Husk (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=Cover art for "Uncanny X-Men" #432.
Art by Phillip Tan.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Husk
real_name=Paige Elisabeth Guthrie
species=Human Mutant
hair_color=Blond
eye_color=Blue
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut=New Mutants vol. 1 #42 (August, 1986)
(as a Guthrie sibling)
X-Force vol. 1 #32 (March, 1994)
(as a mutant)
creators= Chris Claremont and Jackson Guice, re-established by
Fabian Nicieza
Tony Daniel
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=X-Men Generation X X-Corps Mutantes Sans Frontières Xavier Institute
aliases=
powers= Ability to shed skin into a different composition, shape or size beneath, Experienced in martial arts|

Husk (Paige Guthrie) is a fictional character from Marvel Comics. Guthrie is a superheroine associated with the X-Men.

A mutant, Husk has the ability to remove - or "husk" - one layer of skin revealing an epidermis of a different composition beneath. She often changes into metal or stone form, but can shift into a variety of substances.

Husk is from a Kentucky coal mining family and is the younger sister of the X-Men's Cannonball. Unlike her brother, Husk is self-conscious of being seen as a "hick" (Jubilee often called her 'hayseed'). As a member of the X-Men's 1990s-era junior team Generation X, she established herself as an overachiever. She later joined the X-Men.

Husk was created by Fabian Nicieza and Tony Daniel but "Generation X" creators Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo defined much of her character and abilities.

Fictional character biography

The sister of the X-Man Cannonball, Paige Guthrie was born to a large Kentucky coal miner's family. Her father passed away when she was very young, due to a lung affliction gained from working in the mines. As a teenager, she discovers her inborn mutant ability to shed her skin, metamorphosing into a different composition beneath. She has used this power to turn her body into stone, glass, and an acid-like substance, among other materials. She can also use her power to heal herself by shedding a damaged form in favor of an intact one. She normally cannot change the shape of her form, only its composition, although an issue of "X-Force", written before her powers had been fully defined, depicted her transforming into a bird.

Generation X

From the series' beginning in 1996 until its cancellation at issue #75 in 2001, Husk was a member of the junior X-Men team Generation X, where she earned a reputation as a workaholic, constantly trying to prove herself fit for the main team. She also develops a troubled relationship with her antisocial teammate Chamber. Towards the end of the team's existence, Paige became the group's computer expert and develops an interest in environmental issues.

After the breakup of Generation X, Husk joins Banshee's militant X-Corps, along with other Gen X members, in order to keep an eye on him. This does not end well, with Banshee's more criminal charges staging a coup and the Gen X members having to take down the Blob.

X-Men

She later joined the X-Men in Chuck Austen's 2001 revamp of "Uncanny X-Men" and was placed in a controversial relationship with the long-time X-Man Archangel, Husk being 19 years old and several years Archangel's junior.

The two took an extended leave of absence. Archangel launched a charity called "Mutantes Sans Frontières" in Zanzibar, a reference to Médecins Sans Frontières ("Doctors Without Borders"), where the two proceeded to help stop a coup with the aid of Professor X's newest charges from nearby Genosha.

Her younger brother Jay later joined the new New Mutants team under the codename Icarus. Her sister Melody also joined the school as Aero after discovering she could fly. Aero has since been depowered after M-Day, although Paige herself retains her powers. Icarus was later killed following the events of M-Day, in a confrontation with the anti-mutant activisit William Stryker and his army. The resulting battles also take the lives of dozens of other students.

She is most often seen in the current New X-Men title while tending to the wounded. In her last major appearance, she attended the funeral of her little brother.

Divided We Stand

The first issue of Divided We Stand revealed that Paige had returned to living with her family. She is the one that goes to pick up her brother, Cannonball, at the airport to bring him home. However, Sam, still feeling angry over the betrayal of his X-Men team, tells her to take him to a local bar where he picks a fight with the members of rival families from their home. Paige confronts Sam on his action after the brawl ends. Sam yells his lost faith in how the life of an X-Men works and flies off angry, leaving Paige fearful for his life and mind.

ecret Invasion

Husk is seen fighting alongside the rest of the X-Men in San Francisco. She is seen fighting alongside Angel, flirting with him at the same time. Though it would appear that they are no longer a couple.

Powers and abilities

She has the mutant ability to shed her outer layer of skin and reveal a new layer or shape underneath. While she can sometimes acquire new forms, Husk has been able to shift into anything that does not exceed her body mass. Any extra mass left when she shifts into a smaller form such as an insect or a bird is shunted into an unknown extra-dimensional space, and will return to Husk when she resumes her human form; Paige most commonly takes on a Paige-like form in a new material, and much prefers to do that. She can become any solid that she has studied and can imitate adamantium, diamond, granite, wood, rubber, brick, and even glass. She has the capability to blend in with surroundings, but in order to do so, she would have to study the texture she seeks to mimic first. In the alternate timeline of the Age of Apocalypse, Husk was able to shift into liquid substances, including complex acids capable of affecting organic steel. Husk also had the ability to change only part of her body (such as changing a hand into a bladed weapon). When Paige morphs into a different layer, she often takes on new physical abilities or qualities, such as increased weight, strength, or invulnerability. She can husk away minor injuries, but deeper ones will stay with her. She can hold a form for about an hour before she needs to revert back to her original form. She can morph repeatedly. She is not required to stay in any one form, but too many transformations can become very painful. In great stress or trauma, Paige can shed without control, revealing patchwork forms. When Paige ‘husks’, she sheds her clothing as well. This has the somewhat unfortunate side effect of leaving her nude when she returns to her normal form.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Paige was a member of Generation Next. Husk was found by Sinister along with her sister Elizabeth and her brother Sam while the rest of their family, save for their brother Joshua, were culled by Apocalypse's Infinites. However, unlike Sam and Elizabeth, Paige declined Sinister's offer to join his Elite Mutant Force. Instead she joined Magneto's cause. Like her main Marvel Universe counterpart, Paige had a relationship with Chamber, though in this case the relationship became physical as well. She also had greater control over her abilities, as she was able to transform only parts of her body, and even capable of adopting liquid, gaseous, and energy states.

Paige was believed dead, along with the rest of the Generation Next members. However, she was enslaved by the inmates of the Seattle Core until Apocalypse's regime fully collapsed. Husk was eventually found by her siblings and taken to Sinister, who brainwashed her and made her want revenge for the X-Men leaving her behind. Husk infiltrated the ranks of the X-Men as a mutant named Xorn and kidnapped Charles Lensherr; she even battled alongside the other Guthries, but was ultimately killed by Wolverine's daughter, Kirika.

Mutant X

Paige is a member of the Maruaders and constantly fighting with her brother, Cannonball. She is stuck in a rather grotesque form and was last seen trying to escape the groups mysterious benefactor.

In other media

Movies

In X2 , Paige's name appears in William Stryker's computer, along with her brother Samuel Guthrie and many others.

Television

In the Generation X made for television film, Paige was replaced with Buff, a superstrong blonde, because Paige's powers were too expensive to animate.

External links

* [http://www.uncannyxmen.net/db/spotlight/showquestion.asp?faq=10&fldAuto=111 UncannyXmen.net, Spotlight feature on Husk]
* [http://marvel.com/universe/Husk Husk on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]