Origin
During Jeanne Foucault’s childhood, not knowing her biological mother and father yet, her surrogate parents made money out of her abilities. She can imitate anything she sees, excluding emotions. But mostly she was regarded with cruelty and felt fear. So she turned to “imaginary friends,” such as Bruce Lee, to learn how to fight back and defend herself.
Finesse is recruited into the Avengers Academy and is a polymath, a person of great and varied learning. She can learn an incredible amount at amazing speed. She can pick up various skills, fighting techniques and learn different languages at an accelerated rate. She graduated MIT at age fourteen and was training for the Olympics when Norman Osborn found her. Due to her unique powerset it is believed that Taskmaster may possibly be her father. However, due to his condition he is unable to remember whether or not this is true.
Creation
Finesse was created by writer Christos Gage and artis Mike McKone and debuted in Avengers Academy.
Character Evolution
Finesse is lacks emotions due to her abilities and winds up embarrassing Reptil before starting a physical relationship with him. She later cuts it off due to his immaturity. Finesse also seeks to find out about whether her father is in fact Taskmaster as she had heard it rumored to be. She has asked Quicksilver, in secret, to first train her to be like Magneto but later on asked to be like him. After being dropped off at the West Coast Academy, Finesse developed a friendship with X-23. This was later strained after Jeanne used an unconscious Laura’s claws during their fight against Jeremy Briggs.
Major Story Arcs
Permanent Record
Hank Pym tells Finesse and her fellow cadets that they were the elite chosen from the dozens of superhumans Osborn had captured and held captive for studying. They were told they had the potential to become the heroes of tomorrow. Finesse tells the rest of her teammates that she joined the academy to get better and none of them were helping. Her attitude and abrasiveness kinda rubbed her teammates the wrong way but Mettle thinks she has a hot librarian/gymnast thing going on. Finesse exhibited her awesome fighting skills during the group’s first training session with Speedball. Finesse learned that the Avengers were keeping a big secret from them after reading the lips of Speedball and Quicksilver during a heated argument. Finesse, Striker and Veil decide to hack into their systems and discovered the whole speech Pym gave them about being the elite group was a lie. They found out that the six of them were the ones that Osborn had tortured the worst and whose psych tests set off alarms.
The Avengers knew these young recruits were dangerous and the Avengers Academy was a way to keep an eye on them and keep them in line. Striker told his teammates that the Avengers were afraid of them and Finesse replied “They should be”. It is later proven that Finesse is unable to understand human behaviors therefore she begins to seek help in the form of Henry Pym who ends up showing here a video on Quicksilver. Finesse finishes watching the video and decides that she will speak with Quicksilver himself. While she is speaking to Quicksilver she begins to allude to blackmailing him about the fact that he may not have been kidnapped by skrulls and it was truly him who had done all those horrible things he had actually denounced as a skrull imposter. As Quicksilver begins to threaten her she asks for private lessons from him over the training he received from the Brotherhood of Evil.
Scared Straight
Finesse is later seen training in hand to hand combat with Iron Fist before having a “girls only session” along with Hazmat and Veil taught by Valkyrie. The Avengers Academy next heads to the Raft for a Scarred Straight field trip. Finesse, Striker and Reptil are left behind when the others go off in search of Osborn. After another training session with Steve Rogers, Finesse turns down Striker and his advances. On an outing with Hank Pym, the team is attacked by Whirlwind and exposed to the public. The night Reptil is named leader of the Avengers Academy, Finesse and him have an argument in bed which results in Finesse deeming him to immature to carry this on after he questions her fraternizing with Quicksilver. Finesse and the others later encounter Mentallo who briefly turns their professors on them until Reptil takes him down. Back at the Academy the team views a video of Tigra being assaulted by The Hood. Finesse says she can no longer look at her as teacher while Hazmat Veil and Striker plan to make The Hood pay. She tells them where to search for him and they succeed in making him pay.
Teach Your Children
Finesse demands to know more about Taskmaster from Quicksilver as she suspects him to be her father. He gives her the location of his latest training facility and goes with her. They take out all of the trainees but no sign of Taskmaster so they split up. Once alone, Finesse is attacked by Taskmaster as they battle to a near stalemate. They begin to talk and Taskmaster reveals that for all the moves he learns he forgets his own memories so he’s not sure if he is her father. He wanted to fight her to see if fighting her jogged his memory and revealed the truth to him, but no memories of Finesse resurface. However, her techniques, like his own, are all stolen from others. He therefore concludes that it’s probable that she is his daughter, but cannot say for certain, and admits that he may not remember her in the future.
The Return of Korvac
Finesse and Quicksilver return to the Academy and join the others on a trip to Stamford,CT with Speedball where they are attacked by men with Iron Man type armor. Speedball takes them all out in one shot to avoid collateral damage. Veil activates a machine back at the Academy in an attempt to bring back the Wasp and save herself. However, she winds up bring back Carina Walters wife of Korvac. Korvac shows up and demands her back. The Avengers arrive but are taken down by Korvac. Carina allows the Avengers Academy to borrow powers from their future selves to stop Korvac.
Fear Itself
During Fear Itself, Finesse and her teammates are deployed to DC to aid in battle against Sin‘s army. They return after a traumatic battle to Avengers Infinite Mansion to rest but are attacked by the Absorbing Man and Titania, each with a hammer of the Worthy. Finesse coldly watches as her teammates fall against them as she plans an escape into the Microverse. Absorbing Man and Titania follow them and destroy the Pym Particle generators causing them to grow uncontrollably. When it seems that someone will have to stay behind and detonate the Mansion before it expands, Finesse volunteers to sacrifice herself. Quicksilver arrives to save them and detonates the mansion as they all escape in time.
Final Exam
Finesse and X-23 meet with Veil at the Briggs Building where Jeremy Briggs announces his “Clean Slate” can cure Mettle and Hazmat of their conditions. After curing them he reveals to Finesse and the others that he intends to strip the world of their powers and only allow those worthy to have them as he also injects the students. He sends Big Zero, Enchantress and Coat of Arms after the students and crushes them under part of the building. They escape and defeat Big Zero before confronting Jeremy on the rooftop. Powerless, X-23 passes out from her wounds and metal poisoning. Finesse uses her limp body to slice open Jeremy. She allows him to bleed out in front of her. After regaining their powers, Laura is deeply upset by the way Finesse used her.
Powers & Abilities
Polymath
Finesse is a polymath and can absorb vast amounts of information at an accelerated rate. She can pick up various skills, fighting techniques and learn different languages with amazing speed and store that information into her memory. She claims she never forgets anything she learns and can master another fighting skill or ability at will. She has been trained by the likes of Steve Rogers and Iron Fist during her time at Avengers Academy, and can replicate the fighting styles of individuals as varied as Daredevil, Valkyrie and Captain America.
Equipment
Finesse also carries two batons of unknown composition as weapons. Her costume is made out of unstable molecules that Mr. Fantastic had invented and the suit adjusts to the wearer’s abilities and powers.
Weaknesses
Along with her father, Taskmaster, she demonstrates severe short term memory loss in the future.
Other Media
Games
Marvel: War of Heroes
Finesse appears in several cards in the mobile card game Marvel: War of Heroes. Her cards are:
- [On Task] Finesse
Lego Marvel´s Avengers
Finesse is a playable character in the game.