KATHY LING
Real Name: Katherine Ling
Identity/Class: Extra-dimensional (New Universe) human, paranormal
Occupation: Runaway, former student
Legal Status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record
Group Membership: Medusa Web, Psi-Force
Affiliations: Dr. Lucian Ballad, Benjamin, Crasniye Solleetsi, Mona Freemont, Grace, Justice (John Tensen), Doug McMurphy, Jackie Prentiss, Emily Proudhawk, Emmett Proudhawk, Eugene Proudhawk, Psi-Hawk, Colby Shaw, Skipper
Enemies: Colonel McIntyre Browning, CIA, Seth Cleveland, "Cool," Mr. Flowers, Foundations Inc., Bill Holstrum, House Master, KGB, Mind-Wolf, Bert Olson, Pippin, Potiphar, Michael Proudhawk, Rodstvow, Derek Shiningstar, the Siberian Project, Skits, Father Suniyoshi, Doug Tanner, Serge Vladimiroff
Known Relatives: Wei Ling (father), Akiko Ling (mother)
Aliases: Shockwave
Base of Operations: Unrevealed Place of Birth: San Francisco, California (September 22, 1970)
Extent of Education: Attended Woodland Hills High School (incomplete)
Religion: Buddhist (non-practicing)
First Appearance: Psi-Force#1 (November, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Kathy Ling possesses telekinetic powers which enable her to levitate and manipulate living beings and inanimate objects psionically. Her power is limited only by her endurance, and has increased as she has grown older.
When assembled with the other members of Psi-Force, Kathy Ling can summon the Psi-Hawk.
Height: 5'3" Weight: 103 lbs. Eyes: Brown Hair: Black
History: (Psi-Force Annual#1 (fb)) <7/22/86> - Kathy was cleaning her bedroom when the White Event occurred, and almost immediately she activated her power of telekinesis, causing the sheets and pillows on her bed to float. She told her best friend Grace what had happened and Grace tried to console her that it was a dream and took her shopping to cheer her up, but when a clerk at a store wouldn't give Kathy something she wanted, she accidentally threw her into a display case with her powers. Kathy was terrified by her powers and took a long drive. When she returned home, she began to learn how to control her powers, but hated them, thinking it made her a freak.
(Psi-Force#3 (fb)) <7/27/86> - Kathy was telepathically compelled by CIA agent Emmett Proudhawk to go to San Francisco's Sanctuary runaway home, where he was gathering other teeangers with psionic powers.
(Psi-Force#1) <08/3-6/86> - Kethy helped Emmett and Anastasia Inyushin escape from KGB agents and returned to Sanctuary with them. Now that he had all five members of Psi-Force gathered, Emmett explained to them how they needed to protect each other. When Anastasia tried to turn herself over to the KGB, Emmett forced Kathy and the others to track her down, but they wound up in a confrontation with the KGB in which Emmett was killed by Mind-Wolf. Wayne then led the others in using Emmett's medallion to summon up the Psi-Hawk for the first time, and the Psi-Hawk destroyed Mind-Wolf's mind. Crawley convinced the others that they should bring Emmett's body back to Sanctuary.
(Psi-Force#2) <8/7/86> - The teens were pursued by the police and CIA on their way back to Sanctuary, but Ling refused to use her powers to defend herself because she hated them. When Crawley tried to drive off their pursuers by causing an explosion, he accidentally toppled a building, but Kathy used her powers to deflect the debris. They were finally apprehended outside of the building with Emmett's body. When the CIA demanded to know the secret of their powers, Wayne had them create the Psi-Hawk, but they were all shot as the Psi-Hawk was created. The Psi-Hawk fought off the CIA, erased all knowledge of Psi-Force from their minds, then used Anastasia's powers to heal all five teens. Only the "Skipper," a CIA friend of Emmett's was allowed to retain his memories of them.
(Psi-Force#3) - Kathy went to school with the others and was threatened after class by a punk called "Cool," but Wayne saved them. Wayne began to wonder about how Emmett brought them together, and Tyrone learned from Skipper that Emmett had manipulated them into coming to San Francisco. They summoned the Psi-Hawk to ask it for guidance, but it just wrapped five branches together as a symbol. Wayne left the group was but was compelled to return by a tampering Emmett had made to him, and he returned to the others just in time to save them from Cool and his gang, but made it clear that he was only back because he had no choice.
(Untold Tales of the New Universe: Psi-Force#1) - Psi-Force met Michael Proudhawk, cousin of Emmett, who had the ability to generate a Psi-Hawk by himself. He attempted to recruit Psi-Force into the CIA, but they refused and their respective Psi-Hawks fought each other. When Proudhawk's Psi-Hawk was beaten, he was placed into a comatose state.
(Psi-Force#4) <10/20-26/86> - Kathy met Bert Olson, a private detective hired by her parents to bring her home, and she went back home to her family, managing to overcome Emmett's tampering with her mind. The Psi-Hawk visited her to try and bring her back, but it was weakened without her to power it, and she drove it away. Wayne forced her to meet with the other four in an attempt to bring her back to Sanctuary, but she refused. When she went home, she found Olson showing her parents photos of her using her powers, advising them to turn her over to the government, and Kathy struck him down with her powers. The others came to her aid, as Anastasia healed Olson's wounds and Wayne erased Olson and her parents' memories. Kathy reluctantly returned home.
(Psi-Force#5) <11/9-15/86> - Ling and the others were stalked by Thomas Boyd, an agent of Derek Shiningstar. Boyd posed as a runaway and befriended Crawley and Jessup before turning on them and using his powers to drain them of energy. He also managed to get the drop on Ling and Tucker, but when he had to face Anastasia, her healing powers made her immune to him, and their powers locked them in a circuit until Anastasia won. Tucker tied up Boyd while he retrieved Crawley and Jessup, but Boyd disappeared.
(Psi-Force#6) <12/24-25/86> - On Christmas Eve, the teens kept to themselves while the rest of Sanctuary had a Christmas party, and Tyrone sent his astral form to visit his family. When Cool and his friends threatened Tyrone's body, the other four came to his defense, but Tyrone returned in time to beat up Cool. Colby demanded that the five of them move out of Sanctuary the day after tomorrow and an hour later, they were on the road, hitchhiking.
(Psi-Force#7) - The teens traveled to Seattle, Washington, where they wound up at the Sanctuary home located there, run by Mona Freemont. Kathy befriended Doug Tanner, who was offering local girls opportunities to audition for film producers, but the girls wound up being beaten (presumably raped). Kathy unwittingly accepted an audition from Doug, but the others learned what Doug was up to from Jackie Prentiss, a girl he had abused, and they arrived in time to rescue Kathy from Tanner. Crawley destroyed Tanner's house in order to warn him against returning to Sanctuary. Afterwards, the five decided to return to San Francisco and deal with their problems.
(Psi-Force#8) - The teens went on a tour of the Alcatraz prison, but were ambushed there by Thomas Boyd. They summoned the Psi-Hawk to help fight him, but when Boyd realized he could absorb the Psi-Hawk's energies, he drained on it until it vanished, and all five teens were knocked out. Boyd kept Ling unconscious by leeching power from her, but ultimately turned against the CIA and helped the teens escape them. The five teens decided to look up Emmett's grandmother for help.
(Psi-Force#9) - After Alan Moran, a resident of Sanctuary, committed suicide, Wayne was overcome with guilt because he thought he had made Alan kill himself. Crawley ultimately helped Wayne come to terms with his guilt.
(Psi-Force#10) - In Arizona, at last on their way to the Proudhawks, Kathy was annoyed by a redneck named Bill Holstrum and some of his friends, and the teens drove them off with their powers. They went to the Apache reservation where Emmett's brother Eugene and grandmother Emily lived, but Eugene was suspicious of them because of his brother's death. Emily began to try and help them determine what their destinies were, but when Holstrum came to the reservation for revenge and hurt Eugene, they summoned the Psi-Hawk to drive Holstrum and his friends off. The Psi-Hawk used Anastasia's powers to heal Eugene, and he was amazed to see that it resembled Emmett. Although Emily was now uncertain about the teens, Eugene gave them his complete support.
(Psi-Force#11) - Eugene helped train the teens with their powers and told them about Emmett's past, particularly about his friend Derek Shiningstar. Wayne began to drift away from the others when he became involved with Jenny Skytower, a girl on the reservation, but when an agent of Shiningstar set off dynamite in a cave where Eugene and the other four were training, Wayne revealed his powers to Jenny as he helped coordinate the rescue effort, in which Ling's telekinesis was crucial in removing debris. Jenny left Wayne because she was afraid he might have used his powers to make her love him. Eugene finally decided that it was time for them to return to San Francisco.
(Psi-Force#12) - Anastasia became involved in a cult run from Haven House, led by Father Suniyoshi, who used Anastasia's abilities to drum up financial support. The others suspected that Anastasia was in trouble and came to investigate, and when Anastasia tried to leave the cult, they revealed their true colors, and tried to force her to stay. Father Suniyoshi threatened Anastasia, but the police had been called by Colby Shaw, and they broke up the cult.
(Psi-Force Annual#1) - When Boyd sent the teens a letter asking for help against the CIA, they discussed whether or not they could trust him. With Colby's help, they found floppy discs that Emmett had left at Sanctuary, and read his files on Boyd. They learned that Emmett had named them Psi-Force, and saw each of the codenames Emmett had for them. Kathy's codename was "Shockwave." They ultimately aided Boyd against the CIA, and the six of them formed the Psi-Hawk to battle the agents, but the Psi-Hawk exhibited wild behavior, and turned on them when they tried to calm it down. Crawley realized that the Psi-Hawk could only merge five minds, and had Wayne knock him out so that the Psi-Hawk would vanish. Crawley decided that Boyd needed the others and that he could manage all right on his own, and left the group so that they would be able to function.
(Psi-Force#13) - Anastasia was visited by Grigori Mironenko, an old family friend, who asked her to come to the Russian Consulate to help heal his wife, but it was actually a ploy by Vladimiroff to recapture Anastasia. The other members of Psi-Force broke into the grounds and brought in the State Department. Ultimately when Mironenko realized that Vladimiroff had infected his wife just to capture Anastasia, he let Anastasia off of the consulate grounds.
(Psi-Force#14) - While Tyrone was in astral form searching for Crawley, his body was stolen by Seth Cleveland, who demanded that Jessup spy on a meeting and report on it to him in order to get his body back. While the rest of Psi-Force tried to learn Cleveland's identity, Jessup attended the meeting and learned that Cleveland was after a truck containing nerve gas, and needed to know what route it was taking. Unwilling to share the information, they tried to find Cleveland first, but Boyd took over the situation by finding Cleveland's family and holding a gun on them to make Cleveland turn Jessup's body over. Boyd had wanted to prove himself to the others, but Jessup was furious when he got his body back, because he thought Boyd had crossed the line. Tucker wiped the minds of Cleveland, his family, and his associates.
(Psi-Force#16) - Kathy went to the home of Doug McMurphy for a date, but Doug's mother insulted her for living at Sanctuary. When Doug didn't stand up for her, Kathy stormed off, and angrily set off a telekinetic bombardment that caused her to be cut by broken glass. She had Anastasia heal her wounds. Later, Psi-Force allowed themselves to be studied by the scientists of Foundations Inc., but when Tyrone learned that they intended to operate on them, Wayne used his telepathy and learned they intended to abuse their powers, and they escaped from the facility, with Wayne erasing the memories of the head, Dr. Emilio Licciardo.
(Psi-Force#17) <10/19/87-11/25/87> - While shopping for a present on Wayne's birthday, Boyd, Ling and Inyushin encountered Troublemaker, a paranormal working for the Medusa Web mercenary organization. Troublemaker managed to outfight Boyd and escape. Ling and Inyushin gave Wayne his present, an earring of a cross. Later, Troublemaker contacted them and set up a meeting at Golden Gate Park, but this time Ling managed to hold him with her telekinesis and Boyd beat him until he gave the location of the Medusa Web's cameras. Psi-Force destroyed the camera's films, unaware that Medusa Web member Imprint had recorded everything with his powers. That evening at Sanctuary while Boyd and Inyushin kissed outside, the Russian paranormal Rodstvow unleashed a blast that destroyed Sanctuary.
(Psi-Force#20 (fb)) <11/25/87> - Tucker felt Rodstvow's attack coming, and took control of Kathy to make her throw him from Sanctuary with her powers. Kathy tried to lift herself and Tyrone out of the building before it exploded, but Tyrone was caught on the window and Kathy was hit by the explosion as she fell. Boyd ran into the flames and returned with Kathy, who Anastasia healed. Uncertain of where Wayne was and thinking Jessup dead, they ran from Rodstvow.
(Psi-Force#19) <1/2-5/88> - Kathy, Anastasia and Boyd were followed to San Diego by the mercenary outfit the Medusa Web, and fought them in the halls of the Horton Plaza. Ling went toe-to-toe with Toocheetsch and Gatto di Sangue but was finally confronted by Potiphar, who shot her in the back.
(Justice#23/2 (fb)) - Anastasia taxed her healing powers to the limit, healing her own fingers back on, and then healing Kathy's chest wound. She passed for three days due to the strain.
(Justice#23/2) <3/8/88> - At the Bethesda Naval Hospital in Washington D.C., Kathy and Anastasia were treated by Dr. Lucian Ballad. When a paranormal named Pippin ran wild, Kathy blasted him with her powers, and Ballad had Anastasia help treat his injuries.
(Psi-Force#24) <4/5/88> - Boyd, Lindsey Falmon, Jessup and Tucker broke Ling and Inyushin out of the hospital and decided that their next mission should be to confront the CIA directly and settle matters with them. They entered CIA Headquarters, but found the halls littered with bodies of victims of Rodstvow. Some nervous soldiers shot at them, and everyone except Jessup was wounded. Jessup defeated the soldiers, and Anastasia gave her life to heal the wounds of the others. When Rodstvow himself appeared, they used Emmett's medallion to create the Psi-Hawk, placing their own bodies into comas.
(Psi-Force#25) <4/5/88> - The Psi-Hawk fought Rodstvow through Washington, D.C., and they even turned the Washington Monument into a weapon to hit Rodstvow with. They tried to destroy Rodstvow but he proved more powerful than they expected, and the Psi-Hawk was destroyed.
(Psi-Force#27 - text) <4/5/88> - Rodstvow teleported Boyd, Ling, Tucker and Falmon's unconscious bodies to the Siberian Project. Kathy regained consciousness at the end of August.
(Psi-Force#27) <9/4/88> - Ling was horrified when she found that the Siberian Project's staff had shaved her hair, and she had to be restrained.
(Psi-Force#28) <10/3/88> - Vladimiroff tested Ling against Crasniye Solleetsi, and saw that she was now comfortable with her powers, and more powerful than ever. Tucker began to speak in Kathy's mind, directing her against the staff, and when Vladimiroff tried to have Shivowtnoeh kill Kathy, Kathy instead beat Shivowtnoeh badly then broke nearly every bone in Vladimiroff's body.
(Psi-Force#29) <10/5/88> - The Medusa Web and Justice came to break out Tucker, Boyd, Falmon and Ling. With Dehman Doosha, they began to escape in a helicopter.
(Justice#29) <10/5/88> - What remained of Crasniye Solleetsi pursued them and downed their helicopter, but they managed to hold their own, until Rodstvow arrived.
(Psi-Force#30) <10/5/88> - Psi-Force, Justice, the Medusa Web and Crasniye Solleetsi joined forces against Rodstvow, under the direction of Wayne, and managed to crack his armor open and kill him, but his skeletal form continued to exist because he wasn't "aware" that he had died. Boyd was injured in the fight, and to destroy Rodstvow once and for all they had Coojeechiscue lift Boyd towards Rodstvow so that Dehman Doosha would come to his rescue and destroy Rodstvow. Ling had hoped that Rodstvow's death would help her come to terms with Anastasia's death, but it didn't, and she went to Wayne for comfort. With the crisis past, Justice turned on Psi-Force.
(Justice#30) <10/5/88> - Justice faced Psi-Force on the psychic plane, blaming them because his daughter was injured in the fight between the Psi-Hawk and Rodstvow. He intended to kill them, but when Lindsey described him as "dead inside," he came to his senses and let them go.
(Psi-Force#31) <1/27/89> - Still recovering from their ordeal with Rodstvow, the group was offered a place in the Medusa Web again. Kathy wanted to get away from the violence, because she loved using her power now, and hated herself for that. Wayne arranged for them to join the Medusa Web, but gave Ling a vacation.
(Psi-Force#32 - text) <4/1/98> - In a Playboy magazine interview, Wayne Tucker mentioned that Kathy had eventually returned to the ranks of Psi-Force.
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin and Walter Simonson.
Kathy received an OHOTMU-style biography in Psi-Force#21.
by
formerly Sanctuary, San Francisco, California
CLARIFICATIONS:
Kathy Ling should not be confused with:
Benjamin was Kathy's beloved pet cat. Of all the things she had to give up after becoming a runaway, she missed Benjamin the most. When Wayne Tucker believed that they were about to die at the hands of Rodstvow, he said a telepathic goodbye to Benjamin.
--Psi-Force#4 (Psi-Force Annual#1 (fb), Psi-Force#4, 25
Images taken from:
Psi-Force#21, page 28
Psi-Force#16, page 18, panel 1
Benjamin- Psi-Force#25, page 24, panel 7
First Posted: 11/27/2005
Last updated: 05/28/2006
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!