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Comics The "Age of X" Thread

From: Henry Peter Gyrich, Anti-Mutant Task Force

To: Simon Trask, Director Ops
Stephen Lang, Deputy Ops
Bureau Chiefs

EYES ONLY

As requested, summary information on mutants known to be behind the "Fortress X" barricade. Full files and supporting documentation available on request.

1294851963.jpg

CANNONBALL



CIVILIAN NAME

Samuel Zachary Guthrie

KNOWN RELATIVES
Extremely numerous. Father, died in mining accident, main shaft, Barton and Marshall Mines Cumberland facility.
Paige Guthrie (Husk), sister, at large and known to have taken refuge at Fortress X
Mother and remaining siblings died while resisting arrest (See: Operation Clean-Sweep).

COMMENTS
Field observations by surviving Exonim officers who have engaged with the mutants behind the force walls indicate that Guthrie is a high-ranking field commander and possibly i/c mutant combat units as far as day-to-day operations go. He's a good choice, from their point of view. Has a history of turning bad situations around and running up crazy but successful battle strategies out of whole cloth.

He's vulnerable, though. His blast field only protects him from attack while he's moving, and he can't move all the time. Exonim forward units are drilled in the necessity to track Guthrie while he's in motion, but not to fire until he stops to give orders or assists to other mutant forces. I'm confident that this patience will bear fruit.

Moreover, the deaths of his family damaged him. I never got the chance to interrogate him myself, but our infiltrator in the X Force combat cell, Vanessa Carlysle (aka Copycat) indicates in her reports that he talks a lot about his mother, and his guilt at not having saved her. Carlysle described a rift between Paige Guthrie and her brother, caused by Paige's resentment at her brother's apparent unwillingness to embark on a campaign of violence in retaliation for their own loss.

It was Paige who pushed Samuel to form the X Force cell, and directed their combat operations before they made contact with Magneto and joined the Fortress X resistance group. Knowing what we now do about Samuel himself, it seems his willingness to let his sister take the lead in those early operations arose from his ambivalence about the levels of violence that X Force was using.

Footnote: it was Paige Guthrie who ultimately unmasked Carlysle, and – we believe – killed her rather than allow her to complete her mission and download remaining intel to us.



1294852026.jpg

GAMBIT

CIVILIAN NAME

Remy Etienne LeBeau.

KNOWN RELATIVES
No blood relatives.
Adoptive father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, currently in long-term custody at Angola.

COMMENTS
LeBeau was a career criminal even before his mutant powers kicked in, and – as far as our records can show – he continued to be involved in crimes of theft and breaking and entering for a long time thereafter, avoiding detection as a mutant through his own skills and his extensive contacts in the New Orleans criminal underworld.

The bureau suspected for a long time that there might be a mutant working for one of the Louisiana crime syndicates, and twice came close to arresting him – once when he left his home territory and traveled to Europe in connection with a jewel theft. The breakthrough, though, came when one of LeBeau's own confederates, Julien Boudreaux, handed him over to us as part of a plea-bargain.

We tried to turn him, obviously: his cynicism and criminal background made him prime material, as far as we could see. Turned out, though, that he hated the authorities enough to resist all offers and all attempts to condition him. The decision was made to transfer him to Alcatraz and put him on the list for execution.

Great plan, in principle: in practice, though, he never got there. Some idiot let him get one of his hands free, and the armored truck they were transporting him in went up like a home-made cherry bomb. Officers on the ground couldn't identify any of the body parts, and another idiot certified LeBeau as dead at the scene. By the time I got onto it and the threw a dragnet out, he was gone.

The next time he surfaced was in Fortress X.

Oh, that gun he carries? It's a Jennings Volition Repeating rifle that dates from 1850 – a priceless antique. We don't know where he sources the hollow-ball ammunition, but we do know he uses his bio-kinetic energy powers to charge up the bullets before he fires. You should think of that as a bazooka on his shoulder, rather than a rifle.


1294852034.jpg

REVENANT

CIVILIAN NAME

Unknown.

KNOWN RELATIVES
None.

POWERS
Not fully determined.

COMMENTS
I'm not prone to nightmares, but if I was, I'd probably be having them about this mutant. I was going to say "woman," but what is she, really? Long range analysis seems to indicate that there's no actual flesh-and-blood body under there, just a field of patterned plasma. She/it uses the designation Revenant, which as you know is just an old-fashioned word for a ghost, something that comes back from the dead.

So is she saying she's Jean Grey? That somehow she survived the Albany explosion and the subsequent USAF bombing strikes, and came back as a ghost made out of ionized gases? I mean, if that's the message Magneto wants us to get, then why not just go ahead and call her Phoenix?

What rattles me is that we haven't been able to find out anything – not one, single detail – about Revenant's life prior to Fortress X or her arrival there. We have no visuals, no CI statements, no clue from wiretap or remote-listening files, no whiff of a clue as to who she is or where she came from.

What we do know is that she's telekinetic – one of the mutants who renew the force walls when they start to fail under our bombardment – and that the energy halo she trails around with her mimics the shape and configuration of the Phoenix effect reported and partially investigated during the Albany disaster.

Then again, if she's Phoenix, why haven't they turned her loose on us? Maybe they're scared of her, too.
 
From: Henry Peter Gyrich, Anti-Mutant Task Force

To: Simon Trask, Director Ops
Stephen Lang, Deputy Ops
Bureau Chiefs

EYES ONLY

As requested, summary information on mutants known to be behind the "Fortress X" barricade. Full files and supporting documentation available on request.

1294851963.jpg

CANNONBALL



CIVILIAN NAME

Samuel Zachary Guthrie

KNOWN RELATIVES
Extremely numerous. Father, died in mining accident, main shaft, Barton and Marshall Mines Cumberland facility.
Paige Guthrie (Husk), sister, at large and known to have taken refuge at Fortress X
Mother and remaining siblings died while resisting arrest (See: Operation Clean-Sweep).

COMMENTS
Field observations by surviving Exonim officers who have engaged with the mutants behind the force walls indicate that Guthrie is a high-ranking field commander and possibly i/c mutant combat units as far as day-to-day operations go. He's a good choice, from their point of view. Has a history of turning bad situations around and running up crazy but successful battle strategies out of whole cloth.

He's vulnerable, though. His blast field only protects him from attack while he's moving, and he can't move all the time. Exonim forward units are drilled in the necessity to track Guthrie while he's in motion, but not to fire until he stops to give orders or assists to other mutant forces. I'm confident that this patience will bear fruit.

Moreover, the deaths of his family damaged him. I never got the chance to interrogate him myself, but our infiltrator in the X Force combat cell, Vanessa Carlysle (aka Copycat) indicates in her reports that he talks a lot about his mother, and his guilt at not having saved her. Carlysle described a rift between Paige Guthrie and her brother, caused by Paige's resentment at her brother's apparent unwillingness to embark on a campaign of violence in retaliation for their own loss.

It was Paige who pushed Samuel to form the X Force cell, and directed their combat operations before they made contact with Magneto and joined the Fortress X resistance group. Knowing what we now do about Samuel himself, it seems his willingness to let his sister take the lead in those early operations arose from his ambivalence about the levels of violence that X Force was using.

Footnote: it was Paige Guthrie who ultimately unmasked Carlysle, and – we believe – killed her rather than allow her to complete her mission and download remaining intel to us.



1294852026.jpg

GAMBIT

CIVILIAN NAME

Remy Etienne LeBeau.

KNOWN RELATIVES
No blood relatives.
Adoptive father, Jean-Luc LeBeau, currently in long-term custody at Angola.

COMMENTS
LeBeau was a career criminal even before his mutant powers kicked in, and – as far as our records can show – he continued to be involved in crimes of theft and breaking and entering for a long time thereafter, avoiding detection as a mutant through his own skills and his extensive contacts in the New Orleans criminal underworld.

The bureau suspected for a long time that there might be a mutant working for one of the Louisiana crime syndicates, and twice came close to arresting him – once when he left his home territory and traveled to Europe in connection with a jewel theft. The breakthrough, though, came when one of LeBeau's own confederates, Julien Boudreaux, handed him over to us as part of a plea-bargain.

We tried to turn him, obviously: his cynicism and criminal background made him prime material, as far as we could see. Turned out, though, that he hated the authorities enough to resist all offers and all attempts to condition him. The decision was made to transfer him to Alcatraz and put him on the list for execution.

Great plan, in principle: in practice, though, he never got there. Some idiot let him get one of his hands free, and the armored truck they were transporting him in went up like a home-made cherry bomb. Officers on the ground couldn't identify any of the body parts, and another idiot certified LeBeau as dead at the scene. By the time I got onto it and the threw a dragnet out, he was gone.

The next time he surfaced was in Fortress X.

Oh, that gun he carries? It's a Jennings Volition Repeating rifle that dates from 1850 – a priceless antique. We don't know where he sources the hollow-ball ammunition, but we do know he uses his bio-kinetic energy powers to charge up the bullets before he fires. You should think of that as a bazooka on his shoulder, rather than a rifle.


1294852034.jpg

REVENANT

CIVILIAN NAME

Unknown.

KNOWN RELATIVES
None.

POWERS
Not fully determined.

COMMENTS
I'm not prone to nightmares, but if I was, I'd probably be having them about this mutant. I was going to say "woman," but what is she, really? Long range analysis seems to indicate that there's no actual flesh-and-blood body under there, just a field of patterned plasma. She/it uses the designation Revenant, which as you know is just an old-fashioned word for a ghost, something that comes back from the dead.

So is she saying she's Jean Grey? That somehow she survived the Albany explosion and the subsequent USAF bombing strikes, and came back as a ghost made out of ionized gases? I mean, if that's the message Magneto wants us to get, then why not just go ahead and call her Phoenix?

What rattles me is that we haven't been able to find out anything – not one, single detail – about Revenant's life prior to Fortress X or her arrival there. We have no visuals, no CI statements, no clue from wiretap or remote-listening files, no whiff of a clue as to who she is or where she came from.

What we do know is that she's telekinetic – one of the mutants who renew the force walls when they start to fail under our bombardment – and that the energy halo she trails around with her mimics the shape and configuration of the Phoenix effect reported and partially investigated during the Albany disaster.

Then again, if she's Phoenix, why haven't they turned her loose on us? Maybe they're scared of her, too.
 
I like the tweak to how Gambit fights - him charging bullets and firing them is just more effective than trying to throw cards.

And I'm going to assume they went with an 1800's era weapon for no other reason than that it looks awesome. :woot:
 
So this brings up two questions for me about AoX Gambit...

1. Does this mean that in this reality he is married to Belladonna? If so, a) is she a mutant, along with her family? and b) does Julien sell him out before or after their wedding? It seems that both the Assasins and Theives Guilds are unified, since Julien is described as a "confederate", thus hinting at Belle and Gambit unifying the Guilds.

2. Did Gambit then ever hook up with Sinister to gain control of his powers? Since he wasn't exiled, either he 1) got the operation while with the Theives Guild or 2) after he was betrayal by Julien and on the run. Which means the betrayal would have happened when Gambit was quite young.

Or Carey doesn't really care and just "forgot" these points.
 
More speculation....

Carey has said several times that the AoX timeline will have an effect on the 616 timeline events. Do you think we will have a timeline escapee? And if so, whom?

My money will be on Revenant. It will tie into Hope nicely, I think.
 
Some good points their. Also i like how they still kept Gambit's story mysterious, he could be the person with an agenda of his own in later issues.

I like how each person involved in this are people that are currently on Utopia besides Revenant, which could be Hope.
 
With Carey writing? How could an escapee be anyone else BUT Revenant. :rolleyes:
 
So this brings up two questions for me about AoX Gambit...

1. Does this mean that in this reality he is married to Belladonna? If so, a) is she a mutant, along with her family? and b) does Julien sell him out before or after their wedding? It seems that both the Assasins and Theives Guilds are unified, since Julien is described as a "confederate", thus hinting at Belle and Gambit unifying the Guilds.

2. Did Gambit then ever hook up with Sinister to gain control of his powers? Since he wasn't exiled, either he 1) got the operation while with the Theives Guild or 2) after he was betrayal by Julien and on the run. Which means the betrayal would have happened when Gambit was quite young.

Or Carey doesn't really care and just "forgot" these points.
Meh, it's an Alt-Universe. That stuff doesn't really matter.

I just hope Gambit doesn't eat it like he does in every other Alt universe story. Man has a knack for getting killed.
 
Meh, it's an Alt-Universe. That stuff doesn't really matter.

I just hope Gambit doesn't eat it like he does in every other Alt universe story. Man has a knack for getting killed.

Very true! Poor Gambit!

It will also be interesting (or not) to see if they hook him up to Rogue in this reality as well. It will be AoA Magneto-Rogue-Gambit triangle all over again :csad:
 
Lord I hope not. :( Time for something new.
 
Lord I hope not. :( Time for something new.

Writers often fall into the Rogue trap because they can't/won't cook up another motivation for Gambit to be working with the good guys... Which is baffling, since this and AoA come in worlds where mutants are facing Armageddon. How much more motivation does one need?
 
AoX_Universe002_promo.jpg


AGE OF X: UNIVERSE #2 (of 2)
Written by SIMON SPURRIER
Penciled by KHOI PHAM
Cover by SIMONE BIANCHI
The Avengers have been ordered to hunt down Magneto and his army of fugitive mutants. But when the team is given a license to kill, not every member is up to the task. Who will kill and who will be killed? You may just be surprised. Also featuring an untold tale from the Age of X!
40 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
NOT FINAL COVER
 
The X-Team would be hard pressed to find six of their own (Magneto and 'Revenant' not withstanding) that could trade blows with that team.
 
From: Henry Peter Gyrich, Anti-Mutant Task Force

TO: Simon Trask, Director Ops
Stephen Lang, Deputy Ops
Bureau Chiefs

EYES ONLY

As requested, summary information on mutants known to be behind the “Fortress X” barricade. Full files and supporting documentation available on request.

1295537532.jpg

BERSERKER

CIVILIAN NAME

James Proudstar

KNOWN RELATIVES
John Proudstar (brother). Died in custody.
Bethany Proudstar (half-sister). Took own life.

COMMENTS
Proudstar came to our notice after an initial Exonim sweep of Arizona and New Mexico led to the death of his brother and the incarceration of several known confederates. We knew there was another X-gene positive in the area, but until post-mortem examination of John Proudstar identified him beyond doubt as a mutant, we didn’t have any description to go on. This was in the early days of the Exonim program, so dedicated hunter cadres were thin on the ground and concentrated – for political reasons – on the East Coast.

Proudstar proved exceptionally resourceful and resistant to capture. Conventional forces deployed against him seldom even raised his trail. When a hunter cadre was eventually sent, he lured seven Exonims into a box canyon and destroyed them by toppling rock chimneys on them. He even showed a certain satirical humor in choosing the site of this ambush – known locally as Wasted Effort Rock.

Local bureau chiefs will be aware that we attempted to set up our own ambush using Proudstar’s half-sister, Bethany, as the bait. This plan was to some degree frustrated by her suicide, but Proudstar walked into the ambush in any case, determined to retrieve the woman’s dead body. His state of mind at that point is unknown, as he killed every officer present.

The next time he surfaces is at Fortress X. Unusually, the name Berserker was given to him not by his own side but by our forces. His recklessness and unthinking ferocity repeatedly play right into our hands: then he tears his way out again.


1295537558.jpg

HELLION

CIVILIAN NAME

Julian Keller

KNOWN RELATIVES
William and Elizabeth Keller. Parents. Serving life terms at Lompoc federal prison for harboring a mutant. Elizabeth identified as X-gene bearer and sterilized.
James. Brother. Dead (see Operation Clean-Sweep).

COMMENTS
Keller came from a rich family – new money, but plenty of it. That probably helped him to stay off our radar for as long as he did, although former West Coast Director Robert Monahan was certainly both unwise and premature when he declared the Western seaboard mutant-free.

Keller might have evaded capture for many years longer if it hadn’t been for his own arrogance. He allowed himself to be seen at Los Angeles clubs and restaurants, and maintained a highly distinctive 1967 Chevrolet Camaro. Following that trail without undue difficulty, MRD investigators found that Keller had been living for a year and a half in a bespoke underground shelter fitted out to luxurious standards.

The next sentence ought to read: “and that shelter became his burial mound.” However, the field officer assigned to the operation wholly underestimated Keller’s telekinetic powers. A laser attack intended to kill him instantly, before he even knew an attack was imminent, succeeded only in severing his hands and forearms. Keller was able to stanch the flow of blood telekinetically, and tore his way through the attacking Exonims to effect an audacious escape. Three jet fighters pursued him: the largest piece of metal obtained from the subsequent wreckage measures seven millimeters.

Keller was one of the last mutants to make his way to Fortress X, having by that time survived on his own resources for three years. He was part of no resistance group, was sheltered by no pro-mutant agencies and made contact with no foreign sympathizers. He seems to have made a point of pride out of not accepting any help from others.

It’s not known what finally brought him to respond to Magneto’s call. Perhaps he reached the limits of his own sturdy self-reliance. Or it could be that Megan Gwynn (see below) had a hand in recruiting him, as she’s known to have done for Sofia Mantega and Sidney Green.



1295537577.jpg

NIGHTMARE

CIVILIAN NAME

Megan Gwynn

KNOWN RELATIVES
Owen and Brenda Gwynn
Grandparents. Dead.
Possibly related to Jason Wyngarde (Mastermind): DNA comparison was suggestive, but inconclusive.

COMMENTS
Gwynn was born in Wales, and there’s ample reason to wish she’d stayed there. She and her grandparents were part of a general expulsion of X-gene positives from the United Kingdom, with the apparent intention of settling them on a series of small islands in the Irish Sea.

That plan became moot when Irish separatists bombed one of the ships carrying the transportees, and the others turned back. The Mutant Liberation Front seized control of the ship carrying Gwynn (we believe it also numbered Jonathon Starsmore and Elizabeth Braddock among its passengers) and ultimately were able to berth it at the Canadian port of Saguenay.

Gwynn was as green as grass when she arrived, and was one of many mutants recruited, groomed and trained by East Coast mafia crime families. It’s known beyond doubt that she served the Carcotti organization as a runner and enforcer. Must have been quite a culture shock for a kid brought up in the Welsh valleys, but – obviously – she survived and thrived in that Darwinian environment.

Fun fact: Gwynn used to have butterfly wings, and went by the nausea-inducing pseudonym of Pixie. Her current shoulder accessories are more demonic in nature, and apparently they arrived on the night of the Bleecker Street Massacre (qv). As far as we know, Gwynn hadn’t killed anyone up to that point. God knows, she’s making up for lost time now.


http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30425
 
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prv7563_pg13.jpg


AGE OF X: ALPHA #1

STORY BY Mike Carey
ART BY Mirco Pierfederici, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, Carlo Barberi, [more...]
COLORS BY Antonio Fabela, Matt Milla, Brian Reber
LETTERS BY VC - Joe Caramagna
COVER BY Chris Bachalo, Tim Townsend, Olivier Coipel, [more...]
PUBLISHER: Marvel Comics
COVER PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE DATE: Wed, January 26th, 2011

Mutantkind’s final war starts here.
If you don’t know which side you’re on, check your DNA.
 
Yay, Husk! :D Long time no see.
 
Really liked the Alpha book, it gave a real good introduction into this world, Just hate that for the next issue or to Rogue is going to be the centre of attention.
 
^You mean for the remainder of the event Rogue will be the center of attention :(
 
According to Carey Rogue is the introduction to the story then it moves from her pov to someone else.
 
That one panel with Gambit? That was his one and only appearance in the whole book. *squeekness is not pleased* :argh:
 

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