Marvel Crisis Protocol Lore: Who Are Blue Marvel & Spectrum?

Greetings readers! With their latest slate of releases, Atomic Mass Games has emphasized more grounded, street-level superheroes (Spider-Ham being a possible exception), and hasn’t really dipped into the more cosmic side of Marvel in what feels like forever. Yes, I know Phoenix was released over the summer, but we haven’t really seen a slate of Cosmically-themed heroes since the releases of Gladiator, Yondu, and Nova in the first part of 2025. 2026 looks to be a big year for Marvel Cosmic (with 4 notable absences) with the release of Adam Warlock, Phyla-Veil, Moondragon, Kang the Conqueror, and I would even argue Valkyrie and Elendil have a cosmic flair about them. Leading the charge of these other-worldly releases are two lesser talked-about heroes, Blue Marvel and Spectrum. But who are these two characters? Let’s take a deeper dive.

Character Bios

Blue Marvel (alias Adam Brashear) attended college and was a fullback at Cornell University before serving in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, where he earned two Silver Stars for his service. After returning to the US, he became the lead on a scientific research project to harness antimatter as a source of unlimited clean energy. The Negative Reactor he developed created a bridge between the Negative Zone and our positive matter universe. However, this reactor would explode unexpectedly, exposing Brashear and his assistant (and fellow Marine Corps serviceman) Connor Sims to mutagenic radiation. Sims was dissolved into energy, and Brashear became a stable “antimatter reactor” which granted him superhuman abilities. In 1962, President John F. Kennedy awarded Brashear the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work as Blue Marvel, and also asked him to retire as a superhuman because it was 1962 and his advisors didn’t think the country was ready for a black superhero. He took his Medal and left it in the Blue Area of the Moon after defeating the herald of an alien armada. He also defeated the alien armada when it arrived. SHIELD agent Marlene Frazier became his monitor and wife, and they had three children and Adam became a tenured professor of physics at the University of Maryland. In the following years, Brashear would team up with Blade, the Winter Guard, and was a member of the superhero teams the Mighty Avengers and the Ultimates.

Spectrum (alias Monica Rambeau) has a very convoluted and interesting history as a character. Rambeau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and grew up to be a cargo ship captain as a lieutenant in the New Orleans Harbor Patrol. When she intercepted a dangerous weapon, she was exposed to extra-dimensional energy and gained the ability to convert her physical body to energy, and was given the name Captain Marvel by the public. She joined the Avengers as a member-in-training to learn how to control her powers. For a large chunk of her superhero career, she was a supporting character in many of the Avengers’ battles until she became the leader of the Avengers when she replaced the Wasp. After nearly losing her powers and physical form, she became a reservist for the Avengers and led an Avengers delegation to petition for peace during the Kree-Shi’ar war. Rambeau relinquished her title as Captain Marvel out of respect for Mar-Vell’s son Genis-Vell when he took up adventuring. She took on the name Photon. Rambeau then took on the name Pulsar while leading the Nextwave group. During the Marvel Infinity storyline, she would adopt the name Spectrum, and became the leader of Luke Cage’s Mighty Avengers team.

Publication History/MCU History

Blue Marvel first appeared in Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1 in 2008. He was created by Kevin Grevioux and Mat Broome. His powers include energy absorption, strength on the level of Hulk or Thor, near-invulnerability, and the ability to fly at near supersonic speeds. He has not appeared in the MCU yet, but has appeared in a few LEGO Marvel videogames.

Monica Rambeau first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 in 1982 by writer Roger Stern and artist John Romita. She would appear throughout the entire 5-year Avengers run by Stern. She appeared in various single issues throughout her publication history. In 2009, she was one of four main characters in the Sex and the City inspired Marvel series Marvel Divas. In 2013, she became a prominent member of Al Ewing’s Mighty Avengers and also in his 2016 run on the Ultimates. In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Rambeau is played by Teyonah Parris and has appeared in The Marvels, WandaVision, and Captain Marvel.

Recommended Runs

Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel #1-5 (Grevioux and Broome): this is the first series for Blue Marvel, and is a wonderful modern introduction to a new superhero.
Mighty Avengers #1-14 (2013-2014): this re-launch of the Mighty Avengers by Al Ewing is fantastic. I am recommending this because of the prominent role that Monica plays in all of the issues.

Does the Model Miss the Mark?

Image copyright AMG

Blue Marvel feels…boring? And I don’t mean that as a pejorative, either. He seems incredibly consistent for whatever you want him to do. He is immune to incinerate, so he can always roll his maximum defense dice, and he counts Failures in his attack, defense, and dodge rolls, so he has another die face that is beneficial to his rolls. He has displacement, he can help his allies, he can attack from the relative safety of Range 4. And he should be pretty flush with power through the game and his immunity to Stun. Is he flashy? No, not really. But I think they did a great job of capturing the strength of the character as well as his utility. I want to play him in as many places as possible.

As an editorial note, at the time of writing, AMG had not issued a correction for the mistake they said was in the Panel to Play for Spectrum. That being said, I do not expect her Spender to remain 0 Power Cost. Again, I think this character design is a win for nailing the character as she appears in the comics. She is incredibly fast with her L move to get wherever she needs to be. Her first two attacks are also decent, and I think the B4 Gainer will be the attack that is used most often because of the consistent power gain and the ability to keep her relatively safe, while also keeping her in range to boost the attack dice for her allies. Also, I think her leadership ability Stronger Together Than Apart is going to be one of the stronger leaderships in the game, because it is an unlimited-range power-sharing leadership, and those tend to be pretty good. It also does a great job of gamifying her leadership style in the comics, which is getting the most out of the Mighty Avengers by working together. I’m also really interested to see the new affiliation list for the Mighty Avengers to see how deep into the comics they go with it.

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Tags: Marvel Crisis Protocol | Crisis Protocol