Synergy (comics)

Christine Trelane (formerly known as Synergy) is a fictional character in the Wildstorm universe. She was created by Jim Lee and Brandon Choi as a member of Stormwatch.

Christine is a highly intelligent woman with the power to activate the latent superpowers in humans. She is very organized and is usually assigned to a position of authority in the organisations she works for.

Fictional character biography

Little has been revealed about Christine's life before she joined Stormwatch. She does have a good relationship with her mother, who is still alive.

In the Wildstorm universe, a special comet passed the Earth during the 70s. The comet gave off special radiation that would turn many humans on Earth into Seedlings, people with (latent) superhuman powers. When the United Nations decided to create their own superhuman team, Stormwatch, the Seedlings were the most logical choice for recruits. Recruitment became a lot easier when Christine Trelane joined; a Seedling herself, her powers allowed her to activate the mostly latent powers of the Seedlings. As one of only a handful of Activators on Earth, Christine was invaluable and therefore she was given mostly administrative duties.

Christine did participate in several field missions as a member of Stormwatch and due to her training she performed quite well, but her powers were of little use during combat. She grew close to Stormwatch field leader Jackson King, also known as Battalion and the two had a long-term romantic relationship. When Henry Bendix was forced to resign as Weatherman, Stormwatch's administrative director, Christine was chosen as his replacement. During her time as Weatherman, Christine was given cybernetic implants.

Henry Bendix returned later as Weatherman and Christine's implants were removed. Bendix fired many Stormwatch agents, Battalion was assigned to training duties and Synergy became a recruitment officer; Bendix thought that Christine and Jackson's relationship would hamper King's ability to command.

Christine's recruitment duties led her to confront Samuel John Fleisig, a potential recruit. He, in fact, was a serial killer, made only more dangerous by the powers someone else entirely soon activated within him. Christine ultimately defeated him by turning his powers back off, a move that stuns and disorients.

Shortly afterwards, it turned out that Bendix had gone insane. Stormwatch fought him, but he escaped. This time Jackson was assigned as Weatherman and Christine was given the assignment to investigate Bendix's secret files. She succeeded, digging up much information that benefited Stormwatch and its allies. Shortly afterward Stormwatch's base Skywatch was invaded by Aliens and many of its members were killed. The Stormwatch base itself was destroyed. Both Christine and Jackson survived, but Stormwatch was disbanded shortly afterward.

Several members of Stormwatch went on to form the Authority, but Jackson and Christine remained with the U.N. They acted as superhuman consultants, not knowing that Stormwatch Black was still in operation, now the Authority and very, very busy. They became U.N. liaisons for the Authority for a while, but Jackson came to resent the Authority and their methods more and more, feeling that they were being used by them. During a party on the Authority's Carrier, Jackson was contacted by the Weavers who offered him and Christine a job. They both accepted, resigned from the U.N. and got married. Shortly afterward they disappeared from the public to form the Monarchy.

After the Worldstorm event rewrote the Wildstorm universe, Christine and Jackson's destinies had changed; now, they were again in charge of a much-scaled-down Stormwatch Prime, operating exclusively out of the United States and in a gigantic skyscraper serving as Skywatch instead of the former orbital satellite. Jackson and Christine's marriage seemed rock solid as they continued to run both Stormwatch Prime and the new, human-oriented Stormwatch: Post Human Division task force. But when a meeting of the minds was arranged between the members of Prime and PHD at Skywatch, the heroes made a shocking discovery: Jackson King had been shot in the head, with a high-powered laser instead of a bullet. Jackson remained comatose while the members of Stormwatch PHD investigated the crime and interrogated suspects. To their shock, they eventually discovered that the culprit was none other than Christine. In her confession, Christine revealed that she and Jackson had recently risked a pregnancy, despite fearing that their altered genetics would damage the baby, and that the baby was indeed miscarried and deformed. After the miscarriage, apparently suffering from delusion and postpartum depression, Christine became fixated on getting Jackson to take his focus off Stormwatch and onto the family they could still create, by any means necessary. She reprogrammed a Skywatch maintenance robot to attack Jackson with one of its lasers, knowing Jackson would not detect its intentions because the robot had no mind. She also programmed the robot to aim not for Jackson's cognitive faculties, but for the part of the brain that controlled Jackson's powers; as an Activator, the unbalanced Christine knew where to look, and believed that without his powers, Jackson would learn to settle down into family life. As a regretful Christine was taken into custody, Jackson awoke from his coma in full control of his faculties and his powers, and was heartbroken to learn what Christine had done. Christine expressed gratitude that Jackson had kept his powers, and as she was led away, said she should never have done it; "no one should ever be taken away from what they love."

As Christine was apparently delusional due to postpartum depression, it remains to be seen what her final fate will be. PHD team leader John Doran speculated that given her condition, she could only lose her job at Stormwatch.

She returns in World's End, as second-in-command to King in new Stormwatch: Post Human Division team.^[1]

Powers and abilities

Christine has the ability to activate any latent powers of Seedlings, people whose genetics specifically reacted to a comet that passed Earth decades ago. She can "partially activate" Seedlings rather than fully, providing partial access to powers. Unbeknownst to many she could also use it a power source to energize devices or generate enough destructive force to knock down buildings.^[2] She also has the ability to deactivate Seedlings, though only those recently activated. Synergy is one of only two known people in the Wildstorm universe with this ability.

When she was Weatherman, she received cybernetic implants that allowed her to control the movement of Skywatch, Stormwatch's orbital base. The implants also allowed her to collect and process all information that Skywatch gathered.

As a member of the Monarchy, Christine often goes on field assignments by herself. She has access to very advanced technology. Her powers were also altered in a way to read psychic imprints to view a person or objects history and enhance/manipulate the potential of anything she focused it on, often using this to control dimensional barriers in order to traverse parallel worlds.^[3]

References

1. ↑ "Stormwatch: Post Human Division" #1 (November 2006)
2. ↑ "Stormwatch" Vol 1 #19 (February 1995)
3. ↑ "The Monarchy" #1-12 (March 2001)