Forge - Phase 1

This page is about the Phase 1 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Forge (disambiguation).

PHASE 1

John Henry Forge
Portrayed by Eric Balfour
Codename:	Forge
Affiliations:	X-Men, Xavier Institute - Staff
Birthdate:	August 7, 1988 / adjusted for Sound of Silence January 6, 1986 (see trivia)

Journal:	Creo, Recreo, Praesto
Player:

Forge is the security specialist and in-house mechanic for the Xavier Institute, as well as an active member of the X-Men. Currently he is at the West Coast Annex, helping them set up things for a full-time team to operate from the facility.

Details

Aliases: None known as yet.

First Appearance: October 29, 2004

Place of Birth: Dallas, Texas

Citizenship: dual American and Attilan citizenship

Relatives: Forge Family: Richard Forge (father), Cheryl Anne Forge (mother), Nazé (uncle)

Education: Graduate of Xavier's in 2006, Bachelor's Degree (Business Administration) from Empire State University, 2009.

Relationship Status: Single, formerly dating Crystal Amaquelin

Occupation: Security specialist at the Xavier Institute

Team Affiliation: X-Men

Biography

Childhood

As a child, Forge was smaller than most of his peers and phenomenally intelligent. It has been mentioned that he learned to drive the family car by himself before he was thirteen years old, and had been tinkering with mechanical devices like clocks and TV remotes since he was seven. This may have been due to an early gradual manifestation of his mutation, or simply innate curiosity and mechanical inclination. Forge's studious nature and diminutive physical stature made him the target of ridicule and abuse all through his grade school and early high school years. Believing his parents were ignoring the abuse (they were simply unaware of it), he decided to make a violent statement of rebellion by building an explosive device to set off during a school rally. The device went off prematurely in his locker, costing him his left hand and leg, but hurting no one else.

Coming to Xavier's

After his rehabilitation and discovery of his mutant powers, he was brought to the school to learn to deal with his powers and develop social skills in a more nurturing environment. Initially, Forge's reaction to the school was one of isolation and resistance, which soon cooled as he found friends. During his tenure at the school, Forge has become active in the HeliX political action group. As a student, Forge shared a room with Kyle Gibney in a suite with Jay Guthrie and Marius Laverne. He continues to work closely with Paige Guthrie as a laboratory partner, and despite an awkward period where Forge had a strong yet unrequited romantic attraction to Paige, the two continue to work as peers. He was also instrumental in both Catseye and Jennie Stavros locating their long-lost families.

In the fall of 2005, Forge was kidnapped by Lorna Dane, who was under the influence of Magneto. Under duress, Forge was forced to create the Neutralizer, which was destroyed after temporarily removing both his and Lorna's mutant powers.

In 2006, Forge published a biography of Magneto, which met with mixed reviews. Following the San Diego earthquake, many retailers stopped distribution, fearing the political ramifictions.

In the spring of 2006, Forge and some of his friends were assaulted by Masque, who used his power to disfigure them physically. In Forge's case, his prosthetics were covered in a layer of skin, which was not only disorienting to Forge's senses, but incredibly painful as his prosthetics attempted to vent excess heat through the skin. After a few days, he was returned to normal by Marius's use of Masque's powers. As a gift to his friend, Marius also wiped away the physical scars from Forge's accident. As an unpredicted side effect of this generosity, the damage to Forge's internal organs and his nearsightedness were also cured.

Graduation and after

Forge graduated from Xavier's in 2006, and began an internship with Lee Kuk to train in operating the mansion's security systems. In September 2006, Forge accepted the full-time position of Security Specialist and joined the school's staff officially. During the X-Men's second mission to Youra, Forge assisted with support, accepting a role as the team's technical adjunct.

In December 2006, Forge found himself surprised by a mistletoe-induced kiss from Laurie Collins, one of the younger students at the school. The two began a low-key semi-relationship until Laurie broke things off abruptly, citing the age difference as awkward. Forge's unemotional response to Laurie's choice caused a bit of a rift between the two. After being psychically assaulted by Thomas Glorian, Forge had difficulty reconciling various stresses in his life with the continual feeling of vulnerability, and departed the mansion for a brief time to study under Henry McCoy in Edinburgh, Scotland. The sabbatical was successful, and in March 2007 Forge returned to his duties at the school, but not without incident.

Upon returning from Scotland, Forge discovered that some of the technology he had created and licensed for medical use had been adapted by the Canadian government for Garrison Kane's biotech implants. However, in discovering this information, Forge lied to the medical staff to gain access to Kane's restricted files, and as such had his access to the sensitive medical data revoked, and has been put under increased scrutiny by the headmasters and Professor Xavier. This incident has resulted in some strained trust between himself and some of the staff.

After an eventful spring, involving a dinosaur attack and more than one abduction of his friends, Forge began to take a serious look at his priorities. Following a visit to Canada with Garrison, Forge began to realize that he was out of his depth in a number of areas, and decided to narrow his focus. Setting aside his nascent political aspirations, Forge began an abbreviated form of X-Men training in May 2007, without the intent to join the team, simply to prove to himself that he wasn't going to always be useless in a crisis.

Sound of Silence

Forge's training with the X-Men would prove to be short-lived, as his life would take an unexpected turn in late June 2007 when he attended the engagement ball for Medusa Amaquelin and Blackagar Boltagon on the isle of Attilan. Scheduled to take a later return flight than his friends, Forge was still on the island when an unexpected event occurred, causing the island to completely vanish.

In the weeks that followed, Forge found himself isolated from everything he had known before. Finding himself housed with an Attilani fisherman and his family, Forge attempted multiple times to contact the Attilani royals, before managing to attract Crystal's attention, after which he began to work with the Attilani government with various civil engineering projects to maintain the nation's infrastructure. While only days were passing in the "outside world", time at Attilan was passing at a greatly accelerated rate, and Forge's hopes of rescue slowly began to fade, and after a year, he applied for and was granted Attilan citizenship.

During the two and a half years that Attilan was isolated from the outside world, Forge worked with the Attilan government on various civil engineering projects, as well as assisting with the operation of a new training program for mutants, established by the royal family. This new life continued until Forge discovered Crystal's plan to track down Maximus and bring him to justice for his crimes. He covered for the Princess's absence for as long as he was able, until he was ordered to take a rescue squad to find her. Shortly thereafter, Attilan's isolation was reversed, and Forge was able to re-contact the rest of the world. Bidding goodbye to his adopted host family, Forge journeyed back to America.

Returning to the real world

Upon returning to America, Forge resumed his duties at the school as well as his training with the X-Men. A disastrous experience with an online "mutant social networking service" led to a run-in with the Friends of Humanity, an incident that has caused Forge to swear off dating for the forseeable future. His technological skills were put to the test when he had to rig the Blackbird to launch a magnetically-transparent glider into orbit to prevent Magneto from controlling a satellite laser system. His training was further tested when he had to directly confront one of Magneto's henchmen in a Japanese hospital soon after, and found himself able to subdue and capture the mutant without any loss of life. Emboldened by the experience, Forge has thrown himself more intently into training for the team. However, after an adventure in Europe made him realize that he lags drastically behind his peers in matters of self-defense and protecting himself, Forge has started to seek out specific training in those areas.

Finding a Cause

2008 started off with a bang (literally) for Forge as he was asked to accompany Cyclops and Storm to Budapest on a consultation for Prime Minister Istvan Barath. During the trip, an assassination attempt was made on the Prime Minister, during which Forge was forced to use his skills to drive the Prime Minister and others to safety while being pursued by assassins. The experience led him to question his flippant attitude towards danger, once confronted with the very real threat of death.

When various telepaths were disabled by a psionic entity, Forge found himself drafted into the position of emergency support, sealing himself in The Box as protection from any psionic interference and running communications for the X-Men during the crisis. However, his bravado worked against him when trying to prevent Betsy Braddock from escaping the medlab, and the British ninja knocked him out rather effortlessly in a somewhat embarrassing encounter.

The year has not been entirely unkind to Forge, however, as he has somehow managed to start a budding relationship with Crystal Amaquelin, a development which has surprised both of them as well as providing no small source of confusion and amusement to their peers.

After a particularly harrowing would-be pickup of a potential student, Cyclops came to Forge and asked him to consider joining the team as a full-time member. After some consideration, Forge accepted the offer and became a full-fledged X-Man. Through his tenure with the team, he has tried to shore up his weaknesses in hand-to-hand combat by training with Garrison Kane, and functioned as the primary pilot of the Blackbird, before it was destroyed by the Brotherhood. After that ordeal, in which he suffered major injuries, Forge has been on inactive status with the team while he recuperates and assists with rebuilding the jet.

During the events of Day Zero, Forge returned to active status with the X-Men, assisting Amanda Sefton in breaking Apocalypse's hold on Manhattan. He drifted back into more of a support role for the team, while balancing both his relationship with Crystal and his responsibilities to the X-Men.

Tribe

In the months following Day Zero, Forge's resolve and ideals would become sorely tested by events around him. Believing some of his friends murdered only to have them returned alive but forever changed weighed heavily on Forge, especially given his inability to reverse the damage done by Blaquesmith to Jay Guthrie. As tensions rose in the mansion, Forge spent more and more time isolated from his peers until a series of crises forced him into confronting his inner demons. His faith was challenged by Amber Hunt during a mission in Hungary, followed shortly by an accident in Kosovo which required him to set aside his principles and build an inhibitor to help save the live of Yvette Petrovic. After even his attempt at a vacation in Dubai turned into a catastrophe featuring Quentin Quire and Milan, Forge came to a new philosophical realization - he began to see all of mutantkind as a fractured tribe, with a common bond but all heading in different directions. While he does not see himself as any kind of leader to the tribe, he believes that all tribes need a "medicine man", someone who can act as a guide and healer to those in need. Whether or not he will be able to fulfill this role remains to be seen.

In September 2009 he relocated to the West Coast Annex in order to assist in setting up the facility to house a second active X-Men team. Although the initial move was thought to be a temporary one, Forge threw himself completely into his work and decided to stay indefinitely. With Crystal unable to see herself moving to California, and both of them wanting different things from life, in February 2010 they agreed to end it.

Physical Characteristics

Forge's prosthetic left arm (detail)

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 135 lbs

Eyes: Brown.

Hair: Dark brown.

Other Features: Multiple piercings (eyebrow, both ears, labret) although rarely are any worn anymore. Forge also has a cybernetic left leg and left arm, both designed to mimic human form and function (more the latter than the former). The arm is a permanent implant constructed of myomer artificial muscle tissue, while the leg is a removable design composed of metal tubing, gears, and wires. At various times, he has installed devices into his cybernetics such as a medication delivery system, an electronic lockpick, and an infrared/RF remote control.

Powers

Forge has a natural comprehension of mechanical concepts and engineering techniques, often referred to as "instinctive mechanical hypercognition". This allows him to invent any type of device he can imagine, provided he has an inkling of how it should work. He is also able to intuit the operation or status of machinery at a glance, such as telling whether a car's engine needs tuning up. Since being exposed to the power-enhancing abilities of Fabian Cortez - Phase 1, Forge's ability to sense the presence and operation of technical devices has become almost second-nature, comprising a completely new sense.

As a side effect of Forge's mutation, he does not have a normal sleep cycle. Instead, when his power is active, his brain interprets it as REM sleep. On the average, he sleeps about one-third as much as a normal human, usually every two or three days.

Forge's power occasionally bears a resemblance to a disassociative 'fugue' state, or alternatively manic hyperactivity when engaged in intense concentration. When his power is active, his mental state is incredibly noticeable by telepaths, but difficult to accurately read. The analogy to "drinking from the fire hose" has been made on occasion. However, despite training, Forge has next to no empathic or telepathic shielding.

Equipment

The only permanent 'equipment' that Forge carries are his cybernetics. He also habitually carries a standard "Leatherman" multitool, as well as a custom-designed Palm-Pilot style of PDA dubbed "Warlock" that functions as a combination global cell phone, mobile internet terminal, and GPS receiver/transmitter.

As part of his X-Men outfit, Forge usually carries any number of gadgets and devices that would be useful on a mission. These have included small mobile observation spheres to act as remote cameras, as well as a pair of heavy goggles that provide a remote link to various computer systems. His X-Men uniform has been modified to allow access to his cybernetics, as well as featuring a hood with air filtration gear and small one-shot capsules of CS riot-control gas triggered by voice command as a self-defense measure.

Forge also has access to the mechanical labs at the mansion, including a full electronic/mechanical engineering and fabrication shop.

Trivia

Despite his natural mechanical intuition, Forge has never learned to ride a bicycle.

Although he is a fan of "Tex-Mex" cuisine, Forge also has a severe dislike for cilantro.

Forge cannot tie his shoelaces, and tends to wear loafers or one unlaced Chuck Taylor high-top basketball shoe.

Coming from a mixed heritage (Forge's father is Cheyenne, while his mother is White), Forge does not put any importance on his ethnicity, instead preferring to think of himself as "mutant" rather than "Cheyenne". This has led to a number of philosophical conflicts with Danielle Moonstar, who made a habit of trying to expose Forge to Cheyenne culture.

Due to his achievements in invention at such a young age, Forge has been admitted into the Tesla Club, a fraternal organization of scientists described as a cross between MENSA and an Elks' Lodge.

As part of physical therapy and becoming accustomed to the different sensory input of his prosthetic hand and arm, Forge taught himself Braille, and is reasonably fluent.

Following the precedent set by Madelyn Bartlet, Forge has opted not to use a code name or alias while working with the X-Men, for his own personal reasons.

Due to two and a half years spent in Attilan outside of normal time, Forge is physically and legally approximately 2.5 years older than implied by the actual day he was born, and he carries an Attilani passport to verify his age when needed.

Despite his academic focus on the sciences, Forge's favorite non-scientific book is Bullfinch's Mythology, and he tends to use mythological aliases in email with his friends.

Forge has (very) basic knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, and standard sign language - although his grammar and accent tend to be absolutely atrocious.