The Cyclops either killed or kept prisoner by the villainous Orchis group. With other mutants deported to Mars - which was recently settled as the mutant world Arakko - the X-Men have anyone and everyone possible working to keep mutantkind alive.
One such recruit is Woofer - a mutant with the ability to transform light into sound. Introduced in Gerry Duggan and Joshua Cassara's X-Men #22, Woofer was just officially recruited to the X-Men by Kate Pryde in Duggan and Stefano Caselli's X-Men #25.
However, in an interview with AIPT, Duggan reveals that Woofer was initially conceived to form a mutant circuit with Dazzler. Also known as Alison Blaire, this mutant hero was a candidate in the recent fan vote to decide the final member of the new X-Men team. While she lost out to Juggernaut, Woofer was introduced to set up a potentially endless loop of sound and light energy should Dazzler make the team. Saying that he likes to be ready for every eventuality - and has never yet correctly predicted the fan vote - Duggan explains:
I felt Woofer would’ve been a really interesting person to have on the board if Dazzler had been voted onto the team. That’s a circuit that could potentially create an unlimited amount of energy. And I’m not saying that maybe someday they don’t get to connect, but I also needed someone that I could establish on Earth that would visually be visible when on Arakko, that someone could go, "I recognize that character and that character is important." That character met the X-Men on Earth, was saved by the X-Men, and then just had a blood-covered ninja go, "You’re on the X-Men now - act appropriately." I think that’s exhilarating - maybe once in your life when you get to be a hero.
Woofer Forms a Mutant Circuit with X-Men's Dazzler
Despite often being seen as a novelty character - originally designed as part of a plan to release actual music from a fictional pop star - Dazzler is wildly powerful. Not only is her mutant ability strong enough to kill Thanos given a big enough power source (like Black Bolt's voice), but she is also mysteriously immortal for reasons Marvel has yet to reveal. With Woofer converting - and seemingly amplifying - light into sound, and Dazzler turning sound into offensive light attacks, the two would have made an unbeatable mutant circuit. This is something that has been a major focus of recent X-Men comics - mutants combining their abilities to reach new heights of power.
X-Men Fans Missed Out on a God-Tier Dazzler... Or Did They?
Sadly for fans, Dazzler didn't win the vote, and was unceremoniously killed by the lethal Sentinel known as Nimrod at the Hellfire Gala. Despite this, it's possible Dazzler could return, especially given the aforementioned healing factor which allows her to recover from death (or at least has in the past, in a handful of potentially forgotten stories.) If she does, she and Woofer would have the power to vaporize nearly any foe - including Nimrod, who so far has proved unbeatable.
For Now, Woofer Is the X-Men's Agent on Arakko
Until then, however, Woofer is in a terrible situation. Orchis has forced many of Earth's mutants off-planet to Arakko - a warlike world run by an offshoot group of mutants with their own society, which is based around extreme self-sufficiency. Not knowing the rules of this world, and with no-one he even knows on the planet, Woofer will have his work cut out to survive - let alone get a lay of the land as Kate Pryde has instructed him to do as a new X-Men recruit.
X-Men has a long history of adding young to see the team through a different lens, and Woofer is a fascinating addition in this pattern - however, he's also one half of perhaps the most powerful mutant circuit possible, and fans will be waiting with bated breath to see him fulfill his original purpose by teaming-up with Dazzler, and unlocking the maximum extent of their complementary powers.
X-Men #25 is available now from Marvel Comics.
Source: Chris Hassan, AIPT
