BIOGRAPHY - Page 4
Strong Guy’s role as sheriff would not last long though, as the government soon realized how few mutants there were left following the Decimation and the fact Mutant Town didn’t have many left in it. The government withdrew its offer to Guido and he was left feeling deflated once more. To make matters worse, both Layla and Wolfsbane left the team when X-Factor became involved in the X-Men’s search for the newly born “messiah baby.”
Following this, Rictor thought it a good time for him to leave too. However, when he disappeared mid-sentence while doing so, Strong Guy became suspicious something else was afoot. The team attempted to find Rictor but quickly got the impression that someone was playing games with them. When Guido and Jamie suddenly found themselves in a holographic jungle, they realized that the showman assassin called Arcade was the one toying with them. Strong Guy and the team had their work cut out for them as they saved as many people as they could from Arcade’s various traps. By the end of it all, however, Mutant Town had been devastated by a series of bombs, causing Val Cooper to give the team an ultimatum – work for the US government or disband. Strong Guy was dubious about Val’s offer, given how she had retracted the last one so quickly. Rather than be forced to leave Mutant Town under the government’s orders, X-Factor moved to Detroit on their own terms. [X-Factor (3rd series) #28-32]
Despite the rest of the X-Factor believing they had given Val the slip, Strong Guy and Jamie 
remained in contact with her and were even taking on jobs she assigned. They operated out of Detroit for a number of months without drawing attention to themselves. However, when the Skrulls made a bid to take over Earth, their peace was shattered. Whilst on assignment to find the missing Darwin, the team came into conflict with She-Hulk, who was tracking a Skrull. Strong Guy got a chance to really let his powers rip as he took on the gamma-fueled woman by himself, although a swift kick to his groin ended the fight earlier than he expected. Fortunately, the two sides eventually joined forces once they realized their two missions were linked. Strong Guy and the team succeeded in locating Darwin, whilst helping take down a Skrull trying to use him for their own ends. [X-Factor (3rd series) #33-34, She Hulk (1st series) #31]
Strong Guy and the team soon after ended up saving Darwin a second time, this time from an evil corporation that wanted to use his evolution powers for their own end. Afterwards, the pregnant Siryn went into labor and gave birth to hers and Jamie’s son. To their horror, the group learned that Siryn’s baby was in reality just a dupe when Jamie accidentally absorbed it into him again. Everyone was furious with him but Guido was one of the only ones to stand by Jamie, as he saw that it wasn’t really his fault. [X-Factor (3rd series) #34-39]
Jamie left the team soon after and Siryn took over as team leader. Strong Guy was worried about his friend, especially given that no one had heard anything from him for a while. When Rictor spotted one of Jamie’s dupes on the news, Strong Guy decided to go visit the man to see if he had any leads. Taking Rictor, the two travelled to the Vermont, where the dupe had created a life as a priest named John Maddox. There they discovered that Jamie had recently been there but had been was whisked away by a woman whom they surmised to be an adult Layla. Before they could question John any further, they were attacked by a brainwashed Shatterstar, who would only utter the word “Cortex”. The fight was brutal and Shatterstar was gaining the upper hand, until he suddenly seemed to snap out of his conditioning. Returned to his senses and overcome by emotion, Shatterstar kissed Rictor passionately, much to the confusion of Strong Guy. Once the two were sure Shatterstar wasn’t a threat anymore, they set off back to Detroit as they began to have the feeling that something bigger was going on.
On the car journey back, Guido started to quiz Rictor about his sexual preferences, because this revelation had come as a surprise regarding a man he thought he had known well. When the mood became tense, Guido reverted to his default personality and he started cracking awkward 
jokes about Rictor’s sexuality. That didn’t help, however, and the tension between the two men grew until Shatterstar woke up from his sleep and diffused the long trip by teleporting them to Detroit. Once there, they discovered that the rest of X-Factor were locked in battle with the forces of a man named Cortex. Strong Guy briefly went head to head with the man but was soundly beaten. In the end, it was Jamie, who was working from a future time era, who stopped Cortex and saved the rest of the team. [X-Factor (3rd series) #41-50]
With their base in Detroit now destroyed, Strong Guy and the rest of X-Factor moved back to New York and set up the agency again. Upon request by her children, the team began to look into the disappearance of the Invisible Woman and visited the Baxter Building as part of their investigation. Their interview didn’t exactly go as planned when the Thing and Strong Guy got into a fist fight that caused a fair amount of destruction. When it looked like the Thing was about to have the finishing blow, Shatterstar stepped in and saved his teammate, throwing the Thing out of the building. Strong Guy was annoyed at being saved and proceeded to sulk whilst the rest of the team continued their investigation.
When he overheard Monet on the phone talking about her missing father, Strong Guy offered to help her out. Meeting the rest of the team on the roof, he started to tell them that he and Monet were going on a separate mission, but they were interrupted by the Thing, looking for a re-match with Shatterstar. Strong Guy chose to stay behind and fight the Thing whilst the rest of the team teleported away on their mission to find the Invisible Woman. However, an accident during the 
fight meant that both Monet and the Thing were thrown through the portal, leaving Strong Guy alone in New York.
It was just as well because the Richards children came to the X-Factor base, as they believed their father was trying to kill them. Strong Guy was apprehensive at first but, when Reed showed up and attacked him, he had no choice but to protect the children. The fight was tough, as Reed could not be hurt with normal punches, though Strong Guy inadvertently won when he smacked Reed around the head. Reed’s head stretched into the exact place where Shatterstar opened the a portal, and was then decapitated when the portal closed. Fortunately, it was discovered that this version of Reed was from an alternate reality and he really had been trying to kill this reality’s Richards family. [X-Factor (1st series) #200-202]
Guido kept his promise to Monet and the two set off to find her missing father, heading to his last known location in South America. As they neared their target, they were shot down by a mysterious assailant and the two became separated. Strong Guy found a nearby compound run by some drug dealers and stormed it, demanding to know if they knew anything. The leader of the 
dealers was amused that Guido carried a picture of Monet with him and theorized that his feelings for his teammate were more than platonic. Guido seemed coy about the situation and pressed to find Monet.
Based on the intel from the drug dealers, Guido soon travelled to a nearby temple, where he was attacked by the sorcerer Baron Mordo. As he was trying to fend off Mordo’s spells, the two were attacked by a group of heavily armed soldiers. Guido and Mordo took refuge in the temple, where he discovered Monet and her father. Mordo had kidnapped Monet’s father, as he needed the young woman to help cure him of his cancer. The temple was being bombed by the soldiers outside and so, against Strong Guy’s advice, Monet agreed to the sorcerer’s plan if he teleported them all out of there. Mordo agreed and the group was teleported back to New York to meet up with the rest of the team. There they found they were also being targeted by yet more soldiers under the command for the robot Bastion. Strong Guy rejoined his team and took on the might of the Bastion’s forces, eventually coming out on top. [X-Factor (1st series) #203-206]