A-IX

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-97464) human cyborg

Occupation: Cyborg assassin;
   possibly formerly Marine

Group Membership: Possibly formerly U.S. Marines

Affiliations: Garrison Gage, Cadre

Enemies: Boss Chadwick, Garrison Gage, Alfredo Gemini, Lu-Ann Wong

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: A-Nine, the Assassin, the Mercy Island Assassin, the Mercy Island Terrorist

Base of Operations: Bedlam, U.S.A. 

First Appearance: The Man Called A-X#1 (November 1994)

Powers/Abilities: A-IX was a cyborg possessing lew-level superhuman strength, enhanced reflexes and agility. Though not apparently capable of breathing underwater he could hold his breath for several minutes at a time, and was an excellent swimmer. His bionic eyes provided him with telescopic vision. He carried numerous high caliber firearms, grenades and limpet mines. He could regenerate from injuries, up to the point of regrowing severed body parts, and though bullets could penetrate his skin, they couldn't damage his metal skeleton beneath, so that small caliber projectiles were little more than a nuisance to him. 

Height: 6'6" (by guesstimation)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Red
Hair: Black

History:
(Man Called A-X#1 (fb) - BTS) - Bedlam was an East Coast city that had been run by criminal gangs, known as the Full Circle families, since the 1920s.

(Man Called A-X#5 (fb) - BTS) - One of the city's crimelords was Garrison Gage, who controlled the city's power and water supplies.

(Man Called A-X II#1 (fb)) - Gage was also part of an international organization known as the Cadre.

(Man Called A-X#5 (fb) - BTS/Man Called A-X II#1 (FB) - BTS) - They hoped to create obedient cyborg soldiers to seize control around the world. Aiming to be ready for around the year 2000, they launched the Millennia Project. Initially they needed larger host bodies for the bionic parts to fit within their frame, such as marines slain during Desert Storm or athletes, but in time they learned to miniaturize the parts to fit bodies of any size. For a decade it gradually created a series of prototypes, A-I through A-X.

(Man Called A-X II#7 (fb) - BTS) - A-IXs were designed to be expendable ground-pounders.

(Man Called A-X II#1 (fb) - BTS) - Models A-XIII and A-IX were secretly field tested throughout 1997 and 1998 against various super-heroes. The final A-IX models were, with the exception of a nearly immeasurably slow reaction time, nearly perfect. But the Cadre wanted perfection, so the A-X prototype was developed, his human brain kept intact to permit instinctual reaction, rather than being replaced by a cyborg brain.

(Man Called A-X#5 (fb) - BTS) - Intending to eliminate his rival mobsters, Gage deployed A-VIII to start assassinating the other mobsters. In order to ensure the other bosses didn't suspect he was behind the killings, Gage had the cyborg target him too, though he naturally ensured it would fail.

(Man Called A-X#1 (fb) - BTS) - A month after his predecessor A-VIII was seemingly destroyed after failing to eliminate the Full Circle mobster families that had run Bedlam since the 1930s, A-IX was sent to continue the job.

(Man Called A-X#0 (fb)) - Swimming underwater, A-IX approached unnoticed the yacht of Alfredo Gemini, the crimelord who ran Bedlam's illegal gambling operations, and planted a limpet mine on it, blowing the vessel and its owner to pieces.

(Man Called A-X#1 (fb)) - A-IX emerged from the waters near Mercy Island, climbed out onto the docks near the power planet that supplied the city,...

(Man Called A-X#0 (fb)) - breached the security, killing the guards who got in his way, and planted another limpet mine.

(Man Called A-X#5 (fb) - BTS) - Gage already had another secret plant ready to go, so destroying his old one was part of the show intended to fool his fellow mobsters into not realizing he was controlling the cyborg.

(Man Called A-X#0 (fb)) - Gage was hosting a meeting of several mobs bosses in his office at the power plant. A-IX crashed it, declaring that crime was finished in Bedlam and Gage was a dead man. He slew some of those present, but before he could eliminate Gage the mobster...

(Man Called A-X#1 (fb) - BTS/Man Called A-X#2 (fb)) - activated hidden high-powered lasers, killing A-IX. Gage instructed his men to remove the body and have it dissected, then to bury him in the dump, though not in one piece, supposedly because Gage wanted to ensure the killer didn't return a third time.

(Man Called A-X#0 (fb)/Man Called A-X#1 (fb) - BTS) - As the guards were carrying A-IX away the bombs he had planted earlier on the power plant detonated, blowing the transmitters and plunging the entire city into darkness. With all the transmitters linked, the entirety of Mercy Island soon blew up too, though Gage and the mobsters evacuated in time to an underground bunker.

(Man Called A-X#3 (fb) - BTS) - Presumably at the dissection mobster Boss Chadwick watched as rival crimelord Lu-Ann Wong, dug her fingers into the cyborg's right eye and yanked it free. Then they burned the flesh off him...

(Man Called A-X#1 (fb) - BTS) - and had his remains dumped in the city incinerator...

(Man Called A-X#3 (fb) - BTS) - under five tons of earth and garbage.

(Man Called A-X#1 - BTS) - A couple of nights later A-X was sent in to finish the mission. Because he looked so similar to A-IX everyone in the city assumed he was the same assassin; having no memories prior to being deployed, A-X initially believed this too when he heard of the prior attacks.

(Man Called A-X#4 - BTS) - Because A-X was designed to act independently in action and thus alter his battle strategies as new input demanded, with his functions routed through his original human brain, he began to question his orders and ultimately turn against his masters.

 (Man Called A-X#3) - After a few days constantly hearing that he was supposed to be dissected and dead in the dump, A-X and reporter Elizabeth Winters went there to check and uncovered A-IX's remains.

(Man Called A-X#0 (fb) - BTS) - Alongside the body they found A-IX's belt buckle with his codename inscribed on it, and thus realized A-X was A-Ten rather than Ax, and that he was a different assassin than A-IX.

Man called A-X II#7

Comments: Created by Marv Wolfman and Shawn McManus.

   Man Called A-X is deliberately somewhat confusing at the start of the series when it comes to telling when we are watching A-IX in action versus when we are seeing A-X, since it is a story point that the characters in the story (and thus the readers) don't immediately realize there are two almost identical looking cyborgs until later in the tale, and that A-IX was responsible for the initial attacks that A-X is blamed for. The tell-tale clue is that A-X has a metal faceplate over his left eye, at least until he takes an acid dip towards the end of the original miniseries and regenerates thereafter. So any flashbacks that depict what looks like A-X but without that metal plate are actually A-IX.

   The second miniseries reveals that the numbers are classes of cyborgs, not individuals, as it introduces multiple new A-X and then A-XI series cyborgs. However, it does seem that prior to this, while they are meant to be design classes, there is still only one cyborg of each of the early classes, since the scientists were still working out the glitches. They do mention in Man Called A-X#5 that the conversion rate is only 9% successful, with a high fatality rate, so presumably there were lots of other failed cyborgs, but since there are no gaps in the numbering it would seem they only bothered to give names to the successes.

   A-IX definitely lives in a world of superheroes, as Garrison Gage mentions having heard of such beings, just not in Bedlam.

   This profile was completed on 09/19/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to represent Man Called A-X.

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
A-IX was the ninth in the series that also included

but has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
The Man Called A-X#1, p2-3, pan1 (main image)
The Man Called A-X#0, p20, pan2 (headshot)
The Man Called A-X II#1, p13, pan1 (standing tall)
The Man Called A-X#0, p19, pan4 (crashing in on Garrison Gage)
The Man Called A-X#0, p20, pan4-6 (sliced by lasers)
The Man Called A-X#3, p22-23 (remains)

Appearances:
The Man Called A-X#1-3 (November 1994-January 1995) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Shawn McManus (art), Dan Danko (editor)
The Man Called A-X#0 (February 1995) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Shawn McManus (art), Dan Danko (editor)
The Man Called A-X II#1 (October 1997) - Marv Wolfman (writer), Shawn McManus (art), Peter Tomasi (editor)

First Posted: 09/21/2026
 Last updated: 09/19/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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