Armor

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Real Name

Hisako Ichiki

Current Alias

Armor

Relatives

Unnamed paternal uncle (deceased);^[1]

unnamed father;
unnamed mother (deceased);^[1]

unnamed brother (deceased);^[1]

Affiliation

X-Men (Team Wolverine), Jean Grey School student body; formerly Paladins Squad, Xavier Institute student body

Base Of Operations

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; formerly Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York

Status

Alignment

Good

Identity

Secret Identity

Citizenship

Japanese

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Adventurer, student

Education

Various courses at Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, Westchester, New York

Characteristics^[2]

Gender

Female

Height

5' 4"

Weight

112 lbs (51 kg)

Eyes

Black

Hair

Black

Origin

Origin

Mutant

Universe

Earth-616

Place of Birth

Japan, Tokyo

Created by

Joss Whedon, John Cassaday

First appearance

Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 #4
(October, 2004)

HistoryEdit

No matter what happens next, you lose. There will always be X-Men.

-- Armor ^src 

Hisako (一木 久子) is a young girl whose greatest aspiration is one day to be an X-Man. Along with her friend and fellow student, Wing (whom, after his death, she later describes as being her best friend), Hisako was attacked in the halls of the Xavier Institute by the alien villain Ord of Breakworld. Hisako and Wing attempted to oppose Ord, but were overpowered. While both teenagers survived the attack, Wing discovered that he had been injected with a “cure” for his mutant ability of flight. Despondent, he committed suicide after some goading from a Danger Room hologram of her.

In the wake of this tragedy, Hisako, her teacher Kitty Pryde and other Xavier students found themselves trapped in a sentient and hostile Danger Room with Wing’s reanimated corpse. Danger, as the intelligence began calling itself, eventually left the Institute.

Hisako found classmate Blindfold "crying" in the restroom. (Ironically, as Blindfold had no eyes, she cannot cry, she retorted). Comforting Blindfold, Hisako was able to convince Blindfold that they are soon "to lose another one," as Wolverine, believing he was a defenseless child due to the manipulations of Cassandra Nova, barged into the restroom, followed closely by the feral Beast. Beast began to attack Blindfold, but Hisako used her powers and fought off Beast. Exhausting herself, she fainted. Blindfold and Hisako made their way through the Institute. Blindfold told Hisako she believed someone was awake in the infirmary and they found the unconscious bodies of Colossus and Cyclops. Soon afterward, Shadowcat rose from the floor and asked the girls to explain everything they knew.

Soon after, both Ord and Danger attacked the mansion, where they were confronted by Hisako and then Wolverine where the young girl held her own only to end up slightly impaled by Wolverine claws. Although she only received minor injuries, things didn't get any better when Cassandra Nova chose her to be the evil mutant's new host body. It is unknown if Cassandra was successful in getting Emma Frost to transfer her consciousness into Hisako, as S.W.O.R.D beamed the team, Danger, Ord, and Hisako into a spaceship headed for the Breakworld.

The team and Hisako found that S.W.O.R.D. had abducted the X-Men and Hisako because they needed heroes to fight a threat: Breakworld had a weapon capable of destroying the Earth. After flying through space, Ord sent the ship's coordinates to Breakworld's ruler, and he sent a fleet to attack the ship. When the attack was over, the ship was heavily damaged and the X-Men were separated. Hisako ended up with Wolverine. Hisako was given membership to the X-Men and a costume exactly like Shadowcat's. After commenting on how she had a test that week, Wolverine told her that she was an X-Man now and she was there to save the world. She took up the codename Armor, at least until Wolverine could go a day without stabbing her to pick a better one, fulfilling her dream of being an X-Man.

Surge assembled a team of New X-Men, consisting of Anole, Hellion, Mercury, Pixie, Rockslide, and X-23 against the Purifiers. When they went against the religious mutant-haters, they discovered that Rictor, of X-Factor was there, and that the Purifiers didn't have the baby. Then, it went wrong. Lady Deathstrike mortally wounded Hellion. Pixie took them out of there, but they were spread out between the Mansion and Washington. Hisako was brought back to the mansion by Iceman with the other New X-Men. When a Predator X showed up at the mansion, Hisako teamed up with Gentle and battled it in the infirmary. Pixie believed X-23 could defeat the monster and teleported it and the entire team, along with Hisako, to the battle between the Marauders and the X-Teams taking place on Muir Island.^[1]

As the Skrull Invasion commenced in San Francisco, Armor arrived and was teamed up with Colossus and Cannonball to counter the Skrull invasion side-by-side many new and classic X-men.

Alpha and Omega

Kid Omega imprisoned Logan and Armor inside Logan's mind.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Psionic Exo-Armor: Hisako can generate a psionic exoskeleton around her entire body by drawing strength from the line of her ancestors. This exoskeleton enhances her strength and durability, though she can only maintain it for short periods of time lest the effort leave her drained. In situations of extreme emotional stress, Hisako can significantly enhance her exoskeleton's size, strength and durability, but she can only do so briefly as the strain can render her unconscious. Power and size of her armor increases when her relatives die.^[2] In addition, the body armor greatly strengthens the force behind her offensive blows and protects her from a significant degree of physical harm.

• Enhanced Strength

• Enhanced Endurance

• Enhanced Durability

Weaknesses

Psionic Exo-Armor is vulnerable to lasers as 'it has to let light in', and adamantium, due to its unique properties.

NotesEdit

• With Shadowcat's departure/sacrifice in the Breakworld, Hisako officially took her place in the roster of Astonishing X-Men - A special division of the team designed to overcome obstacles in a moralistic fashion that would improve the X-men's standing in the face of others, thus fulfilling her dream of making the cut.

• Hisako later confronted Danger to get revenge for Wing's death, Danger however revealed that despite being a mechanical entity and having repeatedly deleted and adjusted her memory banks, she still cannot erase the guilt she feels from the incident. This appeases Hisako.
  

TriviaEdit

• Hisako does indeed speak Japanese, strengthening the idea that she is from Japan instead of simply being an American of Japanese descent. She attempted to use it to insult Wolverine, but he unfortunately also spoke Japanese. She said, "It’s a shame they hired a murderous gorilla as a teacher," to which Logan replied, "Don’t you think it’s shameful to your ancestors that you’re always complaining?"

LinksEdit

• 109 Appearances of Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616)
• 74 Images featuring Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616)
• 3 Quotations by or about Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) 
• Characters killed by Armor

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Footnotes