X-PRESS
Real Name: Pan Fo Hwat
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Laundryman
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters (customers)
Enemies: Unrevealed
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed - presumably Westchester, NY
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Marvel Year-in-Review '93 (1993)
Powers/Abilities: X-Press can move at superhuman speeds.
History: (Marvel Year-in-Review '93) - Despite being stuck in a wheelchair, for several years Pan Fo Hwat provided a laundry service to Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Eventually his constant exposure to minute traces of radiation in the garments he washed granted him superhuman speed (and presumably fixed his legs - see Comments). Taking the name X-Press, he used his new abilities to clean up messes made by malevolent mutant menaces.
Comments: Created by Tom Brevoort and Mike Kanterovich.
X-Press was one of five joke characters whose origins were given in the Marvel Year-in-Review '93 for the article "I created a new character for Marvel and all I got was this lousy trading card!", which took a derisory look at the spate of new characters introduced in Marvel's 1993 annuals (Face Thief, Bantam, etc.). After ridiculing the characters who had actually appeared, the article then listed "...and the ones that got away", noting "Believe it or not, there were some characters who didn't make the cut for the Superstars of Tomorrow. That's right...they were too weak even to fit in with this bunch. Here's a peek." Only a paragraph worth of text description was given, and no images, so the details above are pretty much the entirety of the character's existence. Joke character or not, he's Appendix worthy, and presumably is owned by Marvel, should some demented writer ever decide to actually use him.
Each character, both those that had been used and the five parodies, had bullet-points listing the schticks the new characters embodied. In X-Press' case, it was "Mutant or Mutant Wannabe" and "Ethnic" - since the existing option of "Physically Challenged" wasn't also listed, presumably his power gain also restored his ability to walk.
It isn't clear if Xavier's School were Pan Fo Hwat's only customers, especially in the early days when there were fewer X-Men whose clothing needed kept clean. It's also unclear whether he just washed their civilian gear, or whether he also cleaned their costumes (and was either trusted not to reveal their civilian identities, or else somewhat dim and somehow never put two and two together). Though the origin states it was radiation that gave him his powers, I'm not sure the X-Men are actually radioactive; perhaps it was minute traces of mutant genetic material, making X-Press the first known person to use (a very raw form of) MGH?
Profile by Loki.
CLARIFICATIONS:
X-Press has no known connections to
images: None
Appearances:
Marvel Year-in-Review '93 (1993) - Tom Brevoort & Mike Kanterovich (writers), Evan Skolnick (editor)
Last updated: 08/19/13
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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