Able to decay organic matter, Kevin Ford has a rough introduction to his mutant powers when he accidentally kills his father. He eventually finds a home at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, where he joins the New Mutants and Hellions squads, and takes the codename Wither.
A Fatal Beginning
Despite his mother dying at childbirth, Kevin Ford grows to become a talented industrial artist. When his mutant power to decay organic matter through touch first manifested in his teens, Kevin panics. He inadvertently kills his father after he touches Kevin while trying to calm him down. When Kevin tries to revive him, his father’s body reduces to dust. Kevin then takes refuge in a junkyard, but when a guard dog attacks him, he kills it as well, after which the employees brutally beat him with a lead pipe. With the timely arrival of the Xavier Institute’s Danielle Moonstar, AKA Dani Moonstar, she stops the beating and brings Kevin to Xavier’s to learn control of his power. The usually brooding Kevin becomes excited at the prospect of one day becoming an X-Man, and is befriended by fellow students Sofia Mantega, AKA Wind Dancer, and Laura Collins, AKA Wallflower. An attraction develops between Kevin and Wallflower soon afterward.
Death Touch
Wither can rapidly decay any carbon-based organic matter he touches, alive or dead, ultimately reducing it to ash. Inorganic materials such as metal and synthetic materials such as polyester are immune to his touch, and due to their durability, diamonds (like Emma Frost's secondary mutation) and mercury (like Mercury's mutation) can withstand his powers. It is theorized that Wither could someday target specific cells, using his power to cure cancer, for example.
Mutant Allies and X-Foes
While isolating himself from the world because of his death touch, Kevin gets recruited by Dani Moonstar of the X-Men. He joins students his age also learning to manage their powers, but often pushes people away with his sour attitude. He first joins the New Mutants squad. When he is attacked by cyborg Donald Pierce and his Reavers, and Pierce nearly kills Wallflower whom he cares for, he tries to kill him. He’s stopped by Moonstar, and then isolates himself until Emma Frost brings him back to the fold where he joins her Hellions squad.
Seduced by the Sorceress Selene, Wither helps her in her quest for godhood, and ends up fighting against the X-Men and his former classmates, including Josh Foley, AKA Elixir, who ends up disintegrating him with his healing powers.
A History of Death and Decay
Unexpectedly attacked by Donald Pierce and his Reavers while visiting New York City, Kevin saw Pierce badly wound Wallflower, and tried to kill Pierce in revenge, but was stopped by Moonstar. Kevin subsequently left the school, afraid of both hurting his friends and of the joy he felt while decaying Pierce.
Found in Staten Island sometime later, Kevin was convinced by Emma Frost to return to the school, where he took the codename Wither, and joined his friends in the New Mutants training squad. Despite being able to touch Cessily Kincaid, AKA Mercury, Wither rejected her advances because of his feelings for Wallflower.
Not fitting in with the New Mutants, Wither spent more time with the rival Hellions squad. When the FBI sought Wither for the death of his father, the school turned him over as a display of peaceful human/mutant co-existence. The Hellions and Wind Dancer tried to rescue him, but the New Mutants stopped them; the court ruled the death accidental and released Wither. Returning to school, and resenting the New Mutants for not standing up for him, Wither asked to be transferred to the Hellions, and began counseling sessions, ironically with Sean Garrison, who, unknown to all parties, was Wallflower's father. When Wither learned Wallflower's boyfriend, Elixir was also dating Rahne Sinclair, AKA Wolfsbane, he tried to blackmail Elixir into breaking up with Wallflower. When Elixir refused, Wither told others, causing Laurie to break up with Elixir and ending Wolfbane’s employment as a teacher at the Institute.
Later, Wither was briefly cured of his mutation by the Kingmaker, who demanded that he and the Hellions commit crimes in return for the favors he granted them; they eventually rejected his demands, and Wither’s powers were restored. Shortly after this, an insane Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, stripped the majority of mutants of their powers during "M-Day." Thrilled at the prospect of being powerless, an unknowingly still empowered Wither reached for Wallflower in excitement, inadvertently decaying her right arm.
Grief-stricken and traumatized, Wither left the Institute, and hid for some time in what was once New York City’s District X, known as Mutant Town. He was haunted by visions of using his powers, resisting the growing hunger to do so. Wither was befriended by the immortal goddess Selene, disguised as an old woman, and was prodded by her to embrace his powers. Selene told him of Wallflower’s murder by William Stryker's Purifiers, and provoked a confrontation with police, forcing Wither to use his powers to kill two of them to protect her. Immune to his touch, Selene seduced Wither, who fully embraced using his powers in her service, acting as a lieutenant in her quest to resurrect Earth’s dead mutants and achieve godhood. She also convinced him to feed off of his anger by killing people by showing him illusions, and despite learning the truth of those illusions, he continues to kill and serve her. With Selene and her forces, Wither attacked Utopia, headquarters to the mutant population and the X-Men. There he killed Onyxx, a former classmate at the Institute. Wither then battled Elixir, threatening to kill him, his parents, everyone he ever loved, all because he blamed Elixir for not saving Wallflower. Then, when Wither and Elixir touched, Elixir’s healing ability overwhelmed Wither to the point of disintegration, resulting in his death.
When Charles Xavier, AKA Professor X, Max Eisenhardt, AKA Magneto, and Moira MacTaggert, now Moira X, created the mutant island nation of Krakoa, their resurrectionist group The Five brought Wither back to life. He reunited with his former Hellions squad.