History
Unable to pass as normal due to the external physical changes their mutations caused, the Morlocks squatted in a network of abandoned, interconnected tunnels beneath Manhattan, which had originally been built as Cold War bomb shelters and then forgotten. The Morlocks were largely a peaceful group but misguided attempts to gain something from the surface world occasionally brought them into conflicts.
The most famous incident occurred when the X-Men were alerted to the existence of the Morlocks after their leader Callisto kidnapped the X-Man Angel and intended to make him her mate. The X-Men realized they could not rescue Angel without ruling over the numerous Morlocks. This brought Storm to challenge Callisto to a duel. The prize of the duel was to become the leader of the Morlocks.
As field leader of the X-Men, Storm determined that she should be who duels Callisto. To everyone's surprise, Storm defeats Callisto in hand-to-hand combat. She rescues Angel and becomes the de facto leader of the Morlocks, although she does not assume the role full-time. Against her wishes, the Morlocks later kidnap the child superheroes Power Pack so that they could be raised by the Morlock Annalee, who had lost her own children. When Power Pack confronts Annalee, she lets them go willingly. They promise to return in the future to keep her company.
A majority of the Morlocks were slaughtered by Mister Sinister's Marauders in the Mutant Massacre. Most of the few survivors moved on to join Gene Nation, having lived in a pocket dimension led by Mikhail Rasputin. Other survivors of the massacre end up elsewhere; for example, Leech and Artie become wards of Generation X. Other survivors include Erg and Beautiful Dreamer (whose whereabouts was unknown until Decimation); Thornn, who would join X-Corporation; and Caliban.
It is later revealed that many of the Morlocks were actually failed experiments of the Dark Beast, which is why Mr. Sinister sought to destroy them, seeing his handiwork in them.
A new group which calls itself Those Who Live in Darkness have inhabited the sewer tunnels just below the surface of Mutant Town/District X. District X writer David Hine claims to never have intended this group to have any ties to the original Morlocks.
Read more about this topic: Morlocks (comics)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“When the landscape buckles and jerks around, when a dust column of debris rises from the collapse of a block of buildings on bodies that could have been your own, when the staves of history fall awry and the barrel of time bursts apart, some turn to prayer, some to poetry: words in the memory, a stained book carried close to the body, the notebook scribbled by hand—a center of gravity.”
—Adrienne Rich (b. 1929)
“When we of the so-called better classes are scared as men were never scared in history at material ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage until our house can be artistic, and quake at the thought of having a child without a bank-account and doomed to manual labor, it is time for thinking men to protest against so unmanly and irreligious a state of opinion.”
—William James (1842–1910)
“I saw the Arab map.
It resembled a mare shuffling on,
dragging its history like saddlebags,
nearing its tomb and the pitch of hell.”
—Adonis [Ali Ahmed Said] (b. 1930)