Motormouth (comics)

Motormouth
Motormouth from Incredible Hulk 409 (Sept 1993) Art by Gary Frank, Cam Smith and Glynis Oliver
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel UK
First appearance	Motormouth 1 (June 1992)
Created by	Graham Marks Gary Frank
In-story information
Alter ego	Harley Davis
Species	Human Cyborg
Team affiliations	Mys-Tech
Partnerships	Killpower
Abilities	-Sonic scream can teleport to any alternate reality and planet or place within them some energy identification abilities

Motormouth (Harley Davis) is a fictional character created by Paul Neary and developed by writer Graham Marks with initial designs by Gary Frank (Supreme Power, The Incredible Hulk) as the titular character of her own series Motormouth (later Motormouth & Killpower), was part of a line of original comics released in the early-to-mid 1990s by Marvel UK. She is a teenage street-rat from London, England with a fierce temper who curses constantly. She is 5'4" tall and weights roughly 105 lb (48 kg).

Publication history

Motormouth ran for twelve issues with the plot of having Harley, and later her partner Killpower going to various alternate realities from the regular Marvel Universe.

Fictional character biography

Harley is orphaned at age 11 and grows up as part of a gang that lives in the East End of London. They survive by foraging and stealing. Her incredibly foul language earns her the nickname 'Motormouth'. When she is seventeen Harley is discovered by Laarson, an agent of Mys-Tech, the shadowy organisation that featured in all of Marvel UK's 1990s titles. Harley is a candidate for his M.O.P.E.D (Mind Operated PErsonal Dematerialization) technology. This allows people to jump between alternate realities but will only operate on people with certain strands of DNA. The unit is disguised a pair of MOPED units as training shoes, which Harley finds and tries on. At the same time Laarson is being executed by Mys-Tech's Techno-Wizards and agents were sent to find the MOPED units. In order to save her and the units, Laarson's subordinates activate the technology and sent her to another universe.

While still on the run from Mys-Tech, Harley is sent to a future in which the world was covered in shopping malls. It was here she purchases a Soni-Muta 500 Unit, a microchip that allows her to mentally tune into any radio station she wanted. This would later give her her sonic scream. Harley returns to her own universe and is captured and put to work by Mys-Tech. She escapes after a mission to Tokyo, Japan.

Killpower

She has to make a random jump in order to escape and ends up on a planet named Tekron. Killpower, an agent of Mys-Tech is sent to find her. Unable to escape him, Harley reasons with the man instead. Mentally little more than a small child, Killpower becomes intrigued by Harley and joins her as her partner. Harley is then badly injured on Tekron when a stray bullet hit her in the throat. Killpower uses her Soni-Muta 500 and the MOPED technology to cure her. This not only gave her the aforementioned sonic scream, she could now travel between universes without the aid of technology. Both are then forced to flee from Mys-Tech's influence.

Motormouth and Killpower appeared in the Battletide mini-series. Death's Head is hired by Mys-Tech to retrieve Killpower; while the two fought, Motormouth and Tuck, Death's Head partner, went on a shopping spree on an alien planet. Motormouth and Killpower later plan an attack on Tyburn, a powerful Mys-Tech agent. Harley is able to steal their MOPED unit and neutralize the tracking devices Mys-Tech had implanted in the duo. Tyburn survives the attack. ^[1]

Saving the world

Motormouth becomes an essential part of the Mys-Tech Wars mini-series. At first, she is just one of many superheros attacking the main Mys-Tech complex, hoping to take down the Techno-Wizards, the heads of Mys-Tech.

The wizards fight back successfully, slaughtering most of the heroes. Death-Head kills them in return, unfortunately this endangers all of Earth. A fortunate fall from Killpower allows six heroes, Motormouth included, to break free of the melee and patch themselves into the required equipment so they can save the Earth from destruction. The others, such as Doctor Strange and Professor X, bring powerful forces to the mix...Motormouth ends up in a simply chair to fill out the required number of entities.

The earth is saved and time is reversed, undoing all the deaths that have occurred. Only the last six remember any of which had happened. ^[2]

Time Guardian and the Hulk

Both Motormouth and Killpower are recruited by the Time Guardian in the Dark Guard mini-series to help stop a war on the planet Eopia. The war had been caused by Tyburn and Mys-Tech agents have infiltrated both sides of the war. Motormouth is instrumental in stopping a powerful Mys-Tech agent called Collapser who had captured Killpower. Her extra-sensory vision allowed her to see microfractures in his torso which in turn allowed Death's Head to smash him.

Motormouth and Killpower then guest-starred in an issue of Incredible Hulk, illustrated by her co-creator Gary Frank. The Hulk literally falls onto their dinner table. This is after the Hulk fights the villain Madman. Killpower and Hulk briefly fight. The Hulk proves himself more than a match for her obscene language. The trio then team up to rescue Prince Charles from Madman, who had taken him up the side of Big Ben. Though he is dropped off the side, Charles escapes injury. In the ensuing battle, Harley accidentally brings down London Bridge and Madman escapes. ^[3]

Motormouth and Killpower came under the attention of Nigel Orpington-Smythe, leader of the R.C.X. a villainous group from the comic book Excalibur. Security footage stills of the two, plus other Marvel UK heroes were shown to Captain Britain as an example of the lawless vigilantism that Smythe sought to control. R.C.X was neutralized before they became a threat to Harley.

Issue #12, the last of the series, features Motormouth visiting a homeless encampment on the South Side of the River Thames in London, England. It's revealed she used to live here; though she did not enjoy it. The two heroes, along with Death's Head, defeat and kill a murderous A.I.M. construct that had taken on the mannerisms of the local homeless population. The second part of the issue features the two battling fanatical, naive worshippers of a lost alien being. In defeating the being, Killpower becomes the world's new god. ^[4]

Post-series appearances

Harley has since had a cameo appearance in the Avengers Forever mini-series, and is set to appear, along with Killpower, in Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 in 2009.^[5]

Other versions

A future version of Harley appears in Excalibur Vol 1 #67, July 1993. Working with other heroes to protect an enclave of innocent people, she steps up to battle a wave of Sentinels. Both sides inflict heavy casualties, Harley is one of the many disintegrated by the robot's weapons.

Powers and abilities

Harley can create deafening sounds and force blasts by screaming/shouting, similar to the X-Men's Banshee or DC Comics' Black Canary and by humming at a low pitch can use ultrasound to see through solid objects. She can also jump between alternate universes using the MOPED technology built into her, this technology also allows her to sense threats outside her normal field or range of senses. She also seems to have some ability to sense various forms of energy.

Notes

1. ^ Battletide #1-4 (December 1992 - March 1993)
2. ^ Mys-Tech Wars #2-4 (April-June 1994)
3. ^ The Incredible Hulk #408-409 (August-September 1993)
4. ^ Motormouth And Killpower #12 (May, 1993)
5. ^ Newsarama 9: Paul Cornell, Newsarama, February 11, 2009

References

• Motormouth at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• Motormouth at the International Catalogue of Superheroes
• Motormouth at the Grand Comics Database
• Motormouth at the Comic Book DB
• Motormouth at the Big Comic Book DataBase