SUPERIA: Page 2 of 2

Publication Date: 30th Jun 2022
Written By: Monolith.
Image Work: Douglas Mangum.
Biography

BIOGRAPHY page 2

Superia truly seemed to be dead after the Red Skull’s attack. Diamondback left her role as Snapdragon, believing her employer was no more. [Siren Infinity] Deidre Wentworth began her career in science with her time-probe, though, and she had failsafes prepped in the event of her death. Mechanisms activated to preserve her consciousness as she died and cast it backwards in time to inhabit her younger self in school, passing on her life experiences and knowledge of the future. Anticipating what was to come, Deirdre joined the fledgling science-terrorists Advanced Idea Mechanics early in life, gaining access to their scientific arsenal to recreate her time-probe and other breakthroughs her future self had achieved. Deirdre went about creating a new timeline more suited to her own wants and needs.

Choosing to work inside the system this time, Deidre devised the means of augmenting herself as a superhuman being again and shared her efforts with a media-friendly cohort named Ursula Armstrong. Together, these two women became Broad-Stripe and Bright Star, presenting themselves as All-American super-heroes. Out of petulance towards her old foe and a broader strategy, Deidre used her time-probe to remove Steve Rogers from the timestream during his period frozen in a block of ice. For insurance, she removed him from several adjacent realities as well. As a result, the Avengers never uncovered the lost Captain America early in their career. When they returned from that fateful mission, instead of Captain America rescuing the Avengers from an alien threat, it was Broad-Stripe and Bright Star who stepped into the spotlight and eliminated the alien.

Broad-Stripe and Bright Star initially joined the Avengers, but Deidre was already working towards undermining the Age of Marvels. She conspired with the Asgardian Enchantress to lure Thor away from the Avengers, and then sabotaged the criminal Hawkeye’s attempt to join the team. With the founding members preparing to quit and no influx of new members as in Captain America’s timeline, the Avengers disbanded. Broad-Stripe and Bright Star were then free to introduce their new team to the world, the Americommand with the patriotic Major America, Ameridroid and Americop-1. With Deidre’s knowledge of the future, Americommand established their credentials by hunting down Nazi threats like Baron Zemo, the Sleeper robots and even preventing the return of the Red Skull to the modern era. However, they also struck out against alien threats such as Captain Mar-Vell and the “mutant menace,” securing the reins of power. Broad-Stripe also discreetly orchestrated the disappearance of most of the Fantastic Four, the breakdown of Giant-Man and the apparent death of Iron Man as she consolidated the Americommand’s control over the country. (Fitting with her personal politics, Deidre only arranged for female heroes like Susan Richards and Janet van Dyne to retire into obscurity rather than eliminating them.)

The Elder of the Universe known as the Contemplator detected the changes being made to the timeline and recognized a chain reaction disrupting the multiverse caused by Superia’s actions. He assembled a cross-temporal team called the Captain America Corps to address the problem, including versions of Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes and John Walker, as well as the future American Dream and Commander A. Because this Steve Rogers was from even earlier in the timestream than Deidre had removed him from the ice, Broad-Stripe and Americommand couldn’t kill him without undoing all Deidre had done to shape this time period. Broad-Stripe was also working to create and power her own Cosmic Cube, however, which would have given her power over all reality, unhindered by time and space.

The Captain America Corps assembled a resistance to Americommand and attacked their headquarters at NORAD, where Broad-Stripe kept her Lab Omega and the Cosmic Cube. The deterioration of the multiverse was causing ripples in the timestream, reverting Broad-Stripe back to her Superia identity. Dr. Wentworth tried to seize the Cube and fulfill her wildest dreams (literally), but Bright Star betrayed her and attempted to claim the Cube for herself. During all this, the Contemplator had physically entered the Cube and created a vortex that drew Bright Star, Superia and the Corps inside the Cube’s pocket reality. Contemplator had the means to reverse the entropy wave triggered by Superia’s heavy-handed machinations, and the Captain America Corps held off Superia and Bright Star, buying him time to complete his work. Reality was reset, the timeline restored and all parties returned to their original place in time. [Captain America Corps #1-5]

Superia apparently continued to exist in the newly restored timeline despite her death at the hands of the Red Skull in the original version. She returned, looking to seize control of the remnants of H.A.M.M.E.R. With Norman Osborn in prison and Steve Rogers reconstituting S.H.I.E.L.D., those soldiers loyal to Osborn’s vision of America refused to abandon the H.A.M.M.E.R. name. Superia resumed her interest in genetics, experimenting with versions of mutant growth hormone for her troopers. Either from her time as Broad-Stripe or new bio-modifications, she now seemed significantly stronger and more durable than in the past (relying upon her own might rather than personal force fields) and generating natural bio-blasts instead of using glove blasters.

Superia assembled her research facility out in the suburbs of Rhode Island, deliberately avoiding high traffic areas and the attention of super-heroes. Her big discovery was a formula combining the Super-Soldier Serum and the Infinity Formula, confiscated from Nazi remnants back in the 1950’s. However, some of her H.A.M.M.E.R. operatives had reached out to Victoria Hand, Norman Osborn’s former right hand, who was now working for Steve Rogers. Hand dispatched Luke Cage’s team of Avengers she was liaison to in order to block Superia’s work. Superia secured the formula before being forced into combat with Ms. Marvel. She temporarily overpowered the Avenger but was forced to flee without her men or equipment.

Superia sought out Victoria Hand and blamed her for ratting out the operation to the Avengers. Hand turned the blame around on Superia’s henchmen for contacting her on an open line, when Steve Rogers was watching her every move. Hand thus arranged for Superia to charter a boat out of the country, while letting the Avengers know where she’d be. However, she also let Superia know she was letting them know, thus leaving both sides confused over who Hand really was loyal to. In any case, Superia was defeated and captured by the Avengers despite knowing in advance they would be coming. She was brought to the Raft and imprisoned near Norman Osborn himself. Coincidentally. [New Avengers (2nd series) #9-13]

The rot of H.A.M.M.E.R. and the Goblin Cult became apparent when Norman Osborn was set to be moved off the Raft. Instead, numerous guards at the facility proved to be loyal to him and worked to engineer Osborn’s escape. He recruited Dr. Wentworth during his breakout, and the two of them got away right under the Avengers’ noses. With new alliances arranged with Monica Rappaccini, Madame Hydra and the Gorgon, the revived H.A.M.M.E.R. assimilated much of A.I.M., Hydra, and the Hand, respectively. [New Avengers (2nd series) #16.1]

Osborn, Wentworth and their coalition began gathering forces, but also came to the attention of the Avengers. Having previously garnered some success with his own Dark Avengers, Osborn wanted to try again with a new roster. He intended a public relations campaign to sell his Avengers and H.A.M.M.E.R. as a better alternative to the present authorities. Building off of their recent grudge match, Superia became a new version of Ms. Marvel, joining Gorgon as Wolverine and other dark incarnations of Spider-Man, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, Thor and the Hulk. The New Avengers and the New Dark Avengers sparred with each other in the media, with inconclusive results. As they returned to H.A.M.M.E.R. base, Osborn’s Hulk (Skaar, Son of Hulk) revealed himself to be undercover for Captain America and smashed Superia’s team. They tried to rally after that but in a rematch Carol Danvers proved herself to be the superior Ms. Marvel and Wentworth and the others were taken into custody. [New Avengers (2nd series) #17-23]

Much had changed with A.I.M. since Superia tried to seize control from Brannex on Boca Caliente. And yet, much was the same. The new Scientist Supreme Andrew Forson established a new A.I.M. Island on the nation-state of Barbuda, even orchestrating their admission into the United Nations. He recruited a new High Council of A.I.M. to serve as the ruling body of their government, and Superia joined A.I.M. as their Minister of Education. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #2] Superia proved to be a strong ally for Forson, overseeing A.I.M. research and field missions with equal skill. Superia was not a mindless follower of Forson, and was annoyed at his eccentricities and personal plots where he didn’t inform the rest of the council of his intentions. She considered an alliance with Graviton against the Scientist Supreme, but ultimately didn’t act upon it as Forson still had much to offer A.I.M. [Secret Avengers (2nd series) #7-8,12-13]

When Ex Nihilo and the Garden launched seven “origin bombs” at Earth from Mars, A.I.M. managed to secure the results of one of these payloads without the Avengers being any wiser. The origin bomb cocoon was accidentally awakened months later, and Superia and Forson tracked “Pod” as it made its way towards the Avengers’ conflict with another origin bomb site in Perth. After Pod wrecked the Avengers, Superia brought an A.I.M. field team on site to retrieve Pod using their dimensional displacement Auger and recover genetic samples from the unconscious Avengers. Superia and A.I.M. were aggressively teleported away from the site by the returning Avenger teleporter Manifold, but the samples were intact. [Avengers (5th series) #14-17]

One of A.I.M.’s mission statements was to mine the multiverse using the Auger, finding new frontiers of science for them to exploit. Their fishing expeditions continued to cause unexpected difficulties, though, such as when the Auger accidentally rescued a tyrannical version of the Avengers from an Incursion. When these Avengers escaped Barbuda, Forson and Superia decided to field test a new team of Explorer-class Adaptoids loaded with the Perth samples. The Adaptoids only exacerbated the situation, adapting beyond their mandate and killing one of the Avengers before returning to Barbuda and activating their own Explorer protocols, leaving A.I.M. Island for the multiverse. Superia and Forson were able to recover the ersatz Avengers and send them to another Earth anyway, but the whole day had been a debacle. [Avengers (5th series) #25-28]

Superia and the High Council of A.I.M. reached their endgame after making contact with a future version of A.I.M. They began importing technology back from the future, rapidly expanding Barbuda in size and capabilities. S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers took notice, but Barbuda’s new defenses allowed Forson and Superia to capture Cannonball and Sunspot and convert the Superguardian Smasher into their own Messenger operative. The former New Mutants managed to escape A.I.M. custody and access their Veil time portal, though, traveling to the new A.I.M. future and retrieving a team of Avengers Next as allies. These next generation Avengers were deployed by Maria Hill on A.I.M. Island. They were opposed by Superia and Graviton with their tech-augmented A.I.M. troopers. The Children of Tomorrow defeated A.I.M. and loaded a sig-kill into the A.I.M. bio-network, wiping out their accumulated future data storage. [Avengers World #1-14]

Forson’s efforts at legitimacy for A.I.M. came back to haunt him when Sunspot (as businessman Roberto DaCosta) bought out A.I.M. in a legal hostile takeover. Superia and many of the old guard of A.I.M. were fired as DaCosta reinvented the science terrorists as his Avengers Idea Mechanics. [Avengers World #18-19] Elements of the old A.I.M. eventually reclaimed the name and consolidated, though, with Superia and Forson joining other former leaders like M.O.D.O.K. and Monica Rappaccini as the new high council at A.I.M. Mountain. [M.O.D.O.K.: Head Games #1]