Wither (Kevin Ford) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Universe, a member of the student body at the Xavier Institute, and a member of the Hellions squad therein.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Kevin Ford developed his mutant powers at an unfortunate and unlucky time. Panicking as his clothes began to decay, his father tried to calm him down and Kevin's power reduced him to dust. He has always considered himself cursed. A talented artist, Kevin lived in a scrap yard for a while (killing the guard dog with his touch, naturally) and turned unwanted scrap into beautiful art.
Worst Fear
He was found and brought to the Xavier Institute, where he met and developed a crush on Laurie Collins. However, when the cyborg Donald Pierce attacked and impaled Laurie, Kevin lashed out and decayed the skin off of Pierce's face and skull. Dani Moonstar was forced to stop him by showing him his worst fear - killing Laurie. In the aftermath of this, and realizing that using his power "felt right", which frightened him, he left the Institute.
Return
Some months later Dani, with the help of Emma Frost, set out to bring him back to the school to fill the sixth place on the formalized New Mutants squad. While Kevin was still angry at Dani, Emma managed to persuade him to return, and he joined the New Mutants squad under the codename Wither. Clashing with Elixir, the current object of Laurie's affections who he'd last seen as one of Pierce's Reavers, Mercury (the only person he could touch without killing) reached out to him, having developed a crush on him. Shortly after he returned to the school, he was arrested by the FBI for killing his father. While the Hellions tried to "rescue" him (Mercury coming in through a window to let him know), the New Mutants tried to stop them - fearing the consequences of involving the Institute in a fight with the FBI - until the X-Men arrived and ended the fight, taking them all back to the Institute before they were discovered. Kevin however saw this as the final straw (having first been turned over to the FBI by Dani), and he swapped squads with Icarus to become a Hellion.
During Kevin's time at the Institute, he discovered the White Queen's diamond form is impervious to his powers.
He discovered Elixir's former relationship with Wolfsbane and revealed it to the school, successfully ending Josh's relationship with Laurie.
Post M-Day
After M-Day, when most of the world's mutants lost their powers, Kevin mistakenly believed he had lost his powers like most of the mutant population. When he touched Laurie's hand, however, it withered, although it didn't kill her. Kevin spent several issues feeling guilty and depressed. After a session in David Alleyne's Danger Cave, Kevin overheard Julian Keller referring to him as "dangerous". Kevin, once again, ran away from the institute.
Selene
Kevin went to Mutant Town, and lived in the company of an old lady, who was actually Selene, the Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, in disguise. Selene was responsible for the killings of nineteen people in District X and the police tracked her down. Just as Selene (in the guise of the old woman) sucks the life-force out of two of the policemen, she gets shot. Kevin enters the room and watches the old lady fall to the ground and he kills another two policemen in a rage. Wither and Selene are finally shown to be in a lip-locked embrace as Kevin accepts Selene's offer to be her "king" as they fade away, presumably to Selene's dimension.[volume & issue needed]
Necrosha
It is confirmed that the Wither/Selene plot will be continued in Necrosha, which will run through X-Force, New Mutants and X-Men: Legacy, beginning in October 2009. He will play a major role in the storyline.[1] Previews for the upcoming Necrosha event show Wither working with Selene along with other mutants with death related powers.
Wither returns in X-Force #18.[2]
Powers and abilities
Wither decays, and eventually disintegrates, organic matter by touch — a power which is involuntary. With extended contact he would reduce almost anything — or anyone — organic to dust. As a result of his power he is only able to wear clothing made of synthetic textiles. This power is even more difficult to deal with due to Kevin's self-styled interpretation that his ability wants him to use it. It has a "hunger", which gives Kevin a desire to use it, though this could just be a psychological aspect of his power. He is also sometimes shown to see things in their decayed form, such as live pigeons appearing to be decayed through his eyes. He had the ability to put out fire with his bare hands in a few issues.
Other versions
House of M
Wither works alongside Elixir as an interrogator for S.H.I.E.L.D. Wither uses his power to decay a part of his victim nearly to death, at which point Elixir steps in and uses his power to heal the victim. The process is apparently extremely painful. Wither also wears a containment suit, although Elixir comments that he doesn't need it and only wears it for psychological effect.
X-Men: The End
Wither saves Cargill from a Warskrull posing as Genesis. After he kills the Warskrull he hopes Dani can forgive him for using his powers to kill.
References
