Swift (comics)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Swift | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
Swift, real name Shen Li-Min, is a comic book superheroine from the Wildstorm universe. Swift first appeared in the pages of Stormwatch and later became member of The Authority. She is very similar in appearance to Hawkgirl of DC Comics.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Swift is a bisexual Buddhist Tibetan Chinese woman. She began life as a fetus inside a large egg, guarded by Tibetan monks for generations, prophesied to hatch in the end of the millennium and usher a golden age of love and peace. The egg's incubation was not uneventful - it had to be rescued from Nazi agents by Jenny Sparks in 1943. Eventually it hatched into Swift, a physically ordinary human female.
When a comet passed by Earth, it activated a genetic quirk in some people that would manifest into superpowers either naturally or through special Seedlings called Activators. Swift was one such Seedling. Swift was brought into Stormwatch as a rookie, with her powers only partially activated. Weatherman Henry Bendix later reconfigured the Stormwatch teams, assigning her to Stormwatch Black, Stormwatch's black-ops team, alongside Jenny Sparks (with whom she had a brief relationship) and Jack Hawksmoor. It was then that Christine Trelane asked her if she wanted to be fully activated, and she agreed, bringing her powers to their full potential.
After Stormwatch disbanded, Swift joined her former teammates in The Authority. Formerly a pacifist, she has put aside those beliefs to fight for a finer world, no matter the cost.
She has fought all over the world, from Mosocw to Mexico to Gamora Island.
During the Transfer of Power storyline, Swift was replaced by Rush representing Canada. This, after being taken out of the fight with radioactive feces. Swift was brainwashed into becoming the obedient trophy wife of a television mogul who had been part of the conspiracy to replace her and her team. She was insulted at every opportunity, from having her cooking ignored to the implications she could not remember large words. Eventually, in a conspirator reunion, she over-heard the "off-button" code of the monster Three-Willied Seth, and proceeded to free herself. She literally took the heads of the television mogul and software billionaire co-conspirator. She then personally saved her friend, the Engineer, Angela Spica. She also killed the man who had been abusing Angela.
[edit] Powers And Abillities
At first, when her powers were only partially activated, she had a line of feathers that ran along the underside of her arms. This allowed simple flight. After being fully activated by Christine Trelane, she has the ability to grow wings from her back at will as well as claws and talons. Consequently she is the "fastest winged mammal on the planet". She has flown fast enough to catch superspeedsters. Her attacks indicate some enhanced strength and durability as well. She once flew directly through a person, causing them to explode in all directions. It has been implied that she has some vaguely defined enhanced senses; apart from superior hearing and eyesight, she is able to feel or "read" the air to locate moving things. She can also shed her wings, which eventually decompose into liquid, although she no longer does this since joining the Authority.
She has also demonstrated excellent cooking and singing skills.
Swift is also the navigator for The Carrier, the mobile sentient spaceship that is headquarters for the Authority.
[edit] Other Notes
In East Asia the surname precedes the given name. Shen is a common Chinese surname, and Li-Men is a given name. However, many of the comic book creators do not seem to realize this. Swift's teammates refer to her familiarly as "Shen," and Shen has been addressed in Vol. 2 as "Ms. Li-Men."
