Merge:Agent X

Agent X is a mercenary whose adventures have been published by Marvel Comics. He first appeared in Agent X #1 (Sept 2002), by Gail Simone and UDON. That series, a pseudo-spinoff of Deadpool, continued the cynical, slapstick, and highly-polished action which had characterized its parent series. Indeed, a central feature of Agent X was the question of the title character's identity, sometimes implied to be Deadpool himself.

Publication history
Agent X was born out of Marvel Comics' long- running Deadpool series, whose sales had slumped to cancellation point, with experiments including the "miniseries within a series" Deadpool: Agent of Weapon X and Deadpool: Funeral for a Freak, where the main series' numbering was demoted to secondary status below the "miniseries" numbering, having failed to stymie the leak. The decision was then taken to run a "final arc" to close the series, then restart it from #1 with an X in the title in an attempt to more closely identify it with their popular X-Men franchise (as part of the same effort, Cable was changed to Soldier X to poor reviews). Online humourist Gail Simone was chosen to write both Deadpool's final arc and the new series, with the UDON studio, who had recently revamped the Taskmaster in a well-received miniseries, to supply the art.

The book's sales then suffered badly under a series of fill-ins, which recived mixed critical reviews, prior to its last issue, #12. However, shortly after this announcement, Marvel decided to launch a Cable & Deadpool book. Simone and UDON agreed to return for a three-issue arc tying up the loose ends and restoring Deadpool for use in the new book, which was published after a month's hiatus as Agent X #13-15.

Character biography
Agent X's real name is Nijo, though after suffering amnesia he took on the identity of Alex Hayden. His powers consist of augmented strength, agility, and dexterity and superhuman regeneration. He is a skilled marksman.



He is a combined consciousness, residing in the body of the man named Nijo but possessing certain abilities and mental attributes of Deadpool and the telepathic marksman known as the Black Swan.

He founded the mercenary outfit Agency X, with his girlfriend (and fellow mercenary) Outlaw, Taskmaster and managed by Deadpool's ex-business manager Sandi Brandenberg. He has been aided by a young mutant girl called Mary Zero whose power means no-one but him is able to notice her.

Eventually, the Black Swan showed up with a "tabula rasa" Deadpool in tow (who Hayden immediately shot in the head). It was revealed that "Hayden" was really the corpse of Nijo, the Swan's former partner, which had been revived and given Deadpool's healing factor by Swan's out of control mental powers (Swan had also received a copy of the healing factor), and whose mind was created from an amalgam of Deadpool and the Swan. And that Deadpool's personality was growing back (unwittingly accelerated by Hayden's bullet to his head).

In an attempt to regain the parts of his mind he had lost, as well as remove the pieces of their minds he wanted rid of ("You and Wilson have my skills, Mr Hayden. In return, I received a taste for Radiohead and an encyclopediac knowledge of pornographic knock-knock jokes. Yes, I'd like to switch back if possible"), including Nijo's sense of honour, they performed a three-way mind meld, which restored Deadpool (who immediately stabbed the Swan in the back) and Hayden. Deadpool, Outlaw, and Taskmaster killed the Swan when he immediately tried to murder them, then stuffed him to prevent him from resurrecting. Hayden would later be shown using the corpse as a surfboard.

Since the conclusion of the Agent X series, Agent X has appeared in two issues of Cable and Deadpool, wherein he was hired to kill Deadpool and stop him from resurrecting Cable.

Hayden's healing factor, as demonstrated by the Black Swan, works psychologically rather than physically. This means that if Hayden had a tattoo, and said tattoo was damaged by a wound, it should grow back according to Hayden's memory of it. The scars on Hayden's head are apparently from a fireplace grill, and initially belonged to the Black Swan. Deadpool shoved the Swan's head into the grill just before the incident that caused the personality and memory mixture. At the end of the Agent X series, Hayden "gave" the Swan back his personality, including the X-shaped scars. Strangely enough, in subsequent appearances, Agent X has been displayed with scars intact. Though likely a continuity error at first, Fabian Niceiza has stated that Hayden carved them back on his face himself, in order "to pick up chicks."

House of M
A male asian wearing yellow goggles and a belt forming an X around his chest is shown under the sapiens resistance group in House of M issue 4. Its highly possible that this is Nijo since Deadpool's existence was eliminated through his dimensional jump shortly before House of M, preventing him from receiving his trademark X-scars.

External link

 * http://www.marvel.com/universe/Agent_X - Agent X's Marvel.com Character Bio