Rictor

Rictor
Rictor (as seen in X-Factor v.3 #1) Art by Ryan Sook.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Factor Vol. 1 #17 (Jun 1987)
Created by	Louise Simonson Walter Simonson
In-story information
Alter ego	Julio Esteban "Ric" Richter
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Factor Investigations Purifiers X-Factor X-Terminators New Mutants Weapon P.R.I.M.E. X-Force X-Corporation
Notable aliases	Unit 2347 (as Genoshan slave), Joaquin Murrieta
Abilities	Currently powerless. Formerly capable of releasing seismic energy through his fingertips, using it to create earthquakes, shockwaves or otherwise transport earth matter.

Rictor (Julio Esteban "Ric" Richter) is a fictional comic book superhero, who appears in the X-Men family of books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Walter Simonson, Rictor first appeared in X-Factor #17 (June 1987). He currently appears in the monthly series X-Factor (volume 3), as a member of the detective agency X-Factor Investigations.

Contents 1 Fictional character biography 1.1 Origin 1.2 X-Factor/X-Terminators 1.3 X-Force 1.4 X-Corporation 1.5 M-Day and X-Factor Investigations 1.6 Messiah Complex 1.7 Divided We Stand 1.8 Shatterstar 2 Powers and abilities 3 Sexual orientation 4 In other media 4.1 Television 5 Footnotes 6 External links

Fictional character biography

Origin

As a child, young Julio Esteban Richter was forced to watch his father, an arms merchant, being killed by the time-tossed villain known as Stryfe. Later, Rictor was captured by the anti-mutant organization called the Right, who connected him to a machine that amplified his already uncontrollable power of earthquake generation to wreak havoc in San Francisco. Rictor was freed by the original X-Factor team and was accepted by them as a trainee member.^[1] During the chaos, he was assisted by Boom Boom, who talked him out of a severe emotional crisis. He was recaptured by the Right shortly afterwards, but was again freed by X-Factor.^[2]

X-Factor/X-Terminators

Rictor and his friends spent much time living on the sentient craft named 'Ship'. This was the base for X-Factor whom he helped a few times.

For a time, Rictor was part of the group known as the X-Terminators. As a member of the X-Terminators, he contended with N'astirh and his demons during the Inferno attack.^[3] The team folded into the New Mutants after the events of Inferno.

Rictor developed romantic feelings for Wolfsbane while on the team. Rictor and friends traveled to Asgard and battled Hela, where he assumed a protective role over her, even helping her pass by Garm.^[4] Rictor would later face former X-Factor ally Caliban, who had become the latest Horseman of Apocalypse known as Death, as well as Sabretooth battling in the Morlock tunnels under New York. Rictor was severely injured by Sabretooth, but was saved by Cable and the other New Mutants.^[5] Alongside the New Mutants, he assisted Cable in fighting Stryfe and the Mutant Liberation Front.^[6]

Rictor was later captured alongside Storm, Boom Boom, Wolfsbane, and Warlock by forces of the island nation Genosha. Only he and Boom Boom escaped unscathed. The combined efforts of the X-Men, X-Factor, and New Mutants led to him being freed and Rictor would be instrumental in toppling the Genoshan government. During the adventure, Rictor shared a heartfelt kiss with Wolfsbane and was later heart-broken when she chose (a bit against her will) to stay behind.^[7]

After the business in Genosha, Rictor left the New Mutants with the intent to bring Wolfsbane back from Genosha.^[8] Rictor was by then convinced that Cable — from whom Stryfe had been cloned — was the man who killed his father, and he agreed to join the Canadian government's Weapon P.R.I.M.E. team.^[9] The team's sole purpose was the apprehension of Cable, but thanks to both Cable and the New Mutants now known as X-Force, this was averted.^[10]

X-Force

Rictor came to join X-Force, and aided them in saving Sunspot from Gideon.^[11] Rictor and X-Force were then captured by the X-Men and X-Factor who were seeking Cable for an entirely different crime, the attempted murder of Professor X. This had also been perpetrated by Stryfe. Rictor would meet up with Wolfsbane, again sharing a kiss. This ended badly, with Wolfsbane accidentally biting him. Rictor and the X-Force team were at first held captive in the X-Mansion, before being officially released.^[12] Alongside X-Force, he battled War Machine aboard Graymalkin.^[13] Alongside X-Force, he rescued the captive X-Force members from Gideon and the Externals.^[14] The team used the Mansion for a time as their headquarters before leaving.^{[volume & issue needed]}

Rictor would later leave X-Force when his cousin and uncle were shot during an arms deal,^{[volume & issue needed]} only to return when his close friend Shatterstar was undergoing an identity crisis.^{[volume & issue needed]} Shatterstar decided to accompany Rictor to the Richter home in Mexico to try and end Rictor's family's arms-dealing business.^{[volume & issue needed]} Both characters have since appeared separately so one assumes they succeeded.

X-Corporation

Rictor would later be one of several mutants (amongst them other former members of X-Force) who joined Professor X's restructured X-Corporation. X-Corporation's confrontation with Weapon XII was a total catastrophe, however, and led to the death of one of their members, Darkstar.^{[volume & issue needed]} Rictor left X-Corporation either before or after the events of House of M.

M-Day and X-Factor Investigations

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Rictor is one of the mutants to lose his powers on M-Day. He again attempts suicide but is overcome by confusion and doubt. A rogue duplicate of Jamie Madrox nearly kills him but his life is saved by Monet St. Croix, a former member of Generation X. After some convincing from Monet and a gentle nudge from Layla Miller, he joins X-Factor Investigations under the employ of Jamie Madrox, the Multiple Man. He also finds Siryn after she has been attacked and kidnapped and becomes extremely mistrustful of Layla Miller.

When the Superhuman Registration Act is introduced, Rictor and Monet sign up willingly but side with the rest of X-Factor against the pro-registration heroes.

Rictor visits Quicksilver, who takes an interest in Rictor being depowered and discusses the possibility of getting his powers back. When Madrox brings Pietro up, Rictor jokes about having had a sexual relationship with him. Madrox then makes a joking comment about making Shatterstar jealous, causing Rictor to become flustered.^[15]

Quicksilver later manipulates Rictor, empowering him, in a plan to give other ex-mutants their powers. Unfortunately the process is unstable and several of these ex-mutants explode. Rictor confronts Quicksilver again, ending up with Rictor apparently depowered one more time and the mutagenic Terrigen Crystals in Quicksilver's body destroyed. Afterwards, Wolfsbane and a distraught Rictor share a sexual encounter, but this new aspect of their relationship is marred by multiple arguments. During that time Rictor had several Terrigen Crystals embedded in his back (the remnants from the exploding crystals from Quicksilver), which helped him to defeat Josef Huber.^[16]

Messiah Complex

Rictor is asked to infiltrate the Purifiers, as he is still depowered. In an effort to gain the trust of the Purifiers, he, as planned with X-Men, saves them from an attack from Wolfsbane. Rictor then informs the X-Men that the Purifiers' base extends beyond New York and all over America. He also catches the New X-Men sneaking around in the Purifier base and when they are ambushed by the Reavers, he helps Pixie to focus while using a teleportation spell.^[17]

Divided We Stand

While walking down the street, he sees a prostitute who looks just like Layla. When he tries to follow her thinking she is Layla, he gets into a fight with an ex-mutant with horns in his head. He kicks him in the crotch and eventually gets into a fight with the prostitute's pimps until Strong Guy steps in.^[18] He is later escorted to the hospital where he learns that a lot of fights have been breaking out all over Mutant Town. He is the last to learn that Rahne has left and ends up captured by Arcade when he tries to leave X-Factor.^[19] He eventually frees himself and finds that the person who hired Arcade is Taylor, the Purifier who he tricked into letting him into their organization.^[20] He later relocates with the rest of X-Factor to Detroit.^[21]

Shatterstar

A seemingly possessed Shatterstar makes a return in X-Factor #43, attacking Strong Guy and Rictor, with his hair cut off and his eyes glowing pink, saying only the name "Cortex".^[22] After a brief fight, Shatterstar is broken out of his trance-like state. Upon recognizing Rictor, the two grab one another and finally share a kiss.^[23]

Powers and abilities

In his early appearances, Rictor is a mutant capable of generating and releasing seismic energy and tremendously powerful waves of vibrations in any nearby object, causing objects to shatter or crumble. When used against objects with a larger surface, the effects are much like an earthquake.^{[volume & issue needed]} Rictor's powers appear to affect organic objects in much the same way as inorganic ones; he is depicted using them to explode a cactus plant in X-Force #25. Rictor himself is immune to the harmful effects of the vibrations he creates.^{[citation needed]} He has expressed reluctance to use his powers in tectonically unstable areas, for fear that he could not control the effects, as when he visited the fictional island of Madripoor, which is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, in New Mutants #93 (September 1990).

In New X-Men #128 Jean Grey also states that Rictor has some kind of telepathic defense against Weapon XII's infestation.

In issue #1 of the 2005 relaunch of X-Factor #1, he is depicted as suicidal, lamenting the loss of his power after M-Day. During the series he talks about how he had some sort of empathic connection with the earth itself and misses it.

Rictor's body briefly had Terrigen Crystals embedded in his back, small fragments left over from when Quicksilver's crystals had exploded.^[16] In a confrontation with the Isolationist, Rictor's was shown to be immune to or resisting the various powers the Isolationist manifested because of these crystals. Physical contact with Rictor reversed the villain's Colossus-like transformation, a direct assault with Cyclops-like optic blasts had no effect, and an Iceman-style ice construct melted around Rictor. According to writer Peter David, these crystals have since burnt out.^[16]

Sexual orientation

Rictor’s sexual orientation was originally a matter of contention and debate among fans,^{[citation needed]} being left ambiguous for much of the character’s original history. During that time he dated both Rahne Sinclair (Wolfsbane)^[24][25] and Tabitha Smith (Boom Boom)^[24] and developed a close—and somewhat ambiguous—relationship with Shatterstar.^{[26][27][28][29][30]}

X-Force writer Jeph Loeb hinted that Shatterstar had romantic feelings for Rictor and was planning on making the two a couple, but he left the title before this could happen.^[31]

In X-Factor v.3, Peter David continued to develop Rictor's personal relationships. Concerning Rictor's bisexuality Peter David initially expressed the idea that:

“

[It is] more fun tweaking the fans than actually spelling anything out... I think it's much more interesting to have Rictor's comments be a litmus test for the agenda of the readers than if you just show him involved in some sort of bisexual relationship.[32]

”

As X-Factor v.3 continued Rictor developed a sexual relationship with Rahne,^[25] and later kissed Shatterstar.^[33] Shortly after X-Factor v.3 #45, Peter David confirmed Rictor's bisexuality in his blog and expressed his desire to develop the relationship between Rictor and Shatterstar further.^[34][35][36]

In other media

Television

• Rictor made a cameo in the X-Men episode "Slave Island."^{[citation needed]}

Footnotes

External links

• http://www.marvel.com/universe/Rictor