WARNING: The following contains major spoilers for Heroes Reborn: Magneto & the Mutant Force #1 by Steve Orlando, Bernard Chang, David Curiel, and VC's Clayton Cowles, on sale now.
Of all the remarkable ways that the Marvel Universe has been reshaped during Heroes Reborn, the changes to the X-Men corner of the universe are perhaps the most intriguing. While the broad strokes of mutantkind's history seems to be essentially the same, many small details have been altered, resulting in a future for mutants that is unlike any that has ever been seen before. While Magneto leads his Mutant Force on a mission that could determine the fate of their species, one of the strangest mutants ever has become an army unto himself, and Fantomex has no plans on letting Emma Frost escape on his watch.
Magneto has led his crack team of mutants headfirst into the Muir Island prison where Emma Frost is being held, crashing through the porcelain walls of her specially designed cell in the hopes that she might help them find the remains of Charles Xavier's mind. Xavier was, unfortunately, one of the many mutants killed by the Squadron Supreme, although Magneto has been hearing his old friend's voice in the back of his mind. This newfound sense of hope has driven Magneto to bring Emma back with him to unearth whatever it is that Charles left for them, but escaping the prison proves to be a difficult task, as two members of Magneto's teammates are eliminated by the guardian of the prison, Fantomex.
First introduced in 2002's New X-Men #128 by Grant Morrison and Igor Kordey, Charlie Cluster-7 aka Fantomex is a result of the Weapon Plus program, the same shady organization responsible for the creation of Wolverine. Fantomex was born in and artificially aged in The World, a man-made environment that utilized Sentinel tech in its pursuit of super soldiers. Engineered to have three brains capable of independent thought and processing as well as a detachable, self-aware nervous system, Fantomex is capable of consciously removing pain from the equation while his superhuman healing factor keeps him going when the going gets even tougher. Fantomex has long played the role of the lethal hero as a member of multiple iterations of X-Force, but Heroes Reborn has given him a new role to play.
Almost a dozen Fantomex clones show up heavily armed and decked out in ceramic armor specifically designed to protect against psionic attacks. The Fantomex at the head of the charge has ensured that everyone understands the stakes by killing Misters One and Two, though that doesn't stop Frenzy and Jubilee from unloading everything they have at the Fantomex Team. It's a good show, but hardly enough to end the fight before the Squadron shows up. Luckily, Magneto has just the thing right at his fingertips, and with a wave of his hand he has disassembled his own wheelchair and hurled the sharp metal shards at every Fantomex still standing. As resilient as Fantomex normally is, it doesn't appear that these mass produced versions of the mutant are anywhere near as durable, as Magneto's attack violently proves.
It could be that all of these different bodies each housed one of the original Fantomex's brains, a concept introduced when Fantomex was mistakenly given a separate clone for each of his brains after his death. There's also the possibility that these are in fact just mass clones that are inferior to the original.
There may not be much more Fantomex action in store for the rest of Heroes Reborn, but at the very least it's good to see that he hasn't been lost in the shuffle of this horribly remade world.
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