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History

Brand Corporation[]

Doctor[1] Harlan Ryker is a surgeon in the employ of Roxxon Oil Corporation,[7] and also the foremost expert in cybernetics in the world, designing and building cyborgs and other weapons for Roxxon,[1] who then sold those for military purposes.[8] A good part of his work he kept in utmost secret, not publishing it[1] nor sharing it with his immediate family - wife Anna, child daughter Rebecca (called Becca) and baby son Bryan Ryker, with whom he lived.[1] Ryker's brother Simon Ryker, however, had a successful military career, eventually reaching the rank of General, and had access to privileged information on Harlan's work.[2]

Ryker was assigned to work in Brand Corporation, a subdivision of Roxxon[9][10][11] and a prestigious research organization by its own right.[12] Then a cyborg named Deathlok came to Earth-616 from the alternate, dystopic future of Earth-7484, and eventually was incapacitated. Roxxon stole the cyborg[9][11] and delivered it to Ryker[9] for him to study,[11] disassemble and replicate it[9][10] (Ironically, on Earth-7484, an alternate version of Harlan Ryker had created Deathlok in the first place).[7] Ryker created a robot duplicate of Deathlok,[10][11][7] that Deathlok delivered to another of its divisions, Nth Command;[7] the robot was sent to infiltrate Project P.E.G.A.S.U.S., but was then defeated and destroyed.[11][7] This robot however served as a prototype for Ryker's further version of Deathlok. Ryker's team was known to have spent more time studying Deathlok's design than really trying to replicate it.[10]

Roxxon was forced to close up Brand Corporation when Brand's irregularities were expoesd, but secretly continued using Brand for illegal operations.[13] Meanwhile, Ryker managed to reactivate and reprogram the original Deathlok, reprogramming it as a faithful servant of Roxxon.[7][11] Roxxon delivered Deathlok to the Nth Command, that was involved in a doomsday operation that would replicate the apocalyptic Earth-7484 future; but the meddling of Captain America and some travellers from Earth-7484 spoiled the project;[11][9][13] Deathlok, his original mind restored, returned to his original timeline. Brand's crimes were again exposed and many of its members were apprehended,[14] but Ryker's involvement was apparently not known.

Meanwhile, Ryker was involved in the education of his daughter, trying to transmit his stern values - such as how allies are useful, but friends are a hindrance, how she should devote all her time to learning, not to loitering, and how a single decision made under duress can define a person's whole life. Rebecca grew up as a shy girl,[1] but also as a scholarly thinker, with a focus on mathematics, and a dedicated sportswoman, with a focus on swimming.[8] Since 8 years of age to 14, Rebecca was sent to swim five days a week, even if she repeatedly expressed how she failed to be interested in it, simply because her father wanted her to build character through competition - She became one of the best swimmers in the state, even if she wanted nothing about it.[1] Only many years later she would know that her father paid her extracurricular training by building ghastly weapons.[8]

Cybertek[]

Roxxon then created a new Roxxon-owned company,[15] Cybertek Systems, Inc., the applied cybernetics division, based in Paterson, New Jersey,[3] to replace Brand, and transferred to it Brand's equipment, knowledge and some of the staff,[10] including Ryker, who became the Division Head of Cybertek.[16] Ryker was assigned a secretary, Laurie.[3] Like Brand before it, Cybertek was secretly involved in illegal development of weaponizable technology with Roxxon's complicity, including the hunter-seeker assassination cyborg with lupine organics Warwolf, stored in a Roxxon warehouse in Virginia.[17] Other of Cybertek's designs had hidden capacities, like the Worker Ants, unmanned robot drones designed by Ryker's team and presented as construction devices, with non-obvious military capacities.[15] Many of Cybertek employees were aware only of the existence of a weapons development area in the company,[18] but they mistakenly believed that the work done for other areas was not used for weapons: Instead, Ryker absorbed that work, without the developers knowledge.[3] For instance, Cybertek software development head Michael Collins[19] believed he was writing software for prosthetic limbs to be used by disabled people, but Ryker reused this for military cyborgs.[3] Collins' work on bionics was also used in patents, some of them for weapon systems, that Ryker licensed without Collins' knowledge and sold to Stane International,[20] always presenting a friendly face to Collins.[17] Ryker also met Collins' wife Tracy in person, and knew that Collins' best friend was their coworker Jim Dworman.[16]

Cybertek weaponry appearing all over the world attracted the attention of international law enforcement agency SHIELD, whose director Nicholas Fury correctly deduced that Ryker[15] and his superior, Roxxon's Vice President of International Development Clayton Burr,[16] were involved in illegal gunrunning activities - and this was true, Roxxon, like other multinational corporations, had several governments on their payroll and sold them Cybertek weapons. For years, SHIELD tried to obtain evidence to take both to justice; but Roxxon had very high-ranking contacts that prevented Fury from getting what he needed.[15]

Cybertek (Earth-616), Jim Dworman (Earth-616), Ben Jacobs (Earth-616), John Kelly (Earth-616), William Hansen (Earth-616), Harlan Ryker (Earth-616), S

Harlan Ryker (bottom left) leading the Deathlok project in Cybertek

Ryker's pet project for Cybertek was the continuation of Deathlok, brought for Brand. Ryker redesigned the future Deathlok to create a better weapon systems, using encephalonic technology as its core component, nanotech to repair minor damage to organic systems, Adamantium for the skeleton and an adamantium-steel allow for muscles and cartilagues, a fusion generator to power it,[21] and a very advanced onboard computer complementing the organic brain.[22] Ryker formed a team for the project[22] including genius expert technician and scientist Stanley Cross, who had security skills;[17] genius scientist researcher Billy Hansen,[19] who became Ryker's best personal friend and right-hand man;[17] weapons designer Ben Jacobs;[3] cybersurgeons Dr. Hu and Dr. Kimble;[5] and any Cybertek contractor[16] or employee who needed to know about the project, and could handle that information, was informed about as much as needed.[3] Ryker took the data obtained from Brand and added technology from Timely Industries (which was secretly very advanced technology from the future provided by Nathaniel Richards for his own ends).[23] along with other technically advanced data incorporated by Roxxon in the Phase 3 of the[10] "Cybertek military cyborg designate: Deathlok" project.[24] Besides spending Roxxon's financing, Ryker managed to found investors willing to lease his still-unfinished weapon, which, in combination with Collins' software, allowed him to increase the endurance, reflexive action and offense/defense capacities of the cyborg.[10] Still, Roxxon had stringent deadlines for Ryker to finish his weapon, as they already had battlefields to use it.[3]

As the design was officialy for the United States Military,[11] Ryker approached military officers to transplant a voluntary's brain to the cyborg.[3] On Earth-616, like on Earth-7484, Ryker approached Colonel Luther Manning, but in this universe, Manning was uninterested in Ryker's cyborg supersoldier program, indeed failing to grasp all the details, and rejected him. Manning came to serve under Harlan Ryker's brother, General Simon Ryker.[2]

Ryker had better luck with a later candidate, Colonel John Kelly, a Vietnam War veteran[note 1] who later worked for NYPD, in both cases believing that he was not allowed to win, and whose wife and daughter had abandoned him. Ryker tempted Kelly with the idea of "the first in a series of military cyborgs desinged for victory", Kelly volunteered,[4] and his brain was transplanted to Deathlok. Ryker then staged a test run attended by Burr and by several parties interested in leasing Deathlok,[4][22] to take place in Cybertek Weapons Testing Facility 4, also in Paterson. Ryker hired twelve armed mercenaries to confront Kelly, the later armed only with paint pellets, the former with real weapons.[22] Mid-exercise, when Kelly tried to fight his own style, the computer considered this a faulty behavior,[4] and electrocuted Kelly's brain, lobotomizing him dead.[22][4][11] In the bunker, Dr. Hu noticed the problem and Cross suggested aborting the test, but Ryker refused. Deathlok, controlled by the computer, raided the bunker and aimed at Ryker, but did not shoot as the test conditions had been met and there was no reason to attack anyone there.[22]

Burr complained to Ryker that delays in the Deathlok project would not be accepted and, if the board of directors was unhappy, Ryker would be in trouble. Ryker reassured Burr, then went to Cybertek facilities to manage the situation. Ryker demanded that they find and correct the software glitch that had allowed the computer to kill the brain and take over the cyborg, in less than 24 hours, as Ryker wanted a new brain transplant the following day - even if they didn't have a brain donor yet. Hu decided that Kelly's brain was useless and discarded it, no autopsy needed, yet they agreed that Hansen could take it for his personal research. Hansen ordered the programming team to review all of the software, which prompted its director Michael Collins to investigate the reasons. Hacking Cybertek's computers, Collins discovered that his work was being used for military purposes he disagreed with.[16] Believing that this must have been a secret to Ryker too, Collins went to whistleblow this issue to Ryker. Ryker was meeting with Jacobs, who wanted to recommend the Cybertank as an alternative weapon (but Ryker disagreed because the Cybertank offered him only firepower and he needed more versalitiy), and then Collins confronted Ryker. Ryker humored Collins, took him to a secluded office, then knocked him down[16][25][26] with a dart gun and phoned Laurie to prepare the brain transplant, with Collins as an unwilling donor.[3] Dr. Hu was against it, as Collins had proven to be particularly moral, which could affect the results.[16] After Hansen corrected the software glitch, the brain was to be used only for storage[3] and Ryker ordered cross to lobotomize Collins, which Cross failed to do properly.[27] Hu was also worried that Deathlok's organic components may reject Collins' brain, so she suggested to keep Collins' body "in ice" as a potential organ bank; Ryker agreed to do so, and took good care of the body even after they proved that there was no rejection.[28] Ryker also made up a story about Collins having had an accident and promoted Dworman as head of the programming section.[16]

Estrella[]

Roxxon had interests in Estrella, a South American country whose government had been bribed by multinational corporations controlling the local economy.[15] With few solid land on which to build, Roxxon was erecting a dam[3] using Ryker's Worker Ants as construction devices, but this was affecting negatively the local's life (not to mention damaging the environment), which led to them organizing a resistance movement with armed guerrillas. More succesful than they could have expected, the guerrillas were causing the cost of the project to skyrocket,[15] which prompted the Estrellan Armed Forces to lease Deathlok to complement their own soldiers. Ryker accompanied Deathlok and the team to Estrella and once there, from a bunker, the team oversaw as Deathlok was sent against a resistance campament, which he destroyed while killing almost all the people there - Collins' mind imposed itself over the computer when it tried to kill young girl Emilia Verdugo. Hansen detected and reported the glitch, but Burr convinced the Estrellan military that the operation had been succesful. Still, Ryker and his team knew that there was a problem, and that it could be replicated, so they returned to Paterson with the intent of solving it immediately.[3]

Ryker arranged a meeting to find the reason, but then Collins took control over the Deathlok body and, using its capacities, released himself and tried to escape the facility. Security was unable to stop him, then Jacobs asked Ryker to let him try using the Cybertank. Deathlok defeated Jacobs, broke the Cybertank and the floor of Cybertek, and humiliated Jacobs by leaving him helpless among the wreckage of his pride and joy. Deathlok escaped but, unable to return home (as Collins' wife saw him as a monster),[3] he became a vigilante in Coney Island.[16][11] Collins understood that Ryker had turned him into an assassin,[17] but programmed countermeasures so that Deathlok would not kill.[16]

Simultaneous to this, SHIELD agent Al Mackenzie, deducing that Cybertek was behind the Estrella skirmish, tried to link Ryker to the sales of arms made to Estrella. SHIELD director Fury ordered agent Pierce to monitor Ryker, but Pierce and his team failed to obtain evidence. Agent N'Gami however stole from Cybertek a tape from the test where Kelly had been kiled.[15] At this point, neither SHIELD not Roxxon knew that Ryker had hidden another prospective deal with Japanese entrepreneur Shiro Yoshida, who offered to buy a shipment of ready-to-use Cybertek weaponry for three billion dollars; Ryker stalled his final decision on this matter.[15] Still, SHIELD raised the pressure on Burr, claiming that they knew about his lost weapon; and Burr in turn passed the buck to Ryker, threatening to use an alternative weapon on Estrella and getting rid of Ryker in the process. Ryker met again with his team, and Hansen correctly deduced that Collins was the new vigilante in Coney Island. Ryker then ordered Cross to monitor Dworman while Ryker himself talked to Mrs. Collins, foreseeing that Collins may contact either his friend or his wife - and once they'd track Collins, he'd unleash a superpowered agent on him.[16]

Ryker lied to Tracy claiming that her husband was in medical care, no visits allowed, but offered her her husband's full salary "while he recovers"; he also warned her against a robot "pretending" to be Collins. Meanwhile, Collins indeed contacted Dworman, asking him to steal records from Cybertek; Dworman did, unaware that Cross was following his steps, and thus Ryker discovered that Collins was hiding near the Coney Island amusement park. Ryker sent Mainframe,[16] a superhuman cybernetic technopath[29] and Cybertek private contractor, with several Cybertek weapons including the SQ 1 Deep Sea Attack Craft, Dragonfly air vehicles, and agents in Terminal Armors. Mainframe escalated the situation to an open battle in a park full of people, and when Ryker called him to order minimal public impact, Mainframe only tried to destroy the press helicopter. However, in the end, Deathlok escaped and the police arrested Mainframe. Using Roxxon contacts, Ryker had the National Security Council to be in charge of the investigation, which prevented SHIELD from finding anything on him. Even after talking in person with Fury at Coney Island, Ryker was not worried about SHIELD - and intended to prepare a plan to deal with Deathlok, correctly deducing that the later would return to Estrella.[16]

Indeed, a few weeks after Collins had became Deathlok,[28] he returned to Estrella (in an "appropriated" Dragonfly) to ally himself with the guerrillas and organize an attack against the dam: If the dam could be destroyed, then the cost would be so high that Roxxon would abandon the project altogether. The dam was protected by 637 Estrellan soldiers and 32 Worker Ants, which had military capacities. Ryker remained in Paterson, but sent Jacobs to Estrella to control the Ants and the Cybertek technology. When Deathlok revealed his presence with the armed guerrillas, Ryker ordered Jacobs to priorize the protection of the dam, and only try to destroy Deathlok if it was possible; however, Jacob had developed a thrist of revenge toward Deathlok, and disregarded his orders. This was one of the reasons of the battle result, in which the guerrillas blew up the dam and the Worker Ants using explosives, the army surrendered to the rebels, and Deathlok captured Jacobs and forced him to reveal where he could find Ryker, not to mention a political situation in Estrella that derailed Roxxon's plans. Burr phoned Ryker (through Laurie) to notify the later that his troubles had just started.[15]

Being nothing if not ready, Ryker had a fallback plan ready: He immediately phoned Yoshida and accepted his deal,[15] planning to exile himself to Japan.[28] However, at that point Ryker was still physically in the Paterson building, and two forces had laid siege to it: Deathlok, and SHIELD, the later using a Stane Industries Mark XIV Land Attack Vehicle. SHIELD's Nick Fury tried to ally with Deathlok against Ryker, offering to use Deathlok and his data as evidence to arrest Ryker; and, he agreed to let Deathlok raid the center first, correctly assuming that Ryker would have had high-tech defenses. Indeed, Ryker sent Hunter Drones, a warhead-bearing missile and other defense systems against Deathlok - but once Deathlok reached Ryker's office, Ryke revealed he had Collins' body and could return Deathlok's brain there[15] (as long as he had Dr. Hu's help). In exchange for that, Ryker recruited Deathlok's help for the Yoshida operation. Ryker guided Deathlok through a escape route that allowed them to slip past Fury with the shipment of weapons.[28]

Ryker and Deathlok met Yoshida in person in Kobe. Yoshida, protected by ninja bodyguards, assumed that Deathlok was Ryker's security. Yoshida promised to deposit the payment in a Swiss bank the following day, and Ryker would then arrange the weapon delivery; once in a hotel in central Kobe, Deathlok criticized Ryker's immorality (and as soon as he was alone, Deathlok contacted SHIELD). However, Yoshida was allied with Japanese nationalist Yoritomo, who wanted to rearm Japan and take it to war (while Yoshida only wanted to protect his country), and abused Yoshida's naïveté: Yoritomo cancelled the bank transfer, staged an attack against Ryker using ninjas so that Ryker would believe that Yoshida had betrayed him or die in the process (Ryker survived as Deathlok protected him); and used English-speaking agents in Cybertek's Terminal Armor to stage a heat-based attack on Yoshida to make the later believe that Ryker had betrayed him; as Yoshida was the superhuman mutant Sunfire, the attack was doomed to fail. Yoritomo also told Yoshida that Ryker's weapons were defective and useless. Ryker decided to leave Kobe by boat with Deathlok; but Yoshida, in Sunfire garb, attacked their transport and kidnapped Ryker, leaving Deathlok behind. Brought to Yoritomo and handtied, Ryker was accused, and Yoritomo convinced Yoshida that Ryker was lying. Deathlok and SHIELD both tracked Ryker and attacked Yoshida's facility, while Yoritomo also told Yoshida that Ryker had brought SHIELD. However, during the conflict, Yoshida fought Deathlok, and the later convinced the former that Yoritomo had been tricking him. In a final attempt to achieve victory, Yoritomo tried to use a Cybertek nuclear missile launcher to attack Washington, D.C., but was stopped. SHIELD arrested both Ryker and Yoritomo; but Ryker tried to convince Deathlok to vouch for him in exchange for returning Deathlok to Collins' body. However, when Ryker revealed that he intended to continue his gunrunning activities, Deathlok instead offered Fury any data he had to use as evidence against Ryker.[28] However, Deathlok's testimony was rendered null in the United States because the court doubted whether Deathlok was a sentient person or just hardware; the case against Ryker needed to be based on other evidence and witnesses.[17]

Prison[]

Roxxon tried to distance itself from Cybertek's crimes to reduce its own responsibility, and instead arranged to close down Cybertek. Many employees also involved in the illegal activities were arrested and sent to Danbury Maximum Security Federal Penitentiary, a number of them, including account manager John Rozum, agreeing to cooperate with the NSA in the investigation and provide evidence against Ryker or be witnesses in the case. Billy Hansen made a deal to obtain a suspendence sentence and be released on bail.[17] Dr. Hu and others escaped capture.[28] However, Roxxon intended to not move a finger to help Ryker.[17]

Ryker's arrest was processed in an NSA center in Virginia. Instead of calling a lawyer, Ryker used his call to activate Cybertek assassin cyborg Warwolf, also stored in Virginia, so that it would destroy the stored evidences against him, and any copy of those in Cybertek's facilities, and also murder the prosecution witnesses. Warwolf murdered Hansen, then destroyed the evidences in both NSA and Cybertek facilities, but in the process revealed itself to Deathlok. Correctly deducing what was happening, Deathlok warned the NSA, with Dworman as his middleman, that the witnesses were in danger; but the NSA believed that the prison offered enough protection. Deathlok then sneaked into the prison to threaten Ryker, but Ryker was sure that holier-than-thou Deathlok would not kill or even hurt him. Deathlok left Ryker when Warwolf reached that same prison and tried to kill Rozum. Deathlok stopped Warwolf and damaged it beyond repair; and then Dworman accessed Warwolf's backup memory and obtained proof that Ryker had ordered Warwolf murder Hansen.[17]

Thou Ryker was in prison, not all the details about him were publically accessible. Curtis Carr, director of research and development for Stark Prosthetics, stole Cybertek files already owned by a different company, and was then tracked by Deathlok. Carr wrongly believed that Cybertek was still active and had sent John Kelly, the previous Deathlok, to kill him. Deathlok took a moment to explain Carr the real events.[25] Similarly, innuendos about Ryker's Deathlok project reached fellow industrialist entrepreneur Anthony Stark; Stark knew quite some details about Deathlok (being able to recognize the final design at sight), but Stark did not know how much had Cybertek progressed.[20]

At some point, Ryker hired the secret Tailor Group, created to hunt dangerous superhumans, to go after Deathlok and destroy it. Ryker offered twenty million dollars and provided Tailor with the Deathlok schematics, explaining that Deathlok was merely a robot. Tailor Group leader and agent Tracer eventually went after Deathlok but, during the fight, a cyberscan revealed that Deathlok was a sentient individual, a person with a life and family, meaning that Ryker had lied to Tailor. Tracer cancelled the operation altogether.[30]

France[]

Ben Jacobs (Earth-616) Cyberwarriors (Earth-616), Harlan Ryker (Earth-616), Stanley Cross (Earth-616) from Deathlok Vol 2 18 001

Right to left: Ryker, a Cyberwarrior, Cross, and Jacobs

Ryker got released on bail, then associated[31][32] with several other former Cybertek employees (Cross, Hu, Jacobs, Kimble and Mainframe) who settled in France for an ilegal project related to the Cyberwarriors,[4][33] a mass-produced cyborg super-soldier[34] designed by Ryker himself,[11] with strategic programming written by Jacobs[6] and with lobotomized human brains used as "wetware storage" so they could run up to 37 software programs simultaneously.[35] Associating with other cybernetics specialists, including Fox and Borruso,[4] they aimed to build and sell Cyberwarriors[4][33] to the highest bidder[35] and even before finishing the tests, they had already made pre-sales all over the world,[4] including to terrorist organization ULTIMATUM[35], to the terrorist Hydra-splinter branch Genesis Coalition (shipment already delivered at this point),[35] and to the Iraqi military.[36][5]

After Ryker's situation in Kobe, these people risked going to jail should they ever returned to the United States.[4] The team had a main underground base under the city of Paris[4] and a secondary base in the outskirts, the later called Cyberbase.[5] Ryker had not only evaded prison, he had also brought Michael Collins' body to France with him, even thou some of his partners recommended him not to.[35] At this point, however, he had not joined his teammates in person in their base.[4] To obtain brains for Cyberwarriors, Ryker ordered the team to bribe medical institutions so that they supplied them with brains of recently-deceased patients to be used in the Cyberwarriors but, as this was ineffective, Ryker then made coma-induced patients to be falsely diagnosed as in terminal state, so that their brains could be accessed - even thou Kimble complained at the immorality of the operation.[5]

Ryker was secretly in cahoots with Clayton Burr,[35] by then promoted to Roxxon's President of International Development.[4] Burr was to manipulate the events so that Deathlok visit the Cyberwarriors base, apparently to allow Ryker's men to capture Deathlok and take over the Deathlok technology.[35] Indeed, Burr recruited Deathlok to stop the secret Cyberwarrior operation in France, claiming that the Cyberwarrior technology belonged to Roxxon. To bait Deathlok, Burr both appealed to the later's morals (Deathlok opposed to those weaponizable cyborgs being sold around the world), and also told him that Michael Collins' body was being kept in France by Dr. Hu, and that Deathlok's brain could be restored.[4] Burr had also warned Ryker that Deathlok would go the base, so they'd be on alert.[35] However, Burr also hired cyborg mercenary Coldblood-7 to murder both Deathlok and Ryker, betraying his ally for profit.[4][5][37] Coldblood being moral for a mercenary, he agreed to track Deathlok and Ryker for their "bounties"[37] only after seeing false evidence that linked both to murders in Estrella, Japan and the United States - although only Ryker was guilty of those crimes;[5][37] Coldblood intended to track Deathlok before going after Ryker.[35] Simultaneous to all this, international law enforcement agency SHIELD wanted to obtain the Cyberwarrior technology to be used by them[6] while also going after Roxxon's illegal deals, and SHIELD's director Nick Fury tried to mislead Deathlok so that he would not go to Paris[4] by openly lying to him.[4]

Deathlok did go to Paris and called his former ally Silver Sable, leader of the mercenary group Wild Pack, for reinforcements. They discovered that a Parisian branch of ULTIMATUM had bought Cyberwarriors, and raided the ULTIMATUM base so that the terrorists would reveal the Cyberwarrior secret base location.[35] Meanwhile, Ryker arrived to the Paris base, to check the results of the final phases of his own plan,[4] witnessing, along with Cross and Jacobs, the Cyberwarriors being tested under controlled conditions. Ryker and Jacobs noticed the advantages of working without Roxxon's oppressive bureaucracy, and when Cross mentioned that the only problem in the Deathlok project had been Collins, Ryker reprimanded Cross, reminding him that Cross's responsibilities had included lobotomizing Collins' brain. Jacobs was angry at Mainframe because the later had prevented him from killing Deathlok in the past; but Jacobs required a prosthetic super-strong armor to move, and Mainframe used his own powers to control Jacobs' armor, controlling Jacobs' movements with Ryker's approval, and forcing Jacobs to work as a forklift for warehouse duty against his own wishes - Both Ryker and Mainframe agreed that Jacobs was erratic and prone to not follow orders, making remote servo-restraints a necessity; thou Ryker was happy to see Jacobs no longer requiring a wheelchair[6] like when they worked for Cybertek,[3] he understood that Jacobs could not be trusted to move completely unrestricted.[35] Jacobs was however in charge of controlling the Cyberwarriors during combat operations.[6]

While Ryker was in a meeting with some of his colleages (including Cross and Hu) to detail the current situation and sales,[35] Deathlok and the Wild Pack raided the underground base through the warehouse where Jacobs and Mainframe were. Jacobs immediately wrestled Deathlok, being his match in a one-on-one, while Mainframe called in a squad of Cyberwarriors for reinforcements and directed them against the Wild Pack.[35][38] During the fight, the Wild Pack proved superior to the Cyberwarriors,[35] and Deathlok tried to connect to a Cyberwarrior's software so as to override Mainframe's control over it - but at that point, the consciousness of the previous Deathlok, John Kelly, was active in Deathlok's hardware as an artificially-intelligent software and, wanting more independence and mobility, Kelly inserted himself in the Cyberwarrior and controlled it. Taking the alias "Siege", Kelly used his new Cyberwarrior body against the other Cyberwarriors, contributing to turn the tide so that the Cyberwarriors were systematically being beaten and destroyed. Mainframe (wrongly believing that Siege was a glitched Cyberwarrior) contacted Ryker to report that, as expected, Deathlok had attacked but, not as expected, Deathlok and his allies were wrecking the stock of Cyberwarriors they intended to sell. Worried to the point of sweating, Ryker ordered Mainframe to retreat and abandon the base for the Cyberbase, so as to protect as many Cyberwarriors as possible, then revealed to his partners that he had Collins' body at hand as an asset. Ending the meeting, Ryker video-called Burr to inform him, but Burr just ordered Ryker to take care of the situation, or Burr would send SHIELD after Ryker. Ryker submitted to Burr's will, not knowing that Burr intended to betray Ryker even if Ryker prevailed.[35]

Mainframe tried to flood the base so that their enemies wouldn't get useful information from it; but Silver Sable discovered the secondary base before that. After a battle against the Cyberwarriors in the city, she told Deathlok where it was, but she herself and the Wild Pack left to fight their own enemies, the Genesis Coalition, who had received a shipment of Cyberwarriors. Deathlok and Siege then tried to blow up the remainder of the main Cyberwarrior base, but SHIELD stopped them, so as to do a forensic analysis on the facility.[35] The parties struggled, and Siege was accidentally buried alive - but he emerged unscathed soon afterward. En route to the Cyberbase, Deathlok was ambushed by Coldblood-7, but the former managed to convince the later that they were both on the same side and that Roxxon had deceived Coldblood - so Coldblood allied with Deathlok,[5] both going after Ryker (Coldblood to get the bounty on Ryker's head).[5]

Iraq[]

Ryker's team and the remaining Cyberwarriors regrouped in the Cyberbase, where Jacobs told them that, for what he heard during the fight, the rogue Cyberwarrior was being controlled by Kelly's consciousness - making Mainframe and Ryker consider the commercial possibilities of compressing a human consciousness in a chip that could be inserted in a body. Dr. Kimble also complained openly about the unethical measurements they were taking,[5] and Ryker transported a shipment of Cyberwarriors to Baghdad, Iraq,[5] in a first attempt to sell those to the Iraqi military,[36] (specifically a Colonel Sinje, whom Ryker had previously met)[6] which wanted to militarily recover Kuwait. This transaction was detected by SHIELD, and, expecting problems there, they took their Helicarrier to Iraq.[5]

The Cyberbase was first attacked by Siege, who wanted to kill Ryker and damaged Jacobs' armor. Soon afterward, Coldblood and Deathlok joined independently - Coldblood wanting Ryker for the bounty, so that Deathlok was the only enemy who wanted to capture Ryker alive. Mainframe activated the Cyberwarriors as a defense. Ryker, wanting to recover control over the situation, murdered Hu and took Kimble hostage, saying that only Hu and Kimble could restore Deathlok's brain to his original body, which was kept in the Cyberbase; and, Ryker also activated a bomb in Deathlok's body that would trigger a nuclear warhead in the facility, with Ryker being the only person who could stop the detonation - thus, he thought, Deathlok would be forced to save Ryker's life.[5] However, Kimble escaped Ryker's grasp, and Coldblood put his weapon on Ryker's head. Ryker then asked Jacobs for help, and both Jacobs and Ryker were teleported[6] to Iraq,[37] their other allies abandoned in Paris. The former Cybertek scientists worked with Deathlok and Coldblood to successfully stop the nuclear detonation and, once they did that, Siege tracked the Cyberwarrior signal using his own Cyberwarrior body; the three cyborgs agreed to go after them, and Deathlok even hacked SHIELD's communications to pinpoint the Cyberwarriors, as the Helicarrier had detected them in detail.[6][37]

In a secret installation in Iraq, Ryker and Jacobs met with Sinje in the secret basement of a military installation, where they coordinated to stage a 10-Cyberwarrior attack aiming to destroy the oil fields of northern Kuwait, with Jacobs controlling the attackers from a nearby bunker. The fields were surprisingly defended by airborne Siege and by Deathlok and Coldblood, both riding Deathlok's flying vehicle Dragonfly. Sinje was surprised seeing his Cyberwarriors destroyed. Ryker made the overpowered Cyberwarriors retreat to attack a nearby American Military Outpost, where they were to destroy all the equipment and soldiers; but then even the Helicarrier joined the fray with artillery attacks. Deathlok's scanning found the source of the Cyberwarriors command and informed his allies. Deathlok literally surfed on a damaged, flying Cyberwarrior to attack the bunker, using the Cyberwarrior as a ram to break its wall (and knock Jacobs in the while), then battered Ryker; Nick Fury stopped Deathlok from killing Ryker, promising that Ryker and other traitors would be legally punished - and indeed Fury used Ryker to arrest Burr too: Fury took Ryker to Burr's office in the Roxxon Oil Corporate Headquarters and, with Fury listening in the shadows, Ryker spoke to Burr so that Burr would speak incriminating evidence; then Fury arrested Burr while Ryker reminded Burr that Ryker had threatened to bring others like Burr down should Ryker fall.[6] The Cyberwarrior sale to Iraq was stopped,[36] and Siege left to track yet other Cyberwarrior shipment[6] while Deathlok, Coldblood and SHIELD returned to the United States.[6] Other Cyberwarriors sold to the Genesis Coalition were destroyed by the Wild Pack and other people like the Knights of Wundagore.[39]

Further activities[]

During the Infinity Crusade, Deathlok was forced to relive important events and reconsider whether his actions had been moral. Deathlok, who refused to kill, was forced to confront his own respect for life because he had had a chance to kill Ryker and instead protected Ryker's life, which led to Ryker murdering Billy Hansen and releasing an army of Cyberwarriors.[40]

Afterward, Deathlok still kept an eye on any rumor related to Ryker, Cybertek[41][20] or his human identity so as to find a way to recover his body, eventually hearing that Stark Enterprises owned Cybertek weapons partially designed by Collins - which was true, as Stark had absorbed Stane International, which had made deals with Ryker, but Stark was unaware of this. Deathlok infiltrated Stark's mainframe, confirmed that there were 37 results when looking for Cybertek and Collins, then had to enter physically Stark's facilities to delete those. Deathlok was confronted by Iron Man (secretly Anthony Stark himself), who at first thought Deathlok was Harlan Ryker's industrial spy, while Deathlok believed that Stark Enterprises was openly corrupt. Once they settled their differences, Iron Man allowed Deathlok to delete any Cybertek weaponizable product from Stark Enterprises' files.[20]

Death Locket[]

Anna Ryker (Earth-616) and Bryan Ryker (Earth-616) before being killed by a Deathlok from Avengers Arena Vol 1 2

Ryker's wife and son, a moment before being killed by a future Deathlok

Ryker, recognized as a one of the foremosts specialists in cybernetics, was released from prison to work as a weapons scientist for U.S. government agencies, thou he was forbidden from performing unauthorized or illegal experiments and kept under a watch. He thus returned to his family life and obtain prestige among professionals and amateurs (like Katy Bashir) as a genius in his field; him having being behind the Deathlok project was also made public. Through these years, Ryker was intermittently attacked by time-travelling rebels from alternate futures who wanted to kill him before he could invent the Deathlok technology, and every now and then a Deathlok from the future reached the present time and tried to kill him in vain. Ryker cared little for this threat, as he considered himself properly protected against it, and he also noticed that his enemies were unable to use time travel properly, missing the moment where they should have atttacked. Ryker failed to foresee, however, that one of these attacks would target his family home at a moment he was not in: A Deathlok exploded, fatally wounding Ryker's wife and son, and severely wounding his daughter.[note 2]

Heartbroken, Ryker isolated himself in a bunker with the bodies of his family members and cut all communication with the outside world, in a last-ditch attempt to save them by adding Deathlok cybernetics. He could only keep Rebecca alive, because her brain was almost undamaged, and in a beyond-the-state-of-the-art, experimental approach, managed to use the mechanisms are mere prosthetics that would be controlled by Rebecca's original personality. However, Ryker's sudden disappearance had attracted the attention of wary government agencies who feared he may have been back to his own old ways: SHIELD raided the bunker and arrested Ryker, just after he had managed to save Rebecca's life. Ryker was kept apart from Rebecca, probably in jail, and she was put in the care of a Dr. Kuhlmann, expert in cybernetics who was nonetheless dumbfounded by Ryker's undocumented procedure. Rebecca's outer appearance revealed her cyborg systems and she continued her life.[1] She was probably put on foster care with another family.[42][note 3] Rebecca eventually understood what kind of man her father really was, noticing how his advice was against her own experience,[8] and blaming him from the event that had blown her face because his work as a weapons designer had triggered the situation.[8] When Rebecca and several other superpowered teenageres were kidnapped by Arcade for a death match,[1] SHIELD briefly investigated her disappearance, but the incident was attributed to more future rebels going after Ryker.[43] It was during that event that Rebecca was identified as similar to Deathlok and fellow superpowered teenager Camille Bennally nicknamed her "Deathlok-ette", which she misheard as "Death Locket", later her alias; she also met Katy Bashir, a fan of Harlan Ryker.[1] Some time later, Rebecca settled in Albuquerque and, during her jubilee, she surrounded herself with androids, Life-Model Decoys that impersonated people she liked and her estranged family, including one she referred to as "Dad", but who did not look like Harlan Ryker and may have been an adoptive father.[42]

Attributes

Abilities

Harlan Ryker (Earth-616) from Avengers Arena Vol 1 2 0001

Harlan Ryker, expert in cybernetics

Harlan Ryker is a doctor of medicine and expert surgeon,[7] and also one of the main experts in cybernetics in the whole world. His most advanced work, either hardware or software, is so advanced that other specialist in the field are flabbergasted when trying to understand it, and his prowess is recognized both in his field and in the mainstream community. He managed not only to successfully create Deathlok cyborgs from corpses, but to use the technology to save and maintain the life of his daughter, something that would be many times more difficult when dealing with a living subject.[1]

Ryker also proved to be quite acrobatic, as he was able to escape Coldblood-7 by flipping while his enemy opened up point-blank fire on him.[5]

Besides English, Harlan Ryker speaks fluent Arabic[6] and Japanese.[28]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Ryker had access to advanced technological equipment first provided by Roxxon,[3] then funded by his own means.[27]

Weapons

Ryker kept a dart gun in a drawer of his desk during his time at Cybertek.[3]

Notes

Life Model Decoy (Earth-616), Rebecca Ryker (Earth-616) from War of the Realms Journey Into Mystery Vol 1 1 0001

Rebecca Ryker (right) with a LMD pretending to be her father (left), but not Harlan Ryker

  • Ryker was sometimes seen using a walking cane, but he does not need it to move.[3]
  • Ryker smokes cigarettes.[4]
  • Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005, in Deathlok (Luther Manning from Earth-7484)'s profile, specifies that the Siege cyborg had been designed by Harlan Ryker. The Siege cyborg design is identical to the Cyberwarriors, different only because Siege is controlled by John Kelly's mind. That suggests that the Cyberwarriors were also designed by Ryker.
  • At one time, Nightmare attacked Deathlok (Michael Collins) with his illusions. In his fantasy world, Deathlok saved his wife's life, only for her to suddenly turn into Ryker in front of Deathlok's eyes.[24]
  1. This is probably a topical reference, as the comic presenting the event (Deathlok Vol 2 #19) was published in 1992; and the Vietnam War had ended in 1975, and probably would be replaced by another war taking place 15 to 20 years in the past.
  2. Placing this event at this point of Ryker's history is an assumption. The event that destroyed the house and turned Rebecca into a cyborg is told as a flashback in Avengers Arena #2 (published in 2012), apparently as an event in a recent past because the flashback shows Rebecca as a young girl, probably 14 years old per the narrative, and the present events show Rebecca as maybe a couple years older at most. However, Ryker being arrested after the Iraq fiasco was shown in Deathlok Vol. 2 #21 (published in 1993), which means that it probably have happened way before a couple of years before the events in Avengers Arena - the key word being "probably."
  3. In Avengers Arena #2, Harlan Ryker is arrested and his daughter Rebecca, probably 14 years old, is not, so she was probably sent with a tutor or a host family. In Avengers Undercover #6, Rebecca complains about her father's behaviour and explains she does not trust him nor probably enjoys his company. The LMD that Rebecca calls "Dad" in War of the Realms: Journey Into Mystery #1 looks nothing like Harlan Ryker, being darker in skin, lighter in hair, lacking Ryker's characteristic moustache and goatee, and with a different face. This LMD probably impersonates not Ryker himself, but Rebecca's foster father, whose existence is only assumed.

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Avengers Arena #2
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #26
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Deathlok #1
  4. 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15 4.16 4.17 4.18 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #17
  5. 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #20
  6. 6.00 6.01 6.02 6.03 6.04 6.05 6.06 6.07 6.08 6.09 6.10 6.11 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #21
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Night Moves
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 Avengers Undercover #6
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #31
  10. 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #32
  11. 11.00 11.01 11.02 11.03 11.04 11.05 11.06 11.07 11.08 11.09 11.10 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Alternate Universes 2005 #1 ; Deathlok (Luther Manning from Earth-7484)'s profile
  12. Amazing Adventures (Vol. 2) #11
  13. 13.0 13.1 Captain America #287
  14. Captain America #289
  15. 15.00 15.01 15.02 15.03 15.04 15.05 15.06 15.07 15.08 15.09 15.10 Deathlok #3
  16. 16.00 16.01 16.02 16.03 16.04 16.05 16.06 16.07 16.08 16.09 16.10 16.11 16.12 Deathlok #2
  17. 17.0 17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5 17.6 17.7 17.8 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #1
  18. Deathlok (Vol. 2) #8
  19. 19.0 19.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #13
  20. 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Iron Man #301
  21. Deathlok Annual (Vol. 2) #1 ; "Ryker's Journal"
  22. 22.0 22.1 22.2 22.3 22.4 22.5 Marvel Comics Presents #62 ; "Test Run"
  23. Avengers Annual #21 , "the Puzzle"
  24. 24.0 24.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #9
  25. 25.0 25.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #11
  26. Deathlok (Vol. 2) #14
  27. 27.0 27.1 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #18
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 28.5 28.6 Deathlok #4
  29. Dark Reign Files #1
  30. Deathlok Annual (Vol. 2) #2
  31. All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3 ; Deathlok (Collins)' profile
  32. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z #3 ; Deathlok (Collins)'s profile
  33. 33.0 33.1 Marvel Atlas #1 ; France's profile
  34. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #11
  35. 35.00 35.01 35.02 35.03 35.04 35.05 35.06 35.07 35.08 35.09 35.10 35.11 35.12 35.13 35.14 35.15 Deathlok (Vol. 2) #19
  36. 36.0 36.1 36.2 Marvel Atlas #2 , Iraq's profile
  37. 37.0 37.1 37.2 37.3 37.4 Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1 ; Coldblood's profile
  38. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z Update #1; Battlestar's profile
  39. Silver Sable and the Wild Pack #12
  40. Deathlok (Vol. 2) #29
  41. Deathlok (Vol. 2) #30
  42. 42.0 42.1 War of the Realms: Journey Into Mystery #1
  43. Avengers Arena #13
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