Sunfire (comics)
| Sunfire | |
|---|---|
 Sunfire Art by Alan Davis | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Uncanny X-Men #64 (January 1970) |
| Created by | Roy Thomas Don Heck |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Shiro Yoshida |
| Species | Human Mutant and Human Mutate |
| Team affiliations | Marauders X-Men Horsemen of the Apocalypse Death's Champions Pacific Overlords X-Corporation Mumbai Big Hero 6 Yakiba Alpha Flight Beta Flight |
| Notable aliases | Famine |
| Abilities |
As Horsemen of Famine:
|
Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida (吉田四郎, Yoshida Shirō)) is a Marvel Comics superhero (and sometimes an anti-hero), and former member of the X-Men. Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist Don Heck, he first appeared in X-Men #64 (January 1970).
Sunfire is a temperamental and arrogant Japanese mutant who can generate superheated plasma and fly. Not suited for teamwork, Sunfire was only briefly a member of the X-Men and has kept limited ties to the team since. He has had some presence in the greater Marvel Universe.
Fictional character biography
Origins
Shiro Yoshida was born to a mother who suffered radiation poisoning due to exposure to the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. As a result, he was born a mutant possessing solar radiation powers.
Shiro's mother died of radiation poisoning when he was young and Shiro grew to hate the United States, despite the influence of his US-friendly diplomat father. His greedy uncle Tomo inspired Shiro to take the identity of Sunfire and engage in a one-man battle against the U.S. He attacked the United States Capitol and battled the X-Men. Later, he saw Tomo kill his father. Distraught, Sunfire killed Tomo and surrendered to the authorities.
Later life
Months later, Xavier recruited Sunfire to join a new team of X-Men to rescue the originals from Krakoa, the Living Island in Giant-Sized X-Men #1. Sunfire accompanied the fledgling X-Men on this mission, but resigned from the team before he ever received official membership. This was mainly due to his arrogance and his irrational temper.
Sunfire has appeared sporadically in various Marvel comic books throughout the years. On a few occasions his temper has led to conflicts with other heroes such as Iron Man, Rogue, and Wolverine.
In 1998, Marvel published a mini-series entitled Sunfire and Big Hero Six about Sunfire's brief membership in a new superhero team sanctioned by the Japanese government.
Sunfire's life became involved with the X-Men once again when Apocalypse kidnapped Sunfire, as he was one of the Twelve, a group of unique mutants Apocalypse required to obtain the power to warp reality.
Later on, Sunfire became a member of X-Corporation, a non-government organization devoted to the protection of mutant rights. Sunfire joined the Mumbai branch of X-Corp.
During the early story arcs of the latest edition of Marvel Team-Up, Sunfire attempted to combat the powerful villain known as Titannus, a reject of the Super-Skrull program who had made his way to Earth after being brainwashed by an alien race to serve as their ultimate weapon. Attempting to contain Titannus, Sunfire summoned practically the entire Japanese army to confront him, but the powerful foe defeated Sunfire and the army with ease, and was only barely defeated by a new team that had been hastily assembled by Doctor Strange to combat this threat.
Rogue
Later, it was revealed that Sunfire had worked with Rogue and Mystique back when Sunfire was still working with Tomo and Rogue was a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Working with them was a girl called Blindspot, who at the time was allied with the Brotherhood and who had the power to erase and restore memories. The four were on a mission to steal Lord Dark Wind's (the father of Lady Deathstrike) adamantium bonding process. Mystique would later cut her ties with Blindspot, who she did not trust. Since she always erased her tracks once a contract ends, Blindspot wiped the minds of everyone who was involved so no one would remember her.
Later, Blindspot discovered Lord Dark Wind wanted all four dead for trying to steal his adamantium process. Realizing how the others would be in danger, with no memory of the mission to steal Dark Wind's adamantium process, Blindspot went back to Japan to erase his memory of the ordeal. When she got there, she discovered that his daughter, who later became Deathstrike had already killed him. Blindspot was able to erase Deathstrike's memories as well.
But now Deathstrike, who was more machine than woman, was able to restore her memories the same way one would a hard drive. Deathstrike kidnapped Blindspot, who released a photo of Sunfire, Rogue and Mystique to attract their attention to save her. Though Mystique never came, Rogue joined Sunfire, whose reputation had been ruined by the photograph, in Tokyo to discover why they were framed and who was responsible.
The two ran into Lady Deathstrike, who in a heated battle cut off Sunfire's legs, leaving him in critical condition. Rogue surrendered to Deathstrike, who imprisoned the two. There, Rogue met Blindspot, who restored Rogue's memories and explained to her what was going on.
When Deathstrike discovered that the three were not actually responsible for stealing the adamantium, she went to kill them to destroy any evidence of what she had done. A weak Sunfire asked Rogue to absorb his powers so she could properly battle Deathstrike. Rogue had previously lost the powers of Carol Danvers that she had taken and was hesitant. She worried that she would harm Sunfire, but Blindspot pushed her on Sunfire's face, causing her to absorb all his powers and possibly killing him. With it, Rogue now also contained Sunfire's personality, similar to how she also once had Danvers' personality within her.
Sunfire's personality controlling her, Rogue went out to get revenge on Deathstrike, severely injuring the woman. The X-Men arrived in time to intervene, but Blindspot erased Rogue's memories of being an X-Man causing her to see her teammates as her enemies. After a brief altercation, Rogue's memories were restored and she told the X-Men what had happened to Sunfire. They went to where Rogue last saw Sunfire, but his body was missing, leading some of the X-Men to believe he was somehow still alive.
Horseman of Apocalypse
Sunfire lost his powers before the M-Day and his X-Gene during that moment.
It is revealed that Sunfire had been rescued by a mysterious group of ninjas, and taken to a hospital in Aspen[1]. After being revived from his coma, the world's leading specialist in prosthetic limbs, Masanori Kuzuya, offered him his services. Before the reasoning behind the rescue could be revealed, Apocalypse appeared and offered Sunfire the chance for vengeance, as well as the recovery of his lost limbs and power, in return for his service as one of Apocalypse's new Horsemen.
Sunfire accepted, but after being chained away and locked in a prison while listening to the tortured screams of Gazer (another of the new Horsemen), Sunfire tried to escape. Unable to leave Gazer to his fate, Sunfire went back to free him. However, Gazer's transformation to the Horseman 'War' had already been completed and War attacked Sunfire. Captured again, Sunfire was transformed into the Horseman of Famine (ironic, as he had been previously defeated by the former incarnation of Famine). When Apocalypse launched his attack on the X-Men, Sunfire caused an intense feeling of hunger and weakness in the mutants and humans on the institute grounds. As he was fighting the X-Men, Havok shot him down and Rogue, who recognized him, caught him as he fell. He was taken to the Medical Lab and Emma Frost entered his mind in an attempt to help him. When Apocalypse departed, he sent War to retrieve Famine, but Shiro broke free from Apocalypse's control and attacked War.
Sunfire was last seen running off with the unconscious body of Gambit, like him a former X-Men turned Horseman. At the temple where Sunfire first took Gambit, Mr. Sinister told them, "I am glad you both feel able to move on from the past... for I am your future!".
The Marauders
Sunfire is shown as a member of the Marauders still in the form of Famine[2]. Alongside Gambit, Sunfire attacks Cable, who destroys Providence. He subsequently attacks an escaping Cannonball and Iceman, but is taken down by Cannonball and is taken prisoner. Though Cannonball and Iceman consider interrogating Sunfire for information as to who he is working for, Cannonball decides against it, knowing that Sunfire would never confess. Instead, Iceman neutralizes Sunfire's artificial mutant abilities on a sub-atomic level using his own mutant abilities, while Cannonball fights him.
Sunfire is later held captive in the Blackbird and is rescued by his fellow Marauders.
Apparently, Iceman's shutting off Sunfire's powers was temporary because he was shown to have them back at full effect during Messiah Complex although he had a very minor role in the event.
Alternate versions
In the Age of Apocalypse, Japan was destroyed by Holocaust, one of the Horsemen of Apocalypse. Shiro, a survivor of the massacre, was captured and given to Maximus (the Horseman of Death), as a test subject for his experiments. Shiro's powers were pushed to their limits, causing his whole body to be set aflame, injuring him as a result. Shiro was rescued by the X-Men and joined them, taking on the codename Sunfire. Sunfire wore a containment suit to control his powers, although he was constantly on fire. Haunted by the destruction of his nation, Sunfire joined Rogue's task force of X-Men when they were sent to Chicago to fight Holocaust, who had begun a new series of Cullings. The character design of the original Sunfire as Famine (see above) is virtually identical to the Age of Apocalypse incarnation of the character.
In the House of M, Sunfire became the Emperor of Japan. Under his rule, the country had prospered, though the poverty levels were extremely high among the baseline human population. In secret, Sunfire was one of the masterminds of Project: Genesis, a project sanctioned by the Japan branch of S.H.I.E.L.D with the goal of forcefully mutating baseline humans. When the S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives-in-training dubbed the Hellions investigated a terrorist attack, they discovered the existence of Project: Genesis and its link to Emperor Sunfire. Sunfire lied to the Hellions and told them that Project: Genesis's purpose was to recycle organic waste into food.
A zombie version of Sunfire and Silver Samurai can be briefly seen slaughtering civilians, while the Silver Surfer travels the globe.
Sunfire appears as a member of Ultimate Alpha Flight, along with Jubilee, beginning in Ultimate X-Men #94. His power levels enhanced by Banshee, the Ultimate version of MGH, he squares off against new X-Man recruit, Firestar.
Family
Shiro Yoshida (Sunfire) is the brother of Leyu Yoshida, alias the superheroine Sunpyre, who shares his flame-based powers. He is also the cousin of Wolverine's late fiancée Mariko Yashida and her half-brother the Silver Samurai.
Yashida and Yoshida seem to be different spellings of the same name. While in his first appearance Sunfire was called Shiro Yoshida, in the story arc that introduced his cousin, Mariko, his name was spelled Yashida and this version of the name was carried on in Mariko's next appearances.
Powers and abilities
Sunfire has the ability to absorb solar radiation, and convert it into high energy plasma which bursts into flame when exposed to oxygen. He can project his powers though his hands as blasts of searing heat, deadly radiation, explosive force, or simple flames. By ionizing the air around him, he can surround himself with an aura of heat intense enough to melt steel, or fly by focusing his aura downwards in a tight stream of ionized gas to propel him though the air like a rocket. Sunfire can see heat, by shifting his vision from visible light to infrared. Due to the nature of his powers, Sunfire is immune to extreme heat and radiation.
Recently, Sunfire's power as Famine has faded away and is back to his original power set but has the new ability to cover himself in flames and intense heat without harm.
Sunfire lost his powers to Rogue but after his transformation into Famine, a Horseman of Apocalypse, his powers were artificially returned through technological means, and he could now use them to create flashes of light that affected the sections of the human brain which control hunger, causing any people who saw his light flashes to feel as if they were starving.
Shiro also seems to be quite the accomplished martial artist. He has displayed impressive hand to hand skills on several occasions and stated that he didn't need to employ his powers in order to defeat mere hand ninjas. He has at least peak human strength and endurance.
In other media
Television
- Sunfire guest-starred on the 1980s animated series Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends in the episode "Sunfire", voiced by Jerry Dexter. In the episode, he and Firestar fell in love amidst their adventures with Firestar's friends Spiderman and Iceman. His uncle Jin Ju plotted to use Sunfire and Firestar in his plan to hatch his fire monster. Sunfire and the Spider-Friends stopped the fire monster and Sunfire returned to Japan to have his uncle recover in a hospital.
- Sunfire was briefly seen in the X-Men animated series adaptation of the Dark Phoenix Saga in the episode "Child of Light". He also had speaking roles in the episodes "Slave Island" and "Graduation Day" (where he had become a follower of Magneto). On the show, he was portrayed with an extremely thick Japanese accent.
Video games
- Sunfire recently appeared as a playable character in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse voiced by James Sie. He has special dialogue with Living Monolith and Pyro (before the battle with Abyss).
- Sunfire is briefly mentioned in The Punisher video game. He is talked about in the second to last level of the game. Two guys are talking about who would win in a fight between Sunfire and Captain America.
Influence
- In an interview in Wizard Magazine, Alex Ross has mentioned that Sunfire's mask served as the inspiration for Kyle Rayner's (Green Lantern) original costume mask (which debuted in Green Lantern # 51 (in 1994).
See also
Bibliography
- Alpha Flight v2, #1-5, #7-9, #12-13, #17
- Avengers #117
- Avengers West Coast #71, #74
- Cable v2, #76
- Deathlok v2, #3-4
- Giant-Size X-Men #1, 3
- Incredible Hulk v2, #279
- Iron Fist/Wolverine #2-4
- Iron Man #68-70, #98-99
- Marvel Comics Presents #32
- Marvel Super Heroes: Contest of Champions #1-3
- Marvel Team-Up v3, #4-6, #8-9
- Marvel Universe: The End #5-6
- Maximum Security #1-3
- New Mutants vol. 1 #93-94
- Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2005
- Rogue v3, #7-11
- Sub-Mariner #52-53
- Sunfire & Big Hero Six #1-3
- Uncanny X-Men #94, #118-120, #181, #284-286, #377-379
- Weapon X: The Draft: Wild Child
- Wolverine Annual 1996
- Wolverine v2, #55-56, #60
- X-Men #64
- X-Men v2, #93-94, #96-98
- X-Men: Black Sun #1-5
- X-Men: Liberaters #2
As Famine
- X-Men v2, #182-187
References
External links
- Sunfire on UncannyXmen.net Spotlight and family tree
- Sunfire on the Marvel Universe Character Bio Wiki
