The human rocket called Cannonball refuses to be bound by the laws of gravity ... and the rules set forth by a generation that could never understand him and his super-powered peers!

Real name: Samuel Guthrie
Occupation: Adventurer, former coal miner
Group affiliation: None; formerly the X-Men, X-Force and the New Mutants
Base of operations: Unrevealed

Height: 6'
Weight: 150 lbs.
Eye color: Blue-gray
Hair color: Blond

Powers: Cannonball possesses the ability to generate thermo-chemical energy, released from his skin through an act of will. At his present level of experience, he can channel the energy only in one direction: beneath him. The equal and opposite reaction to this thrust propels his body through the air like a human rocket. Smoke, flame and condensation accompany the release of energy -- much like the exhaust of a rocket engine. A half-inch thick energy field channels the explosion and protects Cannonball's skin from the direct effects of the blast. It also negates momentum and related effects, thereby cushioning his body from any impact up to a half-minute from the depletion of his energy. Besides rough landings, Cannonball also is protected from nearly all types of injury while in flight. The forcefield extends to any person or object with which he is in physical contact.

Weapons: None

History: Sam Guthrie is a mutant whose latent superhuman ability to generate propulsive thrust first manifested when he became trapped while working in a coal mine. Donald Pierce, a renegade member of the elite social organization known as the Hellfire Club, learned of Guthrie's burgeoning powers and manipulated the teenager into serving as one of his operatives.

Pierce sent Guthrie into battle against the telepathic, telekinetic Charles Xavier and his fledgling team of adolescent adventurers, the New Mutants. Guthrie refused to obey his handler's order to kill the New Mutants, and Pierce attempted to murder the youngster in retaliation. Xavier saved Guthrie's life by defeating Pierce, then invited him to join the New Mutants. Cannonball rose through the ranks to become one of the team's leaders -- years later serving as a member of the X-Men, Xavier's original band of mutant heroes.

When the time-tossed freedom fighter called Cable reorganized the New Mutants into the strike team known as X-Force, Cannonball followed. The impulsive mutants who formed the first incarnation of X-Force were soldiers of the atom, visiting retribution on those who would persecute their kind. Following Cable's departure, Cannonball and company continued to operate outside the law, dodging both their enemies and government agents until they appeared to die in a cataclysmic battle. They later resurfaced -- but by then, a privately owned black-ops outfit had assumed the mantle of X-Force.