Ascendant

Ascendant is a player character in the City of Heroes MMO. His creator was Tre Chipman, one of the founding members of the City of Comic Creators, who died on June 20, 2013.

Character History

This entry is considered a work in progress. More information is needed for this page. Please be patient.

Uncle Saul And His Ideas

Ascendant's uncle, Saul Rubenstien, is a self-professed agent and manager, although he's had a rather bad streak of luck in pretty much everything he gets his hands into. (It should be noted that Saul's other "famous" client is Captain Catastrophe.) When Saul found out that Ascendant is his nephew, he was overcome with all sorts of ideas about how to market the hero name and brand.

One of his first ideas was a breakfast cereal. Ascenant-O's were supposed to be more than your typical sugar-and-corn fare. It was also supposed to contain Xenonite, the "source" of Ascendant's powers. Saul had no idea that Xenonite was actually Ascendant's weakness. And because Xenonite is extremely rare, the cost of adding it to the cereal raised the price-per-box to over $5000 each. The cereal box itself also ended up with a trademark lawsuit since it was a rip-off of "Hero-O's" cereal. (The cereal shown on the box is O-shaped, but the actual cereal inside is X-shaped.) The box also promised to reveal Ascendant's secret identity inside (thankfully it didn't).

Then there was the "Ascendant Action Power Hour", but because he was unable to secure the licensing rights to Ascendant's villains, and because of a writer's strike, the "hour-long" show became 22 minutes, filled with bad scenes involving animated sidekicks. And as a last-minute gambit, the final 11 episodes were basically a re-broadcasting in ABC's "Nightline" with Ascendant's name and likeness superimposed over 1985 host Ted Koppel.

The Ascendant Action Figure was another failed project that came in three parts. The first attempt involved the "Burning Halo Action" - a power he does not possess - which actually caused fires and burned several children, not to mention several hundred homes. The second attempt was the "Super-Flight Action Ascendant", which included turbines from military missiles. It caused problems with the Federal Aviation Administration. The third attempt was the "Ascendant Action Cave Playset", which was shortened on the box to "The A-Hole". It was really a small-scale version of Ascendant's actual apartment in Paragon City and contained Asbestos from Chernobyl. That got the Environmental Protection Agency involved.

Ascendant's "music career" ended up being Saul secretly recording Ascendant singing in the shower and then selling it as "Ascendant Yodels the Polka". While it became a hit in Denmark, Ascendant ended up being banned from singing in America.

His one "success" was the release of Ascendant Lunchboxes. Until it was discovered that one in every twelve lunchboxes contained live scorpions. Law enforcement have yet to figure out how that happened.

Powers and Abilities

Ascendant's primary ability is Super Strength.

His secondary ability is Invulnerability.

He also possesses the power of flight, hypersenses, and shape-shifting. Due to the origin of his abilities, he does not need certain physical functions such as breathing.

His one key and critical weakness is exposure to the rare substance Xenonite. This radioactive substance has been known to disrupt the exotic energies in his body, thus robbing him of his powers and could eventually kill him.

Related Information

Ascendant's telephone dialogue with his uncle became part of the MMO game.

Ascendant made a brief appearance in Issue #19 of the Top Cow Comics release of the "City of Heroes" comic series.

• See his profile in Virtueverse