Fabian Cortez
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.
by Bobby Coakley
