The Mutant Liberation Front was well known for their acts of terrorism in the name of mutant rights. In various appearances the MLF made use of an army of soldiers, sometimes called drone soldiers. The origin of this soldiers or who provides them with their equipment is not known.
Working For: Stryfe
Membership: Tempo, Strobe, Reaper, Wildside, Thumbelina, Zero, Forearm, Stryfe, Skids, Rusty Collins, Sumo, Kamikaze, Dragoness
Associate: Slab
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
Disbanded: X-Men (2nd series) #15 (During X-Cutioner's Song all members are captured and put into custody)
Reformed around new leader with altered line-up
Leader: Reignfire > Wildside
Membership: Reignfire, Forearm, Tempo, Reaper, Wildside, Moonstar, Locus, Feral, Selby, Dragoness
First appearance: X-Force (1st series) #26
Last appearance: X-Force (1st series) #68 (most members caught by Zero Tolerance troops)
Before
- Rusty and Skids, two members of the New Mutants had been imprisoned by Freedom Force because they refused to sign the Mutant Registration Act.
- None of the MLF members were known before the group appeared.
- Slab, Thumbelina's brother, works with Mr. Sinister's Nasty Boys.
Chronology
| New Mutants (1st series) #86: | After a terrorist act by the MLF (Tempo, Reaper, Wildside, Thumbelina, Strobe, Forearm, Zero) their unseen leader demands the release of Rusty Collins and Skids. |
| New Mutants (1st series) #87: | The MLF tries to rescue the pair by force. On the way they run into Cable but he is not able to stop them. During the confusion a guard hurts Rusty with a gunshot. Skids confused and angered accepts the MLF membership offer. The leader is revealed as a masked man named Stryfe. |
| New Mutants (1st series) #93-94: | Cable and the New Mutants track the MLF down to Madripoor where they meet three more members of the MLF: Kamikaze, Sumo and Dragoness. Even with Sunfire to help, some New Mutants get kidnapped by the MLF, before Wolverine arrives. With Logan they are able to free the captives, but the MLF gets away. |
| New Mutants (1st series) #100: | In the MLF's headquarters Stryfe orders another terrorist mission, after the members left and he is alone, he takes off his helmet. He looks like Cable ? |
| X-Force (1st series) #1: | X-Force discovers an MLF base and attacks. While they are busy battling Forearm, Reaper, Kamikaze and Wildside, Stryfe orders Zero to teleport the MLF to another base. X-Force barely escapes in time before a selfdestruct device blows the base up. |
| X-Force (1st series) #6: | Stryfe plans his next move. |
| X-Force (1st series) #7, 9: | Following an anonymous tip about smugglers, Weapon X (Garrison Kane) checks a small hut in the canadian mountains. Suddenly he faces Forearm, Wildside and Sumo. After fighting them they escape through Zero's portal, but Weapon X is fast enough to jump through the portal after them. |
| X-Force (1st series) #10: | Weapon X continues to fight the MLF members, till Stryfe takes off his helmet. Not believing his eyes (looks like Cable), Kane hesitates for a moment and is rendered unconscious. |
| X-Factor (1st series) #77-78: | An MLF strike force (Tempo, Forearm, Thumbelina, Reaper, Wildside and Strobe) breaks into a prison to free Nasty Boys members Hairbag and Slab, who is Thumbelina's brother. Tempo tests her time bending powers against speedster Quicksilver. They find X-Factor to be a much tougher adversary than X-Force; Stryfe is almost captured. Afterwards Sinister takes Hairbag back, but Slab remains with the team. The MLF then plans to destroy the Tucker clinic, a place where pregnant women can test their unborn babies for mutant genes. X-Factor comes to late to prevent Tuckers death, but the can prevent the clinic's destruction. Unknown to Stryfe it was Tempo who anonymously gave a tip of the clinic being assaulted. |
| Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2: | Small strikeforces of the MLF steal several art objects all over the world. All of them are linked to Apocalypse. Cable investigates and is able to interfere in some cases. In Paris he shoots Sumo and thus prevents the MLF from grabbing a sword. Cable learns from Weapon X that he and Stryfe are look-a-likes. In a battle against Stryfe, Weapon X is gravely injured, Cable transports him into the future to save his life. Stryfe is revealed to be from the future too. |
| X-Men (2nd series) #13: | Again members of the MLF steal an art object and present it to Stryfe. |
| Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #294: | Stryfe, dressed as Cable, assassinates Xavier during a public event. |
| X-Men (2nd series) #14, X-Force (1st series) #16: | Forearm, Zero and Reaper in Stryfe's name trade something with Mr. Sinister. They hand over a canister containing a genetic matrix and receive the captive Jean Grey and Scott Summers. |
| X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Men (2nd series) #15: | Members of the X-Men, X-Factor and X-Force work together exposing the MLF headquarters in Arkansas. From afar, Stryfe and Zero watch as all MLF members are defeated and taken into custody. Kamikaze is accidentally killed by Archangel. |
In between
- The genetic matrix was nothing else than the Legacy Virus, which Sinister by opening the canister unknowingly released upon the world.
- Stryfe was revealed a genetic clone of Cable. Thus he looked identical, but did not have the techno-organic virus.
- Zero was later revealed as an artificial construct from the future. He appeared in Cable (1st series) #5-7, Deadpool: The Circle Chase #4 and Excalibur (1st series) #77-80, where he was finally destroyed.
- Stopping a transport to another prison, the Friends of Humanity capture Rusty and Skids. They are rescued by X-Force. Medical examination shows that off-panel both of them received neural implants by the MLF, explaining why the pair performed all those terrorist acts. Along with X-Force they are transported to Avalon where Magneto extracts the implants from their brains. Out of gratitude they join his cause, becoming Acolytes. [X-Force (1st series) #24-25]
- Slab returned to the Nasty Boys [X-Factor (1st series) #104-105]
- Strobe and Thumbelina have never appeared again.
- Danielle Moonstar, founding member of the New Mutants preferred to stay in Asgard in New Mutants (1st series) #87, due to unknown circumstances she "feel screaming from the skies, an angel cast out of a heaven" she did not belong in.
Chronology continued
| X-Force (1st series) #26: | Reignfire restarts the MLF by breaking four former members (Forearm, Tempo, Reaper, Wildside) out of prison. He already plans their first assignment : the assassination of Peter Gyrich. |
| X-Force (1st series) #27-28: | The new MLF captures Peter Gyrich and shows to have two more members : Moonstar and Locus. X-Force tries to free the hostage. During the battle the X-Forcers are surprised to see their former teammate with the MLF, but it gets worse. Provoked after a conversation with mutant hater Gyrich, Feral also defects to the MLF. Tempo instead starts to have doubts about her future as a mutant terrorist, and helps X-Force against the MLF. As they escape Locus fires one last blast meant for Gyrich; Sunspot throws himself in the way which causes their powers to interact, both Sunspot and Locus are teleported away. |
| X-Force (1st series) #34: | Moonstar tells X-Force that even though she helped them during the Child's play storyline [X-Force (1st series] #32-33, New Warriors (1st series) #45-46, see Upstarts) she will go back to the MLF due to reasons her own. |
| X-Force Annual #3: | Moonstar teaches the MLF teamwork, which they really need. Their ranks are dissimated down to four (Moonstar, Feral, Wildside, Forearm) since Tempo left, Reaper was lost in battle (see In between below) and Locus is missing. From Moonstar's thoughts we learn that she is not really with the MLF but only infiltrated them. Reignfire recruits 3-peace, a chinese mutant group, but later he makes a bargain with the chinese government and hands them over. Moonstar suspects Reignfire to be Sunspot. |
| X-Force (1st series) #40-41: | Moonstar gives a tip to X-Force where to await Feral. Feral is captured and put into custody for killing her family. (see Morlocks for whole story) |
| X-Force (1st series) #43: | Locus rematerializes in X-Force's headquarters. She is surprised to hear that she and Sunspot have been missing for only six months; she claims that during their journey he abandoned her. Quickly she uses cerebro to locate him. On the island the MLF uses as HQ, Reignfire is hunting his MLF followers. Wildside and Forearm are already knocked out, Moonstar is on the run. Locus and X-Force arrive. Reignfire takes of his helmet and is nobody else but Sunspot. |
| X-Force (1st series) #44: | Sunspot is back to his old self. Between X-Force (1st series) #43 and #44, Cable used his telepathic abilities to destroy the Reignfire identity (or at least he believes so). |
In between
- Cable offered Tempo to join X-Force, but she decides to go to college and live a "normal" life instead. [X-Force (1st series) #29-30]
- Reaper invited Siena Blaze to a secure location to evaluate whether she is fit to join the MLF, but she only agreed to the meeting to kill him and gain some Upstarts points. An explosion caused by Siena's powers soaks them both into the Ultraverse where they become founding members of the All New Exiles (All New Exiles #Infinity). In Ultraverse Unlimited #2, they along with the Avengers' Black Knight stepped through a dimensional gate back to the Marvel Universe. The Knight appeared in Heroes for Hire and Avengers, but Reaper and Siena were not seen for some time. Both were next seen in Weapon X (2nd series) #5 as prisoners at the Neverland internment camp. It is presumed that Siena Blaze died there. For a time, Reaper worked for this new Weapon X program and was later part of the X-Cell group of depowered mutants. This group vanished into Abyss' extra-dimensional portal and their fate is unknown.
- During her time in the Vault, Feral learns that she has contracted the legacy virus. In time she will be busted out by Random to work for the Acolytes and later she becomes a member of the new Hellions. (see Acolytes and Hellions II)
Chronology continued
| Excalibur (1st series) #104-105: | Working for an unknown leader/employer the MLF (Moonstar, Selby, Forearm, Wildside) come to Muir to steal data on the Legacy virus, but upon hearing about the Xavier Protocols they extend their mission. Fighting their way to Moira's lab they defeat Excalibur. Moonstar knows how dangerous these files are, she arranges for the MLF to become trapped and aborts the mission. All MLF members are teleported out. |
| X-Force Annual '97: | A conversation between Moonstar and Forearm is interrupted of a distress call from Asgard. Moonstar along with X-Force deals with the problem, but afterwards she returns to the MLF. |
| X-Force (1st series) #66: | Finally Moonstar's reasons to be with the MLF are resolved as Domino learns that Danielle had become a SHIELD agent and that she had been ordered to infiltrate the MLF. |
| X-Force (1st series) #67-68: | The MLF, with some old members back in the fold (Wildside, Tempo, Dragoness, Forearm, Moonstar, Locus) are inside a governmental institution, that was trying to create their own version of the Legacy virus. The scientist are hostages of the MLF. The building is surrounded by Zero Tolerance troops. Locus and Wildside argue, Wildside doesn't take the threat seriously, he slaps Locus in the face, Locus angered teleports away alone. Moonstar realizes that help is on the way, when she sees X-Force members disguised as a camera crew outside. She convinces Wildside to let them in. Unfortunately Dragoness recognizes Domino and the cover is blown. Moonstar knocks Wildside out and tries to call SHIELD, but three of the hostages reveal themselves to be Prime Sentinels. X-Force and the MLF pool resources to survive this battle, in an explosion X-Force escapes with Moonstar and Forearm. The others MLF members are all caught by Zero Tolerance. Forearm leaves disappointed, he thought Moonstar to be his friend. |
| X-Force (1st series) #72-75: | Reignfire and Locus follow Sunspot (along with X-Force) throughout the US. |
| X-Force (1st series) #78-80: | Reignfire and Sunspot capture X-Force. Reignfire reveals himself to have been a genetic test subject who, because of an deteriorating genetic, condition was infused with Sunspot’s DNA an altered clone of Bobby; he has his memory and powers and a telepathic link to him. Through this link he is able to soak off Bobby's powers, he also manipulated him into believing himself to be Reignfire (back in X-Force (1st series) #43). Warpath is able to free Skids from her shackles, her power interacts with that of Locus and both vanish. In the following battle X-Force destroys Reignfire's body, but he then takes over Bobby again. With the help of SHIELD they can finally destroy the Reignfire identity. The remains of his body are taken into SHIELD custody. |
Afterwards
- Locus and Skids find themselves in Latveria where they accidentally free an demoness named Pandemonia. They are possessed by her and fight X-Force in #85, but with help of Jennifer Kale, both girls are freed from the evil influence. Locus teleports away.
- Moonstar stayed with X-Force, but when she disagrees with their tactics, she leaves the team to become a part time X-Men member.
She has since experienced many changes to her powers and was eventually depowered on M-Day. She continues to operate with the X-Men despite this and leads a squad comprised primarily of her former New Mutants teammates. - Selby (who only appeared once) has not appeared again.
- The Damocles Foundation later used the Reignfire remains to activate a robot guard left on earth by the Celestials, but it was destroyed by Moonstar. [X-Force (1st series) #97]
- Forearm showed up as a contestant of the Bloodsport tournament in Madripoor. He was killed during a fight with former Serpent Society member Anaconda, who broke his neck. (Wolverine (2nd series) #167)
Members
Tempo (Heather Tucker)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 100, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #2, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Force (1st series) #26-28, 67-68
Powers: Manipulates tachyon particles to propel herself through the air while creating a temporal vortex in her wake. Therefore, by encircling people or objects she can alter the manner in which they move through the timestream, accelerating her allies’ reflexes or freezing projectiles and enemies in place.
Note : Her last name Tucker suggests that she has some relations to the Tucker clinic. This would also explain the secret tip she gave in X-Factor (1st series) #78.
Strobe (Juliana Worthing)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 100, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #2, X-Men (2nd series) #15
Powers: Increases the kinetic motion of molecules around her body, creating a thermal field that liquefies or incinerates matter on contact. She can also focus her energies into blinding heat beams, or thermal updrafts that allow her to fly.
Note: Strobe’s real name was revealed off-panel in a Marvel Handbook entry.
Reaper (Pantu Hurageb)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Men (2nd series) #14, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Men (2nd series) #15, X-Force (1st series) #26-28
Powers: Emanates waves of neurosynaptic energy that slow the movements and reaction time of anyone nearby. His futuristic scythe focuses and augments his bio-energy so that he can channel his power through the flail blade to paralyze on contact.
Equipment : Reaper has two artificial hands (originals cut off by Shatterstar) and one foot (cut off, cause Zero closed his portal before Reaper was fully through)
Wildside (Richard Gill)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, 7, 9-10, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Force (1st series) #26-28, Annual #3, #43, Excalibur #105, X-Force (1st series) #67-68
Powers: Emits a distortion wave that alters the perception of reality, enabling him to render himself and others invisible or cause mind-warping hallucinations. Wildside also has superb agility, sharpened fingernails, and wild, untamed hair. However, these aspects are presumably a persona of his own design, and not the results of a secondary mutation.
Thumbelina (Kristina Anderson)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, X-Force (1st series) #1, X-Factor (1st series) #77, X-Men (1st series) #15
Powers: Can compress her molecules into a smaller physical frame, enabling her to decrease her size while proportionately increasing her strength and density.
Fact: Slab of the Nasty Boys is Thumbelina's brother
Note: Thumbelina’s real name was revealed off-panel in a Marvel Handbook entry.
Zero
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
Last appearance: Excalibur (1st series) #80 (destroyed in an explosion)
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 93, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, 6, X-Factor (1st series) #78, Cable: Blood & Metal #1, X-Men (2nd series) #13-14, X-Force (1st series) #16, X-Men (2nd series) #15
Powers: Zero is an ADAM (Ambient-energy Dampening Automated peace-keeping Mechanism). He possesses enhanced strength, reaction time and computer-guided intelligence and can generate portals of energy that allow transportation to any place he has been before. His peace-keeping function also allows him to project scanning waves that track all living organisms and mechanical systems around him, analyzing their thought patterns, functions, and inclination towards violence, and then dampens energy signatures and life-force found in his targets if they are determined to be dangerous.
Forearm (Michael McCain)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #86
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #86-87, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, 7, 9-10, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #2, X-Men (2nd series) #14, X-Force (1st series) #16, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Men (2nd series) #15, X-Force (1st series) #26-28, Annual #3, #43, Excalibur (1st series) #105, X-Force Annual '97, X-Force (1st series) #67-68
Powers: Possesses an additional pair of arms and superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to physical injury.
Stryfe
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #87
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #87, 93-94, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, 6, 9-10, X-Factor (1st series) #77-78, Cable: Blood & Metal #2, X-Men (2nd series) #13, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #294, X-Force (1st series) #16, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #295, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Men (2nd series) #15
Powers: Stryfe is a perfect genetic specimen, possessing peak human strength, speed, endurance, reflexes, and intelligence. His psionic legacy manifests itself as telepathy, telekinesis, and the power to absorb mental energy from others.
Skids (Sally Blevins)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #7
First MLF appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #87
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #87, 100, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Men (2nd series) #13, 15, X-Force (1st series) #24
Powers: Generates a deflection field around herself and others that disperses kinetic impact, absorbs energy assaults into itself, and negates friction so that she can glide across its surface.
Fact: Skids received a neural implant by the MLF, which explains why the former hero performed acts of terrorism. Magneto later realigned the flow of blood to her brain, returning her true personality.
Russel “Rusty“ Collins
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #1
First MLF appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #87
Last appearance: X-Men (2nd series) #42 (killed by Holocaust)
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #87, 100, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Men (2nd series) #13, 15, X-Force (1st series) #24
Powers: Pyrokinesis allows him to ignite oxygen molecules to start fires anywhere in his line-of-sight, and focus concentrated jet streams of pyroplasmic flame from his fists. His powers give him a natural immunity to heat and burning.
Fact: Rusty received a neural implant by the MLF, which explains why the former hero performed acts of terrorism. Magneto later realigned the flow of blood to his brain, returning his true personality.
Kamikaze (Haruo Tsuburaya)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #93
Last appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #85 (accidentally killed by Archangel)
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #93-94, 100, X-Force (1st series) #1, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Factor (1st series) #85
Powers: Superhuman strength, reaction time, durability and flight. He can also accelerate molecular friction upon contact to create violent explosions within anything he touches.
Note: In some (but not all) panels of Cable: Blood & Metal #1 Kamikaze is called Samurai. This was retconned later in a Handbook entry, in which Samurai is said to be a separate character, whose real name is Ichiro Tsuburaya.
Sumo (Jun Tenta)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #93
Last appearance: Cable: Blood & Metal #1 (shot by Cable)
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #93-94, 100, X-Force (1st series) #7, 9-10, Cable: Blood & Metal #1
Powers: Enhanced mass and multiple layers of elastic, fatty tissue grant him superhuman strength, can absorb all forms of impact and damage, and grant him mass-shifting talents to apply enormous amounts of pressure to different parts of his body, crushing solid objects with his weight.
Note: Sumo’s real name was revealed off-panel in a Marvel Handbook entry.
Dragoness (Tamara Kurtz)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #93
All MLF appearances: New Mutants (1st series) #93-94, Cable: Blood & Metal #1-2, X-Factor (1st series) #85, X-Men (2nd series) #15, X-Force (1st series) #67-68
Powers: Utilizes her advanced storage of bioelectricity to focus disruptive stinger blasts or excite particle matter in the atmosphere to ignite pyrotechnic flares. She occasionally wears a pair of wings and flight pack.
Reignfire
First appearance: X-Force (1st series) #26
Last appearance: X-Force (1st series) #97 (destroyed by Moonstar)
All MLF appearances: X-Force (1st series) #26-28, Annual #3, #43, 72-75, 78-80
Powers: Reignfire is a protoplasmic lifeform able to draw identity from another person, utilizing a single cell as a template to replicate a body for himself with all the capabilities of the original. He patterned himself after Roberto Dacosta, gaining superhuman strength and the ability to manipulate sunlight and heat energy, allowing him to project blinding flashes, generate solar discharges and plasma bolts, drain the heat from outside sources, and release thermal updrafts to fly.
Fact: Reignfire was long believed to be a time-displaced Sunspot. Besides Sunspot’s powers he has the additional ability to psychially imprint himself on Sunspot. There are appearances where he is in his own body, but there are also appearances of Reignfire controlling Sunspot.
Moonstar, Danielle
First appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel #4
First MLF appearance: X-Force (1st series) #27
All MLF appearances: X-Force (1st series) #27-28, 34, Annual #3, #41, 43, Excalibur (1st series) #104-105, X-Force Annual '97, X-Force (1st series) #67-68
Powers: Generates astral energy from her mind that she can use to access the thought patterns of others, creating bolts of psionic plasma that disable a person’s mind and nervous system by overloading their brain with impressions of their greatest fears. She was initiated as one of the Valkyries of Asgard, allowing her to sense the presence of impending doom around others in the form of their personal image of death and fight death itself for their soul if she wishes.
Locus (Rayna Piper)
First appearance: X-Force (1st series) #27
All MLF appearances: X-Force (1st series) #27-28, 43, 67-68, 75, 78-80
Powers: Phase-shifting talent enables her to transport herself anywhere she has been in the past by accessing her memories of the place. Physical contact with another person or object allows her to access their history for teleportation as well. The spatial energy she manifests can also generate an anti-gravity effect so that she can float in mid-air, but not truly fly.
Note: Locus’s real name was revealed off-panel in a Marvel Handbook entry.
Feral (Maria Callasantos)
First appearance: New Mutants (1st series) #99
First MLF appearance: X-Force (1st series) #28
All MLF appearances: X-Force (1st series) #28, Annual #3, #40-41
Powers: Animal mutation gives her heightened strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes, hyper-keen feline senses, thick orange fur, a prehensile tail and razor sharp fangs and claws on her fingers and toes.
Note: Locus’ real name was revealed off-panel in a Marvel Handbook entry.
Selby
First appearance: Excalibur (1st series) #104
All MLF appearances: Excalibur (1st series) #104
Powers: Intuitive understanding of binary code enables him to decrypt and rewrite advanced computer systems at will.
MLF Associates
Slab (Kris Anderson)
First appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #74
First MLF appearance: X-Factor (1st series) #77
All MLF appearances: X-Factor (1st series) #77, X-Men (2nd series) #15
Powers: Superhuman strength, endurance, and resistance to physical harm. He also draws on a limited source of extra-dimensional bio-mass to expand his body and muscle, increasing his size and strength to a certain degree.
Fact: Slab's sister is Thumbelina.