The X-Corps are a paramilitary group founded by Banshee with the purpose to police mutantkind and protect it from any threat, whether they originate from humanity or other mutants. The X-Corps should not be confused with the similarly named X-Corporation, or X-Corp for short, which is an extension of the X-Men with several offices all over the world.
Membership: Banshee, Multiple Man, Mastermind III, Avalanche, Radius II, Blob, Surge / Mystique, Sunpyre, Fever Pitch, M II, Jubilee II, Husk Associate: Abyss First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 Last appearance: Uncanny X-Men #406
Before
- During the Dream’s End crossover, Mystique and some members of her Brotherhood of Mutants III blew up the lab complex on Muir Island and Moira MacTaggert died of the injuries she received in the explosion. The rest of the Brotherhood tried to assassinate Senator Robert Kelly but the X-Men managed to stop them. At least Mystique and Mastermind III went into federal custody.
- Hearing the news of his lover’s death, Banshee tried to drown his sorrow in alcohol. The disbanding of Generation X shortly after surely did not help. [Generation X #73, 75]
- Radius had been a member of the reorganized Alpha Flight but, when the original members returned, he and several other newcomers were downgraded to Beta status. [Wolverine (2nd series) #142]
- Sunpyre was among an emergency team assembled by Jean Grey when no other X-Men were available to deal with the threat of Genosha starting a third World War. After the crisis had passed, she turned down the offer to stay at Xavier’s mansion. [X-Men (2nd series) #112]
Chronology
| Uncanny X-Men #401: | Standing at the grave of Moira MacTaggert, Banshee throws away his bottle of Scotch and decides that it’s time to move. Somewhat later, he has apparently started the X-Corps and Multiple Man, or actually half a dozen of him, break into a prison for super-villains and retrieve Mastermind III from the device that trapped her in a virtual reality. They also open Mystique’s cell but find it empty. Again some time later, a fleet of helicopters carries the Blob to the X-Corps building near Paris. He is escorted to Banshee’s office by Radius and Avalanche, who refuses to talk to his old pal. Inside the office, the Blob demands to know what’s going on but Banshee knocks him out with a sonic scream. |
| Uncanny X-Men #402: | Curious about the new group, the X-Men visit the X-Corps building. Banshee openly welcomes them and shows them around and, although they admire the discipline and the vast technology at the X-Corps’ disposal, they think it looks too much like a military operation. Suddenly, an alarm goes off, as two mutants are registered battling each other in Berlin. Banshee sends his operatives to deal with the situation. Avalanche, Surge and the Blob quickly defeat the battling Abyss and Fever Pitch and also deal with a some members of the Acculturation Resistance Movement (A.R.M.), a local mutant hating militia. The X-Men are shocked that their old friend is working with well-known criminals and at the methods he uses to achieve his goals. In the X-Corps labs, Sunpyre studies the two captives and tells Banshee that they both have formidable powers but might be too violent to keep in line. Banshee, however, thinks otherwise and walks into a secret chamber, where Mastermind is strapped into a tank with cables and tubes connected to her body. He plans to use her illusion power to get both new arrivals under his control, just like he has already done with the Blob and possibly Avalanche before. |
| Uncanny X-Men #403: | A young pyrokinetic mutant is almost killed by the anti-mutant militia A.R.M., but two of the X-men arrive in time to stop them. Just as the situation is calming, a group of X-Corps operatives arrives to take the boy with them, Fever Pitch already among them. Tempers flare but, with Multiple Man among the team, the X-Men know they are hopelessly outnumbered. Meanwhile, Nightcrawler and Banshee discuss their different approaches to mutant/human relations while Chamber, invited to join the X-Corps, discovers that several of his old teammates are in there too – M, Jubilee and Husk. However, they only joined to keep an eye on their old mentor and they have learned of something strange going on in the basement. Chamber investigates and finds Mastermind’s holding tank. Iceman at the same time witnesses the Blob behaving oddly, a sign of him being under some form of mental control. Surge secretly kills A.R.M. leader, Jakob Eisen, and several of his followers. |
| Uncanny X-Men #404: | The news show a video tape of somebody posing as Jakob Eisen, leader of A.R.M., who claims that his organization exterminated X-Corps member Surge. Banshee sends M, Jubilee, Husk and Multiple Man to investigate but it’s a set-up. Although they have to fight an entire army of A.R.M. operatives, they are able to defeat them. Banshee finally snaps and uses his sonic power on one of the A.R.M. members, demanding to know Eisen’s location but Nightcrawler stops him in time and Sean finally comes to his senses. Meanwhile, Sunpyre is studying Abyss in the labs and is assassinated from behind. In the building’s basement, Chamber communicates with Mastermind on the astral plane. She tries to lock him out but underestimates him and Chamber witnesses a conversation between Mastermind and an unseen person, who has apparently infiltrated Banshee’s organization. Suddenly, Chamber is discovered and knocked out by Surge’s electricity blasts. Next to him are Blob, Avalanche and Fever Pitch, ready to take over the X-Corps headquarter. |
| Uncanny X-Men #405: | While the others are still away, Radius is surprised by the Blob and Avalanche, who buries him beneath the ground. The villains escape with the entire fleet of X-Corps’ gunships. When Banshee and the loyal members return, they find that the X-Corps has been betrayed from within. Sunpyre is found dead in the lab and Abyss is in shock. The villains, especially Fever Pitch, cause mass destruction all over Paris to show the world the true face of mutant pride. It turns out that they also have some of the Multiple Men under mental control. Banshee and one of the loyal Multiple Man go to Mastermind’s chamber to shut her down but, just like Surge before, “Multiple Man” is actually Mystique in disguise and, from behind, she rams a knife into Banshee throat. |
| Uncanny X-Men #406: | While Husk, Jubilee and Stacy X deal with the Blob, M helps some of the X-Men to retrieve the rogue Madrox duplicates and to detain Fever Pitch. Avalanche, however, shatters the Eiffel tower and then makes his getaway. In the complex, Mystique releases Mastermind from her holding tank as, with her help, she has been undermining Banshee’s X-Corps right from the start. They leave Banshee to bleed to death but, with his last will power, he drags himself to the lab and releases Abyss. As an alarm goes off, Mystique comes to check it out but gets sucked into Abyss‘ inner void. The boy is unable to control his power and Banshee is more than willing to let himself get soaked into the blackness too. However, Husk and Jubilee arrive in time to hold him back. After he is taken to a hospital, the X-Men and remaining X-Corps members mourn the dead Radius and Sunpyre. |
Afterwards
- Banshee is recovering in hospital. He might be permanently mute and powerless.
- Multiple Man and M joined X-Corporation Paris, probably to make up for their involvement with X-Corps.
- Off-panel, Husk seems to have accompanied the X-Men and has been living at the mansion ever since. In Uncanny X-Men #413, she evidently has been staying there for quite some time and she seems to be on the way to fully join the team.
- Avalanche probably helped his pal Blob to escape from the authorities. In Weapon X #4, they had a brief run in with the Weapon X agents.
- Fever Pitch might still be in custody.
- Mystique, apparently, is not dead, though it is unclear what happens to her in Abyss’ void or how and where she will emerge from it.
- The whereabouts of Jubilee, Abyss and Mastermind III are unknown.
Members
Banshee (Sean Cassidy) First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #28 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401-406 Powers: manipulate his vocal chords to generate hypersonic frequencies that act as a sonic scream to shatter, liquefy or disintegrate solid matter, repels objects to shield himself or fly through the air, emit sonar pulses to map out his surroundings or scramble incoming wavelength probes, and focus his sonics at another person to render them unconscious, deafened, or experiencing nausea and dizziness, compensates for his powers with superhuman hearing and a resistance to intense sound
Multiple Man (James Arthur Madrox) First appearance: Giant Size Fantastic Four #4 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401-406 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, operate independently, and can be absorbed back into himself later
Radius II (Jared Corbo) First appearance: Alpha Flight (2nd series) #1 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 Last appearance: Uncanny X-Men #405 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401, 403, 405 Powers: surrounds his body constantly with a pliant field of bio-kinetic energy, which serves to protect him from all forms of physical damage and can be shaped into different configurations
Surge / Mystique (Raven Darkholme) First appearance: Ms Marvel #16 (as Raven Darkholme) First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #402 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #402-406 Powers: metamorphic shape-shifter with a perfect cell memory able to rearrange the formation of her cellular structure in order to: - take on any human appearance she wishes - adapt specific genetic traits such as night vision, finger talons, or body armor - heal surface tissue damage - suppress her natural aging process - and reboot her genetic template to withstand all pathogens and poisons. Equipment: "regulator pac" generates arcs of electrical energy and fires them as high-voltage discharges from the hand units
Sunpyre (Leyu Yoshida) First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #392 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #402 Last appearance: Uncanny X-Men #404 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #402, 404 Powers: ionize matter to transform it into a plasma state, dissipating solids and liquids and turning gases into solar fire which she can use as pyrotechnic blasts or to create thermal updrafts for flight, personal psionic field shields her from her own radiation emissions and a certain degree of physical impact
M II (Monet Yvette Clarisse Maria Therese St. Croix) First appearance: Generation X #1 (as penance), Generation X #40 (as Monet) First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #403 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #403-406 Powers: superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes and hearing, telescopic and night vision sight, invulnerability to all forms of physical damage, hyper-intuitive thought processes, telepathic powers that can be used for psionic communication or to paralyze and mind-wipe others, self-propelled flight
Jubilee II (Jubilation Lee) First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #244 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #403 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #403-406 Powers: manifest energy plasmoids as multi-colored fireworks of various shapes and intensities, which she can detonate to create disorienting bursts of light and sound, scalding heat, concussive impact, or interweave the "PAF" energies into solid objects to cause violent explosions at the molecular level
Husk (Paige Guthrie) First appearance: X-Force #32 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #403 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #403-406 Powers: transitional bodimorph able to shed the outer layers of her flesh at will, revealing a new skin underneath formed of different materials such as rubber, glass, diamond, and various forms of metal, or to achieve metabolic changes in her template form, such as removing dirt and grime or shedding wounded layers of tissue
Villains forced to serve along the X-Corps
Mastermind III (Martinique Jason) First appearance: Wolverine & Gambit: Victims #2 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401-406 Powers: telepathic abilities allow her to assimilate the thoughts and memories of others, stimulate different portions of their brains to elicit reactions such as fear, hatred or lust, and incorporate these manipulations into psychic illusions to create elaborate and convincing false realities. Fact: Martinique is the daughter of the first Mastermind (Jason Wyngarde), who was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants I and the Hellfire Club I. Probably Martinique Jason is not her real name, since she used it to hide her identity when she introduced herself to Wolverine and Gambit. Lady Mastermind, who appeared in X-Treme X-Men #5-9, is her half-sister. They both inherited their illusion powers from their father.
Avalanche (Dominic Szilard Petros) First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #141 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401-406 Powers: generate seismic energy to affect inorganic matter, causing it to shatter or disintegrate and create a tidal effect in the earth beneath his feet, propelling and manipulating that surface.
Blob (Fred J. Dukes) First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #3 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #401 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #401-406 Powers: enhanced mass and multiple layers of elastic, fatty tissue grant him superhuman strength, can absorb all forms of impact and damage, and are flexible enough to hold objects within the folds of his flesh and pop them out when he flexes his muscles, generate gravity fields that hold him firmly in place to make him an immovable object.
Fever Pitch First appearance: Generation X #50 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #402 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #402-406 Powers: generates a furnace of nuclear energy within his body, allowing him to fly, project intense heat and pyrotechnic bursts, and has reduced him to a flaming skeleton.
X-Corps associates
Abyss (Nils Styger) First appearance: Cable (1st series) #40 First X-Corps appearance: Uncanny X-Men #402 All X-Corps appearances: Uncanny X-Men #402-406 Powers: body unravels into high-tensile strength coils, generate psionic tremors that scramble the cerebral centers of others, chest cavity powers an inter-dimentional void that he can draw objects into