Spiral (character)

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 modifications on Rita to recreate her as a loyal subordinate. These experiments left her with six arms (two of which were robotic), turned her hair white, 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 as 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.

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, singlehandedly defeating the X-Men on several occasions as well as kidnapping the X-Man Rachel Summers for Mojo.[10] 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.[11]

She also ran 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;[12] upgraded the cyborgs Cole, Macon, and Reece originally created by Donald Pierce; and installed the cybernetic eyes in Betsy Braddock's original body, which doubled as cameras for Mojo to spy on the X-Men.[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 (without Mojo's involvement) transferred the X-Man's mind into the body of the Japanese assassin Kwannon. 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. This led to much confusion as to which of the two was the real Elizabeth Braddock when Revanche first appeared. Other than malicious intent, Spiral's reasons for doing this (if any) are still unknown.[14]

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 a 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 without her power, which she needs to travel safely between dimensions.

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. They needed the woman to help them teleport to Earth, but when Spiral refused to aid them, she was threatened with torture that was even beyond her Body Shoppe’s capabilities and she reluctantly accepted to join them and received the mark of the Crimson Dawn.[15] Actually Spiral thought she could outsmart the Dragons at one point, but the Crimson Dawn’s influence was too strong and she had no choice but to release them on Earth, namely in London, where they attacked by surprise Psylocke's twin brother, Captain Britain. They took him prisoner to their native Hong Kong, where they wanted to channel his powers into breaching the dimensional wall to the Crimson Dawn, thus enslaving Earth.[16]

Spiral alerted Excalibur to the Dragons' plan, and despite the team's initial distrust, teleported the team to Hong Kong. Another entity trying to spoil the plan was Xiandu's spirit, who told Meggan, the only one to sense him, that like him the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn were from the time China was overrun by the barbarian Li-Tzu Ch'eng. They had prayed that the kingdom would be spared the endless bloodshed, but the Ming dynasty ended anyway. Frustrated that their prayers hadn’t been answered, Xiandu and three of his friends, Ra'al, Barak and A'yin, went down the darkest road they would ever travel. In the pitch of night they were initiated into a covenant that promised to repel China’s oppressors. Xiandu underestimated the might of the Crimson Dawn, and only learned that his friends had been corrupted by it in the night they killed him. In the instant his life ended, Barak, A'yin and Ra'al found themselves transformed into the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn. Xiandu's spirit remained on Earth, wandering around to await their inevitable escape from the Crimson realm. The spirit revealed to Meggan that not only her abilities but also her love for Brian was needed to rescue him and stop the two worlds from merging into one.[17] While the rest of Excalibur temporarily held the Dragons of the Crimson Dawn at bay, Meggan helped Brian redirect the power flow, releasing it safely into the atmosphere. While Brian survived, he was Captain Britain no more, his powers gone. The Dragons left by melting into the shadows, vowing that one day they would succeed and rule Earth.[18]

Spiral then returned to the Wildways and Mojo, who purged her of all traces of the Crimson Dawn's influence over her. She then was sent to help the terrorist known as the Viper, who had acquired the long missing younger siblings of the New Mutant Karma and sought Spiral's help in modifying them so as to serve as minions of the villainess. The plan would fail when Spiral and Viper sent the two modified children to attack the X-Men. Beast and Cannonball defeated Spiral and Viper and Spiral was forced to restore the children.

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.[19]

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 making him make love to her 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.[20]

Spiral was among the nine criminal geniuses whom Beast seeks out when it comes to reversing the effects of the 2005 storyline "Decimation". Mojo himself was another.

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.

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

While repairing Lady Deathstrike after the events of Messiah Complex, Spiral is approached by the Red Queen and agrees to join her Sisterhood of Mutants.[21]

After a brief confrontation with Domino, the Sisterhood steal Kwannon's corpse from her grave in Tokyo. Madelyne performs a ceremony with Spiral's assistance, transferring the soul of the kidnapped Psylocke back into her original body.[22] 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.[23]

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.[24]

Spiral in her X-Force uniform on the variant cover of Uncanny X-Force Vol. 2 #2. Art by Ed McGuinness.

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.

• In 2019, CBR.com ranked Spiral 17th in their "21 Most Powerful Sorcerer Supreme Candidates" list.[28]
• In 2020, Scary Mommy included Spiral in their "Looking For A Role Model? These 195+ Marvel Female Characters Are Truly Heroic" list.[29]

Ultimate Spiral. Art by Stuart Immonen.

In the Ultimate Marvel universe, Spiral is a citizen of the apartheid 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 Ultimate X-Men about it when they came to Genosha to investigate, and with the aid of Jean Grey's telepathic powers, Longshot's guilt was proven.[30] The X-Men later enabled Spiral to emigrate to the USA and join her sister, also a mutant.[30] In Ultimate Comics: X-Men #33, a six-armed mutant is seen falling from the floating city of Tian, but it is unknown if this is Spiral.

In the pages of Old Man Logan, the elderly Logan had awoken on Earth-616 and had a flashback to where Spiral, Red Skull, Baron Blood, Count Nefaria, and Whirlwind were standing over the dead bodies of the superheroes the day when the villains rose and the heroes fell.[31]

• Spiral appears in X-Men: The Animated Series, voiced by Cynthia Belliveau. This version temporarily betrays Mojo after falling in love with Longshot.
• Spiral appears in the Wolverine and the X-Men episode "X-Calibre", voiced by Grey DeLisle. This version is the leader of Mojo's Reavers.

• Spiral appears as a playable character in X-Men: Children of the Atom, voiced by Catherine Disher.
• Spiral appears as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2, voiced again by Catherine Disher.
• Spiral appears in X-Men: Mojo World.
• Spiral appears in Viewtiful Joe's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds. This version works as a producer for a police procedural that Joe is starring in.[32]
• Spiral appears as an unlockable character in Marvel: Avengers Alliance.