- Name: Angelo Unuscione (Gunther Bain)
- Code Names: Unus the Untouchable
- First Appearance: X-Men #8 (Nov ‘64)
- Powers: Personal Force Field
- Teams Affiliation: Factor Three, Brotherhood of Mutants, Secret Empire
About
While Stan Lee and Jack Kirby didn’t do their best work on X-Men, they were able to create many important and long lasting characters. The Original Five, Professor X, Magneto, Quicksilver and Scarlett Witch, Toad, The Blob, Juggernaut, The Sentinels! They all first appeared in that 17 issue stretch of the Silver Age. The pair wasn’t always perfect and that lead to characters like Unus the Untouchable. This Italian pro wrestler had the uncanny ability to generate force fields, allowing himself to remain untouched by his opponents in what I can only assume would be the most boring wrestling matches ever. Unus found a way to leave his mark on comics creators and continued to show up time and time again, proving that in comics even the bad ideas don’t stay dead.
After experiencing an anti-mutant mob, Hank McCoy decided that he was done with the X-Men in issue #8. The genius level mutant determined that the best use of his skill was to become a pro wrestler (brilliantly named “The Beast”) and make his money using his mutant abilities where no one would be suspicious. His first make was against the reigning champion, Unus the Untouchable! The bouncing Beast sprang into action, but was unnaturally repelled from Unus at every turn. Unus laughed and made quick work of the youngster, winning by a ring-out. Hank scanned the crowed and saw a familiar face, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants member, Mastermind! The Beast deduced the Unus was in fact a mutant but decided that it was no longer his problem as he wasn’t an X-Man any longer.
Art by Jack Kirby
Mastermind met up with Unus to provide exposition, Magneto would allow Unus to join the Brotherhood if he could prove himself by finding the X-Men or beating one of them in combat. As Unus was walking down the street, contemplating how to do that, a convenient bank robbery drew the X-Men’s attention. Unus was unconcerned with X-Men hurting him, taking the time to neatly fold his slacks and change into his wrestling outfit. The X-Men couldn’t do anything to stop him and Unus to the opportunity to use his “break-proof wrestling hold” against the winged wonder. Angel flew away with Unus holding on for dear life, and left him on top of a tall building. The X-Men went home assuming that everything would work itself out.
At the mansion the X-Men discovered their long lost companion Beast had returned and created a weapon to boost Unus’ power and was planning on using it. The other X-Men were, understandable, confused and tried to stop Hank from powering up this new foe. The Beast was too quick and was able to find Unus back at the gym and give him a huge power boost. Again, the X-Men just left assuming that everything would work itself out. Unus found out that this new power came with a cost, he couldn’t control it, he couldn’t sit in chairs any more, he couldn’t pick up cigarettes any more, and he couldn’t eat steak anymore. The X-Men returned to a distraught Unus who begged forgiveness and asked for the power up to be reversed, pledging to never use his powers for evil again and to just go back to the ‘rasslin ring where he belonged.
Art by Jack Kirby
12 issues later he and Blob robbed a bank together in X-Men cosplay. He would continue to show up in these bit roles for the next 30 years, battling the Defenders, the Champions, Heroes for Hire, and other lower tier heroes. He became connected to the greater Marvel Universe with a son (Radius) on Alpha Flight and a potential daughter or sister (it was never clear) on the Acolytes (Unuscione). In a battle with Spider-Man he was presumed dead after he created a force field so strong that he suffocated himself.
With no explanation other than Grant Morrison loves the Silver Age, Unus showed up alive on Genosha after the attack by Cassandra Nova. He claimed to be haunted by the ghosts of Genosha, which were revealed to be electro-magnetic signals being repeated by a hysterical Polaris. Unus aligned himself with the remaining mutants on Genosha and often found himself at odds with Xavier and Magneto’s attempts to rebuild the island nation. Unus lost his mutant abilities after the events of M-Day and stayed on Genosha. He was cautious when Quicksiver offered to give him back his powers thanks to the Terrigen Crystals that were stolen from the Inhumans. The Royal Family was not pleased with Pietro’s actions and attacked the newly powered mutants on Genosha. Karnak, the Inhuman with the ability to see the flaw in all things, was unable to find one in Unus’ force field. Unfortunately the Terrigen Crystals enhanced his powers so much that he was unable to breathe and suffocated to death, again. He was revived during Necrosha and has since appeared in Spider-Man and the X-Men.
Art by Roy Allen Martinez
Must Read
Unus doesn’t have any real stand out stories. He has always felt like a guy that just exists in the X-Universe but has never been important to it. His first appearance in X-Men #8 is very dated but is a fun distillation of Silver Age X-Men. You can see the seeds planted that writers like Claremont would later use to make the franchise what it is today. There is a lot of crossover appeal between wrestling and comics so fans of both should find something to enjoy. The issue is also where Beast pulls the Original Five out of in All-New X-Men, so there in a nice little tie-in to modern comics there.
Art by Jack Kirby
Ranking
This is the easiest one I have done yet. There is one other villain on this list and if I am going to have a minor X-Men villain show up, I would much rather it be Avalanche than Unus. He suffers from being so boring, he is a bad guy because the X-Men need to fight someone in an issue. He has the depth of the puddle. He power set isn’t visually interesting, his design is not up to the standards I have for Kirby, and his personality isn’t a thing. There will be people ranked lower than Unus on this list but from the requests I have so far, there is only one guy that might even come close. Unus might make the bottom part of this list untouchable, as number 8 in the Xavier Files.
Unus was requested by an Anonymous on tumblr. Thanks for the request! If YOU have a character you want me to do, send me a message on my Ask Box and I’ll get it added to the list. If you send it anonymously I can’t respond privately to you which means if there is an issue or something I think you should know, I can’t tell you and that would be sad. I am a good 11 weeks deep with requests so don’t be shocked if it takes a little bit to get to yours, I am on it! Thanks for reading!
Zachary Jenkins co-hosts the podcast Battle of the Atom and is the former editor-in-chief of ComicsXF. Shocking everyone, he has a full and vibrant life outside all this.
