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The Multiple
Man
Name: Multiple Man
Real Name: James Arthur 'Jamie' Madrox
Age: 87
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 155 lbs.
Hair: Grey
Eyes: Brown
Appearance: Hair worn long, wears old green trenchcoat over old business suit.
Powers: Madrox previously possessed the mutant ability to create identical physical duplicates of himself when violently struck (or when he strikes himself). After an incident on Midway Island during the Apocolypse Wars, Madrox was further mutated. Currently, he trails five "shadow" forms of himself. This forms perform his same actions slightly behind him. Therefore, when Madrox punches something, his five "shadows" in turn punch that thing after the original is through. As such, Madrox possesses the abilities of a normal human enhanced by a factor of six. This includes strength, stamina, speed, etc.
History: James Madrox is the only son of two researchers working at the Los Alamos Research Center in New Mexico. In the course of their work, his parents were exposed to enough specific radiation to produce subtle alterations in their genetic material. Thus their son was born a mutant. Moments after birth, Madrox's power became evident; when the doctor spanked him, the concussive force caused him to multiply into two identical physical beings. (The second self merged with the first in a few minutes.) Shaken by the bizarre phenomenon, on the advice of mutant trainer Professor Charles Xavier (Professor X), the Madrox family moved to a farm in Kansas where they could raise the boy in privacy. Dr. Madrox created a special suit for his son which insulated the boy from kinetic forces over the critical threshold point which caused replication, and forced the boy to wear it constantly. As Madrox grew up, he was not aware of his mutant power, but only of the strangeness of having to wear the same clothes.
When he was fifteen, his parents were killed by a tornado. Madrox spent the next few years of his life alone caring for his parents' farm. Then, malfunctioning control elements in the suit caused a power surge that released his powers and caused the suit to begin absorbing ambient electrical energy. Confused and frightened, Madrox set out to find help, eventually arriving in New York City. There, the hero team Fantastic Four and Professor X found him. Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four helped repair the uniform's components, and Xavier took him into his custody for a short time, to teach him how to use his replication powers. When asked to join Xavier's mutant adventurers, the X-Men, Madrox declined, preferring to accept Moira MacTaggert's offer to be a lab assistant at her mutation research complex at Muir Isle off the coast of Scotland.
Madrox remained on Muir Island for many years, leaving only once to join mutant heroine Siryn in looking for the missing X-men protégé's Sunspot and Warlock on behalf of Professor X. This led them into a brief romance and joining with the mutant runaways calling themselves the Fallen Angels. Madrox returned to Muir Island after these brief adventures.
During a brief time when the X-men had disbanded, their villain the Shadow King managed to take mental control over all the mutants and researchers living at Muir Island. Madrox helped the reforming X-men to defeat the villain and agreed to join Havok and Polaris who formed the government-sponsored mutant team X-factor, having by this time gained enough control over his powers to avoid wearing his protective suit.
Madrox remained a member of X-factor for many months, until a mission into the mutant-apartheid country Genosha led him to contract the deadly Legacy Virus. Madrox apparently died at the hands of the self-proclaimed mutant healer Haven when she attempted to cure Madrox of the disease. It was later revealed that the infected Madrox had split into duplicates prior to contracting the disease, and Madrox is survived by a duplicate. Madrox helped X-factor on several missions but never really rejoined the team.
While on Genosha, Onslaught rose to power and attacked. Madrox abandoned his post at Genosha to return to New York in hopes of assisting the heroes. During the initial assualt, the heroes were rebuffed, and Madrox returned to Genosha to try and maintain some order there. Once he arrived, he set about creating a police force made entirely of his dupes. First, he created five lieutenant dupes. From there, the five dupes and Madrox set about creating an army of dupes. The army of dupes later fought valiantly against the Skrull invasion, although many were killed and eventually Genosha left in ruins. Madrox and his five lieutenants retired from active duty following Doom's rise to power.
With the reappearance of Apocolypse and his bid for power, Madrox returned to active duty, fighting alongside old friends and foes. One such battle occured at Midway Island, once a crucial point during the Second World War. There, Apocolypse hoped to secure a Pacific base. Alongside Sunfire, the Silver Samurai, Colossus, Namor, Bishop, and the original Human Torch, Madrox and his five lieutenants, assisted by a large number of dupes, stormed the beaches of Midway and succeded in driving Apocolypse from his base. The despot would not accept defeat, however, and detonated a nuclear device as a last resort. The Human Torch was incinerated, caught at the heart of the explosion as he tried to defuse the bomb. The Silver Samurai barely escaped thanks to his teleportation ring, along with Sunfire and Namor. Colossus stayed and bore a brunt of the explosion, his mutant power taxed to the limit. Bishop absorbed a huge amount of energy, threatening his life. He actually disappeared during the explosion, to unknown parts. Madrox and his five lieutenants were not so lucky. The explosion caused the dupes that the lieutenants created to merge back into their original lieutenant. The lieutenants, in turn, remerged with Madrox. How exactly Madrox survived is unknown. What is known is that he emerged from the wreckage a changed man, with five shadows behind him. He can never die, can never rest, as he is now six men in one body.
Fifty years have passed since Apocolypse claimed the world as his own. All this time, Madrox has wandered the cities, gathering as much information as he can. He is the man to come to when you have questions. Because of this, he is a highly sought after individual, by both hero and villian.
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