Cerebra's Files
Provenzano, Paulie
Full Name: Paul Provenzano
Affiliation: None
Previous Affiliations: X-Men, U.S.Marine Corps
Alternate-X Versions: None
Codename Etymology: Pronounced prō'vĭn-zən-ō' pôlē
["small, humble"];
Powers & History: Invulnerability. Paulie was just a guy from Brooklyn
who went to the Marines, where he discovered that it was virtually impossible
to hurt him. As a result of his training and his mutant physiology, he is also
a little stronger than a normal human. When Paulie returned home after his tour
of duty, he confroted the local mob bosses in his old neighborhood and demanded
half of their take. The bosses shot at Paulie, which only made him mad, and he
beat the snot out of them. At that point Paulie was contacted by Phoenix
IV, who was rounding up mutants to help her save Professor
X, who had been captured by Magneto. Paulie agreed
to join the X-Men for the mission, though his motivation was more Jean herself
than any belief in Xavier's dream. Things went from annoying to awful when Paulie
discovered that one of his teammates was Northstar, and Paulie didn't want to
be on the same squad as a "limp-wristed mapleleaf." Homophobia notwithstanding,
Paulie remained on the team after Jean broke up the brawl between him and Jean-Paul.
It should be noted that Northstar gave Paulie a nosebleed using super-fast punches,
indicating that Provenzano may not be completely invulnerable to rapid attacks.
In Genosha, Paulie was thrown out into space by Magneto and ironically, Northstar
had to save him using mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. While Paulie was initally
upset (and disgusted), he realized Jean-Paul had saved his life and curbed further
agression toward him. Finaly, though Paulie proved fairly resistant to Magneto's
powers, and even seemed to be getting into the idea of being an X-Man, he left
the team after Xavier's rescue ad presumably returned to his home in Brooklyn.
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