Isabella’s Fist

Name: Isabella Santiago

• Age: 28
• Place of birth: Coos Bay, Oregon
• Found: Argentina
• Common phrase: “If life without pain has no meaning, I’m about to give your life PLENTY of meaning!”

ABILITIES:

Isabella’s Fist has the ability to channel her own life force energy into her fists allowing her to deliver devastating punches at the cost of shortening her own lifespan. This ability also gives her insight into how long she will actually live. Originally, she was believed to be producing bio-electricity, but this was later disproved by Impervia who confirmed that she was indeed using life force energy — also referred to as “soul” energy.

LIMITATIONS:

Isabella doesn’t seem to be able to channel the energy into any other part of her body than her fists. Even an open-palmed attack doesn’t trigger the power. Her fists have to be closed in order for the ability to function.

She cannot use her powers in increments less than a single day, which means she cannot use a few hours of life-force energy. Furthermore, she cannot use more energy that her lifespan allows, meaning she cannot go into a “negative” state. In the first issue of Message Sent, she was shown delivering a tremendous punch to a hero who had grown to the size of a building. The impact of the strike was enough to send him flying six miles away from her. It was estimated that she removed ten year from her life in order to hit him that hard. If her opponent, Alpha, is similar to most metas with growth abilities, his durability would have increased in direct proportion to his size. Given his estimated durability and distance flown after the attack, she would have needed the average strength of the Hulk to perform such a task.

NOTE: Her strength does not increase when using this ability, suggesting that the power from the blow doesn’t come from her own physical strength but from the discharge of energy produced when it comes in contact with matter. This would indicate that her life force energy has more in common with anti-matter than bio-energy.

PERSONALITY:

Isabella was described by Base as a “ticking timebomb of rage and sorrow” in issue two in the series. Her personality is highly competitive and prone to emotional outbursts — usually in the form of anger and rage. Issue two also revealed that she had immense sadness as she reflected on the fact that she had a family back in Argentina. (See “Railroad tracks” reference).

In the early issues, Isabella only spoke Spanish, but in issue three she began speaking English. This implies that she may not have been the same character who was in the prior episodes.