Biography - Page 2
During the time the X-Men slowly rebuilt their mansion, Maggott was cornered by Joseph, who asked him to explain about their common past – after all Maggott seemingly recognized Joseph as a “friend” while in Antarctica. Japheth had already known that he couldn’t avoid this conversation forever, but he was troubled by the fact he could not tell Joseph the truth – that 
he was not Magneto. The two X-Men went into the nearby woods to talk but, before Maggott had decided how much he could reveal to Joseph, they were attacked by the Israeli mutant Sabra, intent to make “Magneto“ pay for his crimes. For a brief instant, Maggott pondered letting her kill Joseph, for his secret would have been safe then, but he ultimately did the right thing by telling the truth. Joseph was even more surprised by the fact that he was not Magneto than Sabra, and both of them wanted to uncover the full truth, which is why they left together. They had Maggott promise not to tell anyone why they had left, as not to jeopardize their investigations. Sabra reasoned that, for Magneto to leave the “imposter“ Joseph among the X-Men, he must have been planning some bigger scheme. Right before the pair departed, Sabra startled Maggott by revealing that she not only knew his real name, but also some more details about his past. What kind of knowledge she had, and how she gained it, remains unknown. [X-Men (2nd series) #73]
With growing concern, Maggott noticed some odd behavior of his two slugs. He would sometimes find them spaced out, gazing towards the nearby town of Salem Center, 
and from time to time they took strolls away from him, these absences getting longer each time. Japheth knew that, if they wouldn’t pass on their energy to him in time, he would starve and went after them. When he found them on the far excesses of the Xavier estate, the sight in front him frightened him even more than the thought of dying: the slugs were covered in blood, and right next to them was Logan’s body with a deep wound in his chest. In panic, Japheth ran away to Salem Center, only to learn that there had been a series of unexplained murders recently. Thinking Eany and Meany responsible, Maggott wanted to turn himself in to the authorities, but Rogue interrupted his mistake.
In the meantime, the X-Men had uncovered evidence that the murders, as well as Logan’s injuries, had been caused by the Ru‘tai, a demonic race from the N‘Garai dimension. Along with 
his teammates, Maggott traveled to that dimension where these aliens lived, but lost Eany and Meany in the process. Them bearing a striking resemblance to the Ru’tai’s leader, the Pilgrim, the slugs were either fooled or magically influenced into accepting him as their master. His teammates captured and himself nearly dead from the length of time that he had spent apart from the slugs, Maggott actually begged for the demons to kill him so his tortured life would end, though they pretty much ignored him. However, Maggott was able to talk Logan out of a trance he was in and helped send the feral mutant after the Pilgrim to stop the carnage. Just before the collapse of the dimensional walls, Eany and Meany came from the wreckage and rejoined their master, saving Japheth from starvation. [X-Men (2nd series) #74-75]
Following that adventure, Maggott finally opened up a bit, filling Wolverine in on the truth about his powers. While telling him his origin, Maggott also accidentally revealed that he was still a teenager, but Logan kept mum about it – he knew that Maggott would tell the rest of the team when the time was right. [X-Men (2nd series) #76]
The next mission had the X-Men going to Storm’s home in Kenya, where they had to fight the trickster god, Ananasi, actually the Shadow King in disguise, and once more Japheth found his slugs getting anxious around supernatural stuff. Eventually, the three newer X-Men – Maggott, Cecilia Reyes and Marrow – were approached by the Shadow King on the astral plane, who tried to lure them to his side by promising them their heart’s desire. In Japheth’s case, it was the chance to be the hero he always wanted to be, in full control of his powers and no longer having to deal with the unwanted side-effects, like the pain the slugs caused. However, as soon as it became clear that these gifts would have come at the cost of the veteran X-Men, all three quickly rejected the Shadow King’s influence. [X-Men (2nd series) #77-78]
Battle after battle, Maggott fought alongside the X-Men, but it seemed that he was missing something and that was practice and training. A young kid from South Africa who had barely learned to use his mutant powers had gone toe-to-toe with some of the greatest villains on Earth, but he just wasn’t ready.
Fortunate, Hank McCoy noticed this and arranged for Japheth to transfer to the Massachusetts Academy and join Generation X. Maggott agreed and off he went. [X-Men (2nd series) #79]
He immediately liked it there and found the other members of the group to his liking, most of them his age or even younger. However, his stay at the Academy was still rather short. Only a couple of days in, Maggott’s slugs were caught by a trophy hunter called Slaughter, but together with Generation X, Maggott got back his mutated digestive system.
Though Slaughter couldn’t have known it, taking the slugs would have cost Maggott his life, so the South African mutant felt rather strong about it. He couldn’t stand the thought of someone else getting hurt by a villain he let escape, and decided to leave Generation X to hunt Slaughter down. [Generation X (1st series) #48-49]
Japheth only interrupted his quest when he received word of Joseph’s death during the Magneto War. He briefly returned to Xavier’s for his former teammate’s funeral, but left immediately after the service. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #368] Considering the way he originally tracked down Joseph, it shouldn’t have been too hard for Maggott to follow Slaughter’s trail, but whether he caught really up with him and, if so, how the encounter went, is unknown.
A few months down the line, though, Japheth had a rather unpleasant meeting with some agents of the revamped Weapon X program, who arrested him just for the sake of being a mutant. Like numerous other mutants, Japheth was taken to a secret concentration camp for mutants, dubbed Neverland, where he was re-united with Cecilia Reyes, who too had been captured. In the camp, Maggott befriended a mutant family, especially the two kids, who were rather frightened by everything that was going on. In regular intervals, the camp inmates were divided in two categories and marked either with a green or red M on their palm. Maggott instinctively knew that this meant no good, that it had to be a way of grading or classifying them into useful and expendable. Feeling that he was among the less fortunate ones, Maggott gave one of his slugs to the two kids, so that least a part of him would survive. Sadly, Maggott’s fears were justified – a few minutes later the mutants with the red Ms were herded up and led to the camp’s gas chambers. [Weapon X (2nd series) #5]
Still, the remaining inmates didn’t fare that much better, many of them being tortured or forced into serving Weapon X. The two kids, though, it seemed, got lucky as one of the project’s scientists took pity with them and helped them escape. However, this scientist, a Dr. Milbury, was actually none other than Mr. Sinister in disguise and the “escape” was nothing but a transferal to a different lab. When last seen, Maggott’s surviving slug was in a holding tank within Sinister’s lab. [Weapon X (2nd series) #13] However, the current fate of the surviving slug remains unknown since the Weapon X facility was shut down.
When the X-Men’s longtime foe Selene used a Transmode Virus to resurrect deceased friends and foes of the X-Men, Maggott was one of the many mutants reanimated under her thrall. Like most of those resurrected, this revived Maggot was just a shell of his living self and was swiftly taken out by an optic blast from Cyclops.
Following her unsuccessful bid to become a goddess, most of the Selene’s thralls were returned to their eternal rest. Though a few managed to escape this fate and returned to those of the living, it was unclear whether Maggott was among their number. [Necrosha crossover] Nevertheless, when reality was warped by the powers of Legion, Maggott and two slugs were seen as inmates in a mutant prison. This Maggott took part in a prison riot, but was killed by Iron Man. [Age of X crossover] Though it’s possible that this was a Maggott that had escaped death after being used reanimated by Selene, Legion’s reality warp had also temporarily resurrected other deceased mutants and this Maggott could have been such an anomaly.
Adding to the mystery surrounding his fate, either Maggott or another mutant who closely resembled him was seen during a large gathering of mutantkind, but has yet to appear again. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #600]
