Gene Nation
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Gene Nation is a Marvel comics mutant terrorist organization and enemies of the X-Men. They originated from a group of Morlocks that survived the Mutant Massacre by escaping to another dimension.
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[edit] Founding
[edit] First Incarnation
When the mentally unstable Mikhail Rasputin flooded the Morlock tunnels, many were believed dead. However, at the last instant Mikhail used his powers to open a portal into a parallel dimension dubbed The Hill. In this dimension, time moves at a faster rate, and even though it was a matter of months in the main Marvel Universe, it had been between 10-20 years on the Hill.
On the anniversary of the Mutant Massacre, a horrific event in which Mr. Sinister's henchmen the Marauders killed many Morlocks, the members of Gene Nation reappeared in the main universe (Earth-616). Their mission was to destroy one human for every Morlock life that was lost, and also, in a side mission performed by Hemingway and Marrow, to kill some of the original Morlocks. In Marrow's eyes, Leech, one of the few to survive the massacre, was weak and instead of defending his people he hid like a coward. Fortunately, the White Queen, who was trying to recruit Leech to her teenage mutant team Generation X, is able to thwart their efforts. However, with the intervention of the Dark Beast Marrow and Hemingway escape.
Afterwards, a team of X-Men and the Morlock Callisto confront an attack group from Gene Nation including Marrow, Hemingway, Reverb, Sack, and Vessel. In order to assure that their mission succeeds, Marrow alerts the X-Men that she has a bomb strapped to her heart. Seeing it as the only way of stopping the terrorist, Storm rips out Marrow's heart. Callisto takes the remaining members of Gene Nation back to The Hill.
A few months later, Storm is kidnapped by Mikhail and taken to The Hill. Once there she has to fight her way to the top of the hill where Mikhail lives, where she successfully overpowers him. Having won the victory, Storm forces Mikhail to take all of the people living on The Hill back to the real world. In an effort to give the mutants a new start, she settles them in a village outside of her home town in Africa. Unfortunately this village is later attacked by anti-mutant extremists and many members of Gene Nation are murdered.
[edit] Second Incarnation
However, they wouldn't get much of a chance to start over because shortly after they were placed in Africa the Dark Beast gathers some of the original members, along with some new recruits, to form a new team. The express purpose of this team is to capture test subjects for the evil genius, namely the students of Generation X. They succeed in capturing all but the White Queen and the newcomer Gaia and, with the help of Nate Grey, also known as X-Man, they liberate her charges.
[edit] Third Incarnation
The teams' final appearance was in the pages of Weapon X where it is Marrow who is now the leader, having survived her encounter with Storm due to a mutated second heart. After manipulating the perfect killing machine Agent Zero into unintentionally killing his former sidekick, the assassin hunts down and kills every member of Gene Nation in an act of vengeance. However, he spares the life of Marrow because he does not want others to see her as a martyr.
[edit] Members
[edit] Under the leadership of Mikhail Rasputin with the aid of Callisto
- Charm - heightened strength, agility, and reflexes
- Hemingway - can greatly increase his size and mass, also has bone spikes protruding from his back and forearms that can be used offensively
- Loss - razor sharp bone spikes on her wrists
- Marrow - heightened bone growth causes them to grow beyond her body where they can be removed and used as weapons, also an increased healing ability to seal the holes made by the removal of bones
- Reverb - project his psychic talents into the environment around him, giving him an uncanny awareness of his surroundings, also uses his abilities to mentally cripple others
- Sack - semi-liquid form allows him to encase the bodies of others in a clear membrane that allows him to control that person until they asphyxiate
- Vessel - absorbs the "souls" of the recently deceased to increase his size, strength, and invulnerability
Note: Callisto showed a video to the X-Men about Gene Nation that showed Ever as a member, however he never made an appearance with them. He later showed up as a part of Havok's Brotherhood.
[edit] Under the leadership of Dark Beast
- Fever Pitch - a living skeleton from his powers, he generates intense heat at all times from within what is left of his body that can be used offensively in discharges of flame
- Hemingway
- Integer - uniquely exists as a mathematical probability, making him invisible, intangible, and capable of using his binary thought to disrupt the mental functions of others
- Iron Maiden - body made of a dense material that is formed in spikes all along her body, also increased strength, agility, resistance to injury, and reflexes
- Membrain - made of a brain altering mucous that can be reshaped at will or used as projectiles that are capable of stunning opponents, can also leave parts of him behind in an area and mentally access the pieces to be used like a spy camera.
- Opsidian - exists as a being of pure darkness, able to stretch and reshape his form, also able to instill an supernatural feeling of cold and fear in others when he surrounds them
- Vessel
- Wynter - robotic body controlled by remote by the Dark Beast
[edit] Under the leadership of Marrow
- Hemingway
- Vessel
- Many unnamed members
- Maverick (Chris Bradley) Did not leave Gene Nation because he planned on sabotaging the group's terrorist attacks
[edit] Notes
- In between the first and third incarnation of Gene Nation, Callisto fell sick and sent Marrow to live with the X-Men. The love/hate relationship lasted for a few months and eventually Marrow began to feel at home. Her bone growths even fell under control with the help of an alien device that healed her. However, it did not last long as the Six-Month Gap happened and Marrow mysteriously had lost control again.
- Fever Pitch was seen for a short time terrorizing Europe, where he was taken down by Banshee's paramilitary group called X-Corps. Although his group consisted of several members of the X-groups such as M, Jubilee, Husk, Multiple Man, former Alpha Flight member Radius, and the one-time interim X-Man Sunpyre, it also included reformed villains Blob and Avalanche. They captured Fever Pitch and forced him, through brainwashing techniques, to be a member of their group...or so they thought. The villain Mystique had infiltrated the group and was collecting the so-called reformed villains to her side. Joining the shapeshifting mutant, Fever Pitch went on a rampage in Paris, almost succeeding in an attempt to burn down the Louvre. However the combined efforts of the X-Men and the good members of X-corps stop the villains from doing any further damage.
- The insidious Dark Beast resurfaced on the island of Genosha after it had been devastated by Cassandra Nova's wild Sentinels. Nearly losing his life to the Sugar Man, he grudgingly allies himself with Professor X and the ragtag team that he had assembled. It was confirmed in The 198 Files that he has remained powered after M-Day.
- Sack was one of the lucky few mutants who survived the events of M-Day with his powers still intact. Heeding the invitation of sanctuary from Cyclops, Sack went to live on the grounds of the Xavier Institute and has been seen associating himself with Fever Pitch and the former Morlock Erg and nearly incited a riot.
- Scott Lobdell has said that he based Gene Nation's name on Queer Nation in the USA and adapted their ethic of "queer and out here" to form Gene Nation's unswerving moral stance.
[edit] Appearances in Other Media
In the video game X-Men: Legends, Marrow takes a band of Morlocks dubbed Gene Nation and makes a pact with the enemy to enable her people to be able to live on the surface. Even though they never make an official appearance, the premise is similar.
