Origin
Wendy Jones was the younger sister to the aquatic metamorph New Wave, who mentally and physically abused her at a early age. The psychotic older sister would ruthlessly murder their parents upon discovering her mutant abilities. At the time a adolescent, Wendy would be traumatized and lived in fear of her life at her sisters hands. Wendy was originally forced onto the supervillain team of elementals called the Masters of Disaster by her older sister New Wave who was also their leader. Born a mutant, gifted with the ability to command air-currents in the area around her she took the name Windfall. Withdrawn and easily led, Wendy was always reluctant to commit a crime, New Wave forces her sister to fight the Outsiders on several occasions. The second time was when the Masters were hired by Baron Bedlam in a Soviet-backed invasion of the Outsider Geo-Force‘s homeland of Markovia. Windfall decided to help her foe, Halo, when she needed assistance. After becoming friends with Halo, Windfall defected to her team, the Outsiders.
Creation
Windfall was created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo in Batman and the Outsiders #9.
Character Evolution
Wendy had a very hard childhood, which lead to her being a reclusive person. She let people abuse her because of her childhood, causing her to be depressed for most of her life. She was good at heart, but committed crimes out of fear of her superiors. After she was raped and ignored, Windfall became angry and took this out on her assailants. The only person Wendy ever felt close to Halo, even among her own family. Her last day alive proved that she was a hero, as she sacrificed herself for the good of the team.
Major Story Arcs
The Outsiders
During this incident, she again helps to save the life of the superheroine Halo despite orders from Windfall’s sister New Wave to kill her. The tensions between the two sisters is only partially calmed with the intervention of the teams muscle, Shakedown. These intense incidents awaken Wendy’s sense of right and she frees the Outsiders and leads them into saving Halo. Windfall’s betrayal of her psychotic sister New Wave makes a permanent rift between the two, with New Wave swearing to one day kill Wendy. Wendy is invited to join the Outsiders and moves in with Halo and Katana, even sharing a room with Halo. Wendy resumes her mantel of Windfall and begins a lengthy association with the Outsiders.
Enemy of the Outsiders
When the original Outsiders disbanded Windfall fell in league with the terrorist Kobra lover Eve and her new incarnation of Strike Force Kobra. Easily manipulated by Eve and Halo’s doppleganger, Spectra. Windfall fights her old comrades in their newest incarnation as the Outsiders. Discovering that Halo had indeed swapped bodies with Marissa Baron the villainess called Spectra, she switches to the Outsiders and helps defeat the Strike Force. Once rejoined with her friends Windfall fights against Felix Faust in a madding fight in Faust’s mystical home dimension. The Outsiders escape only when Faust’s items of power are destroyed by the betrayal of his son Faust.
Road to the Suicide Squad
Wendy would drop her identity as Windfall and turned her back to adventuring returning to college and a semblance of a normal life. Wendy’s easily obedient temperament would underly some serious psychological post traumatic trauma which left doubts of self worth. While in school Wendy was invited to a party at a fraternity house, where she was drugged and gang raped by members of the fraternity. The horror would go further as Wendy was humiliated when pictures of the act were posted on the internet and she was subsequently expelled from school. Since one of her violator’s had a father in the DA, Wendy’s ordeal would go ignored, her once villain background condemning years of heroics. Wendy once again returned to a withdrawn place inside. Using her powers of the aerokinitics Windfall retaliated by asphyxiating her tormentors, leading to her recruitment by Amanda Waller for her Suicide Squad.
Death of a Hero
Windfall accompanied the Squad on a mission to the Middle East in an effort to destroy a designer bio-weapon, the Crimson Tears virus. During the mission, the group was betrayed by one of its members, the General, who led a mutiny of the team from within. One of his co-conspirators, Cliff Carmichael hijacked control of Squad member Chemo, using it to attack those Squad members not in on the mutiny. Windfall attempted to use her powers to shield the group with an air wall, but wasn’t able to contain the chemical giant’s attack. She died when Chemo’s blast overcame her shield, reducing her to a skeleton.
In Other Media
Young Justice: Outsiders
Windfall appears in the series, voiced by Zehra Fazal. She first appears in the fifteenth episode as a young metahuman in the Taos Metahuman Center. She considers leaving, but is convinced by Ed Dorado to stay. She had trouble controlling her powers, which she managed by wearing a collar that dampened her abilities. However, by the end of the season, she is shown removing her inhibitor collar.