Dominique Thibaut (Top Cow)

Cyblade is the name of a character from Top Cow Productions. She is also a member of Cyberforce.

History
Only fragments of Cyblade's past are known at present. Dominique Thiebaut was born in the fictional European country of Chalenne, supposedly somewhere near France. Dominique’s backstory isn’t fully expanded on until issues #30 - #35 of the second volume of the series. Her great-grandfather, Aubrey II was the last king of Chalenne, and his only child was a daughter, Marie. Marie wed a Col. Jean-Michel Thiebaut, who with Aubrey II’s blessing, became the first Prime Minister of the new democracy of Chalenne. The couple had two children, Alexander, who died of fever at age seven, and Patrick, Dominique’s father. Patrick Thiebaut was less moral than his forebears, and more interested in money and power. He married a shy young woman by the name of Claire, though the marriage was apparently neither happy nor idyllic. She gave birth quickly, to a son whom they named Michel. Two years later, Claire died in childbirth with Dominique Aurore Marie Thiebaut.

In her early years, Dominique was spoiled and pampered. Her mutant powers manifested when she was attacked by armed gunmen at school. Many years later, her father and brother apparently met with violent, tragic ends, which Dominique blames herself for not preventing. At the funeral, a young Killjoy, one of the SHOCS who stayed with Cyberdata after Cyberforce split, is shown smiling over a young Dominique’s shoulder. After their deaths, Dominique left Chalenne, and went freelance through the world. She studied to become a doctor, while simultaneously joining with freedom fighters in the Middle East. Eventually, she grew unhappy with her role as a freedom fighter, and ended both her role in the Middle Eastern conflicts and her studies to become a doctor. She was eventually approached by Cyberdata, joined them, and was transformed into the cyborg Cyblade. She served as a SHOC until Dr. Corben, Heatwave and Stryker left Cyberdata to form Cyberforce. Dr. Corben revealed to her the atrocities she had been committing while under the control of the brain box and Cyberdata, and appalled, she allowed him to remove the device. When Heatwave and Stryke left, she went with them. She maintained her father’s nuance as a highly skilled businesswoman, and amassed a small personal fortune, both before and after her tenure as a SHOC.

In Issue #34, Dominique’s resurrected brother Michel informed her that their father had sold many of the people of Chalenne to Cyberdata, and that the corporation had not granted them with powers, but merely enhanced and activated latent mete-human powers within each of the SHOCS. It was further hinted that the Cyberforce characters were mutants or “meta-humans” in the X-Men/Cyberforce one shot comic, which united the two most glaringly similar characters in the X-Men/Cyberforce universes, namely Wolverine & Ripclaw, and Psylocke & Cyblade. The arc introduces Ripclaw and Cyblade to two Marvel villain staples, being The Hand ninjas and the Sentinels, and takes place in Japan. With the two members of Cyberforce captured by the Sentinels, a wandering Wolverine and Psylocke locate and free the two metahumans, then both teams destroy the Sentinels. With the relaunch of Cyberforce in 2006, Cyblade is again shown in her role as commander, though she steps down for the resurrected Heatwave.

Powers and Abilities
Cyblade has the mutant ability to generate "blades" of electromagnetic energy from her fingers. She can psionically control this power to travel any distance from her, as long as the target is within her line of sight. Her only limitation is that the power dissipates as it travels through the air. Thus, if she fired upon someone who was 25 feet away, they would be hit with the equivalent of 25,000 megawatts of power. But, if that person is 2,500 feet away, they would only be hit by roughly 500 megawatts. Her blades were shown to generate heat (thus cut through various materials) up to 5000°C Cyblade has also had years of martial arts training, and she is quite adept at the disciplines of Aikido and Jeet Kun Do. Her powers can vary between controlled blades and projectile discharges, dependent on artistic discretion and licence. She is also an expert swordsperson, and martial artist, and tactician, owing to her upbringing.

Trivia

 * Many fans have claimed that she resembles Psylocke and have criticized her because of this.