Mys-Tech

Mys-Tech were a shadowy Faustian organisation who acted as the main villains in a range of initially successful but short-lived comics launched in the US by Marvel UK in the 1990s. Some of these stories also were published in anthology form in the UK in the Marvel UK comic Overkill.

They first appeared in Warheads #1 (June 1992) and were created by John Freeman, Nick Vince, Gary Erskine, and John Beeston.

Fictional origins

The board of Mys-Tech, a multinational corporation, were originally seven mages who in 987 sold their souls to the demon Mephisto in exchange for immortality. The Mys-Tech board members must provide a steady stream of souls to the demon otherwise they will breach their contract and their own souls will be forfeit. Over the years the board accumulated power and wealth and in the modern age this power and wealth became a business empire.

Board members

The seven mages who became the board of Mys-Tech were:

• Algernon Crowe
• Bronwen Gryffn
• Ranulph Haldane
• Eadmund Porlock
• Brendan Rathcoole
• Gudrun Tyburn
• Ormond Wychwood

Headquarters

Mys-Tech operated as a respectable business but hidden beneath one of their front organisations, The Museum of Pagan Antiquities at Canary Wharf in London they had constructed a fantastic underground headquarters. These headquarters were used to house the arcane magical technologies the board used to increase their power and keep the supply of souls flowing to Mephisto. Chief amongst these was the Un-Earth, a macabre microcosm of the planet used in a similar fashion to a voodoo doll. The headquarters also housed extensive biotech labs. It was in one of these labs that the genetically engineered assassin named Julius Mullarkey, also known as Killpower, was created by Mys-Tech scientist Dr. Oonagh Mullarkey.^[1] The headquarters were also the base for the Warheads, Mys-Tech's mercenaries who travel through wormholes collecting sophisticated technology for their masters.

Enemies

Mys-Tech featured as villains in many of the titles launched by Marvel UK in their 1990s US expansion. The characters featured in these titles included Dark Angel (previously known as Hell's Angel), Death's Head, the partners Motormouth and Killpower, and the Knights of Pendragon. The Warheads Kether Troop also later went on to rebel against their masters.

The scarred cyborg Badhand has confronted Mys-Tech forces multiple times. Notably, he has spied on the Warheads, allied himself with Nick Fury and assisted Cable with a theft from Mys-Tech's vaults.

Mys-Tech also came up against other Marvel Universe characters such as the X-Men, although they never appeared outside of the Marvel UK imprint.

Mys-Tech War and More

In the mini-series Mys-Tech Wars (1993), by Dan Abnett and Bryan Hitch, their forces fought most of the Marvel Universe's assembled heroes. In the resulting demonic invasion, many of Earth's heroes (including a majority of the Avengers, Fantastic Four, and X-Men, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and Nick Fury) were slaughtered. However, due to the surviving heroes' efforts, the entire event was erased from history. As such, only a few, such as Doctor Strange, Professor X and Motormouth, actually remember what had happened.^[2]

In a latter attempt to destroy all super-heroes, the board transform themselves into younger versions. In the same issue, they cause the formation a psychic being that is the result of their centuries of malice. It is called the 'Anti-Being'.^[3] They try to team up with in a bid to dominate all reality but lose the being to the cyborg Death's Head.^[4]

They're mentioned in a Spitfire one-off as still around.

Finally, they attempted to get out of their contract with Mephisto by sending all of Britain to Hell. The country's heroes fought them back at the Battle of London Bridge (later covered up) and took the Museum of Pagan Antiquities, sending the board to Hell instead and leaving the group seemingly gone for good. S.H.I.E.L.D. stepped in to handle the clean-up,^[5] keeping MI:13 out of the loop so they could horde the technology for themselves.^[6] Years later, various Mys-Tech bases went active again and it was believed the group were returning; it turned out instead to be a hell-warped Killpower leading a second demonic invasion, all an elaborate move by Mephisto to end all his Msy-Tech contracts and return all the energies he had tied up in abandoned bases & weaponry.^[7]

References