Spike (Marvel Comics)

Spike is the name of several fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. They are not to be confused with Spyke from X-Men: Evolution, nor with Spike Freeman, another character in the groups X-Statix and X-Force.

Spike (Darian Elliott) is a character in the series X-Statix from Marvel Comics.

Spike (Gary Walsh) is a character from New X-Men, who first appeared in issue #126 of that title. He was a student at the Xavier Institute before M-Day.

Lance Gibson portrayed the role in X-Men: The Last Stand.

Spike (X-Statix)

Spike
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Force #121 (Dec. 2001)
Created by	Peter Milligan, Mike Allred
In-story information
Alter ego	Darian Elliott
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	X-Force X-Statix
Notable aliases	The Spike
Abilities	Ability to generate bone spike projectiles

Publication history

The Spike (Darian Elliott) first appeared in X-Force #121, and was created by Peter Milligan and Mike Allred. He is a mutant that could generate razor-sharp spikes from his body, which he could fire outward with deadly accuracy.

Fictional character biography

After watching video footage of independent hero the Spike in action, the Santa Monica, California-based mutant-superhero group X-Statix agrees to have him join the team. His antagonistic nature creates fighting and tension among himself and his teammates.

During a battle with the mutant terrorist group the Brotherhood, the Spike aids the Orphan in killing one of the Brotherhood members by impaling her as she fell backwards from the Orphan’s punch. In another battle, in Central America, the Spike and the Anarchist competed to kill as many militiamen as possible. Sometime later, after seeing Vivisector and Phat holding hands, the Spike's homophobic reaction causes another rift with the team. The Spike eventually is killed by an impostor, who is himself then killed.

Spike (New X-Men)

Spike
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	New X-Men vol. 1 #126 (July 2002)
Created by	Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely
In-story information
Alter ego	Gary Walsh
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	New X-Men
Abilities	extends sharp, pointed protrusions from his body

Publication history

Spike (Gary Walsh) first appeared in New X-Men vol. 1 #126 (but did not receive a real name until eight issues later), he was created by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely. He was listed as depowered during the M-Day event.[1]

Fictional character biography

Spike is a young mutant enrolled at the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. Spike has the ability to extend sharp, pointed protrusions from his body.

Other comic characters named Spike

• A member of The People was known as Spike. The youth had six arms but apparently perished in the destruction of her mansion. She first appeared (and perished) in Sub-Mariner vol. 1, #42
• Spike is also the name of a Deviant mutant, who along with Coal and String, was sent by Ghaur to retrieve the Proteus Horn which could summon undersea monsters. He was mistaken for Sunspot by Namorita. He first appeared in New Mutants Annual #5
• A member of Hellbent was also called Spike. He could fire spikes that caused delusions. He first appeared in Moon Knight vol. 3, #58.
• An agent of Rainman is known as Spike as well. He was forced to give information about the Rainman by the White Tiger and first appeared in Crew #2.

Other versions

• Earth-616: David Evan Munroe Jr. was born in New Jersey to an unknown father and Vivian Munroe (Storm's father's sister). Vivian named her son David, after Ororo’s father, who had died too soon. Unfortunately, she later became a drug addict and eventually died of HIV, leaving young David in the care of his loving grandparents. As of yet David hasn't manifested any mutant powers. He also has yet to join the X-Men and has only recently met Storm in this universe.
• A version of Spike appeared in the X-Babies Stars Reborn as an evil, indestructible X-Baby.

In other media

Animation

A character named Evan Daniels or Spyke appears in X-Men Evolution voiced by Neil Denis. Evan Daniels was born in New York City, New York to an unnamed father and Vivian Daniels. His mutant abilities are first noticed at his high school basketball game by his Aunt Ororo (aka Storm a longtime member of the X-Men), and his teammate Pietro. The next night Storm, along with Cyclops and Jean Grey, approached Evan's parents about his mutant powers and attending Xavier's School. Evan angrily declines on his own behalf and leaves. He goes to his school to catch the thief who keeps breaking into his locker. It is revealed that Pietro is not only the thief, but a mutant with super speed powers. Pietro, who renames himself Quicksilver, breaks into all the lockers in the school and lets Evan take the heat as he escapes prosecution. Only when Charles Xavier uses his pull to help Evan get out of prison does he join the X-Men and the school under the code name Spyke. Spyke settles the score with Quicksilver when he, Cyclops, and Jean defeat the speedy mutant. Spyke is cleared of all charges when he catches Quicksilver's arrogant confession on tape. During his tenure with the X-Men, Spyke didn't want any special treatment from anyone at the school because he was Storm's nephew. Though he liked being an X-Man and thought of them as his family, Spyke at times acted selfishly and inconsiderate of others. Spyke would goof around in class and on at least one occasion ditched school mid-class to go skateboarding with his human friends. He also was late for several training exercises in the Danger Room resulting in him getting reprimanded by Storm and causing several X-Kids to fail in their training exercise because Spyke was not there to back them up. If not for him saving Storm's life from the Hungan, Spyke would have been sent home to his parents due to his lack of concern for school and DR training. After he and the other X-Men were discovered to be mutants, Spyke grew angry at how they were being treated. After drinking Pow-R8, an energy drink that was toxic to mutants even by touching it, Spyke found out he could not retract or fully control his spikes. After seeing how cruelly he was treated because of his condition, Spyke joined the Morlocks (a group of mutants who could not "pass" for human and so were driven underground) because he wanted to fight for mutants who looked different from normal humans. Storm did not take this well and tried to convince Spyke to come back, but he refused. When Evan returned later in the series, he had mutated even further, and now most of his upper body was covered by armadillo-type bone-plates except for his face and below the waist, and with the new ability to heat up the bone spikes he creates. During this time, Spyke began using his powers to fight against humans who were attempting to commit hate crimes against the Morlocks and mutants in general. These actions eventually led to him being the target of a group of anti-mutant bigots, led by Duncan Matthews. Attacked with electrical mining guns, Spyke was cornered, but the Morlocks and X-Men stepped in and defeated Duncan and his accomplices, who were arrested by the police shortly after the battle was over. When Storm tried to persuade him once again to return to the institute, Spyke said the Morlocks needed him more and chose to remain with them. He later helped out in destroying the Pyramids surfaced by Apocalypse. Spyke is last seen in a group photo with the future X-Men, the New Mutants and their unaffiliated allies. In this photo, he is wearing the bottom half of his X-Men costume, which may mean he has finally returned to the X-Men.

Film

• In the movie X-Men: The Last Stand, a "Spike" character portrayed by Lance Gibson appeared in a battle with Wolverine, where he was depicted with the ability to extrude bony spikes from his flesh and hurl them with great speed and force. The battle culminates in a mutual stabbing.
• A character named Daniels appears in X-Men: Days of Future Past portrayed by Jaa Smith-Johnson, is probably based in Spyke from X-Men Evolution. Daniels is a mutant who fought in the Vietnam War. In 1973, Daniels is first shown as a mutant soldier in Saigon part of a military team along with Toad, Ink and Havok about to be appropriated by William Stryker on behalf of Trask Industries' mutant research program. During Mystique's fight to rescue them, Daniels used his mutant powers to put some of the soldiers to sleep. He leaves Vietnam with the others soon afterwards, returning to the United States.

References

1. New X-Men vol. 2 # 24