Hisako Ichiki (Earth-616)

Hisako is a young girl whose greatest aspiration is one day to be an X-Man. Along with her friend and fellow student, Wing (whom, after his death, she later describes as being her best friend), Hisako was attacked in the halls of the Xavier Institute by the alien villain Ord of Breakworld. Hisako and Wing attempted to oppose Ord, but were overpowered. While both teenagers survived the attack, Wing discovered that he had been injected with a “cure” for his mutant ability of flight. Despondent, he committed suicide after some goading from a Danger Room hologram of her.

In the wake of this tragedy, Hisako, her teacher Kitty Pryde, and other Xavier students found themselves trapped in a sentient and hostile Danger Room with Wing’s reanimated corpse. Danger, as the intelligence began calling itself, eventually left the Institute.

Hisako found classmate Blindfold "crying" in the restroom. (Ironically, as Blindfold has no eyes, she cannot cry, she retorts.) Comforting Blindfold, Hisako is able to convince Blindfold that they are soon "to lose another one," as Wolverine, believing he is a defenseless child due to the manipulations of Cassandra Nova, barged into the restroom, followed closely by the feral Beast. Beast began to attack Blindfold, but Hisako used her powers and fought off Beast. Exhausting herself, she fainted. Blindfold and Hisako make their way through the Institute. Blindfold told Hisako she believed someone was awake in the infirmary; they found the unconscious bodies of Colossus and Cyclops. Soon afterwards, Shadowcat rose from the floor and asked the girls to explain everything they knew.

Hisako as an X-man.

Soon after, both Ord and Danger attacked the mansion, where they were confronted by Hisako and then Wolverine where the young girl held her own only to end up slightly impaled by Wolverine claws. Although she only received minor injuries, things didn't get any better when Cassandra Nova chose her to be the evil mutant's new host body. It is left if Cassandra was succesful in getting Emma Frost to transfer her consciousness into Hisako, as S.W.O.R.D beamed the team, Danger, Ord and possibly Hisako into a spaceship headed for the Breakworld.

The team and Hisako find that S.W.O.R.D. have abducted the X-Men and Hisako because they need heroes to fight a threat: Breakworld has a weapon capable of destroying the Earth. After flying through space, Ord sends the ship's coordinates to Breakworld's ruler, and he sends a fleet to attack the ship. When the attack is over, the ship is heavily damaged and the X-Men are separated. Hisako ends up with Wolverine. Hisako is given membership to the X-Men and a costume exactly like Shadowcat's. After commenting on how she had a test that week, Wolverine tells her that she is an X-Man now, and she is there to save the world. She takes up the codename Armor, at least until Wolverine can go a day without stabbing her to pick a better one, fulfilling her dream of being an X-Man.

In the Messiah Complex Surge assembled a team of New X-Men, consisting of Anole, Hellion, Mercury, Pixie, Rockslide, and X-23 against the Purifiers. When they went against the religous mutant-haters, they discovered that Rictor, of X-Factor was there, and that the Purifiers didn't have the baby. Then it went wrong. Lady Death Strike mortally wounded Hellion. The Pixie took them out of there, but, they were spread out between the Mansion and Washington.

While not shown on panel, Hisako was brought back to the mansion by Iceman with the other New X-Men. When Predator X showed up at the mansion, Hisako teamed up with Gentle and battled it in the infirmary. Pixie believed X-23 can defeat the monster and teleported it and the entire team, along with Hisako, to the battle between the Marauders and the X-Teams taking place on Muir Island.

As the Secret Invasion commences in San Francisco, Armor arrives as is teamed up with Colossus and Cannonball to counter the Skrull invasion side-by-side many new and classic X-men.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Hisako in body armor

Known Powers:

Psionic Exo-Armor: possesses a psionic body armor created by her ancestors that grants her increased strength and endurance. In addition, the body armor greatly strengthens the force behind her offensive blows and protects her from a significant degree of physical harm.

Enhanced Strength

Enhanced Endurance

Enhanced Durability

Abilities

None known.

Strength level

Unknown.

Weaknesses

None known.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

No special notes.

Trivia

Hisako does indeed speak Japanese, strengthening the idea that she is from Japan instead of simply being an American of Japanese descent. She attempted to use it to insult Wolverine, but he unfortunately also spoke Japanese. She said, "It’s a shame they hired a murderous gorilla as a teacher," to which Logan replied, "Don’t you think it’s shameful to your ancestors that you’re always complaining?"
Hisako was one of the students without an official squad before M-Day. However, she may have been a part of Iceman's Squad, Excelsiors, or Beast's Squad, Exemplars, both of which never had officially listed students.

Hisako's greatest aspiration is one day to be an X-Man, which she recently has fulfilled.
In Runaways vol. 2 #1, "True Believers", a future version of Hisako is seen comforting the then leader of the Avengers, Gertrude Yorkes, after a devastating attack by the villain Victorius. She claims that Yorkes' Avengers "lasted longer than [her] X-Men," hinting that Hisako may one day lead the team.

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Links and References

None.