From speed demon to whirling dervish: Ricochet Rita / Spiral Appreciation 2021

[Ricochet Rita]

Mojoverse, the dimension of the Spineless-Ones, is a twisted warped sick place, with a dangerous tendency to history repeating and loops.

One of these saddest loops is Rita/Spiral, whose story's got some sort of Greek tragedy's quality in its ironic fate.

Imagine you're a carefree happy-go-lucky self-sufficent stuntwoman, who lives only for the following kamikaze scene and your beloved dog and parrot. Suddenly an alien crosses your path, then your wild life goes truly wild and your loyalty, courage and recklessness cause you going to pieces...and pursuing in a neverending cycle your old innocent self. So burning rancor and cold violence are your only drives from now on.

Poor wounded thing.

RITA "RICOCHET" WAYWORD



Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 120 lbs?
Skin: White
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Black


SPIRAL



Height: 5' 10"
Weight: 162 lbs
Skin: Reddish
Eyes: Yellow (cornea and iris)
Hair: Silver
Unusual Features: Six arms (one fully cybernetic), three fingers in hands and feet

Spell Casting:
Spiral has powerful mystical abilities. With gestures or dance moves, she can teleport herself and numerous people across great distances. Teleportation and her more powerful spells require complicated dance moves. Some of Spiral's spell-casting powers can be triggered through small hand gestures of her many hands. Spiral often incorporates knives and swords into more complicated spells. Spiral can also disguise herself through her magic. With Mojo's aid or specific astral events, Spiral can open gateways between dimensions and travel through time. Currently, her trans-realities powers have been cancelled by Mojo, and she can only teleport on Earth-616 where Mojo dumped her.

Abilities:
Spiral is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and sword fighter. Her six arms are fully coordinated, giving her great dexterity and athletic ability. However, Spiral will often lose to less powerful opponents due to tendencies of overconfidence, toying with her foe for too long, or becoming distracted. To cast many, if not all of her spells, Spiral's arms must be free and unhindered and, in some cases, she must be free to dance as well.

Spiral demonstrated highly developed skills in cybernetics and genetic manipulation which she has used to turn humans into powerful cyborgs at her Body Shoppe. Most notable include Lady Deathstrike and the cybernetic Reavers, who have since been "upgraded" by Donald Pierce.

Origins: Longshot #1-6 (1985-86) + X-Factor Annual #7 (1992)

[Extracts from Marvel Database]


Ricochet Rita / Spiral Appreciation 2020


Ricochet Rita / Spiral Appreciation 2019

[Sandmans_Raven]

Has she appeared in anything since MMX? Was curious if anyone has done anything with her since she got her soul back

[Alex.]

Has she appeared in anything since MMX? Was curious if anyone has done anything with her since she got her soul back

She appeared in X-factor quite recently.

[Sandmans_Raven]

She appeared in X-factor quite recently.

Good to know! I'll have to check that out

[Nyssane]

She appeared in X-factor quite recently.

I'm a little disappointed that X-Factor portrayed her as a victim of Mojo once again. She got her full powers back in Mr. and Mrs. X right before that, and that would have been a fantastic path forward for the character. But nope, they basically ignored that story and had her serving Mojo once again. I'm also not sure how I feel about her having tried to help Wind Dancer escape Mojoworld. On one hand, it does make sense given Spiral's hatred for Mojo. On the other, I like Spiral as a woman completely out for her own interests.

[Thundershot]

Another twist with Spiral is that we never see her appearances in the correct order. She’s so time twisted that you never know where in her time stream she is. That explains her with different personalities and different bionic parts.

[Frostfire]

Thanks for posting this.

First things first about her art style in the most recent book. She's depicted with a shorter hair style that we've never seen before (usually she has long white hair). Although it's probably an art style choice we do learn that she has a brain implant that blocks telepathic intrusion and who knows what else. More on that later. But the artist, Baldeon, drew the arms sprouting out of her sides (rather than stacked in a row on the shoulder) and it looks really weird.

While it does seem like she jumps back and forth, between free of Mojo and not, and it seems to not make any sense, there is evidence that there is continuity. We do see that Ginny Guzman is now with her (and adopted her hair style and color). So the events in Uncanny X-Force seem to be canon. We may be able to assume that the events of Mr. and Mrs. X are too. It could be that even though she got free of Mojo before, it could be she can never truly be free of him, or he still has some sort of control/leverage over her (possibly even threatened Ginny which explains why the both of them are there in Mojoworld).

It is revealed that Spiral tried to help Wind Dancer escape but she ultimately decided to just 'wipe and get rezzed'. The team included Spiral in their note that she needed to be rescued. So they may be playing along like Shatterstar is - pretending that the Dear Leader is the best and life in Mojoworld is great.

[Alex.]

I'm a little disappointed that X-Factor portrayed her as a victim of Mojo once again. She got her full powers back in Mr. and Mrs. X right before that, and that would have been a fantastic path forward for the character. But nope, they basically ignored that story and had her serving Mojo once again. I'm also not sure how I feel about her having tried to help Wind Dancer escape Mojoworld. On one hand, it does make sense given Spiral's hatred for Mojo. On the other, I like Spiral as a woman completely out for her own interests.

Yeah, it bothers me that the character gets reseted everytime she's used. And while we can stretch the "she's time twisted" for the sake of history, I don't think writers care about it. How many times has she been freed from Mojo just to get back to him with no explanation? 3 maybe 4 times? Sisterhood, X-force, MMX. I'm missing some...

[Frostfire]

Yeah, it bothers me that the character gets reseted everytime she's used. And while we can stretch the "she's time twisted" for the sake of history, I don't think writers care about it. How many times has she been freed from Mojo just to get back to him with no explanation? 3 maybe 4 times? Sisterhood, X-force, MMX. I'm missing some...

agreed - it is disappointing that she gets reset to the status quo - rather than evolving or progressing her story and character. It's like an abusive relationship. But per my other post at least it seems that some character development has been kept to some degree we will have to wait and see.

[Sandmans_Raven]

I'm a little disappointed that X-Factor portrayed her as a victim of Mojo once again. She got her full powers back in Mr. and Mrs. X right before that, and that would have been a fantastic path forward for the character. But nope, they basically ignored that story and had her serving Mojo once again. I'm also not sure how I feel about her having tried to help Wind Dancer escape Mojoworld. On one hand, it does make sense given Spiral's hatred for Mojo. On the other, I like Spiral as a woman completely out for her own interests.

Ah, that's exactly what I was afraid of. I guess I'll just skip that then. I was really hoping she would be her own person after MMX instead of being Mojo's lackey again.

[Thundershot]

Yeah, it bothers me that the character gets reseted everytime she's used. And while we can stretch the "she's time twisted" for the sake of history, I don't think writers care about it. How many times has she been freed from Mojo just to get back to him with no explanation? 3 maybe 4 times? Sisterhood, X-force, MMX. I'm missing some...

Sadly, like Longshot, she probably gets mindwiped a lot. It’s a theme with Mojoworld denizens.

[Thievery]

It is revealed that Spiral tried to help Wind Dancer escape but she ultimately decided to just 'wipe and get rezzed'. The team included Spiral in their note that she needed to be rescued. So they may be playing along like Shatterstar is - pretending that the Dear Leader is the best and life in Mojoworld is great.

This what I think is happening. Mojo has captured Spiral and has forced her to help him. At the end of the Mojo story, I think that she breaks free of Mojo for good.
At least that is what I hope happens.

[Frostfire]

This what I think is happening. Mojo has captured Spiral and has forced her to help him. At the end of the Mojo story, I think that she breaks free of Mojo for good.
At least that is what I hope happens.

Yea, unfortunately she's a minor character in a side universe within the greater Marvel Universe, so mostly use ask a lackey/plot device and not a growing and developing character. Inexplicably reset back to the status quo anytime she actually gets mentioned sadly.

[Thundershot]

Yea, unfortunately she's a minor character in a side universe within the greater Marvel Universe, so mostly use ask a lackey/plot device and not a growing and developing character. Inexplicably reset back to the status quo anytime she actually gets mentioned sadly.

Unfortunately, that’s what usually happens to characters like this. Until she gets to be in a successful long running series with tons of new established characterization, it’ll just keep happening. Very few have escaped that kind of development.. I think Songbird and Mach X are the only ones I can think of off hand.

[Ricochet Rita]

agreed - it is disappointing that she gets reset to the status quo - rather than evolving or progressing her story and character. It's like an abusive relationship. But per my other post at least it seems that some character development has been kept to some degree we will have to wait and see.

Agree. What a bummer that insistence in not letting characters to go up to a new level, that laziness in not exploring new sides of them.

We must keep the faith, though.