Silver Swan (comics)
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The Silver Swan are three fictional characters in the Wonder Woman stories. the first Silver Swan first appeared in Wonder Woman vol. 1 #288. The second Silver Swan first appeared in Wonder Woman vol. 2 #15. The third Silver Swan first appeared in Wonder Woman vol. 2, #171.
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[edit] Pre-Crisis
[edit] Helen Alexandros
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Born to Leda Alexandros, Helen Alexandros is a bitter dancer who made a bargain with Ares to have a beautiful face and body in return for destroying man's champion, Wonder Woman. Helen becomes the mystically-created alter ego Silver Swan in the Pre-Crisis.
Diana Prince comes upon a gang of bank robbers, and a new arrival, a flying, costumed female who calls herself the Silver Swan, helps her bring them in. The Silver Swan flies off, and Wonder Woman discovers that the briefcase of secret documents she and Steve Trevor had been carrying is gone. Later, Diana and Etta Candy discover a rent raise has made it necessary for them to take on a new roommate. The first applicant, whom they accept, is Helen Alexandros, who has found the briefcase and returns it to Diana.
Unknown to both of them, the plain-faced, skin-blemished Helen is a former ballerina who has been badly hurt by rejections due to her "ugly duckling" face. After one performance in an ancient temple in Greece, Helen cried out to the gods that she hated men. At that point, Ares appeared from Mount Olympus and revealed to Helen that she was a descended on her mother’s side from Helen of Sparta, daughter of Zeus and Leda. When Ares asked if she was ready to accept her "heritage of blood", Helen agreed, and was transformed into the beautiful Silver Swan, with the powers of flight, great strength, and a "swan song" which could wreak destruction. Ares told the Swan that Helena would be able to change into her for an hour at a time, as long as she served him, and on the day that she destroyed Wonder Woman, she would become the Silver Swan forever.
Later, when Wonder Woman is attempting to return the briefcase, the Silver Swan snatches it away and defeats the Amazon in battle. But, unwilling to destroy Wonder Woman around witnesses, the Swan turns over the briefcase and convinces Gen. Darnell that she mistakenly thought Wonder Woman was stealing it. Meanwhile Doctor Psycho is able to use Steve Trevor to produce enough ectoplasm to turn him into Captain Wonder, in which identity he attacks Wonder Woman, and helps the Swan rope in Wonder Woman. Captain Wonder and Silver Swan fall in love with each other at first sight. They opt to take the captive heroine to the White House and kill her before the eyes of President of the United States Ronald Reagan. But Ares appears to the Swan and demands that she order Captain Wonder to send the Robot Plane crashing into the White House and thus murder the President.
However Steve Trevor awakens from Dr. Psycho's spell and is able to break Psycho's ability to maintain his Captain Wonder persona. Psycho crashes to Earth unharmed and Wonder Woman is able to break free. Wonder Woman battles the Silver Swan and defeats her, and the Amazon manages to prevent her plane from smashing the White House and endangering President Reagan. Disappointed in the Swan, Ares withdraws her powers and she returns to her Helen Alexandros identity.
[edit] Post-Crisis
[edit] Valerie Beaudry
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In the Post-Crisis continuity, Valerie Beaudry was exposed to radiation from nuclear tests while in the womb. This caused her to be horribly deformed. Valerie had no friends except for a pen pal named Henry Cobb Armbruster. The head of Armbruster International, he exploited Valerie's need for acceptance by choosing her for his Silver Swan project. Valerie was mutated by the industrialist to become the Silver Swan. He extended his control over her by marrying Valerie. He also used her to battle Wonder Woman and Ed Indelicato.
She later joined a short lived superteam known as the Captains of Industry. Eventually, Valerie reformed and retired her identity as the Silver Swan, but not before serving a stint in the Suicide Squad.
[edit] Vanessa Kapatelis
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Born in Boston, Massachusetts Vanessa "Nessie" Kapatelis had the chance to meet the Amazon princess when her mother, Julia Kapatelis, took in young Diana Prince when she first arrived in the United States. At first, she was jealous of Wonder Woman's beauty, but after Diana rescued her from Decay and the two got to know each other better, Nessie started to love her as the elder sister. The high-school student dreamed of fighting evil alongside Diana.
The trauma of her father's death while she was a kid and the suicide of her best friend Lucy, made Vanessa go over the edge and she started to blame herself for all the bad things that happened to people she cared about. Meanwhile Doctor Psycho started to cause her to have nightmares. To help her daughter recover, the school counselor told Julia that Diana had to leave their house.
Nessie eventually recovered but she could not forgive her mother for making Diana leave and she then started to blame Diana for abandoning her. Her mixed emotions were a perfect target for Circe who decided to use her to get to Diana. Dr. Psycho and Circe used mental conditioning and physical implants to transform Vanessa into a new Silver Swan and set her against her former friend. They programmed Nessie's brain and turned the young woman into a killing machine, releasing her upon Diana and her friends.
After Circe was defeated, Diana took Nessie to a hospital in Buenos Aires where she could heal. While she was recovering Sebastian Ballesteros, the man behind Nessie's transformation, abducted her. Veronica Cale, who hated Diana very much, bought Nessie from him and transformed her further into a cyborg, sending her back to fight Diana. However, this time when Diana defeated Nessie, she begged Doctor Leslie Anderson to operate on her and remove the cyborg implants. Diana then sent Vanessa to Themyscira for surgical recovery. As Themyscira has since vanished from this plane of existence, it is assumed that Vanessa is now in the care of her mother.
[edit] Powers & Weapons
The Silver Swan can create powerful sound waves with her voice. Her "swan song" is capable of devastating a small area of land with its destructive force. By creating a low-level humming, the Silver Swan can form a protective shield around herself that can deflect bullets and projectiles.
The Silver Swan can fly, but she needs her artificial wings to control her flight motion.
[edit] External links
Helen Alexandros:
Valerie Beaudry:
Vanessa Kapatelis:
