Green Lantern Corps

After the failures of the Psion and Manhunter projects, the Guardians of the Universe decided to use living agents as their intermediaries, to overcome the forces of evil and injustice.

- History of the DC Universe #1

Three billion years ago, a group was formed and supplied with the energy pistols and power batteries similar to the Manhunters. This group was the immediate predecessors of the Green Lantern Corps. - Green Lantern Vol. 2 #90

The Guardians then developed a device in the shape of a ring that could channel will power. There were some limitations imposed on the power rings. They would need to be recharged every 24 hours, and there was a yellow impurity. This has been argued as a neccesity to fix the energy admixture (the Guardians' power to be adapted to individual ring bearers) and/or as a safety device to prevent any of the Green Lanterns from becoming omnipotent. It is believed by some Green Lanterns that this limitation actually strenghtens them by foring themselves to take nothing for granted.

Rori Dag of Rojira was selected by the Guardians to be the first Green Lantern. His success marked the beginning of the Green Lantern Corps. Each Guardian selected one species to have a Green Lantern as a representative. - Green Lantern Vol. 2 #67, Green Lantern Vol. 2 #40

The known universe was divided into 3600 individual sectors, imaginary pyramids with their points converging on Oa, making the Guardians' world the best protected planet in the universe. - Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale

The Corps was shattered by Hal Jordan when he was controlled by Parallax. The last power ring, created by Ganthet, was given to Kyle Rayner. - Green Lantern Vol. 3 #50

Years later, when Jordan was freed of the control of Parallax, the Guardians of the Universe restored and expanded the Green Lantern Corps. To better combat the growing threats the future would hold, 7200 Lanterns would patrol the stars. GREEN LANTERN CORPS: RECHARGE

Recently, the Green Lantern Corps has battled the yellow ring wielding Sinestro Corps preceding the War of Light. Utilizing the energy of the emotional spectrum, other forces have arisen; the Red Lantern Corps, Larfleeze and his Orange Lanterns, the Blue Lantern Corps, the Indigo Tribe, and the violet energy Star Sapphires. This in turn led to the rise of Nekron and his Black Lantern Corps. The Green Lanterns and the other Corps found themselves at times in unlikely alliances until Nekron was ultimately defeated.

guardians of the galaxy

In the aftermath of Annihilation: Conquest, Star-Lord[11] decides to form a team of interstellar heroes that will be proactive in protecting the galaxy, rather than reacting to crises as they happen. To this end, he recruits Adam Warlock,[12] Drax the Destroyer,[13] Gamora,[13] Phyla-Vell (the new Quasar),[14] Rocket Raccoon,[15] and Groot,[15] with Mantis as support staff.

On the recommendation of ally Nova, the group establishes a base of operations at the space station Knowhere, which possesses a teleportation system with near-universal range.[16] An intelligent, super-powered dog called Cosmo acts as Knowhere's chief of security and works closely with the new team. After an initial clash with the revitalised Universal Church of Truth,[1] the team's investigation of a mass of "Limbo ice" reveals a semi-amnesiac man who identifies himself as Vance Astro - Major Victory of the Guardians of the Galaxy.[17] Astro's declaration inspires the as-yet-unnamed team to adopt the "Guardians of the Galaxy" name for their own.[18]

The team then battles the Universal Church of Truth once again, while Astro is attacked aboard Knowhere by an incarnation of his former teammate Starhawk.[19] Matters worsen when the alien shape-shifting Skrulls apparently infiltrate Knowhere,[20] and the revelation that Star-Lord directed Mantis to telepathically coerce the heroes into joining the team.[21]

After this, the team members each went their own way due to some misunderstandings. However Rocket Raccoon decided to continue and started a search for the missing members. He asked Bug to join the team, as well Groot's return to full size and the addition of Mantis and Major Victory as field members. Meanwhile Starlord went to the Kree Empire in an attempt to help them out of a situation, but Ronan The Accuser reveals to him that they are reconstructing the Phalanx's Babel Spire in order to preserve the Kree, before throwing him into the Negative Zone, where he meets King Blastaar. Blastaar's plan is to break into 42, the prison created by the Initiative to house anti-registration forces.

Blastaar hopes to use Starlord as a way to get into 42, so he may then invade Earth. Blastaar's Negative Zone forces then launch a full scale attack against 42, which is defended by the superhumans inside - as the guards fled and locked them in the negative zone - led by Jack Flag. Starlord then goes into 42, and begins talking to Jack Flag, hoping to use him and other superhumans in 42 as a way to contact the Guardians. Using a telepath, Starlord is able to contact Mantis and get the Guardians to teleport into the Negative Zone, preparing for a big battle.

Meanwhile, Adam Warlock and Gamora invade the Universal Church of Truth's headquarters, as Adam Warlock wishes to find out more about them, and asks to be taken to their leader.

Elsewhere, Drax and Quasar begin looking for Cammi, but on their search they talk to a seer who tells them about the oncoming war. When they say they don't care and are looking for a girl, the seer remarks that he knows of this girl, and that her name is Heather, much to Drax and Quasar's surprise. Phylla was able to wake Moondragon from the dead, but lost her Quantum Bands in the process. The consequence for Phyla is that she is now the new avatar of death. They went back to Knowhere and did not follow up on the search for Cammi.
[edit] War of Kings

Adam Warlock and Gamora return to the Guardians and inform the team of the War of Kings. Starlord and Rocket Raccoon decide to split into 3 teams to keep the war from growing out of control:

* The Kree Team with Starlord, Bug, Gamora, Jack Flag and Martyr (Phylla-Vell)
* The Shi'ar Team with Rocket Raccoon, Drax the Destroyer, Adam Warlock, Major Victory and Groot
* The Coordination Team with Moondragon, Mantis and Cosmo the Spacedog

The Kree Team ask Black Bolt to stop the war, a request he denies. The Shi'ar team becomes separated from Adam Warlock, who is transported onto a Shi'ar vessel and is attacked by Vulcan, emperor of the Shi'ar. The rest of the Shi'ar Team works with the Starjammers to free Lilandra from Emperor Vulcan.

Warlock fights with Vulcan and some Imperial Guardsmen. In the end Guardsman Magique is able to put a 'witchmark' on Adam without him knowing, enabling her to track him. Meanwhile, Martyr kidnaps Crystal to force the Inhumans to stop the war. Both squads transport back to Knowhere, but are followed by the Imperial Guard (via Magique's 'witchmark' on Adam) and the Inhumans (via Lockjaw). The three-way battles rages all over Knowhere, until the Inhumans are able to retrieve Crystal and return to Hala. Magique follows Adam Warlock, who magically transfers the 'witchmark' onto her, leading Shi'ar soldiers shoot her instead of Adam Warlock. The Guard are eventually forcibly teleported off of Knowhere.

Star-Lord, Mantis, Bug, Jack Flag, and Cosmo are taken to the 31st Century by that era's Guardians, who warn them of the creation of an all-destroying energy rift called The Fault at the war's conclusion. Trapped in the future, Star-Lord's team is able to get a message to Adam Warlock in the 21st Century. Warlock is unable to stop The Fault's creation, but is able to cast a spell that contains it. The strain, however, causes him to revert to his Magus personality. Star-Lord's team, rescued by Kang the Conqueror, arrives as this happens, and the ensuing fight against Magus results in the deaths of Mantis, Cosmo, Major Victory, Martyr, and Gamora. Star-Lord uses a Cosmic Cube, provided by Kang, to neutralize Magus's powers and shoot him in the head.

This denouement turns out to have been faked by the Magus, who keeps the "dead" Guardians as his prisoners until Martyr breaks free. While the other half of the Guardians comes to rescue, Phyla-Vell is misled by Maelstrom into freeing Thanos. Thanos and Magus are both defeated by the reunited Guardians, but Martyr is apparently killed. The Guardians return to Knowhere, unaware that the future of the universe - according to the future Guardians of the Galaxy - is depending on them.

New Warriors

The Warriors were founded by wealthy young adventurer Dwayne Taylor, who devoted his life to fighting crime after the murder of his parents. Mentored by his legal guardians-retired mercenary Andrew Chord and enigmatic housekeeper Tai. Dwayne fought crime as Night Thrasher, forging a vigilante partnership with the superhuman brother-and-sister duo Midnight's Fire and Silhouette, and romancing the latter; however, their alliance ended badly when Silhouette was shot by a gangster. Blaming Thrasher for the tragedy, Fire disappeared with his fallen sister, swearing vengeance.

Current Members:
Gauntlet, Justice (Vance Astrovik), Komodo (Melati) Night Thrasher (Donyell Taylor), Rage, Scarlet Spider (Patrick), Slapstick, Tigra, Ultragirl

Former Members
Aegis (Trey Rollins), Blackwing (Barnell Bohusk), Bolt (Chris Bradley), Dagger, Darkhawk, Debrii, Decibel (Jono Starsmore), Firestar, Helix, Hindsight, Longstrike, Microbe, Namorita, Night Thrasher (Dwayne Taylor), Nova (Richard Rider), Phaser, Powerhouse/Powerpax, Renascence, Ripcord, Scarlet Spider, Scarlet Spider (Michael), Silhouette, Skybolt, Speedball (Robert Baldwin), Speedball (Darrion Grobe), Tempest (Angel Salvadore), Timeslip, Turbo (Michiko Musashi), Turbo (Mike Jeffries), Wondra

Other Members (Honorary, Reserve, etc.)
Andrew Chord

Secret Warriors

While in hiding after the Secret War, Nick Fury uncovers evidence of the Secret Invasion. Because the active heroes he knows may be compromised, he gathers a new team of "caterpillars", young, untested superhumans, whose existence is known to Fury alone. One of these young superhumans sought after was Layla Miller, but she refused politely, stating that they would only succeed without her. When the Skrulls invade New York, Nick Fury and his team of Secret Warriors arrive and rescue the defeated Young Avengers and Initiative members before withdrawing from the battle.[8] The Warriors help the other heroes defeat the Skrulls, before teleporting to an unknown location.[9]

After the invasion, Fury infiltrates a covert Chicago base and downloads information about the previous and current command structures of S.H.I.E.L.D. A few weeks later, he confronts the new U.S. president about the deactivation of S.H.I.E.L.D., and gives him the location of two of the organization's covert bases. Fury's team tries to shut down a covert base in Texas, but HYDRA appears and attacks the team. As the team attempts to evacuate, H.A.M.M.E.R. agents surround the area (accompanied by the Sentry), but the Warriors escape. Fury confronts the team on their failures, but reveals to Daisy that HYDRA was on a recovery mission at the Texas base, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. is a branch of HYDRA, while various agencies of the United States Government, including the NSA, Department of Treasury, and FBI Science and Technology Branch, as well as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate and Foreign Intelligence Service are all under HYDRA control.[10]

On a solo mission soon after, Fury teams with Norman Osborn to interrogate a lower-level HAMMER agent. The conversation (and materials obtained afterwards) reveal there may be an organization much like HYDRA, installed in the upper levels of world governments, called "Leviathan." This organization appears to have been founded by the Soviet government for reasons as yet unclear.

The Secret Warriors also assist the New Avengers when the Hood's gang was assaulting them

Roster

Nick Fury
Founder and leader of the Secret Warriors
Quake
Daisy Johnson, the daughter of Mister Hyde. She possesses the power to create earthquake-like vibrations.
Phobos
Son of Ares. He possesses the power to instill fear in others as well as limited pre-cognition. Being a member of the Olympian race, but born of a mortal woman also gives him the potential for far greater "god-like" powers not unlike his uncle Hercules, but require his "mortal" body die first.
The Druid
Sebastian Druid, the son of Doctor Druid who has inherited some of his father's skill with magic. However, he is soon seen as a liability and Fury cuts him loose.[12]
Slingshot
Yo-yo Rodriguez, the daughter of the Griffin. She can run at superhuman speed and bounces back to the point where she began running. She was recently injured severely, with both of her arms severed by the Gorgon, and was temporarily unable to remain active with the team. However, both arms have now been replaced with prosthetics and she has returned to active duty.
Hellfire
J.T. James, the grandson of the Phantom Rider, is able to charge items (notably a chain) with fire and unleash a devastating attack. During New Avengers, J.T. is shown as one of the possible replacements for the title of Sorcerer Supreme, showing great magical potential. In issue 16, Hellfire is discovered to be a double agent with Hydra, directly with Baron von Strucker.
Stonewall
Jerry Sledge, who has been bailed out of jail by Daisy Johnson, where he was being held for hitting a police officer. He possesses superhuman strength and an ability to increase his size, while his skin appears to take an appearance resembling stone. In issue 9, he demonstrated the ability to change the composition of his skin, by turning it into metal after getting Ares' axe swung into his chest. Very little has so far been revealed about the character, but Bendis has revealed that his father is a "major Marvel icon". In issue 12, it is revealed upon his visit to a prison that his father is Carl "Crusher" Creel, The Absorbing Man.[13] He tries to tell Reed Richards his real name at one point, but is cut off after saying "Henry".[14]
Eden Fesi
A reality warping young man previously under the care and training of the mutant Gateway.[15] Nick Fury initially attempted to recruit him to another unknown team, but Gateway refused.

Squadron Supreme

The following history applies only to the Squadron Supreme of the mainstream Marvel Universe. The team from the Supreme Power series exists in the Marvel "Ultimate" universe.
The Original Squadron Supreme

Years ago, Marvel shamelessly unveiled their very own JLofA rip-off group: the Squadron Sinister. These four villains were foes of the Avengers. Later, they took it one step further and created the Earth-S of the Marvel Universe, where lived the good Squadron Supreme. The group grew in number over the years, appearing in various issues of Avengers and Defenders before finally getting their own groundbreaking 12-issue mini-series in the 1980s (now available in trade paperback). Eleven new members joined during the mini-series. Unlike the core Squadron, these were original characters.

Recently, the JLA's popularity sparked a "reboot" of the Squadron Supreme. The book, called Supreme Power, starred Hyperion and was published under Marvel's "Max" imprint. These new stories definitely do not take place in the main Marvel Universe, nor do they have any connection to the former Squadron Supreme. Many of the original characters have been revamped and reintroduced. The book then spun into three mini-series, Doctor Spectrum, Hyperion and Nighthawk. In this universe, these characters are often at odds with each other. Nighthawk, Power Princess and Amphibian have "bad sides" to them, and others like Arcana and Nuke have been teamed against Hyperion. No team was actually formed until Hyperion #2.

During the SS limited series, they took on eleven new recruits. Six of them were forcibly reformed criminals brainwashed into working with the SS: Ape-X, Dr. Decibel, Foxfire, Lamprey, Quagmire and Shape (Ape-X was rendered brain-dead while Decibel and Quagmire seemingly died in action; Quagmire actually survived and is active as a villain on mainstream Marvel Earth). The brainwashing was undone and Lamprey betrayed the SS, dying in battle with Dr. Spectrum. Shape and Foxfire remained loyal to the SS, and Foxfire died in action alongside them. The SS's other new recruits were novice super-heroes: Haywire, Inertia, Moonglow, Redstone and Thermite. All five joined the SS as infiltrators on behalf of the subversive Redeemers, but when the Redeemers successfully coerced the SS into abandoning their positions as world rulers, the surviving rookies remained with the SS. One of the five, Thermite, was accidentally killed during the Redeemers' battle with the SS.

So, following Squadron Supreme #12, the roster stood as follows: Hyperion, Power Princess, Doctor Spectrum, Whizzer II, Arcanna, Shape, Haywire, Inertia, Moonglow and Redstone. Skrull had long since resigned. Amphibian and Nighthawk resigned in protest of the SS's becoming world rulers to steer the Earth back to stability after its temporary conquest by the Overmind, and Nighthawk led his Redeemers group in persuading the Squadron to abdicate. Nighthawk died in that battle, as did fellow ex-SS member Black Archer, who joined the Redeemers after the SS expelled him for abusing their mind-control technology by forcing Lady Lark to love him. Lady Lark resigned in protest of his expulsion, still brainwashed into blindly adoring him, but she didn't join the Redeemers (nor did Amphibian). Nuke went mad after realizing he had given his parents cancer, and died battling Dr. Spectrum. Tom Thumb died of cancer himself while trying to find a cure for it. Ape-X was incapacitated, Doctor Decibel died while suffocating when Quagmire's power engulfed the hospital. Quagmire was lost and presumed dead, and Blue Eagle, Lamprey, Foxfire and Thermite died during the SS/Redeemers battle.

Most of those killed in SS #12 were placed in Hybernaculum chambers. These chambers were invented by Tom Thumb, and basically served the same purpose as cryogenic preservation. There were 7 chambers: Tom Thumb, Pinball, Thermite, Foxfire, Blue Eagle and Golden Archer were shown. The other one may have contained Nighthawk, since Lamprey's body was mostly unrecoverable.

The Authority

The Authority is, at its fundamental core, a treatment of the Justice League of America taken to its logical conclusion. Seven of the most powerful superhumans in the Wildstorm Universe take it upon themselves to protect Earth from all threats, internal or external. These threats are usually gargantuan in nature and the eradication of these threats equally Herculean. This is widescreen, cinema-scope super-heroic fiction at its finest. Consisting of Jenny Sparks, Swift, the Engineer, the Doctor, Jack Hawksmoor, Apollo & the Midnighter (a gay version of the World's Finest duo i.e. Superman and Batman), The Authority was a spin-off from the late Stormwatch series, which took as its premise a UN-sanctioned super group. The creators responsible for these epic wonders were Warren Ellis (writer), Bryan Hitch and Paul Neary (artists) and together they delivered 12 pulsating issues that illuminated the jaded super-hero comic book industry.

The founding members of the Authority are

* Jenny Sparks, the Spirit of the Twentieth Century, the group's founder and original leader
* Apollo, "the Sun God"
* Midnighter, "Night's Bringer of War"
* Jeroen Thorndike, the Doctor (initially thought to be the second Doctor, he was subsequently shown to be the latest in a long line)
* Angela Spica, the second Engineer
* Jack Hawksmoor, "King of Cities", leader of the Authority 2000-2005, and
* Shen Li-Min, a.k.a. Swift.

Following the "Outer Dark" story arc (see below), Jenny Sparks is replaced with

* Jenny Quantum, the Spirit of the Twenty-First Century, Authority leader 2005 to present.

After "The Eternal Return" (again, see below), new members of the Authority are

* Rose Tattoo and
* Habib ben Hassan, Thorndike's successor as Doctor.

Beginning with #18 of volume five the team roster undergoes a major change. Jack Hawksmoor, Swift and Engineer remain on the team, where they are joined by new members:

* Christine Trelane, former co-leader of Stormwatch,
* Deathblow,
* Flint, previously of Stormwatch,
* Freefall, previously of Gen 13,
* Grifter, previously of the Wildcats,
* The High, the now depowered former Authority foe and
* Rainmaker, previously of Gen 13.

The Authority's base of operations is the Carrier, a gigantic interdimensional "shiftship" existing everywhere on Earth at the same time and capable of moving through every imaginable plane of existence. Usually referred to as a female, the Carrier is in fact sentient and could be considered an additional member of the team

Wonder Girl

Wonder Girl and the other Teen Titans were next featured in Showcase #59 (December 1965) before being spun off into their own series with Teen Titans #1, cover-dated February 1966. With the character called only Wonder Girl or "Wonder Chick" by her teammates, her status as either the younger Wonder Woman displaced in the timeline or another character altogether is not explained until Teen Titans (vol. 1) #22 (August 1969).[1] In a story by Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane it is established that Wonder Girl is a non-Amazon orphan, rescued by Wonder Woman from an apartment building fire. Unable to find any parents or family, Wonder Woman brings the child to Paradise Island, where she is eventually given Amazon powers by Paula von Gunther's Purple Ray. The story ends with Wonder Girl wearing a new costume and hairstyle, adopting the secret identity "Donna Troy."

1980s

Donna's origin is expanded in "Who is Donna Troy?" (January 1984), issue #38 of the 1980s relaunch of the team, The New Teen Titans. Robin investigates the events surrounding the fire from which his old friend had been rescued as a toddler, discovering that her birth mother had been a dying unwed teen who had given her up for adoption. The subsequent Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries (1985-1986) rewrote the history of many DC Comics characters; Wonder Woman's own pre-Crisis history was written out of existence, and the character was reintroduced in Wonder Woman (vol. 2) #1 (February 1987) as a new arrival from Themyscira (the former Paradise Island).

With the character of Donna tied predominantly to the Titans, her origin was retconned to fit into the new continuity created by Wonder Woman's relaunch, one severing her direct ties to the Amazons. In the storyline "Who Is Wonder Girl?" featured in The New Titans #50-54 (December 1988-March 1989), the Titans of Myth enlist Donna's aid against the murderous Sparta of Synriannaq. It is revealed that the Titan Rhea had rescued a young Donna from a fire; Donna and Sparta had then been part of a group of 12 orphans from around the universe who had been raised on New Cronus by these Titans as "Titan Seeds," their eventual saviors. The Seeds had been given superhuman powers, and named after ancient Greek cities. Called "Troy," Donna (like the others) had eventually been stripped of her memories of her time with the Titans of Myth, and reintroduced into humankind to await her destiny; Sparta had retained her memories, and the knowledge had eventually driven her mad. Killing her fellows Seeds to "collect" their powers and destroy the Titans of Myth, Sparta is ultimately defeated by Donna and the only other Seed left alive, Athyns of Karakkan. In The New Titans #55 (June 1989), Donna changes her pseudonym from "Wonder Girl" to "Troia" and adopts a new costume incorporating mystical gifts from the Titans of Myth.

Post-Wonder Girl

Donna's origin was rewritten again in the 1990s, reattaching to the Wonder Woman mythos. It is revealed that the Amazon sorceress Magala had animated a mirror image of young Princess Diana to create for her a mystical, "identical twin" playmate. This twin is soon mistaken for Diana and kidnapped by Dark Angel. Dark Angel disperses the girl's spirit across the multiverse, condemning her to live multiple lives, each one cut short by the Dark Angel at a moment of tragedy.[volume & issue needed]

In at least one of these variant lives, Donna would become a superhero and encounter her grown sister, now Wonder Woman, and their mother Queen Hippolyta, without realizing who she really was or how she was related to them. After that timeline ends with the death of Donna's son, Diana and Hippolyta intervene to find what happened to Donna. Donna finally defeats Dark Angel, destroying the evil entity and regaining her original Amazon powers; she returns to reality to continue her life from that point.[volume & issue needed]

The 2005 miniseries The Return of Donna Troy reveals that Donna is actually an amalgam of every Donna Troy, who remembers all of her other incarnations. After the events of Infinite Crisis (2005-2006), Diana briefly passes the mantle of Wonder Woman to Donna. However, Diana continued to be the star of the book, and reclaimed the title of Wonder Woman in the first story arc of Wonder Woman vol. 3. Wonder Woman Annual (vol. 3) #1 gives Donna a new origin that combining elements of her three variant origins:

Donna was born as Princess Diana's mystic twin through the help of Amazon sorceress Magala. Months later, an old enemy of Queen Hippolyta called Dark Angel kidnapped Donna thinking she was Diana. Donna was placed in suspended animation by Dark Angel for years and was eventually left to die in a burning building. But fate intervened and the now grown-up Diana came onto the scene as Wonder Woman and rescued Donna. She was brought back to Themyscira where she received training from both the Amazons and The Titans of Myth and years after followed Diana into the outside world as Wonder Girl and helped form the Teen Titans.

Songbird

Melissa Gold was a troubled runaway from an alcoholic father and incarcerated mother[citation needed]. In order to survive on the streets, Melissa developed a hard edge to her personality, referring to herself as "Mimi."[citation needed] She was eventually imprisoned, where she met Poundcakes, a female wrestler who invited her to join the Grapplers under the name Screaming Mimi, alongside Titania and Letha[citation needed]. The Grapplers became renowned for their colorful personalities and ringside antics, but the wrestling federation denied them the opportunity to make the amount of money their male counterparts made. Instead, the group agreed to earn supplementary income by performing a covert operation for the Roxxon Oil Company. The Grapplers were given special paraphernalia to assist them in their mission; Mimi received an apparatus that converted her voice to high-frequency sonics for various effects. The Grapplers tested these powers by fighting Thundra in a wrestling ring.[1] On their mission, Thundra led them into Project Pegasus to smuggle in the Nth Projector for Roxxon. The mission failed when they were defeated by the heroes Quasar and Giant-Man.[2] The Grapplers were tried and jailed for their misdeeds. Alongside the Grapplers, she victimized Dazzler while she was in Ryker's Island prison with them.[3] When the Grapplers were finally paroled, they discovered that the women's wrestling movement had lost its momentum without them, so they continued to perform crimes to support themselves and working as professional criminals. Alongside the Grapplers, Mimi attempted to attack the Thing while he was in the hospital, and battled Captain America.[4] Later, the Grapplers set their sights on a women's division of the superpowered Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation. Their manager, Auntie Freeze, arranged for the women to augment their natural abilities with artificial powers created by the agency Power Broker, Inc. While the other Grapplers received superhuman strength, Mimi instead had her vocal enhancements internalized as a throat implant; it was once believed that Mimi had also gained superhuman strength, but it was established after the fact in the Thunderbolts series (see below) that this was not the case.[volume & issue needed] The all-new Grapplers made a legitimate professional comeback that proved short-lived. When Titania was murdered by the vigilante Scourge, Mimi was among the female wrestlers of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation who participated in a mass attack upon the Thing, blaming him for Titania's death.[5] After Letha was later also killed by Scourge,[6] the Grapplers broke

Black Widow

Born circa 1928, Natalia "Natasha" Romanova was apparently orphaned as a child when she was trapped in a burning building during an early attack on Stalingrad by enemy forces. Ivan Petrovitch Bezukhov, a Soviet soldier, found Natasha in the inferno and rescued her. Although Ivan kept a close eye on Natasha as she grew, by the late 1930s she had attracted the attention of Soviet intelligence, which began her training. In 1941, she was almost brainwashed into serving the ninja clan the Hand, but was saved by Ivan, Logan (James Howlett, later Wolverine) and Captain America. Following World War II, Natasha was recruited to become part of the Black Widow Program, a team of elite female

Real Name
Natalia "Natasha" Alianovna Romanova

Aliases
Natasha Romanoff, Nadine Roman, "Nat," Tsarina, Oktober, Laura Matthers, Nancy Rushman, Black Pearl, Natalia Shostakova, Natuska, Czarina, others; impersonated Yelena Belova

Identity
Publicly known

Citizenship
Former citizen of Russia/U.S.S.R., resident in United States of America under extended visa authorized by S.H.I.E.L.D.

Place of Birth
Stalingrad, former U.S.S.R

arrowette

Arrowette is one of few superheroes to retire and have it stick. After serving valiantly alongside Young Justice, she now lives the life of a normal girl... who happens to be an Olympic Gold Medalist.
Origin

Arrowette's childhood was spent preparing her for her life's mission: to be a super hero. This mission was assigned to her by her mother, the original Arrowette. Cissie began her career as an adventurer in a battle against the Spazz in Manchester, Alabama. Arrowette also appeared in Impulse #59 as Impulse's date in the Valentine's dance. Impulse and Max Mercury were on hand to help, but Mercury later pressed child endangerment charges against Bonnie. The charges stuck, and Cissie was remanded to the custody of the Elias School and Dr. Marcy Money. It looked as if Cissie's super hero career was over. Dr. Money inadvertently gave Cissie the idea that she could be a better hero than her mother. This thought seemed to inspire Cissie to resume her career as Arrowette.
Young Justice

Arrowette joined Young Justice during the team's first conflict with Harm. In that battle, Harm caught one of Cissie's arrows and threw it right back at her, seriously wounding her shoulder. The Super-Cycle rescued her and brought her back to Happy Harbor. The team's care for her prompted her to become a member.

Shortly after, the murder of Dr. Marcy Money tumed Arrowette's world inside out. Blinded by rage, she hunted the doctor's murderer, following him and his accomplice into the Pennsylvania woods. After subduing the accomplice, she proceeded to re-enact Dr. Money's murder. But this time, the killer was on the receiving end. He begged for mercy and threw away his weapon. Cissie could have captured him, but instead she fired an arrow directly at his heart. The blow surely would have killed him if Superboy hadn't arrived in the knick of time, snatching the arrow out of the air.
A Normal Girl again

Soon thereafter, Cissie quit Young Justice and has abandoned her Arrowette persona. Cissie now has to do what her mother never allowed her to do: decide for herself what she is going to be.

After leaving Young Justice she went on to win a gold medal for America in the Olympics for Archery. Although not a member of the team she continued to have close relationships with them, especially her best friend, Wonder Girl. She was with Young Justice as the team's medic during the "Our Worlds At War" Galactic Crisis, and acted as the team's pitcher in an intergalactic baseball game with worlds in the balance.

Cissie now attends St. Elias' School for Girls - along with Greta Hayes (Secret) and Cassie Sandsmark (Wonder Girl). Cissie appeared in Teen Titans #7 (vol.3) negotiating with the principal of St.Elias' school about allowing Wonder Girl to enroll in the school along with Secret.

Powers and Abilities
Arrowette is an Olympic-level archer and athlete. She was trained from an early age to become one of the world's greatest archers. She has a variety of trick arrows that she uses such as classic arrows, boxing glove arrows, oil slick arrows, freeze arrows, and even a few sillier ones such as perfume arrows that her mother made her use. Arrowette is also skilled in kick boxing and other hand to hand combat although her skills are best put to use when she's arching from a distance.

Alpha Flight

Base of Operations
Department H, Ontario, Canada; formerly Tamarind Island, British Columbia, Canada; Mansion Alpha, Winnipeg, Canada

Former Members:
Aurora, Box (Roger Bochs), Centennial, Diamond Lil, Earthmover (Charles Moss), Flex, Guardian (James Hudson), Guardian (clone), Groundhog, Madison Jeffries, Major Mapleleaf (Lou Sadler, Jr.), Manbot, Mar, Marrina, Murmur (Arlette Truffaut), Nemesis (Jane St. Ives), Northstar, Puck (Eugene Judd), Puck (Zuzha Yu), Radius, Saint Elmo, Sasquatch (Walter Langkowski), Sasquatch (creature), Shaman (Michael Twoyoungmen), Smart Alec, Snowbird, Stitch, Talisman (Elizabeth Twoyoungmen), Vindicator (Heather Hudson), Wild Child, Windshear, Wolverine (James Howlett), Wyre, Yukon Jack

Other Members (Honorary, Reserve, etc.):
Formerly Beta Flight and Gamma Flight training squads



Alpha Flight is a team of superhuman Canadian operatives that originated in the private sector with an engineer named James MacDonald Hudson who had developed an exoskeleton to assist in geological exploration. When Hudson learned that the U.S. military had appropriated his invention, he destroyed the plans and made off with the helmet necessary to control the apparatus. Heather McNeil, then executive secretary to Hudson's immediate superior Jerome Jaxon, was shocked by the sudden turn of events and arranged a meeting between Hudson and the Canadian government. Hudson was able to plead his case and the government stepped in to resolve the situation. The Canadian prime minister subsequently invited Hudson to participate in the creation of Department H, a top-secret research and development agency within the country's Ministry of Defense. Hudson married Heather soon after.

Inspired by the debut of the superhuman adventurers the Fantastic Four, Hudson's first recruit for the team's first incarnation, code-named the Flight, was the feral mutant, Wolverine who had joined Department H some years earlier as an espionage agent. Wolverine participated in the initial phases of the team's creation, and after an initial mission against the forces of the criminal mastermind Egghead, it was decided that Wolverine would lead the team. However, for his own reasons, Wolverine left Department H and joined the X-Men, the mutant team formed by Professor Charles Xavier. In Wolverine's stead, Hudson donned a modified version of the exoskeleton he had created and first took the name Weapon Alpha, then Vindicator, then later settled on Guardian. Recruiting five more super-powered champions, the newly formed Alpha Flight initially clashed with the X-Men in an attempt to capture Wolverine, but the two teams later cooperated against the monstrous Wendigo. Alpha Flight subsequently lost government funding, but its members decided to remain operational as freelance adventurers.

Following Hudson's apparent death, leadership of Alpha Flight was assumed by his wife Heather when she donned his battlesuit and succeeded him as Vindicator. The Canadian government resumed sponsorship of Alpha Flight, and the team established a headquarters on Tamarind Island off the coast of British Columbia. However, relations between the team and the government grew strained over time. Alpha Flight's government liaison, a former intelligence agent named Gary Cody, sought to keep the team under control by resurrecting one of Hudson's earliest attempts to create a superhuman being. This creature, known as Bedlam, killed Cody before violently confronting the team. After a pitched battle, Vindicator managed to destroy Bedlam.
Enlarge
During one of the team's adventures in another dimension, Department H created a new team dubbed Gamma Flight to act as their official agents during Alpha Flight's absence. When Alpha Flight eventually returned to Earth, the two teams initially clashed but soon put aside their differences to oppose the threat of the extradimensional menace of Llan the Sorcerer. After Hudson returned alive and well, Alpha Flight and Gamma Flight were combined into the one team that were reinstated as Canada's official government operatives. The restructured team continued to face various threats, at one point teaming up with Wolverine against the forces of the Brass Bishop, but ultimately Department H was dissolved and the team disbanded.

Department H was eventually reinstated under the administration of General Jeremy Clarke, who was charged with creating a new Alpha Flight. The new team, which included a mixture of veterans and neophytes led by a seemingly youthful Hudson, found itself manipulated by subversive tactics and clandestine missions, including one against the X-Men. Department H's deception was not laid bare until an encounter with the remaining members of the original Alpha Flight team, including the true Hudson. The younger Guardian was revealed to be a synthetic being created to supplant the original, who had refused to rejoin the Department H and was subsequently targeted for assassination. The two teams joined forces and regained control of Department H.

Wolverine subsequently helped the reformed team against the weapon-making terrorists of Advanced Idea Mechanics, during which the team regained a former member in Snowbird but lost the younger Guardian who sacrificed his life to ensure the team's freedom. Alpha Flight returned the favor by helping Wolverine defeat the cannibalistic sorcerer Mauvais. Wolverine also briefly served as mentor to a new member, Earthmover, who was being groomed to replace Shaman on the team.

Secret Warriors

While in hiding after the Secret War, Nick Fury uncovers evidence of the Secret Invasion. Because the active heroes he knows may be compromised, he gathers a new team of "caterpillars", young, untested superhumans, whose existence is known to Fury alone. When the Skrulls invade New York, Nick Fury and his team of Secret Warriors arrive and rescue the defeated Young Avengers and Initiative members before withdrawing from the battle.[8] The Warriors help the other heroes defeat the Skrulls, before teleporting to an unknown location.[9]

After the invasion, Fury infiltrates a covert Chicago base and downloads information about the previous and current command structures of S.H.I.E.L.D. A few weeks later, he confronts the new U.S. president about the deactivation of S.H.I.E.L.D., and gives him the location of two of the organization's covert bases. Fury's team tries to shut down a covert base in Texas, but HYDRA appears and attacks the team. As the team attempts to evacuate, H.A.M.M.E.R. agents surround the area, but the Warriors escape. Fury confronts the team on their failures, but reveals to Daisy that HYDRA was on a recovery mission at the Texas base, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. is a branch of HYDRA, while various agencies of the United States Government, including the NSA, Department of Treasury, and FBI Science and Technology Branch, as well as the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate and Foreign Intelligence Service are all under HYDRA control.[10]

On a solo mission soon after, Fury teams with Norman Osborn to interrogate a lower-level HAMMER agent. The conversation (and materials obtained afterwards) reveal there may be an organization much like HYDRA, installed in the upper levels of world governments, called "Leviathan." This organization appears to have been founded by the Soviet government for reasons as yet unclear.

The Secret Warriors also assist the New Avengers when the Hood's gang was assaulting them

Roster

Nick Fury
Founder, and leader, of the Secret Warriors

Quake
Daisy Johnson, the daughter of Mister Hyde. She possesses the power to create earthquake-like vibrations.

Phobos
Son of Ares. He possesses the power to instill fear in others as well as limited pre-cognition. Being a member of the Olympian race, but born of a mortal woman also gives him the potential for far greater "god-like" powers not unlike his uncle Hercules, but require his "mortal" body die first.

The Druid
Sebastian Druid, the son of Doctor Druid who has inherited some of his father's skill with magic. However, he is soon seen as a liability and Fury cuts him loose.

Slingshot
Yo-yo Rodriguez, the daughter of the Griffin. She can run at superhuman speed and bounces back to the point where she began running. She was recently injured severely, with both of her arms severed by the Gorgon, and was temporarily unable to remain active with the team. However, both arms have now been replaced with prosthetics and she has returned to active duty.

Hellfire
J.T. Slade, the grandson of the Phantom Rider, is able to charge items (notably a chain) with fire and unleash a devastating attack. During New Avengers, J.T. is shown as one of the possible replacements for the title of Sorcerer Supreme, showing great magical potential.

Stonewall
Jerry Sledge, who has been bailed out of jail by Daisy Johnson, where he was being held for hitting a police officer. He possesses superhuman strength and an ability to increase his size, while his skin appears to take an appearance resembling stone. In issue 9, he demonstrated the ability to change the composition of his skin, by turning it into metal after getting Ares' axe swung into his chest. Very little has so far been revealed about the character, but Bendis has revealed that his father is a "major Marvel icon". In issue 12, it is revealed upon his visit to a prison that his father is Carl "Crusher" Creel, The Absorbing Man. He tries to tell Reed Richards his real name at one point, but is cut off after saying "Henry".

Eden Fesi
A reality warping young man previously under the care and training of the mutant Gateway. Nick Fury initially attempted to recruit him to another unknown team, but Gateway refused.

Godam

Gundala

Indonesian Superhero in Picture

Askani

Real Name: Rachel Summers
Former Aliases: Mother Askani
First Appearance: X-Men (1st series) #141 (as Rachel Summers), Uncanny X-Men Annual #9 (as Phoenix III), Cable #6 (as Mother Askani)
Known Relatives: Scott Summers (Cyclops I, father), Jean Grey-Summers (Phoenix IV, mother), Madelyne Pryor (ex-step-mother, deceased), Nathan Christopher Summers (Cable, half-brother), Alexander Summers (Havok, uncle, believed deceased), Christopher Summers (Corsair, grandfather), Tyler Dayspring (Genesis, nephew, deceased), Franklin Richards (alternate future husband), Jonathan Reed Richards (Hyperstorm, alternate future son)
Group Affiliation: None, formerly Clan Askani, Excalibur, X-Men, former servant of Ahab
Known Allies: Cable, Blaquesmith, X-Men, Phoenix Force, formerly Excalibur, Kate Pryde
Major Enemies: Dark Sisterhood, Gaunt, Spiral, Mojo, formerly Selene, Apocalypse
Powers: Telepathy, telekinesis
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 125 lbs.
Eyes: Green
Hair: Red

BIOGRAPHY
The daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey in an alternate timeline, young Rachel inherited her mother's potential for the telepathic and telekinetic powers that Jean Grey possessed as Marvel Girl.

In the "mainstream" universe's reality, the X-Men prevented Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from assassinating Senator Robert Kelly, an investigator of the alleged menace that superhuman mutants posed to society. However, in Rachel's timeline, the Brotherhood succeeded in killing Kelly. The assassination caused intense widespread public paranoia against mutants. In the next presidential election, a rabid anti-mutant candidate won. His administration unleashed Sentinel robots, giving them an open-ended program with overly broad parameters to eliminate the mutant menace permanently. The Sentinels decided that the best way to do so was to take over the United States, and over the subsequent years they killed or imprisoned within concentration camps virtually all known mutants and other superhuman beings within the United States and Canada. Finally the Sentinels controlled the entire North American continent.

One summer morning, when Rachel was still a child, the X-Men's base of operations, Professor Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State, was attacked and demolished by federal troops. The only survivor at the school was Rachel, whom the soldiers found by the side of Xavier's corpse. They used drugs to neutralize Rachel's developing psionic powers. Later, she was tortured and brainwashed in prison. Following extensive behavior modification, she became a mutant "hound," using her psionic powers to hunt down other mutants for the authorities, who would kill or imprison them. In the process, Rachel occasionally killed mutants herself, and it is known that some of those, who are as yet unidentified, were people she loved. Rachel's superiors branded her face with a grotesque pattern of tattoos to mark her as a "hound", and forced her to wear a leash. Rachel's grief and shame at what she was forced to do as a "hound", and her anguish over the deaths of her parents and other friends during the anti-mutant reign of terror has deeply scarred her soul, leaving her bitter and intolerant toward human beings who persecute mutants.

Eventually Rachel was placed in the South Bronx Mutant Containment Facility. Rachel used her psionic powers to create the illusion in other people's minds that she does not bear the tattoos marking her as a "hound", thereby concealing her shame. In the camp she rejoined the surviving members of the X-Men. She was instrumental in their plan to end the Sentinels' reign by changing history. Rachel used her psionic powers to exchange the consciousness and spirit of the adult Kate Pryde, a member of the X-Men, with that of Pryde's teenage self as she existed at a time just before the attempt on Kelly's life. It was hoped that the adult Kate, in her younger self's body at that earlier time, could warn the X-Men about the assassination attempt, and that the X-Men would foil it, thereby preventing the chain of events from occurring that led to the Sentinels' rule. However, history cannot be changed in this manner. Rachel, as it turned out, actually caused Kate to exchange psyches not with her younger self ("Kitty") in the past of her own reality, but with the Kitty of our own "mainstream" reality. Kate, in "mainstream" Kitty's body, succeeded in preventing Kelly's assassination in our own reality. She then returned to her own body in her own time and reality, causing Kitty's psyche to return to its proper time and reality as well. On her return, Kate found that the other X-Men, except for Rachel, had all died in an attack on the Sentinels' Manhattan headquarters.

Kate Pryde still did not give up her vain hope of altering her reality's history. She hypnotized Rachel into using her psionic powers to tap into the Phoenix Force and send herself back in time when Kate said the words "Dark Phoenix". Thus Kate hoped that Rachel herself could change history. Together, Kate and Rachel illegally entered the laboratory of Project Nimrod, which was the attempt to construct the most highly advanced Sentinel possible with the technology of that time, in the hopes of sabotaging the project. Pursued by guards, Kate and Rachel locked themselves within the laboratory, whose walls were proofed against Kate’s power to phase through solid matter. Rachel believed herself and Kate to be trapped, but Kate said the words that caused Rachel to project herself back through time. Project Nimrod's creation, the Sentinel called Nimrod, then killed Kate. Nimrod later went back in time to find Rachel.

Rachel found herself physically transported, body and mind, to a time shortly before the present. But like Kate's spirit, she had traveled not to the past of her reality, but to the past of this "mainstream" reality. She went to Xavier's mansion, but could not bring herself to stay on realizing that she had come back to the wrong reality, and fled without identifying herself. She went to Manhattan, where she was pursued by the psychic vampire Selene. Rachel was rescued by the X-Men, and after her mind was read by Professor X, she was invited to join the team.

Rachel was shocked to learn of the supposed "death" of Jean Grey in this reality. Visiting the home of Grey's parents while they were absent, Rachel found a Shi'ar holo-empathic matrix crystal that Lilandra had given them. The crystal was imbued with an imprint of the essence of Jean's personality. Unaware that Jean was not actually the Phoenix, Rachel refused to believe that Jean could be evil, as people claimed Phoenix was, and she decided to claim the name and power of Phoenix as her own birthright, and through her own actions to redeem the name Phoenix in this reality. Rachel also believed that as the new Phoenix she could use her power to help her fellow mutants, and thereby atone for what she had done as a "hound" in her own reality. It was at this moment that she took the name of Phoenix while holding the crystal that Rachel first manifested about her the bird-shaped aura of energy associated with the previous Phoenix. It may be speculated that from that time on Rachel Summers was able to draw to a limited extent upon the power of the Phoenix Force. The alien Beyonder has hinted that Rachel could potentially become the equal in power of the previous Phoenix. Indeed, the Beyonder once granted Rachel the full power that the previous Phoenix had possessed, but he reclaimed it shortly thereafter.

Soon after, Rachel's fellow X-Man, Wolverine, severely injured her to prevent her from vengefully murdering Selene in the heat of passion. Fleeing to heal herself, she was fooled by the six-armed servant of Mojo named Spiral and taken to Mojoworld where she was held prisoner. Rachel escaped with the help of Kitty Pryde, Lockheed, Nightcrawler, and Captain Britain, and together they formed the British super-team Excalibur.

After many adventures, Rachel finally managed to return to the future she had come from. While she couldn’t change her past, she and her teammates were able to change the directives of all the Sentinels of the era to preserve all life, thereby ending the genocide that had prevailed for years. On the return journey, Captain Britain was lost in the timestream and it was discovered that Rachel had to exchange places with him for him to return. She accepted, and was carried to Cable's future where she founded the Clan Askani.

As the Mother Askani, Rachel was responsible for bringing Cyclops and Phoenix to the future to care for a young Cable, but this effort exhausted her old body and her physical form died. She lived on, however, in an astral form.

Some time later, Cable journeyed to the end of time and found a youthful Rachel being held prisoner by Gaunt, a man who had been imprisoned there for his crimes. Cable challenged Gaunt to a duel to decide the fate of Rachel and emerged victorious, returning Rachel to the present with him.

Rachel started college to further her education, but soon became embroiled in the Dark Sisterhood's attempted takeover of the United States. Rachel aided her half-brother Cable in defeating the Sisterhood and their leader, Finality.

Rachel has since returned to the X-Men, changing her last name to Grey and taking on the code name Marvel Girl in honor of her mother. She is currently appearing in Uncanny X-Men.

Andromeda

Statistics
Real name Laurel Gand
Status Inactive
Affiliations Legion of Super-Heroes, White Triangle
Group: Legion of Super-Heroes
Origin: Daxam
Known Relatives: descendant of Valor (M'Onel-Lar Gand)
First appearance: Legion of Super-Heroes (3rd series) # 66
Notable powers Super-strength, super-speed, unaided flight, heat vision, telescopic and X-ray vision, super-hearing, ability to survive and move in a vaccuum Laurel Gand, codenamed Andromeda, is a fictional character, a superheroine in the future of the DC Comics universe, and a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes

Biography
Laurel Gand spent most of her life in a White Triangle community, being indoctrinated in the "horrors" of interspecies co-operation before the Triangle's political clout led her to become the Daxamite representative in the Legion. Away from Daxam's red sun, she gained powers similar to Superman's, but the race-wide hypersensitivity of Daxamites to lead that meant even minuscule amounts could prove fatal even to a powered-up Daxamite, forcing her to wear a transuit at all times. This did not trouble her, since it meant she never had to actually touch any non-Daxamites.

Her Triangle-derived beliefs hampered her effectiveness as a Legionnaire, thanks to her reluctance to physically engage with any enemies, but the real problems started after she let several Triangle members go after a mugging, shortly after which they beat and almost killed Triad. Angered more for their defiance of her than for the beating, when she was ordered away to prevent the Composite Man gaining her powers, she flew after them. Immediately, they tore her transuit and directly exposed her to lead, and she barely managed to turn them over to the Science Police before crashing through the walls of Legion HQ.

While Brainiac 5 worked on devising an anti-lead serum, he confronted her about her beliefs, and after discovering the serum Vril Dox II, his direct ancestor, had created for Valor and tailoring it to her genetic structure to allow it to work properly on her (much to her surprise, as she had been taught that all members of the same race were identical), he forced her to confront the fact that he wasn't her inferior before giving her the serum. While this was happening, however, Shrinking Violet discovered a White Triangle necklace in her room and connected it to the group which had assaulted Triad and destroyed Trom, before telling the rest of the team.

Confined to quarters after an unsuccessful attempt by Cosmic Boy to have her removed from the team, she used her super-senses to see Ambassador Roxxas gloating, but he managed to bully her into giving him the anti-lead serum. Taking it himself and giving it to four other Daxamites, they proceeded to cause mass destruction on Earth. When Andromeda herself confronted Roxxas over what he was doing & had made her do, she was almost defeated when Violet began thrashing around in his head, before coming out and telling Andromeda to take him down. As she pummelled him repeatedly, he destroyed the covering of an "atomic furnace", and both were thought to have died in the resulting inferno (causing Brainiac 5 severe depression). Only Cosmic Boy told that she had survived and voluntarily exiled herself to Planet Hell.

Later, she was brought out of this exile by Live Wire after Cosmic Boy had told him where she was as part of a way to build up a "Legion Rescue Squad", and she was awed by Valor himself being another member. However, she declined to rejoin the Legion after the Squad had served it's purpose, preferring to head off into deep space.

Powers
Great super-strength, the ability to fly unaided, to move in space without breathing apparatus and at superluminal speed, heat vision, telescopic vision and super-hearing.

BRIEF HISTORY
Laurel Gand grew up on Daxam, in a village run by the White Triangle cult, which was devoted to racial separation and purity. She was more than a little horrified, therefore, to find herself drafted by her government to join the Legion of Super-Heroes, the United Planets' living symbol of racial co-existence and harmony.

The Legion was happy enough to have a member with super-speed, super-strength, laser vision, x-ray vision, super-senses, and invulnerability to everything but lead. Laurel, code-named Andromeda, was less pleased to have to deal with members of "lesser races," and was thankful for the fact that the transsuit that protected her from lead poisoning protected her from the other Legionnaires' touch. She got very lonely, and the only thing that prevented her from leaving the Legion was the fact that she'd have to return to Daxam if she did.

Slowly but surely, her attitude changed. When some White Triangle-affiliated thugs that she had kept free of imprisonment used their freedom to beat up her teammate Triad, she decided, with some guilty prodding from Shrink ing Violet, to track them down and take them in. They, though, had other plans, and poisoned her with lead. A sickbed conversation with Brainiac 5 and his subsequent curing of her condition convinced her that individuals of all races should be treated equally. But the discovery, soon afterward, of her White Triangle ties, earned her the suspicion of her teammates and made her long for home once again. Playing on these vulnerable feelings, Roxxas, the White Triangle's leader, tricked her into handing the cure for lead poisoning over to him. When she realized how she had been used, she entered the fight between the Legion and the White Triangle, taking on Roxxas himself. The two of them got caught inside a fusion reactor, and the nuclear flames shooting out of the reactor convinced witness Shrinking Violet that she was dead. The world has mourned her as a heroine who atoned for her mistakes, but she had actually survived the blast. She turned herself in voluntarily to the President of the United Planets, and has since been living alone on the abandoned prison Planet Hell in an act of self-punishment, a fact revealed only to the President and Cosmic Boy. However, Cosmic Boy later decided to send Live Wire to free her from there to become part of an undercover rescue squad for the Legion, and, after fellow squad member Jan Arrah offered her forgiveness on behalf of his dead race, she agreed to join, and with the squad, she helped save the active Legion from the Fatal Five. Once R. J. Brande assumed the presidency of the U. P., she was officially pardoned and her status as both living person and Legionnaire was reinstated, but she declined to rejoin the Legion, feeling guilty and out of place(A vision of an older Andromeda was seen in the timestream, battling some unknown evil. It is unknown whether this future Andromeda is the true one or a divergent counterpart)

Blink

Real name: Clarice Ferguson
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men 317.
Died in: X-Men [v2] 37 and again in X-Men Omega when that timeline ceased to exist.
Favorite quote: "My name is Blink. Who do you think is faster?" (Astonishing X-men 4)

In an alternate world where Charles Xavier has died and Apocalypse rules supreme, Clarice Ferguson is a young mutant struggling to stay alive. Fighting alongside the astonishing X-Men, Blink uses her super powers of teleportation for the good of mankind. Her mutant abilities allow her to temporarily "blink" an object out of existence with the aid of a phasing pulse. Few people know that while just a girl, Blink's life was saved from the forces of Apocalypse by none other than Sabretooth!


Team affiliation: During the Age of Apocalypse, Blink was with the Astonishing X-Men. Her sacrifice led to the formation of Generation X in the regular X-timeline.
Powers: Blink had the potential to form gateways through dimensions, an ability exploited by the Astonishing X-Men during the AOA series. In this timeline, she was untrained and couldn't do much more than fracture reality.

Favorite Storyline: The mentor/apprentice relationship between Blink and the AOA's somewhat-less-homicidal-than-usual Victor Creed was very interesting. That being said, however...

Least favorite storyline: I didn't like the Phalanx story and I wasn't crazy about most of the Age of Apocalypse (although I've always been in favor of pairing up Rogue with Magneto). But Blink I like just fine. :-)

So, what is Blink up to these days? As those of us who are long-time comic book readers know (and sometimes it irritates the heck out of us), death is not as bad a career move as it might seem for a comic book character. There was a Bring Back Blink campaign. Never one to let something as trivial as a dissolved time-line stop them, Marvel has done at least one AOA Blink story.

Update: For a while, the AOA incarnation of Blink led a team of alternate-reality heroes called the Exiles, charged with surfing alternate realities and repairing disruptions of the timestream. Eventually, Blink, having fulfilled her own particular part in this quest for cosmic balance, was freed from Exile duty and teleported away to parts unknown. The other Exiles have carried on without her. -Editor Sean

POWERS:
T16: Teleport Self* and others (T17)--powerstunt, multiple teleports of different parts of an opponent/object(blinking). This reassembles the unit in a different way-possibly killing it or damaging it.
(Amazing) Speed teleport-When using her teleport powers, she has +8 to her initiative
Special Distortion charging-she can charge objects with her blinking power (much like gambit does with energy). On contact, these items teleport that person away at Am ability (Amazing)

TALENTS:
Martial Arts: Tumbling, Acrobatics, Weapon specialist (pins).

EQUIPMENT:
Teleport Pins: Blink carries a quiver of pins that do Ex edged damage. She can also charge them with some of here blinking power to teleport someone away at
Am ability or even deadlier to blink the pins a short distance inside a person. This does In damage. The pins have Am material strength.

HISTORY:
Clarice had the ability to displace matter through a type of teleportation rift. Unfortunately, she had no control over her power, and objects that she "blinked"
would not reassemble properly. When Clarice's power first manifested, she ended up hurting someone. (Never told who.) She promised herself from that then on,
she would never use her powers again.

When the extraterrestrial threat of the Phalanx attacked Earth, they captured many "neo-mutants" (now known as the team "Generation X"), including Clarice, in order to experiment on how they could absorb mutants into their collective existence. Clarice came to be friends during the last hours of her life with her new friends.

When the member M freed them from their prison, and they were helped by a rescue team of Banshee, Synch, Jubilee, the White Queen, and Sabretooth. Attacked by the Phalanx intelligence known as Harvest, Clarice took it upon herself to defeat him. Teleporting away half of the ship they were imprisioned upon, only Clarice and Banshee could stop Harvest. Using her powers, she distorted the villain, but swallowed herself as well. Banshee tried his best to save her, but in the end,
Blink died, a hero. Whether or not Clarice actually died as a result is unknown. In the "Age of Apocalypse" timeline, "Blink" survived, and her powers were under control. She functioned as the X-Men's teleporter, and was even able to manifest the energy for her portals in the form of short javelins, which she could throw at an object to cause it to teleport.

Silk Spectre II

Laurie Jupiter, the second Silk Spectre, is the daughter of Sally Jupiter, the first Silk Spectre. Laurie's mother apparently wanted her to follow in her footsteps and so she fought crime for ten years before the Keene Act banned vigilantes. Unlike the other protagonists, Silk Spectre was not based on a particular Charlton character, although her relationship with Dr. Manhattan is similar to that between Captain Atom and the heroine Nightshade. Moore felt he needed a female hero in the cast and drew inspiration from comic book heroines such as Black Canary and Phantom Lady.[2]

Laurie is kept on retainer by the government because of her relationship with Doctor Manhattan and lives on a government base at the beginning of the comic. When Doctor Manhattan leaves Earth, the government has her removed from the base and suspends her expense account, forcing her to move in with Dan, with whom she starts a romantic relationship. At the end of the eighth issue, Doctor Manhattan appears and takes her to Mars because he knows she wants to convince him to save the world. On Mars, she realizes that The Comedian was her biological father. After the final encounter with Veidt at the end of the series, she assumes the identity of Sandra Hollis and continues her relationship with Dan.

In the Watchmen film she is played by Malin Akerman. In a 2003 draft script by David Hayter, which was reviewed by IGN, Laurie has the family name Jupiter and the alter ego name "Slingshot"

Watchmen

The story takes place in an alternate timeline in which masked, costumed vigilantes fight crime in America, originally in response to a rise in masked and costumed gangs and criminals. In the 1930s and '40s, the vigilantes formed a group called the Minutemen to "finish what the law couldn't." Of the eight Minutemen, three died violently, one disappeared, and one was committed to an asylum. Decades later, a second generation of "superheroes" attempts to form a similar team called the Watchmen. Various historical events are shown to have been altered by the existence of superheroes, such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy and the Vietnam War. The American victory in Vietnam, due to the intervention of the godlike being Doctor Manhattan, leads to Richard Nixon's third term as President following the repeal of term limits in the United States. By the 1980s, however, the Watchmen have been outlawed by Congress after an outpouring of anti-vigilante sentiment in the country, and tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union have escalated the Cold War with threats of nuclear attack.

By 1985, only three Watchmen remain active: the Comedian and Doctor Manhattan, both of whom act with government sanction, and the masked vigilante Rorschach, who refuses to retire and remains active illegally. Investigating the murder of government agent Edward Blake, Rorschach discovers that Blake was the Comedian, and concludes that someone may be trying to eliminate the Watchmen. He attempts to warn his retired comrades—his former partner Daniel Dreiberg (Nite Owl), the emotionally detached Dr. Jonathan Osterman (Doctor Manhattan), and Dr. Manhattan's lover Laurie Jupiter (the Silk Spectre). Dreiberg is skeptical, but nonetheless relates the hypothesis to billionaire Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias), who dismisses it.

After Blake's funeral, Dr. Manhattan is accused of causing the cancers afflicting his former girlfriend and others who spent time with him after the scientific accident that gave him superpowers. Dr. Manhattan exiles himself to Mars, giving the Soviet Union the confidence to invade Afghanistan in his absence. Later, Rorschach's conspiracy theory appears to be justified when Veidt, who had long since made his identity as Ozymandias public before retiring, narrowly avoids an assassination attempt, and Rorschach finds himself framed for murder.

Meanwhile Jupiter, after breaking up with Manhattan, goes to stay with Dreiberg, and the two former superheroes come out of retirement as they grow closer. After they break Rorschach out of prison, Silk Spectre is confronted by Dr. Manhattan. He takes her to Mars and, after she asks him to save the world, explains he is no longer interested in humanity. As he probes her memories, it is discovered that the Comedian was her father. His interest in humanity renewed by this improbable sequence of events, Manhattan returns to Earth with the Silk Spectre.

Investigating the conspiracy, Rorschach and Nite Owl discover that Veidt is behind everything. Rorschach records his suspicions in his journal, which he drops off at a newspaper office. Rorschach and Nite Owl confront Veidt, dressed once more in his Ozymandias costume, at his Antarctic retreat. Ozymandias confirms he is the mastermind behind the Comedian's murder, Manhattan's exile, and the framing of Rorschach; he also staged his own assassination attempt to place himself above suspicion. He explains that his plan is to unify the United States and the Soviet Union and to prevent nuclear war by destroying the world's main cities with exploding energy reactors he helped Doctor Manhattan create under the pretense of providing free energy for the world. Rorschach and Nite Owl attempt to stop him, but Ozymandias easily beats them. Ozymandias then reveals that his plan has already been set into motion: the reactors have been detonated, and the energy signatures are recognized as Manhattan's.

The Silk Spectre and Doctor Manhattan arrive at the ruins of New York City and determine that it must be Veidt's work. They teleport to the Antarctic retreat to confront him, but Ozymandias turns on a news report in which President Nixon states that the US and Soviets have allied against their "common enemy," Manhattan. The heroes are completely helpless to stop it and realize that revealing the conspiracy would only disrupt this peace. Only Rorschach is unwilling to remain silent and, at his own urging, is vaporized by a reluctant Manhattan. Manhattan shares a final kiss with Jupiter and departs for another galaxy.

With the end of the Cold War and the uniting of humanity, Jupiter and Dreiberg return to New York City as it's being rebuilt to begin a new life together. The film closes with a newspaper editor in New York complaining of having nothing worthwhile to print because of the worldwide peace. He tells a young employee that he may print whatever he likes from a collection of crank mailings, among which lies Rorschach's journal.

Super Capers

The story begins with a woman (Christine Lakin) in a red outfit being followed through a dark alleyway by a mysterious man who clearly has criminal intent. As she corners herself in a dead end, Ed Gruberman (Justin Whalin) arrives to save the day. The woman, calling herself simply "Red" reveals to both of the men that she has super powers, disabling the robber whom Ed strikes with a 2x4, sending him through the window of the law offices of Dewey, Cheatam and Howe. Red kisses Gruberman passionately before disappearing into the night, and he is left standing as the police come to arrest him.

In court, Gruberman is standing trial for viciously attacking an "innocent bystander" the mugger being defended by Roger Cheatem (Tom Sizemore) is flattened by the judge (Michael Rooker) who takes sympathy to Gruberman's story of how his parents were tragically killed after an accident at their circus wound up with them being killed by a short bus. In particular his fascination and respect for the television superhero the Dark Winged Vesper, with whom Ed shares his orphaning (and lack of powers unbeknownst to the court). Ed is fined $1 for the payment to the law firm's window and sentenced to a halfway house to super heroes whose powers still have not yet been developed. Ed is taken there by a cab driver (Adam West) who proclaims he was too a superhero once, named the Manbat. When he arrives, he meets Sarge (Tommy Lister) who is the Capers' human liason and other superheroes; Puffer Boy (Ray Griggs) who, when he gets frightened puffs up like a puffer fish, Herman Brainard (Sam Lloyd) who has the power to move objects with his over-sized mind, Will Powers (Ryan McPartlin) the vain and most super powered member of the group, and Felicia Freeze (Danielle Harris) an ice powered girl with whom Ed develops an immediate attraction to. Along with the unimaginative "Q" also known as Herbert who has a robot similar to a tiny version of Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator whose primary invention was an RV fashioned after the DeLorean DMC-12 time machine from the Back to the Future films, complete with a flux capacitor, which they cannot tell actually work because the RV cannot get up to 88 miles per hour.

The group is called out on a mission to stop Captain Sludge (Jon Polito) a diminutive super villain with powers of super speed and his minotaur minion, and in a show of panic, Gruberman proclaims he has the power of "Prayer" and supposedly forces a lamppost to fall onto the minotaur, allowing the heroes to be victorious and earning Felicia's eye. However, Gruberman's world begins to fall apart, when he and Brainard attempt to follow the suspicious judge incognito, and Ed is set up for stealing millions in Gold Bullion and sending them to a Swiss Bank account, which the number was found conveniently in his pocket. He is sent to visit the Judge, who reveals himself to both be Gruberman's father AND the Dark Winged Vesper, and that the stunt that killed his parents was orchestrated by him, (but not intended to be fatal). Red, his accomplice makes an appearance and the pair attempt to lure Gruberman to the dark side (a'la Star Wars). Gruberman manages to escape, and in an ensuing chase, he drives the RV off the Mount Rushmore national monument, and when telling God that he will soon be with him, the vehicle inexplicably reaches 88 miles per hour, sending him back to the date of his first mission 1 week prior (as Will Powers had put the date into the time circuits to mark the event). He travels to the bridge, and learns that should he encounter his past self, one of them would spontaneously combust. He manages to meet the Super Capers, and in the process of revealing the Judge's plans encounters his younger self. After giving away the events to follow in the week ahead, the Judge is arrested and Sludge and his minotaur surrender while Red is defeated and Freeze admits her attraction to Gruberman. The confusion of two Grubermans is resolved, however when the past version combusts, leaving only the one from the future and the day appears to be saved.