STRONG GUY: Page 6 of 6

Publication Date: 5th Apr 2019
Written By: Gremlin and Monolith.
Image Work: Gremlin.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY - Page 6

Guido soon made it back to Earth in time to re-join his former colleague at the funeral for Jamie Madrox. His friend had died from a disease caused by exposure to the Terrigen Mists and Guido tagged along with the X-Men as they went to war with the Inhumans over the situation. [Death of X #1-4] Afterwards, he joined up with the X-Men when Hydra took control over the USA and mutants were forced to live in New Tian. [Secret Empire: United #1]

Wolfsbane had also rejoined the X-Men after taking some time out to mourn the loss of her son. Whilst she and Guido had minimal interactions before now, the two were forced to work alongside each other when Magik drafted them both on to the latest version of the New Mutants. Karma had employed the team on behalf of her company Hatchi Tech to look in to a series of seemingly unconnected supernatural occurrences. During the course of their missions, Guido tried to talk to Rahne but she remained steadfast in her hatred for him. At some point previously, Magik had assisted Guido in reclaiming his soul, but even this fact was not enough to sway Wolfsbane into forgiveness. [New Mutants: Dead Souls #1-4]

Despite the randomness of the New Mutants’ missions, it soon became obvious that there was a common link between them all and it was revealed that Karma’s deceased brother was behind it all. Tran Mah-Coy had died many years before and his psyche had been absorbed into Karma. However, somehow it had since escaped once more and Tran was looking to be reborn in the physical world. During an encounter with Tran, he hinted that Doctor Strange would be his next target and so Strong Guy and the team infiltrated Strange’s home to try to save him. The team split up and Strong Guy chose to follow Wolfsbane in a bid to mend their broken relationship. Wolfsbane remained was steadfast in her hatred for Strong Guy, calling him a monster for what he had done.

That changed though when they stumbled into a room that showed them their worst nightmares. Wolfsbane was forced to watch as Strong Guy killed her son over and over again, and she assumed it was her own nightmare. Guido told her though that it was actually his and he broke down in tears at what he had done. He told her that no matter what he did, it would never make up for killing Tier and he was haunted by his actions every day. After hearing his confession and seeing how much pain he was truly in, Wolfsbane finally started to forgive Guido. The two managed to escape the room and meet up with the rest of the team, who had cornered Tran. The twisted man had finally achieved his goal of being reborn in a new body, thanks to a mystical artefact of Strange’s. However, that meant he was now bound by the laws of physics and so Strong Guy grabbed him whilst Illyana teleported them both to Limbo. The team was forced to leave Guido in the Hell-like dimension until they could figure out what to do with Tran permanently. [New Mutants: Dead Souls #5]

When Illyana finally teleported him out of Limbo, Strong Guy discovered that thirty-six hours had passed on Earth, whereas it had been a number of years for him. In the meantime, Karma had betrayed her own team by killing Tran’s physical body and merging his psyche with her own. She then revealed she had been holding hostage Warlock, the former New Mutant, as he was sick. He had infected Dani Moonstar with his techno-organic virus and managed to create duplicates of the original New Mutants.

When Guido came back to Earth, he appeared in the middle of a battle between his own team and Warlock’s T.O team. He set about attacking the faux-New Mutants but the stress of the battle got to him and he had a heart attack. Dying, he collapsed on the floor whilst everyone else around him stopped fighting. Dani, now calling herself Moonlock, offered to save him by infecting him too. With no other option, Illyana was forced to let Moonlock save him and Strong Guy was revived, but now under the control of Warlock. Illyana apologized to him but, in return, he infected her too before she could stop him. With all the remaining New Mutants infected, the fight was over and it was revealed that Tran was now in control of Karma’s body. He had been working for the Office of National Emergency (O.N.E.) and Strong Guy, along with the rest of the infected, was handed over to them for use as test subjects in a mysterious program. [New Mutants: Dead Souls #6]

Months passed for Guido and the others as they were experimented on and turtured by O.N.E. In the meantime, the X-Men suffered heavy casualties when Legion and X-Man attacked them, wiping almost all of the team out. With no X-Men around to protect their race, the world quickly turned on mutants and O.N.E. decided to utilize the situation. Merging Sentinel technology with the transmode virus inside the New Mutants, Strong Guy and the rest of his team were forced to become living Sentinels under O.N.E.'s control. More mutants were rounded up for use in O.N.E's experiments and Strong Guy was powerless as he acted as a prison warden to them. His salvation came in the surprising form of Cyclops and Wolverine, who had both been recently resurrected. They stormed O.N.E.'s base and freed Strong Guy from his Sentinel components, allowing him to rejoin his former allies in taking his captors down. Things took a tragic turn when they realized some of Madrox's dupes had been implanted with bombs that were due to detonate. Guido threw himself in the way, absorbing the full force of the explosion and sustaining fatal injuries. Guido died knowing his last act was to save his friends from harm, allowing them to escape and mount a resistance to O.N.E. and all the other groups looking to harm mutants. [Uncanny X-Men (5th series) #12]

With his body infected with the transmode virus and in the hands of O.N.E. it's unlikely this will be the last we see of Strong Guy. The question is... if he does come back will it be as friend or foe?