 | This articlerelies excessively onreferences toprimary sources. Please improve this article by addingsecondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Rusty Collins" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Russell Collins | |
|---|---|
_from_X-Men_Phoenix_Force_Handbook_Vol_1_1_0001.jpg) | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Factor #1 (February 1986) |
| Created by | Bob Layton Jackson Guice |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Russell "Rusty" Collins |
| Species | Human mutant |
| Team affiliations | Acolytes Mutant Liberation Front New Mutants X-Terminators X-Factor United States Navy |
| Notable aliases | Firefist |
| Abilities | "Pyromorphing" (Pyric Form or Fiery Form) Pyrokinesis |
Russell "Rusty"Collins, formerly known asFirefist, is asuperhero appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics.
Firefist was portrayed in the 2018 filmDeadpool 2 byJulian Dennison andSala Baker.
Created byBob Layton andJackson Guice, Rusty Collins first appeared inX-Factor #1 (February 1986).[1]
Rusty Collins was born inTulsa, Oklahoma. Raised by his uncle, Rusty joins theUS Navy at sixteen years of age. Hismutant power, generation of fire, manifests itself violently, burning a woman. Rusty is arrested, but when a prison guard playfully threatens him with deadly harm, he bursts into flames again and escapes.[2]
X-Factor is alerted and comes to Rusty's aid, helping him to control his powers. He comes to live with X-Factor,[2] who are slowly gathering a small team of mutant wards. Rusty forms a relationship withSkids, a formerMorlock.[3]
For a time, they all live uponShip, 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.[4]
During the 1989 "Inferno" storyline, Skids and the other wards, taking the nameX-Terminators, the name their mentors used when traveling in their mutant guises, teamed up with theNew Mutants to help rescue mutant babies fromN'astirh, who was using them to help keep open a portal toLimbo.[5] Rusty himself had gone back into custody at the Navy but willingly goes with the group when he realizes his younger friends,Leech andArtie Maddicks have been captured by demonic forces.[6] 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 andBoom Boom.[7]
Rusty and Skids help out when long time New Mutants memberDanielle Moonstar loses control of her mystical powers. During the incident they are separated from the rest of the group.Mystique'sFreedom 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.[8]
Due to a fight withNitro andVulture, Rusty is brought back into the sights of Freedom Force. While attempting to escape, he was severely injured by theBlob.[9] While recovering in the hospital, he and Skids were contacted by members of theMutant Liberation Front. With soldiers opening fire on them, they felt there was no other choice than to join them.[10]
Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were brainwashed byStryfe into being two of his soldiers. During this, Rusty is part of an 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 memberSumo. He attempts to kill the rest of the group but only gets two of them in the arm, Rusty included.[11]
Due to the brainwashing, Rusty had no qualms about attacking former teammateCannonball during the "X-Cutioner's Song" storyline.[12] At the end of this story, the Mutant Liberation Front are turned over to the authorities.
Shortly after, Rusty and Skids were kidnapped by theFriends of Humanity. While being transported,X-Force (the team created by the former members of the New Mutants), rescued them.[13] Arriving back to their base, X-Force was soon confronted byExodus. He was inviting original New Mutants Cannonball andSunspot toAvalon, 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.[14]
Upon arriving at Avalon, the mutants were taken to "the Savior" (in realityMagneto), 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 this being done, they joined theAcolytes.[14]
When a mutant body belonging toHolocaust, a "survivor" from theAge 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]
Rusty is resurrected by means of theTransmode Virus to serve as part ofSelene's army of deceased mutants. Under the control of Selene andEli Bard, he takes part in the assault on the mutant nation ofUtopia.[16]
Rusty was resurrected via the resurrection protocols onKrakoa.[17]
Rusty joined X-Factor but was killed in their first outing.[18]
Rusty Collins is a mutant with the psionic ability of pyrokinesis. He can control and manipulate fire, as well as turn some or all of his body into flames. He is immune to the effects fire would otherwise normally have on his body.