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DELGADO

Real Name: Marco Delgado

Identity/Class: Human mutant; citizen of Italy

Occupation: Terrorist, criminal

Group Membership: Selene's Undead Army;
formerly Acolytes (Chrome/Allen Marc Yuric, Anne-Marie Cortez, Fabian Cortez, Seamus Mellencamp, Nance Winters, other unidentified members)

Affiliations: Magneto (Max Eisenhardt);
                     formerly X-Men Blue Squad (Beast/Hank McCoy, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Psylocke/Betsy Braddock, Rogue/Anna Marie, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett)

Enemies: Deadpool (Wade Wilson), Genoshan Magistrates (Chief Magistrate Anderson and unidentified others), Moira MacTaggert, SHIELD (Deke, Harry Delgado, Nance Winters, Sasha, other agents), X-Men (Archangel/Warren Worthington III, Banshee/Sean Cassidy, Beast/Hank McCoy, Colossus/Piotr Rasputin, Cyclops/Scott Summers, Forge, Gambit/Remy LeBeau, Psylocke/Betsy Braddock, Rogue/Anna Marie, Storm/Ororo Munroe, Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett), Loa (Alani Ryan)

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
                                   formerly Asteroid M

First Appearance: X-Men II#1 (October, 1991)

Powers/Abilities: Delgado was a mutant with the power to grow in size, strength, speed, and stamina. The upper limits of the size that he could attain and the strength that he could wield were never ascertained. Delgado drew the extra mass that he gained upon using his power from a presumably extradimensional source.

Height: 6'8"
Weight: 240 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History:

(X-Men II#1 - BTS) - Marco Delgado joined a gang of mutants led by the persuasive, charming Fabian Cortez. Together, they decided to seek out Magneto, convinced the master of magnetism was the savior of the mutant race. Somehow learning Magneto was now a hermit, living a reclusive life on Asteroid M above Earth, Yuric and the others decided to commandeer and launch a space worthy vessel to reach the Asteroid. Succeeding in this endeavor, they were nonetheless chased by SHIELD agents on board two other ships.

(X-Men II#1) - Cortez and the others managed to destroy one of the pursuing ships. In spite of this relatively small victory, they still couldn't find the shielded Asteroid M. However, all the commotion outside his home forced Magneto to intervene and stop the firefight on his doorstep. Planning to send every participant in the space drama back to Earth, Magneto was convinced by Anne-Marie Cortez she and her band of mutant brothers were there to pledge their loyalty to him. Intrigued, Magneto brought everyone on board his asteroid home. Not too long after that, Yuric and the other mutants turned on the agents sent to stop them. During the altercation, Anne-Marie Cortez was apparently fatally wounded, which convinced Magneto he needed to take care of his people.

(X-Men II#1 - BTS) - Magneto officially anointed Delgado and the others as his first Acolytes. In order to protect Asteroid M sufficiently, Magneto went down to the wreckage of the Russian nuclear submarine Leningrad (which he had sank years earlier). Determined to extract the still live nuclear missiles, Magneto was confronted by the X-Men who tried to persuade him to standing down. After a brief fight, Magneto escaped with the armaments.

(X-Men II#1) - Delgado joined the other Acolytes and Magneto on an assault on the island of Genosha as payback for the Genoshan government's treatment of mutants. The X-Men's Blue squad opposed them, with Marco Delgado turning out to be a daunting opponent, especially after his teammate Chrome transmutated his flesh into a form that was virtually as dense as Adamantium. Thanks to Chrome, Delgado was now nigh indestructable, even withstanding Wolverine's claws. The X-Men's fight against the Acolytes was interrupted by the arrival of Magneto who stood up for his followers.

(X-Men II#2) - Delgado was present when Chrome stepped in to save his team and messiah from possible defeat when he transmuted the X-Men Blue team into a metal form that prevented them from moving. The master of magnetism then took the captured X-Men back up to Asteroid M.

(X-Men II#2 - BTS) - Magneto, suffering from unexplained injuries, realized long time X-Men associate Moira MacTaggert had been meddling with his DNA after he was taken into her care following a rejuvenation by Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. Incensed and outraged, Magneto went down to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters and abducted both MacTaggert and Professor Xavier. Interrogating MacTaggert, Magneto learned how the Scottish bio-geneticist used her scientific knowledge to alter his mind when he was but a helpless toddler. He then forced her to use this technique on the captured X-Men. Chrome looked on as Moira turned the X-Men's minds, making them loyal to Magneto.

(X-Men II#3) - Delgado and the other Acolytes were relaxing in Asteroid M's inside pool with their newest teammates, the X-Men Blue team. However, Wolverine alerted them to the covert approach of the X-Men Gold Team. Soon, both X-Men factions were fighting one another, only to be interrupted by Magneto and his Acolytes, Delgado beside him. The fight was disrupted when SHIELD, the UN and the American and Russian governments okayed the initiation of the Magneto Protocols which caused a series of satellites to fire laser cannons on Asteroid M. The initial impacts caused the X-Men to retreat, with Chrome and the other Acolytes to stay at Magneto's side, who refused to abandon the proverbial ship.

(Uncanny X-Men I#304 (fb) - BTS) - As Asteroid M was being destroyed by the UN's laser cannon network, the Acolytes gathered around Magneto in his throne room. Convinced they were about to die, Delgado and the Acolytes joined in a prayer chant next to Magneto's throne. Chrome then called upon all of his quantum transmutative abilities to turn the Acolytes and Magneto's bodies into a form close to indestructible omnium. The part of the Asteroid M containing the throne room landed in Kuwait.

(Uncanny X-Men I#299) - Forge, Henry Peter Gyrich and a SHIELD research team went to Kuwait to investigate the piece of Asteroid M that crashed in the desert. Investigating the wreckage, Gyrich and Forge discovered the deceased Acolytes huddled in front of Magneto's armor which appeared to have burst open from the inside out, like a butterfly's cocoon.

(X-Men Legacy I#225 - BTS) - Delgado was seen in the image Exodus generated of the Acolytes, when he tried to convince Charles Xavier his crusade on behalf of mutantkind was just. In response, Xavier pointed out that many of them had died, to which Exodus replied that it was simply the nature of a crusade.

(X-Force Annual III#1/2) - When Selene raised a small army of the X-Men's deceased friends and enemies to send against the team, Delgado was among them. He teamed up with Fabian Cortez and Seamus Mellencamp to have their revenge on Magneto who they learned was living with the X-Men now. Once they arrived on Utopia, they didn't find Magnus (who was in Scotland fighting the revived Proteus). Instead, they ran into Deadpool and the X-Men student Loa. After a while the Merc with a Mouth's inane chatter started to annoy Delgado who tried to hit him and got his arm cut off. Delgado's arm grew right back and he even survived getting stabbed in the head. As Loa looked on in terror, Deadpool pulled out the big guns and fought Delgado and the the others for 20 minutes, only losing to them in the end. The fighting was essentially over when Loa accidentally merged with Seamus Mellencamp, completely destroying his revived remains within seconds. Putting two and two together, Deadpool grabbed the young girl and forcefully shoved her inside Delgado and Cortez, supposedly killing them too.

(Magneto IV#6 (fb) - BTS) - As he prepared himself to take down Mr. Sinister's Marauders once and for all, Magneto considered the many times he had used mutants as his underlings. He thought back on the Brotherhood and the Acolytes and though he admitted he'd raised himself above them as a messiah, he never absolved them of their loyalty to their species, unlike the Marauders who were merely supposed to serve as instruments of murder.

Comments: Created by Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks).

In X-Men Annual II#1/3 Delgado, the Acolytes and Magneto ranked 2nd in the X-Men's list of most dangerous enemies, the first being fear of mutantkind and ignorance of other races' equality.

In Marvel Atlas#1 it was revealed that Delgado was from Italy.

Ah, the Delgado conundrum...  It was more than a little confusing to have two rather similar looking guys called Delgado show up in X-Men II#1. One a SHIELD agent out to capture the other who was planning to become Magneto's disciple. For a while, it was assumed that Anne-Marie Cortez possessed mind control powers and that she'd simply forced Delgado to join the mutants he was trying to bring in. Marvel's current policy is that there were actually two individual, unrelated Delgados appearing in those pages.

Delgado, either solo or part of the Acolytes, received profiles in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z#1 (2008), All New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe#1, Heroic Age: X-Men#1 and Marvel Encyclopedia: X-Men.

Profile by Norvo.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Marco Delgado should not be confused with

images: (without ads)
X-Men II#1, p42, pan2 (main image)
X-Men II#1, p43, pan1&2 (fighting Rogue)
X-Force Annual III#1, p30, pans4,5,6 (revived by Selene and fighting)

Appearances:
X-Men II#1 (October, 1991) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men II#2 (November, 1991) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men II#3 (December, 1991) - Chris Claremont (writer), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men Annual I#1 (May, 1992) - Dan Slott (writer), Karl Altstaetter (pencils), Scott Williams & Brad Vancata (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#299 (May, 1993) - Scott Lobdell (writer), John Romita Jr. (pencils), Dan Green (inks), Bob Harras (editor)
X-Men Legacy I#225 (August, 2009) - Mike Carey (writer), Phil Briones (pencils & inks), Nick Lowe (editor)
X-Force Annual III#1 (February, 2010) - Craig Kyle & Christopher Yost (writers), Carlo Barberi (pencils), Sandu Florea (inks), Axel Alonso (editor)
Magneto IV#6 (July, 2014) - Cullen Bunn (writer), Javier Fernandez (pencils and inks), Daniel Ketchum (editor)

First Posted: 03/30/2015
Last Updated: 03/30/2015

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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