The origin of Super Villains: Mimic

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_(comics)

Mimic (Calvin Montgomery Rankin) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. He was briefly a member of the X-Men in the 1960s, and was the first character to be added to the team after the original line-up and the first X-Man who was not a mutant.

An alternate reality version of Mimic became a popular member of the Exiles, the reality-hopping team.

Origins[edit]
Calvin Rankin was born in Passaic, New Jersey. After an accidental mixup of chemicals from his father Ronald's experiments, he gained the ability to temporarily copy the skills, physical traits, knowledge, and superpowers of any person within close range (approximately ten feet), which led people to fear him. When his father found out about this, he retreated with Calvin into a mine where he worked on a machine which, as he claimed, would make the abilities his son absorbed permanent. However, his experiments with the device caused several power outages in the vicinity; in order to hold off the mob which was tracking these disturbances, Ronald Rankin blasted the mine entrance, but he was accidentally caught and killed in the explosion, and his device sealed deep inside the mine.