Skids (character)

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Skids
Skids. Art by Salvador Larroca.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Factor #7 (August 1986)
Created by	Louise Simonson Jackson Guice
In-story information
Alter ego	Sally Blevins
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Morlocks The 198 Acolytes New Mutants Mutant Liberation Front X-Terminators X-Corporation S.H.I.E.L.D.
Abilities	Force field generation

Skids (Sally Blevins) is a fictional mutant character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Created by writer

#101-104 (2018).

Fictional character biography

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Morlocks

Little has been revealed of Sally Blevins' past. As a teenager, when she was abused by her stepfather, her mother Matilda was fatally injured in the altercation, and her stepfather fled when her mutant power subsequently manifested to protect her.

Before the evil mutants could take them in, a mob of humans attacked Freedom Force. In the confusion, Skids and Rusty escaped. Skids tried to get Rusty to the safety of the underground home of the Morlocks, but Freedom Force caught up with them again, this time in the sewers beneath New York. The Force member Blob was pounding Rusty into the sewer wall when the mutant hero team X-Factor arrived. After a brief skirmish, Freedom Force retreated and Skids and Rusty were left in X-Factor's hands.^[5]

X-Factor, X-Terminators, and New Mutants

With X-Factor's mentorship, Skids and Rusty began to learn more about their powers, and were the first of several X-Factor trainees.^[6] They shared other adventures alongside the rest of X-Factor's trainees, at one point calling themselves the X-Terminators.

During the

Shortly after the Age of Apocalypse storyline, a mutant body (Holocaust) was discovered floating in space near Avalon. It was brought on board. While on guard duty watching over the thought-to-be frozen body, Rusty's life force was drained by Holocaust, killing him.^[17] Holocaust then destroyed the Avalon space station leaving Skids stranded on a piece of debris plummeting away from the station, struggling to maintain her force field. Skids was rescued by Jean Grey and taken to the X-Men's mansion for medical attention.^[18]

College

Skids had become a college student, studying biological sciences. She was contacted by her friends in

Shortly afterwards, X-Men founder Charles Xavier (who also founded the X-Corps initially) had the network disbanded when he decided the world had become too dangerous for mutants in the public sector, and Skids presumably returned to a civilian life.^{[volume & issue needed]}

M-Day and Apocalypse

When the reality warping-mutant the

Later, Skids and the X-Men are captured by Masque's crew. Masque wants to initiate a war between humans and remaining mutants via a devastating terrorist attack, and leave his captives' corpses at the scene to further de-legitimize Xavier's vision. The captives escape, and while the X-Men defeat Masque, Skids leaves the scene with Qwerty's book.^[volume & issue needed]

Skids found Magneto at a local cemetery and gave him the book, informing him that she would get into a lot of trouble if her actions were discovered. She stated that the book said Magneto was still a mutant.^[22]

Powers and abilities

Sally Blevins is a mutant with power over a semipermeable personal protective deflection field. It provides nearly total protection from all attacks except those of insufficient force, like gas. Her force field disperses energy assaults, reflects kinetic impact off itself, and negates friction making it impossible to hold on to her. Skids cannot be grabbed or entangled when using her powers. This also makes her immune to Masque's powers, as he cannot touch her.^{[volume & issue needed]} Skids can move at speeds which are faster than running, by "skating" the surface of her force field across other surfaces.

Originally, Sally was unable to turn off her force field but learned with practice. By concentrating, she can extend her force field to protect others in her immediate area, at least up to 30 cubic feet (0.85 m³).

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In 10th anniversary of the Age of Apocalypse, Skids made a brief appearance. Like many other mutants not deemed worthy enough to serve Apocalypse, Skids' was one of many inmates in the Breeding Pens that escaped after the fall of Apocalypse. She along with a trail of escaped mutants took residence in the sewers and created once again the Morlocks society. They did not trust any outsiders, not even the X-Men, now mutant hunting officers of the newly restored human government, when they ventured into Morlock territory, inviting them to come and live with them in the surface world. The Morlocks lashed out at them for fear of being locked up and thrown back into cages by them. Due to the experiments she was put through in the Breeding Pens, Skids' powers have been mastered to such a point that she could shield herself and several others from Storm's lightning bolts. Nonetheless, the X-Men would emerge victorious and the Morlocks were brought back to the Xavier Institute where they were detained. Their fates after being remanded into government custody is unknown.^[23]

What If

In the reality shown in What if (vol. 2) #85, Xavier and Magneto set their differences aside peacefully, and Avalon was left undisturbed in Earth’s orbit. However, Magneto’s dream of a peaceful haven for mutants did not come true, for no more than ten years later, his Acolytes were at each other's throats. Some of them wanted to move Avalon to another galaxy, thinking that they were still too close to humanity’s influence, whereas the others believed that they should kill humanity and conquer Earth for themselves. Rusty and Skids stayed away from either side and the constant fights, them being busier with themselves, as they were expecting a child. Hank McCoy helped to deliver Avalon’s first baby, and examining the boy, he found something special in his genetic make-up. Apparently the son of Sally and Rusty, Sean Collins, was the next step in human evolution – Homo ultima – capable of choosing and altering his mutation at maturity. As the word spread, the different Acolyte factions put their differences aside, and feeling threatened by the arrival of a new race, they teamed up to attract Rusty and Skids and kill their baby. With Sean dead, Sally and Rusty turned their back on the Acolytes and returned to Earth. The boy was a normal mutant; Magneto had faked the test results, well aware that his Acolytes needed a common enemy to unite against.^{[volume & issue needed]}

In other media

Skids made a non-speaking appearance in the X-Men: The Animated Series episode "No Mutant is an Island" as a mutant recruited by the Purple Man.^[24]

References