Dame Columbia

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50

The Magnificent Marvelous

Dame Columbia

War Hero

Art by @Spellion

· ·

Energy Melee
Willpower
Energy Mastery

Player: @Archon Mk1

Affiliations

· Other Affiliations ·

United States Army, Vanguard, Freedom's Allies

Identity

Real Name

Josephine Chaya Berkwitz

Aliases

Josie, Lady Columbia, Dame Columbia, MS-1 (Designation given by Count Dominus), Columbia; Lady Columbia, Legs of the U.S. Army (Pin-up title)

Birthdate

June 8th, 1921

Birthplace

Norfolk, Nebraska

Citizenship

First Generation American

Residence

Founder's Fall, Rhode Island (Galaxy City prior to The Galaxy City Crisis)

Occupation

Waitress (Formerly), Pin-Up Model (Formerly), Cabaret Singer (Formerly), U.S. Army Veteran, Librarian, Hero

Legal Status

Squeaky Clean

Marital Status

Widowed

· Known Relatives ·

Howard Fitzgerald (Husband, Deceased), Sarah Fitzgerald (Daughter, Alive), Ezekiel Fitzgerald (Son, Alive), Mary Walters (nee Fitzgerald, Granddaughter), Penny Rose Walters (Great-granddaughter, Alive)

Physical Traits

Species

Human

Sub-Type

Mutant

Ethnicity

Ashkenazi

Gender

Female

Apparent Age

Mid-to-Late 30s (Actually 98)

Height

5'1 1/2"

Weight

"That isn't a nice question to ask a gal!"

Body Type

Athletic

Hair

Dyed Blonde (Originally Brown)

Eyes

Blue Eyes

Skin

Peachy Fair

Powers & Abilities

Primary

Energy Melee

Secondary

Willpower

Epic Pool

Energy Mastery

Power Pools

Fighting, Leaping

· Known Powers ·

Slowed Aging, Energy Strikes

· Equipment ·

Reinforced Weave Costume, MediPort, Armbands of Nike

· Other Abilities ·

Fluent in German and Yiddish, Trained Boxer

Early Life

Born in 1921 to Jewish immigrants from Lübeck, Josie lead a pretty normal in Nebraska. Her parents did the best they could to ensure she had a good life, on a seamstress and a factory worker's salary.

July 4th, 1942

Her tour of Europe had scarely begun when a stop at a base near Vichy would change her life and set her on the path she continues to walk this day.

Lady Columbia

Josie and the original Freedom's Allies in WW II (Pictured from Left to Right: Svetlana Pasternak (Bullet-Speed), Ziva Klein (Orev), Rodrick Thorpe (Levin Bolt), Josephine Berkwitz (Lady Columbia), Dr. Quincy Hatcher, and Sim Maly (Shual)
Art by @Orev

Retirement

The years came and went, until one day in 1973 when Josie decided to throw in the towel and live a quiet life. She nestled herself in Paragon Heights (The future Galaxy City) with her family. Although she occasionally appeared for interviews, she faded from the public eye. The companies still churned out her merchandise from lunchboxes to action figures, but the figure herself practically disappeared for the next couple decades

The Day the Rikti Came

May 23rd, 2002, the day that bombs fell from the skies. The Rikti forces filled the sky as bombs dropped left and right, foot soldiers teleporting down to the ground. Chaos ensued as the heroes and law enforcement did their best to stave off the then unfamiliar foe.

The Galaxy City Crisis

September 27, 2011, the day that the Coming Storm arrived, and a day that would become known as The Galaxy City Crisis. It started like a normal day, but for residents such as Josie, it would quickly become a hellscape.

Powers and Abilities

• Energy Manipulation - Josie is able to convert the potential energy surrounding her fists into thermal energy adding an additional kick to her strikes.

• Skilled Boxer - Partially from her time in the Army, but mostly for her interest, Josie has trained for decades in boxing.

• Slowed Aging - Josie ages exceptionally slowly, in the course of 77 years, she has only aged approximately 10 - 15 years.

• Iron Will - Whether due to her own stubbornness or immense years of training, Dame Columbia has shown on numerous instances the ability to barrel through great pain and injuries with little to know issue, while not invulnerable her pain tolerance and willpower seem to pull her through many grim situations.

• Incarnate Abilities - Although she does not fully know how to utilize these abilities, the Armbands of Nike have gifted the superheroine with certain gifts befitting an incarnate of the goddess of Victory. Instances seen thus far includes enhanced strength.

Weaknesses

• Magic - Josie possesses no defenses against magic and is thereby susceptible to it. Due to this fact, she tries to avoid fighting magical entities when she can, or at least go in with some back-up.

• Mortality - For all of her slow aging and resilience to pain, Josie is still a mortal. She eventually will die (albeit at a much older age then most people), and still can be killed or harmed by things that would conventionally harm a human.

Equipment

• The Armbands of Nike - Found while in Cimerora dealing with the Fifth Column, these seemingly simple bronze armbands are more then meets the eye. These armbands allows the wearer to tap into the powers of Nike, becoming an Incarnate of the Goddess of Victory.

• MediPort Beacon - A standard piece of technology for heroes in Paragon City, this device is attuned to Josie's biometrics with a recall function should her biometrics drop beyond a certain margin sending her to the nearest hospital

• Reinforced Weave - Not fond of finding her body or costume riddled with bullet-holes or incinerated, Josie had her suit reinforced with resistant compound weave to make it resistant, but not immune to high temperatures, bullets, swords, and the likes.

Affiliations

Good People Firefist: "Nick's good people, he looks after his own." Orev: "Moses has gone through a lot, and he's a good kid. I'm proud of how far he's come, and I know he'll go far in life." Bullet-Speed: "Svetlana's an old friend from way back, we're the remnants of Freedom's Allies."

Fairweather Pals Dave: The description for Neutral #1

Bad People The Axis Coalition: The description for Enemy #1 Shadow Matron: "Elsa...I shoulda put her in the ground in Dusseldorf, and now that's exactly what this ole gal plans to do!" Count Dominus:

A Dame For Every Dimension

Upsilon Beta 9-6 (A.K.A: Praetorian Earth)

Peeress Praetoria, Public Darling

Alias:
Status: Alive
Overview: A leading figure in the Ministry of Propaganda, and a staunch supporter of Cole, this earth's Josephine seems to have undergone some sort of experimentation which triggered her mutation slowing her aging and increasing her strength.

Delta Zeta 24-10 (A.K.A.: Axis America or Axis Earth)

Screamin' Berk, Resistance Fighter

Alias: Screamin' Berk
Status: Dead (Killed by Axis troops during an attempt to resist their control)
Overview:

Tau Delta 8-7 (A.K.A.: Nemesis Automaton Earth)
Alias:
Status: Dead (Original), Replaced with an automaton shortly after World War II
Overview:

TV Tropes

Trivia

• In a hypothetical CoH movie, Josie would ideally be played by Lena Headey

• She was initially developed a zany sorta grandma figure and has developed into a more complex character as well as one of my two mains!

Gallery

• DC 1.jpg

  Dame Columbia (second from the right) with Dr. Quincy Hatcher, Svetlana and Ziva drawn by @Orev