CYGNUS
Real Name: Rowena Maclean
Identity/Class: Human cyborg
Occupation: Terrorist;
former soldier
Group Membership: ARES (Deathstorm (Gabriel Gant), Emil Tessler, Scorch);
formerly Omega Strike (James Bourne, Emil Tessler, Gabriel Gant, others)
Affiliations: Delvadian Liberation Front
Enemies: Deathstorm, Oscar Ortega, Solo (James Bourne), Spider-Man (Peter Parker)
Known Relatives: Emil Tessler (father, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: ARES headquarters, beneath the Adirondack Mountains, New York
First Appearance: Solo#1 (September, 1994)
Powers/Abilities: Cygnus has a cyber-chip implanted into her brain and linked to her adrenal glands, allowing her to teleport at will. She is a skilled soldier, experienced in the use of conventional firearms.
History: (Solo#1 (fb) ) - Rowena Maclean joined Omega Strike, an elite NATO anti-terrorist unit commanded by her father, Emil Tessler. She and all of Omega Strike's other members were given the ability to teleport via brain implants. Much to her father's displeasure, she fell in love with her teammate James Bourne. When Tessler and fellow Omega Strike member Gabriel Gant were paid to botch a hostage rescue mission in Italy, planning to use the money to start their own terror network, Rowena went along with them. Gant shot all of their teammates, including Bourne; Rowena left a heart-shaped locket with the dying Bourne, swore she'd always love him, and teleported away. They subsequently faked their deaths in a plane crash. Bourne survived, and became the anti-terrorist vigilante Solo while Rowena, Tessler and Gant formed ARES: Assassination, Revolution, Extortion, and Sabotage. Rowena adopted the codename Cygnus, while Gant became the cyborg Deathstorm.
(Solo#1) - Cygnus joined an ARES attack in progress on Welles Technologies. Solo teleported in moments later; the two instantly recognized each other, and Cygnus teleported away instantly, leaving a bomb behind. Back at ARES HQ, Tessler debriefed Cygnus and another ARES operative, Scorch.
(Solo#2) - Cygnus watched disgustedly as Deathstorm killed several ARES troopers in a training exercise. Later, she, Scorch, and Deathstorm attacked the Delvadian embassy in New York City, hoping to persuade their ambassador, Ortega, to vote down a UN resolution that would harm ARES' current client, the Delvadian Liberation Front. When Deathstorm threatened Ortega's son, Cygnus stayed his hand and took the boy to safety, returning in time to see Deathstorm kill Ortega. Solo and Spider-Man soon arrived; Deathstorm grabbed Cygnus as a human shield against Solo and teleported away, abandoning the injured Scorch.
(Solo#3) - Tessler berated Cygnus and Deathstorm for their failure; he angrily assigned Rowena to a double shift in the command center. There, she picked up Scorch's teleportation signature, finding that Spider-Man had forced the captive Scorch to teleport him into ARES' base. Solo also chose that moment to attack the base; Tessler fled to ARES' helicarrier with his daughter and initiated the base's self-destruct sequence over Rowena's objections, seemingly killing Deathstorm and Scorch.
(Solo#4) - The heilcarrier sped towards United Nations headquarters, where Tessler planned to disrupt the passage of the Delvadian resolution; Cyrnus urged him to quit and build a new life in South America, but he pressed on. Cygnus, Tessler, and the remaining ARES troops teleported into the conference room; the dignitaries were uncooperative, so Tessler ordered his men to kill one; at that moment, Solo burst in, guns blazing. Cygnus stopped him from killing Tessler, finally informing Solo that Tessler was her father. Tessler teleported back to the helicarrier, with Cygnus and Solo in hot pursuit; they found that Deathstorm and Scorch had survived and beaten them there, killing the bridge crew and taking Tessler captive. In front of Rowena's horrified eyes, Deathstorm snapped Tessler's neck, killing him. Cygnus tried to shoot him, but was instead blasted by Scorch; Solo shot and killed him, but Scorch's shot damaged the helicarrier's systems, and it crashed into the Hudson River. Solo pulled the half-drowned Rowena out of the river and killed Deathstorm, accidentally killing an innocent bystander in the process. Bourne and Rowena were both taken away by the police.
Comments: Created by Eric Fein, Ron Randall & Sam DeLaRosa.
Cygnus is Latin for "swan". It's also the name of several swan-related characters in Greek mythology, and of a constellation that contains the black hole Cygnus X-1. I'm not really sure how the name applies to Ms. Maclean here. Rowena, on the other hand, was the name of a scheming seductress who married and betrayed the legendary British warlord Vortigen, so that fits.
Profile by Minor Irritant.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Cygnus has no known connections to
images: (without ads)
Solo#1, p34, pan2 (main image)
Solo#1, p48, pan1 (with locket)
Appearances:
Solo#1-4 (September-December, 1994) - Eric Fein (writer), Ron Randall (pencils), Sam DeLaRosa (inker), Danny Fingeroth (editor)
First Posted: 08/16/2012
Last updated: 08/16/2012
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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