Hummingbird (comics)
| Hummingbird | |
|---|---|
|
New Warriors #2 (March 2014). Art by Marcus To. Colors by David Curiel. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Marvel Comics |
| First appearance |
Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #1 (January 2012) |
| Created by |
Ryan Stegman (artist) Christopher Yost (writer) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Aracely Penalba |
| Team affiliations | New Warriors[1] |
| Abilities |
Manipulation of emotions Telepathy Self-powered levitation Invoking and hurtling sacred fire |
Hummingbird is a fictional character, a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. She made her debut in the 2012 Scarlet Spider comic book series written by Christopher Yost.
Publication history
Created by artist Ryan Stegman and writer Christopher Yost, she first appeared in Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #1. She took on the superhero identity of Hummingbird during Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #17.
Along with Kaine, the Scarlet Spider, she joined the New Warriors on the 2014 Volume 5 version of the team.
Fictional character biography
Born as María Aracely Josefina Penalba de las Heras, she is originally from an unspecified location in Mexico. However, she may be the reincarnation of the Aztec God of War Huitzilopochtli and has been labeled as a demigod by the High Evolutionary.[2]
She has no recollection of her life previous to her arrival to Houston, Texas with the exception of the event that took her there: her forced trafficking at the hands of the Lobo Cartel and the singular circumstances of it.[3][4][5]
Scarlet Spider
The story of Aracely starts in darkness, among the dead. Buried in a pile of corpses of her fellow passengers and barely alive, she was the only survivor of an horrific ordeal, where they cooked alive inside the metallic container of a truck that smuggled them from Mexico to Houston Harbor. Outside, members of the Lobo Cartel were discussing with another group the last-minute details of the exchange of money for people, ignorant that the human trafficking operation had been botched since it begun. They were interrupted when an assailant began to attack them: Kaine, who initially assumed they were just drug dealers he could steal money from, picks them off one by one.
Upon scaring away the last criminals and collecting the money that was meant to be the payment, Kaine notices the odor coming from the container. It is then that he discovers what's inside - a scene frighteningly similar to one of his earliest memories and a person who just like him back then, clings to life. Aracely is taken to the Park Plaza Hospital where, after a brief initial violent misunderstanding, she is placed by Kaine to the care of Dr. Donald Meland and police officer Wally Layton is informed of her situation and of the corpses at the harbor.
When a fire-manipulating assassin called The Salamander breaks in searching for her, she is saved again by Kaine, now as the Scarlet Spider. Compelled by doctor Donald and officer Wally, who reason that Aracely would be better off in his hands, Kaine brings Aracely to his room at the Four Seasons Hotel (as otherwise she would eventually be deported and end up at the mercy of whoever sent the super-powered killer).
As Aracely recovers and gains strength, she begins to form bonds of friendship with Kaine, Donald, Wally and Annabelle Adams, a bartender of the hotel. However, at the same time, she starts to manifest strange abilities and a preternatural knowledge of Kaine's location, feelings and thoughts at all times. However, she is unable to recall anything from her past as she suffered some kind of memory loss when she was trafficked.
Powers and abilities
She appears to have some kind of psychic power similar to Madame Web's. Being able to detect other people's feelings, thoughts and locate them wherever they are. However, she is also able to manipulate emotions and cause severe feats of fear and panic in her opponents - even specific kinds of fear (like arachnophobia). She has demonstrated the capacity to project her own thoughts into the minds of others to communicate with them.
In relation to the aforementioned, she possesses some sort of special "connection" with Kaine, being able to read and sense him even from great distances. Practically, no thought of his is hidden from her. The exception being the occasions when Kaine is dominated by the Other and transforms into a spider monster.[5][6]
She can levitate (or "float"), which she can use to remain far off the ground during battle,[7] carry team members through obstacles[8] or going so far as to apparently remain in the air without moving, usually in an upside-down lotus position (even while sleeping).[5][9][10]
She has once invoked and hurtled sacred fire at an aggressive demon ("The Hand of Chthon") when this one tried to possess Thor, burning him to death. However, she was overcome in that moment by Huitzilopochtli and had no memory of the event after it concluded. Haechi, who observed the whole thing, described it as Hummingbird becoming fire.[1][11]
Additionally, she appears to be able to learn any language from other people's minds via telepathy. Besides her native Spanish, she has demonstrated fluency in French, Japanese, English (which she apparently didn't know before suddenly start talking it)[3] and more recently Romanian.[8]
The full extent of and number of her abilities and powers is unknown at the moment as well as the exact nature behind them, other than they appear to involve magic energies of some kind; according to the High Evolutionary, Hummingbird "reeks of magic".[7]
References
- 1 2 New Warriors vol. 5 #6
- ↑ "Open the High Evolutionary Journals Pt. 2". Marvel Entertainment. 24 January 2014.
- 1 2 Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #4
- ↑ Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #13
- 1 2 3 Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #15
- ↑ Chistopher Yost on Hummingbird's connection to Kaine on Twitter.
- 1 2 New Warriors vol. 5 #3
- 1 2 New Warriors vol. 5 #5
- ↑ Scarlet Spider vol. 2 #16
- ↑ New Warriors vol. 5 #7
- ↑ Chistopher Yost on Hummingbird's fire ability on Twitter.
External links
- María Aracely Penalba (Earth-616) at Marvel Wiki
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