Featuring the following heroine!

Screaming Mimi

by Sean McQuaid

Real name: Melissa "Mimi" Gold.
AKA: Songbird. Melissa Schwartz.

First appearance: Marvel Two-In-One 56 (as Screaming Mimi); Incredible Hulk 449 (as Songbird)

Favorite quote, Screaming Mimi: "You can't do this to meeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Avengers 271. Caught off-guard by the Wasp, Mimi lives up to her name with a pouty protest turned hypersonic assault.

Favorite quote, Songbird: "Uh, I'm not really that big on public speaking...but if my Mom's out there, Id like to let her know I'm okay, and I love her..." Thunderbolts 1. Songbird meets the press. It's ironic, though consistent with her past appearances, to learn that the violently vocal Mimi isn't all that good at talking.

Team affiliation: Mimi started out as one of the Grapplers, female pro wrestlers who turned to costumed crime (must've seemed like a good idea at the time, I guess--they were already in tights and everything). After unsuccessful bouts with heroes such as The Thing, Quasar, Giant-Man II and Dazzler, the Grapplers went back to the wrestling circuit full-time. Mimi continued her criminal career, though, briefly joining the dreaded Masters of Evil before embarking on an equally brief partnership with similarly empowered super-crook Angar the Screamer. More recently, Mimi joined several other former Masters of Evil in assuming new identities as the supposedly super-heroic Thunderbolts team. Thus disguised, Mimi is now known as Songbird.

Powers: The Grapplers' first major criminal employer, Roxxon Oil, had its scientists surgically alter Mimi to give her superhuman vocal powers. Her screams can produce deafening sound, stun listeners into unconsciousness with hypersonic vibrations, or cause her victims to experience terrifying hallucinations. When she combined her powers with those of Angar, the duo were able to produce realistic illusions by harmonizing their screams. After Angar's death, she screamed until her voice box was destroyed. As Songbird, she wears a special harness designed by fellow Thunderbolt Techno that allows her a reasonable approximation of her former powers, and even lets her use them in more refined ways, most notably the creation of solidified sound constructs. These constructs last only so long as Songbird concentrates her scream upon them, and are usually rather simple forms such as spheres, shields, nets and pincers. Her most common sound construct is a set of wings that enables her to fly; the wings were Techno's idea and Songbird isn't very comfortable with them yet, but she's learning quickly under the aerial tutelage of fellow Thunderbolt MACH-1. Mimi is also an experienced wrestler, though she relies more on her mouth than her muscles since obtaining her vocal powers.

Favorite storyline:Hints of traumatic secrets in Songbird's past and a romance with MACH-1 in her future have made Mimi more interesting than ever.

Least favorite storyline: The Grapplers were a goofy bunch from the get-go, good for a laugh, but their most humiliating outing would have to be Dazzler 13: in this piece of B-movie fodder, the Grapplers are revealed to be the de facto rulers of the women's wing at Riker's Island Prison (guess all the impressive villainesses were out on bail or something). When pop singer and reluctant mutant adventurer Dazzler is thrown into Riker's for her supposed murder of Klaw, the Grapplers basically try to beat her up and steal her lunch money. Dazz actually manages to hold them off with her dance training(!) and such until absorbing the sound from one of Mimi's screams and using it to stun the Grapplers into unconsciousness with a really, really, bright light. I'm surprised they let Mimi into the Masters of Evil after this...