Armor (comics)

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caption= Hisako Ichiki on the cover of Astonishing X-Men #21 (May 2007).
Art by John Cassaday.
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Armor
real_name=Hisako Ichiki
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Astonishing X-Men" vol. 3 #4
creators=Joss Whedon
John Cassaday
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=X-Men Xavier Institute
aliases=
powers=Ability to generate psionic body armor that grants superhuman strength and durability.

Armor (Hisako Ichiki), is a fictional character who exists in Marvel Comics' shared universe, the Marvel Universe. She is a mutant teenager who is enrolled at the Xavier Institute who retains her powers after the events of Decimation. She first appeared in "Astonishing X-Men" vol. 3 #4.

Fictional character biography

tudent at Xavier's

Hisako Ichiki is a young girl whose greatest aspiration is one day to be an X-Man. Hisako was one of the students without an official squad before M-Day. However, she may have been a part of Iceman's Squad, Excelsiors, or Beast's Squad, Exemplars, both of which never had officially listed students.

Along with her friend and fellow student, Wing (whom, after his death, she later describes as being her best friend), Hisako is attacked in the halls of the Xavier Institute by the alien villain Ord of the Breakworld. Hisako and Wing attempt to oppose Ord, but are overpowered. While both teenagers survive the attack, Wing discovers that he has been injected with a "cure" for his mutant ability of flight. Despondent, he commits suicide after some goading from a Danger Room hologram of her. In the wake of this tragedy, Hisako, her teacher Kitty Pryde, and several Xavier students find themselves trapped in a sentient and hostile Danger Room with Wing's reanimated corpse. Danger, as the intelligence is named by the X-Men, eventually leaves the Institute.

When M-Day hit, she was one of 27 students to maintain her powers. She participated in Emma Frost's Battle Royale which determined who will train to be an X-Man. Hisako later appeared alongside the New X-Men when the Acolytes attack the mansion. Her appearance is extremely brief and with no dialogue. She is recognizable only because she "Armors up" during the fight.

Member of the X-Men

Hisako finds classmate Blindfold "crying" in the restroom, which is ironic as Blindfold has no eyes and "cannot" cry. ["Astonishing X-Men vol. 3" #15] While trying to comfort Blindfold, Blindfold tries to convince Hisako that they are soon "to lose another one," as Wolverine, believing he is a defenseless child due to the manipulations of Cassandra Nova, barges into the restroom, followed closely by the feral Beast. Beast attacks Blindfold, but Hisako uses her powers to fight off Beast before landing the coup de grace with a large blast of psionic energy from her psi-body armor. Exhausting herself, she faints. Blindfold and Hisako make their way through the Institute. Blindfold tells Hisako that someone is awake in the infirmary; they find the unconscious bodies of Colossus and Cyclops. ["Astonishing X-Men vol. 3" #16] Soon afterwards, Shadowcat rises through the floor and asks the girls to explain everything they know.

Soon after, both Ord and Danger attack the mansion, where they are confronted by Hisako and then Wolverine where the young girl holds her own only to end up wounded by Wolverine's claws. Although she only receives minor injuries, things do not get any better when Cassandra Nova chooses Hisako to be her new host body. It is left unknown if Cassandra was successful in getting Emma Frost to transfer her consciousness into Hisako, as S.W.O.R.D. beams the team, Danger, Ord, and Hisako into a spaceship headed for the Breakworld.

The team and Hisako find that S.W.O.R.D. have abducted the X-Men and Hisako because they need heroes to fight a threat: Breakworld has a weapon capable of destroying the Earth. After flying through space, Ord sends the ship's coordinates to Breakworld's ruler, and he sends a fleet to attack the ship. When the attack is over, the ship is heavily damaged and the X-Men are separated. Hisako ends up with Wolverine. Hisako is given membership to the X-Men and Shadowcat's uniform. After commenting on how she had a test that week, Wolverine tells her that she is an X-Man now, and she is there to save the world. She picks the codename Armor, which Logan said would be like calling himself "Claws." As the groups gather, they confuse her by calling everyone by their first names instead of their codenames.

Later, Wolverine and Armor are captured as Emma and the remaining X-Men try to free Scott. It is then revealed through a flashback that the Leviathan is a fake and that Wolverine and Armor were told to be captured so the X-Men would have men inside Kruun's palace. Kruun only captured and brought Scott back to life so as to question him about the fake Leviathan. Scott then uses his newly-regained powers to knock out Kruun and free Wolverine and Armor.

Back on earth, Armor attempts to console Wolverine by forcing him to fight/train with her. ["Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men" #1]

Messiah Complex

During Messiah Complex, some of the New X-Men launch a pre-emptive strike against the Purifiers. Hisako joins them and while spying on the Purifers, she is impressed by X-23’s senses. After breaking into the Washington base and getting into a brief tussle with the Purifers they are ambushed by the Reavers, who mortally wound Hellion. Pixie manages to teleport the team out and are spread between Washington and the Institute.

While not shown on panel, Hisako was brought back to the mansion by Iceman with the other New X-Men. When Predator X showed up at the mansion, Hisako teamed up with Gentle and battled it in the infirmary. Pixie believes X-23 can defeat the monster and teleports it and the entire team, along with Hisako, to the battle between the Marauders and the X-Teams taking place on Muir Island.

Manifest Destiny

Hisako is currently a full member of the X-men and is working alongside them in San Francisco. She is currently receiving classes from Wolverine in combat and classes from Cyclops in tactics. She is thinking of changing her codename because Wolverine keeps mocking her for her choice of "Armor". She later accompanies the team to a spaceship graveyard known as Chaparanga where she performs a fastball special with Wolverine and confronts a mysterious man trying to create a mutant.

ecret Invasion

Hisako is seen working alongside Cannonball and Colossus when the Skrulls invade San Francisco.

Powers and abilities

Hisako can generate a psionic body armor that grants her superhuman strength and durability. The body armor protects her from powerful attacks and greatly strengthens the force behind her offensive blows. To some extent, she can shape her armor, as when she formed claws in a training fight with Wolverine.

Hisako's armor is apparently strong enough to survive the heat caused from a long fall through the atmosphere.She can also cause her armor to be able to release a large amount of solid, concussive energy at once, but it may be difficult to perform.

Wolverine is able to pierce through Hisako's armor with his adamantium claws, [Astonishing X-Men vol. 3 #13] although he is not able to go through it with the rest of his body. In the same issue, Hisako, when asked by Wolverine what her powers "are made of," she replies, "It's...my family. I...I mean, the line of my ancestors passes this strength, this protection that I can access, it's hard to..." and trails off.

Hisako has also received combat training from Wolverine and classes in tactics from Cyclops ["Astonishing X-Men vol. 3" #25] .

Other versions

Runaways

In the Runaways vol. 2 #2, a time-displaced future version of Gertrude Yorkes mentioned a future team of X-Men led by Hisako. Like Gertrude's Avengers, they were decimated by Victor Mancha. One panel shows the psionic armored arm of Hisako. Hisako & Gert are stated to be the last of the X-Men & Avengers, respectively.

Bibliography

* "Astonishing X-Men" vol. 3 #4-5, 7-9, 13, 15-24 by Joss Whedon
* "Runaways" vol. 2 #2 by Brian K. Vaughan
* "New X-Men" vol. 2 #23 and #25 by Craig Kyle and Chris Yost
* "X-Men: The 198 Files" by Eric J. Moreels, Marc-Oliver Frisch, and Brian E. Wilkinson

Footnotes

External links

* [http://uncannyxmen.net/db/article/showquestion.asp?faq=4&fldAuto=229&page=11 Uncanny X-Men.net - Yearbook Entry on Hisako]
* [http://marvel.com/universe/Armor Official Character Bio at Marvel.com]