EXODUS: Page 4 of 5

Publication Date: 9th Jul 2020
Written By: Gremlin.
Image Work: Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - PAGE 4

Exodus was one of the few mutants to retain his powers when M-Day hit and decimated the global mutant population. Spurred into action once more, Exodus found that many of the Acolytes had been depowered and thus were of no use to him anymore. With only Frenzy, Random and Tempo at his side, he broke into a SHIELD helicarrier and immediately came into conflict with Deputy Director Maria Hill. Making short work of her human psychics, Exodus ripped apart some of the tech on board to fashion his own version of the mutant locating device Cerebra. Unfortunately for Exodus, also on board were a team of X-Men, who fought back against the Acolytes and won. Nevertheless, Exodus managed to use his Cerebra but was shocked to see that his ultimate targets were nowhere to be found. He had wanted to gather up all the new mutant children onto the helicarrier and use it as an arc with which to build a new mutant paradise. However, he discovered that since M-Day not a single new mutant had manifested and there were less than 200 left on the planet. When Cable confirmed this to him, Exodus left to plan his next move with his Acolytes.

Knowing that even he couldn’t solve this crisis, Exodus decided to turn to an unlikely source that could hold the answer. Travelling to Antarctica, he made his way through the wilderness until he found a secret base. Stepping inside, he was greeted by the owner, Mister Sinister, and a very unusual alliance was formed. [X-Men Annual (3rd series) #1]

Whilst Exodus’ allegiance with Sinister was strained at best, he put up with the geneticist because they both had the common cause of wanting to restart the mutant race. Sinister had learned from diaries written by the mutant precog Destiny that a powerful new mutant would be born and it was to be the turning point for the decimated race. In a bid to keep the X-Men in the dark, Sinister had Exodus and his Acolytes track down and kill any mutant with knowledge of the future. Exodus himself was tasked with killing the X-student Blindfold, as well as retrieving the diaries from the X-Men. As he had no time to fight when he got to the X-Mansion, Exodus used Tempo’s time manipulation to let them walk into the X-Men’s base unchallenged. However, when he got inside, he discovered Blindfold was already dead, having seemingly killed herself moments before. Whilst he confirmed her death by reading the minds of those around her, he did not realize she was merely in a state close to death and so left her alive in error.

Though his Acolytes found the diaries, Exodus was dismayed to see they were blank inside. Reluctantly, he risked restarting time again so he could speak to the X-Men and scanned them all as they fought against him. Eventually, Exodus learned that Kitty Pryde had been the last owner of the diaries and, reading her mind, he could see she believed the diaries to be real, though no one there knew the true location of the real diaries. He left the mansion and returned to Sinister, who was understandably annoyed at Exodus’ failure. Whilst the real diaries were later located and destroyed, the overall plan had worked and the X-Men were oblivious to what was about to unfold. [X-Men (2nd series) #201-202, 204]

The first mutant baby since M-Day was born in Cooperstown, Alaska and Sinister’s forces were on the scene immediately. Unfortunately they weren’t the only ones, as the religious zealots, the Purifiers, were there too. The two sides fought but neither claimed the baby, as Cable had gotten to her first and whisked her away to safety. By now the X-Men were involved and the three factions were scrambling to find the baby and take control of it. When the X-Men raided Sinister’s base in Antarctica, investigating to see if Sinister had her, Exodus was one of the first to be targeted. However, knowing he was incredibly hard to take down, the X-Men decided instead to have Nightcrawler simply teleport him away from the fight.

Exodus had rejoined the group by the time Sinister relocated in Muir Island, now with the baby, thanks to the Marauders. Learning of this, the X-Men attacked, though this time Exodus fared better, taking on both Storm and Siryn with ease. However, while distracted by telepathic battle against Emma Frost, Exodus had been unaware that he had been breathing in minute particles of the sand form of the young New X-Man called Dust. After a few minutes, Exodus began spitting up blood and soon collapsed, unable to breathe properly. Ultimately, Sinister’s forces were defeated and the baby was claimed by the X-Men, who sent the infant into the future with Cable, away from the grasp of the likes of Sinister or Exodus. However, as Cable teleported away, the traitorous Bishop tried to kill the baby by shooting it. Instead he shot Professor Xavier in the head, seemingly killing him. [Messiah Complex crossover]

Though Xavier’s death had likely been fortuitous for Exodus, distracting the stunned X-Men as he recovered, Exodus nevertheless didn’t want to see the death of one of the few remaining mutants, even an enemy. Deciding someone as powerful as Xavier shouldn’t be allowed to die, Exodus ordered Tempo to stop time, after which he took the body and coerced the cyborg Omega Sentinel into using her systems to keep it alive. They left the mourning X-Men and took Xavier’s body back to a secret base where Exodus could fix him. Though Xavier’s body was repaired, the bullet had catastrophically damaged his brain and Exodus was unsure if he could repair it. He tried reaching out telepathically but even in Xavier’s state his mental blocks were formidable. To circumvent this defense, Exodus decided that, in order to save Xavier’s mind, he must first destroy it so it could be rebuilt. After absorbing all of Xavier’s memories and shattering his mind, Exodus began slowly rebuilding it again. However, when he tried to put the memories back, he found he couldn’t; Xavier was still blocking him out. With his options dwindling, Exodus reluctantly turned to someone he knew could help but had great personal reservations about talking to… Magneto. Long been revealed to be alive, the master of magnetism had also been depowered on M-Day and now Exodus looked on him with as much contempt as he did normal humans, perhaps more so given Magneto’s monumental fall from grace in his eyes.

Exodus’ intuitions were right, though, and Magneto did manage to stimulate Xavier’s mind enough for him to be brought around. Frenzy, one of the few remaining Acolytes standing by Exodus, could not bear to see Xavier saved and took it upon herself to stop it. When Magneto defended himself, firing a laser into Frenzy’s eye and seemingly killing her, Exodus was infuriated that he would dare harm a mutant. Taking a page out of Magneto’s own book, he decided death was the only option. However, before he could kill his former master, he was stopped by Xavier, who had woken up and challenged Exodus on the astral plane. Whilst their bodies were motionless, their minds were in an all out war, with Exodus using Xavier’s own memories against him. Magneto attempted to kill Exodus to save his friend but underestimated his former protégée and was blasted away for his troubles. Meanwhile, Exodus continued to inundate Xavier with all of his worst memories until the telepath finally lashed out and overpowered him. With Xavier almost restored to the man he was, Exodus surprised him by asking him to lead the Acolytes. Together, Exodus informed him, they could find the messiah baby and lead mutantkind into a new era. Xavier immediately declined his offer and left as he didn’t want to lead any more people to their deaths. [X-Men Legacy (1st series) #208-210]

Exodus kept a low profile for a while but still stayed strong to his ultimate goal of mutant supremacy. That was to change, though, when Xavier decided to come back after his journey to repair his fractured mind was completed. In the months that had passed, he had pieced together many of his memories and he didn’t like what he found. Seeing Exodus was making exactly the same mistakes, he decided to impart some knowledge onto his onetime savior. Walking into the Acolytes’ base, Xavier confronted Exodus and showed him mental images of all the Acolytes who had fought by his side and then pointed out that many were now dead. He then showed Exodus more and more images of dead mutants, all fighting for a cause but ultimately losing. Despite his arrogance, Exodus eventually began to see Xavier’s point and realized he had been fighting a battle for centuries now but hadn’t realized that the entire war had changed. He decided to disband the Acolytes, giving each of them the freedom to choose whatever direction they wanted to take. He then destroyed the base and set off on a pilgrimage to discover what he really wanted out of life. [X-Men Legacy (1st series) #225]