Stryfe

Stryfeis asupervillainappearing in Americancomic bookspublished byMarvel Comics,most commonly in conflict with thesuperheroteamX-Force.He is acloneofCablefrom Cable's alternate future timeline.

Stryfe
Cover ofUncanny X-Men#296. Art byBrandon Peterson.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The New Mutants#86 (February 1990)
Created by	Louise Simonson(writer) Rob Liefeld(artist/co-writer)
In-story information
Species	Human mutantclone
Team affiliations	Mutant Liberation Front Dark Riders
Notable aliases	Chaos Bringer, Scion of the Dark Lord,Cable
Abilities	Telekinesis Telepathy Superhuman strengthand durability

Publication history

The character was created byLouise SimonsonandRob Liefeld,and first appears inThe New Mutants#86 (February 1990), a cameo appearance in which his head cannot be seen. His first full appearance was in the following issue,The New Mutants#87 (March 1990).A clone of Cable, Stryfe is the mainantagonistin the 1990scrossoverX-Cutioner's Song,the 2009X-Force/CablecrossoverMessiah War,and the 2014Cable & X-Force/Uncanny X-Forcecrossover "Vendetta".

Stryfe appears as the main villain of the 2018–2019 run ofX-Force.

Fictional character biography

Askaniappears toCyclopsandJean Greyfrom the distant future after their son Nathan Summers is infected with atechno-organic virusbyApocalypseand tells the two that the child can be saved in the future. Nathan then arrives in the future to which Mother Askani clones the baby as a back up plan. The clone's growth is greatly accelerated until he's the same age as Nathan himself while the Askani succeed in halting the spread of the tehno-organic virus, thereby saving Nathan's life. However, Apocalypse's forces attack the Askani's hiding place and steal the cloned infant. Apocalypse takes the child as his own, raising him himself and naming him "Stryfe", intending to use him as a host body. Stryfe grows into a murderous, bored and lonely child only raised by Apocalypse and Ch'vayre (Apocalypse's second in command). Years later, as Apocalypse is about to transfer his essence into Stryfe, Apocalypse discovers that he's unfit because Stryfe is a clone and can't house Apocalypse's essence. The teenage Nathan and the time-traveling Scott Summers and Jean confront Apocalypse while Apocalypse's essence to discorporate to which Ch'vayre raises Stryfe afterwards.

Stryfe grows up to be an embittered madman, wanting vengeance on both what he thought were his real parents (Cyclops and Jean) and his spiritual parent Apocalypse.He becomes an anarchist and terrorist rebel in the Nor-Am Pact region 3783–3806 in his alternate future. He raises an army and for years became a fierce opponent of bothCableand the Clan Chosen, as well as theNew Canaanites,a despotic regime that replaced Apocalypse's. Stryfe reveals to Cable much later in the present era that during this period in their life, he rapedAliya Dayspring(Cable's wife who Stryfe had grown to desire) at one point by pretending to be Cable and so the father ofTyler Dayspringcould be Stryfe and not Cable.He later kills Aliya as well as kidnapping and brainwashing Tyler.

In 3806, the New Canaanites take full control of the planet, but Stryfe manages to travel back in time two-thousand years.He forms amutantterroristgroup, theMutant Liberation Front(MLF), alongside many powerful mutants includingTamara Kurtz.Stryfe orders his Mutant Liberation Front to captureRusty CollinsandSkids.In Japan, he fights Cable and clashes with theNew Mutantswho thwart his attempt to poison the water supplies of major cities.Stryfe abandons the Antarctic Mutant Liberation Front base during an invasion byX-Force(a team composed of Cable and several former New Mutants).Stryfe then has the Mutant Liberation Front free the captive mutantsHairbagandSlab,and turns them over toMister Sinisterbefore ordering an MLF attack on a clinic.He also confronts and defeatsKane,and eventually declares his enmity for Apocalypse.Stryfe later battles Cable who learns that Stryfe is actually his double.Stryfe sows chaos in the ranks of the X-Men, posing as Cable and shootingProfessor Xwith an infected bullet, and taking Cyclops and Jean captive.He bests theDark Ridersand Apocalypse, making him leader of the Dark Riders.As a final insurance, Stryfe gives Mister Sinister a canister that he claims holds genetic material from two-thousand years worth of the Summers bloodline;in truth, it holds the deadlyLegacy Virus.Stryfe battles Cable until the latter opens a temporal rift by detonating a self-destruct system, destroying his body.Stryfe's consciousness enters Cable's mind, in which he stays until he voluntarily leaves.

While physically dead, Stryfe attempts to return to life through the body ofWarpath.However, his attempt is avoided by the arrival of X-Force and Warpath is sent back to the living by Blackheart.

By unknown means, Stryfe revives and attempts to subjugateLatveria.Stryfe is opposed by Cable andNate Grey,and at first beats them easily, even going as far as to siphon off all of Nate's power.Madelyne Pryorappears to join forces with Stryfe, but secretly steals the psionic energy from Stryfe and gives it back to Nate. Madelyne, Nate and Cable join forces to defeat Stryfe.

Stryfe reappears, controlling the activation sequence for thePrime Sentinels.He uses them to hunt downLady Deathstrikewho holds the complete codes for all the Sentinels via cybernetic systems. Lady Deathstrike is forced to turn to the X-Men, and together they defeat Stryfe who teleports away.

Stryfe later experiences a personal existential crisis and becomes depressed at the futility of his efforts over the years after the X-Men finally manage to cure the Legacy Virus, which Stryfe considered to be his life's work and the one permanent victory he had against Cable, his parents (Scott and Jean), and the rest of the X-Men. He hunts downBishopwho is possessed by the entity Le Bete Noir, whose power rivals thePhoenix Forceand threatens to consume Bishop's body and unleash its evil upon the universe.However, Stryfe ultimately regrets the path he took and the choices he has made in his life (stemming from his perpetual identity crisis as a clone), frees Bishop from the entity and sacrifices himself to save the Earth by absorbing Le Bete Noir into himself, shattering his body from the power overload.Gambit,however, is suspicious that Cable may have telepathically forced Stryfe to sacrifice himself.

Messiah War

It's revealed duringMessiah Warthat Stryfe was able to transport himself into the future instead of dying where he is discovered by Bishop, who has been traveling through time in an attempt to killHope Summers.This was confirmed by the writerChristopher Yostto be the same character that had previously plagued the X-Men, mentioning in particular his survival of his fight against Nate and Cable.Bishop propositioned a chance to kill Apocalypse, if Stryfe aided him in killing Cable who Stryfe said he no longer cared about. After Bishop initiated a global catastrophe that wiped out most of the people on Earth, Stryfe was able to step in and fill the leadership void. Together, Stryfe and Bishop traveled to 2963 A.D., where their combined efforts attacked Apocalypse while the latter slept in a rejuvenation chamber and defeated, assuming they killed Apocalypse. Stryfe stole the Celestial Ship and technology and used it to raise an army that gave him total control over the people, save for a small rebellion. Stryfe tyrannically ruled over his subjects, the Stryfetroopers, with Bishop as his right-hand-man for nearly a decade. Stryfe placed the Ship in Westchester County, New York and renamed the city, New Celestial City. Shortly after building his empire, Stryfe employedDeadpoolas security and imprisonedKiden Nixonwho was used to create a chronal net, preventing anyone from jumping out of the timeline. But when Stryfe was reminded byWolverinethat he already "died a hero" to just be a villain again, Stryfe claims to not know what Wolverine is talking about. Cable, Deadpool, the time-displaced X-Force and Apocalypse join forces to defeat Stryfe and Bishop. Cable and Hope travel further into the future, the X-Force return to the present, and Apocalypse drags Stryfe away, intending to use him as a new host body.

Vendetta

Stryfe is able to prevent Apocalypse from using his body as a new host and travels back in time to the present in theCable and X-ForceandUncanny X-Forcecrossover "Vendetta". Upon discovering that Bishop has returned to the present, Hope tries to kill him in an act of vengeance. Stryfe appears and kidnaps both and brings the two to an old, abandoned Mutant Liberation Force base. There, he attempts to manipulate Hope into killing Bishop who has come to realize the error of various past mistakes. Stryfe explains to Bishop how he wants him to suffer after he betrayed him during Messiah War and claims that he was imprisoned and tortured by Apocalypse for years until he planned a successful escape and killed him. Stryfe tries to corrupt Hope by making her give in to her feelings of hatred towards Bishop, convincing her to take revenge and murder Bishop, although he is shackled and refuses to fight back out of remorse. Cable and both teams of X-Force soon intervene and combat Stryfe. Hope sees that Stryfe is trying to undo the lessons which Cable taught and refuses to kill Bishop, but Hope severely injures him. Stryfe is defeated by Cable and both X-Force teams, but before escaping, he telepathically forces Hope to mimic his vast and nearly uncontrollable psionic power with the intention that Hope will destroy her own friends. Bishop helps Hope to disperse Stryfe's massive energy and the two come to an uneasy truce.

Powers and abilities

Stryfe is a clone of the mutant Cable and, as a result, possesses Cable's abilities of telepathy and telekinesis. However, these abilities are far more powerful than the ones Cable has generally displayed, sufficient to block the use ofCyclopsandJean Grey's superhuman powers. This is because Stryfe was never infected with Apocalypse's techno-organic virus like Cable was. Therefore, he does not have to constantly expend his abilities to keep the virus from consuming his body, which apparently was a huge drain on Cable's capabilities. Stryfe can use his psionic abilities in a variety of ways such as moving large objects with his mind, reading minds, mind control, telepathically negating and activating the use of other's powers, telepathic camouflage, telekinetic flight, telekinetic force fields, mind transference and telekinetic blasts. Stryfe also has far more control over his massive psionic abilities than Cable or Nate Grey, apparently from having a whole lifetime of experience of learning how to use his powers which his alternate counterparts never had. Stryfe also possessed other abilities through genetic manipulation similar to those that Cable achieved through cybernetic augmentation, including superhuman strength and durability.

Stryfe wears battle armor that is highly impervious to damage. He has used various advanced weaponry and technology from the 39th century of his alternate future.

Reception

• In 2017,WhatCultureranked Stryfe 3rd in their "10 Most Evil X-Men Villains" list.

Other versions

Ultimate Marvel

InUltimate X-Men,UltimateStryfe is also the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front. He appears to be a mutant supremacist convinced thatProfessor Xwas killed by the United States government and that mutants should fight against the government.His mutant power manifests as the ability to cause "strife" within people's minds, causing them to voice whatever is bothering them. However, whenPsylockescans his mind she senses that he has no real conviction in what he says, suggesting that much of his mutant supremacist attitude is an act, meaning his real motives are unknown.At his side is the ultimate version ofZero,a young mutant teleporter. It is revealed that Stryfe is actually a con man, working withFenristo promote mutant unrest so they can sellSentinelsto the government.

InUltimate X-Men,whenCablereturns from the future with Xavier they both don armor; Xavier's resemblingOnslaughtand Cable's resembling the mainstream Stryfe.

Deadpool Pulp

In theDeadpool Pulptimeline, aGeneral Stryfeis introduced. Stryfe is a younger, corrupt General who, alongsideCableandJ. Edgar Hoover,hires Wade Wilson (who in this timeline is a former CIA man turned mercenary) to get back a stolennuclear briefcase.Stryfe is later killed by Deadpool.

In other media

Television

Stryfe makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in theX-Men: The Animated Seriesepisode "Beyond Good and Evil" (Part 4).

Video games

• Stryfe appears as the final boss ofX-Men: Gamesmaster's Legacy(1995).
• Stryfe appears as a boss inX-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse(2005), voiced byDaniel Riordan.
• Stryfe appears as a playable character inMarvel Contest of Champions(2014).
• Stryfe appears inMarvel Strike Forceas a member of theMarauders.
• Stryfe was meant to appear inMarvel Snap(2023).

Merchandise

• Stryfe received anaction figureinToy Biz's X-Force line.
• Stryfe received a die-cast metal action figure in Toy Biz's "Steel Mutants" line as part of a two-pack withCable.
• Stryfe received an action figure inHasbro'sMarvel Legendsline.
• Stryfe received figures in theHeroClix's "Giant-Size X-Men" and "Deadpool and X-Force" sets.

External links

• Stryfeat Marvel Universe