Flint (comics)

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caption=
comic_color= background: #8080ff
character_name=Flint
real_name=Victoria Ngengi
publisher=Wildstorm
debut= "StormWatch #28"
alliance_color=background: #ffc0c0
alliances=StormWatch United Nations
aliases=
powers=Skin is invulnerable to harm. Superhuman strength|

Flint is the name of a comic book character from Wildstorm, created by Jeff Mariotte and Ron Lim. She is also a member of StormWatch.

History

Flint is Kenyan, and has survived much of the worst in Kenya's recent history. Her father and brother were killed in border skirmishes with Tanzania in the mid '70s, and her mother was murdered two years later. She thus was brought up as a ward of the State. Her remarkable strength was noticed early, and she was thought as a potential Olympic competitor for Kenya; a few years after, her "Seedling" powers began to emerge, and she was noticed by the UN.

When the superhuman members of the StormWatch agency were decimated during the Despot crisis, the UN found itself facing a severe shortage in metahuman manpower and hired or recruited various superhumans from all over the world. She eventually made it to full StormWatch operative status when the superhuman assets were reorganized; Flint was assigned to StormWatch Red. At this point, Bendix's madness was taking its toll. This affected Flint personally, as she was sent in by part of a small team to attack Kaizen Gamorra's island nation in response to a terrorist bomb that killed 223 innocent aircraft passengers and crew. Though Flint and teammate Fahrenheit's role was to destroy abandoned property, they had to watch as ally Rose Tattoo obeyed Bendix's orders to kill 223 Gammoran citizens. Any citizens, man, woman or child. The organization eventually went into a crisis when the madness of Bendix became obvious. Jenny Sparks from StormWatch Black had to kill him and assume command. Or so it is thought, Bendix actually survives Sparks' attack.

A new StormWatch rose from the ashes of Bendix's organization - headed by Jackson King, who succeeds Bendix as StormWatch's Weatherman. Flint became a core member of the team. Despite the considerable talents on roster, this version of StormWatch lasted for but a few months, though they accomplished many things during this time, mostly thwarting superhuman-creation schemes. Much of what they confronted was engineered behind the scenes by Bendix. Soon they intercepted a massive asteroid getting close to Earth, StormWatch's super-satellite was breached and invaded by hundreds of Aliens. The situation quickly became catastrophic, and most of the crew died. An intervention by the WildCATs allowed the surviving StormWatch personnel to reach the bridge and evacuate, while Winter remained behind to pilot the compromised station into the Sun, incinerating the Aliens. As for Flint herself, she fell during the early hours of the battle, defending the escape pods so the crew could evacuate. She burst open an Alien with a punch, and to her surprise the acid blood of the creature proved capable of wounding her. She fell back into an escape pod, which then launched as she was struggling to stop the acid from burning her. She was safe, but considerably dismayed by her involuntary retreat from the battlefield. The damage was enough to leave her with large, permanent scars on the face and shoulder.

At that point, StormWatch was shut down. StormWatch Black became The Authority; the only other superhuman operatives of StormWatch were Jackson King, Christine Trelane and Victoria N'Gengi. They were retained reserve status, but StormWatch was dead. After StormWatch fell, Flint was only seen once, at a party held by the Authority - and although she was happy to be reunited with Jenny Sparks and Swift, she seemed bitter about so many people not even remembering StormWatch.

One or two years later, as the threat from superhuman operatives failed to recede, the UN assembled a new superhuman crisis control team as the new StormWatch - though the budget was but a mere shadow of the old StormWatch. The new Weatherman was American veteran Benito Santini. Santini was extremely wary about superhumans, and his core team were elite soldiers from all over the world without superhuman powers.

Given the small size, lack of budget and extreme danger of the missions, Santini eventually added superhumans to his team to replace losses - but mostly as a part of the support team. Flint was the first obvious superhuman Santini recruited for his team in a front line capacity. He had chosen her due to her idealism - she was fighting to change the world and for the common good. Flint proves a professional, efficient and disciplined member of the team, and an invaluable assets.

In the wake of the Authority taking control of the USA, when the new StormWatch seceded from the UN and went rogue, Flint followed Santini. The team went underground and fled to Europe, where Flint married Santini.

After a series of mostly successful missions, the new StormWatch found itself stranded on a parallel Earth where the entire population had been killed by a rogue super powered being. Although they do have a plan for getting out, it involves walking from the US to Siberia - it is thus likely they will not be seen again for a long time.

She is next seen during World's End, in a new team fighting alongside Deathblow and Fahrenheit on a post-apocalyptic Earth.

Powers and abilities

Flint's skin is rock-hard, and she seems to be pretty much invulnerable (her skin is said to be the hardest thing known to science). Bullets affect her about as much as a stiff rain, and even a rocket can at most knock her back and damage her costume. Dropping her from a great height will result in a crater and an unfazed Flint. She does seem more vulnerable to energy weapons. Her skin can also be damaged by concentrated molecular acid, though it will not be destroyed completely and the scarring will repair itself given sufficient time.

Although she doesn't display extreme super-strength, her blows have impressive power - presumably a combination of her strength, speed and rock-hard hands. She can behead a normal man in a single punch, and has been known to kill bulletproof superhumans with a good rush-by punch to the jaw.

In recent years, Flint has displayed super-speed - she can do easy things faster than humanly possible (such as changing clothes), and is superhumanly good at catching projectiles in mid-flight. She is also very proficient at grabbing large objects and throwing them with great fluidity, power and accuracy.

She is able to create a brutal, vectorized shockwave by slamming her hands together - the resultant blast of pressurized air was enough to break the back of a cybernetically enhanced man.