WICKED
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutant (depowered);
Genoshan citizen
Occupation: None
Group Membership: "Excalibur" (Book/Annika, Broadband, Callisto, Dark Beast/Hank McCoy of Earth-295, Freakshow/Kevin, Shola Inkosi, Magneto/Max Eisenhardt, Omega Sentinel/Karima Shapandar, Professor X/Charles Xavier)
Affiliations: Chimère's gang (Hack, Hub, Purge), Luna Maximoff, Quicksilver (Pietro Maximoff)
Enemies: Appraiser, Cassandra Nova, Genoshan Magistrates, Inhuman royal family (Black Bolt/Blackagar Boltagon, Crystal/Crystalia Amaquelin, Gorgon, Karnak, Medusa/Medusalith Amaquelin), Major Lazer and O*N*E, Mystique (Raven Darkholme), Sentinels, Stripmine, Sugar Man, Unus' gang (Caiman, Glamour, Hub, Lightning Rod, Shocker/Randall Darby, Toad/Mortimer Toynbee, Toad-In-Waiting, Unus/Gunther Bain)
Known Relatives: Unidentified parents (deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Hammer Bay, Genosha
First Appearance: Excalibur III#1 (July, 2004)
Powers/Abilities: Wicked could summon and command the spirits of the deceased. These spirits could levitate, pass through solid objects, and physically interact with solid matter. They could also be wounded by physical attacks. Wicked was able to call up and control hundreds of ghosts at a time. She shared an empathic link with them and experienced excruciating pain when they were damaged.
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 99 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Excalibur III#1 - BTS) - Among the many millions of mutants living on the African island nation of Genosha was a young girl who could summon and command the spirits of the dead.
(Excalibur III#6 (fb)) - The girl who would become Wicked encountered Earth-295's Hank McCoy, better known as Dark Beast, who handed her a teddybear resembling himself. Taking a liking to her, he would visit her at night to watch "his precious" sleep.
(Excalibur III#1 - BTS) - Developing a rebellious streak in her teens, the girl had a tattoo put on her left arm: a skull inside a red heart.
(Excalibur III#7 (fb) ) - Arguing with her mother who disapproved of her provocative clothing and thought her child "wicked", the girl wished her mother was dead. She inadvertently got her wish when seconds later Cassandra Nova's Sentinels attacked Genosha, slaughtering millions including both her parents.
(Excalibur III#1 - BTS / X-Men: Earth's Mutant Heroes - BTS) - The girl survived the onslaught. Now on her own and convinced her mother was right to hate her, she took "Wicked" as her new name. She started to live in the wreckage of Hammer Bay where she befriended another teenage mutant survivor, the shape-shifting Freakshow. Wicked was upset at the fact the so-called mutant heroes the X-Men hadn't prevented the attack.
(Excalibur III#1) - Wicked witnessed the arrival of X-Men's former leader Charles Xavier. He had come to Genosha to help rebuild efforts, inspired by the death of his longtime friend Magneto (who turned out to be the imposter Kuan-Yin Xorn). Although Wicked tried to hide herself, Xavier's telepathy picked up her thought. He asked her to come out of hiding. Realizing she couldn't hide from a telepath, she complied and asked Xavier where the X-Men were. Xavier explained he was alone now, but before he could question her some more Wicked grew frustrated and snapped at him for not preventing the decimation of Genosha. Xavier tried to apologize, but noticed the appearance of several ghosts, leading Wicked to explain her mutant ability to summon the dead. To show her powers, she mentioned that since Genosha had millions of them she was quite powerful. Wicked commanded the ghosts to Xavier and carry the heavy casket Xavier had brought (containing Kuan-Yin Xorn's corpse, weaponry and other items Xavier needed). However just then the two noticed a group of mutants running towards them. They were part of Unus' gang. Xavier realized the mutants meant to harm them and used his telepathy to freeze them in their tracks. This led to Unus confronting Xavier and Wicked, but the fight was cut short by Freakshow who was telepathically instructed by the professor to intervene. He turned into a giant monster and swallowed Unus whole, much to Wicked's amusement. With the immediate threat dealt with, Wicked and Freakshow helped Xavier carry the coffin to a nearby abandoned compound where the real Magneto was waiting for Xavier.
(Excalibur III#2) - Wicked and Freakshow went for a walk. However, lugging Unus around in his belly gave him a massive stomach ache. Wicked reassured the boy the pain would pass. Wicked then noticed a tentacled woman (Callisto) enter Xavier's compound and decided to check it out. There she saw how Callisto was about to kill Magneto with her knives and decided to act. Wicked summoned several ghosts that grabbed Callisto and carried her outside of the compound. But when Callisto broke free and threw her knives at the ghosts Wicked's empathic link to the spirits caused her to feel their pain. She screamed in agony, leading Callisto to come to her aid. Freakshow misunderstood her intentions and was ready to attack. However, his stomach acted up, causing him to cough up Unus. The heroes were delighted to see the humiliated villain beat a hasty retreat, covered in Freakshow's stomach contents. Callisto carried Wicked inside the compound to see Magneto and Xavier. Once Callisto ordered to check if Wicked was doing well Freakshow alerted Wicked to the fact Magneto was actually there, the former ruler who had supposedly died in the attack on Genosha. Wicked immediately grew enraged, blaming Magneto for failing his people. Magneto gave her his word it would never happen again after which Xavier explained they could try to build something even better. This promise led to the unofficial formation of the Excalibur team.
(Excalibur III#3) - The following day Wicked and Freakshow were out for a walk when they spotted Callisto in the distance using her tentacles to carry Xavier. Wondering why they were in such a hurry, several parts of an airplane came crashing down, almost killing the teenagers. The debris belonged to an airplane carrying both Omega Sentinel Karima Shapandar and the telepathic Shola Inkosi who were kept in stasis pods. Wicked and Freakshow dodged other falling parts but when they thought the ordeal was over they were stunned by the arrival of a large group of Magistrates, descending from the sky ready to kill every mutant in sight.
(Excalibur III#4) - Wicked and Freakshow were so stunned by seeing the Magistrates they couldn't move. The quick thinking Callisto intervened and saved the teens from certain death. They watched Unus' band of mutants attack the Magistrates, with Caiman biting off his opponent's head. Callisto decided to join in, just as they were joined by the mutants Hub and Purge. After they teleported away, Wicked and Freakshow helped Callisto fight the Magistrates. However, they were about to lose until the newly freed Shola Inkosi took out all their opponents with a telekinetic forceblast. Meanwhile Magneto and Xavier found Prime Sentinel Karima Shapandar and successfully bypassed her Sentinel-programming. Rid of her Sentinel-programming Shapandar joined the fight and defeated the last of the Magistrates. Xavier took the soldiers prisoner, which didn't sit well with Unus who took his team to confront Charles in his beachside headquarters. Unus demanded that Xavier handed his prisoners over to him, claiming there was no law on the island. Xavier, flanked by Magneto, Callisto, Karima and his young allies, told off Unus and made him turn away. Later that night Wicked and Xavier's allies gathered as Xavier asked them to help him and Magneto run Genosha.
(Excalibur III#5) - Plagued by nightmares of the Sentinels' carnage on Genosha, the mildly telepathic combat telekinetic Shola Inkosi went for a midnight run. In the end, he was so overwhelmed by the images of death and destruction he involuntarily released a massive telekinetic blast at the giant Sentinels that still stood like skyscrapers on the island. Wicked was close by when it happened and speeded towards Shola who'd fallen unconscious. But as she was tending to the boy, Wicked was unaware a group of trolls who belonged to Stripmine and Appraiser, two modern-days pirates were about to attack them. One of the trolls suddenly grabbed Wicked by her head, threw her to the side and injected both Wicked and Shola with a sedative, taking them prisoner.
(Excalibur III#6 (fb) - BTS) - Wicked, Shola, Karima, Callisto, Magneto and Xavier were all imprisoned by Stripmine and his right-hand "man" Appraiser who'd neutralized the prisoners' mutant abilities with microbial nannites. Stripmine had been hired by an unknown client (in reality the Dark Beast) to destroy three X-Corps buildings around the rim of the Indian Ocean (Mumbai, Singapore and Nairobi) in order to disable the global Cerebra network in that specific part of the world. As a result, the X-Men would be unable to monitor the situation on Genosha allowing the pirates to capture Xavier's crew.
(Excalibur III#6) - Wicked and the other prisoners were visited by Appraiser and Stripmine himself who tasked Appraiser to evaluate the powers and physical worth of Omega Sentinel. Wicked watched as Magneto failed to stop Appraiser after which she used her abilities on Omega Sentinel creating a hologram which showed all of Omega Sentinel's valuable parts. Seeing the hologram, Omega Sentinel instinctively activated her integral interdiction system causing the hologram to disappear. Enraged at the nerve of her prisoner Appraiser threatened to sell Omega Sentinel for spare parts. But before the situation could escalate any further Unus the Untouchable walked into the room, revealing he too was part of Stripmine's plan. However, Unus quickly realized Freakshow was missing amongst the prisoners and alarmed them to try and catch him still. Making sure they could trace their prisoners wherever they would go Appraiser used her abilities to create special collars that Wicked and the others received but when it was Shola's turn he decided to act and unleashed a powerful telekinetic blast which destroyed the entire compound. When the dust settled, Wicked witnessed Unus attack Shola, followed by a rock falling on top of Appraiser's head. With her out, the special collars she'd created to dampen their powers also disappeared, allowing Wicked and the others to act. However, Wicked was then attacked by Stripmine's trolls. Magneto rescued her and promised to keep her safe as they tried to flee. The group was unaware Dark Beast joined the fight himself and easily took Shola out.
(Excalibur III#7) - Wicked was hiding in some wreckage, seeking shelter from the pouring rain while Xavier and his friends thought of a plan to rescue Shola and Omega Sentinel from Stripmine and his trolls. In an effort to infiltrate the group, Freakshow transformed himself into one of the Trolls. Freakshow pretended to deliver Xavier and Callisto as his prisoners, but Dark Beast easily saw through the ruse. He grabbed Freakshow thinking to have defeated Xavier, while failing to notice several ghosts appearing from the floor. The apparitions freed Omega Sentinel who quickly ended the fight by threatening to kill Dark Beast.
(Excalibur III#8) - Determined to rebuild the nation of Genosha Wicked and Freakshow were put to work as well. While Shola leveled the last of the ruined buildings Freakshow, transformed into a large creature that ate his way through the ruins leaving behind clean, arable land. Magneto tasked Wicked and her ghosts to search the remaining buildings for anything useful. She also had to mark any significant pieces of ferrous material that Magneto could use. Magneto also introduced two new members to their team, the mutants Book and Broadband. Later that evening, Broadband entertained his new friends by tapping into the Indian ocean satellite, pirating the latest US hit TV shows. A little while later, he picked up a live newsreport about the destruction of Avengers Mansion and replayed it for his newfound allies. Magneto, busy constructing new settlements, heard the news and was so concerned for the fate of his children Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch that he used his magnetic powers to generate a wormhole that took him directly to New York City to investigate matters. Some time later, when Wicked and the others were sleeping, Magneto returned with the unconscious Scarlet Witch.
(Mystique I#23) - Learning Mystique had attempted to assassinate Xavier (forced by Shepard to save her friend Shortpack) Wicked, Freakshow, Shola and Omega Sentinel joined to hunt her down. Mystique, however, managed to escape Genosha.
(Excalibur III#9) - While Magneto was off taking care of his daughter and Callisto and Xavier further searched the island for survivors Shola and Wicked teamed-up and built several new habitats for them to live in. Later that day they witnessed the arrival of teleporter Hub who brought a group of children Xavier and Callisto had found trapped in a train wagon. But as Callisto wondered if Dark Beast had already returned with the supplies he and the group of Magistrates should get, the furry blue mutant arrived, seemingly beat up he claimed all of the Magistrates had been killed after which he fell unconscious. Unbeknownst to Wicked and the others, Earth-295's Sugar Man had taken up residence beneath Genosha. The brutal extradimensional slave master had killed the Magistrates and severely injured Dark Beast.
(Excalibur III#10) - While the others took care of Dark Beast, Callisto took Wicked to check out Dark Beast's warnings that there was a danger in the catacombs. The veteran told the rookie to use her ghost forms to search the grounds, even though whatever hurt her ghosts would hurt her as well. Wicked sent one of her spirit forms in, discovering the corpses of the Magistrates that had accompanied Dark Beast. Unaware of the Sugar Man's presence, the spirit was torn apart by his razor sharp claws, causing Wicked so much pain she passed out. This convinced Callisto she needed to take an active hand and brought Omega Sentinel with her to investigate matters. Callisto and Omega Sentinel came eye to eye with Sugar Man. In the end, Callisto won by beating the villain with a pipe until he passed out. She and Karima then raided his stash for all the food and medical supplies they needed.
(Excalibur III#12) - For unrevealed reasons Wicked was summoning all the ghosts of Genosha. Magneto, who was working hard with Xavier to find a means to save the sanity and life of his beloved daughter the Scarlet Witch suddenly noticed a ghost rising through the floor of their home. Magneto followed the ghost to the balcony where he saw Wicked surrounded by thousands of ghosts. Seeing the ghosts of the deceased Genoshans Magneto was reminded why they had to cure his daughter to save millions of mutants to come.
(House of M#8 - BTS) - Wicked was one of the many millions of homo superior who lost their powers when a reality altering spell cast by the Scarlet Witch reduced the number of gene active mutants to a mere 300 worldwide.
(New Avengers I#17 - BTS) - Wicked's mutant energies joined with those of the other depowered mutants, creating the Collective, a massive force presence that ended up killing, among others, most of the members of the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
(New Avengers I#18 - BTS) - SHIELD analyzed The Collective's multiple energy signatures and managed to identify Wicked's, along with 50+ other victims of M-Day.
(Son of M#5) - Thoroughly depressed about losing their powers, Wicked and the other members of Charles Xavier's Genoshan inner circle were approached by Quicksilver and his daughter Luna Maximoff. Recognizing the speedster as the son of Magneto, they eagerly listened to his promise of returning their mutant abilities through inhaling the mists of the Terrigen crystals he stole from the Inhumans. Wicked was the first to take a whiff of the Terrigen vapors followed by Freakshow. After a few seconds Wicked's eyes began to glow up with blue light as she manifested several ghosts proclaiming her powers were back. Freakshow also regained his monster-like appearance, seeing the two of them the others quickly followed and used the Terrigen vapors. Having missed her ghosts Wicked welcomed them back, however, Luna noticed something was wrong. And as Wicked turned around she was shocked to see the ghosts of her deceased parents, asking why she left them and called her a nasty selfish tramp. Wicked tried to protect herself as the ghosts attacked her but then disappeared as soon as they'd appeared. Hack and Quicksilver quickly came to her aid, noting there would be some anomalies in her restored powers. Moments later, Magneto arrived with an injured Callisto, whose mutations had gotten out of control after Quicksilver exposed her to the Terrigen process. Father and son fought for a while until Luna broke up the battle and Magneto left. Wicked and the others decided to get Callisto to the nearest hospital.
(Son of M#5 - BTS) - The newly re-empowered teleporter Hub took Callisto to a Manhattan hospital, but her powers were so faulty it took her a full day to get back, almost drowning by accident on the way. When news of weirdly re-empowered mutants reached O*N*E Director Lazer, he sent out a strike force to Genosha to investigate the matter just as the Inhuman royal family arrived on Earth to reclaim their stolen property.
(Son of M#5) - The Inhumans eventually learned their crystals were on Genosha, instantly travelling there courtesy of Lockjaw. They briefly fought Wicked and the others who didn't want to give up their source of power. The conflict was interrupted by Lazer and his forces. They took out Quicksilver with a tranq-dart.
(Son of M#6) - Lazer took control of the situation, offering Wicked and the other Terrigen afflicted ex-mutants medical aid. Now clearly suffering from unwanted side effects, Wicked, Purge, Freakshow and the others agreed to get help. They boarded a O*N*E helicopter and left for parts unknown.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), Igor Kordey (see comments), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks).
Allegedly, the effects of Terrigenesis were only temporary. Wicked presumably returned to her depowered state soon afterwards.
Just why Dark Beast was interested in Wicked and what their relationship was is unrevealed. It's clear from the copy that Dark Beast met the girl some time before the destruction of Genosha (she is seen sleeping in an actual bed, with clean sheets and an intact bedroom. And this scene took place before she got a tattoo, which occurred right before Cassandra Nova's Sentinels attacked. It's possible Dark Beast had plans for Wicked, but since she's been depowered we'll probably never know for sure.
Wicked was designed by Croatian artist Igor Kordey who had been hired to draw Excalibur. Kordey had finished much of the first two issues before he was fired and replaced with Aaron Lopresti. This is what Kordey had to say about the experience in a May 2004 interview with The White Space:
Hi Igor, let's start with latest bad news, your removal from Excalibur books! What did it happen?
They fired me "suddenly", four months after I was officially appointed as Excalibur artist and already finished the first cover, the book and half of interiors. Their official explanation was that my style doesn't fit to their "core" books. Judging by new cover made by other artist, circling the comic-websites just two days after i got fired, this decision was not so sudden, it was planned before. They just let me working to keep my mouth shut.
Did you speak with Chris Claremont about what happened? What did he tell to you?
He was very surprised when I told him about what's going on. He didn't have any idea about new decisions. Management likes to keep people in the dark and treat them like sheeps. People may say about his stories whatever they want, but they suffered mostly because awkward editorial interferences.
Don't you think that your style is too far from superhero mainstream comics?
You know what, I think they don't deserve me. Yesterday on ComiXfan I saw preview pages for Excalibur, same story, but done by other artist. and there is my comment (again a Croatian proverb): jumping from horseback to donkey. More and more i have a feeling that i was throwing pearls before swine. I actually got permission to show my cancelled penciles on my website after first Excalibur book is published, in may; then you'll see what i'm talking about.
Kordey indeed published the pages to the first two issues of Excalibur on his website, and what a difference indeed to the work Lopresti had done afterwards. I personally love them. You can see the work is a continuation of his work on X-Treme X-Men. Callisto still looks exactly like she did when part of the Arena and Wicked is a far more feral-like girl wearing a giant monster-like mask to cover her face. Wicked's ghosts are also different in his original work, all of them have a similar shape and face. Its not hard to see where Kordey got his inspiration for Wicked and her ghosts, the Japanese Studio Ghibli movie Princess Mononoke (1997) where a savage-looking girl wears a similar mask living in a forest with similar looking forest spirits.
Wicked received a profile in X-Men: Earth's Mutant Heroes (2011).
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Wicked has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Excalibur III#6, cover (mainimage)
Excalibur III#6, p15, pan4 (Dark Beast taking care of Wicked)
Excalibur III#7, p13, pan5/6/7/8 (origin)
Excalibur III#4, p23, pan3 (forming Excalibur)
Excalibur III#10, p7, pan3 (hurt by Sugar Man)
Son of M#5, p5, pan5 (summoning her deceased parents)
Appearances:
Excalibur III#1 (July, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#2 (August, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#3 (September, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams & Andrew Pepoy (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#4 (October, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#5 (November, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#6 (December, 2004) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#7 (January, 2005) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#8 (February, 2005) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#9 (March, 2005) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams & Sean Parsons (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Mystique I#23 (March, 2005) - Sean McKeever (writer), Manuel Garcia (pencils), Raul Fernandez (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#10 (April, 2005) - Chris Claremont (writer), Aaron Lopresti (pencils), Greg Adams & Brad Vancata (inks), Mike Marts (editor)
Excalibur III#12 (June, 2005) - Chris Claremont (writer), Cliff Richards (pencils), Will Conrad (inks), Stephanie Moore (editor)
House of M I#8 (December, 2005) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Oliver Coipel (pencils), John Dell, Scott Hanna & Tim Townsend (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Avengers I#17 (May, 2006) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato Jr. (pencils), Joe Pimentel (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
New Avengers I#18 (June, 2006) - Brian Michael Bendis (writer), Mike Deodato Jr. (pencils), Joe Pimentel (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Son of M#5 (June, 2006) - David Hine (pencils), Roy Allan Martinez (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Son of M#6 (July, 2006) - David Hine (pencils), Roy Allan Martinez (pencils & inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 03/18/2018
Last Updated: 03/18/2018
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and
© 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you
like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com