Husk (comics)

Husk
Cover art for Uncanny X-Men #432. Art by Phillip Tan.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New Mutants vol. 1 #42 (August 1986) (as a Guthrie sibling) X-Force vol. 1 #32 (March 1994) (as a mutant)
Created by	Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice, re-established by Fabian Nicieza Tony Daniel
In-story information
Alter ego	Paige Elisabeth Guthrie
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Men Generation X X-Corps Mutantes Sans Frontières Xavier Institute Jean Grey School
Abilities	Shedding- the ability to shed skin into a different composition, shape or size beneath; experienced in martial arts

Husk (Paige Guthrie) is a fictional character from Marvel Comics. Guthrie is a superhero associated with the X-Men.

A mutant, Husk has the ability to remove one layer of skin - or "husk" - revealing an epidermis of a different composition beneath. She often changes into metal or stone form, but can shift into a variety of substances.

Husk is from a Kentucky coal mining family and is the younger sister of the X-Men's Cannonball. Unlike her brother, Husk is self-conscious of being seen as a "hick" (Jubilee often called her 'hayseed'). As a member of the X-Men's 1990s-era junior team Generation X, she established herself as an overachiever. She later joined the X-Men.

Husk was created by Fabian Nicieza and Tony Daniel (although Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice had previously introduced her minus any mutant ability) but Generation X creators Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo defined much of her character and abilities.

Fictional character biography

The sister of the X-Man Cannonball, Paige Guthrie was born to a large Kentucky coal miner's family. Her father died when she was very young, due to a lung affliction from working in the mines. As a teenager, she discovers her inborn mutant ability to shed her skin, metamorphosing into a different composition beneath. She has used this power to turn her body into stone, glass, and an acid-like substance, among other materials. She can also use her power to heal herself by shedding a damaged form in favor of an intact one. She normally cannot change the shape of her form, only its composition, although an issue of X-Force, written before her powers had been fully defined, depicted her transforming into a bird.

Generation X

From the series' beginning in 1994 until its cancellation at issue #75 in 2001, Husk was a member of the junior X-Men team Generation X, where she earned a reputation as a workaholic, constantly trying to prove herself fit for the main team. She also develops a troubled relationship with her antisocial teammate Chamber. Towards the end of the team's existence, Paige became the group's computer expert and develops an interest in environmental issues.

After the breakup of Generation X, Husk joins Banshee's militant X-Corps, along with other Gen X members, in order to keep an eye on him. This does not end well, with Banshee's more criminal charges staging a coup and the Gen X members having to take down the Blob.

X-Men

She later joined the X-Men in Chuck Austen's 2001 revamp of Uncanny X-Men and was placed in a controversial relationship with the long-time X-Man Archangel, Husk being 19 years old and several years Archangel's junior.

The two took an extended leave of absence. Archangel launched a charity called "Mutantes Sans Frontières" in Zanzibar, a reference to Médecins Sans Frontières ("Doctors Without Borders"), where the two proceeded to help stop a coup with the aid of Professor X's newest charges from nearby Genosha.

Her younger brother Jay later joined the new New Mutants team under the codename Icarus. Her sister Melody also joined the school as Aero after discovering she could fly. Aero has since been depowered after M-Day, although Paige herself retains her powers. Icarus was later killed following the events of M-Day, in a confrontation with the anti-mutant activisit William Stryker and his army. The resulting battles also take the lives of dozens of other students.

She is most often seen in the current New X-Men title while tending to the wounded. In her last major appearance, she attended the funeral of her little brother.

Divided We Stand

The first issue of Divided We Stand revealed that Paige had returned to living with her family. She is the one who picks up her brother, Cannonball, at the airport to bring him home. However, Sam, still feeling angry over the betrayal of his X-Men team, tells her to take him to a local bar, where he picks a fight with the members of rival families from their home. Paige confronts Sam on his action after the brawl ends. Sam yells his lost faith in how the life of an X-Men works and flies off angry, leaving Paige fearful for his life and mind.

Secret Invasion

Husk is seen fighting alongside the rest of the X-Men in San Francisco and flirting with Angel at the same time, though it would appear they are no longer a couple.

Nation X / Necrosha

Paige is currently a resident of the mutant nation of Utopia and is seen fighting alongside the New X-Men battling her reanimated former teammates Synch and Skin. Paige is subsequently sent to Muir Island with a team of X-Men led by Nightcrawler to further investigate the attacks on Utopia. When the team reaches Muir Island, they discover something came back when Destiny was resurrected - the villain Proteus. Proteus takes swift action, dispatching the teams heavy-hitters Colossus and Magneto and possessing Trance, Nightcrawler, Psylocke and Husk. While in mental possession of Husk, he displays the ability to assume a flaming energy form, something Paige was previously unable to do. Whether this is an undiscovered latent power of Paige's or an aspect of Proteus's reality manipulation remains unknown.

Second Coming

Paige was seen fighting a Nimrod with Roberto DaCosta, Avalanche and Boom-Boom and then again after the Nimrods were depowered (due to Cypher). She asked Colossus what happened and he replied " I don't know Paige"

Schism

Following the conflict between Wolverine and Cyclops that led to the former abandoning Utopia, Husk became a teacher at the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning.

Powers and abilities

Paige is a metamorph who has the mutant ability to change her physical form by shedding her outer layer of skin to reveal a new layer or shape underneath. While she can sometimes acquire new forms, Paige most commonly takes on a Paige-like form in a new material. She can become any solid that she has studied (including adamantium, diamond, granite, wood, rubber, brick, and even glass). These forms take on new physical abilities or qualities appropriate to the form, such as increased weight, strength, or invulnerability. Paige has shown some ability to take on forms with energy powers - including a fiery form that generates heat and flame, and a form with acidic skin.

Husk has been able to shift into anything that does not exceed her body mass. Any extra mass left when she shifts into a smaller form such as an insect or a bird is shunted into an unknown extra-dimensional space, and will return to Husk when she resumes her human form. She has the capability to blend in with surroundings, but in order to do so, she would have to study the texture she seeks to mimic first. She can husk away minor injuries, but deeper ones will stay with her. She can hold a form for about an hour before she needs to revert back to her original form. She can morph repeatedly. She is not required to stay in any one form, but too many transformations can become very painful. In great stress or trauma, Paige can shed without control, revealing patchwork forms. When Paige ‘husks’, she sheds her clothing as well. This has the somewhat unfortunate side effect of leaving her nude when she returns to her normal form.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

Paige's AoA look

In the Age of Apocalypse, Paige was a member of Generation Next. Husk was found by Sinister along with her sister Elizabeth and her brother Sam while the rest of their family, save for their brother Joshua, were culled by Apocalypse's Infinites. However, unlike Sam and Elizabeth, Paige declined Sinister's offer to join his Elite Mutant Force. Instead she joined Magneto's cause. Like her main Marvel Universe counterpart, Paige had a relationship with Chamber, though in this case the relationship became physical as well.

In this universe, Paige demonstrated greater control over her abilities than her primary-universe counterpart. She was able to transform only parts of her body, and was even capable of adopting liquid, gaseous, and energy states. Paige could also adopt specific "bio patterns" to affect specific individuals, including a complex acid that could affect the organic steel skin of Colossus and an energy form Shadowcat could not phase through. She also had the ability to change only part of her body (such as changing a hand into a bladed weapon).

After being overrun deep in hostile territory, Paige and her Generation Next team members were were believed to be dead. However, Paige survived the battle and was enslaved by the inmates of the Seattle Core until Apocalypse's regime fully collapsed. Husk was eventually found by her siblings and was taken to Sinister, who brainwashed her and made her want revenge for the X-Men leaving her behind. Husk infiltrated the ranks of the X-Men as a mutant named Xorn and kidnapped Charles Lensherr; she even battled alongside the other Guthries, but was ultimately killed by Wolverine's daughter, Kirika.

Age of X

In the Age of X reality Paige is seen breaking free of mutant hunters killing many of them and later meeting up with her brother, Sam. They both find their entire family dead because of the mutant hunters. She swears vengeance on the humans who did that.

Mutant X

Paige is a member of the Marauders and constantly fighting with her brother, Cannonball. She is stuck in a rather grotesque form and was last seen trying to escape the group's mysterious benefactor.

In other media

Movies

In X2, Paige's name appears in William Stryker's computer, along with her brother Samuel Guthrie.

Television

In the Generation X made for television film, Paige was replaced with Buff, a superstrong blonde, because Paige's powers were too expensive to animate.

She appears alongside her brother Sam Guthrie (Cannonball) in the X-Men episode Hidden Agenda, though she is shown without her powers.

External links

• UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Husk
• Husk on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki