Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.

Today we look at that adamantium laced menace that refuses to stay dead: Cyber
Appearances in Heroclix: Wolverine and the X-Men
First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents #85
Team Affiliations: Pinkerton National Detective Agency, Hell’s Belles, The Coven
Created By: Peter David and Sam Kieth

Silas Burr claims to have been born in Canada. He is an agent for the Pinkerton Detective Agency and was put on trial in Sioux City, Iowa in the Spring of 1912. He is found guilty on 22 counts of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. Silas escapes from the courthouse and makes it all the way to a western Canadian military base. There, the violent Silas found new purpose as a brutal drill instructor where he encounters the mutant calling himself Logan for the first time around World War I. Silas is instructed to focus on Logan specifically even going so far as to kill a woman that Logan was interested in before beating the mutant and gouging out his left eye. During the intervening years, both Silas and Logan (who has no memory of Silas) find their way to the Devil’s Brigade during World War II. After a tour in Indochina in 1959, Burr trains Logan’s son Daken. He is repaid for this effort when Daken destroys the camp and all personnel associated with it. Left to die by Daken, Burr is spared from death by Romulus when the elder creature decides to test the adamantium bonding process by bonding it to Burr’s skin. It is then that Silas Burr becomes Cyber.

Decades later, Cyber resurfaces in Madripoor as an enforcer for a drug cartel. He comes across Wolverine when Cyber interferes in the affairs of Tiger Tyger and General Coy. It is then that Wolverine has to overcome the deep seeded fear of Cyber, a remnant of the other mutant’s abuse back around World War I, in order to save Tiger Tyger’s life. Wolverine bites out Cyber’s left eye leading to Cyber falling into a truck full of hallucinogens and fleeing into the night.

Cyber later battles the Havok led X-Factor team with the Hell’s Belles under his tutelage. He then battles Wolverine again when Cyber attemps to steal a mystical gem called the Tear of Heaven. Cyber later encounters Wolverine again in Edinburgh, Scotland and almost defeats him until the beaten Wolverine leads the villain to Excalibur, where Kitty Pryde outsmarts him.

Cyber is later “rescued” by the Dark Riders and taken to one of Apocalypse’s Egyptian fortresses. Testing Cyber’s adamantium for purity, they determine that it will serve their purposes and use mutant beetles to eliminate all of Cyber’s remaining biological parts. This leaves only his adamantium, which Genesis attempts to use to rebond to Wolverine’s skeleton.

Cyber later returns in an astral form through unknown means and is able to posses the body of a young and powerful mutant. Cyber immediately finds the Tinkerer and contracts the genius villain to bond adamantium to his flesh once again. Cyber goes to Brussels in order to manipulate a confrontation between his two students, Wolverine and Daken. Cyber appears in the midst of this battle and challenges Daken to battle. Cyber dominates Daken and demands to know where Daken’s master is. Daken does not answer and is able to escape, leaving Wolverine and Cyber to fight once again. As the fight, Cyber collapses as his new host body has a weak heart. Knowing that Cyber can lead him to his son, Daken, Wolverine spares Cyber’s life and helps him get a pacemaker in exchange for the villain’s help. Cyber again runs into Wolverine and Daken in Northern Africa, attempting to make the pair help him track down Romulus. Daken and Cyber eventually come to terms and return to Saskatchewan where Cyber collapses once more. Daken crushes Cyber’s medicine and leaves the villain for dead. Somehow Cyber survives, only to be killed again by Ogun who tries to sell his adamantium laced corpse to Dr. Abraham Cornelius.