Armory (comics)

Armory

Cover art for Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1.
Armory is in the foreground.
Art by Jim Cheung.
Publication information
Publisher Marvel Comics
First appearance Avengers: The Initiative #1
Created by Dan Slott
Stefano Caselli
In-story information
Alter ego Violet Lightner
Species Human
Team affiliations The Initiative
Abilities Ability to control the Tactigon, an alien-created weapon worn on the arm that is seemingly able to transform into any weapon that she may need at a given time. The government is currently in possession of the weapon.

Armory (Violet Lightner) is a fictional character in the Marvel Universe. Armory was one of the new Initiative recruits that arrived at Camp Hammond with Cloud 9, Hardball, Komodo, MVP, Trauma and others.

Contents

Fictional character biography

Two aliens of unknown origin, one fully armored, the other muti-limbed, suddenly appeared above Earth in a struggle to the death. They both died as they entered the atmosphere and their weapons were scattered about on the planet's surface. The US government tracked and obtained the weapons of the armored alien, creating the superhero Gauntlet with one of them. The weapon of the other alien was presumed to be lost.[1]

Violet, a troubled teen in San Francisco, decides to commit suicide by jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge. As recalled later, she feels empty inside as she falls. The weapon of the other alien, which had come to rest on the bottom of the San Francisco Bay, reacts to her emptiness and shoots out of the water, attaching itself to her arm and suddenly turning into the one item she needed, a grappling hook.[1] The weapon gave her a new reason to live and she began to use it as a hero, saving multiple people in many different situations. Eventually, she gains the attention of The Mighty Avengers by destroying the latest incarnation of Ultimo in a single blast.[2] Shortly afterward, she was recruited into the Initiative and sent to Camp Hammond for training.

During a training exercise with the new heroes, Trauma's powers cause him to morph into a giant spider to exploit Armory's arachnophobia. Armory panics and begins firing blindly. She blasts off Komodo's arm and shoots MVP in the head while he attempts to protect Cloud 9 from harm. Hardball creates an energy ball to deflect the lethal blasts from Armory's Tactigon. Komodo regrows her arm due to the nature of her powers but MVP is apparently irrevocably dead. Armory is subsequently grounded from superhero activity and has her weapon surgically removed before being expelled from Camp Hammond.

Violet is seen talking to her therapist who wants the young woman to reveal the reasons why she was rejected from the Initiative Program, but Violet refuses. Scars on Armory's arm are commented upon, but she reassures the therapist it was not self-inflicted. Notes elsewhere in the story reveal that the alien device had been surgically removed, so it subsequently does not work for anyone else.[1]

The therapist decides to place her as an in-patient, explaining she believes Armory is still a danger to herself and others. It is revealed that the doctor is working with Henry Peter Gyrich, in order to be certain that Violet is able to keep MVP's death a secret.

The Tactigon is then placed on the arm of a clone of MVP. After interfacing with his mind, the machine causes the clone to remember his "death", and he sets out to kill all those he deems responsible for it.

Powers and abilities

Armory possesses a multi-dimensional device that is able shift into an infinite number of weapons. Armory calls it the Tactigon, and says that it has a built in safety that lets her only get the weapons and power she needs to get the job done. When Armory lost control of her powers, surgeons detached the weapon when she was kicked out of the program.[2]

Though the government's first attempts to utilize the weapon have been unsuccessful,[1][3] an MVP clone named KIA is later seen using the weapon[4] it is stated that this is because the scientists also copied Armories brainwaves and implanted them into the Clone allowing him to use it, however the Tactigon drove the Clone insane and sent it on a murderous rampage.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Avengers: The Initiative Annual #1
  2. ^ a b Avengers: The Initiative #1
  3. ^ Avengers: the Initiative #5
  4. ^ Dan Slott & Christos N. Gage (w), Stefano Caselli (p), Daniele Rudoni (i). "Killed In Action" Avengers: The Initiative 8 (December 2007), Marvel Comics

External links