Caliban (Marvel Comics)

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Caliban
The Uncanny X-Men #148 (Aug. 1981)
Created byChris Claremont
Dave Cockrum
In-story information
SpeciesHuman Mutant
Team affiliationsX-Force
X-Men
The 198
Horsemen of Apocalypse
X-Factor
Morlocks
Notable aliasesPestilence; Hellhound; Hound; Death
AbilitiesPre-alteration:
  • Sensing and tracking other mutants
  • Terror empowerment
  • Sensing and manipulating fears

Apocalypse enhancements:

  • Body augmentation

Formerly:

  • Shadow power
  • Claws and fangs
  • Invulnerability
  • Psychoactive virus generation

Caliban is a fictional character appearing in

Apocalypse as one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse
, first as Death and the second time as Pestilence, and Apocalypse also enhanced his superpowers through genetic manipulation.

The character was portrayed in film by Tómas Lemarquis in X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) and his alternate older version by Stephen Merchant in Logan (2017).

Publication history

Caliban's first appearance was in

The Uncanny X-Men #148 (Aug. 1981), written by Chris Claremont and illustrated by Dave Cockrum
.

Fictional character biography

Caliban, in his original form, with Kitty Pryde. From Uncanny X-Men #169 (May 1983); art by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek.

He is born an albino mutant with a pale complexion and large yellow eyes. At some point in his life, he is banished from his home by his father, who called him

Caliban, after a character from the play The Tempest by William Shakespeare
.

Growing up, a still young Caliban, who speaks in the

Sunder. The Morlocks live in the sewers and abandoned subway tunnels running underneath New York City
, and, like Caliban, most of them had grotesque appearances.

Caliban senses the presence of nearby mutants and enters a New York City nightclub seeking their friendship. He finds Storm, Dazzler, Kitty Pryde, and the original Spider-Woman in the club, and has a misunderstood confrontation with them. Though the battle ends peacefully, Caliban returns to his home underground.[1]

Shortly thereafter, Morlock leader Callisto desires a consort and has the Morlocks abduct Warren Worthington, the Angel and a member of the X-Men, to be her husband. The X-Men arrive in the sewers to rescue their ally, and Kitty is infected with a virus by Plague. Caliban takes her to his quarters to care for her. Kitty pleads with Caliban to allow her to assist her teammates. Caliban agrees, but only if she will return after the fight and stay with him. Though Kitty promised to stay with him forever, she left and returned home.[2] Weeks later, Callisto, vengeful after losing a one-on-one battle with X-Men leader Storm, orders the Morlocks to kidnap Kitty to force her to marry Caliban, knowing Storm would return. Caliban, however, realized Kitty did not truly love him and released her from her promise. Kitty then became Caliban's friend.[3]

Caliban was later temporarily magically merged with Professor X by Kulan Gath during a confrontation with the sorcerer.[4]

X-Factor

During the

Right's soldiers and was nearly killed by them;[11] then he aided X-Factor in rescuing the Right's mutant captives.[12]

Horseman of Apocalypse

Not long after that, X-Factor's immortal enemy

Apocalypse kidnaps the entire team after changing Angel into Death. Caliban, intrigued by Apocalypse's transformation of the fallen Angel, betrays X-Factor and asks Apocalypse to do the same to him. Agreeing, Apocalypse promises to give Caliban enough power to gain revenge against the Marauders who killed his Morlock family.[13] Caliban agrees to become Apocalypse's servant and locator of mutants. Apocalypse renames him Hellhound.[14] Caliban senses the telepathic cry of Val-Or.[15] Through genetic manipulation, Caliban becomes the second Horseman of Apocalypse known as Death.[16]

When Apocalypse had re-located to the moon in a confrontation with the original X-Factor and the Inhumans, Caliban returns to the Morlock tunnels. There, he locates

Sabretooth, a ferocious mutant and member of the Marauders, who is stalking the sewers to find and kill more Morlocks. In combat, Caliban breaks Sabretooth's back and leaves him for dead, not realizing that he has a healing factor.[17] Caliban then attacks and defeats Archangel.[18] He later finds and defeats Sabretooth again.[19]

As Death, Caliban performs various tasks for his new master, serving as his warrior servant. During the

Famine, Caliban kidnaps Cyclops and Jean Grey so Apocalypse can give the pair to the mad telepath Stryfe, who believes the couple to be his parents.[21] Famine, War, and Death then battle the X-Men and are defeated by them.[22]

X-Force

Eventually, the loner Caliban defeats Apocalypse's control at the cost of his mental faculties. At one point, when Sabretooth is a reluctant X-Men member, the mutant detector kidnaps X-Man

Jubilee in exchange for the savage mutant, but he flees when Sabretooth mauls his face.[23]

Though mentally unwell, he retains enormous physical power and is befriended by the mutant

Cable. Oddly, Caliban's color shifts from white and monstrous to a semi-friendly Ogre-like form that is purple in coloration. Cable invites Caliban to join his team X-Force. Caliban has many adventures with the team, such as confronting Mojo and his forces, and when Apocalypse's enemy Mister Sinister
infiltrates the X-Mansion, Apocalypse's mental leash causes him to savagely maul Sinister. He also has several confrontations with Sabretooth during this time.

Return to Apocalypse

After some time, Apocalypse returns and takes Caliban away from X-Force. This time, Apocalypse makes him his new Horseman Pestilence (coincidentally, the former Pestilence was Caliban's Morlock ally Plague). This time, Apocalypse augments Caliban's physical power even more and gives him the ability to spread telepathic disease as well. This time, Apocalypse's horsemen include Ahab, Deathbird, and Wolverine. After Apocalypse is merged with Cyclops, Caliban tracks down the merged being, and is freed from his service shortly before Cable destroys Apocalypse's spirit.[volume & issue needed]

Released from his servitude to Apocalypse, Caliban once more reverts to his childlike state although he retains the monstrous physique he attained through Apocalypse's machinations. Subsequently, Caliban is captured by an anti-mutant medical research facility called the Watchtower. The Watchtower wishes to use Caliban for their own purposes but he is freed by X-Force. Caliban has devolved into a feral mental state where he only grunts and snarls but he manages to help X-Force against a menace called the

Skornn.[volume & issue needed
]

Post M-Day

After

Johnny Dee, a mutant who had puppet-like control over a fraction of the team. The original X-Men team went to collect the 198 but Bishop's pro-registration team stopped them. After a short battle, the two sides teamed up and, thanks to a joint effort by Cyclops and Bishop, were able to free the 198.[volume & issue needed
]

Seeking The X-Men

Caliban later aids the Uncanny X-Men team after he is seriously injured by Masque,[24] and crawls his way back to the Xavier Institute. Caliban enters the Morlock Tunnels with Warpath, Storm, and Hepzibah and find what Masque was talking about.[25]

Messiah Complex and Death

Caliban becomes part of a strike-force, who are in search of the first newborn mutant since

Warpath, and Hepzibah (all of whom, except Hepzibah, form the new incarnation of X-Force). During a battle with Lady Deathstrike and the Reavers, Caliban sacrifices himself to save Warpath by jumping into the path of a line of bullets meant for him. His death distracts Warpath making Wolverine the only X-Force member to chase down Cable.[26]

Necrosha

During the

Cypher and began reviving him.[28] Through him Selene resurrected many deceased mutants,[volume & issue needed] and as she faced X-Force, she digested their powerful life-force energies that would help extend her life.[volume & issue needed
]

Dawn of X

Caliban was one amongst many of the fallen mutants revived by The Five on the homeland of Homo Superior called Krakoa, he was shortly gunned down by assailants who invaded Krakoa.[29]

Powers and abilities

Caliban is a

Spider Woman (Jessica Drew).[1]

He is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained by

Apocalypse.[volume & issue needed
]

As Death, he attained superhuman strength, speed, agility, reflexes, coordination, balance, endurance, claws and fangs as well as imperviousness to physical injury through Apocalypse's genetic manipulation.[30] He also has great skill at climbing and possesses superhuman leaping ability. He was also mentally conditioned to attack Apocalypse's former ally Mister Sinister on sight.[31] His fear siphoning abilities had also been augmented and he can now control them as well as cast his power over a much wider net; not only gaining in strength from siphoning the anxiety of others but could harness strengthen and redistribute it in much stronger quantities by force of will.[32] This facet of his bolstered power was dubbed the Shadow of Fear by Caliban himself.[33]

As Pestilence, Apocalypse gave him the ability to generate a mental plague, a virus that attacks from within on the highest planes of the psyche and breaks down the mental functions of the target.[volume & issue needed]

Being reverted to his original form by Masque, Caliban still appears to retain some superhuman strength affected by his adrenaline, as he was shown lifting rubble off of

Warpath to hoist.[volume & issue needed
]

After being reanimated through the Technarch transmode virus, his ability changed to psionically sense not living mutants but dead mutants.[volume & issue needed]

Once resurrected after the rise of the new mutant homeland, he resumed his muscular physical appearance he had when he was a Horseman of Apocalypse and before Masque warped his excess flesh away.[29]

Reception

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the

Domino, using his powers to track down Nate Grey. In this incarnation he is an egotistical coward who is nonetheless well-learned in literature and a skilled swordsman. He is killed by Toad, a member of the Outcasts.[35]

House of M

In the House of M reality, Caliban is seen as a member of the Genoshan Black Ops version of the Marauders.[volume & issue needed]

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel reality, Caliban appears in the pages of Ultimate X-Men #82 as a member of the Ultimate Morlocks. His look is somewhat different, as he is now portrayed with a darker grey color instead of chalk white. He is also a stronger physical combatant and has the ability to change into a hulking monster.[36]

X-Factor Forever

In X-Factor Forever, Caliban appeared as a henchman and Horseman of Apocalypse.[37]

In other media

Television

Film

  • Caliban appears in X-Men: Apocalypse, portrayed by Tómas Lemarquis. This version is an underground broker.[38][39]
  • Caliban appears in
    Zander Rice
    manipulates him into helping them properly by promising him that the trio will not be harmed. Upon seeing Transigen's clone operative X-24 kill Xavier, Caliban rebels against his captors and sacrifices himself to give Logan and Laura time to escape. Rice later recovers Caliban's body and orders his scientists to extract his tissue in the hopes of using his powers in future experiments.

Video games

Caliban appears in X-Men: Destiny, voiced by Bob Glouberman.[citation needed]

Merchandise

  • Caliban in his Horsemen of Apocalypse form received an action figure in Toy Biz's X-Force toy line.
  • A Build-A-Figure of Caliban was released in Hasbro's Marvel Legends line.

References

  1. ^ a b The Uncanny X-Men #148
  2. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #169-170
  3. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #179
  4. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #190-191
  5. ^ X-Factor #11
  6. ^ X-Factor #12
  7. ^ X-Factor #15
  8. ^ X-Factor #17
  9. ^ X-Factor #19
  10. ^ X-Factor #21
  11. ^ X-Factor #22
  12. ^ X-Factor #23
  13. ^ X-Factor #24
  14. ^ X-Factor #25
  15. ^ X-Factor Annual #3
  16. ^ X-Factor #50
  17. ^ X-Factor #51
  18. ^ X-Factor #53
  19. ^ The New Mutants #90-91
  20. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #294
  21. ^ X-Factor #84
  22. ^ X-Force #16
  23. ^ The Uncanny X-Men Annual #18
  24. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #487
  25. ^ The Uncanny X-Men #488
  26. ^ New X-Men vol. 2 #45
  27. ^ X-Force #11
  28. ^ Necrosha X one-shot
  29. ^ a b X-Force vol. 6 #1
  30. ^ X-Factor #52-53
  31. ^ X-Force #57 (Aug. 1996)
  32. ^ X-Factor vol. 1 #50
  33. ^ X-Factor #51-53
  34. ^ June 09, Darren Franich Updated; EDT, 2022 at 12:31 PM. "Let's rank every X-Man ever". EW.com. Retrieved 2023-01-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  35. ^ X-Man #3
  36. ^ Ultimate X-Men #82
  37. ^ X-Factor Forever #3 (2010)
  38. ^ "X-Men: Apocalypse will feature Marvel mutant Caliban". BBC. May 27, 2015. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  39. ^ Jamie, Lovett (May 26, 2015). "New X-Men: Apocalypse Official Set Photo Confirms Caliban". Comicbook.com. Retrieved May 28, 2015.
  40. ^ "Inside 'Logan': Wolverine 3 Plot Details Revealed (Exclusive)". The Wrap. October 5, 2016. Retrieved October 5, 2016.

External links

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