Vital Statistics
Vital Statistics
Real Name: Theresa Rourke Cassidy (has sometimes gone by mother's maiden name, now usually uses paternal surname)
Affiliation: X-Factor Investigations (formerly X-Force, X-Corporation)
Place of Birth: County Mayo, Republic of Ireland
Known relatives: Tom Cassidy (first cousin once-removed), Sean Cassidy (father, deceased), Maeve Rourke
Cassidy (mother, deceased), Victoria Donnelly (cousin once-removed, living)
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 112 lbs.
Hair: Red
Eyes: Blue or green, depending on colorist
Why I Like Siryn
Now that I'm old and cynical (27) and not that overexcited teenager cackling evilly over her first Geocities account, I can look at this question with a bit of perspective. In the years since I started this page, I gave up on comics for a while (Siryn's getting written out of X-Force played a large part in that), and found another fandom, far bigger and wackier than that of Marvel's X-books. And I was surprised to find that in Harry Potter fandom, the character that most drew my interest--not that one that I liked, necessarily, but who's kept me the most fascinated--was Aunt Petunia. The lady is seriously mixed up. I enjoyed reading Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother because of the rampaging neuroses, and was absolutely spellbound by The Prince of Tides because those people are really fucked up. So that should explain something about what keeps me coming back to Siryn: I simply love the crazy. I can't get enough of neurotic characters, and Terry is neurotic. "But you've just described at least 75% of all Marvel Comics characters!" I hear you say? Granted. But we must acknowledge the pull that X-Force had on my 12-year-old imagination--oh, Christ on a corndog, that's over half my life ago. I really enjoyed the spirit of X-Force back in its heyday, in the Nicieza run. I loved that ragtag, adolescent rebellion, "Subtlety is for suckers" spirit. X-Force didn't just acknowledge its neuroses--it practically celebrated them. Furthermore, X-Force was not the establishment that X-Men was, and of course there's nothing inherently wrong with being an "establishment," but I appreciated the more peripheral, "We're out in the middle of Desert McNowheresville and we like it!" separateness that X-Force showed from the X-Men, so that vaguely fringe-element team was where I was going to find my girl. So I got a charge out of Siryn. She brought the neurosis like the best of them, with her classically weird family, alcoholism, vaguely addressed mind-control trauma, and immovable fear of romantic attachment. I mean, look at this, everyone on-panel agrees the girl is gorgeous, she's got men holding out for her, and she hasn't had a boyfriend since the renegade dupe of Multiple Man back in her Muir Island days. She made me happy. She also had a badassed power. And, okay, maybe I also saw a bit of a kindred spirit in a redhead with a weirdly spelled name, sue me.
Best Storyline
X-Force #31, by far! In this gem of a comic, Theresa goes with James back to her family’s ancestral home in Ireland, where he gets her to quit drinking and she confronts her uncle about their past together. A beautiful piece in all respects that is recommended for a place in anyone’s comic collection for nuanced characterization, sharp pacing, uninterrupted focus, and incredibly sensitive storytelling. Even the art and coloring are memorably beautiful.
No need to change this entry: that issue from 1994 is still the standard by which all other Siryn canon is measured, but there have been some notable runners-up since then. I can recommend X-Force issues #73-74 for the "Death of Warpath" story; it's not really a Siryn story but it brings an emotional balance to the events of 31 and demonstrates that JFM could write Theresa quite beautifully when he wanted. I'm also impressed with JFM's characterization in X-Force 91, though his Cassidy history is dodgy and the fact that he'd just written Terry out of the book kind of casts a pall over the story. But for something completely different, if you can track down the issues of Wolverine--I think they're #154-155, but I don't have my pre-dropout comics collection here in Albania--in which Siryn gets her powers back, I recommend checking them out. Yes, I know of the place Rob Liefeld occupies in most comics fan circles, but I have to give him this much: he put Siryn in X-Force in the first place, and after the incident with Feral, he put her back in the fight. The portrayal of Siryn is admirable, the history for her character is invaluable, and the art is surprisingly not-bad.
Siryn’s powers
Code-named after the mermaids in Greek mythology whose songs lured sailors to their deaths on the rocks, Siryn inherited sonic powers from her father, Sean "Banshee" Cassidy, currently presumed dead. For most of her active duty, her powers essentially mimicked his: she can fly on sound-waves and vocally create waves of concussive force. So basically, she flies around and yells at people and breaks things. It sounds simplistic, but there's no getting around the fact that Psylocke had to sneak up behind her before Wolverine could go crazy on the rest of the team during the X-Cutioner's Song. She can also scream and talk at the same time, something her father could not do, and the only explanation I can come up with for this trick is that she has an extra set of vocal chords. During her time with X-Corporation, the Eurotunnel incident showed her with bleeding vocal chords after the battle, but since disappearing from that outfit, she's developed new variations on the sonic theme.
For example, she can use her power to "bend" soundwaves, or rather redirect sound, so she and teammates can hear things from far away. She can create a sort of sonic force-field, and even a silent one, that insulates her and associates from others in the vicinity, which enables her to control who hears when she talks.
Most exciting of all, however, is her mind-bending power. With a non-mutant human, with unobstructed hearing, while Siryn is perfectly calm, she can modulate her speaking voice a certain way to make her audience love her so much they'll do anything for her. It brings new meaning to the term "velvet voice." It means she can get into places she'd normally not be allowed, and then out again, with a minimum of damage, which is quite a departure from the fighting spirit of X-Force that I so enjoyed, but it's highly appropriate for X-Factor Investigations. It means she can get informants to cooperate with a minimum of struggle, and that comes in mighty handy for an investigations operative.