Needing host bodies to survive, Kevin MacTaggert of Earth-58163 becomes known as Proteus, the shape-changing god of Greek myth, but when he possesses an omnimorph with shape-changing abilities, he starts down a path of redemption.
Energy Being and Bogeyman
The son of geneticist Moira MacTaggert in the alternate reality of Earth-58163, Kevin manifests mutant powers before his 10th birthday, consuming his body and threatening to kill him. His mother’s attempts to cure him anger the ruling mutant regime, which sends Sentinels to destroy her Muir Island facility. Both Moira and Kevin escape, the latter surviving by burning out one host after another, swiftly becoming a media bogeyman as Scotland’s “Mutant X” serial killer. Making his way to New York, pursued by his mother, he possesses Gnome nightclub doorman Blunderbuss and then model Angel Salvadore. From her memories he learns she had recently been visited by Beak, who was Angel’s husband in Reality-616, which had then been overwritten with Kevin’s own (Reality-58163). Intrigued, he captures Beak, learning that he was one of the Exiles, who travel realities to repair damaged timelines, and that from their perspective, Kevin’s reality had been created by Beak’s native timeline being warped by the powerful mutant Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch. When the Exiles, now allied with Moira, catch up with him, he easily subdues them and drains information from their databanks of alternate realities; however, Moira shoots him, forcing him out of Angel’s body before he had fully used up her life force. Moira then commits suicide to prevent her son from possessing her. Instead, he possesses the Exile Calvin Rankin, AKA Mimic, and, now aware of other realities, bends space to enter another timeline moments before the Scarlet Witch coincidentally restores Earth-616’s original timeline.
Psionic Powers
Kevin is a psionic energy being requiring human hosts to sustain himself, his power increasing with each new victim. He is invisible to telepathic scans and most detection devices. He can warp reality in a limited area around himself with a thought, affecting organic and inorganic matter and energy with equal ease, but he can be vulnerable to metal, which disrupts his energy fields; since merging with Morph, this weakness has apparently receded. Kevin can also teleport interdimensionally.
Targets and Foes
Kevin targets those he believes powerful enough to sustain himself, such as Ken Connell, but comes up against foes such as John Tensen, AKA Justice. The Exiles are typically hot on his tail, all hoping not to be possessed by him, leading him to escape via dimension-hopping.
Close Ties
Kevin’s mother is about his only ally up until she takes her life to prevent him from possessing her. He eventually allies with the Exiles, former foes, when he and Earth-1081’s Kevin Sydney, AKA Morph, merge and Morphs’s personality influences him to redeem himself from previous mistakes.
A History of Dimension-Hopping
Arriving in a parallel “New Universe” reality (Earth-15371), he used his stolen knowledge to target Ken Connell, believing Connell’s near-infinite Star Brand power would sustain him without having to steal new forms, but was confronted by John Tensen, AKA Justice, and burned out Mimic battling him. Taking Tensen’s body, he again sought to possess Connell, but was assaulted by the Exiles and various locals; threatened by the newest Exile, the preternaturally lucky Longshot, Proteus again dimension-hopped. At his next port of call, in the year 2099 AD of Earth-6375 (diverged from Earth-928), he possessed John Eisenhart, AKA Hulk, but soon departed with the Exiles still hot on his heels. To slow their pursuit, Proteus visited Earth-712, duping local heroes the Squadron Supreme into attacking the Exiles while he moved on to the dystopian future (Earth9200) ruled by the Maestro, an evil incarnation of the Bruce Banner Hulk. Again the Exiles caught up with him, allying themselves with the Maestro. Proteus learned they had added metal implants to prevent him from taking over another of them, but when the malleable form of the Exile Morph had his implant knocked out, Proteus swiftly stole his body; Morph’s mind survived but shut down.
Discovering Morph’s shape-shifting powers prevented him from burning out, Proteus realized he finally had a permanent host form; trying to return home, he instead arrived in the restored Reality-616, but was tricked into materializing on the Franklin Richards-created CounterEarth, a duplicate world orbiting the opposite side of the sun, and nearly destroyed it before the Exiles tricked him into donning one of the Squadron Supreme’s behavior modification devices, which altered his mind so he could only access Morph’s memories. Unexpectedly, this also created an environment where Morph’s mind could slowly reassert itself. Meanwhile Proteus, believing himself to be Morph, accompanied his somewhat uneasy teammates on several adventures, with signs of Proteus’ influence showing through every so often. Eventually, on Earth-83112 the Exiles battled the Mad Maker, who enjoyed transforming people into villainous versions of themselves. When he turned his power on Morph, he unintentionally unleashed Proteus, who easily defeated the Maker; however, Morph’s mind confronted Proteus on the astral plane and convinced him that they could be whole together, giving Kevin a second chance to make up for past mistakes; the two minds merged, with Morph as the dominant personality.
