History
Zach was an emerging young mutant in West Covina, California. Unable to control his abilities, he injured innocent people and damaged property. After being chased by a mob, Zach had to be rescued by Kitty Pryde and Iceman, who convinced him to return with them to New York City and join Xavier Institute's student body.[2]
School life quickly becomes more stifling than life on the run for Zachary however, who soon after runs away from the school to join Daken, who dazzles Zach, spoiling him with flippant displays of wealth and convincing him to come with him to Madripoor.[3] Though Iceman initially had come in order to rescue him and bring Zach back to the Institute, Zach refused to return with him, having weakened his former teacher's powers to the point of negation before making his getaway on a helicopter.
Daken put Zach through extreme combat and survival training, including periods of outdoor living and picking fights with random toughs around Madripoor. Zach would initially raise complaints about exercises seeming pointless but later be impressed by Daken's manipulation when the 'real' meanings behind lessons were subsequently revealed to him.[4] Although the training he received under Daken's tutelage is implied to have been intensive, Zach's fascination with Daken only seems to grow.
Once Daken deems Zach's progress to be sufficient, the two return to the X-Mansion. Daken sets up a distraction using fake Purifiers to attack the school, drawing away the rest of the X-Men leaving Iceman alone with his boyfriend Judah, while Zach leads the students into the Danger room and tampers with the control settings using his powers. When the five of them are alone, Daken initiates his ultimate plan, using Zach's ability to control and differentiate the energies of the Death Seed inside him.[1]
While Iceman and Daken are fighting each other, Zach takes MGH to boost his natural abilities, wanting to make Daken proud of him, but rather than making him more effective this causes him to get high and distracted. He starts wandering around and is soon noticed by the arriving Michaela and Idie. He runs for the basement while Michaela gives chase, and the two fight briefly, causing Zach to lose control over the death seed's energies, which were slowly effecting him too. The two continue to fight, until Michaela eventually comes out on top, after which Daken narrowly escapes his battle with Iceman.[5]
Some time later, Zach again runs away from the institute and then is either committed or checks himself into a mental hospital in Hell's Kitchen, expressing that he has hurt the people he cares about and no longer believes in his ability to control his powers. At the hospital, Dr. Charles attempts to use Zach's powers to treat Mary Walker. However, during the procedure Mary's 'Typhoid Mary' split personality surfaces and takes control of Zach with her telepathic abilities, putting him into a catatonic state and then using him to amplify her own powers as she proceeds to gain control over the minds of the other patients and staff within the hospital.[6]
As Mary's influence begins to expand beyond the hospital, the city's superheroes take notice, but Zach's amplification powers have made Mary's telepathy so strong that she is able to take on Spider-Man, Iron Fist and the X-Men, trapping them within fantasies, nightmares, and forcing them to fight each other, until Jean Gray manages to strike a psychic blow against her, briefly breaking her control over Zach. He begins to regain consciousness, but Mary reaches him while he's still confused, reasserting mental control over him and sexually assaulting him.[7] Eventually, Typhoid Mary uses Zach to amplify her telepathic and pyrokinetic powers so far that she hurts herself and her original personality reasserts control with Zach's help. Mary, with her original personality now in full control, blends into the crowd during the confusion following the battle and Zach lies to the heroes about her already being gone to help her escape.[8]Attributes
Powers
Power Modulation: Zachary can control the energy output of anything within a certain radius of himself, be it electronic devices or other mutant's powers.[2] Initially he could only amplify the effective output of whomever or whatever was within his vicinity, but with proper guidance he eventually learned to steadily dilute power output as well.[3]
- Amplification: Zach can vastly augment any mechanical appliance to the point of overload or bolster special abilities others possess beyond their control.[2]
- Dilution: Under Daken's tutelage, Zach learned he could also whittle down effectiveness, for example, inducing Bobby's powers to short-circuit to the point where he couldn't even maintain his iced form.[3]
- Transferal: With further practice and aid from some MGH, Amp found he could act as a power conduit for various power sources. Alternating different energies using himself as a breaker/crucible between himself and the power he's focusing on.[1]
- Interfacing: Zach eventually found he could reach out and interact with any form of energy signature he focused on. Be it the energies of an Apocalypse seed or the control source of the X-Men's Danger Room.[5]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Mutant Growth Hormone: Zach used some MGH in order to bolster his abilities enough to get a rein on Daken's Death Seed energies.[9]
See Also
- 9 appearance(s) of Zachary (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) of Zachary (Mutant) (Earth-616)
- 10 image(s) of Zachary (Mutant) (Earth-616)