Most. Adorable. Superhero. Ever!
SONGBIRD (Melissa Gold, aka Screaming Mimi)
Created By: Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio & John Byrne
First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One #54 (Aug. 1979)
Role: Jobber Villain Turned Great Hero, The Core of the Team (Thunderbolts), Flying Blaster, Green Lantern Lite, Super Awesome Cutie-Pie
Group Affiliations: The Masters of Evil, The Thunderbolts, The Grapplers, The Femizons, The Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation
PL 10 (160)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2
Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 3 (+5, +7 Attractive)
Expertise (Criminal) 4 (+5)
Expertise (Survival) 4 (+6)
Expertise (Singing) 4 (+6)
Insight 3 (+5)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Investigation 2 (+4)
Perception 3 (+5)
Persuasion 4 (+6, +8 Attractive)
Ranged Combat (Sonic Attacks) 2 (+10)
Technology 3 (+4)
Advantages:
Attractive 150 (okay, just Attractive 1...), Defensive Attack, Fast Grab, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical (Sonic Attacks), Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Move-By Action, Power Attack, Ranged Attack 6, Teamwork
Powers:
"Sonic Harness" (Flaws: Removable) (Feats: Restricted 2) [56]
Flight 6 (120 mph) (Flaws: Winged) (6)
"Solid Sound Shapes" Create 10 (Feats: Dynamic, Precise) (Extras: Selective, Movable) (42) -- (61)
- Dynamic AE: "Sonic Blast" Blast 10 (Feats: Split, Indirect 4- Any Direction) (26)
- Dynamic AE: "Sonic Shape Weapons" Damage 10 (Extras: Targetted Area- 30ft. Shapeable) (21)
- Dynamic AE: "Sonic Shape Ram" Damage 10 (Extras: Targetted Area- 30ft. Line) (21)
- Dynamic AE: "Sonic Shape Wave" Damage 10 (Extras: Targetted Area- 60ft. Cone) (21)
- Dynamic AE: Force Field 7 (Extras: Affects Others 8) (16)
- Dynamic AE: Dazzle (Hearing) 10 (Extras: Area- 30ft. Burst) (Flaws: Touch Range) (21)
- Dynamic AE: Snare 10 (Feats: Block Visual Senses, Reversible) (33)
- Dynamic AE: Dazzle (Hearing) 10 (21)
- Dynamic AE: Move Object 10 (21)
- AE: "Subtle Suggestions" Affliction 6 (Will; Entranced/Compelled) (Extras: Area- Hearing Perception) (Flaws: Limited Degree) (6)
Offense:
Unarmed +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Sonic Shapes +10 Area (+10 Damage, DC 25)
Sonic Blast +10 (+10 Ranged Damage, DC 25)
Dazzle +10 (+10 Ranged Affliction, DC 20)
Dazzle +10 Area (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Snare +10 (+10 Ranged Affliction, DC 25)
Initiative +9
Defenses:
Dodge +10 (DC 20), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3 (+10 Force Field), Fortitude +6, Will +6
Complications:
Responsibility (Repentant Villain)- Melissa believes in The Thunderbolts' true attempts at repentance, and eventually came to be the spiritual centre of the team, falling away from the angry, foolish young woman she was.
Responsibility (Has Lost Nearly Everything)- Melissa's life has always been difficult. Her father was a drunk, her mother a convict, and she was stuck dating ANGAR THE SCREAMER of all people (and then he died). This makes it hard for her to become close to people, or trust them.
Responsibility (Loves Abe Jenkins, aka MACH 1-5)
Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 42--21 / Advantages: 17 / Powers: 56 / Defenses: 14 (160)
Songbird- Best Redesign Ever:
-Songbird is pretty much the shining light and most successful thing out of Thunderbolts as far as heroes go- most of the team was screwed around with, killed once or twice (Jolt, Charcoal, Atlas), resurrected the same way (Jolt, Atlas), bounced around to meaningless things and mostly forgotten (MACH-1), etc., but Songbird? This girl started out as one of THE GRAPPLERS, for God's sake (look at my builds of Titania I/Lascivious, Battle Axe & Poundcakes to see how much THEY suck). She wore a ridiculous jester-y outfit with ugly white face paint, and they turned her into one of the cutest-looking characters in Marvel Comics, with a unique, stand-outish hairstyle and a great costume (one of Mark Bagley's best designs). They also gave her great GL-ish powers, a decent costume, and legitimacy. She's now the hallmark for the series (aside from Moonstone, who got a similar upgrade as a villain), a member of just about every roster. Unfortunately, they hesitated way too long in making her an Avenger- I don't think anybody would have minded. Hell, I think it's about TIME, if you ask me! She was in Avengers Forever as a future member of the team, and that was like twenty years ago! But all she got was a side roll in a recent Al Ewing book and that was it- she just got TOO linked the Thunderbolts.
-Yeah, the neat thing about Avengers Forever was that it had some FUTURE Avengers alongside the "Specific Era" team of Giant-Man, Yellowjacket, Carnie Hawkeye, Super-Powered but Weak-Willed Cap and Leaderly Wasp. Melissa & Captain Marvel (Genis) were on "future" teams of Avengers, and knew bits and pieces of what was going on (ie. lots and lots of Continuity Porn from Kurt Busiek and his encyclopedic array of Marvel knowledge).
Screaming Mimi:
-As Screaming Mimi, she was a Sonic Controlling member of The Grapplers, a forgettable Jobber Villain team of ladies that went nowhere after two of its members (Letha & Titania) were murdered by The Scourge of the Underworld after a few years of being Journeyman Villains (fighting Dazzler, Thundra, The Thing, Quasar & Giant-Man). She was stuck in out of nowhere as "Filler" in Baron Zemo's Masters of Evil squad (the one that assaulted Avengers Mansion and nearly killed the whole team), but was quickly defeated, and afterwards started running around with idiot Daredevil villain Angar the Screamer. This was a thing for a year or two before Thunderbolts started, having revealed the cutesy new heroine "Songbird" to actually be a different-powered Mimi, who'd screamed her powers out after Angar got shot by a bunch of cops.
Songbird- Super-Adrobz & Green Lantern Powers:
-Turning into GL-Lite, Melissa became a central member of the Thunderbolts cast, gaining a completely unique costume and distinctive pink & white hair, immediately becoming a forever "signature" look- the dumb clown costume was over and done with. More than most of the team, she enjoyed the heroic turn she'd taken- having been a bit of a broken person, though, she was underconfident, easily-led, and non-confrontational, going a long way to make her sympathetic in a book full of screw-ups. She started a relationship with MACH-1, the former Beetle, but it's become one of those LONG-running "Will They Won't They?" things that really got jerked around way too much, as over and over again, as they'd hook up, then split for stupid reasons- for YEARS this happened. See, comic book writers like to use lots of drama, and of course relationships are a BIG source of such things in comics, and so it's easy writing to basically split them up (like when Abner went to prison, or when the T-Bolts were thought-dead after being exiled to an alternate Earth without Songbird) to create angst. Doing this too many times, however, just kind of makes the fans bored of it- see Kitty Pryde & Colossus for a much more long-running, annoying version of this.
-Over time, Melissa became the "Core" member of the team, especially once Hawkeye had taken things over, and the others spent varied amounts of time off the squad- she was central to helping Hawkeye controlling the team. The book was cancelled and she vanished for a while, but reappeared helping out the reboot in some odd situations, like making out with the returned, non-scarred, Godly-powerful Zemo, which turned out to be a ruse to get revenge on Zemo for killing Genis-Vell (with whom she'd nearly had a thing, I think- Atlas once skooshed the guy for threatening to come between Melissa & Abe).
-The next arc of her Super-Career came when Norman Osborn took charge of The Thunderbolts on the heels of Civil War- Songbird became a secondary member under field-leader Moonstone (an old T-Bolts teammate who'd gone Full Evil). Melissa was stuck as the only sane and heroic one (save Radioactive Man of all people) on a team of psychopaths and sociopathic monsters. The rest of the T-Bolts eventually mark her for death (after she deliberately has Bullseye crippled in the field), and she goes on the run. However, this ends up largely "filler" in the overall scheme of things, and she spends a short arc as the warden of the female prison ward on The Raft. She joins Luke Cage's T-Bolts squad (keeping an eye on Moonstone), but this one turns into a HORRIBLY-bad idea, as the whole "let's get evil villains to fight on OUR behalf" idea is completely ridiculous and doomed to failure- I found it funnier in the Dark Reign one, because the show the real sick depths of it, and it's stated to be a bad idea. Having LUKE CAGE be for the idea seems stupid. Songbird gets a horrible new haircut (BOOOOOO) and does some stuff, and kind of vanished for a bit. She was last seen on Al Ewing's Avengers book, acting as a TRIPLE-agent, spying on Sunspot's Avengers on behalf of S.H.I.E.L.D., but in reality being Sunspots mole to THEM.
Songbird Overall:
-But really, Songbird's got an incredible design. She's literally the only superheroine with hair like that, which IMMEDIATELY makes her recognizable and iconic. The outfit is neat, as it's got your classic Heroic Tights look, but also packs that little golden Armored Harness that is similarly-distinctive. Of all the Thunderbolts, she easily has the best Bagley-design (though Atlas & MACH-1 are pretty great, too), and you can tell because it's stuck around for fifteen years and has barely changed a bit. The character was endearing and likeable on a squad that desperately needed a character like that (since they were all diehard villains at first), and her relationship wtih Abe (the "Everyman" on the book) was classic "Comics Fan Self-Insert" stuff. A run on Avengers Forever helped her a lot, and she was easily THE "Thunderbolts Icon", showing up on nearly every incarnation of the team. She didn't get the push Moonstone did, but was still in the running... until Marvel kinda forgot about the concept. Most of the baddies went back to villainy, while Abe & Melissa kind of faltered and their pushes halted. This is why I figured she should have been made an Avenger sometime in the "Bendis Era" or just after it- give her a REAL push instead of just being a side-person on one Ewing book (the guy is a terrific writer, but just FILLS his books with too many characters whose pushes never remain consistent).
Songbird's Powers:
-Songbird is a nice example of a PL 10 Green Lantern Lite build, using a standard Device that only works for her (or presumably Klaw or someone). She's got a bunch of varied effects, all Dynamic (which makes her limited to hitting offensive or defensive caps depending on what part of the Array she's using- her Force Field is included in there) but for her low-rank Compel Others ability, allowing her to hit a few different Caps, and she's good to great at teamwork. Plus some Grappling from her days on The Grapplers women's wrestling team (apparently she's also moderately-enhanced physically as well, but definitely not super-strong or durable). She's the kind of character who's quite powerful, but still needs a "boost" before she's TRULY ready for the big leagues, which is why I'd like to see an Avengers run from her.
SCREAMING MIMI (Melissa Gold)
Created By: Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio & John Byrne
First Appearance: Marvel Two-In-One #54 (Aug. 1979)
Role: Jobber Villain
Group Affiliations: The Masters of Evil, The Grapplers, The Femizons, The Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation
PL 10 (135)
STRENGTH 3 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 5
FIGHTING 8 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2
Skills:
Acrobatics 3 (+7)
Close Combat (Unarmed) 2 (+10)
Deception 3 (+5)
Expertise (Criminal) 3 (+4)
Insight 1 (+3)
Intimidation 3 (+5)
Perception 2 (+4)
Technology 1 (+2)
Advantages:
Fast Grab, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical (Sonic Attacks), Improved Aim, Improved Initiative, Improved Hold, Ranged Attack 6
Powers:
"Low E- Dizziness & Vertigo" Affliction 8 (Will; Dazed & Impaired/Disabled & Hindered/Incapacitated) (Feats: Dynamic) (Extras: Area- Hearing Perception, Cumulative, Extra Condition) (33) -- [52]
- Dynamic AE: "Low F- Nausea" Affliction 8 (Will; Dazed & Impaired/Disabled & Stunned/Paralyzed) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative, Extra Condition) (Flaws: Hearing-Dependent) (33)
- Dynamic AE: "Low C & D- Anxiety & Panic Attacks" Affliction 8 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area- Hearing Perception, Cumulative) (Flaws: Limited to Anxiety or Panic) (17)
- Dynamic AE: "High B- Euphoria" Affliction 8 (Will; Entranced/Compelled/Controlled) (Extras: Area- Hearing Perception, Cumulative) (Flaws: Limited to Euporia) (17)
- Dynamic AE: "Low G- Fatigue" Affliction 8 (Will; Fatigued/Exhausted/Incapacitated) (Extras: Perception Range +2, Cumulative) (Flaws: Hearing-Dependent) (25)
- Dynamic AE: "High A- Blindness" Dazzle Visuals 8 (Extras: Perception Range) (25)
- Dynamic AE: "High C- Hallucinations" Illusion (Vision & Hearing) 8 (Flaws: Uncontrolled) (17)
- Dynamic AE: "Loud Scream" Dazzle Hearing 10 (21)
- Dynamic AE: "Wide-Area Scream" Dazzle Hearing 10 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Touch Range) (31)
- Dynamic AE: "Sonic Blast" Blast 8 (17)
- AE: "Vibrate Solid Objects" Weaken Toughness 5 (Extras: Affects Objects Only +0) (5)
Unarmed +10 (+3 Damage, DC 18)
Sonic Blast +8 (+8 Ranged Damage, DC 23)
Dazzles & Other Effects +8 (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Dazzles & Other Effects +8 Area (+8 Ranged Affliction, DC 18)
Dazzles & Other Effects +8 Perception (+8 Perception Affliction, DC 18)
Dazzle +10 Area (+10 Affliction, DC 20)
Initiative +9
Defenses:
Dodge +9 (DC 19), Parry +10 (DC 20), Toughness +3 (+10 Force Field), Fortitude +5, Will +4
Complications:
Motivation (Greed)
Responsibility (Has Lost Nearly Everything)- Melissa's life has always been difficult. Her father was a drunk, her mother a convict, and she was stuck dating ANGAR THE SCREAMER of all people (and then he died). This makes it hard for her to become close to people, or trust them.
Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 18--9 / Advantages: 12 / Powers: 52 / Defenses: 10 (135)
-Songbird's old powers make her a PL 8 chick who's PL 10 with her powerful Area Dazzles (most Dazzle-based people are at PL 10 levels, since it's not a really damaging power- just a useful one). She's got assorted powers in a good Array, letting her mess with people's emotions, minds and bodies, but only if they hear her. Some powers are Area-Perception-based, and others are simply Perception Range effects.