Real Name: Selena Slate
SPECTRA
Real Name: Selena Slate
Identity/Class: Human Mutate
Occupation: Laboratory assistant
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Dr Charles Fong, Garth (her former boyfriend), Sleepwalker
Enemies: Psyko; formerly Sleepwalker
Known Relatives: none revealed
Aliases: Mistress of light
Base of Operations: Manhattan; formerly Dr Fong's laboratory
First Appearance: (As Selena) Sleepwalker#13 (June 1992), (Named as Spectra) Sleepwalker#14 (July 1992)
Powers/Abilities: The synthetic diamond's mysterious energies transformed Selena into a living rainbow and gave her superhuman agility, speed and the power of flight. She could generate different frequencies of light and focus them through the diamond for various effects; a frequency of green light with optical distortion properties that could be used to project images, a frequency of orange light that could burn through solid steel, a frequency of blue light that strips heat from the air for a chilling effect, a frequency of solid red light with the force of a battering ram, a frequency of razor sharp green light, a frequency of yellow light that caused searing heat, a frequency of purple light that induces pain by attacking the nervous system, a frequency of solid yellow light, a frequency of hypnotic white light, and a frequency addictive to Sleepwalker that made him hallucinate and behave as though he was mad. See comments
Limitation: If the diamond's light was reflected back at her it caused her pain.
History: (Sleepwalker#13,14
(fb)) - At some point Selena and Garth became a couple. Selena was so in
love with Garth she agreed to help him steal the synthetic diamond to make
money to buy him drugs. Selena worked hard on Fong's experiments with the
diamond, and together they made tremendous progress.
(Sleepwalker#13) - As Selena and Dr Fong were experimenting on the synthetic diamond, they were observed by Garth from the sky light above. Garth took a crow bar to the sky light but before he could climb through he was disturbed by Sleepwalker. Garth ran away, and Selena watched as Sleepwalker entered the lab, drawn to the synthetic diamond. While Sleepwalker vanished a few hours later he returned again late that night. Selena was annoyed and asked Fong to get rid of him. Instead Fong tried to divert Sleepwalkers attention from the diamond with a display of it's properties. Again Sleepwalker vanished.
(Sleepwalker#13(BTS)) - Selena contacted Garth to tell him that Sleepwalker only appeared at night. She left the door unlocked so he could gain access.
(Sleepwalker#13) - Sleepwalker returned
early to receive more of the diamonds glow. Fong realised the light was affecting
Sleepwalker and tried to warn him, but Sleepwalker flung him at Selena and
crashed out of the window hallucinating. Meanwhile Garth returned but was
startled as Sleepwalker re-entered the lab for another "fix" from the diamond.
Fong realised Selena and Garth were working together and set up an illusion
of himself being shot by Garth. Sleepwalker knocked Garth out, and Selena
grabbed the gun. She was upset because she had made Garth promise nobody
would get shot, but Fong revealed his deception. While happy Fong was alive,
Selena decided to carry on without Garth and touched the diamond while it
was still hooked up to the power grid. The influx of energy mutated her into
an energy being.
(Sleepwalker#14) - Selena escaped with both the diamond and Garth and returned to their apartment. Garth asked her for the diamond, but her transformation and influx of power had left her more confidant. She rejected him, realising he was a "good-for-nothing junkie" and blasted him with solid light. Sleepwalker appeared and fought her for the crystal. After an intense battle across the rooftops, she gave him a dose of the glow he had been addicted to, comparing him to her junkie ex-boyfriend and hoping he would overdose on it. Selena flew away leaving Sleepwalker hallucinating.
(Sleepwalker#29) - Having heard seen T.V. news reports, Spectra watched as Sleepwalker and Psyko battled above a burning federal prison hospital. At first she seemed pleased that Sleepwalker was dealing with the villain and was glad he had not died after their last encounter. However she saw him use his warp beam on a man (unknown to her the man was possessed by a mindspawn) and attacked, inadvertently allowing Psyko to escape.
(Sleepwalker#31) - Thinking Sleepwalker responsible for the Mindspawn's invasion she took him to a hospital full of Mindrake victims. She held a trial with the doctors, nurses and victims as witnesses. However one of the victims remembered Sleepwalker rescuing him. Still Spectra accused Sleepwalker of the murder of Rick Sheridan, as had been reported on the news. Sleepwalker told her it had been an act, but couldn't prove it. As Spectra accused him of warping an innocent man (the man who had been possessed by the mindspawn) another mindspawn, in the body of a nurse, tried to inject Spectra with a large dose of tranquilliser. Sleepwalker warp beamed the nurse, but this only fed Spectra's rage. They fought again, and Sleepwalker (still partially affected by Psyko's madness) managed to take her diamond from her. While he had the upper hand he didn't kill her, indeed he kissed her. While Spectra recovered and blasted him away she realised he wasn't as evil as she had suspected. She gave him a second chance to prove himself, and they returned to the hospital to find the nurse had recovered. The doctor explained that Sleepwalker had probably saved her from being injected with a lethal dose of tranquilliser. The nurse thanked Sleepwalker for helping her, and he explained that he had merely warp beamed the mindspawn out of her body.
(Sleepwalker#32) - Spectra took Sleepwalker to her new employers building and used mirrors and crystals in an attempt to boost her powers to the point where she could hypnotise Psyko's madness out of Sleepwalker. Sleepwalker lost control and tried to escape, hallucinating again. Thinking he was seeing Psyko, he almost gave in to the madness completely but Spectra pulled him away at the last moment. He had her induced madness in him to draw Psyko to them. In his state of madness he believed Spectra to be a razor-tongued brain-eater from the mindscape, but Psyko appeared and distracted his attention from her. Psyko was on the verge of defeating Sleepwalker when Spectra attacked his nervous system. Psyko resisted the blast and began to attack Spectra. Sleepwalker tackled Psyko from behind. But Spectra, also affected by the madness, interfered. Still thinking she was an enemy, Sleepwalker was about to kill her when she made him realise that wasn't his way. Sleepwalker realised Psyko wanted him to murder Spectra as an insane act that would ensure his madness was permanent. He resisted and finally defeated Psyko.
(Civil War: Battle Damage Report) - Tony Stark considered Spectra as a potential Initiative recruit.
Comments: Created by Bob Budiansky and Bret Blevins
Spectra was introduced in the, ahem, "classic" Colour Blindness saga that ran from Sleepwalker#13-16. Sleepwalker became addicted to the glow of the diamond and started acting strange (even for him!). In order to keep returning to the crystal he had to find ways to put his host, Rick Sheridan, to sleep. This resulted in Rick falling into a coma and led into a confrontation with Reed Richards and the Thought Police. In#16 Spectra appears in a flashback while Sleepy explains to Rick what happened.
Some of the properties the different frequencies of light had didn't quite make sense to me. Sometimes a particular colour was used for more than one effect, and other times an effect (for example the solid light effect which was seen as red to begin with and yellow later on) changed colour.
On the "Wake Up Call's" letter page of Sleepwalker#17 Jeremy Dallas of Tuscola wrote:
Is Sleepy's new friend in issue#13, Dr. Charles Fong, the same Charles Fong that helped Goldbug and the Throttlebots stop the Scraplet epidemic in TRANSFORMERS#s 29 and 30?
While the answer was cryptic, we were given this clue:
The same person, bob Budiansky, wrote all the stories you mentioned! Coincidence - or conspiracy?
So presumably from that we can deduce that the character are indeed one and the same, albeit alternate versions of each other.
by Changeling
CLARIFICATIONS:
Spectra (Selena Slate) has no known connection to:
Dr. Charles Warren Fong has no known connection to:
Dr Charles Warren Fong
Fong, known as C.W. to his friends, was a friendly helpful scientist whose area of expertise was apparently optics. He took to Sleepwalker quickly. After the break in, and Selene's transformation into Spectra, Sleepwalker returned with Rick Sheridan. Rick had fallen into a coma when Sleepwalker had forcibly put him to sleep in order to escape his mind and return to the glow of the diamond. When Sleepwalker went missing, Fong tracked him down with Rick Sheridan's dog, Rambo. When Rick's condition started to deteriorate, Fong accompanied Sleepwalker to the hospital. Later on, after Rick's recovery, Sleepwalker came to him in order to over come Portal's mind control using his optical expertise.
--- Sleepwalker#13, (14, 15, 17) and his alternate counterpart from the Transformers universe appeared in TRANSFORMERS I#s 29 and 30
The synthetic diamond was the source of Selena's powers. It's unique structure allowed pure white light to be broken down into it's component colours. Fong was using it to try and discover the properties inherent in each colour of the spectrum. The glow of the diamond was addictive to Sleepwalker and made him feel happy.
-- Sleepwalker#13, (14, 29, 31, 32)
Appearances:
Sleepwalker#13-14 (June-July, 1992) - Bob Budiansky (writer), Bret Blevins (pencils), Mike Manley (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Sleepwalker#29 (October, 1993) - Bob Budiansky (writer), Kelly Krantz (pencils), Val Mayerik & Don Lomax (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Sleepwalker#31-32 (December, 1993 - January, 1994) - Bob Budiansky (writer), Kelly Krantz (pencils), Don Lomax (inks), Don Daley (editor)
Civil War: Battle Damage Report (2007)
First Posted: 09/25/2003
Last updated: 09/25/2003
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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