Wallop

The Clan has had a few mini-series and guest appearances, starting in 1994.

Background

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Powers and Abilities

Being born of an immortal and a genie, Walter is extremely long-lived. He remains in his physical prime despite being at least two centuries old.

In addition, Walter possesses the ability to accrue mass from an unknown, mystical source. This enables him to increase his height, weight, durability and strength to titanic levels.

Walter generally draws enough mass to enable him to rend metal with his bare hands, but can become much stronger than that.

Unfortunately for Walter, while it may only take moments to achieve his greater mass, it often takes much longer for him to shed it. It isn’t uncommon for him to take days to fully return to his human form.

As a side effect of his transformation, Walter’s head, shoulders and sometimes his hands burst into flame for a short period of time. The exact cause of the flame is unknown at this time.

Walter is also a trained veteran of several wars. And he is a gifted writer who’s novels are on dozens of top ten lists.

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History

Walter was born, presumably within the last two centuries, into the Clan Destine. His father was the immortal Adam Destine and his mother a magical Djinn. His past remains largely unrevealed, although he apparently enjoyed his childhood in the Clan.

Over his many years of life, Walter has experienced conflict in numerous wars. He was in Shanghai during the Opium War, in Balaclava during the Crimean War, in Delhi during the Sepoy Mutiny, in Passiondale during World War I, and in El Alamein during World War II, during which he served with military intelligence.

I want muscle, ooh ooh ooh

In 1944 his station was attacked by the Nazis with a large robotic war machine. It was confronted by the Invaders (Captain America, the Submariner and the Human Torch), but beat the heroes. Despite his family’s desire for secrecy, Walter realized that he could not simply sit back and watch as the brave heroes were murdered by the menacing robot.

Walter bravely hurled himself at the robot, willing his muscles to grow. At his command, they obediently swelled. First they reached the size they had when he dug his brother Maurice out of a landslide. Then past that to the size they had when he wrestled a kodiak bear. But it still wasn’t enough.

In desperation Walter pushed himself farther than he ever had before. In that moment the air burned around him, his flesh turned blue and the robot’s metallic frame warped like putty before his strength. Walter gleefully destroyed the robot.

He was then forced to flee from Allied soldiers. They attacked him, assuming that the monster they saw was in league with the Nazis.

Relative strangers

Walter realized at that point that his monstrous alter ego would never be accepted by the mortals that surrounded him. 30 years later, Walter agreed to the “Relative Strangers Protocol,” as Clan members split across the globe.

Walter stayed in England, assuming the identity of his own son. He developed a successful career writing romance novels under the “Sabrina Bentley” pseudonym.

Immediately after Adam’s self imposed exile from the planet (due to his murdering of Walter’s brother Vincent), Walter assumed guardianship over his infant brother and sister, the twins Rory and Pandora. With the help of his older sister Florence, Walter attempted to give the twins as normal a life as possible, raising them as their uncle and grandmother.

Unfortunately for Walter, the twins powers, heightened by each other’s proximity, manifested earlier than they had for any other member of the Clan.

Child’s play

Rory convinced Pandora to follow him in becoming super-hero champions. Thus, the two started getting into super-powered mischief. One such adventure brought the twins upon a battle between the scientific organization A.I.M. and lackeys of the mutated being Lenz. The twins tried to stop them by taking the object of their dispute, the Gryphon, but soon fled the scene.

Pandora’s cape was stolen during the battle. Thus was the existence of the Clan to be revealed, and Lenz sent his agents to systematically kill the Destine family members. Pandora and Rory were soon told of their legacy, and the family eventually stopped the villain.

Walter tried to force the children to stop using their powers as crime fighters. This prompted Rory to run away with Pandora’s help (since they needed to be together to have their powers activated.) The twins helped stop an assassination attempt on their Clan sister, Cuckoo.

Walter reluctantly agreed to allow the children to fight crime with a chaperone.

Description

Under normal conditions, Walter appears to a regular, even plain, Caucasian male with dark brown hair, a medium build and average height. He tends to favour semi casual clothing and can usually be found in dark colors with a vest and a tie.

As Walter triggers his growth, he adds layer upon layer of heavy muscle and many inches in height. If remaining at human-scale heights, he looks like a large body builder. Before he discovered the true depths of his power Walter often used this size as his default form, especially during the war.

As Walter grows even larger, his skin’s tone transforms into a bright blue and his hair lengthens and turns blood red. At this point his face, while discernibly different than his “human” visage is still human in appearance.

Pour it on, Wally

As he continues to grow in size from this point, his face and body proportions turn more and more monstrous. His arms elongate like that of a primate, his brow becomes more a more pronounced like a Neanderthal, his ears become pointed in an elfin or vulcan like fashion and his canine teeth start to protrude and lengthen into tusk like protrusions.

Needless to say his muscle tone and mass multiplies many times at this point.

All in all, if Walter transforms at a slow and steady rate, the transformation is remarkable and yet not as terrifying as when he grows rapidly. When enraged, his mass expands in an explosive manner and his eyes glow with an inner fire while his very skin around his shoulders, fists and hair burst into flame.

The flames will rage about his skin for several moments and sometimes in combat you can see the fiery trail that his mammoth fists carve into the very air about them.

Undercover underwear

Needless to say, Walter cannot wear a regular costume. And the Clan does not have access to cloth made of unstable molecules or purple stretchy pants.

Instead, Walter makes due with either being nude, wearing very tight stretched black underwear or “big boy” stretchy spandex shorts.

Personality

Walter’s personality is driven by two burning desires: a desperate need to protect the family (especially the twins) from harm and a life of normalcy. Anything that threatens to get in the way of these desires will frustrate him dearly and sometimes provoke him to physical force.

Like any good parent, Walter is always concerned with the welfare of the twins, to the point of stifling their freedom. Walter would do anything, including separating the twins to prevent them from using their powers, in order to protect them.

He is strict, conscientious and nurturing with them and always puts their needs before his or the families. He would even go so far as to sacrifice one of his older siblings before letting harm befall either Rory or Pandora. Woe be it to the foe that actually harms the twins, as they will face Walter’s full wrath.

Rigid

Walter’s unbending responsible nature has and continues to cause friction with the more free spirited members of the family, in particular Jasmine (Kay) and Dominic. He resents Jasmine intensely, due to the way she invokes her familial rights as first born when it suits her. And the fact that she only seems to visit the twins when her hedonistic lifestyle allows it.

To make matters worse, she always appears with expensive gifts which Walter sees as cheap attempt to buy the twins’ affections.

His disagreements with Dominic are far more personal and serious. Dominic deeply resents Adam for murdering Vincent, while Walter believes that Adam’s actions were necessary. The two often argue and come to blows over this deep moral disagreement that they have.

Finally, Walter is driven by the dichotomy of his power. As he grows in both size and strength, his control falters and his inner beast is cut loose from its confinement.

He revels in the violence and destruction he can cause with his massive sinews. Secretly, he fears that he too is succumbing to the darkness inside of him, and that one day, his father may have to stop him as well.

Quotes

“You are mistaken… in matters of life and death … I have a flair for excessive violence !”

“Someone has discovered the existence of our family. Someone with a grudge. Someone prepared to kill us. We have to find out who … and why . Then, there will be a reckoning !”

Rory: “One of those we’ve never met — Hey ! Why are you transforming uncl… er. Wally.”
Wallop: “Not Wally. NEVER Wally ! Either Walter or Walt ! Same as when you thought I was your uncle.”

Wallop: “I understand you’re still bitter about Vincent but —”
Dominic: “You let ADAM kill him !”
Wallop: “It HAD to be done ! Listen you selfish swine. You’re one of us. You have an obligation and I intend to see you honor it.” (Swings a massive hand at his brother)

“Exactly. So I don’t want you to encourage the twins’ idiotic fantasy. I won’t expose them to further danger.”

Kay: “I had no idea that the twins were capable of becoming crime-fighters. None of us developed our powers at such a young age.”
Wallop: “If that’s true, why have you continued to indulge their fantasy by dressing up and agreeing to become their teammates ?”
Kay: “To cheer them up. They were scared … in shock —”
Wallop: “I knew that. I’m their guardian ! You just visit with presents !”

“Listen uglies. We don’t want to fight. We don’t want to fight. We Don’t Want To FIGHT !” (while smashing in the faces of two mutates)

“No absolutely not. Leave that craziness to the costumed vigilantes. They’re good at it, we’re not.”

“Dom you blithering idiot, if you care about the twins, you’ll shut up and listen. Rory and Pandora’s escapades caused the fiasco with Lenz. We’d all be dead but for Adam’s return. As it stands the security of the Relative Stranger Protocol is in doubt. From tomorrow things will return to normal … you two will return to school and there will be no more talk of superheroes. Your crimefighting careers are finished !”

“I had fought countless wars. Fair wars. Men against men. So I had rarely needed to use my super-strength… but even at the cost of betraying the family’s secret I could not stand by and watch those valiant men die.”

“The air around me burned… my skin turned blue… and suddenly steel girders felt like putty in my hands… my strength had increased a thousand fold. But I wasn’t really aware of what I had become… of what I had transformed into. I was intoxicated with physical power… and an evil delight in my capacity to destroy.”

“I’m going to KILL YOU !”

(Nose to nose with his sister Kay)
Kay: “Don’t take it out on them, Wally. It’s me you’re angry at.”
Wallop: “Angry doesn’t cover it… out of the way Dom. I’ll kill her.”

“Stop whining Dominic. You’d think you were the only Destine whose power is also a curse.”

“Where are the twins ? What have you done with Rory and Pandora ?!?”

(While seemingly dismembering the X-men)
“You can’t stop me. You fear violence too much to be truly violent. Pure aggression is devoid of conscience or remorse. It is brutal… cruel… and exhilarating ! ROAR !!!!!”

(While trading punches with the Juggernaut)
Juggernaut: “How’s it feel to be on the receiving end, ugly ?”
Wallop: “It merely enflames my desire to rend you asunder.”

“I am in control. I’m not… NOT… like… VINCENT !” (Smashes trees into splinters) “I am not like Vincent.”

“I’m sick of being a prisoner in this stupid little cottage ! A prisoner in my own body ! No more ! Enough is —- Lord … What is happening to me..?”

DC Universe History

The clan is such a minor group within the marvel universe, they could conceivably be inserted wholesale into the DC universe with very little modifications to their backstory.

Instead of encountering the Inhumans, they could have encountered the Amazons or some far flung group of Legionnaires on a trip to the past. Lenz could have been created by Intergang or Professor Ivo or even been one of Luthor’s experiments.

By Bryan Gittens.

Source of Character: Alan Davis’ Clan Destine published by Marvel Comics.

Helper(s): Darci.