There are many members of Professor Charles Xavier’s X-Men that have had a hard time coming to terms with not only their mutant abilities, but the responsibilities that come along with them. Joshua Foley, otherwise known as the mutant Elixir, is not only one of the most powerful and capable mutants to have ever joined his team, but also one of the most conflicted.
As one of only fourteen mutants to carry the title of “Omega-Level” after Jonathan Hickman’s run, and a member of The Five, a group of mutants whose abilities can be pooled together in order to completely resurrect any mutant that has passed, Elixir find himself at the center of the mutants new status quo. But what has Elixir been through to bring him to this point? Here are 10 things about Elixir that only true fans know.
10 Elixir Was Originally A Member Of The Reavers
Though Elixir would eventually join the X-Men and become one of the most powerful and valuable mutants among their team, his origins paint a very different picture. At the behest of his friend Duncan, Josua would join an anti-mutant hate group called The Reavers.
However, after one of his fellow Reavers was injured, Josh would manifest his ability and heal his injured comrade. Knocking the Reaver unconscious, Josh would be able to hide his mutant status for a while longer, but after Laurie Collins became mortally-injured, Josh would use his abilities to save her, thus solidifying his status as a mutant, separating himself from the Reavers.
9 Elixir Had The Hots For His Teacher
Around the time that Elixir finally decided to accept a place at Xavier’s School (after having denied the school several times), Rahne Sinclair, better known as Wolfsbane, was denied for a position as a staff member due to her emotional immaturity.
The depowered Wolfsbane wouldn’t remain that way for long though as she had caught the attention of Elixir. After the two share a kiss, Rahne’s powers are restored. However, due to the shock of the unexpected transformation, Rahne loses control and slashes Elixir, leaving him mortally wounded.
8 Elixir Turned His Skin Gold
Having been rushed back to X Mansion after Wolfsbane’s attack, Elixir was given the best treatment that the school could manage without the help of their only other healing, Warren Worthington III, better known as Angel. However, without the help of Angel, there wasn’t much that the school could do but wait.
After realizing that it would be possible for Elixir to heal himself, if only he was awake, Surge and Beast, along with Laurie, kept Elixir conscious enough and calm enough to heal himself. An unexpected side effect of this procedure, however, was the fact that Elixir had somehow turned his skin a bright metallic gold color.
7 Elixir Kept His Powers After M-Day
With the possible exception of Jonathan Hickman’s recent run on House Of X and Powers Of X, there is perhaps a no bigger event in the Marvel comics history for the mutants of Marvel than House Of M.
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The M-Day event would see Scarlet Witch rob the vast majority of the mutant population of their mutations, leaving only 198 mutants left across the globe. While those numbers are already pretty dire, in Xavier’s school there were only 27 students left in the entire school. Elixir, the omega-level mutant, was among the few spared.
6 Elixir Suffered A Lot In The M-Day Aftermath
After the events of M-Day, Elixir goes through quite a lot. When most of the students and staff are sent away from the school in a bus in order to ensure their safety, the bus is subsequently blown up, killing 42 of those on board.
Josh takes these deaths especially hard as he tried to save his friend DJ, only to feel him slip away right through his hands. As Josh would later put it, “When he died, he took a piece of me with him, a piece of me died, too.”
5 Elixir Can Grow Metallic Black Skin
In the aftermath of M-Day, things only get harder for the young mutant with the ability to heal. Being one of the only mutant healers left in the world, and certainly the most powerful, Elixir takes these deaths very personally. That fact is only compounded when Laurie is killed right before his eyes by one of Stryker’s men.
During the trauma of this event, Elixir manifests a new ability: the ability to essentially take life. He causes boils to appear on Stryker and causes organ failure to spread throughout his entire body before killing him. This new manifestation, much like when he healed himself, cause his skin to change color. Unlike the previous example, however, Elixir’s skin turns a dark metallic black.
4 Elixir Has Healing Powers
As an omega-level healer, there is very little that Elixir cannot do when it comes to the human body. Whether it be his own body or someone else’s, Josh is able to heal another person’s body from any trauma when he is in full control of his abilities. He can also heal himself completely and resurrecting himself and others (under the right circumstances) when he wants to.
He’s also capable of detecting life force as well as absorbing it, transferring it from one host to another (as he has shown with Wolfsbane and her unborn child), as well as extinguishing it altogether.
3 Elixir Has A Death Touch
On the flip side of his healing powers, Josh is also able to inflict catastrophic damage to another being simply by touching them. As previously mentioned, he was able to kill Stryker by touching him for a few seconds.
Beyond that, Elixir has gained so much control over his abilities that he’s been shown not only capable of giving an enemy a brain tumor, but even shaping that tumor into the X-Men logo. He’s also capable of killing even those with extraordinary healing factors along with those who have been deemed “invulnerable”.
2 Elixir Can Resurrect Himself & Others
As previously mentioned, Josh is an incredibly gifted healer even capable of healing his own body when mortally wounded. However, beyond even that is his ability to heal himself even after he has physically died. Beyond that seemingly impossible feat, Josh is also capable of resurrecting others.
In fact, his power has grown to such an extent that, while on Genosha, Elixir was able to raise 16 million mutants from the dead. It was also speculated by Magneto and Monet that Elixir was likely capable of resurrecting all the mutants that had died on Genosha.
1 Elixir Has A Genius-Level Understanding Of Human Anatomy, Biology & Physiology
One of the greatest benefits of being a member of a team of highly educated and skilled mutants is that when you really need to learn something quickly, it’s all just a psychic data transfer away. While Josh is a naturally talented healer, in order for his power to work at its peak, he really has to have a genius-level of understanding of the human body and how it works.
Though he is still relatively young, Josh has benefitted from the knowledge of Beast with the help of the Stepford Cuckoos. The sisters essentially took all of Beast’s knowledge of the human body and downloaded it into Elixir’s mind, giving him full access to decades of study and research. Who needs college when you’ve got psychic friends and Hank McCoy?
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