An ongoing series of profiles on potential allies, antiheroes, and foes to interact with the fan-favorite Superwomen of EVA. Your favorite DC and Marvel characters, A-list or deep-cut, anime-ized! Featuring commissioned profile art by Zair-dacorus, ImDrToxic, Ishida1694, and many more...(hopefully)...
Superwomen of EVA Tribute: The (Un)official Handbook of Who's Who
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Disclaimer/Boilerplate/Introduction
*Disclaimer: I own nothing of Gainax, Khara, DC/Warner Bros., or Marvel/Disney. Superwomen of EVA concept originated by OrionPax09 and Mike313.*
Among the vastness of Evangelion fan fiction, one of my favorite series of stories is OrionPax09 and Mike 313's Superwomen of EVA tales, where each author takes a major or supporting female character and transforms them into either a certain DC (in the case of Mike313) or Marvel (OrionPax09) hero.
Three years back, I started doing a small series of fan art 'tributes' featuring my own additions to their spins on EVA's and DC's/Marvel's universes, tapping into other 'extracanonical' female EVA characters in the process. Recently, inspired by the occasional 'guest-appearances' of non-EVA anime characters present in the omakes of the SWOE stories (be it Happosai from Ranma 1/2 or Lupin III's gang), I decided to experiment with making SWOE versions of iconic (or not as much) DC/Marvel characters who could feasibly appear in those stories, anime stylings and all.
As such, after debuting it on my DeviantArt profile and bringing the prose portions to fanfiction.net, Sufficient Velocity will now be graced with my ongoing project done in the (sort of) vein of classic biographic comics (hinted in the title) such as Who's Who in the DC Universe or The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. As to whether the entries are 'canon' to either side of the Superwomen of EVA fence? Well, that's up to the originators. I'm just a fan.
*Additional disclaimer: I own nothing of the parent companies for any anime characters mentioned.*
Refresher Course - The Evangelion Extracanonicals
First up, a 'refresher course' on the extracanonical EVA ladies who haven't been gotten to by either author, along with who I turned them into...
1. Maria Vincennes - American EVA pilot introduced in the 1996 tabletop RPG The NERV White Paper. A blonde 'reverse' of Asuka in that she acts meek and polite around adults but is haughty and domineering around her peers. Of the two SWOE originators, only OrionPax09 began something with her in the story "Storm Bringer", which turned her into the latest hammer-wielding thunderer of Asgard. In conversation with Mike313, he revealed he'd planned on making her a denizen of Apokolips saved by Mr. Miracle and Big Barda, who winds up on Earth due to a boom-tube accident; in honor of her rescuers, the young warrior takes up Big Barda's moniker. For my tribute series, I opted for a different approach: long story short, in my portrayal, Maria is the Superwomen of EVA version of Green Arrow. (Also, two words: progressive bow.)
2. Aoi Mogami, Satsuki Ooi, and Kaede Agano - the bridge bunny trio introduced in the 2004 videogame (and later manga series) The Shinji Ikari Raising Project. Aoi, the eldest, is short-haired and wears glasses; Satsuki, the middle, has long sandy-blonde hair; and Kaede, the youngest, also sports short hair and is a bit sprightly. They held the positions normally held by Hyuga, Maya, and Aoba, who in Raising Project are teachers at the kids' school. For Orion's Marvel-based SWOE, the three of them wind up being mysteriously given the research and equipment (in a sense, the legacy) of the late Dr. Henry Pym; each proceeds to take on a size-changing (and in two specific cases, bug-speaking) alter-ego, with Kaede as the Wasp, Satsuki as Stature, and Aoi as Yellowjacket (sans the mental breakdown usually associated with that mantle). For Mike's SWOE2, Aoi is exposed to a piece of rare white dwarf star matter, which she then puts to use by building a size-changing suit based on the research of Dr. Ray Palmer and her former college professor, Dr. Ryan Choi; as a result, she becomes the Atom (which Mike did poke fun at in an omake from Ritsuko's story "Blue Defiance"). Meanwhile, around the same time, Kaede and Satsuki accidentally get caught in the explosion of an experimental reactor that fuses them together into a nuclear-powered being with matter transmutation powers. With Aoi's help in designing a containment suit and control device (based on research done by physicist Martin Stein and one of his students, Jason Rusch), as well as learning to fuse and de-fuse at will, the two dub their gestalt form Firestorm. Eventually, Kaede and Satsuki are able to fully separate themselves while retaining their powers, with Satsuki adopting the identity of Firehawk.
3. Dr. Hitomi Kaga - NERV scientist introduced in the 2006 videogame The Secret of the Evangelion who, in addition to being a woman who wears her emotions on her sleeve, went to college with Misato and Ritsuko, and even is part of the latter's team that develops the Dummy System. For Orion's Marvel-based SWOE, I have her as Ms./Captain Marvel, gaining her powers in an accident akin to what Carol Danvers went through. Kenzaki Kyouya, the Section-2 agent also introduced in that videogame, is Hitomi's equivalent of Mar-Vell/Walter Lawson, making him the element that introduces the Kree-Skrull rivalry to the world of EVA. For Mike's DC-based SWOE2, Hitomi is instead a hero who's a composite of the Starman legacy, after stumbling upon the cosmic rod and research of the original Starman, Theodore 'Ted' Knight. (A wrinkle added to her character development is her discovery of Knight's part in the Manhattan Project, the results of which killed some of her family at the end of WWII.) Between both takes on Hitomi is the addition of Sumire Nagara from the Rebuild of Evangelion films as her best friend, and secretly being a costumed hero before Hitomi donned her own set of tights--for SWOE, Sumire is the equivalent of Photon/Monica Rambeau; for SWOE2, she's Dr. Mid-Nite (with a costume inspired by Beth Chapel's from Infinity, Inc.).
In addition to the above, while the non-Mike313-written SWOE2 story "Soaring High" exists (which sees Toji's sister Sakura become Hawkgirl), personally I'm pro-Sakura Suzuhara becoming the new champion for the wizard Shazam (as seen in a couple of stories, one of which being part of Cody Fett's "Superwomen of EVA Legacy" series). For Orion's Marvel-based take, I could see Sakura and Nozomi Horaki (Hikari's youngest sister) as a two-person Power Pack.
Finally, at some point, I'll probably come up with DC/Marvel character mantles for later extracanonicals such as Nene Matsukaze (from the visual novel Neon Genesis Evangelion Gaiden Vol. 2 ~ Feast of Dolls); and Kotone Suzuname and Hitomi Amagi (from the mobile game Evangelion Battlefields). So far, on the Marvel/OrionPax09 side of things, as evidenced by my "Superwomen of EVA: Earth's Mightiest, United" story, I've since portrayed Nene as their version of Moon Knight while Kotone is their equivalent of Wonder Man (or in this case, Wondra). (Update 7/28/2024: Kotone now has a DC mantle, as I've made her the Superwomen of EVA version of Booster Gold.)
Now then--on to the new folks!
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The Shade
*Character basis: Sebastian Michaelis from Black Butler.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #1: The Shade
"Sometime in the 19th century, a young man in London, England was caught in a strange, unexplained mystical incident that claimed the lives of 104 people. In the immediate aftermath, he was taken in by one Piers Ludlow seemingly out of concern, only to learn he was to be a scapegoat for the murderous Ludlow family, an aristocratic band of killers. Before they could strike, the man on reflex unleashed his newfound shadow-based powers, killing all but two members of the Ludlows and causing him to flee the scene; the two survivors vowed revenge. In the years that followed, the young man, having also discovered his newfound immortality in addition to his shadow powers, adopted many an alias and profession as he evaded the pursuit of the surviving Ludlows and their descendants. During the twilight of the Victorian era, he notably took on the name 'Sebastian Michaelis', loyal butler to the eccentric Phantomhive family; in the 20th century, he adopted a more well-known alias as man-about-town Richard Swift, with a secret alter-ego in the form of a thief and spy known as the Shade. The Shade became something of an urban legend as the decades wore on, even clashing with the likes of the WWII-era superheroes the Flash (Jay Garrick) and Starman (Theodore Knight).
The Shade largely disappeared from the spotlight for the latter half of the 20th century, with nary a rumor about him heard by the time Second Impact struck and the aftermath became the focus of the world at large. With barely any living relatives of the Ludlows still alive for him to bother with, the Shade felt he would confine himself to eke out the rest of his immortal life in undisturbed peace, until the year 2015, when news of a supposed new wielder of his old 'sparring partner' Starman's cosmic staff reached him, bringing him to Tokyo-3, Japan. He at first found himself squaring off against said new staff-wielder, the so-called 'Starwoman' (secretly NERV scientist Hitomi Kaga), along with the girl who took up the mantle of the Flash (secretly Evangelion pilot Mari "Illustrious" Makinami). As the Angel War wore on, though, the Shade found himself allied with Starwoman and triple-agent Ryoji Kaji after realizing the role of SEELE in the whole conflict (he himself having spied upon the early years of the organization). The Shade, at one point, saved Kaji from an assassin's bullet following the defeat of the 15th Angel, and from there proceeded to aid his 'fellow' spy in bringing the organization down for good--on the condition that he be allowed to take out one particular member of SEELE's ruling council, one who happens to be the last living relative of the Ludlows..."
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Sunset Bain
*Character basis: 'Madame President' from Golden Boy.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #2: Sunset Bain
"The woman known as Sunset Bain, on the surface, is the technologically-savvy CEO of Baintronics International; behind closed doors, she is an underworld weapons and technology-dealer supplying her wares to the highest bidder, be they master criminal, terrorist organization, or so-called 'revolutionary force', all under the alias of Madame Menace.
Bain's rise to corporate power began when she seduced a fellow MIT undergrad into revealing secure secrets of the young man's family company; the moment she gained those secrets, her private force of masked operatives broke in and stole several prototypes, from which she was able to reverse-engineer and create her own working models. Within a year, Baintronics International was born just as Sunset Bain herself broke things off with that same fellow student. To ensure Baintronics would maintain a clean, near-spotless public perception, Sunset created the Madame Menace alias as she secretly became a player in the world of the illegal arms and technology trade, to the point where she has a mailing list of recurring customers who buy from her specially-delivered 'seasonal catalog' found on the dark web.
One of her most frequent customers, as it so happens, was Gendo Ikari, supreme commander of the U.N. special agency NERV, should he require specific pieces of tech for the Evangelions or other NERV operations. She is not above also dealing with the cult known as the Light of the Divine, whom she has sold weapons to on occasion, but since it would be 'bad for business' if the cult actually succeeded in crippling NERV, every weapon she sold them had a built-in failsafe programmed to render the weapons useless at the last minute.
The arrival of Iron Maiden (secretly Mana Kirishima, the engineering prodigy daughter of Hiro Kirishima, whom Bain had also known from her MIT days) in Tokyo-3 piqued Sunset's curiosity, and she became determined to acquire the young heroine's armor to study and hopefully reverse-engineer it. To that end, she organized a team of super-criminals to engage Iron Maiden and test her abilities, a team known as the Neo-Enforcers, consisting of the Controller, Blitz, the Eel, and the Tangler. Meanwhile, Mana herself wound up being invited to participate in an internship with the Tokyo-3 office of Baintronics, at the invitation of Sunset Bain herself, secretly as a means of gauging the young girl's genius for her own plans; Mana was eventually able to see through this ruse and get out from under Bain's grip, though the two foes reluctantly agreed to keep each other's 'extracurricular activities' a secret. In addition to Iron Maiden, Bain and her Neo-Enforcers have also squared off against the likes of Spider-Woman (NERV head scientist Ritsuko Akagi) and Ms. Fantastic (NERV computer tech Maya Ibuki)."
Deadshot
"Second Impact left no part of the Earth untouched, and one of the places severely hit by its effects was Manhattan, New York, U.S.A., home to then-12-year-old Rebecca 'Revy' Lee. Looking back, she considered only one good thing to come out of the chaos of Second Impact, and that was the sudden flooding taking out her abusive father, though it did leave her orphaned in the process. Scrounging around to survive, she eventually stowed away on a freighter bound for Southeast Asia just to get away from the remains of her old life. She eventually ended up in the criminal's haven known as the small island nation of Roanapur, where she continued her scrounging to get by. During one run for food, she was nearly killed by a gang she'd stolen from, and would've ended up six feet under were it not for the intervention of one Floyd Lawton, a 'retired' American expat whose sharpshooting saved her life. Taking a bit of pity on the girl, Lawton reluctantly took her in and raised her to be his protégé; deep down, he felt Revy reminded him a lot of his estranged daughter, Zoe. It was under his guidance that Revy learned more of her 'guardian's' background, discovering that for three decades, Floyd Lawton was better known by a different moniker during his time as one of the most in-demand hitmen the world over. Eventually, Revy became just as much a crack shot as Floyd, to the point where he bestowed upon her a set of custom-built Beretta 92FS's when she turned 17.
Several years later, Revy learned all too well that a man like Floyd made all sorts of enemies, given his particular line of work. Coming home from running a small errand one evening, she found Floyd dead on the floor, the victim of a professional hit. Swearing revenge, Revy, after burying Floyd, removed an old footlocker from a compartment hidden underneath their apartment's floor, and extracted Floyd's old gear and outfit, intending to take up the alias he once discarded: Deadshot.
Once she got Lawton's old eyepiece and wrist guns upgraded thanks to some allies of hers in Roanapur, and after getting in touch with his old contact Noah Kuttler--the criminal information broker known as the Calculator--the new Deadshot began making a name for herself in the underworld as a highly-skilled hitwoman and assassin, unafraid to take on a job no matter its difficulty. Her travails eventually put her on the path of the organization that killed Floyd, allowing her to avenge her father figure's death by paying them back in kind.
Following that, she continued to receive jobs from clients all over the world. One such client would be Gendo Ikari, head of the U.N. special agency NERV, tasked with protecting the human race from the otherworldly monstrosities known as the Angels. Ikari hired her to come to Tokyo-3 (the location of NERV-Central) to deal with the influx of costumed vigilantes that had begun to appear in the city. Once in town, Deadshot found herself squaring off against the likes of Batgirl (secretly Mayumi Yamagishi, heiress to the tech and manufacturing empire bearing her family's name) and Green Arrow (secretly Maria Vincennes, one of NERV's Evangelion pilots). It would take the combined forces of the two heroines to defeat her, leading to her arrest. (Gendo Ikari would erase any evidence of his involvement with her being in the city.)
En route to the prison where she was to reside pending her hearing, custody would be unexpectedly transferred to U.S. CIA agent King Faraday, who brought her to the States, it being the first time in years she'd ever set foot on U.S. soil. Faraday then brought her face-to-face with ruthless government intelligence official Amanda "The Wall" Waller, who outlined two choices for the hitwoman: face a firing squad as the sentence for her crimes, or serve her time as part of Waller's specialized black ops team to earn her freedom. Smirking at those options, Deadshot willingly took the second one, and became one of the initial 'recruits' into Waller's team: Task Force X, colloquially known as the Suicide Squad."
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Deathlok
*Character basis: the title character of Android Kikaider: The Animation.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #1: Deathlok
During one mission in which he was to take out the rest of Kohmiyoji's family--daughter Mitsuko and youngest son Masaru--Jiro's brain reawakens, halting the cyborg programming before the android body could land any killing blows. Horrified at what it--he?--was about to do, Jiro/Deathlok flees the scene and goes on the run, hoping to take down Cybertek and their masters, while also searching for his father and his real body. He later learns that his father secretly implanted a means for Jiro to put his new android form to 'good' use: although his brain was intended to serve only as a medium for the android's programming, he is able to assert his will over it (with his father also installing a "no-killing parameter" into its programming in the process). The computer within the android is fully willing to listen to Jiro, though he must take care to present his orders in a way that helps fulfill the mission and keep people from dying. The computer is fully capable of understanding distinct concepts, such as bluffing, as when Jiro is forced to pretend to take a hostage.
As Deathlok, Jiro would seek to take down Cybertek's operations across Japan as well as gain more information that would hopefully lead him to SEELE, causing him to cross paths with Ryoji Kaji, a triple-agent working for the Japanese government as a spy infiltrating both SEELE and NERV, the U.N. special agency tasked with destroying the Angels. His activities would bring him to the attention of the global peacekeeping organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D., and he would find himself teaming up at different points with some of the superwomen protectors of Tokyo-3 (the location of NERV HQ), including Iron Maiden (secretly scientific wunderkind Mana Kirishima), Spider-Woman (secretly NERV head scientist Ritsuko Akagi), Ms. Fantastic (secretly NERV computer technician Maya Ibuki), and S.H.I.E.L.D.'s own 'inside girl' within NERV, Evangelion pilot Mari "Illustrious" Makinami (who is also the new Captain America). Deathlok would eventually face off with Gill himself after undergoing his own cybernetic transformation into the powerful Hellinger."
The Body Doubles
*Character basis: Arisa and Kyoko from All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku-Nuku.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #4: The Body Doubles
"Arisa Sono and Kyoko Ariyoshi formerly worked as bodyguards and valets to arms magnate Akiko Natsume before deciding to go into business for themselves as guns-for-hire; apparently, Akiko herself encouraged them to do so in spite of their loyalty, after she decided to step down from her position as CEO of her company to spend more time with her family, though she would remain as a prime shareholder.
Arisa, a headstrong small arms and belt-fed weapons specialist and former fashion model, and Kyoko, a more level-headed artillery expert and daughter of the head of a low-level yakuza clan, soon dubbed themselves 'the Body Doubles', and received their first paid assignment from Kyoko's uncle (through an old associate of his who turned out to be NERV supreme commander Gendo Ikari), which brought them into conflict with the armored vigilante of Tokyo-3 known as Steel (secretly engineering wunderkind Mana Kirishima). Later, on, the two would become regulars for a global-reaching underworld agency for hired guns called Requiem, Inc.
One of their strangest assignments came from the beauty-obsessed Mystress, a warlord from the alien race known as the Rhormorids. After receiving a very generous amount of money as an advance payment, the Body Doubles would manage to capture some of the metahumans that had begun to appear throughout Tokyo-3, including Power Girl (secretly NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu, who would later redub herself 'Supergirl'), Wonder Girl (secretly another NERV Evangelion pilot, Rei Ayanami), and Zatanna (secretly NERV computer tech Maya Ibuki). Upon delivery of their targets, the two overheard Mystress's plans for them, learning that the alien warlord intended to rejuvenate her appearance by absorbing the energies of the trio of superheroes, until they were reduced to withered, dying husks. Not wanting to wish that on even their worst enemies, the Body Doubles reluctantly blast away the heroes' bindings, allowing them to get the upper hand on Mystress, along with the attention of another Tokyo-3-based hero, Green Lantern (secretly NERV tactical operations director Misato Katsuragi); the emerald crusader would send Mystress to Oa, the planetoid headquarters of the Green Lantern Corps, to be incarcerated in the Sciencells. In the chaos of the battle's aftermath, the Body Doubles slipped away unnoticed, resolving to more carefully screen any potential jobs going forward.
A short while later, one such job came their way, sending them after a mysterious superpowered drifter named Mitch Shelley..."
The Grapplers
*Character basis: Miki and Eri from 1986's Wanna-Be's, and most of the cast of 2013's Wanna Be the Strongest In The World!.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #5: The Grapplers
"During the event dubbed the 'Secret Crisis', when rich criminal gambler Amos Fortune (from one universe) made a wager with En Dwi Gast (alias the Grandmaster, an 'elder of the universe' from another universe) involving their respective worlds' resident teams of superheroes, each put together a team of foes they sent to each others' universes to get their attention. While Fortune sent his own group, the Royal Flush Gang, to the world that was home to the Avengers (a team made up of women involved in various capacities during the Angel War), the Grandmaster got more 'creative' with his team.
The Grandmaster turned his eye on a group of Japanese female pro wrestlers calling themselves 'the Grapplers', and after imbuing them with power that increased their strength, stamina, reflexes, and durability, along with a few select special abilities (all while putting them under his control), sent them to the world that was home to the Justice League (the counterparts to the Avengers on Fortune's Earth). The League and the Grapplers battled it out until the former were able to defeat the latter, at which point the Grandmaster teleported them back to their home universe.
On that Earth, some time after those events, the Grapplers (who barely remembered being the Grandmaster's pawns) were working out in their gym one day when they discovered that they'd retained the power they were given (after accidentally damaging their exercise equipment in the process). Realizing they'd be disqualified from any regular match in the league, the group worked to master their new abilities and came up with a solution to their dilemma after being inspired by the various appearances of superhumans following the rise of the Avengers during the Angel War. Successful in securing financing from a number of sponsors and contacts, the Grapplers helped form a new league for aspiring wrestlers with extraordinary abilities, known as the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation.
After generating some initial buzz with a series of crowd-pleasing exhibition matches, the Grapplers kicked off a massive publicity event in the form of a charity tournament, with members of the Avengers as their opponents and the proceeds going to post-Angel War relief and recovery efforts. The heroes agreed to participate, with some of their number being actual combatants and the others watching from the stands in their civilian guises; a few of their number, on the down-low, found something off-putting about Tetsuma Kido, one of the chief financial backers of the UCWF and the head of a pharmaceutical empire specializing in health and fitness. During a few of the matches, at certain points some of the Grapplers went berserk and became hard for their opponents to handle, forcing the Avengers to subdue them. Finding this suspicious, Avengers members Wasp (Kaede Agano) and Yellowjacket (Aoi Mogami) shrink down and infiltrate Kido's box suite at the stadium where the tournament is taking place, and discover he'd been using the Grapplers as test subjects for a new drug his chief scientists, Drs. Yoshio Sawada and Karl Malus, had developed called MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone); furthermore, Kido himself is a power player in the criminal underworld going by the alias of the Power Broker, selling 'enhancements' to all kinds of crooks so they have a better chance against the superhuman element within Tokyo-3 and Tokyo-2.
Wasp and Yellowjacket swiftly make their way to the announcer's booth where they expose Kido's plans to the audience and the competitors, shocking everyone present. Not wanting to have his ambitions spoiled, Kido sends out a group of MGH-enhanced thugs to keep both the Avengers and the Grapplers occupied while he and the two scientists made a break for it. Both Captain America (Mari Makinami) and Sakura "Screaming Mimi" Hagiwara catch up to them, only to square off with Kido after he injects himself with an untested new batch of the MGH formula. Despite putting up quite a fight, the Avenger and the Grappler manage to defeat Kido so he could be taken into custody by law enforcement; Sawada and Malus, on the other hand, managed to get away.
While some of their number recovered, the other Grapplers made a promise to the Avengers to redo the charity tournament at some point soon, though with clean fights all-around.
Some of the prominent members of the Grapplers include:
1. Misaki "Lascivious" Toyoda - veteran wrestler and mentor to Sakura due to similar pasts as former idol singers. Possesses additional ability that lets her stimulate and influence the part of the brain that regulates passion and attraction, hence her ring name. Faces off with She-Hulk (Misato Katsuragi) in the charity tournament.
2. Sakura "Screaming Mimi" Hagiwara - formerly an idol singer who took up wrestling to avenge her bandmate's humiliation during an exhibition match with her future teammate Rio, only to take to the sport and go pro. Possesses the additional ability to generate powerful sonic attacks and shields with her voice. Faces off with Captain America (Mari Makinami) in the charity tournament.
3. Miki "Battleaxe" Morita - former mid-class pro wrestler who joined the Grapplers with her best friend Eri. Skilled with a pair of small twin axes made of the rare metal adamantium. Faces off with Thunderstrike (Maria Vincennes) in the charity tournament.
4. Eri "Gladiatrix" Kazama - former mid-class pro wrestler who joined the Grapplers with her best friend Miki and her half-sister Rio. Faces off with Ms. Fantastic (Maya Ibuki) in the charity tournament.
5. Rio "Poundcakes" Kazama - younger half-sister to Gladiatrix, with more of an attitude to match her strength and fighting spirit. Faces off with Stature (Satsuki Ooi) in the charity tournament.
6. Jackal "Vavavoom" Tojo - former mentor to Lascivious and the 'blonde bombshell' of the Grapplers. Faces off with Spider-Woman (Ritsuko Akagi) in the charity tournament.
Other members [not pictured] include Elena "Letha" Miyazawa, Sakura's best friend and former bandmate; Juri "Auntie Freeze" Sanada, another mentee of Vavavoom's who took up the handle of the American who previously bore it; and Moe "Capriole" Fukuoka, the youngest member of the team and a karate prodigy.
At a later point in the near future, Sakura and Elena would don new costumes and monikers when they became two of the newest Avengers: Songbird and Hellcat."
Indigo
"During the early reemergence of superhumans in the midst of the Angel War, the Earth was visited by the Coluan cybernetically-enhanced scientist known as Brainiac, who tried to add Tokyo-3 to his 'collection' of preserved intelligent civilizations. It took the combined forces of U.N. special agency NERV and the superheroes Power Girl and Wonder Girl (both secretly NERV Evangelion pilots Asuka Langley Sohryu and Rei Ayanami, respectively) to thwart Brainiac's scheme and destroy the invader in the process.
Months later, following the conclusion of the Angel War (due in part to the presence of more superheroes who arose in the wake of Power Girl (now Supergirl) and Wonder Girl), while NERV was in the midst of being decommissioned, among the tasks to be taken care of was the study and eventual disposal of the technological wreckage collected from Brainiac's ship.
While sifting through one particularly large pile of debris, a human-sized capsule was discovered, and once opened, the occupant was revealed to be a humanoid-looking girl with dark pink hair and blue skin. The girl awakened after a couple of minutes and immediately sought out any cybernetic or mechanical organism to assist in repairing her. She broke free from the scientists studying her and tried to install her self-repair routines into the MAGI (the three-part supercomputer that ran all of NERV HQ if not all of Tokyo-3), only for Steel (Mana Kirishima), Zatanna (Maya Ibuki), and Blue Beetle (Ritsuko Akagi) to shut the MAGI down to prevent the girl from gaining full control. The girl then nearly tried to use Steel's armor, only to be stopped by the Flash (Mari Makinami). As other superhumans in the area joined their friends on the scene, the girl retreated and switched into her offensive mode. While Blue Beetle repaired the damage to Steel, Zatanna and the Atom (Aoi Mogami) searched through the data logs in the capsule the girl was in, only to activate a message left behind by the girl's creator--Brainiac.
Brainiac's message not only confirmed that the Coluan was still alive (the destruction of his previous self having triggered a back-up program on another of his ships out in a far corner of the universe), but also revealed the girl's origin as a techno-organic being created to act as a sleeper agent to take out any who would attempt to study her, gather and assimilate any and all knowledge of the planet they were on, and await retrieval from their creator.
Figuring out a way to draw her out, the heroes left the MAGI unattended and laid in wait for the girl to return and attempt another extraction. When the girl did return, they ambushed her, with Steel and Zatanna ultimately subduing her with a concentrated, magically-enhanced EMP burst to wipe her memory and programming.
Not wanting to leave the girl to a vegetative state, or at worst disassembled, Blue Beetle and Zatanna (after convincing their friends) lead an effort to repair her and purge her of any remaining programming or sub-programming from Brainiac and bring her fully back online. Once done, and knowing of the horrible things she'd originally been programmed to do, the girl wished to atone by helping others. The girl took the codename 'Indigo' and began her repentance by assisting in the study and reverse-engineering of the Brainiac tech. When the superwomen of Tokyo-3 joined forces as the Justice League, Indigo became one of the inaugural members of their support team, even developing the Oracle network for their main computer in their HQ of Metro Tower.
In her life outside the League, Indigo learned to act more human, finding an affinity with Wonder Girl/Rei due to the latter's own journey of self-discovery and artificial origins. She developed her own personality traits, opinions, and passions (the last being best exemplified by her growing collection of elephant plushies). She also became the ward for Blue Beetle/Ritsuko and Zatanna/Maya when the two moved in together, and eventually their adoptive daughter, taking the name Ami Akagi; according to Indigo, after Sailor Mercury. (Maya, in particular, felt touched due to that character being her favorite of the Sailor Senshi.)"
The Vision
*Character basis: Antoinette from the 1986 OVA film The Humanoid.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #3: The Vision
"During the final stage of the Angel War in which SEELE launched an assault on NERV HQ, their initial cyberattack and its countering by NERV chief scientist Ritsuko Akagi (secretly the superhero Spider-Woman) inadvertently triggered a contingency sub-program embedded in the MAGI by its creator, Ritsuko's mother Naoko Akagi. That sub-program secretly removed the copied personality engrams Naoko Akagi made of herself and, in a hidden area of Terminal Dogma (the most top secret level of NERV HQ), implanted them into what had been dubbed by the late scientist "Project: Jocasta". Following what had been dubbed the 'Final Battle of Tokyo-3', the automated project was carried out in secret, right under the noses of everyone involved in the decommissioning of NERV HQ, until finally, on the day of the decommissioning effort's completion, the result of that project awoke and burst onto the scene, terrorizing all present in the Geofront. The result in question was Alkhema: a powerful, cold, and genocidal gynoid whose personality matrix amplified the worst traits of Naoko Akagi, with the goal of eliminating all human life and making machines dominant over the planet Earth. Ritsuko, as Spider-Woman, and her other superpowered friends and colleagues were barely able to beat Alkhema in their first encounter, though they were sure that, in spite of the destroyed chassis they stood over, their new foe would be back.
The superwomen, now banded together as a team called the Avengers, encountered Alkhema next when she had amassed a small army of robot acolytes under the banner of the Opus Futurae, with herself as their 'Mother Prophet'. She then unveiled her primary vassal, built on a frame based on the plans and research of an early American roboticist named Phineas T. Horton. Said vassal was dubbed her Vision, and demonstrated its powers in battle with the Avengers, including superhuman strength, flight, powerful beam attacks from the solar cell on its forehead, holographic manipulation, and density manipulation. Like Alkhema, Vision's personality matrix was copied from a human's--and being a twisted take on Naoko Akagi, the human that Vision's engrams turned out to be based on was Spider-Woman/Ritsuko, giving her a 'daughter' of her own.
In the midst of the battle between the Avengers and the Opus Futurae, the Vision, while studying the former, took notice of the camaraderie, trust, and friendship that bolstered their team dynamic and enabled them to be effective against their robotic foes, as well as the concern for bystanders that they kept out of the fighting. Concluding that they in truth are good people while Alkhema was in the wrong, the Vision turned on her creator and aided the Avengers against her, destroying her second body in the process. Inspired by her actions and seeing how she is arguably a living being because of her capacity to think more than just on the basis of logic, along with her Pandora-like curiosity, the Avengers decide to bring her into their care to help her acclimate to human society.
After purging any suspected sleeper programs Alkhema may have embedded within her, members of the team try to educate her on how to go about human life. After taking in some of the basics they provided, the Vision decides to travel the world in multiple guises in order to gain a better understanding of who she herself truly is. After doing this for nearly a year, the Vision returned to Tokyo-3 and the Avengers, now having adopted the human identity of Antoinette Sakakibara.
During an incident where the time-traveling despot known as Kang the Conqueror temporarily trapped the Avengers in a temporal void, the Vision was one of many superpowered allies of the team brought together via their 'New Avengers' protocols to defeat Kang and bring the team out of the void. Vision and the others were then given reserve Avenger status by the team's leaders for their efforts."
Ms. Gsptlsnz
*Character basis: the title character of Excel Saga.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #6: Ms. Gsptlsnz
Asked why she's been messing with the girl of steel, Gsptlsnz (or 'Gispy' for short) explained that following the end of the Ninth Age of Magic as a result of Second Impact--and the ensuing start of the Tenth Age--the higher-ups of the Fifth Dimension called for non-interference in the affairs of humanity (or 'Thirdies' as they liked to call them) until the world got itself back into some semblance of order, an edict that found itself prolonged in its active status thanks to the unpredictability that came with the Angel attacks. Bored out of her skull and wanting to bring a bit of fun back into the Third Dimension, Gispy secretly snuck off and decided to see what could be done to amuse herself in this backwater dimension. The (re)appearance of superhumans in this world--specifically, Tokyo-3, the 'epicenter' as it were of the Angel attacks--got her funny bone tingling, and when determining the target of her pranks and jokes, she opted for the one superhuman who, in spite of their super-senses, wouldn't see her coming a mile away. Hence, Asuka being her patsy.
Gispy then laid the 'ground rules' for Asuka if she wanted to get the imp out of her hair. All she had to do was get Gispy to say, spell, or otherwise reveal her name backwards, which would send her back to the 5th Dimension and keep her there for three months, Earth-time. Catching on right away, Asuka feigned confusion when asking her to clarify if she herself had to say it or if Gispy had to, which frustrated Gispy enough that she was easily goaded into saying her own name backwards (Znsltpsg) and sending her back home, much to the imp's chagrin.
Supergirl wouldn't run into Gispy again until the three months had passed, by which time the Angel War had been won and the respective conspiracies of SEELE and Gendo Ikari had been thwarted. Supergirl and a number of other superpowered women of NERV (or associated) had also formed the Justice League by then, so the next time Gispy came a-callin', she now had more fish to fry. One day, when coming back from a mission, Supergirl, Wonder Girl (Rei Ayanami), the Flash (Mari Makinami), Ms. Martian (Hikari Horaki), Green Lantern (Misato Katsuragi), Blue Beetle (Ritsuko Akagi), and Zatanna (Maya Ibuki) had arrived at the team's HQ ahead of the rest of the other members, only to find that someone had done some very...interesting redecorating of the place (which included, among other things, a wing full of various forms of portraiture depicting a certain Kensuke Aida). Immediately figuring out the culprit's identity, an annoyed Supergirl called out Gispy, who appeared cackling and holding her sides. The appearance of a 5th Dimensionite immediately drew concern from Maya, who explained to Ritsuko the notoriety of the 5th Dimension's inhabitants as powerful tricksters that shouldn't be taken lightly.
To prove her point, Gispy, on the pretense of wanting to bring back the popularity of 'funny animal characters', turned each of the seven Leaguers (with a snap of her fingers) into cartoony animal versions of themselves: Asuka became 'Supersquirrel' (with all the angry chittering that ensued), Rei became "Wonder Gerbil", Mari became "the Splash" (a seal), Hikari became the bug-sized "Ms. MartiAnt" (who immediately cried out for people to watch their step), Misato became the duck-billed "Green Loontern" ("You're dethpicable!"), Ritsuko became "Blue Beagle" ("HEY! I'm a cat person, you little--!"), and Maya became "Za-panda" ("Well, that's the end of these fishnets..."). Not quite done yet with the 'just'a lotta animals' before her, Gispy also informed them that, not wanting a repeat of her first encounter with Asuka, she'd changed the rules when it came to sending her back to the 5th Dimension: they now had to get her to say or spell her own name backwards TWICE in a row. Sarcastically wishing them luck, Gispy *poofed* out of their HQ to go cause mischief elsewhere in Tokyo-3, leaving the seven transformed heroes to figure out how they'd get out of their present situation...all without the luxury of opposable thumbs.
When pronouncing her name, Gispy enunciates as such: Guess (transforms into a riff on the classic Claudia Schiffer jeans ads)-Pit (transforms into a parody of the title character from the Kid Icarus videogames)-Les (conjures a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar into her hands)-Ness (turns into a spoof of the classic 'photo' of the Loch Ness Monster)."
Nebula
*Character basis: Ryoko Hakubi from the Tenchi Muyo franchise.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #7: Nebula
"The brutal and cunning space pirate Nebula was known as a scourge throughout the galaxy for her ruthlessness, power, and tactical expertise, allowing her to command a crew that became known and feared far and wide. Her reputation would be further bolstered after she seized control of the Sanctuary II, a massive starship previously helmed by the mad titan Thanos. At some point in her campaign across the stars, Nebula's attention would be drawn to the planet Earth after the ship's supercomputer had detected signs of the presence of beings related to the fabled First Ancestral Race, as well as their purportedly powerful Super-Solenoid technology.
The arrival of Nebula and her crew would be detected by SHIELD's sister agency SWORD (led by Abigail Brand), who called upon a recently-recruited secret operative to assess the situation: NERV scientist Hitomi Kaga, who had become the alien-powered hero Ms. Marvel. Aided by her 'mentor', the Kree soldier Mar-Vell (who had assumed the human identity of Kenzaki Kyouya, an agent of NERV's Section-2), Hitomi/Ms. Marvel infiltrated the Sanctuary II and did battle with Nebula herself, while Mar-Vell and some SWORD agents handled her crew. While a tough fight for the rookie hero, Hitomi was able to eventually best the arguably better fighter in Nebula, but instead of finishing her off as the space pirate demanded, Hitomi made her order her crew to take themselves out of Earth's corner of the universe and not return, lest they be dealt with by the full force of SWORD. Nebula reluctantly agreed, but reminded Hitomi that things would be different should she ever venture outside Earth's 'jurisdiction', beginning a long rivalry between the two.
Nebula would next encounter Hitomi/Ms. Marvel when she and the new team of superheroes she'd helped form, the Avengers, were brought to a far reach of space by a member of the Watchers to prevent Nebula from obtaining absolute power from the Infinity Union, a mysterious device owned by a cosmic being known as the Stranger. Her means of obtaining this power--releasing a vast amount of energy that would be absorbed by the Union--would threaten to end the universe, necessitating the intervention of not only the Avengers, but also two teams of intergalactic freebooters: the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Starjammers (both of whom counted Earthlings among their respective memberships). In the chaos that followed the destruction of the Infinity Union, Nebula escaped, occasionally returning to plague Earth's heroes time and again."
Nadia of Atlantis
*Character basis: the title protagonist of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #4: Nadia of Atlantis
"In the wake of Second Impact, a young girl named Nadia, born of Afro-European parents, was orphaned by the disasters that engulfed the Iberian peninsula; the only item left to her was a mysterious blue jeweled pendant. To survive, she found work as a circus acrobat specializing in stunts performed in both air and under water. Her closest friend came in the form of Jean Raltique, a French teenager working as an apprentice engineer for the circus's special effects team. For the most part, their life with the circus was fine and simple, until Nadia was approached by a trio of jewel thieves who sought her pendant, having been hired by a mysterious third party to acquire it. Nadia and Jean would go on the run from the thieves, until they were rescued by a mysterious submarine captain who'd taken the name of Nemo, after the character from the works of novelist Jules Verne. The two teenagers stayed with Nemo, who protected them from the thieves that relentlessly pursued them. Eventually, as the journey wore on, Nadia would learn that Nemo was in fact her real father, and her mother was an inhabitant of the legendary undersea kingdom of Atlantis. The thieves had been hired by the current ruler of the kingdom to retrieve her pendant as that was the proof of her status as a member of Atlantis's royal circle. It is at this point that the path of Nadia diverges into two different universes.
1. In one universe, the pendant marked Nadia as being descended from a long line of Atlantean mages going back to the days of the legendary Arion, lord of Atlantis. The pendant had been passed down through her family line until it, along with the infant Nadia, were sent into hiding by the half-human Orin Marius, the current king of Atlantis, who along with his most loyal followers were thrust into exile after his half-brother Orm overthrew him in a coup. Nemo had been instructed to bring Nadia to Orin and his rebels when she came of age to help in the fight to reclaim the throne of Atlantis. For months, Orin, his wife Mera, and their chief advisor Vulko, among other retainers, trained Nadia in the use of her natural-born abilities as well as Atlantean combat magic. Nadia eventually became adept with a set of 'water-bearers', which allowed her to manipulate the water around her into various types of weaponry; she also was trained in the art of telepathic communication with sea life. Her experience of living among her ancestral people helped Nadia further overcome her social ineptitude and irritability; it also helped that she and Jean fell in love during the course of these developments. Once she was ready, she joined Orin's faction in bringing Orm's dictatorial rule (along with his plans for invading the surface world) to an end. Nadia was then given the position of a retainer to the reinstated King Orin (as well as occasional babysitter to his and Mera's two children, Artur and Marina).
Nadia would not encounter other surface-dwellers until 2016, a year after the end of humankind's battle with strange, otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels' by the U.N. special agency NERV, and the prevention of a sinister genocidal plot by the organization SEELE, both by NERV's biomechanical Evangelions and a recently-emerged group of superhuman women and girls. A new, monstrous entity calling itself the Center had emerged and sought to raze humanity to the ground, and the superwomen had banded together to figure out a means of stopping it. One of their number, Supergirl (former Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu) had volunteered to scout out the Center (which took the form of a giant, sentient island that could grow dinosaur-like minions), only to be knocked out by the force of its main beam weapon and sent falling into the ocean below. When the others thought she was lost, she resurfaced moments later in the arms of Nadia, who earlier had been assigned with a small platoon by Orin to track the progress of the Center. Joining forces with the other superwomen, Nadia led both her platoon and an army of larger sea creatures as they battled the Center's forces, while another of the superwomen, the Flash (another former EVA pilot in Mari "Illustrious" Makinami), was dropped off on the Center itself. She proceeded to run the entirety of the Center's mass with a white dwarf star projector on her back, emitting a ray that, once shone on every inch of the entity, would cause the Center to shrink and ultimately explode (but not before Green Lantern (former NERV tactical director Misato Katsuragi) used her ring to slingshot the rapidly-shrinking mass into outer space, where the explosion wouldn't harm anything).
Hailed as heroes by the press who assembled at the scene of their victory, Nadia (given the nickname "Aquagirl") wound up becoming a founding member of the new team the superwomen formally dubbed the Justice League, also acting as their liaison to Atlantis (just as her fellow member Wonder Girl (former EVA pilot Rei Ayanami) did the same for the Amazons). Her membership and the camaraderie she shared with her fellow League members would pave the way for the admittance of both Atlantis and the Amazons' island home of Themyscria as members of the United Nations.
2. In a different universe, the pendant marked Nadia as a member of Atlantis's royal family itself, chiefly her being descended from the Atlantean princess Fen; specifically, she is a cousin of Fen's son, the current prince Namor, as well as Namor's cousin Namora, both of whom were also half-human. By the time she first met the two, they had been forcefully exiled from the kingdom by the barbarian warlord Attuma and their traitorous ex-advisors Byrrah and Krang, all three of whom were being manipulated by the mysterious Ghaur (a member of an ancient humanoid race called the Deviants). Namor and Namora trained Nadia in the Atlantean fighting arts; she also adopted a bit of their mild disdain towards the surface world due to humanity's years of mistreatment of the oceans, though she made few exceptions, as with the case of Jean. Eventually given a unique golden trident by Namor, Nadia joined their faction in ousting Attuma and his minions, as well as uncovering Ghaur's role in the coup. Nadia was formally inducted as a soldier in the Atlantean army, rising to become one of its youngest platoon leaders. (Jean, after being adopted by oceanographers Walter and Diane Newell, would assist Nadia against various seafaring criminals using a specially-made dive suit under the moniker Stingray.)
Like her counterpart in the other universe, Nadia would first become known to others on the surface in 2016, a year after the end of humankind's battle with strange, otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels' by the U.N. special agency NERV, and the prevention of a sinister genocidal plot by the organization SEELE, both by NERV's biomechanical Evangelions and a recently-emerged group of superhuman women and girls. These superwomen had assembled for the first time since the Final Battle of Tokyo-3 when they were alerted to the coming of Galactus, the world-devourer, and his four heralds, each of which corresponded to the four classical elements. A contingent of these superwomen and their allies had engaged one of the heralds, Stardust, over the Indian Ocean as they sought to destroy one of the components for Galactus's converter. When Stardust was about to unleash a torrent upon the Wasp (former NERV tech Kaede Agano), the young woman heard a battlecry of "IMPERIOUS REX!" as she then saw Nadia tackle Stardust into one side of the component. Nadia finished off Stardust after overloading the herald with mystic energy from her trident. It was then Nadia introduced herself to the Wasp and her fellow superwomen, accompanying them back to Tokyo-3 when they all took the fight to Galactus himself. After eventually driving Galactus off-planet, the assembled superwomen--who decided to form a team called the Avengers--offered Nadia membership in their ranks as thanks for her assistance. Nadia declined full-time membership due to her wariness of the surface, accepting a part-time status for the time being, though she continued to aid them when asked. Eventually, she would accept full membership after she and Jean worked with some of their number to form Oracle, Inc., a joint human-Atlantean nonprofit research concern dedicated to undoing the ecological damage to the oceans wrought by Second Impact."
Power Girl II
*Character basis: Asuka Langley Shikinami from the Rebuild of Evangelion films. Original art by OrionPax09.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #5: Power Girl II
"In the days that followed the Final Battle of Tokyo-3, work began on decommissioning NERV facilities all over the world. While assisting in the efforts at the central facility in Tokyo-3, Kyoko Zeppelin Sohryu (aka Strange Visitor) and Ritsuko Akagi (aka Blue Beetle) were summoned to the Third Branch in Berlin, Germany after a discovery was made by the decommissioning team there. Upon arriving there the following day, the two scientists (along with Kyoko's daughter Asuka (aka Supergirl)) were presented with the find in question: a fully-formed clone of Asuka, though with subtle differences, such as strawberry blonde-colored hair in contrast to Asuka's fully-red. Data from the computers within the secret lab the clone was found in revealed that the clone was the only successful one created after a number of failures, all as part of Project: Shikinami, a top secret initiative begun when intelligence on the Ayanami series had been leaked to one of the more unscrupulous scientists at the Third Branch.
Kyoko and Asuka were given custody of the clone, found to be alive but with an unstable genetic makeup that threatened to dissolve her upon removal from her LCL-filled capsule. A solution to the dilemma was found when Ritsuko discovered the clone needed a blood transfusion from the original, and based on her reevaluation of Rei Ayanami (aka Wonder Girl) after learning of her origins, Asuka willingly volunteered for the transfusion, which was then carried out successfully.
The clone awakened the next morning in the medical ward of NERV-Central, with Kyoko and Asuka at her bedside. Thanks to the memory implants she'd been given, the clone expressed stark confusion over seeing her mirror image, until both Sohryus explained everything to her. Shocked by a number of revelations, the clone began rambling on what this meant for her purpose in life, unintentionally floating four feet above her covers as she did to the surprise of both Kyoko and Asuka; it wasn't even a minute until the clone herself realized what she was doing, shocking her even further.
A week later, Kyoko and Asuka took the clone with them for a 'vacation' in the countryside to help her adjust to her new powers, as well as get her better acclimated into their family while also learning more about her and Asuka's Kryptonian ancestry. By the time they returned to Tokyo-3, they had settled on a cover story of the girl being Asuka's cousin (even if they were more like sisters), with the clone taking the name 'Karin Shikinami'; Asuka mused that she probably took it from their favorite Street Fighter character of the same name.
Inspired by the newfound purpose her 'sister' took to as she grew into a hero, Karin decided to join Asuka on the crimefighting scene. Asuka immediately came up with a costumed identity for Karin by handing her the previous one she used when she started out: Power Girl. (In her own words, who says Supergirl and Power Girl can't exist side-by-side?) Encouraged to make the role her own, Karin took it with pride.
At one point, both Asuka and Karin were given sets of glamour charm earrings made by Maya Ibuki (aka Zatanna), which when rubbed with their fingers would magically change their hair and eye colors to further disguise them (which also saved them the further trouble of continuing to don blonde wigs any time they went out on patrol).
Later on, Karin would venture west for her college career, majoring in computer sciences. While studying in New York, she began dating a fellow student, journalism major Andrew 'Andy' Vinson, and ended up joining the reorganized Justice Society of America, acting as a sort of 'liaison' between them and her sister's team, the Justice League."
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Abominatrix
*Character basis: inspired by the Earth-616 Abomination (and similar characters), and Spider-Man characters Ben Reilly and Kaine.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #8: Abominatrix
"In the aftermath of the ill-fated demonstration of the giant robot known as Jet Alone, the robot's parent company Japan Heavy Chemical Industries was beset with scandal and ended up going bankrupt. The incident sowed the seeds for the eventual emergence of the gamma-powered superwoman dubbed She-Hulk (secretly NERV tactical operations director Misato Katsuragi), but in truth, she wasn't the only gamma mutate to emerge from the Jet Alone fallout. While surveying the decommissioning operation of Jet Alone--specifically, the supposed safe removal of the gamma material from the robot's core--Shiro Tokita, the head of development for the project, was accidentally sprayed with the gamma-irradiated liquid waste when a barrel containing the material unexpectedly burst open. Showing no ill effects at first, over the next few days Tokita suddenly found himself growing smarter than before, while his skin turned green and his cranium became enlarged. Using his newfound genius, Tokita built a specialized antigravity harness to keep himself balanced. In addition to his intellect, his ego and bitterness over Jet Alone's failure grew, culminating in Tokita 'disappearing' from regular society for a time, as he sought to fine-tune his plans and ambitions.
Eventually, following the end of the Angel War, and with it the emergence of the superwomen of Tokyo-3 who united as the Avengers, Tokita reappeared, now going by the moniker of "the Leader". He announced his plans to get revenge on NERV--especially its lead scientist Ritsuko Akagi (secretly the hero Spider-Woman), after figuring out her part in the sabotage of Jet Alone. The Leader led an army of specially-built combat droids and gamma-mutated thugs into the Geofront (still in the process of being decommissioned), only to come face-to-face with a group of Avengers who were already on the scene. The Leader, anticipating She-Hulk being among their number, revealed how much he'd come prepared when he unleashed his top 'lieutenant' among the gamma mutates, who leaped to the front of the army to the surprise of the Avengers. It was She-Hulk and Spider-Woman who grew especially shocked at the sight of said lieutenant, with good reason.
In the background of the Angel War, the Leader used means both electronic and human to funnel certain secrets from NERV's laboratories to his own hidden base within a mountain on the outskirts of Tokyo-3. Among these secrets were the data comprising Ritsuko's abandoned 'Project: Titania', which included research on Misato's gamma-based transformation and altered genetics. With the aid of a renegade American geneticist named Miles Warren, the Leader combined certain elements of this research with a clone created from Ritsuko's (pre-mutated spider bite) DNA; an intentional touch of irony on his part, given his rivalry with Ritsuko going back to their college days. The result was a gamma-powered superwoman who, as Ghost Rider (Asuka Langley Sohryu) put it, looked like the love-child of Ritsuko and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. The Leader, however, dubbed his creation "Abominatrix".
Unlike Ritsuko, Abominatrix may have the same intellect, but exhibits more of the scientist's oft-ignored 'wild side', reveling in the power and strength at her command, something She-Hulk found out the hard way when the two duked it out on one of the Geofront's lawns, while the rest of the Avengers battled with the rest of the Leader's forces. The tide of the battle was eventually turned when the remainder of the Avengers joined their teammates in beating the Leader and his army back, while She-Hulk and Spider-Woman double-teamed Abominatrix, forcing her into a retreat with her creator. The two groups would clash on a number of occasions since then, whenever the Avengers would be apprised of a new plot by the Leader.
In-between battles, the gamma-powered Tokita himself usually took his frustrations out on Abominatrix, both verbally and physically; due to the submissive subliminal programming blended in with her implanted memories, Abominatrix, for all her abilities, never fought back. Eventually, a clash with the Avengers would finally see the Leader apprehended by SHIELD, while Abominatrix went into hiding. She was eventually found by someone even worse than the Leader that she wound up serving next: Alkhema, a super-powerful gynoid whose mind was based on the brain engrams of the late Naoko Akagi, Ritsuko's own mother. Alkhema was able to sway Abominatrix to her side by claiming to be Naoko 'reincarnated' as an android, appealing to the part of Abominatrix's mind that wished to have had a better relationship with her mother before her untimely demise. Alkhema utilized Abominatrix well, though behaved just as coldly towards her erstwhile 'daughter' as she did towards the real Ritsuko, with her particularly abusive actions resulting in two significant scars on Abominatrix's face.
Eventually, things would come to a head when Alkhema and Abominatrix next clashed with the Avengers. Up till then, throughout every battle involving Abominatrix especially, Ritsuko/Spider-Woman would try and reason with her erstwhile 'sister', trying to get her out from under the thumb of whoever she took orders from. Though she didn't know it, her in-battle arguments had planted a few seeds of doubt in Abominatrix's mind, much in the same way Ritsuko herself developed them while working under Gendo Ikari. When Abominatrix became caught in-between the warring voices of Ritsuko and Alkhema (with the former actually winning and the latter being especially crueller), it became too much for her to bear, causing her to turn on her master and tear Alkhema apart in a great rage. (Alkhema, no doubt, was prepared for such an outcome, already downloading herself into her latest body.) Her rage soon gave way to pained sobs as Abominatrix fell to her knees, leading to Ritsuko embracing her as she helped comfort her gamma-powered twin. Realizing the wrongness of her past actions, Abominatrix willingly surrendered herself into SHIELD custody, with Ritsuko vowing to visit her and get to know her better, to treat her like the sister she could be.
During her incarceration, the penitent Abominatrix reacquainted herself with her scientific side, becoming a frequent borrower of the library at the SHIELD holding facility she resided in. In starting to redefine herself as her own person, she adopted the name 'Ririko Akagi'. Ritsuko kept her word and visited her whenever possible, thanks to her fellow Avenger Mari Makinami/Captain America and her SHIELD clearance; occasionally, Misato would accompany her, as would their mutual friend (and Misato's fiancée as well as newly-minted SHIELD agent) Ryoji Kaji, and sometimes Ritsuko would be joined by her girlfriend (and fellow Avenger as well as former assistant) Maya Ibuki/Ms. Fantastic. In addition, Ririko would undergo therapy sessions with gamma-mutated psychiatrist Dr. Leonard Samson (who previously helped Misato gain control over her own gamma-powered self), both to rebuild her scarred psyche as well as undo the subliminal programming incorporated into her memory implants. (Eventually, the two would fall in love.) Ririko, with his help, would even develop the ability to turn into a more human form at will; while still Ritsuko's twin in spite of the scars, the major difference between them was Ririko retaining her natural brown hair color (something Ritsuko remarked at).
At one point, SHIELD initiated 'Operation: Justice, Like Lightning', which would set up a specialized task force made up of incarcerated powered individuals to handle top secret missions against the gravest threats to the world. As a means to both reduce her sentence and further atone for her mistakes, Ririko/Abominatrix was the first to volunteer for this new team, codenamed: the Thunderbolts."
Nastalthia "Nasty" Luthor
*Character basis: B-ko from the Project: A-ko franchise.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #9: Nasthalthia "Nasty" Luthor
"The years that followed Second Impact proved to be fruitful ones for the American business conglomerate known as LexCorp, as they ensured they had a finger in every pie when it came to the global environment of the time, be it supplying weapons to the warring factions that littered the developing countries to aiding relief efforts in those same hotspots. In the more developed parts of the world, they proved to be one of the few 'kingdoms' of big business and technology that the secret organization SEELE couldn't sink their claws into, as the head of LexCorp, Alexander "Lex" Luthor, was wary enough to steer clear of whatever Lorenz Kihl and co. were trying to sell, figuring that SEELE's endgame wouldn't come to pass. He was proven right when SEELE's goal of a controlled Third Impact was thwarted by a number of superhuman women and girls who emerged in Tokyo-3 in 2015 during the battle against the otherworldly monstrosities codenamed 'Angels', often assisting the U.N.-backed special agency NERV in their efforts. The exposure of SEELE's conspiracy only further amused Luthor, who all-but-gleefully supplied the U.N. investigators with a recording of Kihl making his 'pitch' to him.
With the threat of SEELE gone, Luthor turned his thoughts towards the superwomen themselves, feeling that their presence threatened the balance of power when it came to 'mere mortals', especially once they banded together as the Justice League. It was a sentiment that was shared by his niece, Nasthalthia Luthor, nicknamed 'Nasty' by her classmates at the private school she attended, Stanhope Academy for Girls. Much like her uncle, Nasthalthia was conniving, manipulative, and doggedly persistent, with an intellect that nearly rivaled Lex's own. One particular superwoman she showed the most disdain for was Supergirl (secretly former NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley-Sohryu), and made it her personal goal of exposing the real identity of the girl of steel, while also showing her that humankind wouldn't be intimidated by a teenager with near-godlike powers.
To that end, with her uncle's backing, she moved herself to Tokyo-3 and transferred into the local high school; she was joined by her powerfully-built chauffer/bodyguard Maria, and her three 'assistants', Yume, Aja, and Tina, the latter three accompanying her as new students as well. This high school, as it turned out, was where the former Evangelion pilots and their friends had started attending, and it was here that Nasthalthia found herself beginning a bit of a bristling rivalry with Asuka. (Asuka's fellow former EVA pilot, Mari "Illustrious" Makinami, secretly the Flash, jokingly declared (in a riff on a classic Western movie cliché) that this town wouldn't be big enough for two genius redheads.)
To get the attention of Supergirl, Nasthalthia secretly paid off Daisuke Daitokuji, an ex-technologist for the Japan branch of S.T.A.R. Labs, to go on a crime spree in downtown Tokyo-3 using the tech he had secretly pilfered from his former employer. He did just that under the costumed guise of the molecular-disrupting criminal Loophole, and soon enough got the encounter with Supergirl he'd been paid to set up. From a covert location, Nasthalthia and her cronies studied the fight, and soon she put the finishing touches on her trump card against Supergirl.
The following day, while on patrol, Supergirl was ambushed by an unknown assailant in an unusual set of power armor; she was unaware that it was Nasthalthia herself in the armor, a streamlined version of the prototype 'Lexoskel' suit being developed by LexCorp. Her version of the armor put her on roughly equal footing with Supergirl, who tried to keep their battle from causing too much damage to the city. When it appeared that Supergirl was managing to get the upper hand, Nasthalthia unleashed her armor's 'Nasty surprise' when the chestplate opened, revealing a Kryptonite crystal within. Suddenly greatly weakened by exposure to the element, Supergirl soon found herself on the receiving end of Nasthathia's blows. Nasthalthia nearly unmasked her, only to be knocked to the side thanks to the sudden arrival of Supergirl's fellow Justice Leaguer, Steel (secretly engineering wunderkind Mana Kirishima, ironically also a redhead). A swing of her hammer managed to shatter the crystal, which she then followed up by using another of her armor's features to vaporize the shards, allowing Supergirl to recover. Knowing that she'd be cornered if she kept going, Nasthalthia used a powerful flashbang generator in her armor's left gauntlet on her opponents; while they were temporarily blinded, she fled the scene, vowing that her quest wouldn't be over anytime soon."
Arcade
"Although dressed like, speaking like, and overall presenting himself as if he were the funniest carnival barker around, the man known by the alias Arcade is one of the deadliest freelance assassins in the world. Though dubious and unconfirmed, according to the man himself, he was born into an obscenely wealthy American household, living a very, very cushy life. When he was either 18 or 21 years old, his father cut off his allowance, declaring that his son didn't deserve any penny of it. In retaliation, the future Arcade murdered his father and inherited the man's entire vast estate. He used this wealth to fund his burgeoning career as a hired killer, though he grew bored with the rather mundane ways he killed his targets even if each job netted him more money. After discovering an aptitude for both mechanical engineering and carnival theatrics, Arcade changed up his methodology when he constructed his first Murderworld, an elaborate deathtrap disguised as an amusement park. Recruiting two assistants codenamed Ms. Locke and Mr. Chambers, he remerged on the underworld scene as the most expensive hitman around the globe. For the mere price tag of $1 million, he'd tweak Murderworld to focus on the specific weaknesses of his targets and then watch as they were killed off by a variety of colorful deathtraps strewn throughout the facility; however, because he's a self-described 'sporting' fellow, he always deliberately leaves his targets with a small chance for them to escape.
Arcade has counted a number of unscrupulous people as clients over the years, with one group calling upon his services often being the clandestine organization SEELE, the secret backers of NERV, the U.N. special agency tasked with defending mankind from the otherworldly threats codenamed 'Angels'. When a number of superpowered individuals began to emerge in Tokyo-3 (the location of NERV's central branch) and 'assist' NERV in its anti-Angel efforts, SEELE, wanting to prevent any disruptions to their scenario, hired Arcade to set up shop in the city and take out as many of these 'superwomen' as he could. His plan for doing so involved using the public's newfound fascination with 'escape rooms'; to that end, Arcade and his assistants set up an elaborate marketing and advertising campaign for one such new escape room opening in Tokyo-3. Equipped with specialized tech that let them detect any possible 'anomalies' in the genetics of the room's customers, Arcade lured four of them further into the facility with special bonus prizes. The ruse worked, and the participants soon found themselves trapped in the Murderworld built underneath the front that had been set up at street-level. The quartet soon changed into their costumed alter-egos, revealed to be Captain America (secretly NERV Evangelion pilot Mari "Illustrious" Makinami), Spider-Woman (secretly NERV head scientist Ritsuko Akagi), Spirit (secretly Hikari Horaki, classmate and friend to the Evangelion pilots), and Storm (Mayumi Yamagishi, another classmate of the pilots). Each was then challenged by Arcade to not only escape his Murderworld alive, but also to rescue four other hostages held in hidden areas of the facility, all under a close time limit. In spite of the odds, each superwoman was able to rescue each hostage after they managed to meet up with one another and team up to increase their odds, much to Arcade's chagrin. Before they could go to confront Arcade himself, he and his assistants made their getaway in an escape vehicle they'd prepared for such a possibility.
Since the thwarting of SEELE's plans and the end of the Angel War, Arcade has still continued to be in-demand as an assassin, though he's become more scrutinizing if the job involves anyone with superpowers..."
Enchantress and Nightmaster
*Character basis: Lina Inverse and Gourry Gabriev from the Slayers franchise.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #6: Enchantress and Nightmaster
When they reached the center of the room, a crystal ball began glowing with the image of a magical being calling itself Dzamor, who warned the two of an evil presence within the castle--which was revealed to be an 'anchor' between Earth and the mysterious dimension known as Myrra--that would threaten to harm their friends. Dzamor then pointed June towards a means of defeating the entity: a quintet of matching gems, each embedded in, respectively, a brooch, two bracelets, and two belt buckles. On donning these, June was further instructed by Dzamor to say one word, that being the name of the previous owner of the accoutrements, whose spirit was bound to them; on joining with said spirit, June could access the great magical power contained, enough to fight off the entity. Hesitant at first, a sentiment echoed by Jim, June's wish to protect their friends won out and she uttered the name: "Enchantress". Once said, the spirit of the sorceress in question merged herself with June, garbing her in a new, cloaked outfit and changing her appearance from blue-eyed blonde to green-eyed and black-haired; the Enchantress's selfish, short-tempered, and gluttonous personality (with her great 'love' of money, treasure, and food included) also took over, further worrying Jim. Anticipating this, Dzamor then directed Jim to a weapon hanging on the wall behind the crystal ball: the Sword of Night, wielded by the mighty Myrran warrior Nacht, revealed to be Jim's distant ancestor. Taking the sword (with its ability to warn of danger and force a person to speak the truth) in his hands, Jim was soon clad in the armor of his ancestor, known by the moniker of the "Nightmaster". Dzamor informed Jim that in this way, he would be able to serve as a deterrent to the Enchantress's more darker impulses. Now armed and empowered, the two left the chamber just as the evil entity they were warned about attacked the other party guests. Between Jim's swordplay and June's magical attacks, the creature was defeated and sent back to Myrra; Enchantress then used a spell to wipe the memory of the party guests, making them forget the creature was ever there.
On returning to the chamber while the other guests started cleaning up the party, Jim and June (who had depowered following the memory spell's usage) were given a last word of information from Dzamor, who told them that this wouldn't be the first incursion from Myrra into their world, meaning they would have to wage a secret war against the forces of the evil warlocks from that dimension: Shabranigdo, Gaav, and Phibrizzo. He then mentioned that should they ever need advice and training with their newfound powers and skills, that they should visit the magic user Xellos, who as it turned out lives in this world; Dzamor then left them with a small 'tracker' gem to help them find Xellos. The two, a day later, used the gem to seek out Xellos; to their surprise, he turned out to be the owner and proprietor of a seemingly run-down bookstore in their college town called Oblivion, Inc. On seeing the gem, as well as the jewels June wore and the aura of the Sword of Night (which Jim was carrying in his electric guitar's case), Xellos agreed to help them in their efforts to keep the town (and the world) safe from the warlocks of Myrra (as well as from Enchantress's mean streak).
June and Jim would first encounter the superwomen of Tokyo-3 when an amateur would-be mage accidentally summons the demon beast Zannafar to Japan. Casting a portal spell, Enchantress and Nightmaster were transported to the land of the rising sun, and in the midst of their search for the demon beast crossed the paths of both the magician Zatanna (secretly NERV tech Maya Ibuki) and Wonder Girl (secretly NERV Evangelion pilot Rei Ayanami), who helped them take down Zannafar. While aiding in the search, Zatanna was a bit apprehensive, knowing of the reputation of the Enchantress thanks to gossip passed around the magical community; working with her and Nightmaster helped dissipate some of, but not all, of her wariness. Since then, Zatanna and Wonder Girl (both of whom would help found the team of superheroes known as the Justice League) have vouched for the pair whenever they needed additional help against powerful supernatural threats to the world. Partly-inspired by the League, Enchantress and Nightmaster joined forces with a few other magic-users to form a League-adjacent team specializing in the mystical and supernatural: the Shadowpact."
Lady Suzaku and Iron Fist
*Character basis: Miaka and Yui from the Fushigi Yuugi franchise.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #7: Lady Suzaku and Iron Fist
"While Tokyo-3 proved to be the epicenter of humanity's conflict with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels', as well as the growing presence of superpowered individuals, its sibling city Tokyo-2 was not without its own strange phenomenon. Such an example came on the day that two late-year junior high school students, outgoing and optimistic Miaka Yuuki and her more intelligent and mature best friend Yui Hongo, visited the National Library in order to prepare for the entrance exams of the highly competitive high school Jonan Academy. While there, the two girls follow strange visions of a phoenix-like bird and a dragon into a special collections room of the library, where they come upon an ancient, mysterious-looking book called The Universe of the Four Gods; unknown to them, this book was actually a disguised form of the legendary magical tome known as the Book of the Vishanti. On opening the book and beginning to read a passage from it, the magic within the book suddenly causes the two of them to vanish in a flash of light, unseen by anyone within the building. From there, the two girls were transported to two different realms, both hidden in pocket dimensions within the Himalayan mountain range.
Miaka wound up on the doorstep to the magical sanctuary known as Kamar-Taj, a place for those studying to master the mystic arts. Deemed an intruder by the guards, Miaka was brought before the master of the sanctuary, Taiitsukun the Ancient One, to plead her case. Determining that her presence here was brought about by mistake, Taiitsukun offers to train Miaka in the magical arts to help her not only get herself home and find Yui (as without the Book, she is unable to do so), but also help defend herself against those who would threaten the sanctity of Kamar-Taj; she also sensed great mystical potential within the girl, in spite of her particular quirks (be they her anime fandom or her appetite). For the seeming months that followed, Miaka proved to be an adept pupil (in contrast to her average level in normal academics) as she studied alongside others, such as the vain but responsible Hotohori; the soft-spoken gentle giant of a healer, Mitsukake; and the child prodigy Chiriko. Miaka ends up performing quite a feat of heroism when she discovered another of Taiitsukun's disciples, the sadistic so-called Baron Tomo, attempting to kill the Ancient One and usurp both her power and that of the other students. Though still a novice, Miaka used what she'd learned so far to confront Tomo while sending out a warning to Taiitsukun and the other students. Coming to her aid, the others helped restrain Tomo before Taiitsukun banished him to another plane as punishment. For her bravery and selflessness, Taiitsukun personally took over the rest of Miaka's tutelage, helping the girl become quite an adept sorceress who could even utilize the legendary artifact known as the Eye of Agamotto; she also gifted Miaka a near-sentient Cloak of Levitation. For the final spell she would teach her, Taiitsukun worked with Miaka to locate the whereabouts of Yui. It wouldn't be long before Miaka learned of Yui's fate...
Yui, as it turned out, had been transported to the gates of the hidden city of K'un-Lun, home to a society of powerful and skilled martial artists that appears on the Earthly plane periodically. Yui was nearly prey for a pack of vicious mountain wolves, only to be saved by archers from the city's guard. Yui was then brought before Yu-Ti, the hooded ruler of K'un-Lun, where he listened as she explained her circumstances and her desire to find Miaka and return home. Yu-Ti informs her that without the Book, both tasks will be difficult, but he offers that while she is here, she learn martial arts as a means of defending herself against threats greater than a pack of wolves; he did so after sensing within her a personality based around conflicts and contrasts, being a girl who, while intelligent, mature, smart, and sensible, has a faith in people that is easily shaken. Therefore, learning K'un-Lun's martial arts would be a way to help her overcome the dueling sides to her personality. Accepting his offer, Yui, in the same amount of time Miaka learned magic, trained alongside others under not only Yu-Ti, but the likes of Lei-Kung the Thunderer. Her fellow pupils included the level-headed cross-dressing melee fighter Nuriko (real name Ryuuen Chou); the bladed fan-wielding, quick and agile former bandit Tasuki; and the wise, yet light-hearted monk Chichiri. Another pupil was the merciless and charismatic Nakago, the adoptive son of Lei-Kung, who bristled at Yui's presence due to her status as an outsider, and would be exiled from K'un-Lun for his failure at the city's greatest challenge. Yui proved to be the most gifted student of Lei-Kung's, to the point where she is offered by Lei-Kung and Yu-Ti the opportunity to obtain the power of K'un-Lun's immortal weapon: the Iron Fist. To do so, she would have to first defeat the ancient dragon Seiryuu the Undying, guardian of the frozen heart that had been torn from his body. Correctly guessing that the heart provided Seiryuu with life-energy funneled into the dragon-shaped scar on his belly, Yui, on challenging the beast, leaps onto said belly and covers the scar, clutching at it and holding on for dear life until Seiryuu collapses and dies; this also imprints a similar dragon-shaped scar above Yui's own chest in the process. With Seiryuu dead, Yui enters his cave, locates the altar bearing a brazier holding the frozen heart, and plunges her fists into it, emerging from the cave now with the power (and title) of the Iron Fist.
When she returned to K'un-Lun, greeted with cheers and congratulations from her fellow students and masters, a portal soon opened in the middle of the city, with Miaka and Taiitsukun emerging from it, having succeeded in finding Yui. While catching up, it was revealed to the girls that Taiitsukun and Yu-Ti were old friends. After all pleasantries were exchanged, Miaka and Taiitsukun cast a new portal spell, one that enabled her and Yui to return to their own home (though, for Miaka, not without being given a number of texts and tomes from Taiitsukun, to encourage better study habits), while being given means for them to keep in communication with their respective new sets of friends. Both their respective mentors also informed them that, equipped as they are now with their newfound knowledge and skills, they were responsible for defending their plane of existence from all kinds of terrors and threats, be they from ancient times or beyond.
When Miaka and Yui did return (the former adopting the alias Lady Suzaku, after the vermillion bird of legend, for her magical alter-ego), they discovered that time flowed differently in the realms they'd been in, as in their world, only several hours had passed. Realizing they still had to study for the entrance exams for Jonan Academy, Miaka and Yui crammed fervently until the day of the exams came; both passed, though in Miaka's case, with flying colors. After starting at Jonan the following year, the two found themselves confronting a number of mystic and martial foes in their hometown, from the religious zealot known as the Silver Dagger and the vengeful Baron Tomo to the sinister Master Khan and the exiled Nakago, who'd become a freelance assassin known as the Steel Serpent.
The girls would first encounter the superwomen of Tokyo-3 a year after the battle against the Angels (and the secret cabal known as SEELE) had finally been won, when Tokyo-3 was invaded by a horde of Mindless Ones, extradimensional monsters that act as the foot soldiers of the dreaded demon sorcerer Dormammu. Miaka, as Lady Suzaku, and Yui, as Iron Fist, assisted the superwomen (who'd banded together as a team known as the Avengers) in dispatching the Mindless Ones and sending them back to the Dark Dimension; the two became great allies to the team as a result. During an incident where the time-traveling despot known as Kang the Conqueror temporarily trapped the Avengers in a temporal void, Lady Suzaku and Iron Fist were two of a number of superpowered allies of the team brought together via their 'New Avengers' protocols to defeat Kang and bring the team out of the void. Miaka and Yui, along with the others, were then given reserve Avenger status by the team's leaders for their efforts.
The girls' respective boyfriends would also get in on the superhero action as well. Taka Sukuname (Miaka's beau) used a family heirloom to become the latest in a long line of warriors known as the White Tiger. Meanwhile, Tetsuya Kajiwara (Yui's beau and a friend of Miaka's older brother Keisuke), blinded since childhood but possessing an uncanny 'radar-sense' and great fighting skill, donned the garb and moniker of the 'man without fear': Daredevil. The four of them would subsequently form an Avengers-adjacent team dealing with more esoteric threats called the Defenders, with one of their toughest battles being against a deadly, mystically-enhanced clan of ninjas called the Hand."
Giganta
"The ancient sorceress known as Circe, in the years following Second Impact, mostly kept to herself on her island home, which she managed to protect from the meteorological chaos that engulfed the world. Even so, she kept up with current events thanks to her scrying crystal and her occasional incognito ventures out into the world. Her curiosity was piqued when she learned of the Gods of Olympus choosing a new champion, trained by the Amazons to save the world from an even greater disaster than Second Impact. Her intrigue increased after seeing just who the champion was, revealed to be Rei Ayanami, a genetically-engineered girl who also was pilot for Evangelion Unit-00, one of the superweapons utilized by the U.N. special agency NERV to fight back against the otherworldly menaces codenamed 'Angels'. Circe continued to watch with interest as the Wonder Girl (Rei's new alter-ego, bestowed upon her by the Amazons and the goddesses Athena and Aphrodite) squared off against foes such as the Dark Centurion (the demigod son of Hades, ruler of the Underworld) and the Cheetah (a former archaeologist transformed into an animalistic hybrid by an ancient ritual), opening the door to Tokyo-3 being visited by beings and creatures most would say were straight out of myth.
The Cheetah, in particular, interested Circe because of her managing to acquire a vial containing a sample of a potion she herself had devised nearly a millennia ago. Cheetah, under Dark Centurion's direction, used the potion on an unsuspecting girl--Rei's classmate Hikari Horaki (well before she would become the alien-powered heroine Ms. Martian). Hikari, as a result, grew into a building-sized, near-mindless brute who was sent after Wonder Girl, only for her and fellow hero Power Girl (secretly Rei's fellow EVA pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu) to stop the transformed Hikari's rampage and restore her to normal. It was then Circe knew that she would have to bring the Cheetah to her side as soon as an opportunity presented itself. That opportunity came when Leiliel the 12th Angel struck, nearly swallowing the city of Tokyo-3 and Evangelion Unit-01 whole. Rei was unexpectedly forced to battle the Cheetah as Leiliel attacked, and was unfortunately too late to save the woman after she found herself falling towards the 12th Angel's 'maw'.
Circe, at the last possible minute, used her magic to open a portal above the Angel and pull the Cheetah from an unknown fate, depositing her into the sorceress's room. Circe then declared that the Cheetah would now serve her as repayment for saving her life, pointing out the cat-woman's resourcefulness and cunning as coming in very handy for her future plans. For the time being, she would let the Cheetah rest and recover, and join her in observing the further events of the war with the Angels.
Eventually, following the defeat of the Angels and the thwarting of the SEELE conspiracy, Circe decided to put her plan of 'testing' the now battle-hardened Wonder Girl into action. With Cheetah as her agent, Circe began recruiting a number of female super-criminals into a team she would dub "Villainy, Inc.". In addition to Cheetah herself, these recruits included the renegade biological warfare specialist Dr. Poison; the former stage magician-turned-mental manipulator Hypnota; the cybernetically-enhanced flier Silver Swan; and the exiled Atlantean noblewoman Queen Clea. In searching for the sixth and final member of the group (who would act as their 'muscle'), Circe gave Cheetah another vial of the same potion she used on Hikari Horaki and sent her to Japan to find their 'willing volunteer'.
Said 'volunteer' would be a medical researcher named Dr. Douru Zoda, who had been helping to find a cure for certain blood diseases. Taking the unsuspecting doctor by surprise, Cheetah abducted her and forcefully applied the potion. Soon, Villainy, Inc. had its sixth member in the transformed and brainwashed Dr. Zoda, who Circe gave the name "Giganta". Circe then sent Villainy, Inc. out to wreak havoc on Tokyo-3, drawing the attention of Wonder Girl, who grew surprised by the reappearance of the Cheetah. At first being outnumbered and cornered by the group, Wonder Girl soon fought back with renewed vigor thanks to the arrival of some of her fellow members of the team of superheroes she helped found, the Justice League. While Wonder Girl took care of her 'unfinished business' with the Cheetah, Ms. Martian got into a battle of wills with Hypnota, Supergirl (Asuka after going through a name and costume change) got into a dogfight with Silver Swan, Blue Beetle (Ritsuko Akagi) took on Dr. Poison, and Zatanna (Maya Ibuki) traded magical blows with Queen Clea, leaving Green Lantern (Misato Katsuragi) and the Flash (Mari Makinami) to deal with Giganta. Green Lantern and Flash were able to use Giganta's slow-wittedness and enormous size to their advantage, eventually tripping her and knocking her out as she struggled to hit them, causing her to return to her normal size.
Circe, seeing the outcome of the battle, used her magic to whisk away all of Villainy, Inc. but Giganta, who was held back due to a spell from Zatanna after she'd sensed the sorceress's magic at play. (Circe then vowed to face Wonder Girl herself at a later date...) Hikari, upon reading the unconscious Giganta's mind, found out about her true identity and got the others to help Dr. Zoda out. On recovering in a nearby hospital, Dr. Zoda awoke to find the Leaguers in her room, where they explained the situation to her. Zatanna then informed her that, much to Dr. Zoda's relief, she was able to undo most of the effects of the potion, though with the catch that she still retains her size-changing powers. Wonder Girl then suggested that Dr. Zoda could put her newfound abilities to good use as a researcher at the recently-opened Japan branch of S.T.A.R.-Labs, an idea she took them up on. Occasionally, Dr. Zoda would assist the League against skyscraper-sized threats, such as when planet Earth found itself visited by the alien beings known as the Promethean Giants."
Thundra
*Character basis: Risty from the Queen's Blade franchise.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #12: Thundra
"The warrior woman known as Thundra hailed from an alternate version of Earth in the 23rd century, where the planet is ruled over by the globe-spanning Femizonian Empire. She was renowned as the strongest and most formidable warrior of her day, thanks to a combination of genetic engineering-based physical enhancement and training in combat, martial arts, and military strategy since childhood; this ensured her being a multi-year winner of the Bladed Sisterhood Tournament, a contest held every four years to determine the champion of the Femizons. Her status as the best of the Femizons was considered essential in the efforts to win a long, stagnant war against Machus, a male-dominated colony established on Earth's moon, led by the chauvinistic warlord known as Mahkizmo.
One day, Thundra met with the best scientific minds of the Femizons to determine a way to end the war with Machus once and for all. A plan was then formed, involving the usage of a salvaged prototype time platform built by 21st century scientist Victor Von Doom. Thundra and a small group of handpicked warriors would travel back in time and prevent the formation of Machus by going after Mahkizmo's ancestor and eliminating him. Just as the group was set to go back, an army of male warriors led by Mahkizmo himself attacked the facility where the time platform was located; Mahkizmo's spies had learned of the plan and alerted him, causing him to strike out against the Femizons' efforts. With no time to waste, Thundra and her warriors activated the platform and disappeared into the timestream; Mahkizmo managed to follow them before the platform deactivated.
Arriving in the 21st century, Thundra led her group in search of Mahkizmo's ancestor, unaware that he'd trailed behind them. Their search eventually took them to Tokyo-3, going on one year following the end of humanity's battle with the otherworldly creatures codenamed 'Angels' and the thwarting of the sinister SEELE conspiracy. Discovering Makhizmo's ancestor being a leading scientist overseeing the repurposed Geofront (the former headquarters of the U.N. special agency NERV, which had been tasked with defeating the Angels), Thundra and her group raided the facility and abducted the man, attracting the attention of the Avengers (a team of superheroes made up of various women and teen girls involved in some way or another in the battles against the Angels and SEELE).
In confronting the Femizons, the Avengers found themselves evenly-matched with the diverse array of fighters in their ranks. Not wanting to drag it out any longer than warranted, Thundra issued a challenge of one-on-one combat to the physically-strongest member of the Avengers: She-Hulk (former NERV tactical operations director Misato Katsuragi). She-Hulk accepted the challenge, on the condition that their captive be let go should she win, and that Thundra and her cohorts explain themselves. Both groups gave the fighters their space, and the battle commenced, with both women perfectly matched in terms of strength and skill. Ultimately, Misato used unorthodox tactics to get the upper hand on Thundra, defeating Feminzonia's finest. Awed by She-Hulk's mercy when she would've expected otherwise, Thundra accepted her loss and explained her story to the Avengers. It was then that Mahkizmo struck and made off with his ancestor, causing both the Avengers and the Femizons to put aside their differences and stop him. They succeeded after the scientist realized how his research on the 'Black Egg' the Geofront was built within would eventually lead to the formation of Machus, causing him to declare his intent to destroy his plans for restoring the Black Egg's antigravity capabilities. A horrified Mahkizmo soon vanishes, thanks to the brief temporal paradox that ensued.
Satisfied with their mission's success, Thundra and her Femizons parted ways with the Avengers to await their retrieval by the science team in the future, vowing to have a proper rematch with them. While they stayed in the present, Thundra and her cohorts at one point trained with the superpowered team of female pro wrestlers known as the Grapplers, who were also allies of the Avengers. At another point, Thundra would come to the Avengers for aid against the sinister machinations of her own distant ancestor: Dr. Deidre Wentworth, a misandrist renegade scientist going by the alias Superia, who after discovering Thundra sought to bring about the rise of Femizonia two centuries early. All the while, it became apparent that Thundra had developed something of a minor crush on Misato, despite the latter usually reminding the redhead that she's married."
Black Canary
*Character basis: Kasuga from the Sengoku Basara franchise.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #8: Black Canary
"Daiya Dewa was the daughter of Ryunosuke Dewa, a decorated lieutenant with the Hakone Police Department; their family, as she determined from some genealogical research, was found to be descended from a ninja clan going all the way back to Japan's feudal era. In 1979, Daiya, then in her early twenties, had been trained by her father to apply to be a police officer herself, but was refused a position due to the sexism of the time. Undaunted, Daiya decided to fight crime in a more unorthodox manner, especially after acquiring skills she studied from old texts belonging to her ninja ancestors. By day, she became the owner and proprietor of a small florist shop; by night, she donned a costumed identity (made up of a blonde wig, face paint, and a figure-hugging jumpsuit) inspired partly by her family name: Black Canary.
Black Canary's modus operandi originally revolved around her infiltrating criminal gangs and taking them down from within, usually working with a young police detective named Reiichi Rakuyama, with whom she developed a close relationship with. She eventually abandoned the infiltration conceit and became a full-on vigilante, one who became a hero to the female population of Hakone for her targeting those committing crimes against women and children. During this time, she and Reiichi married, and had a daughter, who they named Daika. Her tenure as a crimefighter lasted well into the early 1990s, until a particularly harrowing incident with a notorious human trafficking syndicate shook up Daiya enough that she decided to retire as the Black Canary. It was a decision that was made all the more easier when Daika had been cursed by the Wizard, an American super-criminal who operated during the 1940s and had been in hiding for some time. Before she hung up the Black Canary mantle for good, Daiya donned it one last time to go after the Wizard, aided in her efforts by a young sorcerer named Takeshi Ibuki (who utilized his mystic abilities as a stage magician). After dealing with the Wizard, with Ibuki keeping her from killing him in revenge, Daiya asked Ibuki to help with the curse inflicted on Daika, which gave the little girl a powerful sonic scream. With his abilities, Ibuki was able to help bring the sonic scream under control for the time being, but could not rid Daika of it altogether. Daiya and Reiichi, in spite of this, were grateful and kept in touch with Ibuki in the years that followed. They would then take some time to help Daika further control her power out in the countryside.
When Second Impact struck, Reiichi wound up a casualty as he helped civilians get to safety, leaving Daiya to raise Daika alone. Eventually, Daiya became an empty-nester once Daika left for college and from there, law school, while the majority of Hakone became the fortress-city of Tokyo-3, which would serve as the location of the main headquarters of NERV, a U.N. special agency formed to fight the otherworldly menaces codenamed 'Angels'. Daiya's shop stuck around, right on the border between Tokyo-3 and the rest of old Hakone. By 2015, when the battle against the Angels truly began, the now middle-aged Daiya was a well-venerated figure within her community, but even she wasn't immune to the street crime that would befall the poorer parts of the fortress-city. On one such night, her shop was targeted by a group of armed hoodlums out terrorizing the neighborhood. The thugs had Daiya cornered, and any temptation she had of taking them out herself was quashed due to their weapons being trained on her. Luckily for her, she was spared from a grisly fate thanks to the arrival of a fledgling costumed vigilante known as Green Arrow (secretly American NERV Evangelion pilot Marie Vincennes), who took down the goons with her archery skills and trick arrows.
Impressed by the young woman's bravery and determination, Daiya offered to repay Marie in kind by helping her refine her hand-to-hand combat skills, an offer Marie took up after learning of Daiya's past as the Black Canary. Daiya became something of a surrogate mother figure to Marie, who in turn helped her reconcile with Daika after the two became distant for a number of years. It would later be revealed that Daika, currently working as an assistant to the district attorney of Tokyo-3, had secretly taken up her mother's mantle and became the Black Canary when she joined up with a team of female vigilantes in high-tech power armor calling themselves the Birds of Prey."
Maki Oze, Hero For Hire
*Character basis: Maki Oze from Fire Force.*
Allies of the Superwomen of EVA #9: Maki Oze, Hero For Hire
"Maki Oze came from a long line of venerated firefighters, with her father Danro being a highly-decorated captain in the Tokyo Fire Department and her brother Tagaki working as a top fire prevention inspector. Taller and a bit beefier than the other girls in her class, Maki overcame a childhood of teasing by putting her above-average physique to use as part of the girls division of her high school wrestling team. Following college, Maki followed in her family's footsteps by becoming a skilled firefighter herself, becoming as decorated as her father and grandfather before her. She was also a frequent face at many volunteer events in her neighborhood, making her well-regarded among the many residents she went out of her way to help. She was a boon to her company, especially with how much they were called upon for rescue operations as Tokyo-3 became ground zero for humanity's battle against the otherworldly menaces U.N. special agency NERV had codenamed 'Angels'.
During the aftermath of one such fight between an Angel and NERV's Evangelions, a fire blazed throughout a section of Tokyo-3 that contained a biochemical research facility, with the flames trapping a number of staff within. Maki and her company were on the scene almost in an instant, getting to work putting out the fire and rescuing the people within. On her third time in the facility, the fire had caused a number of specific chemical cocktails (some with mild amounts of radioactive elements) to burst from their containers, leaving fumes in the air. Spotting a researcher who was unconscious and barely breathing, Maki was forced to temporarily put her own air mask on the researcher as she carried them out; in the process, she accidentally breathed in some of the fumes, and by the time she got out with the researcher, she collapsed and was transported to Tokyo-3 General Hospital.
Maki spent the next month comatose, with those keeping an eye on her unaware of her body metastasizing the chemical mixture, changing her in the process on a cellular level. Once it finished, Maki awakened, much to the relief of the other members of the company and her family. A physical examination would then reveal the changes to Maki's body, as an attempt to get some bloodwork done saw multiple hypodermic needles bend and crumble against her skin. Further tests showed not only that Maki developed super-dense skin and muscle tissue that proved to be bulletproof, blade-proof, and (fittingly) fireproof, her strength and stamina had increased to superhuman levels, and she also now possessed a minor healing factor enabling her to recover faster than normal from injuries (if she sustained any). The researcher Maki had rescued, who'd undergone their own recovery, was able to give a possible explanation of this, revealing that the facility had been conducting research on what had been dubbed the 'Burstein formula', named for American scientist Dr. Noah Burstein, who had been trying to create a variant of the super-soldier serum that resulted in Captain America. (A reworked version had, in another part of the world, been administered to the legendary super-soldier's great-granddaughter, NERV Evangelion pilot Mari "Illustrious" Makinami.)
In spite of these new abilities, Maki continued to be the same person she always was around her teammates and her neighbors, though there were occasions where she underestimated her own strength, leading to a bit of property damage and accidental injuries to those she rescued. While taking time off to better understand her new power levels, she chanced upon a shakedown-in-progress by members of a local gang, who were harassing her friend Iris, a young nun (and American expat) at the local church. Maki stepped in and was forced to fend off the thugs, crumpling their weapons into useless lumps with her bare hands and tossing them around until they ran off, tails between their legs. All of this was witnessed by Tamaki, another friend of Maki's who worked as an assistant to the classifieds editor at the local newspaper. The next day, inspired by her actions, Tamaki convinces Maki to set herself up as a nonprofit 'hero-for-hire' (akin to a private investigator); initially turning down the proposition, Maki changed her mind (much to her chagrin) when Tamaki revealed that she'd already drafted up an ad and had it run in the newest edition of the paper; Maki begrudgingly agrees only when Tamaki emphasizes how any proceeds from the jobs she takes would go back into the community. Tamaki then helps Maki get their new 'side-business' off the ground, with Iris being roped in as their 'receptionist' (while Tamaki acts as their 'PR girl'). Iris, showing off her talent for costuming, went as far as crafting an outfit for Maki to, in Tamaki's words, better sell the 'hero-for-hire' image (Maki would comment that it 'wasn't as ridiculous' as she'd initially imagined).
Her first client would be a couple who owned and ran a custom jewelry store that was one of a number of small businesses being targeted by the underlings of crime boss Wataru Sotomura, known for his fearsome strength due to the cybernetic exoskeleton he wore. After roughing up a number of his flunkies, Maki confronted Sotomura himself in a one-on-one fight, and while the exoskeleton made him a rough equal to Maki in terms of strength and stamina, Maki's determination won out and she ended up pushing Sotomura's exoskeleton to the breaking point, causing it to short out and fail him. Maki then hauled the defeated Sotomura to the police, with testimony from the small business owners his thugs tormented leading to his arrest and the dismantling of his gang. Maki was convinced enough afterwards to continue with her 'side-job' in addition to returning to her firefighting duties.
Maki's first encounter with the superwomen of Tokyo-3 would be when she was hired to go after a strange man who'd been waltzing about throughout the city, dining out on expensive meals and buying all manner of luxury goods, all without paying a single amount of money and leaving those attempting to collect on his bills in a weird trance. Eventually coming upon the man, he was revealed to be one Zebediah Kilgrave, alias the 'Purple Man', due to his literal purple skin pigmentation. Before Maki could even lay a finger on Kilgrave, the callous hedonist used his self-generated pheromones, the same used on the bill collectors, to stop Maki in her tracks and put her under his control, wielding her like a living blunt instrument as he continued his one-man crime wave. Maki would be freed from his control thanks to the intervention of the superhero known as Spider-Woman (secretly Ritsuko Akagi, head scientist of NERV), whose own pheromonal powers were able to counter Kilgrave's. Maki, justifiably enraged, double-teams Kilgrave with Spider-Woman's help; the wall-crawler is also able to help clear Maki's name of any wrongdoing due to Kilgrave's control. The two women became friends afterwards, with Ritsuko empathizing with Maki over her own feelings of being used by men (in her case, NERV supreme commander Gendo Ikari).
A year later, following the defeat of the Angels (and the conspiracy of the secret organization SEELE), during an incident where the time-traveling despot known as Kang the Conqueror temporarily trapped the Avengers (the team Spider-Woman helped found) in a temporal void, Maki was one of a number of superpowered allies of the team brought together via their 'New Avengers' protocols to defeat Kang and bring the team out of the void. Maki, along with the others, was then given reserve Avenger status by the team's leaders for her efforts."
Monarch
*Character basis: the Flame Emperor/Edelgard from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #13: Monarch
"In the future year of 2030 A.D., a bleak, dystopian Earth is ruled by the merciless, oppressive Monarch, whose identity is perpetually hidden by the powerful suit of armor they wear, which in spite of its pseudo-medieval stylings is actually constructed of a highly-advanced technology. They are aided in their rule by their equally-merciless advisor Extant, who also served as head of the secret police unit known as the Dark Wings. In their rise to power, they succeeded in defeating or outright destroying the superhuman segment of Earth's population, be they hero or villain. Earth's people were unhappy with Monarch's rule, to say the least, with some forming an underground resistance movement to hopefully bring the technological tyrant down. Some of them infiltrated positions within Monarch's military and scientific circles; one such who embedded herself in the latter was Dr. Lucinda Cromwell, a young scientist specializing in temporal physics. Cromwell was convinced that she could use the time-travel technology being developed in Monarch's labs to venture into the past and prevent Monarch from ever coming to power in the first place.
At one point in her research, Cromwell learned of the moment when Monarch was 'born': in the year 2016, a tragedy results in the deaths of thousands in Berlin, Germany. The lone survivor of the event, who'd fled in the chaos, returned months later and effectively went on to conquer the world, so as to prevent such a tragedy from happening ever again. The identity of the survivor was among the key details heavily redacted by Monarch and Extant. Cromwell is chosen by Monarch to participate in a time-travel experiment, which proves to be the opportunity she'd been looking for to travel back in time, find out Monarch's real identity, and stop them from ascending to power. On entering the rift in the timestream that was opened, Cromwell is mutated into a being of living temporal energy, and on arriving in 2016, she takes the alias Waverider.
Waverider travels to Tokyo-3 in Japan, where she seeks out the resident team of superheroes in this time period, the Justice League (whose members were once part of or affiliated with the since-dissolved U.N. special agency NERV). On making her case to them, the heroes agreed to help her figure out who Monarch's past self was. Waverider used one of her new abilities to peer into the futures of many of the members of the team in order to find clues, and upon using it on Supergirl (former NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley-Sohryu), she finds a very promising lead on seeing a lapel worn by someone speaking with the girl of steel's future self in her civilian identity. With the help of another League member, Ms. Martian (Asuka's best friend and classmate Hikari Horaki), Waverider telepathically relayed what she saw to the other members, and Asuka identified the woman seen as looking like an older version of one of her former university classmates, Edelgard 'Edie' von Hresvelg. The lapel's design, as it turned out, was the crest of Edie's family, who came from a long line of German nobility; it bore a similarity to a design found on Monarch's shield. Waverider and a number of League members proceeded to head to Berlin, where Edie, along with her longtime friend and companion Hubert von Vestra (he also bearing nobility in his ancestry), was accompanying her father, a diplomat, to a conference to negotiate a peace treaty between the two warring factions of the Eastern European country of Kasnia. It was here that Waverider began putting more of what she learned from her research together, explaining that a terrorist attack during the peace negotiations would lead to the death toll that spurs whoever survived to become Monarch. Together with the League, they found the terrorists, who were in reality members of the international criminal group Intergang, and brought them to the security forces guarding the event. Interrogation of one of the gang members revealed that the attack they were meant to carry out was to be a distraction while some of their comrades broke into a museum nearby to steal an artifact on display, the supposed 'Spear of Destiny'; one League member, Zatanna (former NERV tech Maya Ibuki) confirmed they'd really dodged a bullet, considering the Spear possessed an impressive level of power, enough that no superhuman could stand in the way of those who wielded it. For Waverider, the final pieces of her research puzzle fell into place, as she realized that the Spear was what aided the future Monarch in their campaign of conquest. Just when Waverider thought that she'd succeeded in her mission, a time portal opened above her and the League members, and from it emerged Monarch, Extant, and a small squad of Dark Wings.
Monarch revealed that they and Extant had been monitoring Waverider's movements since they arrived in the past, waiting for the right moment to follow them and thwart their efforts at preventing their erasure from existence, which included securing the Spear of Destiny. Waverider and the League members fought Monarch and their forces, the former trying to keep the latter from entering the museum, and at one point in the battle, Monarch's helmet was blasted off, revealing to a horrified Edie the face of her future self underneath. Seeing no point in keeping things subtle, Monarch ordered Extant to unmask themselves, revealing their identity to be a future version of Hubert, to his younger self's shock. Monarch and Extant renewed their offensive against Waverider and the League, even as the squad of Dark Wings were defeated. The duo proved to be a powerful match for even the League's strongest members, and just when Monarch was on the cusp of taking out Waverider and Supergirl, she received the shock of her life when Edie, her own past self, pierced the center of her armor using the Spear of Destiny, which she and Hubert had removed from its display case. Disgusted by what her future self would do to the world, Edie took it upon herself to end the reign of Monarch before it began, declaring that she would never let grief or anger rule her decisions from that point on. That declaration, along with the critical damage done to Monarch's armor, resulted in a temporal paradox that wiped out both Monarch and Extant, with Waverider using her powers to protect Edie and the League members from the fallout. When the chaos subsided, a look into the future confirmed for Waverider that Monarch no longer existed and the world was free and at peace, though she was now effectively without a time period. Green Lantern (former NERV tactical ops director Misato Katsuragi) offered her a place with the League, which Waverider accepted, becoming a reserve member. She would later go on to become a recruit for a team called the Linear Watch, which protects the timestream from incursions and attempts to change history for malevolent purposes."
Dreamqueen
*Character basis: Debonair from Magic Knight Rayearth.*
Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #14: Dreamqueen
"Almost 800 years ago, Nightmare, the fear lord of the Nightmare World of the Dream Dimension, engaged in a forceful tryst with Zhilla Char, a succubus. Char was left pregnant by the fear lord, who then imprisoned her in a lower realm with no means of escape for her. Eventually, she gave birth to a daughter, and while her body burned away, her spirit was reborn in the daughter. The result was a being born fully-grown and having inherited all of her mother's memories. The woman learned how she was able to manipulate her surroundings to her liking, and how it was part of Nightmare's designs to gift her the very realm she dwelt in. Upon realizing this, the woman took the name Dreamqueen.
Over time, Dreamqueen became bored by her realm, and sought new things to toy with. Her attention was drawn to a village in ancient Japan suffering through a famine, and when a priest of the village sought to communicate with the gods to ask for their aid, he accidentally found himself in Dreamqueen's realm; taking advantage of this, Dreamqueen used the priest to create a link between her realm and the earthly plane. Aside from manipulating the perceptions of the villagers, she also sent a talisman through the link to provide a means for her to escape. When a wandering samurai realized that the priest was the cause of the village's troubles, he struck him down with his sword and left the talisman be; the samurai was the ancestor of the mutant swordsman Kenuichio Harada, also the mercenary known as the Silver Samurai. With the aid of the other holy men of the village, the priest's body and the talisman were buried in a vessel specially-built for them. Dreamqueen became furious over this, even more so when Nightmare informed her that he had warned the samurai of the talisman's dangers. In her anger, Dreamqueen destroyed many of her creations, but still craved the feeling she had whenever she savored a human being's terror. She then became further depressed and bored with her life, a state that remained unchanged for many centuries.
Eventually, the resting place of the priest and the talisman would be uncovered by an archaeological crew working for the Tokyo-3 Natural History Museum. The talisman itself would be accidentally picked up by Hikaru Shidou, the teenage daughter of the head of the crew, as she had been subtly manipulated by Dreamqueen's influence. Hikaru passed out as she became the new living link to the realm of Dreamqueen, who then spread her influence outwards until it covered Tokyo-3, causing people act out their own fantasies without even realizing it. This in turn got the attention of the Avengers, especially Ghost Rider (former Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley-Sohryu), who, realizing they were probably going to need more back-up in all things mystical, called in their ally Lady Suzaku, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme. On meeting up, Lady Suzaku (real name Miaka Yuki) revealed she'd brought along additional help in the form of her new friend Sango, the latest to take up the mantle of the mystic warrior known as the Devil-Slayer. When their first attempt to take on Dreamqueen failed, Asuka and Miaka did a quick bit of research on their foe, which led them to learn that anyone of the bloodline of the samurai that severed Dreamqueen's link the first time would be the only one to defeat her properly. While most of the Avengers kept Dreamqueen's forces busy, a few, along with Devil-Slayer, sought out the Silver Samurai and managed to acquire his help. Tracing the Dreamqueen's link to the archaeological site and the unconscious Hikaru, Ghost Rider and Lady Suzaku opened a portal to Dreamqueen's realm, where they and the rest of the Avengers (along with Devil-Slayer and Silver Samurai) took the fight to Dreamqueen herself. Silver Samurai ultimately dealt the finishing blow that left Dreamqueen disabled enough for Lady Suzaku to cast a spell that sent her to the farthest pocket dimension possible, where the reach of her powers wasn't that extensive. On returning to Earth and closing the portal, the team and their allies found Hikaru now fully awake; she was more than willing to hand the talisman over to Lady Suzaku, who in turn sent it to Kamar-Taj (where she'd learned her mystical abilities in the first place) for safekeeping."