Jolt (Marvel)

Jolt (Helen "Hallie" Takahama) is a fictional character, a superheroine appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a member of the Thunderbolts and Young Allies.

Fictional character biography
Hallie Takahama was born in Ojai, California before moving with her parents to New York City at a young age. A super hero buff, she memorized details about various superhuman battles.

On her 15th birthday, Sentinels controlled by Onslaught destroyed her apartment, killing her parents and friends, and for weeks Hallie hid in the ruins of the city with several children she rescued.[1] When Hallie went to seek help after Onslaught's defeat, she and all the children she was protecting were kidnapped by the mercenary group the Rat Pack and experimented on by the Rat Pack's employer, Arnim Zola. The other children died or were horribly mutated, but Hallie became faster, stronger, and gained the ability to throw bio-electric punches. She escaped and attempted to reach the Fantastic Four.[volume & issue needed]

Having been isolated between the destruction and the experiments, she had not known that many superheroes, including the Fantastic Four and most of the Avengers, had been whisked to a Pocket Universe created by Franklin Richards, the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four. The world at large presumed the heroes dead. When Hallie reached Four Freedom Plaza, the Fantastic Four's old headquarters, she encountered the Thunderbolts, a new super team who were in fact the sixth incarnation of Masters of Evil led by Baron Helmut Zemo under the alias of Citizen V and also consisting of Atlas, MACH-V, Meteorite, Songbird, and Techno.[2]

She joined the team,[3] and eventually convinced most of the now-wavering former villains to become heroes.[4] She went on the run with the team.[5] before Hawkeye joined. At first she resented Hawkeye because he created civilian identities for Charcoal and Jolt and made them return to school but she later admitted that she respected him for having been where the Thunderbolts were and giving them that same chance to redeem themselves that he had been given.[6] Later she would be "killed" by Scourge.[7] Revived by Techno, she could now become a being of pure electricity, but the damage from the time she spent "dead" left her crippled in her human form,[8] although after much therapy, she fully recovered.[9]

After being stranded on Counter-Earth with most of the Thunderbolts, she chose to stay behind to help the devastated planet as one of the Young Allies.[10] However, Jolt made a brief return to Earth, in order to help both the Thunderbolts and Avengers to stop the out-of-control Moonstone (who had possessed two moonstones at the time and was losing control when she absorbed the Liberator's energies within her).[11]

At the time when Atlas was fighting Baron Helmut Zemo's third incarnation of the Masters of Evil, Jolt showed up to help Atlas fight the Masters of Evil.[12]

Early Life
Robert and Jane Takahama moved with their daughter to New York City from Ojai, California, for a chance at a better life. Because of her father's work at the United Nations and her mother's psychiatric practice, Hallie grew up in relative luxury and comfort. That all changed on her 15th birthday, when the menace known as Onslaught killed her parents, razed her home and destroyed her neighborhood during his attempt to take over the world. In the aftermath, the mad geneticist and supervillain Arnim Zola abducted Hallie,[1] along with a number of other children. She was subjected to experiments that made her feel as if she were being torn apart from the inside.[2] The procedures made her faster and stronger, filling her to bursting with energy. At the first opportunity, Hallie used her new powers to escape.[3]

Thunderbolts
She then sought out the Thunderbolts, who returned with Hallie to rescue the other captives and defeat Zola. Subsequently, Hallie adopted the name Jolt and joined the team. Hallie had no idea the Thunderbolts were really the Masters of Evil masquerading as heroes, scheming to work themselves into a position of trust and power.[4]

During this time, the young hero led a double life: At school, she was the surly Hallie Shimosato; once the bell rang, she was Jolt. She and her team mates defeated the Secret Empire and the Imperial Forces, the Crimson Cowl, and Graviton, and hunted down the Hulk. Ironically, she died not in the guise of Jolt, but as her alter ego: Hallie was murdered after school while she and her friends were at a coffeehouse.[5]

Jolt's Thunderbolts' teammate Techno stole her body from the morgue, hoping to isolate the course of her biokinetic powers. His experiments caused a regenerative effect that revitalized Jolt, transforming her into a being seemingly suffused with bio-electric energy.[6]

After being stranded on Counter-Earth with most of the Thunderbolts, she chose to stay behind to help the devastated planet as one of the Young Allies. However, Jolt made a brief return to Earth, in order to help both the Thunderbolts and Avengers to stop the out-of-control Moonstone (who possessed two moonstones at the time and was losing control when she absorbed the Liberator's energies within her).[7]

Return to Earth
While on Counter-Earth she and the Young Allies discovered a way to send her home by converting her into electricity and shooting her into space. After months she finally made it to Earth and landed in the Antarctic, right in front of Atlas as he was getting beaten up by the new Masters of Evil. she is able to rescue him but he is so dazed from the beating that he thinks she is an illusion. when Baron Zemo arrives and the masters tell him that an "electric girl" saved Atlas he realizes it is Jolt right away, be does not care and continues his plan regardless.[8]

Relationships with the other Thunderbolts
Hallie was particularly close to her teammates Atlas and Charcoal. Atlas saw her as a surrogate sister who reminded him of his dead sister Lindy. Charcoal took her "death" extremely hard. She was also originally close with Meteorite who was a surrogate mother of sorts to Hallie before she was revealed to be the super villain Moonstone and Jolt came to understand how duplicitous Moonstone really was.

Baron Helmut Zemo hated Jolt from the very beginning realizing fairly quickly that Moonstone was using Jolt's good influence to undermine his control of the Thunderbolts.

Powers and abilities
Originally, Jolt possessed hyperkinetic agility and could move with amazing speed and jump vast distances. Her hyperactive metabolism made her body's natural bioelectric field exceptionally powerful, and she could shock enemies with a touch. Moreover, Techno stated that she could transform any kind of energy into physical strength and speed, and that with an unlimited source of energy she would be able to use her powers with no physical strain whatsoever.

After her "rebirth", Jolt could change from flesh-and-blood into living electricity. In her energy form, she could fly and fire blasts of electrical force. At first, she could only function in her electric form, her human form was so injured that she could barely walk and talk. She has now fully recovered, and her level of power has increased.