Real name: Unrevealed
Other aliases: The Maker
Identity: Not secret, but Forge is apparently not well-known by the general public
Occupation: Inventor working for the U.S. government, former soldier
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Unrevealed, presumably in the American West
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: None
Base of operations: (current) Arlington, Virginia, (former) Eagle Plaza, Texas; Muir Island, Scotland
Group affiliation: X-Factor
First appearance: X-MEN #184

History: The man known as Forge is a Cheyenne Indian who was once the pupil of Naze, a shaman in his tribe. Forge developed considerable mystical powers as a result of the training Naze gave him. Forge is also a mutant with an unusual talent for inventing mechanical devices.

Forge served in the Vietnam War and lost his right hand and right leg in a B-52 attack. He sank into a suicidal depression and tried unsuccessfully to kill himself. Forge designed an artificial hand and leg to replace those he had lost. For reasons connected with the war that have not yet been made clear, Forge decided to give up the use of his ability to wield magic. For the most part he has not used his mystical abilities in at least ten years.

Forge concentrated instead on his career as an inventor, and, when Anthony Stark ceased making advanced weaponry for the federal government, the Defense Department began commissioning new weaponry from Forge instead.

The government commissioned Forge to devise a means of detecting and combating the shape-changing alien Dire Wraiths. Forge created a scanner device that could detect the presence of superhumanly powerful mutants and extraterrestrials in its wielder's vicinity, and could even specifically differentiate between Dire Wraiths and other aliens. Forge also created a neutralizer device that could theoretically deprive any superhumanly powerful being of his or her superhuman abilities.

On presidential orders Henry Peter Gyrich, an agent of the National Security Council, took possession of the only existing model of Forge's neutralizer in order to use it against Rogue, a member of the mutant X-Men who was falsely suspected of killing an agent of the intelligence organization S.H.I.E.L.D. Forge was outraged; the neutralizer was still untested, and he did not know if it would remove a target's superhuman powers temporarily or permanently, or possibly even kill him or her. Forge physically attempted to prevent Gyrich from using the device on Rogue, but Gyrich instead shot Rogue's fellow X-Man Storm with it, as she attempted to protect her colleague. Her own superhuman powers apparently entirely removed, Storm fell into a river, from which Forge rescued her.

Feeling guilt and responsibility for the loss of her powers, Forge brought Storm to his headquarters in Dallas, Texas. There Storm revived, and she and Forge grew strongly attached to each other. However, when Storm learned that Forge had designed the neutralizer gun that had deprived her of her powers, she felt betrayed. Furious at Forge, she left his building, but returned on learning he was in danger from the Dire Wraiths. The Wraiths were aware that Forge's neutralizer could not, in its present stage of development, harm them and intended to kill him before he could improve it. Together, Storm, Forge, the X-Men, Magik, and the sorceress Amanda Sefton defeated the Wraiths who came after Forge, but Storm's hatred of Forge persisted.

Forge further improved his neutralizer so that it would negate the Wraiths' mystical abilities, and created several of these improved devices, but he was still guilt-ridden over Storm's loss of her powers. Fearing that people would use his neutralizers against other superhuman Earth beings, Forge did not want to give them the devices even for use against the Dire Wraiths. But after joining forces with the Wraiths' greatest foe, the space knight Rom, to battle Wraiths in Dallas, Forge decided to construct a gigantic "neo-neutralizer" in Earth's orbit. Powered by Rom's own neutralizer, Forge's orbiting device could cast all the Dire Wraiths on Earth into other-dimensional Limbo.

But Gyrich intended to use the neo-neutralizer to eliminate the superhuman powers of every being on Earth. To thwart Gyrich's plan, Rom and Forge aimed the neo-neutralizer not at Earth but at the Wraith's homeworld, Wraithworld, which was approaching Earth through hyperspace. The device negated Wraithworld's magic, the source of the Wraiths' own mystical powers, therefore causing Wraithworld to cease to exist and depriving Wraiths throughout the universe of their mystical abilities. Thus Forge is responsible for saving Earth from the Dire Wraiths.

Forge has ensured that the neo-neutralizer cannot be used against Earth's superhumanly powerful beings, and all known specimens of Forge's neutralizer have been destroyed. One neutralizer was used by Tony Stark to depower the superhuman criminal, the Termite, and was subsequently destoyed.

Forge was forced to use his mystical abilities again when the X-Men battled the Adversary, a demonic mystical entity which had taken the form of Forge's teacher Naze. It was revealed that Forge, using the souls of nine soldiers from the Vietnam War, had opened a portal that released the Adversary. In order to banish the Adversary, Forge was forced to use the souls of eight X-Men and Madelyne Pryor, who were restored to life by Roma.

When the presumed-dead X-Men returned, Forge returned to the Xavier Manison from Muir Island. A romance developed between Storm and him, Forge proposed to Storm, but rescinded his offer when he left the mansion to rehabilitate Mystique.

Forge has recently been consigned by the United States government to lead the government's mutant team X-Factor, where he currently remains.

Height: 6 ft.
Weight: 180 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
Other distinguishing features: Forge has a bionic right leg

Special skills and abilities: Expertise in many areas of science and technology, extensive knowledge of American Indian magic.

Strength level: Forge possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in regular exercise.

Known superhuman powers: Forge is a mutant with a superhuman talent for inventing mechanical devices. Forge's mutant ability functions in a similar fashion to Cypher's mutant ability to understand languages. Forge's superhuman talent for invention does not mean that he is a greater inventor than geniuses such as Reed Richards, Victor von Doom, or Anthony Stark, none of whom owe their talent for invention to mutation. But even a genius at invention must for the most part consciously work out the theoretical principles behind the invention and then the design of the invention itself through a series of logical steps. In Forge's case, however, many of these logical steps would be worked out by his subconscious mind. Hence, Forge himself might not be entirely aware of exactly how he figured out how to create an invention of his.

Forge also possesses various mystical abilities, including spell casting, which have yet to be revealed. For the most part he has not used these abilities in years, and hence is out of practice in wielding them.

Special weaponry: Forge sometimes employs devices of his own invention. Most notable among these was his neutralizer gun that could suppress superhuman mutant abilities. The only known examples of this device have been destroyed.