Lady Deathstrike and Wolverine. Cover to X-Treme X-Men #28.

Lady Deathstrike

Lady Deathstrike (real name Yuriko Oyama) is a fictional character, a comic book supervillainess in the Marvel Comics universe and an occasional foe of the X-Men.

History

Cover to Wolverine #76.

Yuriko Oyama's father was Dark Wing, a criminal scientist who created the adamantium-to-bone bonding process. Yuriko's first appearance was Daredevil #197, where she teamed up with Daredevil to fight her father, Japanese crime lord Dark Wind (Kenji Oyama). Yuriko killed her father to free her lover Kiro from Oyama's servitude; the devoted Kiro, however, chose suicide over a life without Dark Wind. Distraught, Yuriko belatedly embraced her father's ideals and sought to track down whoever dishonored him. Her trail led to Wolverine, whose skeleton had been bonded with adamantium. Deathstrike sought to kill him to right the wrong of the theft and thus restore her family's honor, but she was defeated by Vindicator of Alpha Flight. Yuriko then went to the Mojoverse and Spiral's "body shoppe" where she received extensive cybernetic enhancements including adamantium bones and talons.

Lady Deathstrike was once a member of the team of criminal cyborgs called the Reavers, led by Donald Pierce, who once managed to successfully defeat the X-Men. The Reavers have since been annihilated by the Sentinels, and Yuriko has been operating independently.

Although she briefly resigned her quest to kill Logan and even assisted the X-Men on a few occasions, she still remains a murderer and assassin. Despite all this, Yuriko is set apart from many the X-Men's foes in that she adheres to a code of honor.

Powers and abilities

Lady Deathstrike is a cyborg with superhuman strength, speed and agility. As she still has some biological parts that do not seem to be affected by the adamantium bonding process which would be lethal to any ordinary human, it has been speculated that she may be mutant with similar powers to Wolverine; she has demonstrated the ability to regenerate her organic tissue in the past, though whether this is an attribute of her cybernetics or not is unknown. Although her normal form is obviously that of a cyborg, she is capable of hiding this fact (through shapeshifting and mundane disguises) when necessary. She is an expertly trained assassin and warrior, and while she prefers stealth and subtlety in her killings, she often lets her hatred of Wolverine overcome her better judgment.

Movies & Television

Kelly Hu as Lady Deathstrike.

Lady Deathstrike was portrayed by the actress Kelly Hu in the X-Men 2 motion picture released in 2003. In her film incarnation, she is not portrayed as a cyborg, but as a mutant with abilities similar to those of Wolverine. Though, as in the comic books, she is portrayed as a villain in the film, her actual orientation is unclear as she is under the effects of mind control throughout the story.

Lady Deathstrike has also appeared in the X-Men animated series that ran from 1992-1997. She first appeared in the Season 3 episode "Out of the Past", and was voiced by Tasha Simms.