History
About Face was the project of General Harry "TNT" Kenkoy, USMC,[3] authorised by the DoD. To obtain the genetic raw material required for the virus,[1] Kenkoy took telepath Theresa Bellwether, who worked in the DoD ESPer station, murdered her, then extracted her exceptional brain cells and gene-spliced her biological components to develop the virus. Colonel Nick Fury discovered about this too late to save Bellwether's life, then did his best to stop Kenkoy's immoral viral experiments and make him fall.[6]
Bellwether had started a romantic relationship with fellow telepath Eddie Passim,[6] who, enraged, joined Project: About Face hoping to get close to Kenkoy and find a chance to get revenge on him - however, Kenkoy lacked the courage to kill Kenkoy when he had a chance.[3][5] Fearing nothing of Passim, Kenkoy taught Passim about secret operations, finding a use for him in Project: About Face:[3] Kenkoy wanted to make a large-scale test of About Face in New York City,[6] spreading the virus through the underground,[7] then using Passim's powers as a telepathic trigger to guide the virus and cuase biological changes in thousands of people.[6] In June 13th, 1963,[7] 23 of Kenkoy's agents spred through the metro, each with a glass vial they had to open in the tracks to release the virus - but one of the agents was Passim, and his vial was not opened, either due to a conscious decision on Passim's part, or by accident.[2] Following his plan, Kenkoy ordered the murder of the 23 agents, but Passim, being a telepath, got warned and escaped,[7] becoming a derelict in New York City for at least two decades.[2]
Eventually, and possibly due to Fury's influence,[6] About Face was partially exposed. In 1975, the DoD had to admit publically that they had spred a specific gas in the subway, claiming that it had been harmless and a test on the city's vulnerability to a nerve gas attack.[2] Kenkoy was court-martialed for conspiracy and murder.[5][1] He was allowed to retire,[3] then moved to Hong Kong to ask Snakeroot, a criminal organization and faction of the Hand, for their help recovering Abotu Face. Kenkoy managed to join Snakeroot as a member,[5] and started a collaboration with them. He wanted to obtain the virus and modify a number of individuals so that they were immune to the lethal effects of heroin, but not to the addiction, so that he could obtain a constant heroin user who would buy the product for decades.[3]
In recent times, interest for About Face renewed when several people began searching for the last vial, lost in the subway tracks:[1] One of Kenkoy's soldiers involved in About Face went to Louisiana and revealed about About Face to a houngan, who in turn resurrected the Daredevil Hellspawn doppelganger;[2] the Hellpspawn was tempted by the possibility of using About Face to become human instead of a voodoo-created creature.[2][1][3] The Hellspawn killed the houngan and started his own search for the virus, simultaneous to Kenkoy's.[2] Passim's powers went uncontrolled, causing several other homeless people to hurt themselves (changing their bodies in a metaphorical attempt to do the same that About Face could do), which attracted the attention of Daredevil, who became personally involved in the search.[2][7] Snakeroot leader Daito wanted to infuse Elektra's dark essence into Snakeroot's own assassin, Erynys, extracting Elektra's essence from the mind of S.H.I.E.L.D. cyborg John Garrett, who had mind-melded with dark Elektra before she was purified[3] - but the transfer, thou successful, required About Face to provide Erynys with stability - thou Snakeroot sent Erynys and Garrett themselves to obtain the vial.[6] To get Garrett, Snakeroot had infiltrated the Pentagon and stolen files related to About Face,[2] then kidnapped Garrett from S.H.I.E.L.D. facilities,[7] attracting the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D.; it's director, Nick Fury, resorted to freelance cyborg agent Siege to find the guilty part[3] - and, when Siege discovered the possibilities of About Face, considering getting it for himself to restore the lost possibilities his cyborg status caused.[6] The intereste of the Hand in Elektra also attracted the Chaste, who sent several of its members, including Elektra, after it.[7] Kenkoy also hired mercenary Silver Sable to find Passim, pretending to be his long-lost cousin,[2] but Daredevil convinced Sable that Kenkoy was playing her for a foolo, and she abandoned the search; at that point, Daredevil was collaborating with Passim.[7] On the other hand, Kenkoy's cocaine-smuggling work in San Francisco caused the city's lethal protector Venom to discover about About Face and searching for it, hoping to remove his own weaknesses to fire and sound[3] - but Daredevil convinced Venom that overcoming his fears through courage would make Venom more heroic, and Venom abandoned the search.[5] Siege was also convinced to refrain from the temptation, but the living vampire knew about it and tried to obtain it.[4]
This ended up when Morbius finally found the vial, only to be knocked down by Daredevil and Elektra, and they were eventually followed up by several of the other interested parties and starting a battle royale, in which Passim gave his life to kill Kenkoy, and Daredevil broke the vial in the Hellspawn's mouth. The Hellspawn became human, a doppelganger of Matthew Murdock, as he desired - only to be killed immediatelly afterward by Erynys, who was in turn killed by Daredevil and Elektra. Understanding that nobody would be able to use Abotu Face again, they all left after such a fiasco. The Hellspawn's corpse was identified as Murdock's, which allowed Murdock (secretly Daredevil) to fake his own death.[1]Properties
About Face is a viral prototype,[1] based on theoretical research made by the United States Department of Defense,[2] that is designed to react to thought with physical changes, so that the infected person could modify his or her own body.[1] The virus could alter the physical shape of the user, according to the thoughts of the user or of a third party who can control the virus[3] telepathically.[2] This had certain limitations, but it could theoretically allow for the affected person to stop suffering from certain ill effects of cocaine use (e.g. death by overdose), while still suffering from other effects (e.g. addiction).[3] Voodoo-created Hellspawn intended to use it to transform his own magick existence into the real life of a human,[2][3] and the virus indeed turned his body into a normal human's, identical from a forensyc medicine perspective.[1] Other people wanting to use the virus included Morbius the Living Vampire, who wanted to use it to alter his body and restore his humanity;[4][1] Venom, who wanted to get rid of his weakness to fire and sound;[5] the Snakeroot ninja clan, who wanted to use it on reanimated Erynys to stabilize her existence;[1] and Siege, a cyborg who wanted to recover his tactile sensation and capacity to feel adrenalyn and other emotions.[6] Neither of these had a chance to test it.[1]
Unlike common viri, that inject nucleic acid and protein elements into the host cell to control it, a telepathic virus is cluttered with gene-spliced material, thus the cells can only be infected by either suspension in a medium rich in such acids and proteins, for the virus to be triggered by an external telepath,[4] which was Kenkoy's plan in the large-scale test;[2] or alternatively by ingesting the virus, which would allow the infected organism to guide it using its own thoughts,[4] as happened with the Hellspawn.[1] Should the virus be distributed as a gas in not enough amounts,[2] the virus is destroyed harmlessly once the gas dissipates.[4]
Notes
- Several aspects of the About Face virus mention specific dates that may have been modified due to the Sliding Timescale: Morbius mentions that this kind of virus was a hypothetical research in the 1960s;[4] General Kenkoy staged the large-scale test of the virus on June 13th, 1963;[1] and the Department of Defense had admit in 1975 that they had performed a gas-based experiment in the subways, but claiming that it was with a harmless gas.[2] Any of these dates may be kept or modified.
See Also
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 Daredevil #325
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 Daredevil #319
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 Daredevil #321
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Daredevil #324
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 Daredevil #323
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 Daredevil #322
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Daredevil #320