Knockout

Background

Powers & Abilities

Knockout is a superhumanly strong and robust mutant.

She has extensive experience in hand-to-hand fighting and coordinating small groups in superhuman combat.

Knockout can hit people using a truck as a club. She didn’t even budge when Spider-Man body-blocked her.

Knockout’s costume seems to be armoured. But our game stats assume that it doesn’t change her effective durability. The metallic tresses are presumably part of the costume.

As a team the Femmes are (or were) an efficient, competent fighting unit with a simple but well-balanced array of powers and skills.

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History

The seed for the Femmes Fatales may have been planted in 1990, when mercenaries Whiplash (Leeann Foreman) and Bloodlust (Beatta Dubiel) were recruited by an obscure villain called Critical Mass to form one half of his “Band of Baddies”.

The Band tried to kidnap a powerful mutant child. But Wolverine tracked them down and intervened, with Spider-Man joining him by happenstance. Critical Mass and his henchmen appeared to perish in an explosion, though no corpses were found.

A few months later, the Femmes Fatales appeared with their full roster, under Knockout’s command. They had been hired to kill an ambassador from one of the Baltic countries. Apparently, they had been told to make it messy and loud. They chose to attack right as the ambassador’s plane landed, in full view of the press and various VIPs.

Spider-Man was present, since the ambassador was a super-heroes fan and had asked to meet one of New York City’s costumed heroes. Spidey saved the ambassador and narrowly survived the fight, but the airport was left a disaster area, with several cops killed, a large plane wrecked, a major fire, etc..

The Femmes Fatales retreated after Spider-Man knocked Mindblast out, as heavy police reinforcements were arriving.

Malicious missions for mercenary maidens

Along with the Tarantula (Alvarez) and the Scorpion (Gargan), the Femmes Fatales were soon hired by the Chameleon (Smerdyakov) as muscle. The Chameleon then launched a complex plan that nearly destroyed Spider-Man. Spidey was manipulated into renouncing his powers, but his ally the Black Cat realised what was going on and came to the rescue.

The Femmes Fatales and the other mercenaries piled on Black Cat and nearly killed her. But Spider-Man reactivated his powers in the nick of time and defeated them.

In 1991, along with dozens of other masked and/or super-powered lady criminals, the Femmes Fatales were invited to a luxury cruise. On the boat, Superia made her pitch to recruit them for her Femizons project.

The cruise was interrupted by an investigating Captain America accompanied by Paladin, but the fantastic flock of felonious femmes took them down, with Knockout clobbering Captain America from behind.

Superia’s plan was foiled a short time later, and the would-be Femizons disbanded. The Femmes Fatales returned to their normal business.

Furtive fates of the Femmes Fatales

The Femmes Fatales were chiefly active circa 1991. Whether they were active later is unrevealed. In later years they were only glimpsed individually, and it is possible that they stopped working as a team after but two or three years. The individual sightings were :

• Bloodlust reportedly lost her mutant powers during M-Day, in 2005.
• Knockout was glimpsed attending a huge AIM weapons expo in 1993, and the auction for the Venom symbiote in 2004. Some characters indistinctly glimpsed in the background might be the other three, but they did not seem to be together.
• Mindblast apparently resurfaced in 2004, as part of a large group of minor costumed criminals that Hammerhead was trying to organise to resist the government’s superhuman registration legislation. The assembly was unexpectedly raided by Iron Man and S.H.I.E.L.D.. How Mindblast fared during the battle is unrevealed.
• Whiplash joined Killer Shrike, Orka and Shockwave in 1997 to take control and ransom the USS Intrepid, a retired aircraft carrier turned into a museum. They did not seem well-prepared, however, and were soon foiled by the Heroes for Hire. In 2002 she was spotted having a drink at a Bar With No Name.

Description

Four women thought to be the Femmes Fatales were briefly glimpsed in their civvies. However, all four were young Caucasian women without distinguishing features.

A possible explanation is that the Femmes use image inducers – the same technology Nightcrawler sometimes use to look like a baseline human. These would allow Mindblast and Bloodlust to conceal their inhuman features, and Knockout could use it to change her apparent ethnicity for undisclosed reasons.

Another possibility is that Bloodlust and Mindblast can switch to a baseline human form, and the colourist fumbled Knockout’s skin tone. The latter happens a fair bit.

Personality

Knockout is an assertive, hard-nosed brick . She orders the Femmes around efficiently, and favours hard-hitting, relentlessly aggressive tactics deployed by a well-coordinated squad.

The Femmes Fatales under Knockout’s leadership will use their powers and environment intelligently, and will complement each other and communicate efficiently, never getting in each other’s way. They may not be very high-powered or geniuses, but they perform solidly and professionally.

She probably is a smoker, as she carried a Zippo lighter.

The Femmes Fatales fight without jabbering, focusing on execution – and keeping an eye on what their colleagues are doing so they can adapt their tactics.

Quotes

“I’m Knockout, leader of the Femmes Fatales ! Which means these ladies do what I say !”

“They call me Knockout, darling. Here’s why.” (POW !)

“The mighty Captain America tied to a spit. Wish I had my camera.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: Marvel Universe.

Helper(s): Darci.
Writeup reworked on the 16^th of November, 2012.