Joseph (Marvel)
Joseph is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Joseph was the male genetic clone of the Mutant Magneto who was created by Astra with him being created as part of her machinations to replace his forebear. At the time, Magneto had barely survived his attempt at conquering the world and when he awoke he was confronted by Astra alongside the clone of himself. He was angry at this development at which point Joseph was dispatched to kill Magnus where the clone's lack of preservation factors meant he was able to release more power than Magneto. The overpowered Magneto sensing the chance of being defeated decided to flee with Astra sending Joseph in pursuit of him. He managed to catch up to Magneto in the skies above the jungles of Central America where the two battled one another again. Magnus fought his clone once more where once again he faced the chance of losing to Joseph. This saw him deciding to use trickery to defeat his foe and he secretly pulled forth a chunk of machinery that was sent into Joseph's head. This knocked him unconscious and caused him to fall into the jungle below allowing Magneto to escape. For days, Joseph remained unconscious till he finally awoke but now he lacked any memory of his past. He wandered through the jungle until he was found by a nun who took him in and it was then that Joseph came to believe he was a Mutant after seeing a magazine article on the X-Men. (X-Men v2 #86)
Whilst wandering, he suffered from a fever and exhaustion when he came upon some children that belonged to the Holy Sepulcher Orphanage in Guatemala. Whilst there, Sister Maria de la Joya thought he was attacking them and pulled a gun on him. He responded by using his powers to disarm her as he responded angrily but upon seeing the children he stopped before collapsing from exhaustion. Falling asleep for 3 days, he awoke to find himself being cared for by the orphanage where he revealed that he did not have any memories of his past. Sister Maria decided to let him stay until he was well enough to continue his travels. Whilst there, Migdalia decided to give him the name Joseph where after shaving his beard he came to be shown as being a person in his twenties. Joseph had to contend with the fighting in the areas around the orphanage where he was told to leave them alone. During this time, Sister Maria came to suspect that he might have been the Mutant terrorist Magneto. However, he retained no memories of his past and all that was known was that the children adored him. One day, he came to find a person spying on him with this being Colonel Ramos who was assigned by the government to fight off threats to the region. However, he was suspected of being bribed and helping further destabilise the region. After seeing Joseph's powers, Ramos was responsible for abducting Sister Maria and the children in order to force the Mutant to work for him. Joseph though refused and with his abilities had the Colonel reveal where they were being held where he killed all the guards at the site. Maria and the children were saved but were horrified at his actions thus forcing Joseph to decide to leave where he searched for the X-Men. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #327)
Shortly afterwards, the X-Men were caught up in one of the Gamemaster’s schemes. He took control of every mind in Salem Center and made the X-Men believe that they had achieved their goal: mutants were now publicly accepted and treated like celebrities. Only, for his game to work, the Gamesmaster had kidnapped Jean Grey, the one X-Man who would have seen through the deception right from the start. Joseph’s mind too was hard to manipulate, for he sensed something being amiss and realized that Jean was absent. Once he had convinced Rogue and Gambit at least to consider him being right, they tracked down Jean, only to be confronted by the Gamesmaster. He challenged Joseph, promising to make all the positive changes permanent if he was willing to sacrifice one life – Gambit’s. The world would be a better place, and the man no longer in the way for a relationship with Rogue. Faced with this temptation, Joseph still did the right thing. While pretending to perform the kill, he secretly freed Jean and together they fought the Gamesmaster off. (X-Men '97 v1 #1) Not much later, Joseph found himself spirited to Dunfee, Illinois. At the time, several X-Men and the wards of Generation X, including Franklin Richards, were vacationing there. While alone, Franklin had reached out with his reality-altering powers, and transported Joseph there, blaming him for his parents’ apparent death, as they had sacrificed their lives against Onslaught. The boy wouldn’t listen to reason and threatened to kill Joseph if he would not return his parents to him. This time, it was Gambit who saved his rival, by keeping young Franklin occupied long enough till his powers were negated by Leech. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #14)
On Christmas Eve, Joseph manages to surprise Rogue with a special gift. Over the past weeks, he had assembled components from Xavier's old Z'Nox psi-shielding chamber and re-arranged them into a new apparatus. While standing under it, Rogue could safely touch anyone, without absorbing their memories and personalities. They tried it out with Joseph kissing the grateful X-woman on the forehead. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #341)
Over the next days, the X-Men were busy making repairs to their damaged mansion, and Maggott avoided every contact with Joseph, for he had sworn his attacker – the true Magneto – to secrecy. Trying to keep her earlier promise to help Joseph uncover his past, she even went as far as suggesting for her to absorb his memories but, considering this a too risky move, he declined. Then, while watching a TV announcement about some possible 'cure' for mutants, Joseph became rather mad and suddenly had a seizure. Rogue found him comatose and gave him CPR and mouth-to-mouth until a few second later, Joseph came around again and seemed fine. The cause for this strange effect was never found. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #354)
A couple of days later, the Mossad agent Sabra arrived, intent to make 'Magneto' pay for his crimes. For a brief instant, Maggott pondered to let her kill Joseph, 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 he left with her for Israel, in order to once and for all determine his true nature. 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. (X-Men v2 #73)
Joseph was resurrected by Astra and reappeared at a mutant hate rally, murdering all the participants, causing the Avengers to question Magneto on the events. Cyclops defended Magneto claiming that Magneto had been with him on a mission miles away during the attack. To prove his innocence Magneto asked for the help of Emma Frost. (Magneto: Not a Hero v1 #1)
Astra was forced to reveal that Joseph had been working with Christopher Bach in order to bring back fear to Magneto's name. In a final battle Magneto killed the rest of Joseph's brotherhood and Joseph and Astra were imprisoned in the X-Brig on Utopia. (Magneto: Not a Hero v1 #4)
In the aftermath, Joseph remained in the shadows where he came to see the growing tensions affecting the Mutant race as humanity began to persecute them more in the wake of the loss of the X-Men. He then deemed that mankind lost their fear of Mutants which threatened their survival and he was determined to remind them of that fear to stop further attacks against Mutants. To achieve that end, he disguised himself as Magneto and led an incarnation of the Brotherhood of Mutants in a public attack. However, he was stopped by Cyclops and his allies who uncovered his true identity and he was defeated when the Juggernaut turned on him after learning of Josephs deceptions. Before he could be taken away, he was killed by Kwannon who cut his head off. (Uncanny X-Men v5 #16)
Overview
Personality and attributes
It was noted that he looked to be like someone in his twenties. Initially, he had no name nor any memory of his past leading to Migdalia from a Guatemalan orphanage deciding to name Joseph. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #327) Some people called him Joe as a shortened version of his name when speaking to him. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11) Following his latest resurrection, it was shown that he had a lingering scar on his neck from the wound dealt to him by Kwannon. (Scarlet Witch v3 #5)
His eyes were said to show pain, pride and power. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #327) It was said that he was a man who felt more than most with pain being most of all these feelings. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
He came to believe that as a Mutant he had been given glorious God-given powers. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
The amnesiac Joseph initially had a curiosity of all things Mutant that led to him take down paths to many different roads. In this time, he found himself confused over the notion of why someone would want to protect a world that hated and feared his kind. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
Despite his amnesia, he seemingly recalled a saying of Charles Xavier which was, "If we can't learn to live together, we will surely die apart." (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
At first, the hero seeking Joseph claimed that to stop a person's bloodbath that he was willing to take the matter up with the Devil himself. In this time, he did not take joy from any acts of violence with such actions only being borne out of necessity such as the need to save lives. Despite that, human hatred provoked a need in him to respond in kind leading to some of the X-Men having to calm Joseph down telling him that to kill others would cost him his soul. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
With no memories of his past, he claimed to not know the person he resembled namely Magneto himself. He quickly came to learn that people feared him for being the mad Mutant himself. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
Astra claimed that she was Joseph's 'mother' due to her being involved in his creation. (X-Men v2 #86)
Whilst at a Guatemalan orphanage, he came to meet Sister Maria de la Joya where he was attracted to her but she was devoted to God and could not pursue a relationship with him. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #327)
During his search for the X-Men, he came to first encounter Rogue who reacted aggressively to him thinking he was Magneto himself. Joseph though explained that he had only memories of the last three months before their meeting and knew nothing of his past. Thus, he had sought the X-Men for answers and after helping her fight off Humanity's Last Stand she decided to take Joseph to meet her comrades in an attempt for Joseph to get a second chance at life. She tried to teach Joseph that the reason they fought for people that hated them was for the innocents who had not been taught to hate yet with this being their hope for tomorrow. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
Powers and abilities
He was described as being a biomatrix replicant who was a clone of Magneto. As such, he was created as a Mutant that had the innate power to manipulate magnetism. However, he was adjusted to instil in him certain traits such as being younger than the original. Joseph also lacked the memories and indomitable spirit of the original as these were traits that Astra did not desire in her clone. More importantly, Astra had removed any of self-preservation limiting factors in Joseph's power. This was because Mutants of immense power created an internal ceiling that limited their own abilities but its removal in Joseph made him more powerful but left him with the risk of being consumed by this raw unchecked power. (X-Men v2 #86)
Similar to Magneto, he was able to manipulate objects composed of metal to achieve various feats. His powers also gave him the power of flight allowing him to close the distance between destinations. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #327)
With his powers, he could control bullets and easily turn them back against his attackers. In another instance, he was shown being able to halt the launch of missiles directed at him and causing them either to turn back against the shooter or explode. (X-Men Unlimited v1 #11)
It was shown that he had a strong sense of telepathic immunity as demonstrated when he managed to resist the manipulations of the Gamemaster. (X-Men '97 v1 #1)
Notes
- Joseph was created by Scott Lobdell and Roger Cruz where he made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men v1 #327 (December, 1995).
- The character was based of Magneto who was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
Alternate Versions
- In What If...? v1 #111 (1998), an alternate version of Joseph appeared in a What If...? reality designated as Earth-2988 in the Multiverse.
- In X-Men '92 v2 #7 (2016), an alternate version of Joseph appeared in the reality designated as Earth-15730 based on the 1990s animated series in the Multiverse.
In other media
Video games
- In X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Joseph appeared as a playable card in the iOS video card game.
Appearances
- Uncanny X-Men v1: (1995)
- X-Men v2:
- Magneto: Not a Hero v1:
- Uncanny X-Men v5:
- Scarlet Witch v3:
External Links
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