HELIX
Real Name: Rafael Carago
Identity/Class: Altered human
Occupation: Wanderer
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: The New Warriors (especially Turbo/Mickey Musashi)
Enemies: Jackal (Miles Warren), Spidercide
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile
former the Warriors' Crash-Pad; Springdale, Pennsylvania
First Appearance: Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha (August, 1995)
Powers/Abilities: Helix is a hyper-adaptoid -- he can unconsciously recode his DNA in response to threatening outside stimuli, evolving his body in ways which would normally take a species millions of years to undergo. He can increase in size and strength, grow spines and blades out of his flesh, generate interference to cancel psychokinetic energies in his vicinity, quickly overcome toxins that would send even superhumans into a coma -- but all of this is involuntary, and under no conscious control. The manner his body will develop to overcome an attack cannot be easily predicted; and when the adaptations are no longer needed, his body resets itself to its usual baseline. His body's adaptive capabilities enable him to go toe-to-toe with some of the strongest people on earth -- like Hollywood, an alternate future counterpart of Wonder Man, who got his butt handed to him by a giant Helix.
Height: 7' 11"
Weight: 338 lbs.
Eyes: White, no visible pupils or irises
Hair: Black
History: Rafael Carago's history is a mystery, even to *him*; we only know his real name because it was given in a caption.
(Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha) - Spidercide released the new, improved Carrion Virus in Springdale, Pennsylvania, and the entire populace dropped like flies. Spidercide was joined by his creator the Jackal, and they strolled through downtown -- and didn't notice a man lying in an alley returning to consciousness. This was Rafael, who was discovered by people from the Center for Disease Control; the Jackal overheard their radio report on the survivor, and had Spidercide turn the car around. Helix's skin had darkened by the time the Disease Control personnel restrained him that night; when they injected him with a sedative, he woke up and tore himself free, then escaped. He was watched by Spidercide, who interrupted his inner monologue. The New Warriors and the Scarlet Spider showed up, and Spidercide abandoned Rafael and retreated. The Warriors knocked Rafael unconscious, and he was taken by personnel from Project: PEGASUS. Spidercide mimiced the forms of their helicopter pilot, and escaped with Rafael.
(Spectacular Spider-Man#227 - BTS) - The Jackal experimented on Rafael, leaving him with pieces of clothing that seemed bonded to his skin, and strange darkened, leathery patches on his skin.
(Spectacular Spider-Man#227) -The Jackal was frustrated by his inability to discover how Rafael (who was inadvertently nicknamed 'Helix') not only survived the Virus, but developed Adaptoid powers as well. A pitched battle between lots of Spider-clones laid waste to his lab, and shut off the power, letting Helix escape in an incoherent fugue.
(New Warriors#62) - Helix tore up downtown Manhattan trying to fend off hallucinations of the Jackal and Spidercide attacking him, only to be attacked for real by the Warriors. Their battle was interrupted by the Scarlet Spider, who wrapped Helix in a web cocoon, and explained his plan to once again inject Helix with the same hypermorphic serum that knocked him unconscious in their first battle. While he talked, Helix grew sharp spines all over his body, and tore out of the webbing, engaging the team again. After further combat, the Scarlet Spider loaded his stinger dart launchers with the serum, and shot Helix, who slowly returned to normal. Rather than risk turning him back over to the Jackal, the Warriors decided to hold him in their basement combat room until they could figure out what to do with him.
(New Warriors#63) - The Combat Room's automatic defense systems attacked Helix when he tried to escape, causing him to adapt to the point where the entire team of Warriors had to try and contain him. Naturally, this didn't work, and his escape seemed inevitable -- until the Scarlet Spider realized that if nobody was attacking him, his body had nothing to adapt to, and would return to normal. The team evacuated and resealed the hole he tore, and Helix lost his adaptations and returned to his baseline body.
(New Warriors#65) - In the Combat Room, Helix was eating junk food and watching TV. He turned the channel from The Flintstones to a Spanish station, and said his first word since his transformation: "Bueno."
(New Warriors#68 - BTS) - Justice opened the door to the gym, to allow Helix to go free. Instead, Helix just thanked him in Spanish, and stayed put, to the surprise of the team.
(New Warriors#68) - The Warriors and several of their friends were engaged in a game of Risk in the Crash-Pad; Helix said his first American word, 'Doritos,' shortly before the alternate future team the Guardians of the Galaxy suddenly appeared. The Guardians were hunting a temporal anomaly wreaking havoc on the timestream, and discovered it to be Speedball (actually, his altered duplicate constructed in the future and at that time believed to be Speedball). When the Guardians tried to remove him with force, the Warriors jumped into action -- starting with Helix, who assaulted Hollywood (Simon Williams/Wonder Man) for trying to hurt his friends. Helix held his own not just against Hollywood but the super-strong Charlie-23 as well, until the duplicate Speedball unconsciously 'reset' time to before the Guardians showed up, causing the Omni-Sphinx (the amalgamated creature composed of Anath-Na Mut and Meryet Karim, the two former Sphinxes) to attack instead.
(New Warriors#69) - The Omni-Sphinx attacked Speedball, but the fight moves out of the Crash-Pad before Helix could react, and he was left behind.
(New Warriors#71) - Helix was still standing around the Crash-Pad with Hindsight, Mike Jeffries (the part-time Turbo), Rich Rider (temporarily not Nova), and Niels the Bouncing Cat when Timeslip "blew into the room like Quicksilver, and then went into a voodoo trance" (to paraphrase Jeffries). After more than a half hour, she opened a portal into the kinetic dimension, and let the missing Warriors, including the original Speedball, come home.
(New Warriors#72) - Turbo was giving Helix an English lesson in the Crash-Pad's living room, but when he got distracted by Timeslip and wanted to end the lesson, she let slip that she was planning on leaving the Warriors. She had only stayed this long to help him re-learn English; he found that funny, as he'd only stayed so long because of her. He was ready to seek out his old identity, and would signal them with his Commbadge if he needed help. When the Avengers burst in, he got into a growling match with Hercules, but didsn't get to fight anyone.
(New Warriors#73) - Helix haltingly said his goodbyes in English to Turbo, and promised to call if he needed help, then took off on his quest to find himself.
Comments: Helix created by Tom Defalco and Ron Lim.
There is one Warriors story involving Helix that still remains to be told -- Timeslip's only future vision we never saw come true. Seen only in NW#64, it showed Justice, Alex Power, and Helix falling into a spiral, which may have been a dimensional or time portal.
Clarifications: Helix has no known connection to
The Omni-Sphinx is an informal term to reference the composite creature made up of Anath-Na Mut and Meryet Karim, two people born in Egypt 5,000 years ago, and both who wielded the Ka Stone and called themselves the Sphinx.
Appearances:
Spider-Man: Maximum Clonage Alpha (August, 1995) - Tom DeFalco & Todd DeZago (writers), Ron Lim (pencils), Al Milgrom (inks), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#227 (August, 1995) - Tom DeFalco (writer), Sal Buscema (pencils), Bill Sienkiewicz (inks), Eric Fein (editor)
New Warriors I#62-63 (August-September, 1995) - Evan Skolnick (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Warriors I#65 (November, 1995) - Evan Skolnick (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Warriors I#68-69 (February-March, 1996) - Evan Skolnick (writer), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Andrew Pepoy & Sam De La Rosa (#68) (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Warriors I#71-73 (May-July, 1996) - Evan Skolnick & Dwight Coye (#73) (writers), Patrick Zircher (pencils), Andrew Pepoy (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 01/26/2002
Last Updated: 01/26/2002
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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