Masque is part of the morlocks, a group of mutants who used to live underground in New York. They had retired, due to the anti-mutant hysteria, leaving aside the human world and their past lives, as well as their names, faces and bodies. This could be done thanks to Masque, who had the ability of changing the flesh like an sculptor, as well as a big talent to build whatever his mind could imagine. His curse was that he had terrible scars and was unable of restoring his own face. That fact twisted his mind and had him creating horrible and monstrous shapes for all his companions. The first time his path got into the X-Men (as main plot) was when Caliban decided to marry Kitty Pryde. Since the X-Men wouldn't be willing to let her go easily, Masque shaped the corpse of a young woman into the girl's, and made them believe she had died in a confrontation against the Liberty Force. Masque hated the beauty and played with Kitty's face until Callisto stopped him. Eventually, the girl was rescued, for Masque's ability could not change the scent of a body and Wolverine detected the fake. Masque didn't die during the mutant massacre (unlike most his friends), and kept living in the subways.

Eventually, Masque would make a reappearance, like when Rusty Collins decided to join the morlocks in exchange of the restoring of the face of the woman he had unwillingly burnt. After Callisto left and Storm disappeared, he commanded the morlocks, until Mikhail Rasputin appeared and realizing he was mad, drowned most of them and himself.