Ruthless and dedicated government official Henry Gyrich becomes known for his hardball tactics. He rises the ranks to act as a liaison to the Avengers, but his desire to control superhumans becomes an obsession.
Bad News Pete
Henry Peter Gyrich is an ambitious United States government official serving under James Murch at the National Security Council (NSC). Gyrich became known among his colleagues as “Bad News Pete” because of his hardline tactics. Despite his career-driven mindset, Gyrich takes a year off work to tend to his Alzheimer’s-stricken father, secretly fearing he might develop the same condition himself someday. The NSC eventually assigns Gyrich to succeed Murch as security liaison to the Avengers.
Government Agent
Gyrich is a trained government agent and usually carries a standard-issue pistol. He sometimes has access to exotic devices, such as Forge’s mutant power neutralizer. He possesses authoritative leadership skills that gain him commanding positions in the Commission on Superhuman Activities (CSA) and Sentient Worlds Observation and Response Department (S.W.O.R.D.).
Tentative Colleagues and Foes
Gyrich is highly suspicious of superhumans, including mutants. Though he works with the Avengers and other superhumans, he often schemes against them in the interest of protecting humanity. One particular thorn in his side is the alien-mutant hybrid Abigail Brand, his co-director at S.W.O.R.D. He often goes behind her back to carry out his own alien deportation agenda and even locks her up, but she gets the upper hand in the end.
Government Personnel Records
Visiting Avengers Mansion just after Count Luchino Nefaria, AKA Count Nefaria’s attack had disabled its security systems, Gyrich easily accessed the premises and subdued butler Edwin Jarvis, the only person on-site at the time. When the Avengers returned, Gyrich criticized their lax security; later, when long-absent Avengers member Clint Barton, AKA Hawkeye, captured Gyrich during the NSC agent’s next surprise visit to the mansion, unaware of who Gyrich was, a furious Gyrich punished the team by restricting their access to information, communications privileges, and even the launching of their Quinjets. He subsequently forced the group to reduce their roster to seven approved members and submit to security screenings; however, after a U.S. Senate committee ruled that the Avengers required freedom to operate effectively, Gyrich loosened his grip on the team. Eventually, Avengers veteran the Vision manipulated Gyrich into abdicating his position and inducting Raymond Sikorski as the new Avengers security liaison.
Gyrich also worked closely with the government’s Project: Wideawake, which manufactured defenses against the perceived threat of mutants. Armed with a mutant power neutralizer designed by the mutant inventor Forge, Gyrich led a team to assault Anna Marie, AKA Rogue, of the X-Men, who had formerly been part of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants; however, Gyrich accidentally shot the X-Man Ororo Munroe, AKA Storm, instead, temporarily nullifying her powers. Forge’s work for Gyrich also produced neutralizer weapons used against the invading forces of the extraterrestrial Dire Wraiths.
Gyrich became a key member of the CSA, a government body established to manipulate national superhumans for service. For a time, he helped the government track Bruce Banner, AKA Hulk, working with the U.S. Army’s Colonel Cary St. Lawrence. Gyrich’s obsession with controlling Earth’s superhumans made him a perfect victim for Wolfgang Von Strucker, AKA Baron Strucker, of Hydra, who infected Gyrich with nanites. Under the nanites’ influence, Gyrich implemented a plot to infect all of Earth’s superhumans with “hard air” molecules which Gyrich could detonate, enabling him to assassinate any problematic superhumans; however, the heroic outlaw Thunderbolts (led by Hawkeye) thwarted Gyrich’s scheme. A spiteful Gyrich went along with the CSA’s cover-up of the incident, but insisted on jailing Hawkeye for vigilantism. Although Gyrich was not entirely at fault for his actions, he had embarrassed the CSA, who reassigned him as liaison to T’Challa, AKA Black Panther, monarch of Wakanda. When the Black Panther rejoined the Avengers, Gyrich reattached himself to the team in the hopes of regaining his lost stature. After the United Nations granted the Avengers sovereign powers, Gyrich became their ambassador.
Despite the group’s misgivings about Gyrich, he proved loyal to the team, helping unmask U.S. Secretary of Defense Dell Rusk as Johann Shmidt, AKA Red Skull. Unfortunately, the Avengers disbanded after a powermad Wanda Maximoff, AKA Scarlet Witch, killed several members.
As calls for closer scrutiny of superhumans led to the Superhuman Registration Act, Gyrich supported the legislation, finally seeing an opportunity to oversee the policies he had long advocated. Becoming Secretary of the Superhuman Armed Forces, Gyrich closely supervised Camp Hammond, the Fifty State Initiative’s new training ground for superhuman cadets. When cadet Armory accidentally killed fellow cadet Michael Van Patrick, AKA MVP, Gyrich covered up the death and turned MVP’s remains over to Initiative scientists Yellowjacket (later exposed as a Skrull impersonating Henry Pym) and Wernher von Blitzschlag, AKA Baron von Blitzschlag, who manufactured the Scarlet Spider clones based on MVP. Gyrich recruited the Scarlet Spiders into his “Shadow Initiative” black ops team (doubling as Gyrich’s personal guard), which also included Duc No Tranh, AKA Bengal, Rank Schlichting, AKA Constrictor, Mary Alice Walker, AKA Mutant Zero, and Terrance Ward, AKA Trauma. After an MVP clone went wild as the destructive KIA, S.H.I.E.L.D. director Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man, launched an investigation and learned of Gyrich’s cover-ups. To spare the administration a scandal, Gyrich was forced to resign from the Initiative.
Appointed by Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, Gyrich became the Co-Director of the protection agency S.W.O.R.D. alongside alien-mutant hybrid Abigail Brand, with a focus on extraterrestrial threats on Earth. Operating out of S.W.O.R.D.’s headquarters, the Peak, his first order of business included deporting all aliens from Earth immediately, including Abigail and other alien staff at S.W.O.R.D. He locked her and the other aliens up in the Peak’s brig. Though the Peak was soon attacked by alien Drenx pirates with all staff pacified with pheromones. When Abigail and her allies took back the Peak, she blamed him for his failures to protect their headquarters and threatened to let their bosses know unless he quit. Gyrich resigned his commission in S.W.O.R.D. and recommended that it be left unfilled.
He was soon taken by the Hydra Queen and brainwashed, given the name Bravo. He acts as Dennis Dunphy, AKA D-Man’s handler, who was made into the new Scourge and instructed to kill criminals. He faced Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, and ended up in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s custody.
Eventually released and appointed to Alpha Flight’s Board of Governors. He threatened the team’s leader Carol Danvers, AKA Captain Marvel, with treason for being delinquent in her role when she didn’t reveal an Inhuman with precognitive abilities. When fellow governor Philippe Beaulieu was the Super Villain Eshu in disguise, the board was disbanded.
He was later chosen as acting commander of Alpha Flight, which also meant he had authority over Gamma Flight. When the team failed to contain the Hulk, he recruited the U-Foes to go after him.
After Krakoa, the sovereign island-nation state for mutants, was established, and terraformed Mars, Gyrich didn’t trust them to be the sole voice for the solar system. He served the anti-mutant collective ORCHIS and recruited S.W.O.R.D.’s Takeshi Matsuya, AKA Wiz-Kid, to be a mole, and blow up S.W.O.R.D. Station One. The plan was to send the station crashing toward Earth and discredit Krakoa, but Wiz-Kid was a triple agent who smuggled Abigail Brand into Alpha Flight. She trapped him in an airlock and confronted him for attempting to take out Krakoa, something she wanted to do instead. She sent her competition out the airlock and Gyrich perished in space.
