Callisto (comics)

Superherobox


caption=Callisto
Jim Cheung, artist
character_name=Callisto
comic_color=background:#ff8080
real_name=Alexandra GablerFact|date=January 2008
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Uncanny X-Men" #169 (May 1983)
creators=Chris Claremont
Paul Smith
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=X-Cell Genoshan Excalibur Morlocks Gene Nation The Arena
aliases=
powers=None, formerly:
Superhuman senses
heightened strength, speed, agility and reflexes
Accelerated healing factor
|

Callisto is a Marvel Comics character, associated with the X-Men. Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Paul Smith, she first appeared in "Uncanny X-Men" #169 (May 1983).

She was the leader of New York City's subterranean mutant settlement the Morlocks. However, after a run-in with the X-Men, Callisto lost a duel with Storm for leadership of the Morlocks. Storm left the group in Callisto's care and the two have had an uneasy alliance ever since.

Callisto appears in the 2006 film, , in which she is played by actress Dania Ramirez .

Fictional character biography

Callisto's origins are unknown, although she has claimed that the scars she bears are proof of "how dumb a mistake" it was for her to try to live among normal humans; in one of her earlier appearances, her greatest psychological fear is the image of the beautiful woman that she once was, although she may have overcome that as of the present.

Morlocks

When Callisto first appeared she was leader of the Morlocks, a group of mutants who lived in the sewers (named after H.G. Wells's characters in "The Time Machine"). The Morlocks were first formed well over twenty years ago by Callisto, Sunder, Caliban, and Masque.

Callisto kidnapped Angel and stripped him of most of his clothing, intending to make him her mate. Callisto also attempted to cripple Angel by cutting away his primary feathers. To rescue Angel, Storm challenged and beat Callisto in a duel for the leadership of the Morlocks. As the new leader of the Morlocks, Storm decreed that they would no longer kidnap and terrorize surface-dwellers, and in return they would have peace. ["Uncanny X-Men" #169-170]

Callisto regards Storm with both resentment and respect due to Storm defeating her in hand-to-hand combat, but she sneers at what she considers Storm's "weakness," namely her conviction not to take a life, or to take revenge on baseline humans that despise mutants. Callisto attempted to take revenge on the X-Men by trying to force Kitty Pryde to wed Caliban, and battled Storm again. ["Uncanny X-Men" #179] When the wizard Kulan Gath enslaved and ed the city of New York and transformed it into a Hyborian Age city, Callisto became his warrior servant. She battled Storm again, but Storm saved her life. Callisto helped defeat Kulan Gath, and as a result Callisto and her allies found themselves on a new timeline where Kulan Gath never transformed New York. ["Uncanny X-Men" #180-181]

Thereafter, Callisto found herself as more of an ally to the X-Men. She rescued Professor X after he was nearly killed by anti-mutant Columbia University students. ["Uncanny X-Men" #193] She saved Power Pack from the Morlocks Annalee and Masque. ["Uncanny X-Men" #195] Callisto was wounded during the Marauders' massacre of the Morlocks, and took refuge with the X-Men. ["Uncanny X-Men" #211] She befriended Storm and convinced her not to give up leadership of the X-Men. ["Uncanny X-Men" #212]

After a while, Callisto moved to Muir Island to become the bodyguard for Moira MacTaggert. With Moira, she was transported to an alternate Earth where Britain is dominated by Nazis. ["Excalibur" #4] Meanwhile, the Nazi counterparts of Callisto and Moira appeared on the mainstream Earth. ["Excalibur" #6] These counterparts captured Brigadier Alistaire Stuart at the Tower of London, ["Excalibur" #9] but failed in their attempt to escape the Tower of London. ["Excalibur" #10] Both Callisto and Moira and their counterparts then returned to their native Earths. ["Excalibur" #11]

Being Beautiful

Callisto later encountered an amnesiac Colossus, who had assumed the identity of artist Peter Nicholas. Peter remembered nothing of his former life after his journey through the Siege Perilous. The two became attracted to each other after Masque reshaped Callisto's flesh, restoring her beauty to greater than what it was before she was scarred. ["Uncanny X-Men" #259-260] Rather than an act of kindness, Masque, who had taken control of the Morlocks in Callisto's absence and saw fit to capture and psychologically torture her when she reappeared in their tunnels, restored Callisto's beauty only to take it away later as a means of tormenting her. The process was repeated several times before Callisto and Colossus were finally rescued by Forge, Banshee and Jean Grey. ["Uncanny X-Men" #262-264]

Callisto began a career as a fashion model and moved above ground, embarking on a new life with Peter Nicholas as her lover. They were attacked by Genoshan magistrates but defeated them. ["Uncanny X-Men" #264] The Morlocks later attacked Callisto, still under the influence of Masque. Masque had grossly transformed the Morlocks, leaving them with grotesque physical mutations. They nearly beat Callisto to death. The Morlocks' Healer treated her wounds, but accidentally restored Callisto's scars and her original physical deformities. The Healer's powers were overloaded by the severity of her injuries, killing him in the process.

Callisto vowed revenge on her former followers for stealing away her looks, and then allied herself with Mikhail Rasputin, Colossus' older brother. Mikhail and Callisto appeared to have perished when he used his powers over matter to flood the Morlock tunnels. They both later reappeared alive.

More recently, Callisto was once again transformed by Masque, having her arms reformed into tentacles. Callisto was also under Masque's control in "The Arena," an elite fight club in Japan. Callisto and Storm battled each other in the Arena, but later both escaped with help from Storm's friend, Yukio.

New Excalibur

Last seen, she was one of the main characters in the new Excalibur title, where she was helping Professor Xavier and Magneto rebuild Genosha. Ironically, this alliance briefly (and perhaps uncomfortably) reunited her with Archangel.

Callisto also has a maternal relationship with Marrow, acting as a mother-figure towards the young mutant (though the two are not biologically related), making her the only person Marrow would follow nearly blindly.

on of M

In the aftermath of House of M, Callisto is among the many mutants to have lost her powers. Quicksilver offered to her the Terrigen Mists, stolen from the Inhumans, as a way to restore her powers. Callisto willingly accepted the offer and the Mist effectively restored all her previous abilities (minus her disfigurements and arm-tentacles), but without any control over them. Her new senses are so acute that even a drop of rain causes her tremendous pain; unable to handle it, she fell into a coma. The depowered Magneto found her body and showed it to Quicksilver saying that he poisoned her with the Terrigen Mist. He later took her body to a hospital, where the effects of the Mists wore off.

X-Cell

Currently, Callisto has been reunited with Marrow; they are both members of the X-Cell, a group of mutants who hold the government responsible for their power loss. When Quicksilver offered to repower its members, she warned Marrow about what happens to non-Inhumans who gain power from the Terrigen Mist. She and Marrow later fled into the sewers to escape the government.

Powers and abilities

A mutant, Callisto possesses enhanced senses of sight (including night vision), hearing, smell, taste, and touch, and possibly moderate degrees of enhanced strength and agility. It has also been suggestedFact|date=December 2007 that her mutant power grants her tactical brilliance that allows her to see the best way to engage in any given conflict.

Callisto also has excellent hand-to-hand combat skills, and is an exceptional hunter and tracker. She is usually armed with knives.

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

In the Age of Apocalypse, Callisto is neither a follower of Apocalypse nor an enemy of his regime. She's the leader of a band of pirates that attack the few vessels that venture through the Infernal Gallop to Avalon. She captures the submarine Excalibur and kills all of its passengers, except for Nightcrawler, and ends up being killed by Mystique.

Cross Time Capers

Another version of Callisto is seen when Excalibur confronts inadvertent visitors of a world dominated by Nazis. She is the bodyguard of Moira MacTaggert. These Nazis unintentionally send Excalibur on a long adventure known as the Cross-Time Caper.

House of M

In the House of M, Callisto is the leader of the Marauders, a black ops team.

Ultimate Callisto

The Ultimate version of Callisto is introduced "Ultimate X-Men" #82 as a member of the Morlocks. Her look has remained virtually unchanged, and she has the mutant ability to sprout a mass of tentacles from her eye which is covered by an eye-patch. It is also apparent that she has no control over herself when the tentacles come out, as Caliban had to knock her out before she killed Jean Grey during a fight with the X-Men.

In other media

Television

* Callisto appeared in the "" voiced by Jennifer Dale. She and the other Morlocks captured Cyclops and Jean Grey rather than Angel. In the Spanish-dubbed version of the show, Callisto is portrayed as a male character in the two-part episode "Out of the Past". In the other episodes involving the Morlocks, Callisto is correctly voiced by a female Spanish actress.
* Callisto also appears in "" animated series voiced by Saffron Henderson. She is depicted as a less-violent, more even-tempered leader of the Morlocks. She first appeared in the first season, when the X-Men meet the Morlocks for the first time. Like in the older series, Storm faced off with Callisto, she next appeared to sabotage a beverage company where its beverage, Pow-R-8 (Power Eight), leaking into the sewers, is revealed to be poisonous to the mutants. She later returned when anti-mutant thugs were using laser technology to attack the X-Men, Spyke, and Leech. In contrast to her original personality, this Callisto is a voice of reason, with Spyke being the more violent-minded vigilante.

Film

Dania Ramirez portrays Callisto in "". She was the leader of the Omegas and then joins Magneto's Brotherhood of Mutants. In place of an eye-patch and scars, this version of Callisto is beautiful and heavily tattooed, and she seems to harbor a dislike towards Storm. She was electrocuted by Storm after their climactic battle on Alcatraz.

In the film version, Callisto possessed superhuman speed and the ability to sense the powers and locations of other mutants.

Bibliography

*"Cable" vol. 2 #42
*"Excalibur" vol. 1 #4, 11
*"Excalibur" vol. 3 #2-4, 5-7
*"Marvel Comics Presents" #20-24
*"Mystique" #23
*"New Mutants" vol. 1 #46
*"Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z" #2
*"Peter Parker: Spider-Man" #4
*"Power Pack" vol. 1 #12
*"Son of M" #4-6
*"Storm" vol. 1 2-4
*"Uncanny X-Men" #169-171, 176, 179-181, 190-193, 195, 207-209, 211-214, 216-217, 219, 253-254, 259-260, 262-264, 291-293, 325, 341, 346-347, 373-374, 463-465
*"X-Men Unlimited" vol. 1 #18
*"X-Men" vol. 2 #44, 72, 74, 79
*"X-Treme X-Men"#37-39, 45-46

References

External links

* - Marvel Database Project
* [http://www.marveldirectory.com/individuals/c/callisto.htm Callisto's origin on the Marvel Directory]
* [http://marvel.com/universe/Callisto Callisto at the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki]