Origin

David Alleyne was born a mutant, but kept his power to pick up knowledge and skills from others a secret from his friends and family. Dani Moonstar recruited him and he decided to go to the Xavier Institute after an attack by Purity, an anti-mutant group.

Dani Moonstar created a team called the New Mutants and Prodigy became one of the co-leaders because of his intelligence and leadership abilities. His team often came into conflict with Emma Frost's team of students, the Hellions, led by Hellion.

At one point he wanted Emma to unlock his mind to let him be able to permanently keep all knowledge gained from others. She and Moonstar gave him a very realistic vision of the future where he had these new abilities. In this possible future, Prodigy gained all of the knowledge of the teachers at the Institute (including Beast), and quickly surpassed them in intellectual abilities. He set off into the world to learn more absorbing the intellect of Stephen Hawking, Tony Stark ,and other famous minds. He is able to develop a cure for all incurable diseases at the cost of killing his friend and former teammate Elixer. Later, he is married to Surge, and becomes President of the United States. He is responsible for the deaths of the X-Men, and seeks to create a one-world government through coercion and intimidation, and finally destroying anyone in his way. The vision ends during an attack on the White House by the Hellions and his wife where Surge is forced to destroy everyone. After experiencing and believing in this possible future, David agrees with his teachers and decides against having his mental block removed. This experience comes at the price of his relationship with Surge, who he shared a mutual romantic interest in, as he is left afraid of her getting hurt.

After the Decimation, Prodigy was left powerless but stayed at the School to show his friends the Danger Cave he had built. It was his own version of the Danger Room that let the team train by reliving X-men missions of the past. After William Stryker killed a bus full of students and many others left the school, the teams were rearranged and members of the New Mutants and Hellions were placed together, now with Noriko Ashida in charge. Prodigy stayed as an unofficial member since he had no powers but couldn't go home because his parents didn't want him to come back. In an effort to protect David, Noriko kissed Hellion so David would think she no longer loved him and would want to leave the school. Her plan almost worked, but as David was packing, The Stepford Cuckoos offered to make him completely remember everything he had ever learned. Though he wouldn't have his powers back (he wouldn't be able to learn anything new) he would be able to be a part of the team. He accepted and his first act as Prodigy again was to break up with Noriko. He is currently part of the team again and uses his learned abilities to act as a substitute teacher when the senior staff is absent.

Powers

Formerly

Prodigy's mutant ability let him gain the knowledge and (non-mutant) skills of those around him for as long as they were in his range. Not only did this make him incredibly skilled and even smarter depending on who was near him, but it gave him a better understanding of his teammates' skills and how to best have them work as a unit, each person's abilities complimenting another, making him a natural leader. He also had the innate ability to read attacks directed against him, allowing him to easily avoid or counter them if he was fast enough. He is currently powerless as a result of the Decimation but is still a highly intelligent and skilled leader and an experienced fighter in his own right.

Currently

Prodigy, to an extent, regained his powers in New X-Men #43. He can no longer absorb new skills telepathically, but thanks to the powerful psionic abilities of the Stepford Cuckoos, has all the knowledge and skills he had ever gained at his disposal, similar to a photographic memory-based muscle mimicry power. It is implied that he has every skill that the X-Men have been known to possess like Wolverine's samurai skills but it hasn't been directly shown, however he is still a baseline human with no physical enhancements so he won't be able to perform any super-human feats.