Lady Vic

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Background

A point of peerage

“Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton” is a courtesy title. This is because very few English nobility titles can be inherited by a woman. It also indicates that she’s a daughter of the title’s holder rather than his wife, but conveys no information as to the name of the title.

Marsh-Morton is her Christian name, and the title held by her family almost certainly has a different name.

The rank of peerage associated with the title in Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton’s family is also unrevealed. However if our understanding of usage is correct it’s at least an Earl – daughters of lesser nobility are not usually given the “Lady” courtesy title.

An Earl is mentioned, but with a title that cannot be accurate. Furthermore, “Earl” might be a courtesy title given to the son of a noble whose peerage is higher than an Earl’s.

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Powers and Abilities

Lady Vic is a highly-trained, experienced martial artist and a mistress of an impressive variety of weapons. She’s slightly less good than Black Canary (Dinah Lance) was before she trained with Shiva, but could meet an unarmed Arsenal (Roy Harper) on equal ground in melee combat.

Lady Vic can threaten even Nightwing under some circumstances.

Lady Vic’s main assets are her speed, weapons techniques and agility. She’s less dangerous when it comes to strength and raw durability, though she has a good pain tolerance and power of recovery.

Likewise she seems much less dangerous when she’s not properly armed. She’s a competent unarmed fighter, but she’s chiefly a weapons expert.

Marsh-Morton occasionally employs a very acrobatic fighting style, particularly to deliver long-ranged kicks to gain some space and compensate for her low body mass. She might be trained in wushu or a similar style.

Marsh-Morton is not just muscle – she’s a well-rounded assassin with solid infiltration experience. For instance she’s a remarkable actress able to hold a cover identity for weeks as she works toward her target. She’s also a decent detective able to work leads and informers, a high society type and an able motorcyclist.

Lady Vic is generally portrayed as competent, but she’s closer to cinematic scale than heroic scale. She’s also short on options against superhumans who can withstand her weaponry – but she knows it and will reasonably consider retreat against those.

Arsenal

Lady Vic’s arsenal is mostly about low-tech weapons, but occasionally includes guns. Recurrent weapons are :

• Punch daggers. Usually these are Indian katars, often called “Bundi daggers” in the US. Marsh-Morton’s preferred pair was acquired from a thuggee chieftain during the Sepoy rebellion (1857), but was unfortunately lost fighting Nightwing. She has multiple sets of very similar blades, though.
• Numerous designs of swords, usually of Asian origins, wielded paired or singly. Lady Vic has no visible preference between dual-wielding and single weapons.
• A paired knobkerry (a large mace with a haft made of slightly flexible wood to accumulate velocity and release it on impact) and asegai (a short spear with a broad head) acquired from Zulu warriors by a Marsh-Morton officer of the 24^th rifles in Amabhuto, in 1879.
• Large curved knives of Nepalese origin (Kukri), traditionally associated with the elite Ghurka soldiers of the Empire. Lady Vic usually wields them paired and can somehow throw them effectively.
• Throwing knives (two on each biceps, one on each forearm, possibly 2-4 more on the legs).
• Webley revolvers in .455 Webley, reportedly the Webley-Fosberry model and thus probably used by an ancestor during the Boer War. These high-caliber revolvers had an innovative loading and reloading system and were generally good weapons, but experienced significant problems when exposed to grit and going too long without maintenance.
  This killed their usefulness for the military, but is unlikely to be a problem for Lady Vic. The Webleys are always used paired, presumably to compensate for the limited ammunition capacity of a single revolver.
• Cavalry sabre with a Damascus-style blade, usually used singly due to the front-heavy balance.
• An old side-by-side, large-bore shotgun with no choke and shortened barrels. The buckshot spread was absurd, even broader than a video game shotgun. No data was provided about this very powerful gun.
  If you need Lady Vic to say something about it in a game, let’s make up that it’s a 8-gauge J&W Tolley African hunting shotgun made in 1895 for Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar of the Royal Family of Persia.
• An unusual approach she employed against Arsenal was to have a length of chain attached to the pommel of one her kukris. This weapon was thrown at Arsenal to have the chain wrap around his neck, allowing Lady Vic to close in and take him down.
• Lady Vic is a highly skilled archer, but only carries a bow as a mission-specific weapon. She doesn’t consider herself an archer, preferring close combat.

History

Elaine Marsh-Morton is from an English noble family of Norman origin, with a long tradition of working as mercenaries. Due to primogeniture  the military is a traditional occupation for English noble sons that are not the firstborn. Mercenary work is an unusual variation, though, and having a woman in this position is rarer still.

The Marsh-Morton familial estate holds a vast collection of ancestral weapons used or acquired during mercenary engagements. It also comes with considerable bills, and Marsh-Morton works as a hitwoman and enforcer-for-hire to prevent its foreclosure.

She travels with a selection of weapons from her estate – and her valet, a hulking and very professional butler named Bivens.

Marsh-Morton was nicknamed “Lady Victims” by clients, which she adopted in shortened form as Lady Vic. This name is sometimes erroneously thought to be short for Victoria, by association with her obvious English accent and Queen Victoria.

First blüd

When first seen, Lady Vic was tracking down mobster Angel Marin in Blüdhaven. Marin owed her a million in back payments for assassinations. Nobody knew where Marin was, but she located his paranoid lawyer and kidnapped the lawyer’s kid to force him to cooperate.

Lady Vic ran into Nightwing, but did get her payment when the new don of Blüdhaven, Blockbuster, paid her the money his predecessor Marin owed her – plus a retainer. According to Oracle, Lady Vic became Blockbuster (Roland Desmond)’s primary assassin.

Lady Vic also worked security for Blockbuster. To her displeasure was paired with the crude Stallion (Randy Hanrahan). When Blockbuster’s headquarters was attacked the pair responded, but were swiftly defeated by Batman.

In 1999 Marsh-Morton took a contract on Selina Kyle, who was trying to steal New York City by being elected Mayor. She infiltrated the campaign as “Diane”, a hard-working aide raised in the UK. This mob hit failed due to Catwoman (Selina Kyle)’s intervention.

The dead heart

Returning to Blüdhaven, Lady Vic was sent by Blockbuster to investigate an enormous hitman who had ravaged a local casino. She killed two hitmen who were after her target, and discovered that they were gorillas. Like the giant hitman, these were part of a Gorilla City mob muscling in on human turf.

Marsh-Morton and Desmond located a ship smuggling in Gorilla City weapons. They boarded it at about the same time Nightwing and Batman did. Incensed by the challenge to his criminal empire, Blockbuster engaged the gorillas in a brawl that sunk the ship.

Nightwing and Batman evacuated, but Lady Vic stayed aboard to fight alongside her employer. They killed almost everyone and narrowly got out alive.

Blockbuster kept one of the gorilla hitmen, named Grimm, alive. Demond’s heart had been having serious difficulties keeping up with his enhanced metabolism, and he wanted to try a graft using the heart of a super-evolved gorilla. Grimm agreed to serve as a guide to the hidden Gorilla City to find a donor.

Tartarus and Pythia

In late 1999, Lady Vic was recruited by Vandal Savage to join a team called Tartarus. Marsh-Morton performed well – she captured the current mistress of H.I.V.E., Adeline Kane, with the help of the third Red Panzer.

Starfire (Koriand’r) intervened and incinerated the dying Kane to prevent Vandal Savage from using her enhanced blood. Vandal Savage had Lady Vic kill H.I.V.E. co-leader Damien Dahrk before leaving, but Dahrk had secretly drunk Kane’s blood and survived.

Tartarus soon disintegrated due to dissension in the ranks. Lady Vic ended up holding a dagger at Savage’s throat, as she objected to murdering Aqualad and wanted to ransom him instead. Part of her dissatisfaction likely stemmed from the misogyny of most of her teammates.

In 2000 Blockbuster hired Lady Vic to join his onslaught against Oracle (Barbara Gordon). Phony information about nuclear weapons was leaked toward Gordon, and when Oracle’s agent Black Canary came to investigate Lady Vic captured her with Brutale (Guillermo Barrera)’s help.

Black Canary escaped from the plane carrying her back to the US. Lady Vic jumped to recapture her prey – only to be defeated in a mid-air battle.

Desmond later assembled a team to acquire a heart from Gorilla City – Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Lady Vic, Deathstroke the Terminator and Grimm the rogue gorilla. However, Lady Vic realised that Deathstroke had probably joined to kill Gorilla City’s then-ruler Grodd for his role in Adeline Kane’s death.

Marsh-Morton suspected that Deathstroke would also kill her as a Tartarus ex-member, and offered a secret alliance to Lance since she couldn’t hope to survive an attack by Deathstroke on her own.

Lady Vic stayed alive chiefly by sticking close to Black Canary. However, Lance and the case holding the super-gorilla heart were suddenly whisked out, leaving the unarmed Lady Vic facing the local military at Deathstroke and Grimm’s side.

On and off

Lady Vic escaped from this predicament and resumed working for Blockbuster. However, Desmond had grown weary of his henchmen due to their failures against Nightwing and his allies. He recruited a new killer, Shrike (Boone) and pitted him against the old cadre – including Elaine, even though Desmond was on friendly terms with her.

Lady Vic hung back, letting Boone work his way through Stallion, Brutale, and the Electrocutioner before engaging. Shrike only narrowly defeated her. Lady Vic survived, but was quite disappointed to see how Blockbuster had repaid her unflinching loyalty.

Marsh-Morton was then hired as part of the felonious female fighting force that took over New York City for Circe. It was met by a large array of heroines led by Wonder Woman. Lady Vic defeated Phantom Lady but was then met by Nemesis (Soseh Mykros) and Deathstroke the Terminator.

In late 2002, Lady Vic was working for Blockbuster in London, again with Brutale as support. One imagines that she was in the UK at that point and was the only merc Blockbuster could hire there. This would have forced him to make her an offer large enough to obtain her services once more.

Vic and Brutale tracked down an American woman who held compromising documents about the Blüdhaven police, but Nightwing defeated the two killers then recovered the documents.

Marsh-Morton was also a part of the huge force of mercenaries hired to defend Zandia against a super-hero invasion.

In 2004, Blockbuster sent his ally Tarantula (Catalina Flores) to recruit Vic. The outraged Marsh-Morton overcame Tarantula, but took the job when Blockbuster agreed to a doubled rate.

Desmond launched a campaign of terror and destruction against Nightwing, during which he came to doubt Tarantula’s resolve and ordered Lady Vic to kill her. Though Lady Vic dominated the fight, Flores got lucky and shot Marsh-Morton through the belly.

High society

In 2006, Lady Vic joined the Society, a huge syndicate for costumed criminals. The Society’s leadership had problems with a small team of independent criminals called the Secret Six and sent Lady Vic after one of them, Deadshot (Floyd Lawton). Marsh-Morton found Lawton in Star City, unarmed and with his ex-wife and his daughter.

Unwilling to make it messier than it had to, Marsh-Morton had Susan and Zoe Lawton run away before she thrashed Deadshot and prepared to execute him. However, Susan Lawton shot Marsh-Morton through the arm to save her ex-husband.

Mrs. Lawton then had Floyd let Vic go for their daughter’s sake, but Deadshot promised that he would kill Lady Vic when they’d meet.

Lady Vic was also a member of another large banding of criminals, the 2007 version of the Injustice League organised by Lex Luthor, the Joker and the Cheetah. This army of super-villains clashed with the JLA then attacked the wedding ceremony of Black Canary and Green Arrow.

During this battle Lady Vic fought Katana, but the large villainous force was defeated and arrested. As best as can be guessed that was the plan all along, the result of some deal Luthor had passed with the US government and Amanda Waller – who wanted to deport all criminals whom they could find to an alien planet.

Marsh-Morton was thus among the dozens of super-criminals sent offworld – but was also among those who made it back to Earth in 2008.

After she recovered, Lady Vic was among the numerous killers who took an offer by Junior (Alex Merkel) to hunt Tarantula and the Secret Six to recover a stolen magical card. Lady Vic briefly fought Catman (Thomas Blake), but had to retreat.

The next attempt also failed. Lady Vic skewered Rag Doll (Peter Merkel, Jr.) through one arm but saw that the fight was going bad and left just in time. Marsh-Morton returned for a massive assault as the Secret Six reached Gotham, but the battle ended when the magical card was thought destroyed.

Keep it a secret

In 2010, Lady Vic was hired to silence a witness under police protection before he could testify. She was delayed when the SUV carrying her mark turned out to have tougher bulletproof glass than anticipated, giving time to Arsenal (Roy Harper) to intervene.

Arsenal and Lady Vic got into an extended fight and Marsh-Morton won, but Harper experienced a sudden surge of adrenaline at the last second and knocked her out. Lady Vic was arrested.

Mere months later, Marsh-Morton was working with Bane and Jeanette, who hired 4 mercs on short notice when the Secret Six temporarily split. The other hires were Giganta, Dwarfstar and King Shark. The team went through an unrevealed number of jobs, which apparently were successful.

While finishing one such contract, they were hired by Spy-Smasher (Katarina Armstrong) to invade Skartaris in the name of a faction of the US government.

Upon learning of this, Amanda Waller arranged for the rest of the Secret Six to be sent after Bane’s team – including Deadshot. The two teams triggered considerable trouble and a war in Skartaris. After an unclear duration – time flows strangely in Skartaris – the war was brought to an end and both teams agreed to go home.

However, Deadshot shot Lady Vic in the knees and left her behind – though he did not kill her outright since Bane would have killed him in return.

Lady Elaine Marsh-Morton has not been seen since, though given her skills her odds of survival in Skartaris are good.

Description

Lady Vic has a distinct English upper class accent, which has been compared to actress Jane Seymour’s (probably best known as the titular character from the TV series Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman  – or Solitaire in James Bond flick Live and Let Die).

She has a very precise diction and grammar, is quite articulate, and abhors poor taste and mediocrity. One hoodlum called her “that chick who speaks like public television.”

Lady Vic is an attractive, very fit blonde and seems surprisingly young – perhaps in her late 20s. She has a huge mane of hair that extends at least to her thighs, but normally keeps tightly braided in a large queue.

There’s a sort of bladed attachment at the end of her queue, but it was never used as a weapon – one assumes it’s just a decoration.

Personality

Marsh-Morton is intelligent, well-educated, elegant, professional and refined. But she’s also a brutal murderer and a ruthless killer. She is a highly goal-oriented workaholic who demands professionalism from those with whom she works.

Lady Vic is entirely willing to take outrageous risks to get the job done – she once leapt from a plane without a parachute to tackle Black Canary in mid-air and recapture her. She is also willing to employ dishonourable tactics if necessary.

She is very attached to her familial history. Marsh-Morton will rarely miss an opportunity to mention a familial anecdote – for instance, how the weapons she is currently using have been acquired. Her filial duties to maintain the good name and reputation of the Marsh-Morton weigh upon her. She must be a great soldier like her forerunners.

Her countenance demands that she be addressed as a lady – her dual identity is more of a “polite secret” thing. Likewise, she demands that others adhere to the proper rules and etiquette of mercenary work, such as prompt and honest payment.

As an assassin she prefers to work alone. But she’s aware that going solo against most super-heroes would be a bad idea, and generally joins such situations as part of a team.

She doesn’t seem to trust most men, probably because of the macho culture that permeates the criminal and mercenary spheres in which she works. Her closer friends and allies in the business tend to be women, and Lady Vic seems to have a sense that they should support each other to avoid problems with the more aggressive male mercenaries.

Marsh-Morton has an extensive vocabulary, with an old world flavour. She’s not the sesquipedalian sort but prefers precise words over general, top-of-mind ones.

Lady Elaine might have some sort of low-key death wish. Arsenal noted that she was fighting with barely repressed rage, and she seemed oddly fatalistic about her likely death at Deadshot’s hands.

Quotes

“I’ll need the bloodstains washed off my livery for tomorrow evening, Bivens.”

“How clever. You’re fast with a rejoinder. Are you swift with a riposte ?”

“Champagne ? French I hope. None of that ghastly New Zealand swill.”

Lady Vic : “And what are you called ?”
Stallion : “Name’s Stallion.”
Lady Vic : “Refer to me as ’honey‘ once more and you will more accurately be called ’Gelding‘.”

Nightwing: “Lady Vic, you’d better get clear.”
Lady Vic: “I’m still under contract, adventurer.”

“I do not come inexpensively, Mr. Savage.”

“Filthy creature. Filthy jungle. Filthy trick. The witch will pay for this.”

“I’m right here, you bumbling neanderthal. And if you turn fast enough, I’ll be the last thing you see in this life.”

“You have to admit I played Queen’s rules, Deadshot. […] Live by the commission, die by the commission. People like us shouldn’t grow old, anyway.”

“Cheers, Anton. Mr. Demidov asked me to pay you a visit. He isn’t keen on your plans to besmirch his character. He would like you to remain silent. Forever.”

“I remember you, red. You’re Cheshire’s bloke. Jade said you were manky in the sack.”

By Sébastien Andrivet.

Source of Character: DC Universe.

Helper(s): Darci. Webley photo from guns.ru.

Writeup completed on the 9^th of September, 2012.