PANDEMIC

 

PANDEMIC

Real Name: Richard Palance

First Appearance: X-Men (Vol. 2) #194, February 2007

Powers: Dr. Richard Palance is a baseline human who gained his superhuman ability through an infectious agent.

Pandemic obtained a DNA sample from Rogue, synthesized her power into a virus called Strain 87 and then injected himself with it, hoping to replicate her absorption ability for himself. Instead, it gave him the ability to duplicate and permanently retain the powers of any mutant he came into contact with. Unlike Rogue, he wasn't absorbing powers, only copying. Moreover, he couldn't absorb life energy, memories, and personalities. Also, his power didn't require solely skin-to-skin contact, he could activate it through contact with a mere DNA sample.

Although he claimed to possess 300 superhuman mutant powers (including 17 different forms of invulnerability), the powers he did demonstrate were readily identifiable as those of (in order of usage): Nightcrawler, Lady Mastermind, Chamber, Cyclops, Havok, Storm, Bishop, Iceman, Husk, Alchemy, Sunfire, Jean Grey, Shadowcat, Cannonball, and finally Sabretooth.

Dr. Richard Palance holds a Ph.D. in genetics and is a recognized geneticist. He also holds an M.D. and specializes in infectious diseases.

GRAYDON CREED

 

GRAYDON CREED

Real Name: Graydon Creed

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #299, April 1993

Powers: Graydon Creed was a baseline human with no superhuman powers. As Tribune, he wore a combat armor that augmented his strength, generated an electrical force field, and fires plasma discharges and magnum calibre bullets. He also wielded a CHK-LIT (Charged Hyper-Kinetic Lepton Impulse Thruster) gun.

He was a gifted businessman, orator, highly charismatic, and very persuasive. He was a rabid anti-mutant lobbyist and founded the Friends of Humanity, a grass-roots campaign which later became a national movement dedicated to eradicating the perceived "mutant menace".

GAMBIT

 

GAMBIT

Real Name: Remy Etienne LeBeau

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #266, August 1990

Powers: Gambit’s mutant power is interkinesis, converting potential energy into kinetic energy. His power requires physical contact with an object in order to trigger the effect, and cannot affect organic molecules. His interkinetic force stirs molecules into volatile and unstable activity, making anything charged by his power highly explosive on impact, destroying the charged object and creating a burst of concussive force that varies depending on the mass of the object. The chain reaction generated by his interkinetics rushes through the entire uniform surface of what he touches, not just the area he comes into direct contact with. The amount of time it takes for him to complete a charge depends on the mass and volume of the object: A playing card is fully charged in under a second, but a two foot thick steel vault door may take 10 seconds or longer. The interkinetic energy active in his body only causes unstable kinetic activity; it is not explosive itself. Typically, he uses playing cards as a focus for his power.

His internal energy does have a hyperkinetic boosting effect on his system, though, causing his agility and other physical attributes to be maintained at peak human levels at all times. It also has a disruptive effect on psionics, creating a masking aura that makes even the most powerful of telepaths have trouble reading his thoughts or even sensing his presence. Gambit has found it possible to amplify this distortion even further by holding a charged card near his head. Gambit has undergone surgery to remove a portion of his brain, thus limiting the full potential of his abilities. In recent years, he temporarily regained these enhanced power levels. This gave him the ability to affect organic molecules as well, and his range was expanded to line-of-sight, and an invisible field of interkinetic energy now extended out into his environment at all times. Before he could fully control his powers, this meant that Gambit might accidentally explode anything in his immediate area. Gambit also became capable of controlling the kinetic charge his power produces for a variety of effects. He could now tag objects with a dormant charge that he could mentally detect and track from a distance, create different intensities of heat by stirring up molecular activity, burning his opponents or simply causing them extreme discomfort as their molecules shuffled around. Remy could also mentally control the power of the explosion he created when charging an object, creating ones much weaker or stronger than he could previously, and even create a charge to completely incinerate matter without causing an explosion at all.

Gambit's physical abilities were also increased by the use of his powers: His strength, agility, reaction time, and especially his endurance were boosted to superhuman levels so long as he continued to employ his powers. Though this made him virtually tireless during a sustained conflict, Remy would begin feeling the exhaustion of all his activity once the situation cooled down and the interkinetic levels in his body dropped back to their standard levels from disuse. Ultimately, a conflict with his alternate self, the New Sun, burnt out these excess power levels.

Gambit also has a hypnotic charm that has been employed very sparingly over the years. It takes the form of a special quality in his voice, lulling people into complacency and making them far more susceptible to believing anything he has to tell them, and more inclined to think doing what he asks is a good idea. People are far more capable of resisting it if they are aware of his power and recognize what he's doing.

As the Horseman known as Death, Remy was mutagenically altered by Apocalypse. He now had jet black skin, long white hair, and eyes even more red than before. Mr. Sinister apparently reversed the transformation before the Messiah CompleX event, but in fact Remy now seems capable of shifting between Gambit and Death at will, much like Angel/Archangel did. While active, Death can transmute regular air into a toxic vapor. This enables him to summon clouds of lethal gas literally out of thin air, creating an anaerobic environment that leaves his foes breathless, and can kill them if they inhale and metabolize too much of it. Remy can even transform the air inside someone's lungs directly into his toxic vapor, killing them from the inside out. He can still charge objects, only Death fills them with a black, carbonizing energy. Death seems able to mentally direct his black-charged objects, guided them towards a specific target. Once they strike a person, the charged objects quickly spread black energy over the victim, consuming them completely and reducing them to ash. Death may also possess some level of enhanced strength and resistance to impact, and has increased psychic senses or protection which allows him to overcome certain kinds of mental influence.

Gambit is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant, utilizing street-fighting techniques and acrobatics. He is a master thief, skilled in breaking-and-entering, pick-pocketing, lock picking, and disabling security systems. He is also bilingual in English and French and is proficient in throwing small objects, including knives, playing cards, and throwing spikes, with great accuracy.

MYSTIQUE

 

MYSTIQUE

Real Name: Raven Darkhölme

First Appearance: Ms. Marvel (Vol. 1) #16, May 1978

Powers: Mystique possesses the mutant power of metamorphic shape-shifting. She can psionically shift the atoms and molecules of her own body in order to duplicate any humanoid form. Like most metamorphs, she seems to have a short-range psionic scanning ability, which allows her to perfectly mimic the proportions, coloration, fingerprints, retina patterns, vocal chords, etc. of anyone in her immediate area, purely by instinct. Mystique can also consciously control her morphing to assume different appearances conjured up entirely from her own imagination. She is skilled at rearranging the outermost layer of her skin to resemble clothing, creating virtually any outfit or style imaginable. She can even remove this clothing if necessary, though not too often without risking an unhealthy loss of her mass. Besides clothing, Mystique has also shown the ability to form glasses or jewelry onto her body as well.

Mystique was originally limited by the amount of mass she currently possessed: When she transformed into a larger person, like Sabretooth or Bishop, she still retained her initial 120 lbs. In fact, Mystique was actually weaker physically in these larger forms because she was expanding her mass to its limits to accommodate the massive frame: A large portion of her insides were hollow like this, filled with nothing but air and empty space. Since her powers were upgraded, Mystique has demonstrated an increased ability to generate mass at will, expanding her body to some degree, but even now this power is limited by the quantity of mass she can produce and the amount of time she can maintain these expanded forms.

Mystique has learned to use her powers for a number of purposes besides impersonation. Her mutant power renders her body immune to poisons and antigens, and also continuously revitalizes her body cells and DNA memory, slowing her aging process significantly, at least by a factor of 4. She can also heal many surface level injuries like cuts or bruises by rearranging her flesh and cleanse her system of pathogens or poisons in much the same way. Raven can blend in with her surroundings by altering the coloration of her skin, shape razor sharp claws from her hands, alter her vision to see in the dark, temporarily add extra limbs or reinforced bone armor outside her skin, etc.

Mystique is a cunning strategist in terrorist and commando operations, and a highly talented actress. She is self-trained in both armed and unarmed combat, and is an expert markswoman.

ROGUE

 

ROGUE

Real Name: Anna Marie LeBeau

First Appearance: Avengers Annual (Vol. 1) #10, October 1981

Powers: Rogue's mutant ability is to absorb the bio-essence of other people upon skin-to-skin contact, processing it to give her access to various aspects of their being. This includes special powers, knowledge, and memories. The absorption process strips a victim of some of their living essence, sending them into shock. They originally would tend to remain unconscious for the entire length of time Rogue possessed their template, and if they did awaken they would be weakened, partially amnesiac, and powerless. Rogue's power originally worked on a 1:60 time ratio: If Rogue was in contact with her victim for 1 second the transfer would be sustained for 60 seconds, 1 minute would sustain it for 60 minutes, and so on. Many factors were known to interfere with the standard operating procedure, though, such as magic, aliens, or strong emotional reactions during the transfer. This interference could take the form of Rogue maintaining active residue of her victim's minds or powers for weeks after the initial contact. During a battle with Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers), this ended with Rogue permanently absorbing her, gaining a half-Kree genetic code, Class 50 superhuman strength, superhuman endurance, reflexes, and durability, increased tolerance for disease and poison, and the ability to fly at superhuman speeds. She only occasionally manifested Carol's “Seventh Sense”, allowing her to instinctively predict and move to counterattack an opponent's moves in combat.

After touching the telepathic Skrull Deviant known as Z'Cann, Rogue was transformed for a time into a Skrull. This altered her powers for a brief period so that touching someone not only gave her their powers, it also caused her to duplicate their appearance. Soon, the active Skrull genes faded and her features returned to normal, but now Rogue's powers fluctuated: The residual traces of her past victims were now spontaneously and unexpectedly activating themselves again, suddenly giving her powers like claws, organic metal skin, optic blasts, healing factors, and more. With the help of Sage's jump-start power, Rogue gained control and became capable of summoning up any set of powers from her past that she wished. Unfortunately, major wound trauma suffered at the hands of Vargas stretched her abilities to the limit and she burnt herself out, losing all of her power templates and her absorption power as well for a time.

Her abilities later returned, but her Ms. Marvel powers were gone permanently and her absorption power was working a bit differently. She seemed to be able to prioritize memories when she tapped them now, such as touching a pilot and maintaining his flight skills, while pushing the rest of it to the back of her mind. The effects of her power on other people seemed to be far less intense as well, as victims of a brief touch would only experience a brief dizziness instead of being knocked out for a few minutes. The 1:60 time ratio may still apply to Rogue's ability to maintain an imprint, but not for the effect on her victim. Put simply, originally it was a 1-second contact which gives Rogue their essence for 1 minute and knocking the victim unconscious for the same period of time. At this point, Rogue's victims recovered fast enough that she could absorb a fellow X-Man's powers and the two of them could use those powers together at the same time. She absorbed the powers of Sunfire permanently for a period of time, but never learned to use his abilities much beyond flame-blasting and flight.

After exposure to the viral Strain 88 courtesy of Pandemic, Rogue's power was amplified to uncontrollable levels. Her touch was now instantly fatal to other people, shutting down their minds and permanently rendering them to a vegetative state, while Rogue absorbed their entire lifetime of thoughts and memories. She almost fatally overloaded after making contact with the Hecatomb, a collective psychic entity containing thousands of minds, all of which were absorbed into Rogue's psyche. The psychic shock drove her into a coma until Hope Summers' touch somehow wiped Rogue's mind clean of all foreign presences and influences.

Briefly reduced to more manageable levels, Rogue's powers were perfected after Professor Xavier and Danger worked together to properly realign her powers and give her total control over her abilities. Rogue could now freely touch other people without absorbing from them. She can selectively use her power to absorb someone's abilities or sifting through their memories and skills as she chooses. The side-effects of her power can also be controlled, letting her render people unconscious, active but powerless, or merely momentarily weakened. Rogue can selectively manifest power imprints once she absorbs them: Touching Archangel doesn't give her his wings for a period of time, but the ability to manifest his wings for a period of time. The abilities she absorbs are optional and she can choose to access them sometime after the initial contact or not at all. They can also manifest without secondary indicators, such as when she duplicated Anole's agility and leaping ability without turning green and scaly. Rogue can also combine several absorbed abilities together into creative gestalt powers. She once combined the powers of Dust, Mercury, Rockslide, Gentle, and Armor to transform herself into super-dense shards of silicon-metal, erupting with explosive force while each piece was surrounded with impenetrable psionic force.

Becoming permanently imbued with the ionic flux of Wonder Man granted her ionically-sustained superhuman strength, limitless endurance, invulnerability to physical harm, and supersonic flight speed. A side effect was that she once again lost control of her mutant power. Rogue's powers increased after merging powers with Xandra, so her power would uncontrollably affects anyone within a general proximity.

NIGHTCRAWLER

 

NIGHTCRAWLER

Real Name: Kurt Wagner

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

Powers: Nightcrawler’s mutant powers include superhuman agility/dexterity, teleportation, and abnormal physiology. He has a number of unique physical traits, most of which he inherited from his parents, Azazel and Mystique. Kurt's entire body is covered with blue velvet fur, he has iridescent yellow eyes that increase his night vision, pointed ears, fangs, only two fingers and an opposable thumb on each hand and only two toes on each foot plus a third digit which extends from the back of his heel. This third digit is highly dexterous and gives him opposable feet, allowing him to wrap them around and grab objects with superhuman dexterity. He has a highly flexible spine which gives him superhuman agility and acrobatic prowess. His prehensile tail is dexterous enough that he can hang from it on a trapeze or fence with it just as well as with his regular hands. Nightcrawler can cling to solid objects on contact, apparently through some natural suction ability concentrated onto his hands and feet, enabling him to cling to walls and scale vertical surfaces.

Nightcrawler's body is constantly linked to an invisible wormhole-like effect, connecting him to the Brimstone Dimension. Normally, the only effect this wormhole has is absorbing the light from his immediate environment. As a result, Kurt's already-dark blue fur appears to be constantly cast in shadows. When he actually enters an area of shadow or subdued light, Kurt's body can appear to vanish entirely, becoming transparent and blending in with the darkness. When mentally triggered, the wormhole effect becomes active and transports him into the Brimstone Dimension. Nightcrawler then subconsciously travels a short distance within that realm before reappearing on Earth an instant later and some distance away. He can teleport himself, his clothing, and a certain amount of additional mass from one location to another. He consciously determines his point of return. The transit through the Brimstone Dimension is completely intuitive and Kurt is not even aware of his time there. Both his entrances and exits are marked by a burst of flame, the stench of brimstone, and a sudden implosion of air which creates a "BAMF!" noise.

Nightcrawler's teleportation limits are defined by the direction he's traveling in, since the Earth's magnetic ley lines can affect his transits. By teleporting north-south (along the ley lines), Kurt can jaunt 3 miles at a time. Teleporting east-west (against the lines) enables him to jaunt only 2 miles. A strictly vertical teleport straight up and down is the most difficult, and can only cover 1 mile of distance. The future Sentinel known as Nimrod once scrambled Kurt's system electromagnetically, creating a constant disruption effect which prevented Nightcrawler from teleporting more than once in a 24 hour period without risking incredible pain and the possibility of re-emerging inside a solid object. Ironically, months later, Doctor Doom attempted to perform the same attack on Nightcrawler not knowing it had already been done, and accidentally cured Kurt of his limitation.

Nightcrawler is an Olympic-class acrobat thanks to his flexible spine that allows him to perform contortionist-like feats and to go long periods in a semi-crouching position without injury. He is a skilled hand-to-hand combatant and a master at fencing, which he can even perform with his tail, which is strong enough to support his entire body weight. He is fluent in both German and English and is a former ordained priest.

MS. MARVEL

 

MS. MARVEL

Real Name: Carol Susan Jane Danvers

First Appearance: Marvel Super-Heroes (Vol. 1) #13, March 1968 (as Carol Danvers); Ms. Marvel (Vol. 1) #1, January 1977 (as Ms. Marvel I); The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #164, December 1982 (as Binary); Avengers (Vol. 3) #4, May 1998 (as Warbird); Avenging Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #9 September 2012 (as Captain Marvel VII)

Powers: Carol Danvers first gained super-powers as a result of the Psyche-Magnetron, a Kree device capable of forming any technological creation known to Kree science with a thought. As the Psyche-Magnetron exploded, the Kree Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) blocked its radiation from striking Carol. However, the radiation actually passed through Mar-Vell, endowing Carol with his traits. Her genetic code was altered to become partially Kree, she assimilated a knowledge of Kree science and battle tactics from Mar-Vell, and she even manifested a "seventh sense", a form of psychic ability possessed by Kree females. Furthermore, the Psyche-Magnetron gave her the power to manifest a costume at will, one equipped with micro-circuitry that in some ways mimicked Mar-Vell's nega bands and their ability to convert psionic energy to increase his physical powers. As a result, Carol possessed superhuman strength, endurance, durability, and the ability to fly at superhuman speeds while wearing this costume. Carol originally developed a split-personality to compensate for the stress her body and mind were placed under -- she kept the original Carol Danvers separate from a new personality (Ms. Marvel) derived from her new Kree knowledge and sensibilities. Even after a second exposure to the Psyche-Magnetron internalized all her super-powers, psychic blocks prevented Carol from accessing her super-strength, flight, etc. when as "Carol". The only power she manifested in her civilian guise was her "seventh sense", which often gave her visions of events and perils that might threaten her in the immediate future. In battle, the sense enabled her to predict her opponent's actions and reflexively counter them. Later, a dimension-traveler named Hecat'e helped Carol break down her mental barriers, and she merged her two personas and could use her powers even out of costume. Despite her mental fusion, Carol was still capable of switching between her costume and civilian clothes at will.

After being leeched by Rogue, all of Carol's super-powers were gone -- only her part-Kree genetic code remained. When she was being genetically experimented on by the Brood, Carol manifested cosmic energy powers, and became Binary. Carol could now harness the power of a white hole, the theoretical exit point for all the energy consumed by a black hole. While in her Binary state, Carol possessed Class 100 strength, near-invulnerability, the ability to fly faster-than-light and survive in the vacuum of space. Her head was aglow with a corona of stellar energy, and flame licked on the ends of her boots and gloves. Her physiology was also realigned to feed off of the energies she channeled, giving her extraordinary stamina and the ability to survive without rest or sustenance. By funneling the white hole's energies, Binary channeled stellar energy in various forms: Unfiltered discharges could virtually incinerate anything in her path. By mentally setting up filtering lenses, she could selectively summon light, heat, solar plasma, radiation, gravity, radio waves, etc., all the things being emitted by a star. She could also pull substance through her body and into the white hole, shunting things like energy or volatile radiation harmlessly out of her environment. This eventually led to the demise of her new powers.

During Operation: Galactic Storm, Binary absorbed anti-matter that was threatening Earth's sun. Sending this material to her personal white hole is apparently the reason it started to collapse, weakening her over time and eventually leaving her with half the power she normally possessed. Now, Carol no longer transforms into a Binary state, has Class 50 strength, more limited but still impressive durability, transonic instead of trans-light flight speeds, and can no longer survive totally unaided in space. She cannot filter her cosmic energy anymore, leaving her with only a single form of photonic energy blast. She can, however, absorb various forms of electromagnetic energy. Carol can be caught off-guard by energy attacks, but when prepared she can take in electromagnetic energy and use it to boost all of her superhuman powers and revitalize her natural stamina as well.

While battling the Brood and a Brood-hunter named Cru, Ms. Marvel and her opponents were caught in a devastating explosion. Cru, a techno-organic entity, was blown to pieces, and a small portion of her repair protocols became lodged in Carol's physiology. This quasi-sentient nanotechnology incorporated itself into Carol's body and began protecting her from harm. These protocols made Carol virtually invincible, dramatically increasing her durability and giving her an enormously powerful healing factor to deal with any injuries she did suffer. It even shielded her mind from outside forms of control, like the Puppet Master. Carol typically turned blue like Cru when the protocols were working. Eventually, the real Cru returned to retrieve her protocols from Ms. Marvel. During the process, the two women merged and separated some more, and Carol's own powers were left dramatically increased by the process. Able to once more achieve her Binary power levels again, Carol ultimately pushed her boosted abilities too far, and began to burn herself out from the inside. She was forced to avoid using her powers at all to keep them under control, but eventually she overloaded in battle anyway, and was killed as her body dispersed itself.

Ms. Marvel survived, but separated into a series of multi-hued energy forms. These energy Marvels were scattered across the world, and possessed many of Carol's powers such as flight and photonic blasts. With the help of the Storytellers, psychic fetuses with reality-manipulating powers, the energy Marvels were reunited into Ms. Marvel for the most part. In fact, the Storytellers created two versions of Carol Danvers: One, a warrior guided by Kree battle instincts and calling herself Ms. Marvel, and two, a writer in Los Angeles named Catherine Donovan who was living a successful, if normal, life. Due to their unique connection, Ms. Marvel's powers increased exponentially the closer she was to Catherine, making her virtually invincible and in a Class 100+ strength level. Eventually, the two women were re-merged into a single being: Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel.

Carol Danvers earned a bachelor's degree from her military intelligence training. A talented journalist excelling as a freelance writer and magazine editor, she also has extensive training in espionage and is a skilled pilot with excellent hand-to-hand combatant skills.