Context
First seen in 1984, Windfall is a minor superhuman featured in Outsiders comic books. But she never really gained texture or traction.
This profile is intended to be read after the Masters of Disaster team profile, then the New-Wave character profile. These explain all the background.
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Background
- Real Name: Wendy Jones.
- Known Relatives: Becky (aka New-Wave, sister), unnamed mother (deceased). Windfall’s clone might be considered a relative.
- Group Affiliation: Former member of the Masters of Disaster, the Outsiders, Strikeforce Kobra and the Suicide Squad.
- Base of Operations: Mobile.
- Height: 5′ (1.52m). Weight: 95 lbs. (43 Kg.).
- Eyes: Blue. Hair: Blonde.
Powers and Abilities
Windfall can control air. Applications include :
- Flying. Windfall can also make several persons fly along with her.
- Deflecting bullets. This likely implies making air locally denser.
- Buffeting opponents with gusts of wind. When attempting to kill, Windfall will project them against a spike, such as a stalactite or a broken tree branch.
- Sensing invisible presences using a sort of “air sonar”. She doesn’t have to concentrate for this. She just realises that the air currents are being disturbed by something.
- Emitting a wide, powerful wave of air. It blows her opponents away even if she cannot see.
- Generating cyclonic winds that can crash a private jet.
- Moving heavy objects, much as if using telekinesis. But this doesn’t look more powerful than what a strongman could achieve.
- Cushioning falling persons.
- Using particles in the air (like sand or mist) to form a thicker fog.
Windfall is skilled at evasive flying. This and her small size make her a hard target.
She needs to gesture to fully focus her powers.
History (part 1)
After Becky Jones murdered her mother, she fled and took Wendy with her.
She apparently founded the Masters of Disaster super-mercenary team. Wendy was still with her as the youngest member, Windfall.
Outside looking in
In 1986, Windfall fled from the Masters of Disaster. She threw her lot with Halo and the Outsiders during Baron Bedlam’s coup in Markovia. This enraged New-Wave who tried to kill her.
Nevertheless, Windfall chickened out. She did not join the Outsiders.
Instead, she ended up fleeing through the Markovian countryside. Wendy naïvely thought she could build herself a new life in the first village she came across.
Candle in the wind
But she was recognised as one of Bedlam’s mercenaries, who had killed many local men. Windfall was nearly burned at the stake.
She was saved by a bear attack. Nikolas, a local boy she liked, distracted the bear long enough for her to break free. She then killed the bear to save Nikolas.
Windfall flew away in sorrow, seeing how much the villagers hated her.
Tears of a clone (part 1)
In 1987, the Masters of Disaster escaped from their Markovian prison. The willy New-Wave stole Madame Ovary’s cloning tech before they left.
She then tracked Wendy down and captured her. New-Wave created a duplicate of her sister, with her memories, but entirely loyal to her.
Clone!Windfall was then sent to infiltrate the Outsiders. She joined the team, roomed with her bestie Halo, and attended Canyon High as a freshman.
Tears of a clone (part 2)
At the first opportunity, she made it possible for the Masters to ambush the Outsiders in the brand-new Batcave West.
New-Wave even brought a caged Wendy, to gloat about her cunning plan to full effect.
In the fray, Clone!Windfall attempted to kill Wendy Jones to replace her. They ended up wrestling underwater. One — apparently the clone — seemingly drowned.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Soundtrack
Uh, Scorpion’s Wind of change is actually a 1990s song. 😾
But it’s okay, here’s some fitting, *very* 1980s music instead.
History (part 2)
Windfall joined the Outsiders. She moved to the decommissioned oil platform that served as their HQ back then.
Windfall was part of the team :
- During the clash with Strikeforce Kobra.
- When preventing Fusion (Jankovski/Potorovich/Folovar) from murdering President Reagan.
- When repelling American Security Agency operatives attempting to capture the Outsiders.
- When the oil platform was destroyed by Major Disaster.
- During the alliance with Infinity, Inc. to fight the Force of July. However, Windfall was defeated by Sparkler.
- During the 1987/88 Millennium crisis, when Dr. Jace was revealed to be a Manhunter agent.
- Jace also trapped the Outsiders for a while in a VR simulation of the world of the Atomic Knights. This is when Windfall met Gardner Grayle, who briefly joined the team.
- They also responded to a political crisis in Abyssia, partly wrought by Manhunters.
In the air tonight
However :
- Metamorpho was destroyed for a while due to Dr. Jace’s actions.
- Looker lost her powers in Abyssia.
- Halo was also wounded and left in a coma.
- Which wrecked Katana’s and Windfall’s morale.
The Outsiders thus suspended their operations for years.
As the team split, it was arranged for Wendy Jones to continue attending high school. She likely was added to a Wayne Foundation grant fund.
(Windfall was responsible for multiple deaths as a Master of Disaster. However, it was presumably considered that she did so as a minor acting under duress from her psychotic sister.)
She briefly returned to service in 1989, helping repel a Spider Guild warship approaching Earth.
The Outsiders return
The team re-formed in 1993, to combat a vampire infestation in Markovia. Halo was also brought out of her coma.
However, Windfall wasn’t a part of this effort.
In 1995, Wendy was tricked into joining a Lady Eve’s version of Strikeforce Kobra. One member, Spectra, was occupying Halo’s old body. Wendy thought it was her friend. But she soon realised that Halo now had another body, and that she had been deceived.
Felix Faust then came after the team. He grievously wounded Halo, and seemingly incinerated his son Sebastian Faust.
Windfall rejoined the team as they brought Faust back. Sebastian had a plan to heal Halo, using magic items associated with Felix.
Though the team had to fight its way through demonic dimensionsOther realms of existence that are not our universe, they ultimately saved Halo.
Mid and late 1990s
Windfall was still with the team when they assisted Checkmate in suppressing the war between the Crimelord and the Syndicate. The effort was coordinated by Sarge Steel.
She also assisted in countering raids from Apokolips, led by Steppenwolf and engineered by Desaad. The Outsiders returned captured humans to Earth.
They then fought Eclipso in space. During this case the team received reinforcements, including the Atomic Knight (Gardner Grayle). He and Windfall had been previously attracted toward each other, and they began dating.
Costume in 1995.
Not fade away
Windfall may have retired from the Outsiders at that point.
She apparently took a first stab at attending college. But that didn’t pan out.
The team seemed markedly less active anyway. Geo-Force married, the Eradicator (David Connor) left as he struggled with identity issues, etc..
By 1999, this version of the Outsiders would finally split, but Windfall had already left.
The 2000s
Wendy Jones made another attempt at college. However, during a party, she was drugged and gang-raped. Photos were also published online. And one of the rapists was the son of the local District Attorney.
Predictably, the D.A. unearthed Jones’ past to blame the victim. And of course, it was Jones whom the college expelled. They falsely claimed to have no knowledge of her antecedents.
Windfall returned to the frat house. She killed everyone there through suffocation, was arrested, and ended up imprisoned in Belle Reve.
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Suicide, it’s a suicide
In 2008, Amanda Waller recruited inmate Windfall for a Suicide Squad job.
The mission was to hit the Haake-Bruton corporation in Dubai. The goal was to prevent them from selling a horrific killer virus.
The mission broke bad due to traitors within the team and staff. In particular, Cliff Carmichael shot Amanda Waller and took over the remote-controlled Chemo body.
Chemo/Carmichael was about to kill the entire Squad team. But Windfall heroically diverted the huge jet of corrosive liquid using her powers. She redirected it to destroy the Haake-Bruton biolabs and the virus.
However, there was too much mass for her to handle. She was hit and slain by the acid that was left.
Dead calm
During the Blackest Night events of 2010, one of the Black Lantern zombies who attacked the Secret Six and the Suicide Squad seemed to be Windfall’s corpse.
Costume in 2008.
Description
A petite teenager with a medium-length, basic bob haircut and a pastel superhero suit.
After she joins the Outsider she wears her hair in a longer, wavier cut.
A lock of hair at the front sometimes slightly defies gravity (and you can’t bring it down). She might be emulating what her sister does with her new-wave haircut.
Her mask is perfunctory. Anybody can recognise her if they know her features.
The 1990s
The purple-and-blue costume, with a fuller mask and longer hair, first appears in 1995. She presumably felt that the old one looked too little girl.
By this point Windfall looks a bit taller – though she tends to always levitate a little bit when in costume. Maybe 5’2″ (1.57m) and 118 lbs. (53 Kg.) – at most.
A growth spurt circa 17 or 18 would be rather late for a girl but heh, it happens. And her sister is known to be unable to get pregnant. So perhaps Wendy had a late puberty due to shared but less severe biological alterations.
2008 appearance.
Personality
Wendy is a nice teenager. She likes girly things, flowers, and flying. She acts naïve, emotional, sensitive and a bit shy.
She seemed to be about 16 during the 1980s, and 18 during the 1990s.
(If that seems odd, see our article about ageing in super-hero comics.)
She also clung for years to her big sister, even though Becky kept bullying and controlling her. She’s the only family Wendy has, and Windfall craved having a mother figure. Even if it’s just a warped big sister.
Likewise, Wendy is fond of Halo. She looks like Windfall’s mother did in her youth, which brings her solace.
Walk on the outside
Windfall was happy with the Outsiders. She now had a best friend, was free from her sister’s tyranny, and could do all sorts of normal teenage things.
Like Halo she was a bit boys-crazy, and fascinated by MTV. Which, back then , was an influential music video channel. Halo and Windfall behaved childishly when together – perhaps because they both didn’t have much of a childhood to enjoy.
She also developed a small crush on the Atomic Knight (Gardner Grayle).
She was a bit uncomfortable around Looker, but she overcame this after a few months.
Though she comes across as a creampuff, she isn’t easy to intimidate. Most people aren’t as mean as her sister, after all.
Into the great wide open
Wendy also has little problem with killing. It’s not part of her normal M.O., but she has no inhibitions against it.
She doesn’t trust easily and tends to remain reserved. Halo was the only exception, though Windfall also came to trust the Outsiders as Halo’s friends. But she didn’t make any real friend after leaving the team.
During the 1990s she was more mature and less emotional. The benefits of no longer living in fear of her sister, I suspect.
Yet she remains a mostly ordinary person, simply looking to live her life. She has no particular goal or personality trait, beyond her friendship with Halo. Neither is she too decisive.
Now is the wind of our discontent
In 2008, Wendy Jones seemed traumatised and depressed. She acted listless and unemotional.
Windfall was slowly coming to the conclusion that the world was an evil place, and that God hated her. And that perhaps Becky had been right all along.
DC Universe Adaptation
(This section proposes ways of using this character in DC Universe stories).
It has of course been theorised that the Windfall who joined the Outsiders was the clone, rather than the original. Which means that the original might still be alive.
However, the DCU has been through so many reality upheavals since this incident…
2008 features.
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Windfall
| Dex: 03 | Str: 02 | Bod: 03 |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 03 | Min: 04 |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 04 | Spi: 03 |
| Init: 010 | HP: 025 |
Powers:
Air control: 08, Danger sense: 04, Fog: 04, Force shield: 08, Telekinesis: 04
Bonuses and Limitations:
- All Powers are Contingent Upon Air Control, and all require air to work.
- Air control is limited to the “buffet”, “propel” and “move” applications. She cannot “aim” or “remove”.
- Air control used for “buffet” is its own AV. But the EV is capped to 06.
- Air Control used for “move” can carry APs of mass up to its APs.
- Danger sense only works against invisible and/or gaseous (but *not* intangible) presences within Range. There must be air currents present, and Windfall must be seeing the area to realise the discrepancy between her sight and her air sense.
- Fog has up to a +16 Special Volume Bonus. But this depends on the quantity of particulates or vapour that’s on hand. If there’s nothing for her to work with, the Volume Bonus becomes negative and makes her Fog unusable.
- Force shield only affects projectiles (including bullets).
Skills:
Acrobatics (Dodging): 04, Evasion: 05
Bonuses and Limitations:
Both Skills are Aerial Only.
Advantages:
None demonstrated.
Connections:
Outsiders (Low), Halo (High), Atomic Knight (Low).
Drawbacks:
Dependent (Halo, 0 pts), Power Loss (all Powers capped at 04 APs if she cannot gesture).
Motivation:
Unwanted Power.
Occupation:
Criminal, student.
Wealth:
004
Wind of change
During the 1990s, the EV for Air Control’s “buffet” effect is now capped to 07.
She can also do the “remove” application, but it’s still Minor Marginal.
During the 2000s, she had 07 APs of Fog.
Design Notes
Windfall arguably has a STR of 01 early on. But there’s no scene where she seems physically helpless. So I stuck with the default 02 for lack of proof.
Halo isn’t a Dependent in the conventional sense. But the in-game effects are similar.
There’s one odd bit where she makes the invisible Halo visible by accelerating air currents. But it’s likely a limitation of Halo’s rather than a power of Windfall.
Design notes are like the wind
I almost didn’t go with Air Control. I wanted to set discrete AP levels for application, in good part to model her clash with the Markovian bear.
I ended up using a compromise solution, though designating applications within a DCH “container” Power like Air Control is clunky.
(I don’t like container Powers. An object-based approach like the M&M one works better, unless you’re so-so at abstract thought.)
