The Nasty Boys were Mister Sinister’s second group of mutant thugs and mercenaries. Why he chose to temporarily replace the Marauders with this new group was never explained. Strangely enough, the Nasty Boys featured more prominently in X-Men: The Animated Series than they ever did in the comics.
Working for: Mr. Sinister
Membership: Slab, Gorgeous George, Hairbag, Ruckus, Ramrod
Associates: Ricochet, Multiple Man II
First appeared: X-Factor (1st series) #74 [Slab; team is mentioned], #75 [whole team]
Before
- A renegade Madrox dupe tried to assert his independence from Madrox Prime. [Fallen Angels #1-8]
- None of the other characters appeared before.
- The storyline which introduced the Nasty Boys began in X-Factor (1st series) #71, when Quicksilver's own power was slowly killing him because his metabolism and his aging sped up, and X-Factor (1st series) #72-73, when the second Madrox showed up to battle X-Factor’s Multiple Man, claiming to be the real Madrox.
Chronology
| X-Factor (1st series) #74: | Strong Guy was challenged to a battle at the Washington Monument by an evil mutant named Slab. Slab claimed to be a Nasty Boy when introducing himself. |
| X-Factor (1st series) #75: | The assembled Nasty Boys appeared together for the first time. Madrox and his corrupt dupe merged, but the real Jamie re-asserted his dominance inside their shared body, re-absorbing the renegade dupe and learning the Sinister had been influencing the dupe to take the place of Jamie Prime. Through this Jamie learned Sinister and the Nasty Boys’ plans. X-Factor’s political nemesis, Senator Steven Shaffran, was revealed to be a mutant named Ricochet, who was working with Sinister, and was behind Quicksilver's recent health problems. X-Factor defeated the Nasty Boys at the capitol building, taking them into custody. Meanwhile, Havok and Multiple Man confront “Senator Shaffran” (really a disguised Sinister), who acted like a maniac before fleeing. His reputation ruined and outted as a mutant to the public, the real Shaffran tried to shoot Sinister for betraying him, only to catch a bullet in the head on the “ricochet” when his shot bounced off Sinister. |
| X-Factor (1st series) #77-78: | Ramrod was mentioned as being deported from the US; Slab and Hairbag were rescued from prison by the MLF. Sinister took Hairbag back from MLF. Slab was revealed to be Thumbelina's brother. |
Inbetween
- Slab, after being rescued from prison by his sister Thumbelina, worked with the MLF during the X-Cutioner's Song crossover. He was captured by an X-Posse. [X-Men (2nd series) #15]
Chronology continued
| X-Factor (1st series) #104-105: | The Nasty Boys team was fully re-assembled. They hunted down the former Marauder Malice, who went after Polaris again. Her intent wa to kill Lorna, because she feared that Sinister would want to permanently bond them again. A fight brokes out: Sinister and the Nasty Boys ,versus Malice, versus Havok and Polaris. Since both Lorna and Alex tried to absorb Malice to prevent the other from being possessed, Malice was torn apart and perished. The conflict no longer had any meaning to Sinister anymore, he and the Nasty Boys took their leave. |
Inbetween
- Later, Ruckus attended a speech by Senator Kelly' in disguise, and attempted to assassinate him, but the X-Men put him into custody. [X-Men Forever #1]
- All Members of the Nasty Boys retained their powers after the mutant decimation.
- Ruckus attended the X-Cise clinic as a client in the hope of reveicing a mutant cure, however this was all a scheme by the Red Skull. Later Ruckus and Ramrod travelled to England and attempted to rob banks. Both were arrested. Later, the X-Men saved them from a Terrigen Mist cloud about to hit their prison. [X-Men Legacy (2nd series) #11, Extraordinary X-Men Annual #1]
Chronology continued
|
Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #15 |
Slab, Ruckus and Gorgeous George established a drug lab, harvesting and selling mutant growth hormone. The X-Man Psylocke attacked their lab, defeated the three in combat and shut down their operation. |
Members
Slab (Kris Anderson)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #74
All Nasty Boys appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #74-75, 77, 104-105, X-Men (4th series) #15
Powers: Superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to physical harm. He draws on a limited source of extra-dimensional bio-mass to expand his body and muscle, increasing his size and strength to a certain degree.
Fact: Slab's sister is Thumbelina of the Mutant Liberation Front.
Gorgeous George (George Blair)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75
All appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #75, 104-105, X-Men (4th series) #15
Powers: Physical structure is composed of tar-like ooze that he can stretch and expand at will, adhere to solid material, reduce to a formless puddle, and use to encase or constrict around solid objects.
Fact: Gorgeous George once drank so much he forgot how long his arms were supposed to be. George’s real name was only listed in the Marvel Handbooks, and did not appear in in-continuity text.
Hairbag (Michael Suggs)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75
All Nasty Boys appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #75, 77-78, 104-105, Uncanny X-Men (4th series) #15
Powers: Animal mutation gives him heightened strength, speed, agility, stamina, and reflexes, hyper-acute senses, razor sharp fangs and talons, and body hair that can be flexed into pointed quills. Exhales a poisonous gas.
Ruckus (Clement Wilson)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75
All appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #75, 104-105
Powers: Psionically records all sound waves in his environment, and can then amplify them a thousand-fold to transmit through his vocal chords as high-decibel echoes.
Fact: Ruckus’s real name was only listed in the Marvel Handbooks, and did not appear in in-continuity text.
Ramrod (Patrick Mahoney)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75
All appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #75, 104-105
Powers: Manipulates wooden fibers, allowing him to summon forth roots from beneath the ground and direct them how he wishes or alter his shillelagh to increase its length or extend sharpened spikes.
Equipment: Ramrod carries a shillelagh so he always has something he can use his powers on.
Facts: Ramrod was an illegal immigrant, and was deported for his crimes. He has since returned, again probably illegally. Ramrod’s real name was only listed in the Marvel Handbooks, and did not appear in in-continuity text.
Nasty Boys associates
Ricochet (Senator Steven Shaffran)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #72
Last appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75 [shot by a stray bullet he himself fired]
All Nasty Boys appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #72-75
Powers: Generates a psionic probability matrix that guides events in his favor and against his opponent. This ability is rather nebulous, but it has been used in the past to cause people to make rash, uninformed decisions and create situations where a mutant's power will work against itself.
Multiple Man II
First appearance: Fallen Angels #2 [presumed]
First Nasty Boys appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #72
Last appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #75 [re-absorbed by Madrox]
All Nasty Boys appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #72-75
Powers: Utilize the kinetic energy released upon impact as a catalyst agent to initiate a complete and total replication of his body’s cells, splitting off exact duplicates of himself with whom he shares an empathic link and can absorb back into himself later.
Facts:
- This rogue duplicate somehow developed a sense of self separate from the real Madrox, and joined the Fallen Angels, while the original Madrox stayed behind at Muir Island. When exactly this dupe split off from Madrox Prime is unclear, but it seems that the Madrox who went to New York with Siryn and Moira in Fallen Angels #2 was this renegade duplicate, and he was the Jamie seen throughout the rest of the series. This follows with the later conversation between the real Madrox and Siryn in X-Force (1st series) #17, when he claimed the man she had a relationship with in the Angels wasn’t really him.