Engineer (Wildstorm)
The Engineer is a female comic superhero who features in Wildstorm and DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Angela Spica was a female human born to a blue collar family in Queens as the youngest sibling of six children. Her father was a bus driver and mother worked at a launderette with her five older sisters all being pregnant in high school. At school, she developed a passion for reading comic books leading to her desiring to become one whereas her class fellows wanted to be lawyers and orthodontists. She would express her desire to be a superhero to her careers officer but was told that she was out of her mind. However, the young Angela was able to build circuit boards and fixing televisions. In 1998, she would swap her blood for nine pints of liquid machinery allowing her to shape it to her needs. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #5)
Professor Angela Spica would be dispatched by the future Jenny Sparks to her past self in the 19th century to save her life after the incident with Sliding Albion. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #5).
The Authority
Jenny Sparks and Stormwatch Black were in hiding when most of Stormwatch died at the hand of the insane Henry Bendix. Jenny recruited new versions of the Engineer and the Doctor, and along with Swift, Jack Hawksmoor, Midnighter and Apollo they formed the Authority to take the place of Stormwatch as the world's first defense against superhuman menaces. They discovered the Carrier, a sentient ship that could travel the Bleed, the space between worlds in the multiverse, and used it as their headquarters. Terrorist Kaizen Gamorra attacked Moscow, causing untold loss of life, and Jenny contacted her old handlers Jackson King and Christine Trelane for information on him. The Authority had already done their research, but she wanted her ex-handlers, who were still connected with the UN, to feel important. Jack visited Moscow, and realized the Children of Gamorra used teleporters with a unique energy signature. The signature appeared next in London, and the Authority arrived to defend Jenny's home. The Authority violently murdered a number of the Children of Gamorra, forcing the rest to teleport away. Apollo had wrecked the teleportation gear of one of the Children, who was forced to fly back to Gamorra Island, with Apollo in pursuit. Kaizen put up his island's force field to rethink his strategy, and the Doctor saved Apollo from splattering himself on the forcefield. The Doctor reminded him that although he was new to superheroics his mind was as old as human existence. Jenny split her team to offer emergency aid to Moscow and London. Jack thought that the more responsibility Jenny got the more yelley and horrible she became, but he still supported her. Jenny told Apollo that she was uncomfortable with leadership, and haunted by past mistakes, but she'd resolved that there had to be people ready to save the world and then change it. (The Authority v1 #2)
Apollo kept nagging Jenny about how they were going to get past Gamorra's forcefield, and Engineer had been working with the Carrier, which showed her it could open a gate directly to the island. Jenny told Midnighter to do recon on the island, while the rest of the team traveled to L.A., where they predicted Gamorra's next attack would come. Jack noted that they were resembling a team even though they knew virtually nothing about each other. Jenny contacted the UN to alert them to the danger to L.A., but before she could make any more preparations the Children of Gamorra arrived. The Doctor felt out of his element, but his predecessor spoke to him, reminding him that the world was his village, and he had every Doctor in his corner to help him realize his potential. The Doctor turned half of the attacking Children into trees, but the strain of such powerful magic left him unconscious, and he was returned to the Carrier. Engineer reminded her teammates she wasn't a soldier, but Jack convinced her she had to learn to fight, and she created a web of knives that cut a number of the Children to shreds. Midnighter made his way to Gamorra Tower, and discovered the bioreactor Gamorra was using to pump out more and more superhuman soldiers. Midnighter was trained to beat problems until they were dead, but he realized that strategy would not work against two miles of machinery. He returned to the Carrier, and plowed it into Gamorra Tower, destroying it. Jenny alerted the UN to send inspectors to Gamorra so they could recover Kaizen's technology, and she told the world they would make it better. (The Authority v1 #4) The Engineer admitted to the Doctor that she missed her ordinary life and her experiments, but she felt a duty as a member of the Authority, and lived for the views, such as the Carrier taking them over the Mind Barrier reef, where the minds of latent telepaths grew as a colony. Christine Trelane contacted the Authority when a rip in spacetime opened and fighter jets emerged, devastating L.A. Apollo and the Doctor destroyed a number of the crafts, and Jenny Sparks recognized them. She said they were under attack from the parallel world of Sliding Albion. Jenny Sparks created a gigantic electric avatar, short-circuiting the ships, and reminding them that her Earth was still under her protection, before the remaining ships returned to Avalon. Jenny filled in the crew on her previous encounter battling a Sliding Avalon invasion in 1920, and reached out to her old contacts to get entry to R.A.F. Rendelsham's holding facility. She introduced the Authority to her ex-husband Lorenzo Antonio Slzfi. (The Authority v1 #6)
Lorenzo said Sliding Avalon's civil war led to low birth rates due to biowarfare, so his father Regis was most likely invading her Earth to continue his bloodline, and gain more living space for his people. Regis sent his second wave aboard the Carrier, and Apollo killed most of them, but drained his solar powers in the process. Midnighter, not used to seeing him helpless, embraced his love. The Engineer and Swift both told Jenny they needed to do more than defeat Sliding Avalon, they needed to fix their totalitarian, imperialistic culture. Sliding Avalon attacked Northern Europe, and Jenny came up with a plan to repower Apollo long enough for him to save the continent. Apollo single-handedly destroyed the Avalon invasion fleet, and Jenny took the Carrier to Avalon itself. She destroyed Westminster Abbey, the base of Regis' power, and Jack Hawksmoor reached into the city, which was sick of Regis' crimes, and ripped him in two. The Carrier took them to Sicily, the other seat of the Blue's power, and the Doctor held it still while their Earth rotated around it, drowning the country. Jenny announced to the world that the imperialism and rape culture of the Blue's was now gone, but if asked to they'd be back to make sure it didn't return, and urged the people of Avalon to make a better world. Engineer thought it was scary that they'd changed an entire world based on what they thought best, and Jenny reminded her that that was the Authority's mission. (The Authority v1 #8) Jack visited Rome, but could not stay away from NYC for too long. He visited the Engineer, and her nanotech detected a disturbance in the environment. The Doctor was in the Garden of Ancestral Memory, and felt something ancient stirring that was once on Earth. His predecessors revealed that humanity had only inherited Earth, and that the planet's original owner had woken up. The heralds took over the moon, and some of them landed in Africa. Doctor told Sparks, and nearly collapsed in her arms. Jenny was somewhat suspicious of the Doctor's word because of the massive amount of drugs he took as a shaman. Midnighter and Apollo fought the heralds that were destroying Tokyo, and feared Jenny would have to sterilize the entire city if they failed. Jack Hawksmoor arrived as backup, and they prevailed, if barely. Engineer was in Africa, where a herald was terraforming the environment into a poisonous wasteland, and after victory she created machines to heal the landscape. Jenny sent Apollo to sterilize the moon, the source of the heralds. Doctor's predecessors told him they called Earth's creator God because it had formed the Earth as a home for its spore and a retirement home. The Earth's environment was inhospitable to native life forming until a stray planet hit Earth, blasting a great chunk of the planet into space. The moon that formed from the impact was the home of God's spore until Apollo destroyed them, and the impact also pushed Earth away from the sun, enough so that native life could arise. God had returned, and was unhappy with the state of the planet, and Engineer spotted it in the sky. (The Authority v1 #10)
She later found herself thrust into the front lines of an existential war as the Earth was invaded by an entity believed to be 'God'. She spent the initial stages of the conflict on the bridge of the Carrier, using her integrated nanotechnology to interface with the ship's systems and coordinate a global defense against the massive, terraforming organisms descending on the planet. When the team realized the sheer scale of the biological threat, she pushed her liquid-metal body to its limits, deploying swarms of nanobots to analyze the alien biology and fortify the Carrier’s structural integrity against incoming fire. She maintained a frantic pace, simultaneously repairing the ship's damaged hulls and providing tactical data to Jenny Sparks and the rest of the team as they fought to protect the world's population. Despite the overwhelming odds and the horrific casualties reported across the globe, she remained focused on the technical requirements of survival, using her machine-like precision to filter out the fear and maintain the Authority's primary base of operations. Her actions were crucial in keeping the team's technological edge sharp while they prepared for a desperate, final counter-strike against the celestial intruder. (The Authority v1 #11) The Engineer played a pivotal role in the final stand against the massive, alien 'God' that had begun terraforming the Earth. As the Carrier breached the internal structure of the celestial invader, she pushed her nanotechnological capabilities to their absolute threshold, shedding her human appearance to become a living conduit of liquid machinery. She interfaced directly with the alien's biological systems, using her internal processors to map the creature's immense anatomy and identify its vital organs for the team to target. While Jenny Sparks prepared her final, suicidal gambit, Angela maintained the Carrier's defensive screens against the white blood cells of the entity, barely keeping the ship intact under the pressure of the hostile environment. When the 'God' was finally neutralised, she worked tirelessly to recalibrate the Carrier’s systems to stabilise the planet's failing atmosphere and repair the catastrophic damage to the ship's hull. In the grim aftermath of the victory, she mourned the loss of Jenny alongside her teammates, yet she immediately began the technical process of assuming greater responsibility for the team’s future, ensuring that their base remained functional and ready for a world without its former leader. (The Authority v1 #12)
WorldStorm
During one incident, a displaced Captain Atom arrived in her reality where the Authority observed his activities as he encountered Mr. Majestic and WildC.A.T.s. In a fight with the latter, Angie decided to intervene and had a Door open that sent Captain Atom to the Moon where she revealed herself to him. After introducing themselves, she took him to the Carrier where she introduced him to the rest of the Authority whilst claiming that she would return Captain Atom back to his home reality after it was discovered a reaction in his body would lead to him exploding and creating galactic scale destruction. With Jack Hawksmoor, they journeyed across multiple realities but failed to find his own before they took him to an Earth under Nazi rule in Earth-37C where they brutally killed the Nazi forces before executing Hitler. Captain Atom later was sent to Earth through the Door where Angie commented to her fellow Authority members on the dangers posed by Nathaniel Adams where they decided to keep a close eye on him in order to cure him or kill him. (Captain Atom: Armageddon v1 #5) The Engineer would keep Captain Atom company where the two struck a romantic relationship. She would take him to stop a dictator that threatened to fire his nuclear arsenal where they effortlessly eliminated his regime. Afterwards, Angie would with Nathaniel Adams permission send her nanotechnology into Captain Atom to remove the fragment of Void that threatened to explode which would have destroyed the entire universe. (Captain Atom: Armageddon v1 #6) She became conflicted on her feelings when Jack Hawksmoor informed her that the attempt to remove the fragment did not solve the problem. A Door was opened sending her to Captain Atom's location where he had Nikola Hanssen in his arms with Hawksmoor claiming that Nathaniel Adams was cheating on Spica. Angie attempted to speak to Captain Atom who decided to go briefly into the future where he said he disagreed with the computer analysis that said he would detonate. He would ask Angela to believe him over the computer simulations but she attacked him and said she was sorry but that she would kill him in order to save her reality. She would manage to incapacitate him and proceeded with her attempt to kill Captain Atom when the Engineer was shot as well as rendered inactive by a shot from a prototype gun from Grifter. Captain Atom would initially be angry until Grifter explained the threat posed by the Engineer whereupon Nathaniel Adam used his powers to turn Angie human. (Captain Atom: Armageddon v1 #7) The unconscious Engineer was taken back to the Carrier when Apollo and Midnighter arrived to kill Captain Atom. (Captain Atom: Armageddon v1 #8)
Post-Flashpoint
After the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Angela Spica was shown as a civilian who was badly wounded in a car accident when she was taken by the Shadow Lords. They began implanting the technology of the previous Engineer Archie Trundle and offered Spica the chance to join Stormwatch as his replacement. Her body was already partially transformed by this point so ultimately she had no choice in the matter whereupon she adopted the guise of the Engineer. (Stormwatch v3 #11)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Her entire form was coated in a gleaming, metallic silver sheen, like mercury flowing over the human frame, glistening with an unnatural perfection. Though her features retained a human femininity—expressive eyes, defined cheekbones, a confident mouth—every part of her surface reflected an artificial fluidity, smooth and free of joints or clear mechanical segments. She had no visible seams, armor plates, or visible wires—her metallic skin moved and reshaped itself like liquid metal in constant motion. Her hair, too, was a part of her synthetic form, sometimes shown as free-flowing strands of polished metal filaments or drawn back into minimalist streams, adding to her sleek silhouette. She often hovered slightly above the ground, emitting a soft glow or trail of floating data symbols when accessing her technology, further emphasizing her evolution into something beyond human. (The Authority v1 #1)
Her desire to become a superhero stemmed from her time in reading comic books. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #5)
During her encounter with Nathaniel Adam, she decided to flirt with him in order to keep close and watch him. However, she grew to have feelings for him when Captain Atom was in her universe. But when it seemed clear to her that Captain Atom was going to detonate and destroy her universe she showed no hesitation in attacking him in order to eliminate the threat he posed. (Captain Atom: Armageddon v1 #7)
After the Flashpoint, Angie was initially quite uncomfortable about her cybernetic form with only her relationship with Harry Tanner making her comfortable with her transformed body. (Stormwatch v3 #11)
Powers and abilities
Spica was noted for her high intelligence which she had a young age when she constructed circuit boards and fixing televisions as a child. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #5)
The liquid machinery that coated her body was capable of being shaped into a variety of tools for any purpose. She was also able to shape her limbs into nano-utensils that could stitch a wound. (Jenny Sparks: The Secret History of the Authority v1 #5)
She was shown being able to merge with the cybernetics of even dead individuals and uploading their memories into her mind. (Stormwatch v3 #11)
She was shown to be capable of interfacing with highly advanced extraterrestrial technology such as a Red Lantern Power Ring. (Stormwatch v3 #9)
Notes
- The Engineer was created by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch where she made her first appearance in The Authority v1 #1 (May, 1999).
Alternate Versions
- In The New 52: Futures End v1 #1 (2014), an alternate version of the Engineer appeared in the possible Future's End reality that existed in a world within the Multiverse. Angela Spica served as a member of Stormwatch, Earth's early warning system against extraterrestrial threats, and was on board The Carrier when it was pulled out of the Bleed by an unknown force. Angie tries to reconnect with the ship to find out what happened, but was shut out by the AI. When she persisted further, she became possessed by an outside entity and revealed that the 'storm' they were created for was Brother Eye. The ship's AI proceeds to attack the members of Stormwatch whilst Angie tried to resolve the rogue AI. Before she could, Brother Eye hacked into the Carrier's AI and activated its self-destruct function, killing everyone on board. However, she was revealed to have survived and been possessed by an unknown entity. She had control over hordes of robots that attacked S.H.A.D.E. operatives Amethyst and Frankenstein, and her former teammate Hawkman. When these robots failed to kill her, Angela ordered them to self destruct.
- In The Wild Storm v1 #1 (2017), an alternate version of the Engineer appeared in the rebooted setting of The Wild Storm universe. Angie Spica was a human who had been screened several times for an engineering position in International Operations, eventually being put in charge of creating a new armor for the Razors C.A.T.(Covert Action Team). Taking technology from a recovered Skywatch ship she thought was of alien origin, she created a much cruder version of the Engineer armor, which leaks from her body via holes in her skin to cover her. The armor has several weapons and technological advances, even allowing her to fly on some occasions. However, once funding became scarce, she personally went to the Director of I.O., Miles Craven, when he was eating out with his boyfriend. Craven was skeptical of Spica, doing everything he could to quell her questions until he noticed she was bleeding due to the armor in her skin. Spica fled. She later found several people looking up at the Halo building. Suddenly, Jacob Marlowe was sent crashing out of a window, caused by a failed assassination attempt by I.O. mercenary Deathblow. Spica quickly changed into her armor and flew up to catch Marlowe, saving him. Marlowe saw her bleeding and offered to help her, but Spica declined the offer and fled to a safe house in Montauk, knowing that I.O. now knew of what she'd done. While I.O. sent in their Razor C.A.T. to apprehend Spica, but not before Marlowe sent in his own, Rogue C.A.T. Engineer, Jenny Sparks, Jack Hawksmoor and Shen Li-Men engaged in a night of sex, later being revealed that the three women also had sex with each other, making them three at least bisexual.
In other media
Films
Appearances
- The Authority v1 #1: (1999)
- Stormwatch v3:
External Links
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