Predator X

Superherobox|
comic_color=background:#ff8080


caption=Predator X.
Art by Trevor Hairsine.
character_name=Predator X
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="New X-Men" #34 (2007)
creators=Christopher Yost
Craig Kyle
Paco Medina
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
status=Active
alliances=The Facility
powers=superhuman strength, speed, sharp claws and teeth, toxic saliva, accelerated healing, body covered in non-toxic inorganic mercury|

Predator X is a fictional character, in the Marvel Universe and a deadly enemy of mutants including the X-Men.

Fictional character biography

After learning of Emma Frost's plan to have X-23 leave the school, Cessily Kincaid takes X-23 to Salem Center for coffee to cool Laura down. Facility agents, led by the Weapon Plus program including X-23's former handler Kimura, come for one of them. Laura, believing it is her, begs Cessily to leave, but not before Kimura shoots Cessily with an electric bullet, stopping her from doing anything, and stating that they were actually there for Cessily. After capturing her, Kimura leaves before Laura can recuperate from the grenade blast. At the lab, Cessily questions who they are and what they want but is given no answers. When she replies that her friends will come for her, Kimura informs that "The Elephant" (Mammomax) said the same thing, while showing her a picture of his corpse in a cell. Apparently Stryker, before dying, had requested a living weapon, a huge beast called "Predator X", and Mercury's metal skin was needed to give him more durability and powers. Gruesome experiments partly stripped the girl of the needed biometal, granting the beast her powers and leaving her in extreme pain. The experiments left her physically and mentally traumatized, and she is currently in recovery at the institute. Predator X is now covered in a flexible metalic skin.

The Purifiers begun tracking down the creature, in hopes of using it as a weapon against their mutant enemies and William Stryker's predicted "Anti-Christ" in particular. It was shown to have killed and eaten a rodent-like American mutant, whose remains were shown on-panel.

Messiah Complex

Predator X arrives in Cooperstown, Alaska looking for the child with the X-Gene, pausing to feast upon the body of Blockbuster. It is later stated it got energy from two mutants, since Blockbuster and Prism's bodies are gone it is highly likely it was them. Predator X continued its search and eats an unnamed and unknown Canadian fire-breathing mutant, for sustenance, and later killed and ate the American mutant known as Peepers.

It is next seen making his way to the X-Mansion and when he arrives, it digs up the graves of dead mutants from the bus attack caused by the Purifiers and begins feasting on their dead bodies. Dust, Mercury and Rockslide come across Predator X when Dust goes to pay her respects to the dead.

After a brief fight with Rockslide, it heads towards the mansion and comes across Trance, Indra and Wolf Cub. Surge jumps in to protect them and instructs any students to head to the infirmary. Predator X then manages to get past Surge and attacks the infirmary after the injured mutants such as Nightcrawler and Hellion and taking on Gentle and Armor. Pixie mentions that X-23 killed a Predator X and teleports the New X-Men, Beast and the injured mutants to Muir Island. Upon arriving, Predator X eats and kills Vertigo and goes to attack Cable, the baby and Bishop. Bishop attacks the creature when it divides him from the baby, and Predator X rips off and swallows his right arm. X-Force arrives, and in the ensuing battle, Wolverine destroys Predator X by letting it swallow him, and tearing his way out of the Predator's stomach.

Powers and abilities

Created by the scientists of the Facility and having absorbed some of Mercury's bio-metal skin, Predator X is highly resistant to physical damage, being able to draw in materials from the surrounding environment to help reform itself. The beast also possesses superhuman strength and endurance, as well as the ability to track mutants by their genetic signature alone. Predator X is essentially tireless, able to track and pursue prey without pause for great distances and lengths of time, eventually wearing the target down before going for the kill. A new ability was seen in the Messiah Complex, were it was seen to project a toxic acidic saliva over the X-Man Hepzibah. In New X-Men #43, the creature was reported to run at speeds of 100 km/h for nineteen hours without slowing down. This, combined with its regenerative abilities, means that the creature can hunt down even a determined and powerful mutant and come out victorious. Predator X does appear to be vulnerable to energy blasts, as the two other creatures were swiftly dispatched by the energy weapons of a O.N.E. Sentinel or Hellion's telekinesis. The Predator's insides are not as durable as its skin; Wolverine killed it by ripping it apart from the inside out.

External links

* [http://www.marvel.com/universe/Weapon_Plus_Program Weapons Plus Program]
* [http://fan.escaping-madness.net/mercury Metallic | The Cessily Kincaid (Mercury) Fanlisting]
* [http://community.livejournal.com/cessilyxkincaid The Cessily Kincaid LJ Fan Community]