Chamber (comics)
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Chamber is a mutant superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. He has been a member of Generation X, the X-Men, and Weapon X. He first appeared in Generation X #1 (September 1994), and is probably the most successful original character to emerge from the failed title.
Jonothon Evan Starsmore ("Jono" to his friends) is a native of London and a mutant who possesses a furnace of psionic energy in his chest. This power first manifested in an explosion that destroyed much of his chest and lower face and crippled his then-girlfriend Gayle. As a result of his disfiguration, Chamber can only speak via telepathy. He does not eat, drink, or breathe; it is believed that either the psionic energy sustains him without needing his vital organs, or that his body is merely a shell, and he is actually made up of psionic energy. His disfiguration also left Chamber sullen and angry and his teammates have often found him difficult to get along with.
Shortly after his mutant powers manifested, Jonothon accepted an invitation to join Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. At the airport, he was attacked by Emplate, a vicious evil mutant who feeds on mutant genetic material to survive, and the fledgling team of Generation X (M, Husk, Synch, Skin, and Jubilee) arrived to fight Emplate off. Shortly after, Chamber convinced the crazed Penance to stop attacking the team, as he could sympathize with her freakish appearance; she came to live with the team.
Emplate captured Chamber with Gayle's help, and then imprisoned both of them. Gayle blamed Jono for ruining her life, but the two managed to get over the pain after the rest of Generation X freed them. Chamber later became romantically involved with Husk, although their relationship was awkward and strained, and was terminated on more than one occasion.
Chamber grew even more depressed when he saw that Synch, who could duplicate a nearby mutant's powers, was more proficient with Chamber's own powers than Chamber himself was. When the school was outed as harbouring mutant students, an anti-mutant group attacked the school. After Synch was killed preventing a bomb from killing nearby human students, the Generation X kids felt that their training was over, and they had to use their powers to help humanity.
When the students moved on from the Massachusetts Academy of Higher Learning, Jono was offered a position with the X-Men. He declined however and returned to London, where he hooked up with pop star Sugar Kane, creating a publicity blitz for the singer, but Chamber ditched her after she told him she was using him for her image and joined the X-Men.
As an X-Man, Chamber investigated the apparent murders of mutant students at Empire State University. He got to know a reptilian mutant, Amber, who was the only mutant student to remain at ESU when they shut down their mutant program.
Returning to the X-Men, Chamber saw Husk in the arms of Archangel. He attacked Archangel and left; he destroyed a bar with his mutant powers, and the X-Men turned him over to the police. While in prison, locked in a power-dampening helmet, Chamber received a visit from Brent Jackson, who offered him an invitation to join the Weapon X program. He accepted, though in reality he infiltrated the group on behalf of the X-Men. Weapon X restored his damaged body, but the Weapon X series was cancelled before his story could continue. Subsequently, his powers again damaged his face. He most recently joined a new team of retired teenage superheroes called Excelsior.