WITCH

Real Name: Unrevealed

Identity/Class: Terrestrial fauna (buzzard);
    formerly magically-transformed into humanoid form and magic-user via her power jewel

Occupation: Scavenger;
    general mischief-maker

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Invisible Girl/Sue Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm)

Enemies: Staff at unspecified military base; unidentified space creature;
    formerly Fantastic Four (Human Torch, Invisible Girl, Mr. Fantastic, Thing)

Known Relatives: Tyrone (husband)

Aliases: "Ol' Gal" (from the Human Torch); "Witchie" (from the Invisible Woman); "Broom Rider" (from the Thing)

Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
    at least formerly an unspecified desert region in proximity to an unidentified military base

First Appearance: Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (1977)

Powers/Abilities: As the Witch, she had a number of magic powers, seemingly allowing her to defy physics and accomplish almost anything she wished, although she apparently required her power jewel to utilize them. 

    She typically flew atop a broomstick, although she did demonstrate the ability to stand in mid-air while holding her broomstick. She could also evade and then even match speeds with climb atop, and redirect the flight of an interceptor missile. The Human Torch was also impressed with the speeds she could attain.
    She apparently could not fly or remain aloft without direct contact with her broomstick.

    She could use her broomstick to swat the Human Torch, with the broom not only not being set afire, but with the broom snuffing the Torch's flames and preventing him from re-igniting for at least several minutes (or possibly her being temporarily deprived of her power jewel allowed him to subsequently flame on).

    She could project magic flashes from her power jewel which, upon striking a target, could transform him or her into an animal (perhaps only "giant" or human-sized versions of animals) of her choosing; however, these flashes could be blocked by certain types of energy barriers (such as Sue Storm's force fields), and possibly physical barriers as well.

    She could project energy blasts from her fingers that could banish others (at least those she had previously transformed) into deep space; however, those she banished were apparently unaffected by space's cold and/or vacuum. 

    She voiced a spell specifically invoking the power jewel to return those she had banished to space, as well as to undo any physical transformation she had performed on others.

    She was unable to detect the presence of Sue Storm when she was invisible.

    Deprived of her power jewel, she swiftly shrunk to only 1' in height and was unable to access her powers. She noted that without the jewel, she was doomed, but perhaps only because she would be vulnerable to predators. 

    The curse that transformed her into the Witch could be broken by a kiss on the nose from a thing named Ben.

    Reverted back into the form of a buzzard, she retained her intelligence and could still speak, at least for a short time period.

Height: (As the Witch) unrevealed (approximately 5' tall, she looked about a foot shorter than the 6' tall Thing...but she also has high heels, so maybe only 4'10"); additionally, bereft of her power jewel, she shrank to about 1' tall;
(as a buzzard) unrevealed (Tyrone was a giant buzzard, and it is unrevealed whether she was normal-sized or giant-sized after her reversion...she was the same size as Tyrone and was still able to speak...; the common buzzard measures between 16-23" long/tall, with females being a bit longer/taller than males)
Weight: (As the Witch) unrevealed (it is unrevealed whether she had normal body density and was perhaps 100 lbs. or whether she was hollow, dehydrated, or what);
(as a buzzard) unrevealed (if she was a normal-sized, common buzzard, she might be anywhere between 1-3 pounds)
Eyes: Unrevealed (black and white coloring book, with her eyes closed in the only colored image); I think buzzards have brown eyes
Hair: (As the Witch) Blonde; (as a buzzard) unrevealed, but likely brown feathers

History:
(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb) - BTS) - The Witch was apparently originally a buzzard, and she was married to another buzzard named Tyrone.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) -  By her own account, she and Tyrone were picnicking in the mountains when a strange craft appeared in the empty sky before landing close to them. 

    A few minutes later, the hatch opened, and they observed a space creature emerge from the ship. Its attention drawn by a falling rock, it spotted the buzzards, after which it stretched out its arms and released a burst of energy that stunned the female buzzard; the others escaped.

    The space creature attacked the female buzzard, and she fought back until he transformed her into a human witch via a "curse from outer space."

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch") - Flying on her broomstick, the Witch approached a secluded radar base (presumably they meant missile base?), where her clearly "witch-on-a-broomstick" silhouette registered on their radar screen and was considered an unidentified flying object by the two identical military men on duty.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb) - BTS) - The Witch either refused to respond to their demands that the object identify itself, or she didn't receive the request.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" - BTS) - One of the officers ordered that immediate action be taken, and an interceptor missile was fired at the "object."

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch") - Rather than be struck by the missile, however, the Witch instead stood on top of it, laughing as she noted that this was the most fun she had had in a long time. Sitting down on it and shouting, "Ride 'em, cowgirl!," the Witch redirected the missile back at the base, flying away on her broom just before its impact.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" - BTS) - However, the Fantastic Four, who just happened to be flying above in the Fantasticar, spotted the missile, and Reed reached out his arm, wrapped it around the missile within inches of its striking the base and brought it to a complete halt, saving the base (see comments).

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch") - The Torch then spotted the Witch and flew after her, noting how she was really moving along. Wondering who was tailgating her and then, after spotting the Torch, what "that fugitive from a fire alarm wanted, the Witch abruptly stopped, stood in mid-air, and then swatted him with her broom, snuffing out his flames. As he dropped from the sky in a panic, the Witch laughed and mockingly told him "Happy landings!" 

    However, the Thing caught the Human Torch on the ground, saving him (see comments) and then sought vengeance on the Witch, noting, "It's clobberin' time!" However, calling him "Ugly One," the Witch informed the Thing she would be doing the clobberin', and she fired a series of magic flashes from her power jewel that transformed Mr. Fantastic into a giant frog, the thing into a giant turtle, and the Torch into a giant firefly. Seeing this, the Sue formed a force field, protecting her from the Witch's attack, after which she turned invisible. 

    Unable to locate Sue, the Witch considered her new menagerie to be ugly and projected energy from her fingers that sent the transformed male FF members into space. As the Witch prepared to locate the missing Sue, she instead ambushed the Witch, tearing the power jewel off of her hat; bereft of its power, the Witch swiftly shrank to perhaps 1' tall, and she told Sue that she must have the power jewel or she was doomed. At Sue's insistence, the Witch promised to return the others, and Sue returned the power jewel, and then the Witch then voiced a spell: "Magic spell by jewel doth cast...bring them back to Earth but fast," and the male FF members were returned from "far out in  the depths of outer space" and returned to their human (-oid in Ben's case) forms. 

    When Ben confronted the Witch, she tearfully apologized for all the trouble she had caused, and she explained in detail (although omitting that she had originally been a buzzard) the circumstances of how she had been beautiful before being transformed into the Witch by the curse from outer space."

    No sooner had she finished when a giant buzzard (Tyrone) swooped in, grabbed her, and flew away. Striking the buzzard in the tail feathers with a volley of fireballs, the Torch caused it to drop the Witch, but she dropped her broom and began to fall from 1000' up. Reed formed a curving slide that allowed her to slow her speed before reaching ground, which she enjoyed witha "Whee!"

    Sue found a piece of paper that had fallen from the Witch's dress, and the Witch noted that it was a copy of the space creature's curse that she had forgotten about. After reading that she could be cured of the curse by a kiss on the nose from a man named Ben, the Thing -- imagining she would be beautiful in his eyes (as a female Thing-form) -- kissed her, and she transformed into a buzzard. After she noted that the other buzzard was her handsome husband, Tyrone, Ben was distraught that he had kissed a married woman. 

    Regardless, the Fantastic Four bade the buzzards good-bye.

Comments: Created by ???.

    David Zuckerman tells me that Leon Jason Studios produced the art for a number of Whitman coloring books in the 60s and 70s. 

    This story is crazy (maybe zany is a better word?), and it was obviously intended for kids, featuring different things that might be fun to color in, but I don't see any reason that it couldn't have occurred in Reality-616. 

    I would guess the "picnic" she referenced was a group of buzzards feeding on a carcass.

    Was she a normal buzzard before the alien creature cursed her? Presumably...
    Was she a normal buzzard after the curse was broken? Who knows?

        She spoke right afterward, but perhaps the magic hadn't completely worn off yet...or perhaps she retained her intellect and ability to speak.
        Additionally, Tyrone was described as a "giant buzzard" when he first arrived, and we have no indication for or against whether he reverted to "normal buzzard" size after the Witch reverted to buzzard form. I would think he most likely did, but who knows...

    Some impressive suspension of disbelief is required for this story:

    Such as Reed catching and stopping a missile weighing at least hundreds of pounds flying at hundreds of miles per hour...

• Essentially, Reed, flying in the Fantasticar, sees an interceptor missile about to strike a missile base. He snakes down his arm, catches and stops the missile.
• It was probably feet away, and there’s no indication that the F-car was close enough to the base to be picked up by their radar (although there was chaos because of the approaching missile). They are up at cloud level, at least.
• I’m looking for a physics expert to tell me how fast a 1977 missile would be going; how quickly Reed’s arm would have to have moved to not just reach the missile, but wrap his arm around it twice; and how much force it would have taken Reed to stop the missile.
• I know Reed’s arm would have been the weakest link, but I keep picturing the F-car being yanked down and crashing to the ground once Reed grabbed the flying missile. That’s more Bugs Bunny, I think…
• Possibly Reed sent the F-car into a power dive to get closer, but that would make it WAY harder to extend his arm forward at any great speed.
  
  Or, in the words of our resident OHotMU engineer/physics expert, Mike Fichera:
  

      A Cold War era ICBM would travel during the terminal phase (on the way down starting at 100 km above the earth's surface through the mesophsere, stratosphere, and troposphere where the cloud layer less
  than 10 km above ground level) between 1 to 4 miles per second...that's MILES PER SECOND.

      An interceptor (or anti ballistic) missile (ABM) would have to reach similar speeds to intercept the ICBM (see "Technical Aspects of Ballistic Missile Defense" by Richard L. Garwin, Presented at Arms Control and National Security Session, APS, Atlanta, March 1999; https://rlg.fas.org/garwin-aps.htm)

      For an example of what Reed's trying to stop: the Martin Marietta Sprint missile (in service 1975-1976) weighed 7700 lbs and was about 27 feet long. (see: http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/app4/sprint.html); obviously, this missile was a bit smaller, maybe 7-8'--Snood

      If Reed's arm was able to stretch at 4 miles per second to actually reach the rocket, the rocket doesn't just stop cold. Within the next second, Reed's arm would have stretched another 4 miles as it attempted to wrap around the missile with whatever molecule-thick amount of arm mass that remains after stretching that far. It would have negligible ability to influence the direction of the missile and crash it, let alone stop the thrust and "stop it" since his arm would have negligible mass contacting the missile.
      Oops, another second has passed, and his arm (presumed to have adhered to the super-hot missile since his fingers melted onto the metal surface at several thousand ºF) has travelled another 4 miles. At some point, his arm will exceed the elastic limit (the limit right before permanent deformation is reached) and will not return back to its original length once the force is released. The arm will then "neck" (the cross-section becomes very thin) and ultimately break apart.

      Perhaps the interceptor missile wasn't going quite so fast as it would to intercept an ICBM (about Mach 19) since it was just launched at the Witch from the ground, and hadn't even passed cloud level. Maybe it
  was only going Mach 10 or Mach 5 - still that's about 1 to 2 miles per second! Very very fast for Stretcho's arms to catch it.

      But let's be realistic here (why not?) At these speeds, the stretch would be over very quickly and the arm would shatter rather than stretch, deforming plastically. A rapid strain (pulling apart) can cause a clean break (fracture) assuming his arm has viscoelastic properties - both elastic and fluid in nature, like a polymer. See for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0l6qnF-XHc

      I wouldn't worry about the F-car being yanked down unless Reed was somehow firmly attached to the plane with his other limbs.

      So to recap, realistically: the missile flies by, Reed attempts to throw his arm out to stop it. The missile zips past so fast, it's a futile attempt . His long stretchy arm dangling out of the F-Plane is pulled back into his body as he watches the base explode. The children reading the book weep as they color the drops of Mr. Fantastic's tears.

    And then there's the Thing catching the Torch as he fell from the sky...like the Torch would be hurt less by smashing into him than the ground (maybe the Thing moved a little to distribute the impact somewhat). We also don't know just how high the Torch was when he started falling...

    This profile was completed 9/25/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20^th anniversary 's celebratory event.

Profile by Snood.

CLARIFICATIONS:
The Witch should be distinguished from:

• WITCH - see SALOME of the Hyborian era (app)--A Witch shall be Born; Savage Sword of Conan#5
• "WITCH" - see KALE, MAGDALENA--Ghost Rider III#80
• WITCH - see ADRIA--Strange Tales I#141/2 
• WITCH - see CALYPSO--Amazing Spider-Man I#209
• witch of Earth-88194 - helped husband enchant gauntlet to hold Talita's hand for Shreck--Terror II#1
• witch of Earth-93060 - summoned son + other demons, controlled Sludge using the Wertham Stone, stepped on by son --Sludge12
• WITCH of DELPHI - see CYLLA--Marvel Premiere#26
• WITCH of SCANDAGA of the Hyborian era - hybrid Ligurean/Hawk Pict, lover of Valerian --Wolves Beyond the Border; Savage Sword of Conan#59/3
• WITCH WOMAN of the Hyborian era - see CLEOLANTHE--Conan the Barbarian I#152
• WITCH WOMAN of the Hyborian era - see LOUHI--King Conan#1
• "WITCH WOMAN" of the 16th century - see CABEL, MARTA--(Sword of) Solomon Kane#2
• WITCH WOMAN (Linda Littletrees) - college student, joined satanic cult, chosen an empowered by Mephisto, battled Ghost Rider/John Blaze--Marvel Spotlight I#10
• WITCH WOMAN - aspect of Satan (Marduk Kurios)--Ghost Rider II#2 
• "WITCH WOMAN" - see CALVIN, Dr. WILMA.--Astonishing Tales II#12
• WITCH-WOMAN of Mbangwai - see KURA --Captain Britain II#9
• WITCH WOMAN - elderly crone serving Centurious--Spirits of Vengeance#23
• WITCH WOMAN - see ASKELLA--Marvel Graphic Novel#15: The Raven Banner

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) -  By her own account, the being that would become the Witch was originally a buzzard, and she and her buzzard husband, Tyrone, were picnicking in the mountains when a strange craft appeared in the empty sky before landing close to them.      A few minutes later, the hatch opened, and they observed a space creature emerge from the ship.      Its attention drawn by a falling rock, the space creature spotted the buzzards, after which it stretched out its arms and released a burst of energy that stunned the female buzzard; the others escaped.     The space creature attacked the female buzzard, and she fought back until he transformed her into a human witch via a "curse from outer space." --Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" Note: We don't know anything beyond what I stated here, and I showed both images and included all text.      He's apparently an alien magic-user who sought fit to curse (and grant great power) fauna that happened to be within his gaze.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) -  By her own account, the being that would become the Witch was originally a buzzard, and she and her buzzard husband, Tyrone, were picnicking in the mountains when a strange craft appeared in the empty sky before landing close to them.      A few minutes later, the hatch opened, and they observed a space creature emerge from the ship. Its attention drawn by a falling rock, it spotted the buzzards, after which it stretched out its arms and released a burst of energy that stunned the female buzzard; the others, presumably including Tyrone escaped. (Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) - The space creature transformed the female buzzard into a human witch via a "curse from outer space." (Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) - No sooner had the Witch revealed her origins to the Fantastic Four when a giant buzzard (Tyrone) swooped in, grabbed her, and flew away. Striking the buzzard in the tail feathers with a volley of fireballs, the Torch caused it to drop the Witch, but she dropped her broom and began to fall from 1000' up. Reed formed a curving slide that allowed her to slow her speed before reaching ground.     Sue found a piece of paper that had fallen from the Witch's dress, and the Witch noted that it was a copy of the space creature's curse that she had forgotten about. After reading that she could be cured of the curse by a kiss on the nose from a man named Ben, the Thing -- imagining she would be beautiful in his eyes (as a female Thing-form) -- kissed her, and she transformed into a buzzard. After she noted that the other buzzard was her handsome husband, Tyrone, Ben was distraught that he had kissed a married woman.      Regardless, the Fantastic Four bade the buzzards good-bye. --Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" Note:  Why was Tyrone giant, and why did he attack the Witch? Maybe he didn't completely avoid the space creature's curse? Maybe the Witch subconsciously granted him power to remind her of the curse's details and allow her to escape the curse?     Regardless, did Tyrone retain any enhanced size or any other magical enhancements he may have gained? We don't know.

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb)) - An unidentified space creature attacked a female buzzard, and she fought back until he transformed her into a human witch via a "curse from outer space." (Fantastic Four meet "the Witch") - The Witch caused general mischief and massive chaos, threatening a US military base and battling the Fantastic Four.      During the above battle, a piece of paper fell from the Witch's dress, and after Sue Richards found it, the Witch noted that it was a copy of the space creature's curse that she had forgotten about. After reading that she could be cured of the curse by a kiss on the nose from a man named Ben, the Thing kissed her, and she transformed into a buzzard. --Fantastic Four meet "the Witch"

(Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (fb) - BTS) - An unidentified space creature transformed a female buzzard into a human witch via a "curse from outer space." The power jewel granted the Witch her powers. (Fantastic Four meet "the Witch") - The Witch caused general mischief and massive chaos, threatening a US military base and battling the Fantastic Four.      After Sue Richards stole the power jewel, bereft of its power, the Witch swiftly shrank to perhaps 1' tall, and she told Sue that she must have the power jewel or she was doomed. Sue returned the power jewel after the Witch agreed to reverse her spells upon her teammates.      The Thing kissed the Witch, and she transformed into a buzzard. --Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" Note: Did the power jewel exist before the space creature cursed the buzzard that would become the Witch?           Who knows???!      Did the power jewel persist after the curse was broken?             Who knows???!      Was the space creature the source of the curse and the Witch's magical power or did it invoke some other mystic principality for power?             Who knows???!

Appearances:
Fantastic Four meet "the Witch" (1977)

First posted: 09/02/2021
Last updated: 07/31/2021

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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