Spiral is a fictional character, a supervillainess in the Marvel Comics universe. She first appeared in the Longshot miniseries by Ann Nocenti and Art Adams. In some comics she is drawn as having only four fingers on each hand, in others five.

Character biography

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Spiral's real name is "Ricochet" Rita. She was a stuntwoman altered by the alien Mojo, turning her into a six-armed, teleporting sorceress. This happened in a possible future, but Spiral used her powers of time travel to travel back in time. An unaltered version of Ricochet Rita was an ally of Longshot and later became the guardian of the X-Babies. She was unaware that Spiral was a future version of herself. She once joined the Freedom Force and ran the Body Shop, which sells alien cybernetic parts. Lady Deathstrike was one of her clients. She was usually a servant of Mojo, although her madness often lead her to other causes and even during moments of sanity, her loyalty to him was fickle at best.

She claimed to have modified Elizabeth Braddock (Psylocke) during the Psylocke/Kwannon storyline that explained why Betsy had returned with an asian appearance in Uncanny X-Men #256.

In the X-Force: Shatterstar limited series, 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 apparentely returned to Mojo's services. She later attacked the X-Men together with Mojo, but ended up defeated once again.

Powers and abilities

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Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. With a gesture she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. She can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time. She can cast spells to stun, depower or transform her superhuman opponents. Spiral can also metamorphose into other mutants. Spiral is immune to certain types of psionic possession. When Rogue and Nocturne attempted to possess her, in each case Spiral's mind remained dominant. Spiral usually triggers magic through small gestures and her many hands aid her to cast her spells rapidly. In moments, she was able to deprive each of the Avengers of their superhuman powers, regardless of their source, bind them, and transport them across the country. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. As a result of being cybernetically enhanced on Mojo-world she has superhuman strength.

Spiral demonstrated highly developed skills in cybernetics and genetic manipulation which she has used to turn humans into powerful cyborgs at her Body Shoppe.

Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and sword fighter.

Spiral was also shown in older Wolverine comics to be able to instantly know and teleport to anyone saying her name. It had to be in context of her while she uttered the words "spiral knows".

Ultimate Spiral

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In the Ultimate Marvel continuity, Spiral is a citizen of the apartheid state of Genosha and the on-and-off girlfriend of Longshot. She differs from the mainstream continuity because she is not a villain, but rather a victim, and has no magical abilities. She was in love with Longshot, but betrayed him when having an affair with a human mutant-sponsor named Lord Scheele. When Longshot found out he killed the man in a fit of rage, and Spiral knocked him out. She confronted the X-Men about it when they came to Genosha to investigate, and with the aid of Jean's telepathic powers, Longshot's guilt was proven.

The X-Men recently enabled Spiral to emigrate to the USA.

Other media

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She is a playable character in the fighting games Children of the Atom (arcade game) and Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

Spiral only appeared in another form in the X-Men animated series. There, she worked for Mojo and helped him torture the captured X-Men by making them perform in television shows against their wills, but eventually betrayed Mojo when she met and fell in love with Longshot. Their relationship, however, turned out for the worse and Spiral once again turned to Mojo's side in the end.

Brotherhood of Evil Mutants members | X-Men villains | Marvel vs. Series characters | Fictional magicians | Fictional teleporters