Empires have collapsed. Kings have fallen. Men have perished. Worlds have ended...and that's just the beginning...everything dies. 
- —Black Swan[src]
Yabbat Ummon Tarru is the last of her people. When an incursion befell Earth-1365, the Black Priests destroyed her Earth. She escaped to the Library of Worlds and was recruited into the Black Swans.[1]
Arriving at Earth-616 during its first incursion, she was captured by the Illuminati.[4] The Black Swan served as their guide to the incursions and the various factions involved: the Black Swans, the Black Priests, the Mapmakers, the Builders, the inhabitants of other universes, etc.[5][6] However, she was part of a splinter group of Swans that discovered the truth about "Rabum Alal," spread radical rumours about him, and caused others to believe that Rabum Alal was trying to destroy the Multiverse, which was actually untrue.[7]
The Black Swan was freed by Namor, who was dissatisfied with the Illuminati's handling of the incursions, and she joined the Cabal.[8] Thanks to the Maker and his life raft, the Cabal was able to survive the final incursion and landed in Battleworld.[9] There, she decided to serve God Emperor Doom.[10] After the Multiverse's restoration,[11] she joined the Black Order, whom she had already worked with in the Cabal.[12]
History
Origin[]
Yabbat Ummon Tarru was born to the royal family of the Hidden City, third sister of the Crown Prince Dadingra, in a reality where the stars had disappeared. One day, tired of her overprotective family, the young Yabbat escaped her home to wander through the outside world. However, she was soon attacked by a young wolf who sunk its teeth into her arm, despite her effort to fend off the beast. The wolf eventually left her after it heard its pack. She was nursed back to health, and her mother forbade her from leaving her home again.[13]
Yabbat finds the Black Swans in the Library of Worlds
Every day, she and her brother used the Great Key, a gift from the Ivory Kings (Sinnu Sarrum) to open the doors of the Library of Worlds, seemingly a nexus of realities, hoping for the arrival of the "Great Ladies," mythical travelers of the Multiverse.[1]
One day, Yabbat's world underwent an incursion, putting her Earth on a crash course with the Earth of another universe. The Black Priests descended from the other world and began massacring the inhabitants of the City. All were killed except for Yabbat, who took the Great Key and unlocked the door of the world library, finding there the Great Ladies, the Black Swans, who raised her to become one of them and to serve Rabum Alal, the "Great Destroyer."[1]
Yabbat served the Great Destroyer faithfully, until one day she and five other Swans discovered the truth about him; that he was a mortal man, using the Swans for his own purposes. Yabbat then turned away from the Swans and set out on a quest of her own. Carrying extensive DNA samples, brain scans, and cognitive mappings of her family, she began searching for a refuge where she could regrow her loved ones, destroying Earths along the way.[14][7]
Encountering the Illuminati[]
Black Swan during Earth-616's first incursion
Black Swan first came to Earth-616 with the help of a Manifold from another universe which was colliding with Earth-616. She fooled him into helping her destroy his Earth, to save both universes, before killing him. She was apprehended by the Black Panther, who caught her in the act, and summoned the Illuminati to deal with this new crisis.[4] After holding Black Swan in a cell rigged with an explosive charge and interrogating her, they agreed to let her out so that she could tell them what they needed to do to stop the incursions threatening their world. Her attempts at educating them were interrupted by a new incursion taking place in Latveria.[1]
As the Illuminati's prisoner
Black Swan accompanied the Illuminati to Latveria, where she witnessed the arrival of the Mapmakers, multiversal scavengers that use the incursions to expand into new universes. She convinced the Illuminati to destroy the colliding reality's planet Earth with the antimatter bomb in order to prevent their plans. That done, she was put back in her cell, next to Terrax the Truly Enlightened, also captured by the Illuminati. Black Swan telepathically prodded him and offered an alliance, predicting that they would be useful to each other in the coming days.[15]
Infinity[]
During the campaign of the Builders, the Earth was left vulnerable as the Avengers departed to deal with the threat. After the Mad Titan, Thanos, invaded the vulnerable Earth, he uncovered the Illuminati's secret base in his search for the Infinity Gems. There he encountered Black Swan, who asked if he would set her and Terrax free on the advice of one of his lieutenants; however, Thanos decided not to, and instead left them there. Thanos would ultimately be defeated, with him and two of his lieutenants imprisoned in amber and held alongside Black Swan and Terrax.[16]
Warning the Illuminati that there are far greater threats than the Builders
Black Swan chided the Illuminati for thinking they had won a great victory in defeating the Builders, reminding them that the threat of the Builders was nothing compared to other forces that were out there.[17] She instructed the Illuminati to build a device that would allow them to view other realities, and how these realities were dealing with incursions. The Illuminati used this device to look into her past, and after seeing her past actions on other Earths and the great danger she posed to them, they incarcerated her once again after a battle. While in her cell, Terrax told her that the Illuminati could never hold them there indefinitely, and that their time would come, pointing to Thanos' cell, where Corvus Glaive was slowly returning to life.[18]
Black Swan fighting alongside the Cabal
The Cabal[]
When the Illuminati fell apart after being forced to destroy another inhabited Earth, all of them resolved to allow their world to die in order to spare them from having to kill more people. Namor was the lone dissenter, freeing Black Swan and the Illuminati's other prisoners and creating the Cabal, who would aid him in destroying worlds.[8]
Eight months after the formation of the Cabal, the group had been accepted by the United Nations. The world stood by and allowed the Cabal to raze Wakanda, and claim the ruins as their base of operations. The Cabal continued to protect the universe by destroying colliding Earths, but Namor had grown weary and disgusted with the Cabal's habit of engaging in wholesale slaughter of the colliding Earth's population, as opposed to simply planting the bomb and leaving. Black Swan was aware of Namor's wavering dedication, often taunting him over his conscience.[19][20]
Namor, now willing to accept the Illuminati's justice in order to stop the Cabal, devised a plan with the Illuminati to destroy them. A new incursion was on the horizon, one in which the incursive world had been ravaged by the Sidera Maris. Namor would lead the Cabal to said world, activate the Antimatter Injection System without their knowledge, and leave them to die with that Earth, preventing them from escaping with the use of an A.I.M. platform capable of creating an impenetrable barrier between the two colliding Earths. As the Cabal engaged the Sidera Maris in combat, Namor set his plan in motion; however, he was betrayed by Black Panther and Black Bolt, who pushed him off the platform into the soon-to-be-destroyed Earth.[21]
As the Cabal approached the abandoned Namor, who lied about his intentions, Black Swan informed them of an unusual event. The Earth they were in was simultaneously in an incursion with yet another universe at the same time. Unable to return to Earth-616, the Cabal made their way to the second incursion point, and escaped from the doomed planet into the third reality, the Ultimate Universe, allying themselves with the Maker.[22] Black Swan was aware of Namor's treachery, and after waiting a day, she confronted him. Namor assured her, however, that all he cared about now was survival, and Black Swan decided to keep his treachery secret.[23] The Cabal began to work on a way to survive the coming final incursion. They began constructing a "life-raft" that would allow them to survive the collapse of the Multiverse, and deployed it while the forces of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 were fighting.[24]
Secret Wars[]
The Cabal were awakened when their life-raft was excavated on Battleworld, a patchwork planet, made up of fragments from various destroyed realities, created by Rabum Alal.[25] The Cabal began exploring the deserted wasteland they had awoken in, when they were attacked by the Thor Corps, the police force of Battleworld. Black Swan and the Cabal were more than capable of holding their own against the Thors, prompting Sheriff Strange to unleash the heroes of Earth-616 from their own life-raft and send them to confront the Cabal. When Rabum Alal himself arrived on the scene, Strange teleported everyone present, scattering them across Battleworld just prior to his death.[26]
Serving Rabum Alal once more
Black Swan was transported to Doomgard, home of Rabum Alal, and there she once again began to serve him.[27] When her former compatriots in the Cabal, along with members of the Illuminati and the rest of the heroes of Earth-616 united to overthrow Rabum Alal, Black Swan remained loyal, and watched together with him and his family as a climactic battle between the denizens of Battleworld swayed by the heroes and the Cabal fought those who had remained loyal to Rabum Alal. Black Swan was dispatched to examine a disturbance in the lower depths of Castle Doom, where she encountered Star-Lord. She easily dispatched him, but before she could kill him, he corrupted the World Tree, causing it to transform into Groot and destroy the castle, seemingly killing Swan in the process.[28]
Quest for Mjolnir[]
When the Multiverse was restored to its proper state by Mister Fantastic after Rabum Alal was defeated,[11] Black Swan found herself once again in the Prime Marvel Universe. After a mysterious cloaked figure[29] (secretly the Asgardian death god Hela)[30] wanted to curry favor with Thanos by bring him an alternate reality Mjolnir as a tribute,[29] Swan, Hela, and Proxima Midnight snuck aboard the ship of the Collector, who was in possession of that Mjolnir, in order to steal the hammer from him. The villains unexpectedly encountered Odinson and Beta Ray Bill,[31] both of whom had been captured by the Collector after they attempted to recover the city of Asgard and take the hammer from the Elder of the Universe.[29]
Odinson had already incapacitated Bill while suffering from warrior's madness, and in turn was knocked out by Proxima and Black Swan so that they could take Bill's hammer, Stormbreaker. Hela, however, told them that Stormbreaker wasn't their target, so Swan and her companions continued their search of the Collector's ship. They eventually found the city of Asgard where the alternate Mjolnir was located. Swan and her companions then attacked the Collector, but were repulsed by an energy blast from the hammer itself.[31]
Thor and his allies also entered the fray, leading to an intense fight between the three sides over the ownership of the hammer.[32] Thor eventually knocked out Swan and her companions by unleashing a burst of energy from the hammer before using the hammer's teleportation power to transport himself, Asgard, and his allies away. Swan and her companions were forced to return to Thanos empty-handed. Swan wasn't punished, though, as Thanos considered the hammer to be insignificant and not worth worrying over.[30]
The Challengers' Contest[]
As part of a contest against the Grandmaster, the Challenger reformed the Black Order to battle the Lethal Legion, who fought on the Grandmaster's behalf.[33] As soon as they were teleported to Earth in order to survey the planet since it served as the game's battleground, both teams scuffled briefly before being stopped by their masters since the contest hadn't started yet.
Before the first round, the Black Order launched a surprise attack and exploded the Avengers Mansion,[34] though the Avengers were teleported to safety at the last moment by Voyager. When the game started, the Black Order was divided in half to fight for the possession of the two Pyramoids placed on Earth by the gamemasters. Black Swan was among the members of the Black Order fighting one of the halves of the Lethal Legion in Rome, Italy.[35] When a group of Avengers stepped in, the Black Order took advantage of Lethal Legion being distracted by the heroes. Black Swan shielded Black Dwarf from the debris orbiting the Pyramoid, allowing him to claim it. He scored a point for his team, and was teleported away, though in a manner it seemed like he had disintegrated.[36]
Following the end of the first round, the Black Order regrouped.[37] For the second round, the Black Order went to Antarctica to seize one of the new Pyramoids, but they were intercepted and overpowered by a group of Avengers.[38] After Rogue killed Corvus Glaive, Black Swan decided to retreat with the only teammate of hers still on her feet, Proxima Midnight. The Pyramoid was left for the Lethal Legion's Ferene to claim.[33] During the contest's final round, the last Pyramoid was teleported from its designated location to the Avengers Auxiliary Headquarters by the Grandmaster's secret agent, Voyager.[39] Proxima Midnight and Black Swan followed the Challenger's own ace in the hole, the Hulk, to the Pyramoid's new location,.[40] but were defeated by the heroes left in the wake of Hulk's rampage.[41] Following the end of the contest and the Avengers' victory over the Challenger, the Black Order regrouped and escaped to the planet Angargal, where they were approached by the Grandmaster with an offer.[42]
Black Swan appeared to have left the Black Order later on, allowing Supergiant to rejoin it.[43]Attributes
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Powers
Optic Blasts: Yabbat possesses the ability to fire energy blasts from her eyes.[4] Her blasts are strong enough to hurt Captain Marvel.[44]
Superhuman Strength: Black Swan possesses superhuman strength (Class 25).[45] She has been shown cracking the near-impenetrable cell wall, capable of holding a herald of Galactus, that she was being held in, with just one punch.[1]
Telepathy: Black Swan has shown the ability to probe the minds of others and communicate telepathically.[15]
Flight: She can fly and hover at will.[15]
Force Fields: Black Swan can create force fields around herself and other individuals.[22]
Holograms: Black Swan can generate holographic images.[45]Abilities
Black Swan speaking a Sumerian dialect.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
Black Swan destroying Earth-1331's Earth
Notes
- While Yabbat is specifically stated to be speaking High Sumerian and not Akkadian,[4] she is in fact speaking Akkadian and not Sumerian throughout her appearances in New Avengers (Vol. 3). Whether this was simply a mistake or deliberate is unclear.
- Black Swan is listed as being a member of the Illuminati in Infinity #1, although she was at best a guest and worst a prisoner.[47]
- Yabbat is often the only Black Swan in the story, so she is commonly known as just the Black Swan. Other Black Swans call her by her name, Yabbat.[18]
Trivia
Strange, Wyn, and the Centum watching Black Swan's history at the Library of Worlds
- When Yabbat's family is shown, five siblings are seen: her brother Dadingra, three sisters, and another brother.[1] Presumably, Yabbat is the third oldest sister.
- The Black Swan despises sorcerers such as Doctor Strange, presumably due to her history with the Black Priests.[1]
- The Black Priests wrote a book about Yabbat. At Columbia University, that book now opens a door to the Library of Worlds after it had become public.[3]
- Screenings of Yabbat's backstory, titled "Of Black Priests and Black Swans," were publicly shown at the Library of Worlds for a limited time. It is considered Kaecilius' masterpiece.[48]
- Her surname is "Tarru,"[1][49][45] but a long-standing typo on the Marvel Database inadvertently caused "Turru" to be an alternate spelling.[3]
See Also
- 66 appearance(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 4 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 2 minor appearance(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 4 mention(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 81 image(s) of Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 9 quotation(s) by or about Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
- 2 victim(s) killed by Yabbat Ummon Tarru (Earth-1365)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #5
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #7
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 G.O.D.S. #2
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #1
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #2–6
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #12–15
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #33
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #23
- ↑ Secret Wars #1–2
- ↑ Secret Wars #6–8
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Secret Wars #9
- ↑ Unworthy Thor #3–5
- ↑ Black Order #4
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #26
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #6
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #11
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #12
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 New Avengers (Vol. 3) #15
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #24
- ↑ Avengers World #18–19
- ↑ Avengers (Vol. 5) #40
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Avengers (Vol. 5) #41
- ↑ Avengers (Vol. 5) #42
- ↑ Secret Wars #1
- ↑ Secret Wars #2
- ↑ Secret Wars #3
- ↑ Secret Wars #6
- ↑ Secret Wars #8
- ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Unworthy Thor #2
- ↑ 30.0 30.1 Unworthy Thor #5
- ↑ 31.0 31.1 Unworthy Thor #3
- ↑ Unworthy Thor #4
- ↑ 33.0 33.1 Avengers #681
- ↑ Avengers #676
- ↑ Avengers #677
- ↑ Avengers #678
- ↑ Avengers #679
- ↑ Avengers #680
- ↑ Avengers #684
- ↑ Avengers #685
- ↑ Avengers #686
- ↑ Avengers #690
- ↑ Phoenix #3
- ↑ 44.0 44.1 Star #4
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 Avengers NOW! #1
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 3) #4
- ↑ Brevoort, Tom (19 September, 2013) The recap page for Infinity #1 said Black Swan was an Illuminati... Wait, is she? New Brevoort Formspring. Retrieved on 11 July 2024.
- ↑ G.O.D.S. #3
- ↑ Secret Wars: Official Guide to the Marvel Multiverse #1
- ↑ Avengers NOW! Vol 1 1