Elixir (comics)
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Elixir (Joshua "Josh" Foley), is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe, and a student at the Xavier Institute and a member of the New X-Men. He first appeared in New Mutants (second series) #5, and he is one of only 27 students to maintain his powers in the wake of House of M. He is currently training with the New X-Men squad trained by Emma Frost.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
In his first appearance, Joshua "Josh" Foley is a member of an anti-mutant group led by Donald Pierce called the Reavers. When Cerebro detects a mutant in the area, Danielle Moonstar and Karma are sent to investigate. The Reavers attack Moonstar's New Mutants squad and one of Josh's friends is hurt. Josh's mutant power manifests itself and he is "outed" after healing mortally-injured Laurie Collins.
Rejected by his friends and his family, Josh reluctantly goes to the Xavier Institute and becomes Prodigy's roommate, a situation that neither finds appealing. To make matters worse, Josh's parents give legal guardianship to Danielle Moonstar. The New Mutants eventually reach out to Josh, and he begins to accept his place at Xavier's.
Shortly afterwards, a depowered Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) visits the mansion. Josh is instantly smitten by the new "wild child" Rahne, and sneaks out of the X-Mansion at night to go to a bar where Rahne is playing pool. Josh realizes that her new attitude is a way of letting out instincts she had previously been able to blame on "the wolf." The two kiss, and Josh heals away the effects of the weapon that had depowered her - but she loses control, slashing Josh open and howling to the moon. Fortunately, Laurie comes across the scene and scares Rahne away with her powers.
As Elixir is rushed to the mansion's infirmary, Beast reveals the full potential of Josh's power: he can manipulate all the body's functions on a genetic level. The fact that Josh only healed was simply inexperience. They put him on an I.V. drip, but with Archangel, the mansion's other healer, absent, there is little hope. Prodigy, realizes that Josh could heal himself if only he was awake, and Beast reluctantly goes along with the plan. Surge wakes him up, and Laurie keeps him calm long enough to for him to heal his wounds. However, as a side effect, Josh turned his skin and hair to a reflective gold color.
Josh and Rahne continue to see each other secretly for a few months until Rahne sees him on a date with Laurie, and breaks the relationship off for good. Josh is depressed in at first, but eventually realizes that it was for the best and pursues a relationship with Laurie. However, Wither also has a crush on Laurie, and reveals Rahne's and Josh's relationship to the school.
Surprised by his involvement with a teacher, the rest of the New Mutants team - except Surge - ostracize him. Eventually, the New Mutants squad's in-fighting begins to affect their ability to act as a team. Concerned with the future of her team, Wind Dancer convinces everyone to get together for a camp-out so they can work through their issues with one another. The evening ends with Josh speaking candidly with Icarus about his disappointment with his actions. Josh is overheard by the other members of the team, and he is reconcilled with David and Laurie.
[edit] Decimation and Childhood's End
The events of House of M leave only 27 students with their powers, including Josh. Fearing their safety, Emma Frost orders the depowered students and staff, including Josh's guardian, Danielle Moonstar to leave the Institute. However, one bus of depowered students is bombed by anti-mutant zealot Reverend William Stryker, killing all on board. Josh is unable to heal them in time, and becomes severely depressed and loses confidence in his abilities.
All of the remaining students take part in melee fight organized by Emma Frost to determine who would be a member in the new group of X-Men in-training, and despite his non-combat powers, Josh makes the team. During one of their first training sessions, the New X-Men sparred with Colossus. Caught up in his emotions over the students killed as a result of Stryker's bus attack, Josh hits the powered-down Colossus over the head with a metal beam. Furious with his action, Emma temporarily kicks him off the team.
Afterwards, Laurie and Josh argue about Josh's place on the New X-Men. Laurie explains that Emma was all wrong, that the team was merely about "violence and fighting," whereas Elixir could do a "beautiful thing." However, Josh tells Laurie that when he tried to heal DJ, "I could feel him dying...his life bleeding out of him," and that "when he died, he took piece of me with him, a piece of me died, too." At that moment, Laurie is killed by a bullet fired by one of Stryker's agents.
Laurie's body and a distraught Josh are found by several of the X-Men and students. When Wolverine tries to restrain Josh from Laurie's body, his mutant power manifests and causes painful boils or blisters to appear on Wolverine's hands and wrists. When Stryker begins his attack on the institute Josh sits unreponsively in the infirmary. However, Josh comes to his senses, and enraged over the death of Laurie, kills Stryker. This action has the unforeseen result of turning his golden skin metallic black, and Josh goes into a catatonic state.
According to David, the thing that Josh did with Stryker not only affected him physically (his black metallic skin) but also altered his brain chemistry.
They are keeping him calm with sedatives, but this has not met any success.
When X-23 was mortally wounded and unable to heal during the final battle with Nimrod, Hellion rushed her back to the institute (with help from Emma Frost who unlocked the part of his brain which controlled his powers). Julian gave a motivational speech, and got Josh to get over the past, healing Laura and returning his skin to its gold color (although some black parts remained, that was probably just residual blackness fading away).
Shortly after it was discovered that a small part of black still remained on his skin, moving over it from place to place. Josh also stated he could still kill but he would need to learn how to control it. At the end of the same issue he was seen at a memorial done to remember all the students who were killed in Stryker's raid of the school.
[edit] Aproach on Life
After Josh revived from his coma he seems to have taken a more peaceful approach to life. It's not sure as of yet but in New X-men #31, Rockslide stated," Since Foley's gone all zen, we'll proably need a replacement." Since reviving from his coma, Josh has been seen wearing a white almost hippie like shirt, even during the funeral service.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Elixir is an Omega-level mutant, capable of controlling the biological structure of any organic matter including his own body. He is still inexperienced in the use of his powers, and the limits of his abilities are unknown. Currently he mostly uses his powers for healing, at which he is very skilled. He must be in close proximity to whomever he heals, but can heal through clothing.
At present, Elixir has healed both simple and serious injuries from broken bones to mortal wounds. He also restored Wolfsbane's powers and altered his own DNA. Recently, Elixir has displayed the ability to harm as well as heal, such as causing painful boils and welts to appear on the flesh of his enemies. He even used his powers to kill William Stryker, although Prodigy hypothesizes that he was never meant to use his powers in this manner.
[edit] Alternate versions
- In the House of M reality, Josh Foley was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., serving alongside Agent Kevin Ford (Wither) as interrogator. Foley and Ford were in charge of "persuading" Cameron Hodge, a member of the Human Liberation Front, to reveal the location of his terrorist cell. Josh uses his power to "speed up the body's biological functions," and combined with Agent Ford's power, they are able to create a net effect that causes a part of the terrorist to die and then regenerate, a process Foley describes as "quite painful". Before Ford and Foley begin torturing Hodge, Agent Noriko Ashida (Surge) interrupts them, prompting Ford and Foley to attack her. She incapacitates them both but Foley manages to use his power to rupture her blood vessels and cause her lungs to fill with blood.
[edit] Trivia
- When Josh turned himself gold, Dani theorized that he subconsciously made his outside match his internal desire to be the "golden boy." Other speculation may be the writers poking fun at his codename, as in alchemy, the Philosopher's Stone, which is required to make the Elixir of Life, is also capable of turning any metal into gold.
- Josh's position as an anti-mutant organizer who discovers that he is a mutant mirrors a common psychological theory which stipulates that homophobic people who act out their feelings do so to repress their own sexual identity.
- Josh being a mutant hater and temporarily joining Donald Pierce mirrors the circumstances under which the original New Mutants were formed with him taking the place of Cannonball who was hired by Pierce to kill the other kids, but eventually switched sides after discovering that he was nothing but a tool.
