Stryfe


Stryfe

(pop culture)When he first appeared in Marvel's New Mutants #87 (1990) as a creation of artist Rob Liefeld, Stryfe was a conundrum to readers. This mutant terrorist turned out to be the double of Cable, the New Mutants' new leader. The two also proved to have similar telepathic and telekinetic powers. Cable was revealed to be Nathan Summers, the son of X-Men member Cyclops (Scott Summers) and Madelyne Pryor, the clone of his true love Jean Grey. The evil mutant Apocalypse had infected the infant Nathan with a “techno-organic” virus; to save his life he was transported two thousand years into an alternate future by an emissary of Mother Askani, another member of the Summers family. Writer Scott Lobdell continued the story in the comics miniseries The Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix (1994). In case he died, Mother Askani had a clone of the infant Nathan created, free from the techno-organic disease. Still alive in this distant future, Apocalypse abducted the clone and named him Stryfe. So Nathan grew up to become Cable, the leader of the freedom fighters of his future Earth, while Stryfe became his greatest enemy, who even killed Cable's wife, Aliya. Eventually both Cable and Stryfe traveled back to the X-Men's own time, where they continued their war against each other. Stryfe unleashed the Legacy Virus, which killed many mutants before a cure was found. Though Stryfe's original body was destroyed, his spirit has taken possession of other bodies, even Cable's, to continue his terrorist rampages.