CAMERON HODGE: Page 2 of 4

Publication Date: 27th Jun 2024
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - page 2

Cameron Hodge wisely stayed away from the X-Factor Complex for the next few days until the reading of Warren’s will. X-Factor believed they would simply fire Cameron and right the ship for their agency once he was gone. Before he died, Warren told Jean he was leaving his fortune to X-Factor. However, the specifics of the will (which Cameron helped dictate) stated that the Worthington fortune would be administered on behalf of X-Factor… by Cameron Hodge. X-Factor realized how badly they had been played outside when reporter Trish Tilby told them how Cameron Hodge orchestrated Warren’s finding of incompetence too.

Believing they had nothing left to lose, X-Factor attempted to come clean in the public eye and reveal they had been mutants all along in the hopes of sabotaging Hodge’s anti-mutant message. Cameron had prepared a contingency plan for this, and summoned soldiers of the Right using smiley-face armor. The Right claimed to be mutants attacking X-Factor on behalf of their kind, but their wild spray of bullets instead killed seven innocent people. X-Factor was forced to escape through the sewers, and Cameron was there to address the remaining news reporters about how this massacre clearly underlined the mutant menace. [X-Factor (1st series) #21]

Back at the X-Factor Complex, the Right soldiers invaded and kidnapped X-Factor’s young charges for research purposes. All pretenses were gone as Cameron prepared Rusty and the others for torture and testing. He refused to be addressed as anything other than “Commander” by the filthy mutants he intended to exploit. When X-Factor caught up with them, the Right Commander thought he was prepared for them, using a holographic projection to taunt them as the mutants were trapped in a gas chamber. They broke free, however, leading Hodge to employ a robot avatar in strength-enhancing ruby quartz armor to physically assault the mutants he hated so much. Even when his robot was defeated and revealed for what it was, Hodge never lost his confidence. He promised X-Factor that his hatred would continue to follow them even as his museum detonated around them. [X-Factor (1st series) #22-23]

Commander Hodge remained arrogant in the face of defeat, but many of his branches in the Right proved to be unsustainable for his cause. Eleanor Murch’s innovations in cyborg technology were used for the Right’s armor and other machines. However, she initially knew nothing about their anti-mutant agenda and rejected it when she found out, being a low-level mutant herself. The Right tried to cage her in her own cybernetic suits, but Eleanor escaped and developed an obsession towards caring for and nurturing mutant children as Nanny. [X-Factor (1st series) #40] Meanwhile, Frederick Animus had little interest in mutants and instead used Hodge’s funding and private island laboratory to style himself like Doctor Moreau, evolving animals into quasi-humanoid forms. When Hodge appeared to evaluate Animus’ work on genetically suppressing the mutant gene, he instead found a mad scientist with a god complex calling himself the Animator and lording over his test subjects. Hodge tried to salvage the fiasco by kidnapping the New Mutants with whom Animus had come into conflict. Cypher of the New Mutants was killed on the island, but otherwise Hodge failed. He nearly died trying to bomb Animator’s island monstrosities when the New Mutants and Animator’s own creatures brought his plane down. [New Mutants (1st series) #59-60]

Cameron only survived thanks to passing fishermen pulling his body out of the water. He became increasingly erratic as he doubled down on his hatred of mutants, turning the Right into a cult-like atmosphere, praising God and condemning evolution as the Devil’s tool. Even so, Hodge used scrolls uncovered from the demon sorcerer Belasco’s writings to contact the fiend Nastir’h in Limbo. Cameron was willing to sell his soul for the power necessary to smite the mutants who plagued him. Nastir’h saw how shriveled and useless Cameron’s soul would be, and instead he asked for infants of power for his upcoming invasion on Earth. The Right had files on potential mutant children, which Cameron was willing to trade in exchange for immortality. And so, a bargain was struck.

Cameron Hodge had much to fear. The ancient mutant Apocalypse had saved Warren from the exploding plane, re-engineering him as the Angel of Death for his Four Horsemen. Although he shook off Apocalypse’s conditioning, Angel was changed by the experience and thirsty for revenge on Cameron. His rage only grew when he learned of Candy Southern’s disappearance and abduction, and Warren soon located the Right’s secret installation. In his jealousy, Cameron had experimented on Warren’s lover to the point that Candy was only kept alive by machines. As Death breached the installation, Cameron tried to stop him with defenses, smiley-armored soldiers, and even demons on loan from Nastir’h. Warren’s new bio-mechanical wings were absolutely lethal, though, and his literally cut through the opposition.

Cameron finally faced Warren in person, using a special suit of Right-engineered armor with weapons and protection against the Angel of Death. Warren confronted Cameron over his betrayal, but Cameron still claimed Warren betrayed him first by becoming a mutant and leaving him behind. They fought in the room where Candy’s near-lifeless body was maintained by life support. Hodge’s mania could barely contain his glee at having tortured her to the brink of death, not because she was a mutant or a friend to mutants, but because she got between him and Warren. Cameron thought himself invincible after Nastir’h’s promise of eternal life. He provoked Warren into trying to kill him by ripping out Candy’s life support, forcing Warren to go through him to save her. The Angel of Death finally acted, cutting off Cameron Hodge’s head with a single flick of his razor-sharp wings. Still, it was too late for Candy Southern. [X-Factor (1st series) #31-34]

Hodge learned the hard way how foolish it was to trust a demon. He suffered from the gift of eternal life, a still-living head sustained by magic, even after being severed from a lifeless body. Cameron received an unlikely benefactor when Apocalypse retrieved Hodge for his amusement. Apocalypse congratulated Cameron as the co-author of Warren Worthington’s fall, giving his Archangel the chance to prove he was among the strong. Apocalypse was willing to provide Hodge with Celestial technology to attack X-Factor again and test them. Hodge would do anything for the chance at revenge, and so his head was cybernetically integrated into a Behemoth armor designed by Apocalypse.

As a final jest, though, Hodge was concealed inside the armor and unable to speak. When Apocalypse teleported the Behemoth onto X-Factor’s new ship, Archangel and the others credited the mutant villain with the attack, leaving Cameron furious that they didn’t know he was their foe. When the Behemoth was defeated, Apocalypse teleported Cameron’s head and the wreckage back to his base. He chastised Hodge for his narrow-minded focus on Warren and X-Factor when so many mutants existed in the world for exploitation. Apocalypse mentioned the African nation of Genosha, who employed genetically-engineered Mutate slaves as an example. Hodge used his limited mechanical appendages to active the teleporter and escape, as Apocalypse intended, but the seed of visiting the Genoshans was implanted in his mind. [X-Men: Legends (1st series) #3-4]