Hazmat (Marvel)

Latest revision as of 07:15, 27 July 2020

Hazmat in Avengers Academy v1 #34.

Hazmat is a female comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Jennifer Takeda was a female human being who was born in the modern age. Her parents were known to had worked for the Roxxon Energy Corporation and her family provided her with everything in her life. Her own accomplishments led to her being popular among her classmates where she was on the honour roll and on track for a scholarship. When she was 16 years old, she was involved with a boy named Greg. One time together, he fell ill and the pair were taken to the hospital after they detected traces of a neurotoxin in him. She was examined for exposure but the doctors determined that she was the source of radiation affecting all those around her. This led to her life changing completely as a result and people began to abandon her in life. A week later, her boyfriend woke up and wanted nothing to do with her with his parents wanting her arrested. Her parents came to distance themselves from her and doctors were more interested in her as a scientific curiosity for a journal. She was then approached by Norman Osborn who offered to cure her with Jennifer accepting but he only wanted to exploit her and made her condition even worse. (Avengers Academy v1 #3)

Hazmat was later 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. (Avengers Academy v1 #1)

Whilst in anger management class, Dr. Pym decided to showcase his new technique in helping Jennifer by having Leech using his powers to temporarily remove Hazmat's ability. After draining the lingering toxins, she was allowed to go outside without her suit so long as Leech was with her. Together, the pair visited the park in San Francisco with her going to see her parents. The experience was emotional for her but she told them that this was only a temporary stop-gap and then returned to the academy. Wearing her suit again, she attended a class field trap to Stamford when they came under attack from the Cobalt Men. Hazmat's powers had not returned to normal by this point so she was unable to stop the villains but Speedball managed to stop them. Afterwards, Dr. Pym revealed that the test with Leech was a success and that he could help her temporarily to return to normal on a bi-weekly basis. However, Jennifer refused and stated that she would wait for a permanent cure as the temporary solution meant that she was bereft of her abilities at critical moments such as on the field trip. As such, whilst she was grateful for the short experience, she decided to wait and be a hero until she her abilities were removed completely whereupon she would embrace being a civilian again. (Avengers Academy v1 #10)

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. 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. 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. Hazmat and Mettle succumb to Jeremy Briggs's promise of a normal life and take the "Clean Slate" which removes their powers. However, when the students face off against Briggs, they take the antidote to return their powers and battle Briggs. Afterward, Hazmat and Mettle consummate their relationship despite not being normal anymore. 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.

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. In a fit of rage, she then attacks Deathlocket when she tries to show sympathy toward Hazmat regarding Mettle's sacrifice. 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). They wait on the beach until Day 25, when Nara, Cullen, Anachronism, X-23, and Cammi arrive, having just fled from Apex. 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. 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. 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.

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. 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. After being stuck in catatonic shock, Hazmat finally kills Arcade by blowing him to bits with a concentrated radiation burst. 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. 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. 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. She battles the Glartrox beast to save Cullen and the group is rescued by the Avengers. After Cammi defeats the masters and SHIELD rescues the trapped heroes, Hazmat and her team are seen relaxing lakeside with their respective teams.

Though free from the suit, sometime afterwards she began to experience trouble in controlling her powers. This led to her approaching Tony Stark about providing her technology for a suit that could project force fields to better contain her abilities. She was then placed with Captain Marvel so she could learn from Carol Danvers and better control her abilities once again. (Captain Marvel v10 #1)

Overview

Personality and attributes

Jennifer was noted to suffer from anger issues as a result of her powers and the way she was treated in her life. (Avengers Academy v1 #3)

She initially came to resent the Avengers when she learnt that the only reason they were training her was because they feared she would become a villain. (Avengers Academy v1 #2)

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.

The source of her abilities were unknown with it said that she was not a Mutant but it led to Jennifer's body becoming radioactive. This resulted in her seething with deadly substances whereby her saliva could kill people and she secret neurotoxins. (Avengers Academy v1 #3) She could emit E.M. energies that could interfere with monitoring devices. (Avengers Academy v1 #2)

Her abilities were enhanced through experiments by Norman Osborn who wanted her to have the ability to wipe out a city. (Avengers Academy v1 #3)

She was forced to wear a suit to protect others from the harmful radiation from her body. It resulted in Jennifer keeping her distance from others as she was worried that it would be punctured and that she would inadvertently kill someone. (Avengers Academy v1 #3)

Notes

• Hazmat was created by Christos Gage and Mike McKone where she made her first appearance in Avengers Academy v1 #1 (June, 2010).

In other media

Video games

• In Lego Marvel's Avengers, Hazmat appeared as a playable character in the video game.

Appearances

• Avengers Academy v1: (2010)
• Avengers Arena v1:
• Avengers Undercover v1:
• Captain Marvel v10: (2019)

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry

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