Young Elliot Boggs woke up one morning to discover that his parents were dead. With no time to panic, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents burst into his home. Leading the agents was Nick Fury, who told Elliot that he was a danger to himself and those around him. Fury believed that Elliot had developed his powers overnight and killed his parents by accident. Fury eventually captured Elliot and left him with Charles Xavier to help him learn to control his powers.
When Elliot arrived at Xavier's Mansion, he was greeted by Cyclops and the Professor and was given a tour. Elliot was excited and wanted to know when he would be able to fight as a part of the X-Men but Cyclops told him that he would have to go under months of training to see if his powers were able to be trusted. Soon after, Cyclops got a call from fellow X-Man Colossus asking for help: the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy had attacked a party he was attending. Cyclops then told Elliot may have gotten his wish. (It is believed that Elliot may have used his reality warping powers to cause the Brotherhood to attack.) Elliot made his own costume by using his powers and boarded the X-Jet. There he met the X-Men Rogue, Iceman, and Storm. The X-Men soon arrived at the Academy of Tomorrow. Elliot demonstrated his powers while fighting the Blob. He was able to produce enough power to effectively move him, which was prevously thought to be impossible. Thus, the Magician had brought the X-Men to super-hero status once more.
Later, during a fight with the Friends of Humanity, Elliot used his powers to turn their leader into a mutant, thinking that he should be turned into the thing that he hated most. When the battle ended and the X-men were headed back to the mansion, Kitty thought about asking Elliot out on a date. The other X-Men found this suspicious because she was still dating Spider-Man. It is possible that Elliot may have used his powers to make Kitty like him in order to make himself look better to the other X-Men. Suspicion rose about him when Nick Fury contacted Professor Xavier to request that Elliot join the Ultimates. This escalated when Xavier asked Fury why he had bothered to send Elliot to him in the first place and Fury responded that he didn't remember doing so. Fury and Xavier came to the conclusion that Elliot had been manipulating and changing their thoughts. Confronted by Xavier, Elliot began to battle the other X-Men.
