Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
He was first introduced to us as a Reaver but now he is an X-man and important member of Krakoan society: Elixir.
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Appearances in Heroclix: House of X, Giant-Size X-Men
First Appearance: New Mutants (Vol. 2) #5
Team Affiliantions: X-Force, X-Men, The Five
Created by: Keron Grant, Christina Weir and Nunzio DeFilippis
Josh Foley, later known as Elixir, first discovers he is a mutant during his time with the anti-mutant group the Reavers. The other Reavers don’t notice at first, allowing Josh to save fellow mutant Laurie Collins. Once it becomes too obvious to notice, his parents throw him out of their home and eventually sign over legal guardianship to Dani Moonstar. With no where else to go, Elixir joins the Xavier Institute.
Rahne Sinclair, now powerless, visits the X-Mansion and immediately becomes the object of Josh’s affection. Exilir sneaks out of the school and follows Rahne to a bar. The two quickly connect and form a bond. As the pair kiss, Elixir accidentally restores Rahne’s powers and as she transforms, she loses control of her faculties and injures the X-student. Laurie happens to be at the same bar and, after seeing what happens, drives Rahne away and rushes Josh to the X-mansion’s infirmary. Beast reveals the results of a study of Exilir’s powers: Josh is capable of manipulating every function of the body on a genetic level, “healing” is the smallest application of his powers. As such, they end up shocking Elixir back to consciousness so that he can heal himself. Still not confident in the use of his powers, he also transforms his skin and hair to a gold color. Once he is recovered, he is assigned to Dani’s New Mutant squad and given his code name for the first time: Elixir.
Elixir and Rahne continue their relationship in secret, even after Rahne becomes an instructor at the Institute. This goes on until Elixir goes on a date with Laurie causing Rahne to end things. When Wither reveals Rahne and Elixir’s previous relationship to the New Mutant team, it leads to in-fighting and conflict among the squad. This becomes such a problem that Dani forces them to go on a retreat and work through all their issues.
The Decimation leaves only 27 of the students at the Institute with their powers. Fearing for the safety of the depowered mutants, Emma orders them off the grounds. One bus load of depowered students is bombed by the Reverend William Stryker and though Elixir tries valiantly, he is unable to heal his former classmates. Elixir is incredibly depressed following this attack but still manages to qualify for the next iteration of the New X-Men.
What follows is a dark time in Elixir’s life. He almost severely injures Colossus by striking the Russian over the head with a metal beam when Piotr is powered down. This leads to Elixir being temporarily kicked off of the New X-Men. Soon after, Laurie is killed by one of Stryker’s men which enrages Elixir and causes him to use his powers to kill Stryker. Afterwards, Elixir falls into a catatonic state and his golden skin darkens to a metallic black.
The X-Men battle against Nimrod and X-23 is mortally wounded, her powers unable to heal her. Hellion rushes X-23 back to the Institute and reaches out to Elixir with the help of Emma Frost. Hellion is able to reach Elixir through his depressive state and Josh wakes up in time to heal X-23. With this act, his skin returns to its golden color and he becomes determined to learn how to best use his powers and heal others. He reaches out to Beast and asks the senior mutant to teach him all that he can about biology, physiology and anatomy. The Stepford Cuckoos help Elixir become more powerful by simply copying the information from Beast’s brain and downloading it into Elixir’s.
Elixir is about to have his memories of the X-Force covert team erased when the team is called for a mission. They bring him along and give him an all black uniform. They capture the Vanisher and Elixir gives the mutant villain a brain tumor. Soon after, X-23 contracts the Legacy Virus and is determined to end her life before the incredible pain that the late states of the disease can cause. Elixir talks her out of it and is able to boost her healing factor to cure her of it.
Elixir, along with the rest of X-Force, is sent into the future to retrieve Cable and the infant Hope Summers. Upon their arrival, Elixir devolves into a hysterical state over his inability to save his friends from the Leper Queen. During this adventure, Vanisher also keeps asking Elixir to heal the brain tumor, only to be rebuked. Eventually they are led to Cable and Hope. When they return to the present, Elixir heals two of his friends only to fall into a coma as a result of the strain.
Some time later, Wolfsbane collapses after a battle with the Frost Giants. Her lover, Hrimhair, travels to Utopia and is offered a bargain by the goddess of death, Hela. She reveals that Rahne is pregnant and she will heal one person of his choosing. Hela is clearly trying to make Hrimhari choose between his lover or his child and instead he chooses Elixir. Once Elixir regains consciousness, he is able to heal Rahne enough to survive the pregnancy. He accompanies X-Force to Genosha during the Necrosha event and decides to inform Vanisher that he had removed the brain tumor while they were in the future. However, Vanisher has another disease that is actually making him constantly sick. After Selene is defeated, Elixir quits X-Force.
When Sharp and his team begins abducting mutants after Wolverine is entombed in adamantium, Elixir is among those captured. He is still unable to use any of his healing powers and is only able to create disease and death. Once Sharp retreats, Josh is among those that return to Utopia.
Josh eventually leaves the mutant nation and joins a church group, hoping to find peace within himself. Sabretooth and M seek him out, informing him that someone is killing mutant healers. Soon after, the Dark Riders attack the group and mortally wound as many of the volunteers as they can. Elixir jumps into action and begins healing as many people as he can. Of course, this was simply a trap and Gauntlet shoots and seemingly kills Josh.
Josh’s powers will not allow him to remain dead, however. He comes back to life in his grave and is mentally shaken by the experience. He travels to Genosha and begins to test the limits of his powers by torturing, killing and then resurrecting the Dark Riders. Over. And over. Magneto learns of Josh’s resurrection and takes a team to retrieve him. Once they find him, they take him to a center where mutants are being treated for M-Pox. Josh heals all the mutants there but loses himself in the exertion of his powers and almost drains the life from all the human volunteers there. The X-Men are able to calm him down and take him to Xorn’s retreat, where they hope he will be able to work through his trauma.
Not long after, Exodus arrives and asks Elixir to help him. The pair travel to the Savage Land where Magneto has been fatally stabbed by Psylocke. Elixir is able to heal the master of magnetism before Exodus invites his former leader to join them. Magneto declines, telling them that it is better if mutantkind believes he is dead. After the release of the Mothervine virus, however, Magneto reaches out to the pair and the trio begin battling the virus. They are able to cure all the initial impact zones of the virus before teleporting to the main stronghold. Once there, Magneto and Exodus are able to hold off the villains while Elixir makes the virus completely inert and harmless.
After the nation of Krakoa is formed, thanks to a partnership between Magneto and Professor X, Exilir is chosen to become part of The Five. These Five mutants are chosen for the combination of their unique powers and are basically able to resurrect any mutant, ending the threat of death to mutants once and for all.