| Yuriko Oyama Lady Deathstrike | |
|---|---|
 Lady Deathstrike on the textless variant cover ofNew X-Men #45 (February 2008). Art bySimone Bianchi, Simone Peruzzi, and Andrea Silvestri. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | As Yuriko Oyama: Daredevil #197 (August 1983)[1] As Lady Deathstrike: Alpha Flight #33 (April 1986) As upgraded Lady Deathstrike: Uncanny X-Men #205 (May 1986) |
| Created by |
|
| In-story information | |
| Full name | Yuriko Oyama |
| Species | Humancyborg |
| Team affiliations | Sisterhood of Mutants Reavers Thunderbolts Weapon X-Force Wolverines Oyama Heavy Industries |
| Notable aliases | Lady Deathstrike |
| Abilities |
|
Lady Deathstrike (Yuriko Oyama), occasionally spelledDeathstryke, is asupervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byMarvel Comics. She is a foe of theX-Men, especiallyWolverine.
Her fatherLord Dark Wind created theadamantium-bonding process that was forced on Wolverine byWeapon X. A self-styled warrior, Lady Deathstrike hired the villainSpiral's "body shoppe" to bond adamantium to her skeleton in addition to other cyber-genetic enhancements. She has worked as a mercenary and assassin and feels a need to prove herself by killing Wolverine. Lady Deathstrike is the sister of human crime bossLord Deathstrike.[2][3] She, along with former X-Men membersMystique,Sabretooth,Domino,Warpath, andOld Man Logan formed a team calledWeapon X-Men, but later changed to Weapon X-Force after Logan and Warpath left withOmega Red.
Amutant version of Lady Deathstrike, played byKelly Hu and without any of Deathstrike's backstory, appeared as a brainwashed henchman ofWilliam Stryker in the 2003 filmX2. A variant appears as a henchman ofCassandra Nova in the 2024 filmDeadpool & Wolverine.
She first appeared as Yuriko Oyama inDaredevil #197 (August 1983) and later as Lady Deathstrike inAlpha Flight #33 (April 1986).[4]
She was created by writerDennis O'Neil and artist William Johnson (Daredevil #197). WriterBill Mantlo and artistSal Buscema designed her samurai appearance (Alpha Flight #33). WriterChris Claremont added defining characteristics such as hercyborg abilities, whileBarry Windsor-Smith designed her cyborg appearance (Uncanny X-Men #205, May 1986).
Yuriko Oyama was born inOsaka, Japan. Her father wasLord Dark Wind (Kenji Oyama), a Japanese crime lord and criminal scientist who created the process by whichadamantium can be bonded to bone. Kenji was a former Japanesekamikaze pilot duringWorld War II. His face was horribly scarred in a failed suicide attack on an American battleship. Feeling ashamed by his failure decades earlier, he scarred the faces of Yuriko, her brotherKazuo, and her unnamed brother in a ritual design. Her two brothers later died while in their father's service.
Yuriko teamed up withDaredevil to free her lover Kira from her father's servitude and to take vengeance on her father for her scarring and the death of her two brothers. She guided Daredevil to Lord Dark Wind's private island in search ofBullseye.[5] When Yuriko killed Lord Dark Wind, the devoted Kira chosesuicide to honor his master.[6][7]
Distraught, Yuriko belatedly embraced her father's ideals and sought to track down whoever dishonored him and restore Japan's honor. She adopted a costumed identity as a samurai warrior. She attempted to find Bullseye with an adamantium tracking device, intending to get revenge on him for betraying her father and retrieve the adamantium in his bones for study. Instead, the device led toWolverine whose skeleton had also been bonded with adamantium. Deathstrike sought to kill him to right the wrong of the theft of her father's theories and to restore her family's honor; however, she and her followers were defeated by Wolverine andVindicator ofAlpha Flight.[6] She went to theMojoverse and soughtSpiral's "body shoppe" where she received extensive cybernetic enhancements including adamantium bones and claws. As a cyborg, she became a professional criminal, and joined forces with formerHellfire Club mercenaries-turned-cyborgs Cole, Macon, and Reese.[8] The four go on to join theReavers, a team of cyborgs led byDonald Pierce.[9]
Lady Deathstrike encounters Wolverine shortly afterMagneto removed the adamantium from his skeleton. As Logan no longer possesses the adamantium stolen from her father, Deathstrike concludes that there is no honor to be gained by killing him and leaves the premises peacefully.[10]
Following her confrontation withRogue andSunfire, Lady Deathstrike resurfaces as a member of theThunderbolts and is assigned to pursue theSecret Avengers, who resisted theSuperhuman Registration Act.[11] She participates in the final battle of the Civil War inTimes Square,New York City, before being sent toNegative Zone Prison Alpha.[12]
Lady Deathstrike returns during theMessiah Complex storyline, where she battlesX-23.[13] Having allied with thePurifiers to destroy mutant-kind, Lady Deathstrike leads the new Reavers team against theNew X-Men, gravely woundingHellion in the process.[14][15] She appears again in pursuit ofCable andHope Summers, and is nearly killed by X-23.[16][17]
Lady Deathstrike is apparently saved from death due to the actions ofSpiral, as she is later seen under repair in Spiral's Body Shoppe whenMadelyne Pryor approaches Spiral with an invitation of membership in herSisterhood of Mutants. Despite not originally being approached to join the Sisterhood, Lady Deathstrike accepts Pryor's offer nonetheless.[18]
During theEnds of the Earth storyline, Lady Deathstrike is seen in one ofDoctor Octopus's facilities in Australia. WhenKangaroo enters the facility, Lady Deathstrike ambushes and apparently kills him with a claw swipe.[19]
Lady Deathstrike's consciousness is uploaded in the body of Colombian teenager Ana Cortes, establishing a symbiotic relationship with Ana's consciousness. Deathstrike attacksKarima Shapandar to retrieve the Omega Sentinel technology, but is shot by Shapandar and retreats.[20] Deathstrike andTyphoid Mary argue withSublime about his sister Arkea and learn that there is more than one living piece of Arkea, as the one they had was dead and not viable. Mary knocks Sublime unconscious and escapes with Deathstrike. Deathstrike and Mary makes their way to Norway, where they find a powerlessAmora.[21]
Amora brings Deathstrike and Mary to where the Arkea meteorite is located when Mary wants to renegotiate the terms of her hire and want to become partners. Deathstrike says it was not just a partnership, but the formation of a newSisterhood of Mutants. With the live Arkea taking possession of Ana's friend Reiko, she empowers Deathstrike, Mary, and Amora. Deathstrike and her Sisterhood manage to escape the X-Men andMonet, with Arkea activating severalSentinels under the ocean.[22] The mental conflict between Ana and Yuriko makes Lady Deathstrike increasingly unstable. Ana tells the X-Men the Sisterhood's location after becoming increasingly concerned about Arkea's bold moves such as having Amora resurrectSelene.[23]
Ana tries to get Typhoid Mary to kill her, but Mary refuses. After Arkea asks Ana to participate in the procedure to resurrect Madelyne Pryor, Ana kills herself to prevent Arkea from using her further.[23] In response, Arkea removes Yuriko's consciousness from Ana's body and places it in Reiko's body along with Arkea's own. After the X-Men's confrontation with the Sisterhood, Karima Shapandar leaves the X-Men to team up withSabra and investigate the Cortes crime family. Though Arkea is destroyed by the X-Men, Lady Deathstrike's consciousness survives in Reiko's body.[24]
The Reavers later arrive in Killhorn Falls with Lady Deathstrike and attempt to hunt down Logan for good.[25] As the Reavers attack Killhorn Falls,Old Man Logan single-handedly kills all the Reaver soldiers and confronts Lady Deathstrike before saving Maureen. After being wounded multiple times, Logan manages to defeat Lady Deathstrike, as she started limping away when Logan blacked out. Thinking that he failed to protect Maureen from the chaos, Logan decided to set off to find Lady Deathstrike.[26]
While in hiding during the "Weapons of Mutant Destruction" storyline, Lady Deathstrike is discovered and captured by the new Weapon X. While held in their captivity, she is experimented on.[27] This experiment led to her nanotechnology being used in the creation ofWeapon H.[28]
During the "Hunt for Wolverine" storyline, Lady Deathstrike is seen at Chester's Bar, where she tells Daken and Sabretooth about what the Reavers discovered when they went after Wolverine and that he has recently been sighted alive. The three of them go on the trail of Wolverine, eventually arriving in Maybelle, Arizona. There, there are attacked by zombified versions of Lord Dark Wind andGraydon Creed, with Dark Wind cutting off Lady Deathstrike's left hand.[29]
Lady Deathstrike is later attacked by an Adamantine-possessedCyber and possessed by the Adamantine.[30] Then she assists Cyber in having the Adamantine possessConstrictor.[31]
Lady Deathstrike wanted to join the elite assassin group Atilier, which Lord Deathstrike was a part of. She is partnered up withDeadpool and sent to target Doctor Octopus. Because of the failure of her mission, Lady Deathstrike is rejected from Atilier and seeks revenge on Deadpool. She later finds him in battle against Doctor Octopus and Harrower. Lady Deathstrike tries to attack Deadpool only to be impaled on one of the spikes she tried to use on him. Valentine Vuong uses a formula to heal Lady Deathstrike as she is then instructed to help Deadpool. She reluctantly complies, as the formula contained a heavy dose of poison and she would receive the antidote if she did what Atilier demanded.[32]
Psychologist Suzana Flores argues that Lady Deathstrike evinces traits ofobsessive compulsive disorder in her drive to obtain Wolverine's adamantium. As Flores characterizes it, Lady Deathstrike "'needs' the adamantium to credibly establish or validate her self-worth," but even if she were to achieve this, her personality would lead her to "find some other victim or idea over which to obsess."[33]
Lady Deathstrike was transformed into acyborg bySpiral and the "Body Shop" using alien technology ofMojo's dimension.[8] She hassuperhuman strength, speed, stamina, durability, and agility. Deathstrike's skeleton has been artificially laced with adamantium, rendering her skeletal structure physically unbreakable. Her fingers were replaced with 12-inch (300 mm) long adamantium claws replacing each finger of each hand. Aside from being as indestructible as her skeleton, these nails are capable of slicing through virtually any substance other than adamantium itself andCaptain America's shield. She is capable of extending her claws to twice their usual length.[34] She could also interface with computers, allowing direct data access to her brain's memory centers.[35][36] She is a trainedassassin and skilled in various Asian martial arts.[volume & issue needed]
Before she received her cybernetic enhancements, Deathstrike used a katana that was electromagnetically tempered and sheathed in energy, making it as durable as adamantium and able to cut through most substances.[6] She has also used shuriken, nunchakus, a high-powered, long-range blaster that fires armor-piercing explosive bullets, and wristbands containing adamantium detectors. She also wore modified Japanese battle armor, which could withstand even superhuman blows.[6] Her items were constructed by weapon smiths of Lord Dark Wind's organization.[volume & issue needed]
Deathstrike later received an upgrade that provides her with a kind of "cybernetic healing factor" that functions similarly, although not as efficiently, to Wolverine's.[37]
Lady Deathstrike is fluent in both English and Japanese, and an accomplished pilot of various air and sea-craft.[volume & issue needed]
Lady Talia, a fusion of Lady Deathstrike andDC Comics characterTalia al Ghul, appears in theAmalgam Comics one-shotDark Claw Adventures.[43]
An alternate universe version of Yuriko Oyama / Lady Deathstrike from Earth-1610 appears inUltimate X-Men. This version is a former friend ofStorm who was rendered paraplegic after being hit by a truck, with Storm believing her to have been killed.Abraham Cornelius ofWeapon X heals and enhances Oyama's body using adamantium and Wolverine's DNA sample. As Lady Deathstrike, Oyama seeks revenge on Wolverine while also targeting Storm.[44]
An alternate universe version of Lady Deathstrike fromEarth-6160 appears inUltimate Wolverine.[45]
An alternate universe version of Yuriko Oyama from Earth-90214 appears inWolverine Noir. This version is a civilian who is later killed by Rose,Logan's ex-girlfriend.[46]
Lady Deathstrike appears in theX-Men: The Animated Series episode "Out of the Past", voiced by Jane Luk.[47] This version was previously in a romantic relationship withWolverine before joining theReavers and becoming a cyborg to avenge the death of her father, Professor Oyama.
