Switchback

History

Switchback hails from the alternate reality of Earth-295: Age of Apocalypse. Switchback initially appeared during the story arc where she travels to Avalon, safe-haven to mutants. The Age of Apocalypse characters were mostly notable alternate counterparts of existing heroes and villains in the X-Men Universe of Earth-616, there has no appearance of a Switchback on Earth-616.

Creation

Switchback was created by Warren Ellis and Ken Lashley in 1995 and first appeared in X-Calibre # 1.

Major Story Arcs

Age of Apocalypse

Switchback hails from the alternate Universe of Earth-295, here the reign of Apocalypse made mutants come under his reign and humans all across the world his slaves. Switchback was one of many refugees who escaped from Apocalypse’s rule to Avalon. Switchback and the refugees go on a long and hazardous journey only to come out the only one alive. Gary, her own boyfriend, and her other companions all died.

When she reaches Avalon she is met by Cain Marko who leads the citizens of Avalon. Soon after her arrival to Avalon her meeting with the future predicting mutant Destiny would make both women’s powers of the timelines come to an unpredictable encounter. Switchback’s touch would have Destiny seeing and predicting the end of Avalon. She than joined the ragtag group calling itself X-Calibre, a group lead by Nightcrawler and Damask.

On an encounter with the evil mutant telepath Shadow King, she used her powers to repel Shadow King´s possession. She used her time shunting abilities in combination with Nightcrawler’s own mutant teleportation allowing extra time on the Astral Plane and than managed to destroy the Shadow King.

Powers

Switchback has the mutant power to “shunt” back down her own timeline, effectively for a maximum of ten seconds. As she is able to manipulate her own timeline she can replace herself with a younger version while retaining full memories and scenes of her former older version. When she utilizes her shunting ability it is obvious to anyone observing her time-shift. When shunting time she physically moves her body from her current site to her former location. This ability has allowed her to escape telepathic possession by the Shadow King, by shifting herself through time as soon as he attempted to control her.

Although a mutant her abilities granted her no special physical attributes. Switchback mostly had all the normal strength, speed, and constitution of a normal human woman her age and build. She had also been trained in weaponry and is an average weapon master.

Personal Data

Group Affiliation: X-Calibre

Universe: Earth 295

Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan

Base Of Operations: Avalon, formerly Detroit, Michigan

Status: Single

Citizenship: American

Marital Status: Single

Known Relatives: None

Occupation: Freedom Fighter

Characteristics

Gender: Female

Eyes: Green

Hair: Silver

Weight: 115 lbs

Height: 5’7″

Other Media

Games

X-men: Battle of the Atom

Switchback is featured in the mobile card game “X-Men: Battle of the Atom” based on the comic book story with the same name. Her cards are: X-Calibre, Switchback