Rita Wayword (Earth-616)

"Ricochet Rita" Wayword was once a professional stuntwoman. She befriended Longshot an interdimensional traveler from the Mojoverse when he first appeared on Earth-616.^[1]

Temporal Paradox

The story of how Rita became Spiral, however, was a temporal paradox. Rita was attacked by a mutated version of herself called "Spiral" from the future. This led to her meeting Longshot and falling in love with him. When Longshot sought to return to his home dimension, the Mojoverse, the love-struck Rita went with her boyfriend, only to watch Longshot fail and be captured alongside him by the dimension's evil overlord, Mojo. Longshot was promptly mindwiped to forget all about Rita, while a much worse fate was left for Rita herself.^[2]^[3]

After holding her prisoner for several years (at which point Rita was made to serve as guardian for Mojo's army of "X-Babies"), Mojo forced his chief scientist, Arize, to perform extreme physical and mental body modifications onto Rita to recreate her into a loyal subordinate. These experiments left her with six arms (some of which are robotic), turned her hair gray, and drove the young woman insane through forcibly evolving Rita's mind to the point that she could see into other dimensions that were used for time travel/teleportation. He also trained her in the dark arts of magic and body modification, so that she could use these skills to mutilate others like Mojo had mutilated her. Finally, in a cruel act of manipulation, Mojo sent Spiral back in time to set into motion the events that led to her former self-becoming Mojo's prisoner and become Spiral by attacking her past self.^[4]

Spiral

Now trapped the past, Spiral found herself stranded on Earth by Mojo for failing to kill Longshot and Rita. At some unknown point, Spiral encountered Val Cooper and was recruited into Freedom Force, a revamped version of the second Brotherhood of Mutants.^[5] Despite being utterly insane and more blood-thirsty than her new team-mates, Spiral quickly became a valuable member of the team, single-handedly defeating the X-Men on several occasions as well as kidnapping the X-Man Rachel Summers for Mojo. She was also instrumental in Freedom Force's victory over the Avengers and the West Coast Avengers when sent by the U.S. government to arrest the heroes. Her magical powers temporarily robbed Captain Marvel of her energy powers and she also defeated Iron Man, removing two of the most powerful Avengers from the battle.^[6]

She also ran the "Body Shoppe", which sells alien cybernetic parts to amputees and others who see the power of cybernetic limbs. Lady Deathstrike and several members of the Reavers were some of her earlier clients though later writers have retconned Donald Pierce and not Spiral as the person responsible for their becoming cyborgs.^[7] She also was responsible for giving Psylocke cybernetic eyes, which doubled as cameras for Mojo to spy on the X-Men.^[8]

Along with Mojo, Spiral played a role in Psylocke becoming Asian.^[9] Originally, it was believed that the two literally transformed Psylocke from being British to being Asian, but it was discovered that Spiral (without Mojo's involvement) transferred the X-Man's mind into the body of the Asian assassin Kwannon.^[10]

Even though she was a loyal servant of Mojo, Spiral deeply resented Mojo's crass manners and cruelty towards her. In particular, Spiral has been known to go against Mojo's orders and attack Longshot out of the psychotic need for revenge for his seduction on her and how her love for him led to her transformation into the being she is today. As such, Mojo has been known to leave Spiral stranded on Earth (since Spiral required Mojo's power to travel between dimensions safely).^{[citation needed]}

Spiral was revealed to have conquered an alternate timeline and referred to herself as "The Apocalypse". She managed to kill most of that Earth's heroes, and only Cable and some of his X-Force/New Mutants allies were left. Spiral had kidnapped that universe's Sunspot and tortured him by making him make love to her until his rescue. With the aid of Shatterstar, Spiral was evidently defeated and apparently returned to Mojo's services. She later attacked the X-Men together with Mojo, but ended up defeated once again.^[11]

Endangered Species/Sisterhood

Spiral was among the nine criminal geniuses that Beast sought out when it came to reversing the effects of Decimation. Mojo himself was another.^[12]

Uncanny X-Men Vol 1 508 Solicit — Spiral in The Sisterhood

Following Messiah Complex, the X-Men relocated to San Francisco, and Spiral was approached by the spirit of the psychic Jean Grey clone, Madelyne Pryor. Using a combination of magic and telepathy, Pryor was able to bring Spiral back to the Mojoverse, in return Spiral had to completely repair the body of Lady Deathstrike who had been critically wounded by X-23. This particular repair altered Deathstrike's persona slightly - making her more submissive towards Spiral and Pryor - but nevertheless just as deadly.

Being back in the Mojoverse once more, Spiral decided that perhaps it wasn't worth coming back to as Mojo still operated in the tiresome manner which she had come to expect. Possibly manipulated by Pryor all along, she joined her Sisterhood of Mutants alongside Deathstrike, the Wyngarde sisters, Regan and Martinique, and Chimera to declare war on the X-men once again.

Part of Pryor's plan involved the further manipulation/mutilation of Psylocke. Betsy had only just returned from an inter-dimensional voyage of her own and was believed to be dead again by her fellow X-Men. Capturing the disorientated woman, the sisterhood switched her mind back into her exhumed original body via Pryor's magic and Spiral's science and brainwashed her into becoming their newest member. Their plans would eventually failed as Psylocke's own consciousness proved too strong to be overpowered and when the X-men defeated the sisterhood in combat her mind reverted back to her Asian body.

Spiral used her teleportation to take the remaining sisterhood to safety following Pryor's death, but it is unknown if she has retained any commitment to them.^[13]

Rejected by Mojo

Spiral kept a low profile for a while, during the Exodus, the Second Coming, the Schism and the War between X-Men and Avengers. At some point, Mojo got tired of Spiral, displeased by her service, and removed her trans-reality transportation power from her, before dropping her on Earth. There, hopeless, she tried to survive and eventually found a young mutant telepath, Ginny, whom she used to make money, in selling her abilities as a pretended drug (the "TAO"), but Ginny managed to save Spiral's life somehow, and their relation became more solid than a simple exploitation.^{[citation needed]}

Eventually, after the disband of the assassination team X-Force, Storm and Psylocke were tasked on a mission to Los Angeles by Logan, rejoining Puck who was inquiring about a drug dealer selling TAO, a drug that makes people susceptible to a hive mind mentality.^{[citation needed]}

The three tracked the drug's source to an L.A club, an old bank from the 20’s that the drug dealer uses to sell drugs and dance who revealed to be Spiral, called the Diva of LA Downtown. Psylocke was unable to refrain from attacking her- engaging in open combat and threatening to murder her if the clubbers intervened. Storm and Puck used this distraction to crack open Spiral's vault and were surprised to find a young malnourished girl, Ginny. However, the girl was, in fact, a telepath and the likely source of the TAO drug itself. Confused and frightened, she mentally ordered the clubbers to apprehend Psylocke and save Spiral.^{[citation needed]}

Ginny and Spiral managed to escaped from the heroes and to rejoin Rita's flat, where they were found again. The flat was quickly attacked by a returned from the future Bishop, who was looking specifically for the young girl, whom he abducts.^{[citation needed]}

Attributes

Power Grid^[17]

Powers

Spell Casting: Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. With gestures or dance moves, she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. Teleportation and her more powerful spells require complicated dance moves. Some of Spiral's spell-casting powers can be triggered through small hand gestures of her many hands. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. Spiral can also disguise herself through her magic. With Mojo's aid or specific astral events, Spiral can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time. Currently, her trans-realities powers have been cancelled by Mojo, and she can only teleport on Earth-616 where Mojo dumped her.^{[citation needed]}

By using magic, Spiral can:

Teleport herself and others
Project concussive energies
Paralyze others
Turn invisible
Remove superhuman abilities
Cause unconsciousness
Conjure up objects

Possession Immunity: Spiral's mind seems to be immune from possession. When Rogue attempted to steal Spiral's mind and powers, Spiral collapsed into unconsciousness, but took over Rogue's body instead, laughing that she had danced in many people's souls. This lasted only for a short time, however.^[14] Nocturne was fooled by Spiral into thinking Spiral had been possessed while Spiral remained in control.^{[citation needed]}

Spiral is aware, through unknown mystical means, whenever a person speaks her name.^[15]

She was considered as a possible Sorcerer Supreme.^[16]

Abilities

Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and sword fighter. Her six arms are fully coordinated, giving her great dexterity and athletic ability. However, Spiral will often lose to less powerful opponents due to tendencies of overconfidence, toying with her foe for too long, or becoming distracted. To cast many, if not all of her spells, Spiral's arms must be free and unhindered and, in some cases, she must be free to dance as well.^{[citation needed]}

Spiral demonstrated highly developed skills in cybernetics and genetic manipulation which she has used to turn humans into powerful cyborgs at her Body Shoppe. Most notable include Lady Deathstrike and the cybernetic Reavers, who have since been "upgraded" by Donald Pierce.^{[citation needed]}

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Swords constructed from unknown metals.^{[citation needed]}

Transportation

Teleportation using her own spells formerly Dimensional travel via Mojo's aid; Freedom Force Helicopter.^{[citation needed]}

Notes

It was revealed that Spiral was Ricochet Rita in X-Factor Annual #7.

Links and References

uncannyxmen.net Bring on the Bad Guys: Swords, Spells & Slavery - The Saga of Spiral

References

[Longshot_Vol_1_1-1] Longshot #1

[Longshot_#1-6-2] Longshot #1–6

[X-Factor_Annual_#7-3] X-Factor Annual #7

[Longshot_#1-4] Longshot #1

[Uncanny_X-Men_#199-5] Uncanny X-Men #199

[Avengers_Annual_#15-6] Avengers Annual #15

[Uncanny_X-Men_#205-7] Uncanny X-Men #205

[New_Mutants_Annual_#2-8] New Mutants Annual #2

[Uncanny_X-Men_#256-9] Uncanny X-Men #256

[X-Men_Vol_2_#31-32-10] X-Men (Vol. 2) #31–32

[X-Force_Shatterstar_#1-4-11] X-Force: Shatterstar #1–4

[X-Men_Vol_2_#200-12] X-Men (Vol. 2) #200

[Uncanny_X-Men_#508-511-13] Uncanny X-Men #508–511

[Uncanny_X-Men_#206-14] Uncanny X-Men #206

[Wolverine_Vol_2_#51-15] Wolverine (Vol. 2) #51

[New_Avengers_#53-16] New Avengers #53

[17] Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 11

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