#silk fever

[marvelheroperil]

Speedball is tied up and snarking. 

- New Warriors v1 #25, 1992

[splooosh]

“Things aren’t looking good”

Mark Bagley/Larry Mahlstedt

Original by

George Perez and Romeo Tanghal

[bringbackwendellvaughn]

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Force of Nature is a supervillain team that formed in the 1990s as foes to the New Warriors superhero squad. They’re a group of superhumans hired by an ecoterrorist organization called “Project: Earth” to protect the environment through any means necessary. For instance, killing loggers who are destroying the rainforest. Basically, they’re like if the Planeteers were evil. Fast forward to the 2000s and the events of Civil War, and even though Project Earth is no longer around, Force of Nature still is. Norman Osborn (yes, that one!) is in charge of all matters regarding the Superhuman Registration Act. To this end, he recruits super-villains, has them register, and thus become “super-heroes” in the 50-State Initiative (in which SHIELD assigns one group of registered superhumans to protect each state) Force of Nature was a part of this, and were assigned as the state squad for Oregon. During “the Siege of Asgard” story, Osborn sent them along with the Dark Avengers and other state teams, to attack Asgard, which resulted in the death of Terraformer. The remaining team members were then imprisoned after the 50 States Initiative was abolished. Presumably they remain there for now, but who knows when they could re-emerge! Force of Nature follows the theme of the classical four elements, with each team member representing one. Aireo aka Skybreaker, possesses wind-related powers. He’s an Inhuman, hailing from the city of Attilan, where he was both a political rebel as well as a thief. He worked first with a group of fellow rebellious Inhumans who opposed the Royal Family, and then for Maximus the Mad. At some point, he either left Attilan by choice or was exiled. He was next seen among Force of Nature, sporting the codename of Skybreaker. Though his powers had originally merely been those of levitation/flight, he has gained the power to summon and control wind by the time he joined Force of Nature, even being able to take the breath from someone’s very lungs. He has stuck with the team ever since, and despite his dislike of humans, may even have some loyalty to them, given that he rioted during prison to gain better treatment for Terraformer…then again, Terraformer isn’t human at all, so maybe that’s why. Aireo has a longer article HERE. Peter Van Zante aka Aqueduct, formerly known as Water Wizard, can control liquids, mainly water. He’s an ex-soldier who was wounded in Vietnam, and gained his powers over liquid when the experimental ray used to stabilize him was struck by lighting while he was on a medical ship at sea during a typhoon. He started as a solo criminal who called himself the Water Wizard, but was unfortunate enough to go up against Ghost Rider, which landed him a sanatorium due to the mental trauma. After a stint working for an Arabian sheikh, he wound up with Force of Nature. He broke with them for a bit to work in other groups, such as the Masters of Evil and the Thunderbolts, but was back with the Force of Nature by the time of the 50 States Initiative. He has a longer post HERE. Terraformer, who represents Earth, has no alias. This is because he’s not human. The Marvel villain Plantman, aka Samuel Smithers, had plant-related powers, as you might guess. Terraformer is one of the Plantman’s plant-constructs that gained sentience and a life of its own. By some means, he took on a human guise (the dark-haired man in the first picture) but this was burned away by Firestar during Force of Nature’s first battle with the New Warriors. He has since not tried to hide his true state, that of a plant-like monster-man (the other pictures. Out of all his teammates, Terraformer seems to truly care the most for the environment, for understandable reasons, and he requires plants around him to maintain his health and sanity. During the Siege of Asgard, he was chopped in half, and is presumed dead, though given his vegetable nature he might have survived. There have been a few different representatives of fire on Force of Nature, but Min Li Ng aka Firewall, later known as Silk Fever, was the original. She hails from Cambodia, and it was originally believed that her pyrokinetic powers were caused by exposure to an experimental napalm during Vietnam War. Later, however, it was revealed to her that her abilities are actually the result of her mother being a member of a Cambodian cult called The Dragon’s Breadth that honed their mystical abilities via selective breeding. Upon learning this, she joined The Folding Circle, a group composed of other children of this cult, and changed her codename to Silk Fever. She later joined the Thunderbolts, and was one of the 142 registered “superheroes” who appear on the cover of Avengers Initiative #1. As a note, she was called “Theary” as her civilian name in her first appearance, but when her true backstory was revealed, she was called Min Li Ng. Given that her powers were originally written as the result of the Vietnam War, it is possibly she was at first named after Theary Seng, a Cambodian activist whose work relates to such issues, and that her civilian name was changed to reflect her change in backstory/power origin. Kinda makes me wonder if she had any interesting conversations with Aqueduct, seeing as how both he and her father were Vietnam veterans? Force of Nature replaced their team pyro first with a man called Fireband (Russ Broxtel) shown in the second image, and then a woman named Sunstreak (Andrea Roarke) shown in the third, but I don’t know much about them aside from the fact that Captain America considered Sunstreak the only member of Force of Nature who deserved a second chance. I like Force of Nature, sporadic and obscure as their appearances are, and hope to see them crop up again in the future!

[elgaberino-mcoc]

Series: Characters Not Yet on the Wishlist Nor in a Tournament /sub-series: International Women’s Day/Women’s History Month /sub-series: Theme Day: Females Likely Too Obscure for Wishlist

Firewall / Silk Fever (Min Li Ng) 

member: Folding Circle, Force of Nature Mystic class Villain Incinerate, Incinerate Immune synergy: Night Thrasher, Darkhawk

Only about a dozen comics appearances https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Min_Li_Ng_(Earth-616)

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

um, so this is definitely a thing no one but me cares about but when Firewall aka Silk Fever is first introduced, her civilian name is given as Theary (no last name given) Later, her name is changed to be Min Li Ng. Her mother is Cambodian, while her father is Vietnamese. Theary is a Cambodian girls name, but as far as I can find, the name “Min” is not a Cambodian or Vietnamese name; the closest I could find is the Vietnamese male name “Minh”. So this could be a mistake/oversight, and they were just like “just pick something that sounds Asian” or it could be that it is indeed an authentic name for one of these cultures, but not listed on baby name sites because those do tend to have less data available for non-Western names. EDIT: Also, my headcanon for her two names is that growing up in Cambodia, she disliked having a Vietnamese name that set her apart from others, so she adopted a Cambodian name as a nickname to fit in

[thecorteztwins]

A quick’n’easy flat coloring while I work on a larger project. If you don’t know the character, this is Firewall aka Min Li Ng from Force of Nature. I made her skin tone a bit darker than she is in canon, since she’s Cambodian and Vietnamese and Southeast Asians tend to be a little on the browner side. I wish I’d changed her costume a bit too, I don’t think the color choices look as good by me as they do in the comics, especially the black bit on her chest guard. I like the way her eye-fire came out though! Done in Krita :3

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Min Li Ng, aka Firewall, aka Silk Fever! It’s probably pretty obvious what her powers are. She served on Force of Nature alongside Aireo/Skybreaker, hence how I came across her. I thought she was neat, so I sketched this :)