Kinetix
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Kinetix, (Zoë Saugin of the planet Aleph) is a comic book superheroine in the DC Comics universe. She is a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes in the future.
[edit] History
Zoe's mother Azra was a renowned archeologist who shuttled her and her younger brother Thanot around the galaxy on her digs. One day, Azra inhaled poisonous gas while on a dig, which started eating away at her lungs. Feeling helpless as she watched her mother die, Zoe searched through Azra's books and found a magical incantation using the Moon of Kol, an artifact her mother had found. Apparently, the Moon could transform a "drop of love into a wellspring of health" once in a lifetime. Zoe managed to heal her mother, and thus began her lust for power - but only to be used to help others and achieve self-perfection. However, while her reasons were noble, Zoe's power lust often became obsessive.
For instance, Zoe spent the next few years searching for more sources of magic which she could use. She found one while exploring caverns on Saturn's moon Titan; she encountered an energy pool which gave her telekinetic abilities. Zoe named herself "Kinetix" as in "teleKINETICS", and joined the LoSH as part of the second set of draftees, alongside Shrinking Violet, who later became her best friend, and Andromeda. Zoe would become a major asset to the Legion, being part of the team chosen to pursue Tangleweb and helping delay the Composite Man, allowing the team to regroup. She also developed a crush on deputy leader Leviathan, who developed an even bigger one on her.
Zoe, however, continued to search for more power. She was with Shrinking Violet on a dig when she found the Star of Akkos, thinking it would increase her power. She almost buried Violet in her rush to get it. However, she found to her dismay that the Star robbed her of her power.
Legion leader Cosmic Boy tried to get her transferred out of the Legion for her safety, but UP President Chu wouldn't allow it. Instead, Zoe went on a leave of absence to look for a way to restore her powers. She was traveling through a stargate when rogue Daxamites destroyed her destination stargate, leaving her stuck between space at warp speed. Her ship eventually slowed down, returning her to normal space, but it was damaged in the process. Her life support was running out when she was saved by a sorceress called Mysa and brought to Zarrox, the Sorceror's World. There, Mysa trained Zoe in the mystic arts and restored her powers, while altering her appearance - she became paler, with a tattoo on her cheek, pointed elf-like ears and a tail. Mysa then sent Zoe to find the Emerald Eye, a powerful, sentient talisman which possessed others to do its bidding.
Mysa's spell transported Zoe into the middle of a fight between the Legion and the Fatal Five. Zoe arrived just in time to save Violet from the Empress, and, rejoining the team, played a key role in defeating the Five. She tried interrogating the Empress, thinking that Mysa's spell had pointed to her, but got nowhere. She continued her search, but unbeknownst to her, Violet had already been possessed by the Eye.
Later, on a mission to Gallan, Leviathan sacrificed himself to save the team from Doctor Regulus. Seeing this, Violet went berserk, revealing her hidden feelings for Leviathan. She then revealed that she had been possessed, and tried possessing the entire team and finding a way to revive Leviathan. Zoe was in the Eye's thrall and tried to take the Eye for herself, but was rejected by it and nearly killed. Seeing this, Violet tried to turn back time to undo everything. Her fateful words sent half the Legion back 1000 years into the past, and she and the Eye escaped.
Zoe, reeling from Leviathan's loss and Violet's possession, was then transported by Mysa back to Zarrox along with her family and some of her teammates. Mysa was about to drain Zoe of her powers again to punish her for not being able to find the Eye first, but Azra intervened. She revealed that she had met Mysa before while she was near death, and had used a msytic artifact to heal Mysa. Azra was pregnant with Zoe at the time, and the artifact's energies forged a link between Zoe and Mysa, allowing Mysa to manipulate Zoe. It also changed Zoe's genetic structure, which was what gave her an affinity for magic in the first place, and allowed her to absorb the energy pool on Titan. Azra shamed Mysa into admitting her debt, and Zoe's powers and original appearance were restored.
Zoe was later contacted by Mysa when Mysa's sorceror father Mordru broke free of the tomb she had buried him in. A century ago, Mordru had conquered a set of worlds on the outer edges of the United Planets, and Mysa and her friends were able to stop him only at the cost of their lives and Mysa's youth. Zoe and Mysa, alongside the remaining Legionnaires formed a task force to stop Mordru from re-obtaining the Eye, which had been his most powerful talisman. Together, they were successful in helping Violet free herself from the Eye, which teleported away, and they were able to cause Mordru to become dormant again.
Later, on a mission to explore a mysterious space-time anomaly, Zoe was so enthralled by by its power that she became almost catatonic - she could still interact with those around her, but her normally bubbly, energetic personality became submerged, leaving her silent and almost childlike. Her costume also changed and her physical appearance seemed to have been altered slightly. Concerned, Violet and Spark convinced teammate Brainiac 5 to use the Anywhere Machine to look at Zoe's memory of the Anomaly to figure out why it had affected her so. They were then able to convince Zoe to shut out the awe she felt at the power and return her to normal. Zoe continued to serve with the Legion until the Blight invasion.
Zoe was one of the Legionnaires who were Blighted, or brainwashed and renengineered into hunters and killers. She was freed when a small group of Legionnaires managed to stop the Blight and reverse their state of permanent decay. Zoe stood alongside the Legion as they later tried to repair a rift in space which had been caused by Blight tampering with the Stargates, and was able to escape. However, ten of her teammates were not so lucky.
After the Legion disbanded, Kinetix joined the Science Police and was stationed on Earth. Later she went through an artificially induced period of near-impossible evolution called hypertaxis, becoming a "Terrorform", with augmented strength and fortitude, and other unknown power capabilities. As a Terrorform, Zoe was linked to the planetary biosphere and responsible, with her fellow Terrorforms, for safeguarding and speeding up the evolutionary process on Earth. This was instigated by Ra's al Ghul, and Zoe was a unique terrorform in that she still somehow possessed a shred of her old personality and memories. This was explained as a product of her mystical background. Zoe later rejoined the Legion shortly after it was reformed, and played a key role in stopping Ra's al Ghul by healing M'Onel from near death and gathering the terrorforms to help stop the moon from crashing into the Earth.
She was part of the team until the Fatal 500 crisis, and was apparently stuck in the timestream along with the rest of the Legion.
Kinetix has not been shown to be a member of the current version of the Legion, which has its own internal chronology and history separate from previous versions.
[edit] Powers
Previously, she possessed telekinetic abilities, which she primarily used to manipulate and reshape solid matter with her thoughts. As a Terrorform, her abilities are undefined - partially as they are reactive to the circumstances she is in. She has been shown with healing abilities (Legion 8), flight, greatly enhanced strength, the ability to survive unaided in space, and control of gravity (Legion 8).
[edit] Comparisons
Kinetix is considered by many readers to be a knock-off of Marvel Comics's character Jean Grey, as Kinetix's uniform looks like Jean's "Marvel Girl" uniform, she has red hair and green eyes like Jean, and has telekinesis, like Jean Grey.
Many other readers have her pegged as a post-Zero Hour version of Life Lass, a fairly minor character who was a one of the Heroes of Lallor before the Reboot.
Like Life Lass, Kinetix's powers were initially the bringing of inanimate matter to "life" through molecular manipulation. Plus, her name ("Zoe") means "Life".
