Fantomex

Revision as of 17:27, 24 May 2021

Fantomex in X-Force v4 #4.

Fantomex is a make comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Charlie Cluster-7 in New X-Men v1 #143.

Charlie Cluster-7 was a genetically engineered male created in the Weapon Plus laboratory known as the World. He was created for the impending genetic war that was to be fought between humans and Mutants. (New X-Men v1 #144) It was within the facility that his 'mother' was mated to machines leading to Fantomex to be bred as a designer super-soldier. (New X-Men v1 #143) According to one account, he was one of a pair of male human clones created by Advanced Idea Mechanics where he had a twin brother. The purpose was to create engineered children that were progressively different but by curious luck the two children were exactly identical down to the atom. It was decided to dispose of one whilst the other was kept within the World research laboratory. (Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex v1 #1)

was a product of the clandestine Weapon Plus program that was developed a breed of super-sentinel that was to be used against Earth's Mutant population. Weapon XIII was created at the secret facility known as the World where he was bred from a population of techno-organic organisms whose living tissue was merged with Sentinel nanotechnology on a cellular level. The subject's mother was a member of this civilization and she became pregnant and was fertilized with nanomachines leading to the birth of Charlie Cluster-7. Inside the World, the subject who later took the name of Fantomex was raised in a man-made environment designed to create media-friendly Mutant hunting super-sentinels. He grew within a virtual France setting that had imperfect programming despite the World being situated in England.

During his development, the figure known as Mother was known to had briefly visited him where she instilled in him values that were counter to the ruthless Mutant hunting programming of the World. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #5)

On one of his missions, he was partnered with fellow Weapon Plus agent known as the Skinless Man but later abandoned his comrade to be captured.

Assault on Weapon Plus

Master thief in New X-Men v1 #129.

Fantomex later sought refuge from the authorities at the X-Corporation branch in Paris. Once there, he encountered Professor X and Jean Grey where he claimed that he was a Mutant thief. Suffering from bleeds caused by bullet wounds, he requested asylum that was granted by Xavier. Fantomex claimed that he was being hunted as he was the most wanted thief in Europe but the two X-Men were unable to corroborate this as they were unable to use telepathic probes as his mask blocked such attempts at reading his mind. Despite this being the case, they aided him and helped him escape from the soldiers that had surrounded the X-Corporation building. With his ship E.V.A., he managed to take Professor X and Jean Grey to his home in France where he introduced them to his 'mother'. It was then that he revealed that he had stolen information from the Weapon Plus program whilst in Chunnel and offered to sell this data to them in exchange for $1 billion. After treating his wounds, he asked the pair to accompany him to Chunnel in order Weapon XII with the two departing onboard E.V.A.

Dark Reign

In the time afterwards, he engaged in various thefts around the world which included stealing a shrinking device from Doctor Doom. Afterwards, Wolverine along with Noh-Varr approached Fantomex where they informed him that forces from H.A.M.M.E.R. sought to acquire the abandoned World facility. The three decided to deny the organization the facility where they infiltrated the structure only to face its inhabitants that were under the control of the Weapon Plus project known as Allgod. He determined that the weapon was following the directive set forth by the now sentient brain of the laboratory who was convinced that they were allies protecting it from H.A.M.M.E.R.'s Deathlok cyborgs. After defeating the intruders, Fantomex used the device he acquired from Doctor Doom to shrink the laboratory into a hand-sized form allowing him to keep it within his care. (Dark Reign: The List - Wolverine v1 #1)

X-Force

Fantomex in X-Force v4 #12.

Wolverine later recruited Fantomex to join a new incarnation of X-Force where he offered him a place that he could do good. The team was co-led by Warren Worthington III and consisted initially of them alongside Psylocke and Deadpool. (Wolverine: Road to Hell v1 #1) Their first assignment was to find an eliminate a newly created clone of Apocalypse that had been bred by Clan Akkaba. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #1) He joined the team on their mission where they helped free Deadpool who had been captured by the secret society. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #2) They pursued their quarry who had relocated on-board Ship and departed for the Moon leading to a confrontation with the Final Horsemen that were protectors of the reborn Apocalypse. The team were overwhelmed by their attackers and nearly killed but Fantomex used his misdirection powers to make their enemies miss them allowing them to escape to continue their mission. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #3) Alongside Wolverine, he used his powers of misdirection to cause Akkaba's Ship to prevent its matter jump to another site and helped strand the Final Horseman on another planet. Fantomex and Wolverine then arrived in the inner sanctum to find that Apocalypse was in the form of an innocent young boy. Psylocke moved to protect the child as she intended to have him taken elsewhere to be raised in peace to prevent him from adopting his former persona. This was opposed by Angel who battled his comrades as he intended to murder the child but could not commit the act. As X-Force prepared to exist with the child, Fantomex fired a bullet into the head of the young En Sabah Nur thus killing him with the team then departing on E.V.A. before Ship jumped to another site. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #4) Afterwards, he returned to his home in the French Alps where he was investigating strange activity within the World. He noted that some unknown presence had been manipulating the technology within the laboratory to create a new danger that was Project: Infinity. Philips home was then attacked by a horde of alternate reality Deathlok warriors that were tasked with securing the World and protecting Infinity. In their attack, they destroyed Fantomex's home, stole the World and killed Mother with Philip barely surviving due to the actions of E.V.A. which was when he encountered Deathlok Prime. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #5)

Through the White Sky facility, the members of X-Force managed to restore Fantomex to life but the technology detected three brains in the subject. As such, it mistakenly believed that there were three subjects and grew a clone for each of his three brains. Thus, Fantomex was regrown but his secondary and tertiary brain formed the female Cluster along with the villainous Weapon XIII.

With Betsy and Cluster, the three of them left to reside in France where he continued his relationship with Psylocke. However, Fantomex still felt the urge to steal and be a thief where he looked to encourage Braddock to adopt the same kind of life. This was partly because he had lost his misdirection powers to the brain that now inhabited the body of Weapon XIII and thus Betsy's telepathy would be a substitute. Similarly, he encouraged Betsy to accept his female counterpart Cluster as being part of their group. Eventually, the three of them conducted a burglary in France and during their escape Betsy almost fell after losing her footing but she was saved by Cluster. Returning to their hideout, he indulged in his new acquisitions but noticed that Betsy did not enjoy this life with his attempts at pushing her further into being a thief leading to her storming away to spend sometime alone. (Uncanny X-Force v2 #7)

Xavier then approached him with the idea of a trade allowing the Professor to exist in the material world in the others body with Fantomex agreeing. As a result, Fantomex's mind resided in an idyllic spot within the astral plane whilst Xavier was reborn in his body whereupon he took the name of X. In an effort to check Fantomex, Psylocke went into the astral plane where she found him there and confirming X's proposal to him. (Astonishing X-Men v4 #7) X had used Fantomex's body as building material in the creation of a vessel for his consciousness thus it served as a brand new body for himself. (Astonishing X-Men v4 #9)

Overview

Personality and attributes

After being raised in a France setting in the World, Fantomex developed a French sense of identity and persona.

He considered altruism being counter to his nature as he was ultimately a mercenary. Jean-Philipe claimed that he stole for the adventure, adrenaline, sex, sport and other pleasures. However, Wolverine believed Fantomex stole to take his mind away from his purpose as an engineered weapon designed to kill Mutants. It was believed that it was a constant struggle to fight the nanoblood in his body that urged him to kill. (Wolverine: Road to Hell v1 #1)

Despite his origin, he was noted for a desire to do good which stemmed from ethics taught to him by Mother whose voice he could hear loudest in his mind. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #5)

Jean-Philipe was noted to had been deeply attracted to Psylocke. (Wolverine: Road to Hell v1 #1) This led to him flirting with her despite knowing that she was in a relationship with Warren Worthington III. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #1)

He came to earn Wolverine's trust by taking him to the World in an effort to showcase the manipulation done to him by the Weapon X program. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #7)

Despite his speech, he was actually not French but simply liked the accent. (New X-Men v1 #144)

Powers and abilities

Thus, he was classed as a Super-Sentinel who was a genetically designed designer Mutant killing supermen where he was made to join a team of undefeatable living Sentinels that were custom grown by the World. (New X-Men v1 #145) Fantomex was created to be a Super Soldier Generation Thirteen and designed to be a stealth fighter. (New X-Men v1 #144)

He was known to possess nano-active blood that aided in his body's recovery. (New X-Men v1 #145) This healing factor allowed him to repair injuries with nanotechnology and other machines that helped him manage pain. (Astonishing X-Men v4 #9) Fantomex was able to put himself into a light auto-hypnosis allowing for him to self-operate to treat bullet wounds. (New X-Men v1 #129)

Fantomex was created with multiple brains for independent parallel processing. (New X-Men v1 #145) He was able to draw on fight techniques from his multiple brains. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #7) The nanites in his brain moderated his neocortex to be incapable of believing in anything greater than himself. (Dark Reign: The List – Wolverine v1 #1)

E.V.A. was capable of travelling through space. (New X-Men v1 #145) It was said that he could see through E.V.A.'s senses. (New X-Men v1 #144)

Within the World, time was synthetic and theoretically it was possible to freeze it. (New X-Men v1 #143)

He kept by his side the World facility that was in a shrunken state thanks to technology taken from Doctor Doom. This allowed him to keep the laboratory portable and he could shrink to enter into it at anytime where he could make use of its various equipment. The time dilation effects within had caused the laboratory to create new life that was entirely of its own that developed in new and strange ways with millions of years of progress along with evolution coming to it. For a time, he kept Ultimaton as a guard as the super-soldier had been revived and made to serve Fantomex. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #5)

Notes

• Fantomex was created by Grant Morrison and Igor Kordey where he made his first appearance in New X-Men v1 #128 (August, 2002).

Alternate Versions

• In Uncanny X-Force v1 #7 (2011), an alternate version of the character appeared in a world designated as Earth-11045. On this Earth, there was growing response against superpowered beings leading to a mass deployment of Deathloks that converted others into cyborgs with Fantomex being among those transformed in this time.

In other media

Video games

• In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Fantomex appeared as a character in the Facebook video game. It was said that little was known about the cunning thief due to his lies and telepathic illusions. According to his backstory, he was created by the same program that made Wolverine with him being artificially evolved in the virtual reality domain called 'The World'. He had superhuman reflexes, markanship and discipline that when combined with his sentient techno-organic ship E.V.A. made him both a dangerous enemy or ally.
• In Marvel: War of Heroes, Fantomex as Charlie-Cluster 7 appeared as a playable card in the video game.
• In X-Men: Battle of the Atom, Fantomex appeared on a card in the iOS video card game.
• In Marvel: Future Fight, Fantomex appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.

Appearances

• New X-Men v1: (2002)
• Uncanny X-Force v1:
• Wolverine and the X-Men v1:
• Uncanny X-Force v2:
• X-Force:
• Astonishing X-Men:
• Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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