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Characters to appear in NYX
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Kiden's Group
The group of mutants assembled by Kiden Nixon over the course of the story, listed in the order in which they join her.
Kiden Nixon
Kiden Nixon
Nationality: American
Species: Human mutant
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
The main character of the story, NYX is primarily shown through the eyes of Kiden Nixon. As a little girl she watched her police officer father gunned down in a drive-by shooting, and has grown up into a rather troubled and rebellious young woman. The circumstances surrounding the manifestation of her powers eventually leads her to run away from home.- Beware the Nice Ones: For a given definition of "nice," but Kiden is certainly a good, if troubled, kid. Her time-manipulation powers can make her very dangerous if you piss her off, as first Hector, then a gang of muggers who attacked her after she ran away learned the hard way.
- Bullet Time: Kiden's time-manipulation powers allow her to do this. In fact, the most direct example is actually a plot point as she dodges a bullet that ends up accidentally striking Mrs. Palmer instead, which prompts Kiden to run away in the first place.
- The Call Knows Where You Live: Kiden's efforts to run from who she is and the ghost of her father sending her from place to place don't amount to much, as Nick can find her wherever she goes.
- The Cassandra: Kiden's attempts to "come out" as a mutant to Mrs. Palmer result in abject disbelief. To say nothing of her claims that the ghost of her dead father is giving her instructions from beyond the grave.
- Deadpan Snarker: Especially dealing with her mother early in the story.
- Dysfunctional Family: The Nixon family as a whole after Kiden's father was killed. Kiden is rebellious, smokes, parties and takes drugs. Her elder brother is a Jerkass and low-level pusher, implied to be dealing with some nasty people who will kill him over the drugs his mother flushes down the toilet. Kiden's twin younger brothers seem relatively normal and well-adjusted, but are hyperactive and quite a handful. Kiden's mother can only hold them all together as best she can.
- The surrogate family Kiden gathers around herself over the story counts as well: Her formerly suicidal Shell-Shocked Veteran high school teacher, who at one point blows up and blames everything on Kiden. A virtually mute prostitute being hunted by her pimp because he thinks she killed a John. And a girl whose very public manifestation nearly gets her torn apart by a mob.
- Finger Poke of Doom: If Kiden isn't really careful when she touches someone while using her powers, she can potentially kill with even a light touch since she's moving so fast relative to everyone around her.
- Heel Realization: Events of the story wise up Kiden, and she begins to genuinely regret the poor relationship with her family.
- Jerkass: Not nearly so much as her older brother Tyler, but she's nonetheless a mouthy and troubled girl.
- I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: At one point Kiden meets up with her elder brother, and when she learns that their family has been doing so much better in the time since she left (her mother is remarrying and they're moving to a much better neighborhood), decides against going home, feeling that they're better off without her. Her brother makes no effort to absolve her of that feeling.
- I See Dead People: Throughout the story, Kiden has visions of her slain father, who guides her through gathering up her disparate gang of outcasts, and evading Zebra Daddy's pursuit of X-23.
- It's All My Fault: Kiden blames herself for ruining Mrs. Palmer's life. Mrs. Palmer waffles between trying to absolve her of guilt and agreeing with her on the matter, before finally acknowledging she trusts her.
- Power Incontinence: At first, Kiden's power is activated erratically, when she screams "Stop it!" when upset, and she can only break out of her time bubble by touching someone (the first time she does, she barely pokes the guy and it snaps his arm like a twig.) In the final confrontation it appears she now has enough control that she can activate and shut it off at will.
- Power Perversion Potential: While Kiden is spending a couple months in her accelerated state after running away from home, she decides to break out of her time bubble by taking advantage of her state to kiss a cute guy she runs across. He's (understandably) surprised since from his vantage point she just appears out of nowhere kissing him.
- Time Master: What Kiden's powers make her. Time flows normally for her, but slows down drastically for others.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Little Kiden was a cute and sweet little girl, up until the moment she watched her father gunned down in a drive-by. The next time we see her, she's a deeply troubled and rebellious teen who smokes, parties, and does light drugs, while constantly fighting with her mother and failing at school.
- Year Inside, Hour Outside: Kiden's time manipulation powers. Time flows normally for her, but slows down drastically for others. She literally spends months in an accelerated state at one point while doing some self-reflection, while barely a week or two pass in reality. She doesn't need to eat or drink during this time, but her hair continues to grow normally.
Cameron Palmer
Cameron Palmer
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
Cameron Palmer is Kiden's high school teacher. She gets caught in the crossfire of the conflict between Kiden and Hector, literally, and finds her life derailed in the process.
- Badass Normal: Mrs. Palmer is the only non-mutant among the kids. She doesn't have time powers or Wolverine Claws, she's not a Shapeshifter or Body Surfer. But in the final confrontation, she actually manages to acquit herself fairly well against mooks who try to kill her.
- Destination Defenestration: She's tossed out a window in the final battle by a mook to her intended death. Fortunately, Tatania manages to slow her fall, and Kiden uses her time powers to give her a softer landing area than the concrete below.
- Driven to Suicide: Her husband leaves her at some point after she was shot, she's shown to still be in physical pain and a bit shell shocked from the shooting, and has lost all interest in her work. She tries to kill herself, but Kiden saves her life.
- Frying Pan of Doom: Wields one for part of the final confrontation with Daddy's goons.
- Happily Married: At the beginning of the book, she's shown to be in quite a happy and frisky relationship with her husband. It changes sometime after she's been shot. Her husband has left her, and all her wedding photos have been either broken or torn up. It's never made clear exactly what drove him away.
- Heroic BSoD: She's in an extended one for much of the comic.
- Hot Teacher: Her husband certainly thinks so.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Cameron genuinely cares about her students' educations, loves her job, and is trying hard to help them succeed and get out of the shithole neighborhood their circumstances have put them in. Her boss, on the other hand, is a part of the apathetic system that's part of the problem in the first place.
- Self-Harm: She attempts suicide by cutting her wrists.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: She's clearly suffering effects of PTSD after she is accidentally shot when Hector tries to kill Kiden. She's shown to be in a deep depression (which led to her husband leaving her), and when a visitor drops a picture, the "bang" it makes when it falls makes her scream and dive to the floor.
X-23
X-23
Nationality: American
Species: Human mutant clone
First Appearance: NYX #3 (February, 2004)
For her main page, click here.
A teen prostitute under the thumb of violent pimp and gangster Zebra Daddy, she falls in with Kiden's group after a John commits suicide during one of their sessions. She rarely speaks, and almost nothing is known about her. The efforts by Kiden's group to escape the fallout of her running away from Daddy ultimately drives the second half of the book.
- Canon Immigrant: This is the book which introduced X-23 to the comics.
- Creepy Child: To pretty much everyone, but especially Tatiana and the girls in Zebra Daddy's employ.
- Dark and Troubled Past: This story is part of it for later books, and a sign that as bad as her past was in X-Men: Evolution, in the comics it's going to be even worse.
- Within the context of the story itself, her Self-Harm and the fact she spends much of the story virtually mute implies that however she came to be under Daddy's control, she's suffered severely in the past.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Zebra Daddy makes it quite clear he sees X-23 as property he can discard on a whim, even putting out the eye of another of his girls as punishment when X escapes and he thinks the girl helped. When he finally catches up to her in the climax, Daddy quite remorselessly and casually guns her down. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't know what she really is. She makes short work of him when she finally gets fed up with him.
- Driven to Suicide: The suicide of one of her Johns has major implications for the rest of the story.
- The Dog Bites Back: She kills Zebra Daddy in the finale of the first series. It's made clear that Daddy is incredibly violent, and both verbally and physically abusive towards the girls he pimps for, and it's implied that he leveled the same abuse on her as well, firmly making it this trope. Considering who she is, it invites a bit of
Fridge Logic as to how she even came to be under his control in the first place. - Dull Surprise: Pretty much her default expression throughout the entire book. She's pretty much just there, and barely reacting to anything around her. Justified by later stores; she's mired very deeply in a Heroic BSoD during the events with this book.
- Heroic BSoD: As noted above, later stories reveal X is lost in a very severe one during the events of this series.
- Living MacGuffin: The entire second half of the plot is driven by Zebra Daddy's attempts to get her back.
- Mysterious Waif: Almost nothing about her is revealed over the course of the story. Her name, who she is, where she came from, and how she wound up working for Daddy is never discussed. She also drives the second half of the story as Daddy will stop at nothing to get her back.
- No Name Given: She's never named within the series, and when Bobby asks her name when going out to find her, Zebra Daddy acknowledges he doesn't even know what it is.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Laura is stoic if a little upset at working as a prostitute, other girls being harmed, or a John who is acting off and pulls a knife. When Laura looks like she wants to try and help said John and he kills himself however she is horrified.
- The Quiet One: She rarely speaks, and when she does it's never at length. You can probably count how many lines of dialog she has on one hand. In fact, of the four issues in which she appears, she only has dialogue in one.
- Self-Harm: She's frequently seen cutting herself with her claws.
- Sexy Packaging: An alternate version of the above image featuring X-23 in the same pose but wearing a black baby-doll teddy was featured as a special limited edition cover for the collected edition. Despite the fact she only appears in her underwear for a few pages in the whole series.
- Pictured above is the standard cover, which could also count. Also notable in that she never wears a school-girl outfit in the series.
- Shout-Out: When first introduced, the John X-23 was in bed with tells her she's the best at what she does. Also counts as a subtle bit of Foreshadowing as to who she really is.
- Street Walker: X-23 is introduced as one of Zebra Daddy's hookers, and her very first panel in the comics sees her naked in bed after having just finished with a John. She's one of his most lucrative girls, and is Daddy's personal favorite.
- Stripperiffic: Spends pretty much the entirety of the book (when she's not actually naked) in high heels, fishnets, short skirt, and a corset. Justified, considering her line of work.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: Introduced staring blankly at a blinking "No Vacancy" sign after a session with a John.
Tatiana Caban
Tatiana Caban
Nationality: American
Species: Human mutant
First Appearance: NYX #4 (July, 2004)
Tatiana Caban works three jobs to help support herself and her mother, on top of going to school. She publicly manifests in the middle of class, and is attacked and nearly killed by a mob as a result. She possesses shape-shifting abilities that are triggered by contacting with the blood of whatever animal she wishes to turn into. With nowhere else to go, she falls in with Kiden's group.
- Atrocious Alias: After manifesting, Tatiana considers taking to calling herself "Catiana," before deciding that it sounds incredibly stupid.
- Blessed with Suck: Tatiana's very public manifestation of her powers nearly gets her killed. She also requires contact with the blood of whatever she wants to transform into, meaning she has to kill or injure it. Oh, and she's an animal lover.
- Friend to All Living Things: Tatiana loves animals. She keeps a large number of pets, and there's a very Disney-esque scene of her feeding a ton of wild and stray animals in a park.
- It gets subverted when her power manifests: She can take on aspects of other animals, but to do so requires contact with their blood. The first time was after touching the blood of a dog that was hit by a car and she was taking to a vet, but later, she has to kill a cat to transform in order to protect herself from a mob. Additionally, after she manifests all her pets get very aggressive towards her.
- Jerkass: Tatiana's mother is an absolute bitch to her, fawning over her (much younger) boyfriends. Said boyfriends also qualify.
- Punny Name: She briefly considers using the name of Catiana as a play on her given name and powers after manifesting, before deciding it sounds incredibly stupid.
- Seen It All: Tatiana has this attitude towards Kiden's story, fully believing her because she's already just manifested. Not that she doesn't still feel totally overwhelmed by it.
- Shapeshifter: Tatiana can take on the aspects of any creature with whose blood she comes in contact. If she takes on human blood she transforms into a copy of the person.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: In this case, she has to touch the target's blood, after which she can take on aspects of its appearance and physical traits.
Bobby Soul / Felon
Bobby Soul / Felon
Nationality: American
Species: Human mutant
First Appearance: NYX #6 (September, 2005)
Bobby Soul, who often goes by the name of Felon, is a mutant and occasional hood. He's an acquaintance and part-time associate of Zebra Daddy, who uses him and his powers to his advantage. Bobby is a Body Surfer and Astral Projectionist who can leave his body and take control of others. While doing so, he can control them and has access to all of their memories. Daddy hires him to track down X-23 when she runs away. He takes the job only because he needs the money to get himself and his brother, Lil' Bro, out of District X, and because Daddy promises that no one is going to get hurt.
- Astral Projection: Part of his power set. His soul can leave his body for periods of time, during which he can take control of others.
- Blessed with Suck: Bobby can use his power to Body Surf and take control of other people. Unfortunately, it also wreaks havoc on his memory: He can't clearly remember where he's been or what he's done, and it also causes him to forget aspects of his life. He fears that one day he'll lose all his memories permanently.
- Body Surf: The other half of his powers.
- Big Brother Instinct: Bobby is heavily driven by this. Everything he does is to look out for Lil' Bro. When he later questions Kiden's older brother about her whereabouts while looking for X-23, he punches him out when he Body Surfs into him and finds out just how big of a dick he was to her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He's not actually evil, but does willingly work for Daddy. However he draws the line when Daddy tries to kill Kiden's group, and turns on him.
- Healthcare Motivation: Felon takes on Daddy's job to track down X-23 because he badly needs the money to get his severely autistic brother, Lil' Bro, out of District X and into a school where he can get the care he needs.
- Heel–Face Turn: He starts out working for Daddy, attempting to locate X-23 for him. In the climax, he turns and helps Kiden group when he realizes Daddy intends to kill everyone despite his earlier assurances he just wants X back.
- I See Dead People: Nick Nixon manifests himself in front of Bobby, sending him to meet Kiden's group at Mrs. Palmer's apartment to protect them from Zebra Daddy.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's not above using threats and coercion (see Power Perversion Potential) to get what he wants, but he genuinely cares for his little brother, and it's implied he doesn't really like what he does and is trying to get out of it.
- Minion with an F in Evil: He's working for Daddy, and it's implied he's done a lot of work for him in the past and Daddy certainly treats him better than he does anyone else, among other criminal activities. However he's not a bad guy himself: Everything he does is for his little brother, and as soon as he realizes how far off the slippery slope Daddy is, immediately pulls a Heel–Face Turn and helps Kiden and her group escape.
- Missing Mom/Disappeared Dad: What happened to Bobby's parents is never revealed, and it's clear he has to more or less raise Lil' Bro on his own, though he does have the help of a caretaker when he has to leave his brother alone.
- Power Incontinence: Bobby doesn't have much trouble jumping between bodies. The problem comes in that every time he does so, he temporarily loses memories of himself, what he's doing, or where he's been. He's genuinely afraid that after one jump too many, he'll lose everything permanently.
- Power Perversion Potential: When first introduced, he's revealed to have spent the night with a star who'd been getting harassed by the paparazzi. It's heavily implied he used his power to bring her back to his apartment.
Lil' Bro
Lil' Bro
Nationality: American
Species: Human mutant
First Appearance: NYX #6 (September, 2005)
Bobby Soul's disabled younger brother, whom he is left to raise alone, with only a caretaker providing assistance when he has to leave him alone. The whole reason Bobby takes jobs from Zebra Daddy and other crooks is to raise the money he needs to get Lil' Bro out of the shithole neighborhood where they live, and take him somewhere that he can get the sort of care he really needs. At the end he's revealed to be a mutant himself, and it is strongly implied that he's either communicating with Kiden's dead father, if not projecting his apparition entirely.
- Disability Superpower: He's severely autistic, but also an incredibly powerful telepath.
- Hollywood Autism: Is severely autistic, and generally non-responsive to anyone around him. Except for the ghost of Kiden Nixon's father, whom it is implied Lil' Bro was communicating with throughout the story to coordinate Kiden helping everyone she saves, if not projecting his spirit outright.
- I See Dead People: Can see and communicate with Kiden's slain father.
- Missing Mom/Disappeared Dad: Whatever happened to his parents is unknown, and he's left in Bobby's care.
- Morality Pet: Is this for his older brother. Everything Bobby does is for him.
- Only Known By His Nickname: Whatever his real name is, it's never been spoken and he's always known simply as "Lil' Bro".
- Spider-Sense: Lil' Bro's powerful psychic abilities includes an ability to see events happening at great distances.
- Telepathy: Lil' Bro is an incredibly powerful telepath, despite his disability, capable of not only communicating with the dead, but seeing events from great distances.
- Walking Spoiler: See all the white space? Lil' Bro's a bit more significant than he looks.
Antagonists
The main antagonists of NYX.
Zebra Daddy
Zebra Daddy
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
Zebra Daddy is X-23's pimp, a rather powerful gang leader in the Flatiron District of New York City. He's mainly seen arranging appointments with Johns for the girls he controls, but is shown to be able to call on a very large and heavily-armed group of thugs at need. When X-23 runs away with Kiden and Mrs. Palmer, Daddy calls on Bobby Soul to bring her back, offering a substantial reward for her return. Years earlier, he gunned down Kiden Nixon's father in a drive-by shooting.
- An Arm and a Leg: The final battle between Daddy, his thugs, and Kiden's group kicks off when X-23 cuts off his hand.
- Ambiguously Brown: Daddy's ethnicity is never made clear in the book. All that's clear is that his vernacular is urban, and he's not Caucasian.
- Axe-Crazy: When things don't go his way or his composure breaks down, Daddy turns absolutely ruthless.
- Bad Ass Normal: He's not a mutant or superpowered in any way, yet he's managed to carve himself out a nice territory in New York City.
- Big Bad: Daddy is the main villain of the Wannabe series, and his attempt to recover X-23 drives the second half of the plot.
- Blatant Lies: When money alone isn't quite enough to get Bobby to track down X, he promises all he wants is his girl back, and no one will get hurt. Then as soon as he's out of earshot calls in a hit squad to kill everyone.
- Dull Surprise: When X-23 stabs him in the back, the best he can manage is a subdued, "Aw, man."
- Eye Scream: He puts out the eye of one of his prostitutes with a toothpick when he believes the girl tipped off Kiden Nixon's group about his pending attack on Mrs. Palmer's apartment.
- Faux Affably Evil: When Daddy's pleased, he can come across very sweet, and he puts up a friendly demeanor with those he's trying to butter up. It disappears the second things go his way or he sees or hears something he doesn't like. He praises X-23 over the amount of money Johns are willing to put up for her, and immediately gets furious when he sees that she's been cutting herself, calling her body his property. When one of his girls begs off an appointment because the John put her in the hospital last time she saw him, he starts to sweet-talk her and goes on about how much he cares about her. And then he turns nasty, striking, berating and threatening her. The Affably Evil face is just a thin veneer over a vicious and cruel psychopath, who puts out the eye of a prostitute as punishment when he just thinks she tipped off Kiden's group the first time he came after them, and is prepared to murder the entire group just for being in his way.
- Gang Banger: It's unclear how large his gang is, but he clearly has enough influence to call in a substantial amount of firepower. It's also revealed that he was the banger who gunned down Kiden's father.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It takes very little to set him off. And when he goes off, it's not pretty. He takes it very personally when X-23 runs away.
- Hookers and Blow: He personally pimps out his girls, and is clearly shown partaking in drugs himself, as well as also being a dealer himself.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: He dies on the end of X-23's claws. She stabs so deep they come out the other side.
- Kick the Dog: Frequently, and quite viciously. Unfortunately for him, The Dog Bites Back.
- Large Ham: Daddy gets downright grandiose during the final confrontation.Zebra Daddy: This was fun. 's nice it ended like this. Makes it tastier. Stuff legends a' made of. Jus' like Romeo and Juliet. Love ya, baby. Welcome to my legend.
- More Dakka: Daddy arms his thugs heavily for the final confrontation. Despite the fact he's going after what looks like three unarmed girls and a woman.
- Only Known By His Nickname: Whatever Daddy's real name is, it's never mentioned.
- The Reveal: After he guns down X-23, Kiden has a flashback of her father's death in which she realizes that Daddy was the Gang Banger who killed her father.
- The Sociopath: He's a psychotic, remorseless animal that thoroughly enjoys the acts of depravity he commits.
- Slip Knot Ponytail: At the beginning of the final fight, Daddy's hair starts off neatly slicked back as normal. As things get more and more out of hand, his hair slips out and gets increasingly wild, eventually hanging partly in his face.
- There's No Kill like Overkill: Zebra Daddy has a gang of heavily-armed thugs at his disposal. For all he knows, he's just going after four unarmed girls. There's absolutely no reason for him to suspect he might need a personal army to deal with them, as he has no clue three of the girls are mutants, much less that one of them would later be revealed to have been created as a Living Weapon.
Hector Morales
Hector Morales
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
A classmate of Kiden Nixon's, Hector is a Hispanic thug with gang connections, and whose antagonistic relationship with Kiden leads to her discovery of her powers and ultimately sets the plot in motion.
- Bullying a Dragon: Ends up on both ends of this. Kiden refuses to back down when Hector harasses her despite his gang connections, and is more than happy to antagonize him back. Later when Kiden's powers manifest, he continues to harass and tries to kill her even after her powers manifest and Kiden could literally destroy him with a touch.
- Finger Poke of Doom: On the receiving end. Kiden snaps his arm like a twig when she lightly pokes him while using her powers for the first time.
- Gang Banger: Hector's gang affiliations play a significant role in kicking off the plot, by enabling him to smuggle a gun into school when one of the security officers manning the metal detectors is revealed to be a member of the same gang. Hector attempts to shoot Kiden but misses when her powers activate, allowing her to safely sidestep the bullet, which continues on and strikes Cameron Palmer instead.
- Jerkass: There's no question that Hector is a dick. He antagonizes Kiden right from the start, and sics his girlfriends on she and Kara in retaliation for Kiden tearing out his earring during a scuffle at the beginning. He gets even nastier when Kiden unwittingly breaks his arm the first time her powers manifest, deciding it justifies killing her.
- Murder by Mistake: Intends to kill Kiden in retaliation for her breaking his arm (though she didn't mean to, as she wasn't aware of the full effects of her powers). However when he shoots her, Kiden saves herself by activating her powers, and the bullet continues on to strike Mrs. Palmer instead. Although Palmer does survive, Hector's lethal intent qualifies it for this trope.
- Phenotype Stereotype: Hector is Hispanic, and his skin is noticeably darker than the others.
- Put on a Bus: Disappears from the story after he attempts to shoot Kiden, misses, and hits Mrs. Palmer instead. Dialogue reveals he was arrested and sent to prison.
Others
Other characters in NYX: Wannabe and No Way Home, listed alphabetically.
Kara
Kara
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
Kiden's best friend in school.
- Butt-Monkey: Nothing goes well for her in the book. First she gets her ass kicked by Hector's girlfriends and is further humiliated by wetting herself during the fight. Then after Kiden runs away she loses her best and, it's implied, only friend. And later when Bobby Soul questions her about Kiden's whereabouts, he threatens to Body Surf into her, make her slug one of the school Alpha Bitches, and leave her to deal with the aftermath when she tries to avoid him.
- Extreme Doormat: While Kiden is no less subject to harassment than she is, Kara shows practically no spine and lets Hector and his girlfriends walk all over her without even putting up a fight.
Nick Nixon
Nick Nixon
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
Kiden's slain father, a New York City police officer who was gunned down in front of her on his birthday during a drive-by shooting when she was very young. His ghost appears throughout Wannabe to guide Kiden in assembling her eclectic group, and in the climax it's revealed that the Gang Banger who killed him was Zebra Daddy.
- Alliterative Name: Nick Nixon.
- Harmful to Minors: Kiden Nixon has a front-row seat to the drive-by shooting which kills him.
- I See Dead People: Appears as a bloody ghost to Kiden throughout the first series. Importantly, both Bobby Soul and Lil' Bro can see and communicate with him as well. Whether because it's an extension of their powers, or because Nick chooses to be visible to them, or even if it's Lil' Bro himself who is projecting him is left ambiguous.
- Killed Off for Real: Gunned down in the prologue, right in front of young Kiden.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The exact nature of Nick's ghost is left very ambiguous. He first appears to Kiden just in time to save Mrs. Palmer when she tries to commit suicide, and afterwards there seems to be no particular rhyme or reason to where he is sending her. However at the end of the book it's heavily implied that Nick has been in collaboration with Lil' Bro to save Kiden and the group she collects throughout the series, but even then the nature of this connection is never clearly established. Is Nick working with Lil' Bro because the autistic boy's powerful telepathy allows him to channel Nick's ghost? Is his spirit an outright construction of Lil' Bro's, who is acting as Big Good in the same role as Xavier would ordinarily fill?
- Posthumous Character: Aside from the first couple pages of the first issue of Wannabe, Nick is dead throughout the series.
- The Reveal: Several big ones towards the end of the series:
- Kiden isn't the only one who can see and communicate with Nick's ghost. Both Felon and Lil' Bro can see him. The latter is even more significant, because he is severely autistic and can't even communicate with his own brother!
- The Gang Banger who guns Nick down is none other than Zebra Daddy, nearly triggering a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Kiden, before she decides to use her powers to rescue Mrs. Palmer instead.
- At the very end of the book, it's strongly implied that either Nick is a construction of Lil' Bro, who was pulling the strings behind the scenes all along, was channeled by the boy's powerful telepathy enabling him to reach out to and guide his daughter, or he and Lil' Bro were mutually working together from the beginning.
- Walking Spoiler: Just look at all the white space!
- You Can't Fight Fate: No matter how far Kiden runs, Nick's ghost will find her again and tell her where she needs to be. However during the climax, Nick tries to convince her that she can't help Mrs. Palmer and that she must flee the final confrontation with Zebra Daddy. This time, Kiden throws him off and saves Palmer while X-23 finishes Daddy once and for all.
- You Will Know What to Do: Nick's posthumous guidance of his daughter takes this form. He never tells her what she's supposed to be doing, all she knows is that wherever he tells her to go is somewhere she needs to be.
Ty Nixon
Tyler "Ty" Nixon
Nationality: American
Species: Human
First Appearance: NYX #1 (November, 2003)
Kiden's Jerkass older brother, a low-level pusher implied to be dealing with some very nasty people.
- Hidden Depths: There's a few moments where Ty is shown to care far more about his sister than he lets on, including a very guilty expression after he tells her the family's fortunes have improved for the better since she left. Unfortunately it's not quite enough to make up for being a total twat the rest of the time.
- Hookers and Blow: It's not developed in particular depth, and it's unclear what, exactly, he's pushing, but Ty is dealing for some one or some organization, including selling them to his own sister. When their mother catches him with a bag of his goods at one point she flushes it down the toilet, and Ty explodes at her over having just killed him, suggesting that whoever Ty pushes for are some very, very dangerous people. On the other hand, nothing actually seems to happen to him as a result, so he might have been exaggerating.
- Jerkass: Ty is a huge dick to his sister, and most of his dialogue with her is teasing that goes far beyond good-natured. At one point he offers her drugs and, after Kiden first runs away, when she returns home again Ty breaks the news that their mother is remarrying and moving them to Long Island by saying everything has been better since Kiden left. He doesn't even try to absolve Kiden of her belief that her departure was the catalyst for the improvement in their lives, or even admit that their mother is worried sick and heartbroken by her disappearance. Even worse, he doesn't even tell their mother that Kiden is alright!
- Laser-Guided Karma: Ty's Jerkass behavior comes around to bite him on the ass when Felon looks him up while tracking down Kiden for Zebra Daddy. When he discovers just how rotten Ty was to his own sister, Bobby beats the shit out of him for "being a crappy brother." Given the extreme lengths Bobby is going through to provide for his own handicapped brother...
