Cerebra's Files

Rictor

Real Name: Julio Esteban Richter
Affiliation: X-Factor Investigations
Previous Affiliations: X-Corporation, X-Force, Weapon P.R.I.M.E., New Mutants, X-Factor (ward)
Status: De-powered
Relatives: Luis Alejandro (father, deceased), Mother (unnamed), Gonzalez (uncle, presumed deceased), Omar (cousin)
Alternate-X Versions: (AOA)
Codename Etymology: Pronounced rĭk'tər [Origin unknown]; Probably a variant of Richter, for the Richter Scale, devised by U.S. seismologist Charles Francis Richter (1900-85). Powers & History: Rictor generates seismic waves from his hands. As a child, Julio watched Stryfe kill his father, an arms merchant. Later, Rictor was found by X-Factor and taken in by them. He then joined the New Mutants, but ran off to find Wolfsbane in Genosha before the formation of X-Force. He also believed Cable to be his father's murderer, due to the fact that Stryfe was a clone of Cable's, and that added to his decision to leave. Rictor resurfaced as a member of the short-lived Department K team Weapon: P.R.I.M.E., but rejoined his friends in X-Force when Cable disappeared during that battle and was presumed dead. Even when Cable returned, Rictor stayed, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt, and because he had become close friends with Shatterstar. During this period, Rictor returned to Guadalajara, Mexico after his cousin and uncle were shot during an arms deal. However, wouldn't save his cousin from the law, feeling that someone needed to stop the cycle of self-destruction his family was on. Rictor then returned to X-Force. When Cable later moved X-Force back to the X-Mansion and began to use his telepathy more in team actions, Rictor left X-Force in a huff.

Rictor eventually returned to X-Force to lend support to Shatterstar, who was undergoing an identity crisis. However, after Operation: Zero Tolerance, Rictor and 'Star refused to accept Cable's offer of new underground identities and returned to the Richter home in Mexico to try and end the family's arms-dealing business. While on this crusade, Rictor (and Shatterstar) were hired to test out the abilities of a mutant operative for the Verschlagen company. They discovered that the operative was one of eight children bred by an evil scientist, Hanna Verschlagen, and teamed with one of the children, Asahi, to stop Hanna from using her spawn to catalyze her own latent powers. While there, they encountered Neurotap, who had secretly called in the rest of X-Force to assist in the operation. Following Verschlagen's defeat and the deaths of her children, Ric remained in Mexico with Shatterstar.

Following the outing of Professor X, his return from Shi'ar space and the defeat of Cassandra Nova, Rictor was recruited into the X-Corporation and spent time as a field operative in Europe, where he was involved in the Weapon XII incident. Interestingly, Rictor proved to have a natural resistance to Weapon XII's mind control.

In the aftermath of M-Day, Rictor was rendered powerless, and contemplated a suicide jump off a building in New York. Fortunately, he was spotted by Multiple Man, who sent a dupe to talk Ric down. Strangely, the dupe was a perverse side of Jamie, and ended up pushing Rictor off the ledge, only to have him saved by M. Rictor was then invited to join Madrox's new X-Factor Investigations, a private eye firm.
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