Leech (character)

Leech is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Leech
Leech as depicted in X-Men: The 198 #2 (April 2006). Art by Jim Muniz.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Uncanny X-Men #179 (March 1984)
Created by	Chris Claremont (writer) John Romita Jr. (artist)
In-story information
Alter ego	James "Jimmy" (X-Men films) Dorian Leach (X-Men: Evolution)
Species	Human mutant
Team affiliations	Future Foundation Weapon X The 198 Generation X Daydreamers X-Terminators X-Factor Morlocks Xavier Institute
Notable aliases	The Cure Kid Incredible
Abilities	Power suppression

Leech made his first appearance in Uncanny X-Men as a Morlock, a group of mutants whose deformities force them to live in the sewers under Manhattan. He is usually depicted as being around twelve years old (his exact age is unrevealed). He speaks in broken English and refers to himself in the third person.

Publication history

Leech first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #179 (March 1984), and was created by Chris Claremont and John Romita Jr.^[1]

Leech appeared as part of the "Morlocks" entry in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #9.

Fictional character biography

Leech in his original depiction with a more elongated skull. Art by John Romita Jr. and Dan Green.

As a child, Leech is abandoned and left to die when his mutations become apparent. He is found by the Morlock Caliban and taken to Annalee, who raises him and several other young mutants as her children.^[2]

In Mutant Massacre, Annalee and many other mutants are killed by the Marauders, with Leech being among the survivors. X-Factor takes him and Artie Maddicks in until they can be enrolled in St. Simons, a private school that accepts mutants.^[3] The two later become junior members of Generation X.^[4]

Leech and Artie Maddicks come to live at the Massachusetts Academy under the care of Emma Frost and Sean Cassidy. The school later goes bankrupt, forcing Emma and Sean to open the school to human students. To keep Artie and Leech from being isolated, Emma gives them image inducers that will disguise them as humans. Soon after, the school is exposed as a home for mutants, and Artie, Leech, and Penance are sent away to protect them.^[5]

At some point, Leech is captured by the revived Weapon X program and is used to keep imprisoned mutants under control. When the program is about to be discovered, those responsible attempt to erase all information surrounding it by killing the prisoners. Leech survives and is one of the estimated 198 mutants who retain their powers after M-Day.^[6]

When Nitro's destruction of Stamford, Connecticut causes the public to turn on superheroes at the start of the "Civil War" storyline, Domino, Shatterstar, and Caliban break out the 198 and take them to a bunker in the middle of the desert. They are sealed inside with nuclear weapons that are activated for self-detonation, but they are eventually freed from the bunker.^[7] Leech accompanies Caliban to the Morlock tunnels, where they are attacked by an extremist group of Morlocks led by Masque. Masque kidnaps Leech, but he is rescued by the X-Men and Skids.^[8]

Leech and Artie Maddicks are invited to Franklin Richards's birthday, and as a gift, Franklin invites them to live with the Fantastic Four.^[9] The two are enrolled in a special class with several Moloids and Alex Power of the Power Pack, among others.^[10] Leech later joins the Future Foundation.^[11]

Powers and abilities

Leech can dampen or completely suppress, for an undetermined amount of time, the powers and abilities of any superpowered beings within 50 feet of him.^[12][13][3]

Reception

In 2014, Entertainment Weekly ranked Leech and Artie Maddicks 23rd in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.^[14]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

An alternate universe variant of Leech from Earth-295 appears in Age of Apocalypse.^[15]

Days of Future Past

An alternate universe variant of Leech from Earth-811 appears in Wolverine: Days of Future Past.^[16]

Ultimate Marvel

An alternate universe variant of Leech from Earth-1610 appears in Ultimate X-Men.^[17]

Ultimate Universe

An alternate universe variant of Leech from Earth-6160 appears in Ultimate Wolverine #5.^[18]

In other media

Television

• Leech appears in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by Ron Rubin.^[19] This version possesses the additional ability of telekinesis.
  • Leech appears in X-Men '97,^[20] voiced by David Errigo Jr.^[19] In his most notable appearance in the episode "Remember It", he joins the Morlocks in moving to Genosha and is killed by Sentinels.^[21]
• Leech appears in X-Men: Evolution, voiced by Danny McKinnon.^[19] This version is named Dorian Leech and possesses a more humanoid appearance and the additional ability to disable machinery.

Film

Leech (right) as depicted in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Leech appears in X-Men: The Last Stand, portrayed by Cameron Bright. This version is named Jimmy, possesses a human appearance, and was used by Worthington Labs to create a "mutant cure" before joining the Xavier Institute.