ALTERNATE VERSIONS
In the House of M, Nitro joined the Hood’s syndicate of super-powered non-mutant criminals, rallying together against their mutant overlords for defense and profit. The Sapiens’ Gang used political activism to cover for their crimes, shielding them from the full force of Magneto and 
S.H.I.E.L.D. When the heat got too high, they left America and conquered the small Central American country of Santo Rico, taking it away from the Jeffries brothers. However, they eventually grew too big a threat for Magneto to ignore. His telepath Madame Web snared Nitro’s mind and brought him back to America. A brainwashed Nitro exploded at the Tomb of the Unknown Mutant, declaring “Death to the House of M!” before allowing himself to be shot by the authorities when he reformed. This gave Magneto the excuse he needed to invade Santo Rico and bring down the Hood.
On Battleworld, the Warzone was a domain where the Superhuman Civil War never ended. Captain America and Iron Man oversaw two very different Americas, known as the Blue and the Iron, separated by the Divide. Nitro ended up enlisted in the Iron’s army and was mentioned, along with Radioactive Man, as a potential weapon of mass destruction to be deployed.
In the Days of Future Past, the Stamford incident had an eerie parallel. When President William Stryker enacted the Mutant Control Act, the Avengers refused to enforce it and severed ties with the U.S. government. In their place, Stryker created the Defenders, led by John Walker's Commission-approved version of Captain America, Iron Monger (Obadiah Stane), Songbird, Titania, and Nitro. The Defenders fought the X-Men in Stamford, Connecticut until a drug-enhanced Nitro delivered his biggest explosion yet. Polaris of the X-Men and numerous innocents were killed in an incident blamed on the X-Men, giving Stryker carte blanche to institute martial law.