Changes: Samuel Guthrie (Earth-616)

Samuel Zachery Guthrie was the eldest son of a large Kentucky family who attempted to help out his family by working in a coal mine after the death of his father, who had also worked there. Right on his first day, Sam and his father's friend, Lewis, were trapped in a cave-in. In his panic, Sam discovered his mutant ability, which allowed him and Lewis to escape the collapse. This incident led to Sam to be found by Donald Pierce, who used him in a plot to attack the New Mutants. Sam eventually came to his senses and turned against Pierce. Professor Charles Xavier, founder of the X-Men, saw the good qualities inside Sam and asked him to join his New Mutants. Cannonball left his large farming family in Kentucky to join the team. In later years, several other Guthrie kids would be revealed to be mutants, including the future X-Man Husk).

While in the New Mutants, Cannonball remained with the team for its entire existence, forming close friendships with his teammates, Wolfsbane and Sunspot, and a friendly rivalry with Danielle Moonstar (Psyche) who, along with Cannonball, was the team's co-leader, even though the team was originally created because the Professor was possessed by the Brood Queen egg inside of him for future embryos. While at the mall in Salem Center, the team was attacked by Sentinels. They next battled the powers of the Brood Queen inside of Prof. Xavier, Silver Samurai and Viper, the Hellfire Club, Axe, then traveled to Nova Roma and battled Selene. Next the team traveled to the Massachusetts Academy and battled the White Queen, Emma Frost, and the Hellions and later, a Demon Bear. After a brief battle with Warlock, the New Mutants welcomed him as their new member. Cannonball saved the life of international rock star Lila Cheney, who he became romantically involved with, but due to the nature of Lila's career, their relationship went slowly. The New Mutants later battled Kulan Gath with the Avengers and X-Men and after most of the heroes perished, Magik and Dr. Strange traveled back in time to before it happened, erasing the event.

After attempting to rescue Sunspot and Magma from the Gladiators, Sam is taken away by Magneto, per Prof. Xavier's request, to battle the Beyonder. Upon returning, the Beyonder brought-out Magik's dark half, the Darkchylde, and she teleported her friends to Limbo and attacked them until Shadowcat used Illyana's Soulsword on her and returned her to her natural form. Returning, Sam again battled the Gladiators for Sunspot and Magma, but learned that they were being held by his former teammate, a now obese Karma. After tracking Karma to Madripoor, then Cairo, the New Mutants were joined by Storm and all of them were possessed by Karma, save Magik, Warlock, and Mirage. After freeing Karma from the Shadow King, who was possessing her, Karma defeated him on the Astral Plane. Later, Amora the Enchantress kidnapped the New Mutants to Asgard. While attempting to escape, Magik used her teleportation discs and the Enchantress' magics affected the destination and the New Mutants were separated through time and space. Sam ended-up in Nidavellir, where he befriended Eitri, King of the Dwarves. After the New Mutants defeated Amora, the X-Men arrived to assist them in rescuing Storm.

Following Magneto

After their adventure in Asgard, the New Mutants found themselves under the guidance of a new teacher, Magneto. While battling the Beyonder, the New Mutants were obliterated from existence by the virtually omnipotent Beyonder and then recreated by him, angry that Magik refused his 'gift' of her power being transferred to Shadowcat, to use as guinea pigs. In being recreated, the New Mutants, somehow, lost much of the proficiency in using their superhuman powers that they had learned at Prof. Xavier's school and seemed detached. Later, Magneto was tricked by Empath into having them join the Hellions to see if Emma could help. After rescuing Magneto from the Avengers, he and Emma worked together to cure the children of the trauma at the hands of the Beyonder and they returned to Prof. Xavier's mansion. Sam briefly visited his hometown, to introduce his girlfriend (Lila) to his family, and while searching for a missing Lila, his younger brother, Josh (who didn't wish to become a mutant), enjoyed a ride on Sam's back and stated that if he got to fly, being a mutant wouldn't be so bad. After the return of Sunspot, the New Mutants decided to even the score with Empath, seeing as how Magneto would not, and terrorized him until Cypher stated that revenge would make them no better then Empath and the team went-on to defeat Legion on Muir Island, then rescued Psylocke from Mojo and Spiral. The New Mutants, later, battled the X-Men after they had been turned to the X-Babies by Mojo, until they were broken of their brainwashing and defeated the spineless one, Mojo.

During the massacre of the Morlocks by the Marauders, the New Mutants were charged with aiding the wounded. After Illyana and Xi'an left to check on her younger siblings, the New Mutants joined them and Warlock's father, Magus, attacked and Illyana quickly teleported them all to Limbo. Shortly after, Magus also appeared on Limbo and Illyana sent the New Mutants to Scotland's past where they aided Scottish King, Robert the Bruce. While attempting to go back to Limbo, again, Illyana accidentally separated the New Mutants through time and space. Cannonball, Cypher, Mirage, and Warlock were sent to a future where mutants ruled and former teammates, Sunspot and Magma, were chief arbitrators, who oppressed humans and even kidnapped their mutant children. They were captured and about to be brainwashed, until Illyana returned with Professor Xavier, Lilandra, and Binary and took them back to the planet that the Professor was on with the Starjammers. When Merging their forms once more, Cypher tapped into Warlock’s own DNA in order to learn how to "re-code" it. While the rest of the New Mutants distracted Magus, Cypher and Warlock re-wrote the Magus' DNA, effectively reducing him to infancy. Upon returning home, the New Mutants were forced to chase Warlock and Impossible Man, who were having a contest to see who the better sentient lifeform was through shape changing and teleporting around the world.

Upon returning to the School for Gifted Youngsters, the New Mutants were, all, grounded by Magneto and not allowed to leave the grounds. The mutants did not stay under the care of Magneto, as Sam and Danielle decided to move the team out from under Magneto's thumb.

During the his time with the New Mutants, Sam's team found themselves merging with the X-Terminators. One of the new members, Boom Boom, had a romantic relationship with him.

X-Force and the X-Men

Cannonball and the other New Mutants left the X-Men's supervision and joined forces with the mysterious War Hawk, Cable to become the hard-edged X-Force. Cable made Cannonball Second-In-Command of that team. It was early during this time that Sam was impaled and killed by the mutant Sauron during a clash with an incarnation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. However, only a few minutes later, he was miraculously alive again. It was revealed that Cable had chosen to lead the New Mutants initially because he suspected Cannonball to be an External - a rare, particular type of mutant who is virtually immortal. Cable had come to train Sam to fight Apocalypse, another External who, in Cable's future time, had conquered the world. This aspect of Cannonball may have been retconned, as it has not been brought up in many years. Selene once claimed that Cannonball was not an External, though she is not a particularly trustworthy source and no alternate explanation has been given for his surviving the wounds Sauron had inflicted.

X-Force re-established ties with the X-Men and Cannonball accepted an offer to join the latter team. ^[2] Cannonball's character seemed regressed during this period. He played the role of the inexperienced rookie of the X-Men, despite the fact that he had been training under Xavier and Cable for many years and had been the team leader of the New Mutants and X-Force, when their mentors were absent. During this time, Cannonball even defeated the Superman-like Shi'ar agent, Gladiator in single combat--a feat no X-Man has ever matched (indeed, only the Hulk and Thor can claim an equal victory). Eventually, he felt uncomfortable with mutants outside his peer group.

During his time with X-Men, Cannonball found his relationship with Tabitha strained. It was so strained that Tabitha turned to Sam's best friend, Sunspot, for "support". Sam returned to the X-Men, for a brief period until he left the team to help his ailing mother. During his time with the X-Men, he also infiltrated the presidential campaign of anti-mutant candidate Graydon Creed, using the alias "Samson Guthry". Despite the rather transparent alias, Sam was able to remain undetected until Creed was assassinated on the eve of the election.

Cannonball rejoined X-Force, now independent of Cable and operating in San Francisco. Cannonball eventually became team leader again, after the injuries sustained to Siryn. The team eventually found a new mentor, by the name of Peter Wisdom, who introduced the team to the world of espionage. During this time, Sam and Tabitha had gotten back together. After Wisdom's alleged death, Sam led the team again and attempted to continue Wisdom's crusade. Eventually, Sam and other members of X-Force had to fake their deaths.

Life after X-Force

File:Cannonball 017.jpg

Cannonball in Wisdom's X-Force

After X-Force’s dissolution, Cannonball joined several of his former teammates and former members of X-Force and Generation X, in the Paris, France branch, of Professor X's international mutant task force X-Corporation. His time with the X-Corporation wasn't a pleasant one. En route to one mission later found to involve the Weapon Plus program, his teammate Darkstar poked fun at him for eating a sandwich that would have rather distasteful consequences for "everybody who went out without an umbrella in downtown Beauvais". This moment of levity at Cannonball's expense did not last, as on that same mission, Darkstar died. At the funeral of Darkstar, Xavier gave Cannonball a note, with the whereabouts of Lila Cheney. Sam decided to take time away from the X-Corporation, as the strain of his life began to get to him.

While away, Sam rekindled his romantic relationship with Lila Cheney for a time. Sam couldn't find peace with his life so he was asked by Storm to join her X-Treme X-Men, a group of X-Men operating outside of Professor X's leadership. During his time with Storm's team, Sam found himself having a reunion of sorts with former teammates, Sunspot and Magma.

He and his teammates rejoined the central X-Men, after the events of Planet X. Sam eventually got injured on a mission and once again decided to break for some peace. He used the time to work on his own farm, that he bought with his X-Corporation paychecks. While on the farm, Sam found himself teaming up again with Cable and reformed X-Force against the threat of the Skornn.

Recently, Sam and former X-Force teammate, Siryn, went in search of Cable with the mercenary Deadpool^[3], who could track the missing man via a unique teleportation bond the two shared. Deadpool derisively refers to Sam as "Cannonballs".

Sam has once more joined the active roster of the X-Men, whose team is co-led by Nightcrawler and Bishop. He has already participated in helping the 198 and fighting the Shi'ar Death Commandos. He soon suffers the death of his brother Icarus, who had been killed by William Stryker. Cannonball went with the X-Men to Central Park, where they fought the Foursaken^[4], who then captured the X-Men and sent them elsewhere. After escaping, Cannonball accompanied the X-Men to Africa to help Storm.

X-Men Vol 2 197 Textless — Cannonball as a member of the X-Men

Cannonball served on Rogue's team of X-Men. After defeating the Children of the Vault, Rogue has announced the departure of her team from the mansion. In a conversation with Cyclops, Sam explains his personal feelings about leaving. He says that he feels he needs to leave because his brother Jay's death and says that every time he walks through the door, he feels he's stepping on Jay's grave. The teams next mission is to find a man called Pandemic. They find him and defeat him but Rogue is infected with Strain 88 which is a virus that Pandemic created. Cable takes the team to his island. While there they are attacked by a Shi'ar weapon called The Hetacomb. The team defeat it with the help of Cable and Rogue. In the chaos, Cannonball and Karima Shapandar had left Sabretooth in stasis but the Consiquator was destroyed and Sabretooth disappeared. Cannonball and Karima look for him but do not find him. The team returned to the mansion.

After leaving Providence, Cable hurled Sabretooth far into the ocean. Cannonball arrived with the rest of his team in Caldecott County to look after Rogue. There, he is attacked, alongside Iceman and the Astonishing X-Men team, by the re-formed Marauders, now including Karima, Lady Mastermind, and Mystique. With three members defected, Sabretooth gone, and Rogue and Cable seemingly dead, Cannonball and Iceman are the last two members of Rogue's squad.

Following the disbanding of the X-men, Sam returned home and was disgruntled and quickly left. Sam was the target of the Young X-Men after Cyclops, later revealed to be Donald Pierce,e stated that Sam had joined the new Brotherhood.

Despite the Young X-men targeting Cannonball, he was present when the Secret Invasion began in San Francisco and he assisted the X-men in defending the city from the Skrull invasion force.

New Mutants X-Men Squad

Magik later returned, stating that she was from shortly in the future and that the world and New Mutants would die without her intervention. Cyclops, then, allowed Cannonball to reorganize the original New Mutants squad. Their first mission was to subdue a recently returned Legion. After battling their resurrected teammate, Doug Ramsey, and the Hellions, Doug was freed from Eli Bard's control by Warlock wielding Magik's Soulsword and they both rejoined their former teammates. After the return of the mutant messiah, Hope Summers, and Cable to the mainstream timeline, Bastion and his members of the Human Council attacked her tirelessly. Cyclops ordered the New Mutants to attack one of Cameron Hodge's Right facilities, where Xi'an lost a leg, and then to aid Cable and a group of X-Men from William Stryker and his Purifiers, where Illyana was attacked by a device that trapped her in Limbo. At the urging of her brother, Cyclops sent Cannonball, Northstar, Anole, Dazzler, Gambit, and Pixie to bring her back. While in Limbo, Gambit reverted back to his Death persona and attacked his team, but they were successful in rescuing Illyana and returning home.

After all of these events, Sam brought his abilities as a leader into question, but Cyclops simply ordered him and his team to take a vacation and "If you broke your team, fix it". While on vacation, Illyana sensed that Pixie had been captured. Illyana sent Warlock to warn the X-Men and the rest of the team battled the Inferno Babies. After being beaten, Sam was strapped with explosives, to stop him from blasting, and made to watch Dani get beaten. After being rescued by Dani, Sam, seeking revenge for himself and his teammates, destroyed a vehicle carrying the fleeing Dr. Noc and the Inferno Babies. After surviving the attack in Limbo by demons and the Elder Gods, it was revealed that Illyana brought Legion back into the mainstream reality to use against the Elder Gods that General Ulysses and Project Purgatory were planning to unleash.

Attributes

Power Grid^[5]

Powers

File:Samuel Guthrie (Earth-616) 003.jpg

Cannonball charging

Cannonball is a mutant.

Thermo-Chemical Energy Field Propulsion: Cannonball possesses the ability to bodily generate thermo-chemical energy and release it from his skin. This energy is used as thrust to cause his body to be propelled through the air, like his namesake, at great heights and speeds with considerable maneuverability. He can control his speed and direction through sheer act of will. At first he could only release this energy from his feet, but now he can fire it from almost any part of his body, to a wide variety of affects.

Blast Field: This energy also manifests itself as an impenetrable and virtually indestructible “blast field”. He can use this blast-field to function as a personal shield or extending it to encompass others, shape the field around another person to imprison them, or absorb outside kinetic impact into his own energy supply and then re-channel it to increase the bludgeoning power of his blows or create explosive shock waves upon impact.

Metahuman Durability: possesses metahuman durability due to the energy field that forms around his body.

His power levels have varied over the years - but at his peak, he has been able to defeat the Shi'ar Imperial Guard leader, Gladiator (Kallark), and devastate several city blocks by plummeting to the ground from high altitude. It has been theorized that Cannonball may be one of the Externals, and therefore immortal (although evidence for this is somewhat questionable).

Template:New Power Grid

Notes

When he is using his superhuman powers, Cannonball achieves metahuman durability due to an energy field which forms over his body.

Links and References

Marvel Directory

References

↑ Used while undercover in the Graydon Creed presidential campaign, circa X-Men Vol 2 #59.
↑ During this time, he was also a supporting character in Wolverine's own comic.
↑ in the Cable & Deadpool title
↑ In the first part of The First Foursaken story arc
↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 2

[1] Used while undercover in the Graydon Creed presidential campaign, circa X-Men Vol 2 #59.

[2] During this time, he was also a supporting character in Wolverine's own comic.

[3] the Cable & Deadpool title

[4] In the first part of The First Foursaken story arc

[5] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 2

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 [[Lucinda Guthrie (Earth-616)|Lucinda Guthrie]] (mother),<br>
 [[Lucas Guthrie (Earth-616)|Lucas Guthrie]] (uncle),<br>
-[[Joshua Guthrie (Earth-616)|Josh Guthrie (Icarus)]] (brother, deceased),<br>
+[[Joshua Guthrie (Earth-616)|Jay Guthrie (Icarus)]] (brother, deceased),<br>
 [[Jebediah Guthrie (Earth-616)|Jeb Guthrie]] (brother),<br>
 [[Paige Guthrie (Earth-616)|Paige Guthrie (Husk)]] (sister),<br>

Changes: Samuel Guthrie (Earth-616)

Revision as of 18:07, 19 February 2011

Contents

History

New Mutants