#kenji uedo

I confess that I missed this on my first read through, but if you squint you'll notice a framed picture of the New Mutants. Next to that is one with Piotr in it and some other people. (Parents maybe?) Next to that is Magik and you can just make out the 'Magneto was right' font, though his helmeted head is obscured. That's just fantastic, but I have questions.

Well, this ask was a nice chance to re-read Gillen's Generation Hope, as well as check out Dark X-Men. But why limit myself to 5?

14. I have a lot of appreciation for this lamia-esque battle-form taken in his final villainous turn in Generation Hope #17 (Shortened to GH from hereon. Credits: Asmus, Miyazawa, Charalampidis), which we'll be returning to a few times. It's one of his more standard big-monster looks, but it's my favorite of them.

13. But I have even more appreciation for his look pre-kaijuification that arc. Admittedly not really giving points for the shapeshifting form so much as the fit for this one (GH #16, same credits as above).

12. I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of his portrayal as a happy-go-lucky weirdo in Foxe's Dark X-Men (2023). That said, he does get to pull some pretty fun moves—like stealing a killer Wolverine robot, sliding into it like a hermit crab into a shell, and using it as a battle suit (issues #3 and 4, Scharf, Martin).

11. Impressed by the visual of the self-stairs made in GH #6 (Gillen, Espin, Charalampidis). Its the same sort of power use that'd normally be filled by Iceman, but making it from one's own body to transport your teammates really makes it something else.

10. But not as much as when you're making your body a transport for your teammates by becoming a literal wheelchair (GH #12, Gillen, Sanders, Lee, Paris, Tai).

9. But in terms of transport, very little beat one of the few times he really used the techno part of his bio-techno powers to their full effect (GH #2, Gillen, Espin, Charalampidis):

8. Late into Generation Hope when Asmus takes over writing, we get Kenji entering into an interesting parallel of Quentin Quire's storyline from Morrison's X-Men run. As Quire fell in love with and tried to win over one* of his psychic classmates, the Stepford Cuckoos, in GH #13 (Roberson, Charalampidis), Kenji starts a relationship with the psychic fellow mutant No-Girl—a mutant who also originated from Morrison's run.

After her containment vat was destroyed in the next issue (same credits plus Gandini), he showed an impressive new use for his powers by developing a body for his girlfriend:

This later turned out to all be something of a ploy to turn the X-Men against Hope (well get to that next), which she learns of—leading for him, like Quire, to be blasted away by his would-be psychic paramore (GH #17). As with the Morrison and Quitely version of this beat, it's quite the visual spectacle.

7. That ploy to turn the X-Men against Hope deserves its own section—two, in fact, for the various transformations used in stages of his plan. First is the unforgettable time he became the grill-master (GH #12):

While he would claim this was a joke, we'd find by the comic's end that this was actually a part of his plan to psychically take over the X-Men. He can form psychic connections to those his flesh is interacting with, and as he eventually reveals, this includes bits of his flesh separated from his main body—included digested meat. Leading to:

6. This moment from GH #16.

While putting pieces of himself within the brain of every mutant on Utopia is maybe the most obviously impressive use of his power, it is for the most part not used for great visual spectacle—outside of this reveal, when he uses the piece of him embedded in Hope to turn her own face against her. One of the few pieces of body horror he does that really registers as horror.

5. Special mention really should be given to his first full-view appearance in GH #1 (2010, Gillen, Espin, Charalampidis), bursting out in all his we-have-Tetsuo-at-home glory:

4. Even more should be given for his iconic ink-covered first full-face reveal from the same issue. Half-human and half-flesh monstrosity, an even more obviously signalling of his purpose as an homage of both Tetsuo: the Iron Man and Tetsuo Shima from Akira, and one of his only pre-bald appearances:

3. I'm not familiar with the rest of Pak's Storm (2014), but I enjoy Kenji's appearance as the final villain of it's last two issues. The storyline definetly seems a bit rushed—the false "I'm just an innocent little amnesiac kid" facade doesn't last more than a few pages:

But the way the art team (Ibañez, Barrionuevo, Edwards, Tadeo and Redmond) showcase the mask coming away is quite something.

2. My heart really was warmed when we got an indirect Uedo-sighting during the Sins of Sinister event, in a doomed future where clusters of his cells cloned by Mister Sinister eventually overtook the whole solar system (Immoral X-Men #3, 2023, Gillen, Vitti, Beredo).

1 But the real measure of ability isn't size, but finesse. And while psychically infiltrating an island of mutants shows skill, the real creative use of his power was, of course, in GH #6:

From Dark X-Men Vol. 2 #005, “The Mercy Seat”

Art by Jonas Scharf and Frank Martin

Havok and Madelyne Pryor have their busy week in Limbo Embassy as they deal with paperwork, mutants, non-mutants, visiting relatives and more demons in Limbo. Also, not even Limbo Embassy accepts the amnesty from the neo-nazi Fenris Twins, they should be fed to demons in Limbo dimension instead.

This takes place before the fateful Hellfire Gala disaster.

Dark X-Men #5 - "The Mercy Seat" (2023)

Announcement!

Match 31 (Destiny vs. Mystique) ended with a score of 49.6% to 50.4%. As promised, since this match ended within 2% of a tie, Destiny and Mystique will move forward in the tournament as a single unit!

However, because of this development, there is now an open space in the bracket that needs to be filled. As such, we are allowing all of you voters to vote for which character should fill this empty slot. Information for each character can be found below their portrait.

Tower of Flower | Klara Prast

Zero | Kenji Uedo

Transonic | Laurie Tromette

Xorn | Kuan-Yin Xorn

Sugar Man

Zorn | Shen Xorn

Primal | Teon Macik

Hope Summers is betrayed by Kenji Uedo who captures her and uses the mindcontrolled mutant mob to torment her. Meanwhile, Transonic is having doubts in joining Kenji’s sadistic game. When Transonic protests that he has gone too far, she gets thrown aside. 

- Generation Hope #16, 2012 (1st pic)