Julio Richter (Earth-616)
From Marvel Database
Contents |
History
As a child, young Julio Esteban Richter was forced to watch his father, an arms merchant, being killed by the time-tossed villain known as Stryfe. Later, Rictor was captured by the anti-mutant organization called the Right, who connected him to a machine that amplified his already uncontrollable power of earthquake generation to wreak havoc. Rictor was freed by the original X-Factor team and was accepted by them as a trainee member.
Soon after, Rictor and most of the other charges of X-Factor joined the New Mutants. Rictor would later face former X-Factor ally Caliban, who had become the latest Horseman of Apocalypse known as Death, as well as Sabretooth battling in the Morlock tunnels under New York. Rictor was severely injured by Sabretooth, but was saved by Cable and the other New Mutants.
Rictor was later captured and briefly enslaved on the island nation of Genosha, becoming Unit 2347. The combined efforts of the X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants led to him being freed, as well as other mutants, and Rictor would be instrumental in toppling the Genoshan government.
After the battle, Rictor left the New Mutants, and tried to bring Wolfsbane back with him from Genosha. Rictor was by then convinced that Cable - from whom Stryfe had been cloned - was the man who killed his father, and he agreed to join the Canadian government's Weapon P.R.I.M.E. team. The team's sole purpose was the apprehension of Cable, but thanks to both Cable and the New Mutants now known as X-Force, this was averted.
Rictor came to join X-Force, just in time to be captured by the X-Men and X-Factor who were seeking Cable for an entirely different murder, the attempted murder of Professor X, an act that had also been perpetrated by Stryfe. Rictor and the X-Force team were at first held captive in the X-Mansion, before being released, and the team used the Mansion for a time as their Headquarters before leaving.
Rictor would later be one of several mutants (amongst them other former members of X-Force) who joined Professor X's restructured X-Corporation. During the X-Corporation's confrontation with Weapon XII was a total catastrophe however, and led to the death one of their members, Darkstar. Rictor either left X-Corporation before or after the events of House of M.
After battling suicidal thoughts following the loss of his powers on M-Day, Rictor has recently begun helping Multiple Man in Mutant Town as part of X-Factor Investigations.
After Quicksilver arrived to Mutant Town, he started hanging out with him, hoping to get his powers back. Along with Reaper, Callisto, Marrow, Abyss and other members of X-Cell, they all regained their powers by the time X-Factor made their ambush. When he realized Quicksilver's wrong, he used his powers against him and blasted the Terrigen crystals through his body, leaving him powerless. Residual crystals embedded in Rictor's skin enabled afforded him immunity to The Isolationist's many mutant powers.
Rictor and Wolfsbane's relationship intensified when they shared a kiss and apparently made love.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
Currently none.
Former Powers
After he lost his powers in M-day. Quicksilver's Terrigen mutations restored his powers briefly. Yet once again, he is without none.
Rictor was a Alpha-Level mutant.
- Seismic Energy Manipulation: capable of generating and releasing seismic energy and tremendously powerful waves of vibrations in any object he came into physical contact with, the vibrations starting in his body, and then emanating outwards, mostly through his fingers, causing objects to shatter or crumble and also using it to create earthquakes, shock-waves or otherwise transport earth matter. When used against objects with a larger surface, the effects were much like an earthquake. The extent of Rictor's power was never fully explored. His powers appeared to affect organic objects in much the same way as inorganic ones.
- Seismic Energy Immunity: Rictor was immune to the harmful effects of the vibrations he created.
- Power Immunity: While fighting The Isolationist, Rictor was shown to be immune to every one of Huber's powers. This was due to the Terrigen crystals embedded in Rictor's skin. The crystals were shown to fall into the sewer. It is unknown if he still retains this immunity.
Abilities
Strength level
Normal human male with moderate regular exercise.
Trivia
Sexual orientation
In X-Factor #14, a scene between Jamie Madrox and Rictor included a conversation that addresses Rictor's potential bisexuality in a non-committal, joking way. When Jamie asks Rictor if he was joking, Rictor says:
'Course. Not that the guy/guy thing is. .. it's just that Pietro's semi-evil. And ... Gimme a little credit, huh?
As of yet, Rictor's bisexuality is neither confirmed nor denied. The ambiguity still remains as X-Factor writer Peter David points out in an interview from livewireworld.net:
I have much more fun tweaking the fans than actually spelling anything out. If I definitely ... I certainly don't think we could say at this point that Rictor is definitively gay. I think we could make the argument that he's bi, but I don't see the point at this juncture in spelling it out – not because of any sense of homophobia or anything like that but out of a sense that I think it's more entertaining and more thought-provoking if we keep it ambiguous.
Rictor made this passing comment in #14 where he talks about gayness and then he says ‘not that I have any problem with it myself' and there are some people who interpreted it as a Seinfeld ‘not that there's anything wrong with that' kind of thing and there are some people, including Rich Johnson (who reported that this exchange definitely made clear that Rictor was gay) ... I think it's much more interesting to have Rictor's comments be a litmus test for the agenda of the readers than if you just show him involved in some sort of bisexual relationship.
In X-Factor #21, it is strongly suggested that Julio and Wolfsbane had sex together, which may be evidence that he is at least bisexual or even heterosexual.
In X-Factor Vol 3 #45, Julio and Shatterstar kiss, and previous statements hint that they might have had a physical relationship in the past.
Links
- Appearances of Julio Richter (Earth-616)
- Character Gallery: Julio Richter (Earth-616)
- Images that feature Julio Richter (Earth-616)
- Fan-Art Gallery: Julio Richter (Earth-616)
- Quotations by Julio Richter (Earth-616)
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