Orphan-Maker (Peter) is a fictional mutant character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. His first appearance was in X-Factor vol. 1 #31.
Publication history
Orphan-Maker's first appearance was in X-Factor #31 (August 1988), and he was created by Louise Simonson and Walt Simonson.
The character subsequently appears in X-Factor #35 (December 1988), #40 (May 1989), The Uncanny X-Men #247-248 (August–September 1989), #265-267 (August–September 1990), Generation X #2-4 (December 1994-February 1995), Generation X Holiday Special #1 (February 1998), Slingers #9 (August 1999), and Wolverine: Killing Made Simple #1 (October 2008).
Orphan-Maker received an entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #5.
Fictional character biography
First encounters
When Peter was still a very small child, he was held captive in Mister Sinister's "orphanage" because he had the potential to be a very dangerous weapon once his X-Gene was activated. Sinister planned on turning him into a living bomb, but upon realising how immense his destructive powers were and the danger he posed, including to himself, Sinister decided he was too powerful and must be killed. Saved by the cyborg Nanny, he became the first of her "Lost Boys (and Girls)". Nanny fitted him with a suit of armor that would suppress his uncontrollable powers and give him the appearance of a large Man. Under Nanny's direction, Peter, as the Orphan-Maker, began to kill the parents of young mutants (and thus "orphaning" them) and abducting them for Nanny.
They would confront the X-Men operating out of a small, faux-town in the Australian outback. Dazzler and Havok are ambushed and stunned in a ship designed to look like a crash-landed artifact. The captured are physically converted into children. They are given battlesuits themselves and convinced to attack the other X-Men. Some assistance is given by Jubilee, whom the X-Men did not know of at the time.
Orphan-Maker and Nanny are temporarily defeated after Colossus rescues Havok from his battlesuit. Confused and disoriented from his experience, Havok blasts Nanny's ship, causing much destruction and seemingly causing the death of Storm. However, Orphan-Maker and Nanny had left behind a dead body that looked like Storm, while de-aging and kidnapping her.
Later appearances
The pair would later confront X-Factor, a super-team made up of the five original X-Men.
During an incident where a mentally ill young mutant had taken hostages inside his school, Orphan-Maker was driven away partly because the mutant Skin managed to interfere with his suit's energy flow. He managed to escape pursuit in a technologically advanced vehicle disguised as an ice cream truck.
Later on, he and Nanny battled with Wolverine after they tried to make an orphan out of Trance (a former X-student).
Dawn of X
In the new status quo for mutants post House of X and Powers of X, Professor X and Magneto invite all mutants to live on Krakoa and welcome even former enemies into their fold. Orphan Maker joins a loose group of outcast mutants, operating under Mister Sinister: the Hellions, which also comprise Havok, Kwannon, Empath, John Greycrow, Nanny and Wild Child. Their first mission was to destroy Sinister's old outdated cloning lab "The State Home for Foundlings". However, when they got there they found it had been taken over by Madelyne Pryor who sent perverse, zombie-like Marauders to attack them. They were rescued by their teammates, who completed the mission. On this mission Nanny developed a deep hatred of Mister Sinister after seeing the remains of the many mutant children he had experimented on, she confronted him after the mission, telling him he would get his due for what he's done.
Their second mission was to the Hell-like dimension of Amenth through Otherworld. Sinister had arranged this mission in order to steal the weapons of the Swordbearers of Arakko forcing them to forfeit Saturnyne's X of Swords challenge. When they got there Sinister betrayed them by revealing they were actually the to collect DNA samples from the mutants of Arakko and Nanny, Orphan-Maker and Wild Child were killed by the godlike Arakki mutant Tarn the Uncaring and his servants the Locus Vile.
They were resurrected by the Five and as a result of dying in Amenth, they all came back different and stronger. Realizing how potentially dangerous Orphan-Maker would be if he came back the same way, the rest of the team had to team had to reclaim Nanny's ship from The Right so she could build a new suit of armor to contain his powers.