Art by John Tyler Christopher
- Name: Hisako Ichiki
- Code Names: Armor
- First Appearance: Astonishing X-Men (Oct ‘04)
- Powers: Psionic exoskeleton powered by her connection to her ancestors
- Teams Affiliation: X-Men, New X-Men
About
There is a saying that goes “the inmates are running the asylum”, those who were once held captive by something, are now the ones leading it. Nowhere is this better exemplified than in the realm of comics where big fans, like Joss Whedon, can end up crafting the public perception of the medium after being creatively influenced by it, themselves. Before he was able to enthrall audiences with his Avengers films, Joss wrote a 25 issue love letter to Claremont’s X-Men in his and John Cassaday’s run on Astonishing. There he channeled his love for characters like Kitty Pryde into an updated youngster for the modern Xavier Institute. Time to Armor up, because today is all about Hisako Ichiki.
Hisako was introduced in issue #4 of Whedon and Cassaday’s Astonishing run casually walking down the halls, talking to her platonic best friend Wing. They were just roaming the halls, talking about how they wished to one day make X-Man. Unfortunately they ran into Ord, the Champion of the Breakworld, who was set on sending the X-Men a message. Hisako jumped to protect her friend and called her psionic armor to battle Ord, however she was quickly overpowered. Ord sent his message by curing Wing of his mutation from fifty feet above the Xavier Institute. The armored Hisako was able to catch her friend and bring him to the mutant healer Elixir to recover but she blamed herself for Wings depowering. In an attempt at revenge against the X-Men, the Danger Room created a hard light hologram of Hisako to convince Wing that he could fly still, leading to his death. Hisako didn’t take his death lightly and pushed herself harder into her goal of making X-Man.
Art by John Cassaday
Hisako was one of the 198 mutants to retain their abilities after M-Day, however she did not last long enough in the battle royal to be one of Emma Frost’s New X-Men. She would quickly get another chance to prove herself when Frost, who was being manipulated by Cassandra Nova, possessed the X-Men. Hisako was trying to console an upset Blindfold in the ladies room when a dainty, terrified Wolverine and a feral Beast burst in. Hisako rose to the occasion and protected the company from the savage Hank McCoy. When Ord and Danger (the physical form of the Danger Room) burst onto the scene, Hisako went into a rage that made Logan take notice. Frankly she just beat the hell out of them.
Art by John Cassaday
Hisako was teleported with the X-Men into S.W.O.R.D. (the Sentient World Observation and Response Department) custody to deal with the threat of the Breakworld. She was given one of Kitty Pryde’s old uniforms to wear on the mission and paired up with Wolverine. During the initial landing on the planet, Hisako’s craft was shot down and she and Wolverine were sent free falling through the atmosphere. Hisako had a crisis of faith and was unable to access her powers, causing Wolverine to take the entirety of the impact, ensuring their survival. As his broken and burnt body sit healing on the alien world, Hisako told him she couldn’t do it, she wasn’t X-Men material. Logan told her to take off that suit and give up if she couldn’t deal with saving the world. Hisako chose to keep fighting and took the code-name Armor, enlisting her in the ranks of the X-Men. She continued to fight alongside Wolverine and helped the team in their victory on the Breakworld.
Art by John Cassaday
Armor joined the New X-Men during the events of the Messiah Complex where she faced the Purifiers, a Predator X, and the Marauders. When the X-Men relocated to San Francisco, she continued to serve on Cyclops Astonishing team where Wolverine mentored her. When the mutants moved to the island nation of Utopia, Armor finally confronted Danger (who was acting as the warden to the island’s prison). Hisako was insulted that the being who killed her best friend was being welcomed by her teammates. Danger confided that she felt something akin to guilt for the death of Wing and could not get rid of that burden. Hisako decided that even if she couldn’t forgive Danger yet, she could try and make the best of the situation and talked to Danger about Wing. During this time Armor’s mother and brother were killed in a car accident. Wolverine, Emma Frost, and Cyclops came to Tokyo to support Hisako but her father wanted it to be a private family affair. When the giant dragon monster Fing Fang Foom attacked the city during the wake, Armor chose to stand with her X-Men family and fought off the beast using the newly formed connection to her mother and brother to give her armor a power boost.
Art by Nick Bradshaw
Armor followed Wolverine after the Schism and enrolled in the Jean Grey School to continue her training. Early in her first semester, Quinten Quire trapped Armor and Wolverine in a psychic dystopia where they were hunted by law enforcement officers among other obstacles like psychic representations of Armor’s dead brother. The two were able to escape and Armor continued her studies. Hisako had difficulties adjusting to being a student after being a member of the X-Men field team for so long and her experience lead to her clashing with the newer mutants frequently. These clashes lead to Oya, one of the younger mutants, attacking an enemy she was not ready to face. Hisako was forced to step up and defend the school and, in the process, was forcibly removed from her armor. She struggled but eventually regained control of her abilities, destroying her armor only to rebuild it. After Logan’s death, Hisako struggled to cope and tried to do what Logan would have done, drink beer and fight stuff. Her classmate Hellion helped her find more constructive ways to deal with the tragedy. Armor has yet to appear in the X-Men books post-Secret Wars.
Art by Patrick Scherberger
Must Read
Armor’s first appearance in Astonishing X-Men by Whedon and Cassaday remains her finest hour. It is a fantastic representation of how to develop a new character and add them to an established group in a way the feels organic. While she isn’t essential to any of the story lines, she doesn’t exactly what the audience surrogate character needs to do, she grounds the story in reality by questioning the absurdity that the other characters are used to. She updates the Kitty Pryde archetype without feeling like a copy and paste. Plus stepping away from Armor, this is easily one of the best runs of X-Men ever and every fan should take the time to read it. Issues #1-24 and Giant Sized Astonishing X-Men #1 are available on Marvel Unlimited, in four trade paper backs, two Ultimate Collections, one expensive, out of print omnibus, or a motion comic. You don’t have an excuse, read this comic.
Ranking
Why did I think I was going to be able to choose which X-Men I like best? Armor is cool, she is someone that I will always be excited to read in a comic, and she has a great visual power set. At the same time she isn’t up there with the best that the mutant world has to offer. She was one of the bright spots of that insane X-Men Anime but no one since Whedon has really written her well in the comics. She feels like a character that was brimming with potential to be a fixture on the X-Men but no one knew where to go next with her. I think because of that she is going to have to drop into our new number 5 spot between Glob Herman and Longshot in the Xavier Files.
Armor was requested by /u/AdrianIsBeast 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 send it anonymously I can’t respond privately to you which means if there is an issue or something I think you should know, I can’t tell you and that would be sad. I am a good 11 weeks deep with requests so don’t be shocked if it takes a little bit to get to yours, I am on it!. Thanks for reading!
Zachary Jenkins runs ComicsXF and is a co-host on the podcast “Battle of the Atom.” Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside of all this.
