ION

 

ION

Real Name: Voletta Todd

First Appearance: Machine Man (Vol. 1) #15, June 1980

Powers: Dr. Voletta Todd was a scientist experimenting with electromagnetically charged gases when she was caught in an accidental explosion of said gases. The explosion permanently altered her body on a mutagenic level, transforming her into an ionized cloud of hydrogen surrounded by an electromagnetic field, untouchable by physical means.

Her cloud state was too charged with energy to move through solid objects, but she could shatter concrete walls or reinforced glass by ramming through them. Ion could maintain a semi-humanoid mass with four loosely formed limbs, and could solidify portions of her body with effort, such as materializing her facial features in the cloud or making her human hands tangible again for a brief period of seconds. She would later design a containment suit which enabled her to maintain a completely human shape and appearance at all times. In her gaseous or contained states, she could fly, project electromagnetic force blasts, generate ionic containment fields to grab, levitate and guide objects through the air, and fire magnetic inducer beams which magnetized objects so that all metallic substances in the area would be magnetically drawn towards her target. Ion also has extra-sensory abilities in the form of her "elemental awareness". The full extent of this power is unknown, but presumably it allows her to mentally detect and catalogue all the elements in her vicinity, locating specific objects or analyzing the elements composing anything she focuses on. She was shown using this power to pinpoint a single human being floating in the ocean.

Ion's electromagnetic field could be disrupted by a sufficiently powerful electric current and exposure to extreme cold can cause her to revert to her human form.

Dr. Voletta Todd holds a Ph.D. in nuclear physics. She is an extremely gifted nuclear physicist specializing in hydrogen fusion.