CAMERON HODGE: Page 4 of 4

BIOGRAPHY - page 4

Cameron Hodge wasn’t the only one who saw potential in the Technarch named Warlock, though. After the fall of Genosha, an anti-mutant group harvested Warlock’s techno-organic remains in an effort to create a new line of living Sentinels to target mutantkind. The scientist Steven Lang had once served as mental template for the Master Mold before falling into a vegetative state. He was retrieved from an asylum to operate as the organic hive-mind coordinating these new techno-organic Sentinels, christened the Phalanx. Early attempts were made to use the self-replicating techno-organic matter to fashion anti-mutant troopers purely from Lang’s mind and the Sentinels’ mutant-hunting directives, though these prototypes had minimal success. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #291, 305, X-Factor (1st series) #106]

For the next stage of the Phalanx program, Cameron Hodge was restored using the techno-organic virus he once coveted. As an extension of the Phalanx collective intelligence, Hodge now possessed a body of shape-changing, bio-mechanical tissue. These changes were only skin deep, however, for Cameron immediately returned to seeking revenge on Archangel. The Phalanx were looking for ways to make their constructs more stable, and Hodge put forward the possibility of basing the constructs off of human brain patterns. As a test subject, he recovered the body of Candy Southern and the scans of her done by the Right, reanimating the woman using techno-organic material. With her memories slightly edited and reprogrammed, Hodge sent the hazy-minded Candy to Warren’s Colorado chalet for an intimate reunion.

As Cameron planned, Candy’s presence got him through the security surrounding the chalet. He eagerly attacked Warren again, bragging about his new techno-organic body and the Phalanx’s power to assimilate and absorb matter. To further his sadistic vengeance, Cameron also arranged a life-glow “tether” between himself and Candy, so he could draw power from her and any harm he suffered reflected on her as well. This allowed him to torture Candy in front of Warren, while also ensuring Archangel couldn’t attack him either. Cameron crafted this echo of Candy too well, though, for she refused to be used against Warren once she remembered what Hodge had done. Candy Southern self-terminated, causing feedback which discorporated Hodge’s new body as well, sending his consciousness back into the Phalanx collective intelligence to recuperate. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #306]

Through the Phalanx, Hodge and Lang made a few more attempts at creating Phalanx drones from dead or recorded brain wave patterns, such as a cryptographer unit based on the late Doug Ramsey. However, they determined the best course of action was to use living templates. They recruited humans from the Friends of Humanity and other outlets willing to be assimilated into the Phalanx to fight against mutantkind. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #308] Cameron Hodge received the role of quartermaster in the hive-mind, running experiments on integration of new subjects into the collective intelligence and assigning roles to those who succeeded. One particularly irksome point was the discovery that mutants were genetically resistant to being assimilated. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #313, Excalibur (1st series) #79]

As time passed, however, it became clear the Phalanx had grown beyond their original programming. Following a biological imperative passed down from the Technarch, these Phalanx were no longer merely “altered humans” hunting mutants, but an invasive species intent on assimilating all life on Earth. Even at the center of the hive-mind, Stephen Lang grew more and more concerned over Phalanx performing independent actions outside his observation and control and feared for the future of humanity. Cameron Hodge did not. Because mutants proved uniquely resistant to assimilation, even the evolved Phalanx focused on breaking this resistance to ensure absolute assimilation of the Earth. As far as Hodge was concerned, all of humanity could die or be absorbed by the Phalanx so long as he was empowered to destroy the mutants as well.

The Phalanx centralized their hive at a remote peak near Mount Everest. While units like Shinar and Harvest carried out other aspects of Phalanx programming and imperatives, Hodge focused on research into breaking down the mutant resistance to assimilation. The majority of the X-Men were captured to be used as test subjects and remove them as an active threat. By this point, Lang recognized he did not hate mutants enough to sacrifice humanity on his crusade and began working to undermine the Phalanx. He arranged for Psylocke to become a sleeper agent, who seemingly accepted Hodge’s attempts at forcing assimilation.  He also diverted Hodge and the Phalanx from an incoming assault by the remaining X-Men. As the hive citadel began to collapse around the Phalanx and freed X-Men, Lang intended to depart and restart the techno-organic Sentinel program on his own. Instead, Cameron Hodge spotted Lang and dragged him back into the collapsing citadel. The two founders of the Phalanx program were consumed by the self-destructing hive. [Phalanx Covenant crossover]

Time passed, and the struggle between human and mutantkind became more intense. When M-Day removed 90% of all mutant powers on Earth, the Reverend William Stryker took it as a sign from God and assembled his Purifiers with the help of a Nimrod unit Sentinel from the future. Stryker was killed by mutants, but his successor Matthew Risman sought to restore the Nimrod “prophet.” He introduced the severed head of Bastion (another Nimrod variant) to the damaged Sentinel, and the two integrated through nano-technology into a new whole. Bastion in turn acquired the techno-organic virus of the alien Magus for a plan to resurrect all of mutantkind’s greatest human enemies. Life and death meant little to the T-O virus. After a Purifier recovery mission to Mount Everest, Cameron Hodge returned in Bastion’s service alongside Bolivar Trask, Steven Lang, Graydon Creed, William Stryker and others. [X-Force (3rd series) #3-6]

[Note: There is some inconsistency surrounding the Cameron Hodge Phalanx. Early stories presented Phalanx units like Candy Southern, Douglas Ramsey and Hodge as mental copies of the original person which were programmed into the Phalanx collective. However, the Handbooks made a point of saying that Hodge’s magically immortal head was recovered and assimilated by the Phalanx. The fact that the Purifiers had to physically retrieve Hodge from Mount Everest to reanimate him lends credence to the idea that unique, physical matter (i.e., his head) was to be found there.]

Bastion’s Human High Council was revealed to the public, rallying behind the soap box of former presidential candidate Graydon Creed. The American people were told these patriots went into hiding to avoid threats of mutant terrorism, but now returned to finish what the Decimation had started. Cameron Hodge reorganized the Right, getting his “smiley face” armors out of mothballs and back in service. They made a series of strikes against Mr. Sinister’s safe houses in order to acquire samples of the Legacy virus. Despite the successful intervention of X-Force at one of the laboratories in Japan, the Right got what they were looking for at three other safe houses, and Bastion’s people went to work weaponizing the virus for deployment. [X-Force (3rd series) #7-10]

The endgame began when Cable returned from the future with Hope, the “mutant messiah” born after the Decimation and prophesized to restore mutantkind. Bastion sent out the Purifiers, the Right, the Sapiens League, the Friends of Humanity and more to kill the child, but the X-Men also knew of her return. Cameron Hodge organized 40 armored divisions of Right soldiers in St. Louis, Missouri, ready to deploy into the field against Hope and the X-Men. Cyclops dispatched the original New Mutants to intercept the Right and prevent them from joining the main fight. Hodge gleefully accepted their interference, because it justified bringing his cyborg body back on-line. With the T-O virus in his system, Cameron ripped out his own head and spinal cord to re-integrate it to his scorpion war machine. Karma attempted to possess Hodge’s mind to take him out of the battle, but his on-board computers continued to fight against the mutants without the human interface. Hodge’s systems located Karma and shook her concentration, allowing Cameron to sever one of her legs with his spikes.

The battle started to turn against the New Mutants, forcing the recently returned Cypher and Warlock to come off the sidelines. Both had suffered grievous losses because of Cameron Hodge and the Right in the past, and it was a long road taken to reunite with their friends. Warlock’s appreciation for the sanctity of life kept him under-nourished most of the time, unwilling to assimilate living things with his own T-O virus to consume their lifeglow. Cypher convinced him this was war, and the normal restrictions no longer applied. Warlock entered the battlefield and his techno-organic tendrils quickly drained the life from every Right soldier still active, turning their strength into his own. He then turned on Cameron Hodge, the man responsible for murdering him years ago. Hodge’s cybernetic strength was nothing against the fury of Warlock. Cameron’s T-O virus only allowed Warlock’s superior Technarch virus direct access to Hodge’s system, and he siphoned all of Hodge’s life away, leaving his severed head gaunt, decaying and gone from this world. [Second Coming crossover]

Despite all this, Hodge seemingly survived. He was reported leading the Right during the Terrigen Mist crisis, trying to siphon up samples of the T-Cloud to weaponize against mutantkind. [All-New X-Men (2nd series) #12] When the Right repatriated Nanny’s “egg-ship,” Krakoa sent the Hellions to recover her ship. Cameron Hodge appeared, alive and well, claiming the T-O virus preserved his life and allowed him to update the Right smiley armors as emergent A.I. He directed the robots against the Hellions until Empath revealed Hodge didn’t have a human mind for his empathic powers to grasp. It turned out “Hodge” was only a robot that believed itself to be the original Cameron. Hodge refused to accept this and ended up ordering his own robots to fire on him in a convoluted attempt to prove his own humanity. [Hellions #7-8]

Cameron Hodge occasionally used robot doppelgangers as far back as the Right’s ascension, so the timing and origin of this Hodge robot is unknown. It did possess the T-O virus, but ultimately the fate of the real Cameron Hodge, and his immortal hatred of mutantkind, is uncertain.