SHAMAN

 

SHAMAN

Real Name: Michael Twoyoungmen

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #120, April 1979

Powers: Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen is a mystic employing the inherited magic of his tribe, the Sarcee. The main focus of his power is his medicine pouch, an unassuming bag that opens up into a dimensional void. Powered by his own belief in its enchantment, Shaman can reach inside the pouch and pull out any number of totems, powders, herbs, and other items of sorcerous potential. Using these aids, Shaman has demonstrated the ability to teleport across hundreds of miles, direct the storm elements, expel a stream of ice daggers, make people fall unconscious or experience great fear, cause plant-life to grow at an accelerated rate and act under his direction, heal physical and spiritual wounds, summon miniature wood totems that grow to giant size and become animated, etc. He also wears mystical bands on his wrists which can summon or displace his costume at will, and act which also triggers the masking spell which prevents anyone from recognizing him as Michael Twoyoungmen in costume. This masking spell can be expanded to disguise the appearances of other people with him, or render himself or others completely invisible to detection.

Shaman has limited personal power as well, enabling him to levitate himself a few feet off the ground, and perceive certain mystical phenomena. He can cast spells such as to reverse a Wendigo's possession, or force a compulsion of silence on someone to prevent them from talking about a certain subject. Under the proper circumstances, he is even capable of time travel. Michael can also receive messages and alerts from his grandfather, through that man's specially-preserved skull which Shaman keeps in his possession. After losing faith in his own powers, Shaman went on a vision quest and received new abilities. He wore an eagle headdress that could become his familiar, carried a spirit staff, and had the power to summon the various spirits of the natural world. When they were in his presence, Shaman could ask the spirit to grant him favors, such as having the spirit of the north wind to create a powerful gale, or the spirit of the wood a house was made of to dictate its history. He could not command these spirits, only supplicate before them.

Michael Twoyoungmen is an above-average athlete and a renowned extraordinary surgeon.

BLACK CAT

 

BLACK CAT

Real Name: Felicia Hardy

First Appearance: The Amazing Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #194, July 1979

Powers: The Black Cat was originally a burglar who employed a grappling line, glass cutters, and other simple tools. Her trademark was that she rigged the scenes of her crimes in advance with various traps, allowing her to convince pursuers that she possessed the superhuman power of causing bad luck. When she later went on a search to acquire genuine super-powers, the Kingpin's scientists ironically found a way to grant her that very power. In addition to marginally heightened strength, speed and agility, Felicia now generated a "bad luck" aura at all times, a negative probability field which automatically focused itself on any people or objects in her environment that would do her harm. Once afflicted by this aura, weapons directed against her would cease functioning properly or backfire, and any person with malicious intent might stumble, trip themselves up, suddenly fall victim to a falling piano, etc., until they ceased any action or intention against her. This power was extraordinarily effective, so much so that she could simply stand still or ignore her opponent completely and they would end up harming themselves. There were some drawbacks to her power: Opponents who acted only to defend themselves would not succumb to the bad luck effect. Furthermore, her bad luck aura would accumulate around people she spent time with, making her power hyper-sensitive to them. Spider-Man became perpetually clumsy around her, and even the slightest argument or bad feelings between the two of them would set off her powers and jinx his actions further. Eventually, Spider-Man remained under a constant cloud of bad luck for weeks even after he separated from the Black Cat. With assistance from Dr Strange, Spider-Man had the bad luck field removed, but the resulting backlash cost Felicia her powers as well. As a side effect, she instead gained the "proportionate abilities of a cat": Superhuman strength, speed, agility, endurance, reflexes, balance and coordination. Her senses became highly acute, giving her enhanced hearing and smell, night vision, and even the power to detect Strange's astral presence. She could also flex her fingernails, extending then into tough, razor sharp claws. She later permanently lost these abilities to a power-canceling mechanism employed by the Chameleon.

 

After a few months as a civilian, she commissioned the Tinkerer to re-design her a set of gadgets to approximate superhuman powers. Balance compensators disguised as earrings enhanced her agility and sense of equilibrium, so that she always landed on her feet. New contact lenses gave her telescopic vision, night specs, and allowed her to see various spectra of invisible light. She was also equipped with auditory implants that gave her enhanced and directional hearing, and motion-sensitive fibers in her mask that pinpointed movement in her immediate vicinity. Micro-circuitry built into the lining of her costume gave her increased strength, and the metal mesh of her gloves could be reconfigured into three-inch long claws instantly by flexing her fingers. She also used a wire-guided grappling claw which fired from the back of her hand and a selection of projectile talon-knives.

 

Later, Felicia restored her "bad luck" powers with the help of Doctor Tramma, who installed a cybernetically-controlled quantum probability pulsator in her body. This mechanism allows the Cat to consciously influence probability in her environment, whereas previously her power was a reflexive reaction to threats or danger. This allows her to radiate "bad luck" to affect everyone in her vicinity, or target specific people or objects. The Black Cat was also outfitted with retractable cybernetic claws made of an unknown metal.

SONGBIRD

 

SONGBIRD

Real Name: Melissa Gold

First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One (Vol. 1) #54, August 1979 (as Screaming Mimi); The Incredible Hulk (Vol. 1) #449, January 1997 (as Songbird)

Powers: Melissa Gold was a member of the all-female wrestling team known as the Grapplers, who sold out their services as mercenaries and were bionically augmented by RoXXon Oil. Melissa became Screaming Mimi after she received cybernetically enhanced vocal chords, enabling her to amplify her own voice similar to a megaphone and scream consistently for nearly an hour without damaging her throat. She also could produce a variety of symptoms in nearby people by modulating a series of hypersonic frequencies. Mimi could induce panic, anxiety, blindness, deafness, nausea, vertigo, reality-warping hallucinations, and unconsciousness. When directed against solid structures, Screaming Mimi could shatter glass, weaken building foundations, and at her most intense actually liquefy matter within a few yards of her position. While partnered with Angar the Screamer, the two hypersonic villains learned how to create specific sensory illusions by harmonizing their twin scream-effects together. Thus, Mimi and Angar were once able to pose as Hawkeye and Mockingbird, committing crimes and anyone who saw them (and was affected by their harmonic pitch) saw two Avengers instead of two super-villains. After Angar was killed, however, Mimi overstrained her power: Damaging her bionics and tearing up her own vocal chords. Approached by Baron Zemo to join his Masters of Evil/Thunderbolts, Melissa agreed and her vocal powers were augmented by Techno, who had appropriated some of Klaw's solid sound technology.

As Songbird, Melissa wore mechanical nodes on her neck that allowed her to speak normally and were small enough to be concealed by a simple neckerchief. In combat, she wore a sonic carapace around her throat which enhanced and manipulated the sound generated by her augmented vocal chords to create solid sound constructs made of pink sonic energy. Adjustments to her cybernetic implants now enabled Songbird to mentally shape her sound waves into these constructs and direct their movements and actions psionically: She could even remove the carapace after creating a construct, and could still move the solid sound around mentally. Songbird used her power to create battering rams, storage pods, giant knives or scissors, protective shields, barriers, domes, or anything she could visualize. She quickly learned to use her powers for flight, manifesting a set of wings attached to her arms and mentally propelling the wings (and therefore herself) through the air. As time has passed, her throat has healed enough to restore her Screaming Mimi powers, lost to her ever since just before she became a member of the Thunderbolts. Besides the previous effects she exhibited, Songbird has demonstrated the power of subliminal influence, producing a sonic frequency which makes a person far more open to whatever is suggested to them next. She can also map her environment using sonar waves and cast sound in tight pulses, allowing her to speak directly to one person over a distance without anyone nearby hearing.

STATURE

 

STATURE

Real Name: Cassandra Eleanor Lang

First Appearance: Marvel Premiere (Vol. 1) #47, April 1979 (as Cassie Lang); Young Avengers (Vol. 1) #6, September 2005 (as Stature); Astonishing Ant-Man (Vol. 1) #6, May 2016 (as Stinger)

Powers: Cassandra "Cassie" Lang had apparently been stealing small quantities of the size-altering Pym Particle vapor from her father (Scott Lang) for years. The Pym Particles interacted with her metabolism and her brain's electrical impulses to create an organism-wide "enlarging field" or "reducing field" which is energized by mental command. This gave her the ability to alter her size and mass at will once she reached puberty.

As Stature, Cassie can extra-dimensionally displace her own mass proportionately in order to shrink down to a few fractions of an inch tall, or draw upon generic mass from that extra-dimensional source to increase her overall size and mass. The growth process required the rapid acquisition of bodily mass, from the planet Kosmos of the Microverse. This extra-dimensional mass fortifies all of her cellular tissue, including her bones and muscles, enabling her to support her increased weight, and giving her varying levels of superhuman strength (between Class 25-75). She can increase her height up to a maximum of 250 feet.

When returning to normal size or shrinking further down, Stature's "reducing field" would shrink her back down to her normal height and shed all of the mass that was gained extra-dimensionally. She can further reduce herself to the size of an ant, approximately one-half inch in height. Like most Pym Particle users, she has the limitation of not being able to grow past her maximum size and mass without putting strain on her body.

ANT-MAN

 

ANT-MAN

Real Name: Scott Edward Harris Lang

First Appearance: Avengers (Vol. 1) #181, March 1979 (As Lang); Marvel Premiere (Vol. 1) #47, April 1979 (as Ant-Man)

Powers: Ex-convict and electronics expert Scott Lang broke into the New Jersey home of Dr. Henry Pym and stole both his Ant-Man uniform and Pym Particle canisters. Since then, he's donned the costumed identity as a crime fighter.

Using the Pym Particles, Ant-Man possesses the power to reduce his size and mass to that of an ant, approximately one half inch in height. The Pym Particles are suspended within an unknown gas, which is confined and stored in special magnetic field generating canisters.

When Ant-Man releases a certain quantity of this gas containing the Pym Particles in his immediate vicinity, the particles penetrate his skin, touch the nearest nerve endings in his skin, and are transmitted by the nervous system to the brain. Interacting with the electrical impulses of the brain, the particles create an organism-wide "reducing field," which is energized by mental command. Thus activated, the field reduces an man's entire body at a uniform rate to the size he has determined, which is usually ant-size (1/2 inch), although he can adopt sizes between his normal and that of an ant, if he so desires. Ant-Man's mass is not compressed into the reduced stature. Instead, it is somehow extended into the Microverse dimension that is opened by the activity of the Pym Particles, from which the mass can later be reclaimed. It takes about two seconds from the time the Pym Particles reach the brain for Ant-Man to reduce to ant-size.

It is not known how many Pym Particles constitute a sufficient quantity to enable the generation of a "reducing field." The quantity of particles, however, does not determine how small an organism can shrink (that is determined by the mental command of the user.). It is also not known what effect, if any, the exposure to and over abundance of Pym Particles at a single time will have. It is known, however, that continuous exposure to the Pym Particles over prolonged periods of time enables certain brains (such as Henry Pym's) to generate "reducing fields " spontaneously, without contact with the new quantity of particles. Scott Lang has not had sufficient exposure to the Pym Particles to determine if he will be similarly affected. Also unknown is the time limit, if any, of the and potency of the particles. So far, Ant-Man has been able to remain ant-size for as long as he has wished, a matter of hours. If Ant-Man is rendered unconscious while in his reduced state, he remains at that size and does not spontaneously revert to normal size.

To return to normal size, Ant-Man releases a certain quantity of gas containing another type of Pym Particles in his immediate vicinity. Like the particles that produce the "reducing field," these particles also penetrate the skin, touch the nerve endings, and are transmitted by the nervous system to the brain. Also interacting with the electrical impulses of the brain, and particles create an organism-wide "enlarging field," which is energized by mental command. Ant-Man's body grows at a uniform rate, until he has reclaimed all the mass that was shunted to the Microverse. At that point, since there is no more of his mass with in the extra physical dimension, the "enlarging field" is no longer energized, and the enlargement process stops. The particles of the "enlarging gas" can be used by certain individuals to grow larger than their normal stature. In this case, extra pseudo organic mass is acquired from the same extra physical dimension where access organic mass is extended into reducing process, and the "reducing gas " is used to regain normal stature.

How Ant-Man mentally determines when he has reduced himself to precisely the size he wishes (ant-size) is not fully understood. Certainly, there are visual indicators in his surrounding environment, but the process occurs so quickly that it would be remarkable to be able to see the scale indicators. Presumably, knowing the precise rate at which the shrinking process occurs, he could time the process so that he deactivates the "reducing field" when he reaches the desired stature. Again, this would involve split-second timing. However he manages to do it, Ant-Man has been able to calibrate his shrinking process so that he attains within 1/32 of an inch of his usual half-inch size. He could use successive dosages of the "shrinking gas" or "enlarging gas" to make fine adjustments of his height.

The smallest size the Pym Particles can enable an organism to attain is not known. Both Henry Pym and Scott Lang have used multiple dosages of the "shrinking gas" to shrink to sub-microscopic stature. The success of dosages enabled them to mentally adjust to the experience with short "rest stops"; a single dosage would theoretically be enough to make the "journey" nonstop.) When 99.99+ percent of an organism's mass is extraordinarily shunted, the organism is automatically sent into the dimension known as the Microverse, one of the countless parallel universes accessible to Earth only by the mass shunting process.

Ant-Man can use the Pym Particles to reduce other objects and organisms at the same time he reduces himself. Touching the object or organism he wishes to shrink, he generates the "reducing field" and that usual manner, and then mentally extends the field to encompass his "baggage" or "passenger." How far he can extend this field is unknown. He has, however, "carried" with him at least one other person or ant. Ant-Man's uniform and paraphernalia shrink with him by this process.

Ant-Man stores the "reducing gas" and "enlarging gas" in separate cylindrical canisters on his belt. These canisters generate a magnetic field, which keeps the Pym Particles from escaping. Abundant at the center of the canister activates the nozzle release at the top of the canister. The nozzle releases a measured quantity of "gas" no matter how long or hard the button is depressed.

Ant-Man wears a cybernetic helmet permitting him rudimentary telepathic communication with insects. He can broadcast to a range of 1 mile, depending on environmental conditions. Directed by a cybernetic telepathic commands, and are able to perform certain simple tasks. There does not appear to be a limit of the number of insects he can command at once. Frequently Ant-Man employees an entire army of worker ants. The helmet also contains a limited air supply and sound amplification equipment which shifts the frequencies so his voice as well as augmenting the volume, so that he can be heard by normal size human beings despite his diminutive size.

Scott Lang is a gifted intellect who holds a master's degree in electrical engineering. He has earned an electronics technician certificate and had additional training in advanced electronics while incarcerated. In addition to his above-average expertise in electronics, he is a master burglar and a skilled thief able to infiltrate and override advanced security systems.

SCHIZOID MAN

 

SCHIZOID MAN

Real Name: Chip Martin

First Appearance: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (Vol. 1) #36, November 1979

Powers: Chip Martin suffers from a dissociative identity disorder caused by the various drugs used on his mother to ease the delivery his birth. It is unclear whether the drugs activated latent mutant genes which allowed him to develop superhuman powers, or if they caused a chemical imbalance which resulted in his personality disorder, or both. One of his personalities is hostile and acts out his subconscious thoughts and desires. This personality is generally controlled via medication and psychiatric training, but can surface in times of stress. It is this personality that control's Chip's superhuman powers.

Chip was empathic, sensitive to the presence of heightened emotion in his vicinity and possibly even feeding off of it. He was capable of levitating matter and exerting telekinetic force. Primarily, his power manifested as psychoplasmic constructs forged from his mind. This could include anything from a spray of knives to demons summoned from his imagination. These creations are not alive or intelligent. They are created from psychic energy, possibly from extra-dimensional mass, and are controlled either directly by him or by his subconscious. These creations dissolve if he is not actively concentrating on them.

SNOWBIRD

 

SNOWBIRD

Real Name: Narya

First Appearance: The Uncanny X-Men (Vol. 1) #120, April 1979

Powers: Snowbird is a demi-goddess, born of a mortal man and Nelvanna, Goddess of the Northern Lights. A changeling at birth, Narya was mystically bound to the lands of Canada by Shaman in order to tie her to our dimensional plane. She has three standard appearances: A fully human form with no special powers, her "true fires" which represent her goddess state, and her regular form, a transitional body that appears only slightly inhuman with opaque eyes. In this state she has superhuman strength, endurance, reaction time, and resistance to injury. She is able to fly, possesses an incredibly long lifespan, can produce a healing energy which repairs her clothing and regenerates her wounds, and also has certain extra-sensory powers. Snowbird is retrocognitive, able to scan psychic residue to reverse time in her mind's eye, watching the recent events of her surroundings rewind and play back before her eyes.

Created to be her people's champion against their enemies, the Great Beasts, Snowbird is able to sense the presence of great mystical evil, and a psychosomatic feeling of "cold". This power also allows her to sense other sources of evil or magic separately from one another. As a "goddess", she can also detect the prayers of her pantheon's worshipers, those few that remain in modern times. As a result, she instinctively knows when Shaman has invoked the name of the Great Spirit, something he only does in times of peril. In times of great need, Narya can also mentally compel others to aid her in battle with the Great Beasts -- they retain full awareness of their actions, but cannot avoid the compulsion to do as she asks.

Finally, Snowbird is a shape-changer, able to assume the physical appearance of any animal that is native to the Canadian north, where she was born and first bonded to this realm. Among the animals she has become are bears, foxes, wolverines, and owls, all of which are represented with white fur, feathers, skin, etc. She has even transformed into Sasquatch since the amalgam being of Walter Langkowski and Tanaraq was technically "born" at Walter's northern research station. She increases her physical mass when becoming a creature larger than herself, but also retains her full mass without shrinking when morphing into an animal that's normally smaller than she is. Once, Snowbird turned into a swarm of insects, but presumably that was only possible because of the unique hive mind those creatures share, and she cannot normally split herself off into multiple animals. Snowbird is truly bound to Canada and originally would suffer considerably if she left its borders. After choosing to marry a mortal man, however, Narya's people cast her out and removed her immortality. As a side effect, she could now leave at any time, and her shape-changing abilities were no longer limited to animals of Canada: She can now change into any albino animal in the world.