Berzerker | |
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Publication information | |
Publisher | Marvel Comics |
First appearance | X-Factor #11 (December 1986) |
Created by | Louise Simonson Walter Simonson |
In-story information | |
Alter ego | Ray Carter[1] |
Species | Human Mutant |
Team affiliations | Morlocks The Tunnelers |
Abilities | Electricity creation and manipulation |
Berzerker (Ray Carter) is a fictional character, a mutant from the Marvel Comics Universe. His first and last appearance was in X-Factor #11 (December 1986). Despite only appearing in one issue, Berzerker has so far appeared in two X-Men animated series, both of which in minor recurring roles.
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Berzerker was a member and the leader of The Tunnelers, an offshoot group of Morlocks who hated Callisto's main group and dubbed them Drain Dwellers. Initially a group of ten, six of the Tunnelers were killed when the Marauders were sent to kill the Morlocks. Berzerker and three others survived the attack, only to get in another battle with Beast and Iceman, thinking they were Marauders too. The battle ends when the Tunnelers figure out that the X-Factor members are not their enemies.
Joining X-Factor at their base, the Tunnelers find out about their hosts' mock mutant hunter identities. The Tunnelers eventually leave hoping to find a new home in New Jersey. They ran into a human street gang called the Savage Wolf gang who tried to rob them. The Tunnelers fought back, ending in the deaths of the Tunneler Blowhard and two of the three gang members. They then got in a confrontation with the police where fellow Tunneler and Berzerker's love interest, Scaleface, was shot dead. Cyclops and Jean Grey arrived to save the remaining two Tunnelers, but it was too late; Berzerker was enraged by the loss of Scaleface and vowed revenge on all humanity. Before Cyclops could reason with him Berzerker let out a giant energy attack at him, blaming X-Factor for the Tunnelers' destruction. Cyclops fired back, overpowering Berzerker's initial shot. The optic blast from Cyclops knocked Berzerker into a river, electrocuting himself with his own powers resulting in his death. Masque was the only Tunneler that survived.[2]
Berzerker is resurrected by means of the Transmode Virus to serve as part of Selene's army of deceased mutants. Under the control of Selene and Eli Bard, he takes part in the assault on the mutant nation of Utopia.[1] It is here we find out that he holds a grudge against Cyclops for his part in his death.
Berzerker's mutant powers allow him to generate and control pulsing bolts of electrical energy. He did this by absorbing and manipulating the energies of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. He could also fly and tap into, absorb, observe or listen to television or radio broadcasts, his electrical powers enabled him to create electrical energy shields, and temporarily convert his body into raw electricity.