ADAM-X
the X-TREME
Real Name: Adam
Neramani
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (Shi’ar) mutant (see comments)
Occupation: Wanderer, former Bloodhound
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Avalanche,
Beast, Captain Marvel
(Genis), Cyclops, Hazard (Carter Ryking), Hellion, Jonath,
Lorelei, Match, Meld, Shatterstar (Gaveedra), Philip Summers, Sunspot,
X-Force;
formerly Neurotap,
Project: Wideawake (indirectly), Martin Henry Strong
Enemies: Arcade, Crystal Claws, Dark X-Men (Cloak, Dagger, Daken, Emma Frost, Mimic, Namor, Weapon Omega), Drenx pirates, Eric the Red (Shakari), Henry Gyrich, Humanity Now!, Juggernaut (Serpent-possessed), Miss Locke, Mister Sinister (see comments), Martin Henry Strong, Simon Trask
Known Relatives: D’ken (father) (see comments)
Aliases: Disciple of the Claw, the Forsaken One, the X-Treme
Base of Operations: San
Francisco, USA;
formerly Strong Industries, Denver,
Colorado
formerly Ch’ylaritha (Shi’ar Empire)
formerly Ch'reesharaa (Shi'ar Empire)
First Appearance: X-Force I Annual I#2 (1993)
Powers/Abilities: Adam-X has the ability to cause oxygenated blood (blood set loose from a bloodstream, via a cut or other) to “flash fry” in a painful electronic surge. He can use this ability on the blood of humans and, presumably, other living creatures as well. His outfit is equipped with a multitude of blades, called Thet’je blades, attached to it that he relies on to open the cuts required to cause a flash fry. Adam is also an incredibly fast runner, and can travel a matter of miles in minutes. He has exceptional, if not superhuman, athletic abilities, as well, and is very skilled with swords.
Height: 6'2"
Weight: 210 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
History:
(Captain Marvel III#3 (fb)) - The boy who would one day be called Adam-X was raised on the planet Ch'reesharaa by a famer named Jonath.
(X-Men II#39 (fb)) – The future X-Treme
used a Shi'ar
spacecraft called a Kjeth'ya Scout Craft to outrun a Dreadnought ship.
(X-Force I Annual#2 (fb)-BTS) – At some point, the young man began working for Strong Industries, run by Martin Henry Strong, as a Bloodhound, a person who specialized in tracking down other mutants for Strong. He was given the name “Adam-X” and the code name “X-Treme.”
(X-Force Annual I#2 (fb)) – After Michelle Walters arrived at Strong Industries and began working alongside Adam X, the two fell in love.
(X-Force Annual I#2) – When Walters, now dubbed Neurotap, fled Strong Industries, Adam-X was sent after her, but his attempt to capture her was foiled by X-Force. After managing to give every member of the group a simultaneous “flash fry,” Adam opted to escape. He then set his aircraft’s tracking system on them, planning to follow them. He tracked them to the Grand Canyon, where they ambushed him. After a brief battle, the members of X-Force managed to talk sense into Adam, and he led them back to Strong Industries, where several of their members had already infiltrated to rescue their captured teammate, Feral. To keep from being discovered a traitor, Adam had to flash fry a willing Rictor and Boomer to get them inside the compound. Once there, the three confronted and attacked Martin Strong, with the rest of the X-Force team teleporting in shortly after. Unfortunately, during the battle, Neurotap revealed to have been working with Strong all along to lead X-Force back to the base. Torn by the betrayal, Adam flash-fried her, then, with Cable’s help, did the same to Strong. With Strong, now revealed to be a deformed mutant, not the ultra-powerful being he had led others to believe, defeated, the team left. They offered Adam-X a chance to join them, but he declined, citing his need to find out more of who he really was.
(X-Force I#29 (fb)-BTS) – Arcade was hired to test and kill both X-Treme and the X-Force member Shatterstar. He decided to accomplish this goal by letting them fight to the death.
(X-Force I#29) – After a captured Shatterstar managed to survive several of Arcade’s attacks, the villain set loose Adam-X, to bring his plan into motion.
(X-Force #30) – With Arcade taunting them via monitors, the two fought, all the while trying to figure out some way to mutually escape. They did so, making their way to Arcade’s main location. He attempted to bribe Adam with the name of the person who he was hired by, but ate the paper it was written on. Shatterstar then stabbed Arcade, revealing the trickster to be a robot. After leaving the grounds, the two parted ways, with X-Treme determined to find out who Milbury, the name on the paper he recovered, was.
(X-Men II#38) – Adam visited an imprisoned Hazard (Carter Ryking), hoping to gain leads on the name “Milbury,” who apparently worked for or with Hazard’s father years ago. Ryking directed him to Charles Xavier.
(X-Men II#39) – While trekking the Alaskan lands, Adam came across a crashed single-engine plane. Pulling the surviving pilot from the wreck, he attempted to keep the old man, Philip Summers, alive. Building a tent during the snowstorm, Adam kept conversation with the dying Summers, trying to keep him active and warm. As Philip began to succumb to hypothermia, Adam attempted to use his mutant abilities in a way he never had before, and slicing the man’s palm, sent a gentle amount of flash fry surge through the man’s bloodstream. The next morning, a search team found Philip, alone but alive. Later, at a hospital, Philip’s grandson Scott (the X-Man known as Cyclops) and Jean Grey arrived to comfort the now-blinded man. As they waited in the commissary, Grey mentally realized someone had entered Philip’s room, and going to it, found Adam by his bedside. Adam asked Grey to use her telepathy to send images of him using a Shi’ar ship to outrun a larger enemy ship as a way to let Summers relive his own pilot days one last time. With this done, Adam left.
(X-Men II#41) – Under unknown circumstances, at the moment the mutant known as Legion went back in time and accidentally caused the death of Professor X, X-Treme was in the midst of a fight with the Shi’ar alien Davan Shakari, a.k.a. Eric the Red.
(X-Men II#41/Captain Marvel III#2 (fb)-BTS, #3 (fb)-BTS) – Eric the Red apparently defeated Adam. He then spent time brainwashing the young Shi'ar.
(Captain Marvel III#2) - Having obtained Kree information that the son of Mar-Vell had come to Earth and was seeking to disrupt the two decade-old plans of the Crystal Claws, Davan Shakari sent X-Treme, Disciple of the Claw, to do what he had been born and bred to do--to kill the son of Mar-Vell.
(Captain Marvel III#3 (fb) - While resting on the beach in Rio de Janerio, Genis, the son of Mar-Vell, was attacked by Adam. The two fought briefly, before Genis opted to shift them both into the Negative Zone, which caused Shakari's brainwashing to be negated.
(Captain Marvel III#3) - Adam and Genis climbed a mountain in the Andes Mountain Range of Argentinia, where a Shi'ar outpost was hidden from the world. The two tried to sneak in, but were quickly detected by Shakari, who sent a squadron of Sidri guards after them. The Sidri were quickly defeated by the two. Eric the Red made his presence known, and had fought the two to a stalemate, revealing to Adam that he was the lone heir of D'ken, former emperor of the Shi'ar Empire. When Genis noticed Shakari had received a small wound on his arm, he gave the signal to X-Treme to flash-fry the alien.
(Uncanny X-Men I#513) - Sitting in a bar in San Francisco with fellow mutants Match, Lorelei, Avalanche, Meld, Hellion and Sunspot, Adam X railed at the increasing and violent anti-mutant sentiment, particularly as directed by Simon Trask and his Humanity Now! movement. They decided to protest and break curfew by assembling at Union Square Park. Broadcast on television, the H.A.M.M.E.R.-endorsed team of so-called Dark X-Men led by Emma Frost then teleported in and attacked the group to arrest them.
(Dark Avengers#7) - The two mutant groups fought, with Adam X up against Dagger, who kicked him into Cloak's teleporting robe. He landed in the H.A.M.M.E.R. base at Alcatraz, where he, along with his friends, was bound, fitted with a blinding power-dampening helmet and incarcerated.
(S.W.O.R.D.#1) - Adam X was targeted by S.W.O.R.D.'s co-director, Henry Gyrich, to be expelled from Earth in his quest to rid the planet of aliens.
(S.W.O.R.D.#2) - Classed as a Shi'ar hybrid, Adam X was transferred from a H.A.M.M.E.R. holding cell to S.W.O.R.D. facilities.
(S.W.O.R.D.#5 - BTS) - Freed by Beast, Adam X was returned to Earth in the wake of an attack by Drenx pirates.
(Uncanny X-Men I#542) - Cyclops called on Adam X to help stop the Serpent-empowered Juggernaut by igniting his blood, but this only enhanced his destructive capacity.
Comments: Created by an Fabian Nicieza, Antonio Daniel, Mark Pennington, Bob Wiacek, Brad Vancata, Keith Williams, and Keven Conrad.
Adam-X was intended, at least from X-Men II#39 on, to be a third Summers brother. The theory is that he would have been a half-brother, on their mother’s side. Katherine Summers was supposed to have been kept in D’ken’s harum before being killed, and sired his son. The whole “third Summers brother” subplot was dropped eventually though, after many clues had been placed. Mister Sinister had made allusions to such, and given that he has at times used the alias Milbury, it is obvious he is the one who had hired Arcade. It’s too bad, as Fabian was quickly turning Adam (I personally hate the “X-Treme” codename) into a worthwhile character, especially in his encounter with Philip Summers. Unfortunately, once Fabian was taken off the X-books, his plans for Adam-X fell through (notice Fabian was then the only writer to use the character). A subtle hint at this is his debut, where he works as a “Bloodhound” for Strong, very similar to how Scott Summers’ divergent-future daughter Rachel Summers worked as one for the government in her own timeline.
While Adam is often considered to be suffering
from amnesia,
that is not the case. He knew all along what race he was, and had all
memories of being raised by his adoptive father. Apparently, he just
didn’t know where he came from before he was adopted, or how
he ended
up on Earth. Even as a member of the Shi'ar race, he apparently is a
true mutant.
On a personal note, Adam-X is one of my favorite Marvel characters ever. I really feel he got the short stick of the deal because of the stupid "X-Treme" codename that cashed in on that whole fad.
X-Treme has an entry in Marvel Legacy: The 1990s Handbook.
His full name was revealed in Uncanny X-Men I#513.
Profile by Madison Carter
Clarifications:
Adam-X, the X-Treme, has no known connection to:
images:
Captain Marvel III#3, cover (main image)
X-Men II#39, page 16, panel 4 (head shot)
Appearances:
X-Force Annual I#1 (1993) -
Fabian Nicieza (writer), Greg Capullo (pencils), Harry Candelario
(inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Force I#29 (December,
1993) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Mat Broome (pencils), Bud LaRosa
(inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Force I#30 (January,
1994) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Tony Daniel (pencils), Kevin Conrad,
Jon Holdredge & Jason Gorder (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men II#38-39
(November-December,
1994) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Andy Kubert (#38) & Terry
Dodson (#39) (pencils), Matt Ryan (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men II#41 (February,
1995) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Andy Kubert & Ron Garney
(pencils), Matt Ryan (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
Captain Marvel III#2-3
(January-February,
1996) - Fabian Nicieza (writer), Ed Benes (pencils), Mike Sellers
(inks), Mark Gruenwald (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#513
(September, 2009) - Matt Fraction (writer), Terry Dodson (pencils),
Rachel Dodson (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Dark Avengers#7
(September, 2009) - Matt Fraction (writer), Luke Ross (pencils), Rick
Magyar, Mark Pennington & Luke Ross (inks), Tom Brevoort
(editor)
S.W.O.R.D.#1-2 (January-February, 2010) - Kieron Gillen (writer),
Steven Sanders (pencils), Craig Yeung (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#542 (October, 2011) - Kieron Gillen (writer), Greg Land
(pencils), Jay Leisten (inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
First Posted: 05/20/2005
Last updated: 09/18/2013
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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