Mimic

Mimic, born Calvin Rankin, is an American mutant who automatically inherits the abilities of people near him. These abilities might be unexceptional, like a particular skill or piece of knowledge, or it may be superhuman, like flight or telepathy. Rankin's mimicry is passive and automatic. Inherited abilities dissipate shortly after leaving the target's vicinity.

Biography

Origin

As a child in the 1950s, Calvin Rankin interfered in his scientist father's laboratory chemicals, creating and inhaling a strange gas that caused him to mimic the abilities of anyone near him. This ability allowed him to become a star multi-sport athlete and a straight-A student, which caused great resentment among his peers. Calvin's father established a new laboratory in a derelict mine, where he claimed to Calvin to be building a machine to enhance his powers to be permanent instead of fleeting—in truth, the machine was designed to eliminate Calvin's mimicking powers entirely. As Dr. Rankin built and tested the machine, it drew enormous power, even causing a county-wide blackout. An angry mob found the source of the disruption and tried to storm the mine, but Dr. Rankin detonated the entrance to block them out. He miscalculated the explosion, killing himself in the process, while Calvin was able to dig himself out of the cave-in after the mob had cleared. Calvin swore on his father's memory that he would find a way back to the machine and become "the mightiest man in the world."

The X-Men

In early 1966, Rankin was a disgruntled would-be suitor of a girl named Vera Cantor, who worked part-time at a library. He spotted Vera on the sidewalk with a friend one day, on a double date with two young men. Unbeknownst to him, the two were Beast (Hank McCoy) and Iceman (Bobby Drake) of the X-Men, out of costume. Hank stood up to him as Calvin confronted Vera, but Calvin unwittingly copied the powers of the Beast and nimbly trounced him. Bobby similarly challenged him, but was defeated when Calvin assumed his ice powers. The X-Men naturally had to withhold their abilities for fear of revealing their identities. A group of bystanders noticed Calvin using mutant powers and forced him to flee. Calvin correctly deduced that the powers he'd copied were those of members of the X-Men, and he'd thus learned their true identities. He later bumped into the telepathic Marvel Girl, also of the X-Men. Calvin decided to use the X-Men's powers to get to his father's machine and achieve his true potential.

Rankin showed up at the X-Men's mansion, claiming to want to apologize for his behavior earlier. Their leader Charles Xavier, Professor X, let him in, and Rankin shook hands with the team, but they remained suspicious. Rankin went into another room to change, and Professor X braced his team for combat. Rankin returned and declared himself the Mimic, visibly boasting Beast's large extremities and Angel's wings, as well as Cyclops's optical energy blasts and Professor X and Marvel Girl's mental powers. He fought the X-Men, holding his own with the entire team's combined powers, but their numbers advantage proved them superior. Mimic feigned submission, grabbed Marvel Girl, and fled the premises. Professor X let him escape in order to follow him. Taking Marvel Girl to the mine's living quarters, which were still occupiable, he told her the story of his youth and his reasons for challenging the X-Men. As he planned, the remaining X-Men soon arrived, and he used their proximity to mimic Cyclops's lasers and access the deeper section of the mine. The X-Men rescued Marvel Girl and confronted Mimic as he neared the machine, but Professor X told them to let him use it. He had correctly deduced that Calvin's father would instead make a machine to deactivate his powers rather than enhance them, recognizing the danger in letting Calvin achieve his full potential. Using the machine caused Mimic to pass out, and Xavier used a mental blast to short-circuit the facility and cause the mine to dramatically explode as the X-Men escaped with Mimic in tow. Xavier wiped Calvin's memory of what had transpired, and he was let go.