SUNPYRE
Real Name: Leyu Yoshida
Identity/Class: Human mutant
Occupation: Adventurer
Group Membership: X-Corps (Avalanche/Dominic
Petrakis, Banshee/Sean Cassidy, Blob/Fred J. Dukes, Husk/Paige Guthrie,
Jubilee/Jubilation Lee, Fever
Pitch, Mastermind/Martinique Wyngarde, M/Monet St. Croix,
Multiple Man/Jamie Madrox, Radius/Jared Corbo, Surge/Raven
Darkholme);
formerly Jean Grey's X-Men/Genoshan assault team (Dazzler/Alison Blaire,
Frenzy/Joanna Cargill, Jean Grey, Northstar/Jean-Paul Beaubier,
Omerta/Paulie Provenzano, Wraith/Hector Rendoza)
Affiliations: Abyss (Nils Styger), X-Men (Archangel/Warren Worthington III, Chamber/Jonothon Starsmore, Iceman/Bobby Drake, Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Stacy X/Miranda Leevald)
Enemies: Acculturation Resistance Movement (Jakob Eisen & others), Magneto (Max Eisenhardt), Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
Known Relatives: Saburo Yashida (father), unidentified mother, Shiro Yoshida (brother), Lord Shingen Harada (uncle, deceased), Tomo Yashida (uncle, deceased), Kenuichio Harada (Silver Samurai, cousin), Shingen Harada (cousin), Mariko Yashida (cousin, deceased)
Aliases: Sunfire
Base of Operations: X-Corps headquarters, near
Paris, France;
formerly Xavier Institute;
formerly Yashida residence, Japan
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men I#392 (April, 2001)
Powers/Abilities: Sunpyre had the mutant ability to
ionize matter into a state of fiery plasma, capable of reaching 1000.000
degrees Fahrenheit. She could fly. Leyu shared her half-brother's sense
of self righteous superiority.
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black
History:
(Uncanny X-Men I#392 (fb) - BTS) - With the Legacy virus cured, Genosha's ruler Magneto found himself in charge of millions of combat ready mutants. In preparation for an all-out war, he kidnapped his old enemy Charles Xavier. With most of the X-Men away on various missions, Wolverine and Cyclops travelled to Genosha under cover to deal with the threat while Jean Grey stayed at the Xavier Institute to rally the troops and gather backup forces. Among others, she sent a message to one time X-Man Sunfire (Shiro Yoshida). When the tempestuous Shiro refused to answer the request for aid, his similarly powered half-sister Leyu donned one of his spare costumes and made her way to America to help out the X-Men as Sunpyre.
(Uncanny X-Men I#392) - Sunpyre arrived at the Xavier Institute just as Jean Grey returned from a recruitment drive. Jean was a little surprised to see the young girl who had come instead of the far more experienced Sunfire, but Leyu's brash and snarky comeback to Jean's question how old she was, ensured her spot on the impromptu X-Men team. Sunpyre witnessed the infighting that occurred when the homophobic Omerta (Paulie Provezano) made some uncouth remarks about Northstar's sexuality. When Jean-Paul used his superspeed to knock Paulie out, Leyu couldn't help but comment on how weird the team was Jean had assembled. Undeterred, Grey introduced the new recruits to the Acolyte Joanna Cargill who she had mind controlled to ensure her allegiance. Just as Joanna and Jean were done filling the team in on the situation, they were surprised by the arrival of Dazzler (Alison Blaire) who had come to Xavier's looking for help.
(X-Men II#112) - Sunpyre, along with Dazzler, Jean Grey and the other ersatz X-Men boarded the Blackbird and headed for Genosha. While the looseknit team bickered, Sunpyre wondered why she couldn't fly there under her own power.
(Uncanny X-Men I#393) - In order to prepare her X-Men for the upcoming battle, Jean Grey accessed the minds of Leyu and the other newbies to give them a telepathic crash course in the use of their powers. She also linked them together to have a training session in a "Danger Room" she planned to create on a shared mental landscape. Sunpyre sat calmly back when the Danger Room scenario the team found themselves in was actually based on Dazzler's memories of Mojo World before she left. They were besieged by tiny versions of Earth-295's Apocalypse, Sugar Man, Dark Beast and Holocaust who gleefully boasted about already having killed Longshot. Leyu commented on the fact the villains were actually cute, if they wouldn't be so evil, before the scenario ended and a sobbing Dazzler revealed that the villains they just faced were the reason she'd come to the X-Men in the first place. Mere moments after that, Magneto tore apart the Blackbird and used his powers to gently bring Leyu and others to him at the center of Magda Square in the capital of Genosha. There, surrounded by thousands of his followers, he presented the dumbstruck team with the captured Charles Xavier. Seeing her old mentor chained up and crucified angered Dazzler, who attacked Magneto, only to be seemingly reduced to a pile of ashes when the master of magnetism retaliated.
(X-Men II#113 - BTS) - Jean Grey and Dazzler actually fooled Magneto into believing he had killed the X-Man. In reality, Dazzler had used her light powers to create the illusion of her demise, while she took the place of Charles Xavier on the cross, who had already been freed by his former lover, the Acolyte Amelia Voght. With Xavier free to use his mental powers, it was only a matter of time before Magneto could be defeated.
(X-Men II#113) - Completely unaware of this strategy, the new X-Men attacked Magneto who effortlessly beat them back. Only Sunpyre seemed a possible threat when she unleashed her atomic flame on him. Shielding himself inside a metal cocoon while redirecting the heat away from him, Magneto emerged unscathed and disabled Leyu by encasing her in the same metal fragments. Barely able to breathe, she was taken out of the fighting until Jean Grey's true plan proved successful in disabling Magneto. Later, Wolverine stabbed Magneto, thereby ending the threat more permanently.
In the aftermath, Sunpyre and the others returned with the X-Men to the Xavier Institute. Although she was asked to stay on, Leyu opted to leave as soon as possible.
(Uncanny X-Men I#401 - BTS) - When Sunfire refused Banshee's invitation to join X-Corps, Sunpyre once again accepted in his stead. The newly formed, a mostly European based mutant paramilitary organization took a proactive approach to safeguarding mutants and humans alike. Sunpyre joined the likes of among others, former Generation X members Jubilee, M and Husk and supervillains like Blob, Avalanche and the mysterious Surge (actually a disguised Mystique who had her own plans). The villains were kept in check using restraining technology and, unbeknownst to everyone, the illusion casting abilities of Martinique Wyngarde who was kept a prisoner in a sub-basement of the X-Corps' headquarters near Paris, France. Apart from being a superhuman field operative, Sunpyre also worked in the research lab.
(Uncanny X-Men I#402 - BTS) - Worried about their former teammate's new operation, the X-Men paid Banshee a visit and were on hand to accompany him and a field team to Berlin to break up a fight between Abyss and Fever Pitch. After the two mutants were defeated, Banshee had them transported to X-Corps headquarters. There, Leyu Yoshida was tasked to identify and review them.
(Uncanny X-Men I#402) - After twelve hours of research, Leyu identified Abyss and Fever Pitch correctly. She informed Banshee about the fact that Fever Pitch, once a member of Gene Nation when they fought Generation X, was now operatng as a freelance mercenary. She also deduced that Abyss had only recently recovered from the Legacy virus. While Sunpyre deemed them both fairly unstable and not suited as field operatives, Banshee saw potential.
(Uncanny X-Men I#403 - BTS) - Banshee used the powers of the kidnapped Martinique Wyngarde to assure Fever Pitch's loyalty, while Abyss remained in Leyu's lab for further study. Fever Pitch joined a field mission to Zurich to investigate Jakob Eisen, leader of the Acculturation Resistance Movement (A.R.M.), a militant group of humans concerned with X-Corps' presence on the continent.
(Uncanny X-Men I#404) - The X-Men (Iceman, Angel and Stacy X) visited Abyss in Leyu's lab and were shocked to see the teenage boy still locked up in a test tube. Unphased by the harsh words tossed at her, Sunpyre calmly explained she was conducting further tests on Abyss' powers, revealing she had learned he was also able to generate a rift to an unidentified void dimension. When Angel tried to reason with her, bringing up the time she spent with Jean Grey's X-Men, Leyu gave him a fiery brush off before ordering the team out of her lab so she could continue her testing on Abyss.
Later, alone in her lab, Sunpyre was recording a personal log regarding her research into Abyss. Even though she wasn't fond of Genoshans, she admired Abyss (a Genosha native) for his survival instincts. She went on to theorize about her most recent discovery regarding his dimensional powers, claiming that being a conduit to another realm wasn't a conscious choice on his part. While she continued her recording, she failed to notice the approach of Mystique in her Surge guise who killed her in order to get to the controls that freed Avalanche, Blob and Fever Pitch from their forced cooperation.
(Uncanny X-Men I#405) - Banshee and the X-Men learned of Leyu's demise when M and Husk discovered her cooling corpse next to Abyss' holding tank in the lab. This set off a motion of events that saw Mystique use the X-Corps' resources to launch a fullscale attack on Paris before the X-Men could stop her.
Comments: Created by Scott Lobdell (writer),
Salvador Larroca (pencils), Scott Hanna & Tim Townsend (inks)
It's a little odd that barely 6 months after she was
introduced and established as an aloof, headstrong 15-year-old, Joe
Casey completely rebooted the character. All of a sudden, Sunpyre was an
Asian Moira MacTaggert stand-in, a tough as nails, apparently qualified
research geneticist capable of completely sorting out a mutant's powers
within hours. Even if she was a natural genius, which was never
established, that's still a bit of a stretch. Scott Lobdell obviously
didn't agree with Casey's other major decision regarding his creation:
Killing her off. One would guess that explains Lobdell's somewhat
convoluted introduction of Leyu's "replacement" in Big Hero 6, the
Microverse heroine Lumina.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Sunpyre (Leyu Yoshida) should not be confused with
images: (without ads)
Uncanny X-Men I#392, p12, pan1 (main image)
Uncanny X-Men I#392, p12, pan2 (face)
Uncanny X-Men I#393, p8, pan1 (plays it cool)
Uncanny X-Men I#404, p4, pan5 (kicks out the X-Men)
Uncanny X-Men I#405, p7, pan3 (dead body, bottom with M above her)
Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men I#392 (April, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Salvador
Larroca (pencils), Scott Hanna & Tim Townsend (inks), Mark Powers
(editor)
X-Men II#112 (May, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Leinil Francis Yu
(pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#393 (June, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Tom Raney
(pencils), Scott Hanna (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
X-Men II#113 (June, 2001) - Scott Lobdell (writer), Leinil Francis Yu
(pencils), Dexter Vines (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#401 (February, 2002)
- Joe Casey (writer), Ron Garney (pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Mark
Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#402 (March, 2002) - Joe Casey (writer), Ron
Garney (pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#403 (April, 2002) - Joe Casey (writer), Aaron Lopresti
(pencils), Mark Morales (inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#404 (May, 2002) - Joe Casey (writer), Sean Philips
(pencils & inks), Mark Powers (editor)
Uncanny X-Men I#405 (June, 2002) - Joe Casey
(writer), Sean Philips (pencils & inks), Mark Powers (editor)
First Posted: 01/12/2014
Last updated: 07/05/2014
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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