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Box (comics)

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For more information on his incarnation of Box, see Madison Jeffries.
Box
Box (middle) charges into battle alongside his Alpha Flight teammates. From Alpha Flight #36 (July 1986). Cover art by Mike Mignola.
Publication information
PublisherMarvel Comics
First appearanceAlpha Flight vol. 1, #1 (August, 1983
(as Box)
Alpha Flight vol. 1, #11 (June, 1984)
(as Roger Bochs)
Created byJohn Byrne
In-story information
Alter egoRoger Bochs
Team affiliationsAlpha Flight
Beta Flight
Gamma Flight
Notable aliasesOmega
AbilitiesMechanical genius,
Ability to phase into the Box-armor and merge with it
As Box:
Superhuman strength

Box (Roger Bochs) is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, specifically Alpha Flight, of which Box was a member.

Fictional character biography

Roger Bochs was born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He was a brilliant engineer and mechanic, who lost both of his legs. He created a remote-controlled robot which he called Box as a play on his own name. James Hudson saw Bochs' potential. He helped him with the construction of Box and recruited Bochs into Gamma Flight, a training program for the Canadian superhero group Alpha Flight, which was led by Hudson as Guardian. Bochs quickly graduated to Beta Flight, a group for more advanced superhero trainees, but the Canadian government severed its links with Alpha Flight shortly afterwards and Beta Flight and Gamma Flight were cancelled. Some members of Beta Flight joined Alpha Flight, while most Gamma Flight-members were recruited by Jerome Jaxon, an old enemy of Hudson, to join Omega Flight, a criminal organisation. Bochs was approached as well and joined Omega Flight, but with the intention to destroy it from within.[1] When Jaxon discovered this, he took Box's controlling helmet and had the robot attack Guardian. During the battle Guardian managed to damage Box and the feedback killed Jaxon, but the damage sustained during the battle caused Guardian's suit to explode later.[2]

Bochs returned to work on Box, but felt partly responsible for Guardian's death. Another friend of Guardian, Madison Jeffries met up with Bochs.[3] Jeffries had the mutant ability to shape metal, plastic and glass with his mind. Together they vastly improved upon the original Box design. Now the controller no longer wore a helmet, but physically merged with stronger and bigger Box.[4] Bochs wanted to use Box to hunt down Delphine Courtney, an android working for Jaxon and the leader of Omega Flight for its part in Hudson's death, but Box was needed elsewhere: Walter Langkowski alias Sasquatch's body had been taken over by the Great Beast Tanaraq and Snowbird was forced to destroy the body. Alpha Flight managed to save the his soul and projected it into the armor.[5] Bochs tried to find a new body for him,[6] but failed and Langkowski's soul left Box.[7] Bochs controlled Box once again and joined Alpha Flight as an official member.[8] Aurora expressed a romantic interest in Bochs,[9] who returned her affection, but Aurora's fickle nature caused him much stress.

During one mission underwater, Bochs emerged too fast while merged with Box and was suffering from decompression sickness.[10] He was unable to leave Box and started to panic that he could never touch Aurora again.[11] Jeffries' brother Lionel alias Scramble, who could shape flesh and bone with his mind, not only separated and healed Bochs from his decompression sickness,[12] he also restored Bochs' legs and gave him an athlete's body.[13] Lionel did not tell Bochs though that he had used dead human bodies as material for Bochs' legs and new body. During this time, Langkowski's soul briefly took over Box again before settling down in the body of the recently deceased Snowbird.[13] Langkowski had been Aurora's lover before Bochs and she left Bochs for him again. Bochs was bitter (though he had some amusement when he found out that Langkowski could not use Snowbird's shapeshifting to turn into a male). Feeling betrayed by Aurora and with his legs starting to decompose, Bochs went insane. Madison Jeffries took over Box to prevent the amount of damage Bochs could do, but this only increased the sense of betrayal that Bochs felt.[14]

Bochs left Alpha Flight and went to Lionel Jeffries, hoping that he could restore his legs again. Lionel, who also turned out to be insane, merged with Bochs and they formed Omega, who combined Lionel's powers with Bochs' genius.[15] Madison Jeffries in Box fought Omega and during the fight, Bochs' personality came to its senses again and started to rebel against Lionel. In the end, Madison was forced to kill Omega, including Bochs.[16]

Powers and abilities

The original Box was a robot which was controlled by human wearing a special neural interface helmet. The upgraded version of Box is a unique construct: it can't operate on its own and its controller doesn't wear it, but has to phase into the Box and merge with it. The controller feels a psychic bond with Box and can feel the damage done to Box as pain. If a person remains merged with Box for too long, he may be bonded to the armor permanently. Box has superhuman strength (which was increased with every improvement Roger Bochs and Madison Jeffries made on the armor) and durability. The improved Box also had the ability to fly and had a wide array of sensors and detecting equipment. Both Box robots possess high levels of superhuman strength, with the newer version being considerably stronger.

Other users of Box

  • Jerome Jaxon, who stole the controlling helmet of the original Box from Bochs.
  • Walter Langkowski aka Sasquatch, who, after the Great Beast Tanaraq took over his body, became a disembodied spirit, which resided in the armor for a short time.
  • Madison Jeffries, who completely changed the look of the armor and used his own powers to constantly change and adapt the armor.

References

  1. ^ Alpha Flight #11 (June 1984)
  2. ^ Alpha Flight #12 (July 1984)
  3. ^ Alpha Flight #16 (November 1984)
  4. ^ Alpha Flight #22 (May 1985)
  5. ^ Alpha Flight #24 (July 1985)
  6. ^ Alpha Flight #27 (October 1985)
  7. ^ Alpha Flight #28 (November 1985)
  8. ^ Alpha Flight #29 (December 1985)
  9. ^ Alpha Flight #37 (August 1986)
  10. ^ Avengers #272 (October 1986)
  11. ^ Alpha Flight #40 (November 1986) & 42 (January 1987)
  12. ^ Alpha Flight #44 (March 1987)
  13. ^ a b Alpha Flight #45 (April 1987)
  14. ^ Alpha Flight #46 (May 1987)
  15. ^ Alpha Flight #48 (July 1987)
  16. ^ Alpha Flight #49 (August 1987)
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