Plasma (comics)
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Plasma (Leila O'Toole) is a fictional character, a mutant in the Marvel Comics Universe. Her first appearance was in Marvel Comics Presents #24.
Little is known about the young life of Leila O'Toole. Apparently, while in college, she went to Egypt to explore the ruins in the Nile Valley. While there, she encountered the Cult of the Pharaoh, an organization created by the Living Pharaoh. Since his departure from Earth, the Cult continued to exist whilst they searched for a new powerful person to worship. O'Toole was intrigued by this Cult, and was soon indoctrinated into their ways.
As time passed, O'Toole learned from the high priest information concering Alex Summers, otherwise known as the X-Man Havok. She learned that the Living Pharaoh had a psychic link with Summers, and that Summers' cosmically-spawned power prevented the Living Pharaoh from utilizing his power to its fullest. The Cult surmised that if Summers could be captured again, as he had been by the Cult once before, his power could be dampened and one of the new members of the cult, who were all relations of the Living Pharaoh, could rise to power.
Soon, O'Toole and a group of cultists calling themselves Trackers located Summers in Australia. Pretending to be in trouble, O'Toole lured Summers to her as the Trackers attacked. Summers repulsed the Trackers, and O'Toole felt energized by Summers' energy blasts. She realized that she needed Summers' power to grow stronger, so she rescued Summers from the Trackers' attempt to drop a cosmic ray shielding substance on him. Summers and O'Toole fled, with the Trackers believing O'Toole a traitor.
During the weeks that followed, Summers fell in love with O'Toole. Soon, though, the Trackers returned and kidnapped O'Toole, returning her to Egypt. Soon after, Summers arrived in Egypt searching for O'Toole. He was captured and forced to fight in an arena against the Trackers including, unbeknownst to him, O'Toole. Summers defeated all of the Trackers except for O'Toole, who grew more powerful as the fight went on, absorbing Havok's power. Calling herself Plasma, O'Toole revealed herself to Summers and implored him to fire on her again. He refused, and she attacked. The timely arrival of Havok's fellow X-Man Wolverine ended the fight, and the two left an unsonscious Plasma in the rubble of the Cult's headquarters.
After her defeat at the hands of Havok, Plasma became even more committed to follow in the footsteps of her infamous uncle. She sought to unite all the Cults of the Middle East by showing them that she was the chosen of all their Gods. Starting with the Cult of Khonshu, the Moon God of Vengeance, Plasma intended to launch a Jihad the likes of which the world had never seen before.
This brought Plasma into conflict with Khonshu's earthly avatar, Moon Knight, and the spirit of vengeance known as the Ghost Rider. During a pitched battle with the heroes, Plasma was seemingly killed when the train she was riding slammed into a wall and exploded. It remains to be seen whether the threat of Plasma has truly been ended.
[edit] Powers
Plasma is a mutant with the ability to absorb ambient cosmic energy into her body's cells, where it is transformed into destructive energy which she can project through her hands with a thus far maximum force equivalent to 30 pounds of TNT. Her maximum level is unknown. As Plasma absorbs cosmic energy, her mass increases propirtionately. As her mass increases, her strength and resistance to injury likewise increase. Thus, if Plasma were ten feet tall, she would be able to lift 800 pounds. The full extent of her strength is as yet unknown, as is the length of time this increase lasts after she is exposed to cosmic energy.
