A Bomb (Rick Jones | Earth 616) (Comic Book Character)

Gender:Male
Age:Unknown
Location:Unknown

Real Name: Richard "Rick" Milhouse Jones
Current Alias: A-Bomb
Aliases: A-Bomb, Bucky, the Hulk
Identity: Public
Affiliation: Financier of the Loners, Honorary member of the Avengers; Former partner of the Hulk, Captain America, and Captain Mar-Vell;Former member of the Teen Brigade; Former ally of Rom
Relatives: Marlo (Wife, separated), Polly (Aunt)
Universe: Earth-616
Base Of Operations: Mobile; Formerly Los Angeles, New Mexico
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 165 lbs (75 kg)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Unusual Features: Rick bears a close physical resemblance to James Buchanan Barnes , the original Bucky.
Citizenship: American
Marital Status: Separated
Occupation: Former Comic Book Store Owner, writer, adventurer, singer
Place of Birth: Scarsdale, Arizona
Creators: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby
First Appearance: Incredible Hulk #1 (May, 1962)


Rick Jones is an athletic man that previously had no superhuman powers. He has received training in combat gymnastics by Captain America. He is also a skilled self-taught folk and rock n' roll singer and guitarist.

Jones's latent psionic potential was once unleashed by the Kree Supreme Intelligence, but he cannot utilize it at will. He was also for a time able to shift spacial/temporal positions with Mar-Vell, and later Genis-Vell.

For an unexplained reason, Rick Jones has gained the ability to turn into a creature resembling the Abomination, granting him superhuman strength and durability (even the Red Hulk proved unable to damage it in the slightest), but reducing his intelligence in a similar manner to the classic Hulk persona.

Camouflage: A-Bomb has learned to blend in to his environment like a chameleon

Superhuman Strength: As A-Bomb, Rick possesses vast superhuman strength, greater than that of Emil Blonsky. His great strength also extends into the highly developed and powerful muscles of his legs, enabling him to leap great distances.

Superhuman Durability: His superhuman durability is far greater than that of the original Abombmination; he was able to withstand all of the Red Hulk's assaults and even multiple blows to the head while on the ground which resulted in seismic tremurs of up to 10.0 on the richtor scale. This is likely due to his armor-like skin; the Red Hulk stated he was more an armadillo than a man. Along with great immunity and resistance to physical attacks, he is also bulletproof.

Superhuman Speed
Superhuman Stamina

Skilled Combatant: A highly trained and experienced hand-to-hand combatant. Received training by Captain America in various martial arts including combat gymnastics. As A-Bomb, he does not seem to remember any of it but is a natural fighter.

Talented Musician: He is also an accomplished musician and songwriter

Former Powers
Destiny Force: The Destiny Force gives Rick incredible psionic power. With it he can freeze others in their tracks and teleport a number of beings across vast distances, including summoning them from other realities to his location. The Supreme Intelligence theorized that an outside influence such as the Nega-Bands is needed for the force to emerge.


Rick Jones was born in Scarsdale, Arizona. He lost his parents at a young age and grew up at an orphanage. He gains notoriety when he accepts a dare to drive out to a bomb testing ground in New Mexico. As luck would have it, the gamma bomb designed by Dr. Bruce Banner is being tested. Dr. Banner pushes Rick into a protective trench, saving his life but absorbing the gamma rays that first transform him into the Hulk. Rick then becomes the sole confidant of the Hulk's true identity.

Rick's guilt over causing the incident (and lack of any other place to go) leads him to stay close to Dr. Banner and his alter ego, spending some time as the Hulk's sidekick. For a time, he even gains mental control over the Hulk. Eventually the dangerous unpredictability of the Hulk forces Rick to keep his distance. Rick forms the Teen Brigade, a loose network of teenagers with ham radios throughout the United States. The first Teen Brigade played a role in the origin of the Avengers, because it was the tampering of a radio transmission the Brigade intended to send to the Fantastic Four that brought the original Avengers (Iron Man, Ant-Man, Wasp, and Thor) together to fight the Hulk as part of a plan by Loki. Loki's plan backfires and the Avengers are formed.

After the Hulk's departure from the team, Rick remains close to the Avengers, earning a position as an honorary Avenger. He became close to the recently revived Captain America although his guilt leads him to leave the Avengers and seek out Banner and the Hulk for a time. Captain America rescues Rick from one of the Hulk's rampages, and Rick becomes Captain America's sidekick. Rick briefly takes the title and uniform of Bucky, Cap's long-dead partner. This was on Jones' own insistence: Cap continues to have guilty objections, noting that others have lost partners and it was time to move on. Rick's brief time as Bucky gave him the training to survive around superheroes to this day.

Shortly after his split with Captain America, Rick joined with the Kree Captain Marvel when he finds himself drawn to the mystical Nega-Bands. Donning the Bands, he is immediately linked to Captain Marvel. Once joined, one of the two remains in a protective bubble in the Negative Zone. After either the person not in the negative zone strikes the Nega-Bands together or a certain amount of time passes, the two switch places.

Rick and Mar-Vell play a critical part in the Kree-Skrull War. Rick is freed from the Negative Zone through a portal in the Fantastic Four headquarters. Mar-Vell is released from the Negative Zone while Rick is still in the regular world without the use of the Nega-Bands. The bond between the two is broken. At the height of the conflict, the Kree Supreme Intelligence briefly unleashes the Destiny Force from within Rick. Rick uses his newfound ability to summon images of various Golden Age heroes. While at full power, Rick single-handedly stops both the Kree and Skrull fleets long enough to put an end to the conflict. Injuries that Rick sustains lead Mar-Vell to willingly bond with Rick in order to save his life. Shortly after this the Captain Marvel series was re-launched and we found that Rick wasn't able to contain the energy of Mar-Vell. He was then bombarded with photonic energy which saved him and enabled him to contain Mar-Vell safely. A consequence of this was that Mar-Vell gained the ability to absorb energy in addition to the nega-band energies to boost his strength and could fly with the photonic energy now.

Rick and Mar-Vell serve as a duo for several years while Rick pursues his musical career and love life. Eventually, the two are again freed from their bond while aiding the Avengers against the Super-Adaptoid. Rick then parts company with Mar-Vell.[8] Rick begins to spend his time with the Hulk again and briefly forms a new Teen Brigade, after which Rick finds himself again teamed with Mar-Vell, though not merged with him as they deal with a legacy left by the Mad Titan Thanos. Some time after, Mar-Vell dies of cancer that he received when he was exposed to a deadly nerve gas stolen by the villain Nitro. Note: Mar-Vell collapsed from the gas and was comatose until he was given an antidote to the gas. However despite the antidote, Mar-Vell still developed cancer. Rick was at Mar-Vell's bedside when he died.

After Mar-Vell's tragic death, Rick began to team with the Hulk again. Guilt over causing Banner to be hit with the gamma rays made Rick decide to expose himself to gamma rays in an attempt to become another Hulk-like being that could stop the Hulk. However this plan backfired and Rick was dying of Gamma poisoning until Banner cured him. However this too led to the consequence of Rick developing a form of blood-cancer. Rick was stunned at the irony of this considering what happened to his old friend, Mar-Vell. Rick was going to undergo a massive blood transfusion to treat this ailment when the hospital was attacked by monsters created by the Dire Wraiths. Rick was saved by the Spaceknight, Rom and began to team with Rom despite the fact that he was slowly dying. Upon the final defeat of the Wraiths, Rom banished them all to Limbo and then bade farewell to Rick Jones and the Earth. Shortly after Rom left, Rick Jones and Brandy Clark, the woman who loved Rom, met the alien called the Beyonder (a Secret Wars 2 tie in issue of ROM). The Beyonder briefly granted Rick superhuman powers but Rick realized he couldn't handle them, and the Beyonder stripped him of his powers but left him cured of his cancer.

Shortly after the encounter with the Beyonder, Rick once again teamed with the Hulk. This time, the Hulk had been split into two beings, Banner and the Hulk, but the experiment was a failure and both were dying. General Ross tried to stop the process of remerging the two, and Rick intervened only to be dumped into the chemical nutrient bath that was fusing Banner and the Hulk again. This resulted in Rick somehow becoming a Hulk-like creature of his own and he took off into the desert on a savage rampage. Rick would be human at day and be his own green-skinned near mindless Hulk at night.

The other effect of Rick becoming a Hulk is that Banner is reverted from Green Hulk into the Grey Hulk. During this time, the Rick-Hulk battled the Grey Hulk, Zzaxx, the Hulkbusters, and the Outcasts. The Grey Hulk is manipulated by Sam Sterns, along with Banner, into siphoning the radiation from Rick into Sterns. Sterns is then turned back into the Leader, drastically altering his appearance, and Rick is cured of his Hulk transformations.

Rick stays with Banner, the Grey Hulk, Betty Banner, and Clay Quartermain for several months as they travel the country looking for a government supply of gamma bombs. The group splits after the apparent death of the Hulk at the hands of the Leader.

At one point, Rick's psionic potential was released by Moondragon against Atlantean invaders.

Rick authors the book "Sidekick," an autobiography of his time with super-heroes. While on a book tour, he meets Marlo Chandler without realizing that she had only recently broken up with the Hulk (then acting as a Las Vegas leg breaker with the alias "Mr. Fixit"). Rick is kidnapped by a Skrull vessel and the Hulk aids in Rick's rescue. This starts another period with Rick and the Hulk, this time with Marlo and Betty.

Rick came in touch with death in several ways during this time with the Hulk. First, Rick dies at the hands of Thanos, along with half of the universe, when Thanos uses the Infinity Gauntlet to impress Death. Rick and the others are brought back in ensuing events. Rick remembers meeting several deceased rock stars.

Rick assisted the Hulk many times during his tenure with the Pantheon. During the time, he guns down an insane killer, but is still wracked with remorse. Over time he bonds with Wolfsbane of X-Factor, who also killed another insane murderer during the same debacle (he even ends up inviting her to his wedding).

Another major encounter with death occurs when Jackie Shorr (who is revealed to be a demented mass murderer) comes into his life and claims to be his mother. It is still not known for sure whether this claim is true or not, as the same claim is made by many others. She, however, insists that those she killed and left mummified in her basement were substitutes for Rick, and that he is her real son. Shorr is discovered to be insane, but not until after she kills Marlo by stabbing her with a kitchen knife. A horrified Rick refuses to test her DNA, saying that he doesn't want to know, especially if she is truly his mother.

Rick attempts to bring Marlo back using a resurrection device known as the "deus ex machina" that the Leader developed, but the Hulk destroys the equipment part way through the process. Marlo is left in a catatonic state. Fortunately, Rick's care eventually helps Marlo return to full health despite the intervention of many other well-meaning friends and family.

Shortly after Marlo is revived, the two become engaged and quickly marry. Neither of them realize, however, that a portion of Death remains in Marlo. This piece of Death attracted many strange visitors to the wedding, including Mephisto and Death herself.

The married couple soon finds success in a popular talk show called "Keeping Up with the Joneses", cut short when Rick is crippled by a Banner-less Hulk that made a deal to work for Apocalypse and become his Horseman "War" if he would remove the shrapnel from the Hulk's brain. The injury confines Rick to a wheelchair and the debilitation strains his relationship with Marlo. The strain increases with the tragic death of Betty Banner by radiation poisoning to the point that the couple split shortly thereafter.

Rick joins Dr. Banner again after his reappearance. His serious health problems force him to be brought by the Avengers to the now-captive Supreme Intelligence for aid. This marks the beginning of the Destiny War. Over the course of these events, Rick's injury is healed and he is joined with Genis-Vell (the recently endowed Captain Marvel and son of Mar-Vell).

Rick's bond with Genis works in about the same way as his bond with Mar-Vell. The biggest difference is that the two switch in and out of the Microverse rather than the Negative Zone. Genis-Vell's unique birth and accelerated aging makes him the opposite of Rick: full of power but without experience. They compensate for each other's weaknesses with Rick taking on the role of mentor. He helped Genis learn to control his cosmic awareness and accept his role as a super-hero. As Rick's confidence grew, he also attempted to rekindle his romance with Marlo.

It wasn't until this point that Marlo's connection with Death is finally revealed. Thanos aids in separating the two, but Rick is prematurely aged and loses an arm in the process. He is later yanked back in time to the Destiny War, where he aids his younger self in the conflict leading to his bond with Genis.

Marlo tries to aid the elderly Rick the way he had helped her when she was catatonic. Rick's pride, however, just causes more problems. The Supreme Intelligence attempts and fails to restore Rick to his normal condition, but he is spontaneously restored to his normal age and health shortly thereafter. Rick believes this was divine aid while Genis believes it was a delayed reaction to the Supreme Intelligence's procedure. No definitive explanation has yet been determined.

For a while, Rick and Genis are yanked back and forth through time. Rick encounters two older versions of himself: one an aging collector surviving under the rule of the Maestro; the other a super-villain named Thanatos. The super-villain Rick was in the process of creating the "ultimate Rick Jones". He is stopped by the elder Rick's ability to wield Thor's hammer, Rick having been judged worthy for things the present Rick had yet to do and things that Thanatos would never achieve.

It is, however, unclear if Rick will become either of these older versions of himself. It has been established that the specific timeline that the old Rick lived in will not come to pass due to the Hulk having been drawn into the future to defeat his future self.

Rick and Marlo again split when Marlo becomes romantically involved with Moondragon. Shortly after, Genis goes insane when his cosmic awareness reaches its peak. Rick's attempts to continue as Genis's guide are fairly unsuccessful. Genis becomes a callous, homicidal maniac believing himself a god. Rick's friend even destroys the universe just to rebuild it with Rick and Genis as sole survivors.

In the rebuilt reality, Genis again loses his mind. Rick develops an ability to mentally attack Genis through their psychic bond (although the pain is reciprocal). For a time, Genis uses this same link to control Rick. He goes as far as 'convincing' Rick to kill himself on a whim. Genis brings Rick right back to life just as easily.

In part due to Rick's influence, Genis' madness calmed to a point where he was able to maintain a veneer of sanity, albeit with some unpredictability. He creates a recording studio for Rick that allows for fame and fortune at the sake of Internet based sales of a song written for Marlo. The same song also acts as a catalyst for the two to reunite, with Marlo ending her relationship with Moondragon.

At the end of the series, it is revealed that Rick has a "comic awareness" that the Captain Marvel comic series was coming to an end. He pushed for several of the loose ends of the series to be resolved: Rick and Genis were separated again, and Rick was reunited with Marlo at last report. This ability was primarily created for the needs of this one issue, and it seems unlikely that it will see future usage.

Rick was recently revealed to be the mysterious benefactor of Excelsior. The group is comprised of former teenage superheroes dedicated to reforming other super-powered kids from following down the same path. Their first targets are the underage Runaways patrolling Los Angeles in the wake of the supervillain power vacuum since the defeat of the Runaways' evil parents, The Pride, who once controlled the city. Rick tells Excelsior that he wanted the Runaways back in foster care because he didn't want them to go through the same experiences he went through.

Rick appeared at Cap's funeral in Arlington, Virginia. When Sam Wilson (The Falcon) made a speech, he mentioned that Rick would know what it's like to have called Captain America a partner. He replied by saying "Right on."

Rick re-connects with the Hulk during the World War Hulk mini-series. He seeks out the Hulk and supports his punishing the Illuminati for their exiling him to Sakaar and their apparent involvement with the deaths of thousands of innocent people on that planet, including the Hulk's wife and unborn child. After the Hulk's climactic battle with the Sentry, one of the Hulk's associates, Miek (who was the true cause of the deaths on Sakaar), impales Rick through the chest. Rick is seen being loaded into an ambulance.

In the aftermath of World War Hulk, a new Red Hulk has emerged, brutally beating and then shooting the Abomination to death.

Following this, Red Hulk confronts Rick Jones at Gamma Base, where Bruce Banner is being held. In defense, Jones turns into a creature resembling Abomination, calling himself A-Bomb. During the fight, the base security measures activate, and giant android Harpies (with the face of Betty Ross) attack the two, and attempt to remove them from the base. A-Bomb manages to disable one mid-flight, and they both crash to earth, the robot exploding as it does.

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. 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.

He was recently seen saving Bruce Banner from Ares a battle in which he was not the victor but revealed his powers to blend in and better contol over his A-Bomb personality


The past history of Rick Jones of Earth-9997 mirrors that of his Earth-616 counterpart, much of his past history matches his. However, Mar-Vel revealed that Genis Vel of Earth-9997 was created in part due to Rick's Destiny Force powers willing the creation of a new hero.
In recent history, Rick still carried the Nega-Bands which would allow him to switch places with Captain Marvel (Genis), however through unknown circumstances Rick lost his arm and was also assimilated into the Hydra collective. As a result, Rick died, while the Hydra took over his body.

He would later be located by the reborn Mar-Vel and Captain America who were seeking to collect the Nega-Bands as part of Mar-Vel's collection of items of power he intended to use to kill Death and build a paradise in the Realm of the Dead. Appearing in the Hydra's base, Mar-Vel would learn that one of the Nega-Bands is missing, which turned out to be a moot problem as the Band that was still in Rick's possession no longer contained it's power. When Mar-Vel would tell Captain America that anybody who agreed to become part of the Hydra, would die, Captain America would use ROM's Neutralizer to banish all the Hydra's to Limbo.

Rick's soul however lived on in the Realm of the Dead following his physical death. Upon the death of Death and the creation of Paradise, Rick Jones was one of the first citizens of the realm. Consuming a portion of the Cosmic Cube, he created a reality where he was the super-powerful Captain Hero and lived out his fantasies of being a super-hero. When Captain America, was staging a revolt on Paradise when it became known that with each soul collected in Paradise would cause it to expand into the Negative Zone, Cap and the Avenging Host would pluck Rick from his self created reality.

Rick would join the Avenging Host in confronting Mar-Vel regarding their findings, however Mar-Vel would kill them all just as the Kree began their invasion of Paradise. When the invasion was overturned, with the help of Hyperion and the arrival of Reed Richards. Mar-Vel resurrected the Avenging Host, and Rick before passing on his power to Reed himself. Rick's current whereabouts are unknown, but it's presumable that he still resides in Paradise.