America Chavez (Earth-616)

Ms. America

Gallery

Name

America Chavez

Current Alias

Ms. America[1][2]

Aliases

Miss America[3][4]
Nicknames:
Li’l Chica,[5] MAC[6]
Other Aliases:
America Santana,[7] Ms. A,[citation needed] USA[8]

Codenames:Nicknames:Li’l Chica,MACOther Aliases:America Santana,Ms. A,

Affiliation and Relationships

Affiliation

Thunderbolts, Ultimates, Hel-Rangers, A-Force, Young Avengers, Teen BrigadeAvengers World ; formerly West Coast Avengers

Relatives

(grandmother)
Parents:
(mother, deceased);

Grandparents: Madrimar (grandmother)Parents: Amalia Chavez (mother, deceased);

Elena Chavez (mother, deceased);
Loki Laufeyson (foster mother);
Javier Santana (adoptive father);
Cecilia Santana (adoptive mother)
Siblings:
Catalina Chavez (sister);
Nico Minoru (foster sister);[9]
Alberto Santana (adoptive brother)
Other Relatives:
Unnamed sister-in-law (adoptive sister-in-law);
J.J. Santana (adoptive nephew)

(adoptive aunt)[10]Marta (adoptive aunt)

Marital Status

Single

Physical Characteristics[84]

Gender

Female

Height

6′ (1.83 m)

Weight

165 lbs (74.84 kg)

Eyes

Irises:

• Brown

Hair

Black

Unusual Features

Matching star outline tattoos on anterior wrists

Origin and Living Status

Origin

Empowered by extradimensional energies from secret Utopian Parallel genetic research

Living Status

Alive

Place of Birth

New York, USA, Earth

Personal Information

Identity

Public

Citizenship

American

Occupation

Interdimensional adventurer

Education

High School Graduate, currently in college

Base of Operations

New York City, New York, Earth-616; Sotomayor University; West Coast Avengers HQ, Venice, Los Angeles, California; Taa II; Battleworld, Earth-15513; New York City, Utopian Parallel

Formerly Triskelion Arcadia and Shield Earth-212 ; mobile in the Multiverse

Creators and Appearances

Creators

Joe Casey, Nick Dragotta

First

Vengeance #1
(July, 2011)
 pay me enough to join the

Besides, you couldn’tme enough to join the Avengers

—Ms. America[src]

History

Origins

At age five, America and her little sister Catalina were brought to the private island of billionaire Mr. Gales, where a high-end medical facility was set up. The island was used by America’s mothers Amalia and Elena Chavez, who were expert microbiologists and pathologists respectively, working to cure America and Catalina of Edges Syndrome, a discovered genetic disease linked to the XX chromosomes.

Once America started showing remission, her powers manifested to the delight of Mr. Gales, who was attempting to encourage America to use her powers against her mothers’ wishes. As Amalia and Elena refused to continue allowing Gales to exploit their daughters and the other girls at the facility, America and Catalina were taken by Elena to a rendezvous for a escape, but the girls witnessed their mother Amalia die destroying the portal chamber, then Gales shot Elena. With Elena dying and as the other girls fought Gales and his security back, America opened a Star Portal to another place to take Catalina with her, but Catalina was ripped from her grip by Gales at the last second. Emerging from the other side, America saw the island in flames, distraught, believing that her whole family was dead and she was all alone.[11]

Secret Adoption

Suffering from the shock of her experience, an amnesiac America drifted along the waters until she was found by the Santana family having washed ashore on Jones Beach while they were stargazing. The Santana family took her to their Washington Heights home and raised as their own and claiming she was their relative from San Juan, not wanting the innocent girl lost in the foster care system. To help her feel better, Berto gave America his prized toy blue hippo, Juanchiz, who America adored.

Three years after her adoption, America “regained” her memories and told the Santanas, then recounted the origin to a child psychologist, who believed her claims as a defensive coping fantasy with traumatic memory. As the psychologist told the Santanas about America’s diagnosis, who shocked her foster parents and the psychologist with her power to fly after seeing a dove.

For seven years after getting her powers, America acted as a small time vigilante in Washington Heights, upsetting her foster parents’ demands that she keep low key and not arouse attention due to the neighborhood’s negative history with the NYPD and criminal elements. America would fight her foster parents on the issue each time, citing the memory of her mothers being heroes for motivation. After handling a dumpster monster and arriving significantly late at Berto’s wife’s baby shower, a heated argument broke out between Ceci and Javi with America, reaching a boiling point to where America renounced her Santana surname for her original “Chavez”, finding no more belonging among them.[12]

Superhero Career in the Teen Brigade

Becoming America Chavez again, she continued the story that she was born on the Utopian Parallel, a paradisal dimension outside of time and space of the Multiverse, where America attained an undetermined measure of her superpowers from the Demiurge’s ambient magical presence; enabling willful traversal of the multiverse and incredible superhuman potential. With distorted memories, America claimed that when she was approximately six years old, the Utopian Parallel was threatened with destruction by black holes pulling it into the common Multiverse, so her mothers heroically sacrificed themselves to stop the danger, resulting in their particles dispersing across the Multiverse. She traveled across different dimensions, eventually adopting the moniker Ms. America, and began covertly acting as a superhero. Wanting to prove herself as a hero and knowing Utopia didn’t require salvation, America ran away from her home and her responsibilities.[13][14]

Ms. America eventually joined the Teen Brigade and despite her young age, she even served as co-leader with Ultimate Nullifier. With the Teen Brigade, she freed the In-Betweener from a government confinement center, Groom Lake Adjacent in Nevada.[15] With information from the In-Betweener, the Teen Brigade set out to prevent the Young Masters of Evil from disrupting the balance between Chaos and Order.[16]

To stop the Young Masters from recruiting Kid Loki, Ms. America broke into the Met, but Loki used the Screaming Idol to send her to the Sixth Dimension.[17] There she fought Tiboro, and was almost destroyed and drained away. Later she was rescued by the Last Defenders, She-Hulk and Hellstrom, under the direction of the In-Betweener.[18] She rejoined her teammates in Latveria where they fought the Braak’nhüd, Young Masters and Doctor Doom. The battle was ended when Ultimate Nullifier shot the In-Betweener. While the smoke cleared, the Teen Brigade covertly departed.[19] Ultimate Nullifier and America briefly engaged in a romantic fling, but it ended when America abruptly left the Teen Brigade.[20][21]

Young Avengers

Ms. America parted ways with the Teen Brigade due to “musical differences,” and eventually travelled to Earth-212. She was approached by the teenage trickster god Loki. He attempted to persuade Ms. America into killing Wiccan for the good of the Multiverse. Disgusted with the proposition, Ms. America fought Loki and decided to secretly protect Wiccan,[22] who was destined to become the Demiurge.[20] In reality, Loki wanted to get Ms. America’s attention so she could help protect Wiccan from a predicament the young trickster was going to secretly put him in.[13]

When Loki was about to interfere in a spell being cast by Wiccan, that allowed the interdimensional parasite known as Mother to enter this universe, America tried to stop him from supposedly trying to kill Wiccan. Following the intervention of the spell, Wiccan’s boyfriend Hulkling intervened in the fight, and Ms. America fled with little explanation.[23] Ms. America subsequently saved Wiccan, Hulkling, and Loki from Laufey, Loki’s father, who was resurrected due to Mother’s influence. Following the rescue, Ms. America’s mothers were also brought back to life. The young heroes retreated to MJ’s, where the young trickster explained the events, omitting the details that would incriminate him.[13] Mother caught up with the teenagers, but they were saved by Wiccan and Hulkling’s friend Kate Bishop and her boyfriend Noh-Varr.[24] Mother gave chase to the young heroes, using an army of mind-controlled adults and the reborn dead parents. When they were cornered in Central Park, Ms. America and her allies fought off Mother’s forces and flew far away, which caused Mother to fade away. Loki explained that Mother’s powers were distance-based, so she wouldn’t be able to return to the universe as long as any of the teenage heroes were near their parents or the location where their parents had died. The young heroes decided to stay together and travel through the universe as the Young Avengers.[25]

Over the course of three months, the Young Avengers adventured throughout the universe, and Ms. America kept her motivation for protecting Wiccan a secret. They jumped into action to track down a mysterious entity dressed as former Young Avenger Patriot, who kidnapped Wiccan’s brother Speed.[26] The mysterious entity brought them to Mother’s Dimension, but they managed to quickly escape.[27] Mother gained access to this universe once again after Hulkling was tricked into returning to New York City. The evil parasite threatened to unleash the evil versions of the Young Avengers on the world.[20] The real Young Avengers confronted Mother and her new allies, a team of Young Avengers formed by Leah.[28]

During the battle, it was revealed Leah and her Young Avengers were actually a physical manifestation of Loki’s guilt and the missing powers which he subconsciously gave up due to his guilt over killing his younger self.[29] Loki finally confessed to his crimes: murdering his younger self and manipulating the Young Avengers. His confession made Leah and her Young Avengers disappear, thus Loki regained his powers and freed Teddy. Hulkling comforted Billy, and reconciled with him. Their reunion allowed Billy to become the Demiurge and destroy Mother. Celebrating Mother’s defeat, the Young Avengers threw a New Year’s party, along with many young heroes that had come to their rescue. When the team departed the place using one of Ms. America’s portals, Loki, from behind, took a photo of the moment.[30]

Battleworld

A-Force

After the collapse of the Multiverse, America found herself living on Arcadia with Nico Minoru, her foster sister, and an Arcadian Loki, her foster mother. At some point around this time, she started using the alias Ms. America. They were all members of A-Force.[31] She fought alongside A-Force until she threw a megalodon across the Shield. With this action, she violated “one of Battleworld’s greatest laws,” “endangered everyone under [the Shield’s] protection,” and had “forsaken the sanctity of Doom’s borders.” She was arrested by Thor of the Thor Corps and was sentenced to spend the rest of her life working at the Shield.[31]

The Shield

On the Shield, America met Lady Katherine of Bishop, one of her teammates on Abigail Brand’s Hel-Rangers. The two became fast friends.[2] Together, the Hel-Rangers battled many foes, including Ultron, the Fury, and Zombies.[32] When Ben Grimm left and the Shield collapsed, Ms. America and Lady Katherine left through one of America’s portals.[33]

At some point, Lady Katherine got a sudden and mysterious craving for pizza. America created a portal and they began a quest. After searching many locales, they finally came across Manhattan. Miraculously, the first thing they happened upon was a dog with a box of pizza in its mouth. Katherine named it Pizza Dog and concluded that the dog was what they had been searching for the whole time. Lady Katherine then insisted that they must find someone named “Barton.” Ms. America conceded and created another portal.[34]

Ultimates

After the reconstitution of the Multiverse, Ms. America joined the Ultimates after she sealed a dimensional breach caused by the locals, scavengers of the Exo-Space, such as Exo-Parasites, Shoggoths, or Viral Parallels.[35] She visited Moroder-9 with Monica Rambeau, looking for the Incubator. Together they fought off the drones sent by Moroder-9’s warlord.[36] They retrieved the Incubator and brought it to Galactus. Together Spectrum and Ms. America alongside Captain Marvel, Blue Marvel, and Black Panther worked to force Galactus back inside the Incubator’s chamber. Eventually, Spectrum succeeded with help from Blue Marvel and Captain Marvel, and Galactus was forced back from whence he came.[37]

America caught up with Kate Bishop over dinner in New York. America encouraged Kate to become more independent of her mentor, Clint Barton, because she could see all the emotional stress he was causing her. The two then went dancing.[38] The next morning, Kate called America and told her that being a superhero was what she needed right then. America told her that she was starting to sound like “the wrong Hawkeye.”[39] America attended an emergency Ultimates team meeting to discuss the matter of the newly re-invented Galactus the Lifebringer. Adam stressed that the main problem they faced was all the ways time had been broken because of the development of Doctor Doom’s “Doomlock” technology. Based off her personal experience with alternate realities, America told them that changing the past so Doctor Doom never invented Doomlock was not an option. Adam then revealed that he and T’Challa had been developing a way to get outside the space-time continuum to assess the damage.

They all got into the modified Quinjet and America created a portal that led to deep space, then the Superflow, and then into the Neutral Zone, where they found Conner Sims, the Anti-Man.[6] Ms. America kept the “local fauna” under control and out of the team’s way while Blue Marvel, Spectrum, and Captain Marvel negotiated with Simms.[40]

Once they were all back inside the jet, America created another portal and they traveled outside the Neutral Zone. Immediately, the Ultimates realized that moving outside the omniverse was a bad idea (because their ship was collapsing) and needed America to create another portal to bring them back in. America, however, seemed to have met her match. Unconscious in the back of the jet, she was dreaming about a conversation she had had with her girlfriend, Lisa, in which Lisa encouraged her to keep going and reminded her that she had lots of friends who cared about her. Spectrum managed to revive America, but not in time. The quinjet broke apart, and all seemed lost until Galactus, formerly the most unlikely of saviors, rescued them. He said that he saved them because he owed them a debt. When the Ultimates explained to him that they had come to take measurements in an attempt to fix time, Galactus responded that time was not broken, merely fluid, with past and future events sometimes changing. Galactus then told the Ultimates to sleep.[41] Galactus returned the Ultimates to Captain Marvel’s Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station.[42]

Patsy Walker invited America and some other heroes to an “emergency meeting” to eat burgers. Patsy introduced them all to her plan to start a temp agency for superheroes.[43] The Ultimates, under Captain Marvel’s lead, along with White Fox visited the Grandmaster to investigate the murder of Gun-R. The Grandmaster admitted that he had started a new Contest of Champions and forced Gun-R to fight in it. Instead of fighting the Ultimates, the Grandmaster volunteered information about the location of the God-King Maestro. America created a portal, and they attacked his castle.[44] Blue Marvel attempted to attack the God-King Maestro, but he used the ISO-Sphere to send all of the Ultimates back to the Triskelion with no memory of their time in Battleworld.[45]

After a new Inhuman named Ulysses Cain emerged who could see visions of the future, the superhero community was divided over the morality of using his powers to stop crimes before they even happened. When Ulysses predicted an attack by the Celestial Destructor, Ms. America fought against it alongside the Ultimates and most other active heroes. After its defeat, she attended Iron Man’s afterparty with the other heroes.[46]

When Ulysses predicted another attack on Earth, this time by Thanos, Ms. America and the other Ultimates (along with A-Force, Human Torch, and War Machine) defeated him at the cost of War Machine’s life and grave injury suffered by She-Hulk.[47] In tears, America waited outside of She-Hulk’s hospital room at the Triskelion, slightly worse for wear herself as she had received some cuts and scrapes during the fight.[46] Monica thought that America was taking Rhodey’s death and Jennifer’s injuries particularly hard because she was young and thought that it was her fault because she hadn’t done her job well enough. Monica was sad that she felt that way but glad that she was at least texting Lisa for comfort.[48]

Patsy Walker texted America because she thought Jen was in trouble. America used a portal to travel to Patsy’s apartment, and told her the sad news that Jen was in a coma. America helped Patsy break into the Triskelion to visit her, although she told her she was on her own to get out.[49] America didn’t actually attend James Rhodes’ funeral, but she met Kate Bishop outside of it. Kate wanted her to talk about his death since she knew how hard America was taking it, but instead of talking, America showed Kate a bunch of alternate universes where War Machine didn’t die. America said that, “This James is dead, and I hate that I couldn’t save him, but there are a near infinite number of James Rhodes variants out there.” Kate questioned her, asking if she really saw them all as interchangeable and America said that even though there are so many realities where he didn’t die, on Earth-616 he died fighting for people that he cared about and she greatly admired that.[50]

After Hawkeye (Clint Barton) killed Bruce Banner because of events precipitated by another one of Ulysses’ visions, America, Monica, Adam, and T’Challa watched Carol testify during his trial on television.[51] America, Billy Kaplan, Teddy Altman, and David Alleyne tried to cheer up their former Young Avengers teammate, Kate Bishop, who was depressed about Clint’s trial and situation.[52] The Ultimates, along with Giant Man built a containment device for the Infinaut, based on one of Ulysses’ predictions. Because of Ulysses vision, they knew exactly where the Infinaut was going to materialize and prepared for his arrival.[53] Ms. America, Spectrum, and Black Panther followed Captain Marvel to the site of an attack on a Stark facility, where they found Medusa and the Inhumans. Although the Inhumans claimed to be innocent, the exchange quickly turned violent. The conflict ended when Medusa told Lockjaw to teleport the Ultimates back to the Triskelion.[54]

Ms. America and the rest of the Ultimates helped Captain Marvel apprehend Alison Green after Ulysses predicted that she had a black hole generator in her briefcase. Ms. America told Black Panther that she had some reservations about Captain Marvel’s enthusiasm in acting on Ulysses’ predictions. When they found out that the briefcase was empty, and Captain Marvel said that it was time for her teammates to decide if they were with or against her, America hit her with a chair declaring her intentions. She said that she had been to realities with predictive justice, and that it never turned out how it was intended. Captain Marvel told Spectrum to incapacitate Ms. America by flying into her eyes in light form, but America created a tiny portal in her eye, sending Monica far, far away. The fight stopped when the Triskelion lost power, meaning that the formerly imprisoned Conner Simms and Thanos could walk free.[55]

As the rest of the Ultimates wrestled with internal strife from the disbanding (many of which were mulling over odd dreams relating to Conner Sim’s words about the caged existence), America, who was being backed by Galactus, brought the team back together and assumed its leadership in order to find out who or what bound Eternity, the personification of the entire Multiverse.[56]

In Los Angeles to help with a land shark swarm, America joined with Kate Bishop’s reformed West Coast Avengers and aided in stopping M.O.D.O.K.’s scheme to women who rejected his romantic interests into rampaging Kaiju. Among those women was Tigra, a former WCA member, who was made an ally once more when Quire ended her mind control. After the city was saved, America started dating Ramone Watts, sister of fellow WCA member Fuse.[57]

After losing a fight to giant moles and informing Ramone of her recently failing powers, America raced to Washington Heights when her childhood apartment was on fire trapped in a force field. Breaching the bubble so Spider-Man could evacuate civilians, America extinguished the flames but learned she was targeted through the Santanas. When she accompanied Javi to the Bodega, security footage and a clue lead America to her stalker, who showcased identical powers in a chase to the real Utopia Parallel and was incapacitated in a trap.[12]

Awakened to find her stalker was really Catalina, America didn’t remember her as her sister tried explaining her true past. Showing America a stasis chamber housing numerous young girls, Catalina asked for help to finish their mothers’ research, but America refused not wanting to endanger the girls. Unable to fight properly, America instead relocated Catalina to New Jersey, then took sodium thiopental to chemically unlock her true memories. Once she remembered, resolute in finishing her mothers’s mission, America freed the girls in stasis. Catalina returned shortly afterwards, having taken Berto hostage on her return to compel America’s compliance.[11]

Led to the Starling Chamber, America was ordered to find their mothers across the multiverse to bring them back regardless of objections. Although her illness reduced her powers, America still complied and made a star portal, but Catalina’s distrust distracted her when America tried to appeal to her and America was helpless as Catalina was pulled into the star portal going anywhere into the multiverse. After freeing Berto and taking the girls to New York, America clarified the public record of what really happened with her mothers and their research. After she reunited with the Santanas, America moved back to Washington Heights as her resurfaced Edges Syndrome made her superhero activity a time sensitive issue. As she sought a cure, America informed Ramone of her story and the two amicably split to allow America time to heal.[58]

Thunderbolts

After Luke Cage was elected Mayor of New York, he assembled a new team of Thunderbolts that included America. Her powers were still malfunctioning.[59]

Seeking the Blue Marvel’s help for her malfunctioning powers and finding her missing sister, America explained her new dynamic[60] before being met by Loki and Taaia. They, as the Defenders, were summoned by Eternity to protect reality from an enemy on the Outside.[61] First encountering the Beyonders, the Beyonder and the Omega Council from Beyond, the Defenders were told that they must return inside. However, Eternity had instructed them to go further beyond so the Blue Marvel gave America the Eternity Mask to match the Beyonder in a fight, allowing her and her team a chance to escape into the White Hot Room.[62] America was match the Phoenix with the Eternity Mask and delayed the primordial firebird long enough for Defenders teammate Tigra summoned the Tiger God to allow them escape,[63] only to land in the Land of Couldn’t-Be-Shouldn’t-Be and finding the damned soul of Glorian. As the villain created a fantasy world of their greatest desires, America was the first to reject by a combination of the Eternity Mask and recalling her false origin[58] within the fantasy. Despite the temptation, America refused the lie and her compatriots soon followed, and realizing Glorian wanted the Eternity Mask, America passes it to Loki who summoned the Queen of Nevers to escape and were brought to the House of Ideas.[64] There, she met the One Above All who informed her that she will find her sister and more.[65]

Attributes

Power Grid[85]

Powers

America has the innate ability to channel inter-dimensional energies through her body. Though the full extent of her powers have not been defined, she has demonstrated abilities including:

• Self-Propelled Flight: Ms. America has the ability of self-propelled flight at superhuman speeds.[15]
• Superhuman Speed: Chavez can run and move at phenomenal speeds, Monica Rambeau was stunned at how fast she was moving even after transcending into light form where everything stands still.[36]
• Superhuman Strength: Ms. America has demonstrated incredible strength. She appears to easily tear large metal doors of their hinges,[15] and nearly bested the Asgardian god Loki in a fight.[22] Loki has commented that she could “throw tanks to the moon”, though this is likely an exaggeration.[23]
  • Power Stomp: A technique Madrimar showed her. America can focus her internal power into her feet and legs in order to deliver an energized shockwave with a single step.[66]
• Invulnerability: Ms. America is bullet-proof,[17] flame retardant,[18] has superhuman durability,[67] and can survive even in the vacuum of space unaided. Loki has even referred to her as “a nearly indestructible superwoman (who can throw tanks to the moon)”.[23]

• Star Portal Creation: Ms. America has the rare ability to smash open star-shaped portals that enable her to traverse the Multiverse, she can use them offensively as a spatial slicer,[22][68] as well as access the Starling Highway.[69]
  • Interdimensional Travel: Ms. America can use her gateways to travel between realities at will.[26]
  • Time Travel: While an unintended side-effect, America learned she can also move about time unabated but needs some kind of focusing stimulus to do so.[70]
• Energy Infusion: Individuals of the Parallel that Chavez calls home are capable of harnessing their inherent power from within, using it to vastly augment their physical fighting ability by leaps and bounds.[71]
• Superhuman Longevity: After she left and traveled to the prime universe Earth, her powers started to manifest. This also includes giving her longer lifespan, probably due to the energy and ambient magical presence. Unlike the others of her race who remain within the Parallel are not empowered and age at a normal rate.[71]
• Hyper-Cosmic Awareness: Much like everyone else on the Ultimates team. America Chavez has metaphysical insight to the goings on of the multiverse at large, being among the first to answer the call when reality had been caged.[56] Through this she also has an intuitive GPS of how to travel through time & space unimpeded while using her portals to get from place to place across the infinite dimensions.[72]

Former Powers

In-Betweener Facsimile: Ms. America was briefly imbued with the energy signature and aesthetic appearance of the [73]

Ms. America was briefly imbued with the energy signature and aesthetic appearance of the In-Betweener to act as decoy and lure off Braak’nhüd while the In-Betweener, Ultimate Nullifier Angel , and Bohusk explored the In-Betweener’s mind and the threat to the Multiverse

Abilities

• Bilingual: America is capable of speaking both fluent English and Spanish.[74]
• Amateur Investigator: Although not an experienced investigator, America was still able to track Catalina with clues available.[7]
• Trained Combatant: Having relied on her powers and experience in street fighting, America developed skills in hand-to-hand combat fighting enemy persons and monsters, especially when coordinating on a team.[56][75][15][23][76]

Weaknesses

• Edges Syndrome: A genetic disease linked to the XX chromosomes which causes cellular degeneration. America’s childhood cure of the disease was undone after approximately 13 years, which in turn made her powers weakened and time sensitive. With this disease, America’s former incredible strength was reduced.[76][58]

Paraphernalia

Transportation

Self-Propelled Flight

Notes

• In the Vengeance series, Ms. America uses the text message handle “USA”, while Angel Salvadore used “MsA”, creating some confusion among fans.
• Kieron Gillen, the writer behind Chavez’s original backstory, once stated she is from a singular dimension outside the Multiverse and therefore has no counterparts.[77] However, this has since been called into question starting with Secret Wars, as different versions of America with wildly differing backstories began appearing, most notably her counterpart from Marvel Rising. Eventually, it was fully retconned and Chavez is not from outside the Multiverse at all; she is from Earth-616.[78]
• Loki granted America magic cell reception so that she can receive calls and texts in space.[35]

Trivia

See Also

References

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