BROKEN HAIKUof Earth-928 circa 2099 A.D.
BROKEN HAIKU
of Earth-928 circa 2099 A.D.
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Extratemporal (late 21st century) alternate Earth (Reality-928) technology-user
Occupation: Unrevealed;
netglider;
former adventurer
Group Membership: Formerly Avalon 5 (Dot 33, Duke Stratosphere, Firelight/Gabriel O'Hara, and Shiva Blue), Lawless (Auntie Maim, Junkpile, Mongrel, Reverend, Victor Ten Eagles, Xi'an Chi Xan)
Affiliations: Ulysses Colosio, Driver (she warned him of approaching Xi'an Chi Xan), Shakti Haddad (aka Cerebra), Lennertz;
formerly Xi'an Chi Xan
Enemies: Driver (she gave Xi'an information on his location), Elysium Biomedical Corporation and their subsidiaries, Foolkiller (Gideon), Foolkillers of New Hope, Gearbox, elders of New Hope (Beaumont), people of New Hope, Xian Chi Xan
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
her mind existed largely within Cyberspace;
formerly a room within the Cup of Jonah, within the El Mercado Grande building, El Paso, Texas;
formerly the back room of a roadhouse 10
miles east of Elephant Butte, New Mexico,;
formerly active in the deserts of the American mid-west
First Appearance: (Mentioned) Doom 2099#6 (June, 1993);
(pictured, but not identified amongst a group) 2099 Unlimited#5/2 (July, 1994);
(seen, identified) X-Men
2099#11 (August, 1994)
Powers/Abilities:
Broken Haiku was initially an expert computer hacker. Xi'an noted that
"No one ever cracked infonets and credit banks with a lighter and more
knowing touch."
At some point, she apparently had neurocircuitry implanted into her body, presumably allowing her to directly interact with computer systems and cyberspace.
Eventually, she was completely covered in neurocircuitry and began spending all of her time in Cyberspace. Presumably her bodily functions were maintained via assistants and technology, perhaps including intravenous fluids (or perhaps her body was maintained via energy transmissions).
She could instantly search for and cross reference information and access encrypted and/or even closed systems.
In Cyberspace, she could utilize an archetype of any form of which she could conceive; her archetypes can take any form of which she can conceive; she notably adopted a golden-skinned, hairless form with solid red eyes.
She could further manipulate the
environment within Cyberspace, manifesting data as powerful winds,
storms, waves, waterspouts, etc. that could overwhelm and potentially
destroy unwary travelers.
She could expel other travelers from Cyberspace.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'4"); her archetypes can take any form of which she can
conceive
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 115 lbs.); perhaps 10-30 lbs. heavier while covered in neurocircuitry; her archetypes can take any form of which she can
conceive
Eyes: Unrevealed (she appeared to have yellow sclera with dark irides, likely brown); her archetypes can take any form of which she can
conceive
Hair: Black; her archetypes can take any form of which she can
conceive
History:
(X-Men 2099#33 (fb) - BTS) <2094 - five years before the main story> - The Lawless (Auntie Maim, Broken Haiku, Junkpile, Mongrel, Reverend, Victor Ten Eagles, Xi'an Chi Xan) came to New Hope, Texas, unaware that it was run by a group of fundamentalist zealot elders -- who sought to keep the city pure from outside influences, which they viewed as corrupt -- and who had put landmines in its streets.
(X-Men 2099#33 (fb)) - The Lawless ran over the street mines, after which they were ambushed by the town's inquisition, whose executioners were super-soliders known as Foolkillers
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Beaumont was among the elders who passed judgment on the Lawless.
(X-Men 2099#33 (fb)) - The head Foolkiller made it clear that they would kill anyone who didn't fall in with their twisted faith.
For two days, the Lawless were subjected to a variety of subtle and unsubtle tortures designed to convert them.
Broken Haiku eventually hacked into their computers and shut off the tranquilizer feed that was keeping the Lawless sedated.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS / X-Men 2099#33 (fb)) - The Lawless fought
their way through the "handful of psychopaths called Foolkillers"
The Lawless found the rest of New Hope was willing to fight to the last man to stop them.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - The Lawless napalmed the active Foolkillers.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - After "one very long, very bloody afternoon," New Hope was burned to the ground.
The Lawless slew every man, woman, and child in town.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb)) - The injured elder Beaumont confronted and accused the Lawless of slaying good and righteous people.
Beaumont raised his gun, telling Xi'an he knew his kind, and that they thought they could escape their judgment, but "whether it by my hand of another's, you'll all die as fools."
Xi'an then struck and knocked down Beaumont. As Xi'an
angrily kicked the fallen Beaumont, Broken Haiku advised him that there was no point as Beaumont
couldn't fight back
(and was possibly already dead?).
Agreeing that they had wasted enough time there and it was time to get out, Xi'an led the Lawless out of New Hope.
X-Men 2099#33 (fb) - BTS) - Unbeknownst to the Lawless, deep in the long sleep of the Revival Chamber, the Foolkiller Gideon survived.
(X-Men 2099#22 (fb) - BTS) - Broken Haiku and Xi'an were close, possibly lovers (see comments).
(X-Men 2099#22 (fb) - BTS) - For unspecified actions
against the Elysium Biomedical Corporation and their subsidiaries, the
Lawless (at least Broken Haiku, Xi'an, and Victor Ten Eagles) had a
bounty put of their heads, and the bounty hunter Gearbox went after
them.
(X-Men 2099#22 (fb) - BTS) - Alongside Xi'an and Victor Ten Eagles, Haiku encountered Gearbox in Phoenix, Arizona.
Haiku and the others felt like they lost him there, escaping without his detection.
(X-Men 2099#22 (fb)) - As Haiku, Victor, and Xi'an
had drinks at the Glass Eye cantina in Nogales, Arizona, Gearbox broke
into the bar.
When Haiku commented that she
thought they'd lost him in Phoenix, Victor noted that this cyborg
didn't know when to quit.
Advising his targets he had been
authorized to bring them in dead of alive, Gearbox fired a blast that
took out Haiku, leaving her unconscious (or at least unmoving) on the
ground.
Realizing they lacked the power to
stop Gearbox, Xi'an advised they flee. When Victor questioned how Xi'an
could leave Haiku there, asking if she meant anything to him, Xi'an
told Victor that if they stayed they would die, and that you couldn't
get sentimental in situations like this.
(X-Men
2099#12 (fb) - BTS) - Victor Ten Eagles saved Haiku.
(X-Men
2099#12 (fb) - BTS) - Broken Haiku considered that Xi'an had left her to die.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - After the Lawless broke up, the former "spitfire wirehead" Broken Haiku retreated permanently into Cyberspace.
(X-Men
2099#11 (fb) - BTS) - Xi'an and Broken Haiku did not speak after the Lawless' break-up.
(Doom 2099#6 (fb) - BTS / 2099 Unlimited#5/2 (fb)) <2097 AD> - When the fabric of Cyberspace was threatened by the "Domino Crash," Broken Haiku joined forces with fellow netgliders Dot 33, Duke Stratosphere, Firelight, and Shiva Blue to prevent the total destruction of the 'net.
These netgliders became known as the Avalon Five.
(Doom 2099#6 (fb) - BTS) - By 2099, at least, Broken
Haiku's name was spoken reverently among netgliders, along with others
such as Dot 33, Duke Stratosphere, Firelight, Shiva Blue, and the Word.
(X-Men 2099#11 (fb) - BTS) - Since the Domino Crash, Haiku exclusively conducted business on the 'net.
(X-Men 2099#11 (fb) - BTS) - Based out of the back room of a roadhouse 10 miles east of Elephant Butte, New Mexico, Haiku had her entire body covered in neurocircuitry to allow her to more readily access the internet.
(X-Men 2099#11 (fb) - BTS) - Broken Haiku relocated to the back room of the Cup of Jonah, within the El Mercado Grande building, El Paso, Texas.
Others were kept away from approaching Haiku's physical form by her ally Ulysses Colosio.
Haiku sometimes patched into the security feed to watch the counter at the java bar; while she may not have spoken to the customers, she knew who they were.
(X-Men
2099#12 (fb) - BTS) - Haiku learned via information in Cyberspace that
Xi'an had changed his ways, finding his heart and soul with the X-Men.
(X-Men 2099#10 - BTS) - Xi'an sought out Broken Haiku to help him with discs given to him by Mama Hurricane, which he hoped to use to locate the legendary Driver to find the mutants he had helped escape the Purge.
Xi'an told Lennertz he needed to find Haiku, but Lennertz noted she wouldn't want to see him after the way he left things.
(X-Men
2099#11 - BTS) - After Xi'an used his powers to gain access to the
roadhouse's back rooms, Ulysses aimed a weapon at him, noting that the
backroom was off limits to customers.
Xi'an kicked the weapon out of Ulysses' hands and then disintegrated it, and then Haiku told Ulysses to let him pass, noting that it was so nice to see another old friend (who was the other?).
(X-Men
2099#11) - After being escorted to the back
room, Xi'an greeted Haiku, noting the obvious physical changes, and she
told him she had nothing to say to him here (meaning she would only
speak to him on-line, as explained by Ulysses).
Via a pair of cybersim
shades given to him by Ulysses, Xi'an accessed the internet. Tellin him
he had some nerve coming there, Broken Haiku's amorphous energy
archetype initially unnerved Xi'an, so Haiku adopted a humanoid form.
She then asked why he had finally come to her after all this time.
When Xi'an told her he had come to ask a favor, she angrily returned to the brilliance of her amorphous archetype, denounced his astounding arrogance, telling him after what he had done to her, she should blind him or burn a pattern on his optic nerves (on his retinae, more appropriately) that would stay with him the rest of his life. She added, "The only thing I want to give you is pain."
(X-Men 2099#12) - After briefly manipulating cyberspace in the form of a raging ocean of binary code, Haiku denounced Xi'an as being as arrogant as ever and reminded him that he had left her to die.
Xi'an asked her what had happened to her and when she had retreated from the real world, but she mocked his concern as being as as shallow as the poor resolution of his archetype and instead asked what he wanted from her. Xi'an told Haiku about his desire to find the Driver to learn of other mutants who had survived the purge and asked her to help him cross reference the information on the old disc given to him by Mama Hurricane to learn the Driver's current location.
When Haiku asked what if the information led nowhere, Xi'an asked her to check it out, noting that she was the best there was at this sort of thing. By the time she had told Xi'an to save his flattery, she had already accomplished the task and she provided Xi'an with the Driver's location, although she warned him that what he found would not be what he expected.
As Xi'an asked what that meant, Haiku terminated their connection, sending him back to the real world. Considering that Haiku used to be hot and nasty, he noted that it was a shame to find her locked up in a self-made neurotech coffin; he appreciated that at least she had given him what he wanted, which Ulysses insisted was more than he deserved.
Noting that Xi'an was too self-obsessed to appreciate the beauty and poetry of Haiku's spirit or to realize how he had scarred her radiant soul years ago and that it had never healed, Ulysses told Xi'an to leave, as he wasn't welcome there. In response, Xi'an asked Ulysses if it made him crazy to love a woman he could never touch, and he told Ulysses they deserved each other.
After Xi'an's departure, Haiku told "faithful Ulysses" not to let Xi'an's words anger him, noting that Xi'an was a fool to think she would not exact a price for the information he had desired.
Haiku then hacked into the
Driver's systems in his Garage base, surprising him by accessing him
via a locked system and assuring him that nothing was ever totally
secure.
(X-Men
2099#12 - BTS) - Haiku warned the Driver of Xi'an's mission, enabling
him to capture Xi'an and his associates, Skullfire, Lunatica, and
Junkpile, upon their arrival.
(X-Men 2099#22) - Seeking to locate Xi'an, Shakti Haddad, la Lunatica, and Skullfire traveled to the Cup of Jonah, and Shakti asked
Ulysses to speak to the owner of the establishment. Ulysses told her
that Haiku didn't do walk-ins, and when Lunatica insisted, Ulysses,
called her "Snow White" and told her if she wanted to rumble to bring
it on, as he wasn't afraid of her. Shakti calmed the situation, telling
Ulysses that she understood his caution but that there was no need for
violence. She then asked him to inform Haiku that Shakti Haddad was
there to discuss Xi'an Chi Xan. 
Surprised to hear from Shakti, Haiku instructed Ulysses to invite her back. After Ulysses told Shakti that she must have said the magic words as she was invited back (although her friends had to wait outside), Shakti was surprised that Haiku had been monitoring them the whole time.
Seeing Haiku's neurocircuitry-covered form, Shakti verbally appreciated that Haiku's circumstances had changed since Seattle. Haiku asked if Shakti was shocked to see her this way, and Shakti admitted that she found it curious that someone who had ridden with an outlaw gang like the Lawless would retreat from the material world in such an extreme manner. Haiku explained that it was not a retreat, but a release from physical limitation.
Ulyssess then explained that Haiku suggested any further discussion take place in the net, and he offered her cybersim shades; having had a neural jack implanted in Hong Kong, Shakti declined the shades and asked Ulysses to plug her in.
In Cyberspace, Haiku met with Shakti in a serene beach setting; Haiku explained that she conducted her business with the touristas there, the shallow divers who still needed the recognizable iconography to navigate the net. She further added that real gliders preferred the wild abstractions of true Cyberspace.
At Shakti's query, Haiku confirmed that she trafficked in information and that she knew about the White House takeover before Doom left Latveria. When Shakti asked Haiku to help her find Xi'an, Haiku warned her that he would only betray Shatki like he had done to her (Haiku). Shakti advised Haiku that the Xi'an who had come back from Saigon was a different person, stronger and compassionate. When Haiku noted that Xi'an seemed as arrogant and amoral as ever, but Shakti assured this was a regression she hoped to overcome; and to do so, Shakti told Haiku she needed to know everything she could about Brimstone Love and the Theatre of Pain.
Advising Shakti that the name should not be used lightly, even in Cyberspace, Haiku told Shakti that procuring that information would be dangerous and therefore costly, and she asked if Shakti was prepared to pay the price.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Broken Haiku communicated with Victor Ten Eagles, taking the form of a thunderstorm.
(X-Men
2099#33 (fb - BTS)) <7 months before the main story> - Gideon
awakened from his Revival Chamber tube via an automatic revivification
sequence, finding all of his fellow soldiers rotting in their tubes,
untransformed. Upon seeing the city above burned to the ground, the
streets littered with skeletons, he realized that the Lawless was
responsible.
Plotting vengeance, the last Foolkiller prepared to take
out the Lawless.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - The Foolkiller slew the Reverend, laser-burning the word "FOOL" into his chest and leaving his body in Reno.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Broken Haiku learned of the Reverend's fate.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb)) - In a humanoid archetype, Broken Haiku contacted Victor Ten Eagles, telling him of the Reverend's fate.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Before Victor could appreciate the full impact of Haiku's message, Foolkiller attacked; Victor narrowly escaped and lost his right arm in the process.
(X-Men 2099#31) - Victor traveled to Halo City, warning Xi'an of the Foolkiller's return.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Deciding this problem did not concern his newer X-Men team, Xi'an resolved to reassemble the Lawless to deal with it.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Foolkiller destroyed
Broken Haiku's datadrop (and apparently disintegrated her physical
form, leaving behind a pile of ashes), slaying Ulysses and writing
"FOOL" on his head with his laser and leaving
Broken Haiku offline for the first time in
years.
(X-Men 2099#32 (fb) - BTS) - Victor Ten Eagles tried to contact Broken Haiku to arrange a meeting, but the message bounced back, and he realized she was off-line and possibly dead.
Comments: Created by John Francis Moore; first given form by Kyle Baker.
In X-Men 2099#22, Victor said, "She's practically your..."; but Xi'an cut him off before he could finish. I'd imagine Victor was going to say wife, or at least lover, but we'll probably never know.
I like to think that Broken Haiku
was able to transfer her consciousness to Cyberspace and that only her
physical form was destroyed; her experience thus far may have allowed
her mind to survive as pure digitial consciousness.
According to the online Webster dictionary, a haiku is an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin having three lines containing usually five, seven, and five syllables respectively
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Broken Haiku should be distinguished from:
images: (without ads)
2099 Unlimited#5/2, pg. 7, panel 5 (Avalon 5)
X-Men
2099#11, pg. 15, panel 1 (circuitized suit);
pg. 16, panel 3 (humanoid archetype);
#12, pg. 7, panel 1 (Storm archetype);
#22, pg. 9, panel 3 (confronted by Gearbox; rear oblique);
pg. 10, panel 3 (unconscious profile);
pg. 15, panel 1 (Cyberpace, seated/levitating, distant)
panel 2 (Cyberspace, close, seated/levitating, closeup);
#32, pg. 1, panel 3 (with Lawless, color, upper body);
pg. 8, panel 2 (archetype visiting Victor Ten Eagles);
pg. 10, panel 5 (possibly disintegrated form)
#33 cover (yellow parchment, uncolored image showing more of her body);
pg. 11, panel 4 (fighting past Foolkillers);
Appearances:
Doom 2099#6 (June, 1993) -
John Francis Moore (writer), Pat Broderick (penciler), John Nyberg
(inker), Sarra Mossof (assistant editor), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
2099 Unlimited#5/2 (July, 1994) - John Francis Moore (writer), Kyle
Baker (artist), Lia Pelosi (assistant editor), Joey Cavalieri (editor)
X-Men
2099#10 (July, 1994) - John Francis Moore
(writer), Ron Lim (penciler), Gregory Adams, Scott Koblish, Mark
McKenna, James Sanders III (inkers), Lia Pelosi (assistant editor),
Joey Cavalieri (editor)
X-Men
2099#11 (August, 1994) - John Francis Moore
(writer), Ron Lim (penciler), Mark
McKenna (inkers), Lia Pelosi (assistant editor),
Joey Cavalieri (editor)
X-Men
2099#12-13 (September-October, 1994) - John Francis Moore
(writer), Ron Lim (penciler), Harry Candelario (inkers), Lia Pelosi (assistant editor),
Joey Cavalieri (editor)
X-Men
2099#22 (July, 1995) - John Francis Moore
(writer), Ron Lim (penciler), Harry Candelario (inkers), Lia Pelosi (assistant editor),
Joey Cavalieri (editor)
X-Men
2099#32-33 (May-June, 1996) - John Francis Moore (writer), Jan Duursema
(penciler), Scott Koblish (inker), Jaye Gardner (editor)
First posted: 03/22/2020
Last updated: 11/13/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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