Gideon was a member of the first expedition led by Christopher Columbus in 1492, but he succumbed to the rigors of the journey, died, and was buried. However, Gideon recovered, his nature as a mutant External allowing himself to be resurrected. Although his subsequent history remains largely unrevealed, over the course of the next several hundred years, he became quite wealthy and discovered other Externals like himself. In more recent years, Gideon studied at Harvard but was expelled under circumstances to be revealed. He went on to build his company, Ophrah Industries, into a corporate giant, intending to use his ever-growing financial power to dominate the world.

Gideon first came to public notice when he began forging alliances between high-tech industrial consortiums, such as GeneTech and the Taylor Foundation, and with powerful mutants or secret organizations such as A.I.M. He is known to have formed an alliance with the Toad, who was leading the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants at the time, in a scheme to recreate the menace Proteus. Similarly, he joined a group of hedonists known as the Upstarts, although whether or not he carried through with their goals of killing mutants is unknown.

A long-time family friend of the DaCosta family, he erroneously believed the young Roberto DaCosta (secretly the hero Sunspot) to be the new immortal that the Externals had been looking for. Gideon manipulated events to have DaCosta's father killed and Roberto to take over the role as leader of the DaCosta’s family company. Gideon positioned himself as DaCosta's mentor, taking him away from his role in the team of New Mutants and into Gideon's confidence.

Until recently, Gideon kept his power a secret, preferring to work behind the scenes. However, the New Warriors, when investigating criminal links of the Taylor Foundation, caused Gideon to reveal his mutant powers and sadistic temperament. He soundly defeated them.

When it was discovered that Cannonball was the mutant Gideon was searching for, Gideon abandoned DaCosta, subjecting him to vicious experiments, until he was later rescued by the New Mutant's later incarnation, X-Force.

Surprisingly, Gideon sent a distress call to X-Force after being betrayed by the External Selene. For reasons of her own, Selene was suddenly killing the remaining members of the Externals, absorbing their life forces. Despite the efforts of X-Force, Gideon was the first External to be killed by Selene, when she drained him of his life energy.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Power Mimicry: Gideon was a mutant with the ability to temporarily endow himself with superhuman abilities by assuming the superhuman energy signatures and genetic templates of superhuman beings in his vicinity. While he assumed the powers of others, he didn't take on any aspect of their appearance such as Nightcrawler's "demonic" appearance or the Thing's stone-like hide. Apparently he could even duplicate the superhuman physical capabilities of robots. Exactly how Gideon scanned the genetic templates and signatures of other superhumans is unknown, but it has been theorized that it was psionic in nature.

Regenerative Healing Factor: As part of his own natural genetic mutation, Gideon possessed an accelerated healing factor. He could regenerate damaged or destroyed bodily tissues much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human. For instance, multiple gunshot wounds to his torso fully mended within a matter of minutes. Gideon's natural healing factor also rendered him highly resistant to most toxins and poisons, as well as an immunity against all known diseases. On his own, however, his healing powers were insufficient to fully regenerate missing organs or severed limbs. However, it is possible that Gideon could have fully regenerated such tissue by temporarily absorbing the abilities of a being that possessed a sufficiently developed healing factor.

Superhuman Longevity: As an External, Gideon's natural aginc process was altered dramatically. From the time he seemingly "died" before being killed by Selene, Gideon appeared to have aged very little, if any at all. Despite being more than 500 years of age at the time of his death, he had the appearance and vigor of a man in his physical prime.
Abilities

Gideon was an excellent combatant and had extensive training in multiple forms of armed and unarmed combat.

Strength level

Variable. Usually, Gideon possessed the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engaged in intensive regular exercise.

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Gideon (Earth-616)

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