Origin
Zero was created 2000 years in the future by the Askani as a prototype for the Ambient-energy Damping Automated peacekeeping Mechanisms (ADAMs). Zero was damaged and found by the mutant tyrant, Stryfe, who opposed the Askani. Stryfe reactivated Zero, leaving it mute and obedient. Zero would become Stryfe’s most trusted ally. When Stryfe’s armies were defeated, Stryfe and Zero fled, travelling back in time to the late 20th century.
Creation
Zero was created by Louise Simonson and Rob Liefeld in 1990 and first appeared in The New Mutants issue 86 (1990).
Major Story Arcs
Mutant Liberation Front
In the 20th century, Stryfe gathered a group of mutants and formed the terrorist organisation known as the Mutant Liberation Front. Stryfe’s new team fought against Cable and his New Mutants and later the X-Force. During the X-Cutioner’s Song, Stryfe was defeated on the Moon and Zero disappeared and was deactivated.
Reactivated
Zero ended up in the possession of the arms dealer, Tolliver, an alias of Tyler Dayspring, son of Cable. Zero was reactivated when the mercenaries Deadpool, Copycat, Garrison Kane and Slayback were all looking for “the ultimate weapon”, which turned out to be Zero. Zero was now capable of speech and following his original programming: peace-keeping. It scanned its surroundings for any object and person who were a threat to peace on Earth and eliminated Slayback. He was about to eliminate Deadpool as well, but Deadpool convinced Zero that he had potential for good as well by saving Copycat’s life. Zero agreed and left.
“Alive”
Zero joined Tyler Dayspring for a short while, helping him in finding out the true relationship between Cable and Stryfe, but it left Tyler to go on its own quest: to achieve full sentience and become “alive”. It sensed the potential to be alive in the techno-organic being known as Douglock and gave it independence from the Phalanx. Zero set out to teach Douglock about his new existence, but Zero was now hunted by killer androids, programmed by Stryfe to destroy Zero in case of his death. Zero and Douglock were assisted by Excalibur and together they tried to deactivate the androids from Stryfe’s secret base below the Pentagon. Here, Zero realized that he had become sentient and also the reason why Stryfe wanted him killed: locked within his databanks, Zero had all the secrets of the Legacy Virus, Stryfe’s final “gift” to the world. This revelation activated Zero’s self-destruct sequence and the killer androids in Stryfe’s base. Shadowcat managed to remove the self-destruction device, but Zero realised that his sentience was a cruel joke played on him by Stryfe; it was just programmed to think it was alive. Zero sacrificed itself to protect Excalibur, Douglock and a family of innocents from the base’s self-destruction, but in its last few moments on Earth, Stryfe showed his cruelty again: Zero was granted full sentience and had become truly alive, but also set off a self-destruct device in the base to kill Zero. As this happened, a recording of Stryfe delivered the taunting message, “Congratulations. You’re human. For the next eight seconds.” In its last moments on Earth, Zero transferred all of its memories to Douglock. So while its body is destroyed, the data that made up Zero’s mind is still contained within the mind of Douglock (currently known as Warlock).
The Return
Zero returned, working with Stryfe again, when the original X-Force reformed to avenge Cable’s death. At the end of this event, he was destroyed again.
Powers
Teleportation: Zero is capable of opening gateways linking to places spatially without having to traverse the space betweeen.
Personality
Zero does what he is told. He doesn’t talk to others and was suspected to not be able to speak for a while. Zero is linked to Douglock and the Phalanx.
In Other Media
Merchandise
- Zero was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of an Amazon exclusive box set.