Not much is known of the Samoan mutant called Mondo. He was once friends with Cordelia Frost, Emma Frost's younger sister. In an attempt to make a bid for the position of White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Cordelia had Mondo contained and handed him over to the Inner Circle of the Hellfire Club. Cordelia's scheme backfired; the Hellfire Club kept Mondo but denied Cordelia membership. Cordelia went to Emma, headmistress of the Massachusetts Academy, for help and, soon after, Mondo was rescued by Generation X and subsequently accepted an invitation to join the school. However, Generation X later learned that the Mondo they had rescued wasn't the real Mondo but a clone, a plant-based simulacrum created by Black Tom Cassidy who had infiltrated the Hellfire Club and rescued Mondo. After taking Mondo under his wing, Black Tom created a clone of the young mutant to infiltrate the Massachusetts Academy so that Black Tom could exact vengeance on his cousin, Banshee, who was the headmaster of the Academy. As Banshee and Emma Frost battled Black Tom, the Mondo clone began hunting down the members of Generation X. However, as the Mondo clone was about to attack Jubilee, he was shot dead by the anti-mutant militant Bastion, chief operative of. Later, the real Mondo appeared alongside Black Tom and Juggernaut. Completely loyal to Black Tom, the real Mondo battled the members of Generation X. Generation X attempted to talk to Mondo into not fighting, but Mondo laughed at them, reminding them that he has never met them before. Generation X and their teachers were able to defeat their opponents, but the trio still managed to escape. Mondo was confirmed to be alive and powered as he appeared with the rest of Generation X during Cyclops' Million Mutant March in Washington D.C. Mondo has recently appeared in X-Men Blue issue #8 alongside several other mutants in an effort to hunt down the young X-Men Blue team. This team's leader is Emma Frost, as she is part of the mutant sovereign state New Tian during Marvel's Secret Empirestory arc.
Powers and abilities
Mondo is capable of taking on the properties of any organic or inorganic material with which he comes into contact. When using his power, Mondo is able to grow in mass with an assumed proportionate growth in strength to superhuman levels. Mondo can absorb matter into his body, gaining the mass, appearance, and other properties of the matter in question. This change will remain until Mondo's body "digests" the organic matter, which is then disintegrated. Mondo is also able to use his power to travel through organic matter, such as dirt, and can appear instantaneously in the immediate vicinity of where he entered the earth.
In the Age of Apocalypse Mondo was one of the members of Generation Next taught by Colossus and his wife Shadowcat. Unlike his Earth 616 counterpart, Mondo was truly heroic and had no reservations whatsoever about helping the innocent. They were given the mission by Magneto to infiltrate the Core -- a prison facility watched over by the Sugar Man—and rescue Colossus' sister Illyana, who was crucial to Bishop's plan to save all of reality. Mondo was given the task of sneaking in through the ground and finding Illyana. He let the little girl stay in his stomach while he was in this dirt form, but he had to be wary not to keep her in too long or else she would be digested. Despite his best efforts, Sugar Man found the pair and was able to kill Mondo with his razor-sharp tongue, even though Mondo was still in his dirt form. He constantly referred to himself in the third person.
In other media
Film
In the Generation X TV movie, Mondo was played by Bumper Robinson. In the film, he is jokingly said to hate Jello because he fears he may accidentally absorb its consistency, which may be a reference to Bumper Robinson's first acting role: a Jell-O Pudding Pop commercial.
