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Quote1 No matter what happens next, you lose. There will always be the X-Men. Quote2
Armor[src]

History

Xavier's Institute[]

Hisako Ichiki (市来 久子, Ichiki Hisako) lived in Tokyo, Japan with her brother and parents before joining the Xavier Institute.[4] When the training squad system began, Armor was placed with Kitty Pryde's Paladins Squad with Blindfold and Wing. Armor formed a close friendship with Wing, and even described him as being her best friend.[5][6]

The Cure, Ord and Breakworld[]

While at the Xavier Institute, Armor and Wing were attacked by Ord of Breakworld. Armor used her mutant powers to punch Ord, taking him by surprise.[5] Following a brief scrimmage, Armor and Wing were overpowered by Ord, and Wing was injected with the Hope Serum. Depressed by the loss of his powers, he committed suicide in the Danger Room. After Wing's death, Armor, Kitty Pryde, and other Xavier students found themselves trapped in a sentient and hostile Danger Room. Danger eventually fled the Institute.[7]

Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 4 001

Original Blue Armor

During Cassandra Nova's psychic manipulation and attack of the X-Men, Armor was able to protect Blindfold and a childlike Wolverine from a feral Beast.[8]

Armor was with the X-Men when they were abducted to Breakworld by S.W.O.R.D. because Breakworld had developed a weapon capable of destroying the Earth.[9]

Ord alerted Breakworld's ruler to the arrival of the X-Men, and they sent a fleet to attack their ship. S.W.O.R.D.'s ship was heavily damaged after the attack, and the X-Men were separated. Armor ended up with Wolverine, who inducted her into the X-Men. Armor was given one of Kitty Pryde's uniforms. Armor aided the X-Men in liberating Breakworld and saving Earth.[10][11]

M-Day and Messiah Complex[]

In the wake of M-Day, only 27 students (including Armor) retained their mutant powers.[12][13][14] Along with most of the other powered students, Armor participated in Emma Frost's battle royale to become a member of the New X-Men.[15]

New X-Men (Earth-616) from New X-Men Vol 2 44 0001

On mission with the New X-Men

Armor briefly joined the New X-Men when Surge assembled the team against the Purifiers. At the Purifiers' headquarters, they discovered Rictor of X-Factor there, and that the Purifiers didn't have the Messiah baby.[16] Preparing to leave, the group was attacked by Lady Deathstrike, who mortally wounded Hellion. Pixie teleported the group, but they were spread out between the Mansion and Washington, D.C.. Armor was brought back to the mansion by Iceman with the other New X-Men.[17] When a Predator X showed up at the mansion, Armor teamed up with Gentle and battled it in the infirmary. Pixie, believing X-23 could defeat the monster, teleported it and the entire team, along with Armor, to the battle between the Marauders and the X-Teams taking place on Muir Island.[18]

Manifest Destiny and Utopia[]

When Cyclops declared San Francisco a new haven for mutantkind,[19] Armor was among those to relocate to the west.

Having proven herself on Breakworld, Armor was officially inducted into the X-Men. She accompanied the team while investigating the Ghost boxes,[20] during the discovery of Forge's mutants,[21] exploring the Bio-Sentinel,[22] and researching a seeming surge of mutant births in Karere, Mbangawi.[23] Armor also fought alongside Colossus and Cannonball in San Francisco during the Skrull Invasion.[24]

Once Danger joined the X-Men on Utopia, Armor confronted her in the X-Brig about her part in Wing's death. They battled, until Danger disclosed that she sees Wing inside her program everyday, and that she is trying to learn about mutants. Armor realized that Danger felt guilty about what happened to Wing, and agreed to teach her about mutants, starting with Wing.[25]

Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) and James Howlett (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 36 0001

Armor's powers boost significantly with the death of her mother and brother

While training with Wolverine, Armor's exoskeleton enlarged to mammoth-size. Shortly after, she was informed her mother and brother had died. Accompanied by Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Wolverine, she returned to Japan to attend their funeral and reconnect with her distant father.[26]

Jean Grey School of Higher Learning[]

After the schism between Wolverine and Cyclops, Armor followed Wolverine back to the ruins in Westchester, to rebuild the Xavier Institute into the Jean Grey School of Higher Learning.[27][28] For a brief period she could not control her armored constructs, having been forcibly teleported out of one by several Bamfs.[29] When Wolverine died, Hisako said that she felt his death, like when a family member died. She grieved by fighting simulations of Wolverine's villains in the Danger Room, as when she fought, she 'felt closer to him.' Hellion consoled her, saying that she had a small piece of Logan with her.[30]

X-Men Disassembled[]

Armor was one of the many mutants that opposed the crazed X-Man from remaking the world in his image. When X-Man realized that his vision of the world would never come about with the X-Men around, X-Man made his enemies vanish in an instant, including Hisako.[31]

Age of X-Man[]

In the reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal, Armor was a student at the Summers Institute for Higher Learning in Westchester County. Like its mainstream reality counterpart, Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, the Summers Institute taught mutant children how to control their mutant abilities.[32][33]

Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) from Age of X-Man Nextgen Vol 1 2 001

In the Age of X-Man reality

Armor was a student at the Summers Institute for Higher Learning in the Civil Management Division. Hisako interrupted the twins, Manon and Maxime, while they were harassing Glob Herman about having no friends. She told them if they kept at it, she would tell Dean Angel about it. Hisako then told Glob that they were both late to lunch.

During lunch, Hisako sat around while her fellow peers made fun of Glob because he wrote fan fiction. Shark-Girl mentioned that his book dealt with all them being X-Men and how they went on adventures and battled foes. Hisako ended up grabbing the book from Pixie after she took it from Glob. She then proceeded to give it back to him. They left the lunch room where they all promised to meet up later to study.

Armor was then in Mr. Yoshida's Civil Management class as he was talking to everyone about embarking on the mentorship program with Department X clerks. They had a special guest from the department, Psylocke, who touched base with the students on the daily routine of the clerks.

After school, Hisako and the others made it to the Hope Summers Memorial Library to study when Rockslide noticed that there was a huge fire further downtown. Armor and Pixie ended up going to the disturbance as that was what they were training to be. When they arrived at the burning house, Hisako and Megan were then confronted by Clerk Blob who apprehended their friend Bling!.

As the two girls were making their way to the front to avoid getting in trouble, Armor found Anole jumping from an upper window of the house onto the grass. As he saw Armor, he begged and pleaded with her not to say anything to anyone about him being there, and as he was in a state of panic, he ran straight into a bush that led into a forest.

Hisako later showed up to Glob's room to discuss what happened at the site. As she finished her story, Glob said that he could not allow this to happen again. As she mentioned that Anole said the same thing, Glob reached for a candle as he told her that there could be no more lies and that she deserved to know the truth. When she asked what he was talking about, Glob apologized, and with his hand then embroiled in flames, he reached for her explaining that it was the only way that he could show her the truth.[33]

After Nate Grey transformed all of the mutants back into their mainstream counterparts, Armor was shown standing in front of a portal in the Danger Room Prison Complex with Anole and Glob.[34]

Dawn of X[]

Armor later became a citizen of the mutant nation of Krakoa. She helped spread Krakoa's reach by planting a Krakoan flower on the planet Mars.[35]

Wanting to make sure that all mutants could have joined the mutant paradise of Krakoa, including those who didn’t answer Professor Xavier’s invitation, Armor started to track down Barnell Bohusk, AKA "Beak", and his wife, Angel Salvadore. With the help of Sage and Boom-Boom, Armor was able to cure Beak’s father's rare form of dementia thanks to Krakoa's wonder drugs that could cure many human diseases. Unfortunately, a group of anti-mutant mercenaries followed the New Mutants on their journey to Nebraska and captured Beak and Angel's kids in order to negotiate for Krakoan medicine.[36]

She joined several other mutants in rescuing Tashi Repina from the anti mutant country of Carnelia.[37] Repina, taking the codename Cosmar, had strange reality-warping powers, and caused Hisako to witness visions of her deceased family. She was later among the many mutants summoned to Otherworld to fight the forces of Amenth at the climax of the Contest of Swords.[38]

S.W.O.R.D. Ambassador[]

White Hot Room from S.W.O.R.D

Hisako and the Six in the White Hot Room

After Krakoa financed the re-establishment of S.W.O.R.D., Hisako was recruited into the organization. She held the position of Ambassador-in-Training, serving under Ambassador Extraordinary Frenzy. Additionally, Director Abigail Brand organized a group called the Six, a mutant circuit capable of retrieving Mysterium. Armor joined this unit as "the Shield", displaying the ability to extend her exoskeleton over the other members of the circuit.[39] At the same time, Armor put herself forward as a nominee for the first X-Men election at the Hellfire Gala, ultimately losing to Polaris.[40][41] Alongside her fellow unsuccessful candidates, she participated in a mission rescuing Shi'ar Empress Xandra from the Sidri.[42]

Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) from X-Men Vote Comic Strips Vol 1 3 001

Hisako at the first Gala

At the next Gala, Hisako again put her name forward for the X-Men vote. Again unsuccessful, she was runner-up to the winner, Firestar.[43] When the Typhon Group attacked, Hisako and her fellow unsuccessful candidates teamed up to defeat them.[44] Later on, Hisako was among Bishop's initial recruits into his Krakoan War College.[45]

Attributes

Power Grid[49]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Bulletproof:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Normal

Powers

Armor is a mutant with powers based around a psionic exoskeleton, including:

Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616) and Fin Fang Foom (Earth-616) from Astonishing X-Men Vol 3 37 0001

Armor facing off against Fin Fang Foom

  • Psionic Exoskeleton-Armor: Armor can generate an enormously strong, powerful, durable, and impenetrable psionic exoskeleton armor around her entire physical body. It can be further enhanced by drawing more power, energy, and strength from the bloodline of her ancestors. This exoskeleton drastically enhances her strength, endurance, stamina, agility, invulnerability, 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, Armor can significantly enhance her exoskeleton's size, strength, agility, dexterity, and durability, but she can only do so briefly as the strain can render her unconscious. The strength, power, and size of her psionic armor greatly enhances and increases tremendously when her relatives die.[2] In addition, the body armor greatly heightens and strengthens the concussive force behind her offensive and incredibly destructive blows, and makes her practically invulnerable and immune from a significant degree of physical harm and damage. To some extent, she can shape her armor, such as her ability to form Wolverine-like claws and make them extend outward.
    • Superhuman Strength: Her body armor greatly strengthens and amplifies the concussive force behind her unusually offensive and highly destructive blows. Her psionic armor grants her enough superhuman strength to lift a Skrull ground tank and punch someone through several walls of a building and even assisted Colossus in restraining a small ship capable of breaking orbit from lifting off.
    • Superhuman Durability/Invulnerability: The body armor is depicted as enveloping her completely and protects her from tremendously strong and powerful attacks and in some depictions, Armor's armor is strong and durable enough to survive the heat caused from a long fall through the atmosphere. Likewise, she is able to fully withstand the impact from falling to the ground from high up in the atmosphere without any physical or external injury.
    • Concussive Blast: She can cause her armor to release a large, solid, concussive blast of energy, but it takes a lot of concentration.

Abilities

  • Armor has received combat training from Wolverine and classes in tactics from Cyclops.
  • Armor speaks Japanese.

Weaknesses

Power Limitation: *Armor's psionic-energy exoskeleton armor is vulnerable to lasers as "it has to let light in," and Adamantium due to its unique and special abilities and properties, such as Wolverine's claws, although he is not able to go through it with the rest of his body. In this case, she only remained uninjured because the distance between her armor's perimeter and her body was slightly greater than the length of Wolverine's claws.

  • Cost Of Power: Armor's powers increase when a member of her family dies.

Notes

  • With Shadowcat's departure/sacrifice in the Breakworld, Armor officially took her place in the roster of Astonishing X-Men.
  • Armor later confronted Danger to get revenge for Wing's death; however, Danger 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 appeased Armor.
  • Armor's body armor is initially partially explained as a "strength" or "protection" somehow passed on through her "line of ancestors".[46] It is later described as being composed of memory. This is stated in an issue of Wolverine: Origins, when Armor's armor is able to withstand blows from the Muramasa blade, which can cut through any material, since memory is "the only material that the blade cannot cut through." Similarly, in Astonishing X-Men, vol. 3 #39, Armor's armor expands and grows to the size of a building due to the fact she feels strongly about not attending her recently deceased mother and brother's wake.

Trivia

  • Hisako is a member of the Forums social media network.[47]

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. Wolverine & the X-Men #19
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #36
  3. New Mutants (Vol. 4) #10
  4. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #37
  5. 5.0 5.1 Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #4
  6. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #78
  7. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #711
  8. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #15
  9. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #1819
  10. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #1925
  11. Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1
  12. Decimation: House of M - The Day After #1
  13. New X-Men (Vol. 2) #20
  14. X-Men: The 198 Files #1
  15. New X-Men (Vol. 2) #23
  16. New X-Men (Vol. 2) #44
  17. X-Men (Vol. 2) #205
  18. New X-Men (Vol. 2) #46
  19. Uncanny X-Men #499500
  20. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #2527
  21. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #2830
  22. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #3135
  23. Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis #15
  24. Secret Invasion: X-Men #14
  25. Nation X #3
  26. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #3637
  27. X-Men: Schism #5
  28. Wolverine & the X-Men #1
  29. Wolverine & the X-Men (Vol. 2) #8
  30. Death of Wolverine: Life After Logan #1
  31. Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 5) #110
  32. Age of X-Man Alpha #1
  33. 33.0 33.1 Age of X-Man: Nextgen #1
  34. Age of X-Man Omega #1
  35. House of X #1
  36. New Mutants (Vol. 4) #3
  37. New Mutants (Vol. 4) #9
  38. X of Swords: Destruction #1
  39. S.W.O.R.D. (Vol. 2) #1
  40. X-Men Vote Comic Strips #3
  41. X-Men (Vol. 5) #21
  42. Secret X-Men #1
  43. X-Men Vote Comic Strips (Vol. 2) #5
  44. X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #50
  45. Bishop: War College #1
  46. Astonishing X-Men (Vol. 3) #13
  47. Secret Warriors (Vol. 2) #8
  48. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #1
  49. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 1
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