2 and its relaunched title, New X-Men: Academy X, Weir and DeFilippis intended for the character to commit suicide early in the series after coming out as gay and finding himself rejected by his family and friends.

[5] The plot involved Victor committing suicide after coming out as gay and being rejected by his parents and his friends, serving as "a powerful message about what intolerance can do to people.

[5][6] Victor was given the codename "Anole" (/əˈnoʊliː/ ə-NOH-lee), a kind of lizard frequently and incorrectly known as an American chameleon, after it was suggested to Weir and DeFilippis by a fan via a post on their forum.

[7] He continued to make numerous appearances during Craig Kyle and Chris Yost's run on New X-Men (2nd Series), having a more active role in the plots than most of the other background characters.

[10] When the series ended, Anole was featured in a vignette entitled "Blend In" written and illustrated by Young in X-Men: Divided We Stand #1.

Young added that he chose to write Anole's divestment from the X-Men at the conclusion of the story in a way that would allow him to explore more of the character's future decisions and experiences at another time.

[16][17][18] Victor Borkowski is a sixteen-year-old mutant born and raised in Fairbury, Illinois, a small, typical American town in which he lives a normal life despite his reptilian features.

When a resurrected and brainwashed Northstar returns with his sister Aurora and attacks the Institute, Anole finds him and is able to temporarily snap him out of the mind control set in place by the Children of the Vault.

Anole then finds that he has generated a larger and stronger reptilian arm replacing the one he lost, a previously unknown aspect of his mutation.

After helping to defeat Belasco, Anole and Pixie are made members of the New X-Men squad on recommendation of Rockslide, who threatens to quit if they are not appointed to the team.

Later, in a misguided attempt at group bonding, Rockslide voices his acceptance of Anole's sexuality, outing him to some of the other students, though Loa states that she was already aware and that everyone already knew.

A vignette in the two-part series Divided We Stand explored the after-effects of Anole's numerous traumatic experiences at the Xavier Institute during his return to his hometown.

Northstar, now rehabilitated, is contacted by Cyclops to find Anole, who goes into hiding after accidentally attacking his own father due to posttraumatic stress disorder from his experiences at the Xavier Institute.

[19] Anole explains that his town accepts him for who he is and that his problems come from Northstar, along with the other X-Men, for providing the students under their care with a poor education, stealing their innocence by constantly exposing them to danger, and then throwing them away by disbanding.

[14] When his teammate Dust dies from a hidden medical condition brought on by her fight with Magma, Anole once again voices his opinions about leaving the team as they are constantly put in danger with mortal consequences.

The story depicts Cannonball teaching the younger X-Men how to farm their own crops, but Anole argues that it is a waste of time since they could just buy their food from a store.

Eventually she returns to bring him water, and Anole tells her that he learned his lesson: without their own food supply, the mutant race could die.

Cannonball chooses Anole for the mission to provide moral support for Pixie, whose teleportation ability they require to travel to Limbo.

He was shown to have bonded with other students Cosmar, Rain Boy and No-Girl, who all felt shame due to their inhuman appearances and resented their teachers for refusing to kill them in The Crucible and so they can be resurrected by The Five in human passing bodies.

[34] Not wanting Farouk to get caught up in this and not trusting any adults due to their recent secretive and unhelpful behaviour, as well as Krakoa's established rule against resurrecting clones.

After explaining the circumstances and accepting that the Shadow King was the most likely culprit, The Five decided to do the right thing and ignore the rule about clones and help Gabby.

[37] Anole's reptilian mutation gives him green scaly skin, a spiked head carapace instead of hair, a prehensile sticky tongue, the ability to stick to solid surfaces, and enhanced agility, speed, reflexes/reactions, coordination, and balance.

He can grow back lost limbs and damaged body parts but they appear larger, scaled and reptilian like his carapace and grant him a higher level of physical ability.

[10] Early in the character's publication history, Anole's sexual identity was alluded to by his close relationship with his squad mentor Northstar, one of Marvel's most recognized openly gay superheroes.

[21] His sexual orientation was later confirmed by DeFilippis on an online forum, who stated that the dialogue intentionally alluded to this,[6] and was reaffirmed in The X-Men: 198 Files.

[19] During his review of X-Men: Divided We Stand, writer Dustin Christian of For the Love of Comics Reviews expressed pleasant surprise upon realizing Anole's sexuality and praised writers Yost and Kyle for their handling of the character during their creative run on New X-Men, stating, "It’s cool to see a gay character depicted in a non-stereotypical fashion so that their orientation doesn’t define everything they do and someone like me wouldn’t even know that about them.

The story resulted in Josh discovering Anole's body while attempting to apologize for his reaction, serving as impetus for him to reform his attitudes while Julian would maintain what would later be revealed to be a facade of indifference.

[5] Weir and DeFilippis stated that in addition to being a message about intolerance, the story would serve as a key factor in redeeming Elixir from his initial introduction as an anti-mutant bigot while solidifying Julian's character as "cruel".

The writers objected, noting that issue 10 featured the school still dealing with Anole's suicide and would leave Josh's change in character unexplained.

He remains on a team of X-Men with Graymalkin, Emma Frost (now calling herself "Diamondheart"), Wolverine, and an incapacitated and greatly aged Ink.