Armory (comics)

Armory (Violet Lightner) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Armory was one of the new Initiative recruits that arrived at Camp Hammond with Cloud 9, Hardball, Komodo, MVP, Trauma and others.

Fictional character biography

Two aliens of unknown origin, one fully armored, the other multi-limbed, suddenly appeared above Earth in a struggle to the death. They both died as they entered the atmosphere and their weapons were scattered about on the planet's surface. The US government tracked and obtained two of the armored alien's weapons, creating the superhero Gauntlet with one of them. The weapon of the other alien was presumed to be lost.^[1]

Violet, a troubled teen in San Francisco, decides to commit suicide by jumping off of the Golden Gate bridge. As recalled later, she feels empty inside as she falls. The weapon of the other alien, which had come to rest on the bottom of the San Francisco Bay, reacts to her emptiness and shoots out of the water, attaching itself to her arm and suddenly turning into the one item she needed, a grappling hook.^[1] The weapon gave her a new reason to live and she began to use it as a hero, saving multiple people in many different situations. Eventually, she gains the attention of The Mighty Avengers by destroying the latest incarnation of Ultimo in a single blast.^[2] Shortly afterward, she was recruited into the Initiative and sent to Camp Hammond for training.

During a training exercise with the new heroes, intended to test Trauma's powers, Armory is forced to participate to give him someone to feed on. He transforms into a giant spider to exploit Armory's arachnophobia, and in a blind panic Armory fires randomly into the room. She blasts off Komodo's arm and shoots MVP in the head while he attempts to protect Cloud 9 from harm. Hardball creates an energy ball to deflect the lethal blasts from Armory's Tactigon while Gauntlet stops her. Komodo regrows her arm due to the nature of her powers but MVP is killed. Armory is subsequently grounded from superhero activity and has her weapon surgically removed before being expelled from Camp Hammond, with Henry Peter Gyrich making her the scapegoat for MVP's death.^[2]

Violet is next seen talking to her therapist who wants the young woman to reveal the reasons why she was rejected from the Initiative Program, but Violet refuses. Scars on Armory's arm are commented upon, but she reassures the therapist it was not self-inflicted. Notes elsewhere in the story reveal that the alien device had been surgically removed, so it subsequently does not work for anyone else.^[1] The therapist decides to place her as an in-patient, explaining she believes Armory is still a danger to herself and others. It is revealed that the doctor is working with Gyrich, in order to be certain that Violet is able to keep MVP's death a secret.^[2]

The Tactigon is then placed on the arm of a clone of MVP.^[3] After interfacing with his mind, the machine causes the clone to remember his "death", and he sets out to kill all those he deems responsible for it.^[4]

Powers and abilities

Armory possesses a multi-dimensional device that is able shift into an infinite number of weapons. Armory calls it the Tactigon, and says that it has a built in safety that lets her only get the weapons and power she needs to get the job done. When Armory lost control of her powers, surgeons detached the weapon when she was kicked out of the program.^[2]

Though the government's first attempts to utilize the weapon have been unsuccessful,^[1][5] an MVP clone named KIA is later seen using the weapon.^[6] It is stated that this is because the scientists also copied Armory's brainwaves and implanted them into the Clone allowing him to use it; however, the Tactigon drove the Clone insane and sent it on a murderous rampage.^[7]

References

External links

• Armory at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe
• http://en.marveldatabase.com/Violet_Lightner_%28Earth-616%29