ALICE SPRINGS

Real Name: Possibly Alice Springs (see comments)

Identity/Class: Human (probably Australian citizen - see comments)

Occupation: Actress

Group Membership: Presumably MEAA (Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance - Australian union for actors and other media professionals)

Affiliations: William Chance (William Destine), Bruce (Cap'n Oz director), Dario (Cap'n Oz special effects man)

Enemies: indirectly Lenz, Lenz's progeny

Known Relatives: None

Aliases: Taz

Base of Operations: Australia

First Appearance: ClanDestine#2 (November 1994)

Powers/Abilities: Alice Springs is presumably a capable actress.

Height: 5'5" (by estimation - see comments)
Weight: 125 lbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde

History:
(ClanDestine#2 (fb) - BTS) - Alice Springs was a rising starlet actress working on the superhero movie Cap'n Oz, playing the titular characters sidekick Taz, She was in a secret relationship with her co-star, Will "Take A" Chance, the premier action man of Australian cinema, unaware he was really William Destine, one of the English Destine clan, and genuinely superhuman.

(ClanDestine#2) - With the film crew on location in the Simpson Desert, Alice and Will finished filming a scene where Cap'n Oz defeated the cyborg Rumbalara Raiders. After the director, Bruce, confirmed he didn't need another take, the pair were approached by a reporter who asked what the story was between them, but Will brushed him off, insisting that he was merely a fan of his talented co-star. As Alice and Will entered a trailer together, Will ended the attempted interview by insisting the pair needed to rehearse their next scene, but as soon as the door closed, hiding them from the reporter, Alice put her arms round Will in an embrace. Before things could progress they were startled by another voice in the caravan, and turned to see three strange men, who demanded to know the location of the Gryphon. Unaware these were artificial creations of Lenz, a foe of the Destines, and having no idea that they were trying to find a device Lenz believed was in the possession of one of the Destine family members, Will assumed they were tabloid reporters. Apologizing to Alice for the interruption, Will moved to teach the intruders a lesson and then throw them out, but as soon as he hit the trio they exploded into goo. Coated in the stinking slime, Alice expressed her displeasure, while Will swiftly exited the trailer and demanded to know which of the film crew had played a prank on him with the "bags of people shaped gunk." 

(ClanDestine#3) - Seeking some privacy away from the rest of the film crew, Alice and Will drove out to a beauty spot he knew, not even taking the time to change out of their costumes from the shoot. Seeing the stunning watering hole he had taken her to, Alice agreed that it was worth the long drive, and asked Will if the crew's pranks had started getting to him. He insisted they weren't, adding that they relieved the stress of filming. Turning to face her, he moved closer and added that while he enjoyed his job, all work and no play "makes Will a dull boy" as he raised his hand to brush against her cheek. Moving in for a kiss, Alice retorted that he could never be dull, but before they could lock lips Will spotted some nearby individuals watching them from across the pool. Enraged that someone had followed them, and assuming it was more reporters, Will shouted to a startled Alice to stay put while he dealt with the nuisances even as he leapt gracefully into the waters. Zooming across underwater, Will emerged to confront the watchers, but instead of reporters they turned out to to be monstrous creatures with elongated jaws and limbs (more of Lenz's creations), who momentarily attacked him before declaring him unimportant and vanishing in literal flash of light (recalled because the Gryphon device they sought had been found elsewhere). Having ignored Will's instruction and run around the edge of the pool, Alice arrived moments later to find a nonplussed Will staring at a patch of smoking ground, and asked him what had happened. Confused, Will told her he had no idea.

(ClanDestine#5 -(fb) - BTS) - Will remained convinced the recent strange occurrences were pranks being played on them by the film's special effects people, so he and Alice decided to up the pretense that they were not involved, and give them no further opportunities to interfere with their romantic rendezvous.

(ClanDestine#5) - Still at the desert shoot, Alice and Will finished off filming a scene where Taz declared her love for Cap'n Oz, only for his to rebuff her because his duty to Australia permitted no distractions. As soon as the scene ended the director advised everyone to get some sleep as it was now two a.m. and shooting was scheduled to resume at six thirty. At this Will and Alice wished each other a stiff and overly formal good night and, making sure everyone on the crew saw them, headed to their respective trailers on opposite ends of the compound. However, Will then used his superhuman agility to make a much more covert acrobatic trip across the compound to enter Alice's trailer through the skylight, his prowess earning her admiration. Entering a clinch, they were about to kiss when Alice spotted a glowing spectral figure behind Will, and just managed to stammer out that it was a ghost before fainting. Catching Alice as she fell, Will turned to see the astral projection of his sister Cuckoo (Jasmine Destine, a.k.a. Kay Cera), and as he lowered the unconscious Alice onto the trailer's bed Cuckoo explained to him the true cause of his recent bizarre encounters.

Comments: Created by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.

   Since she's an actress and Alice Springs is also a place name in Australia, making it an unlikely name to give your kid, it's entirely possible that Alice Springs is a stage name. Taz was the name of her character in the Cap'n Oz movie, presumably an abbreviation of Tasmania - maybe Cap'n Oz's sidekick is Tasmania Girl (or something like that)?

   Though she's filming an Australian-themed movie in Australia, and has a very Australian name, it's not explicitly stated that she herself is Australian. It's a fairly reasonable assumption, but it is an assumption.

   Despite all the images being costume shots, it's worth reiterating that Alice is an actress, not a superhero; she's just playing one in the movie she's shooting. We never got to see Alice out of costume; it's reasonable to assume that she doesn't always dress in a revealing leotard.

   Alice also appears in ClanDestine#9, but the post-Alan Davis stories of ClanDestine#9-12 were subsequently retconned to be a dream (or visions of Earth-95710 - same difference). Even if they weren't, the appearance wouldn't have added much new info about Alice, though it did provide a small image of her out of costume (left), and reveal that in Australia both she and Will are major movie stats whose fame makes it hard for them to go out in public without being hounded by photographers, something that might be true for this version of Alice too.

   Calculating her height: The only person we see Alice next to as a reference to her height is Will, and we don't have an official height for him, nor does he appear standing next to anyone whose height we know. We do see him with other Clan members in the aforementioned ClanDestine#9-12, and the other Clan members have appeared alongside people whose heights are known, but in ClanDestine#9-12 his height isn't well defined - he's seen as several inches taller than Kay in ClanDestine#9, but the same height as her on the last page of ClanDestine#12. Between that and it all turning out to be dream later, I don't think we can use those appearances for a height reference. Lacking any real options for estimating Will's height, I've guessed instead. As a leading action hero he's probably not short (we'll ignore Tom Cruise for the sake of this debate). So I took another Australian action hero leading man, Chris "Thor" Hemsworth, as a model, and very much ASSumed Will matches him. Alice is about a head shorter than him (see the main image, where the top of her head is just under his nose, but then subtract those really high heels she's wearing), which would make her around 5'5".

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Alice Springs has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
ClanDestine#5, p1, pan1 (main image)
ClanDestine#2, p17, pan6 (headshot)
ClanDestine#2, p17, pan3 (with Will Chance)
ClanDestine#9, p7, pan4 (Earth-95710 Alice)

Appearances:
ClanDestine#2-3 (November-December 1994) - Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Paul Neary (editor)
ClanDestine#5 (February 1995) - Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Paul Neary (editor).

First Posted: 01/26/2023
Last updated: 01/26/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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