S'ym

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caption=S'ym in his first appearance, Uncanny X-Men vol.1 #160 art by Brent Anderson
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=S'ym
real_name=not applicable
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Uncanny X-Men" #160 (Aug 1982)
creators=Chris Claremont
Brent Anderson
alliance_color=background:#c0c0ff
alliances=Demons of Limbo
Belasco, Magik, Magus, N'astirh
aliases=Duke Bleys
powers= Super strength, Near-Invulnerability|

S'ym is a fictional comic book supervillain in the Marvel Comics Universe, a demon who served as a frequent enemy and sometimes supporting character in "The Uncanny X-Men" and "The New Mutants".

S'ym is a "tip-of-the-hat" to Cerebus the Aardvark and his creator, Dave Sim, after Sim featured Chris Claremont as villain in an early issue of Cerebus . S'ym always referred to himself in the third person (e.g. "S'ym thinks this is a bad idea"), a trait shared by Cerebus. S'ym also has the same purple-grey coloration of Cerebus, and looks vaguely like Cerebus, only taller, more muscular, and with a horn. And, of course, "S'ym" is pronounced identically to "Sim".

Character biography

S'ym was a minion of Belasco when Belasco was ruler of the demonic dimension called Limbo. The X-Men were transported to Limbo via several teleportation discs. While there S'ym battled the X-Men, who were also trying to rescue their missing friend, the 7-year-old Illyana Rasputin, the younger sister of the X-Man Colossus. S'ym killed an alternate version of Illyana's brother Colossus.

Belasco took Illyana as his student, and she spent seven years in Limbo, until one day she defeated him, becoming Limbo's new ruler, and S'ym's master, before returning to the X-Men. Because the passage of time is infinitesimal compared to that of our dimension, she returned to the X-Men just after the moment when she had fallen into Limbo originally, albeit as a 14-year-old girl.

S'ym made several attempts at challenging Illyana's newfound status as Limbo's ruler. At each turn Illyana defeated S'ym, leaving S'ym to agree to serve Illyana whenever she visited Limbo. Finding a potential way to finally defeat Illyana, S'ym allied himself with the extraterrestrial Magus (who infected S'ym with a techno-organic virus). That attempt and a subsequent rebellion failed. S'ym then enlisted the aid of the demon N'astirh, aiding him in unleashing a demon invasion of New York City during the "Inferno" storyline. S'ym was defeated when Illyana sent most of the Inferno invaders back to Limbo.

S'ym remained in Limbo, while plotting a new invasion of Earth. He planned on using the Nexus of All Realities to invade Earth, but was stopped by his former master Belasco, who manipulated the mutant Cable to fight and stop S'ym.

When S'ym reappeared he served Belasco again, who had retaken control over Limbo. He was defeated by Nightcrawler, whose girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, took over Limbo. S'ym allied himself with the Archenemy, a powerful magical entity. S'ym disguised himself as Duke Bleys and became one of Sefton's most trusted advisers. As Bleys, S'ym tricked Sefton into allying herself with many other demon lords and merging their various realms and dimensions into a single bastion against the Archenemy. S'ym then revealed his true identity and revealed that the single, united realm was a much easier target for the Archenemy than the countless dimensions he was fighting before. Sefton and her army managed to slay the Archenemy and undid the merging of realms.

S'ym is next seen in the New X-Men "The Quest for Magik" storyline. Illyana returns to rule Limbo and S'ym is shown to be one of her servants. He appears to be free of the techno-organic virus, with no explanation given.

Powers and abilities

S'ym possesses great superhuman strength. He is stronger than Colossus and easily snapped off one of Wolverine's claws. This strength level makes him nearly invulnerable. Illyana Rasputin's Soulsword was one of the few weapons that could kill him, before having been infected by the techno-organic virus. S'ym, now a techno-organic being himself, can repair himself and reform from a single molecule, should he be destroyed. Also due to his techno-organic state, S'ym can also infect other objects and feed off its life energies, and/or turn them into techno-organic beings as well. During the Inferno storyline Illyana tried killing S'ym with her Soulsword but it proved ineffective against his new circuitry body.