David Gilberts (Dimension-1)

David Gilberts (Dimension-1)

## Affiliation and Relationships

### Team affiliation

New Ultimate Neohumans; formerly Underground League, Neohumans, Ultimates, Ultimate Neohumans, Project Kodiak (involuntarily), Four Horsemen (involuntarily by Armageddon), CIA, various other agencies.

### Relatives

**Ancestors:**
\* Unnamed paternal grandfather (deceased)
\* Unnamed paternal grandmother (deceased)
\* Ivan (maternal grandfather, deceased)
\* Odette (maternal grandmother, deceased)
**Parents:**
\* Philip Gilberts (father, deceased)
\* Elizabeth Denon  (mother, deceased)
**Aunts/Uncles:**
\* Aaron Gilberts (paternal uncle, deceased)
\* Mary Gilberts (paternal aunt, deceased)
\* Elias Denon (maternal uncle, deceased)
\* Sarah Denon (maternal aunt, deceased)
\* Emma Denon (cousin)
\* Skye Denon (cousin)
\* Carol Denon (cousin, deceased)
**Siblings:**
\* Elias Gilberts (brother, deceased)
\* Annabelle Gilberts (sister, deceased)
**Children:**
\* Tavion (foster son)
\* Octavia (foster daughter)

## Physical Characteristics

### Height

5 ft. 3 in. (1.60 m) (Human)
10 ft. (3 m) (Bear)

### Eyes

Brown
Gold (Psychic)

### Unusual Features

As a human: Animal-like canine teeth, two sets of retractable claws (later coated in validium), short beard and mustache, and hirsute physique.

## Origin and Living Status

### Origin

Neohuman, later grafted Validium on his skeleton and claws by Project Kodiak.

## Personal Information

### Occupation

Adventurer, co-founder of the New Ultimate Neohumans; former co-founder of the Ultimate Neohumans, bouncer, spy for several agencies, C.I.A. operative, mercenary, criminal, soldier (former captain of the U.S. Army), sailor, miner, mechanic, leader

### Education

Privately tutored as a child, special military/espionage and assassination training.

## Creators and Appearances

### Creator(s)

David S. Rodriguez

*There is one thing I know in this world: nature. She is beautiful, but deadly. I am a living example of that. You must always work with it, not against it. We are all connected to one another, whether you like it or not.*
—**Kodiak**

**David Gilberts** (alias: **Karl**; superhero identity: **Kodiak**) is a fictional character appearing in the Neohumans franchise. He is a neohuman who possesses the ability to transform into an Alaskan brown bear, but also animal-like physical and olfactory abilities, the most powerful regenerative healing factor, and five four-inch claws. Kodiak has been depicted variously as a member of the Underground League, Neohumans, and Ultimates. He also established and is the leader of two teams, the Ultimate Neohumans and now the New Ultimate Neohumans.

The character appeared in the last panel of *Bane* **#**80 before having a larger role in **#**81 (cover-dated September 2050). He was created by David S. Rodriguez.

## History

### Early Life

**David Gilberts** was born March 7, 1878 in Kodiak, Alaska. Throughout his childhood, he and his father Philip Gilberts managed to

### World Wars

In 1917, Karl was in the 1st Infantry Division and fought in the trenches of the First World War. After the war was over and the Central Powers surrendered, Karl traveled to

In World War II, during Operation Overlord, Karl was part of the American Expeditionary Force, specifically the 1st Infantry Division and fought on the beaches of Omaha on June 6, 1944. After receiving multiple shots from automatic machine gunfire, he transformed and ran straight into a German “hornet’s nest” built into the cliffs. After several minutes, he managed to regenerate and help his fellow Americans to clear the beaches as reinforcements arrived. After landing in Normandy, Karl met Derrick Waters, the world’s first artificial super soldier, and repelled several German counteroffensives in the Ardennes, thanks to his ability to shapeshift into an Alaskan brown bear. Later, they would witness and forever be traumatized by the Holocaust, and they both vowed to never again support any authoritarian government who oppresses its own citizens under any circumstances.

### Alpha and Omega

In 1950, Karl fought alongside Derrick once again in the short but bloody Korean War. During the conflict, the Soviet Union sent their first super soldiers together to assist North Korea, and encountered Derrick and Karl and fought them. Karl and Derrick realized they were vulnerable to Alpha’s and Omega’s neohuman powers, grafted by the highly radioactive alloy durbanite, preventing Karl’s healing factor at regenerating and slowly killing him. They retreated, costing their fellow American troops and their South Korean allies the battle.

### Joining the Central Intelligence Agency

After joining the Central Intelligence Agency, his first assignment was to guard Dr. Lucas Smidt to South America. The Soviet Union dispatched the KGB to capture the American scientist and force him to recreate validium and perfect their durbanite’s formula. Karl, however, managed to foil their attempts until Smidt was safely in the hands of other C.I.A. operatives in South America.

Another assignment he went on was to the Soviet heartland, where he needed to steal the formula for durbanite, only for him to fight Alpha and Omega once again. He

### The Hunt for Kodiak

Throughout the storyline of *The Hunt for Kodiak*,

## Personality

*“Ever since I was a boy, I’ve always liked bears. They are majestic and fierce beasts that don’t take shit from no one. Now, I love them even more as I am now one, forever. Thanks to Project Kodiak, and having psychic powers, I have achieved my full potential and can help and protect people as best I can.”*
—**Kodiak**

Kodiak is a no-nonsense, smart person who has a strong sense of honor and temperance. In social situations, he has no .

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **Physical Transformation (formerly)**: Kodiak used to turn, at will, from human to a bear-human hybrid, to a massive 10-ft.-tall (3-m), 1,500-lb. (680.4-kg.) Alaskan brown bear; however, after Project Kodiak the indestructible alloy validium to his entire skeleton while in his complete bear form, he can no longer transform as the alloy interferes with his physical transformation. Therefore, he is permanently stuck as the largest bear in the world.
* **Regenerative Healing Factor**: Kodiak possesses a regenerative healing factor wh­ich can repair damaged tissue like slashes, punctures, burns, and broken bones at a supernatural rate. After validium was bonded to his skeleton (while being in bear form), Kod­iak’s regenerative healing factor increased to the point where he can heal from any physical damage in a matter of moments. His regeneration even created a variant of validium called “validium beta” to prevent the alloy from interfering with his skeleton’s biological properties, like producing blood cells from the bone marrow.
	+ **Contaminant Immunity**: Kod­iak’s unnatural healing abilities also affords him virtual immunity to most poisons, viruses, diseases, and drugs. For example, it is near-impossible for him to become intoxicated from alcohol, but a whole liquor store is enough to do the trick. Project Kodiak had to use lethal doses of tranquilizers and pump hundreds of thousands of anesthetics into his system to keep him sedated long enough to capture him and bond validium into his skeleton while in his bear form. They were forced to exhaust all their medical supplies just to keep him under to insert neurological implants to control him as their greatest living killing machine.
	+ **Fatigue Resistance**: Kodiak is resistant to fatigue poisons produced from extensive and intensive physical activity, allowing him to keep going for a week before succumbing to exhaustion.
	+ **Decelerated Aging/Longevity**: In addition, Kod­iak’s supernatural regeneration provides him with an extended lifespan by significantly slowing down the aging process; Kodiak was born on March 7, 1878, but still possesses the same vitality from his physical and cognitive prime, approximately 20–30 years old.
* **Superhuman Strength**: Kodiak possesses Class 100 strength in his bear form, all­o­wing him to lift a minimum of 100 tons over his head, and his jaws and teeth are powerful enough to tear through reinforced steel and pure diamond and carbon with casual ease. Once validium was added to his skeleton by Project Kodiak, he can physically lift and move objects that are well above 500 tons without breaking a sweat. The upper limit to Kodiak’s strength is unknown.
* **Superhuman Speed, Reflexes, and Agility**: Despite his massive size, Kodiak’s speed and reaction time far exceeds any Olympian athlete and bear. He can even outrun a cheetah, his top speed measured at 150 mph (193.1 km**/**h). His agility is also superhuman, quicker than the human eye can perceive and appearing like a blur of motion to his enemies.
* **Superhuman Stamina and Endurance**: His body produces less fatigue toxins, than­ks to his regenerative healing factor, in any physical activity. If he overexerts himself, he will fatigue after a week and recover after a day of rest. He also has a sleep cycle of four hours and is nocturnal.
* **Superhuman Durability**: Thanks to his validium-enhanced ske­leton, supernatural regeneration, and enormous size, he can take far more physical punishment without flinching before delivering his own devastating counterattacks. Only the strongest entities like Neo, Android 2000, Bellerophon, Aetos Theo, and Marcel fight and push past Kodiak’s durability to the limit. Despite this, however, Kodiak capitalizes his near-unrivaled physical strength and durability in conjunction with mixed-martial arts suited just for him.
* **Psionic Power**: Knowing he can never be human again, Neo turned Kodiak into a psychic to help him and Android 2000 escape from Project Kodiak. Afterwards, under Neo’s tutelage, Kodiak became one of the most powerful psychics in the world, with only the absolute best ones being able to challenge him. When using any of his psionic powers, his eyes would glow a golden yellow, and all psionic energy from him is the same hue. Because of Neo’s intervention, Kodiak is the first Hybrid of the neohuman race. His powers include, but are not limited to:
	+ **Telepathy and Mind Control**: Now forever a bear, Kodiak communicates telepathically with everyone around him, becoming a polyglot in the process. In terms of telepathic assault, every psychic in the world, except Neo, fears and respects Kodiak as the strongest telepath of them all. To escape from Project Kodiak, he controlled every bodyguard present with his mind long enough for him, Neo, and Android 2000 to escape.
		- **Psionic Defense**: Kodiak learned from Neo to recognize when his mind is being probed telepathically, and could break out of virtually any psionic attack or probe. He also accomplished techniques to forcefully “shock” someone out of his mind by bringing his bestial rage and aggression to the forefront of his thou­ghts.
	+ **Telekinesis**: Kodiak can move, manipulate, or otherwise interact with objects**/**matter with his mind. Because he now lacks human hands to do most tasks, he uses telekinesis to restrain weaker opponents in place with just a thought, levitate objects and people; recall any loose object over to him at will, orbit objects around himself, maneuver an object’s directional course with just a casual glance, effortlessly deflect an enemy’s attack, push and**/**or pull objects and people towards or away from him, as well as creating large fields of telekinetic energy that can attract, repel, and avoid surrounding objects with little effort; and to attack targets at a distance via raw pressure from his front or back paws. While working for the CIA, he once choked several KGB operatives from a distance to protect those he was assigned to.
		- **Telekinetic Flight and Barrier**: Kodiak can, at will, use telekinesis to fly unassist­ed, and for long periods without much effort. His top speed is measured at Mach 6,600 (8,085,528 km**/**h or 5,024,564 mph). To avoid all the problems at such high speeds, an invisible telekinetic barrier is erected simultaneously upon this power’s activation, and goes around himself and others with direct physical contact with him, e.g. riding on his back or grabbing onto his limbs or coarse fur.

### Abilities

* **Skilled Tracker**: Due to his more acute olfactory senses, Kodiak is one of the most skilled trackers in the world.
* **Skilled Martial Artist**: Trained by Android 2000, Kodiak understands how to manage with and defeat every form of hand-to-hand combat available on Earth. His personal combat style and disciplines are Muay Thai and Boxing/Kickboxing for a foundation and to perform basic and advanced physical strikes, Brazilian jujitsu and wrestling for ground fighting and pinning, and Krav Maga to combine all three or more martial arts styles and disciplines into a hybridized combat form best suited for his size, shape, and strength. It is called “Kodiak Style”, and is useful for any situation.
* **Weapons Expert**: Kodiak has expertise with many firearms, blades, explosives, and other forms of weaponry due to his extensive combat experience as a soldier, spy, and mercenary.
* **Expert Assassin**: He has knowledge of several assassination techniques. Stealth, for example, is his specialty despite being a large, heavy Alaskan brown bear behemoth. He is also good at using everything in his surroundings to his advantage in both unfamiliar territory and home turf.
* **Multilingualism**: Thanks to his telepathy, Kodiak is a polyglot, fluent in English, Russian, Alutiiq, Spanish, French, German, Mandarin, Filipino, and Farsi after attaining mastery over his psychic powers.

### Physical Strength

As a result of constant cellular regeneration and the additional weight and tensile strength of his natural skeleton and the indestructible validium laced into it, Kodiak possesses an unknown degree of super strength. This enables him to press and/or lift at least one hundred tons or more over his head or aside with ease. Only Neo knows fully well what Kodiak’s true limit of his strength and physical might, but the upper limit is currently unknown to everyone else.

### Weaknesses

* **Near-sightedness**: When Kodiak was human, he required glasses to give him 20**/**20 vision. With psychic powers granted to him by Neo, Kodiak no longer relies on his eyes for navigation or perception.
* **Irreversibility**: After having his bones and claws being coated in the indestructible alloy validium, Karl can never turn human again as his shapeshifting powers involved his bones physically changing; however, the unbreakable alloy inhibits his once primary power. To ease his life, Neo gave him psychic powers to make his life easier and to maintain some semblance of humanity. This made Kodiak the first, or primordial, Hybrid, the newest class of neohumans in the Neohuman Universe.
	+ **Lack of Human Hands and Speech**: In his bear form, Karl cannot verbally speak or do menial human tasks, so he was gifted with psychic powers to compensate for his lack of human hands and human speech.
* **Psionic Range and Limit**: Kodiak’s telepathic range is limited. As for telepathy, only animals or people in his direct vicinity can be affected, and only if they have a weak will. Those with an absolutely strong will greater than himself can overcome and render his telepathic attacks useless. For telekinesis, while versatile, he is continuing to learn more as he has not yet mastered it to perfection like \_ did.
* **Bestial Rage**/**Aggression**: Karl has an inbuilt bestial rage and aggressiveness that he developed after losing his closest comrades in WWI, followed by learning about it after his family was harmed by bandits shortly after. Decades later, Project Kodiak took advantage of his bestial rage before capturing Neo who gave Karl psychic powers to ease his life suffering. Soon, Kodiak learned how to keep his bestial rage under control to some extent, but it will always be present as he has learned to accept it as a part of himself. Under his bestial rage, his eyes turn red and he becomes even more dangerous and unpredictable, almost impossible for even the most experienced combatants to fight against. His combat style becomes more unpredictable in this state, with Marcel Collymore expressing genuine fear after their first encounter.
* **Durbanite**: Being a radioactive and unstable form of validium in an attempt by the Soviets to recreate the unbreakable alloy, Kodiak’s regenerative healing factor can be negated completely for twenty-four hours if within the alloy’s presence for just a moment. This could prove fatal if he is exposed for much longer periods, especially in close proximity to the deadly substance. Nowadays, he is on the lookout for this alloy to ensure the survival of his allies and himself.
* **Electricity**: Because of validium’s metallic properties, it is perfect for conducting electricity. Several electric-based attacks can prove effective against Kodiak thanks to the validium on his skeleton. He has, however, resist electricity’s more lethal effects because of his healing factor combined with his newfound psychic powers.
* **Electromagnetism**: Magnet Man uses his electromagnetic powers to consistently subdue and even injure Kodiak even from close range. Some enemies have taken to using magnets or the like to physically immobilize him.
* **Drowning/Asphyxiation**: The one thing Kodiak fears most is drowning and a lack of air. Because of his regeneration, a deprivation of oxygen and other gases necessary for breathable air is fatal for everyone including him. In the water, despite validium’s heavy weight, Karl can still knows how to swim as a bear and using his powerful muscles to keep himself afloat for a limited period. In times of oxygen deprivation, Kodiak can hold his breath for only five minutes before needing to breathe.

## Paraphernalia

### Weapons

Throughout his life, .

### Transportation

Before his transformation, he used various motorcycles and automobiles. In his Kodiak brown bear form, very few vehicles can hold his large size and weight, so he often uses telekinesis to fly at various speeds to places he wishes.

## Notes

* Kodiak has a natural sleep cycle of four hours every night. It is speculated that his regenerative healing factor is the main cause for his body producing less melatonin than the average mammals.
* He adopted the name “Karl” after Android 2000 helped him escape Project Kodiak. After Kodiak and the New Ultimate Neohumans rescued the newborns Minor and Major, Kodiak no longer wanted to retained his alias Karl and from then on used his birthname David Gilberts.
* David S. Rodriguez created the character upon researching and taking an interest in Alaskan brown bears and being a huge fan of Marvel Comics’ Wolverine. He also was inspired by werewolves and became the basis and standard for neohumans in general.