| Lady Lawful |
[Oct. 15th, 2006|10:06 pm] |
Between playing City of Heroes, reading an interesting history of Timely Comics, and discovering that Gummi Bears may actually be radioactive (why else did they melt my icecream so quickly?), I've been puttering about thinking about how to go about writing a Golden Age Academy of Super-Heroes story. It's not something I'm about to jump into just yet; I still have to finish the core Academy stories before I even start working on a story (much less planning a series).
That said, I've figured out the title character of my story. The following are notes to myself about her, and they are quite subject to change as I learn more about the ASH universe and Violation Effects.
Lady Lawful (II),
aka Jennifer Blair
There are actually two Ladies Lawful, Jennifer Blair (above) is a second generation hero. The first Lady Lawful was June Hartworth (June Hartworth-Blair, married). Both Ladies are not actively superpowered, but gain their strength, speed, endurance, and invulnerability from the golden belt they both wear.
Lady Lawful, aka June Hartworth
June Hartworth began her career as Lady Lawful while being employed as a telephone operator in an office building in Chicago. She accidentally overheard plans for robbing the office/lab of Doctor Calvin "Cosmo" Kirby. After trying to tell the police, and having no luck, June went on her own to warn Doctor Cosmo. She arrived just before the thieves, and was unceremoniously locked inside a small vault used by the doctor to store his inventions. After the theives left, with little time and less air, June discovered the golden belt and Doctor Cosmo's notes about it.
The belt was based on several magical artefacts that the doctor had studied, totems from various cultures that endowed the wearer with mystical powers. Taking what he'd learned from the totems, and combining that knowledge with his understanding of biology and physics, Doctor Cosmo invented the Enhancement Belt. The belt, when worn, would synchronize itself with a person's magenes, either latent or active, and enhance them several times. Unbeknownst to June -- due to the Tesla Index still being young and her never really being put in a position to find out -- she possessed both limited degrees of super-strength and invulnerability. (Editor's note: In later years, June would comment that her parents had once told her that off all the children they knew when June was growing up, she was the healthiest, never getting sick or breaking any bones.)
Donning the belt as a last, ditch effort, June was surprised to find that she was more than capable of tearing the vault door from its hinges. Taking no time to try to alert the police, and knowing exactly which office the crooks were taking Doctor Cosmo, June headed at full super-speed to rescue the doctor. When she confronted the crooks, still wearing the belt, it was a one-way fight in her favor. In record time, Doctor Cosmo was saved and the crooks (who turned out to be spies) were hauled away.
Doctor Cosmo was amazed at how well his invention worked in tandem with June's own, innate abilities. As both thanks and as a favor, Doctor Cosmo asked June to keep the belt. It still required many tests before Doctor Cosmo planned to turn over to the U.S. Army, and he could think of no one better than June to wear the belt. Having enjoyed her brush with death-defying adventure, June agreed. With a little help from her sewing machine, June made a costume to go along with her planned adventures, and Lady Lawful was born.
Golden Age of the Golden Belt
For the next fifteen years, thanks to the Enhancement Belt retarding June's natural aging, shd fought as Lady Lawful in and around Chicago. Lady Lawful never ventured much higher than fighting street crime and the occaisional Axis spy ring. However, she had her share of arch-nemises, the most startling being Doctor Cosmo himself.
Like June, Doctor Cosmo, was possessed low-level magene. His powers were fire-based. One day, while working on the second version of the Enhancement Belt, something terrible went wrong. June never discovered what happened, whether it was an accident or sabotage, but to her dying days, she argued what happened was not Doctor Cosmo's fault or nature. The second Enhancement Belt used experimental components intended to make it more responsive to the wearer's needs, shunting power from invulnerable to strength as bio-feedback required. When Doctor Cosmo donned the belt, he discovered that the bio-feedback system caused two problems. The first was it permanently bonded to wearer, making it all-but impossible for him to remove the belt without suffering almost instant phsyical ailments. The second was the bio-feedback components, by way of magene syncronization, corrupted the wearer, driving them mad.
Over a period of days, while Lady Lawful stood by helpless, but for whatever emotional support she could offer the furiously, futilely working Doctor, Doctor Cosmo went insane. The belt induced a deep paranoia in the doctor, which coupled itself with his understanding of the situation, and turned him viciously against Lady Lawful. A fight ensued between the two friends, and in the process Doctor Cosmo's laboratory was destroyed.
Any discoveries or notes about his flawed belt were lost. The doctor had become Lady Lawful's first archnemesis.
Time wore on. June Hartworth met and married Wilson Blair, a local inventor who she'd met during an adventure when her Enhancement Belt was damaged. June continued on as Lady Lawful for several years, but as time wore on she slipped out from the heroic lifestyle. (Editor's note: an extended life, hanging out with inventors, and being exposed to wiring on the fly, June became one of the first programmers. Hahaha!) In time, June and Wilson started a family with their daughter, Jennifer Calvin Blair.
The Second Generation, Lady Lawful II
With her mother looking thirty-something while being closer to sixty, the heroic career of Jennifer's mother went unnoticed for several years. It wasn't until her teens, when she discovered a secret chest filled with Lady Lawful's belt, that Jefnifer learned about her heroic heritage. It took wheedling, lying, going directly behind her parents' backs, but Jennifer ultimately became the second Lady Lawful.
Thanks to improvements in the belt and her own more active Magene, the new Lady Lawful quickly rose to fame as a local hero. She handled super-powered gangs, fought against Doctor Cosmo, and even flirted with joining a super team. As Lady Lawful, Jennifer excelled; as Jennifer Blair, college student, Lady Lawful's berth of knowledge grew. After graduation, Jennifer took a position in a secret wing of The Museum of Science and Industry dedicated to esoteric technologies, super-heroics, magic, and early Violation Effect devices.
Lady Lawful's career continued on until the Causality Wars, at which point she was nevr heard from again.
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