Locus (comics)
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| Locus | |
 Locus (left) with Skids |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Force #27 |
| Created by | Fabian Nicieza & Matt Broome |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Unknown |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | Mutant Liberation Front |
| Abilities | Teleportation, Self-levitation |
Locus is a fictional mutant villainess in the Marvel Comics universe. She was first introduced as a member of the Mutant Liberation Front in the comic title X-Force under the leadership of Reignfire. She has been many places and multiple ethnicities; unfortunately the mystery that is Locus was taken to an early grave.
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[edit] Fictional character biography
After the Mutant Liberation Front (MLF) were incarcerated by the United States government following the events of the X-Cutioner's Song crossover, a tyrannical despot named Reignfire decides to restart the MLF. He breaks Forearm, Reaper, Wildside, and Tempo out of prison and gives them their first mission: kill Henry Peter Gyrich. With the addition of Locus and Moonstar the team is under way, however their assassination attempt is foiled by X-Force. When Locus tries to kill Gyrich, Sunspot jumps in the way and something unexpected happens: the two mutants' powers react and send the pair disappearing to parts unknown. Due to the nature of Locus' powers and Sunspot's well-traveled tenure with both the New Mutants and X-Force the couple could be virtually anywhere in the galaxy. Cable and the rest of X-Force attempted to search for Sunspot using a modified version of Cerebro, but they have no luck.
After six months of searching, Locus mysteriously appears—at this point Caucasian with blonde hair and a white, downward arrow painted on her face—at X-Force's base. She claims to have been to the farthest reaches of space, and was surprised that they had only been gone for six months, as it seemed like longer. She had even had enough time to learn the Kree language. At this time, Reignfire begins to hunt down his followers, taking Wildside and Forearm out first. All would have been lost if not for X-Force and Locus teleporting in to stop the madman.
In their last appearance, the MLF once again is trying to steal data on the Legacy Virus, this time from a government institution who is trying to manufacture their own strain of the disease. They infiltrate the building and take the scientists hostage, but—once again through the sabotaging efforts of Moonstar—X-Force is let in the building to try and stop them. During the hostile takeover, Wildside and Locus get in an argument and he slaps her on the face. Infuriated, she teleports away, not knowing that by doing so she saved herself some prison time. It turns out that three of the scientists reveal themselves to be Prime Sentinels and begin to attack. The two groups pool their resources to try and survive, but only X-Force—with Moonstar and Forearm in tow—manage to escape. The remaining members of the MLF are captured by operatives of Operation: Zero Tolerance.
When next she surfaced it was as an African-American, still working with the recently alive and sentient Reignfire. They attempt to capture Sunspot, who is visiting his former teammate Skids in college. In another strange twist of fate, Locus' powers adversely interact with Skids' force field and the two women are transported to the Balkan country of Latveria. The pair are then captured by an age-old sorceress named Pandemonia, the self-styled Queen of Chaos, who sought to recruit mutants into her own personal army. However, X-Force, with the assistance of the young sorceress Jennifer Kale, manage to defeat Pandemonia and rescue their ally.
Locus' final moment is when the revamped Weapon X Program began to get underway. The Program had meant to recruit Locus as a much-needed teleporter, and sent new agent Washout and Brent Jackson to do so. But an enraged Sabretooth—who had stolen the Weapon X files and escaped from the Program—had killed the young girl to spite them, and they arrived to find her body.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Locus has the ability to teleport herself, other people, or other objects only to anywhere that she or they have been before. This makes her different from other teleporters like Nightcrawler who can teleport himself to anywhere he can visualize. She also has the ability to levitate. More sinister is her ability to select parts of people or objects (say a hand or head), and teleport them away, leaving the rest behind, with deadly results. She also displayed the power to fire energy blasts as well.
[edit] Notes
In her first appearances, she was shown as a white woman with long blonde hair. Ever since Operation:Zero Tolerance, Locus has appeared as African-American. The reason for this is quite baffling, but several answers may apply:
- It could be a secondary mutation.
- In hiding from the agents of Zero Tolerance, Locus may have undergone cosmetic surgery or other changes (tanning/skin bleach, hair extensions) to adjust her appearance.
- There could be two girls with exactly the same power who happened to choose exactly the same code name and ally themselves with exactly the same maniacal individual.
- It could have been a retcon by Marvel Comics in order to portray more ethnically diverse characters.
- Initially it could have been a colorist error that they decided to go with.
- It could be to clarify that she is not Illyana Rasputin, as in her first appearances she was mistaken for Magik.[citation needed]
