Ricardo Rios (Earth-616)

Misery

Gallery

Real Name

Ricardo Juan Rios

Current Alias

Misery

Aliases

Mayhem, The Symbiote, Rick Rios; formerly Guardian, Monarch, Captain Universe, Ricky Rios, Juan Rios

Identity

Secret

Alignment

Good

Affiliation

New Defenders; formerly: Avengers

Relatives

Tyson Rios (Crimson Shadow, father) Naomi Collins-Rios (mother, deceased), Elliot Rios (US Agent, brother), Juan Rios (grandfather, deceased), Eva Rios (grandmother, deceased), Victor Rios (Guardian, uncle), Douglas Rios (Captain X, cousin), The Misery Symbiote

Universe

Earth-616

Base Of Operations

Mobile

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

6' 0"

Weight

200 lbs (91 kg)

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Brown

Unusual Features

None

Status

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Adventurer, graphic artist

Education

College dropout

Origin

Origin

Ricardo was born a Mutant, due to his father's genetic alterations.

Place of Birth

New York City

Creators

J. C. White

First appearance

Unknown

History

Early Life

He is the son of Tyson Rios, also known as Crimson Shadow. During his childhood he was kidnapped along with his mother and brother, Elliot. Ricky's brother was shot in the head right in front of him by the kidnapper. Elliot's body was thrown into the harbor and the kidnapper put the gun to Naomi's head. Overrun by anger Ricky accidentally killed the kidnapper because he had a gun pointed at Naomi's head. After Tyson showed up Naomi told him what happened. They held a private funeral for Elliot afterwards.

Years later, Warlord showed up at Ricardo's high school. Ricardo fought him off until Crimson Shadow came with help and they defeated Warlord but he grabbed Crimson Shadow and took him to the Negative Zone. When Ricardo got home he told his mom what had happened. While Ricardo was out he was ambushed by Onslaught. Onslaught and Ricardo were fighting and Onslaught blew himself up. Ricardo was knocked unconscious by the giant shockwaves. When Ricardo came to, he couldn't find Onslaught so he went home. Outside his house he saw Onslaught. Ricardo blasted him away and went inside to find his mother. He found her in the basement and tried to get her to safety but Onslaught disabled him by blowing off his arm. Onslaught went after Naomi and started to attack her. With his arm regenerated Ricardo attacked Onslaught again. Onslaught threw Ricardo through the roof. When Ricardo got back into his house, Onslaught was gone and his mother was dead. A few minutes later Tyson got there and he mourned the loss of Naomi.

Uni-Power

After Naomi's funeral, Ricardo wanted to avenge her, but he knew he couldn't do it himself. The Uni-Power chose Ricardo to become the new Captain Universe to help him avenge his mother.

Rick as Captain Universe

With his newfound power Ricardo went off to find Onslaught. He found Onslaught in a warehouse and they fought each other. He defeated Onslaught, killing him in the process. The Uni-Power was going to leave Ricardo until it saw that Onslaught come back to life. Before they fought again, Onslaught disappeared.

Avengers

Captain Universe has recently joined the Avengers with his father. After a couple years in the Avengers, Captain Universe teamed up with his cousin, Captain X, to battle Galactus. The battle was difficult and towards the end Captain X teleported Captain Universe away from the battle. Captain Universe flew back to the battle site and couldn't find his cousin or Galactus. While he looked for his cousin, Ricardo was ambushed by Blackheart and Mephisto. When Captain Universe slipped away he sent a distress signal to his dad. Whenever Captain Universe attacked Blackheart, Mephisto would attack Captain Universe and they would gang up on him. A few minutes later Crimson Shadow came and took on Mephisto. Crimson Shadow beat Mephisto but Captain Universe was sent to the Underworld by Blackheart. Now, Captain Universe has to battle Mephisto, Blackheart, and hordes of demons. Captain Universe fought them off but they kept coming and he was running out of energy. Captain Universe started to blackout, until he saw his cousin. Captain X grabbed Ricardo and brought him back to Earth. When Ricardo found out that his father sacrificed himself to destroy Onslaught, he sought out the Sentry.

Once he found him, Captain Universe asked Sentry if he could bring his dad back to life. He agreed to bring Crimson Shadow back. Captain Universe had encountered his father and after they talked, Crimson Shadow left to find Onslaught.

Becoming Monarch

On his twentieth birthday, Ricardo felt that he didn't need the Uni-Power anymore so he gave it up. Rick made himself a costume similar to his Captain Universe uniform and became the adventurer Monarch. Several months after becoming Monarch, one of Rick's enemies found out who he was and went after his girlfriend. When he learned of this he tried to find her, but he never could. A few days after she was kidnapped, Rick was sent a message to meet Crossfire in an abandoned warehouse. Rick went there and saw his girlfriend, Mercedes, tied to a chair in the middle of the room. He went to untie her until suddenly the warehouse exploded. Ricardo was unharmed, but Mercedes was instantly killed. Crossfire came over to Rick and he started to taunt him. Rick grabbed Crossfire's neck and snapped it. Then he threw him through the ground. Rick then went into a state of depression. He destroyed his Monarch costume and gave up being a hero.

Project G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N.

Months later, Rick had gone to his father's house to speak to him. Tyson wasn't there so, Rick went into his mom's old lab. He looked through all of the files and discovered one of his mom's secret projects. It was called Project G.U.A.R.D.I.A.N. Naomi had made a suit using nanotechnology. The suit could withstand extreme temperatures, allow the user to breathe in space and underwater, and it allows the user to be in the Negative Zone for a longer period of time. At that moment, Rick knew that the suit was made for him and he knew that he had to become an adventurer again. He took the wristbands that had the suit in it, and then he activated the nanobots and became Guardian. Rick upgraded his suit to give himself more abilities and a new look.

The Symbiote Saga

While patrolling the city, Ricardo was attacked. When he woke up he was inside of a lab. He saw Warlord and then everything went blank. Ricardo woke up again and he now thought that Warlord was his master. He let him stick a syringe in his arm and a few moments later he became a symbiote. Warlord told the Symbiote to go destroy the city and he left.

Rick's first appearance as Misery.

While in the city the Symbiote was destroying buildings until it was hit in the back. It turned to see Crimson Shadow. It attacked him and the two fought until Warlord told the Symbiote to stop. Tyson then blasted the Symbiote through a building. It was impaled by steel rods. Warlord told the Symbiote to reveal its face to Crimson Shadow. It did and when Tyson looked to see that it was Rick, the Symbiote passed out.

Rick awoke and when he saw Tyson he threw him through a wall. Then he killed everyone else that was around him. He fled to an isolated area. Rick was visited by Warlord and he told him to cause as much misery as possible. And he did, as the villain Misery. After killing some civilians, Misery, was attacked by Crimson Shadow. He tried to restrain them, but they used their tendrils to stab Crimson Shadow in the ribs. While holding him in the air, Misery clawed at his face and then they grabbed Crimson Shadow's throat with their mouth. Misery started to bite down and then they were shot in the back of the head. Misery let go of Crimson Shadow and turned to see a grenade flying toward their face. Misery grabbed it and crushed it. Then he saw his attacker, Weapon Omega, run towards them. Crimson Shadow grabbed Misery's legs, allowing Weapon Omega to side kick them and then shoot them with an RPG. When Misery got up they turned to see Warlord and a fully charged Onslaught. The three stood ready to kill their opponents. When Crimson Shadow and Weapon Omega got up they were greeted by Captain X.

Warlord attacked Captain X, Crimson Shadow attacked Onslaught, and Misery went after Weapon Omega. Their battle raged on until Onslaught created a field of unstable energy that pulled everyone in, except Weapon Omega because he was pinned under a building, and then the energy imploded on everyone inside. Everybody had been severely injured and knocked out. The Misery symbiote was on the ground next to Ricardo. After a few minutes, S.H.I.E.L.D. arrived and they took everyone who was a major threat. The Misery symbiote was locked up so that it couldn't get back to Rick. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents then put Rick under heavy sedation. Rick was eventually taken away from S.H.I.E.L.D. by his brother. Eventually Ricardo woke up and he couldn't remember anything from the past few months. Weapon Omega told him about what he did when he was apart of the symbiote. Rick was shocked and couldn't believe what he had done, so he ran from Elliot to be alone.

A New Relationship

Unbeknownst to Rick, the symbiote had followed him. When Rick was in a secluded area he stopped to rest. The Misery symbiote attached itself to him. It talked to Ricardo and told him that they were not responsible for their actions. The symbiote eventually persuaded him that they were not the evil ones, Warlord was. So Rick and the symbiote agreed to finally stop Warlord.

Rick eventually learned that he could change the look of the symbiote. Instead of the usual monstrous form, Rick made it appear as a normal costume. Rick was contacted by Weapon Omega and was told that people were being killed. The two went to the scene and were encountered by Death. Misery managed to grab a hold of him, but to no avail as he was crushed into the ground. Soon after he impaled Death to save Elliot and then Death exploded. The massive shockwave and heat combined caused intense pain to the symbiote. It was nearly destroyed along with Rick. The now unconscious Rick was picked up along with Elliot by Death, but then they were released. When Rick regained consciousness, Death was gone and his symbiote was nearly dead. Rick allowed the symbiote to re-attach itself to him and then he tended to his brother.

The Abduction

After the symbiote repaired itself, Rick saw that an aircraft was approaching. The aircraft was SHIELD's and Rick fled knowing that he was wanted by SHIELD. While running the symbiote camouflaged itself making Rick appear that he was wearing street clothes. Rick turned back to see why SHIELD had returned. Elliot was gone and the helicarrier was leaving. The symbiote told Rick that they should leave, so they did. The symbiote and Rick talked about their origins and the losses that they had encountered. All of a sudden they fell to the floor and were screaming in pain.

They were attacked with a sonic gun. The waves kept on coming and it caused them to black out. Rick came to and he could no longer hear Misery. Rick was in some kind of containment field and across the room he saw Misery in one to. There were two people walking around, a man and a woman. The two saw Rick wake up and they walked over to greet him. They talked to him calmly, but Ricardo yelled at them to give him back his other. The man hit Rick with a cattle prod, the woman walked over to Misery and pointed a sonic gun at it. Rick begged her not to hurt him and the man stunned him again. Rick asked the man what they wanted with them. The man's only response was, "Because we are the Hunters." Then he knocked Ricardo out.

The Hunters' main goal was to capture heroes and turn them in to whom ever would pay them the most. The Hunter and the Huntress had been trailing Ricardo for weeks. They knew he was affiliated with other heroes and they wanted to know their names. Rick would not give in to their demands, so for the next two weeks he was tortured. Rick knew he was dying, but all he cared about was keeping his kidnappers aggravated. One night, Rick overheard them talking without their masks and he recognized, the Huntress' voice. It was the woman that he loved who died in front of him, Mercedes.

Rick yelled out her name and tried to get her to talk to him, but Hunter put a stop to it. Rick was out cold and Mercedes was wondering how this man knew her name. Hunter told her to forget about it and he left. Mercedes just waited for a while and then left too. The next day Hunter told Rick that it would be his last day as his captive. He decided to sell the symbiote on the black market and kill Rick as a message for the other heroes. Hunter then started to torture Rick again.

Mercedes hit Hunter in the back of the head with the cattle prod and released the containment field around Rick. He fell to the ground, motionless. Mercedes ran towards the symbiote and released it as well. The symbiote re-attached itself to Rick and it was in full control because Rick was to weak to move. All of a sudden Mercedes just stopped with a stunned look on her face. She obviously did not know what she was doing, so she went back to help the Hunter. Misery knew he couldn't do anything to save her so he found his own way out of the facility.

After Rick was healed, he knew he had to go back for her. Misery refused because he knew that they would get captured again and probably not make it out alive. Rick knew he was right, but he couldn't leave Mercedes behind. Then he wondered if he could restore her mind, so she could remember who she was. Ricardo would have to put Mercedes on hold, so he could hopefully locate his brother in time.

Onslaught's Revenge

While on the run, Rick saw something crash land in the middle of the city. He went to go investigate and discovered it to be Onslaught. Rick tried to evacutate the area before Onslaught got up. After everyone was gone, Rick transformed into Misery and he ran back. Onslaught was no where to be found. All of a sudden, the ground began to shake and Misery was in Onslaught's grip. Onslaught was squeezing him and breaking his bones. Misery collapsed his body and escaped. Misery then increased his size and strength. He shot his tendril at Onslaught and he impaled him with his hand. Onslaught punched Misery in the face and threw him. Misery continuously sprayed his webbing on Onslaught and then he crushed it on Onslaught's body. When Misery retracted his webbing, Onslaught was dead. He formed back into Rick and started to walk away.

Then something else fell from the darkened sky. It was another Onslaught. He grabbed hold of Rick's throat and walked over to his fallen self. Onslaught picked up the corpse and began to absorb it. He was now in his fully powered state. Onslaught turned to Rick and beat him while he was still in the hold. Onslaught threw the broken and bloodied Rick aside to continue his rampage throughout the city....more...

Post-War

Misery became a founding member of the Outsiders. After the disappearances of both his father and brother on the same mission, Rick was determined to find them on his own. While searching, Rick was again confronted by Hunter, but not Huntress. Hunter tried to use sonic weapons on Rick but they were useless, for he had detached his symbiote when he saw Hunter coming earlier. Rick exacted his revenge on Hunter by beating him with his bare hands. He demanded to know where Mercedes was and Hunter said that he was keeping her.

Rick called for his symbiote and they became Misery. He reverted to his feral form to strike fear in Hunter, who gave up Mercedes' location. The information caused a chill to run up Rick's spine. Mercedes was trapped in an abandoned warehouse and he couldn't bare watching her die like that. Rick's symbiote convinced Rick to go after and save her. While outside the warehouse, Rick was hit with a high caliber round in his back. He turned around and didn't see his attacker. Then a rocket came out of nowhere towards him. Rick became Misery and grew to engulf the rocket and contain the explosion. The heat from the explosion hurt Misery, but he managed to stay on his feet.

A man shrouded in the darkness came towards Misery via a zip-line. While dismounting, US Agent, kicked Misery in the face, sending him through a window of the warehouse. As US Agent stalked his competitor, he claimed he was there to collect. He continued to talk, until Misery webbed him up and hung him from a wall. Rick's first instinct was to look around for Mercedes, but she was no where to be found. As Misery searched, US Agent used his adamantium-coated knife to cut the webbing. He was freed and lunged towards Misery, with his gun aimed forward. Misery was hit by three bullets, fell to one knee, and was stabbed with the knife; all in one swift motion.

The symbiote did its job and kept Rick from being injured fatally, but he needed to end the fight quickly. US Agent disappeared in the darkness and watched to see Misery's next move. Seconds later he jumped out of the shadows and Misery grew to an immense size and grabbed hold of him. Now in his feral state, he began to choke US Agent to render him unconscious. The process seemed to be working until a grenade seemed to appear in US Agent's hand, who shoved it into Misery's wide open mouth. It exploded, peeling back the symbiote head to reveal Rick's. US Agent was still being held onto, but he took advantage of the moment and wrapped his hand around Misery's exposed throat, prepared to snap it.

Neither released their grips nor did they seem to be weakening. Without warning, a cosmic rift tore open right next to the opponents and it pulled them in gradually. They tried to escape, but the pull was to strong and in seconds, both were taken. As soon as they fell through, the rift closed as if it never occurred.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Misery can stick to walls and also has unlimited webbing. Misery can also blend in with its surroundings and become undetectably camouflaged. Misery can track any other symbiotes.

Misery does not try to take over the mind of his human host. Instead, the symbiote actually thinks and voices its opinions to the human host. The symbiote usually speaks when the host is in his "human form".

• Superhuman Strength: He possesses vast superhuman strength. Misery is superhumanly strong and can lift within 25 - 75 ton range.

• Superhuman Speed: He can move or run at speeds greater than any normal human being.

• Superhuman Stamina: Now that the Misery symbiote has bonded itself to him, he is capable of exerting himself at peak capacity for about 48 hours.

• Superhuman Agility: His agility is superior to any normal human being.

• Superhuman Reflexes: His reflexes are superior to any normal human being.

• Superhuman Durability: The tissue the symbiote is composed of renders Ricardo’s body much harder and much more resistant to physical injury than the body of an ordinary human. Rios can withstand high caliber bullets, great impact forces, powerful energy blasts, and falls from great heights without sustaining physical injury. He is durable enough that he can withstand multiple barrages of high caliber weapons such as machine guns from close range. He also possesses an extreme resistance to pain, and seems to feel it only to a certain extent.

• Camouflage Capabilities: The symbiote is capable of mimicking the appearance of any form of clothing and camouflaging with its surroundings.

• Shape Shifting

• Wall Crawling: Misery has the ability to cling to virtually any surface. He can rapidly crawl, walk, or run across even slick/wet surfaces.

• Webbing Generation: With the Misery symbiote, Rick can shoot strands of the alien’s substance in the form of "webbing" at high pressure up to a distance of 70 feet. The alien’s substance seems to be composed of tough, flexible fibers of organic polymers, which regenerate swiftly after "shedding". The strands have extraordinary adhesive properties, which diminish rapidly once they abandon their living source. After about three hours, with no source to nourish them, the strands dry up like dead skin and dissolve into a powder. The strands possess a tensile strength of 125 pounds per square millimeter of cross section.

• Regenerative Healing Factor: Misery possesses a superhuman healing factor that allows him to regenerate damaged or destroyed bodily tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. Misery is able to heal injuries such as slashes, puncture wounds, bullet wounds, and severe burns within moments. His healing factor is developed to the point that he can regrow missing limbs and organs.

                              Former Powers:

Like most of Earth's mutant population, he lost his powers as a result of the aftermath of M-Day.

• Flight: Rick was capable of flying at the speed of light
• Superhuman Strength: Rick possessed vast superhuman strength, granting him the ability to lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons
• Matter/Energy Manipulation: Ricardo could divert an energy flow in a different direction or convert it into a different type of energy. He could also change matter at the atomic level, for instance, to transmute one substance into another or to change an object's shape.
  

Abilities

• Rick is an expert hand to hand combatant
  

Strength level

• Ricardo can lift (press) about 25-75 tons
  

Weaknesses

• The Misery symbiote, like all others of its kind, is extremely vulnerable to heat and sonic based attacks. They can cause the symbiote physical pain and discomfort; where as "more powerful" attacks might be completely ineffective.
  

Paraphernalia

Equipment: As Guardian, Rick possessed a Nano-Suit capable of withstanding extreme temperatures and it also enabled him to survive in uninhabitable areas. The suit was contained in a pair of wristbands designed after Captain Marvel
Transportation:

• Web-slinging
  

Weapons:

• None
  

Notes

• Ricardo had absorbed some of the powers that he gained as Captain Universe
  

Trivia

• Misery refers to himself as "I" instead of "we."

See Also

• Appearances of Ricardo Rios (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Ricardo Rios (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Ricardo Rios (Earth-616)

Discover and Discuss

• Search News for: Misery · Ricardo Juan Rios · Ricardo Rios (Earth-616)

Links and References

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