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Interests
- Favorite Movies/Anime
- X-Men X-men 2 The Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Favorite Reads
- X-Men The Drizzt Series Born In Sin
About
Mortimer Toynbee was born in York, England and was quickly abandoned by his parents and spent many years in an orphanage, where he was constantly tormented by other children due to his ugliness and strangely shaped body (as his mutant appearance was present from birth). He was considered to be mentally inferior due to his extreme shyness and mild learning disabilities during his primary school years, though he was actually quite intelligent. He dropped out at an extremely early age and decided to fend for himself. Based on years of abuse and knowing full well he was a freak, Mortimer developed a severe inferiority complex, becoming servile to anyone that showed him the slightest bit of affection.Later, he was recruited into Magneto's original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, becoming Magneto's sycophantic 'toady'. The Toad believed that Magneto loved him, while the mutant mastermind considered this henchman little more than a human shield. He was also obsessed with his then-teammate, the Scarlet Witch, leading to a continuing enmity with her and her brother, Quicksilver, though the crush was dropped years later after he saw her pregnant belly and became disgusted.
At one point, Magneto and Toad were captured by the alien Stranger as part of his collection. Magneto managed to escape, but coldly left his lackey Toad behind. When Magneto was re-captured by the Stranger, he took Toad with him during his second escape, but by then Toad's attitude towards his master had already begun to change. Toad realized that Magneto didn't care at all for him and left his side.
Some time later, Toad began to study the Stranger's technology, becoming familiar with it. Over the next several years, Toad attempted to strike out on his own, but met with little success, realizing that he was too dependent on others to work alone. He even tried his hand as a superhero, forming a group called the Misfits with Spider-Kid and Frog-Man. However, Toad suffered from constant depression.
Eventually, Toad left the Misfits and formed his own version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, along with Blob, Pyro, Sauron, and Phantazia. The team met with little success, however.
Years later, still struggling with depression, Toad was captured by Prosh, along with Juggernaut, Iceman, Jean Grey and Mystique as part of a convoluted, time-hopping plan to stop a global threat. Toad learned that his deformed body was the result of experimentation by Juggernaut's father, Kurt Marko, at Alamogordo, New Mexico, which left Toad with an unstable genetic structure. The Stranger's equipment corrected his genetic flaws, resulting in an almost complete metamorphosis: Toad had a taller and slimmer appearance and had his powers augmented. Among the most notable changes was a prehensile tongue.
Though his change improved his self-esteem, Toad continued to live life without direction. He joined several more incarnations of the Brotherhood of Mutants, none of which lasted for long.
Not long after, Toad entered the Madripoor Bloodsport Tournament. In his first fight in the tournament, Toad wrapped his extremely long tongue around the villain known as Eel, crushing his opponent's bones and seemingly killing him instantly. In the next fight, however, Toad battled Wolverine. His new abilities caught the X-Man off guard and he managed to deal some damage. However, his overconfidence led to his defeat. Wolverine spared his life, not wanting to partake in the act of cold-blooded murder.
For reasons unknown, Toad eventually returns to Magneto's side during the Planet X storyline; however, Toad was not as docile and subservient as he had been in the past, even openly questioning Magneto at times. Magneto, in turn, is tyrannical in his treatment of Toad, who had become his second-in-command. At that point, the long-presumed-dead Magneto's image had taken a Che Guevara-like notoriety, and Toad questions if Magneto may have been more powerful dead than alive. Nonetheless, Toad tries to defend his former master, only to be incapacitated by Fantomex, who shoots his kneecaps out. Later Toad is shown to be in front of a huge group of mutants that call him "skull" and blame him for the fact that they didn't have anything to drink or eat. Magneto is soon killed by Wolverine and Toad is among those who gather in the ruins of Genosha to form a monument to him. The small gang he joins includes Paralyzer and the leader, Unus.
It is later revealed that this was not the real Magneto, but a copycat named Xorn. It is unknown if Toad was aware of this. Either way, the real Magneto turns out to be alive after all. So far, Toad has made no known attempts to rejoin him. Unus' gang has come into conflict with Xavier and his allies, who have gained a foothold on Genosha soil.
When a mentally unstable Scarlet Witch warped reality into the mutant-dominant House of M, Toad appeared as a member of Wolverine's Red Guard, and wrote a best-selling book about his time in Magneto's service. When his real memories were restored, he agreed to help the heroes in changing the reality back to normal.
During the battle with the House of M, the Scarlet Witch changed back reality, genetically altering over ninety percent of the world's mutant population and only leaving a few hundred with their powers as a result, Toad among them. After rescuing Lorelei from anti-mutant thugs in Mutant Town, Toad escorted her to the Xavier Institute, where the X-Men had set up a camp for refugee mutants. Once he arrived at the institute he was paired with Fever Pitch as his tent mate, and made his disgust of the Sentinels "watching" them well known.
Toad was among the group of mutants who broke out of the 198 camp, with help from Caliban, Domino, and Shatterstar. The group hid in what they believed was an abandoned nuclear bunker in the Nevada desert. While the X-Men and O*N*E battled outside the bunker, Johnny Dee was instructed by General Lazer to cause chaos amongst the 198. The group of mutants discovered this as Outlaw, being controlled by Johnny, pointed her gun at Domino. Domino's powers caused a misfire, giving Toad a chance to bring Outlaw down.
It was then revealed that the bunker was actually a blast containment chamber, for experimental weapons. As the auto-destruct sequence was initiated, Toad was trapped inside the chamber with the rest of the 198. The X-Men, teaming up with Bishop, Iron Man, and Ms. Marvel, quickly found a way to rescue the trapped mutants and the 198 walked away unharmed.
Powers and Abilities
The Toad's intellect and physical abilities have gone through some changes over the years. In the character's inception, he possessed superhuman leg strength and endurance, agility, reflexes, coordination, and a superhuman ability to leap great distances. However, over the years, the Toad's original powers have increased and he has gained additional powers through further mutation.
Toad's primary mutant ability is a superhuman leaping ability that allows him to leap many times higher and farther than an ordinary human. In his first appearances, Toad had very little knowledge of hand to hand combat, fighting mainly by kicking wildly and by leaping about and attempting to land on his opponents. Recently, he has demonstrated a better sense of combat and a leaner physique, using both his leaping ability and his elongated prehensile tongue to his advantage.
Toad's intellect has increased beyond his original levels and he has had access to vast technological and scientific knowledge, which he gained as a lackey to Magneto and while he was held captive by the Stranger. He has demonstrated the ability to apply this advanced technology, but lacks the creativity to make progress beyond his existing knowledge. For example, while he could build a powerful exoskeletal armor, he would be unable to improve on its base design.
Toad has some degree of superhuman strength and endurance, particularly in his legs which grants him his superior leaping abilities. Toad also has a very flexible spine, allowing him to remain in a crouching position comfortably for hours, though he can stand if he wishes. He also has gained the ability to extend his tongue great distances and ensnare objects and people. His tongue is superhumanly strong and tough to the extent that he once killed a magistrate of Genosha by ensnaring him with his tongue and squeezing him, causing the magistrate to be crushed to death. He is also able to secrete an adhesive resin from his hands and feet as well as an ability to secrete odorless pheremonous venom that he is able to use to control minds to a limited extent.
Toad also possessed the ability to psionically communicate with amphibian life and to expel powerful gusts of wind from his lungs capable of knocking someone down, though he has used both abilities only on one occasion each. It is unclear if these abilities remain, or if Toad has lost them after having his unstable genes re-organized.
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