She is a villain in the
Marvel Comics universe who originally appeared in
Alpha Flight #33 that has attacked the X-Men, and specifically Wolverine countless times. Driven by revenge, Yuriko Oyama has made it her mission in life to destroy Wolverine. She is a cyborg, having twisted her human frame to become a better weapon of vengeance by means of the dimensional being Spiral and her “
Body Shop." She has retractable claw hands that can grow out to two feet in length that are razor sharp. She also has cybernetic implants in her head that make her nervous system react faster than that of a normal person and allow her to interface with computers. She also has a sort of electronic healing factor much like her nemesis, Wolverine. She is a skilled
martial artist, particularly in the art of Kenjutsu and other samurai warrior skills. She carries a vast assortment or
samurai weaponry, including a five-foot electro magnetically tempered steel katana, throwing stars, and
nunchakus. She also carries a long-range rifle that fires armor piercing explosive bullets.
Yuriko Oyama is the daughter of Kanji Oyama, a former
Japanese kamikaze pilot turned scientific genius. He developed the procedure of bonding adamantium to bones and thus can be credited for Wolverine’s current state. This genius did not come without its price. Shamed by his survival through his kamikaze attacks on American battleships, he scarred the faces of his two sons and his daughter. Years later, when he had perfected the adamantium grafting procedure, he lured the assassin Bullseye to his island. Many of
Bullseye’s bones had been shattered in recent battles with Daredevil, and Kanji made an arrangement with Bullseye to repair his skeleton with Kanji's grafting procedure in exchange for him killing the Japanese Prime Minister. In an attempt to get revenge on her father, Yuriko guided
Daredevil to her father’s island. Yuriko slew her father, Lord Dark Wind (as he was then known), just as he was about to kill Daredevil.
Shortly afterwards, she began to change her outlook on life. She came to adopt her late father’s point of view. She became obsessed with the mutant
Wolverine. Convinced that he stole her father’s procedure, she and several of her father’s warriors donned samurai gear and went to Canada to destroy him. Calling herself Lady Deathstrike, Yuriko herself wielded a
special sword that gave off destructive energy. She was defeated, however, by the second Vindicator, Heather Hudson.
Sometime after this defeat, Deathstrike had herself and three mercenaries (Cole, Macon, and Reese-See
Reavers for more background information) genetically altered by the dimensional being called Spiral. She and her band of cybogs were recruited by ex-White Bishop of
the Hellfire Club Donald Pierce when he put together the Reavers. Fueled by her sense of family honor, Deathstrike proved most persistent of all the Reavers. Their failed attempts to destroy the
X-Men had little to no effect on her ego, and she never let go of her target in Wolverine. Shortly after Trevor Fitzroy’s mutant hunting Sentinel robots destroyed the Reavers, the demonic spirit of Wolverine’s former sensei, Orgun, briefly possessed Lady Deathstrike. He abandoned her after yet another defeat.
Eventually Yuriko caught Wolverine. She had him in a position in which she could kill him, but discovered that
Magneto had removed his adamantium skeleton. Disgusted by this, she decided that there was
no honor in killing someone that was not equipped to fight her. She released him, and lost all motivation for their game of cat and mouse. Recently she has resurfaced, shortly after Wolverine’s
adamantium skeleton was replaced. He is her target again, and she’s bound by her honor to restart the chase.
Lady Deathstike is responsible for many
atrocities in Wolverine’s life, from the crippling of Logan’s love Yuriko, to the abduction of Amiko, Logan’s foster daughter. One of the things that makes this character so fascinating is her relentlessness. She cannot be told that the bonded metal on Wolverine’s skeleton was not the result of his robbing it from her father, and that it is something that was stolen by some secret agency that has yet to be unmasked. She cannot put this honor bound feud behind her.
She is a simple creature, fueled by one single thought. She is a heat-seeking missile headed straight for the sun, and
may god have mercy on Logan if she should ever catch him.