Art by Andy Kubert
- Name: Guido Carosella
- Code Names: Strong Guy
- First Appearance: New Mutants #29 (July ’85)
- Powers: Kinetic energy absorbsion in his muscle mass
- Teams Affiliation: X-Factor
About
Always leave ‘em laughing. Nothing I could say could sum up the massive mutant known as Strong Guy better than Peter David did in his classic issue of X-Factor #83, X-Aminations. For as much of a stage presence as he has, the hulking Guido always tried to stay out of the spotlight, putting his friends and teammates first every time and they loved him for it. When you look at him from meta perspective you see the same thing, he has never taken the spotlight but Guido Carosella has constantly warmed the hearts of fans. He always left ‘em laughing.
Guido was introduced by Chris Claremont and Bill Sienkiewicz as the body guard to intergalactic rock star planetary thief and paramour to Cannonball, Lila Cheney, with a design that could only come from the exaggerated style of Sienkiewicz. He towered over the other characters with shoulders that couldn’t fit through door frames and skinny little legs. He had his signature attitude, Brooklyn charm, and whiff of hair from the start. He would continue to show up everywhere Lila did before ending up on Muir Island under the influence of the Shadow King along with the Muir Island X-Men. While the King was defeated, the events caught the attention of Valerie Cooper who recruited Guido to join her new government sanctioned mutant team.
Art by Bill Sienkiewicz and Glynis Oliver
Guido made an immediate impression on his teammates, including Multiple Man and Wolfsbane, as well as the public. During the teams initial unveiling Guido was forced to come up with a codename in the middle of the press conference and went with the first thing to come to mind, Strong Guy. His jovial attitude grated on team leader Havok but he became close friends with Jamie Madrox and Rhane Sinclair, and a rival to the mutant known as Random. His strength was a huge asset to the team but could cause unforeseeable collateral damage, in a fight in Washington D.C. he beat his foe against the side of the Washington Monument and turned the obelisk to rubble (X-Factor #74 look it up).
Art by Larry Stroman, Al Milgrom, and Glynis Oliver
It was eventually revealed that Strong Guy wasn’t always the happy go lucky jokester that he appeared. When he was a child Guido was small, nerdy, and had trouble fitting in, but he was excellent at telling jokes. He became the class clown but was never able to parley that into true friendships. One day while being bullied, he snapped at fought back, unfortunately the small child wouldn’t hold his own in a fight. As they rained blows upon him, Guido’s mutant abilities kicked in for the first time and his arm grew to a ginormous size. In shock he stumbled into the road and was hit by a bus. His body absorbed the blow and massively grew in size, unfortunately his mutation left him in constant pain. The last thing Guido wanted was to be pitied so he hid how much he suffered from his mutation, deflecting everything with jokes.
Art by Joe Quesada, Al Milgrom, and Marie Javins
Life in X-Factor became more and more fragile. Jamie Madrox contracted to the Legacy Virus and Strong Guy was destroyed to realize there was nothing he could do to prevent his friend’s death. He tried masking his pain at the funeral but it was too much for him and he eventually broke down. Unfortunately his body wasn’t faring better, Strong Guy absorbed a huge amount of kinetic energy on several back to back missions with X-Factor without having a chance to release it. The strain on his body was too much and he suffered a heart attack. Strong Guy was kept comatose until doctors could fix him and when he was revived the world was much different than when he went under. Jamie was alive again, X-Factor was no longer working for the government, and Strong Guy didn’t really have a place. He fumbled around, back with Lila, in an underground fighting ring, before getting in contact with an old friend who was setting up a new business.
Jamie Madrox had decided to start a detective agency, X-Factor Investigations in the Mutant Town district of New York City and wanted Strong Guy to join as their enforcer. In the intervening years Guido became more sardonic and aggressive, this came to a head when he was ordered to protect Henry Buchanan from his former employer, Singularity Investigations. Alone in a car, Guido crushed the man’s throat and called the CEO of Singularity to let him know the job was done. When the team found out about the death, their psychic Monet, revealed that Guido had been hypnotized into working for Singularity. Strong Guy was crushed by this revelation and began to question if he was inherently a good person or not. He went to the widow Buchanan and she surprisingly was understanding of the situation as the two grieved together.
Art by Renato Arlem and Jose Villarrubia
This tragedy emboldened Strong Guy to try and become his own man and he frequently clashed with Jamie. When Val Cooper offered to make him sheriff of Mutant Town, a role that would put him in direct opposition with Madrox, he nearly accepted until a supervillain attack distracted everyone. On an assignment to protect mayor J. Jonah Jameson, Guido was shot in the heart and overtaxed the organ absorbing so much energy. His teammate Monet flew him to the hospital as he confessed his love for her but it was too late, Guido was dead.
Art by Emanuela Lupacchino, Guillermo Ortego, and Matt Milla
Layla Miller would not stand for that and used her mutant gift to restore Strong Guy to life. However, nothing comes without a cost and Layla couldn’t revive anyone with their soul intact. The impact was almost immediate as Guido became more impatient and aggressive. Monet agreed to go on a date with him but there was no chemistry and a frustrated Guido finally walked out on the team. In the meantime Rahne Sinclair gave birth to a son named Tier who was prophesied to bring forth the end times. The Lords of the various Marvel Hells determined that the one who killed Tier would become the Supreme Hell Lord and Mephisto recruited the distraught Strong Guy into working for him. There would be no more jokes, no more friendship, no more living in the limelight. Guido Carosella murdered the child of one of his oldest friends and descended to become the Supreme Hell Lord.
Art by Leonard Kirk, Jay Leisten, and Matt Milla
Eventually Red Hulk and his team of Thunderbolts were recruited by Mephisto to deal with Strong Guy. The trickster never expected Guido to kill the child himself and Mephisto wanted his throne back. Red Hulk was able to convince Strong Guy that this wasn’t the right place for him and Guido relinquished his throne to search for his soul. He has not been seen since.
Must Read
It isn’t even a question which writer gets Strong Guy the best, it is Peter Allen David. He has written him for years since 1991 and has given him a voice since the beginning. While his 90’s run on X-Factor was strong, he really didn’t hit his stride till the 2006 run with the Investigations team. Guido became a fascinating and deep character. He wasn’t just a sad clown archetype, he was fully formed, angry at the world that had let him down so many times. He finally snapped. His killing of Tier isn’t just him crossing the moral event horizon, it is him walking away from everything he has ever known or cared about to live in Hell because nothing else had worked for him. He finally had a chance to be something, even if it was something evil. This run is available on Marvel Unlimited or in 17 trades that you can pick up wherever books are sold.
Art by Jose Villarrubia
Ranking
How do you rank a character like Guido? I loved his character for so long but I am appalled at what he ended up doing. He also had a very realistic character arc and that shouldn’t be overlooked. In a lot of ways he is the inverse of Warpath from Entry 003, where Proudstar let go of his rage, Guido let it consume him. Looking at the center of the list, I think he beats Glob and I would rank him over Rachel. Thinking back to last week’s entry, I would rather have Boom Boom show up than Strong Guy so he is going to slot in at a respectable number 6 in the Xavier Files.
Strong Guy was requested by /u/MuffinsLovesYou on reddit! Thanks for the request! If YOU have a character you want me to do, send me a message on my Ask Box and I’ll get it added to the list.
If you liked what you read be sure to subscribe to the tumblr so you never miss an update. You can also follow me on twitter @Xavierfiles where I throw out my thoughts about the X-Books that come out each week. That’s also where I harass Cullen Bunn and Dennis Hopeless about getting Maggott back into the X-Men books, join in on that fun with #BringBackMaggott!
Next time we do our first obligatory cross media synergy post as we tackle the mutant with the best codename in the history of the series. That’s right, thanks to Deadpool we are diving into Negasonic Teenage Warhead! See you Tuesday!
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.
