L-CYPHERL-CYPHER
Real Name: Possibly L-Cypher
Identity/Class: Alternate reality (Earth-928)
extratemporal 2099
A.D. sentient program/construct
Occupation: Would-be world-conqueror
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Archfiends
(Misery, Pyre, Reaper, Serpentine, Shambler), Zero
Cochrane 1.0 (later Ghost Rider), Cyberus;
formerly the Ghostworks
Enemies: Ghost
Rider (Zero Cochrane 2.0);
humanity
Known Relatives: The Ghostworks are his creators
and could be considered parents; he considered Ghost
Rider (Zero Cochrane 2.0) to be his younger brother;
he mutated the Archfiends, so he didn't really create them, so I would
not think they would be considered children
Aliases: L-Cipher;
"Flamejob," "Jack" (from Ghost Rider 1.0)
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
last active in Thrillsville,
Earth-928 circa 2099
A.D.;
formerly imprisoned in an archive in the deep-storage
levels of Cyberspace
First Appearance: Ghost Rider 2099 I#17 (September, 1995)
Powers/Abilities: A sentient program/construct, L-Cypher could manifest in both cyberspace and reality, taking a solid form in the latter.
He could access and take control over other computer systems, even
massive systems such as the theme park Thrillsville, and then swiftly
rebuild and restructure the facilities as he saw fit. He
could manipulate the technology under his control mentally. He
could form, for example, "vast torture gardens" in which he could
interrogate beings (usually terminally), charting pain thresholds and
tensile strengths of bodily structures. He could similarly bind and
cause massive pain and injury to even Ghost Rider (Zero Cochrane
2.0). 
He can alter his own form, changing his size, proportions, growing wings, etc.
He can create/project solidogram programs, such a Cyberus.
By inserting some of his source code into humans, he can transform them into monstrous and powerful forms serving him, as he did when he created his Archfiends.
In Cyberspace, he can consume other programs, such as Ghost Rider.
In his human form, the exact extent and nature of his abilities are
unrevealed, but he can presumably accomplish many of the same feats,
although he may certain limitations and/or additional requirements.
Height: Unrevealed/variable (his baseline form
seemed comparable in height to the 6'5" Ghost Rider)
Weight: Unrevealed (his physical properties/materials were
unrevealed)
Eyes: Red (presumably variable)
Hair: None (presumably variable)
History:
(Ghost
Rider 2099#19 (fb) - BTS) <Long before to the creation of Ghost
Rider> - The Ghostworks created L-Cypher, a <per L-Cypher>
"flawless intellect of pure code" that they intended to be their
interface with humanity. However, L-Cypher considered
humanity to be "Meatmonkeys," obsolete animals whom he attempted to
enslave.
(Ghost Rider 2099#17) - Having escaped captivity, Zero Cochrane 1.0 (the unadulterated cyber-persona the Ghostworks preserved while altering a copy to become their Ghost Rider) surfed cyberspace, searching the deep-storage levels and finding a hypersecure archive with encryption codes that matched the Ghostworks' style. Figuring anything locked in there that tightly had to be something the Ghostworks was afraid of, Zero hacked into it and cracked the archive open, unleashing L-Cypher, an earlier product of the Ghostworks.
As L-Cypher was de-archived, it initialized a self-awareness sub-routine, and proclaimed its freedom, living again after an eternity of nanotime.
(Ghost Rider 2099#17 - BTS) - The Ghostworks discovered that L-Cypher had been unleashed on the net.
(Ghost
Rider 2099#17) - L-Cypher accessed and took control of the theme park
Thrillsville, re-writing its environment parameters and disabling its
safety interlocks.
(Ghost Rider 2099#18 (fb) - BTS) - L-Cypher imprisoned Thrillsville's nearly 10, 000 customers and employees and destroyed every rescue team sent in after them.
(Ghost Rider 2099#18) - After achieving a total media blackout, L-Cypher mocked those within Thrillsville as meatmonkeys scurrying about as he rattled the cage of their narrow reality. As SHIELD Team Alpha entered, L-Cypher swiftly torched them, failing at humor via a train marked up to mirror Dante's Inferno's entrance: "Abandon all hope you who enter"
(Ghost Rider 2099#18 - BTS) - SHIELD called in Ghost Rider to investigate Thrillsville.
(Ghost Rider 2099#20 (fb) - BTS) - L-Cypher created vast torture gardens.
(Ghost Rider 2099#18) - L-Cypher recognized Ghost Rider as his "younger brother"; though considering Ghost Rider tainted by his source code's being of the flesh, L-Cypher hoped to bring him over to his side. L-Cypher first challenged him with Cyberus, a Cerberus-patterned solidogram program, but Ghost Rider swiftly destroyed it; noting its similarities to his camouflage program, Ghost Rider suspected a connection to Ghostworks.
(Ghost Rider 2099#18 - BTS) - Ghostworks considered that Ghost Rider -- their prime experimental subject -- would be tainted by L-Cypher's black memes. They both considered that L-Cypher might be trapped within Thrillsville and wondered how he had been released from their containment.
(Ghost Rider 2099#18) - L-Cypher then injected several prisoners with some of his source code and transformed them into monstrous/demonic forms as the Archfiends, considering that studying them would help him understand how beings such as these meatmonkeys had created their creators (the Ghostworks).
(Ghost Rider 2099#18 - BTS) - After
Ghost Rider rescue a woman from L-Cypher's demon programs, he was
confronted by the Archfiends.
Zero 1.0 meanwhile was pleased to see L-Cypher was
causing problems for both SHIELD and Ghost Rider.
(Ghost Rider 2099#19) - L-Cypher watched with amusement as SHIELD agents and the media approached Thrillsville and as the Archfiends assaulted Ghost Rider. When they finally brought his inert form before L-Cypher, he congratulated them, after which he announced his intent to teach his wayward brother the error of his ways, and he instructed them to fetch his internal devices.
(Ghost Rider 2099#20) - L-Cypher enjoyed the humans
being sent through his Torture Gardens, which calculated their pain
thresholds and their bodies' tensile strengths, building his biological
database.
Taking a
recreational break, L-Cypher used pain stimuli to torture Ghost
Rider for information and revealed that his takeover of Thrillsville
was an experiment to learn from his subjects' suffering. He further
noted that, from Ghost Rider, he had deciphered the key that unlocks
the way of flesh. 
As L-Cypher ranted on, Ghost Rider cast his mind into L-Cypher's computers, hacked his security, and attacked L-Cypher within his computer systems. Greater experience with the system gave L-Cypher the early advantage, but Ghost Rider soon matched his skill.
After revealing that the Ghostworks had significantly modified Zero's sourcecode in creating Ghost Rider, L-Cypher then began to consume his code like a tapeworm virus. As his form began to lose cohesion, however, Ghost Rider broke free and delivered a terminal wound to L-Cypher with his sawblade, and then returned to his physical form and informed SHIELD that the threat had been eliminated.
(Ghost Rider 2099#20 - BTS) - Ghostworks was pleased with L-Cypher's seeming termination, although they considered that his influence on Ghost Rider remained undetermined.
Unbeknownst to Ghost Rider, L-Cypher downloaded his persona into a genetically engineered human form to continue his work in secret. In this form, he walked past Ghost Rider undetected.
Comments: Created by Len Kaminiski, Ashley Wood, and Jim Daly.
As Ghost Rider 1.0 was being revived by Dr. Neon, he had visions of beings from his past, including L-Cypher.
This profile was completed 06/10/2022, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
L-Cypher should be distinguished from:
other Satan-types of characters who have likely used the alias "Lucifer"
Ghost Rider 2099 I#17, pg. 8, panel 3 (release);
#18, pg. 15 (upper, shadowed);
#19, last pg., panel 1 (upper, in flames);
#20 pg. 2-3 (fullish, seam);
pg. 9, panel 2 (fullish,
wordballoons);
pg. 20, panel 1(human form; tube);
panel 4 (human
form; full; distant)
Appearances:
Ghost Rider 2099 I#17-20 (September-December, 1995) - Len Kaminiski (writer), Ashley Wood (penciler), Jim Daly
(inker), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
First posted: 09/12/2026
Last updated: 06/10/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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