Hazmat (comics)

Hazmat is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Hazmat first appeared in Avengers Academy #1 (June 2010) and was created by Christos Gage and Mike McKone. She appeared as a regular character in the series through its final issue #39 (Jan 2013).

Hazmat appears in Avengers Arena, a new series by Dennis Hopeless and Kev Walker.^[1]

Hazmat appears as one of the main characters in Avengers Undercover beginning in 2014.^[2]

Fictional character biography

Hazmat discovered her superhuman abilities when her boyfriend of many months went into a seizure while making out with her. It's discovered that her body generates radiation, but the source of the ability is unknown. Her family all but abandons her and her boyfriend dumps her. Norman Osborn approaches and offers to cure her, but in the end exploits her.

Avengers Academy

During the Heroic Age storyline, Hazmat is recruited into the Avengers Academy along with five other students who have been affected by Osborn. She and the rest of the class are led to believe they are among those most likely to become heroes, but they quickly uncover that files that say they are most likely to become villains.^[3] Due to their unique situations, Hazmat later begins a romantic relationship with Ken/Mettle as he is one of the only people who can physically touch her.^[4] Reptil plants some doubts about their relationships after X-23 becomes a student and starts teaching Mettle, but this is a ploy by Reptil, who has been mentally replaced by his older self.^[5] Hazmat shows a great deal of care for Ken as she is willing to join someone she believes is evil and manipulative just to "cure" him of his powers.^[6] Hazmat and Mettle do indeed lose their powers, but when the students face off against Jeremy Briggs, they take the antidote to the cure to help battle Briggs.^[7] Afterward, Hazmat and Mettle consummate their relationship.^[8] Hazmat later confronts the faculty over how she and the other students were enrolled due to their villainous potential, but Hawkeye tells her that she and the others have proven themselves. The faculty then announce that the students have graduated the Academy.

Avengers Arena

As part of the Marvel NOW! event within the pages of Avengers Arena, Hazmat, Reptil, Mettle, X-23, and a dozen others are kidnapped by Arcade. Arcade takes them to Murderworld, where Hazmat watches Mettle die to save her. She is attacked by X-23 on the 29th day.^[9] In a fit of rage, she then attacks Deathlocket when she tries to show sympathy toward Hazmat regarding Mettle's sacrifice.^[10] Hazmat then takes a camp with X-23 while an unseen predator stalks the teens. Eventually, Arcade unleashes X-23's trigger scent on the group and Reptil evacuates Hazmat to the beach after being burned by Deathlocket (under Apex's control).^[11] They wait on the beach until Day 25, when Nara, Cullen, Anachronism, X-23, and Cammi arrive, having just fled from Apex.^[12] Hazmat is very much jaded and loopy from Mettle's sacrifice and wants nothing more than to play on the beach, but Reptil snaps her out of her funk and she goes back into Murderworld with the others to find Nico. However, things got worse when Cullen's monster side known as Glartrox was unleashed. Before the fight,Hazmat and X-23 investigated a possible Mettle sighting, only to find a robot filled with trigger scent.^[13] Hazmat was wounded and X-23 fought Cullen's Glartrox form. After the battle was over, X-23 continued to injure Hazmat, who began to lose control over her radiation.^[14] Eventually, she began to overload and Reptil swam her out to sea to let her explode. As a result, Hazmat now has complete control of her radiation and no longer has to wear her containment suit. Death Locket repels Arcade and kills Apex, then calls the Avengers to save the teens.^[15]

Avengers Undercover

Once news broke about Arcade's kidnappings, Hazmat and the other Murder World Survivors became infamous. Hazmat tried to stay incognito, but she instead blew up at a group of teens in a diner for insulting her. Now that Hazmat can control her radiation, she now sports a yellow hoodie with the hazmat logo.^[16] Hazmat tried to stay out of the spotlight at first. However, when Cammi and Anachronism reveal Bloodstone's gone missing, all the survivors team up to head to Bagalia to find him. Once they do, he reveals that he enjoys life among the villains, and the others, minus Cammi, start to enjoy it as well. Hazmat and Anachronism dance, with Hazmat comforting him about arguing with Bloodstone. When Cammi tries to tell the others to leave, Bloodstone instead has Daimon Hellstrom teleport the group to Arcade's latest party so they can kill him.^[17] After being stuck in catatonic shock, Hazmat finally kills Arcade by blowing him to bits with a concentrated radiation burst.^[18] When the team tried to escape Arcade's mansion they were quickly apprehended by SHIELD. Hazmat could be seen being consoled by Striker and Finesse. After the group was "rescued" by Daimon Hellstrom, Anachronism was checking on Hazmat's mental state. The group was invited by Baron Zemo to join his side.^[19] Hazmat, along with Anachronism and Cammi, were brought to be trained by Madame Masque. This is when the team devised the plan to infiltrate the Masters of Evil and take them down from within.^[20] Over the next few months, while working for Madame Masque, Hazmat and Anachronism grew close, eventually kissing. Madame Masque seemingly lets the duo in on the plans of Baron Zemo. Hazmat is able to secretly get in contact with Hank Pym and quickly reveals what the group has been doing for the past three months and the plans of the Masters of Evil. Hazmat tries to contact Death Locket, but after she is ambushed by the Young Masters, she learns that Death Locket has betrayed the group and put Chase in a coma. She bests Death Locket and the Young Masters.^[21] She battles the Glartrox beast to save Cullen and the group is rescued by the Avengers.^[22] After Cammi defeats the masters and SHIELD rescues the trapped heroes, Hazmat and her team are seen relaxing lakeside with their respective teams.^[23]

Powers and abilities

Hazmat constantly emits harmful radiation from her body. As a result, she is forced to wear a protective suit at all times when around others. The suit is not simply meant for containment, however, as it allows her to focus her radiation into energy bolts and other forms.

Although Hazmat's superhuman abilities manifested during her teens without obvious explanation, it has been confirmed that she is not a mutant.^[24]

References