Topher (comics)
| Topher | |
|---|---|
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Runaways #7 (December, 2003) |
| Created by |
Brian K. Vaughan Adrian Alphona |
| In-story information | |
| Species | Vampire |
| Team affiliations | Runaways |
| Notable aliases | The One Who Fathered Us Toph |
| Abilities | Vampirism Immortality Longevity Siphon Lifeforce Superhuman strength, speed, agility, stamina and reflexes Regeneration Vampiric weakness resistance Progeny tracking |
Topher is a fictional villain in the Marvel Comics series Runaways. He is a Vampire who infiltrates and joins the Runaways and is the leader of a small criminal group operating in Los Angeles.
Topher first appeared in Runaways #7 and was created by Brian K. Vaughan and Adrian Alphona. Initially, he appears as a sympathetic character and joins the Runaways as a provisional member for the story arc 'Teenage Wasteland'. He later betrays the team, revealing his vampirism and his criminal past before defeating the Runaways in combat.
He died in Runaways #10 after attempting to turn Karolina Dean into a vampire, as ingesting her sunlight-infused blood was unknowingly fatal to vampires .
Several years later, Topher had a posthumous appearance as an entry in the guidebook Vampires: The Marvel Undead .
Topher was originally born at some point before the year 1900 before being turned into a vampire at the age of sixteen. At some point after 1939, after the great depression had ended, he was able to amass a large amount of wealth by cleverly playing the stock market. During this time period, he turned at least one individual into a vampiric minion and later consumed at least one Mutant in 1979.
Topher laid low with his earned affluence for the rest of the twentieth century, preferring to keep out of the spotlight and keep his vampiric nature secret.
During the Dot-com bubble burst and subsequent economic turmoil, Topher lost his entire wealth and turned to a life of crime, creating at least one more vampiric minion to do his bidding.
Topher first encountered the Runaways while robbing a convenience store in Los Feliz with his two vampiric minions. The Runaways intervened in the robbery attempt, causing Topher's - to flee and leaving him with the six teenagers. Playing the victim, Topher convinced the Runaways that the two minions (who were conveniently an adult man and woman) were his parents. He fabricated a lie that the super strength and speed the minions had displayed in the fight were, in fact, super powers imbued from an accident at a power plant that had also left them psychologically unstable, leading them both to a life of crime which they forced their helpless son into.
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