JOHNNY DEE

Biography

As mutations go, Johnny Dee’s was one of the weirder ones, possessing a secondary maw that engulfed his entire chest. With its glowing red eyes and a mouth surrounded by tentacles, it was an intimidating sight and things only got stranger from there.  

Johnny discovered that, if he fed DNA of another being to this creature, then he would spit out a perfect miniature copy of the person, which Johnny himself could control, much like a voodoo doll. Johnny didn’t have much use for this ability originally and tried to keep the maw under wraps, often referring to it as if it wasn’t really a part of him. He often thought of it as another being altogether, like a parasitic twin he couldn’t get rid of, and it was this being that was the mutant, not himself.

When M-Day hit, Johnny found himself one of the very few mutants to keep him powers, much to his dismay. When a gang got word that Johnny was a mutant, they attacked him, despite his lies that he wasn't one any more. When they ripped his shirt off, they were disgusted by what they saw and slashed one of his tentacles with a pocket knife, causing Johnny to start bleeding out. His life was saved by the arrival of Spider-Man, who defeated the gang and patched Johnny up before calling an ambulance. [Son of M #1]

M-Day had made the world a very dangerous place for the mutants that remained, and so Johnny was sent to the Xavier Institute, which was now acting as a refugee camp offering protection for all. Tensions were running high in the camp with the mutants, now dubbed the 198, forced to live alongside each other in makeshift tents whilst constantly being watched over by O.N.E. and their squad of Sentinels. Not seeing himself as a mutant yet and forced to live alongside them, Johnny’s sinister side began to show and he started to hatch a plan to end the situation once and for all. He turned the charm up high and began working his way around the camp, befriending the various mutants such as Erg, Magma and Leech. He got close enough to them to take a DNA sample without them knowing, which he would use to create a doll of them and store it for later use.

Johnny’s scheme didn’t go smoothly though, as his bunkmate Jazz walked in on him as he was using his doll of Magma to control the woman. Jazz didn’t quite know what to make of it but Johnny decided he didn’t want any loose ends. Waiting till Jazz had wondered off the camp for a while, Johnny used a doll he had made of the boy to kill him by strangulation. When Jazz’s body was found, no one was any the wiser that Johnny was involved, and another upside was that the death had escalated the growing tensions between O.N.E, the X-Men and the 198.

One of the other refugees, the reality warping Mister M, had gained a following within the camp and decided that it was time to leave. For reasons of his own, Johnny saw Mister M as a threat and decided to stop his escape. Using dolls of various members of Mister M’s gang, Johnny caused a fight to break out between all parties, enraging Mister M enough to use his powers. General Lazer, leader of O.N.E., was fearful of the reality warper’s powers and knew he needed to be dealt with. Johnny approached Lazer with an offer: he would deal with Mister M in return for a favor in the future. Desperate, Lazer agreed and Johnny enacted his grand plan. Using a doll of Leech, he had the young boy walk up to Mister M and depower the man, stopping him in his tracks. Without giving Mister M time to recover, Johnny took control of Magma and used the fiery mutant to incinerate the man, killing him instantly. Afterwards, Johnny met with General Lazer and reiterated that he did it all for the “love of his country,” a claim Lazer knew not to believe. [X-Men: The 198 #2-5]

Johnny remained in the camp for a few more weeks, but it all started to fall apart for him when X-Force decided to liberate the 198. Breaking into the camp and causing a huge fight, one of the other refugees spotted Johnny’s collection of living dolls and deduced what he could really do. With everyone turning against him, Johnny was forced to turn to General Lazer as his only ally. Lazer used his leverage over Johnny to force the man to explain exactly how his power worked. In the meantime, the 198 had escaped and Lazer was sure the X-Men knew where they were. Johnny was given a DNA sample of Cyclops, which he used to create a doll of the X-Men’s leader. Now able to see through Cyclops’ eyes, Johnny informed Lazer that the X-Men and the 198 were hiding out in an old military bunker.

Looking to cause a little more trouble, Johnny used his control over Cyclops further, forcing the X-Man to attack his own allies, whilst also triggering a battle with O.N.E.’s forces. Johnny didn’t stop there, though, and also took control of various members of the 198, stopping them from helping the X-Men whilst sowing seeds of distrust amongst them. When Johnny took control of Caliban, he discovered the military bunker the 198 were hiding in also housed a number of WMDs. General Lazer jumped at the chance to wipe out a good portion of the remaining mutants on Earth and he remotely locked the bunker and activated the WMDs.

The two men were soon discovered by Val Cooper, who had grown suspicious of Johnny, as she knew what his powers could do. Whilst Lazer was being interrogated by Val, Johnny revealed he had acquired the man’s DNA whilst they were being detained. Not wanting Val to get the abort codes off Lazer, Johnny created a doll of the General and then snapped its neck, killing him instantly. Fortunately for the mutants in the bunker, the X-Men helped them escape before the WMDs exploded. Johnny’s twisted plan to rid the world of his own species failed and he was sent to a high security prison for his crimes. [Civil War: X-Men #1-4]