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Quote1 Just because I'm slightly over the flesh ratio shouldn't mean a damn thing! I've got mechanical rights --! Quote2
—--Maxine Manchester (Wildstorm Universe)

History

Ladytron was a member of the WildC.A.T.s.

Maxine Manchester was abused by her father as a young teenager. She fled from home and turned to a life of crime, robbing stores and killing anybody who got in her way. Soon, the government caught up with her and she was hit several times during a gunfight with the FBI. Her wounded body was handed over to Doctor Khaz, a mad scientist, who enhanced her body, replacing most of it with robotic parts. She escaped and continued her crime spree as a cyborg. Khaz recaptured her and told her about Stanley, a robot he had created before her. Khaz saw himself as father to Stanley and Maxine and sent her out to bring back Stanley. Maxine and Stanley shared the same psychopathic mentality and soon married between crime sprees. Maxine and Stanley decided to kill Khaz, but Khaz had an override in Stanley's brain. The brainless Stanley turned on Maxine and she killed him. She then killed Khaz and returned to her life of crime.

At this time, Savant and Mister Majestic were trying to rebuild the WildC.A.T.s after the previous team were nearly all presumed killed. They convinced Max Cash, alias Condition Red, to join and acquired the Tactical Augmented Organism (T.A.O., later called simply Tao) for their team. Savant wanted another woman for the team and decided upon Maxine. Majestic didn't want to be associated with a criminal like Maxine, but T.A.O. managed to change his mind through his hypnotic abilities.

The new WildC.A.T.s captured Maxine while she attempted to rob both sides of a drug transition and T.A.O. built a virtual reality-program to reeducate Maxine. The program worked and Maxine joined the WildC.A.T.s, but still remained violent and anti-social. She became romantically interested in Max Cash, but he was turned off by her robotic body and her abrasive personality.

When Max got wounded in a bombing, he used the opportunity to sneak out of the hospital to avoid her. Maxine was furious and took out her anger on the man responsible for wounding Max (despite flirting with the cyborg OvertKill moments before). The man told her and Spartan that T.A.O. had ordered him to bomb the building.

The WildC.A.T.s confronted T.A.O. who turned out to be an evil mastermind after all. T.A.O. inflicted heavy casualties on the team, including Maxine. He managed to remove her cooling systems so that her internal nuclear reactor overheated. Majestic removed her nuclear reactor, but Maxine was heavily damaged.[1] She was taken to the Church of Gort, a cult for cyborgs, robots and Artificial Intelligences, for repairs.

During her stay with the Church of Gort, Maxine became a convert and started to follow the teachings of their monastery. Mister Majestic who had become somewhat of a father figure to Maxine was pleased to see her embrace the tenet "all life is sacred", though she only seemed to recognize mechanical life as sacred. Still, according to him, it was a step in the right direction. But after a schism within the Church, Maxine was targeted by other members for having too many organic parts.

Halo[]

Maxine fled the Church of Gort and met up with Max's brother Cole Cash. Cole was annoyed by Maxine and left her with the Halo Corporation. There, she overheard that former WildC.A.T.s-member Voodoo had been injured by serial killer Samuel Smith and decided to take vengeance upon him.

Her plan was simple-minded: she visited all hotels and motels in the area to fight anybody listed under the name "Smith". After attacking a few innocents, Maxine met with Samuel Smith, whose superhuman powers turned out to be more than she could handle. The damage was so great that she was deactivated.

Later, her body was reprogrammed and adapted into a more scorpion-like form by Wildcat-traitor Noir to attack Spartan, now known as Jack Marlowe, but Marlowe easily defeated the body. Her body was then used by Grifter, whose legs were broken, as a remote-controlled body. Her personality was encrypted and filed away in the Halo Corporation's mainframe. When Grifter's legs healed, he no longer needed her robotic body.

World's End[]

After the Reaper clones of the High ruined the Earth and all its resources, Ladytron along with the rest of the reformed Wildcats protected Los Angeles from the Halo Building which was the only location that still had power due to their unending batteries. Mr. Majestic repeatedly attacked the building for supplies to take back to his new home in Hawaii. He asked some of the team to come but didn't ask Ladytron due to her anti-social behavior. She took part in the team's missions to find the oasis that was thought to had been made by the original Engineer but actually created by Tumbleweed. Later she and the Wildcats encountered the Daemonites' presence in L.A. and battled them until a shaky treaty was established between one another.

Ladytron was even able to rally a group or robots and cyborgs that were members of the Church of Gort to fight against Daemonites that broke the treaty and she made the city's surviving humans understand that the robots and humans need to work together if they expect to live through this crisis.[2] Nemesis and Backlash later left the team expecting Majestic's offer to relocate in Hawaii but they later sent a distress call to the team asking them for help. However, Voodoo, now the group's leader, told Ladytron to stay behind because of her relationship with Majestic; but after the team left, the Daemonites were ready to attack their now vulnerable base. Ladytron was able to protect the refugees and proved herself in stalling the Daemonties, Lord Defile and Lady Decadence.[3] Though she was soon subdued by the two Daemonites high lords, but the Wildcats arrived back on time, and Maxine was saved by the robots from the Church of Gort.[4]

After the Halo Building was destroyed, Maxine and the Wildcats joined up with Team-7 in stopping Tao from becoming a mad god who threatened creation. Just as Tao was forcefully given the Creation Equation by Max Faraday, Ladytron had listened the words that were spoken by Faraday to Tao, and transmitted it into the ears of all the heroes, given everyone and herself possessing the power equivalent to Tao. However, Tao was proven stronger and had each of the heroes facing their own fears, in which Ladytron faced her abusive father which briefly sends her into a terrified and catatonic state.[5] After Tao's defeat, Maxine and the other heroes were then gifted with new, augmented costumes reminiscing to their 1990's attire, in which Ladytron was not totally satisfied with her new look.[6]

Maxine and the Wildcats later heeded to the Authority's call in UnLondon and offered the chance to leave Earth on the Carrier. After the Carrier departed, Maxine participated in the war against the Knights of Khera. Following the Knights' defeat, Maxine was tasked by Spartan in helping and joining with Jackson King in finding Earth's new Doctor as she is potential from being unaffected from mind control since King's previous manipulations from Tao, in which she accepted much to King's great reluctance.[7]

Attributes

Powers

Cybernetic Enhancement: Maxine Manchester is a cyborg, having suffered critical to fatal injuries during a police ambush.[8] As such her physiology is mostly robotic and she is built of what Majestros calls 75 million dollars worth in parts.

  • Flight: Maxine can fly through the use of rocket packs which are housed in her back.
  • Gun Enhancements: Maxine carry's weapons stored inside her body's housing which can remain entirely hidden until she needs to kill.
    • Gattling Cannon: Likewise she also possesses wrist mounted blasters on her forearm.[9]
  • Thermal-Blast: Maxine can emit a low yield heat beam from the tip of her digits, useful for igniting oil fires.[3]
  • Energy Transference: Maxines bionic frame can channel and cycle varying levels of dynamic energy from most any power source available.[10]
    • Resistors: Internal function which can ramp up the amp amount pertaining to whatever ergokinetic force she's channeling. Potentially she can kill a Kherubim Warlord with such tactics.
  • Sound Manipulation: Maxine has a powerful sonic cannon housed in her mouth.[11]
  • Superhuman Durability: Maxine has withstood powerful blows from aliens and superhumans alike.
  • Superhuman Strength: Maxine has been seen lifting and throwing cars with relative ease.
  • Superhuman Speed: Ladytron can run, jump and move faster than most automobiles while on foot.[11]
  • Superhuman Stamina: Manchester's power source is a condensed fusion reactor running on inexhaustible nuclear power. For all intents and purposes, Ladytron's body never tires nor wears down no matter how much she exerts herself.
  • Superhuman Reflexes: Despite her brash, impulsive nature. Ladytron is as quick with reactions as she is fleet of foot.
  • Superhuman Agility: Manchester is able to move more so seamlessly without physical impediment despite her heavy metal.
  • Enhanced Senses: As a Cyborg, Ms. Manchester's auditory functions are peaked well beyond the human norm.[9][5]
  • Enhanced Hearing

Abilities

Template:Mechanical Aptitude: Being a cyborg, Ladytron has a knack for interfacing with other forms of machinery.[9] She can physically link herself up with any onboard computerized system in order to commandeer it's functioning for personal use.[3]

Weaknesses

  • Coolant Rupturing: Ladytron is powered by a small nuclear reactor which runs the risk of an atomic meltdown should her liquid nitrogen coolant system fail.[12]
  • Template:Natural Lower Intellect: Both a strength and a fault, Maxine Manchester isn't very bright not is she all that levelheaded an individual. Often charging recklessly into distressing situations without pause for thought.[9]
  • Template:Mental Disorder: Being raised by an abusive father and after several motions of negligence between foster homes and penal facilities. Ladytron's psychological and sociological state of mind stands hideously imbalanced.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

  • Exo-Mantel: During her time in a comatose bionic state, Noir modified her body with some additional bionic augmentations that greatly magnified her physical performance.[13] Outfitted with Pincers and razor sharp feet additions giving her a semblance similar to the arachnid family, she could crush and stab her enemies with them as well as flail them about. After the world's end event she had it modified her old mecha body with some Kherubim technology to resemble more of a scorpion semblance. Enabling a semi-even battle between herself and Daemonite Royals Defile and Lady Decadence.[4]

Weapons

  • Various Hidden Artillery: Maxine withholds a great variety of hidden firearms on her person, some ranging from handheld pistols to heavy duty munitions wears.

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. WildC.A.T.s #33
  2. Wildcats: World's End #8
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Wildcats: World's End #11
  4. 4.0 4.1 Wildcats: World's End #12
  5. 5.0 5.1 Wildcats: World's End #17
  6. Wildcats: World's End #18
  7. Wildcats: World's End #22
  8. WildC.A.T.s #21
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Wildcats #18
  10. WildC.A.T.s #22
  11. 11.0 11.1 WildC.A.T.s #25
  12. WildC.A.T.s #34
  13. Wildcats #26
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