Jolt (comics)

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caption=Jolt in her bioelectric form. Art by Patrick Zircher
comic_color=background:#ff8080
character_name=Jolt
real_name=Hallie Takahama
publisher=Marvel Comics
debut="Thunderbolts" #1
creators=Kurt Busiek
Mark Bagley
alliance_color=background:#ffc0c0
alliances=Young Allies
Thunderbolts
aliases=
powers= Originally Kinetic powers, energy control, super-human agility, electric shocks Later Electrical control and discharges while in energy form

Jolt (Helen "Hallie" Takahama) is a fictional character, a superheroine in the Marvel Universe and a member of the Thunderbolts and Young Allies.

Fictional character biography

Hallie Takahama was born in Ojai, California before moving with her parents to New York City at a young age. A super hero buff, she memorized details about various superhuman battles.

On her 15th birthday, Sentinels controlled by Onslaught destroyed her apartment, killing her parents and friends, and for weeks Hallie hid in the ruins of the city with several children she rescued. When Hallie went to seek help after Onslaught's defeat, she and all the children she was protecting were kidnapped by the mercenary group the Rat Pack and experimented on by the Rat Pack's employer, Arnim Zola. The other children died or were horribly mutated, but Hallie became faster, stronger, and gained the ability to throw bio-electric punches. She escaped and attempted to reach the Fantastic Four.

Having been isolated between the destruction and the experiments, she had not known that many superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and most of the Avengers, had been whisked to a Pocket Universe created by Franklin Richards, the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. The world at large presumed the heroes dead. When Hallie reached Four Freedom Plaza, the Fantastic Four's old headquarters, she encountered the Thunderbolts, a new super team who were in fact the Masters of Evil posing as heroes.

She joined the team and eventually convinced most of the now-wavering former villains to come over to the "light" side proper. She went on the run with the team, before being "killed" by Scourge. Revived by Techno, she could now become a being of pure electricity, but the damage from the time she spent "dead" left her crippled in her human form, although after much therapy, she fully recovered.

After being stranded on Counter-Earth with most of the Thunderbolts, she chose to stay behind to help the devastated planet as one of the Young Allies. However, Jolt made a brief return to Earth, in order to help both the Thunderbolts and Avengers to stop the out-of-control Moonstone (who had possessed two moonstones at the time and was losing control when she absorbed the Liberator's energies within her).

Powers and abilities

Originally, Jolt possessed hyperkinetic agility and could move with amazing speed and jump vast distances. Her hyperactive metabolism made her body's natural bioelectric field exceptionally powerful, and she could shock enemies with a touch. Moreover, Techno stated that she could transform any kind of energy into physical strength and speed, and that with an unlimited source of energy she would be able to use her powers with no physical strain whatsoever.

After her "rebirth", Jolt could change from flesh-and-blood into living electricity. In her energy form, she could fly and fire blasts of electrical force. At first, she could only function in her electric form, her human form was so injured that she could barely walk and talk. She has now fully recovered, and her level of power has increased.

Alternate versions

MC2

While not appearing often, Jolt was member of the Avengers before the current team was formed in A-Next #1.

Marvel Adventures Iron Man

Jolt appeared in "Marvel Adventures: Iron Man" #8, but not as a superheroine. Instead, she was an assassin hired by Justin Hammer. Hammer wanted her to take out both Iron Man and Tony Stark as Hammer was being charged for trying to frame Iron Man and causing a lot of damage to New York City (this took place in "Marvel Adventures: Iron Man" #4, where Iron Man fought the Spymaster) and Tony Stark was going to testify against Hammer. Jolt appeared in her bio-electric form, but had the same powers as the Marvel-616 Jolt.