Mutant Liberation Front

Mutant Liberation Front (M.L.F.)
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance New Mutants #86 (February 1990)
Created by Rob Liefeld
Louise Simonson
In-story information
Base(s) bases around the world
Member(s)

Moonstar
Reignfire
Stryfe
Wildside

Members

The Mutant Liberation Front, or MLF, is a Marvel Comics supervillain group, primarily enemies of X-Force. Created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Rob Liefeld, the Mutant Liberation Front first appeared in The New Mutants #86 (February 1990).

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

History

The Mutant Liberation Front first appeared in New Mutants #86. In this brief initial appearance only five of the original eight members can be seen clearly; Strobe and Stryfe appear in only one panel each, with their faces obscured, while all that can be seen of Forearm is his two right arms in a single panel. The MLF was primarily the antagonist of the New Mutants and their successor group, X-Force. They are eventually defeated by a consortium of X-Force, X-Factor, and the X-Men during the "X-Cutioner's Song" story arc. A second incarnation is 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 "X-Cutioner's Song". 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.

The team's 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, 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 other members had similar implants.

After the organization was dismantled in the "X-Cutioner's Song", four of the imprisoned members (Forearm Reaper, Tempo and Wildside ) 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 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.

Second incarnation

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

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.

Associate member

Humanity's Last Stand

In Punisher vol. 3 #12, Humanity's Last Stand created a Mutant Liberation Front as their agents. The team was made up of 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. Their suits were all equipped with teleportation devices.

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. Pyro, Wolfsbane and Zero are also members.

References

  1. 1 2 Weapon X vol. 2 #12
  2. Deadpool vol. 1 miniseries
  3. Excalibur #80
  4. X-Force vol. 2 #5
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