Real name: St. John Allerdyce
Other aliases: None
Identity: Known to federal authorities
Occupation: (current) Professional criminal, subversive, (former) Journalist, novelist, special government operative
Legal status: Citizen of Australia, formerly wanted as an outlaw, granted presidential pardon, currently being held in U.S. government custody
Place of birth: Sydney, Australia
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: None
Base of operations: Mobile, (former) The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
Group affiliation: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants V, Brotherhood of Evil Mutants IV/Freedom Force
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #141

History: St. John Allerdyce was born and raised in Australia. His powers emerged at puberty, but since he could not think of a way to use them for profit, for years he did not use them except in emergencies. For a time, Allerdyce drifted from job to job around the South Seas. Eventually, he became a journalist for an Australian wire service and covered Viet Nam and Indonesia. What he saw and experienced in his travels became the basis for novels he began writing. (He also wrote torrid Gothic romances.) Allerdyce's novels were despised by serious novelists and the critics, but they found wide readership throughout the English-speaking world. Under circumstances that have yet to be revealed, Allerdyce met the mutant called Mystique, who learned of his mutant powers. As a result, Allerdyce joined her new version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants under the name of Pyro.

Months later, Mystique's Brotherhood, renamed Freedom Force, entered the employ of the United States government, which pardoned its members for their past crimes. After several missions for Freedom Force, which brought Allerdyce and his comrades into conflict with various super powered crime fighters, the U.S. government disbanded the group.

Pyro resurfaced as a member of another version of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, headed up the X-Men's old foe (and member of the original Brotherhood) the Toad. This group went up against the fledgling mutant team X-Force and met defeat.

Recently, Pyro discovered that he had contracted the Legacy Virus, a terminal illness that affects mutants. (One effect of the Virus is that Pyro now seems to be unable to shut off completely any flames that may surround his body.) At first he sought help from the millionaire Jonathan Chambers, alias Empyrean, but Chambers was using his own powers to drain Pyro's energies. Wanting to go out in a blaze of glory rather than die a slow death in bed, Pyro committed a spectacular crime that brought him into conflict with the costumed crimefighter Daredevil. Pyro narrowly escaped being killed in a burning building at the end of this encounter. Mystique later recruited Pyro to prevent the assassination of her son, Presidential candidate Graydon Creed, but he failed.

Recently, Pyro robbed a New York City bank to get money to pay a scientist who claimed he could cure him by removing his mutant genes. In the course of the robbery Pyro was shot several times in the abdomen. He was taken to a nearby hospital where Dr. Cecilia Reyes, a surgeon who was a mutant and had recently joined the X-Men, operated on him. Shortly afterwards, Pyro tricked Dr. Reyes into loosening his bonds and he escaped. Pyro remains at large, still suffering from the Legacy Virus.

Height: 5'10"
Weight: 150 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Strength level: Normal

Special skills and abilities: Successful writer of Gothic romances prior to turning to crime.

Known superhuman powers: Pyro is invulnerable to any fire that he has placed under his mental control and has the psionic ability to cause any fire to grow in size and intensity and to take any form he wishes, even that of a living creature. (Such fire creatures, however, have no intelligence or life.) He can psionically manipulate the flame to do whatever he desires. Pyro's fiery creations have greater solidity than normal flame; hence a giant "bird" he created from fire could grasp and carry a solid object with its claws. The degree of Pyro's concentration necessary to manipulate a flame being is directly proportional to the being's size, power, and flame.

Special limitations: Pyro can be harmed by any fire that he does not mentally control. Pyro has to be able to see a flame in order to take control of it; in practical terms the flame must be within a 100-yard radius of him. Pyro cannot affect flames that he sees on television but which are not within this radius. Any of Pyro's fiery creations will immediately revert to ordinary flame if he turns his interest from it.

Costume specifications: A specially insulated costume made of unknown materials that provides him with a certain degree of protection against fire.

Personal weaponry: A flame-thrower that can throw a stream of flame a maximum distance of 25 feet.

NOTE: Alex Burton played him in X-Men the movies.