Titania

They are handy characters, useful in many campaigns.

1. They’re deadly psychotic henchmen, comfortable working for a master villain but with an agenda of their own.
2. They’ve got a handy array of abilities which allow them a lot of tactical choices.
3. They excel at surprise attacks, but are less impressive when it comes to endurance.

Titania occupies an interesting niche. DC is short on pure bricks , and relatively few of those are women. Titania’s pretty much the only female member of the Legion’s Rogues Gallery who can slug it out with the LSH’s super-strong contingent.

Advertisement

Background

Powers and Abilities

Titania is a classic brick, possessed of tremendous super-strength and endurance. She’s dangerously skilled in hand-to-hand combat.

Despite her size, she moves deceptively quickly and quietly. She often manages to sneak up on opponents.

Titania is familiar with space travel and, after joining the Legion of Super-Villains, makes use of LSV equipment allowing her to fly, breathe, and communicate in space.

History

Titania is one of six children (five humans and one alien rock creature) who blamed the Legion of Super-Heroes for the death of their homeworld.

Advertisement

She came from planet Korlon

The planet had been colonized by humans from the United Planets (UP) and named Korlon. But the colonists soon discovered that Korlon was already inhabited by a native race of sentient silicon-based beings. These rock beings called their world Dryad.

Once the Dryads determined that the human colonists were peaceful, they revealed themselves, and the humans and Dryads formed a harmonious joint society.

But that society was doomed. Dryad began to experience cataclysmic upheavals, and it became clear that the destruction of the planet was imminent. The colonists appealed for aid to the United Planets, which sent emergency ships and personnel.

The planet was successfully evacuated, thanks in large part to a team of Legionnaires who assisted (Superboy, Phantom Girl, Colossal Boy, Ultra Boy, Light Lass, and Timber Wolf).

But Titania and several other children were too young to understand what happened and were badly traumatized by the death of their world. Their young minds absorbed the terror of evacuation, horrific scenes of the destruction of the planet, and the prominence of six colorfully garbed figures ordering them to leave their homes.

Titania and the others became fixated on those six Legionnaires, blaming them for the destruction of Dryad and developing a pathological hatred of them.

A League of Their Own, part 1

About five years later, the now-teenaged children were approached by a benefactor calling himself the Dark Man. A clone of old Legion foe Tharok, the Dark Man knew he would sooner or later be opposed by the Legion and sought to weaken them. The hatred of the young Korlonians made them perfect for his plans. Over the course of a year he granted the five humans super-powers.

He gave Titania her new name, reflecting her great strength. The others were Neutrax, Mist Master, Lazon, and the Silver Slasher. These five, plus the young Dryad Blok, were now “The League of Super-Assassins”. Superhumanly powerful, with a strong group identity based on their kinship and their pathological hatred of the Legionnaires, they were perfect for his plans. Giving them a starship, he sent them to Earth to assassinate the Legionnaires they hated.

It should be noted that there are several troubling discrepancies in the Super-Assassins’ story. They routinely address each other as “cousin” (Titania and Silver Slasher call each other “sister”), including Blok, who is not human.

A League of Their Own, part 2

Maybe that could be explained away. Maybe, for instance, the Korlonians and Dryads were so thoroughly integrated that they formed joint households and “adopted” each other as family.

But when they first came to Earth, the Super-Assassins (including Blok) seemed unaware that Blok was not human, and had not been granted his powers by the Dark Man. Likewise, while the others all acknowledged the Dark Man as their benefactor and the source of their powers, they simultaneously blamed the Legion for robbing them of their humanity.

The Silver Slasher explicitly blamed the LSH for turning her into what she was, and for turning Blok into “a monster”.

The most likely explanation for all this is that the Dark Man, a telepathic vampire and super-scientific genius, brainwashed and mind-warped them as well as giving them powers.

Assassins Attack !

En route to Earth the Super-Assassins were intercepted by a Science Police patrol craft. In mere seconds, Lazon took on his light form, entered the vacuum of space to engage the SPs, and easily destroyed their ship before they could report to anyone else. Most of the SPs on board were killed.

With Earth’s defenses weakened by the aftermath of the Earthwar (a Khund invasion backed by the Dark Circle and Mordru), they were able to elude other patrols and make planetfall undetected. Lazon, the nominal leader, commanded them to split up and ambush their chosen Legionnaires.

The League members each defeated their targets: Mist Master incapacitated Colossal Boy, the Silver Slasher and Blok defeated Timber Wolf and Light Lass, and Titania and Neutrax defeated Phantom Girl and Ultra Boy. Last of all, Lazon attacked and defeated Superboy himself by becoming a green kryptonite laser beam.

However, Superboy’s super-senses had detected the Assassins before they launched their attacks. With his super-hearing, Superboy heard Lazon boasting about his ability to become kryptonite radiation. Because of this, Superboy chose not to confront the Assassins head-to-head. Instead he faked his death and that of his teammates.

In actuality, each of the six targeted Legionnaires was placed in suspended animation while battling the Super-Assassins.

Darkness Falls

Meanwhile Superboy alerted Brainiac 5 to the danger, and Brainy recruited the help of the Legion of Substitute Heroes. With his tactical guidance, the Subs turned the tables and ambushed the Super-Assassins.

Titania herself was badly rattled by the Subs’ ambush. The darkness conjured up by Color Kid unnerved her, and the waves of ice, sheets of flame, and writhing vines that struck out of the dark seemed to have no source.

Titania panicked, unable to handle a foe she couldn’t punch. In the dark she stumbled into Night Girl, who KOed her. The Subs soundly defeated the whole team. Brainy was then able to revive the Legionnaires, overcoming the suspension effect by draining Lazon’s energies. The Super-Assassins were imprisoned on Earth.

Later that year the Legion battled the Fatal Five under the command of the Dark Man, and the Legionnaires came to the assassins seeking information. The human members of the Super-Assassins violently refused to cooperate, shouting threats that showed they still intended to kill the Legionnaires. All attempts to convince them that the Legion had helped save their people were useless.

This lends credence to the notion that the Dark Man had brainwashed them, permanently warping their minds.

But Blok (who has shown heightened resistance to human telepathy) did agree to help. Apparently his conditioning had faded. His assistance to the Legion was so valuable that he soon earned Legion membership.

From League to Legion, part 1

The other five remained in prison a year or two more, until they were teleported away to join the Legion of Super-Villains.

As part of the LSV, the Super-Assassins swore a blood oath to each kill at least one Legionnaire, transferring their hatred from a few individual Legionnaires to the team as a whole. The five former Super-Assassins intended a special vengeance on Blok, who they considered a traitor.

After the defeat of the LSV, Titania was imprisoned on the UP prison planetoid, Takron-Galtos. When the prison planet was evacuated during the Crisis on Infinite Earths, she was transferred to the United Planets’ new prison world, Labyrinth. During the evacuation some prisoners (including many LSVers, Titania and Silver Slasher among them) got free and tried to escape, but the LSH stopped them.

Some months later a Khund warrior called “Garax of the Glow” infiltrated Labyrinth and caused a massive systems failure. Hundred of prisoners escaped their cells or woke from suspended animation. Lazon, Titania, and Silver Slasher were among them, and Lazon acted as a ringleader for the prisoners.

From League to Legion, part 2

He led them to the armory, burning through its protective force field so that the prisoners could arm themselves and assault the hangars to capture ships and get off-world. But the Legion intervened in force, and were able to help the Science Police recapture almost all the prisoners. Only the Emerald Empress escaped, which had been Garax’s intention.

Titania was still on a UP prison world a few years later, when she and dozens of other super-villains were broken out to join Superboy-Prime’s expanded LSV. She presumably went back to prison after the events of Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds.

Not long afterwards, Saturn Queen led another prison break and started another iteration of the Legion of Super-Villains, but Titania and her family were not among the escaped prisoners.

Description

Titania is a massive woman, nearly 6 and a half feet tall, with bright red hair. Her costume is a magenta skin-tight dress, trimmed with white and silver. It leaves her legs completely bare except for silver boots. She has a silver belt and cuffs.

In her latest appearance she is noticeably more muscular and has a physique resembling a bodybuilder.

Personality

Titania carries herself as being dangerous, determined, and angry. The “cute” nickname she was given as a tiny child is now the only name she remembers.

She is a woman filled with outrage and little else. She has no purpose in life beyond staying with her family (her teammates in the League of Super-Assassins) and destroying the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Dark One’s conditioning doesn’t seem to have left her with much personality beyond this.

Titania is confident in her strength. Forceful and intimidating, she will take on heavy-hitters like Ultra Boy or Timber Wolf without hesitation. However, she is fairly slow-witted, and does not react well to surprise. She can be intimidated fairly easily when faced with opponents that she cannot see or punch.

Misc. Universe History

Titania and her fellow members of the League of Super-Assassins were based in the pre-Zero Hour 30^th century of the DCU, but they could easily fit anywhere. Just pick a criminal mastermind from your campaign who could empower them and make them believe that your PCs are responsible for some tragedy that befell them, and set them loose.

They’d also fit in nicely as members of the Marauders, in a Marvel Universe campaign.

Quotes

“Revenge will be ours !”

“To the deaths of our enemies !”

“I’m strong, more powerful than anyone ! Just let me see my enemy ! Just let me – no ! More flames, more plants all around me ! But where is my enemy ? What use is my strength without someone to battle !”

“Can’t panic ! I have the strength, what more do I need ? An enemy ! Must find someone to fight !”

“See, Legionnaires, this time you are the ones who are outnumbered ! This time you shall fall !”

Magno Lad: “There, Titania, my magnetism has helped you defeat Ultra Boy !”
Titania: “I needed no help, Magno Lad – he is my kill !”

Titania: “Ask us not for answers, Terrus.”
Terrus: “Why not, Titania ?”
Titania: “Because thinking of the answers makes me – angry.”

“You’re ours now. You may have tricked the others by shorting out the controls, but we’re prepared for you – prepared to kill you.”

“Too late, Timber Wolf, too late for all of you ! Back off, or I’ll wring the neck of this gawking Science Police fool and spit her blood at you !”

By Chris Cottingham.

Helper(s): Andrew Lee (help and inspiration above and beyond the call of duty), Kal El the Vigilante, Michael Andrew, Mayfair’s LSH v.1 Sourcebook for the 1^st edition writeup, Who’s Who in the Legion #3.

Source of Character: DCU (Pre-Crisis and post-Infinite Crisis Legion of Super-Heroes).

Writeup completed on the 31^st of August, 2012.