CALIBAN: Page 4 of 4

BIOGRAPHY - Page 4

Soon thereafter, the first mutant baby since M-Day was born and the X-Men found themselves in a race with both the Purifiers and the Marauders to find the infant. The team learned that neither of their enemies had the child, who had been secretly carted off by their own former member, Cable, for an unknown purpose. Cable was incommunicado and, when the mansion was attacked by Nano-Sentinels that Cable recently had access to, Cyclops decided there was no time to patiently wait for Cable to contact them or explain his actions. Scott ordered Wolverine to assemble a new X-Force composed of their best hunters and trackers, including Caliban and his former X-Force teammate, Warpath. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #493]

X-Force returned to the infant’s birthplace Cooperstown, Alaska and Caliban managed to lock onto Cable's mutant signature with his tracking skills. The team soon found Cable being pursued by Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers across the Canadian tundra, and a three-fold battle broke out. During the fight, Warpath broke free from the skirmish to run down the fleeing Cable, unaware that a Reaver was preparing to shoot

him in the back. Caliban saw the sniper and threw himself into the path of the gunfire, sacrificing his life to save Warpath's. The former Morlock was killed instantly. Though, it was too late to save Caliban, Warpath killed the Reaver who had fired the gunshot. [New X-Men (2nd series) #45] The X-Men collected his body and Warpath later buried Caliban on the site of his former Apache reservation, alongside his brother, Thunderbird. [X-Force (3rd series) #1]

Caliban was not allowed to rest peacefully for very long. The immortal creature known as Eli Bard had a plan to offer up the souls of mutantkind to his goddess and former lover, Selene. After acquiring the resurrecting power of the techno-organic virus from the Purifiers, Bard traveled to the lands of his old enemies, the Apache, and defiled their burial ground to bring them back as an offering to Selene. Caliban was also among the resurrected and Bard recognized his value. Rather than offering the souls of the Apache to his goddess, Bard would use Caliban to track down mutant souls that he could harvest for Selene. He brought Caliban before Selene as the first step of his offering. Caliban's mutant power now enabled him to detect the remains of deceased mutants as well as living ones. Bard used him as a bloodhound to seek out mutant corpses for Selene which he would then revive as undead warriors for their cause. In a small cemetery in Westchester, New York, Doug Ramsey was the first to be called back to life. [X-Force (3rd series) #11, 18]

Cypher was the first but by no means the last mutant that Caliban found for his new mistress. He has since located old friends and foes alike: Destiny, Pyro, Shinobi Shaw, Banshee, the lost Hellions and many more. But a handful of mutants, even a large one, were not enough for Selene. She brought Caliban and her servants to the dead nation of Genosha in order to revive the mutant corpses buried on that island. [X Necrosha #1] Even the dead were affected by M-Day, so Selene tasked Caliban with ferreting out those among Genosha’s dead whose mutant powers remained. [X-Force (3rd series) #22]

Once Selene had resurrected as many mutants as possible she enacted the final stage of her plan to become a goddess. Using an ancient spell, she absorbed the life forces of her mutant army and became even more powerful than before. Whilst Selene was eventually defeated all the mutants she had leeched the life-forces, Caliban included, from did not survive the experience and returned to the grave once more. [Necrosha crossover]