JOHN GARRETT

 

JOHN GARRETT

Real Name: Jonathan Garrett

First Appearance: Elektra Assassin (Vol. 1) #2, September 1986
 

Powers: A baseline human with a history of repeat offender crimes and imprisonment, Jonathan Garrett somehow became an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. with his past records secretly erased. Already possessing a cybernetic left hand and a steel skull plate from unspecified injuries, Garrett was caught in an explosion set by the mercenary Elektra, necessitating S.H.I.E.L.D. to completely rebuild his body via cybernetic components.

Cybernetic parts have replaced 80% of Garrett's body, including his limbs, spine, heart, liver, and lungs. He has plastic skin and metal bones, a steel plate in his skull, and his muscular system involves pneumatics, hydraulics, and internally-generated electrical power, granting him superhuman strength (approximately Class 5) and durability. He also has a recording device in his skull.

A graduate of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy, John Garrett is a highly skilled combatant, an ingenious tactician, an excellent marksman, and is quite adept with S.H.I.E.L.D. technology. Arrogant and offensive, he has little to no regard for professional protocol or even his own personal hygiene. He utilizes various handguns and is somewhat delusional as a result of Elektra's psychic tampering.

MARIA HILL

 

MARIA HILL

Real Name: Maria Hill

First Appearance: New Avengers (Vol. 1) #4, March 2005

Powers: Maria Hill is a baseline human with no superhuman powers. She is, however, a trained S.H.I.E.L.D. operative proficient in interrogation, unarmed combat, marksmanship, and the handling and processing of massive amounts of information. She is skilled at directing several operations and operatives at once. She sometimes uses S.H.I.E.L.D. devices in combat.

As the former director and deputy director of S.H.I.E.L.D., she had contact with various government agencies and unlimited resources.

CONSTRICTOR

 

CONSTRICTOR

Real Name: Frank Payne

First Appearance: The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #212, June 1977

Powers: A baseline human with no superhuman powers, Frank Payne was an undercover agent for S.H.I.E.L.D. when he defected to the subversive criminal outfit known as the Corporation and assumed the costumed criminal identity of the Constrictor.

As the Constrictor, the Corporation provided Frank with a costume with partial bullet-proofing around the chest and head areas, and lined with electrically-insulated fabric. He originally possessed two cybernetically-controlled, electrically-powered Adamantium-alloy cables which eject and retract from special appliances running from shoulder to wrist. These cables can extend to a maximum of 30 feet and cab be used as whips capable of rending steel or lesser metals; or as bonds capable of enticing an object or human being and constricting with a maximum force of 115 pounds per square inch.

After a battle with rogue clone KIA in which both of his arms were sliced off, the Initiative's medical team provided the Constrictor with a set of cybernetic arms which can be reshaped into his Adamantium coils and function just the same. The Constrictor is an excellent hand-to-hand combatant well-versed in street fighting techniques.

QUAKE

 

QUAKE

Real Name: Daisy Johnson

First Appearance: Secret War (Vol. 1) #2, July 2004

Powers: Daisy Johnson inherited "genetic damage" from her father, Calvin Zabo, thanks to his earliest chemical and genetic experiments on himself towards becoming Mister Hyde. Her mother was an Inhuman (Homo sapiens inanthropo), a genetically engineered offshoot of humanity created by the Kree to possess heightened strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reaction time, roughly 50% greater than humans. Zabo's "genetic damage" unlocked the latent Inhuman genes within Daisy that were passed down by her mother, giving her Terrigenesis without exposure to the Terrigen Mists.

As a result, she has the power to generate seismic vibrations. A single pulse builds up intense air pressure, like striking an opponent with a sonic boom. Repetitive vibrational pulsings can cause objects to shatter or crumble, even disintegrate under sustained pressure. Directing her power into the earth or pavement beneath her feet can set off tremors, open up fissures and cause the ground to tremble. Daisy has been trained to use her powers with pinpoint accuracy, enabling her to set off an earthquake in someone's brain or heart, killing them instantly if she chooses.

A trained S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, Quake is a highly skilled espionage agent and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant skilled in various martial arts, along with expertise in marksmanship and gymnastics.

HAMMER

 

HAMMER

Real Name: Eisenhower Canty

First Appearance: X-Force (Vol. 1) #8, March 1992

Powers: No superhuman powers. Hammer is a baseline human who was rendered paralyzed after sustaining spinal damage from a gunshot wound. Initially a quadriplegic, he eventually regained the use of his arms.

He possesses a photographic memory and is a mechanical, electrical, and computing genius. His creations include an exoskeleton able to lift 2 tons, motorized wheelchairs, a Winnebago capable of converting to flight mode, scanners able to track mutagenic signatures, magentic clamps, and a voice-controlled computer system.

Before becoming crippled, Hammer was an exceptional fighter, trained in the use of multiple weapons, and he holds a Ph.D. in theoretical engineering design.

G.W. BRIDGE

 

G.W. BRIDGE

Real Name: George Washington Bridge

First Appearance: X-Force (Vol. 1) #1, August 1991

Powers: G.W. Bridge is a baseline human with no superhuman powers. He is a highly trained special agent, strategist, tactician, expert at unarmed combat, and trained in the use of a variety of long- and short-range weapons.

As a high-ranking field commander in S.H.I.E.L.D., he had a high-level federal clearance and also maintained contact with several areas of the federal government, providing him with copious resources.

COMET MAN

 

COMET MAN

Real Name: Stephen Beckley

First Appearance: Comet Man (Vol. 1) #1, February 1987

Powers: Dr. Stephen Beckley was an astronomer and an astrophysicist who was piloting a spacecraft that encountered Halley's Comet as it was passing through Earth's solar system. Beckley lost directional control of his spacecraft, which was drawn into the tail of the comet. Within the comet, however, was another spacecraft piloted by an alien who called himself Max, a being from the so-called Colony Fortisque. When Beckley's spacecraft entered the tail of the comet concealing Max's starship, the intense heat of the comet vaporized Beckley's craft as well as himself. However, Max employed Fortisquian technology to gather up Beckley's molecules and reconstruct his body. Max's technological devices did so in such a way as to bestow upon Beckley various superhuman powers, through partially reconstructing Beckley along the lines of Fortisquian physiology and body chemistry.

As the Comet Man, he possesses Class 25 strength, superhuman endurance, durability, healing powers, and the ability to survive in the vacuum of space. His resistance to injury has increased to superhuman levels, enabling him to recover with superhuman rapidity from bullet wounds and to survive the heat of re-entry from outer space through Earth's atmosphere without harm.

He has telekinetic abilities which allow him to levitate and manipulate objects from a distance, and create protective force fields to shield himself and others from further harm. Comet Man can fly, projecting a fiery aura around his body similar to a comet, and achieve speeds in excess of Mach 32. He has a telepathic ability called "thought-pitching", which enables him to send a fraction of his own mental energy into the mind of another person or animal. This visiting psi-pattern lets him read that individual's mind, and exert some control over their thoughts and actions. He is also capable of projecting concussive and explosive energy, either as beams from his hands or by creating energy spheres and launching them at his chosen target. Finally, Comet Man is capable of teleportation. He is able to instantly reach anywhere on Earth with this power, and can even teleport to locations he has never been to or seen before. His power automatically compensates for mass as he teleports in, preventing him from materializing inside solid objects, and he can instantly teleport to the side of any other person, simply by visualizing them in his mind as his transports himself.

Dr. Stephen Beckley holds Ph.D.'s in astrophysics and astronomy and has NASA astronaut training. He is also co-creator and co-head of the Edmond Project, a joint effort by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to investigate comets and related phenomena.

OVERRIDER

 

OVERRIDER

Real Name: Richard Rennselaer

First Appearance: Captain America Annual (Vol. 1) #8, September 1986

Powers: Overrider is a mutant with the power to control machines. He can activate mechanical systems remotely, cause them to run and operate at his mental direction, and even command advanced computer intelligences and androids.

TASKMASTER

 

TASKMASTER

Real Name: Anthony Masters

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #195, May 1980

Powers: The man who became the Taskmaster was biochemically enhanced by a mnemonic primer, an experimental solution which opened his mind to rapidly assimilating new skills and abilities. This gave him an ability most commonly referred to as "photographic reflexes". Through observation, Taskmaster can break down any form of simple or complex action and imprint it onto his implicit muscle memory. He can duplicate any action he sees, including playing a musical instrument, preparing a gourmet meal, performing rope tricks, etc. His skills are limited to what he can see: He can mimic the ability to play the piano, but not how to read sheet music, and watching someone play Beethoven's 2nd would not allow him to play Beethoven's 9th.

Taskmaster has mastered the fighting styles of numerous super-heroes and villains through personal contact or watching videos of them in action. Short exposure to their skills allows him to mimic specific moves, but extended observation has enabled him to perfectly duplicate their entire set of movements, attacks and counterattacks as one smooth fighting style. As a side-effect of his studies, Taskmaster can predict and reflexively defend against the attacks of anyone he has observed in-depth. He also mastered the skill of breaking down a fighting style after he intuitively learned it, enabling him to "manually" teach the style to the students at his various Academies.

Taskmaster is limited by his human physique in some cases: He cannot duplicate the Iron Fist, for instance, or Spider-Man's more elaborate leaping and bouncing. He can assimilate and "map" techniques onto his reflexes that are beyond his physical capabilities, but cannot fully mimic skills that require a superhuman physique to accomplish. He has accelerated his reflexes to near superhuman speeds at times by mimic techniques by video while watching them on fast-forward, but attempting to force his body to move that fast is extremely unhealthy and quickly exhausts him. He was also able to assimilate Redshirt's Shi'ar avian physique-based fighting style to predict his moves and mimic at least some of his actions, but not all of them.

In his original costume, Taskmaster employed a variety of weapons patterned after those used by super-heroes, letting him combat them with their own tricks. This included duplicates of Captain America's shield, Daredevil's billy club, Black Knight's sword, Hawkeye's bow and arrow, Punisher's guns, etc. Later on, he adopted a tactical body suit equipped with an image inducer for holographic disguises, a standard set of handguns and swords, and photonic weapon systems in his gauntlets that could generate energy-based shields, sais, and even webbing. Taskmaster was briefly able to augment his abilities through a procedure enabling him to outright mimic superhuman powers by observation, but this modification quickly faded away.

Eventually, the full side-effects of Taskmaster's powers were revealed. The "implicit" muscle memories he has assimilated over the years have largely overwritten his "explicit" memory: His personal history, childhood and so forth. He may be able to perfectly identify someone's accent, down to the country and region, but can't remember if he's ever personally been there. These personal memories still exist, but are buried deep within his subconscious most of the time. Learning new skills with his power buries any further memories he has developed since the last use of his powers. Taskmaster makes his way through life using a combination of his reflexive actions and the guidance of his wife Mercedes Merced, who poses as a representative of "The Org" that gives Taskmaster his assignments. Beyond that, he apparently relies upon elaborate bluffs and acting to make it through his every day existence.

JACK OF HEARTS

 

JACK OF HEARTS

Real Name: Jonathan Hart

First Appearance: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu (Vol. 1) #22, March 1976

Powers: The Jack of Hearts is a Contraxian/human hybrid, who developed considerable superhuman powers after exposure to his alien father's experimental super-fuel, Zero Fluid. He has developed an appearance like a regular Contraxian, with the left side of his body composed of purplish-black dead cells, and his left eye covered with an opaque membrane that hides his pupil.

Jack's body produces a perpetually regenerating energy supply known as Zero Power within his cells and can be harnessed for various effects. This energy builds at an uncontrollable rate and he initially wore a protective suit of armor to restrain it. Without his protective armor, Jack would detonate with the force of a nuclear bomb, threatening his physical integrity and potentially harming those around him.
The intensity of his power varied over the years: Sometimes, Jack could expose himself to a "neutro-mist" which would allow him to remove his armor for a period of hours without exploding. He would be powerless, but Jack had to isolate himself in the energy-siphoning Zero Room for upwards of 10-14 hours a day in order to safely bleed off his excess Zero Energy. During those hours, Jack's radiation disintegrated anything left in the room, even his armor, which had to be replaced each day. In the past, planetary atmospheres accelerated Jack's decay by stimulating the internal fission that fuels his powers, making him more physically stable in outer space. Later, his physiology became consistently unstable regardless of environment.

 

He often releases his energies as concussive force blasts, intense heat beams, and/or hard radiation waves. Without his conscious control, this energy would radiate outward from his entire body in an omni-directional wave of destructive force.  His armor leaves ventilation open around his hands so that he can direct his power offensively as blasts of vastly destructive concussive and explosive energy. Often a glow of pink energy surrounds Jack's wrists at the point where his bare flesh begins. His low-level energy blasts can stun opponents, but higher-powered blasts can destroy nearly any target, surpassing the internal temperatures of the sun. By selectively emitting only certain visible portions of his energy spectrum, he can radiate bright light. With concentration, he can form low-level energy fields at a distance - for instance, slightly altering the target's temperature. He can generate force-fields, though seldom does so. If necessary, he can release an atomic-strength energy blast and then contain the radioactive fallout by reabsorbing it, but he rarely employs this tactic as it near-fatally drains him. He can perceive radiation wavelengths as colors, and manipulates them with great precision. Besides offensive and detection purposes, Jack can also direct his energies beneath him as a means of propulsion, allowing him to fly. Initially, he had to use his hand-blasts for flight, limiting his firepower in mid-air combat. On Earth, he's been clocked at flight speeds of up to 300 miles per minute and can fly at warp speed, but only in outer space. He can reach escape velocity in a matter of seconds.

He can temporarily replenish or augment his power levels by absorbing energy from external sources, sometimes unconsciously and involuntarily. He can also transfer his internal energies to other beings or targets, acting as a power source. He's magnified the intensity and duration of existing weather effects such as lightning and high winds by feeding them with his energies, creating massive storms. When Jack's powers were briefly supercharged to their highest levels, his energy emissions were strong enough to incinerate targets millions of miles away unless he consciously restrained himself.

In recent years, however, Moondragon revised his armor's systems so that he could funnel Zero Energy safely out from his legs, enabling him to fly while still having his hands available for blasting. Jack of Hearts is an extraordinarily fast flyer, exceeding speeds of Mach 22 in atmosphere and probably capable of moving exponentially faster in open space. Jack's durability and low oxygen intake allow him to survive air friction and other high-velocity phenomena. The Zero Power has a unique radiation signature, which was once employed by S.H.I.E.L.D. to act as a power source for the "Scanalyzer", a computerized radiation detector. This direct interaction somehow caused Jack of Hearts to assimilate the properties of the Scanalyzer into his own body: He developed a computer-like mind, capable of processing data far more efficiently than any human on Earth. He has total recall abilities, can compute trajectories to instantly trace the path of gunfire and locate hidden shooters or calculate complicated ricochet vectors or target his Zero blasts with pinpoint accuracy, and plot evasion patterns to weave his way through shooting ranges or war zones. He can also detect and analyze variations in air currents, ambient temperatures and radiation signatures, recognizing their presence in his area, trace them to their sources, or determine how long they have been dormant or removed from his immediate environment.

 

Jack's physical strength seems to vary with his overall power levels. He can lift at least 25 tons at typical power levels, perhaps more considerably if he specifically redirects his energies into strength enhancement. He has repeatedly held his own in hand-to-hand combat battles with opponents of Class 100 strength levels, but he's also demonstrated markedly lower strength levels on multiple occasions. He has superhuman stamina and durability, and his body usually regenerates rapidly if he's injured. Bulletproof, he's withstood thousands of volts of electricity, survived massive explosions and huge impacts, and recovered from broken bone injuries in minutes. He can survive unharmed in the heart of a sun. Sustained by his internal energies, he has little to no need for food, water, rest, oxygen, and can survive indefinitely in the vacuum of space (though he finds long-term deprivation of familiar human comforts and sensations unpleasant.

 

A gifted poet, Jonathan Hart holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in poetry. He is a fair unarmed combatant with some S.H.I.E.L.D. combat instruction, he formerly maintained high-tech combat training facilities at Hart Mansion with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s assistance. He has limited starship piloting skills. Jack has worn various armored suits which help contain and control his bodily energies. The heart design over his left eye is a permanent laser tattoo. During his early exploits, Jack carried a custom deck of cards, all jacks of hearts, and left one at the scene of each adventure as a calling card.

TEXAS TWISTER

 

TEXAS TWISTER

Real Name: Drew Daniels

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #177, December 1976

Powers: Drew Daniels was a cattle hand who was near a nuclear power generating facility when a tornado touched down near one of the site's waste storage canister areas. Finding himself in the tornado's erratic path, Daniels became bombarded with radioactive particles sucked out of the facility, even as he was swept up into the funnel cloud itself. The radiation triggered body-wide mutagenic alterations in him, giving him the ability to generate tornadoes at will.

As the Texas Twister, he possesses the superhuman ability to mentally cause the acceleration of volumes of air to great velocity within a radius of about 100 feet from his body. Through concentration, he can psychokinetically interact with air molecules and agitate them into a coordinated motion. At peak condition, he can create a tornado 200 feet in diameter, whose outermost winds travel at 225 miles per hour. Such tornado-strength winds are capable of making him airborne and can sustain him in flight. The Texas Twister can also create whirlwinds of more manageable proportions. Wind swirling around his hand at a radius of 2 feet enables him to strike a blow with tornado force: About 80 pounds per square inch over the area of a 2 foot sphere. He can even create a whirlwind around a single finger. Although his body is generally at the center of the tornado winds, he can mentally control the offset of the center up to a distance of about 200 feet. Thus, he can surround another person with a tornado or lift him or her into the air. Mental fatigue, however, has been shown to impair his performance.

His body has favorably mutated so as to be adapted to high-velocity spinning. The semi-circular canals of his inner ears filter out confusing information brought about by rapid motion and allow him to perceive his surroundings normally. Thus, he cannot experience dizziness or motion sickness (unless artificially induced through drugs). His eyesight and reaction time are also superhuman, permitting him to see and react while moving at high velocity. His skin is denser than normal and prevent unwanted heat loss from wind-chill factor by slowing peripheral blood transport. His skin is harder than human and resists friction and airborne particles abrasion.

The Texas Twister is a an expert horse rider, lasso thrower, and sharp shooter. He also received unarmed combat training from S.H.I.E.L.D.

SKIDS

 

SKIDS

Real Name: Sally Blevins

First Appearance: X-Factor (Vol. 1) #7, August 1986

Powers: Skids’ mutant ability is that her body generates a transparent force field around itself which protects her from various forms of attack and can be deactivated via mental concentration.

It deflects solid projectiles and disperses energy on contact: Directed kinetic force, thermal energy, electromagnetism, etc. The field also inhibits friction between surfaces, making it incredibly slippery. Skids can slide on the field under her feet to travel, and is quite difficult to keep a hold of. The lack of friction allows her to “skate” across most surfaces at high speeds (well over 100 miles per hour with sufficient momentum).

Initially, the field was constantly active and only operated as a form-fitting force of one or two-inch thickness around her. She eventually gained full control over her power and could expand the field large enough to protect about half-dozen other people as well. These larger dome-fields could be made selectively permeable at her will, so that Skids could allow her allies to enter the field on contact without weakening the protection from the rest of the field's area. Her force field can function in air, underwater, or in a vacuum.

An agile and capable unarmed combatant, Skids can also drive subway trains and is a trained operative of S.H.I.E.L.D.

MIRAGE

 

MIRAGE

Real Name: Danielle Moonstar

First Appearance: Marvel Graphic Novel (Vol. 1) #4, September 1982

Powers: Danielle "Dani" Moonstar developed two mutant powers during puberty: Animal telepathy and image projection. Her animal telepathy allows her to establish a quasi-telepathic rapport with animals and insects, allowing her to read their minds, project images from their minds, and see through their eyes. She can communicate with animals and insects, exchanging thoughts and empathic impressions with each other, as well as psionically asking creatures for their assistance. She can use this power to maintain a psychic link with Wolfsbane she is in her wolf form.

Her image projecting power can manifest three-dimensional images of visual concepts from her own or other people’s minds. This power operates by summoning psionic energy into our environment and allowing the subconscious minds of other people to guide the form it takes. Initially, Dani used her power solely to summon up someone's greatest fear and project it for them to experience, creating illusions based on a person, animal, or situation they fear most of all. These fear images lock on to the mind of her victim and trigger anxiety and panic reactions, compelling them to accept the image as if it were real. Because the image is keyed only to a specific victim, Mirage and anyone else in the area can easily see the fear-image is an illusion, even if someone observing shares the same fear, like arachnophobia. As time passed, Mirage learned to create a wider variety of images by tapping into different areas of the mind, hers and others. She began creating images of someone's greatest desire, the perfect man, the things they think of in terms of "home" or "friends", etc. By causing people to see what they expected to see in a situation, Mirage could even disguise her appearance and that of others behind her illusions.

After being chosen by the winged horse Brightwind, Dani became one of the Asgardian Valkyries. This gave her a presence of death, detectable and feared by Asgardian races and others sensitive to such things. Her powers as a Valkyrie interacted with her mutant power, allowing Mirage to forecast someone imminent death by perceiving their own personal, private image of death looming over them (an angel, a priest reading last writes, etc). If she chose to act, she could sometimes prevent these deaths from coming to pass, or even fight the personification of Death itself to preserve the life of someone it had come to take. When she was affected by one of the High Evolutionary's machines, the psionic energy she generated now acted as a tangible psychoplasm, forming into a physically solid shape by the subconscious mind directing it. Thus, she could now literally create someone's greatest fear or wish out of thin air. Her powers seemed to be modified so that she would only create fears or wishes anymore, and then only ones that were objects or constructs, instead of situational illusions. Her power constantly sustained one and only one construct at a time -- the only way she could get rid of a psychoplasm construct was to create another one, causing the previous one to de-materialize just as the new one appeared. In order to work with this change in her powers, she trained her mind so that she could focus on intensely wanting something at will. Normally, she tended to maintain an arrow's head necklace when she wanted to hide her power, and would reform the necklace into a full-sized spirit lance for combat.

After spending an extended period of time in Asgard, Mirage returned with her power having taken on a secondary mutation, apparently having adapted itself to her time with the Valkyries. She now generated psychoplasmic energy as a charge from her hands, which she could then reform at will into different shapes, like an energy dagger or, most commonly, a bow and arrows formed out of mental energy. Striking a target with these psi-plasma arrows would cause them to be overwhelmed by their own greatest fears, painful memories, or psychological trauma, triggering a neurosynaptic shock that temporarily incapacitated her opponents. Unlike previous versions of her power, only Dani and her victim were aware of the specific fear being produced. When the Psi-War unleashed a wave of energy that diminished every psychic on the planet, Dani received a power boost from an unexpected source. After coming into contact with the reality-warping girl named Arcadia DeVille, Mirage accidentally became linked to the quantum energy Arcadia commanded, giving her new powers that developed over time. Dani's power signature now caused her skin to glow with a blue light, with flickering stars visible on her flesh. She developed sensory powers allowing her to detect distortions in the elements or the planet's electromagnetic field. She could expel a rush of concussive energy that would blast through most barriers. Danielle could also affect matter on a sub-molecular level, which she did to disintegrate or liquefy solid objects, and heal the wounds of other people. Ultimately, Arcadia evolved into the Queen of the Star Swords, was defeated, and Dani lost her quantum powers. Danielle's powers regressed after this, in part due to the death of Brightwind, who was her link to the Valkyries. Without him, she had been slowly losing the psi-arrow and death sight aspects of her powers, a weakness accelerated by the Psi-War. Reverting back to her fear and wish image-casting, Mirage did maintain her death sight powers for a time. She was even capable of incorporating it into her image power, allowing her to recreate someone's death by tapping into residual death energy at the murder scene and using her powers to replay the events leading up to the death itself.

Upon her return to the Xavier Institute and teaching assistant job, though, Mirage was totally limited to her original image-projection power and animal telepathy until being depowered on M-Day. She later merged with her teammate Warlock as part of the "Moonlock" techno-organic collective, infecting her with the Transmode Virus. The cure provided by the Dark Beast had the unanticipated side-effect of restoring her mutant powers.

Dani Moonstar is an excellent archer, tracker, swimmer, and equestrienne. Her training in S.H.I.E.L.D. has made her an experienced unarmed combatant and marksman. She is also Cheyenne and well-versed in her tribe’s history, language, customs, etc.

QUASAR

 

QUASAR

Real Name: Wendell Elvis Vaughn

First Appearance: Captain America (Vol. 1) #217, January 1978

Powers: S.H.I.E.L.D. espionage agent Wendell Vaughn is Quasar, the Protector of the Universe, and wears the Quantum-Bands on his wrists as the symbol of his station.

The Quantum-Bands are jeweled metallic wristbands, unique cosmic artifacts designed by the being known as Eon to empower the person he appointed as Protector of the Universe. When he first donned the bands, Wendell had no concept of their full capabilities. They molecularly bonded to his wrists, making it impossible to remove them. Using the bands, Quasar could initially just manipulate quantum energy as visible, yellow light. He could produce intangible radiant light as a soft glow or blinding flashes from the bands. By projecting quantum energy and using it to bind particles in the atmosphere together, he could create solid constructs, seemingly out of pure energy. Through willpower, Wendell could shape these constructs into different forms, making them hollow or solid through-and-through. He could project battering rams of force, create a personal energy sheath for protection, generate spheres, domes, cages, scissors, ramps, giant drills, nunchuka, etc. Each construct was also laced with anti-gravity properties, so that he could levitate and propel himself through the air and lift virtually any amount of weight with his constructs by placing one underneath something and willing the construct to rise and move about.

After meeting his benefactor, Eon, Quasar unlocked a far greater potential in the bands, including the ability to access the full range of electromagnetism, not just visible light. Wendell can now sustain his life functions indefinitely with his bands while out in space, and can Quantum Jump through the Quantum Zone (the source of his powers and all electromagnetic energy in the universe), enabling him to cross intergalactic distances in a matter of moments. Because of the adverse effect this has on the environment in atmospheres, Quasar only Quantum Jumps while in space. He can, however, overcome this difficulty by shaping a Q-construct around himself before Quantum Jumping, containing the vacuum backwash. Using his bands, Quasar can sense the full range of electromagnetic and cosmic energies. This allows him to pick up radio transmissions, detect signals sent by microwaves or other means, register the presence of people or objects that produce energy, and identify and recognize energy signatures he has felt before. Quasar has pre-programmed his bands to alert him to sudden flare ups of energy happening in his general area, and wove an invisible lattice of quantum energy around Earth, alerting him to incoming extra-terrestrial threats.

Because his control over electromagnetic energy now extends into non-visible ranges of radiation, Quasar can make his force fields or constructs invisible to the naked eye. He can also use this power to make his bands invisible, to disguise himself in his civilian identity. Quasar's bands can absorb any form of electromagnetic or cosmic energy in his immediate area -- he does not need to make direct contact with it, he can draw the energy to his bands. When it comes to living beings who generate energy, he can only drain them of their power when they are actively using it. Quasar cannot directly affect mystical or psychic energy, but he has set up a defensive field around his brain which naturally protects him from mental attack. Because each band has seven gems on it, Wendell is technically capable of performing 14 different tasks at once. This includes flying, his force field, each new energy construct, tapping into different radio transmissions, etc. Practically, however, Quasar has difficulty maintaining three different types of constructs at once. Firing 14 identical energy balls in a single direction is no problem, but holding some allies aloft on a platform, caging one opponent in a sphere, and redirecting the assaults of another opponent proved taxing.

Quasar lost the Quantum-Bands during a time when he was temporarily dead, but was resurrected thanks to the residual energy of the Star Brand, which he had picked up on a trip to the New Universe. The Star Brand is a zero point energy collector and a self-perpetuating temporal paradox, but suffice it to say that while Wendell possessed the Star Brand he had superhuman strength, considerable resistance to physical injury, infinite self-healing abilities, the ability to survive in the vacuum of space, flight, and the power to radiate explosive and destructive bursts of force from his body. The Star Brand itself was a small tattoo which the wielder could move from one place on their body to another by touching the Brand to a different area of their skin and willing it to move over. By placing the Brand over his eye, Quasar could visually see and track energy signatures. Because the Star Brand was intrinsically linked to its own universe, its power ultimately faded away in our universe, luckily just as Wendell was able to reacquire his bands.

Quasar was temporarily dead again, and was resurrected as a quantum-phasic entity. He essentially exists as a living Quantum Construct now, able to direct and manipulate quantum energy even without the bands, also he has since reacquired them as well.

Wendell Vaughn has had basic espionage training through S.H.I.E.L.D. and has had extensive hand-to-hand combat training through both S.H.I.E.L.D. and Captain America, though little experience in using it. His military and espionage training have given him some ability in the areas of modern weaponry, piloting small aircraft, tactical skills, combat tech, surveillance, and cryptography.

MOCKINGBIRD

 

MOCKINGBIRD

Real Name: Barbara Morse

First Appearance: Astonishing Tales (Vol. 1) #6, June 1971 (Unnamed); Astonishing Tales (Vol. 1) #12, June 1972 (as Dr. Barbara Morse); Marvel Super Action (Vol. 1) #1, January 1976 (as the Huntress); Marvel Team-Up (Vol. 1) #95, July 1980 (as Mockingbird)

Powers: S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Bobbi Morse was a baseline human who possessed no superhuman powers. She was a skilled scientist and field agent who was, however, experiencing unexplained precognitive visions during her first missions.

Her first costumed identity was as the Huntress, where she adopted a costume of Beta Kevlar, resistant to knives and small arms fire. She became Mockingbird when she adopted the use of her battle staves. These short rods were attached to her arms by a set of braces underneath her billowy sleeves, and could either detach or be fired as projectiles using a burst of pressurized air. For hand-to-hand combat, they could be used as fighting sticks or locked together and telescoped into a quarterstaff or vaulting pole. Recent versions of the battle staves also include a retractable spike on the ends as well.

After being critically injured in battle, Bobbi was restored to health using a biochemical agent based on the Super-Soldier Serum and the Infinity Formula. As a result, she has developed superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, durability and recuperative powers. Initially, she was strong enough to rip metal armor apart with her bare hands. There has been some indication her power levels have depleted since then, but her actual strength level at this point is uncertain.

While working as S.H.I.E.L.D. liaison to Parker Industries, Mockingbird received a new costume designed by Spider-Man. It includes retractable energy wings in a harness extending under her arms.

Dr. Barbara Morse holds a Ph.D. in biology and is an expert biologist. A trained S.H.I.E.L.D. operative, she is a highly skilled espionage agent and a formidable hand-to-hand combatant skilled in various martial arts, along with expertise in marksmanship and gymnastics.

MS. MARVEL

 

MS. MARVEL

Real Name: Carol Susan Jane Danvers

First Appearance: Marvel Super-Heroes (Vol. 1) #13, March 1968 (as Carol Danvers); Ms. Marvel (Vol. 1) #1, January 1977 (as Ms. Marvel I); The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #164, December 1982 (as Binary); Avengers (Vol. 3) #4, May 1998 (as Warbird); Avenging Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #9 September 2012 (as Captain Marvel VII)

Powers: Carol Danvers first gained super-powers as a result of the Psyche-Magnetron, a Kree device capable of forming any technological creation known to Kree science with a thought. As the Psyche-Magnetron exploded, the Kree Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) blocked its radiation from striking Carol. However, the radiation actually passed through Mar-Vell, endowing Carol with his traits. Her genetic code was altered to become partially Kree, she assimilated a knowledge of Kree science and battle tactics from Mar-Vell, and she even manifested a "seventh sense", a form of psychic ability possessed by Kree females. Furthermore, the Psyche-Magnetron gave her the power to manifest a costume at will, one equipped with micro-circuitry that in some ways mimicked Mar-Vell's nega bands and their ability to convert psionic energy to increase his physical powers. As a result, Carol possessed superhuman strength, endurance, durability, and the ability to fly at superhuman speeds while wearing this costume. Carol originally developed a split-personality to compensate for the stress her body and mind were placed under -- she kept the original Carol Danvers separate from a new personality (Ms. Marvel) derived from her new Kree knowledge and sensibilities. Even after a second exposure to the Psyche-Magnetron internalized all her super-powers, psychic blocks prevented Carol from accessing her super-strength, flight, etc. when as "Carol". The only power she manifested in her civilian guise was her "seventh sense", which often gave her visions of events and perils that might threaten her in the immediate future. In battle, the sense enabled her to predict her opponent's actions and reflexively counter them. Later, a dimension-traveler named Hecat'e helped Carol break down her mental barriers, and she merged her two personas and could use her powers even out of costume. Despite her mental fusion, Carol was still capable of switching between her costume and civilian clothes at will.

After being leeched by Rogue, all of Carol's super-powers were gone -- only her part-Kree genetic code remained. When she was being genetically experimented on by the Brood, Carol manifested cosmic energy powers, and became Binary. Carol could now harness the power of a white hole, the theoretical exit point for all the energy consumed by a black hole. While in her Binary state, Carol possessed Class 100 strength, near-invulnerability, the ability to fly faster-than-light and survive in the vacuum of space. Her head was aglow with a corona of stellar energy, and flame licked on the ends of her boots and gloves. Her physiology was also realigned to feed off of the energies she channeled, giving her extraordinary stamina and the ability to survive without rest or sustenance. By funneling the white hole's energies, Binary channeled stellar energy in various forms: Unfiltered discharges could virtually incinerate anything in her path. By mentally setting up filtering lenses, she could selectively summon light, heat, solar plasma, radiation, gravity, radio waves, etc., all the things being emitted by a star. She could also pull substance through her body and into the white hole, shunting things like energy or volatile radiation harmlessly out of her environment. This eventually led to the demise of her new powers.

During Operation: Galactic Storm, Binary absorbed anti-matter that was threatening Earth's sun. Sending this material to her personal white hole is apparently the reason it started to collapse, weakening her over time and eventually leaving her with half the power she normally possessed. Now, Carol no longer transforms into a Binary state, has Class 50 strength, more limited but still impressive durability, transonic instead of trans-light flight speeds, and can no longer survive totally unaided in space. She cannot filter her cosmic energy anymore, leaving her with only a single form of photonic energy blast. She can, however, absorb various forms of electromagnetic energy. Carol can be caught off-guard by energy attacks, but when prepared she can take in electromagnetic energy and use it to boost all of her superhuman powers and revitalize her natural stamina as well.

While battling the Brood and a Brood-hunter named Cru, Ms. Marvel and her opponents were caught in a devastating explosion. Cru, a techno-organic entity, was blown to pieces, and a small portion of her repair protocols became lodged in Carol's physiology. This quasi-sentient nanotechnology incorporated itself into Carol's body and began protecting her from harm. These protocols made Carol virtually invincible, dramatically increasing her durability and giving her an enormously powerful healing factor to deal with any injuries she did suffer. It even shielded her mind from outside forms of control, like the Puppet Master. Carol typically turned blue like Cru when the protocols were working. Eventually, the real Cru returned to retrieve her protocols from Ms. Marvel. During the process, the two women merged and separated some more, and Carol's own powers were left dramatically increased by the process. Able to once more achieve her Binary power levels again, Carol ultimately pushed her boosted abilities too far, and began to burn herself out from the inside. She was forced to avoid using her powers at all to keep them under control, but eventually she overloaded in battle anyway, and was killed as her body dispersed itself.

Ms. Marvel survived, but separated into a series of multi-hued energy forms. These energy Marvels were scattered across the world, and possessed many of Carol's powers such as flight and photonic blasts. With the help of the Storytellers, psychic fetuses with reality-manipulating powers, the energy Marvels were reunited into Ms. Marvel for the most part. In fact, the Storytellers created two versions of Carol Danvers: One, a warrior guided by Kree battle instincts and calling herself Ms. Marvel, and two, a writer in Los Angeles named Catherine Donovan who was living a successful, if normal, life. Due to their unique connection, Ms. Marvel's powers increased exponentially the closer she was to Catherine, making her virtually invincible and in a Class 100+ strength level. Eventually, the two women were re-merged into a single being: Carol Danvers, aka Ms. Marvel.

Carol Danvers earned a bachelor's degree from her military intelligence training. A talented journalist excelling as a freelance writer and magazine editor, she also has extensive training in espionage and is a skilled pilot with excellent hand-to-hand combatant skills.

NICK FURY

 

NICK FURY

Real Name: Nicholas Joseph Fury

First Appearance: Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos (Vol. 1) #1, September 1963

Powers: No superhuman powers, typically. Nick Fury has trained as a paratrooper, Ranger (Commando), demolitions expert, and vehicle specialist. He holds an unlimited-tonnage, all-seas license as a commander of ocean-going vessels. Fury has completed Green and Black Beret Special Forces training, and has been an agent of the OSS (Office of Special Services) and a liaison of the M5 (British Secret Intelligence).

He is a seasoned unarmed and armed combat expert, was a heavyweight boxer in the Army (during World War II), and holds a black belt in Tae Kwan Do and a brown belt in Jujitsu. Fury has honed his fighting skills sparring with Captain America, perhaps the world's finest unarmed-combat expert. He is a combat veteran of three wars (World War II, Korea, and Vietnam) and has served in various "military advisor" missions and clandestine operations.

Nick Fury's aging process has been greatly retarded by the Infinity Formula, a biochemical liquid serum developed by Berthold Sternberg. Fury was first inoculated with the serum in the 1940s and had been annually ingesting the formula until it became apparent that its cumulative effect continued to prolong his lifespan. He suffers from 95% vision loss in his injured left eye and wears a trademark cosmetic eye patch over it.

As the director of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fury had access to a wide variety of equipment and weaponry designed by S.H.I.E.L.D. technicians. He wore a S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform made of 9-ply Kevlar (able to withstand ballistic impact up to .45 caliber bullets) and a Beta cloth (type C), a fire-resistant material, which has a kindling temperature of 1,700° Fahrenheit. Fury used various types of handguns, including a .15 caliber needle gun, a government issue .45 caliber automatic, a captured German Luger in 9mm Parabellum, a modified semi-automatic Walther PPK in 9 mm Parabellum, and the Ingram MAC-10 machine pistol in .45 caliber.

Fury also had access to highly advanced transportation equipment, including various air, land, and sea craft provided by S.H.I.E.L.D.; and numerous S.H.I.E.L.D. paraphernalia, including a radio-link tie.

Being transformed by the Watchers into the Unseen has given him a form of cosmic awareness.