BIOGRAPHY
Crule is a member of the Externals, a loose brotherhood of mutants who share an unidentified link and regenerative immortality on top of their personal power. Crule’s age is unknown. He has been known to speak ancient Sumerian and swear by Ishtar and Mitra, gods of the Hyborean Age that may date back to pre-cataclysmic Atlantis. If accurate, this would place him among the oldest of Externals, a contemporary to Selene and Saul.
Crule has always been among the wilder members of the Externals, representing ferocity in the grand metric of the High Lords. He claims to be uninterested in the satin sheets and honeyed lives of Gideon and his fellows. His self-indulgent savagery left Crule equally at home serving in the Nazis’ camps or fighting on the docks of Madripoor. [X-Force (1st series) #12] For his own reasons, Crule attended a coven of High Lords gathered by Candra in the 12th century, but he otherwise chose to miss many of the meetings and scheming of his less physical brethren. [Excalibur (4th series) #11]
In modern times, the High Lords made a misstep when Gideon thought he identified the next ascendant External, Roberto Dacosta. Instead, it appeared as if Sunspot’s former teammate Sam “Cannonball” Guthrie was the next High Lord. Gideon’s poor choice meant that Cannonball was already under the protection of Cable in X-Force when he learned about his External status. To remedy this, Gideon reached out to Crule for the first time in decades. After a short brawl to 
become reacquainted, Crule agreed to hunt Cable for Gideon and remove this protective figure so that Guthrie could be more easily approached by the others. When they returned to Ophrah Industries, Gideon lost his temper and beat Sunspot senseless for asking too many questions and inadvertently wasting his time as the wrong candidate. An amused Crule was satisfied to see some of himself in his “brother” in that moment. [X-Force (1st series) #12]
Crule’s hunt for Cable was detoured when X-Force suffered an attack by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Weapon P.R.I.M.E. Their base of operations was scuttled and Cable was missing, separated from Cannonball and his young charges. Crule thought this would be the perfect opportunity to approach Guthrie himself and test the novitiate. Either Cannonball would prove his mettle as an 
External or perish beneath Crule’s bludgeoning fists. Cruel forced his way into X-Force’s getaway vehicle, a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. IPAC, and announced his challenge. Shatterstar and Feral’s savagery gave Crule pause and he bragged for too long about Gideon’s intentions towards Dacosta, prompting Guthrie to order Crule blasted out of the ship by Rictor. The immortal butcher could not fly and became reacquainted with the ground against his will. [X-Force (1st series) #14-15]
Crule broke nearly every bone in his body and was laid up in a hospital for months while recuperating. Saul and Gideon made their own attempt at manipulating Cannonball by kidnapping 
several of his friends. Burke, their precog, believed Sam was the key to helping the Externals survive the Legacy virus which threatened even these immortal mutants. Sunspot was now with X-Force, and they kidnapped Crule from the hospital to pump him for information about Gideon’s chalet and capabilities. When they had no further use of him, X-Force unceremoniously dumped Crule in the ocean. His fiberglass body cast floated, at least. [X-Force (1st series) #23-24]
Crule eventually recovered enough to make his way back to Gideon, swearing revenge on Rictor for the indignity of his injuries. They were interrupted by an attack by Hydra, who wanted to intimidate Gideon into joining their resurgent organization. Crule was insulted on Gideon’s behalf for underlings to be offering a High Lord a subservient role in anything, and he attacked their field leader, Cassandra Romulus. The cast on Crule’s leg was still a notable weakness, though, and Romulus easily struck it to leave him hobbled again. Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened to smash Hydra, but Gideon was unwilling to be indebted to S.H.I.E.L.D. Fury and the Externals merely agreed they weren’t enemies… today… and S.H.I.E.L.D. departed to finish Hydra on their own. [Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2nd series) #46-47]
In time, Selene attempted to complete the full High Lord ascension, murdering all other High Lords and claiming their power for her own. Her first victim was Gideon at the Ophrah building in Manhattan. Gideon had reached out to Sunspot and X-Force in advance of the attack, but the 
Externals apparently did not know the identity of their attacker. As a result, Crule and Absalom found Gideon’s body with the arriving X-Force and jumped to conclusions. A battle in the street wasted valuable time, as a fighting mad Crule was disarmed by Shatterstar, who severed his head brains and nearly impaled Crule himself. Selene made herself known after killing Saul as well and consumed the life essence of the last two Externals, turning Crule and Absalom into husks and continuing on her path to ultimate power. [X-Force (1st series) #53-54]
Ultimately, Selene’s ascendancy was unsuccessful, either because Nicodemus and Burke were already dead due the Legacy virus or because Candra soon died as well, but by other means. Without the complete cycle of a full High Lord ascension, all the Externals eventually returned to life by one means or another. Ironically, the next time one of them attempted ascension, the resurrected Crule, Nicodemus and Absalom rallied around Selene for protection, as she allegedly 
knew better than to risk the ritual again after her failure. This time, it was Gideon who attempted the ascension cycle, and he convinced a suicidal Absalom to be his informant in Selene’s circle. Crule was stabbed in the back by his own partner before Gideon consumed his heart, along with those of the other Externals, sans Selene. Still, Gideon failed the ascension as well (partly thanks to Cable’s intervention), and the cycle would inevitably begin anew. [Cable (1st series) #150-154]
The next time the Externals had all resurrected and chose to gather, it was in the Age of Krakoa. En Sabah Nur made a place for himself on the ruling Quiet Council, but he also had plans of his own. At the Eternal Caldera, a volcanic region of Krakoa, he summoned the Externals and boldly explained his intent to sacrifice them in order to make a powerful new Krakoan gate into Otherworld. Selene and Gideon chose to stand with him and the future, but Crule, Saul, Absalom, 
Nicodemus and Candra tried to fight back. Once again, it was Rictor who proved to be Crule’s undoing. The young mutant had been training in the art of mutant magic with Apocalypse, and his power brought the strength of the volcano to their side. Crule was consumed by lava stirred with Rictor’s arrival and was among the four who succumbed to the ritual and were used to form the gate. [Excalibur (4th series) #12]
Even from the ritual sacrifice of the Eternal Caldera, the Externals eventually returned. As Krakoa began to fall, Selene made her own plans to seize power. She nominally worked with Orchis alongside Sebastian Shaw to betray Krakoa but corrupted a number of the human soldiers as her own undead and disposable minions. Orchis soldiers hunting down mutants hardly seemed out of place in this new order, but Selene’s Orchis captured many mutants for her purposes alone. Selene assembled Crule and her fellow Externals in Nova Roma, deep in the Amazon jungle, as the site of a new sacrifice which would ensure the High Lords’ ascension to greatness. She promised ascension was possible for all, not just for one, and the Externals fell in line behind her plan.
The X-Men John and James Proudstar made a sanctuary for mutants at their reservation in Arizona, Camp Gozhoo. On Selene’s behalf, Crule brazenly announced himself for battle just as Orchis attacked the reservation, drawing Warpath and Thunderbird into a test of strength. In the meantime, Burke used his second sight to ferret out the other mutants in hiding and capture them for Selene. Crule cared little for the overall plan, seeking only to display his ferocity on the battlefield. He had his chance and the fight with the Proudstar brothers proved excessively brutal. Crule took a beating, but he also ripped out a pound of flesh from Warpath’s leg, crippling him for the duration. Once Selene’s goals were met, Crule ended the conflict with Thunderbird by striking a spark at a gas station, creating a fireball which consumed his opponent and obscured his departure. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #121-122]
In Nova Roma, Crule sullenly followed Selene’s lead along with the other Externals, though his craving for conflict led him to taunt the prisoners and herald his might. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #128] Thunderbird joined forces with X-Corp and other scattered X-Men in search of Selene, eventually leading to a rematch on the streets of Nova Roma between Crule and John Proudstar. During the grudge match, Thunderbird took out Crule’s eye, causing him to scream in joy at the glory of their violence. He mocked John’s brother for not being made of the same mettle as them… a poor decision as the fully healed Warpath dropped from the sky and severed one of Crule’s arms. Crule called himself the slaughter, the face of brutality itself, but Warpath and Thunderbird literally fed him his own arm before knocking the immortal out on his feet. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #137-138] Crule and the other recalcitrant Externals were apprehended and placed in stasis aboard the X-Corp flying island, perhaps the best way to prevent their endless cycle of death and return. [X-Men Unlimited Infinity Comic #142]