Angel One (Black Summer) (Avatar Comics) flying with her force field up

Angel One


Context

Angel One was one of the main characters in Warren Ellis’ Black Summer. Which was a 2007 comic book mini-series about powerful cyborg super-soldiers, and politics.


Background

  • Real Name: Angela.
  • Marital Status: Single.
  • Known Relatives: None.
  • Group Affiliation: Seven Guns.
  • Base Of Operations: Unnamed western US city.
  • Height: 5’10” Weight: 160lbs.
  • Eyes: Blue Hair: White


Advertisement


Powers and Abilities

Angel One’s Gun Enhancements are a series of cybernetic implants which provide the Seven Guns with:

    • Enhanced nervous systems.
    • A communications array linking them to the other Guns as well as general transmissions (which they can access whether their enhancements are running or not).
    • Links with their weapons.
    • A respawning function that allows their weapon virtually limitless ammo.
    • Abilities specific to the individual.

    These enhancements are activated by her saying her keyword, “Daedalus”.

    Her Enhancements primarily use magnetism. This allows her to fly, and to project a force field which can protect her under fire from an assault helicopter.


    History

    Angela was a resident of a western US city ruled by a corrupt police force and private armies. She was approached by friend Tom Watson who, with John (Horus) and Frank Blacksmith. These had developed the cybernetic technology which merged with other scientific disciplines to allow the creation of Gun Enhancements, gifting the recipient with cybernetic super-powers. Joining them, she was enhanced, adopting her codename and joined the Seven Guns.

    They began a vigilante action against the corrupt forces controlling their city. The Guns eventually managed to rout them, but not before Blacksmith was dragged to death through the streets by a police car.

    They became a more global group for a while. Unfortunately left them out of the country on September 11th 2001. But they did foil a copycat strike on LAX on Thanksgiving.


    Advertisement


    I don’t need your civil war

    They enjoyed a freedom to operate for a while. Then John decided that the President was guilty of a number of crimes, including starting an illegal war. John summarily executed the President and his inner circle. He then stood before the White House press corps declaring that the country should hold fresh elections.

    The military began hunting John and the other Guns. They were aided by Frank Blacksmith, who’d faked his own death and gone to the intelligence community to develop a group of Gun Enhancements for them. He first tried to kill the retired Tom Noir, who managed to overcome the thug Frank left with him. Blacksmith had been under the impression Tom’s enhancements no longer worked.

    Tom reunited with the other Guns, apart from John, who’d distanced himself from them during his speech. But they were unable to come to an agreement on how to respond, made harder since Kathryn had opened fire on the Army.

    Flashpoints

    Tom’s apparent murder while trying to surrender, on top of the continued attacks on him, enraged the Guns. They began fighting the army seriously, pushing them back a fair way.

    Angel-One flying with her pistol (Avatar Comics) (Black Summer)

    Heading to an ammo dump to re-supply, they were ambushed by a group of Frank’s Guns. Dominic was killed in the fight, but the others managed to kill their attackers.

    Learning that John was battling another group of Frank’s guns in their city, they gave him brief support to allow him a breather. But they then warned both him and the military to stay out of their city after they were finished. They then let the battle continue, while they went about saving lives of those affected by the fight.


    Personality

    Angela tends to be a bit impatient, and can get stressed and irritable with her team mates. Yet she tends to take a back seat in discussions among the group.

    She’s reluctant to enter killing combat, but once committed she puts herself behind the effort.

    She agreed to the Enhancements as much due to scientific curiosity as social conscience. But she seems, like the other Guns, to have become stuck in the crime fighting paradigm.

    It is unknown how much of her time is now taken up by her studies.


    Quotes

    Tom: “Your legs are a mess.”
    Angela: “It’ll be worth it. I broke a barrier.”
    Tom: “You broke your legs.”
    Angela: “I didn’t break my legs. Had to bevel out some of the bone to accommodate some apparatus, is all.”
    Tom: “You have power packs in there ?”
    Angela: “Small ones. But have you seen those sneakers with little LEDs in that light up when you move ?”
    Tom: “Sure.”
    Angela: “Movement generates electricity, which lights up the LEDs, right ? Same thing with me. Just walking will power up the gear. The power packs are just back ups. And the floaters bind between the bone and the muscle. No breakage.”
    Tom: “Have you tested the floaters ?”
    Angela: “Since the operation ? I know the power’s going into them.”
    Tom: “Yeah, but have you tested them ?”
    Angela: “It’s an old process, Tom, from back in the nineties. They put a frog inside a solenoid, spun up a superconductor under it, and the frog levitated. A superconductor is perfectly diamagnetic : generates a strongly repulsive magnetic field. Human being are weakly diamagnetic. The edge of field interaction is the floating point : levitation space. Obviously, it’s going to work better with metal under me. It’ll be fine in cities, not so hot in the country.”

    “We’ve got to do something. We’ve got to change the balance of power in this country. They don’t get to be right just because there’s more of them and they have guns.”



    Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG

    Tell me more about the game stats

    Angel One

    Dex: 06 Str: 05 Bod: 05 Motivation: Upholding the Good
    Int: 06 Wil: 06 Min: 06 Occupation: Vigilante
    Inf: 05 Aur: 05 Spi: 06 Resources {or Wealth}: 005
    Init: 017 HP: 030

    Powers:
    Flight: 08, Force Field: 06, Radio Communications: 15

    Bonuses and Limitations:

    • Flight requires nearby metals (-1).
    • Radio Communications is Scrambled (+1).

    Skills:
    Weaponry (Firearms): 07

    Advantages:
    Expansive Headquarters, Scholar (Physics).

    Connections:
    Seven Guns (High).

    Drawbacks:
    Alter Ego (Controllable), Secret ID.

    Equipment:
    GUN [BODY 10, Detect (Radiation): 12, Projectile Weapons: 07, R#: 02].


    Alter Ego

    Dex: 03 Str: 03 Bod: 03 Motivation: Upholding the Good
    Int: 06 Wil: 06 Min: 06 Occupation: Vigilante
    Inf: 05 Aur: 05 Spi: 06 Resources {or Wealth}: 005
    Init: 014 HP: 030

    Powers:
    Radio Communications: 15

    Bonuses and Limitations:
    Radio Communications is Scrambled (+1).

    Skills:
    Weaponry (Firearms): 07

    Advantages:
    Expansive Headquarters, Scholar (Physics).

    Connections:
    Seven Guns (High).

    Drawbacks:
    Secret ID.

    By Gareth Lewis.

    Source of Character: Black Summer comic (by Warren Ellis and Juan Jose Ryp).

    Helper(s): Roy Cowan, Frank Murdock.

    Writeup completed on the 11th of March, 2010.