Marvel: Earth-USB Saga - Description of the characters

[rufusluciusivan]

Since the characters of my "Marvel-inspired" stories are introduced in different stories, some of these stories being already rather old, I decided to put their descriptions in one post to make it easier to find them.

For now, some of these descriptions are kept very short to prevent spoilers on some of these characters' backstories.




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Mary-Jane Watson (Earth-USB)

A vigilante struggling to balance her crime-fighting with her many part-time jobs. Well-meaning, boastful, and deeply insecure.

This version of Mary-Jane (MJ for short) is part freelance photograph, part freelance artist designer, part vigilante trying to make New York City a better place. She went to an art school, and attempted to have a career in the theater. Both failed, leaving her struggling with dead-end jobs to pay her rent. At least her background makes her good at impersonating people, which is always a plus when one’s shtick is to conk henchwomen and steal their outfits…

Perpetually broke, but she’s trying her best.

Probably the ‘Loser MJ’ of the Multiverse.

To quote a woman who’s good at reading people, Earth-USB Mary-Jane Watson is at heart a walking talking “bundle of blusters and insecurities”, who hides her inferiority complex behind quips and reckless crime-fighting.

Mary-Jane is not exactly a superheroine – she doesn’t have a mask or an alter-ego. And more often than not, she ends up being the snoop who’s captured by the bad guys. She is however quite resourceful, proficient in martial arts, computers, infiltration, impersonation, and disguise. So she’s just as likely to be out of distress than in distress. Regular henchwomen don’t stand much of a chance against her, but since she’s still a normal human with no enhancement, she’s no match for most supervillains – save for the truly basic ones.

MJ’s an ally of the Spider Team (Peter Parker, Gwen Stacy and Miles Morales), but she’s way too insecure to officially join a team of people who are a lot stronger than her. She prefers to keep her distance, and to do heroics on her own. She’s good friends with Gwen though.

She’s proud of the fact she’s a ‘badass normal’ vigilante who relies only on her training and infiltration skills, and she’s always on the defensive whenever she feels someone threatens to steal her ‘shtick’. That explains her (mostly) one-sided rivalry with Black Cat.

MJ is good-natured, some would say a ‘goodie-two-shoes’, but also a bit dense – especially when it comes to romance. She still hasn’t caught on that Peter has an interest in her. People who did catch on, like Felicia, find her obliviousness painful to watch.

Physical description:

Eyes: chestnut brown
Hair: red, short layered side-swept pixie cut with nape undercut
Skin: white, some freckles
Height: average

Young woman. Mid-twenties. (You better not ask her age!) Caucasian. White skin. A redhead. Chestnut brown eyes. A short layered pixie cut with nape undercut. In all modesty, her curves are pretty good-looking. Firm and round breasts and butt. Far from the supermodel-tier, but nothing to be ashamed of. She still wishes they were bigger – but perhaps there’s too much information there?

(Author’s note: For “Earth-USB Mary-Jane”, I mostly drew inspiration from her design from the first PS4 game, which I saw in this picture:

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91725525

Mixed with some inspiration from the new incarnation of Lois Lane, from the My Life With Super-Man cartoon.

https://myadventureswithsuperman.fandom ... /Lois_Lane )




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Gwen(dolyne) Stacy / “Ghost Spider” (Earth-USB)

A masked spider-themed superheroine. Nice, smart, and cautious.

Nicknamed ‘Miss Perfect’ by Mary-Jane, Gwen is the ‘top student’-kind of superheroine. The sort who wants her contingency plans to have contingency plans, and who always secures the escape route before going after the baddie.

She, Peter Parker, and Miles Morales are a team of super-heroes in Earth-USB. They’re called the Spider Team, as unimaginative as it is. Of the trio, she’s the more level-headed – Peter often comes up with the spider technology and Miles with the vision, but she’s the one who handles the boring practical details and makes their grand ideas a reality.

Just like her two teammates, Gwen can shoot web, swings from building to building, has enhanced strength, speed, and reflex, and has a sixth “spider” sense. Together, they are the main ‘heroic team’ trying to keep super-crime under check in New York while the Avengers and other “big hitters” contend with world class threats.

Gwen is good at connecting with people. She’s in a relationship with Miles, is MJ’s best friend, and even Felicia has a soft spot for her.

Compared to a Mary-Jane or a Felicia, Gwen is the ‘Nice Girl’. She’s not boastful, she’s not mocking. She just wants to do the right thing. She may be a bit bland next to her friends, but she’s the main reason these two dysfunctional women can even contemplate working together.

Ironically, the only member of the Spider-Team who sucks at snark and sarcasm...

Physical description:

Eyes: blue
Hair: blond
Skin: white, some freckles
Height: average

She is a slim young woman in her mid-twenties with a white skin, cheeks with freckles, blue eyes, and shoulder-long light blond hair. Her figure is well-toned and athletic-looking.

Her costume is a feminine version of the Spider-Man costume – black from the feet to the breasts and white above. The mask is white, with pink borders around the eyes. There’s also a white hood.

(Author’s note: I took a lot of inspiration from her design in the beginning of Into the Spider-Verse – NOT the iconic one she has for most of the movie, with the asymmetrical haircut; but the one she has during her first scene – before Miles accidentally gets his hand stuck in her hair and they have to cut them. I thought it suited her ‘Miss Perfect’ / ‘Top student of the class’ personality. (Plus, MJ has the rebellious pixie cut in Earth USB.)

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_xSdAuCkABQ/maxresdefault.jpg )




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Felicia Hardy / “Black Cat” (Earth-USB)

New York’s best cat burglar (pun intended). Elusive, proud of her abilities, and a bit of a tease.

Former model, former masked villainess, former girlfriend of Peter Parker, former masked heroine, Felicia Hardy now styles herself as a ‘freelance anti-heroine’.

She wouldn’t call herself a thief – just a ‘kleptomaniac who can’t resist a good-looking jewel’. She doesn’t mind doing good deeds from time to time, but preferably always in a way that allows her to line her pockets. Of course, innocent bystanders tend to end up robbed and/or trussed up when she’s around, but compared to most of the other masked criminals of the city, she looks downright heroic. When she’s in the right mood, she’s even capable of being selfless...

Black Cat is one of the few prominent ‘normal’ masked people active in New York – no technologically-advanced powered armor, no superpowers. Just martial arts, acrobatics, and a few gadgets. And lots of training. She takes great pride in the fact she achieved all her exploits without super powers. Some people claim she has supernatural bad luck powers, but it’s only an urban legend – one she doesn’t refute, because it gives her a useful aura of menace – but still just a legend.

Felicia isn’t exactly a people person. She doesn’t have many friends. Her romantic relationship with Peter was short-lived because their personalities were different – and because he couldn’t get rid of his infatuation with MJ no matter how much he tried. The break-out was consensual however, and they’re still on friendly terms. Even now, Peter is one of the few people who can appeal to Felicia’s good nature – whether she likes it or not. She’s also friend with Gwen. Her relationship with Mary-Jane is a lot more rocky – they get along like cat and dog. Felicia often finds the redhead annoying – denser than a black hole and way too honest for her own good. MJ can’t stand Black Cat’s unscrupulous nature and is jealous that Felicia is basically better than her at everything. However, Felicia does have a soft spot for the redhead – a bit like an older sibling endeared by the antics of an annoying younger sister.

Plus, teasing MJ is tons of fun...

Physical description:

Eyes: green
Hair: platinum blond
Skin: light
Height: tall

She’s a slim tall woman, in her late twenties, with a light skin, green eyes, and long platinum-blonde (almost white) hair. When she’s on the prowl, she wears her Black Cat costume – a sleek black leather catsuit and black eye mask, with decorative white fur along the gloves and boots and around the collar, plus a black choker with a teardrop pendant. Wearing the costume is half the fun of the job… She used to be a model, and still has the curvy figure that goes along with the job – something that MJ envies a lot more than she’d admit.

(Author’s Note: Well, her design was chosen by tirepanted, but from what I know, it seems that (contrary to MJ or Gwen) “Earth-USB Black Cat” uses her traditional most well-known comicbooks design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Cat_(Marvel_Comics) )




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Charlotte Beaulieu / “Blender” (against her will) (Original Character)

A loud hyperactive chatterbox. Ditzy, childish, and completely out-of-touch with reality.

Born in Quebec, Charlotte has never been able to stay in place. Charlotte doesn’t walk, she bounces. Charlotte doesn’t wait, she stamps. Charlotte lives in her own little world. One in which she’s on a sugar rush 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

Psychologists were never able to pinpoint what her deal was, but it’s pretty clear Charlotte doesn’t reason and act like a normally-adjusted person. Whether she’s hyperactive, on the autistic spectrum, or just… Charlotte... is still a mystery.

Not much is known of her reasons for choosing a criminal lifestyle – she comes from an ordinary household, had a normal childhood, and grew up in an uneventful district.

Or maybe that’s the reason? Because if there’s one life Charlotte doesn’t want to live, it’s a quiet boring one. She wants to live a life of thrills and adventures, filled with riches and mountains of sugar-filled snacks, and with Tegan and Sara’s Everything is Awesome! on an endless loop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StTqXEQ ... s.Pictures

So one day, without warning, she ran away to live her own adventure. Thankfully for her, Charlotte isn’t just your random powerless wacko. She is a shape-shifting mutant. It doesn’t make her THAT special, but she tries her best. Unfortunately for her, she can’t change the shape of her clothes and also can’t alter much her size or body mass. (Don’t tell her her powers are weaker than Mystique’s though. It’ll hurt her feelings.)

Double-thankfully for her, she came across Taylor during one of her first heists, who decided to take her under her wings. After judo-chopping the shape-shifter to the ground, because Charlotte really sucks at first impressions. Whether it’s because of pity, of Charlotte’s shape-shifting talent, or of reasons related to the privacy of the bedroom is anyone’s guess.

Really sucks at nicknames.

Not allowed near caffeine.

She’s pretty immature, often whines to get the things she wants, has delusions of leadership but no real skill in that field, and her mind regularly goes off on a tangent. Still, Taylor knows it’s best to humor her as long as it doesn’t put the mission in jeopardy.

Physical description:

Eyes: amber brown
Hair: light brown, curly, neck-long
Skin: tanned
Height: average short

Physically, as far as cat burglars go, Charlotte doesn’t look the part. Cat burglars are usually the ‘tall, fit and slim’-type. Charlotte is not tiny by any means, but definitely in the low average when it comes to height. She has the plump thighs, chubby waist, and round cheeks of someone who enjoys eating pastries every day but don’t exercise much. Her neck-brown curly light brown hair and sparkly amber brown eyes give her a juvenile-looking appearance. She has the tanned skin of someone who spends a lot of time outdoors. She’s in her mid-twenties.

(Author’s Note: No real source of inspiration for her.)




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Taylor Woodward / “Sparks” (Original Character)

A stern elite fighter proud of her abilities. Dry, no-nonsense, and with little patience for zaniness.

Born in Toronto, Taylor used to be the best agent of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Usually, people hear ‘Canadian’, snort, forget about the ‘best agent’-part, and don’t pay enough attention to the whole ‘Security Intelligence Service’-part.

The truth is the Canadian government – like any other government – has its share of national threats and dirty laundry. Taylor was part of the people sent to ‘clean it up’. And she was very good at her job. ‘Canada’s best special agent’ maybe doesn’t sound the most threatening… but the feeling only lasts until you face her in combat.

That is, until one day Taylor was sent to ‘deal with’ a local Native leader whose only ‘crime’ was to be very vocal against a mining project on his ancestors’ lands, and very efficient at gathering supports and winning legal cases to stop the project. Taylor grew disillusioned with her government and their brand of ‘justice’ and ‘greater good’ that day. She went rogue. She became a mercenary. She could’ve become a masked heroine. Unfortunately, she’s too jaded to believe in the justice system – she thinks all governments and courts are corrupt. Therefore, she sees no reason to try and "uphold the system" like heroes do. She's only looking for herself – and for a select few other persons.

Her specialty as a rogue agent, before moving to the States, was to infiltrate and sabotage government facilities – that’s how she actually met Charlotte, during one heist, it didn’t go very well, the two women suck at first impressions –. That’s also how she met Sarah, rescuing her from the lab in which she was confined. The rest is history.

Taylor hides a secret. (Well, a secret more secret than the whole ‘former secret agent’-thing.) She’s actually a mutant. Her body can move extremely fast – not ‘Quicksilver-fast’, but faster than any normal human –, and if she grabs a person, she can release a powerful jolt of electricity to knock them out – a bit like if she was using a stun gun.

(At first, Charlotte wanted to nickname her ‘Tazer’. For an answer, Taylor judo-chopped her to the ground.)

However, Taylor seldom uses her powers, and takes great pride in the fact she doesn’t need them to fight – she’s a martial arts expert, and an elite fighter and markswoman in her own rights.

Stern and no-nonsense, she’s a woman of few words, and has no patience for joksters.

Nowadays, she works with Charlotte and Sarah as a team of freelance mercenaries – usually for illegal operations. They were involved in major heists in Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, and went to New York to escape the heat.

Physical description:

Eyes: icy blue
Hair: jet black, bob cut
Skin: white
Height: average

She’s a light-skinned woman with short jet black hair stylized into an angular bob and icy blue eyes. Her figure is athletic, with well-toned legs and arms. She’s of average size but her confident demeanor makes her look taller than she really is. She’s in her thirties.

(Author’s Note: No real source of inspiration for her.)




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Sarah Summers / “Nudge” (Original Character)

A melancholy contemplative drifter. Quiet, meek, and sleep-deprived.

Also possibly the most wanted woman of Canada.

Ever since she was a kid, youngest child of a poor family of Vancouver, everyone saw there was something odd about Sarah. Her parents and various psychologists tried to find out what was going on – they talked of ADD or of narcolepsy – but never managed to discover what she had.

The truth is both simpler and more complicated. Sarah is a mutant. Sarah is an empath. She senses people’s emotions, and she can even influence them. She can fan or quell any emotion – anger, fear, wariness… It’s not flat-out mind control though – her targets retain their free will – she just gives people a nudge.

Sarah’s powers are the wet dream of anyone who works with people – a politician needing to convince crowds, a police officer needing to know if someone lies to them, an anarchist needing to raise an angry mob… However, these powers also make Sarah’s life a living hell for one simple reason. She can’t turn them off. Her empathy powers aren’t some sort of sixth sense. They rely on her sight and her hearing. Ever had a tinnitus? It’s as if she has one as long as there’s even one intelligent being near her – any mammal will qualify, not just humans. In busy streets, her senses are constantly assaulted by a maelstrom of colors and sounds. It’s hard for her to remain focused on something for long – and her sleep problems aren’t helping.

The Canadian government is very interested in her powers. Its Security Intelligence Service was keeping tabs on her during her childhood – hoping to find a way to recruit and/or use her. However, when as a teenager she started to run away from home, they decided a direct approach was preferable. Agents came one day, and offered her parents to take her to a facility designed for people like her. Sarah herself wasn’t given a choice.

Sarah could clearly see she was a guinea-pig to these people. This was a lab, and they were studying her powers. Their tests increased the strength of her empathy – and also its drawbacks.

Taylor eventually learned about her. After she went rogue and formed a team with Charlotte, Taylor broke Sarah out of the government facility, and the three of them went under the radar. The blonde is following them ever since.

Sarah is the kind of person who usually goes along with the flow. Her only solace is listening to music to drown out the noises of her empathy. She doesn’t have the stomach for violence, so Taylor leaves her safe in the hideout most of the time, only asking for help for the truly important heists..

The United States’ Government, the FBI, the CIA, and SHIELD all have learned of Sarah after Taylor recruited her – though they hate that their Canadian counterparts are always smugly telling them they found her first. So are several underground criminal organizations, chiefly of all Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants. They all long to get their hands on her, as they know the value of a mutant who gives the power to influence crowds. However, as of now, government agencies have no clue of Sarah’s whereabouts.

Physical description:

Eyes: washed-up blue
Hair: light blond, midback-long but usually tied up into a messy low bun
Skin: pale white
Height: average

‘Nudge’ – real name Sarah Summers – has light blond hair tied into a messy low bun. She usually conceals most of her hair with a beanie. She has a skinny figure, that she usually covers with baggy clothes, and an angular face, with a pale white skin. Her voice is soft and whisper-like, as if she is always tired. Dark rings are circling around her washed out blue eyes.

(Author’s Note: No big source of inspiration here, though the general feel of the character was inspired by minor Statick Shock character Permafrost.

https://dcau.fandom.com/wiki/Permafrost

Though Sarah obviously doesn’t have the same set of powers, and is meant to look different. It's more the whole "antagonist who just looks worn down and sad"-aspect that inspired me.)




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Michelle Meyer / “Trapstr” (Earth-USB)

(Author’s Note: To my knowledge, Trapstr’s real identity hasn’t been mentioned in the comics. I read on one wiki her first name may be Michelle, but I suspect it’s a mistake. Either way, I decided to roll with it and invented a last name.)

A minor supervillainess with a gimmicky gun. Sassy, hip, and sarcastic.

Yes, the spelling error is part of her name.

Known for making her debut using a paste gun, and somehow managing to get the drop on Spider-Man and the Vulture while they were fighting. At first, Trapstr was a small fry in the world of criminals.

Then at some point she realized being known as ‘the baddie who uses superglue’ is pretty lame, so she has changed her shtick. She still uses the paste gun, but she has found her calling as a tech-based villain. She designs apps, uses drones, can help you with your computer problems… or – the classic – she disables the security cameras.

This change proved to be for the best as far as illegal opportunities went. Not many criminals are willing to hire a gunslinger using superglue. Many are looking for a tech expert…

Trapstr likes to think herself as a young cool ‘hip’ villainess – hence why she always wears her trademark sunglasses, and attempts to beat Peter and Felicia in the sarcasm competition.

Physical description:

Eyes: brown
Hair: black, collarbone-long square cut
Skin: white
Height: average

She is a white-skinned black-haired brown-eyed woman in her mid-twenties. Her hairdo is a collarbone-long square cut. She’s usually clad in a black leather jacket with metal studs on the collar and lapel, a checkered red scarf, a white t-shirt, a brown leather belt, black trousers, and black sneakers. She’s rarely seen without her trademark sunglasses.

(Author’s Note: I’m using this design mostly: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Trapstr_ ... 6)/Gallery )




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Mary Smith / “Screwball” (Earth-USB)

(Author’s Note: To my knowledge, Screwball’s real identity hasn’t been revealed in the comics. So I gave her made-up first and last names. To go along with the theme she’s actually a nobody craving for celebrity, I gave her the most common first name and family name in the United States – at least according to the Internet.)

The self-proclaimed “world's first live-blogging super-villain”. Narcissistic, fearless, and fame-hungry.

Not much is known of Screwball outside of her super-villain persona. Even her real civilian identity is subject to debate. This is entirely intentional from her part. Screwball is attention-hungry, but she only wants people to know of her daredevil persona, not the ordinary girl she used to be.

Because that’s who she was before embracing her super-villain identity. An anonymous nobody lost in the crowd, whose only real feat was her cheerleader prowess.

Today, Screwball definitely is somebody. 50 millions followers watch her exploits. She’s an Internet celebrity, complete with her own brand of merchandise.

She is an acrobat, highly flexible and extremely skilled in gymnastics, allowing her to free run across the city's rooftops without losing momentum. (Her past as a cheerleader definitely helped in that aspect.) In an other life, she could have had a successful career as a gymnast. Too bad she is also a highly unstable and utterly narcissistic Internet personality willing to break the law so she can gain fame… Her specialty is to perform heists live. She also does parkour stunts.

To be fair, as far as normal humans go, she’s actually pretty badass. It takes guts to do parkour on New York’s skyscrapers, and it takes talent to give Spider-Man a run for his money when it comes to acrobatics and high-speed chase across the buildings.

Personality-wise, Screwball is your typical obnoxious fame-obsessed streamer and Internet celebrity, always looking for attention, always looking for new ways to get more followers.

Physical description:

Eyes: blue
Hair: dark blond, usually dyed purple, chin-long shaggy bob cut with one lock of hair on each cheek
Skin: white
Height: average

The young woman is good-looking, if you like obnoxious attention-seeking Internet personalities... Soft flawless white skin. Athletic-looking body. Nice curves and well-toned legs, thanks to all the parkour she does. She has blue eyes, dark blond hair which she usually dyes purple, and a short haircut with one lock of hair on each cheek.

She’s usually clad in a white full-body jumpsuit and a white skating helmet with fuchsia ear protections and a large strap covering her temples and chin. Both the helmet and the jumpsuit are adorned with fuchsia stripes and her logo. She also wears white fingerless gloves, white running shoes with fuchsia soles, and opaque golden sunglasses.

(Author’s Note: I’m using her original design, the one also used in the PS4 game, NOT the one with the ugly pink pigtails…

https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/91725525

https://marvels-spider-man.fandom.com/wiki/Screwball )




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Jenna Duffi / “Carpenter” (Earth-USB)

A henchwoman down on her luck. Kinda generic, but trying her best.

A mason by trade (ironically), Jenna fell on hard times after contracting some debts. Her salary wasn’t enough to pay up, so she resorted to petty crimes and joined a small-time gang.

She ultimately ended up part of the Wonderland Gang when White Rabbit recruited her and her fellow criminals as part of her henchwomen. She had to put up with the ridiculous costumes and her boss’ atrocious temper, but the pay was a lot higher than in other gangs, so she stuck around for a while. However, eventually, she grew tired of White Rabbit’s verbal abuse, and started to daydream of forming her own gang.

Unfortunately, her first attempt went bad. As in ‘getting arrested before your first protection racket even began’-kind-of-bad.

Now that she’s broken out, only time will tell if she’ll be able to finally get her head out of the gutter…

Jenna is a grounded person, who turned to crime for money, not for some grand ideal, narcissistic need of fame, or delusions of grandeur. Sometimes, Jenna feels like she’s a sane girl in an asylum – working with people like White Rabbit, Charlotte or Screwball tends to do that. She dreams of making it big, becoming some big shot, but for now she’s eager to learn with Taylor – who’s actually the sanest boss she’s ever had.

Physical description:

Eyes: blue
Hair: light brown, short bushy ponytail
Skin: white
Height: average

She has a white skin, blue eyes, and light brown hair tied up into a short bushy ponytail. There are freckles on her cheeks.

(Author’s Note: Basically google “Batman Carpenter” and you’ll find her pictures. An homage to my favorite DC gag villain.

https://arousinggrammar.com/2012/06/12/ ... carpenter/ )

[tirepanted3]

Great guide! It kinda feels like a page from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

One of the chief contributions to this saga, I'd say, is the elevation of Carpenter (whom I vaguely recall from her appearances in Gotham City Sirens) from a minor joke antagonist to a regular villain. And ironically, it was done by transporting her from the DC to the Marvel universe.

[rufusluciusivan]

One of the chief contributions to this saga, I'd say, is the elevation of Carpenter (whom I vaguely recall from her appearances in Gotham City Sirens) from a minor joke antagonist to a regular villain. And ironically, it was done by transporting her from the DC to the Marvel universe.

And ironically, Carpenter achieved her feat by becoming a "forever henchwoman", doomed to play second fiddle to other villains... At least Taylor is willing to show her the ropes when it comes to being an infiltrator.

Personally, outside of the joke panel of her giving up and letting herself get handcuffed after Batman glared at her (by the way, she's still the poster image for"Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain" on Tv Tropes ( https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ ... ticVillain ), I mostly know her through issues 12 and 13 of Batman: Streets of Gotham - her main moment in the limelight. I appreciated how the story, while still having some comical elements, also showed she actually is competent and badass in her own rights - at one point she defeats a pair of thugs on her own. Unfortunately for her, she operates in Gotham City, where literally every named character is more badass than her...

Though this Jenna is absolutely NOT a carbon copy of the DC character. I swear! I mean, have you read their names? She's called "Duffi", not "Duffy". No plagiarism here, no Sir! Please don't call the lawyers! (whistles nervously)

[tirepanted3]

Yes, of course not. Totally different name, totally different universe.

I had not realized she was the poster image for a TV Tropes page. And indeed, she's quite a sympathetic villain, at least by Batman villains standards. Poor girl can't catch a break in either the DC or Marvel worlds.

[rufusluciusivan]

Quick message to say Taylor's and Sarah's descriptions were updated following Chapter 17.