Mister Sensitive

Mister Sensitive (real name Guy Smith) is a fictional character from Marvel Comics, who was a prominent castmember in the X-Statix series. He first appeared in X-Force vol. 1 #117 and was created by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred.

Fictional character biography

Guy initially took the codename "The Orphan" because he believed that he was orphaned in what appeared to be an accidental fire that ravaged his home when he was three years old. However, Guy later discovered that his parents were alive and serving jail time for starting the fire in an attempt to kill their unwanted mutant child. Distraught, Guy tried to kill himself by pointing a revolver at his temple; however, there was only one bullet in the cylinder. Russian roulette became Guy's nightly ritual, and he accepted his candidacy to X-Force hoping that the team's high mortality rate would speed his death along.

He joined X-Force after the majority of the team was killed in the Boys R Us massacre. Though he was a new member, he was appointed leader of the team; he held the position until he was replaced by the Anarchist. Despite his suicidal tendencies, Guy had a high regard for human life, and he was the team's most genuinely heroic member. When X-Force was ordered to hand over a young boy named Paco Perez (a mutant analogue of Elián González) to the United States government because his mutant body was a treasure chest of possible cures and medicines, Guy made the controversial decision to hide the boy safely out of the government's reach. He decided that one life was not an acceptable sacrifice, no matter what cures could have been found by "strip-mining" Paco.

Guy became romantically involved with X-Force member U-Go Girl and helped her come to terms with her own difficult past. Sadly, Edie was killed in their last mission as X-Force. Guy had a nervous breakdown after the incident, and he once again became suicidal. He took on the homicidal, super-powerful Arnie Lunt alone (thinking that Arnie would pass judgment on him and decide if he deserved to live or die), and then let him on to the X-Statix team. Lunt was then assassinated by Lacuna at Guy's request. Shortly after, he quit the team, and was suspected of being a criminal when an extra dimensional being stole many of Professor X's armor suits and called itself "Bad Guy". He returned to the team after Bad Guy's defeat and became fully romantically involved with Venus Dee Milo, though Guy's lingering feelings for U-Go Girl often brought tension to the relationship. He was killed in issue #26 of X-Statix along with the rest of the team in what was going to be their retirement mission.

X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl

Mister Sensitive returned in a new mini-series, X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl, which was released in January 2006. In issue #2, Guy was revealed to have gone to heaven following his death (as opposed to the Anarchist, who went to "the other place".) There, he was free to meditate in a vast, empty space, where there was no extra stimuli to distract him or hurt him. He was also reunited with his beloved U-Go Girl, but she found herself unable to commit to one man for all eternity, and pushed him away. It turned out that being in heaven had made Guy more sensitive emotionally, rather than physically, and after encouragement came into his own again, leading the assembled team of heroes. U-Go Girl decided to turn back on her decision after this display of leadership.

Powers and abilities

Mr. Sensitive was a mutant with a variety of powers. The most obvious aspects of his mutation were his purple skin and two antennae protruding from his forehead. He possessed superhuman enhanced senses and a radar-like detection ability from his antennae. He could sense vulnerability, whether emotional or physical, and possessed a corresponding superhuman reflex/reaction rate and level of coordination. If exposed to too much external stimuli, his senses would overload and he would have a seizure. Guy relied on meditation to help alleviate the constant pain (for even a fine mist felt like needles stabbing his skin) until Professor X developed a special suit and ointment to dull his senses and allow him to live a normal life.

Having spent time training in Asia learning various martial arts, Mr. Sensitive was also an extremely capable hand-to-hand fighter. He was noticeably able to strike at "nerve points" with superhuman accuracy, paralysing enemies or putting them to sleep, and was also able to levitate, which was explained as an extremely difficult martial arts skill he actually mastered due to his perfect control over his own senses.

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