Spiral (comics)

Superherobox|

caption=Spiral
Mike McKone, artist
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Spiral
real_name=Rita Wayword
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Longshot" #1 (September, 1985)
creators=Ann Nocenti
Art Adams
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Freedom Force
aliases="Ricochet" Rita
powers=
*Multiple arms
*Enhanced strength
*Teleportation
*Skilled in sorcery|

Spiral (Rita Wayword) is a fictional character, a supervillainess in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in the "Longshot" miniseries by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams. In some comics she is drawn as having only four fingers on each hand, in others five.

Fictional character biography

Spiral's real name is Rita Wayword, better known as 'Ricochet Rita', a professional stuntwoman who befriended Longshot when he first appeared on Earth. The story of how Rita became Spiral is a paradox: Rita was attacked by her evil, future self which led to her meeting Longshot and falling in love with him. When Longshot sought to return to his home dimension, the Mojoverse, the lovestruck Rita went with her boyfriend, only to watch Longshot fail and be captured alongside him by the dimension's evil overlord, Mojo. Longshot was promptly mindwiped to forget all about Rita, while a much worse fate was left for Rita.

After holding her prisoner for several years (at which point Rita was made to serve as guardian for Mojo's army of "X-Babies"), Mojo forced his chief scientist, Arize, to perform extreme physical and mental body modifications onto Rita to recreate her into a loyal subordinate. These experiments left her with six arms (two of which are robotic), turned her hair grey, and drove the young woman insane through forcibly evolving Rita's mind to the point that she could see into other dimensions that were used for time-travel/teleportation. He also trained her in the dark arts of magic and body modification, so that she could use these skills to mutilate others like Mojo had mutilated her. Finally, in a cruel act of manipulation, Mojo sent Spiral back in time to set into motion the events that led to her former self becoming Mojo's prisoner and become Spiral by attacking her past self.

Now in the past, Spiral found herself stranded on Earth by Mojo for failing to kill Longshot and Rita. At some unknown point, Spiral encountered Val Cooper and was recruited into Freedom Force, a revamped version of the second Brotherhood of Mutants. Despite being utterly insane and more blood-thirsty than her new teammates, Spiral quickly became a valuable member of the team, single-handedly defeating the X-Men on several occasions as well as kidnapping the X-Man Rachel Summers for Mojo. She was also instrumental in Freedom Force's victory over the Avengers and the West Coast Avengers when sent by the U.S. government to arrest the heroes. Her magical powers temporarily robbed Captain Marvel of her energy powers and she also defeated Iron Man, removing two of the most powerful Avengers from the battle.

She also ran the "Body Shoppe", which sells alien cybernetic parts to amputees and others who see the power of cybernetic limbs. Lady Deathstrike and several members of the Reavers were some of her earlier clients though later writers have retconned Donald Pierce and not Spiral as the person responsible for their becoming cyborgs. She also was responsible for giving Psylocke cybernetic eyes, which doubled as cameras for Mojo to spy on the X-Men.

Along with Mojo, Spiral was shown to have played a role in Psylocke becoming Asian in Uncanny X-Men #256. Originally, it was believed that the two literally transformed Psylocke from being British to being Asian, but it was revealed that Spiral (without Mojo's involvement) transferred the X-Man's mind into the body of the Asian assassin Kwannon [X-Men vol. 2 #31-32] .

Even though she was a loyal servant of Mojo, Spiral deeply resented Mojo's crass manners and cruelty towards her. In particular, Spiral has been known to go against Mojo's orders and attack Longshot out of psychotic need for revenge for Longshot's seduction of her and how her love for him led to her transformation into the being she is today. As such, Mojo has been known to leave Spiral stranded on Earth (since Spiral needs Mojo's power to travel between dimensions safely).

In the X-Force: Shatterstar limited series, Spiral was 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 making him make love to her until his rescue. With the aid of Shatterstar, Spiral was evidently defeated and apparently returned to Mojo's services. She later attacked the X-Men together with Mojo, but ended up defeated once again.

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Spiral was among the nine criminal geniuses that Beast seeks out when it comes to reversing the effects of Decimation. Mojo himself is another.

Later Spiral teleports to Beast claiming Mojo is displeased with the fact mutants are now an endangered species and while Beast asked for her help, her boss Mojo demanded it. Spiral commented science is blinding him to find the real solution to answer how to save mutantkind. Spiral tells him energy dances its way through everything, keeping her out. It is beyond anything her Body Shoppe can simply fix. The death of mutants is not caused by science, and it will not be saved by science.

Her last comments before teleporting away were: "Put aside what you know. For where science ends... magic begins".

Powers and abilities

Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. With gestures or dance moves, she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. Teleportation and powerful spells require more complicated dance moves. Spiral's spellcasting powers can be triggered through small hand gestures of her many hands. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. Spiral can also disguise herself through her magic. Spiral can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time, though it has been implied that she sometimes requires Mojo's help to successfully teleport from one dimension to another.

It was also established that Spiral is aware, through unknown mystical means, whenever a person speaks her name.

When Spiral was first introduced, she was a powerful sorceress and during her first two encounters with the X-Men, single-handedly 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 laying still long enough for the spells to catch them.

Spiral's mind seems to be immune from 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.

As a result of being cybernetically enhanced on Mojo-world she has some limited level of superhuman strength.

Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and sword fighter. Her six arms are fully coordinated, giving her great dexterity and athletic ability.

Spiral demonstrated highly developed skills in cybernetics and genetic manipulation which she has used to turn humans into powerful cyborgs at her Body Shoppe. Most notable include Lady Deathstrike and the cybernetic Reavers, who have since been "upgraded" by Donald Pierce.

Other versions

Ultimate Spiral

In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Spiral is a citizen of the state of Genosha and the on-and-off girlfriend of Longshot. She differs from the mainstream continuity because she is not a villain and has no magical abilities, being a mutant instead. She does, however, possess incredible physical combat abilities, using a multitude of weapons utilizing her six arms. She was in love with Longshot, but betrayed him when having an affair with a human mutant-sponsor named Lord Scheele. When Longshot found out he killed the man in a fit of rage, and Spiral knocked him out. She confronted the X-Men about it when they came to Genosha to investigate, and with the aid of Jean's telepathic powers, Longshot's guilt was proven. The X-Men later enabled Spiral to emigrate to the USA and join her sister, also a mutant.

In other media

Television

*Spiral appeared in the "X-Men" animated series. There, she worked for Mojo and helped him torture the captured X-Men by making them perform in television shows against their wills, but eventually betrayed Mojo when she met and fell in love with Longshot. Their relationship, however, turned out for the worse and Spiral once again turned to Mojo's side in the end.

*Spiral appeared briefly in the trailer of Wolverine and the X-Men.Fact|date=May 2008alongside the Reavers.

Video games

*She is a playable character in the fighting games ' and '.

References