Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 181. Who is Mimic in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 181. Who is Mimic in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

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Hello Marvel fans, comic geeks, and all the nerds in between.
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It is Megan with vigilante vibes.
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I am here for another character breakdown and I am continuing my
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coverage of Marvel's most underrated mutants and I could
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not not talk about this mutant. So today I want to talk about
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Mimic. So Calvin Rankin AKA Mimic.
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His first appearance was in X-Men number 19 in 1966 and was
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created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
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So he has been around for a minute.
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So Calvin Rankin was a scientist's kid.
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His dad was always messing around with seriously risky
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experiments. Naturally, Calvin wasn't allowed
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into the lab, you know, where all the dangerous stuff was
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cooking. But come on, He, he was a kid,
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he was going to get in. Curiosity totally got the better
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of him. One day he snuck into his dad's
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quarters and he accidentally knocked over a beaker full of
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some experimental chemicals. Whoops.
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It instantly formed a reddish gas.
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And yeah, he breathed it all in. As they as the stories go, this
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little accident messed up his body in a huge way.
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Over the next months and years, Calvin started noticing he could
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mimic the abilities of anyone nearby, which is pretty cool.
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Fast forward a bit and Calvin became the ultimate jock.
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He was the best at every sport because he was secretly copying
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the skills of all the top players.
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His powers blew up and so did his ego.
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He got super hot headed and arrogant.
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Unsurprisingly, his friends and classmates started to seriously
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dislike him, even calling him some kind of robot.
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Calvin ended up losing all of his buddies, but in his mind, it
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was not his fault. They were just jealous and he
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was better than all of them anyway, so there's that.
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When his father finally figured out what was going on, he knew
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it was only a matter of time before everyone else turned on
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his son. So he moved them into an
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abandoned cave, hoping he could find a cure.
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For months, Calvin's dad slaved over a machine designed to strip
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away the mimicking powers and give Calvin a normal life.
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But he lied to Calvin, telling him the machine would make his
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copied powers permanent. Talk about bad timing.
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The townspeople found out about the construction in the
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abandoned mine, and a mob came after Calvin and his dad to stop
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them from getting into the machine.
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Calvin's dad set off an explosion to seal the mine
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entrance. He very much misjudged the
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dynamite though. It was way too powerful and he
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was killed in the blast. Calvin managed to dig himself
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out and immediately swore he'd get revenge on the people who
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had forced all of this tragedy to happen.
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I but like they moved in there for you though, but that's fine.
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Calvin, now nicknamed the Mimic, first ran into the X-Men while
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trying to steal a date with Vera Contour, who was seeing Hank
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McCoy AKA The Beast. Being the jerk that he was,
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Calvin 100% provoked Hank. The Beast was shocked when
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Calvin instantly developed his same furry defenses.
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When Bobby Drake who is Iceman tried to jump in, Calvin
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casually created and chucked a snowball at his head.
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Some construction workers saw the fight and thought Calvin was
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a mutant attacking 2 normal teens.
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Calvin easily used his new found powers to bolt out of there.
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He realized he had been fighting 2 X-Men but got super annoyed
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when the powers he picked up started to fade.
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He hatched a new plan, find the rest of the X-Men and uses
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Father's buried machine to permanently steal all their
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abilities. Which seems a little excessive
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to me, but I'm not in his shoes. Sometime later, he ran into the
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Jean Grey and followed her back to the X Mansion.
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He came back the next day, and even though Professor X saw
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right through him, the X-Men knew a confrontation was
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inevitable. Calvin jumped into a fight and
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actually beat them all at first, but the team's coordination
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finally helped them gain the upper hand.
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Just as he was about to lose, Calvin managed to snatch Jean
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and escape back to the mine. He told her his whole origin
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story, hoping the others would follow.
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When the X-Men arrived, Calvin copied all their powers again,
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unearthed his dad's machine, and fired it up.
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The X-Men reached him before he could step in, but Calvin
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grabbed Professor X as a shield. It's kind of funny.
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He then flew into the activated machine.
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Instead of making his powers permanent, it stripped Calvin of
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them. Professor X managed to short
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circuit the machine, causing the whole mind to explode.
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The X-Men dragged both of them to safety, and Xavier wiped
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Calvin's memories of the entire thing, hoping he could finally
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live a normal life. The following summer, Calvin was
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attending Metro College, which was the same place Jean Grey had
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transferred to. Their mutual friend Ted Roberts
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reintroduced them. Calvin had this nagging feeling
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he'd seen her before. Even though Gene tried to play
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it cool, Calvin was determined to figure out where he knew her
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from. Soon after, a nearby explosion
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restored both Calvin's memory and his mimicry powers.
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When Ted and Gene checked on him, they found his old
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arrogant, egotistical self was back and proud to be back.
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Meanwhile, Professor X needed more help against the new threat
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Factor 3. And when other big heroes said
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no, Calvin showed up at an X-Men meeting and basically demanded
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to join. Even though Calvin's goal was to
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still to somehow make the X men's powers permanent, Xavier
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let him join because like, why not?
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At this point, because Cyclops was feeling guilty about an
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accident, he stepped down as deputy leader and Xavier, seeing
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Calvin as the most powerful, gave the spot to him.
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On their first training mission, a villain called the Puppet
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Master took control of Calvin, trying to turn him into the
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ultimate soldier. Calvin was forced to fight his
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new team when Puppet Master commanded him to kill the X-Men.
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Calvin fought the controls, all his willpower holding out just
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long enough for the injured Angel to swoop in and break the
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puppet Puppet Master's hold. While his team mates cheered.
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Calvin finally realized the tragic truth.
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He was a guy who would always live in the shadow of other
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people's abilities. Calvin did his best as deputy
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leader to get ready for Factor 3, but he never really clicked
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with the rest of the team, especially Cyclops, who hated
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Calvin's recklessness. He showed his worth by beating
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the Ogre and the Banshee by mimicking Banshee's Sonic
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scream, then beating the Ogre a second time by combining all the
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powers he had copied. A couple days later, Xavier
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pushed him hard in a training exercise.
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Tired and cranky, Calvin question Xavier's dream why he
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should even care about the mutant cause when Cyclops told
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him to back off, a brawl broke out between Calvin and the
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original 5X men. Xavier eventually stepped in and
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told Calvin that he just couldn't overlook his arrogance,
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his combativeness and massive ego, and that he needed to leave
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the school. Calvin got the message no one
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wanted him there and he left. Calvin came back a few hours
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later and tended to mouth off the X-Men like he had it planned
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he was going to humble them, but instead he found them all beaten
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down by the Super Adaptoid. Just as the Adaptoid was about
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to finish them off, Calvin jumped into the fight,
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pretending he wanted the power but really just trying to buy
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the X-Men time to recover. Sensing his will fading, he went
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all out, blasting the Adaptoid with a full on combo of all the
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X men's powers. Since the Adaptoid was basically
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a walking version of The Avengers powers, it quickly got
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the upper hand. But when it tried to copy
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Calvin's own unique mimic power, the borrowed X-Men powers
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rebounded into the Adaptoid. Just as Calvin had hoped.
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Weekend the Adaptoid threw the now power drain Calvin to the
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ground before falling to the sea to regroup.
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Angel saved Calvin from pretty nasty fall.
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After the battle, the X-Men apologized and Calvin told them
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it was cool thinking his powers were gone for good.
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This time he said it was worth it because he finally learned
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the true value of friendship and how to become a man, which is
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not great. Unfortunately, Calvin's powers
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came back and this time more powerful than ever.
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They were now draining people and killing them.
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While the Beast was trying to find a cure, Calvin, Vera, and
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Hank were attacked by the Hulk. Calvin managed to absorb the
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Hulk's energy to protect the others, but it put him in a
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coma. Hank and Vera thought he was
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dead from the radiation, but days later, Calvin woke up.
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He had copied Wolverine's healing factor, but he also
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copied his looks, his claws, even the adamantium.
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With the power seemingly permanent and the claw pain
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unbearable, Calvin went on a cross country rampage, breaking
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into pharmacies to try and calm his constant rage.
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He eventually ran into the Hulk again, who was now the smart Mr.
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Fixit version, and explained why he looked like Wolverine.
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The real Wolverine finally tracked him down.
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Feeling partly responsible, Calvin and Logan teamed up on
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the Hulk, and they all ended up back at The Cave where Calvin's
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dad had died. Turns out the old machine was
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still active and had been emitting a pulse to keep
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Calvin's powers in check. It used its last bit of juice to
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bring them there before finally just being destroyed with the
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machine gun. Logan taught Calvin some Zen
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meditation to help suppress his powers.
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While the meditation helped, Calvin's powers were still
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uncontrollable, Giving him all the original X-Men abilities
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permanently. Permanently means a lot.
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Like I feel like it doesn't mean as much as it actually means to
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Calvin because I feel like a lot of things happening permanently
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and they're just they're done if that made sense.
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He went to a research station in Siberia where his late father's
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friends tried to study his powers.
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While he was away, the psychic villain Onslaught attacked the
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base. X Force answered the distress
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call only to find bodies and a furious Calvin who blamed them
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for researchers death. After a power blast, Onslaught
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kidnapped him. Onslaught stabilized Calvin's
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powers and fixed his mind, making the Mimic one of his
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loyal servants. Calvin had no clue Onslaught was
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behind the Serbia chaos. He teamed up with his new
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comrade The BLOB, and they faced X Force again.
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In one mission, he was supposed to protect the mutant Risque
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from Mr. Sinister, but Onslaught was defeated by the X-Men and
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The Avengers. Mimic and Risque were captured
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and imprisoned by Operation 0 Tolerance for their terrorist
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work. Locked away in a secret Peruvian
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SHIELD base. Calvin was regularly tortured.
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Because Calvin still carried Professor X's telepathic
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signature, the British superhero team Excalibur, who I love, was
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able to locate and free him. Thinking they would find Xavier,
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he briefly joined their ranks and even went to Captain
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Britain's wedding. While on the team, he got close
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to a doctor, Myra Mctaggart, who was studying his behavior.
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They made an important discovery.
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A lot of Calvin's anger issues were actually due to undiagnosed
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bipolar disorder. He stuck with Excalibur until
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they disbanded, parting on good terms with Professor X in jail
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for his role on as Onslaught. The Mimic joined Mystique's
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Brotherhood of Mutants to help free him, working alongside some
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X-Men members. After the rescue, Calvin stayed
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with the team in San Francisco, fighting for mutant rights.
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He was later captured but pardoned by Valerie Cooper.
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He and his teammates lost their powers temporarily when the High
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Evolutionary used a device to halt all mutant abilities, but
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they got them back when the device was shut off.
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This version of the Brotherhood eventually broke up.
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Calvin decided to stay in San Francisco as a vigilante because
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of his history. He was captured by Baron Zemo
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and Songbird and thrown into a detention area.
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After the Civil War events, Calvin was freed, registered as
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a superhuman, and continued working in San Francisco.
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While chasing crooks, Calvin's powers went haywire again.
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He accidentally killed a pedestrian on with his optic
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blast. Instead of prison time, he was
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offered a spot on Norman Osbourne's personal X-Men team.
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Osbourne was the new head of HAMMER at the time.
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Just so you know. Calvin took the deal because why
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wouldn't you take that deal? Joining Osbourne's X-Men, he got
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a new costume and a major shave. So goodbye to the lawn care,
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beard, mustache, and sideburns for the public image.
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Being hailed as a hero on TV boosted his belief that he was
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finally the good guy he was meant to be.
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Though working with his teammates was rough, during an
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interrogation, his teammate, Weapon Omega, yelled at him
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saying this is our personal hell.
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It's just a little dramatic. Despite the instability of the
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team, Calvin got along with most of them because he genuinely
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believed they were doing the right thing.
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After a week of protecting the city, they were attacked by the
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real X-Men. During the fight, Emma Frost
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turned traitor, which surprise surprise when a confused Calvin
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started questioning what was going on.
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Neymar McKenzie, the Submariner also betrayed Osbourne and
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knocked Calvin out. It's rumored that Namor left
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Calvin unconscious because he was too far gone in Osbourne's
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lies to be convinced to switch sides, and he was too powerful
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to fight. When the X-Men left their new
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mutant island Utopia, which was formerly Asteroid M, the Mimic
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joined the rest of Osborne's crew to take them down.
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He was totally overwhelmed by the number of mutants and got
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taken out by a group. Osborne eventually retreated,
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spending the loss as a victory by saying the mutant terrorist
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had left US soil. The Mimic remained a smiling
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government approved member of Osborne's newly presented X-Men
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team under Osborne with Mystique leading.
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The Mimic stayed on the X-Men on Osborne's X-Men, but his
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depression was worsening. On a mission, the team found
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X-Men, who is Nate Gray, who was trapped in various
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consciousness. During the fight, the Mimic
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accidentally copied X men's abilities and had a horrifying
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vision of his own future. He would kill his wife Vera and
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their newborn baby with his optic blasts.
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He had to take down a mind controlled Omega.
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And though Osborne's people managed to make the chaotic
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event look like a victory, they even built statues of Mimic and
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Omega. The vision made Calvin even more
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unstable. X-Men tried to teach him to use
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his new precognitive ability, but Calvin couldn't tame his
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inner demons. Later, when the X-Men attacked
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Osborne, Calvin was paralyzed by the thought that he of his
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recent life choices and whispered to himself.
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I was an X man once. Ultimately, his power was used
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to help Osborne drain X-Men and take him into custody, a choice
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they'll all immediately regret. During the Siege of Asgard,
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Calvin escaped with Omega, who had become his only friend.
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Omega was getting weaker from leeching powers, and Calvin
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carried him to Hank McCoy to help, knowing Hank had helped
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him before they showed up at Wolverine's new school with a
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troubled Omega in tow. Omega was dying because he
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couldn't stop taking mutant energy.
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They tried everything to cure him, including having Mimic and
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Rogue absorb his access energy, but this backfired, turning all
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of them into living power bombs about to explode.
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Omega made one last attempt to save them all by reabsorbing the
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energy, planning to sacrifice himself.
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Calvin refused to let him go, begging him to live on for him
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if not for himself. Omega agreed to be put in an
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artificial coma, mimicking Rachel Gray's telepathy.
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The Mimic gently put his best friend to sleep so the energy
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could gradually leave his body. Calvin realized his happiest
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moments were at the school and asked to stay to keep an eye on
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Omega. Rogue agreed, thinking he'd make
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a great teacher and Calvin ranking officially joined the
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X-Men after all these years. Now a member of the X-Men, the
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Mimic was immediately thrown into The Avengers versus X-Men
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War. He instantly sided with his new
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friends, offering to fight She Hulk despite his last Hulk power
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absorption nearly killing him, but he ended up fighting the
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Falcon instead. Later, he and the recovering
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Omega were helping the Hurricane clean up on in Montana when they
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were approached by the mutant Forget Me Not who wanted Omega
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to remove his power so people could finally remember he
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existed. If you want to know more about
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Oh Forget Me Not and his tragic story, just look on my page
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because I have a breakdown of him too.
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Before they could explain the risks, Cyclops X-Men group
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showed up and wanting them to join their cause, Mimic and
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Omega refused and a fight broke out.
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Forget Me Not then convinced them to copy his power so they
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would become invisible and crucially unforgettable to
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Cyclops his team. They teleported away instantly,
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forgetting the entire encounter. Omega then for explained to
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forget me not that stripping his powers would erase his whole
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history. Convinced Forget Me not turned
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away, which made Mimic and Omega forget him again and they flew
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off. When a younger version of Cable
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tried to send the time displaced young X-Men back to their era,
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he kidnapped Calvin. Why?
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For his wings. They were perfect genetic copies
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of Angels original wings and kid Cable needed them to replace the
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young Angels enhanced metal wings so he could return to the
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past normally. As the X-Men stormed Cable
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space, they found Calvin captive and brought him along to fight
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the villain Ahab. When Ahab finally reached the
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remaining X-Men, he ran the young Cyclops through with a
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spear, but surprise, it was actually the Mimic in disguise,
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preventing the future that Kid Cable was trying to stop.
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Calvin was later confirmed to have survived the attack.
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He then moved to the new mutant nation of Herkoa, where it was
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theorized that he might be a good stand in for the 5A group
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of mutants responsible for the resurrection process should one
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of them ever be killed. And like a lot of them were
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killed. A lot.
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So as usual, I have some comics for you to check out to get to
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know Mimic even better. So I would say to get to know
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him better. X-Men #19 Dark X-Men, The
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beginning number one, X-Men #26, X-Men #27, X-Men #28 and X-Men
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#29 I think that gives you a pretty good look at who he is
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and makes you more familiar with Calvin Ranking.
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So if you liked this episode, be sure to like and subscribe.
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I do hope you like this episode because it was a fun one to do.
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So with that being said, have a marvelous day.