CANNONBALL

 

CANNONBALL

Real Name: Samuel Zachary Guthrie

First Appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel (Vol. 1) #4, September 1982

Powers: Cannonball has the mutant power to bodily generate thermo-chemical energy and release it through his skin. The energy is accompanied by smoke, flame, and condensation. He can release the energy in different directions. Originally, Cannonball could only release a rush of energy to cover his body and discharge from beneath his feet, rendering him nigh-invulnerable and providing propulsion that launched him through the air at subsonic speeds. Whenever he uses his power, the thermo-chemical energy surrounds his body with a half-inch thick field of energy that renders both Cannonball and whoever he is carrying with him virtually invulnerable. He refers to this energy field as a “blast-field”.

Through training, Cannonball learned how to turn and maneuver in mid-air and to muffle the sound of his power, enabling stealth flight. He also learned how to control the build-up and release of his energies, enabling him to release his thermo-chemical power without automatically taking off. Sam can generate his "blast-field" as a protective force around his body while standing still, and could increase the radius large enough to accommodate at least a half-dozen other people as well. Cannonball learned uses for his energies as well, such as projecting bio-kinetic force blasts from his hands, adding a energy burst behind his fists to increase the force behind his punches, expanding his field outwards as he struck a target to generate a kinetic shockwave on impact, and even sending his power out as a stream of energy to surround an opponent at arms' length, trapping them within a containing "blast-field". Though his "blast-field" normally disperses kinetic impact and force directed against it, Cannonball has learned how to retain kinetic energy that strikes his "blast-field", and re-channel it as a part of his own thermo-chemical force. Using this method, he can enhance both the rocket-punch and kinetic shockwave abilities mentioned above.

Cannonball has an extremely long lifespan due to his status as an External. Externals are mutants who, in addition to having powers from their active “x-factor” gene, are also gifted with near-immortality. An External’s immortality manifests at the point of their first mortal death. They would age normally until their first death, after which they would self-resurrect and remain frozen at that age indefinitely from then on. An External is supposed to be capable of recovering from just about any injury given time, except for the severing of all four limbs and the head. They proved just as susceptible to the Legacy Virus as other mutants, and could also be killed by the absorption or destruction of their astral forms.