Magenta (comics)
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Magenta is a fictional character in appeared in the DC Comic's series Teen Titans. She is a former hero turned villain.
[edit] History
Frances Kane was Wally West's girlfriend during his Kid Flash days. When he discovered that she had magnetic superpowers, he pushed her to become 'Kid Flash's girlfriend' - a superhero. She became "Magenta", and used her powers as Kid Flash's "super girlfriend", and as a Titan's ally. But pressure of being a superhero put a lot of stress on her, and the pair broke up. West regretted this in his adult life.
Despite the break-up, Frances still had feelings for Wally (some of them negative), and when the Justice League of America fought the Teen Titans, Magenta came to help, even using her abilities to jumpstart a machine that was vital in saving Earth from massive chunks of debris from a falling planet.
But her heroic efforts masked her growing mental illness. Though Frances was often called "bipolar", as a darkly humorous pun on her magnetic powers, her illness more closely resembled multiple personality disorder; all the stress and resentment emerged into a vindictive and aggressive new identity, while her "regular" personality became unusually weak-willed and mousey. (It is notable that this split personality problem has also cropped up in another magnetically-powered DC Comics character, the criminal Doctor Polaris, though the Polaris character's mental illness apparently had a cause that predated his super-villain career).
The "new" Magenta forced a confrontation with Wally West (now the third Flash) which quickly devolved into a brawl, and when police intervened, she used her powers to rip the fillings from their teeth. Flash was horrified by Frances' nearly homicidal tendencies. Later, when Cicada began to attack the Flash, Magenta was an early convert. She was present at the final battle between the two, but escaped. She joined Blacksmith's rogues and garnered the unrequited attraction of Girder. She came to her senses and ripped Girder in half.
In the 2005 'Rogue War' storyline, she was shown as a member of James Jesse's reformed Rogues (alongside Heatwave, Jesse and the Pied Piper). When they attacked Captain Cold's group, she was defeated by the Weather Wizard.
[edit] Trivia
Although she was referred to as Francis Kane when she first appeared in New Teen Titans #17, all of her subsequent appearances had her name spelled Frances.
An early concept design for Magenta by George Perez appeared in DC Sampler #2, with the character's initial name being Polara and her color scheme consisting of red and blue rather than magenta and white.
[edit] Powers
Magenta can generate and control magnetic fields, which she can use to move, lift, and manipulate ferrous metals. She can focus her powers into blasts of concussive magnetic force that can shatter steel, or fire electromagnetic pulses to disrupt electronic systems. She can concentrate her magnetic powers into a protective shield that repells metals and most physical assaults. By surrounding herself with an aura of magnetism that has an equal polarity to the Earth's own geomagnetic field, she can cause the Earth to repel her upward, and thereby fly by magnetic levitation.
