Turns out, the secret to making her look cool is to DROP THE 1980S LOOK ENTIRELY.
LADY DEATHSTRIKE (Yuriko Oyama)
Created By: Dennis O'Neil, Larry Hama, Bill Mantlo, Sal Buscema, Chris Claremont & Barry Windsor-Smith
First Appearance: Daredevil #197 (Aug. 1983- as Yuriko), Alpha Flight #33 (April 1986- as Deathstrike)
Role: Mirror Image Villain
Group Affiliations: The Reavers, The Sisterhood of Mutants
PL 10 (169)
STRENGTH 5
STAMINA 5
AGILITY 6
FIGHTING 12
DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1
AWARENESS 2
PRESENCE 1
Skills:
Acrobatics 7 (+13)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+14)
Deception 4 (+5)
Expertise (History) 5 (+6)
Expertise (Assassin) 7 (+8)
Insight 5 (+7)
Intimidation 7 (+8)
Investigation 5 (+7)
Perception 6 (+8)
Stealth 5 (+10)
Vehicles 4 (+6)
Advantages:
Accurate Attack, Agile Feint, All-Out Attack, Benefit (Ambidexterity), Equipment 4 (Guns, Shuriken, etc.), Improved Critical 2 (Claws), Improved Smash, Power Attack, Precise Attack (Close/Concealment), Ranged Attack 8, Startle, Takedown
Powers:
"Cybernetic Augmentation"
Regeneration 8 [8]
"Claws" Strength-Damage +3 (Feats: Split, Improved Critical) (Extras: Penetrating 8) [13]
"Adamantium Skeleton" Protection 2 [2]
"Datalink" Communication 2 [8]
Leaping 1 (15 feet) [1]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Offense:
Unarmed +14 (+5 Damage, DC 20)
Claws +12 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +6
Defenses:
Dodge +13 (DC 23), Parry +13 (DC 23), Toughness +7, Fortitude +7, Will +6
Complications:
Enemy (Wolverine)- Yuriko's father invented Adamantium, and Yuriko hates that Logan has the stuff in him.
Responsibility (Mentally Unstable)- Yuriko is mentally crazed, and often changes from one moment to the next.
Total: Abilities: 70 / Skills: 56--28 / Advantages: 23 / Powers: 34 / Defenses: 14 (169)
-As a claw-guy AND a Regenerating guy, Wolverine ends up with a lot of enemies with sharp implements that actually tend to hit. This is a variation of what usually happens, where people like Persuader (
Legion of Super-Heroes) & Mai (
Avatar: The Last Airbender) just end up missing one whole hell of a lot, because you can't give the heroes massive bleeding wounds all the time.
-She's basically just some crazy chick who's the daughter of an evil scientist, hunting down Wolverine for "stealing" her daddy's Adamantium. Yeah, it's a pretty crappy motivation, but WHO CARES SHE HAS CLAWS ARRRR!!! Not a big Deathstrike fan, actually; she's just there to do some cutting.
-Yuriko Oyama is the daughter of Lord Dark Wind, a Japanese crime boss and scientist who created the process that allows Adamanitum to be bonded to bone. A crazy dude, he scarred the faces of his children (two sons later died) to mimic the ones he got from a failed Kamikaze mission during World War II. Deathstrike, like Silver Samurai, actually debuted in
DAREDEVIL of all places, allying with DD to free her lover from Dark Wind's control. Yuriko, as she was known back then, killed her own father, and her lover committed suicide to honor his fallen master.
-This drove Yuriko a bit nuts, and she soon adopted her father's ideals, and attempted to track down everyone who "dishonored" his memory. Now mimicking a samurai warrior, she hunted down adamantium-empowered individuals, targetting Wolverine when she found him instead of Bullseye. Wolverine & Vindicator managed to beat her, so she sought to empower herself. Ending up in Spiral's "Body Shoppe" in the Mojoverse, she had herself turned into a cyborg with monstrous, elongated fingernails, and then joined up with the Reavers. She would appear with them off and on, eventually becoming a full-time "Wolverine Foe", especially when the Reavers were killed by Trevor Fitzroy's Sentinels.
-She would give up her mission against Wolverine once the adamantium was torn from his bones, but continues as a mercenary and criminal. She would face Captain America, and maim Sunfire in battle (slicing off his legs), then joined the Thunderbolts "villain army" during
Civil War. She then popped up during the birth of Hope Summers, leading a band of new, nameless Reavers. Badly injuring Hellion, she was savagely attacked by X-23, who nearly killed her. She was rebuilt by Spiral, who made her a submissive member of the Sisterhood of Mutants, but she reappeared as her regular self, leading the old-school Reavers. Later, she's working for Doctor Octopus in his international scheme to devastate the planet, and executes the hero Kangaroo in Australia. For a while, her mind had left her body, and ended up possessing some regular people, but I think she's back to normal now.
-A Mercenary/Claw Girl-type build, she's good with her claws, and they're pretty sharp and dangerous, and she's got a healty smattering of high-impact Combat Advantages (modifying almost all of her caps this way), as well as a bunch of skills. She's no joke, and can hold her own with the PL 11 Wolverine for a good while.