Deadly Nightshade

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Nightshade continued to develop and update her scientific and technical skills.

She also trained in the martial arts and acrobatics. Johnson thus became an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, mastering difficult weapons such as the bullwhip. She likes to claim she’s tough because she grew up in Harlem, but this is typical New York City hyperbole.

Given how quickly Nightshade can master new skills, our game stats assume that she could teach herself to use a new melee weapon or firearm without breaking stride.

She is also now more experienced and emotionally mature, but otherwise there are no major changes in her abilities.

History (continued)

(This section starts exactly where the previous one ended.)

In 1991, Superia invited dozens of female costumed criminals to a luxury cruise. Her goal was to present the Femizons project. Most guests initially assumed that Nightshade was the boss, since she was the visible authority figure.

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Johnson’s leadership saved Diamondback (Rachel Leighton) from death by drowning. Doctor N. deduced from scant clues that one of the guests had been thrown overboard, and sent an operative to the rescue.

Captain America (Steve Rogers) and Paladin later boarded the cruise ship looking for Diamondback. Nightshade had the passengers knock them out. Unlike the confident Superia, Johnson knew that Captain America would somehow escape and wreck everything. She piled up the security measures, but braced for the inevitable.

Johnson was right. Asp and Black Mamba freed the two men, and Nightshade was discreetly zapped into unconsciousness by Asp. By the time Johnson woke up, Superia had been stopped and the whole operation wrecked.

This would be a good place for a henge

Johnson may never have been reunited with Wentworth, though she wished to continue working for her. Instead, in 1992, she was coerced into working for Dredmund Druid.

Druid took over the Massachusettsan village of Stakesboro. He had her work using the blood of the captive Jack Russell (aka the Werewolf By Night), to create a serum that turned the entire population info werewolves. Druid could then use his powers to take control of those, giving him hundreds of ferocious servants.

Dredmund Druid plotted to steal the Star-Stone that once turned Col. John Jameson into Man-Wolf. He would then tap its magic to give himself great power. Meanwhile, Nightshade was angling to get out of there and escape Druid’s yoke. But she couldn’t get traction.

Things got worse when a number of feral superhumans came to Stakesboro. They were instinctively attracted by the energies emitted by the Star-Stone. Then Captain America came looking for Jameson.

And the lights all went out in Massachusetts

Druid had Johnson inject Cap with the latest version of her Russell-based serum. But being turned into a werewolf did little to stop Cap, and he was soon leading a werewolf rebellion. Nightshade tried to slip away.

But Jameson — whom her serum had reverted to a lupine form resembling his Man-Wolf identity — forced her to stay and brew an antidote to save the townspeople. To force her hand, he injected her with the lycanthropy serum and had her try her remedy on herself first.

Once the situation was under control and Dredmund Druid defeated, Nightshade was arrested. She claimed that she had been under Druid’s mental control and not a willing participant. This was probably a lie, but it was a credible one since other servants of Druid, such as Zachary Moonhunter, had indeed been mind-controlled.

Do the Harlem shuffle

Some months later, the Red Skull murdered Dr. Wentworth. This ended Johnson’s hopes of working for Superia again.

It was presumably at that point that Deadly Nightshade returned to Harlem. She started networking with criminals and mercenaries with ties to these neighbourhoods – presumably, the local mobs were less tied to the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk).

Nightshade would gradually become a crime boss of her own. Unlike with the R.U. Rossum plot, she didn’t rush matters. She also developed loose ties with old-school Harlem crimelord “Boss” Morgan – who presumably had never learned about the R.U. Rossum deception.

During that time, Nightshade taught herself genetics, genetic engineering and — to a lesser extent — medicine. She soon achieved mastery.

Walk like a panther

Nightshade and/or Morgan were paid a hefty sum by Erik Killmonger. The job was to harass the Black Panther (T’Challa) and bring death and misery to the Panther’s allies.

Nightshade’s first attack was successful. Thanks to various chemicals she had brewed up for this specific fight, Johnson left the Black Panther naked and stunned in a Harlem street. Random male passerbies mesmerised by Nightshade’s mists dogpiled T’Challa on the sidewalk.

The Panther escaped thanks to his ally the Falcon (Sam Wilson). But Nightshade continued harassing him and brought allies – Stiletto (Tom Stuart), “Cockroack” Hamilton (equipped with a gun Nightshade presumably built for him) and the Serpent Society’s Cottonmouth. Boss Morgan also came to take a few potshots.

The Falcon, Iron Fist, Bill Foster and Luke Cage intervened. Nightshade and her hired help were defeated. Tilda Johnson was again sent to prison – and she again escaped within months.

Puff the magic dragon

Deadly Nightshade decided to take her revenge against Black Panther. She procured the incinerated remains of a Chinese celestial dragon (Chiantang the Black Dragon, brother of the Dragon King). Johnson then used her genetic expertise to resurrect him, presumably as a sort of super-clone.

She joked about using magic to do so… but it might not actually have been a joke. Since the consciousness of Chiantang came back to the the body, she may have learned something from working for Dredmund Druid.

Resurrecting the dragon meant defeating samurai Colleen Wing (who owned the urn with the the draconic ashes) and conducting some really out-there genetic engineering. Thus, one suspects that Johnson’s revenge against Black Panther was more of a pretext to do cool stuff.

With Chiantang resurrected, Nightshade told him that he would now serve her or die. She told him that she had added a “genetic bomb” to his DNA to keep him in line. This was… taking liberties with the truth.

Dabbling in draconic DNA

Even Johnson’s genius didn’t include a deep understanding of celestial dragon genetics. Her hacks and fixes were unstable. She didn’t have a way to make the resurrection sustainable without months of research, a much bigger lab and lots of experiments.

Though it did not know that Johnson was lying, the Black Dragon’s pride was not be denied. He refused to play along and took her captive. Nightshade was kept bound to a chair in a janitorial closet without food or water for two days.

Chiantang planned to use draconic eggs to harvest draconic genetic material. He would then somehow use it to overwrite the “genetic bomb”. But the Black Panther foiled him and destroyed the eggs.

The Panther also rescued Nightshade, though she was severely dehydrated. Wakandan military doctors treated her quickly, and she was locked into the brig of a Wakandan flying cruiser stationed near New York City.

Nightshade easily escaped. But she felt that she owed the Black Panther, and remained in the cruiser as it battled the Black Dragon.

Unnoticed, she stumbled upon an unconscious man she thought was the Black Panther. It was actually a version of T’Challa coming from the future. This intrigued Johnson, and she started working on reanimating this T’Challa.

She was successful. Iron Fist intercepted her and locked her up again, but she almost immediately got out. She and T’Challa-from-the-future left the cruiser, which at that point had returned to Wakanda.

Future panthers wear the happy pants

The future T’Challa had a terminal brain aneurysm. Reanimating him was not supposed to be medically possible. This feat forced Wakandan authorities to keep Nightshade around, since she was the only one who had worked out a way to keep the future king alive.

Nightshade confirmed that this man was indeed T’Challa (and not a clone, double or anything else). She became his friend.

The future version of T’Challa was a high-spirited, honest, enthusiastic man out to have fun. Johnson grew genuinely fond of him, and was impressed by his courage and lust for life.

But even Nightshade couldn’t fix the Happy Pants Panther’s brain aneurysm. Johnson knew that the future T’Challa would die soon. She did what she could to ease his pain and allow him to die as he had lived.

When the future king (often nicknamed the “Happy Pants Panther”) embarked on adventures with old allies — Abner Little and Princess Zanda — Deadly Nightshade joined him. Along with a puzzled Everett Ross, she helped the Happy Pants Panther recover one of the Brass Frogs of King Solomon.

Enemy of the State

Nightshade then proved instrumental in defeating the Xcon conspiracy. She worked as an ally of both the present and the future Black Panthers. She used her scientific expertise to identify time travelling impostors, and to improvise weapons that the Happy Pants Panther could use to fight Iron Man (Tony Stark).

The Happy Pants Panther was further harmed fighting Iron Man. He and Nightshade were then separated when the Panther vanished in the time stream. This worsened the future Panther’s condition, until there was nothing Nightshade could do but to return him to his Wakandan suspended animation pod.

Days later, the vengeful Man-Ape (M’Baku) smashed said suspended animation pod. Nightshade attempted some desperate surgery on her friend, but lost him despite a fierce battle to contain the cerebral damage.

Distraught, Nightshade left Wakanda to return home.

Hippocratic

Tilda Johnson made another attempt at a civilian life, wanting to become a medical doctor. However, she did not have any diploma. The best she could get was a job as a medical secretary at St. Vincent’s, in Greenwich Village .

When she spoke out because one of the doctors made a wrong diagnosis, the vengeful physician googled her. He discovered that she had lied about her criminal record on her application.

This experience apparently hurt Johnson a great deal. She moped around until her unemployment ran out and seemed too dejected to return to her usual criminal capers. Presumably, losing the Happy Pants Panther made her determined to practice medicine, and she saw a return to crime as a personal failure.

MODOK’s 11, part 1

Needing money, Nightshade was hired by MODOK as part of a team of criminal specialists to perform an incredible heist. They would steal ultra-advanced technology from the Infinicide – temporal cartographers from the end of time.

Beyond her field skills, Nightshade was to synthesise the DNA of a creature from five billion years in the future. This would allow the team’s infiltrator to fool the genetic keypad locks within the Infinicide base.

Most people on the team actually had their own agenda. Johnson, the Armadillo (Antonio Rodriguez) and the Puma (Thomas Fireheart) were the only ones who had joined to earn a paycheque straight and fair. When the Spot betrayed the team to the Mandarin (Temujin), Deadly Nighthade was instrumental in storming the Mandarin’s ship to recover the stolen goods.

MODOK’s 11, part 2

During this super-heist, Johnson also saved the Puma twice. She chemically restored his super-powers when he lost them in the middle of the mission, then threatened to dissolve the ashes of the Mandarin’s father to have Temujin release Fireheart.

With only three persons not having betrayed MODOK, their individual payments reached more than $10M.

After this windfall, Nightshade may have received even more money from Thomas Fireheart. She had offered him her services to prove his innocence from wrongful accusations of Federal bribery.

Harlem renaissance

These millions apparently did wonders on Johnson’s morale. She returned to her Harlem contacts to run a small criminal empire. She came to be associated with the Rivals street gang, whom she used as informants, and several old school criminals whose career centred on Harlem.

Operatives included :

• “Cockroach” Hamilton.
• The then-current Mister Fish.
• Comanche.
• Spear.
• Cheshire.
• Cornell Cottonmouth.

Furthermore, “Big” Ben Donovan was apparently acting as her legal counsel.

Nightshade saw herself as more of a mastermind figure, a sort of local Oracle (Barbara Gordon) of crime. She chiefly communicated with her mercenaries via texting. Apparently her main gig was selling high technology to criminals. Perhaps she saw a niche as the successor to the Tinkerer.

She also had part of the police force working for her. These men likely were under chemical mind control, making them abjectly loyal toward Deadly Nightshade.

New Power generation

When the retired criminal Shades stopped paying for his energy-projecting visor, the angry Johnson investigated. She soon discovered that Shades had been killed by Bullseye. Then she determined that Shades’s son was active as the hero-for-hire Power Man (Victor Alvarez).

Johnson assumed that the goggles Power Man was wearing were some adaptation of her work. Thus, she decided to reclaim them. Her servant Cornell Cottonmouth was also interested, having been publicly defeated by Alvarez.

Nightshade easily took Power Man down. But she quickly realised that the goggles Alvarez wore were merely a part of his costume. Further analysis revealed that Nightshade’s goggles had been pulverised and embedded into Alvarez’s skin. Seeing this, Nightshade changed her mind and made Alvarez a job offer.

At this point Iron Fist came in and offered to teach Power Man how to use his powers and be a hero. The youth ended up siding with the Fist and tried to take down Nightshade, but she zapped him with a lightning grenade and easily escaped.

Description

Though the, hmmm, distinctive black leather bikini is the one most associated with Tilda Johnson, this is her warm weather outfit. The cold weather outfit is a dark purple or black leather catsuit, often worn with a long coat with a thick fur collar and a violet headband or bandanna.

Johnson still breaks out the bikini from time to time, but this is more a statement then her working togs. And the story where she wore it was revelling in its 1970s-ness.

Personality

Somewhen between 1984 and 1991, Nightshade became a young adult. She was no longer a teenage girl running around playing weird games.

While she was still a manipulator with a juvenile streak, she was now a competent, highly intelligent operative and officer. She could calmly handle important responsibilities rather than just fool around in her lab.

During this era one of Johnson’s personality traits becomes more obvious. Having so few peers, she seeks the approval of persons of super-genius-level intelligence. Wanting to work with Superia, whose scientific achievements dwarfed Nightshade’s, may have been one of the main drives in maturing during this era.

This personality trait also likely explains why she was so dejected when the Yellow Claw let go of their joint venture. And it was even more patent in how attached she got to the future version of the Black Panther.

Whereas she treats ordinary folks like tools and pawns, and doesn’t seem to relate to them in the least, losing the company of a peer devastates her.

M4d sk1llz

Nightshade is a scientist. If she sees something she finds interesting as a chemist, biochemist, computer scientist, geneticist, medical doctor, engineer, etc. etc. she’ll want to see how it works and what she can do with it.

She thinks nothing of taking personal risks just so she can try a few experiments with something intriguing, to understand what it is.

Since she trained to fight, Nightshade no longer angles toward escaping when the situation goes physical. She seems interested in physical confrontation, even against overwhelming opponents. Of course, she will bring mission-specific gadgets to counter the advantages of her foe, and exploit their weaknesses.

Despite the heightened risks to her person, she’s still smooth and confident. Sometimes one wonders whether she realises that many of her opponents could send her right to the hospital with a few good hits. There’s a vague sense that she thinks she’s too pretty and charming for most men (particularly heroic ones) to harm.

But when they said, “Sit down,” I stood up

Johnson no longer does the innocent little girl thing. Instead she developed a sarcastic style. She fakes respect, politeness and consideration for her opponents but doesn’t really give a damn. She affects a Harlem style to her speech, calls most people “sugah”, and is something of a New York City wisenheimer.

But she still has a whiney-pouting-little-girl streak from time to time. Especially if somebody wants her to do something she doesn’t feel like doing.

During this era, Johnson evidences a slight phobia of being physically restrained.

She also demonstrated a crude honour system. If somebody saves her life or otherwise does her a solid, she’ll feel more comfortable helping them back in some manner. This help may actually be significant – given her strange perception of risk, she won’t hesitate to put herself in harm’s way to help.

There’s still crime in the city, but it’s good to be free.

After mourning the Happy Pants Black Panther (and being paid millions by MODOK), Deadly Nightshade resumed her criminal career as a Harlem mastermind and crimelord.

She’s now a boss, and makes it clear that she’s the one in charge. She is running a thriving business that demands discipline from its contractors – and a solid strategy. She obviously likes being obeyed without questions.

Between her enjoyment of power and authority, her catsuit and the whip, she also carries a dominatrix vibe.

A bad girl in Harlem

Nightshade continues to adopt certain Harlem mannerisms and expressions. She obviously made peace with origins she previously resented.

She’s now more a negotiator than a manipulator, but she retains her remarkable confidence in the face of superior force. Johnson is particularly pragmatic, and seems to take pride in that.

Deadly Nightshade is a technophile. Her modus operandi is strongly affected by the technical aspects that are part of the life of American 20-somethings, such as heavy smartphone use, social media and quickly reacting to new data and opportunities.

Her youth remains an important part of the character, but she has grown up by a few years and times have moved on.

Quotes

“Captain America… you don’t know what a treat this is being able to ply my trade upon your exquisite physique again so soon. […] Captain… get ready to howl !” (injects Cap with her werewolf serum)

“My guess is your uniform uses chemical gates as filters so my little gas trick is wasted on you. Which takes us to the next level… a paralytic enzyme in an acidic base that will eat through your uniform — and attack your central nervous system on contact.”

“Just like in the movies… a little life from death… not that death ever meant anything to you, anyway. You are a magic dude, and magic dudes can die and come back three, four, eight times.”

(Kicking Iron Fist in the face by surprise) “Right on, sugah — Nightshade likes to be where the action is ! Hey, Danny. Been a long time.”

“Well, sorry, sugah, but there ain’t no antidote. I repaired *most* of his genetic code, but there was a lot I did not get. So… well… I kind of faked it. A little creative tinkering, Fist — no harm no foul. The lizard will be dead in half an hour.”

“Because I’m needed, Rossie-pooh. Remember, I’m the one who brought Panther out of his coma. I’m the only one who knows how to keep him alive.”

“C’mon, sugah — time to rock and roll.”

“Ross — he’s dying. I can’t stop it. He’s got some kind of brain aneurysm — arrested, but irreparable. All I can do is make him as comfortable as I can. Even so, he’s in tremendous pain. I don’t know how the man stands up. Being a ‘villain’, I’m not supposed to care. But… the guy kind of grows on you. He’s… the bravest man I know… and this, most likely, his last battle.”

“They’re made out of some kind of organic ceramic… may be susceptible to acidified dimethoxypropane …”

“The absorbing crystal from the visor — it’s embedded in your skin. Don’t take a genius to reasons out the how’s and why’s. Fortunately… I am a genius. And this puts something of a different light on things.”

“Come work for me, help me with collections… expanding my territory outside Harlem… your mind can’t contain the bank you’ll make.”

“Don’t let the bullwhip and Princess Leia afro fool you, baby. Deadly Nightshade ain’t nothing but a problem-solver.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Gareth Lewis, Darci.

Writeup revised and updated on the 12^th of July, 2018.