Celsius

Origin

Arani Desai’s mother died during childbirth and her father the famed scientist Ashok Desai blamed her for the death of his wife. Arani’s father had little to do with her and she was raised by servants and nannies until at a young age she ran away. For years, Arani lived a life of poverty in Calcutta until she was rescued by the American adventurer and scientist Niles Caulder, the so called Chief of Doom Patrol. Caulder would later marry her and as a gift to his new bride he gave her a dose of the immortality serum. Soon after, Arani discovered her amazing powers to manipulate and control her core temperature in harmony with martial arts. Now Arani was able to project these energies in forms of either extreme heat or cold from her hands.

Caulder would depart from India but promised rani he would soon return, insisting she stay behind guarded and in training. Arani would soon master these abilities and decide to leave her world of comfort and security. She would not only resurrect the formerly inactive Doom Patrol but also lead its new members as Celsius.

Creation

Celsius is a fictional character who was created as part of the DC Comics reboot of the Doom Patrol. Her debut first appearance in Showcase #94 was in September of 1977 and was created by Paul Kupperberg and Joe Staton. She was the very first superhero ever created by DC Comics of South Asian heritage and is still among the very few represented by that population in comics.

Character Evolution

Separated from Caulder for several years, Arani learned that he had died at the hands of General Immortus. Obsessed with the idea that the Chief was still alive, Arani assembled a new Doom Patrol to find him, as well as to protect herself from the ancient General Immortus, who had also learned that Arani was actually Mrs. Arani Desai Caulder and wanted to know the wea abouts of the Chiefs immortality serum. Arani was at times isolated and found it hard to associate with others. Arani would bring together various superpowered “rejects” from the world of superheroics and recreate the Doom Patrol. She grew hard and distant from her team while attempting to secure her leadership of the Doom Patrol. This would cause distrust of Celsius in every reincarnation of her Doom Patrol leading to her versions always disbanding.

Major Story Arcs

Leadership: The Doom Patrol

During Celsius’s leadership of the Doom Patrol, they discovered Larry Trainor had actually also survived the explosion which had killed the original Doom Patrol members. Trainor had also somehow survived the separation of his radio-energy being to Soviet defector Valentina Vostok . Trainor was a hostage of Celsius’s once thought dead and now demonically possessed father Ashok Desai who renamed himself Kalki. Ashok also believed like the terrorist known as Kobra, that it was his destiny to bring forth the Kali Yuga. At one time in his past Ashok Desai had worked alongside Niles Caulder to create the immortality serum which Caulder himself would later perfect and use on Ashok’s daughter Arani. Ashok had tested an earlier sample of the immortality serum on himself. The formula than triggered his metagene, thereby mutating his body into a horror and drove him into insanity. His body was transformed into a living gateway into another dimension which he believed was a portal to hell.

Ashok and Caulder had devised a special suit of sophisticated armor which would house his deteriorating body and also control access to the dimensional portal his body could now connect with. Than as Kalki he set up a secret base hidden inside the Caribbean island of Jamaica. From here he designed a satellite which he had created specifically to eliminate all life on the planet Earth. However Kalki was killed at hands of his own daughter as Celsius critically damaged his armor thereby causing the “demons” from the portal to hell inside of him to turn on him. Celsius witnessed as her father was drug into the portal by the demons ending her mad father’s attempt to destroy the Earth.

Continuing on in her career as a super heroine Celsius was the only member of the Doom Patrol left standing and against an evil Lord of Chaos, alongside with Power Girl. Her meta-human ability to create an Arctic-cold blast exploded the superheated Metallo after the villain had managed to control Robotman‘s actions to battle Superman. Celsius later discovered that Niles Caulder was, as she had believed, still alive. She also discovered that her former Doom Patrol teammate Valentina Vostok had become a covert operative for the United States government.

Invasion: Death of Celsius

Aliens invaded earth and Celsius apparently died while being engulfed in flames from the Gil’Dishpan Battle Cruiser in a battle to save Atlantis. It has yet to be seen whether this was actually a ruse to escape her estranged Niles Caulder, as her immortality and fire manipulation powers both would have allowed her to survive.

Blackest Night: Black Lantern Corps

During the universal war of the the embodiment of death itself known as Nekron to wipe out the emotional and life in the universe Celsius would reappear. Arani’s corpse would be one of various deceased heroes resurrected as a Black Lantern. Arani along with Negative Woman, Tempest and the original body of Robotman would resurface on Oolong Island. Angry and completely insane, she tracks down Niles and surprises him, knowing exactly how much he hates surprises. Having heard The Flash’s message about the Black Lantern’s, Niles uses the guns on his chair to blow her to bits. Bit the power of the Black Lantern allows her regenerating abilities and Arani quickly reassembles herself. Arani toys with Niles, saying she was as much of a tool to him as his chair. She kisses him and than shatters his legs. The hero Black Hole comes to Niles rescue, able to temporarily trap Arani in one of his force fields.

Once Hal Jordan retuned as a White Lantern he wiped out all the resurrected heroes included Celsius and she returned to her state of death.

New 52: The Doomed

Celsius, Tempest and Negative Woman are seen in the upper left hand monitor that Grid is looking over at the Crime Syndicate’s base. Although only viewed once in action Arani has been confirmed as returned to the living, although there is no information on how and when exactly she did resurface. She has apparently joined a group of superpowered minority heroes in the team calling itself the Doomed.

Powers and Abilities

Due to the longevity serum given to her by her husband Niles Caulder Celsius was Immortal and able to remain young and beautiful forever. Celsius is also a superb athlete and superior martial artist as a result of her monastery training.

Celsius also possesses the mutant ability to completely control of her body’s inner temperature, enabling her to generate bolts of virtually volcanic heat with her left hand and Arctic cold with her right hand. These thermal bolts require a intense concentration on her part and can leave her temporarily exhausted, depending on their intensity.

She had minor levels of ancient mysticism which had been taught to her by the Himalayan Buddhist Monks. The training given to her by these Buddhist Monks allowed Arani to better control and hone in her core temperature which in turn allowed her better mastery over her muta-gene powers.

Black Lantern Ring: As an animated corpse Arani once had wielded a Black Power Ring and controlled the abilities inherent to it.

Other Media

Animated Series/Films/TV Programs

Cartoon Network (Animated series)

Celsius also made a cameo appearance in the animates shorts produced by Cartoon Network and appeared in August 24, 2013, “Challenge of the timeless commander”, written by Tom Peyer and directed by Thomas Perkins. The series Doom Patrol wherein total about 90 second shorts depicting the worlds strangest heroes derived inspiration from the time Arnold Drake was writing for the Doom Patrol comic series.

Doom Patrol (TV series)

Celsius appears in one episode of the HBO Max’s-DC streaming show, Doom Patrol which is titled Doom Patrol Patrol, coming out in March 22, 2019. She is an official member of a different Doom Patrol, made up of superhumans that Niles Caulder has neglected such as Rhea Jones “Loadstone”, Steve Dayton “Mento”. She claims to be Caulders wife, and retired from heroics after a mental break down. ]

Arani and the others are being cared for by Joshua Clay, where she remains under perpetual dream illusions, as it is all a delusion. Celsius is played by actress Jasmine Kaur while she is a young woman and Madhur Jaffrey when she is older.

Personal Data

Characteristics

• Height: 5’4″
• Weight: 124lbs.
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Blue

Status

• Real Name: Arani Desai Caulder
• Legal status: Citizen of the United States of America, citizen of India
• Marital status: Widowed
• Occupation: Adventurer
• Known family members: Niles Caulder (husband, deceased), Ashok Desai (father, deceased, unnamed mother (deceased)
• Group affiliation: The Doomed, formerly leader of the Doom Patrol
• Base of operations: Currently various, formerly New York, New York USA