Anole

Victor Borkowski is a sixteen-year-old mutant born and raised in Fairbury, Illinois, a small, typical American town in which he lives a normal life despite his reptilian features.

The close-knit community accepts him for who he is until anti-mutant sentiment begins to spread.

For his own safety, his parents send him to the Xavier Institute where he quickly excels academically.

When the advisor system is set up at the Xavier Institute, Victor chooses Karma as his advisor and is given the code name Anole.

During the formation of training squads throughout the school, he is reassigned to Northstar's Alpha Squadron where he serves as the squad leader.

At first, he is depicted as close friends with fellow student Julian Keller and the other students in the Hellions Squadron, but later becomes closer to his teammates.

He is especially close to his mentor Northstar, who helps him to come to terms with his sexuality.

Anole is deeply affected by Northstar's death, stating that Northstar understood him and was important as a figure he could confide in.

Anole is one of only 27 students at the Institute who does not lose his mutant powers in the aftermath of House of M, also known as Decimation or "M-Day."

The squad system is dissolved and the remaining students are merged into one group.

Shortly afterward, Emma Frost sets up an all-out brawl amongst the remaining students to determine who will become the new team of X-Men trainees (dubbed the "New X-Men"); Victor is not selected for the squad, but remains at the school.

When a resurrected and brainwashed Northstar returns with his sister Aurora and attacks the Institute, Anole finds him and is able to temporarily snap him out of the mind control set in place by the Children of the Vault.

Anole's joy at seeing his former mentor is short-lived, as Northstar returns to his mind-controlled status and knocks him out.

The school is later attacked by Reverend William Stryker and his army of mutant-exterminating Purifiers.

This results in a bus full of Anole's classmates being killed and the murder of other friends at the school.

During the New X-Men story arc "The Quest for Magik," Anole and his classmates are sucked down into the dimension of Limbo by the demon Belasco.

They are soon attacked by a large group of demons, and Anole takes charge, rallying the students around the defenseless Blindfold, only to have his right arm severed at the shoulder by a demon.

Later he is trapped in stone by the machinations of Darkchilde as she attempts to create a powerful Soulsword from Pixie's soul.

Anole manages to break himself free and stop Darkchilde from completing the process, saving Pixie.

Anole then finds that he has generated a larger and stronger reptilian arm replacing the one he lost, a previously unknown aspect of his mutation.

The arm itself is spikey, resembling his scalp, with razor sharp claws.

After helping to defeat Belasco, Anole and Pixie are made members of the New X-Men squad on recommendation of Rockslide, who threatens to quit if they are not appointed to the team.

Rockslide and X-23 later try to convince Anole to cut off his other arm in order to generate a stronger replacement.

When he refuses, Rockslide calls him a sissy, which Anole finds offensive enough for him to reveal his sexual identity to Rockslide and attack him.

Rockslide apologizes, swearing that he did not know.

Later, in a misguided attempt at group bonding, Rockslide voices his acceptance of Anole's sexuality, outing him to some of the other students, though Loa states that she was already aware and that everyone already knew.

As a member of the New X-Men, Anole takes part in various missions with the team, including the events leading up to X-Men: Messiah Complex and through to its conclusion when Cyclops officially closes the school and disbands the X-Men.

With the school closed, Anole returns to his family in Fairbury, Illinois.


A vignette in the two-part series Divided We Stand explored the after-effects of Anole's numerous traumatic experiences at the Xavier Institute during his return to his hometown.

Northstar, now rehabilitated, is contacted by Cyclops to find Anole, who goes into hiding after accidentally attacking his own father due to posttraumatic stress disorder from his experiences at the Xavier Institute.

Northstar discovers Anole at his tree house, unhappy to see his former mentor.

At first, Northstar makes jokes, thinking Anole is having a problem with fitting in as both a mutant and as a gay teen.

Anole explains that his town accepts him for who he is and that his problems come from Northstar, along with the other X-Men, for providing the students under their care with a poor education, stealing their innocence by constantly exposing them to danger, and then throwing them away by disbanding.

Planning to run away, Anole leaves a note for his parents at the tree house and elbows Northstar in the face—similar to how Northstar attacked him in the past—and tells him to tell all of the former New X-Men not to come looking for him.

Dani Moonstar personally recruits Anole to the Young X-Men team by visiting him at his new home.

Anole is still apprehensive, maintaining his views from Divided We Stand, but is persuaded to join the team when Dani tells him that the X-Men have relocated to San Francisco, California, "a place renowned for its tolerance of mutants and... other minorities," a reference to Anole's gay identity.

Moving to San Francisco, he engages in various missions with the Young X-Men, including assisting during the Skrull invasion of San Francisco.

When his teammate Dust dies from a hidden medical condition brought on by her fight with Magma, Anole once again voices his opinions about leaving the team as they are constantly put in danger with mortal consequences.

Dust is revived by teammate Ink and she convinces the team not to disband.

During the Utopia storyline, the X-Men leave their San Francisco base and establish the island "Utopia" for mutants on the remains of Asteroid M.

The anthology series Nation X explores the characters' reactions to this relocation, with Anole featuring in his own story, "Big Boy Pants".

The story depicts Cannonball teaching the younger X-Men how to farm their own crops, but Anole argues that it is a waste of time since they could just buy their food from a store.

He looks to Magik for agreement, but she responds by teleporting him to Limbo for five days without food or water.

Eventually she returns to bring him water, and Anole tells her that he learned his lesson: without their own food supply, the mutant race could die.

Magik informs him that this was not a lesson and that she merely sent him to Limbo because she was sick of looking at him.

She returns them both to Utopia and Anole resumes farming, too afraid of Magik to tell anyone what happened.

He is almost killed by the mutant Sack, who wanted his own corner of Utopia.

Anole has a minor appearance in the Nation X story in Uncanny X-Men; he and the other students grant Rogue their combined powers to battle Predator Xs.

He also appears in the miniseries X-Men: Pixie Strkes Back, helping save Pixie and the female New X-Men from the demon Saturnine, and the one-shot Cloak and Dagger, in which he supports Dagger after she learns she is not a mutant.

During the Second Coming crossover storyline, Anole appears prominently in the three issue tie-in series X-Men: Hellbound.

In it, he joins a team of X-Men in rescuing Magik from Limbo after she is sent there by Bastion's forces.

Cannonball chooses Anole for the mission to provide moral support for Pixie, whose teleportation ability they require to travel to Limbo.

Anole and Pixie are extremely reluctant to risk themselves for Magik, who they believe does not deserve to be saved, but decide to go because they are heroes.

In Limbo, Anole fends off demons and bickers with Cannonball; he also takes out his teammate Dazzler when she is corrupted by Limbo's influence.

In the end, Pixie and Anole somewhat resolve their issues with Magik and the team return home.

In the aftermath of Second Coming, Anole appears in the Collision story in X-Men: Legacy.

He joins Rogue, Magneto, Loa and Indra on a trip to Mumbai.

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