Exomorphic Man

EXOMORPHIC MAN

Real Name: Carlton Slater

Class: Human technology-user

Occupation: Supervillain

Group Affiliation: None

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: NYC, NY

First Appearance: (Carlton Slater) Gunfire #1 (May, 1994), (Exomorphic Man) Gunfire #5 (September, 1994)

Powers: The Exomorphic Man was a mass of organs contained within a flexible and stretchable plasteel exoskeleton.

History: (Gunfire #1-3) - Andrew (Gunfire) Van Horn, Yvette Dubois and Ben Nakashima attended the funeral of Gunther Van Horn. Carlton Slater, one of Gunther's former business associates, offered him a ride away from the funeral to avoid the paparazzi, and he accepted. Slater told him he worked for a client waiting on product from Gunther, and he expected it delivered soon or else. Kevin was furious at being threatened during his time of grief, and told Colin off. Yvette drove Kevin and Ben to the Van Horn Industries construction site, hoping to give him some hope for their future. In the main office Ben showed him the new and improved Gunfire armor, and said he'd made a comm system so Kevin could communicate with him in his mobile tracking station. Kevin admitted he'd only suited up as Gunfire to protect something he cared about and was hesitant about the idea of a superhero career. Carlton and his goons, armed with laser guns broke in and threatened Kevin again, but he used his superpowers to drive them away. Colin had his men return and kidnap Yvette, so Kevin changed into Gunfire and went full bore against the criminals. He was forced to kill some of them, which he regretted. Colin's henchman Ricochet arrived with Yvette in tow, demanding Colin's CDI, and Gunfire admitted he had no idea what he was being asked for. Gunfire freed Yvette, they battled, and when the police arrived on the scene Carlton called Ricochet and his men off. Ricochet mumbled that he would have won the fight, but obeyed orders. The next day Ricochet and more of Carlton's goons broke into a Van Horn warehouse looking for the CDI, but Gunfire, with backup from his friends chased them off, and Ricochet was really starting to hate his job. Gunfire's IT man Nakashima cracked Gunther's experimental weapons manifest, and found that the CDI was a cellular de-integrator, arriving at JFK the next night. One of Carlton's goons had a comm link that picked up the conversation, and Ricochet and his men were there to confront Gunfire at JFK. Gunfire shot one of his energy blasts at the CDI, and the resulting explosion knocked Ricochet into Long Island Sound, and he sank to the bottom. Slater reported to his boss, crimelord Solomon Perggia, who decided to take matters into his own hands as the supervillain Purge. Angered by Carlton's failure he turned his power to absorb organic matter on Carlton, turning him into a puddle of tissue. Purge died in his attempt to reclaim his weapons from Gunfire.

(Gunfire #5) - Gunfire's aunt Lacey Von Horn, wanted to wrest control of the company from her nephew, and had Carlton Slater's remains, a mass of organs, placed in an exo-box to keep him alive. The organs were placed in a Van Horn phoenix chamber, which revived Carlton and contained his organs within a plasteel exoskeleton, although he'd suffered great brain damage. She ordered him to disrupt her nephew's conference, but warned him not to hurt Kevin. The press conference had been canceled because of the tumult caused by Zero Hour, but Carlton attacked anyway, brutalizing the Van Horn security guards, and forgetting what he was explicitly told not to do, thought he had to find and kill Andrew Van Horn. Gunfire responded to the attack, and during the battle Carlton saw himself in a mirror. Horrified by what he'd become he stepped out a window to his death.

Comments: Created by Len Wein & Steve Erwin.