An X-Man ally and veteran member of Cable’s X-Force team just pushed his powers to a whole new level, becoming the most powerful member of his team.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Excalibur #12, by Tini Howard, Marcus to, Erick Arciniega, and VC’s Arianna Maher, on sale now.
Dawn of X has seen major changes to the X-Men landscape, from the declaration of Krakoa’s statehood to the conversion of many mutants from villain to law-abiding citizen of the fledgling mutant nation. One character who has undergone seismic changes is Rictor, and Excalibur #12 demonstrates just how far the formerly powerless mutant has come.
Currently, Excalibur features a team made up of Captain Britain, Gambit, Rogue, Jubilee, Apocalypse and Rictor. While they are fighting on behalf of Krakoa, Apocalypse’s methods are at times a little unsightly. The most recent issue sees the team split between Otherworld and Krakoa. On Krakoa, Apocalypse has gathered the Externals in the hopes of using the power in their ancient mutant bones to create a new gateway into the Otherworld. In order to complete his sacrifice, he enlists the help of Rictor, who demonstrates a level of power over the Earth that had yet to be seen from him. The mutant bursts forth from the caldera of an active volcano wielding the magma around him and using it to disintegrate the Externals.
Rictor first appeared in Louise and Walter Simonson’s X-Factor #17 back in June of 1987. Rictor has been a member of X-Factor, the New Mutants, and X-Force. All the while he has struggled with his incredibly powerful, but hard to control, ability to manipulate seismic activity, and create Earthquakes. He was later depowered in House of M and joined X-Factor Investigations as a detective, with his powers finally being restored in Allan Heinberg and Jim Cheung’s Avengers: The Children’s Crusade #6. His has had its fair share of ups and downs, but he is one of the sad characters who have a history of viewing their abilities more as a curse than a blessing. While he is incredibly powerful, he does not have particular control over his powers and thus has never truly been showcased as a powerhouse prior to the events of Excalibur.
This sudden power-spike has its beginnings in Excalibur #3, where Apocalypse seeks out Rictor for inclusion on the team. At the end of Dawn of X, Rictor was unable to enter Krakoa for fear that his powers would destroy the mutant nation. At the time Rictor’s powers were beyond his control, leaving him isolated from his fellow mutants and in a deep state of depression. However, despite all of this Apocalypse saw something in Rictor that he intended to draw out. Over the course of time, the ancient mutant has been drawing out Rictor’s latent power beginning with his intentional introduction of the mutant to the Druids who saw him as a brother and also introduced the idea of mutants existing long before the twenty-first century. Over the course of subsequent issues, Rictor developed his abilities to the point that he is now capable of not only standing amongst the High Lords but of decimating them with ease.