X-CUTIONER

BIOGRAPHY

Carl Denti grew up in an American family with a strong record for honorable military service. Denti men had served in the U.S. Army as far back as World War I. On his twelfth birthday, Army officers knocked on Carl’s front door and regretfully disclosed that his father was killed in action. The official story held that he was tragically shot by “friendly fire” by his own troops during a combat situation. Over the next few years, however, Carl overheard rumors and snippets of conversation from family friends that suggested some kind of cover-up. At sixteen, Carl tried to access his father’s service record only to find out it was classified. It seems his decision to enter the Federal Bureau of Investigation instead of the Armed Forces was based entirely on a need to gain the necessary security clearance to declassify his father’s records, and learn the truth about that day. [Gambit (3rd series) #5]

During his early years in the FBI, Denti met a senior agent named Fred Duncan who took him under his wing. Duncan became Denti’s mentor in the Bureau, and the younger agent had a great deal of respect for Duncan. Fred Duncan was one of the most veteran agents when it came to superhuman affairs – he had been working cases since they were labeled under “The Mutant Question” instead of “The Mutant Problem.” Duncan opposed the demonization of mutantkind advocated by some elements in the Bureau, and at one point began working directly with Professor Charles Xavier and his original X-Men to provide unofficial aid to their efforts. It’s unknown if Denti was ignorant or deliberately blind to his mentor’s personal relationship to the X-Men, but Denti himself did not interact with the group directly. He remained a junior agent under Fred Duncan in the U.S. Superhuman Investigation Team for many years. [Uncanny X-Men Annual (1st series) #17]

After ten years of service in the Bureau, Denti’s security status increased to a level where he could access his father’s service record. The true details of the incident were unpleasant. His father lost control of himself on the battleground, and began issuing orders to his men that were “not in the interest of honor or justice.” The elder Denti actually shot his own men when they refused to follow his inappropriate orders, and a lieutenant was forced to shoot Denti Sr. in the back of the head before he turned on his fellow soldiers any further. This incident report shook Carl Denti’s world, giving him an obsessive devotion to justice and duty. His myopia left little room for personal attachments. Denti’s marriage eventually disintegrated when his wife walked out on him, claiming Carl could never truly love her until he loved himself, and he could do neither. Although he broke his hand punching the door after she left, Denti apparently did not go after her, and eventually divorced. [Gambit (3rd series) #5]

When Denti was in his early forties, Fred Duncan was killed in an incident involving evil mutants. As second-in-command of the Superhuman Investigation Team, Denti inherited all of Duncan’s notes and case files when he took over his mentor’s position. Denti discovered Duncan’s association with Xavier and the X-Men, along with his secret case files on the X-Men’s missions that he supervised. He also learned that Duncan stockpiled technology related to the X-Men in a bunker he maintained off-the-books underneath the J. Edgar Hoover building. Duncan’s inventory included everything from confiscated Sentinel tech to salvaged alien equipment from Shi’ar or Z’noxx invaders.

Carl Denti saw an opportunity to avenge his mentor using these materials, and further the cause of justice. Although he wasn’t a bigot, Denti recognized that mutants broke the law as much as other people, and must face justice when they do. He believed that Duncan’s relationship with the X-Men blinded him to this fact, and may have ultimately led to his death. Nevertheless, Carl saw how useful they were in closing some of Fred’s cases, and so he reasoned that sometimes it was necessary to go outside the law to ensure justice was done. Denti crafted a new identity for himself and a new mission: as the X-Cutioner, he would hunt down and kill mutants, but only after they killed first.

Using Duncan’s files and the mutant-sensitive equipment in his salvage, X-Cutioner began compiling a list of offenders and their probable locations. With several different kinds of teleportation technology available to him, Denti set up shop in Duncan’s bunker under FBI headquarters and on an abandoned alien space station he accessed through stargate portals. The X-Cutioner’s first known kill was in Central America, where he confronted Tower of the Alliance of Evil. He found the drunken mercenary assaulting a waitress in a bar, and Tower proved to be an easy target. [Uncanny X-Men Annual (1st series) #17]

Next, the X-Cutioner located Mastermind, formerly of the Hellfire Club and the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. One of the earliest known victims of the Legacy Virus, Mastermind was receiving treatment at the Muir Island Research Center before the disease even had an official name. Denti was unwilling to allow nature to take its course, and scaled the Scottish cliffs to infiltrate the medical bay and terminate Wyngarde himself. Denti faced his first true test as the X-Cutioner when the X-Men opposed his progress. The X-Cutioner’s commitment to the higher ideals of justice showed the first signs of wavering when he announced his willingness to kill anyone who got between him and his chosen target. His weaponry and aggressive behavior surprised two of the X-Men, enabling him to defeat Archangel with a neuro-paralyzing claw and temporarily cripple Colossus with a Z’Noxx laser blade. The fury of Storm proved to be far more than Denti had bargained for, however, even with Duncan’s case notes and holographic training programs based on the X-Men. Several layers of armor and force fields harvested from the Shi’ar and Factor Three could not protect him from Storm’s maelstrom, and so the X-Cutioner teleported away without claiming his target. [Uncanny X-Men Annual (1st series) #17]

Another name on Denti’s list was Emma Frost, the former White Queen of the Hellfire Club. Given Ms. Frost’s austere public persona at the time, it seems Denti was only aware of her mutant abilities and crimes through Duncan’s case files. In other words, unlike Tower and Mastermind, this target was not legally a criminal or murderer. Denti also chose to hold Frost accountable for the deaths of the Hellions, as she put them in harm’s way, blurring the lines of his original mission further. Because he knew Frost was a comatose patient inside the Xavier Mansion, the X-Cutioner at first deemed the mission a low priority given the unlikelihood of penetrating the mansion’s defenses. He discovered a loophole, however, thanks to the bodysliding technology of X-Force’s leader Cable. Denti’s own teleport tech could piggyback onto the bodyslide signal, allowing him to safely transport anywhere Cable did. When Cable bodyslid into the mansion to visit his father, Cyclops, the X-Cutioner was ready and followed him in to execute Frost. While his armor contained a wide variety of stealth tech to obscure his arrival from the mansion’s security systems, it didn’t account for the X-Men’s prisoner, Victor Creed. Sabretooth alerted Cable and Cyclops to the uninvited guest, and they prevented the X-Cutioner from unplugging the White Queen’s life support. They kept Denti off-balance, and he eventually relented and teleported back to base before he could be captured. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #310]

Denti’s mission parameters as the X-Cutioner continued to change as he broadened the definition of “mutants who have killed” when it suited him. He decided to go after Rogue, who had recently left the X-Men, because her actions eventually “caused the death” of Cody Robbins. The X-Cutioner hoped to take her alone, away from her former colleagues, but was caught by surprise by Nate Grey, who was visiting Rogue at the time. Denti was outclassed by the pair of mutants, and again teleported away without getting his kill. [X-Man #11]

Perhaps out of frustration for his recent series of losses, the X-Cutioner once again expanded his own mandate. A young man named Angelo Espinosa was reported dead in Los Angeles several months before Skin, a member of Generation X,  turned up in Massachusetts using the same name, social security number, etc. (In fact, Skin was Angelo Espinosa, who faked his death when his mutant powers developed and escaped the L.A. gang that was targeting him.) Denti had no evidence of Skin’s involvement in the alleged murder beyond an apparently stolen identity, and yet he still considered the case solid enough to sanction Skin with extreme prejudice.

The X-Cutioner hunted Skin down in Massachusetts and attacked him on the turnpike. Mutant and mutant hunter played a game of hide-and-seek through the tents of an abandoned carnival. During the chase, Skin called out the flaws in the X-Cutioner’s conclusions about him, and pointedly asked if he was really looking for justice in his hunts… or just an excuse. Denti was honestly rattled by Skin’s accusations, and did his best to defend his mission as an honorable quest to uphold the law. The X-Cutioner’s protests seemed hollow even to himself and his lack of conviction distracted Denti so that Skin could turn his own weapon against him. The X-Cutioner was knocked out long enough for Skin to make a getaway. [Generation X #16-17]

Shortly after the Onslaught affair, anti-mutant sentiments were at an all-time high. The apparent deaths of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes at the hands of a mutant, combined with the rabble rousing of the bigoted third party US presidential candidate Graydon Creed, were pushing racial tensions to a boiling point. The political stage became even more tenuous when Reverend William Connover, one of the few humans who openly defended mutantkind, was inexplicably targeted for execution by the new Mutant Liberation Front. Carl Denti was assigned to Connover’s protective detail by the FBI along with Kymberly Taylor of SHIELD and Frank Castle, the Punisher, acting as a freelance operative for the latter agency.

When an MLF member named Deadeye attacked Connover at a Congressional hearing, Denti slipped away to become the X-Cutioner and support Punisher against the terrorist. He was surprised to discover his sensors could not detect Deadeye’s mutagenic signature. After killing Deadeye, the X-Cutioner suggested Castle order a full autopsy on the assassin to find out why. Unfortunately, another MLF member named Blastfurnace assaulted the morgue and immolated his comrade’s body before an examination could begin.

The MLF staged several further attacks on Connover in the days that followed. The X-Cutioner’s repeated appearances to assist tipped the Punisher off to Denti’s dual identity. Denti confessed and admitted that Castle was actually a source of inspiration for his X-Cutioner identity, working outside the law for the greater justice. They eventually realized the MLF weren’t mutants at all, but a human terrorist organization posing as mutants in an elaborate smear campaign that would also wipe out one of their most outspoken critics. When Connover was successfully kidnapped by the MLF, Denti went public claiming he would soon have proof that mutants were NOT involved in the attacks. The MLF then captured Denti as well in order to keep him silent.

By transporting Denti to their bunker headquarters in East Buffolk, Oklahoma, the Mutant Liberation Front had actually played right into his hands. Using his teleportation rig, Denti escaped detention at the bunker and rallied Punisher and Kymberly Taylor to teleport back to East Buffolk, rescue Connover and eliminate the MLF. The X-Cutioner was pushing the limits of his teleporter, however, by rapidly jumping back-and-forth across the country, with passengers as well. After he located Connover and teleported him to safety, the X-Cutioner’s tech malfunctioned, leaving him unable to retrieve the Punisher. Castle and the MLF’s leader Simon Trask apparently died in the base’s self-destruct sequence, but Denti and Taylor ensured the true story about the Mutant Liberation Front got to the press. [Punisher (3rd series) #12-16]

Sometime later, Carl Denti reported to the Hopeh province of China when that government asked for assistance from the U.S. Superhuman Investigations Team. A military research firm called Elysian Enterprises was running a risky archeological expedition at the tomb of the forgotten warlord Garbha-hsien’s child. Denti coordinated with the company’s own Elysian Guard, a trio of mercenaries named Mariah Ellenthrope, Jack Farley and Cosmo Stephanopoulous. The dig site was compromised when Gambit braved the tomb-raider traps and stole a gauntlet from the burial chamber. Denti was almost useless in defending the dig, and Gambit made an easy getaway.

Allowing pride to get in the way of good sense, Denti “recommended” his own alter-ego as the X-Cutioner to act as additional security when the rest of the dig’s finds were transported to Croatia by convoy. Even with all his toys, however, the X-Cutioner did just as poorly as Denti when Gambit returned for a second bite at the apple. He was even defeated by a stick of gum (gum bio-kinetically charged by Gambit’s mutant power, but still). [Gambit (3rd series) #1]

With his pride damaged in the encounter, the X-Cutioner stepped further away from his mission than ever before. He now made Gambit his number one priority, despite not having even an allegation that the Cajun thief had committed murder. This had become a personal vendetta - no more, no less. Since the Elysian Guard were fired for their failure on the convoy, X-Cutioner recruited them as minions for his revenge attack on Gambit, and provided them with advanced weaponry. [Gambit (3rd series) #2, 4]

Once his team was trained and the trap was set, the X-Cutioner had Rogue kidnapped in order to lure Gambit into his clutches. He forced Gambit to stargate to an abandoned space station and run a gauntlet against Cosmo, Farley and Ellenthrope. Gambit fought his way through all the obstacles and held his own fighting the X-Cutioner, but got sloppy when he saw Rogue’s shackles and was shocked into submission by a defensive barrier surrounding them. The X-Cutioner had Gambit at his mercy, and struggled with the decision to follow the law and arrest Gambit, or execute him even without any proof of murder. Denti’s hesitation gave Rogue the chance to break free, and together the two X-Men overpowered the X-Cutioner, blasting him in the face with his own lance.

As the space station began falling apart around them, Rogue and Gambit fled for the stargate and left the X-Cutioner behind. Nearly deaf and blind by his mask melting onto his face, Denti barely glimpsed a male and female figure approaching him as he recovered, and he blasted them instinctively with full power. After clearing his eyes, though, Denti saw he killed his own agents, Cosmo and Ellenthrope, who had been coming to his aid. And so the sins of the father were visited upon the son. Denti’s world shattered around him, and he realized how far he’d strayed from his own ideals. By breaking the law, Carl Denti would arrest him. Now by committing murder, the X-Cutioner would execute him. Recognizing his vendetta against Gambit for what it was, simple pride, Denti escaped the destruction of his base moments before it all fell apart. [Gambit (3rd series) #5]

Back on Earth, Carl abandoned the X-Cutioner identity. He rededicated himself to the FBI in an effort to find his center once more. As fate would have it, months later he was loaned out to the Commission on Superhuman Activities to monitor a contract that had apparently been taken out on Gambit’s life. Denti hoped to redeem himself by assisting the thief with the various mercenaries looking for the pay day on his head.  Denti and Gambit actually teamed up against Crossbones, Batroc, Zaran, and even… the X-Cutioner?! Surprised to find the armor in one piece after his last mission, much less being used by someone else, Denti helped Gambit bring down his former alter ego. When the smoke cleared, Denti vouched for Gambit with the authorities, allowing him and his friends in the Thieves and Assassins Guilds to avoid arrest and prosecution. [Gambit (3rd series) #17-19]

NOTE: The new X-Cutioner was actually a mysterious client of Gambit’s known as the New Sun, who hired Gambit for the original job at Elysian Enterprises. He also set up the entire assassination plot in a deliberate effort to force Gambit into a situation where he would have to push the limits of his mutant abilities. Carl Denti never learned any of this information, though.]

Denti’s work on the assassination mission apparently earned him some favor and he soon began working with the Commission on Superhuman Activities on a regular basis. Reassigned to an office at the Pentagon, Denti appears to have put his past as a vigilante behind him. He is once again dedicated to seeking justice within the law, instead of outside of it. [Gambit (3rd series) #21]