CALIBAN

 

CALIBAN

Real Name: Unrevealed

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #148, August 1981

Powers: Caliban's mutant powers originally seemed to be advanced forms of natural animal survival instincts, detecting predators and the fight-or-flight reflex. Besides his chalk white skin and round yellow eyes, Caliban was a mutant detector, able to sense the unique energy rhythms being emitted by mutant biology. Caliban was able to gain a relative sense of how close or how powerful the mutant was within a 25 mile radius, and recognize the sensation if it was a mutant he had encountered before. During times of intense stress, mutagenically-altered adrenaline would flow through Caliban's system, triggering two new powers:

First, he developed superhuman Class 7 strength, as his muscles were pumped full of this adrenaline compound. Second, he also developed a fear-casting power which made him into an amplification unit for emotional residue -- absorbing the cast-off negative empathic energy other people around him were producing and then radiating it back into the environment at much greater intensities, often creating panic and hysteria.

After agreeing to work for Apocalypse, Caliban was put through genetic engineering procedures that greatly enhanced his powers. His muscle mass increased phenomenally over his entire body, and he developed permanent levels of superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, leaping ability, senses, fangs, claws, and resistance to all forms of physical injury. In addition to his physical power, Caliban's fear-casting power developed a new wrinkle, according to at least one source. Caliban now seemed capable of absorbing fear to become "emotionally-charged", boosting his physical powers even further. He was also able to access this 'shadow force' more easily, causing tremendous fear in others on command. After leaving the employ of Apocalypse, Caliban deteriorated mentally to a child-like demeanor, and either lost his fear-power or simply could no longer remember how to access it. After being re-recruited as the Horseman Pestilence, Caliban regained access to a variant of his fear-casting power: By harnessing ambient emotional energy from his environment, he could direct a psychoactive virus at specific targets, a debilitating effect which somehow targeted both the psyche and the metabolism, causing his victims to experience fever and delirium in addition to a detrimental psionic pressure on their mind, bringing pre-existing emotional pain to the surface and inhibiting their thinking and actions.

It should be noted that, considering the permanence of his superhuman physical attributes, it is possible that Apocalypse was able to genetically modify Caliban's x-factor so that mutagenic adrenaline is maintained at a constant presence in his system, instead of just in times of stress, much like a type of naturally produced steroids. If it is similar to steroids, that chemical imbalance could explain Caliban's wild mood swings and mania following the changes in his powers.