Fun test: try drawing that helmet from the side.
STRYFE (Nathan Summers' Clone)
Created By: Louise Simonson & Rob Liefeld
First Appearance: The New Mutants #87 (March 1990)
Role: Big Bad, Super-Telekinetic, Monologuing Villain
Group Affiliations: The Mutant Liberation Front, The New Mutants, X-Force
PL 14 (325)
STRENGTH 4
STAMINA 4
AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 8
DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 7
AWARENESS 5
PRESENCE 6
Skills:
Close Combat (Unarmed) 3 (+11)
Deception 4 (+10)
Expertise (History) 8 (+15)
Expertise (Science) 4 (+11)
Expertise (Terrorist) 4 (+11)
Insight 3 (+8)
Intimidation 5 (+11)
Investigation 4 (+9)
Perception 4 (+9)
Technology 5 (+12)
Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Beginner's Luck, Diehard, Equipment 12 (Moonbase), Improved Aim, Improved Critical (TK Blasts) 2, Improved Initiative, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 12, Taunt
Powers:
"Mutant Powers: Omega-Level Telekinesis & Telepathy"
"Telekinesis"
Force Field 8 (Feats: Increased Mass 2) (Extras: Affects Others, Impervious) [22]
"Nullify Powers" Affliction 14 (Fort or Power Strength; Impaired Powers/Disabled Powers/Transformed to Powerless) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative, Concentration +2) (Flaws: Distracting, Instant Recovery) (56) -- [61]
- AE: Telekinesis 14 (Feats: Precise) (Extras: Perception Range) (43)
- AE: Damage 14 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst, Penetrating) (42)
- AE: Damage 14 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Cone, Penetrating) (42)
- AE: TK Blast 14 (Extras: Autofire) (42)
- AE: Deflect 14 (28)
"Telepathy"
Mind-Reading 10 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Effortless, Cumulative, Sensory Link) Linked to Mental Communication 3 (Extras: Area, Selective) (69) -- [77]
- Dynamic AE: Mind Control 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (49)
- Dynamic AE: "Mental Stun" Affliction 12 (Will; Dazed/Stunned/Incapacitated) (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative) (49)
- Dynamic AE: "Astral Form" Remote Sensing 15 (Visuals & Hearing) (Feats: Dynamic) (Flaws: Physical Body is Defenseless) (31)
- Dynamic AE: "Mental Blast" Damage 12 (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Will Save) (49)
"Mental Detection" Senses 4 (Mental Awareness- Ranged, Radius, Acute) [4]
"Stryfe's Armour" (Flaws: Removable) [8]
Protection 3 (Extras: Impervious 7) (10 points)
Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+4 Damage, DC 19)
Mental Effects +12 Perception (+12 Perception Affliction, DC 22)
Mental Blast +12 Perception (+12 Perception Damage, DC 27)
TK Blasts +11 (+14 Ranged Damage, DC 29)
TK Effects +14 Area (+14 Damage, DC 29)
Initiative +7
Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +4 (+7 Armour, +15 Force Field), Fortitude +9, Will +12
Complications:
Secret (Genetic Clone of Cable)- Stryfe is actually the clone; Cable is the original.
Motivation (Revenge)- Stryfe is obsessed with those whom he has perceived as having wronged him. Included in this list are:
Enemy (Apocalypse)- Apocalypse took Stryfe under his wing in the future, but is responsible for the crappiness of said future.
Enemy (Cyclops & Jean Grey)- His "parents" (though Jean is not Nathan Summers' birth mother), who "abandoned" him to the future.
Enemy (Cable)- The original Nathan Summers, who has hunted and opposed Stryfe for decades of their lives.
Obsession (Monologuing)- Most major-league super-villains can be easily convinced to start Monologuing. Stryfe is not one of them. He doesn't NEED the help- he'll start doing it no matter what, going on for PAGES and PAGES of it.
Total: Abilities: 74 / Skills: 44--22 / Advantages: 34 / Powers: 172 / Defenses: 23 (325)
-Stryfe was initially just some generic Powersuited villain at the helm of the M.L.F. in the New Mutants book, but became some kind of proto Big Bad once Rob Liefeld left and the remaining writers were left with a big event to write after the Image X-odus. Their idea: The most convoluted backstory in HISTORY, featuring Cyclops' son being sent into the future, cloned by the Askani, the clone being kidnapped & raised by Apocalypse while the original was made the cybernetic Cable, and then both of them going back in time, leaving Stryfe here with a series of mental complexes, the least of which was a tendency to ramble on faux-poetically for pages and pages of whiney exposition (that part of "The X-Cutioner's Song" doesn't age so well).
-What's funny is that he COULD HAVE been a huge success as a villain. The only problem was, his big peak story was also his LAST major story, as he DIED at the end of it. Sure, he gave us the Legacy Virus (aka "How do we write off all these damn useless mutant hangers-on?" Idea #1), and big stuff came about BECAUSE of the storyline, but this was basically the last we saw of him for years. He turned up in the afterlife once, got resurrected and died once (turning good in the process of a sacrifice, according to Wikipedia), and now he's apparently back again as a villain. So except for the
X-Cutioner's Song & Legacy Virus, he's got nothing.
-Though re-reading Stryfe's old stuff, I get the impression that Fabian Nicieza was just doing "Claremont Lite" work on him. Claremont had a wordiness to his style, but Nicieza was just rambling
on and on, and unlike Claremont, didn't actually have much to say. So Stryfe's dialogue came off as shallow and pretentious- that the arc was twelve issues long only made this worse. From my
X-Cutioner's Song reviews:
-Stryfe is one of the bigger "ohhhhh..." moments for me. I always wondered why he never got a big resurrection or anything, being a mega-villain in this story, setting off the Legacy Virus, and more. Well it turns out that he's pretty damn awful. His dialogue is a combination of whining and Poor Man's Claremont wordiness. He comes off like a whiny baby because he was abandoned years ago, and he's so powerful, and all he ever does is talk to Zero or insult Scott & Jean... it's tiresome. He really doesn't get to do anything regarding any of the other heroes until the very end. And all of the villains are pretty bad, too- this would be Fabian Nicieza's major failing as a writer. His heroes are pretty good, and tend to interact well... but the baddies are just prone to "Monologuing" at length for pages upon pages, and it's all "filler". They're basically the Bray Wyatt of comics, to use a wrestling comparison.
-In another comic, Stryfe beats up Apocalypse for five pages, crying the whole time about how he was an "abandoned child!", calling Poccy "Father of PAIN, son of the MORNING FIRE!" and then saying "Yes, master of the timestream, destroyer of my past AND my future- it is *I*". Reading stuff like this reminds me of when I was first reading these books, thinking Fabian Nicieza was some kind of Claremontian Wizard of Words because of how he made these guys talk... but the years have not been kind. This stuff just REEKS of late Grade School faux-philosophical ramblings, and is easily Fabe's biggest weakness as a writer. Look through his X-Force or X-Men stuff long enough, and you'll find all of his baddies talk like Neil Gaiman wannabes, or like effete rich boys.
-With Stryfe, you just kinda gotta go balls-out. Overwhelming power to the extreme with this ultimate Big Bad- I'd argue he was more powerful than even Magneto. The fact is, he's basically Nate Grey but with age, experience and evil on his side. He lacks the multiple uses of Jean Grey's TK/TP array, but packs WAY more power. How ultimate is he? He wiped out the entire Dark Riders in about three seconds while joking about how useless they were, then kicked APOCALYPSE'S ass with laughable ease (granted, Apoc was weakened, but that "weakened" guy had taken out a team of X-Men easily). His Telekinetic power was so advanced that he was able to psionically restrain both Jean AND Scott's powers, FROM AFAR, while they were in another room. It took a massive free-for-all against Jean, Cyclops, Havok & Cable to even scratch him while he was distracted, and even then Cable had to activate a time vortex that nearly killed him to end Stryfe. He's a super-expensive menace, plain and simple.
-The points quickly add up with Mastermind types who also have huge amounts of power. He's strong, smart, Armoured, has a massive Nullify (Concentration Duration Affliction at Perception Range- allowing him to use Remote Senses and multiple victims, but once he drops it, they can use their powers just fine), high-powered Blasts, a Force Field, plus high-end Telepathic abilities. He's PL 14, and a VERY expensive build (325 points- 15 more than the same-powered dude in 2nd Edition).