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1!!'''WARNING:''' There are [[Administrivia/SpoilersOff unmarked spoilers]] on this page for all comics before issue #1 of ''ComicBook/SinsOfSinister'' (January 2023).
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3%% Please don't change the spoiler policy for this page (including the cut-off point) without discussing it on the Marvel Comics cleanup and maintenance thread:
4%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16630056830A15456800
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6
7
8!!'''Bennet du Paris / Exodus'''
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10%% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16735475610.67371200
11%% Please do not replace or remove without starting a new thread.
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13[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/x_men_legacy_vol_1_261_textless.jpg]]
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15!!!'''Nationality:''' French
16!!!'''Species:''' Human mutant
17!!!'''First Appearance:''' ''X-Factor'' #92 (July, 1993)
18
19--> ''I come not as an enemy, children of the atom, but as an emissary-- a ferryman to a better place!''
20
21One of the earliest known mutants, Bennet du Paris was born in 12th century France and participated as a soldier in the Crusades. On a quest to find the mythic Tower of Power, he was tested by the ancient mutant Apocalypse who unlocked his astounding mutant powers after finding him worthy but subsequently trapped him in stasis when he refused to slay his friend and fellow crusader Eobar Garrington. Awakened by Magneto in the 20th century, Exodus was anointed as the Master of Magnetism's new right-hand man and charged with the mission of recruiting the best and brightest mutants to Magneto's Acolytes. A true believer in Magneto's philosophies, Exodus wants nothing more than to protect and defend his people, a task that is complicated by his run-ins with the X-Men and his own fluctuating mental stability. As of the 2019 SoftReboot of the X-Men universe, he has finally been given a chance to do this as one of the twelve members of the Krakoan nation's Quiet Council.
22
23For tropes relating to his counterpart from the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse, see [[Characters/AgeOfApocalypse here]].
24----
25!! Exodus appears in:
26
27[[foldercontrol]]
28
29[[folder: Notable Comics]]
30* ''ComicBook/XMen'' (various titles and volumes)
31** ''ComicBook/{{Fatal Attractions|MarvelComics}}'' (1993)
32** ''ComicBook/{{Blood Ties|MarvelComics}}'' (1993)
33** ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'' (2007 -- 2008)
34** ''ComicBook/HouseAndPowersOfX'' (2019)
35** ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' (2022)
36[[/folder]]
37
38[[folder: Literature]]
39* ''Literature/XMenMutantEmpireTrilogy'' (1996 -- 1997)
40[[/folder]]
41
42[[folder: Video Games]]
43* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' (NPC, appears in Magneto's ending)
44* ''VideoGame/XMenChildrenOfTheAtom'' (NPC, appears in all character endings)
45* ''X-Men: [=GamesMaster's=] Legacy'' (NPC, boss battle)
46* ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse'' (NPC, boss battle)
47* ''VideoGame/XMen2CloneWars'' (NPC, boss battle)
48[[/folder]]
49
50!!Exodus provides examples of:
51
52[[foldercontrol]]
53
54[[folder:#-H]]
55* AGodIAmNot: In 2007's ''X-Men Annual'' #1 he pointedly tells new recruit Random that for all his power, he is not God, and that he cannot predict what the X-Men will or won't do, only prepare for it.
56* AHouseDivided: This is what brought him back in ''X-Men Legacy'' -- upon realizing that the X-Men have split in two, he declared to be this and decided it was his new mission to reunite them. [[ConflictKiller In a way, he does]].
57* ActuallyADoombot: The version of him that is fought as a boss in ''Clone Wars'' is not really him, but rather a Phalanx clone of him.
58* AdaptationalWimp: He's usually much less powerful in the games he appears in, with only ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse'' coming close to portraying him accurately, and even that game featuring him only as a MiniBoss with a fraction of his powers.
59* AmazingTechnicolorPopulation: While it might be an intentional artistic choice, Exodus skin is often illustrated as reddish.
60* AmbiguouslyBi: Implied for a long time. As a Crusader Knight, Bennet swore a vow of celibacy, but there were some (one-sided) HoYay undertones to his relationship with Magneto, and in the alternate universe ''Age of Apocalypse'' his [[HeelFaceTurn kinder, gentler counterpart]] is in an active relationship with fellow X-Man Dazzler. Later on during the Krakoan era, it is revealed that he had a male lover during his Crusader Knight times.
61* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleOfAntiVillains Type III]]. He is inherently noble, and unlike Fabian Cortez, truly believes in making the world a better place for his people. Unfortunately, being from an earlier period in history makes him dangerously prone to BlackAndWhiteInsanity, and [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity he doesn't exactly have the most stable set of powers either]].
62* ApologeticAttacker: In ''X-Men: Legacy'', and specifically to his former Acolyte Frenzy.
63* AscendedExtra: He was originally conceived to be Magneto's successor as main villain of the X-Men but this didn't pan out and after TheNineties he degenerated into just another powerful C-list villain who would disappear for years at a time only to come back as a VillainOfTheWeek for lazy "____ Returns!" type stories. Creator/JonathanHickman uplifted Exodus tremendously by making him one of the twelve leaders of his new mutant nation and while he hasn't been in focus as much as some of the other Quiet Council members, he's still a more prominent and popular character under the current status quo than he ever was before.
64* AsskickingLeadsToLeadership: Half of why he so easily took leadership of the Acolytes from Fabian Cortez. The other half was him having the actual legitimate blessing of Big Mags. Also, he was quite a popular leader and no one actually liked Cortez.
65* AstralProjection: Fought Professor X on the astral plane in ''X-Men Legacy''.
66* TheAtoner: He briefly was shown as this in the 1999 mini where he took control of Genosha in an attempt to bring it peace. The spectacular failure that ended up turning into led to a kind of HeelFaceDoorSlam, with Exodus just renewing his earlier HumansAreBastards convictions after the fact.
67* AwesomenessByAnalysis: He can temporarily gain skills by reading the minds of those who possess them and breaking out his telekinesis to use them. In the prologue to ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'' he captured {{ComicBook/Cable}} and tapped into his future knowledge to build a perfected 40th century version of Professor X's Cerebro machine.
68* BadassBoast: A frequent giver of these, the best one being to SHIELD Director Maria Hill in a 2007 annual:
69-->'''Maria Hill:''' Okay, people. First priority, we contain this. Then we--\
70'''Exodus:''' You could sooner contain the ocean in a cup, Maria Hill. I am Exodus. And I ''refuse'' to be contained.
71* BadassCape: Just ''[[https://web.archive.org/web/20140901032741/http://cdn.comicartfans.com/Images/Category_27305/subcat_115248/IMAG0859.JPG look at it]]''.
72* BadassDecay: Exodus was originally created to be [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]]'s successor as the top mutant threat to the X-Men and throughout the first half of the '90s he more than lived up to his lofty claim of being "[[BadassBoast Magneto's heir in spirit and in power]]", flattening all of X-Force in just his second appearance before starring as the BigBad of the ''Blood Ties'' crossover in which he effortlessly defeated a fully-armored War Machine, matched and overcame [[ComicBook/TheEternals the Eternal]] Sersi, and in the story's climax fought off virtually the entirety of both the Avengers and X-Men teams singlehandedly while ''also'' crushing the entire island of Genosha beneath the force of his telekinesis. Then he succumbed th OrcusOnHisThrone and spent a few years just sort of sitting around, until the ''ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse'' villain Holocaust was transported over to the regular timeline and the decision was made to have him fight Exodus sans his PoweredArmor to [[TheWorfEffect show how strong he was]] (despite Exodus logically being able to defeat him with his telepathy [[ForgotAboutHisPowers if he'd just bothered to use it]]). Much like Juggernaut above, Exodus would be further dragged downhill by Chuck Austen, who wrote him as a very generic sort of baddie who struggled to match Havok and got told off by one of his own lackies, a teenage elephant boy. Unlike Juggernaut, this bizarre dip in competence has never been addressed, save for later allusions to his PsychoactivePowers (which are driven by the faith of others and his faith in himself), and later appearances only dragged him down further, with ''Messiah Complex'' using him as a victim of TheWorfEffect (again) to build up [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Nightcrawler]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsEmmaFrost Emma Frost]]. He's been handled with more respect since then, but it took until 2022's ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' before the decay was finally cured.
73* BadassInDistress: ''VideoGame/XMen2CloneWars'' for the Sega Genesis sees him kidnapped by the Phalanx and replaced with an EvilCounterpart Phalanx clone. He and his fellow Acolytes are rescued in the ending.
74* BadPowersBadPeople: Not usually the case, but the Krakoan era revealed that his powers are partially dependent on in-universe PopularityPower via the faith of others. This retroactively explains a 1996 story he was suddenly transformed into a psychic vampire - prior to that, his powers weren't naturally harmful to others, but at the time, Exodus was recovering from near-death after a battle with Holocaust, and the change was linked to his injuries and weakness. The vampiric element was only really seen when he attacked Nate Grey (who was leaking psychic energy everywhere), a battle that ended with Exodus overloaded and buried alive in an Alpine crevasse - which seemed to cure the 'vampirism' issue.
75* BarrierWarrior: In his early appearances primarily, and most notably during the ''Blood Ties'' crossover.
76* BiblicalBadGuy: It's right there in his name, and he's also given to grandiloquent, Biblical turns of phrase, such as calling himself 'the resurrection and the life'.
77* BlackAndWhiteInsanity: This is the major flaw that makes Exodus a villain: being a literal KnightTemplar from an earlier period in history, he is dangerously prone to this kind of thinking, seeing mutants as good no matter who they are and humans as evil no matter who they are. He seems to have slowly been growing out of this, though, and if his 2014 appearance as an agent of SHIELD (reporting to totally human Maria Hill, even!) is any indication, he may have even [[CharacterizationMarchesOn grown out of it entirely]]. This development continues through the Krakoan Age, where he's still a zealous believer but no longer has that 'fundamental disregard for the lives of ordinary humans' he was described as having by Val Cooper.
78* BraidsOfAction: Introduced with a downplayed version of this hairstyle.
79* BreakTheHaughty: Charles Xavier hands him an (admittedly eleventh hour) defeat in ''X-Men Legacy'' that clearly shocks him, so much so that he renounces his title on the spot and practically ''begs'' Xavier to take up leadership of the Acolytes. Even after Chuck doesn't, he still has a newfound respect for the man that stuck through later appearances.
80* ChurchMilitant: Prior to his mutant abilities being awakened, Bennet was a crusader knight in the service of the medieval Catholic church.
81* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: An aspect of his power is drawing strength from the faith others have in him. At his strongest, with trillions believing in him, he can become equal to a CosmicEntity.
82* ComboPlatterPowers: A mutant with high-tier PsychicPowers so advanced they borderline the SuperpowerLottery at times.
83* ConvenientComa: The usual [[PutOnABus bus pass]] he gets issued.
84* CoolTeacher: When he joins the sovereign nation of Krakoa he takes the role of educating young mutant children on the history of Mutant kind and Krakoa’s culture. The children are very fond of him.
85* CosmicEntity: In at least one timeline's distant future he becomes this, having ascended through the faith of trillions of mutants into a gigantic space-traveling being on the scale of Galactus.
86* CruelToBeKind: Twice, and both times involved a scene where he puts someone in a NeckLift.
87** Back in the nineties he did this to the junior Acolyte Scanner for daring to take a peek at the mindwiped Magneto who Exodus had sequestered to protect his dignity and privacy.
88** Much more recently he did this to Cypher in an attempt to demonstrate to Doug the foolishness of HonorBeforeReason (specifically that he was insisting on fighting in a TrialByCombat despite still being a novice to combat).
89* DependingOnTheWriter: Several aspects of Bennet's character vary from writer to writer -- most notably his powers, resulting in plenty of cases of ForgotAboutHisPowers and StrongAsTheyNeedToBe, but also his motives, his morals, even his very sanity. This is a character who has gone from being a NobleDemon and borderline HeroAntagonist to a DrunkOnTheDarkSide megalomaniac interested only in his own ascension and right back again. In 2014, Exodus was seen as an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, a ''massive'' HeelFaceTurn for a character that just seven years before had forcefully seized a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier for his own ends.
90* DeflectorShields: Can protect himself and others with telekinetic force fields of amazing strength and durability.
91* DieOrFly: This is how Apocalypse awakened his mutant powers -- namely, he chucked a giant boulder at him.
92* DivingKick: Not seen so much in the comics, but as a [[MiniBoss mid-boss]] in ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse'' this is practically his SignatureMove.
93* DoesNotLikeMagic: Being a displaced 12th century knight, it's no surprise that he has this attitude. He rebukes the High Evolutionary for his "occult dabblings" and considered the Scarlet Witch to be mutantkind's #1 enemy after she brings about M-Day, referring to her as 'The Pretender'. [[spoiler: He softens on this after the ''Trial of Magneto'', when Wanda uses her death and resurrection to become 'The Redeemer', creating a mutant afterlife and ultimate Cerebro back-up that also a) neatly bypasses the need for the Crucible, b) allows the resurrection of every mutant that ever slipped through Cerebro's sensors, and tells her story alongside her.]]
94* {{Doublethink}}: In ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' he justifies believing in both Christianity and mutant sanctity by claiming that UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} was just a mutant with healing powers, rather similarly to the Islamic belief that Jesus was just one in a line of prophets that all led up to Mohammed. Everyone else thinks he's insane.
95* TheDragon: To Magneto, replacing the treacherous Fabian Cortez. He stayed Magneto's Dragon throughout most of the 90s (and earned appearances as a mid-boss in most of the X-Men video games of the day as a result) but parted ways with the master of magnetism offscreen.
96** DragonAscendant: Ironically became this despite not wanting it, being forced to assume Magneto's place as leader of the Acolytes after Charles Xavier brainfried Mags in ''Fatal Attractions''.
97** DragonTheirFeet: In ''Fatal Attractions'', where the X-Men got around having to fight him and Magneto at once by teleporting him (along with all the other Acolytes) into Avalon's escape pods and jettisoning them (why Exodus didn't simply return with his teleportation is never specified, but can be inferred as a consequence of his being UnskilledButStrong).
98* TheDreaded: Fabian Cortez, Astra, and even [[spoiler:Mr. Sinister]] are all terrified of this guy. And rightly so, considering what he does to Fabian in ''Blood Ties'' and to [[spoiler:Sinister]] in the distant [=eXpanse=] future.
99* DuelingMessiahs: With Joseph in the 1996 ''Magneto'' miniseries. Most of the time, however, he's just looking for a messiah to serve - originally it was Magneto (who he later analogised as a prophet), and the trope is fully Inverted in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', where he and oughts-era mutant messiah Hope Summers work together and prove to be quite the badass team.
100* EarlyBirdCameo: His first appearance in ''ComicBook/XFactor'' amounts to this, basically just popping up out of nowhere to play MysteriousWatcher for a few panels before flying away.
101* EnemyMine:
102** He allied himself and his Acolytes with Mr. Sinister in ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'' out of a despairing belief that the gerent geneticist was mutantkind's best chance for survival.
103** Also his 2014 appearance in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' (v3), which saw him pulling an enormous HeelFaceTurn by becoming an Agent of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} and the head of their psi division.
104* EnigmaticMinion: Early on, before his background was revealed.
105* TheExtremistWasRight: YMMV. In ''X-Men: Legacy'' he decided to kill Cyclops after reading Rogue and Wolverine's memories and becoming convinced that Scott was a threat to the mutant race. Shortly after this storyline happened we got the CrisisCrossover of ''ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen'', during which Cyclops went full baddie, killed Professor X and became the new Dark Phoenix. Of course, not only was Cyclops pushed to the edge of sanity by constant attacks from the Avengers and Xavier himself (who should have known from the original Phoenix Saga how ''that'' would go), he only had the Phoenix because of what the Avengers tried to do to the Phoenix, and the end of the event sparked the regeneration of mutantkind. So...
106* EyeBeams: Mostly used during the ''Blood Ties'' crossover and in his video game appearances. They're yellow, as opposed to Cyclops's red.
107* FacialMarkings: His strange forehead marks. Canonically they're scars from his duel with the Characters/{{Black Knight|MarvelComics}}, but only a few artists seem to ever get that memo.
108* AFatherToHisMen: While [[DependingOnTheWriter ignored by some writers]], Exodus typically is on very good terms with the Acolytes, and he managed to keep the team together for some time after Magneto was given a psychic lobotomy in ''Fatal Attractions''. Notably, he and Colossus were often depicted in supplementary material as BashBrothers, which makes it strange reading some issues where Colossus refers to Exodus in no uncertain terms as a monster.
109* FallenAngel: Not literally one, but often referred to in such terms during the [[AudienceAlienatingEra brief period]] where he was severely weakened after his battle with Holocaust and reduced to a "psionic vampire" state. Blindfold also referred to him as a "mad, scary angel" when he showed up at the X-Manson in the ''Lost Tribes'' story.
110* TheFettered: Interestingly so. He has the power to chew up a whole team of X-Men and spit them right back out, but being a WellIntentionedExtremist makes him pull his punches when forced to fight his fellow mutants. Best demonstrated in ''X-Men Legacy'', where one memorable fight had several ApologeticAttacker moments on his part and it ''still'' took two whole teams of X-Men to take him down.
111* FishOutOfTemporalWater: Of the "Past to Present-Day" variety. Not explored very much as of 2015, but as a 12th century knight in the modern day, Exodus is most certainly one of these.
112* {{Flanderization}}: Under Kieron Gillen, Exodus's religious beliefs are ramped up into full-blown fanaticism, with everything he says and does revolving around them, and him being treated as Krakoa's resident "religious nut". While he does display enough depth to avoid being one-note, it can still be jarring.
113* TheForceIsStrongWithThisOne: Telepaths tend to sense him instantly whenever he shows up in a story, partly due to his high power level and partly due to the wide-band PsychicStatic he projects wherever he goes. His test of Professor X in ''X-Men: Legacy'' in particular put out enough psychic energy that telepaths literally ''on the other side of the world'' were able to feel it.
114* ForgotAboutHisPowers: Suffers this a lot, as frequently writers just haul him out of Comic Book Limbo to be a random villain team leader to throw at the X-Men. Good examples includes the ''Heroes and Villains'' arc that was Chuck Austen's last story for the X-Men and ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'' which features such lowlights as Nightcrawler neutralizing him by teleporting him away and Emma Frost managing to stalemate him a psychic duel... somehow.
115* ForgotICouldFly: ''Messiah Complex'' features not one but ''two'' instances of this on Bennet's part, done to facilitate jobbing to Nightcrawler and Emma Frost respectively.
116* ForgottenFriendNewFoe: To the heroic Black Knight, Dane Whitman.
117* FrenchJerk: When his [[DependingOnTheWriter more villainous traits]] are being played up.
118* TheFundamentalist: Exodus is not stupid, but he has a very basic, very black-and-white view of the world. For most of his history that's translated to mutants=good and humans=bad. In ''Immortal X-Men'', Jean wryly refers to him when discussing the siege of Krakoa by the Hex as "our resident religious nut."
119* FutureBadass: Naturally, being an ''X-Men'' character.
120** In ''ComicBook/XMenBlue'', where he is among the members of a new Brotherhood of Mutants assembled by Magneto in the future to save mutantkind from the Reaver virus (which the Avengers and X-Men both fail to do).
121** The above example is surpassed by orders of magnitude in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', which shows him ascending into a CosmicEntity in a far-distant possible future.
122** Subverted in the 2005 storyline ''Weapon X: Days of Future Now'' which shows him as a hero on the side of the resistance but still dying easily at the hands of Sentinels.
123* GenericDoomsdayVillain: He comes ''so'' close to being this, but mercifully falls just a hair short. Wielding one of the longest arsenal of mutant abilities of any X-villain and at truly StoryBreakerPower levels to boot, Exodus is a difficult character to write a story with, since the obvious question of "why doesn't he just curbstomp the X-Men before they can blink" is one not easily answered. What keeps him from falling into this trope fully is that, unlike true Generic Doomsday Villains, he has a fairly fleshed-out personality and his motives are not malevolent, being a WellIntentionedExtremist in the vein of his mentor Magneto.
124* GoodThingYouCanHeal: At one point Emma Frost distracted him long enough for Dust to get inside him and shred all his internal organs. He was back on his feet and none the worse for wear a few pages later.
125* GracefulLoser: In ''X-Men Legacy'', after being defeated by the combined teams of Wolverine's mutant academy and Utopia's youth squad. It helps that reuniting the two groups was basically his end goal all along.
126* HazyFeelTurn: In 2019's ''House of X'', he has joined the X-Men in Krakoa and sits on their 'Quiet Council' that governs the fledgling mutant nation... though his particular group is comprised of him, Mystique and ''Sinister'', so Exodus turns out to be the TokenGoodTeammate of that arrangement.
127* HealingFactor: Seems to be able to use his MindOverMatter powers to accomplish this. See GoodThingYouCanHeal above.
128* HealingHands: He has [[DeathIsNotPermanent resurrected dead Acolytes]] on several occasions (or at least that's the official excuse for D-list Acolytes turning up in background shots after their deaths) and gave Professor X PsychicSurgery after the events of ''Messiah Complex''.
129* HearingVoices: Hinted at a couple of times in his early appearances, with the implication that his unnaturally powerful PsychicPowers are to blame.
130* HonorBeforeReason: In ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'', where he reluctantly teams up with Mr. Sinister despite knowing full well [[TheStarscream what he is]], because Sinister's scientific brilliance makes him (seemingly) the best hope the mutant race has for a revival after M-Day.
131[[/folder]]
132
133[[folder:I-N]]
134* IAmNotLeftHanded: Despite his periodic [[TheWorfEffect worfings]] it has been stated in-story as recently as 2014 that he has never truly been pushed to his limits. In his most well-known showing, he took on ComicBook/CaptainAmerica, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}}, ComicBook/{{Gambit}}, ComicBook/{{Storm|MarvelComics}} and several other Avengers and X-Men, taking everything they had to dish out and giving back more. Even in his second most recent (as of 2017) appearance as a villain it still took two whole teams of X-Men to subdue him -- and he was holding ''back'' in that battle! In his most recent appearance, he effortlessly reduced Mystique to a drooling, gibbering wreck and went toe to toe with Magneto himself.
135* IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight: With his ancestral friend Eobar Garrington in the climax of his origin story ''Black Knight: Exodus''.
136* ImmuneToMindControl: Being one of the world's most powerful telepaths comes with its perks. When Maria Hill deploys a team of S.H.I.E.L.D. telepaths to subdue him during a 2007 annual, he just shrugs off their combined efforts and smacks them down as an afterthought.
137* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Bennet can be harsh and uncompromising, and is not above manhandling his own teammates at times. But much like his mentor Magneto, his intentions are noble and he wants nothing more than to protect mutantkind.
138* KickTheDog: Prone to these every now and then, due to his [[DependingOnTheWriter fluctuating evil quotient]], but the worst one was menacing little Luna Maximoff in ''Blood Ties''.
139* KidnappedByTheCall: Apocalypse abducts him after putting him through a life-or-death test and alters him off panel. When he appears again, he's sporting RedEyesTakeWarning and appears to be just a hair away from being BrainwashedAndCrazy.
140* KlingonPromotion: Played with -- he executes his predecessor Fabian Cortez, but he's already established himself as Magneto's new Dragon by that time.
141* KnightTemplar: An ''actual'' medieval knight, even! (And very possibly an actual Knight Templar, as the historical order was at the peak of its prominence in his day).
142* LifeDrinker: He tried this on [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] back when he was going through his "psionic vampire" phase, presumably as an emergency alternative to the faith-power he normally instinctively draws upon. [[CurbstompBattle This was a bad idea.]]
143* LightIsNotGood: A crusader knight whose only desire is see his people prosper... and one of the X-Men's most dangerous foes.
144* LimitedWardrobe: One of the few X-villains who's never been seen in civvies. Being a time-displaced KnightTemplar, one almost wonders what he'd consider to be casual wear. During the Krakoan era he donned some even more ridiculously elaborate formal wear for their 'Hellfire Gala' event (which was mostly an excuse for artists to draw all the mutants in fancy costumes).
145* LoonyFan: To Hope, who he regards as a messiah. No amount of Hope telling him to shove off or tone it down works, as he just justifies it as more proof of her righteousness.
146* MassHypnosis: At one point, for a period of months he hypnotized the entire population of Genosha (which was later numbered to be in the ''millions'') into living in peace together. However, even his formidable powers weren't enough to pull this off naturally; he kidnapped X-Men super-inventor Forge and made him build a SuperEmpowering machine to pull it off.
147* MeaningfulName: Apocalypse originally named him Exodus due to intending him to be 'the bridge between the distant past and the inevitable future'. In ''Immortal X-Men'', he lives up to this name by [[spoiler:leading mutantkind out into the depths of space to the point of them becoming a trillions-strong theocracy]].
148* MindManipulation: Not at first, this being one of the powers he had to grow into, but by the time of ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex'' he was one of the only telepaths on Earth who could rival Professor X. Naturally, he's got all the variations on this -- MindControl, [[MindProbe mind probes]] and so on.
149* MindOverMatter: One of the most powerful telekinetics in the Marvel U. His long laundry list of powers all seem to originate from this, such as being able to conduct PsychicSurgery and affect a HealingFactor by telekinetically reconstructing flesh atom by atom. In ''ComicBook/HouseAndPowersOfX'' he is the sole mutant identified as an Omega-Level Telekinetic, meaning his telekinesis surpasses even that of other mutant Mind Over Matter champs like Jean Grey and Rachel Summers.
150* MisanthropeSupreme: Magneto indoctrinated the philosophy of HumansAreTheRealMonsters into him. His conviction in it was rock-solid in his first big appearances, but wavering by the time he secretly took control of Genosha. He intended Genosha to he [[TheAtoner his penance]] for his past anti-human actions, but when it all fell down around him, his takeaway from the experience just reinforced this belief. [[IgnoredEpiphany Never mind that the mutants were also killing willy-nilly]].
151* MosesArchetype: [[spoiler:After the disastrous 2023 Hellfire Club forces all of Krakoa's citizens off the island, Exodus ends up in a desert with [[MeaningfulName Hope Summers, Destiny]] and 250,000 Krakoan mutants. He gives them a hopeful speech and promises to lead them someplace better]].
152* MotiveDecay: Despite Professor X convincing him to disband the Acolytes for the good of mutantkind in ''X-Men Legacy'', ''House of X'' saw him randomly reform the group offscreen for reasons even omega level mutants could only speculate to. Not that it mattered, since the group quickly signed up for and was subsumed into the fledgling mutant nation of Krakoa.
153* MouthOfSauron: During the period where Magneto was out of commission he was often described as the 'Voice of Magneto'.
154* MyMasterRightOrWrong: Felt this way about Magneto originally, even [[InsistentTerminology referred to the man]] as 'Lord Magneto'. Grew out of this after confronting Magneto in 2016, and by the time of the Krakoan era he saw Magneto as a peer rather than a master.
155* MysteriousWatcher: In his very first appearance.
156* NeckSnap: Gloriously inflicted on Selene in 2022's ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen''.
157* TheNeedsOfTheMany: Related to the second CruelMercy example above, Exodus offers to kill Cypher so that he can take the boy's place in the Contest of Swords, as he is stronger than Doug could ever hope to be and since the island would eventually resurrect him. Not surprisingly, Cypher isn't too keen on this.
158* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: His HealingHands power above was actually confirmed as being this by the writers of ''ComicBook/HeroesForHire'', who eventually revealed that Marvel forbade them from creating any new Acolytes for that miniseries. Seeing as how half of the Acolytes were [[WeAreTeamCannonFodder dead by this point]], it kind of put said writers in a bind.
159* NiceJobBreakingItHero: More of a LesserOfTwoEvils instance, but tearing his own space station base apart trying to defend it from [[OmnicidalManiac Holocaust]]? Nice, Paris. Real nice.
160* NighInvulnerability: At one point he tanked Cyclops's optic blasts, Storm's lightning bolts and Siryn's sonic scream -- ''all at once''.
161* NoPlaceForMeThere: In ''X-Men: Legacy'' he declares that he will "lead (his people) to the promised land but not enter it with them" after using MindControl to enthrall an entire squad of X-Men into helping him kill Cyclops (the Utopia youth squad shows up and breaks his hold before he can go through with it).
162* NoSuchThingAsWizardJesus: Played with in ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'', where he refers to JC in passing as "the Nazarene mutant". No evidence is given that this is any more than wishful thinking on his part, but then it's not as if stranger things haven't happened in the Marvel Universe.
163* NobleBigot: He's more or less the SuperSupremacist version of this, as like Magneto and Apocalypse he believes that mutants are the MasterRace compared to humanity, but unlike them he doesn't believe in killing humans wantonly (DependingOnTheWriter; he's gone from being described as "having a fundamental disregard for the lives of ordinary humans" in earlier appearances to [[http://i.imgur.com/tRNPQKG.jpg making it a point to spare a human Sentinel pilot's life while disabling the Sentinel itself]].
164* NobleTopEnforcer: He is the biggest gun Magneto ever had at his disposal and follows an actual knightly code of honor, being an actual knight from hundreds of years ago.
165* NotQuiteFlight: Uses his telekinesis to achieve {{Flight}}, and has been clocked moving at Mach-2 speeds.
166* NotSoAboveItAll: When his plan to unite Genosha is ruined by the X-Men and he witnesses a Romeo and Juliet-inspired doomed couple get killed in front of him. You can just ''see'' the exact moment Bennet hits the DespairEventHorizon as he drops to his hands and knees in the dirt and weeps. Sadly, StatusQuoIsGod turned this into an IgnoredEpiphany.
167* NotSoStoic: Most notably in the penultimate issue of ''Quicksilver'', when he learns the present-day Black Knight was actually the same one he fought beside in the 12th century. See StableTimeLoop below.
168[[/folder]]
169
170[[folder:O-Z]]
171* OneManArmy: His power is such that he can effortlessly take down entire teams of mutants. At the apex of his power, Exodus was able to handle the Avengers and X-Men simultaneously while ''also'' holding Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey and Crystal captive in his force fields (he couldn't keep it up for long though). The only individuals who've ever really matched him are teambusters like Magneto himself, Apocalypse, and [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]] (who would [[ComicBook/UncannyXMen2018 eventually]] NoSell almost all of the X-Men at once while having a philosophical discussion with ComicBook/JeanGrey inside his head).
172* OrcusOnHisThrone: After the ''Blood Ties'' crossover, he proceeded to spend the next two years on Avalon doing.. not a whole lot. Even the supplemental merchandise makers caught on to it, with his trading cards describing him as 'brooding on Avalon'. [[EpilepticTrees Possibly]] [[JustifiedTrope justified]] if he was spending all that time trying to heal Magneto.
173* OurVampiresAreDifferent: Exodus briefly became a [[LifeDrinker "psychic vampire"]] after being badly injured in a brutal fight with Holocaust. Shortly afterwards, he detected the extremely powerful mutant psychic Nate Grey nearby - and attempted to feed on him. Nate managed to overload his foe and left the defeated Exodus buried in an alpine crevasse - on the plus side, this seemed to revert him to his previous powers, removing the vampiric element again.
174* OutdatedHeroVsImprovedSociety: Exodus, an ancient mutant who was a knight during UsefulNotes/TheCrusades and faithful ally of the ComicBook/{{Black Knight|MarvelComics}} before his dormant powers were awakened by ComicBook/{{Apocalypse}} who intended to use him as a herald. While Exodus was able to come back to his senses and stop himself from killing the Black Knight, he was entombed for centuries before being awoken by Magneto above, who indoctrinated him into the modern-day crusade of mutant supremacy. Just like Black Adam, Exodus's methods proved incompatible with the modern-day and only served to get him into conflicts with superheroes. Perhaps because he is a younger immortal, Exodus has been growing out of this with time, once being recruited by ComicBook/{{SHIELD}} to lead their psi division and currently being entrusted with the critically important duty of educating mutant children in ''ComicBook/XMen2019''. He's not out of the woods yet (he still idolizes Magneto beyond reason and parrots mutant propaganda about the ComicBook/ScarletWitch), but all in all he has a better chance of outgrowing this trope than most of the other characters on this list. At the conclusion of the 2021 ''ComicBook/XMenTheTrialOfMagneto'' story, he [[spoiler:gladly admits he was wrong about Wanda and tells the children new stories about how 'the Pretender became the Redeemer']].
175* OutdatedOutfit: His original costume, which is about as 90s as it gets and hence vanished for a long stretch, during which new outfits were used for him, [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bhexodus.png some better]] [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-x-men_legacy_vol_1_261_textless_3729.jpg than others]]. As of his 2016 appearance in ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' (v4), he seems to have gone back to his old duds.
176* PayEvilUntoEvil: A firm believer in this, exemplified by his cruel treatment of AssholeVictim extraordinaire Fabian Cortez before executing him and blanket nuking of a mob of Genoshans (who were probably mostly slavers, but almost certainly not ''all'' slavers) upon arriving there in ''Blood Ties''.
177* PersonOfMassDestruction: Here's a hint -- when he describes himself as "Magneto's heir in spirit and '''power'''", he's ''not kidding''.
178* PetTheDog: He's very much AFatherToHisMen, in contrast to Cortez's BadBoss tendencies. Healing Professor X in ''X-Men: Legacy'' might also count as this, and the warmth he shows to the mutant children he instructs in Krakoan era stories definitely does.
179* PopularityPower: An in-universe example, owing to his PsychoactivePowers. Like ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' villain Samuel Sullivan, Exodus draws strength from the {{Mutants}} around him, with those mutants that trust and believe in him giving him the strongest power boosts.
180* PowerFloats: Clearly a habit he picked up from Magneto.
181* PoweredByAForsakenChild: Once when severely weakened he manifested a LifeDrinker ability that was almost certainly a [[DangerousForbiddenTechnique 'gift']] from Apocalypse.
182* PowersDoTheFighting: Despite being a crusader knight trained in the use of martial weaponry, it is very rare for Exodus to fight with anything other than his overwhelming mutant powers.
183* ProphetEyes: Artwork is inconsistent as to whether he's only got these when using his powers or if they're a permanent fixture.
184* PsychicBlockDefense: Exodus has this ability, being a high-order telepath on the level of Charles and Emma. When a trio of ComicBook/{{SHIELD}}'s top telepaths attempted to neutralize him (with suicide compulsions, pain/pleasure loops and attempting to isolate his right cerebral hemisphere all at once), his only reaction was to contemptuously note that "[[SuperSupremacist Even dogs can be trained to walk]]" before effortlessly knocking all of them unconscious.
185* PsychicStatic: Has has a unique variant of this: being UnskilledButStrong, he constantly generates wide-band telepathic 'interference' strong enough to hinder the likes of ComicBook/JeanGrey and ComicBook/EmmaFrost.
186* PsychicSurgery: Reconstructed Professor X's brain after a [[BoomHeadshot headshot]] from Bishop turned it to mush at the end of ''ComicBook/XMenMessiahComplex''.
187* PsychicTeleportation: A psychic teleporter of great range, to the point and being able to transport himself and others between Earth and the space station Avalon with ease.
188* PsychoactivePowers: Ostensibly the reason behind his [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe constantly-fluctuating]] power levels -- like fellow X-villain [[ProudWarriorRaceGuy Gladiator]], Exodus has power levels that are based in large part on his confidence, along with his [[KnightTemplar certainty in the righteousness of his cause]] at any given time. In the Krakoan Age, Hope Summers explains that he also draws from PopularityPower, namely, how many people believe in ''him''. This is why his power levels fluctuate so wildly, swinging from being able to thrash an entire team of X-Men ''plus'' an entire team of Avengers during the ''Blood Ties'' story to suffering more than one [[TheWorfEffect embarrassing defeat]] during ''Messiah Complex'' (which saw him forge a very reluctant alliance with noted StalkerWithATestTube Mr. Sinister). He'd probably surpass his mentor ComicBook/{{Magneto}} if he ever overcame this limitation.
189* PurpleIsPowerful: Also something he picked up from his time with Magneto.
190* PutOnABus: Many times, as his extremely high power level combined with his lack of a clear role in the overarching narrative translate to writers frequently having little idea of what to do with him. Said bus has taken the shape of a mountain crypt, a fissure in the Earth, the X-brig on Utopia, and even a ''black hole''.
191* RandomPowerRanking: As of 2019's ''House of X'', Exodus is a confirmed Omega level mutant.
192* RealMenLoveJesus: In ''Black Knight: Exodus'' he was shown to be as devout as you would expect a Crusader knight to be. Whether he still loves Jesus in the present day, has transferred his Jesus love to [[DarkMessiah Magneto]], or loves both equally, is never made clear.
193** ''ComicBook/ImmortalXMen'' finally explains this: he's kit-bashed his original Christian faith and Magneto-indoctrinated faith of mutant sanctity into an ideology all his own. He now believes that [[BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy Jesus Himself was a mutant]], and that Hope Summers makes a much better messiah [[ItMakesSenseInContext because she's willing to shoot people]]. Everyone else thinks he's nuts.
194* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld: Exodus was born in 12th century France and was at one point a Crusader, making him one of the oldest living mutants -- although still a baby compared to Apocalypse and Selene.
195* RedEyesTakeWarning: In ''Black Knight: Exodus'', after being temporarily brainwashed by Apocalypse.
196* RedOniBlueOni: The stoic, direct and fanatically loyal disciple of Magneto stands in contrast to the flamboyant, scheming and treacherous Fabian Cortez.
197* ReligiousBruiser: A crusader knight who has sworn his sword to Christ and then Magneto. ''Immortal X-Men'' reveals that he's managed to syncretise the two, referring to Jesus as "the Nazarene mutant" (in the context of how he far prefers Hope as his Messiah, because she shoots people). Everyone else, Hope included, thinks he's nuts.
198* SanitySlippage: In ''Blood Ties'', where he goes in the span of a few issues from intending to rescue his adopted liege lord's granddaughter from Fabian Cortez to threatening to ''kill'' said granddaughter for the 'crime' of being born human. Implied to be a result of his fairly unstable powerset; see UnskilledButStrong below.
199* ScrewThisImOuttaHere: In one what-if tale where Avalon isn't destroyed Exodus comes to lead one of the two main factions on Avalon, the 'Isolationists' who advocate bailing on Earth completely and taking Avalon into deep space.
200* SealedBadassInACan: This or SealedEvilInACan depending on how he's being written and at what point he was sealed. His initial sealing, the one that lasted for some 800 years, falls more under the first category as he'd just rebelled against Apocalypse. Later sealings tend to fall under the latter category. None of them ever stick, which is pointedly [[LampshadedTrope lampshaded]] by Exodus himself at one point.
201--> '''Exodus''': A thousand prisons throughout the centuries could not contain me... [[BadassBoast and neither shall you]]!
202* SocialDarwinist: [[DependingOnTheWriter Sometimes]].
203* SleevesAreForWimps: The version of him from the far-distant [=eXpanse=] timeline has discarded his sleeves as part of his ascendance into a CosmicEntity.
204* SmugSnake: He's constantly smirking and [[KickTheDog kicking dogs]] in ''Quicksilver'', which is really weird considering how he's portrayed [[TheStoic most of]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist the time]].
205* StableTimeLoop: Dane Whitman, the Black Knight of the present day, was transported by Eternal magic into the body of his ancestor Eobar Garrington, who was Bennet's best friend and fellow Crusader Knight during the Third Crusade. It was Dane, in Eobar's body, who drove Bennet into continuing their previously-shared quest alone, setting into motion a chain of events that led to his becoming Exodus.
206* TheStoic: As a 12th century knight, it's unsurprising that he would affect this demeanor.
207* StoryBreakerPower: The main reason why he isn't used very often. Let's face it, if he and Magneto had ever gotten the opportunity to fight the X-Men together, they would have beaten them all, leveled the X-Mansion and curbstomped the human militaries of the world as an afterthought.
208* SuperPrototype: Not stated as such, but there's a real good chance he was this for Apocalypse. Despite predating Mr. Sinister and the Four Horsemen, Exodus is easily leagues more powerful than them. This is probably why Apocalypse [[SealedBadassInACan sealed him away]].
209* SupermanSubstitute: He's a FlyingBrick who shares many of the trope namer's powers, who is one and the older and more experienced mutants, regarded as among the most powerful of them, is TheLeader to whatever team he's on, and is in a way the LastOfHisKind (being one of the only crusader knights who survived into the present day).
210* {{Telepathy}}: In ''Messiah Complex'' he was revealed to be among the top five mutant telepaths in the whole world, along with Professor X, Jean Grey, Emma Frost and Mr. Sinister (who wasn't a mutant at the time).
211* TeleportSpam: Inflicted to the X-Men on panel in ''X-Men Legacy'' and on gamers in ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse''.
212* UnskilledButStrong: Primarily in earlier stories. Though not by any means unskilled, Bennet just has so ''many'' powers that he frequently seems to struggle under the weight of them all. His presence is always announced by wide-band PsychicStatic, his early appearances showed him having visible difficulty using his more complex powers, and a few appearances imply that he suffers from a psychic variant of schizophrenia on account of not being able to block out all the voices around him.
213--> '''Exodus''': ''[to Rogue]'' Foolish child. My powers are far too vast for you to steal. [[note]] Turns out all she needed to steal was one of them. [[/note]]
214** Ironically enough, considering the above, when weakened and reduced to a form of energy vampirism, he ran into someone far stronger than he was in the form of [[ComicBook/XMan Nate Grey]], who promptly overloaded him and wiped the floor with him.
215** ''Immortal X-Men'' reveals that he never even knew about his powers being psychoactive. When Hope Summers tells him, he likens it to a religious revelation.
216* UsedToBeASweetKid: In his origin story, ''Black Knight: Exodus'', we see his first (and so far only) pre-Exodus appearance, and he turns out to have been pretty cheerful and easygoing for a medieval crusader.
217* VerticalKidnapping: This is his most damaging move in ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse'' - he grabs your character, flies a few hundred feet up, then throws them back to the ground.
218* VillainousRescue: While his status as a villain is debatable at this point, he and Elixir come to Magneto's rescue once again in ''ComicBook/XMenBlue'', allowing him to teleport to their secret base to escape a mutant mob and later teleporting him around the world in order to stop the Mothervine threat once and for all.
219* VoiceOfTheLegion: During the 90s Exodus's speech bubbles were unique, somewhat like Deadpool's, except instead of being yellow they were purple-bordered. The effect they're going for was implied to be that he's always speaking verbally ''and'' telepathically simultaneously (see UnskilledButStrong above). Like many interesting 90s character tics, this was quietly dropped/forgotten about, as his post-90s speech balloons have been of ordinary color and border. Although in this case, he might have simply developed greater control over his powers offscreen. [[spoiler:In ''Immortal X-Men'', the CosmicEntity version of him from the distant future as shown as speaking with this effect again]].
220* VowOfCelibacy: ''X-Men: Legacy'' revealed that he swore one back during his days as a crusader knight.
221* WellIntentionedExtremist: Exodus wants what's best for his people. He really, really does. It's just that between being a fish out of temporal water and the general instability his powers seem to inflict on him, that he has funny ways of going about it sometimes.
222* WhatMeasureIsAMook: Subverted during the story arc where Holocaust attacks Avalon. Exodus ''goes berserk'' when he witnesses Holocaust murder one of his Acolytes in front of him. Played straight when it comes to humans, though, as Exodus has absolutely no problem at all with massacring human {{Mooks}} wholesale in the defense of his people.
223* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: ''Immortal X-Men'' reveals that for all his power he is still utterly terrified of Apocalypse, and convinced he cannot beat him in a fight.
224* WideEyedIdealist: A super-rare villainous example, [[JustifiedTrope justified]] by him having the black and white outlook of a Knight Templar.
225* TheWorfEffect: On the receiving end from Nate Grey in the 90s - Exodus was a [[LifeDrinker psychic vampire]] following his brawl with Holocaust, and Nate was leaking psychic power all over the place. Exodus tried to feed on him, had the best of it, then Nate [[BerserkButton sensed that he'd been enhanced by Apocalypse]] and [[UnstoppableRage went mad with rage.]] Exodus wound up overloaded and at the bottom of a sealed-up crevasse very shortly afterwards. (Though on the upside, it did seem to cure the vampirism problem.)
226** In Creator/BrianMichaelBendis's ''Uncanny'' run, he [[MakeWayForTheNewVillains casually got his neck snapped by new villain Matthew Malloy]]. Though not a hugely popular character, fan outcry over it (and more specifically over Bendis's 'only ten people will care' remark) led to a very quick RetCon.
227* WorthyOpponent:
228** Regards Professor X as one.
229--> '''Exodus''': You honor me with your words, Charles Xavier. It is a good thing, is it not, that enemies can respect one another? Magnus respected you to the bitter end.
230** Describes Hope, who's fighting him at the time, as utterly magnificent.
231* YouCannotKillAnIdea: His response to being threatened by Maria Hill.
232[[/folder]]

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