Nu-Perspective: PATHWAY

Welcome back to another edition of Nu-Perspective, THEE column for all redesigns and updates of various Nubian (black) comic book characters you never knew you loved. 
March brings International Month, and also International Woman’s Day, so we gotta show love to the ladies. First up for the month is a character perfect for the Nu-Perspective treatment- Pathway.

Original Pathway appearance

Pathway is from the mighty Marvel Universe and comes out of the Alpha Flight books. She gets the Nu-Perspective below.
Check out her original look and story, and let us know if you like what we did with her. Then see ya in 2 short weeks with another Nu-Perspective.

Nu-Perspective Pathway design by Shawn Alleyne

Real Name: Laura Dean

Current Alias: Pathway

Identity: Secret

Occupation: Governmental Peacekeeper

Place of Birth: Canada

Base of Operations: Mobile in Canada; Global when required

Affiliations: Alpha Flight; Beta Flight

First Appearance: Alpha Flight #48, 1987

Original Creators: Bill Mantlo and Terry Shoemaker

Story: Laura's story begins in her mother’s womb. Laura and her twin sister experienced their first case of mutaphobia…from their own parents. Prenatal screening of his pregnant wife revealed that she was carrying twin girls, one of whom was a mutant with a nonhuman form(later to be named Goblyn). In fact, both twins were mutants, but the twin who would be named Laura had a human form and hence was not detected as a mutant. They decided to kill Goblyn, but Laura sensed the danger to her twin and her mutant powers instinctively activated. She protected her sister by opening a dimensional portal sending her to a realm that would later be called Liveworld.

Born with autism, Laura’s parents sent her to the New Life Clinic to help treat her. Unfortunately, this facility was run by the evil Lionel Jeffries, the madman called Scramble. There Scramble used his superhuman powers to cause Laura to release her sister Goblyn, from the "Liveworld" dimension to Earth. It was found out that when Laura was tremendously frightened, she would switch places with her twin sister trapped in the extra-dimension dream realm of “Liveworld”. This would lead to many believing for many years that Laura and her sister (who became known as “Goblyn”) were one and the same.  (Whenever Goblyn came to Earth, Laura took her place in "Liveworld." When Laura returned to Earth, Goblyn would again return to "Liveworld.")

Laura escapedScramble, but was soon captured by another villain called Bedlam, who turned the patients into unwilling slave warriors of a team call Derangers.  Tragically, Laura/Goblyn were the only mind-controlled members of the Derangers to survive their encounter with the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight. Inducted into the trainee team Beta Flight, and adopting the codename “Pathway”, the separated twins would not officially meet until an adventure took Alpha Flight to Goblyn’s home dimension, ruled by the magical succubus entity called Dream Queen. The miraculous and heartfelt reunion of both sisters even cured Laura of her autism.  

Pathway, was instrumental in defeating the Queen, but on their return to Earth she left Beta Flight to try to lead a more normal life, and took Goblyn with her. However, portals from Liveworld began to open up around Canada, unleashing legions of nightmarish hordes onto the terrified and unprotected populous. At an impromptu crisis conference, Pathway and Goblyn appear before the former board members of Department H, with one order… “Initiate the Alpha Flight protocol.”  

Powers/Abilities: Laura’s mutant power is the ability to psionically open and close portals at will. These portals can be spatial or interdimensional in nature, and it appears there is no known limitation (theoretically she can open planet-sized portals to the end of space itself). These powers are on par with (or greater than) Dr Strange. Even before she was born, she was able to exercise this power subconsciously to save her twin sister from being aborted, and years later, switch places with her when frightened. Her powers easily enable her to enter and exit any situation or location at a moment’s notice, taking any quantity of mass with her, even if she has never been to that place before. Through rigorous training, Laura has mastered opening multiple portals at once, trapping or disorientating her targets with ease, using physics (primarily gravity and momentum) expertly to her advantage. She can easily manipulate moving objects, projectiles or energy attacks, such that a chucked bus or laser blast can be juggled through many portals, increasing or maintaining momentum and sent back when and where her foe least expects it, or send a bullet/knife right back to its sender. She can even open portals to arctic areas or the ocean to put out fires, or to deep space to suck enemies into it. Her powers do not extend to fully controlling portals created by other individuals or technologies; however, through sheer force of will, she can override them. Another ability linked to her power is that she can swap persons or objects, but they must be of similar or equal size and composition (she cannot swap an organic object for an inorganic one). Her only known limitation, is that extensive use of her powers in short succession is physically exhausting and she can burn out. One time she was even able to open a temporal (time) portal, but she has yet to do this at will.  

Paraphernalia: N/A 

NP

What IS Nu-Perspective you ask? Well, it's a bi-weekly column I started with my writing collaborator Fabian Wood with the purpose of spotlighting, revamping and updating different underdeveloped, underutilized and all-but-forgotten Nubian (black) comic book and pop culture characters. Our goal is to showcase them in fresh, contemporary and exciting ways both visually and story-wise.

Fine Print: All characters are copyrights and trademarks of the respective publishers and creators. This column is used solely for artistic enjoyment.