The 12th century warrior Bennet du Paris becomes Exodus, a near omnipotent mutant with vast psionic powers who is righteous and hardheaded in his beliefs. As a self-proclaimed mutant savior, he often goes about it in the worst way.
From a Bygone Era
Frenchman Bennet du Paris fights alongside Eobar Garrington, the Black Knight of the 12th century and warrior in the Crusades. While Bennet and Eobar became close friends, they parted ways when Bennet sets out to explore a legend of a lost pharaoh in Egypt. Bennet finds himself tested by En Sabah Nur, the immortal mutant also known as Apocalypse, who helps unleash Bennet’s own mutant powers. Apocalypse christens him “Exodus” and makes him his servant.
He then tests Exodus by setting him against the time-traveling Avengers Sersi and the Black Knight (Dane Whitman possessing Eobar’s body). The Avengers convince Exodus that he was little more than a pawn to Apocalypse, and he turns on his master. Apocalypse punishes him by placing him in stasis, sealed within a mountain chamber in the Swiss Alps.
Powerful Psionic
Exodus possesses a vast array of psionic powers such as telepathy, telekinesis (including levitation), and teleportation. He can generate powerful force fields, control the minds and bodies of others, project energy blasts, fly, drain psychic energy from victims to increase his own powers, generate psychic whirlwinds, resurrect the deceased, and enhance his own physical attributes to superhuman levels. Exodus is described as having omega-level telekinesis, that is that the power can register or reach an undefinable upper limit.
Mutant Allies and Enemies
More often than not, Exodus makes enemies of the X-Men and despite his devotion to their enemy, Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, he also has a few power struggles with the Master of Magnetism. It’s not until all of mutantdom is united on Krakoa that he works with the X-Men for the good of all.
A Mutant Out of Time
Exodus remained in stasis until recent years when mutant supremacist Magneto revived him. Exodus gave himself over to Magneto’s cause with intense fervor. As Magneto took control of the space station Graymalkin, renaming it Avalon, he sent Exodus to gather mutant followers. Among those Exodus brought were the Acolytes, a sect of mutants who worshiped Magneto but had been deceived by their traitorous leader Fabian Cortez into thinking Magneto had perished as a martyr. When Exodus revealed Magneto’s survival and Cortez’s duplicity, the Acolytes abandoned Cortez. Eventually, the X-Men sent a strike force to Avalon to halt Magneto’s ambitions, and they teleported Exodus off the station to prevent his involvement. As a result of the battle, Magneto’s mind was destroyed by Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, leaving him comatose. Exodus assumed leadership of the Acolytes, claiming to speak on Magneto’s behalf, even indulging in one-sided conversations with his master. When Fabian Cortez helped incite civil war amongst the mutants of Genosha, Exodus confronted and slew Cortez, then battled the X-Men and Avengers while simultaneously surrounding Genosha in a force field and inciting the mutants of Genosha to war, claiming vengeance upon the nation for the mistreatment of mutants within its borders. He also sought to kill Magneto’s human granddaughter Luna Maximoff for being a “stain” on Magneto’s name, but was finally defeated when Xavier rendered the Black Knight immune to Exodus’ senses, allowing him to strike him down from behind. Exodus returned to Avalon.
Avalon was eventually destroyed by the mutant Holocaust of Earth-295, and Exodus was cut off from both the Acolytes and the still-comatose Magneto. While seeking to hold on to leadership of the Acolytes, he raised some of their numbers from the dead, including Cortez. At one point, his leadership was threatened by Joseph, a clone of Magneto who was thought by many to be the real Magneto, but Joseph rejected the leadership of the Acolytes. Exodus later sought Isotope E, a creation of Herbert Wyndham, AKA High Evolutionary, which could master the evolutionary process. Allied with the High Evolutionary’s nemesis the Man-Beast, Exodus fought Pietro Maximoff, AKA Quicksilver, and the Heroes for Hire, but was ultimately defeated and made comatose by the Black Knight, kept that way by Thena of the Eternals and placed in the tomb in which he rested the last time.
Exodus once impersonated Magneto while his former master was ruler of Genosha but ended the charade after discovering even he could not end the violence in that nation. Later, he became leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants but was pulled through a quantum singularity created by the X-Men’s ally Shen Xorn. Returning to Earth, he was shocked to find the mutant population decimated by “M-Day.” Reviving the Acolytes in a partnership with Nathaniel Essex, AKA Mister Sinister, Exodus assisted in the hunt for a newly-born mutant child. When the conflict ended with Xavier fatally wounded by the traitorous Bishop, Exodus helped save Xavier’s life and offered him leadership of the Acolytes, only to be turned down.
Later, Xavier convinced Exodus to disband the Acolytes to foster mutant unity. During a subsequent pilgrimage of self-discovery, Exodus learned of a philosophical divide amongst the X-Men and attacked one X-Men faction to force the entire team to reunite; Exodus was ultimately defeated and incarcerated in the X-Men’s brig on their Utopia island base.
Exodus eventually gained his freedom thanks to Danger releasing Utopia’s prisoners, and worked with S.H.I.E.L.D. to help them against an omega-level mutant. Contact with this mutant killed Exodus instantly, but his death is undone by Tempus, who traveled back in time to prevent the mutant from being born.
During the M-Pox crisis, Exodus overtook Someday Enterprises, an organization dedicated to protecting mutants by keeping them in stasis. However, the organization weaponized the mutants and Exodus decided to use these weapons to attack an anti-mutant rally. Magneto and the X-Men battled Exodus, with Exodus losing and locked up in Xorn’s temple. He was later retrieved by Josh Foley, AKA Elixir, and helped save Magneto from a fatal wound.
Magneto later sought out Exodus and Elixir to contain the Mothervine virus, a bioweapon released by Alex Summers, AKA Havok, and Bastion. Exodus teleported Elixir and Magneto all over the world so that Elixir could neutralize the virus, putting an end to it.
When Magneto, Xavier, and Moira MacTaggert established the mutant home on the sentient island of Krakoa, Exodus was welcomed by them and entered via gateway with other villains. All of mutantdom was invited, to what became a recognized nation-state by the United Nations, for the species to start over. Asked to join the Quiet Council of Krakoa, Exodus joined the Winter section of the Council with Mister Sinister and Raven Darkhölme, AKA Mystique. Winter represented the criminal elements of mutant society, though Exodus expressed his disdain for Sinister right off the bat, threatening him if he ever spoke to him again.
