Spiral (comics)
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- For the horror manga, see Uzumaki.
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Spiral 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.
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[edit] Character biography
Spiral's real name is "Ricochet" Rita, a professional stuntwoman who befriended Longshot when he first appeared on Earth. The story of how Rita became Spiral is that of 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 (several 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 Evil 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 also ran the "Body Shop", 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 in X-Men V2 #31-32, it was revealed that Spiral (without Mojo's involvement) transferred the X-Man's mind into the body of the Asian assassin Kwannon.
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 apparentely returned to Mojo's services. She later attacked the X-Men together with Mojo, but ended up defeated once again.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. With a series of complicated dance moves, she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. She can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time, though it has been implied that she 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 and can teleport directly to the person who says her name by speaking the words "Spiral knows".
When Spiral was first introduced, she was a very powerful sorceress and during her first two encounters with the X-Men, single-handedly (so-to-speak) defeated the team. She can cast spells to stun, depower, or immobilize her superhuman opponents. Spiral possesses immunity to certain types of psionic possession. The most notable example of this would be when Rogue attempted to drain Spiral of her powers/render her unconscious; Spiral's mind immediately took control over Rogue's body and sprouted four additional arms.
Spiral's spellcasting powers, unlike her teleportation skills, can be triggered through small hand gestures and that because of her many hands, Spiral can cast her spells in rapid succession. In moments, she was able to deprive each of the Avengers of their superhuman powers, regardless of their source, bind them, and transport them across the country. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. Spiral can also disguise herself through her magic.
Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and sword fighter. Also, as a result of being cybernetically enhanced on Mojo-world she has superhuman strength.
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 1/3rd of the cybornetic Reavers (though Spiral's involvement was later retconned out with Donald Pierce being declared the true mastermind behind Spiral's work).
[edit] Ultimate Spiral
In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, 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, but rather a victim, and has no magical abilities. 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 recently enabled Spiral to emigrate to the USA.
[edit] Other media
She is a playable character in the fighting games X-Men: Children of the Atom and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
Spiral only appeared in another form 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.
