BIOGRAPHY - Page 5
Not long after, Blob was in Atlantic City at the Starlight Casino on M-Day. The Decimation struck 
overnight, removing the X-Gene from over 90% of the mutant population on Earth. In Fred’s case, the mutant reinforced fat cells in his body disappeared and left him with loose skin draped over a suddenly gaunt frame. Having lost what made him special and defined his life, the former Blob was on the verge of suicide when the hotel staff investigated in the morning. [House of M: Decimation – The Day After #1] No longer conditioned for his diet and physiology, Fred started developing high blood pressure, clogged arteries and other symptoms of overeating, from which his powers once protected him. He reached out to Sally Floyd from The Alternative to tell his story and push for further investigation into how M-Day happened in the first place. [Generation M #3]
Fred got involved with a group of former mutants called X-Cell, who were convinced the Decimation was a government conspiracy to eradicate them. They received technological support from Josef Huber and attacked the Undersecretary of Defense, demanding their powers back. X-Cell fled into Mutant Town in Manhattan for sanctuary, prompting the Office of National Emergency to lock down the neighborhood. Val Cooper pressed X-Factor Investigations into looking for the domestic terrorists. Fred ended up getting captured by X-Factor before X-Cell met up with Quicksilver, who used Terrigen as an unstable means of restoring mutant abilities. This worked out in his benefit, as the unstable powers he granted caused X-Cell’s leader Elijah Cross to explode. Reaper, Fatale and Abyss fled into the latter’s pocket dimension in a slim attempt to avoid the same fate, leaving X-Cell done for. [X-Factor (3rd series) #17-20]
Fred Dukes seemed to find new purpose in life as a weight loss guru in Japan. His boisterous attitude and American style caught the attention of filmmaker Kingo Sunen. This was part of a larger plan involving Blob, Magneto and the High Evolutionary, however. Kingo was secretly an amnesiac member of the Eternals, and he was needed by the Evolutionary to access Celestial bio-matter from the Dreaming Celestial in San Francisco. Because the X-Men just set up shop in that city, Magneto distracted them using a suit which artificially simulated his lost powers. Fred was seen conferring with Magneto and the Evolutionary after their heist was successful, [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #500] but for some reason he was no longer present or involved by the time Erik successfully restored his own powers in the High Evolutionary’s experiment. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #507]
Time passed and the Decimation was undone. New mutants could manifest on Earth again, although former mutants did not automatically regain their powers. Fred Dukes eventually found his way to Madripoor, the pirate island nation near Southeast Asia, where Mystique and Sabretooth had established a haven for mutantkind. They provided Fred with Mutant Growth Hormone, a drug and genetic stimulant which gave temporary abilities to normal humans. Thanks 
to MGH, Blob regained his original powers and stature. Fred was thrilled to finally be a mutant again, and desperately wanted Madripoor to be the homeland for mutants that Genosha and Utopia failed to be in the past. He was genuinely pleased to find Magneto on Madripoor, but Erik was appalled to have the mutant race funded by drug money. He vowed to bring down Mystique’s enterprise. [Uncanny X-Men (3rd series) #16]
The MGH proved to be a monkey’s paw, however, for Blob was dependent on the drug to maintain his restored mutant powers. He also began demonstrating other symptoms of addiction, including pain and cravings when he started experiencing withdrawal. He sought out Mystique’s source, the abducted S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Dazzler. Raven and Creed then made him responsible for keeping her safe and isolated in a medically-induced coma in order to maintain his supply. Blob kept going back to Dazzler for more, however, eventually leading Magneto to her. Erik was furious at Fred for turning on a fellow mutant and letting Mystique turn him into a junkie. Still, because of their history with the original Brotherhood, Magneto allowed Blob to flee with his life while he rescued Dazzler. [Uncanny X-Men (3rd series) #20-21]
Fred did not get clean, unfortunately, and remained addicted to MGH. Madripoor fell apart after Mystique’s scam infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D. was revealed and she went on the run. Blob kept the MGH operation going to feed his addiction and make some money, selling MGH on the side to the Yakuza. Emma Frost brought the time-traveling teenaged Jean Grey to Madripoor for a training exercise, and she busted up one of Blob’s sales to the gangsters while flexing her telekinesis against him. [All-New X-Men (1st series) #37] Blob retained access to his powers (presumably through MGH), and appeared at Cyclops’ “mutant revolution” in Washington D.C. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #600]
Blob developed a taste for the finer things in life, securing for himself a custom-tailored suit from Dolce & Gabbana. His tastes also ran towards the exotic, and he appeared in Paris, France, where he broke into the European Union Exceptionally Rare & Exotic Zoological Park. Dukes tenderized his own meal by beating to death one of the alien animals in the park. He then got suited up and forced his way into a high-class Parisian restaurant to impose upon the chef to make him an exquisite meal. His antics caught the attention of a young group of X-Men in the city, 
but Blob wasn’t in the mood to play. Laura Kinney got too into her role as the new Wolverine and underestimated Fred’s quickness, leading to a merciless beating which would have killed anyone without a healing factor. Blob held his own against the young X-Men as a team until Angel unleashed the cosmic fire of his new wings to overcome the Blob. [All-New X-Men (2nd series) #4-6]
Blob presumably kept his powers running all this time using MGH, but there certainly had to be practical problems with that arrangement. Possibly as a result, he agreed to serve as a test subject for Miss Sinister and the Mothervine virus. Mothervine haled from another Earth where mutants were created through an artificially-engineered nano-virus. When Miss Sinister got a sample of Mothervine in this world, her experiments with it led to restoring decimated mutants or 
inducing secondary mutations in active mutants. There were side effects and unintended results at times, as the X-Men’s Angel and Jimmy Hudson (Mothervine’s patient zero) found Blob in one of Miss Sinister’s labs. Dukes seemed more powerful at first, but his unstable body soon liquefied and disappeared down a grate. [X-Men: Blue #11-12] Mothervine allowed Miss Sinister to control the mutants she created, though, which could explain why Blob still served her weeks later during a failed attempt to disseminate Mothervine worldwide. [X-Men: Blue #26-27]
Next, Blob was chosen by the X-Man to become one of his Horsemen of Salvation. Nate Grey had enhanced himself dramatically using a Celestial Lifeseed, making him over as Apocalypse’s opposite number. The X-Man wanted his own heralds, and so he used his new power to transform and enhance Blob, Angel, Omega Red and Magneto, while also brainwashing them to express absolute loyalty to his new cause. As the Horseman of Bounty, Blob carried out Nate’s commandments to destroy oil platforms and preserve the environmental stability of the planet. 
Nate Grey’s forced reformation of society was opposed by the X-Men, who assembled nearly every member in history to oppose him and his Horsemen. In the final battle on Quadra Island, the X-Man’s power was diverted enough that Dukes and his companions reverted to their true selves. However, Nate then cast the entire battlefield of mutants into a pocket reality of his own making. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #3-10]
Fred Dukes was far more at peace in the new timeline Nate created. He was jovial, caring and an avid reader who preserved a venerable library of old books and stories at his home. However, Freddy was also head clerk of Department X and civil management, a secret police punishing violations of the guiding principles. X-Man’s idea of utopia abandoned all distractions from love and family, outlawing intimate relations and reproducing solely through artificial engineering. Despite the principles, Blob had strong feelings for his deputy clerk Betsy Braddock and tried to keep them repressed. When Psylocke telepathically picked up on his feelings, he asked her not to 
remove them like they did to so many other people. Blob and Psylocke had an affair of the mind instead, one of many failures of Nate’s society before it collapsed for good and the mutants returned to their original reality. [Age of X-Man: X-Tremists #1-5]
Fred and Betsy chose not to pursue a genuine relationship once they returned home, but his time with Department X seemed to mellow Blob considerably. Not long thereafter, Xavier and Magneto collaborated on an official mutant nation-state on the living island of Krakoa, one open to all mutants with amnesty and forgiveness for any past foe willing to swear allegiance to the one land. In the past, Fred Dukes might have been one of the more belligerent and troublesome immigrants, but now he seemed willing to accept the island utopia of Krakoa for what it was. When Black Tom grew the Green Lagoon as a watering hole for Krakoans to gather, Fred became a regular fixture there tending as official bartender and seeing to the drink orders of former X-Men and Brotherhood alike. [X-Force (6th series) #9]
Freddy remained on good terms with the mutants of Department X. When Northstar’s sister Aurora was missing and presumed dead, Blob offered him a sympathetic shoulder while Jean-Paul tried to manage his feelings and start a real investigation. [X-Factor (4th series) #1] He was appreciative towards Rogue when she reached out and kept him updated on Betsy’s 
disappearance after the tournament in Otherworld. [Excalibur (4th series) #16] Finally, the apparent murder of the Scarlet Witch after the Hellfire Gala brought much grief and suspicion to the island. Many Krakoans still considered Wanda the “Great Betrayer” after the Decimation and the revelations that she wasn’t a genuine mutant. Even so, her brother Quicksilver quietly met with Blob, Toad and Mastermind at the Green Lagoon, so that the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants could toast to one of their own and pretend those days were simpler, even for a moment. [X-Men: Trial of Magneto #1]
Blob became one of the most regarded mutants on Krakoa, easing into a life as the good-natured bartender to whom everyone brought their troubles. He provided comfort to Skin, who saw some strange manifestations on the island. Freddy remarked on how he was once turned into a baby for a few months, so there was no room to be incredulous in this life. [Sabretooth (3rd series) #4] When Karma got dumped, Blob helped her vent her feelings about relationships. He reflected upon his own history of falling for unobtainable psychics like Jean Grey and Betsy Braddock, because sometimes the heart just wants what it wants. [Love Unlimited Infinity Comic #32-33] Fred Dukes was on his way to finding true peace and a genuine place in the world for himself.
And then Nimrod and Orchis launched the Hellfire Gala massacre, taking everything away from Fred and Krakoa. The latest X-Men roster were bludgeoned to death, the Five and most of the population vanished through the Krakoan gates and were believed dead, and the island itself was quarantined by Orchis Sentinels. In these suddenly dark times, Blob was willing to do anything to strike back for Krakoa. He was recruited by a man wearing the armor of Captain Krakoa to fight for a new Mutant Liberation Front. “Captain Krakoa” was an identity briefly assumed by Cyclops to 
conceal his resurrection before Krakoa revealed the Five’s miracles to the world. Blob believed this Captain was still Scott Summers, for he had the X-Men’s jet the Thunderbird and led their team in militant strikes “for Krakoa.” However, Dukes was actually caught up in a false flag operation where the Hydra supremacist Grant Rogers was using the Captain Krakoa armor on behalf of Orchis to sustain anti-mutant sentiment.
Blob’s grief led him to accept Captain Krakoa’s words, even if the viciousness of the attacks and his new teammates Wildside and Fenris should have made Fred suspicious. It was back to old Brotherhood territory as the new MLF attacked a military base to seize America’s nuclear arsenal. They were opposed by the Avengers Unity Division, and Blob believed that Rogue, Penance and Psylocke were traitors for siding with Captain America, since his country supported Orchis. Captain Krakoa told his MLF he planned to take the nukes into orbit and bomb Orchis’ space station, but he actually planned to kill his own recruiter, Doctor Stasis, to improve his own position 
in Orchis. The Avengers Unity Division finally convinced Blob of the truth, and they stopped the Captain from blowing up Empire State University and Stasis with it. Blob stood with the Daily Bugle’s human witness to the Hellfire Gala massacre, Wilson Fisk, as they released a story denouncing Orchis’ version of the attack and painting them as liars before the world. [Uncanny Avengers (4th series) #1-5]