minsk, Soviet Union. His twin children, Nikolai Krylenko and Laynia Petrovna were taken from birth by the Soviet government to be trained as soldiers, after their mutant natures manifested.
Sergei eventually became one of the most influential men behind the scenes of the Soviet government. However, despite being a scientific genius, he was also quite mad. He caused a Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster in the "Forbidden Zone" using cobalt radiation baths and a nuclear blast, which transformed Tania Belinsky into his super-powered thrall as the second Red Guardian. The nuclear energy transformed Sergei into a superhuman being as well, and he could now generate nuclear energy within his own body for various uses. Sergi began calling himself "The Presence". The Presence and Red Guardian battled the Defenders when they came to find her. The Presence left when she regained her free will and spurned him. Soon after, the Presence battled a giant mutated amoeba in the "Forbidden Zone", and was then reunited and reconciled with Red Guardian.
The government now wanted the threat of the Presence eliminated. His own children had been trained by the government as super-powered soldiers and, unaware of their true relationship, were sent to kill him. Alongside the Red Guardian, Presence encountered the Hulk, Professor Phobos, and the Soviet Super-Soldiers in the "Forbidden Zone". Darkstar and Vanguard learned that the Presence was their father and turned against the Soviet regime, and saved the Presence from Phobos. In order to save the Soviet Union from the dangerous, spreading radiation of the so-called Forbidden Zone, an irradiated Soviet wasteland, the Presence and the Red Guardian absorbed all the radiation into themselves and left for outer space, where they claimed they would transform themselves into inert matter. The twins became agents on their own, fighting for the good of the people, and sometimes working with their father.