Siryn

Theresa Maeve Rourke Cassidy is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Debuting under the codename Siryn, she later retired the name and started using Banshee, in honor of her late father, Sean Cassidy, who first used the alias.

Like her father, the X-Men's Banshee, Theresa is an Irish mutant who possesses a "sonic scream" capable of incapacitating and injuring an opponent's hearing and sending powerful vibrations through the air. She can use these vibrations to fly. Her name refers to the Sirens of Greek mythology.

Theresa was raised by Banshee’s cousin and nemesis Black Tom Cassidy without Banshee's knowledge. By her early teens, she left Black Tom and eventually joined the X-Men offshoots X-Force and later X-Factor.

Publication history

Created by writer Chris Claremont and artist Steve Leialoha, Siryn first appeared in Spider-Woman #37 (April 1981).

Fictional character biography

Early life

While Sean Cassidy was working on a deep undercover mission for Interpol, his wife Maeve gave birth to their daughter, Theresa, at Cassidy Keep, County Mayo, Ireland. Not much later, Maeve dies in an IRA bombing. With no means to contact Sean, his cousin Tom takes care of Theresa. When Sean returns to learn of his wife's death, he is devastated. Before Tom can even tell him of the existence of his daughter, Sean lashes out at Tom with his sonic scream for not having taken better care of Maeve. While Sean flies away in anger, Tom falls into a chasm, breaking his leg as a result of the attack, which leaves him with a limp. Tom swears to make Sean pay and vows to never tell him about his daughter, raising her himself instead.