KRAKOA

 

KRAKOA

Real Name: Krakoa

First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men (Vol. 1) #1, May 1975

History: Millennia ago, an unidentified powerful being wielding the Twilight Sword tore the land of Okkara in two, creating two separate islands: Arakko and Krakoa. To end the foe's threat, the mutant External named Apocalypse pushed Arakko through a chasm to the foe's home dimension (Amenth) and sealed shut the chasm. Apocalypse then set four of his agents, the Four (possibly the first of his Horsemen) to guard Krakoa and ensure the foe did not return through the Arak Maw, the portal to Arakko.

In the spring of 1945, an atomic bomb test detonation on Krakoa damaged a nearby plane carrying Sergeant Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos and forced the soldiers to parachute to the island. The bomb awakened Krakoa, after it had apparently spent millennia dormant and in pain. Krakoa tormented the Howling Commandos until Fury struck a deal with Krakoa, who stopped attacking the Commandos in exchange for keeping the island's sentience a secret when they left. Fury believed the atomic detonation granted Krakoa sentience, but this theory remains unconfirmed.

Years later, the mutant telepath named Charles Xavier detected Krakoa and sent his team of X-Men to investigate, believing it to be another mutant. When Krakoa captured the X-Men to use them as sustenance, Xavier contacted his ally (fellow mutant geneticist Dr. Moira MacTaggert) and convinced her to let her send her own four mutant students to rescue them. After only Cyclops was freed (two of the four were killed, while the remaining two were left incapacitated), Xavier gathered an international team of X-Men who rescued the captured team and then cast Krakoa into space. As it left Earth's atmosphere, the portion of Krakoa containing two of MacTaggert's students broke free and remained in Earth's orbit. Krakoa also released spores, some of which grew to sentience as Krakoa's "children". Eventually, Krakoa was found by the enigmatic Stranger, who took it to his laboratory world. Later, Krakoa somehow returned to the Pacific Ocean after Earth's Quasar (Wendell Vaughn) freed the Stranger's captives. Additionally, Dr. MacTaggert's remaining two students were eventually recovered and revived.

Many decades after these events, Professor Xavier, mutant supremacist Magneto (Max Eisenhardt) and Dr. MacTaggert (who was by this point believed dead) joined forces to establish a mutant nation-state. Xavier traveled to Krakoa and telepathically/empathically connected with the island, moving past their former rivalry. Believing the island to be the perfect location for the mutant nation, Xavier recruited his former student, the mutant omnilinguist Cypher (Douglas Ramsey) to help him communicate with Krakoa. Upon arrival, Cypher and his secret companion Warlock of the Technarchy (disguised as a circuitry sheath covering Cypher's right arm) quietly infected a Krakoan plant with a techno- organic virus; the reason for this action and any results from it are unrevealed. After learning of Krakoa's separation from Arakko millennia before, Cypher remained on the island to strengthen their relationship, prepare for the mutant nation and build the necessary interface that would allow mutants to interact with Krakoa.

At some point. Krakoa split a portion of itself off into a 53 square mile set of five islands in the Atlantic Ocean, west of the Canary Islands and south of the Azores, while a 263 square mile main island remained in the Pacific Ocean in the general proximity of the Marshall Islands. Over the next number of months, Krakoa and Cypher bonded, allowing Cypher to finish the interface, which comprised four mutants assigned to different tasks: Sage (Tessa) would use her computer-like brain to track mutants entering and leaving Krakoa; the plant-life-communing Black Tom Cassidy would observe and protect the land; the technopathic Trinary (Shilpa Khatri) would be in charge of secondary and external systems; and the highly intelligent Beast (Henry McCoy) would be responsible for data analysis.

When the mutant nation took residence on Krakoa, Cypher created an autochthonous mutant language, Krakoan not to be confused with Krakoa's native language, which only Cypher (and apparently Warlock) can understand. Resident telepaths imprinted the mutant language into the mind of any newly-arrived mutant, allowing them to read, speak and fully understand the mutant language. The mutant inventor known as Forge built a massive subterranean laboratory where he used Krakoan organic to build biological machines and weaponry. One of the first tenets of this new nation was that Krakoa must be respected as sacred land.

With Krakoa's quidance, the mutant scientist Dr. Nemesis harvested flowers that enabled the new nation to flourish quickly. One bloom for growing gateways provided instant mutant transportation to Krakoa, another bloom produced self-sustaining habitats, which were part of Krakoa's interconnected consciousness, and a third non-naturally occurring flower produced No-Places, habitats outside of Krakoa's consciousness. Moira MacTaggert maintains a private residence and laboratory in one such No-Place under Krakoa, enabling her to help foster the mutant nation while perpetuating the belief that she was dead.

Harvest centers in the prehistoric Savage Land and in a Krakoan habitat on Mars processed three other flowers from the work of Dr. Nemesis. These were used to create the revolutionary drugs L, I and M, which respectively extend human life by five years, prevent diseases of the mind and function as the most effective, adaptive antibiotic the world had ever seen.

When he deemed Krakoa ready, Xavier telepathically addressed the world, offering the life-changing medicines in exchange for Krakoan sovereignty. As the news traveled, the world's mutants flocked to Krakoa through many of the newly opened gates across the globe, swelling the population to nearly 200,000; at some point an exception was made for the human Kyle Jinadu to live on Krakoa with his X-Man husband, Northstar (Jean-Paul Beaubier). After Xavier's address, the United Nations granted Krakoa sovereignty (possibly with some psychic suggestion by mutant telepath Emma Frost) and more than 100 nations accepted the deal, though some nations rejected Krakoa on political and/or ideological reasons. Soon after, Apocalypse arrived on Krakoa, who joyfully recognized him as its savior from millennia before. Hundreds of other mutants who had previously used their gifts for evil joined Apocalypse to accept and submit to Krakoa's laws. The fourteen-member governing body of Krakoa, the Quiet Council, established two tenets of this new nation: Kill no humans and make more mutants.

When a portion of Arakko inexplicably reappeared as a small island it merged with Krakoa, increasing Krakoa's landmass by an unrevealed number of square miles and helping to ease the sadness Krakoa felt from their separation; the portion that reappeared housed the still closed Arak Maw portal to the remainder of Arakko. Shortly after, the environmental group Hordeculture temporarily seized control of a Krakoan gate in the Savage Land by unrevealed means, causing Krakoa incredible discomfort and leading to aggressive wildlife, decreased landmass and headaches for resident telepaths until the X-Men took back the portal. After a tournament between residents of Arakko and Krakoa in the dimension of Otherworld, Arakko and all of its mutant residents were sent back to Earth. However with a massive population of war like mutants, the omega-level mutants of Krakoa decided to terraform the planet Mars and transport Arakko and all of its residents there. While Mars is now the first mutant world, Krakoa continues to serve as the physical nation for mutantkind.

Powers: Krakoa is a living ecosystem, the congregate intelligence of an entire island's flora and fauna linked together in a kind of hive-mind. Although not entirely sentient (the diabolical expositional dialogue it originally spouted was a telepathic ploy by Professor X), it did possess basic reasoning skills, and Krakoa's descendants did demonstrate fully human-like sentience. It could direct the animals on the island to move and attack in unison, cause plant life to become animated, grow at an incredible rate and ensnare its targets, and manipulate the geography of the island. This could be done subtly to rearrange paths and landmarks on the island, or more aggressively like triggering rockslides, seismic tremors, and open fissures in the ground. Krakoa could also create humanoid avatars out of the earth and substance of the island, possessing variable levels of superhuman size, strength and durability. Because the avatars were merely extensions of the island, they could expel large quantities of rock or molten materials channeled up through the ground. Krakoa was also capable of draining mutant bio-energy, siphoning power directly out from the bodies of mutants trapped on the island.

Its largest humanoid form possessed superhuman strength (lifting approximately 100 tons). Krakoa can produce flowers that prolong human life, cure cancer and serve as powerful antibiotics. Other blooms can rapidly grow into self-contained structures, weapons and wormholes that allow mutants to pass through for instant transport. The maximum distance of the portals is unrevealed, but they have been used to travel to the Shi'ar Empire galaxies away and the extradimensional realms of Otherworld and Mojoworld.

Krakoa feeds on mutant energy, requiring consumption of two mutants annually to maintain a stable environment. In the past, Krakoa's feedings would render mutants powerless, and would trap prey using tentacle-like vegetation growth. Now, the population of the mutant nation donates a minimal amount of psychic energy from each citizen to maintain Krakoa's health. Similar mutant energy "vampires" the Black Queen (Selene Gallio) and Emplate (Marius St. Croix) monitor the levels of psychic depletion among the island's population to ensure they do not exceed the minimal psychic draw. Krakoa can block the powers of telepaths trying to communicate with those on the island, and it can survive unaided in space.

The next Krakoa was a second-generation spore from the original island, likely derived from the so-called "Vega-Superior" Son of Krakoa once fought by Nightcrawler. The genetic core of Krakoa was apparently introduced into the land surrounding the Jean Grey School without the X-Men knowing, and Krakoa incorporated itself into the environment. How far Krakoa's influence extends over the landscape is unknown, but he can manifest his mass as a fully mobile humanoid form when necessary. Krakoa can manipulate the landscape to create trees, flowers, rock formations, and other natural features. It can also trigger more disastrous effects like avalanches, earthquakes, and volcanic activity, and create animated humanoid extensions much like the original did.

PSYLOCKE

 

PSYLOCKE

Real Name: Elizabeth Braddock

First Appearance: Captain Britain (Vol. 1) #8, December 1976 (First UK); The New Mutants Annual (Vol. 1) #2, October 1986 (First US)

Powers: Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock's mutant talents began with precognition and clairvoyance, enabling her to see into the future and become aware of events in the present that she could not visually see. She also developed as a psycho-blaster, capable of generating a devastating amount of psionic force from her brow that could cripple or kill an opponent with one burst. An encounter with the villain Slaymaster left her badly wounded and blinded after he tore out her eyes. Using her psychic powers to compensate for her disability, Betsy developed full-fledged telepathy between her accident and her first encounter with both the New Mutants and the X-Men. In the meantime, she was captured by Mojo and Spiral, who held her captive for about a year, during which they gave her bionic eyes to replace the damaged ones, and named her “Psylocke." With telepathy, she was now capable of mind reading, thought projection, mental communication, different forms of mind control and manipulation, and astral projection. She briefly manifested her precognitive/clairvoyant powers during this time, but they've since disappeared.

After passing through and emerging from the mystical portal of the Siege Perilous, Betsy's mind and body were warped and mingled with the Japanese mutant assassin Kwannon, courtesy of Spiral's Body Shoppe. She now possessed Kwannon's body, but her telepathy was reduced significantly, as her original body (now with Kwannon's mind) kept a good portion of that power. Psylocke stopped displaying most of her other previous telepathic feats, instead she had learned how to focus the sum totality of her telepathic powers into a "psychic knife", projected from the back of her hand. This blade would infuse any victim it struck with an enormous surge of telepathic energy, temporarily disabling any form of conscious thought or motion in a wave of pain and paralysis. The "psychic knife" was also useful as a focus for specific telepathy, allowing Betsy to penetrate psychic interference, barriers or blocks to probe or manipulate minds that were difficult to grasp normally. After Kwannon (aka Revanche) died of the Legacy Virus, Psylocke's full memories and telepathy returned to her in a wave of energy. She began using her power to generate a full on psychic katana sword, instead of the smaller "psychic knife".

After being critically wounded by Sabretooth, she was saved by bonding a portion of her soul to the mystical energy source called the Crimson Dawn. The Dawn added a small boost to her physical and psychic abilities, while also giving her the power of shadow teleportation. Betsy was now capable of instantaneously traveling from one place to another by entering one shadow and exiting through another some distance away. She can travel alone, carry passengers with her, or even cause other nearby shadows to become passageways, swallowing up people or objects she is not in direct contact with. After the events of the Psi-War, Betsy was forced to turn off her telepathic powers permanently in order to prevent the Shadow King from escaping his prison in her mind. In an as-yet unseen event, Psylocke and Jean Grey encountered the Shadow King on the astral plane. The end result was that Jean's telekinesis was transferred to Betsy while Psylocke's telepathy was removed and added to boost Jean's own telepathy. Betsy's psychic katana was now a focused projection of telekinetic energy with two uses: It could upset neurological activity as it passed intangibly through a person's body or act as a solid, mono-molecularly edged blade capable of slicing between atoms to cut through almost anything. Whether or not Betsy maintained her teleporting power after the switch remains unanswered.

Upon her return from the dead, Psylocke is still wielding a variation of her telekinetic powers. She has now demonstrated the additional abilities to bolster her fists with telekinetic force, dramatically amplifying the strength of her blows, and the projection of a tangible platform of telekinetic energy for transportation. She can also telekinetically bend light waves around her body to become functionally invisible. Betsy can also aid her own healing abilities by telekinetically holding her body together when she's cut or bleeding. Furthermore, her brother Jamie tightly constricted the strings that made up her essence in reality, making her a unique individual unaffected by any outside forces of manipulation. She has become completely immune to telepathic attacks and virtually invisible to psychic detection, as well as immune to reality-altering powers of any kind. After spending time with the Exiles and returning to the X-Men, Psylocke once again possesses telepathic abilities, as well as telekinetic ones. Additionally, after emerging from the immortal soul vampire Sapphire Styx, she regained her original British body. 

 

In her second tenure as the current Captain Britain, she wields the Amulet of Right that summons a costume of mystical circuitry accessing the Omniversal Energy Matrix, providing her with superhuman strength, endurance, reflexes, a personal force field, flight, and extra-dimensional transport to move between Earth and Otherworld.

Betsy Braddock is college educated and holds a bachelor's degree. A former supermodel, she is also a trained pilot. She has excellent hand-to-hand combat skills and has been trained in unarmed combat by Wolverine and Captain U.K. (Linda McQuillan). She received further training in martial arts by Matsu’o Tsurayaba’s instructors in The Hand. Her mind-merging with Kwannon resulted in gaining a portion of the latter’s ninja fighting skills, making Betsy more receptive to the Hand’s training. As a result, Psylocke is a highly skilled ninja and martial arts fighter.

WARLOCK

 

WARLOCK

Real Name: Warlock (English approximation of his real name)

First Appearance: The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #18, August 1984

Powers: Warlock is a member of the Technarch, an alien race from the planet Kvch. They utilize a transmode virus as part of their physiology, giving them techno-organic bodies that are black with cables, sensors and other surface structures outlined by glowing lines. An immature mutant by Technarcy standards, Warlock experiences a greater range and variety of emotions than other members of his race do.

Warlock's bio-mechanical body can be reconstructed into any organically or technologically-appearing shape he can imagine, as well as energy projectors, sensory equipment, and to increase his physical size and strength, merge with computer systems to download information and schematics, deciphering protocols that allow him to intuit spoken, written and binary languages, and natural adaptability which helps his systems reconfigure to deal with new threats or opponents. When he takes the form of a machine, he retains his intelligence and uses his own life energies to empower himself in machine form (Hence, if he assumed the shape and form of a helicopter, his own energies would enable lift, flight, and mobility, not gasoline). He can exist in the vacuum of space without protection, as well as enter hyperspace and travel through it at great speeds. Warlock's shape-changing powers allow him to reduce himself to liquid form and then change back to solid form.

Warlock replenishes his life-energies by drawing electrical current from an outlet or by transforming living creatures into techno-organic beings. He accomplishes this by infecting an organic matter with his transmode virus, transforming the being or matter into a techno-organic being like himself, and then siphoning their life energy, killing them in the process. Though he can transform a living being to into techno-organics without draining their life energy, he cannot reverse the transformation. The circuitry in his body emanates a white glow when his power is at its peak, a yellow glow under normal circumstances, and a blue glow when he is low on energy.

Warlock can physically and mentally merge with another living being and thereby creating a single being that operates as a gestalt, he he has done with his teammate Doug Ramsey (Cypher). When they would merge, they took the form of Ramsey's body, but covered with Warlock's organic circuitry. Ramsey could perceive his environment as Warlock could. At first, their minds would remain separate within the body, but eventually their consciousness rapidly began to exhibit traits from both beings. The Cypher-Warlock gestalt could change its form so that both bodies were separate, but linked at certain points. The danger in creating the merger was that Warlock could infect Cypher with the transmode virus. Additionally, the longer the merger lasted, the greater the risk that his and Cypher's minds would so closely resemble one another that they would not want to regain separation.

After his death at the hands of Cameron Hodge, Warlock was later repowered and programmed with the engrams of Cypher as well as infected with Phalanx techno-organics derived from his own form. Warlock's genetic make-up is once again primarily Technarch, but with elements of both Phalanx and human genetics.

CYPHER

 

CYPHER

Real Name: Douglas Aaron Ramsey

First Appearance: The New Mutants (Vol. 1) #13, March 1984

Powers: Cypher’s mutant power is an intuitive capacity for interpreting the context and subtext of behavior and activity to read the intent behind it. The most commonly seen aspect of this power is his ability to translate and internalize languages. His power generated a field of psionic energy that classified the syntax and meaning of language into a manner understandable to an individual mind. Using his power, he could understand and decipher any language or code, be it written or spoken, human or alien in nature. He could even read body language and gestures to instinctively understand what they mean within the context of that culture or the individual person using them. This makes him an excellent poker player, as he can instinctively recognize and understand “tells” his opponents make. His skill with computer languages makes him an excellent intuitive programmer and hacker. Only a small amount of exposure was necessary for him to completely and permanently internalize the language in his linguistic center.

Originally, he couldn’t extend his translation field beyond the limits of his own mind. An alternate reality’s version of Cypher showed that he could expand his power over an area of miles, allowing everyone within range to process languages into a form they can personally understand. This version of Cypher could sense all the minds affected by his field effect, including disembodied astral forms.

The scope of his power expanded much further after his resurrection using a techno-organic virus. His ability now enables him to read subtle cues in body language, tone, and other behavior to identify the true feelings and meaning behind anything someone says or does. Naturally, this makes him an innate lie detector, but it also allows him to anticipate movement and fighting styles as they're being put into motion. The more ingrained those particular movements are for a person, the easier it is for Cypher to recognize the cues their body gives off. On the other hand, his power fails him when dealing with people possessed by an outside source, like mind control, as they now move and act under the direction of a mind whose "language" is completely foreign to that body.

Cypher can not only read people, he can also read the intent behind things people have done. This could be something simple such as divining an artist's intent for a painting, or something more complex like translating the scope of a building's architecture. By looking at the X-Men’s Utopia headquarters' design aesthetic above ground, he was able to read the manner in which the rest of the structure was built outside his line-of-sight, and located an access-way into a former space station underwater. He can understand and decipher geography, quantum cryptography, pheromones, numeric systems, force-field harmonics, binary, hieroglyphs, micro-expressions, and he can even determine recipes by sampling food.

He can create new languages, teach himself to speak in a subconscious dream language, and can read magical skills, though the constant shifting of syntax presents him with great difficulty. He has detected shifts in reality and, when in contact with sentient alien technology, can decipher cosmic-level languages such as dimensions and genetics. To avoid missing information, Cypher barely blinks. He is vulnerable to being mentally overwhelmed by input (such as when he tried to decipher the entire Internet), and mutated languages (such as magical tomes) can control his mind.

Additionally, Cypher’s teammate Warlock often takes the form of sophisticated battlesuits or armor in order to protect Doug during combat. To which extent this remains true after Cypher's T-O virus resurrection remains to be seen.