X-Books FAQ/Mutant Tracker Thread II

[worstblogever]

Shatterstar FAQs

Q69: I've heard Shatterstar is somehow Longshot and Dazzler's son from the Mojoverse, yet I also hear he's connected to a character named Benjamin Russel. What is the deal?

A69: This one is still unresolved, so I’ll give you what we have so far...

• In X-Men (2nd series) #11 (written by Jim Lee and Scott Lobdell), Xavier mentally discovers an unborn child within Dazzler. When Dazzler next appeared in X-Men (2nd series) #47 (written by Scott Lobdell) Iceman wants to ask her about the baby, but Jean prevents him. After Alison left, Jean explained…
  
  

  Bobby : "I was just going to ask how her baby is doing."
  Jean : "That's just it, Bobby. I ... I didn't sense another life within her."
  Bishop : "It seems obvious to me that she was distressed."

  Something happened to Dazzler's baby in the Mojoverse, leaving three possibilities:
  -> miscarriage
  -> abortion
  -> the baby was taken in utero from Dazzler, Alison only believes to have miscarried (some theorize that Spiral may have been the kidnapper in this scenario)
  
  
• When they first learned of the pregnancy, Longshot suggested “Shatterstar“ as a name. Also Shatterstar’s mutant power of transforming sound into a vibrational shockwave (channeled through his sword) seems to point at him being related to Dazzler who has the similar ability of transmuting sound into light. On the other hand, Dazzler was supposed to have lost the baby, and Shatterstar has been clearly named to be from 100 years in the future on more than one occasion, including New Mutants (vol. 1) #100 (written by Fabian Nicienza) and X-Force (vol. 1) #60 (written by Jeph Loeb). Still, Spiral states that the savior of the Mojoverse is to be the male child of a human and an Arize-spawn named “Shatterstar” in X-Factor (vol. 1) Annual #7 (written by Fabian Nicienza). Which again, sounds like Dazzler and Longshot having that same baby…
  
• Benjamin Russel was revealed as a mutant from earth, looking exactly like Shatterstar (or Shatterstar like him). He was comatose and held at the Weissman institute, and first shown on panel in X-Force (vol. 1) #46 (written by Jeph Loeb). Spiral, which not everybody might know, also originates from earth. She was a stuntwoman called Ricochet Rita and was one of the first Earth people that Longshot ever met. Once she was captured by Mojo, tortured and modified into Spiral. In X-Force (vol. 1) #61, (written by Jeph Loeb) Shatterstar’s body was dying and so his essence was placed into the comatose body of Benjamin Russel. Spiral knew where to find the boy, and was asked about it on panel:
  
  

  Cable : "Spiral, how did you know to come to this place (Weissman Institute) ? How did you know about this particular boy?"
  Spiral : "Is it not enough that Shatterstar will live again to fulfill his destiny? Is it not enough that both young men mean more than all the world to me?" (tears in her eyes)
  Shatterstar : “I ... live And for the first time in a long while ... I feel whole. Thank you."

• The resemblance between the two is more than coincidence, almost as if they were once separated and now are made whole, indicating that Spiral's body shop is involved (similar to Revanche/Psylocke). Spiral may have somehow split the baby's DNA into a more human, and more Longshot-like version, but the mystery remains unsolved (although, there was a scene in X-Factor (vol. 1) #217, where Shatterstar tells Rictor there’s no relationship between the two, and Longshot, watching from a distance, is shown grimacing. Which, is a pretty good tease, again, that we haven’t heard the last of the story).

Q70: Shatterstar has shown the ability to teleport, when and how did this start?

A70: The first time Shatterstar showed an ability to teleport was X-Factor (vol. 3) #49.

The exact nature of this ability has yet to be revealed, although, the way he utilizes swords to do so seems oddly familiar to Spiral… don’t know if that’s significant or not at this time. All that is known, is Shatterstar has to have someone else focus on a location to teleport them there, as clarified in X-Factor (vol. 1) #201. All instances of Shatterstar teleporting, to this point, have been written by Peter A. David.

[worstblogever]

Adam X FAQs


Q71: Isn’t Adam-X half-alien?

A71: Yes. Adam-X is the genetic son of former Shi’ar Emperor D’Ken, created as part of a breeding experiment by D’Ken to find a hybrid monarch of considerable power. He is genetically half-Shi’ar. This was revealed in Captain Marvel (vol. 2) #3.



Q72: Is he the third Summers brother?

A72: While it has been confirmed that D’Ken was the genetic “father” of Adam-X, his mother’s identity has yet to be confirmed on panel. However, writer Fabian Nicienza, who handled most of Adam X’s appearances in the 1990s has stated in several interviews that it was his intention to reveal that Adam-X was, in fact, the third Summers brother. There’s a whole article about all the hints Nicienza dropped to that end, over on uncannyxmen.net, written in 2002 by their user Peter Luzifer. It would eventually be revealed that Gabriel Summers, who had a similar origin tale to Adam-X’s, was Cyclops’and Havok’s third brother written in X-Men: Deadly Genesis #4. Whether or not Adam-X is now the fourth Summers Brother (which would have to mean Katherine Anne Summers was his mother ,somehow)… well, fans are going to have to continue to wait and see.

[worstblogever]

Lifeguard FAQs

Q73: Is Lifeguard really Shi’ar royalty?

A73: Signs point to “yes”. It was revealed in X-Treme X-Men (vol. 1) #14 that Heather Cameron, a.k.a. Lifeguard, is half-human mutant/half Shi’ar of royal lineage. Her father, Miles Warbeck, the Australian crime lord known as Viceroy apparently had an extraterrestrial encounter of a romantic nature with a member of the Aerie race.

While never outright revealed as Lifeguard’s mother, there are four strong hints pointing at Deathbird as the only likely candidate. Her Shi'Ar facial markings indicate that Lifeguard is of royal descent, Deathbird had been banished from the Shi’Ar Empire and was living on Earth for an unknown amount of time, two other children of Deathbird – Black Light and White Noise – sport golden metallic skin as well (see X-Men: Spotlight On… Starjammers #2 for a look at them) and a cryptic entry in Destiny’s diaries depicted Deathbird and a female with Shi’Ar facial markings in an X-uniform, along with the line “mothered by War”, which happened to be Deathbird’s Horseman moniker while she was still serving Apocalypse.

[worstblogever]

Fantomex FAQs


Q74: How does his nervous system and/or powers work?

A74: Fantomex has exhibited a variety of mental powers, one of which is having the ability to enter himself into a state of "auto-hypnosis", effectively putting his body on auto-pilot in order to perform surgery and other delicate tasks on himself. He first exhibited this ability once by inducing this state in order to remove several bullets from his body in New X-Men (vol. 1) #129 (written by Grant Morrison).

He has often exhibited a form of telepathy he refers to as "misdirection", which allows him to create realistic and immerse illusions on a variety of scales. His misdirection is powerful enough to fool large numbers of people, including all of the Final Horseman at once in Uncanny X-Force #4 (written by Rick Remender) and makes it impossible for even the most powerful and experienced telepaths to read his mind, including Jean Grey and Professor Xavier and Jean Grey in New X-Men (vol. 1) #129 (written by Grant Morrison), as well as Psylocke numerous times during Uncanny X-Force series. It is still unclear how these psychic abilities work, specifically, but it would likely be related to his unique nervous system…

Fantomex's has an external nervous system named E.V.A. He claims to have produced E.V.A. through his mouth one day when he lost his voice while still in The World. She later continued to grow and changed form into a flying saucer. E.V.A. is capable of independent thought, but acts as Fantomex's primary external nervous system. They share each others’ thoughts as well as emotions, and she has proven able to regenerate from massive injury in time, as proven after she was badly damaged in both New X-Men (vol. 1) #145 (written by Grant Morrison ) and Weapon X (vol. 2) #25 (written by Frank Tieri). His secondary nervous system is located in his body, but is not as advanced. When using his secondary nervous system alone he is only able to see the world in black and white.

Aside from his more notable abilities, Fantomex possesses many other characteristics which are heightened beyond those of a normal human. He possesses Olympic-level strength, speed, stamina, and agility. He is an expert marksman, and is able to use this ability even when doing complicated acrobatic movements during a fight. He is also a skilled hand-to-hand combatant. Fantomex has stated he no longer carries any form of scent. He has a chip implanted in his brain preventing him from worshiping anything, making him an atheist by anatomic design (as stated in Dark Reign: The List- Wolverine #1, written by Jason Aaron).


Q75: What is "The World"?

A75: “The World” was first alluded to by Fantomex in both in New X-Men (vol. 1) #129 and New X-Men (vol. 1) #130 (both written by Grant Morrison) as Fantomex made mention of the place where he and Weapon Twelve were raised. He claimed there were places run by the military industrial complex where mutant experiments were raised and generations of iterations of living biological weapons in the form of super-sentinels bred to kill all mutants could be furthered in incubation units where time was sped up within them artificially.

In New X-Men (vol. 1) #143 (also written by Grant Morrison), Fantomex took Wolverine and Cyclops to the World where it was temporarily located, somewhere in Great Britain at that moment, to stop an assault by A.I.M. scientists attempting to steal its secrets, and then confront Weapon XV, Ultimaton, inside. Further attempts by villainous forces to exploit the world for their own means have been attempted by the likes of Norman Osborn and H.A.M.M.E.R. in Dark Reign: The List- Wolverine #1 (written by Jason Aaron), the entity known as “Father” during the “Deathlok Nation” storyline (written by Rick Remender), and as Clan Akkaba during the “Dark Angel Saga” (also written by Rick Remender).

[worstblogever]

Doop FAQs

Q76: What is that language that Doop speaks? Is there a translator somewhere?

A76: It’s called Doopseak, and there is, in fact a translation guide over at uncannyxmen.net where their user Dean Clayton breaks down the “Doopseak” font, and even goes as so far as to show several issues where Doop has dialogue, and translates what he said in that issue.

[worstblogever]

X-23 FAQs

Q77: How was X-23 created by the Facility?

A77: The Facility acquired a damaged DNA sample of the man known as Weapon X, a.k.a James Howlett, a.k.a. Wolverine. They could not, however, use this sample to create a clone of the legendary black ops agent, due to a damaged Y chromosome upon it. It was Dr. Sarah Kinney who proposed creating a female specimen based off of it using its X chromosome only to create a XX chromosome child. Once she had created the embryo, in light of their being no known willing surrogates to prove her project could be a success, Sarah Kinney herself volunteered and carried Laura Kinney, who would come to be known as X-23, to term. This was all revealed in X-23 (vol. 1) #1.



Q78: How does Trigger Scent work?

A78: Trigger Scent was first introduced at the end of X-23 (vol. 1) #2, where Dr. Zander Rice placed some of it upon the katana of her training sensei at the Facility, Tanaka. X-23 immediately was placed into a berserker rage, and slaughtered her sensei on the spot, without realizing what she was doing. Trigger scent is a pheromone compound that produces this reaction in X-23, and she will kill anything covered in it. The entire miniseries, X-23: Target X revolves around this substance, and its effect on X-23. It was revealed that it can be washed off with water, but X-23 has yet to resist its effects otherwise.


Q79: How are her claws different from Wolverine's?

A79:While Wolverine has a full adamantium skeleton, including three retractable adamantium claws on each hand, X-23 has only two retractable claws on each hand, in addition to one retractable claw that can extend from each of her feet. X-23 was forced to have her claws extracted and replaced with adamantium implanted ones by Dr. Zander Rice in X-23 (vol. 1) #2.


Q80: What happened to the rest of the Kinney family?

A80: Currently, this remains an open plot hook.

• Dr. Sarah Kinney was killed when she had some trigger scent placed into her hair by Dr. Zander Rice in X-23 (vol. 1) #6, and Laura, against her will, murdered her own mother.
• Sarah Kinney’s sister, Debbie Kinney, and Sarah’s niece, Megan Kinney, both were living in San Francisco, and were paid a visit by X-23 after she escaped the Facility at the age of fourteen. Megan stayed there with them for a time, but as Debbie was dating a man named Desmond, who was also an employee of the Facility, her stay was short-lived. With Kimura and other agents of the Facility closing in, Laura used what little money she had to buy her aunt and cousin fake passports, and relocate them to Canada for their safety in X-23: Target X #5. They have not appeared on panel since, however, Kimura made mention of her intention to hunt down and kill them to spite X-23 in X-Force (vol. 3) #20. They may yet appear again.

[worstblogever]

Pixie III (Megan Gwynn) FAQs

Q81: How did Pixie start wielding a Soul Dagger and teleporting, and what's the deal with her having sold part of her soul?

A81: This one is going to take some explaining…

• As was revealed in X-Men: Pixie Strikes Back #4, Pixie is the biological daughter of the union between the original Mastermind, Jason Wyngarde, and a woman, claiming to be an actual faerie named Mrs. Gwynn. Some fans speculate that Megan Gwynn’s ties to the faerie folk might have given her a greater potential for magical abilities, based off of this revelation.
• Pixie debuted in New X-Men (vol. 2) #5 as a member of the Academy X “Paragons” squad. At the time she was known only to be a mutant with fairie-like mutation that gave her the ability to excrete “pixie dust” that causes hallucinations in other people and rainbow-colored wings enabling her to fly.
• In New X-Men (vol. 2) #37, Belasco kidnapped the majority of the Academy X students, searching for answers regarding the fate of Ilyana Rasputin, whose “House of M” incarnation he had spied upon from Limbo, shortly before. Separated within the demonic realm, Pixie and a small number of students were found in New X-Men (vol. 2) #39 by a magically-created simulacrum of Ilyana created by Belasco that resembled the Darkchild, Ilyana’s demonic alter-ego. This version of Magik offered Pixie and her friends to all be united with the other missing students, in exchange for her soul, in order to make a new Soulsword to attack Belasco with. In New X-Men (vol. 2) #40, it was revealed that Ilyana had extracted two Bloodstones from Pixie, when Anole escaped and knocked her aside, preventing her from taking any more of Pixie’s soul. After Ilyana’s ritual, Pixie held a Soul Dagger, a shorter version of the Soul Sword. To fulfill her part of the bargain, the simulacrum of Ilyana taught Pixie a teleportation spell in New X-Men (vol. 2) #41, where she could teleport herself, and a group of individuals by speaking the words “SIHAL NOVARUM CHINOTH!” She must remain focused on her target destination, however, because when she was wounded while performing the spell during “Messiah CompleX”, in X-Men (vol. 2) #205, she missed her destination badly, sending most of the New X-Men students falling to the ground, miles away from the Xavier Institute, her desired destination.
• Pixie's two Bloodstones, a portion of her soul, as well as the Soul Dagger remained an important plot point throughout X-Infernus #1-4.
• The two Bloodstones that Magik extracted from Pixie's soul in Limbo were returned to her in New Mutants (vol. 3) #21 after the Bloodstone Amulet was already used to summon the Elder Gods so Magik could have Legion re-write reality so they no longer existed, defeating them forever. It is unclear, however, if they exist outside of Pixie's body, of if she found a way to return those portions of her soul within herself, magically somehow. In either event, it effectively means she has her whole soul again.

[worstblogever]

Hope III (Hope Summers) FAQs

Q82: What are Hope's powers, and is she really the Phoenix reborn?

A82: The answer to this is still up in the air, as at the time of this post, A vs X #9 just was released, and the second half of the question hasn’t been fully explained just yet. Let’s cover what we’ve seen Hope able to do, thus far.

• When Hope was born in X-Men: Messiah CompleX #1, a psychic backlash detected painfully by various telepaths, including Emma Frost and Professor Xavier. It’s magnitude was also enough to overload Cerebra, at the Xavier Mansion, as well.
• Hope showed herself, even as a baby, to have mysterious properties to affect the powers of other mutants. The first instance of this being demonstrated was during “Messiah CompleX”, when Mystique pressed Hope’s face against Rogue’s in New X-Men (vol. 2) #46. In spite of Rogue’s touch being lethal, due to the Strain 88 virus, and her mind being overwhelmed by billions of absorbed psyches when she touched the Hecatomb, Hope was not killed. Instead, Rogue had the Strain 88 virus miraculously removed from her system, as well as every lingering personality within her psyche that she had ever absorbed.
• Hope has also shown herself able to duplicate the powers of mutants she is in the proximity of. The first time she demonstrated this was to defend herself from Bishop trying to shoot her, which she apparently deflected by “borrowing” Cable’s telekinesis in Cable (vol. 2) #21. She then may have duplicated Bishop’s mutant power, by returning fire in the form of an energy blast. Since, she mimicked the powers of various mutants, including both Armor and Colossus while battling Stephen Lang and Graydon Creed during “Second Coming”. She mimicked Wolverine’s healing factor in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #539 And, in A vs. X #0, she mimicked the powers of Cyclops before leaving Utopia, and then Puff Adder while battling the Serpent Society.
• Hope’s other noteworthy power is the ability to stabilize the mutation of mutant births after M-Day. What few mutants have turned up on Cerebra, as their mutations developed include Transonic, Velocidad, Oya, Primal II, Zero II, the “Ward Child”, and Zeeshan. In the first six examples, Hope managed to touch the mutants before their powers were out of control, respectively, in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #526, Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #527, Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #528, Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #529, Generation Hope #3, and Generation Hope #7. The side effect to this, it seems, is any mutant who Hope touches in this manner gains an empathic loyalty to her. Zero II and Transonic first began to notice this phenomenon upon their own psyches in Generation Hope #8.
• The first manifestation Hope showed of the Phoenix was during Hope’s time growing up in the future with Cable, she told Cable, as he slept, that she’d come back from the dead to kill anyone who killed him, and as she did, the Phoenix was shining within her eyes. This occurred in “X-Men: A Girl Called Hope, Part 4” which took place in X-Force (vol. 3) #22. She showed a further connection to the Phoenix at the conclusion of “Second Coming”, when she manifested a power akin to the Phoenix while defeating Bastion in X-Force (vol. 3) #28. And of course, her connection with the Phoenix Force is the crux of the plot of “A v X”.

That’s pretty much been it so far.

[worstblogever]

Monet St. Croix FAQs

Q83: What was Monet’s origin in relation to Penance, and her sisters Claudette and Nicole?

A83: Another tough answer, due to several retcons to the history of the St. Croix family. Let’s see if we can clear it up…

• Ambassador Louis St. Croix, from Monaco was introduced in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #305
  (written by Scott Lobdell). His wife Lenore was a mutant whose powers were latent, until she was injured and dying in a car accident. Paramedics at the scene refused to help, confused as to why she was turning into a black ooze, and afraid to touch her (Note: Ambassador St. Croix was Caucasian in this first appearance).
• Professor Xavier called Ambassador St. Croix in [I]X-Men (vol. 2) #51/I] (written by Mark Waid).
• A limo driving Monet St. Croix (at least, believed to be Monet), the ambassador’s daughter, was attacked by the Phalanx in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #316. Monet put up no resistance to her abduction, as if she was in some sort of a catatonic stupor.
• Monet did not speak, and was tinkering with the techno-organic mesh of her prison, before she snapped out of her stupor in Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #317 (written by Scott Lobdell). The mutant powers she demonstrated included great physical strength, durability, and the ability to fly.
• Monet was sent to the Massachusetts Academy in Generation X #1 (written by Scott Lobdell) and upon Gateway arriving at the school (who she seemed to know, calling him “mentor”) would realize it was a warning that a villain named Emplate would soon attack. She also began demonstrating telepathic abilities.
• Emplate, who appeared to be some sort of vampiric mutant, attacked Chamber at the Boston Airport while he was being picked up by Banshee. However, Gateway teleported the rest of Generation X there to prevent this. Emplate returned to his lighthouse to feed on a mutant he had captive, only to discover she had escaped.
• After Generation X arrived back at the school, Gateway teleported in with a mysterious mutant, whom he inadvertently named, when he spoke but one word, “Penance”.
• In Generation X #2 (written by Scott Lobdell), Penance was revealed to be a mute mutant with dense sharp skin, and razor sharp claws. At the time, M claimed that the physical similarities between Emplate and Penance were likely a result of his feeding upon her, the longer he did so, the more he appeared like his victims (the reason was a bit simpler than that).
• Scott Lobdell confirmed, in interviews that his intention was that Penance’s real name was to be “Yvette”, and she was to be the first deaf mutant, from Yugoslavia.
• Over the months with Generation X, Monet would “zone out”, usually during problem solving like when she fixed the Glamour Machine in Generation X #9 (written by Scott Lobdell), and that her diary contained drawings that looked like they were done by a child.
• In Generation X #12 (written by Scott Lobdell), Emplate and his thralls attacked Generation X, and he revealed that M was his sister.
• In Generation X #14 (written by Scott Lobdell), Emplate referred to Penance as “Yvette” on panel for the first time.
• In Generation X #19 (written by Scott Lobdell), M (or at least, a girl within the mind of M) telepathically warned Emma Frost she was being manipulated by Onslaught and somehow deduced that Onslaught was made of pure psionic energy, at that point.
• In Generation X #21 (written by Scott Lobdell), M had another moment where she “spaced out” during mid-term examinations, while the Beast was at the Massachusetts Academy. Beast suspected that she might actually be suffering from autism.
• In Generation X #24 (written by Scott Lobdell), M told the rest of Generation X how she was hailed as an angel when she first manifested her powers in Monaco. However, somehow she was confronted by Emplate, who claimed she could perceive mutagenic auras, as he could, and he indicated that she too, could feed off of mutants.
• In Generation X #31 (written by James Robinson), as Generation X were under attack from Prime Sentinels during “Operation: Zero Tolerance”, “Monet” kissed Synch as an explosion went off around them. When the dust settled, “Monet” was actually revealed to be two eight-year old twins, Claudette and Nicole St. Croix, who had somehow merged into one sixteen-year old girl. This would be confirmed after they were studied by Moira MacTaggert in Generation X #32 (written by Tom DeFalco). Nicole would speak, but Claudette appeared to be silent, and autistic.
• In Generation X #34 (written by Larry Hama) Claudette and Nicole merged again to form “M” when Emplate attacked the Massachusetts Academy, yet again. Except this time, they also merged with their brother, Marius, forming a being known as M-Plate. They were one androgynous being until Generation X #39 (written by Larry Hama) when M-Plate was swallowed by the rat-like mutant, Dirtbag, and unable to digest all three at once, he exploded, revealing all three entities separate, again. And from their time joined with Emplate, Nicole St. Croix claimed she remembered happened to their sister, the real Monet.
• In Generation X #40 (written by Larry Hama), Nicole would explain that she and Claudette witnessed their brother Marius, now Emplate, approach their sister Monet and ask for her to join him in his desire to conquer the world. She laughed in his face, and mocked his vampiric appearance. To spite her, he transformed her on the spot into Penance, the mute girl who he’d had in his realm back in Generation X #1, and had been at the Massachusetts Academy the whole time (This of course, did not explain why Emplate referred to her as “Yvette“ in Generation X #14). The twins somehow banished Emplate to the dimension he was tethered to by Claudette drawing on the floor with chalk, as a means of sending him away, but their sister Monet (now as Penance) followed him through the portal, believing her brother was the only one who could change her back. To make up for how they felt they let Monet down, Nicole and Claudette merged together, then with Monet who was still trapped in the form of “Penance”. They then separated the real Monet, and the twins would remain as the new Penance.
• Emplate would again attack the Massachusetts Academy in Generation X #57 (written by Jay Faerber), during their Winter Ball, and enraged at the villain, Jubilee would unleash the full force of her powers while he was brawling with Penance (the twins). When this explosion subsided, the twins were split apart again. The shell they were trapped in, Penance, also lay on the floor. Although who, if anyone, was inside it was a mystery.
• Ambassador Cartier St. Croix arrived at the Massachusetts Academy in Generation X #58 (written by Jay Faerber) to take his son Marius (Emplate), Claudette, and Nicole home. Oddly, Monet’s father was no longer named Louis, and no longer Caucasian, instead now of African descent. Also, Emplate boasted to Cartier and Monet that he had killed his mother the first time his powers manifested, feeding upon her, which differed from the tale of Lenore St. Croix from Uncanny X-Men (vol. 1) #305. The Penance entity and Monet would stay at the school, at least for the time.
• Penance would be sent to Morocco with Artie Maddicks and Leech, to stay with Cartier St. Croix and the rest of the St. Croix family in Generation X #69 (written by Brian Wood). She would not be seen again until The Loners mini-series (written by C.B. Cebulski), where she was referred to as “Hollow”. She was rescued by the team of young heroes known as Excelsior from Delilah, who kidnapped her and held her captive to harvest Mutant Growth Hormone from her. She fixated on Phil Urich from that team of heroes, and left with him at the end of the series. The identity of whomever is in the form of “Hollow”, if anyone, remains a mystery.

And that... is a lot of confusion for one family of mutants.

[worstblogever]

Q84: What was the story with Mondo and his “plant simulacrum”?

A84: There was a bit of a twist that threw some folks off, here’s what happened:

• Mondo’s first appearance was believed to have been in the Generation X #3 (written by Scott Lobdell), when he was in his native Samoa, and approached by Cordelia Frost about having saved some children from a fire.
• In Generation X #8 (written by Scott Lobdell), Cordelia Frost and Mondo were on Samoa, when both were abducted by some unknown individual or individuals.
• The fate of the duo would be expanded on in Generation X Annual ‘95 (written by Scott Lobdell), when it would be revealed that Mondo was, in fact, abducted by Cordelia Frost, who grew tired of his refusal to leave Samoa, and that she delivered him to Shinobi Shaw at the Hellfire Club. Cordelia explained Mondo’s powers were that he could touch any substance, and take on the properties of that substance. Handing Mondo over was meant to be the gift that would earn Cordelia the position of the White Queen of Shinobi’s Hellfire Club. Shinobi refused, and Mondo was taken away by shock troopers employed by a man calling himself Barrington. Afraid she’d lost her only chance to gain entry to the club, in Mondo, Cordelia ran off to the Massachusetts Academy to try to gain her sister Emma’s aid in rescuing him from his captors. Generation X arrived to save Mondo from Barrington’s shock troops, and he was brought back to enroll in the Massachusetts Academy.
• Mondo’s orientation party took place in Generation X #10-11 (written by Scott Lobdell), where he proved to easily be the most laid back student at the school, not panicking as Omega Red attacked his new home. He remained mostly in the background during Emplate’s attack on the Massachusetts Academy in Generation X #12-14, (written by Scott Lobdell), taking that mostly in stride, as well.
• Mondo would somehow not appear on panel again until Generation X #18 (written by Scott Lobdell) when he would be seen talking to a talking tree, and asking, “Is it time?” He’s appear again in Generation X #20 as Emma Frost was warned about impending danger by Nightmare and again in Generation X #21 (written by Scott Lobdell) when he’d be seen as Generation X were taking their mid-term exams.
• Mondo again went to have a conversation with the talking tree to ask if it was yet time in Generation X #24 (written by Scott Lobdell).
• In Generation X #25 (written by Scott Lobdell), it was revealed that the talking tree was in fact, Black Tom Cassidy, who had been using Mondo as his spy within the Massachusetts Academy. Black Tom wanted to kidnap all of the students of Generation X as a means of getting revenge on Banshee for having taken Siryn away from him, years earlier (in his mind). Anyway, Mondo assaulted Banshee for Black Tom, before chasing Jubilee all over the Massachusetts Academy grounds, before he was shot twice, and killed by Bastion, who had arrived to kidnap Jubilee.
• Nothing about Mondo was mentioned by anyone in Generation X, or in any Marvel comic, really, until Generation X #60 (written by Jay Faerber), when Cordelia Frost literally came crashing through a window of the Massachusetts Academy, fleeing an unknown attacker. That attacker would prove to be Mondo, who Generation X had thought dead. Mondo was also accompanied by Black Tom Cassidy, and the Juggernaut, and as he explained in Generation X #61 (written by Jay Faerber), he was never at Massachusetts Academy to meet Generation X in the first place. The “Mondo” that had been at the school, and interacted with the staff and students was actually a plant simulacrum created by Black Tom Cassidy, using the powers he’d acquired after being infected by some sort of viral plant growth. The mysterious “Barrington” who kidnapped Mondo from Shinobi Shaw’s Hellfire Club, was an alias used by Black Tom.

To sum up… the real Mondo appeared in Generation X #3, Generation X #8, the first pages of Generation X Annual ‘95, when he was kidnapped, and replaced by Black Tom halfway through that issue.

Black Tom Cassidy wanted a “plant” at the Massachusetts Academy to spy on Generation X and learn their weaknesses, opting to literally put a plant there, who looked like Mondo. That fake Mondo appeared various times through Generation X #10-25 before being killed by Bastion.

The real Mondo reappeared in Generation X #60-61 to reveal the truth, and was still allied with the man who kidnapped and replaced him (Stockholm Syndrome, I guess). In any event, Mondo has not appeared on panel since.

[worstblogever]

Placeholder for Future Character FAQ INDEX Entries.

[worstblogever]

Placeholder for Future Character FAQ INDEX Entries.

[worstblogever]

Placeholder for Future Character FAQ INDEX Entries.

[worstblogever]

Placeholder for Future Character FAQ INDEX Entries.

[worstblogever]

Placeholder for Future Character FAQ INDEX Entries.