An incursion survivor and the last of her kind, Black Swan can foresee worlds colliding and makes moves to stop it, even if it means the loss of one world over another.
A World-Ending Start
Born into Earth-1365’s royal family, as a small child Yabbat Ummon Tarru often accompanies her older brother Dadingra to the door of the Hidden City’s Library of Worlds, a pocket dimension on a separate cosmic axis from the Multiverse, to await the arrival of the Black Swans, also called the Great Ladies, whom they hoped would instruct them in traveling to other worlds via the Library; the Library’s key, allegedly a gift to the Hidden City from the revered Sinnu Sarrum, or Ivory Kings, was entrusted to Dadingra alone. When Yabbat is four, after a reality prematurely dies and sets off a multiversal contraction, the hive-mind Black Priests descend upon her Earth to destroy it to prevent the death of both its universe and their own in a reality incursion. Yabbat and Dadingra flee to the Library, within which three Black Swans await. Although Dadingra apparently perishes as their Earth is destroyed and Priests invade the Library, the Swans teleport Yabbat to safety and induct her into their order, teaching her to embrace the belief that the event that began the incursions was the emergence of their god Rabum Alal, the Great Destroyer, and the periodic destruction of alternate Earths, referred to as “the Great Game of Worlds,” was a necessary sacrifice to protect entire universes from similarly perishing.
Years later, she and other Black Swans return via time travel to the Library, and Earth-1365, moments following Dadingra’s death, and she apparently uses a vial of Dadingra’s green blood for unrevealed reasons. Eventually, the Library is destroyed and the Swan order disbands, apparently leaving Yabbat the sole remaining Black Swan.
Multi-faceted Powers
Black Swan possesses super-strength (Class 25) and telepathy that allows her to probe minds and to mentally communicate with others. She can also fly or hover in place and generate holographic images.
Her eyes contain implanted devices, slightly out of phase with the universe she is in, which allow her to detect incursion events at least minutes before they occur; she can project concussive energy blasts from her eyes, although it is unclear if this is an inherent ability or a function of her implants.
Like all Black Swans before her, she can "channel her essence," making her skin black and her clothing white; the purpose for this channeling remains unrevealed. Through studies and travels to multiple realities, she has acquired vast knowledge of alien technologies and interdimensional physics; she is fluent in English, High Sumerian and at least three other languages.
Swan Sisters and Sworn Enemies
Yabbat is the third sister to her brother, who is heir to the throne of the Hidden City and Keeper of the Great Key that unlocks a portal to other worlds. Though when her world suffers an attack by the Black Priests, and her family is murdered in front of her, she escapes by using the key. She is then raised as a Black Swan by Black Swans, or the Great Ladies, who call her sister and are the only ones who can traverse the paths between worlds. They teach her about the universe, about herself, and work to satisfy her insatiable curiosity. She worships the Black Swans’ deity, Rabum Alal, who is none other than Earth-616’s Victor von Doom, AKA Doctor Doom. She later comes into his service for a time, protecting him and his family from those who would bring them harm.
The Black Priests are abominations, animated things that cheat the great wheel of life, and who destroy Yabbat’s homeworld and family.
Earth-616’s secret organization, the Illuminati, captures Black Swan and learns about incursion threats—worlds colliding and destroying one another—from her experiences in the Multiverse. Though one of their members, Atlantean King Namor McKenzie, AKA Namor the Sub-Mariner, frees her and adds her to his newly formed group, The Cabal, whose sole goal is to kill worlds that threaten Earth. She works closely with its members, Maximus Boltagon, AKA Maximus, and Thanos and his Black Order, Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight. The Black Order, also called the Dreadlords, later becomes akin to family.
Black Swan faces off with Elder of the Universe Taneleer Tivan, AKA The Collector, and Asgard’s God of Thunder Thor Odinson, AKA Thor over his hammer Mjolnir. She also fights the Avengers as well as the Guardians of the Galaxy, and can go head-to-head with Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel.
To Protect and Destroy
Over time, Black Swan grew crueler and more single-minded in her drive to destroy Earths. On Earth-14515, she manipulated versions of Reed Richards, Tony Stark and other heroes into locating teleporter Manifold, whose power she needed to escape their Earth, allowing them to believe Manifold could prevent their Earth’s incursion with another. However, she and Manifold killed Richards and Stark, and she presumably destroyed that Earth as she departed with Manifold.
In recent years, when Earth-616 and Earth-1331 threatened to collide, Black Swan forced the Manifold of Earth-1331 to transport her, five mutant-hunting cyborg Reavers from Earth-1331 serving her, and himself to Earth-616. Arriving in T’Challa, AKA Black Panther’s home nation Wakanda, the Reavers slew three Wakandan students, prompting Black Panther to kill them in combat, while Swan murdered the uncooperative Manifold for refusing to destroy his home Earth, which she then did with an antimatter injection bomb. Black Panther imprisoned Swan in Wakanda’s Necropolis and summoned the secretive Illuminati hero group to hear Swan’s description of the continuing incursion threat. After they equipped her with an explosive necklace to prevent rebellion, Swan accompanied them to an incursion event in Latveria, where they repelled an invasion of the stripmining Mapmakers (evolved Adaptoid androids from Earth-616) until Black Panther used a duplicate of Swan’s antimatter bomb to destroy the encroaching Earth-13761, which the Mapmakers had already scoured of life. In the wake of their success, the Illuminati constructed more bombs, and Swan, although mocking their continued hopes of finding a way for their Earth to survive without destroying intruding Earths, instructed them on the construction of a device to view other universes and learn more about how incursions were handled throughout the Multiverse. However, while using the device, they viewed Swan’s past activities and learned how she had betrayed the heroes of Earth-14515. This evidence of Swan’s untrustworthiness made the Illuminati resolve to keep her imprisoned indefinitely, but ex-Illuminatus Namor freed her and other Necropolis prisoners to form the Cabal, brutal beings dedicated to straightforwardly destroying intrusive Earths without concern of the deaths.
The Cabal destroyed earth after earth, saving universes but Black Swan and the others relished in the wanton destruction and inhuman task before them. Black Swan sensed Namor’s growing hesitation and regret, to which she warned him to tread carefully otherwise it would be his blood on their hands. She soon sensed that he betrayed The Cabal while they were in the middle of an incursion event that had not one, but two incursion points. The group escaped into the second incursion point and into the Ultimate Universe, Earth-1610, where they met an evil Reed Richards, AKA The Maker. Allying with him, they constructed a life-raft to survive the oncoming collision with Earth-616 and the end of the Multiverse. Black Swan confronted Namor who only desired survival therefore she kept his betrayal a secret from the others. After the final incursion, Black Swan and the Cabal landed in a desert wasteland on Battleworld, a patchwork planet run by Doctor Doom, calling himself a God and Rabum Alal. He had in fact traveled into the past, created the identity of Rabum Alal and the Black Swans, who worshiped him as their deity. The Cabal were soon attacked by the Thor Corps, Battleword’s police force, and joined by Doom himself, though his ally Doctor Strange teleported the Cabal away for their safety just before his death at Doom’s hands. Black Swan was teleported to Doomstadt, home to Doom, where she served him and answered his questions about her companions.
She stood by Doom and his family as the heroes and the Cabal attempted to overthrow him. When an explosion hit the Doomstadt Castle, Black Swan went to the lower levels to investigate whether they’d been breached. There, she found Peter Quill, AKA Star-Lord, near the World Tree, which transformed into a giant Groot, destroying the castle and seemingly killing Black Swan. Doom was ultimately defeated and the Multiverse was restored.
When a mysterious hooded figure made a deal with Thanos, it was contingent upon delivering the hammer Mjolnir, a weapon typically wielded by Asgard’s God of Thunder Thor Odinson, AKA Thor. Black Swan joined Proxima Midnight and the mysterious person to where Mjolnir was located, apparently aboard The Collector’s ship, and attempted to steal it. Though Thor and Beta Ray Bill attempted to thwart them, they eventually faced off with The Collector. The hammer released a blast, creating a crater around it and separating them all. Their quarrel was soon interrupted by Thor who spirited away with the hammer. Black Swan gave the bad news to Thanos while bowing, to which Thanos proclaimed that the hammer was but a token. The mysterious person revealed herself as Hela, the Asgardian Goddess of Death, and removed Black Swan and Proxima Midnight from their vicinity to speak to Thanos in private.
Black Swan soon rejoined her Black Order compatriots, including Ebony Maw, and they were players in a cosmic contest between the Challenger and En Dwi Gast, AKA Grandmaster. They faced off with the Avengers and Black Swan was separated from them and fought alongside the Lethal Legion. When it seemed that Glaive was killed, Black Swan retreated with Proxima Midnight and together they followed Bruce Banner, AKA the Hulk, only to be defeated by other heroes. With the contest over and having lost, Black Swan and the Black Order reunited with Glaive who had survived, and they received an offer suited to their brand of destruction from the Grandmaster.
Their mission was to shatter Attican’s Galactic Empire. When they find out that Attican possesses the Onducium—a bow and arrow that can subjugate whole planets—their goals shift. On their way to take the weapon, they run afoul of Attican’s subjugate, Richard Rider, AKA Nova, the Human Rocket. Though Black Swan held her own against Nova, she was called away to battle Attican’s soldiers and rendezvous with the rebels, where they allied with Doctor Sellvah who could reverse the Onducium to undo Attican’s hold over Nova. Black Swan glimpsed her research before she killed her, the Nova Centurion decimated the rebel forces, and one of their members betrayed them: Ebony Maw, who sided with Attican. The Black Order regrouped on a decrepit space station where Black Swan lied to the rebels about how Sellvah died, and claimed to be able to carry out the doctor’s research with a sample of the Centurion’s DNA. Ebony Maw, while a seeming traitor to the group, was actually their man on the inside of Attican’s palace and dropped the shields protecting it. Black Swan had made modifications to Sellvah’s research and when the Onducium was used, it transformed the DNA of Attican and his forces, turning them into monstrosities. Nova attempted to arrest Black Swan and the Black Order but the Grandmaster arrived and sent the Centurion elsewhere. He congratulated them on toppling an empire and offered more games for them to play, but the group declined his offer as they didn’t enjoy games as much as he.
When Thanos’ daughter Gamora, the deadliest woman in the galaxy, killed her father, the Black Order attacked the gathering at his will reading. Nearly wiping out all the warriors there, they stole his body under the orders of Hela, Thanos’ former lover. The survivors banded together as the new Guardians of the Galaxy. Black Swan and the Black Order soon helped Hela resurrect Thanos using his brother Eros as a transportation vessel for his consciousness. While the transfer was happening, it was interrupted by the Guardians, Eros’ crew, and Gamora who stabbed Eros through the chest, killing him. Furious that the transfer was incomplete, Hela fired a black hole cannon at them but they were able to redirect it right into Thanos’ new body, creating a singularity. The Guardians escaped using their teleporter Lockjaw as the Black Order fled a grisly fate as well.
The Black Order then met to discuss their next move. Black Swan suggested that they all hide out on Earth to figure out what they wanted. They had also received word that the Reality Stone bonded to reporter Ripley Ryan, who became the superpowered Star. While Glavie was interested in the Stone, Black Swan wasn’t interested in playing the capture the stone game again, so she gave Star tech that allowed her to contact her. In a battle for the stone, The Black Order fought Star and Star’s tenuous ally Captain Marvel, but Star activated the device she received, which sucked Glaive into it. Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, soon arrived and cloaked them in a protective shield. Swan and the Black order were soon contacted by Star who offered Glaive for freedom from them, assurances that they’d never come after her nor the Reality stone. They came to an accord and the conflict came to a close. Proxima Midnight demanded that Glaive be released from the device and scolded Swan that going behind their back isn't how family should work.
Black Swan joined the Black Order and Tiamok as emissaries of the Lost One, an immensely powerful being, and again went up against the Avengers and the Beyonder.
