Stryfe was created by writer Louise Simonson and artist Rob Liefeld in 1990 and debuted in New Mutants #87. He was also the main antagonist of the crossover event X-Cutioner's Song (see what they did there?). Stryfe is a clone of the popular X-Men character Cable, who is himself the son of Cyclops and a Jean Grey clone, Madelyne Pryor, who was taken to the future as a baby and raised as a warrior type with a wicked sweet cybernetic arm. If this doesn't show you that the X-Men's continuity is complicated to an insane degree, then I don't know what will. Lots of clones and different timelines, y'see. But we digress. Stryfe's costume is one of the worst designs by Rob Liefeld, an artist who has come in for a lot of criticism over the years for his style. Some of it is warranted and some of it isn't, in our book. After all, Jim Lee was just as responsible for some god awful costume designs in the early nineties (the decade that taste forgot). Stryfe's costume is just so damn impractical, though. Sharp blade's all over the show, along with gauntlets and a ridiculously elaborate and spiky helmet thing, coupled with a long flowing red cape. Realistically, it would've taken the guy about three hours simply to get the damn costume on, all the while risking serious bodily injury with all those sharp points. One false move and Stryfe would've been in a world of hurt before he'd even considered having a scrap with the X-Men!
