Leech comes into the X-books through the Morlocks, and his early history is closely tied to what life is like for the mutants living underneath New York. He's a little green kid…

Leech comes into the X-books through the Morlocks, and his early history is closely tied to what life is like for the mutants living underneath New York. He's a little green kid whose appearance immediately marks him as different, even before anyone finds out what his power does. His ability is power suppression. Get close enough to him and superhuman abilities can stop working. He doesn't take someone else's power and then use it himself the way Rogue can. He creates a problem for anybody who is relying on their abilities while they're inside his range. That can be useful, but it also creates complications. If your friends are fighting to protect you, accidentally shutting off their powers can make their situation worse. If someone needs to use a power to communicate, like Artie, being near Leech can interfere with that too. He's still a child learning how to live with an ability that affects the people around him. The Power Pack stories are a good example of how broad that effect can be. Their abilities come from an alien source, and Leech can still suppress them. So, at least in what I've read, reducing his power to something that only switches off other mutants would leave out things the comics have already shown him doing. His relationship with Annalee is another part of those early stories. She has lost her children and can project her emotions onto other people. The Morlocks put Leech near her to suppress that effect, which is a pretty uncomfortable situation for a little boy to be placed in. Her early treatment of him is cruel, particularly when she's trying to make the Power children replace the children she lost. Their relationship does change, and she eventually cares for him. Power Pack also becomes part of his life beyond those first confrontations. There are moments where he gets to spend time with other kids and be included in something ordinary, instead of only appearing when somebody needs his power. Then the Mutant Massacre destroys that little bit of stability. Annalee is killed, and Leech is among the children caught in the tunnels. He survives and comes under X-Factor's care, with Artie becoming his closest companion. From there, he's part of the younger cast connected to X-Factor and the X-Terminators. Even sending him and Artie to boarding school doesn't keep them out of trouble for long. They end up taken by demons during Inferno, and the others have to come after them. Leech has already been through the loss of a home, the loss of someone caring for him and several situations that adults with much more experience struggle to survive. His power can make him very important to a fight, but the stories also keep coming back to how young he is and how much he wants someone to stay with him.