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    Elixir

    Character » Elixir appears in 942 issues.

    Elixir was one of the students at Xavier Institute and is known for his ability of biological manipulation which allows him to both restore life or take it on a whim, and is capable of incredible feats being one of the few active and confirmed Omega-level mutants. He is now a part of the New Mutant nation of Krakoa as a member of the Five.

    Elixir: Doomed to the fate an Omega?

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    Throughput

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    #1  Edited By Throughput

    First of all, I just want to say I really like the unique power set Elixir has. Sure, we've seen healing and death touches before, but when you couple that with unlimited potential to affect someone's genetics, you get something new. 
     
    While being omega sounds cool, it has serious drawbacks to the character. There is a clear link between character development and character presence when classed as omega. Let's consider the list of confirmed omega mutants: 
    1. Absolom Mercator :   Mr. M
    2. Gabriel Summers :   Vulcan
    3. Robert Drake :   Iceman
    4. Jean Grey :   Jean Grey
    5. Joshua Foley :   Elixir
    6. Franklin Richards :  Franklin Richards
    7. Quentin Quire :   Quentin Quire
    8. Rachel Summers :   Marvel Girl
    9. David Charles Haller :   Legion
    10. Nathan Grey :   X-Man    

    There seems to be a trend with how to handle omegas. Keep them weak, make them evil, or remove their presence. 
      
    Weak:
    Iceman: Underachiever who never pushed himself 
    Franklin Richards: Mental Blocks and hasn't aged. 
    Elixir: Passing out and only able to do healing/harming, nothing creative yet. 
    Jean Grey: Before the phoenix she showed limited abilities. 
     
    Evil: 
    Vulcan: Portrayed as an antagonist when first introduced. 
    Quentin Quire: Portrayed as a possible Magneto in terms of Mutant Rights extremist. 
    Legion: oh hi. 
    Nate Grey: Putting him in here because when he was first brought to 616, the way writers showed his strength was for him to school every team that came up against him. And the accidental destruction he caused.  
    Jean Grey: Red phoenix bad-assery
     
    Removed: 
    Mr. M: Turned into butterflies. 
    Vulcan: He's too strong for him to be roaming about on Earth, so they sent him off to rule another planet where they can make characters that can contest with him. 
    Jean Grey: Oh you've reached your full power? Go live in a white, hot, room. NOW. 
    Quentin Quire: Turn into goo, NOW. 
    Marvel Girl: ? what's she up to? 
    Legion: Deceased? 
    Nate Grey: Sacrifices self to save the world. Recently brought back for an event, but how long can we expect that to last? No doubt once the crisis is over he'll fade away or fly off to space etc. 
     
    So, what does this mean for Elixir? 
    So far, he's been kept weak. Eg comas, only displaying healing or damaging.
     
    There already have been hints at him being the next Magneto. Imagine him at full power, he wouldn't even need to do anything too creative. Imagine him with ranged ability. "You're dead, and you, oh and you over there too." Imagine him becoming creative... is he going to test out different genetic possibilities to give himself and others new powers? Would he test on himself, or would he become a Dark Beast type and experiment on people? Afterall, he does have 616 Beast's knowledge so there is a link there. The only thing that would stop him is the compassion the writers have emphasised in him. Such as when he attacked Stryfe, there was particular focus on how much Elixir was truly sorry he had to kill Stryfe. Imagine him without his compassion. 

    I like Elixir as a good guy, they could give him some interesting capabilities, with him having to show quick thinking and skill when against inorganic enemies and threats. But I can't help but feel that the only way to show him as powerful, is for him to be evil. Otherwise we'll be seeing a lot more comas and limitations for quite some time. If they made him powerful and kept him good... they will have to remove him, I.e: no-one would ever die, so to keep the feeling of danger and action, anytime the writers want that element of danger, "Elixir was busy" - "He was in a coma" - "We put him in the Black Cold Room so he could do... stuff"
     
    What do you think? Is Elixir doomed to the fate of an Omega?

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    xerox_kitty

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    #2  Edited By xerox_kitty

    I think he's fated to a life in X-Force, which is traumatic enough ;) 
     
    But you're right.  Marvel do tend to keep their super powerful characters down with weaknesses to stop them from becoming too powerful.  There's only so much they can do with Godly characters before readers lose their interest.  Giving them flaws keeps them human enough to the point that we (the readers) can associate or empathise with them.
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    jordama

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    #3  Edited By jordama

    maybe they will have him never reach full potential, that way he gets to live. "I'd rather live as an X-Men , than die as an Omega"
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    Throughput

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    #4  Edited By Throughput

    @xerox-kitty: Good point, a life in X-Force sounds good to me :) 
     
    And that in itself is pretty limiting. He can't really be a crutch to every X team and keep everyone fit and healthy if he's off doing secret missions that no-one can know about under Cyclops' direction. His first reaction was to go save his friends, but nope, TO THE FUTURE first! 
     
    I'm really curious how they'll develope him. For me, the best outcome is for him to be more like Iceman. He's got an easily identifiable power set, freezing stuff, and they could make him strong without getting Godly. And he's always been around. I have no idea though what they could do with Josh, like, if you just take a look at the battles forums on Comicvine, there are all kinds of crazy things people think he COULD do just because he's omega. I'm excited to see what his middle ground will be, where he can get into the fight and not pass out. I hope it's not just "healing touch team-mate, death touch bad guy". 
      
    @jordama: I agree, I'd rather him live as an X-man, than die as an Omega. I want them to boost him a little bit though, so that he's not asleep all the time. I'm eager to see what the writers have in store for him, Vanisher commenting on him not getting into the fight and helping his team shows signs of promise :)
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    The Cracked Genome

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    It seems to me that he is getting more powerful, at least as far as his healing is going. 
    When he first healed the legacy virus in X-23 it knocked him out. But then he could heal himself (possibly Wolverine and Archangel too) from his travels in time, cure Hellion and cure Surge while she was blasting out electricity (which is probably what put him into his coma). 
    His healing power might be like like any kind of physical training... the more you do it the easier it is. 
    As for how powerful he could become... I'm hopeing he'll fall between Weak and Removed as he's one of my favorite characters and I want to keep reading about him (X-23 too... together if possible ;)  ).

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    deactivated-5a162dd41dd64

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    @Throughput: You make an excellent point, and I'm really glad you brought it up. I'm thinking that because of the nature of Elixir's powers, he's going to end up with a somewhat different fate than the other mutants on your list. Really, out of the mutants you've mentioned, none of them really had/have similar powers (except for the godhack powers, but come on, those can do anything, Elixir is limited to....biological manipulation, was it?). So it stands to reason that he has at least some chance of turning out at least somewhat decently, especially considering he's vastly overshadowed by Hope when it comes to power.

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