Fantomex

Revision as of 07:03, 6 March 2024

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) Within the World, he was made as a bio-weapon from birth, instead of being culled from volunteers or test subjects like Weapon X. He was designed with a unique cognitive structure, possessing three independent but overlapping brains capable of parallel processing. Each brain had a different personality (helping him with critical thinking and perspective), but still worked towards united goals. Charlie also had a quasi-independent fourth consciousness called EVA, a maintenance program of sorts which helped regulate the competing input from his three brains. EVA also inhabited his flying saucer, a physical extension of his nervous system that could operate remotely as a separate vehicle entity, or shrink and be stored inside his body. As Weapon XIII, he was sculpted and bio-programmed into a public identity as the hero Fantomex, a debonair and charismatic thief among the Super-Sentinels. (New X-Men v1 #145) 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)

Like all of the weapons, Fantomex was taught that mutants were a threat to him and to all that he loved. But as his psychological profile was engineered to be untrustworthy and untrusting, Charlie Cluster-7 was also far smarter than his creators gave him credit for. He was pre-programmed with a strong likelihood for betraying his creators and rejecting their design for him. And, inevitably, he did. Fantomex's moral development was also aided by Mother, one of the three scientists in charge of this program. She secretly nurtured him to know the difference between right and wrong, contrary to the nano-Sentinel programming he received from Father. When James Braddock, Sr., codename Brother, hid the Orb of Necromancy away in his home dimension of Otherworld, Father sent Weapon III to retrieve it. Mother in turn sent Fantomex to stop him, and Weapon III was left to the Otherworld authorities. Weapon III, a man named Pizer, possessed sentient skin as his mutation, and Otherworld ordered him skinned alive as punishment for his transgressions. Fantomex snuck back into Otherworld later and stole Pizer's living plastic skin, forging it into living bullets that never missed their mark. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #22)

Assault on Weapon Plus

Le Fantomex in New X-Men v1 #129.

Pursed by the authorities, a wounded Fantomex sought refuge by travelling to the X-Corporation branch Paris. Whilst there, he claimed to had been the most notorious Mutant thief in Europe and demanded sanctuary from Professor X and Jean Grey. (New X-Men v1 #128) 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. He would introduce the pair to his 'mother' and claim that he was a simple thief who stole files from Weapon Plus that detailed their many illegal experiments. He came to offer to sell the information to Professor Xavier for one billion dollars. He then allowed himself to be put under a light hypnotic trance so that the two could see into his mind to prove himself whilst they also removed the bullets that riddled his body. After finishing, he asked Professor X and Jean Grey to accompany him back to the Chunnel in an effort to destroy Weapon XII. The three of them then left in E.V.A. as they headed towards the Chunnel. (New X-Men v1 #129) Unknown to the two Mutants, the entire event was arranged in a way for Fantomex to hide his true origin and motivations. Arriving at the Chunnel, they came to find the area filled with animals and people that had been taken over by Weapon XII causing confusion to be filled in the area. Fantomex knew those that were infected by Huntsmen were lost under his influence and thus showed no hesitation in killing Darkstar. He later destroyed Weapon XII using a remote detonator but came to notice another Weapon Plus transport tube that contained Weapon XIII. After the battle, Fantomex's ceramic mask slipped a bit and Jean Grey used her telepathy to deduce his true identity: Fantomex was actually Weapon XIII and had also been in transit in the Chunnel. It was during the accident in the Chunnel that he had escaped and was subsequently chased to the X-Corporation building. He confessed to Jean Grey that he was not the master thief that he had claimed, but was now set out to earn that reputation. He assured Jean Grey that he refused to be anyone's soldier, and as a result Jean Grey allowed Fantomex to disappear into the Chunnel before the authorities arrived. (New X-Men v1 #130)

Fantomex continued to pursue his own objectives in opposition to the Weapon Plus Program. Fantomex later traveled to Afghanistan in an attempt to steal a list of the Earth's richest mutant slaver traders, the names on which he intended to blackmail. There he encountered an unconscious mutant known as Dust, a former Mutant captive who had unwittingly killed her captors by turning into a deadly sandstorm. Upon his exit, he encountered Wolverine, leaving Dust in his care. (New X-Men v1 #133) In time, he convinced Wolverine to join him in an attack on the World itself. In exchange for his help bringing down Weapon Plus, Fantomex would help Wolverine gain access to the lost files of Weapon X, complete with records of his own history. Wanting back up for the mission, Wolverine recruited Cyclops to join the super-soldiers in their assault on Weapon Plus. (New X-Men v1 #142) Soon after, Fantomex contacted Wolverine and offered him information about his mysterious past if he helped Fantomex destroy Ultimaton, also known as Weapon XV, a deadly product of the Weapon Plus program. Fantomex, Wolverine, and the X-Men's Cyclops traveled to The World, an artificial, time-altering environment designed by the Weapon Plus program to quickly develop and evolve new generations of super-soldiers. (New X-Men v1 #143) The team was defeated by Ultimaton, who escaped by breaking through the barriers of The World and flying to the Weapon Plus space station. (New X-Men v1 #144) The team pursued their target in E.V.A., Fantomex's biological spacecraft, and upon arriving at the space station Fantomex kept his word by showing Wolverine the complete Weapon Plus database. Shocked at learning the terrible details of his past, Wolverine initiated the self-destruct sequence for the space station before catching and ultimately killing Ultimaton, who was also wondering about his condition. (New X-Men v1 #145) Fantomex and Cyclops escaped the explosion in one of the station's shuttles. (New X-Men v1 #146)

Afterwards, he looked to find the grave of Weapon Plus Director Sublime only to find it empty and a note reading 'Roanoke'. (Weapon X v1 #23) He then came to locate the secret facility of the splinter program Weapon X and found it abandoned except for Agent Zero. At first, the two fought one another before reluctantly agreeing to join forces where they travelled to the site of Roanoke that was a town whose inhabitants were slaughtered after Weapon X unleashed a brainwashed Wolverine on them years earlier. There, the three finally encounter Sublime who had sent an army of U-Men to oppose them and were forced to flee against overwhelming odds. In an attempt to escape in E.V.A., Fantomex was shot down and seemingly left for dead. (Weapon X v1 #25) Fantomex though managed to survive and was later contacted by a diminutive Mutant named Shortpack who wanted his help in assassinating a Mutant arms dealer named Steinback. This was in response to him being responsible for killing an agent that worked for Shortpack. However, Fantomex came to refuse the assignment as he did not want to be responsible for letting a good-natured Shortpack become a killer. Shortpack though came to be captured leading to Mystique investigating his disappearance leading her to Fantomex. She came to find him in Monte Carlo where she despised him over a prior encounter in Madagascar though Fantomex was once again operating under the guise of a Mutant thief. (Mystique v1 #20)

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)

Next encountering the X-Men after being hired by a young mutant boy to kill a Predator X, Fantomex was crucial in helping to subdue Lobe's team until they released a mutant-specific influenza HX-N1, forcing the X-Men to flee. During this time, Fantomex was shown to had met Psylocke where he attempted to woo and court her. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #521)

X-Force

Weapon XIII 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)

The separation from his other two brains left Fantomex over time feeling incomplete and imperfect leading to an instability developing in his persona. Around this time, Cable was looking to assemble a new X-Force team and recruited Fantomex where he offered to help recover his other two brains in exchange for his aid. (X-Force v4 #11)

Afterwards, both Fantomex and E.V.A. came to be restored to normal by Magneto. (Uncanny X-Men v4 #8) This led to Jean-Phillipe being given a job through the Hellfire Club to investigate the activities of Someday Enterprises where he worked together with Mystique. (Uncanny X-Men v4 #3) After discovering that Someday used biotechnology stolen from The World in their experiments with mutants, Fantomex entered its system to ensure it was no longer compromised. Upon finding Someday's access point into The World and destroying it, Fantomex took advantage of the void left by it to plant the seed of his very own consciousness into The World's network. (Uncanny X-Men v4 #18)

Upon returning to the real world, Fantomex became partners with Gambit until being paid the money LeBeau owed him. When Gambit was psychically called by Psylocke to London for help, Fantomex accompanied him. After helping free Psylocke from the influence of the Shadow King, some of the mutants summoned by Psylocke ventured into the Astral Plane to defeat the villain. Fantomex volunteered, on the grounds that he needed to ensure Gambit's safety only so he could pay his debt. (Astonishing X-Men v4 #1) The team eventually split up in once they reached the Astral Plane, and Fantomex ended up with Mystique. Mystique took advantage of the properties of the Astral Plane to conjure up Madripoor and essentially enjoy a vacation while they waited for the Shadow King to come from them. Fantomex and Mystique enjoyed numerous activities together, eventually sharing a kiss before being teleported elsewhere in the Astral Plane by the soul of the late Professor X to help him fight the Shadow King. (Astonishing X-Men v4 #4)

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)

In the event of his demise, Fantomex left a recorded memoir of himself detailing his trail and leads on uncovering the clandestine super-soldier sanction within his neurological biome partner E.V.A. whom would later seek out and find other Weapon program initiates to continue his quest should her partner ever meet his demise. (Wolverine & Captain America: Weapon Plus v1 #1)

House of X

Overview

Personality and attributes

As a creation of Weapon Plus, he was given the designation of Charlie Cluster-7. (New X-Men v1 #144) Within the organization, he was referred to by the code name of Weapon XIII. (New X-Men v1 #130) Out in the world, he was known to had gone by the name of Jean-Phillipe. (New X-Men v1 #129) Though he would actually operate under the name of Le Fantomex. (X-Force v4 #4) Despite his origins, he had also been referred to as the Mutant Man of Mystery. (Uncanny X-Men v1 #519)

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)

Fantomex had said that he knew a thing or two about lying. (Weapon X v2 #25)

He was said to suffer from the flaw of flawlessness with him being so hyper-sane that it had driven him nuts. (X-Force v4 #11)

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) Sublime had claimed that Fantomex was almost like a son to him. (Weapon X v2 #25)

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) Another reason he used the accent was he found that it annoyed people which meant that they were distracted thus giving Fantomex an advantage. He had said that he only ever visited France much later in his life. (Weapon X v2 #24)

Within his care, there was a woman that he called Mother who was an elderly person who was absorbed in her own world without her being aware of her surroundings. (New X-Men v1 #129) She was in fact one of the scientists that worked in Weapon Plus. (Uncanny X-Force v1 #5)

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) It was said that he had a need for all three brains in order to feel whole and perfect. Fantomex had a sentient diagnostic function that circled around his senses. (X-Force v4 #11) 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) He claimed to be capable of reading a person's body language and knowing what they were thinking. (New X-Men v1 #128)

His mask consisted of thought-proof ceramic panels which prevented a telepath from reading his mind. (New X-Men v1 #128)

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)

With the new, perfected iteration of the formula code, Fantomex had access to a slew of customizable superpowers which he could rewire into himself at any moment. (X-Force v4 #13)

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)
• Weapon X v1:
• Mystique v1:
• Uncanny X-Force v1:
• Wolverine and the X-Men v1:
• Uncanny X-Force v2:
• X-Force v4:
• Astonishing X-Men:
• Giant-Size X-Men: Fantomex v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

This article is a stub. You can help Multiversal Omnipedia by expanding it.