Phaser (comics)

Christian Cord codenamed Radian and later Phaser is a fictional mutant character in the Marvel Comics Universe. His first appearance was in New X-Men #135, created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely.

Fictional character biography

Radian is one of the many mutant teenagers that enrolls into the Xavier Institute after the revelation to the public that Professor X is a mutant. When Cassandra Nova makes her second attack on the school, Radian and other students, even knowing how dangerous Nova was, want to face her. Instead, they are put under her control and turned against X-Men members Wolverine, Beast, and Xorn. Radian and the others are freed soon after thanks to the intervention of the Stepford Cuckoos.

After the death of mutant fashion designer Jumbo Carnation, Radian joins the Omega Gang. This group is led by fellow student Quentin Quire, who is also known as Kid Omega. Radian and the Omega Gang participate in an assault on a small group of human racists whom they believe responsible for the death of Jumbo. They also attack a team of U-Men, isolationist murderers who kill mutants for their powers.

The Omega Gang then cause a riot at the Xavier Institute during Open Day, when the school was going to accept human students. During the riot, Radian and other members of the gang confront several X-Men on the mansion's front lawn. Radian is stopped by Cyclops, who breaks his leg with his optic blasts. Afterwards, Radian, along with Redneck and Tattoo, are sent to a jail, run by humans. Wolverine informs him that he and the others would be sent overseas to do charity work after they completed their jail time. Radian was one of many mutants that lost their superhuman powers after the M-Day.

His powers become part of the being known as The Collective.^[1]

However, he appears to have been let out of jail, and then decided to pay his debt in another way: by joining the newest incarnation of the New Warriors.^[2] After being given new armor, he takes up the codename Phaser, and began training with the team, which includes his sister Tattoo. However, on one of the team's first missions out to stop the Zodiac, she got too cocky when fighting Cancer, and was brutally killed in front of the rest of the team. He is currently in mourning over her death, and now has to deal with the deaths of Ripcord and Skybolt.

Powers and abilities

Before he was depowered on M-Day, Radian had the superhuman ability to generate blinding flashes of ultraviolet light from his body. Radian could control the intensity of these bursts, choosing to either blind or burn his opponents.

As Phaser, Christian can generate intense bursts of energy from the chest of his armor as well as deflect energy through specialized gauntlets on his arms. All New Warriors have up to five powers so he may have additional abilities yet to be shown on-panel.

Bibliography

• X-Men vol. 2 #135-138
• X-Men: The Last Stand novelization

References