Monica Rambeau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Monica Rambeau | |
 Captain Marvel #1 (Nov, 1989) |
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| Publication information | |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance | Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982) |
| Created by | Roger Stern John Romita, Jr. |
| In story information | |
| Alter ego | Monica Rambeau |
| Team affiliations | Secret Avengers Nextwave Avengers New Orleans Harbor Patrol |
| Notable aliases | Captain Marvel, Photon, Pulsar, Daystar, Sceptre, Lady of Light |
| Abilities | * Can convert body into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum.
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Monica Rambeau is a fictional character, a comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. She has been a member of the Avengers under the aliases Captain Marvel and Photon, and is currently known as Pulsar. She was created by Roger Stern and John Romita, Jr. in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982).
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[edit] Fictional character biography
[edit] Origin
Monica Rambeau was born in New Orleans, Louisiana to Frank and Maria Rambeau. She has always been devoted to serving and protecting the public, both as herself and in her various costumed guises. Before she became one of the brightest stars in the age of marvels, Monica Rambeau was a dedicated lieutenant in the New Orleans harbor patrol, partnered with the daring John Audain. She also operated as a cargo ship captain.
Monica's life changed when old Rambeau family friend Professor Andre LeClare came to her for help; he had developed an other-dimensional energy-tapping device with financial support from South American dictator Ernesto Ramirez, who intended to use LeClare's technology to create incredibly dangerous weapons. Ramirez had already begun adapting the technology for his own purposes with the aid of scientist Felipe Picaro, but LeClare and Rambeau joined forces to destroy Picaro's prototype. In the process, Rambeau was bombarded by the device's extra-dimensional energies and gained the power to convert her own body into energy and back again at will. LeClare urged her to use this power as a crime-fighter, and she left the harbor patrol to become a full-time adventurer. Iron Man and Spider-Man assisted her in gaining control of her powers.[1]
Dubbed Captain Marvel by the media, Rambeau sought out the Avengers for help in mastering her new powers and became a member-in-training of their group.[2] Befriended and mentored by Avengers veterans Captain America and the Wasp, Monica soon graduated to full membership,[3] serving a lengthy stint during which she became one of the team's most valuable and respected members. Several years later she would be elected leader of the team. One early complication was the memory of an earlier Captain Marvel, the legendary alien warrior Mar-Vell, a deceased honorary member of the Avengers. Rambeau felt awkward about inheriting his title after she learned of his existence, but she retained the name since the Avengers and others regarded her as a worthy heir to Mar-Vell's heroic legacy. Another new Avengers recruit, Mar-Vell's close friend Starfox (Eros), disapproved of Monica using the Captain Marvel name at first; but even he was soon impressed by Monica's character and ability, gave her his blessing and saluted the new Captain Marvel.
She assisted Doctor Strange and the Scarlet Witch in battling Dracula.[4]
[edit] Avengers
As an Avenger, Monica faced foes such as Maximus, the Enclave, Annihilus, the Lava Men (who mistook her for the divine Lady-of-Light of their legends), Morgan Le Fay, the Dire Wraiths, Maelstrom, the Skrulls, Kang, Attuma, Freedom Force, an insane Quicksilver, Tyrak, and Grandmaster's Legion of the Unliving, even battling an army of Earth's major super-criminals during the Beyonder's Secret Wars alongside many of Earth's foremost heroes.[5] Two of Monica's earliest recurring enemies were super-powered psychiatrist Moonstone (Karla Sofen), who became one of Monica's bitterest foes, and Moonstone's powerful pawn Blackout (Marcus Daniels), who wielded the eerie Darkforce. Captain Marvel first encountered them when the Avengers opposed the duo's escape from incarceration in Project: PEGASUS. After that, Monica temporarily lost her ability to transform back to human form during a battle against Dr. Eric Paulson, in which she fought alongside Spider-Man and Starfox.[6]
Moonstone and Blackout would later return as members of Baron (Helmut) Zemo's Masters of Evil, participating in an occupation of Avengers Mansion and trapping Monica in the Darkforce dimension; but Captain Marvel escaped in time to help retake the Mansion during a series of skirmishes that left Moonstone temporarily crippled and Blackout dead. Another of Monica's major early foes was the murderous interstellar pirate Nebula, who shanghaied Monica into space for an extended period before she was reunited with the Avengers; but while Monica's adventures spanned space and time, she remained one of the most down-to-Earth Avengers. Her powers allowed her to make frequent visits to her native New Orleans, where she maintained a close and loving relationship with her parents. She even started a charter fishing business, eventually working on the water alongside her father, a retired firefighter and Monica's original heroic inspiration.
When an exhausted Wasp stepped down as Avengers chairwoman, Captain America nominated Captain Marvel to replace her as team leader. Though she was overwhelmed at the prospect, Monica accepted the post and filled it quite capably at first, even seeing the team through a conflict with the Olympian gods; however, Monica became increasingly uneasy in her new role, a situation made worse after ambitious new recruit Doctor Druid began undermining her leadership. Finally, when honorary Avengers member Marrina transformed into the gigantic sea monster Leviathan, Captain Marvel led the hunt for the creature; during the battle that followed, Monica made contact with sea water while in her electrical form and accidentally conducted herself across the surface of the ocean, depleting her energies so gravely and dispersing her atoms so widely that she could barely regain physical form, emerging as a frail, withered husk of a woman devoid of super-powers. Forced to retire from the team, Monica fought her way back to health and eventually regained her powers, though in a reduced and altered form that allowed her to surround herself with a manipulable energy field. She resumed crime-fighting, facing foes such as Brazilian crime-lord Kristina Ramos, Moonstone, Powderkeg, the Sons of the Serpent, the Blue Marvel and the alien Starblasters. At the same time, she served as a cargo ship captain in her friend Ron Morgan's shipping company before starting her own charter business. Her original powers gradually regenerated, fully returning after the alien Stranger helpfully accelerated the process.
[edit] Space adventures
Monica has yet to return to the full-time Avengers roster, but has stayed connected with the team and served often as a reservist, sometimes assuming leadership duties in the absence of the current chair. She helps repel an Atlantean invasion of the surface world and assists in the Acts of Vengeance, which involved a concentrated, multi-villain attack on Earth's superheroes. Monica led a reserve substitute roster during the team's first United Nations-backed reorganization. She takes on another leadership role during the Kree-Shi'ar war and leads an Avengers delegation.
When Morgan Le Fay overwhelms Earth's reality, she gains control of all the Avengers, making them her personal guard. Several of them, Monica included, break through the brainwashing because her loyalty the Avengers cause was simply stronger then the others. Morgan is eventually defeated. In this alternate reality, Monica's codename was Daystar.
Monica assists in battling the Wrecking Crew and advises the troubled new Avengers recruit Triathlon. She again becomes a leader when an unofficial force of Avengers must stop the 'Infinites' from relocating the galaxy. Monica further assists the team in battling the threats of Bloodwraith, Lord Templar, Pagan, Triple Evil, The Order and Scorpio. She is part of the resistance movement when the time-traveling villain Kang conquers the entirety of Earth (a move which starts with the murder of nearly everyone in Washington D.C.).
She is again called into action when Scarlet Witch suffers a nervous breakdown and attacks the Avengers.
She helps staff the Avengers' deep space monitoring station in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, being one of the few Avengers who could commute there with ease. For a time, Monica's mother was intercepting her Avengers calls since she feared for her daughter's safety and wanted Monica to spend more time with her ailing father, but Monica soon put a stop to her mother's meddling.
When the late Mar-Vell's offspring Genis became an adventurer, he soon became known as Captain Marvel like his father before him—which Monica resented at first. After she and Genis teamed up to defeat the Controller, Genis tried to concede the Captain Marvel title to Monica since he felt she was more worthy of it; but Monica declined out of respect for the Mar-Vell legacy, impulsively adopting a new costumed alias as Photon. More recently, Genis—physically and mentally transformed after a near-death experience and wanting to establish a new identity for himself distinct from his father—started calling himself Photon. Monica confronted him, tensely at first, but the two Photons ended up brainstorming super-hero names over coffee. Neither one of them wanted to become Captain Marvel again given all the baggage associated with the name, but Monica decided to let Genis keep the Photon alias after she came up with a name she liked better: Pulsar. A hero by any name, Monica remains one of the most formidable adventurers of her generation.
[edit] Nextwave
Rambeau later leads the Nextwave team, part of the Highest Anti-Terrorism Effort (H.A.T.E.). Nextwave fights Unusual Weapons of Mass Destruction created by the Beyond Corporation©. Rambeau annoys her teammates by repeatedly bringing up her experiences leading the Avengers, and she shouts the names of her energy attacks. It was also revealed in Nextwave that she blasted a dog when she was a child.
Despite the appearance of Monica as a member of Nextwave in other Marvel titles, in 2006 Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada stated that Nextwave's setting was in a universe separate from the main Marvel continuity [7], but this may have changed as the entire team appears together in solicitations for the Initiative. In addition, recent issues of Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, as well as Civil War: Battle Damage Report, consistently place Nextwave's activities in mainstream continuity, and other character's costume designs and actions (e.g. Aaron Stack's appearance in Ms. Marvel) collaborate this change in policy.
[edit] Civil War/The Initiative
During the "Civil War", Rambeau is a member of Captain America's Secret Avengers. Monica has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who have registered as a member of the Initiative[8][9]. Throughout her appearances in Black Panther she was portrayed as unskilled and insecure in her powers. These odd characteristics were explained in the final issue of She-Hulk, where an alternate reality Monica Rambeau from Earth-A was sent home, along with many other duplicate, untrained 'superheroes'.
[edit] Powers and abilities
Due to bombardment by extra-dimensional energies, Monica can transform herself into any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. Among the many energy forms she has assumed and is able to control are cosmic rays, gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet radiation, visible light, electricity, infrared radiation, microwaves, radio waves and neutrinos. She apparently accomplished this transformation by mentally shunting the matter of her body into the dimension from which she draws her energy and replacing it with a corresponding amount of energy. Her mind remains in the dimension to control the energy-parcel that has taken the place of her body. By assuming an energy-form, she gains all of that energy's properties.
She is invisible and intangible in many of her energy forms (the most frequent exception being visible light), and is capable of flight in all her energy forms (reaching velocities up to and including light speed). She also has the ability to project these energies from her body while she is in human form (only one wavelength of energy at a time), usually in the form of energy blasts from her hands. She apparently does this by creating small interfaces with the dimension from which she derives her powers, and letting the designated energy pass through. She mentally controls both type and quantity of energy she wishes to transmit. It is not known the maximum amount of energy she can transmit at a given time. A variation of this ability enables her to project light-based holographic illusions of herself and other than the fact they cast no shadow, they are extremely lifelike.
When she encounters a new or unfamiliar energy, Monica can often duplicate it given enough time for analysis, such as when she replicated and drained the verdant will-powered energies of an extra-dimensional emerald gladiator. Monica tends to be physically insubstantial in her energy forms, though with concentration and effort she can sometimes perform tasks such as briefly grasping an object, either by partially solidifying or by applying some sort of force to the object in question.
Monica also had the ability to shunt any mechanical energy directed towards her through a dimensional interface surrounding her body, granting her increased strength, resistance to impact, and the ability to fly. She had lost her ability to transform her body into various wavelengths of electromagnetic energy for a time, after a massive energy expenditure.
Monica has strong leadership skills and law enforcement experience due to both of her time as a police officer & former leader of the Avengers. She is an excellent markswoman, unarmed combatant, detective and swimmer with extensive nautical expertise. She has received Harbor Patrol training, and Avengers training in unarmed combat by Captain America.
[edit] Limitations
Monica is apparently unlimited by the amount of time that she can remain in her energy-form. She can apparently only transform herself into one wavelength of energy at a time, but she can transform between one energy-state and another in a fraction of a second. As noted above, the amount of energy she can transmit through her body at a given time is not known. Extensive energy transformation and manipulation can be physically taxing once she reassumes her physical form.
[edit] Other versions
[edit] Earth-A
Like other inhabitants of this reality, Monica Rambeau would periodically visit Earth-616 for vacations. Due to the nature of the interdimensional travel, she received duplicate powers to her counterpart and would masquerade as her. It is implied that the inexperienced Rambeau appearing around that time in Black Panther was, in fact, this alternate. Rambeau claimed that the main reason she visited Earth-616 was not because she would gain superpowers but because her parents were still alive in that reality.
[edit] Forever Yesterday
Monica is featured in New Warriors #11-13, in an alternate reality that is listed as Earth 9105. She is part of a murderous version of the Avengers, who enforce the will of the tyrannical female Sphinx. She briefly makes an appearance in Avengers Forever #11-12 when she and several other alternate, evil Avengers are brought forth in order to battle the main protagonists.
[edit] Marvel Zombies
A zombified Monica is shown attacking Magneto and his band of survivors alongside Henry Pym and Nightcrawler. However, Monica is also shown in her Nextwave uniform, fighting alongside the rest of the team against a zombified Power Pack.
[edit] MC2
Although Monica Rambeau has never appeared in Marvel Comics' future-era MC2 line, the comics feature her daughter (with Derek Freeman) Blacklight, who first appears in A-Next #9.[1]
