| S'ym | |
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S'ym in his first appearance, Uncanny X-Men vol.1 #160 art by Brent Anderson |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Uncanny X-Men #160 (August 1982) |
| Created by | Chris Claremont Brent Anderson |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | not applicable |
| Team affiliations | Limbo |
| Abilities | Super strength, Near-Invulnerability |
S'ym is a fictional supervillain in the Marvel Comics Universe, a demon of Limbo who served as a frequent enemy and sometimes supporting character in The Uncanny X-Men and The New Mutants. He was created as an homage to independent cartoonist Dave Sim's character Cerebus the Aardvark.
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Created by Chris Claremont and Brent Anderson, the character is an homage to Cerebus the Aardvark[1] and his creator, Dave Sim, after Sim featured a villain named "Professor Charles X. Claremont" in early issues of Cerebus.[2] S'ym always referred to himself in the third person ("S'ym thinks this is a bad idea"), a trait shared by Cerebus. S'ym also has the same purple-grey coloration as Cerebus, and looks vaguely like Cerebus (right down to his trademark vest), only taller, more muscular, and with a horn. And, of course, "S'ym" is pronounced the same as "Sim".
S'ym was a minion of Belasco, the ruler of the demonic dimension known as Otherplace or Limbo. S'ym first battled the X-Men when the team were transported to Limbo via teleportation "discs" in their search for 7-year-old Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of the X-Man Colossus. Because the physical laws of time and space differ between dimensions, Illyana seemingly returned to the X-Men only moments later, but returned as a fourteen-year-old.[3]
During Ilyana's seven years in Limbo Belasco took her as his heir and apprentice, until one day she defeated him, becoming Limbo's new ruler - and S'ym's master - before returning to the X-Men. S'ym made several attempts at challenging Illyana's newfound status as Limbo's ruler. At each turn Illyana defeated S'ym, leaving S'ym to agree to serve Illyana whenever she visited Limbo. Finding a potential way to finally defeat Illyana, S'ym allied himself with the extraterrestrial Magus, allowing himself to be infected with a techno-organic virus). Despite the boost in power, that attempt and a subsequent rebellion failed.
S'ym then enlisted the aid of the demon N'astirh, aiding him in the corruption of Madelyne Pryor into the Goblin Queen. By manipulating one of Illyana portals from Limbo, the trio unleashed a demonic invasion of New York City known as the "Inferno". S'ym was defeated when Illyana sent most of the invaders back to Limbo.[4]
S'ym remained in Limbo, while plotting a new invasion of Earth. He planned on using the Nexus of All Realities to invade Earth, but was stopped by his former master Belasco, who manipulated Cable into confronting S'ym. Belasco reasserted his control over both S'ym and Limbo; however the two were later defeated by Nightcrawler as his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, took over Limbo. S'ym turned to an alliance with the Archenemy, a powerful magical entity, and disguised himself as Duke Bleys, becoming one of Sefton's most trusted advisers. As Bleys, S'ym tricked Sefton into allying herself with many other demon lords and merging their various realms and dimensions into a single bastion against the Archenemy. S'ym then revealed his true identity and revealed that the single, united realm was a much easier target for the Archenemy than the countless dimensions he was fighting before. Nonetheless, Sefton and her army managed to slay the Archenemy and undid the merging of realms.
S'ym is next seen in the New X-Men "The Quest for Magik" storyline. Illyana returns to rule Limbo and S'ym is shown to be one of her servants. He appears to be free of the techno-organic virus, with no explanation given.
When Witchfire learns that Magik has left Limbo, she assumes control. She stabs S'ym through the chest, seriously wounding him. Magik teleports in to find him chained to the throne. She asks what happened and he informs her that Belasco's daughter, Witchfire has taken control in her absence.
A recovered S'ym is seen reporting to N'astirth that a small squad of X-Men had come to Limbo to rescue Magik, revealing in the meantime that N'astirth was the mastermind behind the abduction of Magik in the first place.
S'ym possesses great superhuman strength. He is stronger than Colossus and easily snapped off one of Wolverine's claws. This strength level makes him nearly invulnerable. Illyana Rasputin's Soulsword was one of the few weapons that could kill him, before having been infected by the techno-organic virus. S'ym, now a techno-organic being himself, can repair himself and reform from a single molecule, should he be destroyed. Also due to his techno-organic state, S'ym can also infect other objects and feed off its life energies, and/or turn them into techno-organic beings as well. During the Inferno storyline Illyana tried killing S'ym with her Soulsword but it proved ineffective against his new circuitry body.