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| 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 strength and durability |
Stryfe is asupervillain appearing in Americancomic books published byMarvel Comics, most commonly in conflict with thesuperhero teamX-Force. He is aclone ofCable from Cable's alternate future timeline.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(February 2014) |
The character was created byLouise Simonson andRob Liefeld,[1] 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).[2][3] A clone of Cable, Stryfe is the mainantagonist in the 1990scrossoverX-Cutioner's Song,[1] the 2009X-Force/Cable crossoverMessiah War, and the 2014Cable & X-Force/Uncanny X-Force crossover "Vendetta".[4]
Stryfe appears as the main villain of the 2018–2019 run ofX-Force.[5][6]
Askani appears toCyclops andJean Grey from the distant future after their son Nathan Summers is infected with atechno-organic virus byApocalypse and 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 is the same age as Nathan himself while the Askani succeed in halting the spread of the virus, 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 cannot 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.[7]
Stryfe grows up to be an embittered madman, wanting vengeance on both what he believes to be his real parents (Cyclops and Jean) and his spiritual parent Apocalypse.[8] 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 bothCable and 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 Dayspring could be Stryfe and not Cable.[volume & issue needed] He later kills Aliya as well as kidnapping and brainwashing Tyler.[9]
In 3806, the New Canaanites take full control of the planet, but Stryfe manages to travel back in time 2000 years.[10] He forms amutantterrorist group, theMutant Liberation Front (MLF), alongside many powerful mutants includingTamara Kurtz. Stryfe orders his Mutant Liberation Front to captureRusty Collins andSkids.[11] In Japan, he fights Cable and clashes with theNew Mutants who thwart his attempt to poison the water supplies of major cities.[12] Stryfe abandons the Antarctic Mutant Liberation Front base during an invasion byX-Force (a team composed of Cable and several former New Mutants).[13] Stryfe then has the Mutant Liberation Front free the captive mutantsHairbag andSlab, and turns them over toMister Sinister before ordering an MLF attack on a clinic.[14] He also confronts and defeatsKane,[15] and eventually declares his enmity for Apocalypse.[16] Stryfe later battles Cable who learns that Stryfe is actually his double.[17] Stryfe sows chaos in the ranks of the X-Men, posing as Cable and shootingProfessor X with an infected bullet, and taking Cyclops and Jean captive.[18] He bests theDark Riders[19] and Apocalypse, making him leader of the Dark Riders.[20] 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;[21] in truth, it holds the deadlyLegacy Virus.[citation needed] Stryfe battles Cable until the latter opens a temporal rift by detonating a self-destruct system, destroying his body.[22] Stryfe's consciousness enters Cable's mind, in which he stays until he voluntarily leaves.[23]
While physically dead, Stryfe attempts to return to life through the body ofWarpath.[24] However, his attempt is avoided by the arrival of X-Force and Warpath is sent back to the living by Blackheart.[25]
By unknown means, Stryfe revives and attempts to subjugateLatveria.[26] 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 Pryor appears 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.[27]
Stryfe reappears, controlling the activation sequence for thePrime Sentinels. He uses them to hunt downLady Deathstrike who 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.[28]
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 downBishop who is possessed by the entity Le Bete Noir, whose power rivals thePhoenix Force and threatens to consume Bishop's body and unleash its evil upon the universe.[29] 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.[30]
It's revealed duringMessiah War that 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.[31] This was confirmed by the writerChristopher Yost to be the same character that had previously plagued the X-Men, mentioning in particular his survival of his fight against Nate and Cable.[32] 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.[33]
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-Force andUncanny X-Force crossover "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.[34]
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 ofCyclops andJean 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.
InUltimate X-Men, Stryfe is the leader of the Mutant Liberation Front. He appears to be a mutant supremacist convinced thatProfessor X was killed by the United States government and that mutants should fight against the government.[volume & issue needed] His mutant power manifests as the ability to cause "strife" within people's minds, causing them to voice whatever is bothering them. However, whenPsylocke scans 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.[volume & issue needed] At his side is the ultimate version ofZero, a young mutant teleporter. It is revealed that Stryfe is actually a con man, working withFenris to promote mutant unrest so they can sellSentinels to the government.[36]
InUltimate X-Men, whenCable returns from the future with Xavier they both don armor; Xavier's resemblingOnslaught and Cable's resembling the mainstream Stryfe.[37]
In theDeadpool Pulp timeline, aGeneral Stryfe is introduced. Stryfe is a younger, corrupt General who, alongsideCable andJ. Edgar Hoover, hiresWade Wilson (who in this timeline is a former CIA man turned mercenary) to get back a stolennuclear briefcase.[38] Stryfe is later killed by Deadpool.[39]
Stryfe makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in theX-Men: The Animated Series episode "Beyond Good and Evil" (Part 4).[40]
