Stryfe
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Stryfe is a Marvel Comics supervillain, an adversary of the X-Men and related characters, especially Cable and X-Force. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/co-writer Rob Liefeld, he first appeared in The New Mutants #87 (March 1990).
After the Askani tribe of the 39th century transported the child of the X-Man Cyclops and his wife Madelyne Pryor to their time to cure his techno-organic virus, they created a clone in case the so-called "savior child" died. The clone was captured by the tyrant Apocalypse and became Stryfe, while the original became the freedom fighter Cable.
After trying to destroy every 20th century person he despised, in the 1992 crossover "X-Cutioner's Song," Stryfe physically died but, due to his vast psychic powers, has re-emerged a few times since.
[edit] Fictional character history
When Apocalypse infected the infant Cable with a techno-organic virus, a woman from the distant future introducing herself as Askani appeared to Cyclops and Jean Grey. Askani told them that she could save the child, but it meant they would never see him again. They handed him over. When Askani and the baby arrived in the future, Askani died, and her kin cloned the baby, hoping to salvage something if he died. Fortunately, he did not die, and both infant and clone were healthy, until the forces of Apocalypse attacked and stole the cloned infant.
Apocalypse took the child as his own and named him Stryfe after an opponent that nearly destroyed him in the 20th century. This would turn out to be a time loop: the child and the enemy would turn out to be one and the same. Apocalypse intended him to be his new host. When he was about to do so, a teenage Cable and the time-travelling Cyclops and Jean (as “Slym” and “Redd” respectively) interrupted and prevented Apocalypse from transferring, and his essence discorporated. His second in command, Ch’vayre, raised Stryfe afterward. (Most of this happened in the Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix and Askani’son miniseries).
Stryfe grew up to be an insane madman, wanting vengeance on both what he thought were his real parents (Cyclops and Jean) and his spiritual parent Apocalypse. He raised an army and became a fierce opponent of both Cable’s Clan Askani and the New Canaanites, a democratic regime that replaced Apocalypse’s. During these wars he managed to kill Cable’s wife Jenskot and kidnap and brainwash their son Tyler.
In AD 3806, the New Canaanites took full control of the planet, but Stryfe managed to travel back in time some two thousand years and sow chaos in the ranks of the X-Men, posing as Cable and attacking Professor X, as well as forming a mutant terrorist group, the Mutant Liberation Front along side many powerful mutants including Tamara Kurtz. During this time, he also fought a very weakened Apocalypse and nearly destroyed him. As a final insurance, he gave Mister Sinister a canister that he claimed held genetic material from two thousand years’ worth of Summers descendants; in truth, it held the deadly Legacy Virus. (Most of this happened during the “X-Cutioner’s Song” crossover.)
Stryfe and Cable battled until Cable opened a temporal rift, and Stryfe’s body was destroyed, but his consciousness entered Cable’s mind, and he stayed there until he voluntarily left some time later.
Now physically dead, he later attempted to return to life through the body of Warpath. Although he failed, he later returned through different means. After a brief return to villainy, Stryfe seemingly died once more, battling an extra-terrestrial creature alongside Bishop and Gambit (This most recent death occurred in Gambit & Bishop: Sons of the Atom, a 6-issue limited series released in 2001.) In the end, Stryfe regretted the path and choices he had made in his life, which is why he sacrificed himself to save the Earth from Le Bete Noir (a creature/force trapped within the Earth at the beginnings of the universe by the Phoenix Force).
[edit] Powers
Stryfe is a very powerful telepath and telekinetic, with raw potential surpassing that of Professor X. Unlike his genetic antecedent Cable, he has nothing to hold back his powers, except a lack of formal training.
[edit] Other Media
Stryfe appears as a boss in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, guarding the prison in Apocaplyse's tower in which Banshee and Iron Man are being held captive.
Stryfe appears briefly in X-Men: The Animated Series as one of the psychics captured by Apocalypse in the "Beyond Good and Evil" 4-parter.
