Superheroes Assemble!

D: Dagger - Dazzler - Destiny - Diamond Lil

Dagger
Real Name: Tandy Bowen
Occupation: Vigilante
Identity: Secret
Legal Status: American citizen with no criminal record, still a minor
Former Aliases: None
Place of Birth: Shaker Heights, Ohio
Marital Status: Single
Known Relatives: Melissa (mother), unnamed father, Phillip Carlisle (stepfather), Father Michael Bowen (uncle)
Group Affiliation: Partner of Cloak
Base of Operations: The Holy Ghost Church, 42nd Street, New York City
First Appearance: SPECTACULAR SPIDERMAN #64

History: Tandy Bowen was a sixteen-year old who grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland where many wealthy people lived. Bowen's mother, Melissa, was a celebrated model who had become rich not only from her own career but also from receiving her previous husband's estate. That earlier husband, who was Tandy's father, had left for India, for "spiritual rebirth." Subsequently Melissa married a kindly man named Phillip Carlisle. But the self-centered Melissa, wrapped up in her career and social circles, neglected both Phillip and Tandy, and Tandy, hurt by her father's desertion, refused to accept her new stepfather. Feeling unloved, Tandy turned for affection to an older teenager, Rob Daltry. But when he left for college shortly thereafter, the despondent Tandy left home on a bus for New York City.

She arrived at Manhattan's Port Authority Bus Terminal and was spotted by another teenage runaway, the penniless Tyrone Johnson. Outside the terminal, he was about to rob her when another person snatched her purse. Johnson tackled the thief and returned Bowen's purse. In reward, Bowen bought Johnson some food at a nearby restaurant and they talked about why they had become runaways.

Upon leaving the two teenagers were approached by men working for criminal pharmaceutical chemist Simon Marshall. The men offered the two runaways a place to stay. Bowen naively accepted, and Johnson, knowing the men were up to no good, went along to protect her. At the Hudson River the thugs knocked Johnson out and then took him and Bowen by boat to Ellis Island, where Marshall had set up his secret laboratory.

Marshall was working for the Maggia to develop a new synthetic addictive narcotic drug which the mob hoped would be a cheaper substitute for imported heroin. Marshall experimented with the drug by injecting it into the bloodstreams of the runaways his men captured. He injected it into Bowen and Johnson as well. All of the other runaways who had been injected with the drug died, but Bowen and Johnson somehow survived. The two runaways escaped their cell, and, pursued by gunfire, were forced to dive into the river.

As they attempted to swim to Manhattan, Johnson found himself engulfed by total blackness. But then he saw Bowen, glowing with light. He swam to her, and her light dispelled the blackness. They reached the Manhattan shore, where Bowen fell into a delirium. Johnson then discovered that he had been transformed into a strange inhuman being. Bowen and Johnson were then found by the thugs who had taken them to Marshall. Johnson began to swallow them up within the eerie blackness within the large cloak he had just improvised for himself. Just then Bowen awoke and, acting instinctively, struck the thugs down with daggers of light that she projected from her fingertips.

The two runaways realized that the drug had transformed them into superhumanly powerful beings. Calling themselves Cloak and Dagger, they dedicated their lives to using their powers to save other children and teenagers from being harmed by drug dealers and other criminals. As Dagger, Bowen often tries to restrain Cloak from giving in entirely to the "hunger" that drives him to project people into a dimension of darkness. She also uses the "light" she generates to help satisfy that "hunger." She has attempted to leave her life as a vigilante, but hem returned to it, convinced that only Cloak truly loves her. Even when Spider-Man sought to reunite Dagger with her stepfather, she stood steadfast by Cloak's side. Tyrone attempted to envelop the wall-crawler in his cloak, angered by his interference, but Dagger grabbed hold of Spider-Man to protect him from the garment's effects. Within the blackness, she showed the web-slinger the world as Cloak sees it: an amalgamation of auras and evil, where darkness of the soul shines through like an ebony beacon. This experience reassured Cloak that Dagger never would dessert him.

No longer able to keep the darkness at bay, Cloak embarked on a mad quest to consume any and all lawbreakers -- from a healthy motorist who had parked his car in a handicapped space to the Punisher. A desperate Dagger sought the aid of a loose-knit band of urban-based adventurers: the Black Widow, super-spy turned super hero; Daredevil, fearless blind adventurer; Dr. Strange, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme; Moon Knight, undead avenger of evil; and Shang-Chi, Master of Kung Fu. In an attempt to reason with Cloak, Strange transported Moon Knight, Daredevil and the Black Widow into the dimension of darkness, which had been transformed into a nightmarish reflection of New York City.

There, the heroes learned that Cloak had come under the control of the demonic entity known as Nightmare. Meanwhile, Dagger confronted Cloak on the mortal plane. Tyrone had been transformed by the hunger, leaving Tandy no choice but to unleash the full extent of her power against her crimefighting companion. Through her love for her best friend, Dagger cleansed Cloak of the darkness and transformed him back into the young man he had been prior to Simon Marshall's experiments. The darkness that once possessed him now resides in Dagger, balanced by her light.

Height: 5 ft. 5 in.
Weight: 116 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Strength levl: Dagger possesses the normal human strength of a young woman of her age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise. (However, it should be noted that Dagger, who was once a ballet student, exercises to develop and maintain her agility, not her ability to lift weights.)

Known Superhuman Powers: Dagger possesses the superhuman ability to generate an unknown form of luminescence. It is not known why Simon Marshall's drug endowed Bowen and Tyrone Johnson with unusual powers rather than killing them as it did others. There is apparently some unknown biochemical factor in the bodies of Johnson and Bowen that is responsible for the effects that Marshal's drug had on them.

The "light" that Dagger generates is a manifestation of the life force that exists within all living beings. Hence, Dagger's light is actually a form of psionic energy, rather than being ordinary light, such as is created by the sun or by an electrical lamp. Dagger generates far more of this psionic "light" within herself than ordinary living beings do, and therefore she can employ this extra "light" for various uses without depriving herself of the life energy she needs to exist.

Dagger's "light" responds to her mental commands, both conscious and subconscious. She can, for example, will herself to project her daggers of "light," but she might also release the daggers instinctively on seeing someone in danger without consciously intending to do so. Dagger's control of her "light" is limited by her own degree of understanding of her power and her degree of experience in using it.

Dagger can project her "light" around herself as a glow surrounding her body. She can also project her "light" from her fingertips, usually in the form of six-inch long wedge-shaped projectiles of pure "light" which she calls her "daggers of light" or her "light-knives."

When these projectiles strike a human target, they cause a biophysical shock reaction to the victim's nervous system by depriving him of part of his own life energy, or "light." If the victim is in poor physical condition to begin with, or is struck with more than one of these "light-knives." he or she may die. Dagger can also, by an act of will, generate "light-knives" with which she can kill even a victim in good health by depriving him or her of all of his or her life energy. Otherwise she can use the "daggers of light" to remove only part of the victim's life energy, leaving him or her temporarily paralyzed, usually for about five minutes, depending on the victim's metabolism. While thus immobilized, the victim feels frozen and ill, and fears he or she is going to die.

The paralysis has an additional effect on the victim's mind. While immobilized, the victim will have a vision of what he would be like if he or she fulfilled his potential for "good" (Dagger herself associates what she defines as moral "goodness" with the life energy "light." However, if the victim is an "evildoer" who is set in his or her "evil" ways, he or she will return to his previous ways upon recovering from his paralysis. A victim who is not so determined to be "evil" might be inspired by his or her vision to adopt a more "moral" way of life.

The life energy that Dagger's "light-knives" remove from her victims flows into Dagger herself, increasing her own supply of "light." At times her stores of "light" grow so large that they threaten to overwhelm the young woman. She will then use some of this "excess light" to feed Cloak's "hunger" for projecting life energy into the dimension of darkness to which he is linked. She will "feed" Cloak "light" whenever she feels he needs it and he will allow her to do so.

Dagger has a certain amount of control over her "light-knives" while they are in flight She can, for example, make them alter their trajectories in mid-flight. She can, use them to seek out and strike victims who are far away from her. The exact limits of her range are unknown, but are probably confined to within the borders of a city. The further that the "light-knives" travel from Dagger, and the longer they are away from her, the weaker they become. Dagger can renew the life energy of the "knives" by mentally commanding them to strike living beings.

Perhaps because of the emotional bend between Cloak and Dagger, she can use her "light-knives" to locate him over an even greater range than she can use "light-knives" to locate her victims. In using her daggers of light to locate Cloak, however, she is limited by the amount of light within her own body. Once, after expending a great deal of "light" using her powers to search Manhattan for him. Dagger nearly exhausted her life energy and almost died.

Dagger can also use her "light-knives" to cleanse people of various kinds of physical "impurities" which threaten to diminish these people's "light" or life energies, and hence may even threaten to kill them. Such "impurities" include poisons and addictive drugs. When Dagger uses her "light-knives" to cleanse a person of impurities, she does not draw life energy from him or her, as she does with her victims. Rather, she projects some of her own life energy into the person (just as she projects life energy "light" into Cloak's dimension of darkness) The "light" that Dagger gives the person gives him or her the strength to overcome the harmful effects of the "impurity.'' However, using her light to purge the "impurities" of others can impose a great physical strain on Dagger.

When Dagger's "light-knives" strike a non-living solid object, they sometimes ricochet and at other times disperse, perhaps depending on the angle and force of impact. They do not have any apparent physical effect on the object themselves. Although the "light" projectiles are called "daggers" and "knives," they do not have the same effects on living beings that ordinary knives do: in other words, the "light-knives" penetrate the skin without cutting it physically.

To judge by the conservative manner in which she employs them, there seems to be a limit on the number of "light-knives" that Dagger can generate within a given period of time.

Due to the great amount of life energy "light" that she generates, Dagger is the only person known to be able to travel within Cloak's dimension of darkness, apart, of course, for Cloak himself, without suffering any ill effects to the body or mind. If she accompanies others within the dimension of darkness, she can use her "light" to protect them as well, although even then the people traveling with her will see visions within the dimension that may terrify them.

The great amount of "light" within Dagger increases her physical agility and swiftness, although not to superhuman levels.

Cloak can "teleport" Dagger from place to place through his dimension of darkness. She herself has no power of teleportation.

Other Abilities: Dagger is highly athletic, and is able to perform various gymnastic feats with great grace and style. In part her athletic skill is due to her own self-training, and in part it is the result of the effects of the great amount of life energy "light" within her body. Dagger also appears to have trained herself to become a good hand-to-hand combatant, although she prefers to use her superhuman powers in battle instead.

Dazzler
Real Name: Alison Blaire
Former aliases: The Disco Dazzler
Identity: Publicly known
Occupation: Singer, actress, dancer, gladiator
Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Place of birth: Gardendale, Long Island, New York
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Carter (father, deceased), Katherine (alias Barbara London, mother), Bella (grandmother), Lois London (step-sister), Nick Brown (step-father)
Base of operations: (current) "Mojoworld" (in another dimension), (former) New York City; or mobile, usually in Los Angeles, California; later Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State
Group affiliation: (former) Gladiators, X-Men
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #130

History: Alison Blaire is a mutant whose superhuman powers first manifested themselves in her late adolescence. As an aspiring singer, Blaire was performing at a high school dance when her ability to transform sound into light first surfaced. Upon graduation she set out to make a name for herself in the entertainment world using her light powers to create spectacular effects as she sang. She used the stage name The Dazzler. Virtually no one knew that Blaire was a mutant; almost everyone in her audiences assumed that her lighting effects were created through technological means. Although Blaire had no intention of using her special powers to fight crime on a regular basis, time and again she found herself using them to thwart the criminal activities of gangsters and renegade superhumans.

Eventually Blaire moved to the Los Angeles area from New York City, and formed a romantic and professional relationship with Hollywood celebrity Roman Nekoboh. Nekoboh produced a motion picture (which was never released) featuring Blaire, and persuaded her to reveal publicly that she was a superhumanly powerful mutant. The revelation backfired, stirring up renewed public hostility against mutants. Blaire was virtually blacklisted in the entertainment industry, and had to take primarily low-paying obscure jobs in order to continue her singing career.

Blaire sought and received training in the use of her superhuman abilities from the mutant X-Men. As a result, she is now far more adept in the use of her powers than she was in the past. Dazzler has recently been spending her time in the Mojoverse with her companion Longshot. The two have been placed as the rulers there and are attempting to build their world into a much more fair and hospitable place. When last seen, Dazzler had decided to take care of the X-Babies, miniature versions of the X-Men created by Mojo.

Height: 5 ft. 8 in.
Weight: 115 lbs.
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

Stength level: The Dazzler possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Known superhuman powers: The Dazzler is a mutant with the superhuman ability to transduce sonic vibrations which reach her body into various types of light. This ability seems to operate over a great range of frequencies, including the audible spectrum (35 to 16,500 cycles per second), and a great variation of sound pressure levels regardless of the complexity, dissonance, or randomness of the sound. For example, a car crash and a symphonic passage of equal duration will both produce usable incoming acoustic vibrations.

The Dazzler, however, prefers utilizing the sound of music, particularly that which is rhythmically sustained. Not only is music more pleasant to her ears, but the steady beat of contemporary popular provides a more constant source of sound to convert. The precise means by which this conversion process works is as yet unknown, but it must involve a body-wide energy field that controls the energy levels of the outer electron shells of her body in such a way as to cause the cascaded release of photons.

The field thus operates in a similar fashion as the process that creates a laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) and apparently has the same efficiency as a laser (99.9 percent). The released energy is far greater than the incoming kinetic energy and therefore must involve another, unknown energy source as well. Left undirected, the Dazzler's light will radiate from her body in all directions, producing regular flashes of white light (white light is a mixture of all portions of the visible spectrum). By conscious control over the light she produces, she can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration.

Apparently the Dazzler must consciously or subconsciously will the light to leave her body. Otherwise, light would "leak" from her at all times, even when she was asleep or unconscious. The Dazzler can produce numerous effects with the light she converts from sonic vibrations. She can simply cause a bright glow all about her body. She can create very simple patterns out of rays of light like circles, squares, triangles, and stars. With effort, she can even create holograms of human beings and other three-dimensional beings and objects. She can create a pulse of light on the order of several thousand watts seconds of power, which temporarily blinds people with its brilliance. She can create a chaotic cascade of sparkling lights and colors that severely upsets other people's equilibrium, or a pulsating strobe-light effect. By concentrating, the Dazzler can generate a coherent beam of light, approximating a laser beam, with which she can cut through virtually anything.

Her training with the X-Men, especially with Cyclops, has taught her how to produce such laser-like beams with much less effort than it previously required of her. She generally directs the laser from a single finger when she requires precision in its use, since pointing aids her in defining its direction. But she can also direct laser blasts from both hands at once when she wishes, for example, to demolish a large structure.She most often uses her hands for directing her light effects, but she could also use other parts of her body.

Since studying with the X-Men, she has become adept at directing her blinding strobe light blast from her eyes. The Dazzler has also learned how to create a protective force field about herself with laser light that can deflect or vaporize oncoming projectiles. The Dazzler's potential to convert sound to light is unlimited. Curiously, she cannot use her own unamplified voice as a source of sound for her transduction abilities. The Dazzler's body, especially her eyes, shields itself against any injurious effects of her light transducing abilities, and against those of bright lights in general. Her ability to transduce sound also protects her from being deafened by loud noises.

Other abilities: The Dazzler is a highly skilled athlete, and has become a good hand-to-hand combatant thanks to her training with the X-Men; talented singer, actress, and dancer; highly accomplished roller skater.

Paraphernalia: The Dazzler used to carry a customized radio cassette tape-player to provide her with continuous sound until she learned to store sound in her costume. Professor Charles Xavier, the founder of the X-Men, conceived the idea for the special costume that the Dazzler now wears in battle. Devices within the costume enable the Dazzler to store sonic energy more efficiently and to gauge and focus the light she generates with greater skill. The Dazzler also occasionally wears a woman's size eight pair of roller skates which magnetically adhere to her boots. She is a highly accomplished roller skater, and can use the skates to move at high speed.

Destiny
Real Name: Irene Adler (possibly an alias)
Identity: Secret, known to certain United States government officials
Occupation: (at time of death) Special operative for the United States government, (former) Fortune teller, terrorist
Legal status: Subject of the United Kingdom formerly wanted as an outlaw in the United States
Place of birth: Salzburg, Austria
Place of death: Muir Island, Scotland
Marital status: Widowed
Known relatives: None
Base of operations: The Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia
Group affiliation: Brotherhood of Evil Mutants III, later renamed Freedom Force
First appearance: X-MEN (first series) #141

History: Almost nothing has been revealed about the past of the woman named Destiny. It is not even known how old she was at the time of her death, for whereas she appeared to be a woman in her sixties, it has been speculated that she was far older, and that her mutation had extended her life span.

Neither are the circumstances known under which she first met her longtime companion Mystique. It is known that at one point they traveled with a carnival, in which Destiny was employed as a fortuneteller. Destiny also lived with Mystique when the latter was raising her unofficial foster daughter Rogue.

The general public first became aware of Destiny when she and the other members of Mystique's Brotherhood of Evil Mutants attempted to assassinate United States Senator Robert Edward Kelly. The X-Men thwarted them in the first of many clashes with that team of mutant champions.

Eventually, tiring of being hunted as outlaws, Mystique offered the services of herself and the Brotherhood to the United States government in exchange for a pardon for their crimes. Thus the Brotherhood was renamed Freedom Force, and Destiny and Freedom Force's other members became special agents of the United States government. In this capacity they contended against such varied foes as Magneto, the X-Men, and the Avengers.

Destiny was slain by the Reavers, a team of criminal cyborgs, during a battle between them and Freedom Force. Her body was cremated and her ashes scattered at sea by Mystique. However, subsequently, the mutant Legion had visions of Destiny. It is still a mystery whether Legion only imagined seeing and hearing Destiny, whether her ghost appeared to him, or whether she has somehow managed to return to life.

Height: 5 ft. 7 in.
Weight: 110 lbs.
Eyes: Unrevealed
Hair: Silver

Other distinguishing features: Destiny was blind.

Strength Level: Destiny possessed the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height, and build who engaged in moderate regular exercise.

Known Superhuman Powers: Destiny was a mutant with the psionic power of precognition, the ability to perceive in her mind's eye the events of possible futures. Although she was blind, Destiny could mentally scan the probability spectrum of alternate futures and mentally perceive sounds and sights of events that distinguish them. By concentrating she could focus on only the most probable alternate futures.

The accuracy of Destiny's ability to foresee future events decreased in direct proportion to the distance those future events lie ahead in time. The greater the time factor, the greater the number of alternate futures to scan. She could comfortably scan the alternate futures that exist from one second away up until those that exist fifteen minutes away. Hence, she could be 97% accurate in her predictions of the future ten seconds away or less.

Despite the limited extent of her certainty, her long-range scanning could be of great use in the early detection of possible random factors that could disrupt her or her partners' plans. The more likely that a particular alternate future would manifest itself in her reality, the clearer and more distinct her mental impression of it would be. Less likely alternate futures would appear hazy and indistinct. If she left her precognitive perceptions fully open, she would "see" an overlapping succession of images drift in and out of focus as probabilities shifted and further elements transpired. By active participation in the events around her, she could help shift the probabilities toward desired ends.

Her personal phenomenal field, that area with which she could physically interact, limited destiny's field of precognitive perceptions. Hence, she could not scan the future for events that might take place on the other side of the world or even a mile away.

Diamond Lil

Real Name: Lillian Crawley Jeffries
Other Aliases: "Creepy" Crawly
Group Affiliation: Former member of Alpha Flight, Gamma Flight and Omega Flight
Legal Status: Citizen of Canada with a criminal record; pardoned by the Canadian Federal Government
First Appearance: Alpha Flight #11
Creator: John Byrne

History: Absolutely nothing is known of Lillian Crawly's past before she became involved with Department H. The only thing known about her time with H before its original shutdown is that she was a member of the second tier training team called Gamma Flight and that she was romantically involved for a time with fellow member Madison Jeffries.

Crawly was one of the members of Beta & Gamma Flights recruited by Jerry Jaxon into the criminal organization Omega Flight. Crawly was present for both of the original Omega's confrontations with Alpha.

At one point in time Alpha operated temporarily under the auspices of the municipal government in Edmonton, Alberta. Stung by Alpha's refusal of their funding (and control) the Federal government decided to create another super-team to take their place. To form this team, which was to be a new Gamma Flight, the government released Crawly and her fellow Omegan known as Wild Child and pardoned them both.

However, after her release Crawly decided to look up her old flame Jeffries, and ended up accompanying Alpha Flight on their journey through a variety of mystical dimensions at the hands of the Sorcerer.

After their return to Earth Crawly stayed with Alpha rather than joining Gamma. Eventually she and Madison Jeffries rekindled their romance, and the two are now married. [Compiler's note: It is unknown whether or not Crawly took Jeffries' name after the ceremony; hence her name is listed as above.]

Lil and Madison recently quarreled over the latter's decision to rejoin Alpha Flight. Not having heard from Madison in some time (and having cooled off a bit) Lil went to Department H headquarters to look for him. There she was forcibly sedated and restrained. Department scientists then began running experiments on her. One experiment apparently involved the removal of some internal tissue. It's unknown what methods the Department used to pierce Lil's skin.

The experiments eventually evolved to where Dr. Huxley attempted to infect Lil with the Weapon X bacteria. Lil's invulnerability prevented this. When last seen Lil was discovered in a holding tank by Mr. Gentry and Alpha Flight. The Weapon X bacteria were covering her skin. Efforts are presumably being made to remove the bacteria and set Lil free.

Diamond Lil possesses superhuman strength and an extreme degree of resistence to injury. Her skin has been characterized as being "diamond hard"; at one time extreme measures were necessary to do a biopsy of a possible cancer tumor. Even Lil's hair shares this resistance to damage; she has in the past employed one of her hairs as a garrotte. The source of Lil's abilities is unknown; she is presumably a mutant.