Josef Huber (Earth-616)

Isolationist
Name	Josef Huber
Current Alias	Isolationist
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Benefactor of X-Cell, ally of Tyler family, silent partner in Singularity Investigations, employer of Clay and Solo; Nicole (creation and ally)
Relatives	Unidentified family members
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Male
Height	6′3″ (1.91 m)
Weight	200 lbs (90.72 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Bald, Brown (when disguised)
Unusual Features	His right eye glows red when using his powers.
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Human wielding mutants powers
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	German, possibly Genoshan
Occupation	Would-be mutant exterminator
Base of Operations	An icy cave in Antarctica
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Peter David, Joe Quesada
First	X-Factor #89 (February, 1993)
First	X-Factor #89 (February, 1993)

History

Joseph Huber came from a wealthy family and was a powerful telepath (among other things) who claimed that the thoughts of all the mutants in the world were driving him crazy. He had used his family's wealth to hide himself away from the world and try to cope with his powers, after M-Day the voices he heard grew quieter as the mutant population was severely diminished and he sought to eradicate mutants altogether. To achieve this he manipulated and arranged all of X-Factor Investigations problems and adventures, including the X-Cell, Singularity Investigations, and the affair with the Purity Singers.

He somehow arranged for a young French girl named Nicole (actually an android created by Huber) to be taken in by M and Siryn in Paris, seemingly of their own free will. This despite later stating that M and Siryn are immune to his telepathic suggestions. He convinced Jamie Madrox, Cyclops, and Beast to organize a "Million Mutant March" political rally to get mutants declared an endangered species by the United States government. However, Layla Miller told Madrox that one of Huber's agents had tried to kill her, and it was revealed that Huber's plan was a plot to get all the mutants in one place so they could be destroyed. Then he teleported the team to a frozen wasteland.

Huber had teleported them to Antarctic where they were then out of communication range of M and Siryn, who were busy on a case, which had also been arranged by Huber, with the aid of a family of mutant haters. M became worried and flew back to X-Factor Investigations Headquarters, arriving just in time to stop Huber from smashing Rictor with a car, who had been more or less successfully fighting Huber. He was immune to the direct applications of Huber's mutant powers because Rictor was using Terrigen Crystals he had left over from his time with Quicksilver. Huber turned to sand and floated away, disdaining tedious fighting in favor his planned genocide. He returned to his icy cave.

Sometime later, the demoness Jezebel came to him, to propose a new genocide plan.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

Power Mimicry: Joseph is a very powerful being who can duplicate mutant's abilities. He's displayed the eye beams of Cyclops, the steel skin of Colossus, superhuman strength, flight, turned to sand like Dust, personal teleportation similar to Nightcrawler (complete with purple smoke and BAMF!), froze Rictor in ice like Iceman and has mentioned having the technological aptitude of Forge. He has said that he has the powers of every mutant on Earth. His power absorption is automatic. While he can control the powers he uses, he cannot turn off his ability to absorb powers. He may also have been using shapeshifting abilities; when Rictor touched him and cancelled his powers, he became bald with scarred skin.

• Telepathy: Huber has the telepathic abilities of every mutant telepath on Earth. He is able to listen to the thoughts of every mutant on Earth. At first it appeared that he could hear the thoughts of every person on Earth, but later seemed to be targeting mutants exclusively, claiming they are driving him mad. He is also able to subtly influence the minds of others, both on an individual scale and with groups. However, he has a mental block keeping him from overtly manipulating their minds. He has only demonstrated this power while in close proximity to his targets, and while he is actually having a conversation with the targets, perhaps needing his voice to make the actual suggesting while using his telepathy to create a false sense of trust and believability. Curiously, Rictor, a depowered mutant, seemed immune to his mind control, as well as all his other powers. This may or may not be due to Terrigen Crystals Rictor had leftover in his body from X-Factor's run-in with Quicksilver.
• Superhuman Durability: He survived a truck impact without a scratch.

Weaknesses

He has a mental block preventing him from directly killing mutants. Being close to another telepath creates mental feedback, causing him pain. He also requires medication to control his powers.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Telepathy-suppressing drugs, access to tremendously advanced technological devices of his own design.

Transportation

Teleportation

Notes

• In an interview, Peter David (Isolationist's creator) said that he was not a mutant, but failed to say how, exactly, he got his powers.

Trivia

Using Forge's powers Huber built "chaotic randomizing generator". He put it into Nicole's body so what then she was close to Layla Miller it allegedly thwarted her short-term precognition and made Huber and his agents invisible to Layla. However, with the latter revelation about true source of Layla Miller's "precognitions" it is unclear how exactly Huber managed to evade her knowledge.

See Also

• 8 appearance(s) of Josef Huber (Earth-616)
• 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Josef Huber (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) of Josef Huber (Earth-616)
• 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Josef Huber (Earth-616)
• 5 image(s) of Josef Huber (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Josef Huber on Marvel.com