Xavin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Xavin | |
 Xavin displaying his abilities on the cover of Runaways, volume 2 #20. Art by Jo Chen. |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Runaways, volume 2 #7 |
| Created by | Brian K. Vaughan Adrian Alphona |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Xavin |
| Species | Skrull |
| Place of origin | Tarnax VII |
| Team affiliations | Runaways |
| Abilities | Shape shifting, elasticity, superhuman strength, resistance and durability, invisibility, telekinetic force field creation and projection, self-immolation and fire manipulation. |
Xavin is a fictional character that appears in the Marvel Comics comic book series Runaways. Xavin is a Super-Skrull in training. He first appeared in Runaways, vol. 2, #7.
[edit] Fictional character biography
Xavin journeys to Earth to find Karolina Dean. Karolina's parents betrothed her to him, assuming that Xavin and his parents would perish while fighting the Majesdanians, their alien race. Xavin encounters Karolina shortly after her romantic advances are rejected by her friend Nico Minoru. Xavin, trying to convince Karolina to be his bride and return to unify their homeworlds, fights and pursues her runaway friends. Xavin finally tells Karolina that he won't force her to marry him, but he hopes that she will come with him to witness the animosity between their two races. He says that their marriage might end the war between the Skrulls and the Majesdanians. Karolina reveals that she is not attracted to men and doesn't want to live a lie, but Xavin alters his form to that of a human woman and persuades her to leave with the new female version of Xavin.
During the wedding ceremony, a fight breaks out between the two races, and Xavin and Karolina barely escape before the planet is destroyed. They return to Earth, where they help Karolina's friends rescue their friend Molly Hayes from the new Pride. Xavin impersonates Nico and takes a bullet for her, distracting Geoffrey Wilder long enough for Nico to untie Molly and escape.
Xavin joins the group but has trouble adjusting to his/her new surroundings and getting along with his/her new teammates, particularly Victor, whom he/she often offends with condescending remarks about robots. Although he/she is aggressive and headstrong, Xavin is motivated to protect his/her new home by his/her love for Karolina. Though he/she spends much of his/her "down time" in female form, Xavin usually reverts to the male Skrull form when in battle insisting that it adds to a more intimidating persona, despite Karolina thinking that it is sexist, yet still spends some time in male human form as well.
In Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways, Noh-Varr, a Kree from an alternate reality, breaks Xavin's neck, and the Skrull is presumed dead. Xavin later rights his broken neck and attacks his captor, escaping the Cube prison facility with Karolina, Wiccan and Hulkling.
Weeks later Xavin is more well adjusted, refraining from insulting Victor and becoming close to Molly (the only teammate other than Karolina to always refer to Xavin as female). However, Xavin is still more or less an outcast to the other members. Like the other Runaways, Xavin is an orphan (he told the group when he first appeared that his parents were dead because of the aliens' war). He also calls himself a runaway when he reveals his identity to Geoffry Wilder.
In the upcoming solicitations for the Runaways/Young Avengers tie-in to Secret Invasion, Xavin is revealed to have betrayed the Runaways and sided with the Skrulls.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Xavin, being a Skrull, has the species' natural ability to shape-shift. Xavin was also a member of a Super-Skrull-training program to create a new generation of Skrull warriors. As such, Xavin has the powers of the Fantastic Four: Mister Fantastic's ability to stretch and contort his body into any shape imaginable, Invisible Woman's power to render herself invisible and ability to create and project invisible powerful psionic forces to create any shape imaginable, Human Torch's pyrokinesis and flight and The Thing's superhuman strength and highly resistant, orange-colored, rock-like hide.
As stated by Xavin, he/she is still a Super Skrull in training, and can only use one of the Fantastic Four abilities at a time. Any more would invariably make Xavin lose control of his/her powers and be a harm to his/her surroundings. An example would be when Xavin was bombarded with high frequency sounds and lost control over his/her powers resulting in an explosion that destroyed a house. However, recently, he/she has shown the ability to control two of his/her powers at once in addition to his natural shapeshifting abilities.
[edit] Question of gender
Due to Xavin often changing through his/her three main forms, (Human female, true Skrull form, and Human male) has caused both characters within the comic and fans to question the nature of his/her gender.
As a Skrull, a race of shapeshifters, Xavin stated "For us, just changing our gender is no different than changing our hair color", implying that most Skrulls change their looks often. When asked by Molly about why he/she doesn't stay in one form all the time, Xavin replied that it was simply his/her nature to do so and doesn't see a problem in it, though it causes Xavin to start questioning his/her own nature.
Karolina is fixed on the idea that Xavin is female, and that Xavin isn't pretending to be a woman, just learning to be human. Although Karolina does truly love Xavin, even so much as to deny Xavin disguised as Nico, she does become depressed when a discussion of what Xavin's true form is comes to play between her and Nico.
In Civil War: Young Avengers/Runaways Xavin is noted as being almost always in male form even when he/she would normally be female in the main book (i.e. the opening in issue 1 when the group went food shopping). Most fans seem to assume that it was a writer's or editor's choice to leave that part out. In Joss Whedon's six-part version, Xavin is shown going into his Skrull form as a female, so becoming male seems almost unnecessary. When the group is in the year 1907, Xavin takes a form of an older white male (both main human forms are black) most likely due to the times. A recent Humberto Ramos design image shows Xavin in a new female Skrull form.
In issue #29, during an argument with Karolina, Xavin loses control and changes form into his/her female form, even more emphasizing for Karolina that Xavin is female, and when asked about it, Xavin replies that he/she didn't realize that the question of gender was in doubt.
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