This is an abridged version of Richard Jones' history. For a complete history see Richard Jones' Expanded History

Richard "Rick" Jones was orphaned at a young age, and after being expelled from several orphanages for disciplinary reasons he was placed into a state institution called Tempest Town. A troubled and rebellious youth, Jones soon came to the attention of the institution's chief administrator who smashed his guitar, a gift from his late father, and then had him severely thrashed. Soon afterward, Jones ran away from the institution. He spent the first half of his teens drifting from town to town throughout the Southwest, trying to avoid the authorities, and doing menial work when he could get it.^{[citation needed]}

At the age of 16, he got his driver's license and managed to save enough money to buy a used car. Overhearing a teen dare a friend to ride out with him on the desert where it was rumored an atomic bomb was going to be tested, Jones offered to take him up on the challenge. He drove his car out to the test site to discover his challenger was too timid to show up. Dr. Robert Bruce Banner, designer of the Gamma Bomb to be tested, learned that someone had ventured onto the test site, and believing the countdown had been delayed, ran out into the desert to warn him back. Banner managed to throw Jones into a protective trench before the bomb detonated, but he himself was bombarded with gamma radiation. This radiation triggered a mutagenic change in Banner, causing him to turn into the raging superhuman Hulk.^[11] Feeling responsible for Banner's condition and being the only person to know that the rampaging brute was actually Banner, Jones became the Hulk's sometimes unwanted companion and ally. Jones soon organized the Teen Brigade, a group of young amateur ham radio enthusiasts to help him monitor the Hulk's activities.^[12] Jones was present during the Hulk's first encounters with the army, as well as superhuman menaces as the Gargoyle,^[11] the alien Toadmen,^[13] the Ringmaster,^[10] Tyrannus,^[14] and the Metal Master,^[12] and even a run-in with the Fantastic Four.^[15]

The Avengers[]

The Avengers formed due to Rick's radio broadcast warning about the Hulk.^[16] He temporarily became a sidekick for Captain America. His resemblance to Bucky was noted,^[17] Rick even wore Bucky's costume for a time. However, Captain America felt he did not want to lose another partner and that while Rick was a good athlete, he was not quite up to the level Bucky was. When Iron Man suggested that Rick be made a full member of the Avengers, Cap strongly opposed the idea.^[18]

Travels With Mar-Vell[]

The Kree hero Captain Mar-Vell was bonded to Rick due to only being able to function out of the Negative Zone for a few hours.^[19] Using the Negative Zone portal in the Baxter Building however, allowed Mar-Vell to co-exist with Rick on Earth once again.^[20] Almost immediately afterward, war broke out between the Kree and Skrull Empires; this war directly involved the Avengers. Eventually, the Supreme Intelligence arranged for Rick to be brought before it and awakened his latent Destiny Force powers. Jones used them to paralyze the entire Skrull Space Fleet as well as Ronan and his forces, thereby ending the "Kree-Skrull War" and allowing the Supreme Intelligence to return to power. The Supreme Intelligence then robbed Jones of his power, leaving the young man exhausted and lying on the point of death. As the Supreme Intelligence had planned, Mar-Vell had to be linked with Jones, in the same manner as before, so that his own life force would restore Jones to health.^[21]

Rick received one of the Nega-Bands and gained similar powers to Captain Marvel^[22]. As it turned out, this was a plot by the Supreme Intelligence so that Jones and Mar-Vell had to share the power of the Nega-Bands. As the Supremor, challenged them in battle at the same time, intending to defeat them in time for their minds being ravaged by the Millenia Bloom, leaving them mindless soldiers which the intelligence would use to destroy Earth and absorb Jones' potential. He was defeated when Jones activated the Intelligence's ship's weapons systems to cause a solar flare from Hala. The Intelligence was forced to divert all of its energy into the planetary shields, leaving it and all of the Kree powerless and unconscious.^[23] On their way back to Earth, they passed too close to a black hole, merging them and trapping Jones in the Negative Zone once more.^[24] After returning to Earth Jones pursued his music career, appearing as a musical guest on Saturday Night Live.^[25]

Later Adventures[]

After Mar-Vell's death, Rick began to team with the Hulk again. An attempt to cure the Hulk instead gave Rick radiation poisoning. In the hospital, the Dire Wraiths began to replace the staff, but were stopped by Rom. Rick assisted Rom against the Wraiths, and temporarily lived with Brandy Clark. Jones was cured by the Beyonder at the same time Rom and Brandy left for Galador.^{[citation needed]}

Rick soon began dating Marlo Chandler, a former girlfriend of the Hulk's.^{[citation needed]} The two later married with a great number of heroes in attendance. The Impossible Man did his best to usurp the proceedings by inviting the Kree, Skrulls, even Mephisto to the ceremony.^[26]

First adventures with Genis-Vell[]

Jones was temporarily paralyzed while Hulk was the Horseman War. In an attempt to stop this 'War Hulk' he was thrown against a pyramid.^{[citation needed]} He was cured when his Destiny powers resurfaced, however, while also becaming a pawn in a time-spanning conflict known as the Destiny War.^[27] At the climax of the Destiny War, Rick and Captain Mar-Vell's son Genis found themselves unwillingly merged with Jones, a process which was way too familiar for Rick.^[28] Unlike it had been with his father, however, Genis was stuck on the Microverse, not the Negative Zone.^[29]

By this time, Rick and Marlo had grown apart, and Rick was trying to patch things up, but Captain Marvel's affair kept getting in the way.^[30] After a life-threatening situation, however, Genis told Marlo to give Rick a call and she finally decided to give him another chance.^[31]

The two had dinner dinner together and, despite the recurring comments by Genis (on Rick's side) and a ghost named Lorraine (on Marlo's side), the two just clicked. Rick spent all night ignoring Genis' urges to save a young girl from being taken by the Super-Skrull and, eventually, relented, apologizing to Marlo for having to leave with no explanation, but Marlo just couldn't take the secrecy anymore and demanded to know why. To avoid further damages to their relationship, Rick swapped places with Genis in front of her and came clean about the whole thing. To his surprise, Marlo took it extremely well and gave Genis a kiss "for Rick", proudly rushing him to go and save the girl.^[32]

While later, it was revealed that Marlo was possessed by the personification of Death and was being hunted down by a god named Walker. In order to lure Death out of Marlo, Walker began torturing Rick, by chopping one of his arms off and ageing him till old age. As he prepared for the final strike, however, Death relented and faced Walker, revealing that she wasn't hiding out of fear, but out of mercy for Walker. As he begged to be spared, Death released unto him the agony of the billions of lives he had taken.^[33]

Rick was left stuck in his one-arm old body and became very depressed, so Genis traveled to Hala to seek the Supreme Intelligence's help in restoring Rick Jones youth. After a trip to the Negative Zone with Una-Rogg, the Supreme Intelligence conducted some experiments on Rick, hoping to revert him to his usual self, but there was no apparent change.^[34] It wasn't until Rick completely gave up on life and began living as a homeless man that he surprisingly regained his youth after swapping places with Genis.^[35] The reason for this remained a mystery.^[36]

Unfortunately for Rick, his relationship with Marlo had suffered with this entire endeavor, and Marlo's growing relationship with Moondragon resulted in the two sharing a passionate kiss.^[37] When Rick found out about it, the couple decided to take a break as Marlo and Moondragon left together to try and figure out their feelings for one another.^[38]

Genis gone crazy[]

For a time, Rick was trapped in the Microverse as an insane Captain Marvel ran amok throughout the universe. In the Microverse, Rick met the cosmic beings Epiphany and her brother Entropy, who was behind Captain Marvel's insanity and who helped him in destroying the universe. Rick tried to stop them alongside Epiphany with a new skill to induce pain in Genis through their psychic link to stop him, but to no avail. Genis and Epiphany succeed and, by the time they were finished, only they, Rick and Epiphany were left. Still, Rick was able to convince Genis and Entropy to remake the universe, which returned Rick to the Microverse, while Genis resumed his insane ways.^[39]

It took the combined powers of Genis' mother Elysius, Genis' sister Phyla, and Genis' uncle Eros, to finally put some sense into Genis, who by then had terrified the entire galaxy.^[40]

Still molecularly bonded to Genis, Rick recorded a song on Titan for Marlo, whom he hoped to win back. Hoping to help his friend, Genis went behind his back and broadcast the song to every device across Earth and even set up a website where people could purchase it, making Rick millions. Still not sure whether to be thankful or upset at Genis, Rick was attacked by a super powered future version of Marlo, who attacked Rick, Phyla and Genis before dissipating into nothing.^[41] Captain Marvel then traveled to the future to investigate the situation, while Phyla was sent to the apartment of present-day Marlo to make sure she was safe. Captain Marvel in a where the Kree, Skrull, Shi'ar Empires had united to lay waste to Earth. Only a very small percentage of humanity remained. Captain Marvel met with his future self, as well as Ely-Vell, his future son, who was keeping Marlo frozen in order to prevent her from dying.^[42]

Genis temporarily merged with his future self and, using his experience and skill, managed to defeat the coalition of Empires and scare them from ever returning. This made Captain Marvel a hero and a god in the eyes of the humans, who decided to build a statue in his honor. He leapt further in time, but learned the stories of his exploits had become fairy tales and only a small following led by Ely still worshiped him. Captain Marvel unsuccessfully questioned him for information about Marlo, and then switched places with Rick Jones who did some questioning of his own. However, Ely revealed some new powers and launched Rick into the future without the Nega-bands, although still maintaining his connection to Captain Marvel.^[43]

There, they used Genis' bands to find Ely, who was revealed to be working for Magus together with the future Marlo. Ely gave Jones his Nega-Bands back and forcibly summoned Captain Marvel before attacking him by using Phyla's Nega-Bands. Ely revealed that the force created by their fight would free Magus from the limbo in which he was trapped, so Captain Marvel refused to fight him. Still, his son was unwilling to stop, so Genis was forced to kill him as an infant and erasing this version from existence. A grief-stricken Captain Marvel then returned to the present.^[44]

After all of this, Marlo and Rick finally reunited, with Moondragon's blessing, and the cosmic beings Eulogy and Expediency separated Genis from Rick to wrap things up.^[45]

Separated from Genis[]

Jones authored a best-selling autobiographical novel on his personal history with super humans such as the Hulk, Captain America, Captain Marvel and The Avengers with a focus on his days as a sidekick, the novel was titled 'Sidekick'.^[46] After the book was published there was a man impersonating Jones and attempting to make it as a musician.^[47]

Rick invested the royalties he earned from the publishing of 'Sidekick' and was rewarded with a substantial windfall. He anonymously offered a former teen superhero support group, Excelsior, a one million dollar donation if they could track down the children of the criminal group The Pride, who were operating in Los Angeles as the Runaways after Captain America informed him they had left their foster homes. The group ultimately failed to bring the Runaways in but Rick revealed himself as their benefactor and still suggested they turn their support group into a team to help deal with the uprise in superpowered crime in California that had resulted from the death of the Pride.^[48]

When the Hulk returned to Earth from Sakaar where he had been exiled, Jones attempted to calm him down by telling him about Captain America's death and the way the heroes had changed while he was gone, but just when the Hulk had calmed down and was listening to him, Dr. Strange invaded the Hulk's mind reigniting his rage.^[49] Rick later went to Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum to try and speak with him, but was stopped by the Hulk's Warbound.^[50] He was able to escape the Madison Square Garden arena he was taken to when Dr. Strange arrived and attacked the hulk, utilizing the power of the demon Zom, and again attempted to talk the Hulk down by reminding that he was a hero and Bruce Banner at heart to no avail.^[51] Once the Hulk had finally calmed and reverted to Bruce Banner, Rick attempted to embrace him but was stabbed by a member of the Hulk's Warbound, Miek, causing Bruce to hulk out once more and learn that Miek had been responsible for the destruction of Sakaar.^[52]

A-Bomb[]

Wounded, Rick was transported to the gamma bomb site that gave birth to the original Hulk. After being dropped off, he encountered the Red Hulk. After seeing that he had murdered Emil Blonsky, the Abomination, Rick was transformed by Intelligencia members the Leader and M.O.D.O.K. into a new blue creature who quite resembled the Abomination;^[53] calling himself A-Bomb. In his new form, he was much like the original Hulk incarnation in that he could not remember being anybody else once the transformation was complete, had a temper which flared easily, and simplified speech patterns. He held his own against the Red Hulk for an extended period of time, withstanding all of his blows and injuring him multiple times, which previously nobody had been able to accomplish. The battle was interrupted by several giant android harpies that were specifically designed by United States Military in case Bruce Banner escaped the facility as the Hulk. A-Bomb has proven to hold onto fragments of his memories as Rick Jones because he recognized the harpies all had the face of Betty Ross; Bruce Banner's first love. A-Bomb managed to disable one mid-flight, and they both crashed to Earth. The robot exploded.^[54]

A-Bomb joined with several heroes including the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, She-Hulk and the Hulk to help stop an impending earthquake in San Francisco which was caused by Red Hulk.^[4] After the Red Hulk was defeated, A-Bomb reverted back to Rick. He attempted to reveal who Red Hulk really was, but was shot and dragged away by Doc Samson from the area.^[55]

Rick would use his powers as A-Bomb to help people, but when the Hulk, under a new persona called "Doc Green," decided to eliminate all the other Gamma powered people, he started with Rick. A-Bomb confronted Doc Green and refused to be "cured," but ultimately, Hulk proved himself stronger, and injected A-Bomb with a dose of the cure, which made Rick completely human once more.^[56]

Whisperer[]

As a byproduct of being depowered, Rick's brain suffered side effects, he discovered his learning capabilities had been greatly increased. He decided to direct his new ability towards communications technology, and ended up becoming a hacktivist known as the Whisperer.^[57] One of Rick's major accomplishments as the Whisperer was leaking to the public the existence of the proposal for a S.H.I.E.L.D. project named Kobik, which consisted of the fusion of different fragments of Cosmic Cubes into a single one, to reshape reality as it would be deemed necessary.

When S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to hunt the Whisperer down, he was helped by Captain America (Sam Wilson) to evade the authorities, as Cap believed the Whisperer's intentions to be righteous and opposed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s potential disproportionate retribution. From then on, Rick became an ally of Sam Wilson, while keeping his identity a secret, helping him in numerous cases.^[58] Shortly later, Rick found out that the Kobik program had actually never been terminated. ^[57] He gave Sam Wilson the location of the secret S.H.I.E.L.D. site and fled into the underground, only to be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents because Rick had misjudged Jemma Simmons.^[59] He subsequently was freed by the new A.I.M.'s New Avengers whom he had contacted.^[60]

Even though the New Avengers had rescued Rick, he doubted their true intentions due to the track record of the previous iteration of A.I.M.^[61] This lack of trust prompted Rick to refuse to flee from Avengers Island through a portal to the Savage Land when S.H.I.E.L.D. forces invaded the facilities. Instead, Rick remained hidden in the island,^[62] and eventually escaped unnoticed by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents confiscating it. Rick was tracked down by Captain America,^[63] and offered amnesty for his crimes as the Whisperer at the cost of being forced to work for S.H.I.E.L.D. as tech support and aid Captain America in his missions to fight Hydra.^[64] Unbeknownst to anybody, Captain America had secretly been replaced by a twisted and evil version of himself by the sentient Cosmic Cube Kobik.^[65] Rogers used Rick's position in S.H.I.E.L.D. to trick him into handing him the codes to the Planetary Defense Shield,^[66] allowing Rogers to strand many heroes in space behind the Defense Shield while at the mercy of invading Chitauri to help pave the way for Hydra's takeover of the United States.^[67]

After Rogers came out as a member of Hydra and took over the United States, Rick was taken into protective custody. While in Hydra custody, Rick hacked into Hydra's network and obtain files that belonged to Hydra scientist Erik Selvig that would reveal the truth about Rogers. Rick sent the data over to hacker Rayshaun Lucas. When Hydra found out about Rick's actions, he was arrested and thrown in jail. Rogers met with Rick in his prison cell and tried to convince Rick to tell him what data he had taken. Rick refused to cooperate and was convinced that Rogers was being brainwashed into believing he was a Hydra agent. Under pressure from the High Council of Hydra to get tough on Hydra's enemies, Rogers decided to make an example of Rick and had him executed by firing squad on live television. Before being shot, Rick shouted out, "Avengers Assemble!"^[68] His body was later buried in Severin Memorial Cemetery.^[69]

Shadow Base[]

As part of their continued efforts to detain the Hulk, the covert organization Shadow Base disinterred Rick's body and used it as "scaffolding" for a shell of Gamma-Activated Tissue recovered from the remains of Emil Blonsky, the original Abomination. The procedure encased the corpse in a cocoon,^[70] bringing Jones back to life, and rapidly evolving him into a nightmarish and horrific beast with an appearance similar to that of Abomination's, but with several rows of finger-like mandibles almost completely concealing a head with two human faces, both contorted in agony.^[7]

The mutated Rick was sent to attack Bruce Banner, who was hiding out in Reno, Nevada.^[6] He almost succeeded, using an acidic secretion to dismember the Hulk, until Betty Ross intervened, having been mutated into the Harpy.^[71] During the subsequent fight, the Hulk dug up Rick's body from the mutagenic shell and took off with it.^[72] Rick eventually recovered, having developed the ability to emanate gamma radiation,^[73] but with his mind secretly taken over by the Leader in the process.^[74] Feigning to be Rick, the Leader provided the Hulk and his allies with the location of Shadow Base,^[73] resulting on a raid after which the Hulk seized command of the operation from its unhinged leader, General Fortean.^[75]

The Leader kept puppeteering Rick as he joined Banner's efforts to repurpose Shadow Base to embark on a countercultural movement to fight humankind for the destruction of the environment,^[76] only revealing himself to one of the Hulk's enemies, Dario Agger, after he had been left incapacitated when his ally Xemnu turned against him and mangled him.^[74] After Xemnu's defeat skyrocketed the Hulk's popularity, he was invited to Georgeville. During a photo-op, the Leader used Rick to overload the Hulk with gamma radiation, causing him to detonate.^[77]

The gamma blast devastated the surrounding area, but the Leader used Rick's body to shield them from the explosion and absorb the radiation. This left Rick severely deformed; his body elongated with extra arms and legs sprouted. The Leader concurrently took control of Del Frye, a gamma mutate in custody of Shadow Base. With his concentration spread thin over Frye and Rick in addition to his probing of the Hulk's mind, the Leader accidentally let his control over Rick show when Gamma Flight arrived at Georgeville to detain the Hulk.^[78] Rick was shortly afterward teleported back to Shadow Base,^[79] and the Leader attempted to entice operative Dr. McGowan into joining his side. She refused and attempted to rid of him by activating the base's translocator on Rick, splitting him in half.^[80] Although Rick was freed from the Leader's control, the remains of his body fused into Frye's body.^[81]

The combined creature burrowed through the ground in a frenzy until it reached the surface. They stumbled into Shaman and Gamma Flight's Puck and Doc Sasquatch, the latter being Doc Samson resurrected into Sasquatch's body.^[82] Although Shaman determined the two men couldn't be separated, he managed to ease their pain.^[83] Rick and Del joined Gamma Flight in intercepting the Hulk's fight against the Avengers, and they helped the Hulk and his allies evade the heroes.^[84] After parting ways with the Hulk, Gamma Flight went into hiding. The team resurfaced after a new gamma mutate codenamed Stockpile went on a rampage, leading to the discovery that a rogue government agency called Project Green Spring was experimenting with gamma on the townsfolk of Thomasville. During Gamma Flight's raid on Green Spring's facility, the Absorbing Man absorbed the properties of the Cathexis Ray and used his only charge to separate Rick and Del. With Green Spring's operations shut down, Rick decided to leave Gamma Flight, wishing to get some space for himself.^[85]

Back in Action[]

In time, Rick Jones started fading from reality and thus went looking for his Nega-Bands. When he banged them together, he didn't notice any difference, but, light-years away, Genis gained more control over his powers and managed to hold himself against a Badoon ship. In addition to this, an alternate reality Phyla-Vell felt the whole thing and decided to meet Rick so she could reunite him to Genis.^[86]

They all met in New Hala, where Marlo (once again bonded to Death) was being held by Ren-Varr. In order to attain full control over their bodies, Genis and Rick bonded once more. When they finally freed Marlo (and Death), Rick noticed a deep sorrow in Death and came to the conclusion that she was tired of her job. Feeling she owed Death for reviving her years before, Marlo decided to take over Death's job, leaving a heartbroken Rick to travel the cosmos alone with Genis once again.^[87]

Destiny Force: On rare occasions, and through unusual circumstances, Jones has been able to tap into a mysterious, near-limitless energy source known as the Destiny Force. The Destiny Force is believed to be inherent in all humanity. Jones has used this power to alter reality in the past by bringing figures from his own imagination to life or even figures from different times of existence. He has proven able to render thousands of Kree and Skrull warriors immobile with a thought, single-handedly overcome the Atlantean army, augment all of his own physical attributes, heal himself after sustaining life-threatening injuries, and levitate. The full limits of the Destiny Force, its overall nature, and why Jones has been able to harness it at only certain times, all these are currently unknown.^{[citation needed]}

Enhanced Learning Capabilities: As a consequence of being depowered from his A-Bomb form, Rick's brain was changed. According to himself, he was now able to pick new skills up lightning-fast.^[57]

Gamma Mutation: After being free from the Gamma-Activated Tissue, Rick developed some new powers:

• Energy Projection: Rick is able to release gamma energy at will. The full extent of the ability and how much control of it he has are unrevealed. He is able to release energy from his hands intense enough to melt through a thick, steel door.^[88]
• Flight: Rick is able to fly through the air through unknown means.^[89]
• Gamma Tracking: Rick is able to track gamma mutates through some sort of extrasensory power.^[90]

Jones is an accomplished gymnast and hand to hand combatant. Jones has a thorough knowledge of Judo and Karate and has even had some training from Captain America himself. He also has exceptional musical talent and has proven himself to be a skilled songwriter, guitarist and harmonica player.^{[citation needed]}

Skilled Combatant: After received training by Captain America in several martial arts including combat gymnastics, he is a highly experienced hand-to-hand combatant.^[96] As A-Bomb, he does not seem to remember any of it but is a natural fighter, making him a formidable opponent in combat.^{[citation needed]}

Computer Skills: Through his altered brain chemistry, Rick learned how to be a skilled computer user.^[57] With his skills, he is able to hack into the computers of high-level organizations like S.H.I.E.L.D.^[58]

• Rick has been stated to have 'comics awareness' a form of 4th wall breaking which allowed him to identify tropes and cliches connected with the medium of comic books as well as to be aware when his own comic series was ending.^[45]
• A-Bomb had an appearance similar to a blue-skinned Abomination.
• Rick Jones has done some writing work for Marvel Comics where he wrote about some of his own adventures for them, as he is listed as the writer for Marvels Comics: Captain America #1.

• During the testing of the gamma bomb, Rick was ironically playing That'll Be the Day.^[100]