"Mutants... Homo-superior... are the genetically twisted children of human parents, born with a... biological advantage over ordinary humans. They emerge from childhood as a butterfly emerges from a cocoon... pulsing with strange and outre powers... able to shoot blasts from their eyes, or lift freight cars... or fly... as Warren Worthington, the mutant on the screen before you, can fly"
Biography[]
Anti-Mutant[]
Cameron Hodge was the college roommate of Warren Worthington III. Hodge then took a public relations job with a New York advertising firm. After Angel's former superhero team the Defenders disbanded, Worthington and Hodge hatched a plan to reunite the original roster of the X-Men. Under Hodge's plan, the five mutants would pose as professional mutant hunters under the name X-Factor. They would use this cover to contact and teach young mutants. However, the plan backfired, as X-Factor's advertising campaign increased anti-mutant hysteria. In addition, the team suffered a series of major setbacks. After suffering severe injuries during the Mutant Massacre, Angel had his wings amputated. Then, Angel seemingly dies in a jetplane explosion. Tensions arose between X-Factor members Cyclops and Marvel Girl when Cyclops saw manifestations of the Phoenix around Jean Grey. X-Factor later discovered that Hodge had orchestrated the amputation and jetplane accident and had created holograms simulating the Phoenix Force. Hodge had secretly been Commander of the Right, an anti-mutant terrorist group. He had fully intended to exacerbate anti-mutant tensions through his advertising campaign. During this time, Hodge and The Right made a pact with the extradimensional demonic entity N'astirh, who in exchange for collecting mutant babies N'astirh needed for a spell to open up a portal from Limbo to Earth, he granted Hodge immortality and the continued existence of The Right and its work - to create conflict between humans and mutants. Hodge later kidnapped and murdered Warren Worthington's former girlfriend Candy Southern. Worthington had survived his attempted suicide when his private plane exploded and had been transformed into Archangel by Apocalypse. Archangel later invades the Right's headquarters and decapitated Hodge.
Employees[]
Hodge's efforts would provide unexpected blows against his enemies, as his employee the Ani-Mator ends up shooting dead the New Mutant team member Cypher. Another of Hodge's people would end up becoming Nanny, a powerful cyberneticist, who with the assistance of Orphan-Maker, would plague the X-Men multiple times.
X-Tinction Agenda[]
Hodge is revealed to be alive, his decapitated head having been attached to a grotesque non-humanoid cyborg, a fate Hodge said he survived as a result of the pact he made with N'astirh. Hodge took the leading role of the anti-mutant efforts of the Genoshan government during the "X-Tinction Agenda" crossover storyline. In the initial attack on the X-Men, members of the New Mutants, plus Storm are kidnapped. One of them, Warlock, dies when Hodge tries and fails to steal his shape-changing powers. Another, Wolfsbane is brainwashed into a slave. The last two, Rictor and Boom Boom, escape into the streets. During the incident it is revealed that Havok, Cyclops's brother, had come to be working for Hodge as a Magistrate. Havok regains his memory and tries to bring down Hodge from within. Hodge goes so far as to murder one of his main employees in order to frame Havok. Hodge is confronted by a combined force of X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants. Wolfsbane, her mind partly restored, plays a major factor in defeating Hodge, as she transforms a giant wolf form that severely damages him. The fight soon comes down to Havok, Cyclops and Hodge. The villain ultimately ends up as a head, still immortal, buried as Rictor knocks a building down onto him.
Phalanx[]
Hodge later returns as a member of the cybernetic extraterrestrial race known as the Phalanx, ironically a form he would have taken if his efforts with Warlock had been successful. Yet again he was apparently slain by Archangel. Hodge was defeated by Stephen Lang (the human interface for the Phalanx), when Lang caused the Phalanx citadel to fall from the top of Mount Everest.
Purifiers[]
Hodge's remains are found in the Himalayas by a group of Purifiers. He is later revived when Bastion infects him with the transmode virus gained from one of Magus' offspring. In X-Men: Legacy # 237, Cameron Hodge and his whole army of "Smileys" are killed by Warlock of the New Mutants at the behest of Cypher when his lifeforce and the lifeforces of the Smileys are forcibly absorbed by Warlock via their shared connection of the technorganic Transmode virus.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
After a deal with the demon N'Astirh, Hodge was granted immortality, and his body could not be killed by conventional means. At this time, he also proved immune to psychic attacks, reflecting them back to their users, although whether this was a part of his deal with N'Astirh or due to unknown technology is unclear.
Later, as part of the Phalanx, Hodge was a part of the collective intelligence and physical mass of the Phalanx entity, sharing in its powers of matter-assimilation, shape-changing, computer interfacing, energy blasts, and more.
Abilities[]
Advanced business and negotiation skills, a skilled strategist.
Strength level[]
Normal human male with moderate regular exercise. After being converted to a cyborg, he had an unknown degree of superhuman strength.
Paraphernalia[]
Equipment[]
Formerly Ruby Quartz armour that could resist Cyclops' optic blasts.
Weapons[]
Hodge was once outfitted with a cybernetic body, shaped like a spider's, having eight legs and a low squat torso, but also containing other attachments, such as weapon systems and a scorpion-like tail. The armored body held numerous weapons, the full range of which remains unknown, but included bolas, laser blasters, molecular adhesive projectors, saw blades, spikes, and tentacles. Hodge could directly access computer information from his cybernetic body, and another mechanical unit enabled his body to phase out of reality for brief periods to avoid attack. Circuits in the body allowed the body to repair itself at a phenomenal rate.