Gene Nation

Gene Nation
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	as a full team in Uncanny X-men #325
In-story information
Base(s)	The Hill; various underground locations
Member(s)	Marrow Mikhail Rasputin Callisto Dark Beast Hemingway Vessel Sack Reverb Loss Charm Fever Pitch Iron Maiden Integer Wynter Membrain Opsidian Maverick

Gene Nation is a Marvel Comics mutant terrorist organization and enemies of the X-Men. They originated from a group of Morlocks that survived the Mutant Massacre by escaping to another dimension.

Founding

First Incarnation

When the mentally unstable Mikhail Rasputin flooded the Morlock tunnels, many were believed dead. However, at the last instant Mikhail used his powers to open a portal into a parallel dimension dubbed The Hill. In this dimension, time moves at a faster rate, and even though it was a matter of months in the main Marvel Universe, it had been between 10–20 years In the Hill.

On the anniversary of the Mutant Massacre, a horrific event in which Mr. Sinister's henchmen the Marauders killed many Morlocks, the members of Gene Nation reappeared in the main universe (Earth-616). Their mission was to destroy one human for every Morlock life that was lost, and also, in a side mission performed by Hemingway and Marrow, to kill some of the original Morlocks. In Marrow's eyes, Leech, one of the few to survive the massacre, was weak and instead of defending his people he hid like a coward. Fortunately, the White Queen, who was trying to recruit Leech to her teenage mutant team Generation X, is able to thwart their efforts. However, with the intervention of the Dark Beast Marrow and Hemingway escape.

Afterwards, a team of X-Men and the Morlock Callisto confront an attack group from Gene Nation including Marrow, Hemingway, Reverb, Sack, and Vessel. In order to assure that their mission succeeds, Marrow alerts the X-Men that she has a bomb strapped to her heart. Seeing it as the only way of stopping the terrorist, Storm rips out Marrow's heart. Callisto takes the remaining members of Gene Nation back to The Hill.

A few months later, Storm is kidnapped by Mikhail and taken to The Hill. Once there she has to fight her way to the top of the hill where Mikhail lives, where she successfully overpowers him. Having won the victory, Storm forces Mikhail to take all of the people living on The Hill back to the real world. In an effort to give the mutants a new start, she settles them in a village outside of her home town in Africa. Unfortunately this village is later attacked by anti-mutant extremists and many members of Gene Nation are murdered.

Second Incarnation

However, they would not get much of a chance to start over because shortly after they were placed in Africa the Dark Beast gathers some of the original members, along with some new recruits, to form a new team. The express purpose of this team is to capture test subjects for the evil genius, namely the students of Generation X. They succeed in capturing all but the White Queen and the newcomer Gaia and, with the help of Nate Grey, also known as X-Man, they liberate her charges.

Third Incarnation

Cover to X-man #50 showing X-man and Generation X members Skin and Synch fighting Vessel, Hemingway, and Fever Pitch

The teams' final appearance was in the pages of Weapon X where it is Marrow who is now the leader, having survived her encounter with Storm due to a mutated second heart. After manipulating the perfect killing machine Agent Zero into unintentionally killing his former sidekick, the assassin hunts down and kills every member of Gene Nation in an act of vengeance. However, he spares the life of Marrow because he does not want others to see her as a martyr.

Members

Under the leadership of Mikhail Rasputin with the aid of Callisto

• Charm - heightened strength, speed, agility, reflexes/reactions, endurance
• Hemingway - superhuman strength and endurance, can greatly increase his size and mass, also has bone spikes protruding from his back and forearms that can be used offensively
• Loss - razor sharp bone spikes on her joints
• Marrow - heightened bone growth causes them to grow beyond her body where they can be removed and used as weapons, also an increased healing ability to seal the holes made by the removal of bones
• Reverb - project his psychic talents into the environment around him, giving him an uncanny awareness of his surroundings, also uses his abilities to mentally cripple others
• Sack - semi-liquid form allows him to encase the bodies of others in a clear membrane that allows him to control that person until they asphyxiate
• Vessel - superhuman strength and endurance, absorbs the "souls" of the recently deceased to increase his size and mass

NOTE: Callisto showed a video to the X-Men about Gene Nation that showed Ever as a member; however he never made an appearance with them. He later showed up as a part of Havok's Brotherhood.

Under the leadership of Dark Beast

• Fever Pitch - A living skeleton from his powers, he generates intense heat at all times from within what is left of his body that can be used offensively in discharges of flame
• Hemingway
• Integer - Integer uniquely exists as a mathematical probability, making him invisible, intangible, and capable of using his binary thought to disrupt the mental functions of others
• Iron Maiden - Her body made of a dense material that is formed in spikes all along her body. She also increased strength, speed, agility, reflexes/reactions, endurance.
• Membrain - He made of a brain altering mucus that can be reshaped at will or used as projectiles that are capable of stunning opponents. He can also leave parts of him behind in an area and mentally access the pieces to be used like a spy camera.
• Opsidian - He exists as a being of pure darkness with the ability to stretch and reshape his form. Opsidian is also able to instill a supernatural feeling of cold and fear in others when he surrounds them
• Vessel
• Wynter - A robotic body controlled by remote by the Dark Beast.

Under the leadership of Marrow

• Hemingway
• Vessel
• Many unnamed members
• Maverick (Chris Bradley) - Did not leave Gene Nation because he planned on sabotaging the group's terrorist attacks

Other versions

Days of Future Now

In this reality, the Gene Nation consists of Sunspot, Beak, Frenzy and Penance. Marrow was a member of the group until she was killed by Agent Zero.

In other media

• In the video game X-Men Legends, Marrow takes a band of Morlocks dubbed Gene Nation and makes a pact with the enemy to enable her people to be able to live on the surface. Even though they never make an official appearance, the premise is similar.

External links

• UncannyXmen.net, Feature on Gene Nation
• Gene Nation at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe