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.