Elixir (comics)

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caption=Elixir, by Christopher Yost, Craig Kyle and Paco Medina
character_name=Elixir
real_name=Josh Foley
species=Human Mutant
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="New Mutants" (volume 2) #5.
creators=Nunzio DeFilippis
Christina Weir
Keron Grant
alliances=Xavier Institute New X-Men New Mutants Reavers
aliases=
powers= Biological manipulation|

Elixir (Joshua "Josh" Foley), is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe and a student at the Xavier Institute. He first appeared in "New Mutants" vol. 2 #5, and he is one of only a few students to maintain his powers in the wake of House of M.

Fictional character biography

Anti-mutant Protester

Josh Foley first appears as a member of the Reavers, an anti-mutant group led by Donald Pierce. When Cerebro detects a mutant in the area, Danielle Moonstar and Karma investigate. The Reavers attack Moonstar's New Mutants squad, and one of Foley's allies is severely injured. Leaning down to aid his friend, Foley's mutant power manifests and he heals Laurie Collins.

ent to Xavier's

Outed as a mutant, much to his own surprise, and rejected by his friends and family, Josh reluctantly joins the Xavier Institute and becomes Prodigy's roommate, a situation neither finds appealing. Unable to overcome their bigotry, Josh's parents sign legal guardianship over to Dani Moonstar. He is assigned to Dani's New Mutant squad who eventually reach out to him as he comes to accept his mutation.

ecret romance with Rahne Sinclair

Shortly afterwards, a depowered Rahne Sinclair, formerly known as Wolfsbane, visits the X-Mansion. Josh is instantly smitten by the new "wild child" Rahne, and sneaks out of the Institute at night to go to a bar where Rahne is playing pool. Josh realizes that her new attitude is a way of letting out instincts she had previously been able to blame on "the wolf." The two kiss, and Josh unconsciously heals Rahne's depowerment. The wolf takes over and she loses control, slashing Josh open. Fortunately, Laurie witnesses the attack and uses her pheromone powers to drive away Rahne.

While Elixir is rushed to the mansion's infirmary, Beast reveals the full potential of Josh's power: he can manipulate all the body's functions on a genetic level, and the fact that Josh only heals is simply inexperience. Josh receives an I.V. drip, but with Archangel, the mansion's other healer, absent, there is little hope. However, Prodigy realizes that Josh can heal himself if only he were to wake, and Beast reluctantly follows Prodigy's plan. Surge wakes him with her powers, while Laurie keeps him calm so he can heal himself. As an unexpected side effect, Josh turns his skin and hair to a reflective gold color.

Josh and Rahne continue to see each other secretly for a few months until Rahne witnesses him on a date with Laurie and ends the relationship. Josh is depressed at first, but eventually realizes that it was for the best and pursues a relationship with Laurie. However, Wither also has a crush on Laurie, and reveals Rahne's and Josh's previous relationship to the school.

With the exception of Surge, most of the New Mutants team ostracize Elixir for his involvement with a teacher. Eventually, the New Mutants squad's in-fighting begins to affect their ability to act as a team. Concerned with the future of her team, Wind Dancer convinces everyone to get together for a camp-out so they can work through their issues with one another. The evening ends with Josh speaking candidly with Icarus about his disappointment over his own actions. The other members of the team overhear and he is reconciled with David and Laurie.

Meanwhile, Josh heals Colossus and Shadowcat, after both are impaled through the lower torsos during an attack by the sentient Danger Room. The strain of this effort causes Josh to collapse.

Decimation and Childhood's End

The events of House of M leaves only 27 students with their powers, including Josh. Fearing their safety, Emma Frost orders the depowered students and staff, including Josh's guardian Danielle Moonstar, to leave the Institute. As the depowered students and staff leave, one bus of depowered students is bombed by anti-mutant zealot Reverend William Stryker, killing all on board. Josh is unable to heal them in time, and becomes severely depressed and loses confidence in his abilities.

Most of the remaining students take part in a melee fight organized by Emma Frost to determine who will be members in the new group of mutant heroes in-training, the New X-Men. Despite his non-combat powers, Josh makes the team. During one of their first training sessions, the New X-Men spar with Colossus. Caught up in his emotions over the deceased students, Josh hits the powered-down Colossus over the head with a metal beam. Furious with his action, Emma temporarily kicks him off the team.

Afterwards, Laurie and Josh argue about Josh's place on the New X-Men. Laurie explains that Emma is all wrong, that the team is merely about "violence and fighting," whereas Elixir can do a "beautiful thing." However, Josh tells Laurie that when he tried to heal DJ, "I could feel him dying...his life bleeding out of him," and that "when he died, he took a piece of me with him, a piece of me died, too." At that moment, Laurie is killed by a bullet fired by one of Stryker's agents.

A distraught Josh remains with Laurie's body until they are found by several of the X-Men and students. When Wolverine attempts to restrain Josh from Laurie's body, Josh's power surges and causes painful boils and blisters to appear on Wolverine's hands and wrists. Stryker begins an attack on the institute but Josh sits unresponsively in the infirmary. Coming to his senses and enraged over the death of Laurie, Josh uses his power to kill Stryker. This act of revenge turns Josh's golden skin into metallic black and Josh falls to the floor, catatonic.

According to David, Josh's killing of Stryker not only changed the color of his skin, but also altered his brain chemistry.

Nimrod and funerals

When X-23 is mortally wounded and unable to heal during the final battle with Nimrod, Hellion rushes her back to the Institute with help from Emma Frost, who unlocks the part of his brain which controls his powers. Julian gives a motivational speech and gets Josh to move forward with his life. Josh heals Laura, which also turns his skin back from black to gold.

Shortly after it is discovered that a small part of black still remains on Josh's skin, moving from place to place. Josh states he could still kill but he will need to learn how to control his powers and use them only to heal. He, like the other remaining students and staff, attends at a memorial to remember all the students who were killed in Stryker's raid of the school.

Change of attitude

Since waking from his coma, Josh seems to have taken a more peaceful approach to life. In New X-Men #32, Rockslide states, "Since Foley's gone all zen, we'll probably need a replacement." In issue #33, Josh approaches Beast and asks him to teach him everything there is to know about human anatomy, physiology, and biology. Josh states in issue #32 that he always knew that he could do more, and though Anole suggests that Josh stop studying in lieu of having the Cuckoos simply placing Beast's knowledge into his brain, Josh states he would rather do it the right way.

He has begun to wear only white clothing, and, when not studying, seems lost in thought and is introspective.

Before the other students are teleported to Limbo, The Stepford Cuckoos help Elixir learn advanced science by taking information from the Beast's head and putting it into Josh's. This increases his power exponentially, allowing him to heal otherwise-fatal injures with a touch. He also masters his "black abilities" by being able to switch instantly from golden/healing to black/disease causing. After Belasco rips out David's heart, Elixir rushes over and touches him. David begins growing a new heart out of nothing and comes back to life. Josh is exhausted after healing David and passes out. He demonstrates his darker abilities in the same issue, causing the demon that is holding him to swell up and bleed out of its ears, before having its entire head explode.

World War Hulk

Elixir is one of the students that goes up against the Hulk in World War Hulk: X-Men. He is carried towards the Hulk on Beast's back. Elixir touches the Hulk which affects his healing factor and gives an opening for the others to attack the Hulk. He and Beast are punched away by the Hulk, but Elixir heals Beast so they can try again. Once Hulk has defeated The New X-Men, Elixir and Beast are the last ones left. Hulk is about to crush them but the "Astonishing" team arrives and saves them.

Children of X-Men

When Mercury comes to ask Elixir about his age, he is sitting alone in the dark and tells her instead about his cells and how he feels them aging and dying freaking her out. When Surge interviews him about what happened to David in Limbo, he tells her nothing happened.

Later when Kitty Pryde tries to have a student/teacher conference, he is still sitting alone in the dark. When she asks him what he is doing, he tells her he is thinking about life and death and how he can give it and take it. “With everything my powers can do… Really Miss Pryde… What can’t I do?” This scares her and she leaves quickly. Later in a faculty meeting, she thinks he might become the next Magneto.

Still sitting in the dark, Elixir is thinking and his skin goes from gold to black. Loa comes to his room and asks if he wants to make out. His skin returns to gold and he says sure with a smile.

Messiah Complex

When some of the New X-Men decide to launch a preemptive strike against the Purifers, Elixir sits out the fight because he is worried he will kill every single one of them. When the sentinels attack the mansion, Elixir and some of the students left behind are incapacitated. They remain unconscious in the infirmary during the conclusion of Messiah Complex.

X-Force

Josh, presumably recovered from the sentinel attack, was brought in to cure Wolfsbane after she was given a deliberate heroin overdose by the Purifiers. Upon healing Rahne, she attacked Josh, moving on to her real target, Angel, tearing out his wings and delivering them to Reverend Craig. Josh heals Angel's wounds, but his attempts to regrow his wings are thwarted by the discovery that Warren's wings were never really organic and that he still carries the Apocalypse techno-organic strain.

He is still involved with Loa. X-Force is holding him "hostage" as they do not wish for him to reveal anything about their workings to the main X-Men teams or his girlfriend. ["X-Force" #7]

Powers and abilities

Elixir is an Omega-level mutant, capable of controlling the biological structure of any organic matter including his own body. He is still inexperienced in the use of his powers, and the limits of his abilities are unknown. Currently he mostly uses his powers for healing, at which he is very skilled. He must be in close proximity to whomever he heals, but can heal through clothing.

At present, Elixir has healed both simple and serious injuries from broken bones to mortal wounds. He also restored Wolfsbane's powers and altered his own DNA. Recently, Elixir has displayed the ability to harm as well as heal, such as causing painful boils and welts to appear on the flesh of his enemies. He even used his powers to kill William Stryker, although the resulting feedback also altered his own body and brain; Prodigy hypothesizes that he was never meant to use his powers in this manner. When channeling his powers in harmful ways, Elixir's skin turns from its usual gold, to metallic black.

Recently in X-Force however, his gold and black skin is absent, and instead he is portrayed as a normal looking teenager, who's skin only turns gold when he is accessing his powers.

In New X-Men #38, Josh has the Stepford Cuckoos telepathically copy and transfer all the information that Beast knows about anatomy, biology, and genetics into Josh's mind essentially giving him all he needs to know to fully utilize his Omega-level biological powers possibly having reached mastery of his powers. He demonstrates his new power by healing David's vision so he doesn't need eyeglasses and consciously switching from black (death) to gold (life) and slays his demon captor before rebuilding David's heart, boosting Laura's healing factor to save her from dying again, and trying to kill Belasco the same way he killed Stryker. Belasco was stopped for a moment, but was able to revive himself.

Other versions

House of M

Josh was an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., serving alongside Agent Kevin Ford (Wither) as interrogator. Foley and Ford were in charge of "persuading" Cameron Hodge, a member of the Human Liberation Front, to reveal the location of his terrorist cell. Josh uses his power to "speed up the body's biological functions," and combined with Agent Ford's power, they are able to create a net effect that causes a part of the terrorist to die and then regenerate, a process Foley describes as "quite painful". Before Ford and Foley begin torturing Hodge, Agent Noriko Ashida (Surge) interrupts them, prompting Ford and Foley to attack her. She incapacitates them both but Foley manages to use his power to rupture her blood vessels and cause her lungs to fill with blood.

Popular culture references

*Elixir is referenced in the mc chris song, "Nrrrd Grrrl": "She's more like a wallflower, Like the one that Stryker sniped, I'm like Elixir when I'm with her, 'Cause I think I like her type." [Ward, Chris. "Nrrrd Grrrl." Lyrics. "mc chris is dead." mc chris LLC, 2008.]

References