Origin
Before his mutant powers developed he was a sailor for the Spanish Armada of Christopher Columbus several hundred years ago. On one journey he succumbed to scurvy an was buried once the ship reached land. A few hours later he awakened as an immortal.
Creation
First drawn by Rob Liefeld and written by Fabian Nicieza.
Major Story Arcs
Though not shown directly, Gideon manipulates the events that led to the Kings of Pain story. He also was one of the businessmen trapped during the Sabotage cross-over.
History
Over several centuries, Gideon is able to amass a vast personal wealth. He also encounters and allies himself with the Externals, a group of like-minded and immortal mutants. At the end of the 20th century the group begins seeking their newest member, Sunspot. He had known Sunspot for many years after dealing with his father, Emmanuel DaCosta, a wealthy Brazilian businessman. Gideon has Eve kill Roberto’s father. He approaches the boy and tells him he needs to take over his family’s business. He takes the boy under his wing and tutors him in the art of business, as well as fighting and life skills.
When Gideon thinks that Sunspot is ready, he takes him to an acquisition meeting to buy out the Jankos Corporation. Once there, Arianna Jankos decides that she doesn’t want to sell the company and hires Black Tom Cassidy to help her extort money from the assembled businessmen. Sunspot wants to immediately fight back but Gideon holds him back. They should wait to see how things play out, he reasons. After a while, Cable and the X-Force show up and Black Tom blows up the building. Gideon and Sunspot emerge from the rubble and, after an altercation with Cable, decide to help the trapped people. Once the authorities arrive, Gideon lies to the news outlets that Cable’s group was partially responsible, if not primarily, for the blast.
Gideon continues training Sunspot until it is found that Cannonball, not Sunspot, was the new External they were seeking. Gideon then gives Sunspot over to a scientific lab so that they can experiment on him. They augmented his powers (almost killing him in the process). Gideon then sends the External Crule out to find and kill Cannonball. This fails. Gideon then contacts Cannonball and tells him he has two options: 1) save Sunspot from the experiments or, 2) come find Gideon. The caveat is that if Gideon tells Cannonball where to find Sunspot then Cannonball must promise to keep out of External affairs. Cannonball agrees to this and Gideon retreats for a time.
Gideon also clashes with the group of young superheroes known as the New Warriors.
Death
Gideon is slain by fellow External Selene when she drains the life force from him and the rest of the Externals so that she can sustain her everlasting life.
Newer Mutants and Krakoa
Years later, Gideon and other Externals were resurrected and battled Cable and short-lived Newer Mutants. When Krakoa nation was formed, he joined.
Powers
He had the ability to mimic the abilities of nearby persons, and since he was an External, he was granted with limited immortality, only ended if he was decapitated, or a very damaging Virus (Legacy Virus), and obviously by having his life force drained.
Alternative realities
Age of Apocalypse Earth-295
He is member of the first roster of Horseman of Apocalypse together with Candra, Sabretooth, Death and War. He is seen trying to take control of the government’s nuclear weapons base at Cape Citadel under Apocalypse´s orders. He uses the server in order to lunch nuclear missiles to attack humans. He manages to absorb Magneto´s powers and amplifies it. He dies overloaded with Magneto´s powers.
He has the ability to absorb powers and amplify it.