First Appearance: X-Men (Vol 2) 1 Died In: Avengers 369. Exodus toasted him. Got Better In: Magneto 1 What's His Problem?: Supposedly born into great wealth and social
standing, Cortez was bored with life, and found excitement by joining the
Upstarts, a club of rich mutants who collected "points" by killing other
mutants. He collected the Acolytes, followers of Magneto, only to kill
them all to get "points" for killing Magneto, then gathered more
Acolytes to go after the X-Men. After finding out Magneto was alive, Cortez
was willing to do anything to protect himself from "his lord's" wrath. It
turned out he should have been more worried about Exodus... Abilities: Cortez had the power to "boost" a mutant's ability to high
levels, then turn the power against that mutant. This could hide
injuries without treating them, and give Cortez knowledge about a
subject's genetic matrix. Cortez always wondered what his power would do
to a normal human, but never got the chance to find out Favorite Quote: "I'm...still...breathing?" (Uncanny X-Men #300, after
Wolverine took his claws and... well, you get the idea) Heroes He Kept Running Into: Cortez and his followers battled the X-Men
on numerous occasions, and he also engaged in a "discussion" with
Quicksilver, trying to get him over to his side. Although running afoul of both the X-Men and the Avengers, it was Exodus who finally did him
in. That doesn't explain how he got into the Magneto limited
series, though... Hey, we don't even know how Magneto got into the Magneto limited series! editor let's-pretend-the-Magneto-limited-series-never-happened Jeanne People Who Don't Think He's So Bad: The Acolytes all followed Cortez
willingly, but quickly turned against him when they found out about his
betrayal of Magneto. The Gamesmaster and the other Upstarts tolerated
him as long as he was ahead in their game, but as Jean Grey said, "the
only person Fabian Cortez cares about is himself." Most Despicable Act: Betraying and nearly killing Magneto was pretty
bad, as was kidnapping Moria MacTaggert to get info on the X-Men. But Cortez's
lowest moment was when he kidnapped Luna Maximoff, Crystal and
Quicksilver's daughter, and started a civil war on the island of Genosha
by killing all the ruling humans and demanding the mutants of Genosha do
the same. All this was simply to protect himself from Magneto. He got his,
though.
First Appearance: X-Men (Vol 2) 1
