Lady Deathstrike
| Lady Deathstrike | |
|---|---|
| File:LadyDeathstrike.png Lady Deathstrike | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Daredevil #197 Alpha Flight #33 Uncanny X-Men #205 |
| Created by | Dennis O'Neil and Larry Hama, Bill Mantlo and Sal Buscema, Chris Claremont and Barry Windsor-Smith |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Yuriko Oyama |
| Team affiliations | Reavers |
| Abilities | superhuman strength, agility, and reflexes derived from cybernetically enhanced body. Adamantium skeleton and claws, healing factor. |
Lady Deathstrike (real name Yuriko Oyama) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillainess in Marvel Comics and an occasional foe of the X-Men and Wolverine. She first appeared in Daredevil #197, though her defining attributes would not be added until later appearances. She became a villain in Alpha Flight #33, and was transformed into a cyborg in Uncanny X-Men #205.
Character history
Yuriko Oyama's father was Lord Dark Wind (Kenji Oyama), a Japanese crime lord and criminal scientist who created the adamantium-to-bone bonding process. Kenji was a former Japanese kamikaze pilot during World War II. His face was horribly scarred in a failed suicide attack on an American battleship. Feeling shamed by his failure decades earlier, he scarred the faces of Yuriko and her two brothers in a ritual design. Her two brothers would later die while in the service of their father.
Yuriko teamed up with Daredevil to free her lover, Kiro, from her father's servitude, and to gain vengeance for her scarring and the death of her two brothers; when Yuriko slew her father (just as he was about to kill Daredevil), the devoted Kiro chose suicide to honor his master.
Distraught, Yuriko belatedly embraced her father's ideals and sought to track down whoever dishonored him. Her trail led to Wolverine, whose skeleton had been bonded with adamantium. Deathstrike sought to kill him to right the wrong of the theft and thus restore her family's honor, but she was defeated by Vindicator of Alpha Flight. Yuriko then went to the Mojoverse and Spiral's "body shoppe" where she received extensive cybernetic enhancements including adamantium bones and talons.
Lady Deathstrike was once a member of the team of criminal cyborgs called the Reavers, led by Donald Pierce, who once managed to successfully defeat the X-Men. The Reavers have since been annihilated by the Sentinels, and Yuriko has been operating independently.
At times she has resigned her quest to kill Logan and has even worked with the X-Men cooperatively toward a common goal as she did in X-Men Annual 2000. (In this case the goal was to defeat Stryfe). However she still remains a mercenary and assassin. Despite all this, Yuriko is set apart from many of the X-Men's foes in that she adheres to an honor code, despite being emotionally disturbed.
Deathstrike is possibly responsible for the death of Sunfire, whose legs she severed in battle. Dying, he had Rogue absorb his powers so she could battle Deathstrike. The X-Men later went to see where Sunfire's body had been left, only to see it had disappeared.
Ultimate Lady Deathstrike
Lady Deathstrike has also appeared in Ultimate X-Men. There, her connection lies mainly with Storm, instead of Wolverine. As Yuriko (or 'Yuri'), she taught Storm how to hotwire vehicles and be a car thief. The two later had a falling out, and Yuri ended up being run over by a truck. Yuri survived, but ended up confined to a wheelchair. There, Doctor Cornelius of Weapon X offered to have her shattered body rebuilt with adamantium and an accelerated healing factor, which would allow her to have her revenge against Storm, though if she wanted to kill Storm she would have to kill Storm's friend Wolverine as well. Yuri agreed, and went under the modifications. She later went after Storm and Wolverine, but was defeated, and later imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D..
She had her neck snapped by Longshot after she stabbed Dazzler, which put her in a coma , but before she could attack her boyfriend, Angel, during a riot and breakout in Triskelion by Magneto.
Powers and abilities
Lady Deathstrike is a cyborg with superhuman strength, speed and agility. Deathstrike's skeleton has been infused with Adamantium, rendering her skeletal structure practically unbreakable. Initially, it was a mystery as to how Deathstrike survived this process, as it is generally believed that without a healing factor, the process would be fatal to a human. Later, in the pages of The Uncanny X-Men|X-Men, it was shown that Lady Deathstrike, along with former Hellfire Club guards Cole, Macon, Reese (the three of which had been nearly killed by Wolverine) were transformed into cyborgs by Spiral in her "Body Shoppe." It was during this process that Deathstrike gained her Adamantium augmentation. Spiral used Magic to infuse the metal into Deathstrike's body; it is unlikely that Deathstike could have survived the process on her own. Deathstrike's fingers have been replaced by 12 inch Adamantium claws. Aside from being as indestructible as her skeleton, these talons are capable of slicing through virtually any substance, other than Adamantium itself. She is capable of extending these claws 3 times their usual length. Although her normal form is obviously that of a cyborg, she uses disguises when necessary. She is an expertly trained assassin and is highly skilled in a variety of oriental martial arts. Lady Deathstrike is especially skilled with swords, and while she prefers stealth and subtlety in her killings, she is emotionally disturbed and this interferes with her effectiveness.
In Wolverine #114, Deathstrike revealed that she possessed an accelerated "healing factor". This cybernetic healing factor enables her to quickly repair damage done to her biological and cybernetic components. At one point, Lady Deathstrike engaged Wolverine in a fight in which she was heavily damaged. Wolverine noticed that his claws hadn't inflicted the sort of damage he had originally thought. Deathstrike revealed to him that his claws had caused the damage, but her latest visit with Donald Pierce resulted in an upgrade that provided her with a kind of "cybernetic healing factor" that functioned in ways similar to Wolverine's, although not as efficient. Evidently, this power enables her to regenerate damage done to both her biological and cybernetic parts. This upgrade occurred recently and she didn't possess this "cybernetic healing factor" as part of her original transformation.
Recently, it was revealed that Deathstrike retains little of her physical humanity. As Rogue was unable to absorb her memories through touch as she could a normal human, she concluded that Yuriko is currently more machine than human.
The theories of Lady Deathstrike possibly being a mutant can be attributed to the second X-Men motion picture, X2: X-Men United. Lady Deathstrike however, within the mainstream Marvel Universe, is in fact just a cyborg.
Appearances in other media
- Lady Deathstrike has a part in the X-Men animated series that ran from 1992-1997. She had a romantic past with Wolverine. She first appeared in the Season 3 episode "Out of the Past", and was voiced by Tasha Simms.
- Lady Deathstrike and/or Yuriko Oyama was portrayed by the actress Kelly Hu in the X-Men 2 motion picture released in 2003. In her film incarnation, she is not portrayed as a cyborg, but as a mutant with abilities similar to those of Wolverine. She was also involved in the same government program (Weapon X) as Wolverine, giving her adamantium claws that come out of her fingers. Although she is portrayed as a villain in the film, her actual orientation is unclear because she is under the effects of mind control. (Also unclear is her origin as there is next to nothing known about this reincarnation of the character.) Nevertheless Wolverine supposedly kills her in a fight by a fluid adamantium injection. Despite the habit of reverting comic character's deaths, her survival in the movie continuity seems unlikely. Notwithstanding, Kelly Hu was originally contracted for two movies and will be appearing in X-Men 3. The fight takes place in the laboratory where Wolverine underwent his own transformation.
Some fans of the X-Men comics and other media revolt to the use of the name "Lady Deathstrike" to describe the movie character. They insist that the true Lady Deathstrike is too powerful to be brain-washed, and to use a deep and complex character as fodder in the film was irresponsible.
- She also appears as a "boss" in the video game X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse and has an apearance in the Activision fighting game X-Men: The Next Dimension.
External links
- MDP: Lady Deathstrike - Marvel Database Project