Graydon Creed

Graydon Creed
Graydon Creed as depicted in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe vol. 4 # 7 (November 2004). Art by Joe Madureira.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Uncanny X-Men #299 (April 1993)
Created by	Scott Lobdell Brandon Peterson
In-story information
Species	Human
Team affiliations	Purifiers Upstarts Friends of Humanity
Notable aliases	Tribune Bad Seed
Abilities	None

Graydon Creed is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was created by writer Scott Lobdell and artist Brandon Peterson and first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #299 (April 1993). He is the "baseline human" son of Sabretooth and Mystique. ^[1]

Fictional character biography

Posing as German spy Leni Zauber, Mystique seduced freelance assassin Victor Creed (Sabretooth) while he was in Germany on a mission. Mystique later gave birth to a normal human child—Graydon—whom she gave up for adoption, although she kept an eye on him. When Graydon learned that he was the son of two mutants who had abandoned him as an inconvenience, he grew resentful of all mutants and that resentment colored his outlook for the rest of his life. ^[2]

In his adult years, Graydon formed a group called the Friends of Humanity, dedicated to opposing mutant civil rights by committing acts of terrorism against peaceful mutants and mutant sympathizers, and using the acts of violent mutants such as Magneto to rally support for their cause.

Upstarts

Creed also came to join the Upstarts, a group of wealthy and powerful individuals who had been brought together by Selene and the enigmatic telepathic Gamesmaster with the sole purpose of killing mutants for points in a twisted game. After learning of his parents' identities, Creed sought to kill them as part of the Upstarts' game. Disguised as the armored Tribune, Creed hired assassins to kill his mother and had his father implanted with a bomb. His father managed to remove the device and confronted his son, who callously stabbed Sabretooth's assistant, Birdy, a mutant telepath whom Sabretooth employed to keep his homicidal rages in check.

During the Upstarts' self-professed "Younghunt", Creed was blackmailed into revealing the location of the Upstarts' prisoners by the New Warriors, who threatened to expose Creed as a mutant collaborator and the son of mutants. ^[3]

Death

Later, using the resources he had gained through the Friends of Humanity, and with the support of the government-sponsored anti-mutant taskforce, Operation: Zero Tolerance, Creed nominated himself as a presidential candidate and ran on an anti-mutant platform. ^{[4] [5]} Capitalizing on a near-hysterical fear of mutants in the general public (specially after the Onslaught debacle), ^[6] Creed's popularity surged, which led to the Daily Bugle newspaper launching an investigation into Creed's activities, on-principle. ^[7] When a reporter from the Bugle obtained information regarding Creed's parentage, Zero Tolerance's leader, Bastion, killed the journalist to prevent the news from leaking out. ^[8] Although they stopped the reporter, Creed did not manage to catch that the X-Men had also infiltrated his presidential campaign, by planting Bobby Drake (under the alias of "Drake Roberts") and Sam Guthrie (under the alias of "Samson Guthry") as Creed's assistants. ^{[9] [10]}

On the eve of the election, Creed was assassinated during a campaign speech when a plasma beam completely disintegrated him. ^[11] Several years later, the miniseries, X-Men Forever , revealed that a future version of Mystique had fired the shot, ^[12] having sworn to kill Graydon for his part in the Friends of Humanity's brutal attack on Trevor Chase, the grandson of her lover, Destiny. ^[13]

Purifiers

The pages of X-Force show a group of Purifiers digging up the corpse of Graydon Creed, his body is then taken back to their base. It is re-animated by Bastion using the techno-organic virus taken from an "offspring" of Magus. ^[14] Creed later went public with his return, claiming that his death was faked all along to allow him to go underground and avoid persecution from mutants.

During the Second Coming storyline, Graydon Creed, alongside Steven Lang, is killed by Hope Summers. ^[15]

Hunt for Wolverine

During the "Hunt for Wolverine" storyline, Sabretooth, Lady Deathstrike, and Daken fight their way past the zombies and soldiers from Soteira Killteam Nine in order to get to the power station where the glowing green box suspected of causing the zombie outbreak is located. Sabretooth discovers that one of the soldiers is a zombie version of his son Graydon. After Lady Deathstrike and Daken are stabbed by a zombie version of Lord Dark Wind, Sabretooth fights his zombified son who states that there is 10 minutes left before Maybelle is burned to the ground. ^[16] As Sabretooth continues his fight with Graydon, he tries to get answers on how Graydon came back from the dead. He doesn't get an answer. After slaying the zombie Lord Dark Wind, Lady Deathstrike stabs the zombie Graydon in the neck. ^[17]

Other versions

Age of Apocalypse

Graydon Creed goes by the name "Horror Show" in the Age of Apocalypse reality. He's a part of the X-Terminated team with a handful of other humans. He's wearing an armor and appears to have a flamethrower and other firearms. ^[18] He mentions that his father, Sabretooth, was apparently a brutal, abusive father. ^[19] During the X-Termination crossover, AoA Nightcrawler's trip home resulted in the release of three evil beings that destroy anyone they touch. Several casualties resulted, including the AoA's Sabretooth, Horror Show, and Fiend, as well as the X-Treme X-Men's Xavier and Hercules. ^[20]

Age of X

In the Age of X reality, Graydon Creed had led a strike force that put the mutant race on the verge of extinction.

House of M

After Magneto's takeover of Genosha during the House of M , Graydon Creed rose to prominence as an anti-mutant activist, becoming friends with vice-president Bolivar Trask. His prominence was short-lived as Magneto (who compared Graydon Creed to Adolf Hitler) viewed it as his duty to rid the world of the man. Magneto sent his assassin Sabretooth to kill him. Graydon Creed's massacred body was found by government agents, and Trask ordered his death ruled an accident to prevent panic. ^[21]

Mutant X

In the Mutant X reality, Graydon Creed became President of the United States after Reed Richards' disappearance. He additionally reinstated S.H.I.E.L.D. and promoted Nick Fury to General. ^[22]

In other media

Graydon Creed appears in X-Men: The Animated Series , voiced by John Stocker ^{[ citation needed ]}. As the creator of Friends of Humanity, he incites his followers to commit terrorist attacks against mutants, most notably after President Robert Kelly pardons X-Men member Beast.

In the episode "Beauty and the Beast", Creed kidnaps Beast's love interest Carly in order to lure and capture him. A disguised Logan infiltrates an "FoH" base where she's being held, and deduces Creed's relation to Sabretooth. He requests a portable Cerebro from Jean to create a hologram of Sabretooth. Upon escaping the base with Beast and Carly, Wolverine tells the team to activate the hologram in front of Creed, revealing his connection to Sabretooth, whose real name is Graydon Creed Sr. Panicked, Creed attempts to attack the hologram while the remaining FoH members leave him.

In "Bloodlines", after emerging from his secluded hiding, he is ousted from the FoH council after the X-Men had exposed his mutant heritage and unsuccessfully attempts to re-join them by killing his biological mother Mystique and half-brother Nightcrawler. The latter attempts to reason with him to no avail. After his attempts fail, the council punish him by parachuting him to his childhood home, where Sabretooth catches and prepares to "have a talk" with his son regarding his role in the FoH as Creed screams in horror. His ultimate fate is left unknown.

References

1. DeFalco, Tom; Sanderson, Peter; Brevoort, Tom; Teitelbaum, Michael; Wallace, Daniel; Darling, Andrew; Forbeck, Matt; Cowsill, Alan; Bray, Adam (2019). The Marvel Encyclopedia. DK Publishing. p. 95. ISBN   978-1-4654-7890-0.
2. Sabretooth #1-4. Marvel Comics.
3. New Warriors #45 (March 1994). Marvel Comics.
4. Uncanny X-Men #323, #334.
5. X-Men (1991) #45, 51.
6. Uncanny X-Men #337.
7. Uncanny X-Men #337, X-Men (1991) #57.
8. Uncanny X-Men #339.
9. Uncanny X-Men #338, #340.
10. X-Men #58, 59.
11. X-Factor #130. Marvel Comics.
12. X-Men Forever (2001) #2.
13. X-Factor (1986) #127.
14. X-Force vol. 3 #3. Marvel Comics.
15. X-Force vol. 3 #28. Marvel Comics.
16. Hunt for Wolverine: Claws of a Killer #3. Marvel Comics.
17. Hunt for Wolverine: Claws of a Killer #4. Marvel Comics.
18. Age of Apocalypse #1. Marvel Comics.
19. Age of Apocalypse #3. Marvel Comics.
20. Astonishing X-Men #60. Marvel Comics.
21. Civil War: House of M #3 (2008). Marvel Comics.
22. Mutant X #18 (April 2000). Marvel Comics.

External links

• Graydon Creed at the Marvel Universe wiki
• Graydon Creed on Marvel Database , a Marvel Comics wiki