Origin

Elixir

At Xavier's, Josh became Prodigy's roommate. The two had a rocky start to their friendship as Josh felt Prodigy was always judging him for his past deeds. His parents soon signed over custody to the school and Danielle Moonstar became Josh's legal guardian. But Josh felt like an outcast and sought refuge in a friendship with an ex-teammate of Dani's, Wolfsbane. Wolfsbane was also going through a rough phase in her life as she had lost her foster mother and her wolf abilities. She and Josh spent an evening talking together which ended in a kiss. The kiss was intense and during it, Josh inadvertently "healed" Wolfsbane and gave her the wolf back. The wolf, back with a vengeance, gutted Josh for his efforts. It was uncertain if he would survive the attack until Prodigy suggested Surge use her electricity to wake Josh up just long enough for him to heal himself. The plan worked, but in the healing process, Josh turned himself gold, becoming the literal "golden boy" he'd always wanted to be.

Laurie's Death

Josh and Rahne had a secret relationship for a while, but Wolfsbane called it off when she realized Josh was attracted to his teammate, Wallflower. Josh and Wallflower became involved and were happy together until fellow student Wither exposed his previous relationship with Wolfsbane. Wallflower immediately dumped Josh, using her pheromones to scare him. Josh has been spending a lot of time alone, most of his training squad angry with him for his treatment of Wallflower. Of his teammates, only Surge seemed not to hold it against him.

After the House of M, all the students went into an all out brawl. Elixir was the chosen to be a part of the New X-Men team. But, a missile hit the bus carrying the depowered students and they all died. Josh blamed himself for not helping and lashed out at Colossus, causing Emma Frost to kick him off the team. While arguing with Wallflower, she was shot by William Stryker and died. Josh got his revenge by killing Stryker, causing Josh's skin to temporarily turn jet-black. He spent most of his time in his room until the Quest For Magik arc when he was temporarily taken to Limbo, and he now spends all of his time in his room pondering the strength of his power.

During Messiah CompleX, Elixir refused to go with the New X-Men team because he thought he'd kill all the Purifiers because of what they done to Laurie. Apparently, off panel, he was hit by a wall when the Sentinels attacked the mansion and was put into a coma.

X-Force

Elixir in X-Force

Powers

Elixir after killing Stryker

Elixir is an Omega-level mutant mutant whose abilities have yet to reach their full potential. As an Omega Level Mutant, his capabilities are only limited by his imagination when he reaches his full potential. His power is to manipulate organic material on a genetic level mainly allowing him to heal wounds. This ability requires him to have direct contact with those he wishes to heal. Because of the nature of his power, Elixir has recently began studying human anatomy. With a greater understanding of the inner workings of the human body, he has demonstrated the ability to heal or even re-grow tissues that have been damaged beyond repair or removed completely. For example, when a classmate's heart was removed by an enemy, Elixir was able to grow a new heart in its place simply by concentrating on the construction of the human heart, re-growing one section at a time until the organ was complete. He has also demonstrated the ability to heal his own minor wounds at a subconscious level, however healing greater damage to his own body does take some degree of concentration. Theoretically, he may even have the capacity to alter his own genetic code, which may be why he is classed as a potential Omega.

Elixir has also demonstrated using his powers in offensive ways. When enraged by an attack on the Mansion and the imminent threat to his friends, Elixir made contact with William Stryker and reversed his healing power causing Stryker rapidly die. This power has been demonstrated since, and is an ability that he has limited control over. While he has begun to explore what he can do with his healing abilities, he has yet to fully explore his control over the reversal of healing, and the use of this portion of his ability will most likely result in the death of the target.

Appearance

Originally Elixir's appearance was that of a normal human, caucasian teenager. After healing himself from nearly fatal injuries sustained when he returned Wolfsbane's powers, his skin took on a shiny golden appearance. After using his power to kill Stryker his skin turned pitch black, suggesting that his color and emotion changes depending on how he uses his powers. After again using his powers to heal his skin has reverted to the original gold with pitch black globs of pigment flowing around his body (much like the movement in a lava lamp). Currently when he uses his powers whichever side of his ability will determine the dominant color of the area of his body he is using, so when he uses his hands to heal they are primarily gold in color. Conversely, when he uses his death touch, black becomes the predominant color of his hands.

Alternate Realities

Earth-58163

House of M - Elixir worked with SHIELD in this alternate reality. He was a torturer, he combined his powers with Wither (Kevin Ford) on Cameron Hodge, a human terrorist to try and get information. When Wither touches someone, they die almost instantly, but Elixir would negate Wither's power's effects on the victim with his healing touch, but not before a part of them dies and comes back via healing, which is said to be an extremely painful experience for the victim they force to undergo this process. He also used his powers offensively against Surge (Noriko Ashida), he forced blood to go into her lungs just by touching her arm, making it hard for her to breathe throughout the rest of the story.