CRIMSON COMMANDO

 

CRIMSON COMMANDO

Real Name: Frank Bohannan

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #215, March 1987

Powers: The Crimson Commando’s mutant power is that his body possesses a level of vitality that keeps him in a constant state of peak human physical condition, roughly the equivalent of Captain America despite his (Commando's) advanced age. Though below superhuman levels, he still maintained above Olympic-level strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes and overall vitality. He also had considerable innate tracking abilities and sensory perceptions, especially his range and clarity of vision.

The Commando could also perform an act called "freeing his mind". When he enters this mental state, Bohannan was able to move and react without conscious thought, increasing the speed and fluidity of his movements while making him invisible to telepaths and immune to psychic illusions or manipulations.

The Crimson Commando originally carried a set of throwing knives as his primary weapons, but later adopted additional combat gear including body armor, infrared lenses, smoke, incendiary and fragmentary grenades, an automatic rifle, and a wrist-mounted computer and motion detector.

After suffering critical injuries during the Freedom Force’s final mission during the Gulf War, Bohannan was returned to the States and underwent extensive bionic engineering under a special program. As Cyborg X, all four of his limbs were replaced with bionic appendages. These gave him superhuman strength and possessed techno-morphing abilities, allowing him to telescope these limbs to great lengths, reconstruct his arms into energy cannons, his legs into jet boosters for flight, etc. The Cyborg X components were incompatible with his mind, however, and nearly drove him insane. He was reconstructed with new, less advanced cybernetics as Commando. His legs were now equipped with hydraulics letting him jump tremendous heights, and metallic clamps allowing him to cling to surfaces and scale walls. He maintained superhuman strength in his upper body, and his right arm was configured into an adjustable assault weapon, able to fire concussive rounds or a piercing plasma beam. His left eye was reconfigured with night vision and infrared capabilities. He lost his mutant powers on M-Day, causing his cyborg components to be incompatible with his deteriorating elderly body.

Frank Bohannan was trained in the US military and fought during World War II. He was well-versed in both armed and unarmed combat.