Cameron Hodge

Cameron Hodge is a fictional supervillain appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character is usually depicted as an opponent of the X-Men. Created by writer Bob Layton and artist Jackson Guice, Hodge first appeared as a supporting character in X-Factor #1 (February 1986)^[1] Later, under writer Louise Simonson, Hodge was revealed to be secretly acting against X-Factor as the leader of an anti-mutant organization known as The Right. After he was decapitated by Archangel, his head was later revealed to have been attached to a large cyborg, and yet later, he merged with the cybernetic extraterrestrial race known as the Phalanx.

Publication history

Hodge first appeared in X-Factor Vol. 1, #1 (February–March 1986), and was created by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice.

The character subsequently appears in X-Factor #4-5 (May–June 1986), #7-9 (August–October 1986), The Amazing Spider-Man #282 (November 1986), X-Factor #10-11 (November–December 1986), Iron Man Annual #8 (1986), X-Factor Annual #1 (1986), X-Factor #13-14 (February–March 1987), #16-18 (May–July 1987), #21-23 (October–December 1987), The New Mutants #60 (February 1988), X-Factor #32 (September 1988), #34 (November 1988), #36 (January 1989), The New Mutants #95 (November 1990), X-Factor #60 (November 1990), The New Mutants #96 (December 1990), The Uncanny X-Men #271 (December 1990), X-Factor #61 (December 1990), The New Mutants #97 (January 1991), The Uncanny X-Men #272 (January 1991), X-Factor #62 (January 1991), The Uncanny X-Men #306 (November 1993), #313 (June 1994), Excalibur #79 (July 1994), Wolverine #85 (September 1994), X-Factor #106 (September 1994), Cable #16 (October 1994), New X-Men #16-17 (September–October 2005), and X-Force #3 (June 2008).

Cameron Hodge received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #3.

Fictional character biography

Cameron Hodge was the college roommate of Warren Worthington III, also known as the superhuman Angel. Hodge then took a public relations job with a New York advertising firm. After Angel's former superhero team the Defenders disbanded, Worthington and Hodge hatched a plan to reunite the original roster of the X-Men. Under Hodge's plan, the five mutants would pose as professional mutant hunters under the name X-Factor. They would use this cover to contact and teach young mutants.^[2]

However, the plan backfired, as X-Factor's advertising campaign increased anti-mutant hysteria. In addition, the team suffered a series of major setbacks. After suffering severe injuries during the Mutant Massacre, Angel had his wings amputated. Then, Angel seemingly dies in a jetplane explosion. Tensions arose between X-Factor members Cyclops and Marvel Girl when Cyclops saw manifestations of the Phoenix around Jean Grey (Marvel Girl). X-Factor later discovered that Hodge had orchestrated the amputation and jetplane accident and had created holograms simulating the Phoenix Force.^[3] Hodge had secretly been Commander of the Right, an anti-mutant terrorist group.^[4] He had fully intended to exacerbate anti-mutant tensions through his advertising campaign.^[5]

During this time, Hodge and The Right made a pact with the extradimensional demonic entity N'astirh. In exchange for collecting mutant babies the Right needed for a spell to open up a portal from Limbo to Earth, N'astirh promised Hodge immortality and the continued existence of The Right and its work creating conflict between humans and mutants. Earlier Hodge kidnapped and tortured Warren Worthington's former girlfriend Candy Southern. Worthington, who survived the explosion of his private plane and was transformed into Archangel by Apocalypse, later invades the Right's headquarters and decapitates Hodge, after Hodge kills Candy Southern.^[6]

Employees

Hodge's efforts would provide unexpected blows against his enemies, as his employee the Ani-Mator ends up shooting dead the New Mutant team member Cypher.^[7]

Another of Hodge's people would end up becoming Nanny, a powerful cyberneticist, who with the assistance of Orphan-Maker, would plague the X-Men multiple times.^[8]

X-Tinction Agenda

Later in the crossover storyline "X-Tinction Agenda", Hodge was revealed to be alive, his severed head having been attached to a grotesque non-humanoid cyborg, a fate Hodge said he survived as a result of the pact he made with N'astirh. Hodge took the leading role of the anti-mutant efforts of the Genoshan government during the "X-Tinction Agenda" crossover storyline. In the initial attack on the X-Men, members of the New Mutants, plus Storm are kidnapped. One of them, Warlock, dies when Hodge tries and fails to steal his shape-changing powers. Another, Wolfsbane is brainwashed into a slave. The last two, Rictor and Boom-Boom, escape into the streets. During the incident it is revealed that Havok, Cyclops's brother, had come to be working for Hodge as a Magistrate. Havok regains his memory and tries to bring down Hodge from within.^[9]

Hodge is confronted by a combined force of X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants. Wolfsbane, her mind partly restored, plays a major factor in defeating Hodge, as she transforms Into a giant wolf-form that severely wounds him. The fight soon comes down to Havok, Cyclops and Hodge. The villain ultimately ends up as a head, still immortal, buried as Rictor knocks a building down on top of him.^[10]

Phalanx

Hodge later returns as a member of the cybernetic extraterrestrial race known as the Phalanx, ironically a form he would have taken if his efforts with Warlock had been successful. Yet again he was apparently slain by Archangel.^[11] Hodge was defeated by Stephen Lang (the human interface for the Phalanx,) when Lang caused the Phalanx citadel to fall from the top of Mount Everest.^[12]

Purifiers

Hodge's remains are found in the Himalayas by a group of Purifiers. He is later revived when Bastion infects him with the transmode virus gained from one of Magus' offspring.^[13] In X-Men: Legacy #237, Cameron Hodge and his whole army of "Smileys" are killed by Warlock of the New Mutants at the behest of Douglas Ramsey when his lifeforce and the lifeforces of the Smileys are forcibly absorbed by Warlock via their shared connection of the technorganic Transmode virus.^[14]

Powers and abilities

Before his decapitation, Hodge was the commander of The Right, thus he had access to all the weaponry and resources of the organization, including a ruby quartz battle suit capable of deflecting Cyclops' Optic Blasts. The demonic being N'astirh granted Hodge immortality, that is, he is able to survive a decapitation and still function.

In his cyborg form, Hodge had the ability to phase (move through solid matter) and used various special weapons. His spider/scorpionlike robot body was equipped with tentacles, a powerful stinger, plasma and laser weapons, and a molecular adhesive gun, and could also fire bolas, knives and spears of varying sizes. He also possessed a high degree of invulnerability, enough to protect him from the combined attacks of Storm, Cyclops and Jean Grey. This effect was supposedly augmented by external generators linked to his mainframe computer. When these had been destroyed, Cyclops and Havok could destroy his mechanical body, but not kill him. In addition, in his mechanical body's first appearance, it had a cardboard cutout of a man's suit and body that hung from Hodge's neck, affecting a (to his mind) more normal appearance when his attempt to absorb Warlock's techno-organic abilities had failed.

As part of the Phalanx, he had all their typical abilities, but seemingly lost his magical protection.

Other versions

House of M

Cameron Hodge was a member of the Human Liberation Front, a human supremacist terrorist group that had targeted Emperor Sunfire's Project Genesis, a program intended to forcefully turn humans into mutants. He was arrested following the attack on the New Mutant Leadership Program at the United Nations, though the true target was Sean Garrison, secretly an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the masterminds behind Project Genesis.^[15] S.H.I.E.L.D. agents Josh Foley and Kevin Ford were about to torture him when they were interrupted by Agent Noriko Ashida, daughter of Hodge's comrade Seiji Ashida, who learned from Hodge about her father's location. Fearing the torture at the hands of Foley and Ford, Hodge convinced Noriko to kill him.^[16]

X-Men Forever

A version of Cameron Hodge exists in the X-Men Forever reality.^[17]

In other media

Television

• In the X-Men animated series, Hodge (voiced by Stephen Ouimette) first appeared as a lawyer for Hank McCoy, aka Beast. Later, Hodge was an ambassador working for the mutant-oppressing Genoshan government. After the corrupt government was overthrown by the combined efforts of Cable and the X-Men, Hodge, who was now missing an arm and a leg courtesy of Cable, vowed to get his revenge on the mutants. He was fortunate enough to have met up with the techno-organic alien race known as the Phalanx. Restoring his missing limbs and granting him a fraction of their power, the Phalanx promised to help him get his revenge and, in exchange, he would help them assimilate planet Earth and its inhabitants. Hodge was defeated when Beast, with the help of Amelia Voght, Forge, Magneto, Mister Sinister and Warlock, drove the Phalanx from Earth. Hodge was later mentioned in passing by a rogue military group seeking to take advantage of mutants, suggesting he has ties with them.

Video games

• Hodge appears as a villain in the video game X-Men: Destiny voiced by Keith Ferguson. In the game, he wears a suit which enables him to use mutant powers farmed by the U-Men. A similar suit is later used by Bastion in the final boss battle.

References

External links

• Cameron Hodge at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe