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 from, Caliban included, did not survive the experience and returned to the grave once more. [Necrosha crossover]

The next time Caliban returned from the dead, it was far more pleasant. The Resurrection Five from the Age of Krakoa were a mutant circuit able to bring dead mutants back to life, using a stored cache of genetic samples to restore their bodies and mental patterns recorded on Cerebro to restore their minds. This was one of many innovations which allowed the mutant race to establish Krakoa as an independent nation-state, ruled over by Xavier, Magneto, and even Apocalypse working side-by-side. Naturally, they faced resistance. Not long after his resurrection, Caliban died again when anti-mutant Reavers invaded Krakoa from the air and murdered several mutants, though they soon returned. [X-Force (6th series) #1]

Caliban was largely content to live on the island without joining any of the active mutant teams. He felt his mutant gift had been misused in the past by those he trusted or whom manipulated him, and Caliban simply wanted peace. However, Forge had use for that very gift. The mutant Darwin was lost in the Vault, a time-twisted laboratory for the post-human Children. Using Krakoan bio-tech, Forge wanted to create an organic armor combining the powers of Tempo, Mystique, and Caliban, allowing him to infiltrate the Vault, disguise himself as necessary, resist the odd temporal mechanics, and seek out Darwin to bring him home. Because Caliban's gift was not just genetic, but cognitive, Forge needed Caliban's mind active as part of the suit.

Thanks to genetic material from Sinister's stores and his own access to one of the Cerebro cradles, Forge crafted a copy of Caliban's mind and incorporated it into the suit. He told Caliban 2.0 that he agreed to the process in order to use his gift for good, but this seems to be a lie to ensure his cooperation. The mission got complicated when the surviving mutant in the Vault turned out to be X-23 and not Darwin. The real focus of Forge's mission was ensuring the Children didn't have access to Darwin's aggressive self-evolution, and so the "mutant rescue" was now a secondary priority. Caliban served as Forge's conscience in the Vault and pressed him to bring back Laura as well. Forge destroyed his bio-suit afterwards and tried to make amends with the original Caliban, confessing his actions after the fact and asking for forgiveness. [X-Men (6th series) #15-17]

With the Hellfire Gala massacre, Caliban was forced towards the Krakoan gates by Xavier's telepathy, like so many other mutants. He was too far to reach, though, and ended up in Orchis custody instead. They apparently used his ability to help track down mutants left on Earth during the dark times that followed. Katherine Pryde regressed into her ninja training as Shadowkat as the X-Men's resistance slowly gained ground. Just as they started to turn the tables on Orchis, however, Charles Xavier made a deal with the villains in exchange for his students' survival. The X-Men refused to lay down arms when Xavier told them to, and they continued the fight against Orchis even with their founder on the other side.

Shadowkat infiltrated the Orchis den where Caliban was being held and separated him from the machinery. Kate had gone to a dark place in the weeks on the run, and she wanted Caliban to lead her to wherever Charles Xavier was so she could execute him as a traitor to Krakoa. Caliban was shocked at Katherine Pryde's willingness to murder anyone, especially her mentor and the founder of their nation. Caliban refused to let anyone use his gift like a Hound to hunt down and kill a fellow mutant, and Shadowkat called him a coward. Caliban stood by his principles and turned his back on Kate Pryde, a sobering rejection that broke through to her humanity underneath the warrior. [X-Men (6th series) #34]

Caliban had little use for the X-Men's militant ways after the fall of Krakoa. He reassembled a Morlock community in the tunnels under Manhattan with the assistance of Sobunar of the Depths, an immigrant from the Great Ring of Arakko. Caliban told Anole that, while they weren't pacifists, the Morlocks intended to be a community of mutants, not fodder for a super-hero strike force. They mourned their own, and protected their own when necessary, but the Morlocks would stand apart from the X-Men's antics in the future. [NYX (2nd series) #3]