Superhuman strength, agility, reflexes, stamina and durability
Skilled in cybernetics and genetic manipulation
Skilled hand-to-hand combatant and acrobat
Spiral (Rita Wayword) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, usually those featuring the X-Men family of characters. Created by writer Ann Nocenti and artist Art Adams, the character first appeared in Longshot #1 (September 1985).[2] She was established as a lieutenant for that titular character's archenemy, Mojo. Prior to Longshot joining the X-Men, Spiral also became a recurring adversary of that team and each of the various X-Men subgroups, as well as serving as the archenemy-turned-ally of X-Men member Psylocke. She then joined a team of X-Force led by X-Men member Storm.
Spiral first appeared in issue #1 of the 1985 Longshotminiseries by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams (though her alter ego Ricochet Rita did not debut until the second issue of the series), and subsequently appeared two months later as a member of Mystique's Freedom Force team in Uncanny X-Men #199.[3] Spiral began as one of 20 minor characters that Adams designed on a character sheet as the pursuers of the character Longshot.[4][5] Her six arms were inspired by deities in Hindu mythology.[6] Although Adams gave little thought to Spiral, as he had developed ideas for the other characters he had drawn on the sheet, Nocenti decided to make her a major character, and gave her the name Spiral.[4] The character sheet is reproduced in the back of the X-Men: Longshot hardcover collection.[7]
In the final issue of the limited series, Spiral is hinted to be a former lover of Longshot.[8]Chris Claremont portrayed her as having a pathological hatred for Longshot, and implied that the two were former lovers during a hallucinatory dream sequence in Uncanny X-Men #248.[9]
As conceived, Spiral and Ricochet Rita were two separate entities. When the character was co-opted by Claremont for use in the pages of Uncanny X-Men, this was continued with Rita appearing in the pages of Excalibur: Mojo Mayhem and Uncanny X-Men Annual #12 as a prisoner of Mojo.
In X-Factor Annual #7, writer Fabian Nicieza established that Rita and Spiral were the same person, and that her hatred for Longshot was driven by her desire for revenge from being taken prisoner, driven insane, and physically modified by Mojo and his chief scientist Arize. It also stated that after turning her into Spiral (an event that will take place at some point in the future), Mojo sent her back to the past to serve his past self and set forth the chain of events that will lead to Rita becoming Spiral.
Rita Wayford is a professional stuntwoman who is captured by Mojo after following Longshot into the Mojoverse. After being imprisoned for several years, Rita is given extreme physical and mental modifications to convert her into Mojo's loyal subordinate, leaving her with white hair and six arms (two of which are robotic). Rita is also trained in dark magic and body modification, allowing her alter and mutilate others as Mojo had mutilated her.[10] Mojo sends Spiral back in time to set into motion the events that led to her former self becoming Spiral.
In the past, Spiral is stranded on Earth after failing to kill Longshot and Rita. At some unknown point, Spiral encounters Valerie Cooper and joins Freedom Force, a revamped version of the second Brotherhood of Mutants.[11] She also runs the "Body Shoppe", which sells alien cybernetic parts to amputees and others who seek the power of cybernetic limbs. Most notably, Spiral transformed Lady Deathstrike into a cyborg and installed cybernetic eyes in Betsy Braddock's original body, which doubled as cameras for Mojo to spy on the X-Men.[12][13]
Spiral battles Psylocke (X-Men vol. 2 #32) Cover by Andy Kubert.
Along with Mojo, Spiral was shown to have played a role in Betsy Braddock's physical appearance changing from that of a purple-haired Anglo-Saxon to an East Asian. Originally, it was believed that the two literally transformed Braddock's original European body to an Asian one, but it was revealed that Spiral had swapped her consciousness with that of Kwannon, a Japanese assassin. She also merged the two women's minds and genetic structures, giving each of them personality traits and physical characteristics of the other, as well as halving Psylocke's telepathy between them.[14]
Crimson Dawn and Viper
The Dragons of the Crimson Dawn, a group of monks with ties to the Crimson Dawn, managed to journey to the Wildways, another magical dimension and the home of Spiral when not serving Mojo. The Dragons need Spiral to help them teleport to Earth; when she refuses to aid them, she is threatened with torture and reluctantly accepts to join them and received the mark of the Crimson Dawn. The Dragons take Brian Braddock prisoner, intending to channel his powers to breach the dimensional wall to the Crimson Dawn and enslave Earth. While the rest of Excalibur hold the Dragons at bay, Meggan helps Brian redirect the power flow, releasing it safely into the atmosphere. While Brian survives, he loses his powers. The Dragons leave, vowing that one day they will succeed and rule Earth. Spiral returns to Mojo, who purge her of all traces of the Crimson Dawn's influence over her.[15]
"House of M"
Just prior to the "House of M" storyline, Spiral and Mojo attacked the X-Men during a training session in the Danger Room. Spiral transforms most of the X-Men into their X-Baby forms, but is unable to do the same to Psylocke due to their connection. Spiral is however able to paralyze Betsy and conjure a gag for her, and later uses her abilities to torment the mutant before the X-Babies defeat Mojo and return to their normal states. After this, Emma Frost claims that she intends to use her powers to ensure that Mojo and Spiral will never be able to bother the X-Men again, though it would seem this threat was never carried out.[16]
"The Apocalypse"
In the X-Force: Shatterstar miniseries, Spiral is revealed to have conquered an alternate timeline and referred to herself as "The Apocalypse". She managed to kill most of that Earth's heroes, and only Cable and some of his X-Force/New Mutants allies were left. Spiral had kidnapped that universe's Sunspot and tortured him by raping him until his rescue. It is implied that, with the aid of Shatterstar, Spiral was defeated and returned to Mojo's services. She later attacked the X-Men together with Mojo, but ended up defeated once again.[17]
"Endangered Species"
Spiral and Mojo are among the nine criminal geniuses whom Beast seeks out to reverse the effects of the 2005 storyline "Decimation".[volume&issueneeded]
Later, Spiral teleported to Beast, claiming that Mojo was displeased with the fact mutants are now an endangered species and, while Beast asked for her help, her boss Mojo demanded it. Spiral commented that science was blinding him to find the real solution to answer how to save mutantkind. Spiral tells him that energy dances its way through everything, keeping her out, that it is beyond anything her Body Shoppe can simply fix, and that the death of mutants was not caused by science, and it would not be saved by science.[volume&issueneeded]
After a brief confrontation with Domino, the Sisterhood steal Kwannon's corpse from her grave in Tokyo. Madelyne Pryor performs a ceremony with Spiral's assistance, transferring the soul of the kidnapped Psylocke back into her original body. Later, the Sisterhood take on the X-Men. Spiral seriously injures Nightcrawler and Colossus while the Red Queen goes and fetches a lock of Jean Grey's hair from Wolverine's room before teleporting the Sisterhood back to base.[19]
Back at base, the Sisterhood split up, leaving the Mastermind sisters and Psylocke behind while Spiral and the rest of the Sisterhood go to Jean Grey's burial site. Spiral takes on Northstar and when Pryor is defeated, Spiral grabs the rest of the Sisterhood—Lady Deathstrike, Chimera, Lady Mastermind and Martinique Jason—and escapes with them.[20]
At some point, Spiral was exiled back to Earth by Mojo. For reasons yet to be revealed, Mojo opted to further punish Spiral by way of removing her ability to teleport through dimensions. Furious, Spiral set up shop in Los Angeles where she took in a homeless girl who happened to be a new mutant. She then joined Storm’s incarnation of X-Force and became a superhero. [volume&issueneeded]
Powers and abilities
Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. When Spiral was first introduced, she was a powerful sorceress and during her first two encounters with the X-Men, singlehandedly defeated the team. She can cast spells to stun, depower, or immobilize her superhuman opponents, as she did to depower and imprison the Avengers and West Coast Avengers once they were lying still long enough for the spells to catch them. On a mission to capture Magneto as part of Mystique's Freedom Force, Spiral was able to cast spells to negate Magneto's powers and turn them back on himself, while subsequently casting a spell to bind him. Spiral has been able to psionically detect a speeding Super Sabre approaching Mystique's base of operations and react fast enough to teleport outside the compound and afterwards trip the speedster. In New Avengers #53, she was revealed by the Eye of Agamotto as one of several magic-users with the potential to be the next Sorcerer Supreme after Doctor Strange.[21] Spiral's spellcasting powers can be triggered through small gestures of her many hands. With the gestures, she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. More powerful spells require more complicated dance moves. Spiral can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time, although it has been implied that she sometimes requires Mojo's help to successfully teleport from one dimension to another. At other times, she has independently traversed dimensions and centuries of time, and set herself slightly out of phase with the timestream so as to avoid blows. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. Spiral can also disguise herself through her magic.[volume&issueneeded]
Spiral's mind is apparently immune to possession. When Rogue attempted to steal Spiral's mind and powers, Spiral stole Rogue's instead, laughing that she had danced in many people's souls. Nocturne was fooled by Spiral into thinking Spiral had been possessed while Spiral remained in control.[volume&issueneeded]
According to Mystique, Spiral is aware whenever a person speaks her name by the usage of "quasi-sentient sensors", which even filters out mundane uses of the word "spiral".[22] Due to her cybernetic enhancements, she has some limited level of superhuman physical attributes.[volume&issueneeded]
Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, acrobat, and sword fighter. Her six arms are fully coordinated, giving her great dexterity and athletic ability.[volume&issueneeded] She has displayed enhanced durability, ranging from taking punches from Wonder Man, surviving falls from great heights, and tanking blasts of various kinds. Spiral has demonstrated highly developed skills in cybernetics and genetic manipulation which she has used to turn humans into powerful cyborgs at her Body Shoppe. The most notable include Lady Deathstrike and the cybernetic Reavers, who have since been "upgraded" by Donald Pierce.[12]
Reception
Accolades
In 2019, Comic Book Resources (CBR) ranked Spiral 17th in their "21 Most Powerful Sorcerer Supreme Candidates" list.[23]
In 2020, Scary Mommy included Spiral in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.[24]
Other versions
Ultimate Marvel
The Ultimate Marvel incarnation of Spiral as depicted in Ultimate X-Men #55 (March 2005). Art by Stuart Immonen.
An alternate universe variant of Spiral from Earth-1610 appears in the Ultimate Marvel universe. This version is a citizen of Genosha and lacks magical abilities.[25]
Old Man Logan
An alternate universe variant of Spiral from Earth-807128 appears in Old Man Logan #1.[26]
1 2 3 4 5 "Spiral Voices (X-Men)". Behind The Voice Actors (A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.). Retrieved June 7, 2024.
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