Rusty Collins

Russell "Rusty" Collins, formerly known as Firefist, is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Created by Bob Layton and Jackson Guice, Rusty Collins first appeared in X-Factor #1 (February 1986).

The character subsequently appears in X-Factor #2 (March 1986), #4-5 (May–June 1986), #7-10 (August–November 1986), #12-23 (January–December 1987), #27-29 (April–June 1988), X-Factor Annual #3 (1988), X-Factor #30-33 (July–October 1988), X-Terminators #1-4 (October 1988-January 1989), The New Mutants #72-74 (February–April 1989), X-Factor #40-41 (May–June 1989), The New Mutants #76-78 (June–August 1989), #80 (October 1989), #82-87 (November 1989-March 1990), Fantastic Four #342 (July 1990), The New Mutants #100 (April 1991), Cable: Blood and Metal #1-2 (October–November 1992), X-Men #13 (October 1992), #15 (December 1992), X-Force #24-25 (July–August 1993), Cable #11 (May 1994), and X-Men vol. 2 #42 (July 1995).

Rusy Collins received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #2, and the Marvel Encyclopedia HC vol. #2 - 'X-Men' (2003).

Fictional character biography

Rusty Collins was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Raised by his uncle, Rusty joins the US Navy at sixteen years of age. His mutant power, generation of fire, manifests itself violently, burning a woman. Rusty is arrested, but sets the arresting officer aflame and escapes.

X-Factor is alerted and comes to Rusty's aid, helping him to control his powers.^[1] He comes to live with X-Factor,^[1] who are slowly gathering a small team of mutant wards. Rusty forms a relationship with Skids, a former Morlock.^[2]

For a time, they all lived upon Ship, a sentient being in the form of a long, rectangular spacecraft that towered over all other Manhattan skyscrapers. Rusty and the X-Terminators help X-Factor when an old booby-trap activates, threatening Ship's brain with a gigantic bomb. Ultimately, the bomb explodes harmlessly far above Manhattan.^[3]

Inferno

During the Inferno storyline, Skids and the other wards, taking the name X-Terminators, the name their mentors used when traveling in their mutant guises, teamed up with the New Mutants to help rescue mutant babies from N'astirh, who was using them to help keep open a portal to Limbo.^[4] Rusty himself had gone back into custody at the Navy but willingly goes with the group when he realizes his younger friends, Leech and Artie Maddicks have been captured by demonic forces.^[5] At the conclusion of Inferno, with Artie, Leech and the even younger kidnapped children involved rescued from the demons, Rusty joins the New Mutants, along with Skids, Rictor and Boom Boom.^[6]

Rusty and Skids help out when long time New Mutants member Danielle Moonstar loses control of her mystical powers. During the incident they are separated from the rest of the group. Mystique's Freedom Force attacks them at Liberty Island. Part of this conflict involves the ultimate fate of the children Rusty helped rescue; he believes that Freedom Force had wrongfully taken them into custody.^[7]

Due to a fight with Nitro and Vulture, Rusty is brought back into the sights of Freedom Force. While attempting to escape, he was severely injured by the Blob.^[8] While recovering in the hospital, he and Skids were contacted by members of the Mutant Liberation Front. With soldiers opening fire on them, they felt there was no other choice than to join them.^[9]

Brainwashed

Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were brainwashed by Stryfe into being two of his soldiers. During this, Rusty is part of a MLF strike team sent to a museum to steal an ancient artifact. Cable, the man who took over the New Mutants soon after Rusty left, is there. Cable slays MLF member Sumo. He attempts to kill the rest of the group but only gets two of them in the arm, Rusty included.^[10]

Due to the brainwashing, Rusty had no qualms about attacking former teammate Cannonball during the X-Cutioner's Song storyline.^[11] At the end of this story, the Mutant Liberation Front are turned over to the authorities.

Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were kidnapped by the Friends of Humanity. While being transported, X-Force (the team created by the former members of the New Mutants), rescued them.^[12] Arriving back to their base, X-Force was soon confronted by Exodus. He was inviting original New Mutants Cannonball and Sunspot to Avalon, a "safe haven" for selected mutants. Cannonball refused to go unless all former New Mutants present (Boom Boom, Rictor, Rusty and Skids) were invited also. While Exodus complained that Rusty and Skids were "damaged" due to their brainwashing, he finally acquiesced.^[13]

Upon arriving at Avalon, the mutants were taken to "the Savior" (in reality Magneto), who used his powers to undo the brainwashing done to Rusty and Skids. When X-Force arrived to save their friends, Rusty and Skids decided they would stay with Magneto, feeling that they owed him. With thus being done, they joined the Acolytes.^[14]

When a mutant body belonging to Holocaust, a "survivor" from the Age of Apocalypse, was discovered floating in space near Avalon it was brought on board. While on guard duty watching over the thought-to-be frozen body, Rusty's life force was drained by Holocaust, killing him.^[15]

Return

Rusty is resurrected by means of the Transmode Virus to serve as part of Selene's army of deceased mutants. Under the control of Selene and Eli Bard, he takes part in the assault on the mutant nation of Utopia.^[16]

Powers and abilities

Rusty could turn some or all of his body into flames. He could also create flames around his body or up to twenty feet away from himself, though he rarely did this.

In other media

Television

• A much younger version of Rusty was featured in the X-Men episode "No Mutant is an Island." There he was an orphan whom Cyclops met while visiting his old orphanage in Nebraska. Rusty was finding it hard to control his pyrokenetic powers. A man known as Killgrave, offered to help and adopted Rusty seemingly out of charity. In reality, Killgrave, a mutant himself with telepathic abilities, wanted to use the powers of Rusty, Skids, Boom Boom, Rictor, and Whiz Kid to take over as governor. Cyclops was able to snap Rusty and the others out of Killgrave's hypnotic brainwashing in the end.

References

External links

• Rusty Collins at Marvel.com
• UncannyXmen.net Spotlight on Rusty Collins
• Marvel Directory Character Bio-Rusty Collins