Copycat (Wildstorm)

Copycat
Copycat, Art by Sam Liu (pencils), Danny Miki (inks), and Homer Reyes (colours).
Publication information
Publisher	Wildstorm Comics
First appearance	Gen¹³ Volume 2 #7 (1996)
Created by	Jim Lee Brandon Choi J. Scott Campbell
In-story information
Alter ego	Gem Antonelli
Team affiliations	Gen¹³ DV8
Notable aliases	Gemma
Abilities	Gem has the ability to take control of others bodies by making contact or being within proximity to them.

Copycat is a comic book character from DC Comics/Wildstorm Comics. She is a member of the super human team DV8.

History

Gem Antonelli, a native of Los Angeles, was part of a series of experiments carried out by International Operations under the control of the director of the Department of Science and Technology, Ivana Baiul. As John Lynch broke into I.O. security to rescue a group of youngsters from her experiments, Ivana was forced to escape and moved her base to Isla Caballito to continue with her experiments on the frozen specimens she managed to carry with her. One of those gen-active kids frozen in liquid nitrogen was Gem herself.

Gem is a neuro-dominator, able to temporarily control the bodies of others. After passing hard training she earned a place in DV8, Ivana's group of super-powered operatives. However, due to her weak stomach, she almost got eliminated (literally), but somehow got chosen by Threshold, Ivana's right hand, to be part of his team. Unlike her DV8 partners, Gem didn't take her activities so seriously and constantly fooled around.

Due to an incident involving Bliss, she had four split personalities in addition to her normal persona. This made her teammates very uneasy around her and lead them to believe she was quite insane and unstable. Her four extra personalities were:

• Soldier, a tough militaristic fighter
• Nihilist, a disobedient and mischievous personality
• Spy, a methodical thinker
• Little Gemma, a cute but often cowardly child like persona

The three personalities are protective of Little Gemma. Ivana and her teammates believed the personalities were a reaction to the booster drugs all DV8-members received to increase their powers.

Gemma's already unstable mental state would receive a further blow when she was temporarily captured in an attack on a foreign scientific facility. She was forcibly made to experience a white room with no reachable ceiling or walls.

When Threshold turned against DV8, he mentally attacked Copycat, putting her in a coma. Gemma stayed in the coma for a long time, and when she woke up, something had changed: The link between Bliss and herself had been broken and her real mind slowly started to heal. The final trigger happened when she tried to possess her teammate Freestyle. Her mind was restored and her alternate personalities disappeared.

Shortly afterwards DV8 was disbanded and Copycat left with Frostbite and Sublime to try to live a normal life. They later joined up with Genevieve Cray, a female clone of Michael Cray, Sublime's father.