Chamber

Origin

Chamber (Jonothon Evan Starsmore) discovered his powers when a blast of psionic energy that burst from his torso destroyed much of his chest and face and crippled his girlfriend, Gayle Edgerton. As a result the wound has been replaced by a constant glow of psionic fire. Unable to speak Chamber can only communicate telepathically; he does not eat, drink or breathe. He also has no organs. Much speculation has been made about Chamber’s powers. Chamber was potentially one of the most powerful mutants to walk the Earth.

Creation

Chamber was created by Scott Lobdell and Chris Bachalo and first appeared in Generation X Vol. 1 Issue 1 (1994).

Major Story Arcs

Generation X

Because of the nature of his abilities, Jonothon was contacted by Professor Xavier and invited to attend his School for Gifted Youngsters in Massachusetts. He accepted, becoming a member of Generation X. Taking on the code name Chamber, Jono stayed away from the other members of Generation X, which freaked them out. However, he did manage to help the girl named Penance, by empathizing with her freakish nature and got her to trust him. When Generation X investigated the disappearance of Banshee’s old home, Cassidy Keep, they discovered that it had been pulled into another dimension. They were able to get it back by fixing their glamour machine and having Chamber act as a power source. This left the rest of the team wondering how much energy he had at his disposal. The question came up again when Omega Red, an old and deadly foe of the X-Men‘s, turned up and defeated everyone except Chamber.

Not only was he strong enough to take out Omega Red by himself, but he was immune to Omega Red’s “death spores”. The final fight took place at a river where Omega Red was attacking two guards and was stopped by Chamber. Omega almost had the upper hand over Chamber who had to recharge, but Chamber bought some time by grabbing two rocks from the ground and smashing them into Omega Red’s face. This allowed Chamber to claim victory by charging up and then blasting Omega into the river.

Later, Chamber developed a strong friendship with fellow mutant Angelo Espinosa (Skin). As both of their abilities had physical effects, they could relate to one another. What confused Chamber, however, was the seemingly genuine affection from Paige Guthrie (Husk). Being self-conscious about his powers and what they had done to him, he spent the majority of his time on the team in seclusion, pushing Husk away. Eventually, the two did date, but only briefly. They were off and on for about 75 issues, playing off of each others mixed feelings and jealousy.

One night, Husk actually decided to try and get drunk. Jono stood there and talked to her, and she ended up kissing him. Jono, taken by surprise, blew up the girl’s dormitory by accident. Both were fine, as Husk’s ability protected her. Paige thanked him for not telling the others what had surprised him into blowing up the dormitory, but Chamber misinterpreted it as her thanking him for not telling the others that she had fallen for a freak like him.

Emplate

Meanwhile, Emplate had made a deal with Chamber’s old girlfriend, Gayle Edgerton, since she wanted revenge on him. Gayle tricked Chamber into thinking that she wanted to talk about their past, but upon meeting Chamber she drained his energy while the rest of Emplate’s servants trapped the rest of Generation X. Emplate then dug both Chamber and Gayle into the ground, whilst Gayle and Chamber fought. Gayle argued that Chamber had ruined their happiness, but Chamber just said that it was life. When the two were freed, Gayle started to lose her bitterness, since Chamber didn’t hate her for what she tried to do.

Onslaught

Due to Gateway, Chamber ended up briefly seeing the psychic entity Onslaught, who even though he erased Chamber’s memory of him, Chamber still vaguely remembered. Due to this, Chamber’s power started acting up, and he couldn’t control it that well. Skin tried to take Chamber to the Xavier Institute, but on the road they were stopped by the X-Cutioner, who thought that Skin was a murderer. Since Chamber didn’t need to breathe, Skin hid him in a pile of mud, then defeated the X-Cutioner. However, by the time the battle was over, their car was damaged so badly it couldn’t be driven, so they had to hike the rest of the way to the Xavier Institute. Onslaught was defeated before they got there though, and so they didn’t have to go any further.

As thanks to Skin for helping him, Chamber went with him to Los Angeles when Skin wanted to visit his mother on the anniversary of his supposed death, and the two had some weird adventures with Howard the Duck before they returned to the school.

Operation: Zero Tolerance

By the time Chamber was back at the school, Husk invited him to her family’s house for Thanksgiving. When they reached the farm, no one was around, and Chamber assumed it was because of his freakish looks. Even though Husk assured him that they had many mutants in the family and so her parents treated everyone equally, Chamber still insisted on his theory. Finding a picture of Husks’ parents, Chamber stormed off, telling Paige that due to him they could never have a serious relationship like her parents.

Husk and Chamber avoided each other for a while after that, but when Generation X were captured by Black Tom Cassidy and cast out into the middle of the ocean, the two still managed to argue, despite that there was little hope for the group. In the end, the group eventually were rescued and sent to San Francisco, but found themselves under attack from the Sentinels of Operation: Zero Tolerance. With the possibility of death being close, the two got a little friendlier. After the Sentinels were destroyed, Chamber apologized for how he acted during Thanksgiving, and Husk forgave him.

Shadow King – Dracula

When Psylocke was tricked by the Shadow King into releasing a telepathic pulse wave, the effects were felt worldwide, since it took away the powers of anyone with psychic powers (temporarily). Due to this, Chamber was now mute since he could only communicate telepathically. Husk left for Kentucky to look after her sick mother, and asked Chamber to promise to stay until her return. It being the only way he could say what he needed to, Chamber used his power to burn a heart into a piece of paper, showing his true feelings for Husk. One Halloween, Jono was bitten by Dracula whilst trying to save Paige.

When Husk returned to the school for good, Jono felt trapped, since he had only revealed his feelings since he had thought Husk was going away for a long time. Not wanting to go through with the different emotions again, Husk gave Jono a cold shoulder to see how he liked it. At the same time, the school was running out of money, and so had to let humans join to help pay the bills. Chamber had to pretend to be a mute, burn victim, which he wasn’t too happy about. He was also frustrated that his teammate Synch could use his powers better than he himself could, using them to fly, something Chamber still hasn’t managed to do.

Human student Tristan Brawn started dating Husk, which made Husk and Chamber act coldly to each other for a while. Unfortunately, even though some human girls seemed interested in Jono, he couldn’t make progress with that since he had to pretend not to talk. A few months later, Chamber and Husk cooled down and started acting friendly to each other, although not romantic. Around this time, the school was revealed to the public to be harboring mutants, which led to bombs being planted in the school. Synch paid for it with his life when he tried to disarm a bomb, but failed. Generation X decided that the time for training was over and the time to start using their powers to help people should begin.

When Jono was in New York a bit later, he met a deaf goth girl. Communicating with her telepathically, he freaked her out since she wasn’t used to sound. The deaf girl, whose name was Rana, got used to it soon, and when Jono showed her his powers she told him she wasn’t scared of him or his powers. She gave Chamber her address and told him to write, but Chamber threw it away, thinking he had no use for it.

Generation X finally decided to disband when Emma Frost started to act strange when her sister was mentioned, and Banshee began drinking heavily after the death of Moira MacTaggert. Chamber was asked by Professor X to join the X-Men, which resulted in Husk and Chamber saying goodbye rather sadly, since they never worked out exactly what was happening with their relationship.

X-Men

Chamber didn’t join the X-Men though, as he had never said yes to Xavier’s offer. He returned to London where he saved pop singer Sugar Kane’s life, and the two started an affair. The X-Men visited Jono several times, and warned him that Sugar Kane was just using him, but Chamber ignored them. When the press began to speculate the Sugar was pregnant with Jono’s child, which wasn’t true, Sugar admitted that she had used Chamber to boost her career. She suggested that he should rejoin his friends, and he agreed. Back with the X-Men, Chamber befriended new recruit Stacy X. Chamber also reunited with Jubilee.

Jono asked Husk and M to keep an eye on Banshee’s new group, X-Corps, but since his going out with Sugar Kane had been notable news, his reunion with Husk was awkward. Chamber found out that Mastermind was keeping the members of X-Corps in check with her powers.

She tried to fight him on the astral plane, but underestimated him and was defeated. Chamber eavesdropped on Mastermind and Mystique, who had infiltrated X-Corps, but was knocked out before he could do anything. Jono was saved by Nightcrawler when a bomb exploded in the building, but was angry at Nightcrawler since Nightcrawler was insecure about being in the X-Men, and it was he who had convinced Jono to join.

Chamber confessed to Cyclops that he himself also felt insecure about being in the X-Men. He also realized that the school wasn’t open enough to the world, hiding itself away despite that it was supposed to be open to mutants. Chamber enrolled undercover at Empire State University to investigate the murder of a mutant peace group there, with every member except the leader, Gigi Martin dying. Unfortunately, he got into a conflict with a mutant militant group and his roommate, who hated mutants. However, he did befriend another mutant named Amber. Jono also found out the hard way that he only trusted Gigi well because of her good looks, and that he was responding to Amber’s affections when he realized she was a shapeshifter, not trapped in her reptilian body. Eventually Chamber found out that the deaths of the mutants were actually an accident, as Gigi’s boyfriend had a similar power to him, only with less control.

However, Gigi had claimed that they were murdered so that mutants wouldn’t be expelled for being too dangerous. Chamber left ESU for Xavier’s school, though not on active duty. Unfortunately, when Chamber came back to the school, he found out that his relationship with Husk had ended, since she had started a relationship with Warren Worthington III (Archangel).

Weapon X

Soon after, Jono volunteered to infiltrate the subversive Weapon X program, using his former relationship with Husk as a means to create public dissent between himself and the X-Men and attract the attention of Weapon X director Brent Jackson. Jono was recruited into the program and, as an incentive to stay, had his face and body reconstructed with technology that was linked to his mutant energy. For his first mission, Jono was tasked with assassinating John Sublime, founder of the mutant-harvesting U-Men. Despite having reservations about killing, Jono completed his mission, seemingly solidifying Jackson’s trust in him. Soon after, Jono went missing while seeking to close down Weapon X’s secret mutant concentration camp Neverland.

House of M and Decimation

Following the warping of reality by the Scarlet Witch, Jono was one of the many mutants who were depowered when reality was restored. As a result of this, his bionic energy regulator was destroyed. As his lower face, chest, and heart were missing once again, the X-Men left him to be cared for at a hospital on life support while things cooled down at the mansion. Jono was moved to a hospital in England, but was abducted by his therapist a few weeks later – his therapist being Frederick Slade, a member of the Clan Akkaba. Under orders of Ozymandias, Jono was afterwards completely healed by the Clan and was transformed into a young version of Apocalypse. A scan of Jono’s energy signature has revealed that his powers have possibly evolved to Omega-level.

New Warriors as Decibel

Jono has yet again resurfaced, and is now using the codename Decibel as a member of the New Warriors alongside former Generation X teammate Jubilee. Decibel is first seen in issue 3 of New Warriors vol. 4 as a member of Night Thrasher‘s most recent incarnation of the team. In this new persona, Jono has a hi-tech suit, which gives him the ability to create solidified sound constructs. In New Warriors Vol. 4 #7, he reveals that he chose those particular powers because he didn’t want to be a weapon of destruction anymore, and could now create.

Jono is also very close to Jubilee during his time in the New Warriors, and Jubilee and him would often discuss things between just the two of them, such as how trustworthy Night Thrasher is. Although Jubilee was the second-in-command of the team, Jono also proved himself to be a capable leader, such as when the team raided Machinesmith‘s headquarters, and the team were separated. Jono managed to help the trapped members of the team get their technology together and fight off Machinesmith long enough for the other half of the New Warriors to come and rescue them, despite how weak they were against Machinesmith.

Age of X

One of the split-personalities of Legion re-wrote the history of the X-Men turning himself into a hero. In this re-written world, Jono was once again referred to as Chamber and had regained his lost mutant powers, but also lost the body restorations given to him by Clan Akkaba. When normality was finally restored, Jono was one of the few X-Men who retained their physical changes from this altered reality. Now once again in possession of a gaping whole in his chest and jaw, Jono is currently under observation by the X-Men’s resident biologist, Dr. Kavita Rao.

Jean Grey School for Higher Learning

Some months later, the school roster of Wolverine’s Jean Grey School reveals Jono (listed as Chamber once more) as a junior staff member and is first seen at the school some months later with his initial mutant powers fully intact and under control. Starsmore is the instructor for Coping With Physical Changes in Room 204, a class to help mutants with physical mutations. Students Glob Herman, Anole, Bling!, Ernst, Rockslide and more are seen attending.

After a concerning (yet blunt) question from Rockslide involving sex, Jono gives his students a heartfelt speech regarding the uncertainty of love in their life but assures them that they will always have a chance as long as they keep their heart open, no matter what happens. An out of control Weapon, Omega, crashes through the wall and interrupts the class, looking to absorb more mutant energy to feed an insatiable addiction. Chamber promptly uses his psionic energy to blast him back out of his class.

X-Men: Disassembled and Krakoa

Chamber was recruited for an unnofficial team of X-Men formed by Havok, when the main X-Men were apparently killed by Nate Grey. He was killed by Harpoon, when the team faced the classic Marauders.

Jono was ressurrected on Krakoa, and later joined the newly reformed New Mutants, along with Mondo.

Powers and Abilities

As Chamber

Psionic Biokinesis: Chamber was a mutant who was naturally composed of pure psionic energy. His physical body was just a shell for what he truly was. The initial emergence of his powers blew a hole in his chest and lower face, completely incinerating most of his internal organs. Because of this, Chamber no longer needed to eat, drink, or breathe. Oddly enough, Chamber’s blood did continue to flow through his extremities, as if propelled by a churning engine of psionic flame itself. However, he was sustained solely by the psionic flame that raged within his body. If it were somehow snuffed out, he would most likely have died. But then, he might argue that he already died once, and came back, so his reaction to a disruption of his mutant abilities may still have been unclear. As his flames were actually psionic in nature, and didn’t rely on some form of fuel to continue to burn, they didn’t seem to be affected by conditions that would be adverse to actual flame (i.e. lack of oxygen, water, etc).

• Biokinetic Flame: Chamber constantly created and unleashed psionic charges of energy that could strike with concussive force, act as generic flame, or a laser that forcefully disrupts molecular bonds, causing inanimate objects to explode violently. It seemed Jono couldn’t actively affect molecules containing Carbon in that same explosive manner, but those molecules were still very vulnerable to a direct hit with his biokinetic flame. It was shown that if chamber realized his full potential he could in fact rebuild his broken body or use his blasts in a number of ways, such as flying. Though lack of any real control over his power prevented that.
• Projection Telepathy: Basically, he was a radio that could send out signals, but not receive them. Chamber couldn’t read minds, probe thoughts, or see things that lied outside his line of sight. He could, however, use his abilities to ‘speak’ inside the minds of those near him. He could also create psionic illusions. For the most part, these projections were unfocused, and anyone within physical hearing (or viewing) range would be affected. Chamber was beginning to learn limited control over this, however, and was sometimes able to limit who heard and saw what he was projecting. Physical obstructions didn’t affect these projections as they would real sounds and images. For instance, a person on the opposite side of a soundproof wall would still be able to hear him, as long as they were close enough.
• Psionic Blasts: He could project psionic force bolts which had no physical effects but which could affect a victim’s mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and could even kill an adversary.

It was once suggested that Starsmore’s physical form disintegrated a little more with each use of his power. The full range, extent, and nature of Starsmore’s psychic abilities are unknown.

Because of the large infusion of Apocalypse’s blood, Jonothon may or may not have the other powers of Clan Akkaba such as enhanced strength and durability, as well as the ability to reshape his limbs into weapons. It was shown that his radiations were back along the cure, and was stated to be powered, even potentially to an Omega-class level.

As Decibel

Flight, emulated telekinesis, sonic blasts, solid sound constructs, force fields. It’s unknown if these are his own powers after transformation by Clan Akkaba, or if he is powered technologically. Considering that when Renascence was choosing her technology to use as a New Warrior he mentioned that he was already using the sonic technology, it’s likely that these powers are due to gadgets.

He also has grey skin, blue lips and the Clan Akkaba symbol tattooed on his chest. All results of modification by Clan Akkaba, though it has been indicated that he was born with the Clan Akkaba symbol. Later, he is resurrected by Legion, with his former powers restored and the Akkaba enhancements absent.

Characteristics

• Gender: Male
• Height: 5′ 9″
• Weight: 140 lbs.
• Eyes: Brown
• Hair: Reddish-Brown

Status

• Known Relatives: None
• Citizenship: U.K.
• Place of Birth: London, United Kingdom
• Marital Status: Single
• Occupation: Adventurer; former teacher, student
• Education: Studies at Massachusetts Academy

Variants

Runaways

In Runaways (vol. 2), Chamber seemingly has joined a group called Excelsior which aims at trying to dissuade teenagers with superpowers from becoming superheroes, but it is really a time-displaced 1985 version of Geoffrey Wilder who has joined them in order to get information on Runaways, using a “chameleon ring” which he has. At the end of the story arc ” True Believers“, he quits the team, as he has all the information he needs.

Earth 295 Age of Apocalypse

Chamber of Earth-295 (Age of Apocalypse) only had part of his chest blown out when his powers manifested, thus in this reality his face remained intact. He was a member of Generation Next as well as their squad leader. Chamber and his fellow teammates rescued Illiyana out of a human concentration camp, although most of the team had to pay with their lives for this mission. This included Chamber who was shot by a runaway laser right when they tried to leave the camp. Teammate Skin jumped after Jono, but nothing was heard from either one of them.

Earth-9602

Chamber of Earth-9602 (Amalgam) was called Jono Hex, had a legendary temper, and founded the band of outlaws called Generation Hex.

Earth-811

Chamber of Earth-811 (Days of Future Past) was the leader of a group whose members included, among others, Cecelia Reyes. This alternate future is where Rachel Summers originates from.

Earth-1035

Chamber of Earth-1035 (X-Men Millennial Visions 2001 – “Generation X: The Last Family”) was one of the last four mutants in existence. He and the others (Leech, Jubilee, and Skin) will do their best to stop Operation: Mutant Armageddon.

Earth-5700

Chamber of Earth-5700 (Weapon X: Days of Future), an alternate future of our own timeline, was a member of Excelsior (the old name for The Loners), a group whose members included, among others, Cecilia Reyes. This is sometime after he broke free of the Weapon X program, but, in doing so, literally lost his head. He was seeing most recently wearing the Xorn helmet, presumably because it kept his energy under control.

Earth-13729

Chamber of Earth-13729 (Doctor Strange and the Sorcerers Supreme) joined Wiccan and other fellow X-Men to battle the Brood, during an attack on Dublin. Jonothon Starsmore’s greater handle on his powers enabled him to reconstruct chest and facial features on command. Able to reaffirm his old look while still able to use his psionic energies. Chamber is in a relationship with Husk as the two are seen kissing each other.