Featuring the following heroine!

Silhouette
by Ray Schaff

Real name: Silhouette Chord. Her first name is the closest possible translation from her mother's native Kampuchean (Cambodian).

First appearance: New Warriors 2

Favorite quote: "Dwayne... must your life always revolve around violence?" (New Warriors 3. Sil asks an out-of armor Night Thrasher a very important question after he lets his anger get the better of him and gets trounced. He didn't event thank her for deflecting that throwing star with her chopsticks...)

Team affiliation: Silhouette, her brother Midnight's Fire and her lover Dwayne Taylor busted New York City street gangs, but that partnership ended when Sil was shot in a sting gone bad. Midnight's Fire blamed Taylor (who would become Night Thrasher) and became a cop-killing gang-lord to lure him out; thus did the partially paralyzed Silhouette reunite with Dwayne, renounce her brother, and join the Warriors. Eventually she found out that Andrew Chord and Tai, Taylor's guardians, were actually her father and evil grandmother. The team survived Tai's attempt to sacrifice them to a magic well (more dangerous than it sounds, trust me). Although Sil led the New Warriors on occasion, she and Dwayne had too much guilt and angst by themselves to even hold onto each other. Sil left the Warriors to be with Dwayne's enigmatic, illegitimate half-brother Bandit.

Powers: Silhouette's mutant-like powers stem from a mystical background rather than an atomic one. Her enhanced speed, strength, agility, sensory perception and fighting skills, while less than her brother's, are still impressive for a lady with little or no use of her legs. As for her "shadow-melting" ability, it began with teleporting in and out of shadows; after a big Darkforce brouhaha, her powers increased to where she could carry others, turn into a flying stream of darkness or induce extreme pain phasing through targets.

Weapons: Sil could leap around and slam grown men with her normal metal crutches, but Thrash designed a pair to include both an electric tazer and injectable narcotic, and later still retractable braces in metal wristbands. After some embarressing moments in her early days, her clothes were made of unstable molecules to stay on during shadow-melts and thus keep overexposure to a bare minimum, if you catch my drift.

Favorite storyline: In "Hard Choices" (New Warriors 7-9), Silhouette came out of her shell and reconciled ever so slightly with Thrash amidst tangling with the assassin called Bengal and the Punisher. Some pages from the Warriors' 2nd and 3rd Annuals further fleshed her out as she offered to "return" her uniform to Reed Richards when she learned it was illegally made from his patents, and she taught mutant drug addict Henrique Gallante learn a bit about love despite his previous control over her. The responses? Good ol' Mr. Fantastic let Sil keep her suit and even offered to make more if the Warriors needed 'em, but Gallante forgot his lessons next time around.

Least favorite storyline: I'm not too fond of "To the Last Breadth", part of the lukewarm Warriors crossover "Time and Time Again". Thrown into the past, Sil meets and later kills a disturbingly evil five-year-old Tai despite her aversion to murder. What really bugs me, however, is her liaison with Bandit. Ticked off at Taylor for getting the better deal from their mutual Dad, Bandit near-fatally ambushed Dwayne and kept Silhouette tied up under intense light, but shortly thereafter she couldn't keep out of his arms!! You'd think attempted murder, kidnapping and physical abuse would make for a heckuva lot more animosity between the two. (Both two-parters came from ex-boyfriend Night Thrasher's now-defunct series, make of that what you will.)

Future for the character: After Dwayne cut short a possible reconciliation in Night Thrasher 15, that was it. All she left behind was a note saying that while she respected his choice, "I won't play second fiddle to your costume anymore. I want more out of life." Her non-connection to the New Warriors has been made even more tenuous by the team's relegation to guest appearances -- all I can say is Your Guess Is As Good As Mine.