History
The True Believers were a group of 'counter-culture subversives' who were also called 'warriors of the information age'. The group had dedicated themselves to the pursuit and exposure of the truth at all costs and no matter who they had to go up against to ensure they achieved their goals of exposing secrets, lies, cover-ups and conspiracies. They were willing to pit themselves against any government, organisation or superhero.[1]
The group was formed and led by Mavis Trent, an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. who used her position within that agency to track down those she believes could help her mission to expose her father's murderer, because of their own 'motivations to defy the establishment', as well as her father's last girlfriend due to her power and skills.[2] Mavis also used her position at S.H.I.E.L.D. to help the team and to ensure that the investigation into them was fed enough disinformation to ensure they were not caught.[3] The team exposed several superhero related scandals on their website which attracted them a lot of attention.[1]
The True Believers took down a group of wealthy and influential men who were having sex workers kidnapped, drugged with Mutant Growth Hormone and LSD in a 'bikini fight club', with Mavis herself going undercover to expose them.[3] The team then exposed a cover up involving a covered up charge of driving under the influence involving Reed Richards, only to learn that the entire thing was a set up by Rupert D. Vitz who called himself Surge, a man obsessed with becoming a member of the Fantastic Four who the team then helped to expose.[1]
While investigating her fathers computer a bomb went off in his lab, throwing Mavis across the street and knocked into a coma, leading to her then being captured by former Hydra agents, though she was quickly rescued by the other True Believers. Tayln was able to use her empathic powers to learn that former Hydra agents had been hired by another party to steal information on a bioweapon from Mavis' father as well as rigging his car and lab with bombs. The bioweapon was a neurotoxin called Anathema and it was capable of reversing a person's behaviour, turning Armadillo from an enraged combatant to a frightened coward for example. The former Hydra agents were planning on selling this weapon to Madame Hydra, which Mavis heard while still in her coma. Shortly before Mavis woke up, the former Hydra agents were attacked by Madame Hydra for their defection.[4]
Mavis had learned that S.H.I.E.L.D. were responsible for the Anathema project that her father became a whistleblower to stop and which then led to his death.[4] To learn more about the situation, the True Believers kidnapped and used Tayln's powers to question Maria Hill, the current Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., about Anathema which they learned had been developed during the first Superhuman Civil War and was intended solely for use on Captain America (Steve Rogers) to get him to stand down and end the fighting, once Rogers stood down by himself the project was shut down and to the best of Maria Hill's knowledge also destroyed. After leaving Hill they were found by Tony Stark, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Director and Iron Man at the time, leading to a fight which injured Mavis and knocked Iron Man unconscious. The fight caused a break in Mavis' connection to her symbiote, preventing her from accessing its powers.[5]
Mavis and the True Believers decided to take a break from their activities, leading Mavis to go and see her supervisor Chet Fleming for a date. Chet used an experimental cologne to paralyse Mavis and reveal that he had been the one to restart the Anathema project and that when the former Hydra Agents stole her father's work and he wanted to blow the whistle on the project, Chet planted a bomb in his car to kill him and also planted one in his lab to try and kill Mavis. Chet revealed he was going to blow up his home to kill Mavis and pin the murder on Hydra but Mavis was able to recharge her symbiote by jamming a screwdriver into an electrical socket and kill him instead. Iron Man arrived and made no attempt to arrest Mavis, simply asking her not to publish Maria Hill's name when the True Believers published the truth about Chet Fleming on their blog in exchange for setting up the Trent Foundation to offer financial and legal aid to anyone who was harassed or victimised for coming forward to tell the truth. Mavis then continued working with the True Believers.[5]See Also
- 5 appearance(s) of True Believers (Earth-616)
- 2 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of True Believers (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of True Believers (Earth-616)
- 2 image(s) of True Believers (Earth-616)
- 4 member(s) of True Believers (Earth-616)