- Name: Josh Foley
- Code Names: Elixir
- First Appearance: New Mutants #5 (Nov ’03)
- Powers: Able to control the bodily health in others
- Teams Affiliation: New Mutants, X-Men, X-Force, Reavers, Utopians
About
With great power, comes great responsibility. The most classic line in comics works because that sense of responsibility can be used to explore so many angles. In the case of Josh Foley, he always felt a need to save everyone he could. Death not being a factor gave the young X-Man a fantastic arc and made him one of the most beloved characters in recent memory.
Josh was created by Nunzio DeFilippis, and Christina Weir as a member of their next generation of mutants. As teenagers Josh and his best friend Duncan joined Donald Pierce’s new band of Reavers, the anti-mutant hate group. In an attempt to lure out the mutant daughter of an American business man, Josh took part in a violent kidnapping. They left a note for his daughter, Sofia Mantega, who had been studying at the Xavier Institute and the young mutant took the bait. She, alongside her some of her classmates, went to attack the Reavers and rescue her father. In the fight Duncan was seriously injured and when Josh reached out to touch him, the wound closed. Duncan freaked out over what happened and called his friend a mutie, Josh reacted brashly and knocked out his friend. During the rescue attempt, Pierce skewed one of the mutants named Laurie Collins. Josh couldn’t take watching an innocent girl die, even if she was a mutant and used his healing touch on the girl as the others took down Pierce and the Reavers.
Art by Mark Robinson, Aaron Sowd, Wayne Faucher, Scott Elmer, and Ian Hannin
Dani Moonstar and Karma were sent to find a newly manifested mutant in the area and, upon arriving on the scene, informed Josh that he was a mutant and that there was a place for him at Xavier’s. He vehemently rejected their offer and sulked home, were news had already spread about his condition. Duncan and his other friends savagely beat him while his parents watched on without a word. They kicked him out and with no place to go, he enrolled at Xavier’s. The students at Xavier’s pushed him away and his parents went as far as to disown him and name the school his legal guardian. Josh was truly alone. Rhane Sinclair returned to the school having recently been depowered and Josh was enamored with her. They began flirting and Josh told her he could heal her lost powers and allow her to “let the wolf out”. When she changed, she couldn’t control it and ripped into the boy’s chest. Laurie found him on the steps of the institute and rushed him to the infirmary. Using Laurie’s pheromone powers they were able to get his body to heal itself with one side effect, his skin turned a smooth, gold color. Josh was surprised by the turn of events, but more so when Dani Moonstar revealed that she had become his legal guardian. He began working with her students and eventually gained their trust when he assisted in stopping an attack on the school by Donald Pierce.
Art by Randy Green
The student at Xavier’s were separated into teams under senior staff and given official code names. Josh was placed on The New Mutants alongside his roommate David Alleyne, Laurie, Sofia, and others under the care of Dani Moonstar. The golden boy took the codename Elixir for his healing abilities and began to get along well with his classmates. Laurie, now going by Wallflower, developed a crush on the mutant and he led her one while still being involved with Wolfsbane, who had become part of the teaching staff. Kevin Maguire, the teenage mutant who went by Wither, was jealous of Josh’s relationship with Wallflower and revealed to the school that he was seeing Wolfsbane on the side. After some standard teenage drama Elixir and Wallflower reconciled and all seemed good for the New Mutants.
There wasn’t a team more thoroughly destroyed by M-Day. Half the team was depowered, including Dani Moonstar, and all those who were depowered were forced to leave the Institute. The remaining students were devastated to see a bus filled with their former classmates blown up during an attack by the Purifiers. With his healing abilities, Elixir felt a strong responsibility to save as many of his friends as he could but was unable to provide much help. Emma Frost decided that the best of the remaining students would become a team of New X-Men, and set up a twenty-seven man Danger Room brawl to decide who would join. Elixir was able to last through the fight and joined the team, if only for a short while. Distraught over the death of his friends, he acted carelessly in a training session with Colossus and caused harm to the metal mutant and was suspended from the team. Elixir was discussing anger with Wallflower when a snipers bullet went through her chest, the Purifiers were attacking again. Filled with rage, Elixir made his way to the leader of the Purifiers, Reverend William Striker, and grabbed him wishing for his death. Josh’s golden skin turned black as Striker began to swell, the reverends organs were failing and Josh didn’t let go. As his body was enveloped by the darkness he, fell into a coma as he watched life leave Skriker’s eyes.
Art by Paco Medina, Juan Vlasco, and Brian Reber
He awoke and found that his body had mostly reverted to gold, but some black remained. With the gold portions he could heal, with the black he could kill. Josh took his mutation much more seriously after this and worked with Beast to gain a thorough understanding of human anatomy and physiology. He worked to avoid conflict and even sat out when the New X-Men staged an attack on the Purifiers during the events of Messiah CompleX. He was still overwhelmed by what had happened over the last few months but he found a way to have some peace. But for one of the last mutants alive, peace was never an option.
Cyclops organized a wet works team after Messiah CompleX. Their mission, eliminate threats to mutant kind before another mutant life was lost. On their first mission X-Force went after the Purifiers, who induced a drug overdose in Wolfsbane. Not knowing where to turn they brought Elixir in to heal her. They intended to whip his mind afterwards but they were quickly called away on another assignment and they decided he knew too much and he reluctantly joined the squad. He was instrumental in recruiting Vanisher to the group, blackmailing him by creating a brain tumor in his skull in the shape of the X-Men logo. He was later recruited by Hrimhari, the Norse wolf-prince and lover of Wolfsbane. Rhane was with child but severely injured and near death, it looked like neither would survive. Hrimhari brokered a deal with Hela, the Norse goddess of death, his life to save the mother or the child, but not both. Elixir found a third solution and transferred some of the child’s strength to Rhane, allowing both to survive. He was with X-Force when they confronted Selene during Necrosha and came face to face with her lieutenant, Wither. Wither was upset the Josh let Laurie die and used his decomposition powers on Elixir but he didn’t know about the changes that had happened to Elixir. Josh let the darkness overcome him and destroyed Wither’s body until it was nothing but dust.
Art by Clayton Crain
After this Josh left the mutant life behind and struck out on his own. When Charles Xavier died at the climax of Avengers Vs X-Men Josh joined a team of like-minded mutants who just wanted to be left alone and formed the Utopians. At some point after he was captured by an offshoot of Weapon X who were collecting individuals with healing factors. The prisoners were attacked by a genetically created creature known as Siphon who fed off healing factors and tried to use his death touch to stop the beast. However Siphon proved too strong for Elixir and appeared to kill him. Sometime later his body revived itself and he returned to the Utopians. They were confronted by the time displaced X-Men who convinced them to relocate to the old Weapon X facility where the X-Men had taken up residence.
When the Terrigen Mists began poisoning mutants across the globe, Elixir took it upon himself to join a community clinic to help mutants. His power had been growing and he no longer needed to touch someone to heal them. The Dark Riders had determined to kill all mutant healers and targeted the church that Josh had been working out of. As they began slaughtering the community there, Elixir knew he couldn’t watch another massacre. He began healing in mass, saving his people. The Dark Rider Gauntlet had the healer in his sights and pulled the trigger. The community had been saved but the former bigot Josh Foley fell defending mutants of all types.
Art by Greg Land, Jay Leisten, and Noland Woodard
Must Read
I’m not a fan of the DeFilippis and Weir run that introduces the character, that run created some of the best character in the recent history of the X-Men but didn’t do enough to define them. It is telling that the characters that got the most screen time in that run were the ones that were depowered or killed when Kyle and Yost took over the book. While I enjoyed their New X-Men run, Elixir didn’t shine as much until he joined their X-Force. The conflicted character finally came out and they gave him a great climax to his story in Necrosha. I’ve said it before but this is an amazing X-Men run that gets overshadowed by coming out right before the modern classic Uncanny X-Force. This run is available on Marvel Unlimited or in a handful of trades.
Art by Clayton Crain
Ranking
Elixir has been written well and he has been written poorly. He had a strong arc but wasn’t always consistent. He is a character that I like, but don’t love even though I know he has plenty of fans. The middle of the list has Glob Herman at number 9 and Armor at number 10 right now and I think that is a good place to look. Honestly, Elixir was never one of the characters I looked forward to reading but I was happy to see him in Bunn’s Uncanny X-Men. Unlike Armor, his arcs were never well integrated into the bigger story and for that reason he will drop right under her as the new number 11 in the Xavier Files.
Elixir was requested by /u/onebigroofiecircle and /u/lawnknome from reddit. Thanks for the request guys. If YOU have a character you want me to do, leave a comment and I’ll get it added to the list.
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Next week look at the highest profile character yet as we break down Colossus. See you Tuesday!
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Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
