ARMOR (ULTIMATE)

Publication Date: 25th Apr 2024
Written By: Blanchett.
Image Work: Blanchett.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY

Very little is known about the origins of Hisako Ichiki of the Ultimate Universe (Earth-1610). Unlike her 616 counterpart, her powers seemed to have had a mystical aspect, as it was said that her armored form channeled the power of ten thousand Japanese demons. Like the rest of the Ultimate Universe's mutants, she faced persecution and harassment following Magneto's attack on the world during the events of Ultimatum.

Hisako was one of the more fortunate, as she did survive the subsequent crackdown on mutantkind, though she was alas imprisoned. Luckily for Hisako, some of the surviving X-Men led by Kitty Pryde and Nick Fury had formed a resistance movement. Kitty's forces eventually breached Stryker Camp 4, where Hisako was being held. Hisako was found by Iceman and Husk. Hardly the damsel in distress, she was initially thought as, Hisako channeled her psychokinetic form into a dragon and was pivotal in her own rescue. Immediately showing her value, Iceman welcomed her to the resistance. When the camp was liberated, Hisako revealed in conversation with Kitty Pryde that her power dampener had not worked in quite some time but she had been so dehumanized at that point she saw no reason to rebel. [Ultimate Comics X-Men #17]

Kitty's forces took over the camp and managed to repel several Sentinel Waves. Pryde had declared the remaining mutants a “nation,” which attracted the attention of the current president of the United States, Captain America. As a way of settling the mutant issue, Captain America offered the mutants a choice: a cure or life on a reservation. Seeing no other option to endless battles, Kitty accepted this offer on her followers’ behalf. Hisako was one of just twenty mutants who refused a cure. They were taken to their new home, called Reservation X, in the Grand National Experimental Range in Utah by bus. There were immediate hostilities as a fellow teen mutant, Mach-Two, tried to oust Kitty from leadership. A vote was initiated, but Hisako and a slim majority sided with Kitty, keeping her in power. Despite the desolate hand that they were dealt, the mutants did their best to make a home in this barren land. Hisako was noticeably one of the more “cheerful” of the bunch. [Ultimate Comics X-Men #18-19]

Hisako's optimism it turned out was not misguided, as “Reservation X” soon turned into “Utopia,” with the mutants developing their land into a lush forest, thanks to their ingenuity and myriad powersets. As the society grew in prosperity, more of the remaining mutants flocked to join them. Hisako would fashion her armored form to that of a giant bear to welcome the new children. Such good fortune drew a strange new enmity from a surviving X-Man, Jean Grey. Grey was leading a rival mutant society in New Tian. Psychologically damaged at this point due to various tragedies, Grey had descended into megalomania and plotted against Utopia. [Ultimate Comics X-Men #25]

Grey had infiltrated their society but she was not the immediate threat; that was the woman calling herself Psylocke. Her true identity was never revealed but she had manipulated the US government into attempting to repossess Utopia and regain all of their citizens, while conversely making the mutants more militant. When the humans did attack, Kitty intended to mount a defense. Armor was among many who were called to serve. Hisako was ferocious in her defense of her people and channeled a giant bear with warpaint, though things were still quite dire. Luckily, Utopia had a strange savior this day in Grey. She killed this Psylocke imposter, thus ending her control over the US military and the mutants. In the aftermath of the battle, the mutants celebrated and Hisako was seen using her powers to create a large wolf for children to ride around on. Interestingly, it was not part of her body displaying a possible enhancement of her powers. [Ultimate Comics X-Men #26-28]

[Note: Presumably the order of reclaiming their citizens confirms that this iteration of Hisako was Japanese-American.]

Despite her earlier aid against Psylocke, hostilities between Grey's New Tian and Kitty's Utopia soon reached a fever pitch. Grey, insulted that Kitty's people had rejected her offer to live in her society of New Tian, declared war. The battle between the two mutant nations was vicious, with Armor serving on Kitty's war council. After a series of battles, “Utopia” prevailed and delivered a devastating blow to Tian, knocking it out of the sky, killing an untold number of mutants. Mercifully, the survivors were absorbed into Utopia. [Ultimate Comics X-Men #30-33]

Where exactly this mutant society may have developed was never revealed as Earth-1610 was destroyed during the Secret Wars event. Hisako was one of a handful of survivors who fell through the cracks and ended up on Earth 616. Unfortunately for her and her other mutants peers (Mach-Two, Derek Morgan, Quicksilver and James Hudson), they were found by the villain, Miss Sinister. Miss Sinister saw Armor and the others as valuable acquisitions, due to their status as artificial mutants from another reality. She conscripted them to serve as her New Marauders. She claimed they had lost their memories due to the travel between reality, though this was unclear. Regardless they were very much under her absolute telepathic control, all save James Hudson, who managed to escape. Eventually, Armor's team managed to track him down to Colorado, though he had already been found by the time traveling original X-Men, who at this point in time were being mentored by Magneto. During the battle, Armor fought (teen) Cyclops, who was no match for her. Regardless, James Hudson managed to escape and the New Marauders pursued him into the wilderness. Miss Sinister ultimately called her team off after interacting with Jean Grey telepathically, feeling Hudson was just too much trouble at this juncture. [X-Men: Blue #4-5]

Life as a lab-rat for Miss Sinister was far from safe and in fact quite fatal for Armor's teammate Quicksilver. [X-Men: Blue #12] His death did result in Miss Sinister attempting to recruit from other sources, such as Xorn, who was living in the Mojave Dessert. He respectively declined the invitation and a battle ensued, James Hudson and Bloodstorm (both X-Men) also interjected and the New Marauders were forced to retreat. [X-Men: Blue #24]

[Note: Interestingly, during this skirmish, Armor's teammate Mach-Two insisted that Miss Sinister had restored their memories. It seems unlikely, given Hisako's earlier characterization that she would have sided with Miss Sinister voluntarily after the restoration of her memories.]

Miss Sinister had formed an unusual alliance with Emma Frost, the mutant-hating, man-machine Bastion and Havok (who had been inverted in the Axis event) and they were attempting to restart the mutant race, using artificial mutants like Armor as code for a virus called Mothervine. During a test, Mothervine was released at various sites across the globe, creating unstable mutations in former and current mutants. A byproduct of their infection was that they could be controlled by Miss Sinister. Magneto had been deemed by the group as one of their biggest threats and Miss Sinister dispatched the New Marauders to kill him out in his base in Madripoor. Hisako and the others engaged Magneto. In a display that suggested perhaps something of her old self still remained intact, Hisako remarked to Magneto as she punched him that she was sorry and it felt wrong. The Mothervine infected mutants were under Magneto's care and when they then began to attack him, Magneto was forced to kill them. Weakened, he was pursued by the New Marauders, though he managed to escape. [X-Men: Blue #26-27]

Miss Sinister's alliance was far from stable. While Hisako and the others were away, a team of X-Men had attempted to infiltrate their base and been caught, James Hudson among them. Now imprisoned, Miss Sinister was torturing the boy, while debating ethics with Emma Frost. Finally having had enough, Frost took control of Armor and her remaining teammates, Mach-Two and Guardian, and made them attack their mistress. Miss Sinister remarked that Emma had doomed them and, when she clicked her fingers, Hisako and others simply fell to the ground, their ultimate fate still unrevealed. [X-Men: Blue #28]

[Note: The final scene is quite ambiguous. Miss Sinister's dialogue and finger click make it appear she activated a kill switch. However, neither James Hudson (who was friendly with Hisako in their home reality) or Emma Frost (whose primary goal is to protect mutant children) react to these “deaths,” making it more likely they were knocked unconscious. Even if this particular version of Armor did perish, another version may exist in the recreated Ultimate Universe timeline, depicted in Spider-Men II #5]