Origin
Like many mutants, Sally Blevins’ mutant powers manifested at a time of great stress. Her father had beaten her mother severely for letting Sally wear pearls and had turned his rage on Sally. It was at this time that she developed her ability to form a force field around herself, which protected her from her father and allowed her to scare him off. Unfortunately, it also prevented her from saving her mother. Whenever Sally tried to pick her up, she just slipped from her arms; her mother died right in front of her. As a young runaway, Sally ended up living in the sewers with the Morlocks and calling herself Skids. Her good looks caused her to be treated as an outcast by the other Morlocks. Masque repeatedly tried to change her face, but her powers prevented his powers from taking hold. Sally met Rusty Collins when he was in the middle of a fight between Freedom Force and X-Factor. The pair was attacked by angry bystanders, and Skids used her powers to protect them; they also learned that Skids could not be hurt by Rusty’s flames. Freedom Force followed them to the tunnels, where Rusty Collins was severely injured by Blob. X-Factor saved the teens and began training them to better use their powers. Skids’ rescue from the tunnels could not have come at a better time, since the horrible event known as the Mutant Massacre occurred shortly after.
Creation
Skids was created by Louise Jones Simonson and Jackson Guice and first appeared in X-Factor Vol.1 issue 7 (1986).
Major Story Arcs
X-Factor
The surviving Morlocks came to live with X-Factor; Skids and Rusty spent a lot of time together and soon fell in love. When she refused to rejoin the Morlocks, Masque swore his revenge on the pretty young girl. During a training session with Rusty and Jean Grey, Skids’ pearls were broken. Seeing this as a learning example, Jean tried to get Sally to pick them up. After being repeatedly unsuccessful, she grew frustrated and ran away to rejoin the Morlocks.
Rusty followed her and saved her from an attack by Masque; the two escaped once again after sharing their first kiss. When they returned to the X-Factor mansion, Rusty Collins learned the fate of the first woman he kissed: she was horribly disfigured when his mutant power flared up. Rusty Collins was upset and thought that Masque would be able to help her; Masque‘s price was the disfigurement of Rusty’s face. Arriving too late to stop Masque, Skids grew so angry that she began to choke Masque, her powers turning off for the first time. He agreed to heal Rusty Collins, so Skids let him go and was now able to control her force fields. The young couple continued their training and relationship. Skids’ control over her powers continued to grow and she used them to stop Infectia from harming Iceman. Shortly afterwards, the teens (Skids, Rictor and Boom Boom) were sent to a boarding school; the younger children, Artie and Leech, were sent to a private school. Rusty returned to the Navy, but he was sent to prison after he returned.
X-Terminators
While at the school Skids received a message from Wiz Kid that Artie and Leech, along with other mutant children, had been kidnapped by demons. Unable to reach X-Factor the teens donned new costumes and named themselves the X-Terminators. On the way to rescue the kids they broke Rusty Collins out of prison. During the battle they met and aligned themselves with New Mutants and together they were able to defeat the demons and save the children. In the aftermath of Inferno the New Mutants came to stay on X-Factors ship and Skids, Rusty, Boom Boom and Rictor joined the group becoming the new New Mutants. The new group was not together long before they were separated. The group was sent to Asgard to help Danielle Moonstar while Skids stayed with Rusty to help him escape Freedom Force yet again. The couple was attacked on Liberty Island and Skids used her force field to protect them in the hope of lasting until morning when the tourists would arrive. In order to prevent their exposure Freedom Force removed the slab of concrete Skids and Rusty were on and took them to a federal prison. Charged with resisting arrest Skids was imprisoned to prevent her from talking about Freedom Force‘s plans. When the Vulture attempted to break out several weeks later Rusty tried to stop him when he realized the Vulture was intending to free Nitro. Skids learned a new way to use her powers when she used them to shield her fall so that she could protect Rusty from the guards bullets. The couple escaped from the prison in order to stop Nitro and tell the media about Freedom Force. They arrived to late to stop Vulture from freeing him but when Nitro was about to blow up the people around them Sally contained his blast in her shields. While this prevented the villain from reforming his body for some time, Skids passed out from her injuries and Rusty’s plan to alert the media failed. Mystique informed the media that he and Skids had been trying to free Nitro and were lying about their innocence.
Mutant Liberation Front – Acolyte
When Skids awoke in the hospital and saw the news reports about them she began to believe that she and Rusty Collins were evil. The reports also spoke of the Mutant Liberation Front and the couples connection with them. When the Mutant Liberation Front broke into the hospital to interrogate them the police guarding the couple fired at them. Protected by her powers Skids was safe but Rusty was hit and badly injured. In order to avoid returning to prison and sure death Sally decided that she and Rusty would join the Mutant Liberation Front despite the damage it did to their already tarnished reputations. After questioning Stryfe‘s motives he had them brainwashed and the couple became ruthless terrorists like the rest of the group. After Professor X‘s assassination, the Mutant Liberation Front fought the X-Men and Skids ran into her former friends Cannonball and Boom Boom. Still under Stryfe‘s control she fought with Boom Boom, now called Boomer, even breaking her jaw. In the end Sally and Rusty were captured and sent to the Xavier Institute in the hopes of reversing their brainwashing. While en route they were attacked by the Friends of Humanity who intended on making examples of Skids and Rusty. X-Force saved the couple, who insulted them entire time since they were still under Stryfe‘s brain control. They were brought to X-Force‘s hideout and put into suspended animation since the group had no way of returning them to normal. Later that day Exodus
offered the group salvation aboard Magneto‘s space station Avalon. Rusty and Skids were taken to the station along with Cannonball who went in order to spy on Magneto. Using his powers Magneto was able to reverse Skids and Rusty’s brainwashing and they decided to stay there. They joined the Acolytes although they rarely took part in any missions. After Magneto‘s battle with Professor X Exodus took over in his name. Under Exodus‘ reign, Sally and Rusty began to regret their decision and started looking for a way off the station. Unfortunately, during that time, Holocaust was found floating in space and brought aboard the ship. Holocaust killed most of the Acolytes including Rusty Collins, during the battle between Exodus and Holocaust the station was severely damaged. Cyclops and Jean Grey were teleported aboard by a surviving acolyte to save the rest of the group. Sally was unable to get to an escape pod, so Jean Grey went to save her; using their powers the two women safely returned to Earth. After she recuperated from her injuries, Sally left to figure out her life and mourn her lost love.
X-Force and X-Corporation
Seeking a normal life, Skids attended college in Colorado and took no part in mutant issues. She did remain in contact with her former teammates and allowed them to stay at her home only to be pulled back into the life she wanted to avoid. An attack on X-Force by Reignfire and Locus forced Sally to reveal her mutant abilities to her fellow college students. When her force field and Locus‘ teleportation ability interacted, it caused both women to be sent to Latveria. They awoke on a mountain powerless, with Locus still wanting to attack Skids. Pandemonia put both women to sleep and magically forced them to do her bidding. They attacked X-Force but were defeated when Danielle Moonstar and Jennifer Kale broke Pandemonia’s spell and sent her to another dimension. Skids dropped out of sight for some time after this, only to reappear as a member of Sunspot‘s X-Corporation.
M-Day
The results of M-Day left Skids one of the few mutants to retain their powers. She stayed at the camp and shared a tent with Magma and Outlaw. When Apocalypse came to the camp and offered salvation for those who would drink his blood, Sally gladly accepted. She was stopped by Karma and yet still sided with Apocalypse when he was attacked by the X-Men. Recently, Skids was seen to have rejoined the Morlocks and is living in the sewers again. She also become a terrorist again for reasons thus far unknown. She doesn’t seem entirely happy with Masque‘s leadership. Sally disagreed with Masque‘s attack on a group of humans, and felt that he was bending the prophet’s words to fit his vision. Warpath, Storm, Hepzibah, and Caliban entered the sewers in search of the Morlocks after seeing Masque’s message. Caliban found Sally, who had been left under a pile of rubble. As the group prepared to leave, they were confronted by a Sentinel who thought that they had mutilated the humans. The attack was stopped when Sally revealed that she is an agent of SHIELD.
Powers
Skids possesses the mutant superhuman ability to create force fields around herself and others, totaling an area of approximately 30 cubic feet, with her being in the center. At first, she could only cover herself with the field, so it is assumed that with more training, she could expand her field of influence to a much greater area. The field itself protects Skids from harm by covering her with a completely frictionless surface. The field covers all of her body, so she never has any actual physical contact with anything touching any part of her body, as long as it is activated. When using her power, nobody can touch or hold her, bullets and other projectiles will not harm her, and she apparently glides over any surface she travels over, since she is not truly touching it.
Status
- Known Relatives : Matilda, mother (deceased), Bill, father.
- Citizenship : American
- Place of Birth : Unrevealed
- Marital Status : Single
- Occupation : Agent of SHIELD, adventurer; former terrorist, student
- Education : Some college
Characteristics
- Gender: Female
- Height: 5’5″
- Weight: 115 lbs (52 kg)
- Eyes: Blue
- Hair: Blonde
Alternative Realities
Earth-295: Age of Apocalypse
She appears as one of the Morlocks who escaped from Mr Sinister´s Breeding Pens. She and the good few Morlocks are isolated in the tunnels under Manhattan once again. A year after Apocalypse´s fall, Magneto offers them the opportunity to live on the surface and abandon their tunnels, but their leader, Marrow, refuses the offer and starts a battle with the X-Men. Skids manages to defend the group for a while, but she is beaten by Silver Samurai. The Morlocks are defeated and put under government vigilance.
Other Media
Film
X2: X-Men United
Skids’ name appears in William Stryker’s files on Lady Deathstrike’s computer.
Television
X-Men: The Animated Series
Skids made an appearance in the episode No Mutant is an Island. In the episode Cyclops quits the X-Men and returns to his orphanage home and encounters his friend Sarah. She tells him that Zebediah Kilgrave, The Purple Man, has decided to adopt all the mutant children, but his intentions are to make them into his personal strikeforce to attack humans. Skids is featured as one of the orphan mutants alongside Rusty Collins, Boom Boom and Wiz Kid.