Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)

Husk
Name	Paige Elisabeth Guthrie
Current Alias	Husk
Aliases	Hayseed
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	X-Men; formerly S.H.I.E.L.D. (Non-Human Resources Department), Hellfire Academy, Mutantes Sans Frontières, X-Corps, Generation X
Relatives	Bonnie (maternal 1st cousin once removed); Lucas Guthrie (paternal uncle); Thomas Guthrie (father, deceased); Lucinda Guthrie (mother); Samuel Guthrie (Cannonball) (brother); Joshua Guthrie (Icarus) (brother); Melody Guthrie (Aero) (sister); Jebediah Guthrie (brother); Elizabeth Guthrie (sister); Joelle Guthrie (sister); Lewis Guthrie (brother); Cissie Guthrie (sister); unnamed sister; Ray Jr. (foster brother); Izzy Kane (sister-in-law) Josiah Guthrie (nephew)
Marital Status	Single
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′7″ (1.7 m)
Weight	128 lbs (58.06 kg) (58.1 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Blue
Hair	Blond
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Guthrie Farmhouse, Cumberland County, Kentucky
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Citizenship	American Krakoan
Occupation	Adventurer; former guidance counselor, librarian, lunch-lady, teacher, student, activist
Base of Operations	Krakoa, Pacific Ocean; formerly Tabula Rasa, Montana; Jean Grey School for Higher Learning, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York; Utopia, San Francisco Bay, California; Graymalkin Industries, Marin Highlands, San Francisco, California; Massachusetts Academy, Snow Valley, Massachusetts; Guthrie Farmhouse, Cumberland County, Kentucky; Summers Institute for Higher Learning, Westchester, New York, Age of X-Man
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Bill Mantlo, William Johnson
First	Rom Annual #3 (September, 1984)
First	Rom Annual #3 (September, 1984)

History

Early Life

Husk

After her older brother Sam's mutant powers manifested and he joined the New Mutants, Paige tried many things to discover whether she was also a mutant, but became frustrated after many failures. Venting her anger, Paige finally found that her power was to shed her skin. She kept her nature secret until the day Sam and his X-Force teammate Boom Boom visited the farm. They were abducted by the Fenris twins as part of the "Younghunt," a contest involving the capture of young mutants. The X-Force teamed up with the New Warriors, whose member Firestar had also been captured. Together they opposed the organizer of the contest, the Gamesmaster. Paige secretly followed them and confronted the Gamesmaster, defeating him in a game of wits.

Generation X

Soon after, Paige was kidnapped by the techno-organic alien Phalanx, who sought to learn how to assimilate mutants into their collective. Paige and her fellow abductees were rescued by an ad-hoc X-Men team, and subsequently became founding members of Generation X, a team of mutants enrolled at the new Massachusetts branch of Xavier's School. During her time there, Paige studied to become a better X-Man than Sam. She also romanced her teammate Chamber, although their relationship was strained and terminated more than once because of his self-sabotaging.

Xavier Institute

After the school was closed, Paige was recruited by her former headmaster Banshee into his paramilitary X-Corps. After that group was dismantled, Paige went to study at the re-established Xavier Institute. Her interest in environmental issues led to her discovering corruption within Worthington Enterprises, the company owned by the X-Man Archangel. Investigating, she and Archangel encountered the Dominant Species, and she was almost killed. Archangel saved her with his healing ability, after which they became romantically involved.

Mutantes Sans Frontières

Having finally graduated to the ranks of the X-Men, Paige later aided Archangel in establishing the global mutant outreach program Mutantes Sans Frontières. Setting up office in Zanzibar, they became involved in an attempt by the Hellfire Club to destabilize the country by employing the mercenary Weaponeers. Alongside the country's President, who was secretly the superhero Askari, as well as reinforcements from Genosha, the heroes managed to repel the invaders.

Siblings

Her younger brother Josh later joined the new New Mutants team under the codename Icarus. Her sister Melody also joined the school as Aero after discovering she could fly, but was depowered on M-Day, although Paige herself retained her powers.

San Francisco

Husk later clashed with the O*N*E after they attempted to confiscate her personal items, and hacked into their computers in retaliation. Following the murder and subsequent funeral of her brother Jay, Husk returned home to Kentucky before re-joining the X-Men in San Francisco to help repel the Skrulls invasion. She was also seen in Utopia, fighting against Norman Osborn's Dark Avengers.

Necrosha

During the Necrosha event, Husk was part of the team that was sent to Muir Island to investigate. Paige fought, but she too was possessed by the villain Proteus, who gained the ability to possess more than just one host. While possessing her, he demonstrated husking into a flaming form. Eventually Paige was freed from Proteus, and he was defeated by Magneto.

Second Coming

Later, she was seen in the San Francisco Subway, fighting Nimrods alongside Avalanche, Sunspot, and Boom-Boom. As the team seemed to be struggling with the Nimrod, Paige tried Husking into a corrosive form to try and corrode the Nimrod. The robot used his technology to get used to this form and literally ripped it from her body. It took the combined efforts of the whole team to defeat the robot. But just as it was destroyed, two more arrived and the team was forced to fight. Later, it seemed the team defeated the Nimrods in the tunnels as Paige joined the fight on the Golden Gate Bridge where she witnessed the defeat of the Nimrods, wondering what had caused them to malfunction.

Curse of the Mutants

After Paige's old teammate Jubilee was turned into a vampire, Paige made it her mission to find her. Not telling the other X-Men about what she was doing, Paige targeted a group of vampires. Pretending to be a helpless girl, she let a vampire take her to an abandoned warehouse where he tried to bite her. However, under her skin, she assumed a metal form. Throwing him off her, she demanded to know where Jubilee was. The lights turned on, revealing a group of vampires in the room. After they refused to give her information, Paige assumed a wooden, spiked form. She attacked the vampires, staking them with her arms and legs. One of the vampires tried to light her on fire, but it did not affect Paige and she used the fire to her advantage to help defeat the vampires. The remaining vampire, the one who tried biting her, swung an ax at Paige, landing a blow to her side where the ax remained. Paige fought through the pain and managed to stake the last vampire. She was left fearful of what had become of her friend. It is unknown whether she told anyone about what happened.

After this, Paige returns to Utopia where she joins the strike force. The members of the team all have powers that would make it impossible for them to be bitten and turned into vampires. They act as the front line against the Vampire Wolverine and the invading vampire forces. Paige yet again takes her spiked, wooden form and takes down several vamps before she's taken out by Wolverine.

Husk is later seen among many other X-Men that were waiting in an office to take down Magik, who was meeting with Cyclops, in case Magik put up a fight to Scott's suggestion of her needing to be kept under arrest for her actions from the "Fall of the New Mutants" saga.

Regenesis

Paige was with the mutants who chose to side with Wolverine in the aftermath of his climatic battle with Cyclops for leadership of the X-Men. She seemed content to turn her back on the life of a soldier that she had been living. It was during a conversation with Sam that she seemed to decide and when she left, he revealed to Dani Moonstar that Paige's powers hadn't been working correctly and that she had been molting everywhere.

Paige joined the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning as a Junior staff member, teaching History of Mutant Art and Mutant Literature. Sporting a new costume, whilst teaching her first class, Paige 'husked' into a more aggressive form, shouting at her students in order to make them start paying attention to her. However, during the class, the school is attacked by the Hellfire Club's monsters. Paige defends her class, husking into her fire form to eliminate the threats. She also joins the rest of the Institute in standing against the Hellfire Club. She later holds a class outside, thanking Krakoa for the shade he provides.

At a faculty meeting, Paige tries to express her insecurity about not being cut out to to teach and that the kids aren't listening to her but is ironically cut off by Beast before she can finish. Later, Cannonball expresses his frustration about there only being a memorial for dead X-Men, including their brother Jay, in the faculty lounge. He doesn't understand how Paige agrees with the decision and remarks that she can't even look at Jay's picture. Casting off Sam's feelings, Paige announces she has class and needs to change; in reply to this, Sam states that she sheds her skin every time she's unhappy and that her power isn't an antidepressant.

At that moment, N'Garai attack the school and Paige was instructed to go teach as normal. During her class, Rogue interrupted and informs Paige that there was a problem with the 'heating system'. Upon leaving the class, Paige instantly husks into her fire form and destroys the invading N'Garai in the mansion. During Paige's time at the school it becomes apparent that her mysterious moulting condition is only worsening, her skin being in a constantly cracked and flaking state. Her mental state begins to deteriorate as well, with personality shifts and forgetfulness.

Hellfire Academy

Eventually, she quit the school, believing Kitty would fire her, and joined the Hellfire Academy. Seemingly in love with Toad, she also made him betray the School and recruit Quentin Quire, Glob Herman and Idie.

At the Academy, she assumed the functions of lunch-lady, librarian, and hall monitor, enjoying screaming at the students. She also humiliated Toad, sending him back to his previous job of janitor.

When the Hellfire Academy fell under the assault of Wolverine and his teachers, seeking to rescue their students, Husk fought against Toad and the others. After the battle, however, she realized much of what she had done and sought help in keeping her powers and fractured mind under control.

S.H.I.E.L.D.

Husk start moonlighting for S.H.I.E.L.D. Non-Human Resources Department at Tabula Rasa. After S.H.I.E.L.D. was dismantled, she remained there to care after the fauna, but they were soon disturbed by "Fakepool" (the Chameleon posing as Deadpool, stealing and selling S.H.I.E.L.D. weapons). She teamed up afterwards with Deadpool and Spider-Man, coming under attack by "Fakepool" and the creatures of Tabula Rasa.

X-Men Disassembled

Husk was one of the many mutants that opposed the crazed X-Man from remaking the world in his image. When X-Man realized that his vision of the world would never come about with the X-Men around, X-Man made his enemies vanish in an instant, including Husk.

Age of X-Man

Husk and the mutants that vanished were sent to a different reality created by Nate Grey and a Life Seed, a world where everyone on Earth was a mutant and relationships were strongly discouraged or illegal.

Husk became a teacher in the Agricultural Division at the Summers Institute for Higher Learning. She was showing some students, like Glob Herman and Shark-Girl, that it fell to them to nurture the produce and livestock they manufactured there, so that their community could prosper from it.

While not seen, Husk was presumably allowed to return to the real world when X-Man decided to release the mutants he trapped in his reality.

House of X

Paige was living on the sovereign Mutant nation state of Krakoa, created by Charles Xavier, Magneto, and Moira X. She later joined Cyclops' team on a mission to destroy Mother Mold before the creation of Nimrod. Husk and Angel were both confused at some of Cyclops' methods. The team was spotted as they neared their destination, and subsequently blown up in retaliation. The explosion killed both Archangel and Husk, but the survivors continued on to destroy Mothermold.

The team was later resurrected by a group of mutants known as “the Five” (Eva Bell, Proteus, Hope Summers, Elixir and Goldballs). Merging their powers, the Five were able transfer the deceased X-Men’s minds into cloned bodies. They were later proclaimed as the heroes of Krakoa.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

• Transitional Omni-morph: Husk has the mutant ability to shed her outer layer of skin and reveal a new state or shape underneath. Her power can cause random changes if she activates it without thinking, but by concentrating on specific chemical or elemental formulas, she can control the nature of her transformation. She can become any solid that she has studied and can imitate metal, diamond, granite, wood, rubber, even glass. Morphing has caused her to take on various powers such as:
  • Superhuman Strength
  • Superhuman Speed
  • Superhuman Durability
  • Flame projection (magma form)
  • Impact-absorbing elasticity
  • Amphibious talents
• When Paige sheds the outer layer of her skin she can husk away sweat, grime, or minor injuries, but deeper ones will stay with her. She can hold a form for about an hour before she needs to revert back to her original form. She can morph repeatedly and is not required to stay in any one form, but too many transformations can become very painful. In great stress or trauma, Paige can shed without control, revealing patchwork forms. When Paige ‘husks’, she often sheds her clothing as well. This has the unintended side effect of leaving her nude when she returns to her normal form.

Abilities

Husk is adept at the programming and operation of computers, including computer hacking which she has a known reputation for. Gifted intelligence.

Weaknesses

Insanity & depression: For a few months, Paige proved to be psychologically unstable, with gradual physical evidences due to her mutation, first moulting and later combining multiple skin forms simultaneously. The power and personality swings appeared related, as she was able to change personality just by shedding her skin. It was later stated that those blackout and personality swings were due to a Secondary Mutation.

Paraphernalia

Transportation

"Jerry", a feathered steed from Tabula Rasa.

Trivia

Husk appears to be extremely intolerant to alcohol. She is seen becoming drunk after drinking just one bottle of beer.

See Also

• 228 appearance(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 7 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 23 minor appearance(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 21 mention(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 6 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 161 image(s) of Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)
• 7 quotation(s) by or about Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Perpetual Metamorph - Husk Fansite
• uncannyxmen.net Spotlight On... Husk