TRYPTHE
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extraterrestrial (race of origin unrevealed)
Occupation: Member of Shi'ar Imperial Guard's Borderers
Group Membership: Shi'ar Imperial Guard (Blackthorn, Fang, Hussar, Neutron, Sea Spine, Sp'yxx, Warstar (B'nee & C'cil), Webwing)
Affiliations: Lord Samédàr
Enemies: Shi'ar Imperial Guard (Guardian/Kallark, Oracle/Lady Sibyl, N'rill'iree, Starbolt), X-Men (Nightcrawler/Kurt Wagner, Shadowcat/Kitty Pryde)
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Mobile throughout Shi'ar Empire
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men I#157 (May, 1982)
Powers/Abilities: Trypthe was a tripod creature who beside the fact he walked on three steel like legs had six smaller tentacles hanging between his legs, he could probably use these to grab and hold his enemies. His relatively enormous size and weight likely gave him incredible strength.
Height: Approximately 8"7
Weight: Approximately 290 lbs
Eyes: Red glowing
Hair: None
History:
(Uncanny X-Men I#155 - BTS) - Chosen champion of his Shi'ar dominated homeworld, Trypthe joined the Imperial Guard, the empire's elite supernatural strike force. He is one of the Borderers, a band of Imperial Guard members who aren't exclusively assigned to the royal Aerie's protection. Most Borderers spend the bulk of their time enforcing Shi'ar law in their own starsystem, but can be summoned for special missions at all time.
(Uncanny X-Men I#155 - BTS) - Trypthe was part of an Imperial Guard contingent on board the Shi'ar flagship that had come to Earth to search for the recently kidnapped empress Lilandra. Shi'ar chancellor Araki had Charles Xavier and the X-men teleported to the ship, figuring he could use Xavier's telepathic bond with his lover to find her. He planned to use the Imperial Guardsmen to free her, but Xavier felt that course of action would surely result in Lilandra's death. As the empress' consort, the Shivarn'n Halanau, Xavier used his influence to scrap the mission. With the Imperial Guard looking on, Araki agreed to give Xavier and the X-men one day to rescue Lilandra. Afterwards, he and and admiral Samédàr would be free to do whatever they deemed appropriate. Araki demanded two X-men stayed behind as a gesture of good faith. Nightcrawler and Kitty Pryde were chosen to remain and got restricted to quarters.
(Uncanny X-men I#156 - BTS) - The ambitious admiral Samédàr had secretly allied himself with Lilandra's kidnappers, her sister Deathbird and the Brood. He had also been able to gain the allegiance of Sp'yxx and six other Borderers (Webwing, Fang II, Hussar, Warstar, Sea Spine, Sp'yxx, Quasar and Blackthorn). Samédàr planned to prove his worth to Deathbird by using the flagship to blow up Earth after Araki's 24 hour deadline had passed.
(Uncanny X-men I#157 - BTS) - When Araki couldn't be persuaded to order the destruction of Earth, admiral Samédàr killed him. Feigning he was acting on Araki's orders, he commanded the Imperial Guardsmen and the battle staff to prepare for the obliteration of Earth as soon as the deadline expired.
(Uncanny X-Men I#157) - When Nightcrawler and Shadowcat learned of Admiral Samédàr's plan and Earth's imminent doom, they broke out of their quarters. Buying a little more time by using their powers and a Shi'ar costume generator to dress up Kitty as Dark Phoenix, Nightcrawler took advantage of the confusion to teleport away the telepathic Imperial Guardsman Oracle. She used her powers to confirm Kitty and Kurt were telling the truth about Samédàr and filled in her fellow Guardsmen Gladiator, Starbolt and N'rill'iree. Just as they were about to stop Samédàr, the admiral sent in Trypthe and the other Borderers to defend him. Trypthe fought Starbolt in the ongoing fight, but was knocked out along with everyone else when Samédàr activated a Brood weapon hidden inside Warstar's B'nee. Samédàr was eventually stopped when Lilandra showed up aboard the Starjammer and called off the attack. The admiral was detained, the final fate of Trypthe hasn't been revealed.
Comments: Created by Chris Claremont & Dave Cockrum
Trypthe is one of three Imperial Guard members introduced in Uncanny X-Men I#157 that remained unnamed on panel. However, the late great Dave Cockrum named them in unused sketches intended for the Imperial Guard entry of the 1983 Handbook Of The Marvel Universe. His sketches not only revealed their names but also provided full body images. Trypthe entire career in comics until now consists of only four panels in Uncanny X-Men I#157. Given the fact the Imperial Guard has over 300 active members these days that guard a great deal of planets it wouldn't be that hard to introduce him again. On an unrelated sidenote: Cockrum's original work was never colored, but seeing as yours truly is a professional graphics designer and colorist, I took it upon myself to digitally color Cockrum's work, using the original panels for color reference. Check out the original and colored versions below.
Trypthe and the tentacled cyclopean look similar enough, to make me think,
that they were members of the same species. Maybe Trypthe was a
replacement for poor cyclopean, the Soul-Drinker victim?
--Pawel "Darth" Podmokly
They do look a lot alike, but not quite...maybe they are part of a succession?
--Snood
Profile by MarvellousLuke
CLARIFICATIONS:
Trypthe has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Original sketch by Dave Cockrum, cropped (main image)
Uncanny X-Men I#157, p17, pan4 (first panel)
Uncanny X-Men I#157, p19, pan5 (attacked by Gladiator)
Original sketch by Dave Cockrum, digitally colored by Luc Kersten (comments 1)
Original sketch by Dave Cockrum, full (comments 2)
Appearances:
Uncanny X-Men I#157 (May, 1982) - Chris Claremont(writer), Dave Cockrum(pencils), Bob Wiacek(inks), Louise Jones(editor)
First Posted: 11/13/13
Last Updated: 03/16/18
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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