Zim 2002, aka Palindrome, is one of many alternate universe copies of Zim inhabiting the Zimvoid, introduced in Issue 47.
Summary[]
Zim 2002 with Zim 2K.
Palindrome's history is presumably the same as our Zim's, up until the point that something turned him into a fish-like creature, requiring him to keep his head in fishbowl-like helmet in order to breathe.
At some point prior to Issue 47, Palindrome picked up an Irken distress signal coming from Pandora's Quadrangle. Following it, he was sucked through a portal to a planetoid inhabited by other Zims from other universes, and crashed, destroying his Voot Runner and his GIR. Like all the other Zims, he was then enslaved as part of the strict hierarchy that Zim Number 1 has put into place on the planet.
Either due to not wanting to be part of the hierarchy or because he was considered worthless by it, Palindrome was banished to the underground city outside of the territory ruled by Number 1. There, he joined the Zim Resistance, a group of fellow renegade Zims also opposed to Number 1, and was partnered with Zim 2000, aka 2K.
On one of their missions, they encountered Dib and "our" Zim's GIR, and brought them back to meet the Resistance's leader, the Elder, who recruited Dib's help to fight against Number 1. With Dib and GIR's aid, the Resistance breaks into the arena where Zims fight to advance rank, only to arrive just as Zim is about to fight Zim 100.
Due to Dib's accidental interference, a confused Zim 100 knocks himself out, allowing Zim to win by default. Later, the Resistance members learn from 100 how Number 1 has been promising that any Zims which pass the rigorous training that the elite go through will be sent back to their respective Earths with repaired ships and more advanced weapons. The revelation that they could have been sent home at any time angers all the other arena Zims, who join the Resistance and proceed to storm Number 1's tower.
Palindrome is one of the few to remain conscious after the resulting battle, along with Dib, GIR, and 2K. However, before they can go after Number 1, Zim (who missed the fight due to looking for the armory) arrives on the scene and zaps 2K by accident with a laser gun, effectively taking the group prisoner. Then all of them are called into Number 1's chamber, where to their shock they learn that he's actually an alternate Dib inside a robotic Zim suit. This Dib, whom GIR dubs "Zib" due to having a PAK on his head that makes him look like Zim, reveals that after he defeated his Zim, he became dedicated to destroying all Irkens across the multiverse. Upon discovering the nature of the Quadrangle portals, he set up the fake distress signal to lure in Zims, who he then subjected to the hierarchy to weed out the weaker ones, so that he could enslave the stronger ones with a "Dib virus", that they're intended to then carry into other timelines and destroy those universes' Irken Armadas.
Palindrome, who is disgusted to learn that he's been ruled by a Dib all this time, is then locked up with the other rebel Zims, but is freed when Dib discovers to his horror that the Zimvoid is actually the remnants of Zib's home timeline, which he accidentally destroyed when trying to defeat his Irkens. Palindrome then joins 2K in rallying the other Resistance Zims in attacking Zib's command center with the Voots that he upgraded and repaired, while he fights back against them with a mech designed to look like himself.
Before either side can win, however, Zim uses Zib's technology and the portals to somehow alter the timelines and send everyone, including Palindrome, back to their own universes.
Facts of Doom[]
- Palindrome's number, 2002, seems to be a reference to the year the TV series was cancelled, just as his partner's number (2000) appears to be a reference to the year it first entered production.
- Palindrome's nickname comes from the fact that his number is the same backwards as it is forward.