Berzerker (comics)

Berzerker (Ray Carter) is a fictional character, a mutant appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Berzerker has also appeared in two X-Men animated series, both times in minor recurring roles.

Publication history

His first appeared in X-Factor #11 (December 1986) and was created by Louise Simonson and Walter Simonson.

Fictional character biography

Berzerker was 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]

Powers and abilities

Berzerker's mutant powers allow him to generate and control pulsing bolts of electrical energy (Electrokinesis). 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.

In other media

Television

• Berzerker is a student at the Xavier Institute in the animated program X-Men: Evolution and is voiced by Tony Sampson. His name is stated as Ray Crisp. Unlike his comic counterpart, he is laid back and generally non-violent. His involvement with the Morlocks is never really described, however he does seem to have met them before at some point (when mutants are being hunted, he is the one who leads Sunspot, Multiple Man, Wolfsbane, Jubilee, Boom Boom, and Cannonball to their base in the sewers in order to hide out). In a later episode, when Spyke is poisoned and taken to be healed by the Morlocks, Ray is the only one who notices Callisto's presence and deduces where they are hiding. Later, when he is trying to escape the sewers, he is briefly pursued by Scaleface, begging her to just let him go. This is the only reference to their relationship in the comics.
• Berzerker appears in Wolverine and the X-Men, voiced by Nolan North. He appears as part of Prof. Xavier's future X-Men. Berserker also appears in the present as a young boy in "Excessive Force" being chased by Vertigo and Blockbuster in the Morlock Tunnels, only to be saved by Cyclops.

References

External links

• Berzerker at Marvel.com
• Berzerker at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe