Marvel Teases Return of Stryfe in X-Force

One of the X-Men‘s greatest foes seems set to return to the Marvel Universe in X-Force.

Marvel’s April 2018 solicitation for X-Force #6 by Ed Brisson and Damian Couceiro teases, “Kid Cable wasn’t the only one who’d come back from the future…!” The cover shows Stryfe blasting Nathan Summers’ gravestone.

Take a look at Pepe Larraz’s cover below.

Stryfe has long been Cable’s archenemy and their relationship is a knot of continuity and time travel. Nathan Summers was the son of Cyclops and his wife Madelyne Pryor. Apocalypse infected the child with a technoorganic virus. He would have perished if not for the appearance of Sister Askani, a time-traveler from the future. Cyclops and Jean Grey allowed Sister Askani to take Nathan to the future, where his affliction could be controlled.

In the future, Mother Askani – later revealed to be Rachel Summers, Nathan’s half-sister from another timeline – helped raise Nathan. He became Cable, the mutant soldier who would overthrow Apocalypse. Mother Askani didn’t want to take any chances. She had Nathan cloned so there would be a backup savior should Nathan fall in battle. The forces of Apocalypse kidnapped the clone. Apocalypse himself raised the child, who grew to become the terrorist villain Styfe.

Cable later traveled back in time to try to prevent Apocalypse from ever rising to power. Stryfe followed him back, determined to make his family – Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Cable – pay for their perceived slights. The events of this confrontation were the backbone of X-Cutioner’s Song, one of the biggest X-Men events of the 1990s. The event ended with the supposed death of both Cable and Stryfe, leaving the X-Men unsure of the nature of their relationship to each other. The culmination also included the release of Stryfe’s Legacy Virus, which would plague mutantkind for months to come.

Stryfe has returned several times since these events took place. His most recent appearance was in Deadpool/Cable: Split Second. He threatened the life of Deadpool’s daughter to coerce Deadpool into trying to kill Cable. Deadpool and Cable teamed up to defeat Styfe (and reset Cable’s continuity).

A younger version of Cable killed the older Cable in the 2018 X-Men event Extermination. Kid Cable remains in Earth-616 timeline and is being hunted by the new X-Force team. Time will tell what role Stryfe plays in the book, but we have to wonder if we’ll see a Kid Stryfe to match to Kid Cable.

Are you excited about Stryfe’s return? Let us know in the comments.

X-Force #6 goes on sale in April.

X-FORCE #6
ED BRISSON (W) • DAMIAN COUCEIRO (A) • Cover by PEPE LARRAZ|
ASGARDIAN VARIANT COVER BY TBA
Kid Cable wasn’t the only one who’d come back from the future…!
32 PGS./Parental Advisory …$3.99