The Mutant Liberation Front, or MLF, is a Marvel Comics supervillain group, primarily enemies of X-Force. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist/co-writer Rob Liefeld, the original MLF first fully appeared in The New Mutants #87 (March 1990).

The Mutant Liberation group consisted of young terrorist mutants, formed under the mutant time-traveler Stryfe. After his apparent death, the group reformed under Reignfire.

  History

The Mutant Liberation Front first appeared in New Mutants #87 (the same time as Cable, they both had a cameo on the last page of #86). The MLF was primarily the antagonist of the New Mutants, and their later incarnation, X-Force. They also fought the second incarnation of X-Factor, and were eventually defeated by the X-Men during the X-Cutioner's Song. A second incarnation was assembled later by a villain known as Reignfire.

The team seemed mainly organized of disillusioned, anarchic mutant youths. Stryfe founded the group sometime after coming to the 20th century (from roughly 2,000 years in the future). They were likely assembled as a tool while Stryfe assembled his master plan which he executed in the X-Cutioner's Song storyline. The exact size of the organization is unknown, but they were seen to have had several advanced bases around the world, and employed a number of presumably human guards.

When the team first appeared, it was during the debut of new New Mutants artist Rob Liefeld, and the team was his creation (with Louise Simonson). Their first mission was to rescue Rusty and Skids, two New Mutants who had been captured by the government. Rusty and Skids would not be seen for some time later, but when they were it was revealed that they stayed with the group due to mind control devices Stryfe implanted in them. It was never indicated that any of the others members had similar implants.

After the organization was dismantled in the X-Cutioner's Song, four of the imprisoned members (Wildside, Reaper, Forearm and Tempo) were liberated and recruited by a mysterious villain named Reignfire, who was believed to be a futuristic version of Sunspot. Already among the ranks of the new MLF were former New Mutant member Dani Moonstar (undercover on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D.) and Locus. X-Force's Feral also defected to the MLF, and Tempo betrayed them and went her own way. After a few minor missions, including a group that infiltrated Muir Island to obtain information on the Legacy Virus, the group was captured by members of Operation: Zero Tolerance and never reformed.

  Members

  Founding members

First appearing in New Mutants #86, the original incarnation were pawns of Stryfe and either forced or duped into serving him for a variety of reasons. The team disbanded after being defeated by the combined forces of the X-Teams.

• Stryfe - Vast telepathic and telekinetic abilities; clone of X-Force's Cable. Recently revealed to be alive and a major character in the Messiah War crossover.
• Dragoness (Tamara Kurtz) - Utilizes stored bodily energy to create stinging blasts or create flames in the atmosphere; sometimes uses robotic dragon wings and a jet pack for flight. Retain her powers following M-Day. Recently had a cameo in the 'Utopia' crossover, helping out mutants to escape Norman Osborn's Dark Reign, but was wounded in battle.
• Forearm (Michael McCain) - Superhuman size, strength, stamina, sturdiness, as well as two additional arms, and genius-level intellect. Strangled to death by Anaconda in the Madripoor Bloodsport tournament.
• Kamikaze - Able to excite the molecules of anything he touches to create violent explosions; flight. Currently deceased; accidentally decapitated by Archangel.
• Reaper (Pantu Hurageb) - Emits a neural disruption force, which, when focused through his scythe, can cause paralysis. Accidentally mind-wiped by Cable.^[1] Lost powers on M-Day; temporarily regained powers from Quicksilver, current whereabouts unknown.
• Strobe - Emits an aura of intense heat, which can melt objects, concentrate the energy into heat beams, or use thermal updrafts to fly. Lost powers on M-Day.
• Sumo - Can greatly increase his body mass, which grants him immense resistance to injury and impact, and super size, strength, stamina, and sturdiness. Currently deceased; shot in the head by Cable.
• Tempo (Heather Tucker) - Able to manipulate the flow of time in a certain area, allowing the speeding or slowing of the movement of objects. She is also one of the 198 mutants confirmed to have survived M-Day and one of the new Acolytes. Killed during the Age of X storyline.
• Thumbelina (Kristina Suggs) - Able to shrink to minuscule size while proportionally increasing her power and density (sister of the Nasty Boys Slab). Current whereabouts unknown.
• Wildside (Richard Gill) - Able to distort the senses of his opponents, however he rarely uses his powers as he prefers to maim and kill his victims by hand. Accidentally mind-wiped by Cable.^[1] Lost powers on M-Day.
• Zero - A silent android that Stryfe brought with him from the future. It is capable of advanced teleportation, and is the groups primary means of transportation. The Zero android later appeared inert.^[2] It was believed destroyed^[3], but revealed to have survived.^[4]
• Rusty (Russell Collins) - Able to generate and manipulate fires within his line of sight. Killed by Holocaust.

  Second incarnation

The next incarnation appeared in X-Force #26, with Danielle Moonstar having defected. This team, which also consisted of Dragoness, Forearm, Locus, Tempo and Wildside, was originally organized by Reignfire but had both Moonstar and Wildside as their leader at one point or another.

• Reignfire - Absorbs solar energy, metabolizes it, and uses it to increase his physical strength, project pyrokinetic burst of heat and fire, and utilize it for flight; protoplasmic life form patterned after Sunspot. Originally intended to actually be a future version of Sunspot. Currently deceased; second leader.
• Feral (Maria Callasantos) - Cat-like physiology grants her razor-sharp teeth and claws, a furry orange hide, a prehensile tail and flexible spine, and animal-like senses, strength, speed, agility, flexibility, reflexes, and endurance. Lost powers on M-Day; was killed (and partially eaten) by Sabretooth.
• Moonstar (Danielle Moonstar) - acting as an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent; Can cast empathic-based illusions and concentrates her psychic energy into the form of arrows that can cause severe psychic trauma in her victims; currently depowered.

  Third incarnation

A more recent incarnation appeared led by Stryfe again, who was in fact an alternate version of Domino. They appeared in X-Force vol. 2 #4, and opposed Skornn. Forearm, Thumbelina and Zero had rejoined the team.

• Cannonball (Samuel Guthrie)
• Jon Spectre- a mutant in the future, in a time when mutants, humans and Apocalypse fought with each other. Lost powers on M-Day.
• Stryfe (Beatrice Thurman)

  Associate members

• Collective Man (Sun, Chang, Ho, Han and Lin Tao-Yu) - Was also a member of the MLF under the leadership of Reignfire; until he betrayed Collective Man to the Chinese government; retained his mutant powers after M-Day.
• Jade Dragon (Dai Guan) - Was also a member of the MLF under the leadership of Reignfire; until he betrayed Jade Dragon to the Chinese government. Current whereabouts unknown.
• Locus - Able to teleport herself and other people or objects to a point that she or they have been some time in the past. Currently deceased.
• Nuwa - Was also a member of the MLF under the leadership of Reignfire; until he betrayed Nuwa to the Chinese government. Retained her powers following M-Day.
• Selby - Ability to instinctively decrypt and rewrite computer programs. Current whereabouts unknown.
• Skids (Sally Blevins) - Generates a force field around her body that sloughs off physical impact, absorbs energy, and counteracts friction allowing her to slide across surfaces. Retained her powers following M-Day. Currently an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

  Humanity's Last Stand

In Punisher vol. 3 #12, Humanity's Last Stand created a Mutant Liberation Front as their agents. The team were normal humans given drugs or costumes to empower them and were used to defame mutants. They were able to produce duplicates of an agent when one was killed.

• Deadeye (Antonio LeBlanco)
• Blast Furnace
• Corpus Delecti (Charles Spencer)
• Blindspot (Rose Smith)
• Thermal (Harry Riddle)

  Other versions

  Ultimate Marvel

In Ultimate X-Men #81 an unnamed, three faced mutant identifies himself as a member of the Mutant Liberation Front, a mutant-supremacist group, and is killed by a Sentinel. Since then they have become a major part of the Sentinels story arc, where they are led by the Ultimate version of Stryfe. Wolfsbane, Pyro and Zero are also members.

  References

1. ^ ^{a b} Weapon X vol. 2 #12
2. ^ Deadpool vol. 1 miniseries
3. ^ Excalibur #80
4. ^ X-Force vol. 2 #5

• Uncannyxmen.net feature on the MLF