Alter ego Ananym Abilities Magic; Fire manipulation | Publisher Marvel Comics Affiliation Alpha Flight | |
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Team affiliations Alpha Flight
Gamma Flight
Beta Flight First appearance Alpha Flight vol. 1 #79 (December 1989) Similar Windshear, Talisman, Diamond Lil, Manikin, Belasco | ||
Witchfire (Ananym) is a fictional former superhero, now supervillain, and magician. She was a former member of Gamma Flight and was eventually recruited into Beta Flight. She is the daughter of X-Men villain Belasco.
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Fictional character biography
Ananym is the daughter of Belasco, a sorcerer who formerly ruled the dimension Limbo; however, she has no memories of her early life, nor her apparent demonic background.
When Alpha Flight vanished from Earth, the Canadian government recruited Witchfire along with Nemesis, Wild Child, Auric and Silver to form Gamma Flight. Upon the return of Alpha Flight, Gamma Flight was ordered to arrest them, but both teams teamed up to defeat Llan. Gamma Flight was later disbanded in a merger with a revived Department H and Alpha Flight with Witchfire remaining.
Witchfire was assigned to Department H's trainee programs, Beta Flight, and to a new Gamma Flight support team, specifically for supernatural purposes. After being trapped in the Dreamqueen's realm, she returned and was instrumental in defeating the Master's Omega Flight. She assumed leadership of Beta Flight, but when Manikin was injured in battle, she started becoming darker and ended up frying the mind of the Jackal, who had poisoned him.
When the Hardliners invaded the Department H headquarters, they beat Witchfire severely. However, she recovered and grew much stronger in power.
X-Infernus
While in Limbo, the recently resurrected Illyana Rasputin attacks various other demons looking for the Soulsword and the original Bloodstone amulet. This does not go unnoticed by Mephisto, Blackheart, Satannish, Dormammu and Hela. Witchfire appears during the meeting, having summoned the demons together, and reveals she is now the current owner of the original amulet and vows to destroy Darkchilde and take her father's place as ruler of Limbo and his place at their table.
In Limbo, Witchfire learns that Magik has left Limbo and assumes control. She stabs S'ym through the chest, seriously wounding him. Magik teleports in to find him chained to the throne. She asks what happened and he informs her that Belasco's daughter, Witchfire has taken control in her absence. Illyana is shocked to hear Belasco has a daughter and Witchfire steps out of the shadows and attacks Magik.
As Magik confronts Witchfire, Witchfire claims everything Belasco ever owned including Magik's soul and after a quick battle, Magik is taken down by Witchfire who claims the second Bloodstone amulet. Witchfire stabs Magik through the chest, injuring her and knocking her out. Witchfire takes the Bloodstone from the X-Man Pixie and adds it to the original amulet, giving her four Bloodstones and a more demonic appearance.
When Pixie teleports into the castle by herself, she runs into the throne room where she finds Magik bound by chains. Witchfire grabs Pixie by the throat and forces her to become her new apprentice and begins forging a new Bloodstone from Pixie's soul.
Hearing the screams from the castle, Nightcrawler teleports the X-Men into the throne room. Once there, Witchfire turns Colossus and Wolverine against Mercury and Rockslide. Nightcrawler notices Illyana chained to a pillar and she asks him to stab her with Pixie's Souldagger, as it is the only way and that only he can do it because he is attuned to magic. He apologizes and stabs her. At that moment. Colossus punches Kurt and Witchfire finishes making her fifth and final Bloodstone from the now demonic Pixie. Kurt recovers in time to remove the Souldagger and Soulsword from Illyana and use them to free Colossus and Wolverine from their enchantment. Pixie then uses them to free Illyana so they can confront Witchfire. She tries to blast Illyana, but she is shielded by Mercury long enough for Illyana to strip the bloodstones from her and destroy the amulet they are in. Witchfire is then trapped in the Elder God's dimension with four of the bloodstones.
Fear Itself: The Fearless
Witchfire briefly returns in a cameo as one of the demons summoned by Sin to battle Earth's heroes.
Powers and abilities
Witchfire's innate senses allow her to detect and identify all forms of mystic energy near her. Normally, she can attune these to sense non-mystical forces such as emotions or life energies. She naturally heals slightly faster than normal.
She is also skilled in the use of various magics beyond her own innate abilities. She has been trained by fellow Alpha Flight teammate Shaman in sympathetic magic, and also in magics drawing on extradimensionals such as Agamotto and Hezaba. Witchfire's spells include shields against flame, physical damage and magic; pain-inducers; and spells to end mind-control. She has a natural affinity for flame control, but generally avoids using these spells as they wake uncomfortable elements of her lost past. When she briefly regained her full memories, she transformed into a horned demonic form with greatly increased power levels and greater control over those powers. In this form, she also manifested incredible teleportation abilities, matter transformation and the opening of dimensional gates. In Witchfire's normal form, she has two tiny black horns, but she generally hides them either with her magic or by wearing her hair over them.
Upon gaining four Bloodstones, Witchfire's horns grew larger. When she obtained the fifth Bloodstone, she also grew wings, in addition to having power levels increased.