Origin
Dr. Karen Lou “Kitty” Faulkner was a scientist working on a pollution-free energy source for a competition sponsored by the Metropolis newspaper The Daily Planet. Kitty was exhibiting her installation when a colleague arguing about potential dangers, Dr. Thomas Moyers, complained to Kitty about her experiment.
She had constructed an energy processor using a bio-energy actualizer. Reporter Lois Lane was at the event also, writing a story for the Daily Planet. When the actualizer is being shown to Lois, an accident occurs. Clark phones Boston editor Ms. Bennett about contacting Wonder Woman and he hears the accident. Once at the accident site Superman encounters a rampaging orange skinned female. Dr. Moyers tells Superman that the nine foot tall superwoman is Lois, but when Superman resumes fighting Dr. Moyers finds Lois is unharmed. Superman absorbs Rampage’s bio-energy then flies off to a nearby thunderstorm to discharge it. Three days later Clark visits Lois and Kitty who is in hospital, shut off the machine’s complex safety systems. The resulting explosion gave Kitty the ability to absorb and store energy, and transform into a huge, nine foot tall orange-skinned meta-human. The shock made her uncontrollably violent and she destroyed several blocks worth of property. Metropolis news stations covering the destruction would come to call her Rampage. Because Superman was able to drain off her excess energy she returned to normal.
Creation
Rampage was created by John Byrne and first appeared in Superman #7.
Major Story Arcs
Sometime later Kitty became ill, finding out that her body now needed exposure to a certain amount of solar and cosmic energy or she would die. Dr. Moyers gave her a collar that would maintain the proper amount of exposure to keep her alive. But Dr. Moyers also had a sinister motive; he transformed Kitty into Rampage and had her sabotage the presidential campaign of Herbert Forrest. Forrest and Moyers were former friends, but Moyers had come to resent the candidate’s corrupt morality. After several attacks, Superman helped free Rampage from Moyers’ control and sent him to jail. After tweaking the regulator controller, Kitty had her powers as Rampage under control, and accepted a job at S.T.A.R. Labs.
Kitty proved to be a talented administrator and earned a transfer to new the S.T.A.R. Labs in Phoenix, Arizona. Once there she befriended the young superhero Starman V, helping him on several occasions as Rampage. The two formed a romantic relationship, although Kitty would at times be uncomfortable with Will being her junior. She even rescued Starman from the clutches of Computron, teaming up with Phantom Lady on the mission. Her part-time career of heroics and her romance came to an end when she was sent back to Metropolis to take part in the major reorganization of S.T.A.R. Labs necessitated by the destruction of the corporations’ main laboratory. Kitty was extremely saddened when she heard Will had perished during a fight with Eclipso.
Kitty some time later attended the Mars Mission Testimonial. The Centurions interrupted the Testimonial and attacked the crowd, but they were defeated by Alpha Centurion.
Superman organized a summit of superheroes to listen to an alien named Dusk. She’d seen the Sun-Eater snuff out the sun of countless planets, and she was there to warn the heroes that the Sun-Eater was headed towards Earth. Dr. Faulkner confirmed her story, pointing to data collected from the Mauna Kea Observatory that a large dark mass was on a trajectory with Earth’s sun. The Sun-Eater engulfed the sun and Kitty and a group of heroes conferred at S.T.A.R. Labs to discuss ways to deal with it. Lex Luthor sent Green Lantern Kyle Rayner into space to plant a probe in the sun that would give more data about the Sun-Eater and what it was doing to the sun, but Lantern mysteriously vanished. Faulkner and the heroes learned that the Eater would cause the sun to go hyper-nova in under 24 hours. Luthor designed miniature force field units that would hopefully shield the Earth from the sun going nova, but they needed to be delivered via spaceship, and rookie hero Ferro piloted the ship. The sun started going nova before Ferro could plant the forcefields. Parallax sacrificed himself to dispel the Sun-Eater and reignite the sun.
Than B-Tech caused a time storm in Metropolis, threatening to wipe it from the continuum. At S.T.A.R. Labs Steel designed a Charged-Vacuum Emboitment, which he hoped to punch a hole in time and space that would give the storm somewhere to go to. Steel sent the Superman Family to the heart of the storm with the C.V.E., but Majestic, a hero pulled to Metropolis from the Wildstorm Universe, thought Steel’s plan was a bad one and tried to pursue the Family. Kitty turned into Rampage and tried to stop him, but was defeated. Majestic destroyed the C.V.E. and after the timestorm reached a pitch the B-Tech disappeared and Metropolis was restored to normal. Majestic explained that the storm was a natural phenomenon and times’ way of fixing itself, sending the B-Tech back into the future.
Many Happy Returns
For more information see: Many Happy Returns
Dr. Faulker is the doctor on duty when Linda Danvers and Superboy brings Supergirl to S.T.A.R. labs. She is the one that tells them that the new Supergirl has the same DNA as Superman.
Powers & Abilities
Rampage’s body absorbs and stores huge amounts of solar energy. After absorbing a certain amount of energy she grew in size, gained superhuman strength, endurance and the ability to leap an eighth of a mile. The more energy she absorbed, the stronger she grew, but after a certain point of absorption her body would overload and shut down. As Dr. Kitty Faulkner, she wore a high-tech regulator collar that controls the amount of energy her body absorbed, keeping her in normal human form. When she transformed into Rampage, she became short-tempered and less inhibited, always ready for the next adrenaline rush.
Other Media
Justice League Unlimited
Rampage appears in Justice League Unlimited as a member of Gorilla Grodd‘s Secret Society in “I Am Legion” voiced by Susan Eisenberg. In the episode ”Dead Reckoning” she was sent to Nanda Parbat and stole the Heart of Nanda Parbat in order to enact Grodd’s latest plot. When Devil Ray killed the Master, Deadman swore revenge and possessed Rampage to beat Devil Ray down. Fortunately, the sorceress Tala cast a spell and freed Rampage of the ghost. She also appeared at the assault on Gorilla City. The Justice League intervened and Rampage was easily knocked out by Wonder Woman and hurled at the Society’s guards. She later makes cameo appearances in “The Great Brain Robbery.” In “Alive!” Rampage sided with Grodd during the mutiny against Luthor. She managed to pull Bizarro off of Grodd, strike him with considerable force, allowing Electrocutioner to incapacitate him. She was later frozen by Killer Frost and blown up by Darkseid, presumably killed by this.