BIOGRAPHY - Page 3
Fantomex had a lot of explaining to do after all was said and done. He told Wolverine he misled them regarding the Apocalypse clone and Genesis because he wanted to prove even the vilest of villains could be a good man if raised properly. He claimed the answer to that question was very personal to him. Meanwhile, Fantomex and X-Force chose to keep Evan in the dark about his true origins. Genesis remained convinced that he grew up in a farm on Kansas, knowing nothing about his connection to Apocalypse or that his home and parents were merely a virtual simulation. Logan had Evan transferred to his newly open Jean Grey School for Higher Learning in the meantime. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #19]
Fantomex was kidnapped and arrested soon after by Captain Britain and the forces of Otherworld. The captain was Brian Braddock, Psylocke's twin and son of the Weapon Plus scientist codenamed Brother. He received an inadverant psychic flash from Betsy when she severed herself from the Deathseed, gaining all her memories of the past few months as a result. Otherworld chose to put Fantomex on trial for infanticide, a violation of his universe's code of moral conduct. Psylocke was reluctantly forced into the role of witness for the prosecution, as Brian and her older brother Jamie Braddock, Jr. used her own memories as evidence. Fantomex was defiant in his belief that killing the child prevented future genocides, but Saturnyne and the prosecutor Jamie Braddock countered that there was no actual proof of that future. The Court of Otherworld found Fantomex guilty and sentenced him to death by way of retroactive molecular deconstruction. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #20]
Psylocke was unwilling to sit back and watch Fantomex's execution, so she freed him from the anti-reality machine and fled the Starlight Citadel. The process had already begun, however, and Fantomex's minds were being unwritten as he was slowly eradicated from existence. Psylocke sought refuge with the exiled magician Krokwel. The ogre mage fed on sorrow, and so Betsy offered him her own recent sorrows (and indeed her ability to feel the emotion at all) in exchange for saving Jean-Philippe from the omniversal poisons undoing his existence.
When Fantomex awoke, he and Psylocke talked about their feelings and what had happened to Warren for the first time since the incident. Fantomex claimed his advances on her had been calculated. He knew from the moment he joined X-Force that Archangel would eventually fall, and the team's love for him would make them blind to it. In getting Psylocke to doubt her love for Warren was real and think she had feelings for Fantomex, he was manipulating her into a better position to strike when the moment came. (Or was this conversation the manipulation and their previous encounters true? Could even Fantomex know for sure?)
Despite all his manipulations, Psylocke remained committed to getting Fantomex to safety. To his utter surprise, however, Pizer still lived. The man with the sentient skin had survived being flayed to become the Skinless Man, a murderously insane assassin able to unravel and control his own musculature now, fixated on getting his revenge on Fantomex. Pizer attacked the duo and got the drop on Fantomex, using a knife to skin off Jean-Philippe's own face in revenge for what he had suffered. Betsy lashed out at him and Pizer escaped to menace Fantomex another day. Back at the Starlight Citadel, the Captain Britain Corps were under attack from the armies of the Goat, a demon intent on propogating itself and destroying souls throughout the Omniverse. Betsy's mind probes determined the Goat was a demonically-possessed future version of her brother Jamie. All-powerful and poised to destroy billions of souls, the Goat was unstoppable, but Psylocke was able to kill her innocent and unwitting brother's younger self to save everyone. The bitter parallels to Fantomex's own actions led Captain Britain and Otherworld to refrain from going through with his execution. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #21-23]
After their adventure in Otherworld, Betsy came to Fantomex in the night and kissed him passionately. They connected that night, but the next morning Psylocke dismissed it as a moment of weakness and curiosity on her part, meaning nothing. She told Jean-Philippe his cultivated persona and air of mystery were his greatest misdirection, for there was no substance beneath them to love. Betsy quit X-Force shortly after these cutting remarks and the shellshocked Fantomex followed suit. He told Wolverine he was merely a mercenary leaving a job now that there was no more Warren and no more money, but Logan saw through him. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #24-25]
Fantomex tried to lose himself in drinking, dancing and debauchery, but failed. Betsy seemingly came to his Parisian hideout to apologize and make up with him. Jean-Philippe knew it was Mystique in disguise, but spent the night with her anyway. The next day, Mystique made her move, revealing she had poisoned Fantomex the night before, neutralizing his healing factor and misdirection. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was targeting Evan and X-Force for their own purposes, Mystique said, and the Shadow King had his claws into Psylocke already. Jean-Philippe ran from his attacker and found Betsy in her hotel withering under her own guilt thanks to Farouk's psychic attack. Fantomex gave Psylocke his telepathic-dampening mask to clear her mind as they tried to escape back to EVA. The Skinless Man was also present, though, and he snared Fantomex in his malleable musculature. Jean-Philippe compelled EVA to take off without him and get Betsy to safety. Snared by the Skinless Man's grip and Farouk's mental power, Fantomex could hardly resist as his old foe slowly carved out his heart and dropped his lifeless body to the ground once he stopped resisting. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #26-27]
Fantomex's death was not the end for EVA. Instead, she evolved into a cybermorphic humanoid form and continued to fight alongside X-Force. The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was defeated, and Evan learned about his true heritage without succumbing to it, but X-Force was spent afterwards and they decided to disband the team. Using equipment from the White Sky corporation, it was possible to resurrect Fantomex with a new body once his corpse was loaded into their machines. However, Deadpool fouled up the process so that each of Charlie Cluster-7's three brains was brought to life in separate bodies: Fantomex, Cluster and "Dark Fantomex." The latter represented Weapon Plus's mutant-hunting Sentinel programming, and disappeared before the others could stop him. In their retirement, Fantomex and Psylocke made amends and ran off together, to see if there truly was anything between them underneath the misdirection and hurt feelings. [Uncanny X-Force (1st series) #28-35]
[Note: This finale ended with Fantomex, Cluster and Psylocke returning to his wrecked chalet in the French Alps, with Mother apparently alive and well despite the Weapon Infinity attack. It was suggested this was just misdirection, but later stories would indicate only Dark Fantomex retained that power. Regardless, no further stories suggested Mother was still alive.]
Their analysis proved more complicated than they expected. Although "Fantomex" appeared the same as she remembered, this singular brain was not the same man Betsy was attracted to before. Fantomex was still a roguish thief, but lacked the empathy for others he once held. That trait existed with his second brain, inhabiting a female version of Fantomex's body that took to calling herself Cluster. While Cluster initially acted as Fantomex and Psylocke's awkward roommate, Betsy came to realize Fantomex lacked the depth she saw in him before, caring only for his own hedonistic thrills as their committed burglaries together. She and Cluster actually formed a connection independent of Fantomex, making him jealous. After convincing Betsy to commit a burglary for him alone, Fantomex set her up with the authorities, leading her to accidentally cause a man's death even though she swore to give up killing after X-Force. A furious Psylocke wanted revenge on Fantomex, only to find him in bed with Cluster. An egotist in two bodies was naturally drawn to self-love, it seems. Cluster still loved Betsy, but ultimately could not side against her twin/lover, and so Betsy abandoned them both.
In time, Fantomex and Cluster came to realize how dangerous a threat Dark Fantomex was. Also answering to Weapon XIII, the third brain held none of Mother's teachings. He was the Weapon Plus program's original design for their weapon given form, and was the only one of the three to still possess the misdirection power to boot. Fantomex and Cluster tried to divert him using EVA, but Weapon XIII still held some power over her as well. Dark Fantomex kidnapped Fantomex, and Cluster was forced to ask Psylocke to help rescue the man she hated. Even Dark Fantomex had feelings for Betsy and tried to woo her, but Psylocke rejected all independent aspects of Fantomex equally. She excused herself from the narrative and left the squabbling triplets to resolve their issues alone. [Uncanny X-Force (2nd series) #1-9]
What happened to Cluster and Weapon XIII after that is unknown. Fantomex made a show of appearing at Evan's graduation ceremony as "Uncle Cluster," but he was still greatly reduced by the loss of his other selves. [Wolverine and the X-Men (1st series) #42] Fantomex retreated into the World for a time, forming a prison fight ring overseen by copies of Ultimaton. Logan came to see him and once again tried to impress on Fantomex that he was a good man with something to offer the Jean Grey School. Evan also visited his Uncle Cluster and had trouble understanding why the man who had always had faith in him had lost faith in himself. Still, Fantomex was put in the position of defending Evan and the World from Faithful John, a rogue Askani disciple from the future, and stepped up to protect his "family." [Wolverine and the X-Men (2nd series) #1-7] He taught at the Jean Grey School for a short time afterwards, but his allegiance didn't last long after the death of Wolverine. [Wolverine and the X-Men (2nd series) #10]
[Note: Fantomex demonstrated his power of misdirection in Wolverine and the X-Men Vol. 2, claiming he had reclaimed it after his three brains had been separated. When he next appeared in X-Force Vol. 4, though, Fantomex once more no longer possessed that power.]