Henrietta Hunter
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| Henrietta Hunter | |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | X-Statix #13 (October, 2003) |
| Created by | Peter Milligan, Mike Allred |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Henrietta Hunter |
| Species | Human Mutant |
| Team affiliations | X-Statix |
| Abilities | Empathy; enhanced physical abilities; can communicate with ghosts. |
Henrietta Hunter is a fictional character in the X-Statix series. She is a mutant with superhuman powers. She was a "pop star" from the fictional country of "Europa", and the one-time leader of the X-Statix.
[edit] Publication history
In X-Statix #13, Peter Milligan had planned to use Diana, Princess of Wales in a storyline which featured her returning from the dead as a mutant superhero. News of this leaked out to the media and there followed a series of objections, most notably from the British tabloid newspaper The Daily Mail. Quesada and Marvel announced that they would alter the character of Princess Diana, replacing her with a fictional pop star, Henrietta Hunter (still physically resembling Diana, but with black hair and a different hairdo).[1]
[edit] Fictional character biography
When Henrietta Hunter was a young girl, she dreamed of becoming famous. As she grew up, she became Europa’s hottest young pop star, until she was electrocuted and killed by a microphone that someone had sabotaged.
Henrietta’s ghostly spirit returned to Hawthorne House, the ancestral home of the Hunters. Her spirit levitated towards her body and re-possessed it, resurrecting her with a happy “ta-da!” X-Statix eventually arrived and saved her from the Europan government agents, who had recently arrived to make sure Henrietta stayed dead. Upon saving her, X-Statix returned to their HQ in Santa Monica, California, where Henrietta revealed that she was a mutant, gifted with empathy.
Soon after her return, she appeared on “Lacuna & the Stars” to announce her comeback. After her show, Henrietta met with Spike Freeman in Los Angeles, California to discuss the merchandising of her name, where she was attacked by an assassin hired by Europan agents Dicky and Reggie. The assassin’s plot was foiled by Doop and Spike Freeman then announced on television that Henrietta was joining X-Statix. To announce her membership, X-Statix appeared in New York with a red carpet arrival. While in New York City, Henrietta was attacked and kidnapped by the Euro-Trash, a group made up entirely of national stereotypes.
Euro-Trash retreated to an X-Statix Store in New York, while X-Statix fought with themselves over whether or not to save her. They eventually decided to save her and they teleported inside the store and killed all the members of Euro-Trash. After saving Henrietta, X-Statix held a press conference, where Henrietta revealed many of her charitable ideas. Later, Henrietta visited young Jesus Diaz at the hospital, whose legs had been amputated due to a landmine. Upon seeing her charitable spree (with their money), X-Statix decided that they must kill her.
Henrietta relaxed aboard a yacht, when X-Statix appeared. Lacuna tagged along on Venus Dee Milo’s teleportational coattails and warned Henrietta that they were there to kill her. She then convinced X-Statix to rethink the idea of killing Henrietta and they decided against it. Henrietta later joined X-Statix on a mission to Afghanistan, where she took out several members of a Taliban sect. When they returned to Santa Monica, X-Statix held a press conference, where Henrietta was announced the new team leader and United States Secretary of Homeland Defense.
After a modeling shoot involving her designs, Henrietta led X-Statix on a wild goose chase in an attempt to locate Mister Code, a mastermind responsible for various random sniper killings. Not having any luck finding him, Henrietta returned to the X-Statix HQ and used her abilities to communicate with ghostly spirits to aid her in throwing a dart to Mister Code’s location on a giant map of the United States. As she asked for help from the spirits, Dead Girl also spoke with the deceased in an attempt to throw Henrietta off course and further ruin Ms. Hunter’s image. When Henrietta appeared on television, she was pelted with fruit and other trash, due to her faltering public image associated with her failure to locate the random killer.
Henrietta led X-Statix as they broke into Lacuna’s lawyers’ offices to retrieve the incriminating evidence against them. Unfortunately, her lawyer had turned the evidence over to the press, ruining X-Statix’s image. In order to fix their image, X-Statix decided that they had to stop Mister Code. Determining his location thanks to Dead Girl communicating with Spike Freeman’s corpse, Venus teleported X-Statix into battle against Mister Code. During the battle, Mister Code kills Phat and breaks Henrietta’s neck. He himself is killed by the Orphan.
After Henrietta’s second death, her record company released a single entitled “Back from the Dead,” which mysteriously killed anyone who sang the song aloud. A young boy named Jamie sang the song and was killed almost instantly after singing it. Also, a man named Chester and his son Ethan were both killed after singing the song. Following the funeral of X-Statix member Phat, another X-Statix member, El Guapo, sang the song and briefly saw the reanimated corpse of Henrietta, causing him to fly his skateboard off course, crash into a plate glass window, and impale himself on his own board.
In order to get to the bottom of the deaths caused by Henrietta’s single, X-Statix had Dead Girl sing the song. She was instantly destroyed and as she was reforming herself, she too saw Henrietta’s corpse. After speaking a bit with Henrietta’s corpse, Dead Girl discovered that Henrietta was taking her revenge on those who wanted her dead by killing any who sung her song aloud. X-Statix decided to travel to Europa and confront the president of Europa. They then forced the president to sing her song. As he did, Henrietta’s form once again reappeared and X-Statix left the president to Henrietta’s wrath.
[edit] Powers and abilities
She was a mutant with empathic powers, the ability to read and feel the emotions of others. She could sense the pain of others. After the first time she returned from the dead, she not only regained her empathic abilities, but also increased athletic prowess and the ability to communicate with ghostly spirits. Following her second death, Henrietta once again returned in a zombie-like form. In this form, she, like other zombies, did not appear to require food or oxygen to survive. She also appeared to be able to cause unlikely events to happen that would cause death to those who sung her song. It is unknown whether she retained any of her previous powers, as she did not display any as a corpse.
