DAMIAN TRYP

BIOGRAPHY
The man who would eventually be known as Damian Tryp was born in mid-14th century Britain in south Wales. Since his mother died in childbirth, the youth was raised solely by his father, Andras, who named his son “Dai.” From a very young age, the townsfolk knew that Dai was different. He seemed far wiser than any child his age had a right to be and had knowledge that they felt he had no right to know. Additionally, they had witnessed that at times the very air seemed to protect him.

Though the townsfolk were indeed superstitious, there was truth in their fears. Dai was in fact a mutant, or an early version of the subspecies of human later to be called Homo superior. Unlike normal mutants of later years, Dai manifested his powers at birth. When he was an adult, Dai would come to call his offshoot of mutantkind “Killcrops,” adopting as his own one of the words the superstitious villagers used to describe "changeling" children like him, because they blamed the children for (among other things) poor harvest of their crops. This form of early mutation usually resulted in the parents abandoning their offspring to die before they were old enough to survive on their own. Later mutants, he speculated, began to develop their mutation at adolescence to avoid this early weeding-out process.

When a plague epidemic tore through the country in 1357, the superstitious townsfolk turned to Dai’s father, calling the youth a “demon son” and accusing Dai of being a changeling that had brought the disease to their town. After the townsfolk set torch to their house’s roof, Dai used his connection to the elemental forces of the Earth to direct the winds to blow the flames out. Andras tried to warn his son not to do so but it was too late. Dai’s winds only caused the flames to spread to other houses and soon the entire village was burned to the ground.

It was at the onset of this tragedy that Dai learned of the greatest of his innate gifts. Due to his being attuned to the elemental nature of the Earth, Dai found that he could exist at all points in his lifeline. As his village burned, Dai found himself on a nearby hilltop, looking down at the inferno. What’s more, he was joined by an older man in strange clothes. Dai would come to learn that this man was in fact his future self, from centuries in the future. On that hilltop, Dai’s future self told the young Dai that this was just the beginning. [X-Factor (3rd series) #10]

Over the centuries that followed, Dai took the name of Damian Tryp and built a financial empire for himself. It seems that most of the credit for this ascension was due to his ability to communicate with his future selves. In this way, Tryp managed not only to keep himself out of entanglements with other superhumans but prevent scrutiny of any type. Indeed, Tryp learned not only to manifest future and past versions of himself but make them solid. In this way, Tryp was able to pose as father and son, possibly repeatedly over the period of centuries.

Though long lived, Tryp was not immortal and did age. Because of his irregular timeline, it is impossible to say whether Tryp actually lived more or less than the 700 years since his birth. By the late 21st century, though, time had caught up to Damian Tryp and he was an old man. Worse, his body had become unstable and required machinery he had developed to perpetuate his existence, much like someone on life support. Aiding him and operating his machinery, Tryp employed a band of supporters. However, by the late 21st century they had begun to shrink. Chaos was engulfing Tryp’s world. Nearly a century before, the number of mutants had suddenly begun to soar into the millions. However, just as suddenly, they were reduced to mere hundreds. Tryp watched as this “Decimation” was undone by the organization called X-Factor Investigations, led by Jamie Madrox. The resulting resurgence in the mutant population had laid waste to the world and Damian Tryp felt it was his duty to set things right. [X-Factor (3rd series) #12]

Using his ability to communicate along his own timeline, Tryp convinced his past selves that Jamie Madrox and X-Factor had to be stopped. Typ’s first attempt was rather benign. The middle version of Tryp visited Daniel and Joan Madrox, the parents of Jamie, when he was still a boy. Tryp explained to them that his organization, Singularity, could offer opportunities not afforded to the Madroxes, either through their respective scientific backgrounds or through their consultant, Charles Xavier. When the couple refused, Tryp left them with a veiled threat by explaining how his own powers worked, specifically that he could use them to generate powerful tornados. Before departing, he removed the memory of his visit from Jamie. Sometime later, a powerful tornado indeed destroyed the Madrox house, killing Daniel and Joan. Nevertheless, Jamie survived and, for reasons of his own, Tryp allowed the youth to grow into adulthood. [X-Factor (3rd series) #10]

Years later, now an adult, Jamie Madrox had opened a detective agency called X-Factor Investigations. Originally intending to service the burgeoning “Mutant Town,” Madrox and X-Factor dedicated themselves to uncovering the mystery behind the mutant “Decimation,” just as Old Tryp had foreseen. By this time, Tryp’s “Singularity” organization (or at least part of it) was operating as another detective agency called Singularity Investigations, offering security services for the rich and famous and with offices in cities such as New York, London, Paris and Stockholm. Operating as “Damian Tryp Sr.,” the middle Tryp was president and CEO, with his “son,” “Damian Tryp Jr.” acting as a junior executive. [X-Factor (3rd series) #7]

Using Singularity Investigations as a platform Tryp, as both Damian Tryp Sr. & Jr., began a coordinated plan against the new X-Factor. First was using their client Gino Manetta, a confidence man who had swindled mutants in Mutant Town. When one of Manetta’s employees intended to turn evidence against her boss, one of his Singularity operatives murdered her. Thanks to foreknowledge provided by their future self, Sr. & Jr. knew that X-Factor employee Siryn would learn of the assassin’s connection to Singularity and attack its headquarters, at which point she would be killed. To the surprise of the two Tryps, this did not happen. Assuming that some new element must have been introduced that altered events as he recalled them, Old Tryp advised his past selves that it must be X-Factor’s latest employee, Rictor, who had not been part of X-Factor in Tryp's timeline. To rectify this, the two Tryps sent an assassin to kill Rictor, only for the assassin to be killed through the machinations of the true temporal anomaly that had been introduced to X-Factor, a young girl named Layla Miller. [X-Factor (3rd series) #1-3]

Still unaware of Layla's existence, the Tryps were stymied when their operative’s corpse was returned to them via private messenger. Worse for the Tryps and Singularity, Layla had manipulated X-Factor into taking a case which caused massive legal troubles for one of their star clients, a famous “A-list” movie star. Incensed by the turn of events, Tryp Jr. personally attacked Siryn and, catching her off guard, savagely beat her and left her to the mercy of a nearby psychotic. Though the rest of X-Factor rescued Siryn before permanent damage was done, they firmly believed the Tryps were responsible and subtly conveyed their own threat to Tryp Jr. [X-Factor (3rd series) #4-5]

Desiring a different tactic, Damian Tryp Sr. & Jr. invited Madrox to Singularity’s main office, where they offered to sign X-Factor to an exclusive contract and thus nullify them as opposition. When Madrox laughed at their offer, Tryp Sr. upped the offer to an outright buyout at fifty million dollars. Instead of Tryp’s intended response, however, the overly generous offer steeled Madox’s resolve that X-Factor’s inquiries into M-Day were on the right track and he outright accused Tryp of orchestrating the Decimation. Amused, Tryp cryptically suggested that Madrox look to his allies for answers to that question and then used his powers to hurl Madrox through the upper floor window to his apparent death. Though he knew the visiting Madrox was a dupe, Tryp Sr. was happy to have put Madrox mentally off balance. [X-Factor (3rd series) #7]

Despite the setbacks with X-Factor, Damian Tryp Sr. had another plan in motion. On Singularity’s payroll was a Dr. Henry Buchanan, a forensic microbiologist who had been employed to create a virus that would specifically target former mutants. Having a crisis of conscience, Buchanan sought out X-Factor, inspired by their bravery in speaking out against the Super-Hero Registration Act. Unfortunately for Buchanan, Damian Tryp had used his mental powers to brainwash X-Factor member Guido sometime prior. Now with just a phone call, Tryp had Guido murder the doctor and then immediately forget that he had done so.

A detective agency in more than just name, Madrox and X-Factor Investigations soon deduced the truth and moved to infiltrate Singularity’s headquarters to obtain the proof of its role in manufacturing a genocidal virus. At first, everything was going as expected until Madrox, Wolfsbane and Monet encountered the form of Damian Tryp from the future. To their surprise, this Damian Tryp explained his personal history, the horrific world that would come from X-Factor’s actions to undo the Decimation and his reasoning for trying to prevent them from doing so. Despite him showing telepathic proof of his words, Madrox rejected Tryp’s reasoning and only departed when Tryp claimed to have Dr. Buchanan’s wife hostage.

All three Tryps were unaware, though, that they had again been thwarted by Layla Miller, who had arranged for Mrs. Buchanan’s release. More tragically for them, however, was another x-factor in the form of Madrox’s “rogue” dupe. As Madrox and his team departed the building, the rogue dupe employed the tower’s armory and used it to set off an explosive that killed by Damian Tryp Senior and Junior, severing Damian Tryp’s timeline in the early 21st century, as opposed to him living through to its end.

Now a temporal anomaly, existing in all times but none, Damian Tryp finally understood the other anomaly that had obstructed his actions in the preceding weeks. Appearing in spectral form at X-Factor headquarters, the elder Damian Tryp informed Layla that they should have been partners, instead of operating at cross purposes. [X-Factor (3rd series) #12]

Though without a body or resources, Damian Tryp still retained his knowledge of history and his ability to interact with people, albeit through a ghostly form. It was in this manner that Tryp visited a young boy named Anthony Falcone, some forty years in the future. Tryp preyed on young Anthony’s grief over the loss of his parents to what they believed to be mutants. Over the next four decades, Tryp assisted Anthony Falcone's rise to become the scientific advisor to the President of the United States. Tryp wanted Falcone to use the resources afforded him to accomplish what Tryp, in his incorporeal form, could not. Through the office, Falcone convinced the president to fund a new Sentinel program, one with a more long term strategy. While previous Sentinels were designed themselves as the mechanism of death, Tryp and Falcone designed these to be saturated with hadron particles, which would cling to any mutants nearby when the Sentinels were destroyed. When enough mutants were saturated with the particles, a portal would be opened that would attract the particles and any mutant to whom the particles had clung. In this way Falcone and Tryp would rid the world of mutants.

However, Tryp had a simultaneous, alternate plan. Through means unknown, Tryp located an individual lost in the vortex between universes, a wayward dupe which Madrox had sent into one future to determine the status of mutants in that timeline. [Messiah Complex crossover] Now a cybernetic being, this dupe had evolved beyond being his progenitor’s shadow and now answered to the name Cortex. Armed with a Doomlock, a device invented by Doctor Doom that would allow one to make alterations in the past without creating an alternate timeline, Cortex was sent back in time to murder the ancestors of those mutants resisting Tryp and Falcone’s Sentinels.

Unfortunately for Tryp and his plans, Layla Miller again intervened. Having been deposited into this future some years before, Layla grew up around the mutant resistance, known as the Summers Rebellion. Though they were unaware of Tryp’s machinations with Cortex, the rebels knew that members of their group were blinking in and out of existence. Using their own time travel technology, Layla reached back in time and brought Jamie Madrox to the future to assist with the investigation. In short order, Doom’s connection was not only deduced and confirmed but the aging ex-despot assisted in summoning Cortex from across the decades to the future. Still, Tryp seemed on the verge of success when Falcone activated his mega-Sentinel designed to create a portal that would draw in all mutants saturated with hadron particles. Again, Layla Miller thwarted Tryp’s plans when she used her mutant power to restore the dead to life, resurrecting Trevor Fitzroy. Charging himself with the life force of Cortex, Fitzroy opened a portal of his own and banished Falcone and his mega-Sentinel, thus robbing Tryp of two allies at once. As it happened, Falcone emerged from his portal four decades in the past, landing by happenstance on the house belonging to the Falcone family. If Tryp had known that it was Falcone’s future self that killed his own parents when he was a boy and not mutants, Tryp never told him.

With his past selves dead and his four decades of work with Anthony Falcone ruined, Damian Tryp seemed without resources. However, an odd opportunity arose when Jamie Madrox died and found himself waking up in the body of another version of himself in an alternate universe who had just died as well. Having no idea what was happening to him, Madrox attempted to explain to the friends of that world’s counterpart who he was, only to find himself killed by happenstance and awakening on yet another world. Just as curious as to what was happening to him, Madrox found himself encountering Damian Tryp along the way. More confusingly, this Damian Tryp seemed to aid him at times and warned Madrox of the signs of the upcoming Hell on Earth War. [X-Factor (1st series) #229, 331]

Eventually, Madrox found his way back to his home dimension and indeed into his own, living body. However, he did not return alone and following him were three deadly individuals: a Deathlok-transformed Steve Rogers, a version of the dread Dormammu and Vanora, the daughter of Wolfsbane. Confused as to how they arrived, the three found an ally in the ethereal Damian Tryp, who promised to send them home. After weeks of promises, Tryp convinced the three that they had to open a portal by killing Madrox and X-Factor. However, in truth, Tryp intended to jumpstart the Hell on Earth War. Still, despite their best efforts, Tryp’s agents failed. [X-Factor (1st series) #241]

Though two of his agents died in the fight with X-Factor, Vanora survived and continued to follow Tryp’s instructions. However, just as he intended to direct her to interact with Tier, the son of Wolfsbane from this dimension, Tryp announced to Vanora that a foe had found him and was about to unleash an attack. Without further explanation or direction as to what she was to do in regards to her brother, Damian Tryp disappeared in an explosion of light and sound. [X-Factor (1st series) #242]

Even without Tryp’s assistance, the Hell on Earth War came and went. Though X-Factor survived, none came through unscathed and, among other ramifications, Jamie Madrox was turned into a half-demon. As she tended to her transformed husband, Layla learned that she was pregnant, a fact of which Damian Tryp sarcastically congratulated her when he unexpectedly appeared. Seemingly short on time, Tryp claimed that there was another Damian Tryp from a parallel universe, a “good” version from Layla’s point of view, who was working to destroy Tryp from a point in the far-flung future. On the verge of dying, Tryp explained that in his final act against Layla, his hated enemy, he had directed agents to contact the police, who would view Layla and her demon-husband as trespassers on the Madrox family farm where they were currently living. With his time now seemingly up, Damian Tryp cursed Layla Miller one last time and disappeared in an explosion of light.

Tryp’s final gambit against Layla seemed assured until the arrival of Siryn, now transformed into the Irish Morrigan, who reversed the curse plaguing Madrox. With her husband now in human form and able to placate the local authorities, Layla Miller had finally won in her conflict against Damian Tryp. [X-Factor (1st series) #262]

Note: If Tryp was not lying to Layla at the end and there is an alternate version of him that was working at odds against him, it’s possible that the Damian Tryp whom Madrox encountered in his trans-dimensional travels is that alternate Tryp. That Tryp clearly was trying to assist Madrox and did warn him about the Hell on Earth War, which the Tryp from Madrox’s universe was attempting to assist in bringing about.