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Featuring the following heroine!
Jolt
by Jim Smith
Real name: Helen "Hallie" Takahama
First appearance: Thunderbolts 1 (as Hallie); Thunderbolts 4 (as Jolt)
Team affiliation: Hallie showed up at the Thunderbolts doorstep looking for the Fantastic Four (she'd sorta been out of it when they sorta died and New York sorta gave their HQ to the T-bolts, who later sorta blew it up), and informed them that she and dozens of children were the subjects of Arnim Zola's cruel experiments. Thinking it'd be great PR, the 'Bolts took her along as they went to one of Doctor Doom's castles to take Zola down, and when the press got wind of it, Meteorite decided it would serve her purposes to have Jolt on the team. Jolt didn't know her new teammates were really six Masters of Evil in disguise until the rest of the world (in Thunderbolts 10), and though she's still bitter about that deception, we can expect her to stick with them for a long, long time.
Powers: Arnim Zola had some mercenaries kidnap lots of...er, test subjects in the fallout of the Onslaught incident, but only Hallie exhibited some "special" property that gave her superhuman powers. (An X-factor, perhaps? Hmmm.) According to Techno, Hallie absorbs ambient energy to perform extraordinary physical feats. Incredibly agile and full of energy, Jolt also seems to be able to express her powers in the form of electrical energy seething from her hands and eyes. It's not clear if she can shoot bursts of electricty, but her electrified fists seem to do more damage to opponents with "jolt punches." And while this may not count as a "super" power, Hallie's endearing nature has helped soften several of the Masters of Evil, and her fearless heroism has stood up to the revelation of the Thunderbolts' true identities and Zemo's plot to conquer Earth.
Favorite quote: "I'm so proud, Citizen V -- to be part of such a noble, heroic team -- and I'm grateful to you for giving me the chance! I won't let you down -- I promise!" (Thunderbolts '97. I knew that, sooner or later, Hallie would say something ironic like that. Seven issues after this line, Jolt fought Zemo one-on-one to uphold those very same ideals.)
Favorite storyline: Thunderbolts 4. In the space of a few hours, Jolt gains a costume, fights a bunch of mutates (with all the hyperactivity you'd expect of a kid named after a soft drink), begins to bond with some hardened criminals, and spares Zola's life for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. Of course, Jolt's entire role in Thunderbolts is pretty entertaining, since she epitomizes the emerging conscience of the team.
Least favorite storyline: Quite simply, Jolt hasn't appeared much outside of T-bolts, and I don't have any least favorite stories in that book. I was pretty peeved that she didn't appear at all in Thunderbolts 9, though. (If I ever get my hands on the guys who left her out of that issue...)
