SILENCE
Real Name: Unrevealed
Identity/Class: Human mutate, citizen of the United
States
Occupation: Director of Camp Silence;
formerly scientist
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Outriders (Chunk, Mama &
Stomper), the New Wave (Jared, Portia and unnamed others);
formerly Cerberus, O.Z.
Chase
Enemies: Beast (Hank McCoy), Carter Blaire, Cerberus, Dazzler (Alison Blaire), O.Z. Chase, Barbara London, Arthur Allan Smith
Known Relatives: Dust (husband, deceased)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly an abandoned
theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma;
formerly Camp Silence,
Colorado;
formerly mobile
throughout the United States;
formerly a government
sponsored research facility
First Appearance: (Heard) Dazzler I#40 (November,
1985); (seen and named) Dazzler I#41 (January, 1986)
Powers/Abilities: Born without superhuman
abilities, Silence took a drug developed by her husband that could
awaken paranormal, psychic powers in ordinary humans. She gained
unspecified telekinetic abilities backed by superhumanly strong will
power. Her sheer force of personality could use affect the emotions and
perceptions of those around her. Silence's presence could psionically
calm or enrage people around her. She could also reach out to others who
had taken the drug and their offspring, subtly calling them towards her.
This telepathic summons was powerful enough to reach across the United
States with little effort. She was able to feed off their dormant,
psi-drug induced enhanced energies. Mildly telepathic, she had a
psi-link with her husband Dust and could sense his emotions at all
times. The drug's lethal side effects were kept in check by Silence's
psionic powers, but required a tremendous amount of concentration. To
keep focussed, she spoke very little and rid herself of distractions
like blinding lights and sudden, harsh sounds. Over time, talking became
painful and she also grew sensitive to light and sound, forcing her to
permanently wear tinted glasses. A brilliant scientist and an obvious
patriot, Silence's main concern was the safety of the United States and
making sure the US maintained the upper hand in the superpowered arms
development race. She considered the offspring of their original
subjects the children she and her husband had been denied.
History:
(Dazzler I#41 (fb) ) - In the early 1960s
(see comments), the couple who would become known as Dust and
Silence worked for the government to develop a way to give soldiers
superpowers through paranormal means. In the end, they developed a
psi-drug they first tested on themselves. They immediately developed
psionic powers, but learned that the drug had lethal side-effects. Only
Silence's superhumanly strong will kept her body from falling apart,
though it required much of her concentration. This still didn't deter
them from continuing to experiment with lower dosages on a test group
consisting of vagrants, runaways, addicts and criminals. While the drug
worked and they gained impressive powers, the side effects proved lethal
to most. This was cause enough for Washington to cancel the experiment
and put out a warrant for the couple's arrest. Furious at being thwarted
so close to developing a way to counteract the side-effects with
ultraviolet energies, they went into hiding, taking all their research
with them. Over the years, they survived in hiding, living as fugitives
and mastering their powers. They also discovered that the drug they'd
developed had a pass along effect, it survived dormant in the offspring
of many original subjects.
(Dazzler I#41 (fb) - BTS) - In order to get their hands on
the descendants of the original test group, Dust and Silence started a
reform school they called Camp Silence. Using her telepathic powers,
Silence attracted many of them to the school where the drug testing soon
resumed. However, none of the ultraviolet frequencies proved able to
counter the drug's lethal effects. The duo realized that awakening their
dormant powers would kill their subjects.
(Dazzler I#41 - BTS) - Dust and Silence were surprised to
learn that the Dazzler's lightshow was able to succesfully counteract
their drug's lethal side-effects when a number of their
students/subjects (including Jared
and the Outriders) attended one of her performances and
returned to Camp Silence with their powers activated. Dust and Silence
decided to capture Dazzler and force her to use her light to not only
activate the remaining subjects, but also cure the couple of their
debilitating condition.
(Dazzler I#42 (fb) - BTS) - Feeling they were in need of a
secondary base of operations, Dust and Silence acquired an abanonded
theater in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
(Dazzler I#41 - BTS) - To ensure Dazzler's cooperation,
Dust and Silence sought out her parents Carter Blaire and Barbara London
and had them captured.
(Dazzler I#38 - BTS) - With Silence staying behind to run the Camp, Dust went out to set their plan in motion. He hired bounty hunter O.Z. Chase to bring in Dazzler.
(Dazzler I#40 - BTS) - On the way to Colorado, Dazzler was abducted by the Beyonder who had become enamored with her from afar. The one from beyond left O.Z. Chase without any memory of the events. Unaware of all this, Dust and Silence moved on to the next phase of their plan: having the three enhanced students that had attended the Dazzler concert, now known as the Outriders, catch up with Chase and take Blaire for themselves. To coordinate the operation, Dust travelled across several states. Silence contacted her husband just after he'd taken over the form of a young trucker. He gave her a brief update on the mission, assuring her Dazzler would soon be theirs, and also promised her she'd find his newest form as a "healthy, strapping somewhat brutish knight of the road" most amusing.
(Dazzler I#40 - BTS) - Beyonder eventually returned Dazzler to the exact spot he'd taken her from. Catching up with Chase, she found he was under attack from Dust's Outriders. With a little aid from Chase and the Beyonder, Dazzler was able to defeat Chunk and Mama. Stomper escaped, leaving Dazzler to wonder just who was out to get her while she escaped Chase once again.
(Dazzler I#41) - The Outriders returned to Camp Silence where Stomper reported back to Dust who was so displeased with the team's failure he took his form. Silence, who was in the other room, braced herself for the expected howling all of Dust's victims do when he takes over. After the deed was done, Dust still apologized to her for the noise, and comforted Silence with the promise they'd soon be cleansed of what was destroying them. Dust and Silence rejoiced in the notion of being able to present the government with an army of enhanced human operatives powerful enough to take care of both the mutant threat and other superbeings. The couple vowed that this time, they'd be the ones controlling both the subjects, the drug and Dazzler who'd make this all possible.
(Dazzler I#41 - BTS) - Anticipating the end game was nigh, Dust took judge Carter Blaire and his aide Jared to a Denver hotel and contacted Chase. The two reaffirmed the contract and agreed to meet him there. Dust took over the judge's body as soon as Chase, who had continued to pursue Blaire, brought Dazzler to him. Dust and Jared left with Dazzler, who soon realized he wasn't her father. This led to a confrontation which ended with Dazzler knocking out Jared and Dust getting shot by O.Z. Chase who, quite correctly, got suspicious after finding Stomper's remains in Blaire's hotel room. In his dying moments he told Dazzler they were still holding her mother at Camp Silence. Furious, Dazzler took Dust's car and rushed to save Barbara, telling O.Z. not to follow her.
(Dazzler I#41) - After using her powers to summon the last
of the original test subjects' offspring in preparation for their great
awakening, Silence experienced her husband's gruesome fate first hand
through their psi-link. She vowed to make Dazzler pay for what she'd
done.
(Dazzler I#42 (fb) - BTS) - Left for dead, Dust was still able to jump
inside the body of his unconscious aide Jared. This move was sensed by
Silence who used her powers to bring the rapidly decaying youth back to
the school where he took over the body of a guard. At the same time,
Silence confronted Dazzler who had invaded Camp Silence looking for her
mother. She succesfully blackmailed Alison into cooperating with their
plans by revealing Barbara had also been injected with the lethal
psi-drug. If she wanted to save her mother, Dazzler would have to use
her light. In order to work in peace, Silence had the entire New Wave
operation moved to their base in the Tulsa theater. There, she had
Dazzler drugged to keep her from putting up a fight while she was forced
to expend her light energies during daily "performances". Slowly,
Silence began to heal while her New Wave recruits started to develop
super powers.
(Dazzler I#42) - Drained and weakened, Dazzler still struggled against
Silence's rule. She was slapped around, but nevertheless insisted that
her mother Barbara would be allowed to attend that night's performance
so she could benefit from the healing effects of her light.
(Dazzler I#42 (fb) - BTS) - Concerned for Dazzler's welfare, both Beast
and O.Z. Chase made their way to Camp Silence where they ran into each
other. They didn't have time to compare notes, because they were
attacked by Chunk and Mama, the two surviving Outriders
(left there by Silence in order to deal with unwanted visitors).
Quickly defeating the inexperienced villains, the duo learned where
Silence had taken Dazzler.
(Dazzler I#42) - Only one more session away from being
completely cured, Silence had extra speakers installed in the building
to produce even more sound for Dazzler to absorb. She even agreed to
Blaire's wish to have her mother present, giving Barbara a front row
seat while the performance began. However, Dazzler focussed her light on
her mother instead of the crowd in an attempt to heal the woman. Silence
caught wise and ordered her followers to stop Dazzler. However, at that
exact same moment, Beast and O.Z. Chase arrived to rescue Alison. While
the New Wave dealt with Chase and Beast, Silence confronted Dazzler. Fed
up, Alison released all the sound she'd absorbed back as pure,
unfiltered sonics. This intense noise blast broke Silence's
concentration. Without her powers keeping her body's decay at bay, she
quickly crumbled into nothingness.
(Dazzler I#42 - BTS) - Watching his wife die was enough
for Dust to make his presence known. Facing Dazzler, he threatened to
either snap Barbara's neck or take over her body. Furious, Dazzler
attacked him anyway. Their fight was ended when one of the enhanced
recruits, Arthur Allan Smith, shot Dazzler in the back, killing her (in reality, Smith shot Dust, but used his
ownn powers to make everybody believe Dazzler had died so she could
return to live anonymously).
Comments: Created by Archie Goodwin (writer), Paul Chadwick (pencils), Jackson Guice (inks)
Though a mutation, Silence's telepathic powers are in no
way mutant based. Archie Goodwin specifically pointed that out by
establishing that Cerebro registered Silence's nation wide telepathic
summons but deemed it no cause for alarm because it was non-mutant in
nature. Sounds like a rather serious design flaw, Charles...
Dazzler I#41 specifically
stated Dust and Silence started their experiments "nearly 25 years ago",
even before the Vietnam war broke out. The date is topical of course,
considering the sliding timescale. But it's not unworkable to actually
have them start out in 1961ish... After all, Dust was able to survive
into the modern era by taking different hosts and Silence's powers
allowed her to stave off any form of decay altogether.
Profile by Norvo.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Silence should not be confused with
images: (without ads)
Dazzler I#41, p10, pan3 (main image)
Dazzler I#41, p3, pan4 (back in the 1960s)
Dazzler I#41, p6, pan3 (discusses her plans with Dust)
Dazzler I#42, p19, pan3 (vowing to make Dazzler pay)
Dazzler I#42, p20, pans 2-3 (dying)
Appearances:
Dazzler I#40 (November, 1985) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Paul Chadwick
(pencils), Jackson Guice (inks), Michael Carlin (editor)
Dazzler I#41 (January, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Paul Chadwick
(pencils), Jackson Guice (inks), Michael Carlin (editor)
Dazzler I#42 (March, 1986) - Archie Goodwin (writer), Paul Chadwick
(pencils), Jackson Guice (inks), Michael Carlin (editor)
Last updated: 03/16/15
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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