AURA
Real Name: Ann "Annie" Herd
Identity/Class: Human technology user
Occupation: Mercenary
Group Membership: Hammerhead's
"villain army" (Hammerhead,
Answer (Aaron Nicholson), Ape-Man,
Bloodshed, Clown (Eliot "Crafty" Franklin),
Discus (Tim Stuart), Electro (Max Dillon),
Great Gambonnos, Man Mountain Marko, Mauler (Brendan Doyle),
Override (Greg Herd), Ringmaster (Maynard Tiboldt), Spot,
Squid (Donny
Callahan), Trapster, Will O' The Wisp,
others);
formerly Doctor Octopus' "Strike Team" (Override, Looter)
Affiliations: Doctor Octopus (Carolyn Trainer), Master Programmer, Override
Enemies: Cyber-Slayers, Dealy Boys (Lee, Harv, Ozzie), Iron Man (Stark), Scarlet Spider (Ben Reilly), S.H.I.E.L.D., Alistaire Smythe, Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Jason Tso, Joe Wade
Known Relatives: Dr. Gregory Herd (Override, husband)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Base of Operations: Unknown;
formerly Kriezier Private
Hospital, Oyster Bay, New York
formerly a hospital in lower Manhattan
formerly Doctor Octopus' headquarters, Staten Island
First Appearance: Spectacular Scarlet Spider#1 (November, 1995)
Powers/Abilities: Aura's cybernetic costume provides her with enhanced strength. It also allows her to project force fields, which can be used to form defensive shields and offensive force blasts After her accident, Ann was paralyzed from the chest down, horribly scarred and burned, and had lost a number of organs, forcing her to rely on machines to survive.
While in costume as Aura, Herd wears a long black wig to disguise her blonde hair.
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 130 lbs.
History:
(Marvel
Encyclopedia Vol. 4: Spider-Man) - When Greg Herd was hired by Carolyn Trainer
for his technological know-how, he insisted that she hire his wife, Ann, as
well. Eventually, Trainer offered them a more active part in her criminal
activities. They accepted, and the Herds donned cybernetic costumes of
their own design to become Override and Aura.
(Spectacular Scarlet Spider#1) - Aura, Override, and the Looter combat-trained in Doctor Octopus' secret base. Aura managed to blast the Looter, and then save her husband from a Looter-thrown forklift before they were interrupted by Trainer, who briefed them on their next mission.
Later that night, the three cyber-criminals attacked Jason Tso's Club Noir, in search of some valuable microchips. Tso's bodyguards' weapons were useless against Aura's force fields, but she was no match for the Scarlet Spider, who was employed in his civilian identity by Tso. While his fists couldn't slow her down, his impact webbing did, trapping her in her own force field. She managed to escape with the others, albeit without the microchips, when the Looter collapsed the club's ceiling, forcing the Spider to ignore them and save the clubgoers below.
(Web of Scarlet Spider#2) - Doc Ock berated Aura and her teammates over their failure to recover the microchips until she was contacted by Tso, arranging a meeting at the children's zoo in Central Park. She sent the three there to ambush Tso.
At the zoo, the Scarlet Spider approached a trenchcoated Aura,
mistaking her for Doctor Octopus. Concluding that the Spider was Tso's
henchman, Aura joined Override and the Looter in attacking him, blowing up the
monkey house in the process. They briefly managed to restrain him until
Tso and his new ally Alistaire Smythe sent their Cyber-Slayers in.
Smythe's remote-controlled robots quickly incapacitated Aura and her teammates,
and they were subsequently taken away by the police.
(Sensational Spider-Man I#25) - Having apparently beaten the rap and moved out of the city, Ann and Greg came back to New York, lured by the $5 million bounty on Spider-Man. Despite her misgivings, Ann agreed to resume their criminal careers to make enough money to retire. They ambushed Spider-Man, but he managed to maneuver Aura into blasting Override and escape in the resulting confusion.
Back in their room at the Manhattan Marriot, Ann tried to convince Greg to give up, but he remained determined, and promised her that nothing would go wrong.
Leaping into a confrontation between Spider-Man and the Dealy Boys, Aura blew away a cop with her force blast while Override shut down the Dealy Boys' weapons. Override opened up an 'area of operability' around Aura to allow her to ensnare Spider-Man in a force field...unaware that one of the Dealy Boys was also in that sphere. He fired his lazer at Aura, and she raised her force field an instant too late, trapping the lazer beam in it with her. The beam ricocheted about the energy bubble, tearing her apart.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#255 - BTS) - Anne was taken to a hospital in lower Manhattan.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#255) - Greg Herd stared helplessly at his comatose wife, and set out to collect the bounty in order to pay her medical bills.
(Spectacular Spider-Man II#255 - BTS) - Having been saved from the Green Goblin by Override, Norman Osborn gratefully hired Override and paid for Ann's care.
(Sensational
Spider-Man I#32 - BTS) - Override agreed to participate in Osborn's risky
Gathering of Five ceremony in the hopes of going the power to heal Ann.
(Sensational Spider-Man I#33) - Greg visited Anne's bedside in the Kriezier Private Hospital in Oyster Bay. Feeling that leaving her in her condition would be cruel, he briefly considered using his powers to shut off the machinery keeping her alive, but decided against it. She soon regained consciousness, but had given up all hope of recovering, even after her husband told her about his participation in the Gathering of Five ceremony. While her husband went out to rob a bank to pay for her care, Norman Osborn visited her in the hospital. She begged him not to let her live like this, and he promised to "bring her peace" if she thought over her decision for a few days.
Back from his successful outing, Greg pleaded with Anne to hold on, just for a little while longer...
(Amazing Spider-Man II#3 - (fb)) - Now cursed with living death, Greg was unable to do anything for Anne, and soon became the demonic Shadrac.
(Civil War: War Crimes) - Somehow healed, and reunited with a restored Override, Aura joined Hammerhead's "villain army" in order to take advantage of the raging superhero Civil War. Before they could begin doing so, however, their headquarters was raided by Iron Man and a small army of SHIELD agents. Aura's fate in the ensuing melee is unknown.
Comments: Created by Todd DeZago, Sal Buscema, and Jimmy Palmiotti.
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure how Aura got better - although her recovery was a lot less miraculous than her husband's. If I had to guess, I'd say that she was restored by Override, using a combination of his cybernetics know-how and mystical powers left over from his time as Shadrac. (or maybe it was someone new wearing the costume --Markus Raymond)
Aura received an entry in the Spider-Man Encyclopedia.
Profile by Minor Irritant.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Aura has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Spectacular Scarlet Spider#1, p16, pan1 (main image)
Sensational Spider-Man I#25, p27, pan6 (wigless)
Sensational Spider-Man I#25, p37, pan1 (caught in force field)
Sensational Spider-Man I#33, p7, pan5 (post-accident)
Appearances:
Spectacular Scarlet Spider#1 (November, 1995) - Todd DeZago (writer), Sal
Buscema (penciler), Jimmy Palmiotti (inks), Eric Fein (editor)
Web of Scarlet Spider#2 (December, 1995) - Tom DeFalco (plotter), Todd DeZago
(scripter), Tom Morgan (penciler), Randy Emberlin, Hector Collazo, & Don Hudson
(inkers), Eric Fein (editor)
Sensational Spider-Man I#25 (March, 1998) - Todd DeZago (writer), Joe Bennett
(penciler), Al Milgrom & Dan Green (inkers), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Spectacular Spider-Man II#255 (March, 1998) - Tom DeFalco (plotter), J.M.
DeMatteis (scripter), Luke Ross (penciller),
Al Milgrom & Dan Green (inkers), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Sensational Spider-Man I#33 (November, 1998) - Todd DeZago (writer), Joe Bennett
(penciler), Al Milgrom (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Amazing Spider-Man II#3 (March, 1999) - Howard Mackie (writer), John Byrne (penciller),
Scott Hanna (inker), Ralph Macchio (editor)
Civil War: War Crimes (February, 2007) - Frank Tieri (writer), Staz Johnson (penciller),
Tom Palmer & Robin Riggs (inkers), Tom Brevoort (editor)
First Posted: 04/13/2007
Last updated: 04/11/2007
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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