CLAN DESTINE

 

CLAN DESTINE

Roster: Adam Destine, Albert Destine, Wallop (Walter Destine), Cuckoo (Jasmine Destine/Kay Cera), Hex (Dominic Destine), Argent (Samantha Destine), Crimson Crusader (Rory Destine), Imp (Pandora Destine), Gracie Gamble (Grace Destine), Newton Destine, Cap’n Oz (William Destine)

First Appearance: Marvel Comics Presents (Vol. 1) #158, July 1994

Powers: The Clan Destine draw their power from their unique heritage: All are the children of Adam Destine and his lover, a genie named Elalyth who has enchanted her husband and all their subsequent children over the centuries with near immortality and additional personal powers. A Destine will typically manifest their special gifts towards the end of puberty. While all Clan Destine are apparently extremely long-lived, some appear much older than others physically.

Adam Destine has not aged in over 800 years. Granted immortality and invulnerability by his djinn bride, Adam cannot be injured or affected by any force known to science or magic. He is completely impervious to any form of physical injury, including impacts, blades, radiation, heat, cold, and so on. He can survive indefinitely in the vacuum of space and is immune to all disease, toxins, pathogen, viral agents, etc. The only way he can experience pain is through an empathic link he shares with his children, causing him to suffer when they die or are brought to the brink of death. He also has a unique temporal perspective that gives him the capacity for clairvoyant visions, although he's never quite certain about the immediacy of the images he receives.

Walter Destine, nicknamed "Wallop" by his little siblings, had the power to mentally increase his strength at will. Initially, Walter stayed human-looking when he boosted his strength, with the only physical change being a swelling of his muscles to body-builder proportions. He went decades, perhaps centuries, believing he could only increase his strength level to roughly a few 1,000 lbs., possibly 5 tons maximum. During World War II, however, he was confronted by a giant Nazi robot. He was forced to push himself further than ever before, and mutated into a Hulking giant with blue skin, striking red hair, pointed ears, and a highly-pronounced fore brow. These transformations pushed his strength at least into the Class 50-70 range, but could not be reversed as quickly as they occurred -- he would retain certain aspects of his transformation for up to a few days after triggering it, such as his pointed ears or oversized and blue-tinted feet. Walter also became afflicted with berserker rages, and his anger could trigger his transformation and push him into a wild, uncontrollable state. His transformations remained variable, and the size and strength of his "Wallop" form changed from one transformation to another. At his max, Walter stood at least 12-14 feet tall, possessed Class 100+ strength, near invulnerability, had pronounced upper canine teeth and lower ones which sprouted up like tusks, and his hair was replaced with a flickering mane of flame. In this state he was little more than a walking expression of violence, virtually incapable of rational thought. After being given an opportunity to vent massive amounts of frustration in a fight once, however, Walter stopped fighting his powers and burnt off his aggression, the result being that he could now transform back and forth between his normal and augmented forms at will, and without losing control of himself in the process.

Jazmine Destine is also known as Kay Cera, "Cuckoo" to her family. She is a telepath/telekinetic combination of considerable power. She can project her mind across continents, viewing distant locations or people, and communicating with them using her astral form. She can cast illusions to fool people's senses, change around their memories, or force them to act under her will. As a telekinetic, she can levitate herself or move and manipulate other objects with the power of her mind. For some reason, Cuckoo no longer possesses her original body, but sustains her existence by hopping from one host to another over the centuries. Why this is the case isn't clear -- as the first-born of all Adam's children, it's possible she wasn't born immortal for some reason, or more likely her original body was mortally wounded at some point, forcing her to begin leapfrogging through time in the bodies of others. Cuckoo can transfer her essence into the body of anyone within close proximity, man or woman: once she even possessed a cat for a short time until she could find a suitable host. As a matter of principle, Kay would rather possess the mortally wounded or recently deceased than depose a healthy innocent from their own body. In practice, however, Kay's principles mold to fit her situation, and she sometimes possesses those who might otherwise be saved if it comes down to her life versus theirs. She has often relied on the healing power of her brother Albert to rejuvenate or reanimate a new host for her when she enters it. While her psychic powers do transfer into each new body, Cuckoo's immortality does not, and so each host continues to age normally after she possesses it.

Hex, or Dominic Destine, aka Dominic Fate, is one of the oddest-looking of the Clan: His hair is bright red and spiky, his eyes are iridescent yellow like Nightcrawler, and his skin is pale white with a hint of green to it. His superhuman power comes from his senses, which are increased to a magnitude similar to Orphan of X-Statix. The overall range of all his senses has increased, giving him telescopic vision, the ability to hear whispers from many rooms away, scent-tracking abilities, and a high sensitivity to changes in wind and temperature in his environment. His senses also expand into areas beyond human detection: he can hear sub- and super-sonic ranges of noise, scent traces of ozone that mark teleportation or other energy signatures, and visually recognize Danger Room holo-constructs as not being real. He can "aim" his senses to a certain degree, focusing them on a given target to feel it out on multiple levels of perception at once. Dom can also identify weak points in people or structures with his senses, and has developed a fighting style around exploiting these weaknesses with "nerve pinches" and precision strikes. His sensitivity can overpower him at times, however -- sudden lights or sounds can leave him incredibly disoriented, and he once passed out of intoxication after eating a piece of chocolate.

Samantha Destine, or Sam Hasard, is the youngest of the Clan Destine except for the twins, being roughly 50 years old. She has the ability to summon and shape metallic ectoplasm at will. Thus, she can materialize swords or shields in her hands or, when entering battle, shaping a smooth and skintight armor over herself. As an artist, Sam subconsciously shapes her armor with ornate and stylized markings and headdresses. The armor serves as a protective garb, and she also will grow blades of various lengths and styles out of its "skin". Samantha's ectoplasmic armor is an extension of herself, and so she can feel things through it's outer surface, sometimes even more sensitively than she normally could. When a hard-light construct of Gambit in the Danger Room touched her armor, for instance, Sam was immediately aware that it wasn't flesh-and-blood she was talking to.

The Crimson Crusader and Imp, otherwise known as Rory and Pandora Destine, are the youngest of the clan, roughly 13 years old. As twins, their powers feed off each other's close proximity, and it is this factor which caused them to first manifest their powers years before Destines normally do. Their energies are bound together so that if one twin overexerts the use of their power, the other is weakened as well. If Rory and Pandora are separated by a certain distance, their powers cease functioning altogether. Presumably their powers will become more independent of each other as they come of age. As Crimson Crusader, Rory is able to manipulate gravitational forces. He can make himself weightless in order to fly, and can cause other people or objects to become weightless as well, either from a distance or by carrying them physically. He once transported himself and Imp inside a old car's shell across the Atlantic Ocean from England to New York in a matter of hours, though the exertion caused him to pass out once they made it. Crusader can also create gravity wells as different types of force fields -- he can cause projectile matter to curve harmlessly around him, or make it lose its forward momentum just before striking him by weighing it down with intense G-forces. He can also harmlessly contain a grenade in his hands by creating gravitational suction at the center of the object, so that the shrapnel flies inwards. Imp is capable of shaping and directing light. She can radiate her power as a blinding glare, either emanating in all directions or focused towards a single opponent. She can create soft or hard cushions of semi-solid light which can block attacks or catch falling objects, and can "laze" her power to create concussive force beams or cut through solid steel. She and Rory can combine their powers in order to bend light and make themselves invisible.

Grace Destine, alias Gracie Gamble, has a range of telepathic and telekinetic abilities, such as levitation, altering memories, psychic communication, moving tons of solid matter with a gesture, and so on. She also has a strong working knowledge of magic and inter-dimensional space.

Newton is the spitting image of Woody Allen, a genius inventor possessing a superhuman level of intelligence. He is well-versed in both physical and meta-physical sciences and, at a glance, can quickly adapt himself to understanding new phenomena or scientific procedures he witnesses. Newton was even capable of jury-rigging a Volkswagen minivan into a vehicle capable of space flight. He has access to inter-dimensional transportation, presumably his own invention, which is a running gag due to the fact that arrivals cast a explosion of light and sound, while his departures are virtually unnoticeable. He has worn a personal combat armor in the past, which he is neurologically linked to thanks to a feedback suit he wears while inside the armor. It grants him enhanced strength and durability, has a wide range of scanning devices built into it, and is capable of launching mini-missiles or firing concussive blasts. Newton spends most of his time in another dimension, acting as the "Warlord of Etheria". Newton employs a biological construct body of his own design while on Etheria, which he can project his own consciousness into in order to inhabit. This body has an impressive physique, and presumably superhuman levels of strength and durability as well.

Will, alias William Chance, lived in Australia playing the action hero "Cap'n Oz" in a series of movies. There was some suggestion that Will was adopted, and not genetically a Destine. Still, he possessed some level of superhuman strength, agility, reflexes, and durability, and hadn't aged since the 1960s, so that might just be hearsay.