Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 167. Who is Leech in Marvel Comics?!

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Ep. 167. Who is Leech in Marvel Comics?! · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

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  Hello my fellow nerds and geeks. My name is Megan with vigilante
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  vibes and I'm coming to you today with another character
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  breakdown. And if you haven't noticed, I
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  have been on a pattern covering the underrated mutants of the
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  Marvel Universe. And today I have another one
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  that I'm excited for you to listen to or watch however you
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  do it. Before we get started, be sure
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  to like and subscribe so you don't miss anything else I have
• 0:42
  to put out because I put out like a lot of content.
• 0:45
  Like a lot of content. So if you like and subscribe,
• 0:49
  you won't miss any of it. So who are we talking about
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  today? It is actually Leech.
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  I think we all remember the cinnamon role of a mutant Leech
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  getting killed in X-Men 97, so why not talk about him in the
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  comics? Leach first appeared in Marvel
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  Comics and Uncanny X-Men at #179 in December of 1983.
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  He was created by Chris Claremont and Paul Smith.
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  When Leach was just a boy, he was abandoned by his human
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  parents because of his weird green skinned mutant appearance.
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  Eventually he was found by a mutant detector named Caliban,
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  who took him to Callisto, who was the leader of the Morlocks,
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  a community of outcast mutants who lived in tunnels deep under
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  New York City. Unfortunately, Leech's power
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  dampening ability and strange looks made him an outcast even
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  among them, so he was forced to live alone in the tunnel
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  system's outskirts. Maybe because he didn't get to
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  interact with people much or he didn't get a good education.
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  He spoke in short, broken sentences and referred to
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  himself in the third person. I like to think of like,
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  characters that do that as Pokémon.
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  Like, you know how they only say their name?
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  All right, I'm sorry. Leach can create a power
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  dampening aura that temporarily cancels out any superhuman
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  ability, whether mutant or not. At first he couldn't control it,
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  but over time he learned to expand his aura up to 30 feet or
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  shrink it to just a few inches from his body.
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  If he touches someone, their powers are gone for up to like 5
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  minutes even if they leave his area.
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  His aura doesn't work if he's knocked out and it can't be
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  absorbed by Rogue, which is which is a crazy thing.
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  It also doesn't affect Cloak's Dark Force abilities, and you
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  can't read his mind or track him telepathically because of it.
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  Leach sometimes wears a device on his wrist that lets him
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  project holograms over himself to look like a normal person.
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  Though he started out with a long head and only three
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  fingers, his head is more human shaped now and he has four
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  fingers. Probably because of the
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  continued mutation as he grew. Leach has been a target for a
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  lot of bad guys because of his powers, including the Marauders,
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  the Anti Mutant Organization, and even Demons.
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  He also was targeted by members of the Gene Nation, former
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  Morlocks who survived the Mutant Massacre, and saw Leach as an
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  embarrassment for their kind because of his appearance.
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  His own family abandoned him and then the Morlocks pushed him
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  away because his powers turned off theirs.
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  This rejected rejection made him so lonely, but he eventually
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  connected with another Morloc name, Annalee, after her
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  children were killed. She was mean to him at 1st and
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  rejected him, but she finally accepted him as a son.
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  Leach became best friends with Artie Maddox, another young
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  mutant, when they were both trying to escape the killer
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  Saber Tooth. Tragically, Annalee was killed
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  by the Marauders during the mutant massacre, so X Factor
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  took Leach in as their ward. He was happily reunited with
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  Artie and became especially close to with Jean Grey.
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  Leach and Artie went to a boarding school at Saint Simons
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  Academy where they met and befriended Wiz Kidd and Franklin
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  Richards. Leach used his powers to help a
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  lot of mutants whose powers were out of control, like Richter,
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  Iceman, Cyclops. He eventually joined Generation
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  X, the Daydreamers, and the Fantastic Four's Future
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  Foundation, so he is well connected for such a little
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  little guy. After being kidnapped by the
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  Morlocks, the X-Men, Kate Pride or Kitty Pride or Shadowcat,
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  whichever you prefer, ran into Leech in the tunnels.
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  He led her back to the Morlocks and then temporarily took away
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  the X men's powers when they came to rescue her.
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  So going back to Annalee, his like adoptive mother thing, she
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  could project her emotions onto others and she had her children
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  OFT by scout punter Leach related to her loneliness, but
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  she was still unkind to him. You know, she rejected him,
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  called him names all that wanting to make her happy.
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  Leach uses powers to turn off the Power Pack kids abilities to
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  help Annalee kidnap them. While they were held captive, A
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  stray kitten befriended Leach. Julie Power used the kitten to
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  trick Leach into following her so her siblings could get their
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  powers back and fight Annalise friends, the Drain Dwellers.
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  Julie felt bad for Leach and Annalee, but her attempts to get
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  them to reconcile didn't work. The Power Pack kids felt bad for
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  Leach and gave him the kitten so he wouldn't be so alone, but
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  Annalee kidnapped the Power kids again.
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  When the X-Men came to the rescue, Leach was knocked out
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  when he touched the power stealing Rogue.
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  Other Morlocks wanted to kill Leach and frame Rogue for it,
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  but the X-Men saved the Power Pack before Leach was hurt.
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  Katie Power forgave Annalee and invited her to Thanksgiving at
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  her house, but when Leach tried to go with her.
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  Annalee. Annalee, I can't.
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  My brain cannot figure out which one it is.
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  Annalee locked him in a crate when he escaped and followed
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  her. She used his powers to make a
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  crowd attack him and he was saved by Alex Power, cloak and
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  dagger. Seeing that Leach still cared
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  about her despite her cruelty, Annalee finally attempt accepted
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  him as her son. Which is you know what like he
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  didn't have anyone, but then he went and got an abusive mother
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  who accepted him out of spite. Like after dinner, Jack Power
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  gave Leach some of his old clothes and Annalee took him
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  home. When Mr. Sinister's marauders
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  killed was started killing Morlocks, Artie Maddox looked
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  for his friends in the tunnel and met Leach.
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  They quickly became friends and helped each other avoid Saber
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  Tooth. After Artie left, Leach
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  protected an injured Caliban until they were rescued by the
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  Power Pack. But Leach was crushed to find
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  that Annalee had been killed. So like, Oh no.
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  Leach helped keep other mutants powers in check when they got
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  out of control and often broke up fights between them.
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  He also started learning how to master his own power.
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  Leach and the other Wards were kidnapped by the anti mutant
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  group the Right, who wanted to use them as weapons, but X
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  Factor rescued them. For his first Christmas, Leach
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  convinced all his fellow Wards to donate their gifts to
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  children who were hurt in a battle between X Factor and
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  Apocalypse, which is just so nice.
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  One day the kids were riding in Whiz Kids Flying Saucer Whiz Kid
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  who Leach and Artie met at the school.
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  They were photographed by a woman named Ida Fassbender who
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  mistakenly thought they were aliens.
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  Leach thought she looked like Anna Lee and wanted to help her.
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  When they went to her house, she was terrified at first, but
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  after realizing they were just mutant kids, she stopped the
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  police from taking them away and let Leach consider her.
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  His special Grammy makes me happy for him.
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  When Professor X opened a new school for young mutants, he
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  arranged for Artie and Leach to transfer there.
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  However, on their way to meet the Headmistress Emma Frost,
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  they were attacked by Gene Nation, who wanted to kill Leach
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  for being a reminder of the weak Morlocks they used to be.
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  To get her telepathy back and defeat them, Frost had to
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  brutally kick Leach unconscious, which turned off his powers.
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  Once they got to the new school, their classmates Skin and Cinch
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  built them a tree house in the school's terrarium, and the boys
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  loved it so much that they rarely left.
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  When Franklin Richards stayed at the school for a bit, he became
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  close with Artie and Leach. The three of them were a trio
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  and even got to go on some adventures.
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  During one attack in the school, Franklin's powers accidentally
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  sent them into a bunch of different pocket realities based
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  on his subconscious and they spent time exploring them.
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  Normal kids stuff, you know? After the school started
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  accepting human students, Arty and Leech were moved into a new
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  attic space, which they turned into their dream playroom.
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  To get around the school, Emma Frost gave them image inducers
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  to hide their mutant appearance, but the boys got in trouble for
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  using them to run around as cartoonish versions of Spider
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  Man and Doctor Doom. On a field trip to Manhattan,
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  the boys got bored and ran off to find Franklin.
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  They disguised themselves as Spider Man and ended up
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  distracting Sandman long enough to save the real Spider Man from
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  being beaten. They even tried to get into The
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  Avengers Mansion disguised as Captain America and Thor, but
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  they were caught and detained by until an angry Emma Frost came
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  to get them. After that the boys stayed at
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  the school until a bombing forced it to close.
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  Leach was later captured by the Weapon X program and used to
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  turn off other mutants powers so the program could kill them.
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  Leach almost died because of the technology he was hooked up to.
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  After the Weapon X Camp shut down, Leach escaped and was one
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  of the few mutants who kept their powers after the Scarlet
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  Witch stripped most of mutant kind of their abilities.
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  He joined a group of mutants known as the 198 who sought
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  protection with the X-Men only to become prisoners of the US
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  government. Reminded of this time and the
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  Weapon X camp, Leach ran away and hid in Nevada for a while.
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  He later saved Cyclops life by turning off his powers when they
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  became uncontrollable. Leach and the other mutants
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  eventually returned to Xavier's school when they were promised
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  they could live there voluntarily.
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  Leach was later kidnapped by the remaining Morlocks, who were
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  terrorizing the surface world, but the X-Men rescued him.
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  Artie and Leach were later invited to Franklin's birthday
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  party, where Reed Richards asked them to move in with the
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  Fantastic Four and join his Future Foundation, an
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  organization dedicates making the world a better place.
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  The boys both accepted happily. While with the Future
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  Foundation, Leach helped a girl named Hazmat whose body produces
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  and absorbs radiation so she has to live in a protective suit.
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  Leach's powers let her enjoy a day outside without her suit and
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  see her parents for the first time without a barrier between
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  them. Eventually, Leach moved to the
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  independent island nation of Kirkowa, where he trained in a
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  place called The Quarry and even beat his best friend Artie on a
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  one-on-one fight. And we have not really seen him
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  since, So there's that. But yeah, that's Leech.
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  He's like I said, he's a little cinnamon roll of a character.
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  He's very sweet. He just wants love, and he looks
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  for it in all the wrong places. So I have some comics for you to
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  check out to get to know Leech even better.
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  If you have any other comics you think we should all check out
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  because just let me know in the comments because these are ones
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  I've read. I haven't read all of Marvel
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  Comics. So X Factor #10 through 40,
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  Power Pack #12, Power Pack #19, X Factor Annual Number 3X,
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  Terminators One through 4, and Heroic Age X-Men #1 so I hope
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  you enjoyed this character breakdown.
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  Be sure to like and subscribe so you don't miss any more of my
• 13:06
  character breakdowns and come into the Marvel Universe and
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  learn all about it with me. I think it'll be very fun, so
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  have a marvelous day.