Ms America

Origin

Ms America Chavez is a tough, no nonsense super heroine, yet one with a genuine desire to help others and do good. She is from an alt reality, the Utopian Parallel, an idealistic reality that once faced destruction. It was America’s two mothers sacrifice that stabilized that reality and saved its inhabitants, thought it would leave America on Earth-616 where she would be taken in by a family in Washington Heights. Seeking to follow the noble sacrifice of her parents, she would patrol Washington Heights and eventually dimension jump, seeking to find other less than ideal realities in order to help its inhabitants and be a hero.

Ms America is a super-heroine loosely inspired by the original Miss America of whom she actually has very little knowledge of. Miss América Chávez worked as a part of the Teen Brigade alongside Ultimate Nullifier, Barnell Bohusk, Angel Salvadore, and the In-Betweener in the third incarnation of the group. Essentially a teen hero group using hi tech communication gear to undergo important missions, often aiding under heroes, in a somewhat covert manner. The group of teens were jaded by the blurring of lines between heroes and villains and the complacency afforded by some established traditional heroes and their actions. She was also considered co leader of the team. America had a somewhat cynical attitude even at one stage mocking the idea of ever being an Avenger, ironically after some manipulation by Loki she would in fact become a member of the Young Avengers. Eventually America would reminisce on her past at a party set for the youthful heroes and sidekicks of Earth.

Observing Billy Kaplan in the present she would recall her youth in which her home dimension which was near its end and that her two mothers had saved it. It was also a reality that Billy had created in his Demiurge persona in the future, young Miss America was a huge fan of Demiurge, or Wiccan, even going as far to pretend to be him. Miss America would inform that her mothers had saved their dimension, a surreal bright vibrant almost perfect dimension. The young Miss America would jump into a final void despite adults of her home world warning her of the consequences. Miss America wanted to leave her dimension, it was too perfect with no one for her to help and she had heroes like her mothers and Wiccan to aspire to being like. Thus setting up her journey.

Creation

Miss America was created by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta in 2011 and first appeared in Vengeance #1.

Miss America Chavez has also had background info established by writer Kieron Gillen. Gillen on his choice to use the the character notes “In the earliest prototype stages of Young Avengers, I hit the “Can’t use Eli” note and decided I’d like someone to fill that visual niche. This was before I’d nailed down entirely what I was doing, and wanted to keep at least some of the “Mirroring Niches Of Other Avengers” aspect of the team. I needed a Captain America in the red-white-and-blue.

Did anyone come to mind? And in one of those quirks of fate that are so appealing, I’d just finished Casey/Dragota’s Vengeance mini. And right there was Miss America Chavez, who even in the group-cast and dizzying structure, came across as the lead. Hyper-strong flying hero with lack of respect for traditional heroes and had been doing the save the world thing on the down-low for years. As she put it, you couldn’t pay her to be an Avenger.“

Gillen also describing the character “What Miss America allows is showing someone who is as much a hero as anyone the cast has ever met, but is only a little older. And if she’s doing this, by herself, and has been for years… why not you? She’s the cool new friend who’s just more worldly than you are, and by knowing them, you get your own expectations scrambled.”

Character Evolution

Although like most of Joe Casey’s contributions to Marvel, it initially seemed Miss America would be doomed to obscurity following the Vengeance miniseries, surprisingly, Miss America has been chosen to join the Marvel Now relaunch of Young Avengers. She will fill the Star-Spangled void left by the retired Young Avenger known as Patriot.

Kieron Gillen when speaking about the character explained her selection “Miss America is quite mysterious, and it’s quite deliberate. Where’s she’s from? What does she want? What’s she doing? Why does she care about Wiccan? Why does Loki appear to know more about her than anybody else? She’s the classic mysterious lady. We play that straight and we also play games with it. She looks great and Patriot was basically unavailable. So I wanted to have someone in the Captain America role and I had just finished reading “Vengeance” by Joe Casey and Nick Dragotta. I loved that series and I thought she was a great stars-n-stripes style character. Plus she’s completely different from Wiccan and Hulkling. They’re very nice and she’s not. [Laughs] You’ve got a culture clash there.” Explanations of her past and powers and motivations are hinted at coming soon.

As written by Joe Casey Miss America had quite a tough independent staunch personality and disposition, even to the point of being almost rude to fellow superheroes. Although she retains much of that independent sass and anger issues in Young Avengers, the character is written a bit more fuller, with her motivations explored a bit more and more moments of friendliness and sentimentality. In either of her teams though Miss America has fulfilled the team powerhouse niche well.

Eventually Chavez would join an iteration of the Ultimates, written by Al Ewing and with art Kenneth Rocafort. She would appear alongside many of Marvels biggest and most popular characters, including Captain Marvel, Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Spectrum, further cementing the characters as one of Marvels newest star characters.

Major Story Arcs

Vengeance

As a member of the Teen Brigade, Miss America broke a manifestation of the In-Betweener out from confinement in a government facility at Area 51. Whilst escaping with him in tow, they are attacked by shadowy creatures, and Ms America is forced to fight them off. They eventually retreat after America knocks them all around a bit. Delivering the young In-Betweener back to base, the Teen Brigade as is typical of them, move to a new location for the time being. In-Betweener would describe an extra dimensional horde of creatures, the Brotherhood or Braak’nhud that were hunting him. There presence and actions were a threat to the balance of the universe. In order to deceive the creatures Miss America takes some of the essence and energy of the Inbetweener and heads out to the skies to attract them away from the more vulnerable Inbetweener. Miss America would encounter a large horde of the creatures and start to battle them. She would soon be joined by more established heroes, She Hulk, Son of Satan and Krang. The heroes fight of the horde who depart when they realize Miss America isn’t the Inbetweener. Miss America would catch a falling She Hulk has they depart.

Young Masters

The Young Masters, including new young versions of Egghead, Mako, Black Knight, Radioactive Kid and Executioner, another youth team working behind the scenes, but with opposing attitudes and goals to the Teen Brigade. They have started making trouble, and whose ideology has started to conflict with Miss Americas group, threatening to upset an important balance between chaos and order. One particular incident would lead to the Teen Brigade trying to protect Dr Octopus after theYoung Masters on an attempted villain killing spree targeted Otto. Ultimate Nullifier would engage the new female Black Knight, Electro and Radioactive Kid in battle, but fall victim to Radioactive Kid’s bizarre toxic powers.Miss America would be sent to rescuer him and clean up, which she would do with authority barely registering as she would speed by the Young Masters rescuing Ultimate Nullifier. Miss America would adopt a mocking attitude when Ultimate Nullifier would attempt to get info out of Black Knight.

In the mean time America would interrupt the Young Masters attempts to recruit the god Loki into their group at a Museum. Smashing through the roof, Executioner would be especially pleased at getting a chance to fight America, but his gunfire would prove utterly ineffective. Radioactive Kids attempts would fail as well with America stomping the floor throwing both villains off balance.

The Sixth Dimension

Miss America being there primarily to stop the Young Masters would try and convey this to Loki, Chavez worried that Young Masters may have been targeting him, instead is dismissed by Loki who sets one of Thor’s goats Toothgnasher against her. The two would fight back and forth as Loki would calmly talk before producing the Screaming Idol, an artifact carved in the image of Tiboro, an artifact which can send people to the Sixth Dimension, home to Tiboro. Sending Miss America there, she would be disorientated and confused, peering up from a rocky out plain to see a extremely large star burning brightly in front of her. Despite not being on Earth, Miss America’s phone would still work and get a signal, she would also be approached by several ghostly figures who would explain themselves as shades of former visitors and inform Chavez that she was in Tiboro’s realm. Tiboro a massive entity several hundred feet tall would storm towards America and the shades and attack. The Inbetweener loosely aware of what has transpired with America would teleport to recruit She Hulk and Son of Satan to help him rescue Miss America from Tiboro’s dimension. Their additional help once they arrive would give Chavez breathing room and opportunity to puncture through Tiboro’s giant head defeating the powerful foe.

Young Avengers

Miss America Chavez is visiting Earth 212, before realizing that Loki is waiting for her when she heads to have lunch. She didn’t know what he wanted, but entertained conversation. Their history with each other not the best America gives him time to speak, learning that Loki propositions her to leave to head back to the ‘Earth’ Earth, America being weary, prompting Loki to reference the Teen Brigade. Miss America’s patience grows short, until Loki starts mentioned Wiccan of the Young Avengers, which seems to grab her attention. Loki even goes as far as to imply harming Wiccan of the Young Avengers, which causes America to lash out in anger and physically attack the Asgardian. Loki’s threat played well America vows to watch over Wiccan and keep an eye on Loki, inadvertently fulfilling Loki’s wish. Looking out for Wiccan, America would eventually catch Loki observing the teenager leading to a fight between the two. Wiccan, in the mean time, would attempt to make amends with Teddy by giving him a chance to met his biological mother by using his magical abilities. Loki would teleport out of Americas hands after playing evasive, America herself leaving after Hulking managed to reach them after hearing the noise they created.

Mother

While trying to summon an alternate reality version of Hulking’s mother to replace the one that had died during the events of Young Avergers Volume 1, Wiccan would inadvertently summon a powerful and bizarre parasitic creature known as Mother. This creature attacks the pair by pretending to be their respective parents. Saved by Loki, the trio are then attacked by an imitation of Loki’s father Laufey. However, Miss America would be on hand to save the trio by smashing into Mother’s facsimile. She offers explanation for her delay, referencing that her own mothers had also come back to life. Despite her immense distrust of Loki, America would give him the chance to teleport the group away from the reforming Laufey and her resurrected parents. Teleported to a club, America, Loki, Wiccan and Hulking would get opportunity to talk. America makes clear her distrust of Loki, revealing that he had asked her to kill Wiccan earlier. Loki would attempt to justify his actions, explaining he had tricked America into protecting Wiccan by making her feel as though he was in danger. It is later revealed that America’s protectiveness towards Wiccan stems from the fact that one day he will become the Demiurge, an entity that creates her peaceful home dimension Utopia.

The Ultimates

Ms. America is recruited to the Black Panther funded Ultimates, a team of cosmic heroes facing cosmic powers. She joins Carol Danvers, Spectrum, and Blue Marvel to accomplish things like changing Galactus from Devourer to Lifebringer. America also played a big part in the team’s investigation of the timestream. Blue Marvel had ambitions of solving the breaks in the timestream caused by the Doomlock. However, America had seen plenty of worlds ravaged from messing with time and discouraged them from doing so. Blue Marvel still wanted to take a look at the damage, so he retrofitted a quinjet so they could travel the omniverse. When the jet broke up, they needed her transdimensional teleportation power to save them.

When Carol discovered the NuHuman, Ulysses, the Ultimates went on a number of missions he predicted. America started to slowly regret supporting Carol when one of their missions ended with War Machine dead and She-Hulk comatose. After they apprehended a woman who was supposed to have a black hole generator (but didn’t), America admitted to Panther that she had reservations. Carol did not take it lightly, starting a fight with America that led to their base losing power and prisoner’s going free. As a result, an advisory board dissolved the team.

America would continue to lead the team in secret with the support of Galactus, when incredible cosmic forces were revealing themselves. The First Firmament was manipulating events to turn Galactus back into the Devourer, and The Maker was using tech on Counter-Earth to break the Superflow, both of which put Eternity at risk. The good work they continued to do allowed them to be absorbed into the Alpha Flight Program.

West Coast Avengers

Kate Bishop recruited Fuse, Ms. America, and Gwenpool to be part of her Avengers squad after determining the west coast was vulnerable to supervillain attack, while Clint agreed to part-time membership. The group was struggling to come up with ways to fund this endeavor, when the former X-Academy student, Quentin Quire, walked in with a documentary crew willing to bank roll the team in exchange for documenting their missions.

The team took on Madame Masque‘s West Coast Masters of Evil (including Kate’s long thought dead mother as a member) and a vampire cult (being tracked by Kate’s ex-boyfriend, Noh-Varr). As a member, America started dating Ramone, Fuse’s sister.

Sadly, a would-be superhero called The Dutch Oven, who Kate rejected during her recruitment drive, got the documentary cancelled.

Powers and Abilities

• Superhuman Strength – America has incredible strength. Her top strength is unknown, but she is probably around She-Hulks level, who could lift at least 100 tons. America has such impressive feats such as tearing down a large metal door. She might be one of Marvels strongest beings.
• Superhuman Speed – America is extremely fast and can go almost as fast as speed of light. Monica Rambeau was even impressed and surprised how fast she was moving.
• Flight – America can fly at high speeds.
• Invulnerability/Superhuman Durability – America is bullet proof and fire resistant.
• Star Portals – Can create star shaped portal to other realities/dimensions with her kicks.

Physical Characteristics

• Height: 6’0″
• Weight: 165 lbs
• Hair: Black
• Eyes: Brown

In Other Media

Animation

• America is one of the main characters in the Marvel Rising series of animated specials, voiced by Cierra Ramirez in each installment. She makes her first appearance in Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors, and subsequently appears in Chasing Ghosts and Heart of Iron, as well as several of the tie-in shorts. Her backstory is similar to that of her comic counterpart, with America hailing from a parallel Earth that was destroyed by infighting between the Inhumans, with her mothers saving her by sending her away.

Film

• America Chavez makes her live-action debut in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, portrayed by Xochitl Gomez.

Video Games

• Ms. America is a playable character in the Lego Marvel’s Avengers game.
• America Chavez is a playable character in the Marvel Avengers Academy game. She was released during the “A-Force” event. Her recruitment quest is Get America Chavez! She is voiced by Sandra Espinoza.
• America Chavez is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight. She is a combat type. Her bio in the game says: Hailing from the Utopian Parallel, America Chavez possesses superhuman strength, can fly, and has the ability to create inter-dimension portals. Her toughness and strong leadership abilities have made her an invaluable member of the Young Avengers and the Ultimates.
• America Chavez appears in Lego Marvel Super Heroes 2.
• America Chavez appears in Marvel Contest of Champions.
• America Chavez is a playable character in Marvel Puzzle Quest. Her bio in the game says: Born in an alternate dimension called the Utopian Parallel, America Chavez ran away from home after a rift in her world risked its destruction. Gifted with flight, durability, and an insatiable need to punch things, America roams the multiverse to defeat evil and find her place as a Super Hero.

Merchandise

• America Chavez is featured in the HeroClix figure game.
• America Chavez is featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Rising line.
• America Chavez was featured in Hasbro’s Marvel Legends line as part of the Rintrah Build-a-Figure wave.
• America Chavez is featured in the Gargantos Showdown Lego kit.