Emplate (Character) – WorldofBlackHeroes

Publisher: Marvel Comics

Created by: Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo

1st appearance: Generation-X #1, 1994

Real Name: Marius St. Croix

Nationality: Algerian

Team Affiliations: Hellions

Legal Status: Unknown to the authorities

Weight: 156 lbs Height: 6’3

Eyes: Grey Hair: Grey

Known Relatives: Monet St.Croix(Sister), Nicole and Claudette (Sisters), Cartier (Father), Mere (Mother, deceased)

Powers: Emplate must feed on other mutants in doing so he gains their superhuman powers and can also gain a semblance of telepathic control over them. He can also grant his vampiric powers to others allowing them to feed and thus send the energy to him.

He can sense mutants due to his powers as well.

He also resides in another dimension so he can sync with the normal world somewhat to grant intangibility and phasing powers, he can also use this power to appear anywhere undetectable by telepathy and all known technology.

Unique interactive mutations with his siblings, allowing them to potentially share and manifest each others’ abilities, or combine into gestalt forms that can manifest new powers and personalities.

Biography

Born into the wealthy house of St. Croix Marius was the first of three siblings and the outcast as soon as everyone laid eyes on his perfect little sister Monet. His jealously grew even further when Nicole and Claudette were born. When he hit puberty his powers manifested one day when his father and the girls were away from the house. He killed his mother by feeding on her.

His father kicked him out of the house soon after without realizing he was the one who had committed the crime. When he returned home he tried to convince Monet to join him in his word conquest bid, when she refused he transformed her into the razor-sharp penance. Nicole and Claudette outraged he had returned used their own powers to cast him into another dimension and Monet unable to return to her original form herself followed. For years after he used Monet as his sustenance, feeding on her marrow in the most painful ways imaginable as punishment for refusing him and years of ridicule as children.

In this other dimension, Marius was under extreme torture by some unknown beings, and traversing between dimensions was characterized as a thousand hands ripping at his flesh. Due to this torture, Marius had to acquire a respirator to aid in his breathing.

Still, he had to feed, and, fueled on by the marrow of the captive Penance, Emplate would periodically travel to our plane of reality. In one of these trips, he encountered Chamber and tried to feed off of his powerful energy signature, but Generation X arrived in time to save him. When they returned to the Massachusetts Academy, the team found Penance passed out on their lawn. She had been shuttled by the enigmatic Aboriginal mutant Gateway, whose only word to the confused team was “Penance”.

Emplate later assembled a team to torment Generation X that included Murmur, Bulwark, Vincente, and his usual underling D.O.A.. In an uncharacteristic move, Emplate also recruited a human: Gayle Edgerton, Chamber’s ex-girlfriend who Chamber had unintentionally paralyzed when his powers first manifested. Emplate offered her a chance for revenge, turning her into one of his vampiric minions. They were successful in capturing the young mutants, but with the help of Bishop and Penance switching sides they were successful in stopping the team. During the confrontation, Emplate revealed that Monet was his sister, causing Generation X to grow wary of her.

Though Emplate was defeated, he still transformed Synch into one of his minions and transported Synch to his home of St. Louis to attack his family and friends. The girls of Generation X followed him, and with their help Synch was able to remember his humanity and fight the hunger within him, releasing him from Emplate’s thrall.

Changing the roster a bit, Emplate plotted to harm the team again, this time working with Chimera and her minions.^[5] His timing was very inopportune, as Monet had been knocked unconscious and had split back into the twins.^[6] They awoke from their comas to see their brother standing over them, and, recognizing that he was in pain, attempted to help him. The twins rejoined into their M form and then grabbed a hold of their brother and joined with him also, forming an amalgamated being calling itself M-Plate. This form had aspects of both forms, but also displayed new powers and new malevolent plans.^[7]

M-Plate traveled to a place on the edge of Time called the Citadel of the Universal Amalgamator, which was a weapon of vast power that could merge every individual consciousness into a giant “godhead”. Wishing to control every conscious being, M-Plate set to use the weapon but failed in her/his attempts. The being was split apart when the mutant rat Dirtnap swallowed her/him and began to digest him/her. The digestion process forced the three beings to separate and attempt to escape (individually and in pairs). The stress of the escape attempt caused Dirtnap to explode but also restored the twins and Emplate to their separate forms. Emplate was quickly dispatched by Banshee.

Emplate once again tried to capture Penance, this time with a new group of “Hellions”. Their ranks consisted of Wrap another mummified mutant whose body was made of raw energy which increased his strength, Vincente who now had the ability to change the chemical composition of his vaporous form, a female named Nocturne who could release psionic bolts of energy which disrupt the central nervous system of her targets or destabilize molecular bonds in inorganic materials, and the ubiquitous D.O.A. Despite their new roster, their attempts failed. In the process, Emplate and his minions battled Generation X. Jubilee blew up Proudstar Hall which caused the M-Twins to be knocked free from the Penance body, and Emplate to be knocked unconscious.

Since the events of M-Day, where the Scarlet Witch depowered 90% of the mutant population, Emplate has retained his powers.

Emplate reappears on the former site of the Xavier Institute, where he kills a few construction workers currently working on the site. He later reappears on Utopia and after watching Madison Jeffries and Danger, he attacks them; after taking out Danger, he manages to sample Jeffries. The X-Men arrive and after defeating them he fades back to his reality. There he reveals to D.O.A. that Penance is no longer with them but from the information he gathered from Jeffries, he sets his sights on Bling.^[9]

Emplate captures Bling! and brings her to his dimension. After a brief struggle with Bling!, Emplate proceeds to feed upon her, causing her to pass out. After talking to D.O.A. and feeling his tormentors approaching, Emplate prepares to feed again so he may survive his next encounter with them. He enters Bling!’s prison and after Bling! manages to get a bit of his backstory, he feeds on her again and goes to his tormentors telling them to feast and be damned.^[10]

When Rogue comes after Emplate trying to rescue Bling!, D.O.A. sends some vicious creatures to attack and kill her. He informs Emplate of Rogue’s rescue attempt and he decides to kill Bling! in case the X-Men are tracking him through her. Rogue escapes the creatures and teams up with Bling! in a surprise attack on him when he tries to feed on her one last time.^[11] During the fight, Rogue and Emplate absorb each other’s powers and continue to fight until Rogue returns to her body. Emplate’s house is brought to the X-Men’s Utopia where, thanks to the X-Club, he becomes trapped. He attempts a final time to kill Bling! but Bling!, together with Rogue, knock him out and send him back to his dimension. In the last panel, he is shown to be surrounded by giant beasts in the Glass Moon and his eventual fate remains unknown.^[12]

Emplate as since been revealed to have survived the giant beast and was also able to escape from his dimension, since he has been targeting the Morlocks who live beneath New York City.

Emplate was eventually welcomed to the new mutant island of Krakoa, created by Xavier, Magneto and Moira. He entered through the teleportation gateway alongside other villainous and fractious mutants, who had been invited to join the nation in order to heal mutantdom and start over as a whole species together.^[14]

Marius alongside Selene were later tasked by Xavier with measuring the amount of psychic energy that Krakoa would take from its inhabitants. A similar protocol was put in place for them too as both also need to nourish on mutants for survival.