SENYAKA

BIOGRAPHY

Little is known about the vicious Sri Lankan mutant named Suvik Senyaka. He first appeared as a high-ranking member of the Acolyte team that Fabian Cortez assembled following Magneto’s apparent death. Fiercely anti-human, Senyaka considered every human a threat to mutantkind and therefore worthy of execution. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #300] He acted on this belief when he led a handful of the more bloodthirsty Acolytes in an attack on a human hospice, slaughtering all of its patients, nurses and doctors. [X-Factor (1st series) #92]

Magneto soon resurfaced and sought out the new Acolytes who had formed since his apparent death. When he learned of the attack on the hospice that had been carried out in his name, he claimed that he did not necessarily disapprove of the act itself but did disapprove that these new Acolytes acted without his consent. To set an example for them all, Magneto crushed Senyaka with his own psionic whips. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #304]

A SHIELD medical unit took Senyaka’s body into custody after his death. Despite his apparent demise, Senyaka still clung to life and managed to revive himself when a SHIELD physician made the mistake of touching his body. This brief contact was sufficient for Senyaka to siphon the man’s psionic energy. He fed on the psionic energies of two other agents and was restored to his previous strength.

Senyaka now considered Magneto a “false god” and disavowed his faith in the Master of Magnetism. He set out to get revenge on Magneto by killing his former lover, Alletys “Lee” Forrester. Senyaka attacked Lee’s boat and killed her entire crew before taking control of the ship. Lee managed to resist his attack long enough to send a distress signal to the X-Men. This signal was intercepted by Cable, who rushed to Lee's position and saved her from Senyaka, impaling the former Acolyte with sharpened sticks from the nearby Florida swamp. [Cable (1st series) #11-12]

Senyaka returned from the dead once again – this time through means unknown– and joined Exodus’ new team of Acolytes in overthrowing Mt. Wundagore. Their efforts were opposed by Quicksilver and the Heroes for Hire. Many of the Acolytes were conflicted by Pietro’s opposition to their plans, given that he was the son of their Lord Magneto. Surprisingly, Senyaka was among those who sided with Quicksilver to battle the High Evolutionary. When the day was won, Senyaka and the others asked Quicksilver to lead them in his father’s stead but Pietro refused and urged them to stop following the madness of others and find their own way. [Siege of Wundagore crossover]

Senyaka chose to remain with the Acolytes who were gathered once more by Fabian Cortez for a raid on Xavier’s School, seeking information that would lead them to Magneto. During the course of the conflict, these Acolytes were bested and Cortez abandoned them. With their leader gone, the Acolytes asked Professor X for sanctuary– a request Xavier refused. Once more, Senyaka and the others were left without leadership or purpose. [X-Men: Magneto War #1]

With nowhere else to go, Senyaka and several of these Acolytes turned to mercenary work. When they learned that Magneto had returned and not gathered them to serve among his chosen Acolytes, Senyaka and the other renegade Acolytes felt betrayed by their lord. They joined the Carrion Cove Rebellion of Genosha as hired help and fought against Magneto’s hegemonic rule of the island nation. [Magneto: Dark Seduction #1-2]

It is unknown whether or not Senyaka was still in Genosha when Cassandra Nova’s Wild Sentinels obliterated it. [New X-Men (1st series) #115] He resurfaced months later as part of a new team of Acolytes recruited by Exodus. These Acolytes, in alliance with Mr. Sinister, sought to restrict anyone else’s knowledge regarding a  specific event in the near future. One of their chief targets was the time-traveling X-Man, Cable, who possessed an unusual abundance of info regarding possible futures. Senyaka was dispatched to Cable’s headquarters on Providence Island to prevent Cable’s ally Deadpool from reaching a supposed backup file detailing future events. Senyaka held his own against the “merc with a mouth” but it was for naught, as Cable managed to escape to his laboratory and detonate the entire island. [Cable & Deadpool #42]

Senyaka did not rejoin the Acolytes following this explosion and instead returned to Sri Lanka. When Selene, disguised as a young girl, approached him about acquiring his help, Senyaka easily saw through her disguise but eagerly offered himself to her cause nonetheless. He didn’t even need to know what Selene’s plan was, as long as she would point him at targets to kill. [X Necrosha: The Gathering]

Senyaka participated in Selene’s raid on the New York City branch of the Hellfire Club, personally executing many members and guards. [X Necrosha] Later, when the Inner Circle invaded  the X-Men’s headquarters to retrieve a mystic artifact for their master, Senyaka delivered fatal wounds to the X-Men’s guest, Meld. The X-Men’s black-ops hit-squad X-Force soon regrouped and ambushed the Inner Circle at their base in Genosha. During this fight, Senyaka was not so fortunate; he was first overpowered, and then decapitated by X-23 and Wolverine. [X-Force (3rd series) #21-25]

Although his death was definitive, Senyaka’s ultimate fate is anything but, as the mere circumstance of death has never managed to permanently suppress him in the past.