Cerebra's Files
Mikhail
Full Name: Mikhail Rasputin
Affiliation: None
Previous Affiliations: Gene Nation
(Leader), Morlocks (Leader), Soviet Space Program
Status: Uncertain
Relatives: Nikolai (father, deceased), Alexandra (mother, deceased), Piotr (Colossus, brother), Illyana, (Magik, sister, deceased), Tra-Mai-A-Zath (wife, deceased), Avatar (father-in-law, deceased)
Alternate-X Versions: (Age of Apocalypse)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced mĭk-hăl' [Russian
form of English Michael, from Hebrew מִיכָאֵל Mikha-el "who is like God"]
Powers & History: Mikhail has reality- and energy-warping powers. During a mission
as a cosmonaut for the Soviet Union, Mikhail was pulled into a dimensional rift,
where he alone of all his crew survived. He was taken in by the locals, fell in
love with a princess, and married. His father-in-law, however, was something of
a tyrant, and Mikhail found himself embroiled in political conflicts that led
to a civil war. During the fighting, the rift was opened, and only Mikhail's powers
could close it. He did so, but the backlash killed hundreds of his people, including
his wife. Overcome by grief, Mikhail exiled himself into the desert, where he
remained until the X-Men and Sunfire traveled through the re-opened rift to try and
seal it. Eventually the team and Mikhail connected, and using Sunfire and Iceman
to control the energy backlash, Mikhail and the team were able to close the rift
and return to Earth, without any loss of life. Once back, however, Mikhail found
it hard to adjust, and eventually went crazy, hearing and seeing his dead companions
and loved ones in his mind, torturing him. He escaped the Mansion
and fled into the Morlock tunnels, where after a battle with the X-Men, he collapsed
and flooded the Morlocks' home, taking them with him. They did not die, though,
as Mikhail used his power to open a new dimensional rift to a nasty world called
the Hill. There, as time moved faster than on
Earth, Mikhail trained and organized the next generation of Morlocks into Gene
Nation, a terrorist group led by Marrow, who intended to return to our dimension and wreak
havoc. Later, Mikhail kidnapped Storm and tried to force
her to be his consort. Storm escaped by threatening to kill Mikhail if he didn't
use his power to return her to Earth. Mikhail next manipulated his sister Illyana
into coming to the present from the past, when she was alive and had powers and
magical abilities, saying that he could cure her of the Legacy Virus that was
dormant inside her, and which would eventually kill her. In reality, however,
Mikhail hoped to use Illyana's magically bolstered immune system to help cure
his own infection. The process failed, and Illyana herself was infected with Legacy
as a result, so in effect, Mikhail helped to kill his own sister. Recently, Mikhail's
powers increased immensely, and he became quite mad. He gained the ability to
animate objects, and believed that he could resurrect Illyana. However, he needed
Colossus's artist vision to give her a soul, so he kidnapped Peter (and Marrow,
who was traveling with him at the time) and brought him to the Hill. Peter resisted
Mikhail's attempts to persuade him and Mikhail finally lashed out at his brother.
When Marrow attacked to save her friend, Mikhail unleashed a large burst, which
caused him a lot of pain. Then this green ugly energy emerged from Mikhail's body,
and Peter theorized that it was responsible for both his brother's increasing
power and insanity. As Mikhail fought the creature, he opened a portal to send
Peter and Sarah back. Peter grabbed for his brother and begged him to come back
with them, and Mikhail made a supreme effort and followed them back. This severed
his link to the energy creature, making him sane again, but cutting off his ability
to teleport back to the creature's dimension. Mikhail recovered at the Mansion,
where he discovered that he was part of the legendary Twelve.
However, just as he was cleared to leave the medlab, he was captured by Death
III and brought to Apocalypse. He no longer
appears to be infected with the Legacy Virus, but exactly how that happened is
unknown. In the final battle with Apocalypse, Mikhail opened up another dimensional
rift (something he shouldn't have been able to do any longer) and took the three
remaining Horsemen with him to an unknown
dimension.
Recently, however, Mikhail reappeared on Earth in the company of Sinister, who was killing off the members of the extended Rasputin Family. It appeared that Mikhail was suffering from headaches, perhaps brought on by his proximity to his relatives. He managed to transport himself and Colossus to a reality of solid rock, and left Piotr there so he could be the lone Rasputin and absorb all of the dispersed portions of the psyche of his ancestor, Grigoriy Efimovich Rasputin. However, the good aspects of some of his relatives appeared to hold influence in his mind, and Mikhail refused to finish assisting Sinister. He returned to the rock universe to save Piotr, and then exiled himself into an inter-dimensional void, so that he would never die and Rasputin would never be reborn.
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