Real
Name: Josephine Pulaski"Joey" Pulaski
Real
Name: Josephine Pulaski
Identity/Class: Human mutant or mutate (see comments)
Occupation: thrillseeker, pawn of the Kingpin
Affiliations: The Kingpin,
Enemies: Carstairs
Known Relatives: unrevealed
Aliases: none
Base of Operations: Manhattan
First
Appearance:
(Cameo) Amazing Fantasy#16 (December 1995);
(full)
Amazing Fantasy#17 (January 1996)
Powers/Abilities: Joey can generate and control energy fields, enabling her to cause explosions, create force-fields, fly, and levitate objects and people. Her energy levels are powerful enough to levitate a bulldozer but not to hold Spider-Man, and as such are equivalent to superhuman strength (somewhere between enhanced human and class 10), though physically she has average strength for a fifteen year old girl.
History: (Amazing Fantasy#17(fb) - Josephine was born with something missing in her D.N.A. and was given multiple chemical and radiological treatments. One of the treatments worked and not only made her better, but triggered her powers. Joey was released but mentioned nothing of her powers to the doctors. She began experimenting with her powers and having fun with them. At some point she attracted the attention of the Kingpin who offered her money to sabotage a local construction site.
(Amazing Fantasy#16, Amazing Fantasy#17) - Joey's tampering at the construction site drew the attention of Spider-Man. Joey observed him from overhead and triggered his spider-sense, but by the time the web-slinger looked she had hidden herself. She later introduced herself to him and they became friends. However, Spider-Man mentioned his plans to stake out the building site and find who was responsible for the problems there. She became upset and flew off. Joey began behaving recklessly, causing property damage and endangering lives, but Spider-Man confronted her and she revealed she was behind the goings on at the site and had been considering telling Spider-Man the truth and offering him a chance to join her in her next "big job". The two fell out and she flew off.
Later on, Joey and the Kingpins men captured Carstairs and threatened him to join go into partnership with them. Spider-Man intervened and Joey was ordered to kill him. She tried to hold him in one of her force-fields, but he escaped and knocked her out. The Kingpins men deserted her and she was taken by the police.
Comments: Created by Kurt Busiek and Paul Lee
Amazing Fantasy#16-18 was a limited series set in between Amazing Fantasy#15 and Amazing Spider-Man#1. In both this and Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Kurt Busiek really captured the feel of those early days brilliantly.
Joey was apparently quite immature, even for a fifteen year old. As Spider-Man said "it's more like she missed being twelve, so she's catching up on it". She was supposedly the first super-powered person Spider-Man had met. While they became friends for a brief time, her personality was almost a complete opposite of Peter Parker's... a teenager with great power but no responsibility!
So is she Mutate or Mutant? This reminds me a bit of Polaris who had the latent genetic potential for magnetic powers but certain genetic factors were absent that would have allowed her to use those powers. I'm sure you know it was Samuel "Starr" Saxon" who had Mesmero place Lorna in a "genetic stimulator" and thus enabled her to use her powers. However Lorna had shown signs of being a mutant from birth (green hair). Although Lorna got her powers as a result of something that happened after birth, she is still considered a mutant as she has the X-Factor. How do we know that Joey doesn't have the X-factor, that the missing D.N.A. wasn't what was preventing her from using her mutant powers?
Profile by Changeling
CLARIFICATIONS:
Joey Pulaski has no known connection to:
Last updated: 04/19/03
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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