Origin

John Greycrow fought during World War II for the United States, but was executed for scalping eight of his fellow officers. As he was blindfolded and tied to a stake to be slaughtered he spat on Nick Fury as his last words and for it almost got beaten.

Pact with Sinister

However, he was lucky and instead of being victim to Fury's wrath he was shot by the firing squad who believed him to be killed and so buried him. Yet, unbeknownst to the US Army, John survived thanks to his Healing Factor and was found and recruited by Nathaniel Essex - Mr. Sinister- while he emerged from the grave. At first caught off guard Greycrow asked how Sinister knew when he sees the man was waiting for him.

Sinister tells him it his business to know, then reaches out his arm to Greycrow, pulling the man out. It is from that moment on that their pact comes into existence.

John becomes his shadow, accompanying him everywhere and helping him with all his jobs and experiments but is also the lesser evil of the two obviously as he sometimes objects to Sinister's dark thoughts or ideas, though discretely as he is still a dutiful servant of Essex, even through the decades.

Much later, now calling himself Scalphunter, he was part of a group of of assassins called the Marauders, lead by Sinister.

Sinister first sent the Marauders to kill an entire population of an underground community of mutants called the Morlocks. Scalphunter found and followed a young morlock named Tommy and shot her from behind when they found the entrance to the alley. In the course of the massacre the team fought against the X-men, and original X-Factor, as well as Thor and Power Pack, but was successfull in killing the majority of the Morlocks.

The Marauders were stopped by the X-men when they attempted to assassinate former pawn of Sinister's Madelyne Pryor. Later, Sinister sent the Marauders to battle the X-Men during the time of the demonic invasion of New York City known as the "Inferno". Later they clashed with X-man when they attempted to kill Threnody and during the battle Scalphunter's clone was killed.

Scalphunter was one of the mutants calling themselves the 198 that lived in tents outside the Xavier Mansion after the events of M-day. He still retained his powers. When Apocalypse returned he chose to join him. When Havok warned him, Fever Pitch, and Skids that they were in way over their heads, Scalphunter replied that Apocalypse had explained it all to them and was on their side.

He recently returned to the Marauders.

Powers

Scalphunter has technomorphic abilities which means he can restructure any technological device. He usually wears a form of armor with numerous weapon parts that he can assemble weapons from. He is very well-trained in fire arms of any sort. He also has a healing factor that heals wounds and represses aging. He is atleast 80 years old, probably older.

Scalphunter is one of the few mutants that retains his powers after M-Day.