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Created by writer Peter David and artist Sam Kieth, Cyber first appeared in Marvel Comics Presents #85 (Sept. 1991), though his physical appearance was obscured by a trench coat and hat. He was first fully seen and named in Marvel Comics Presents #86 (Sept. 1991).
Fictional character biography
Origin
Silas Burr is a former agent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. In 1912, Burr escapes execution after being found guilty on 22 counts of murder. He travels to a Canadian military base, where employer Frederick Hudson took a special interest in Burr's ability to push the men under his command beyond their moral and emotional limits.
In 1959, Burr trains Daken, who is ordered to destroy the training camp. Burr is mortally wounded by Daken, but is saved by Romulus, who chooses him to be the prototype for a process that binds adamantium to his skin.[2][3]
Modern era
In the modern era, Cyber resurfaces in Madripoor, as an enforcer for an unnamed drug cartel, where he interferes between the rival crime cartels of Wolverine's ally Tiger Tyger and General Coy. Tyger bites out the villain's left eye before he falls into a truck containing hallucinogens he had earlier used on Wolverine, leading Cyber to run screaming into the forest and disappear at the ocean's edge.[4]
Cyber later confronts the mutant team X-Factor alongside Hell's Belles. Shrew, a former member of Hell's Belles, wishes to testify against the cartel, and Cyber and his team are ordered to silence her. Shrew manages to push Cyber into the path of an oncoming train driven by X-Factor's leader Valerie Cooper, and he disappears.[5]
Cyber next surfaces on the distant island Koma Koi as an agent for the mysterious death cult, The Coven. He is hired to steal a mystical gem, the Tear of Heaven, and kidnap its guardian priestess, Kayla. Wolverine, who happens to be vacationing on the island, recognizes Cyber's scent on Kayla and tracks Cyber to The Coven. The two are eventually shackled to each other by an adamantium chain, and will fight each other incessantly unless gassed unconscious or lowered into an acid pit. Crossing a rope bridge, Wolverine eventually gains the upper hand and strangles Cyber with their shackles, causing him to fall out of sight.[6]
Cyber is next seen back in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he engages Wolverine in battle. Recalling his part in the West Port murders long ago, he announces his intention to kill Wolverine and feed him to deathwatch beetles to steal his adamantium skeleton. However, Cyber is unaware that the adamantium laced to Wolverine's skeleton has been removed by Magneto. Despite this, and despite the fact that many of Wolverine's other mutant attributes were weakened, Wolverine manages to hold his own against Cyber briefly. Cyber is momentarily distracted by the distant cannon fire of Edinburgh Castle as Wolverine extracts his bone claws and slashes Cyber across the face. Unimpressed by the attack and annoyed by this turn of events, Cyber slams Wolverine to the ground and uses his foot to break the bone claws off of Wolverine's right arm. Their fight is interrupted, though, allowing Wolverine the opportunity to escape Cyber. Using his amplified brain-wave tracking power, he chases the poisoned Logan to Muir Island, where he is eventually outsmarted by Kitty Pryde and captured by Excalibur.[7]
Cyber is later broken out of S.H.I.E.L.D. custody by the Dark Riders. He is taken to one of Apocalypse's ancient Egyptian fortresses. They run a series of tests to determine the strength and purity of Cyber's adamantium skin, then through a combined effort they manage to trap him inside a vault and release a swarm of voracious, "mutant" deathwatch beetles, which devour the flesh from Cyber's entire body, beginning with his exposed face and eating the rest from the inside out. Cyber's adamantium carapace, which remains untouched, is then used in an unsuccessful attempt to re-implant adamantium onto Wolverine's skeleton by Genesis, leader of the Dark Riders.[8]
Resurrection
Cyber resurfaced in astral form and possesses the mutant Milo Gunderson, who possesses superhuman strength and childlike intelligence. Intent on revenge, he sets off for the Tinkerer, who bonds adamantium to his new body. Unbeknownst to Cyber, Milo's body has a weak heart, which causes him to have a heart attack during a battle. His condition worsens, and Wolverine is forced to bring him to the Tinkerer to treat him. The Tinkerer agrees to construct a pacemaker to stabilize Cyber's heart condition in exchange for the use of Logan's carbonadium synthesizer.[9]
Cyber is later killed by Ogun who claims that he was a formidable opponent, then tries to sell his adamantium carapace to Dr. Abraham Cornelius after dissolving his flesh away by submerging his corpse in an acid bath.[10]
Hornet
Under unknown circumstances, Cyber returns to life and masquerades as "Hornet" from the Slingers. He is first seen in Las Vegas following Hydra's takeover of America, having been hired by casino owner Silas Thorne to stage a robbery of a mass food delivery. Hornet is able to defeat most of the casino security before he is intercepted by the Scarlet Spider, but he declines to answer questions about his apparent resurrection and fled.[11] When Scarlet Spider and Ricochet track Hornet to the casino where his employer works, Hornet uses a strange amulet to summon an army of monsters,[12] subsequently introducing himself as Silas to Ricochet during the fight. After Scarlet Spider damages the amulet, the monsters are contained by Dusk, but Hornet fled in the resulting confusion.[13] He brings the rest of the Slingers together, claiming that he has been chosen by Black Marvel and the team are ordered to capture the Scarlet Spider to charge him for his attack on Thorne.[14] As the original and modern Scarlet Spider confront the Slingers, it is revealed that Black Marvel has no soul and damage to Hornet's gauntlets reveal his true identity, who had been revived by a demon posing as Black Marvel.[1] Although he is overpowered by the Scarlet Spiders and Slingers, Cyber manages to escape.
Possessed by Adamantine
Sometime after abandoning his Hornet identity, Cyber decides to hunt down Wolverine to settle the score with his old foe just before Wolverine relocates to Krakoa. Despite every mutant being granted amnesty by the sovereign nation and being one himself, Cyber does not visit Krakoa due to the presence of more powerful mutants in Wolverine's company. After Krakoa's dissolution, Cyber is given the opportunity when Wolverine retreats to the wilderness in the Northwest Territories. To lure Wolverine out, Cyber murders several innocents, including a wolf pack Wolverine had befriended, and shoots Nightcrawler, provoking Wolverine into a fight in an open field. Wolverine manages to overpower Cyber, viciously beating him and gouging out one of his eyes. Cyber is forced to retreat. but Wolverine gives up pursuing him to tend to the injured Nightcrawler. While recovering in a cave, Cyber encounters a mysterious substance that heals his injuries and turns his adamantium skin gold.[15]
Powers and abilities
Original body
Silas Burr is a mutant who possesses a number of superhuman abilities, some due to his natural mutation and some due to artificial enhancement. Burr possesses some degree of superhuman strength. Though no limit has been explicitly given, his strength was sufficient to destroy a jeep with a single blow or slash open a bank vault door with ease.[7]
Cyber's skin was bonded with a layer of the near indestructible alloy adamantium, with the exception of his face, using an unknown arc welding technique. As a result, most of Cyber's body is virtually invulnerable and resistant to physical injury.
Housed within each of Cyber's fingers is a retractable adamantium claw. Each talon was tipped in either powerful hallucinogens or poisons that have proven capable of incapacitating Wolverine before his mutant healing factor could filter them out. The poisons are specifically designed to affect Wolverine and are fatal to ordinary humans within seconds.
Cyber also possesses a psionic ability that allows him to track specific brainwave patterns across great distances. The exact limit of Cyber's range is unknown, though it was greatly amplified after his over-exposure to the hallucinogens that coat his claws. Cyber's psionic abilities enabled him to survive in astral form following the attack by the Dark Riders.[16]
Cyber is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant. He is well known in military circles, himself a veteran of World War I and World War II,[17] and throughout the criminal underworld, where he often hires himself out as a special enforcer or mentor. He is a talented, though quite sadistic and murderous, teacher of unarmed combat methods.[2]
Second body
His consciousness has taken possession of the body of Milo Gunderson, a large, muscular mutant with childlike intelligence.[18] Milo is a mutant possessing some degree of superhuman strength, the limits of which are not known. However, his strength is sufficient to kill a fully grown horse with a single punch.[18]
Cyber also apparently retains his brainwave tracking ability within his new body. Cyber has undergone a process in which adamantium has been laced to Milo's skin, with only his face left uncovered, as well as retractable talons on his fingertips.[volume&issueneeded] As a result, his body is highly resistant to all forms of injury, including assaults from weapons composed of adamantium.
Third body
Cyber's third body possesses superhuman strength, durability, and adamantium skin, similar to his past bodies.[19] He possesses retractable claws and wrist mounted laser guns implanted on his forearms.[20] Cyber utilizes the Hornet suit, which is outfitted with high-tech gadgetry and weapons systems and can generate a short-range bio-electrostatic discharge.[12][13]
The demon who resurrected Cyber gave him a special pendant that enables him to summon a Fhtagn, an extra-dimensional creature which feeds on wickedness.[12]
1 2 Peter David(w),Will Sliney(p),Will Sliney(i),Rachelle Rosenberg(col),VC's Joe Caramagna(let),Devin Lewis(ed). Ben Reilly: The Scarlet Spider,vol.1,no.12(27 December 2017).United States:Marvel Comics.
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