R E A L  N A M E
Sydney Todd-Strange

F I R S T  A P P E A R A N C E
Forte (Original Series) #4
(November, 1987)

O C C U P A T I O N
Commander, UNCLE San Francisco

H I S T O R Y
A meteorologist who used a special belt to gain weather-control powers, Sydney Todd became the heroine called The Mist, and joined up with three other Seattle heroes to found the team called Forte. After a rocky start (getting on the bad list of a group called S.M.A.S.H.--Seattle Mothers Against Stupid Heroines), she became a beloved hero of the city, and the nation, and even inspired a group of college girls to form "The Mist Corps" and take after their idol. She eventually left heroing behind to join up with the UNCLE organization as an agent, and quickly rose through the ranks. During this time, a group of extra-dimensional sorcerers called the Omnicron selected her and Earth's Sorcerer Supreme, Stephen Strange, to conceive a child whose soul they were protecting, a child of great destiny. Both her and Stephen's reluctant agreement to this bizarre request led to romance, and the two fell in love and married, bringing the child called Caleb into the world. But the kidnapping of their child led to the revelation that Caleb was actually the son of Forte's dark nemesis Lucifer D'Arque, who, though dead and trapped in Hell, planned to use the child to be reborn into life--and to godhood--through a terrible ceremony. Mist and Forte raced to save Caleb and stop D'Arque, and managed to do so, at the cost of the life of Helliquin, D'Arque's servant, lover, original mother of Caleb and daughter of Forte's Dr. Jackal from the future.

Sydney eventually made the rank of Commander in UNCLE and was assigned to run the San Francisco branch, arguably the worst branch in the organization, a known dumping ground for problem agents and the last in line for resources. She got the office into shape over the years, but when her city became overrun by villains and other threats that her branch could no longer handle, she boldly decided to come out of heroic retirement and form her own hero team called Forge, while still remaining the UNCLE Commander.

A B I L I T I E S
Mist originally used a high-tech belt to access her weather-control, desolidification, force field projection and flight powers, but a mystic blast from Helliquin somehow internalized her powers. While no longer needing the belt, she keeps it as part of her costume in the hopes that enemies might think she still needs it (which has come in handy more than once). Sydney is also a fully-trained agent of UNCLE, with skills in combat training, combat driving, combat piloting, weapons, tactics and demolitions, and has vast knowledge of super-villains and other escalated threats to the nation.

P E R S O N A L I T Y
Once somewhat unsure of herself, Sydney Todd-Strange has become a confident, decisive leader, and her desperation to save the city she protects has made her rethink her previous ideas of the line between legal and not. She's wise and caring, organized and insightful, and loyal to her people, be it troops, teammates, friends or family. She's managed to get (nominal) control over her old habit of physical illness in the face of blood and carnage. She's a natural leader and motivator, and works hard to balance her (dual) professional life with her family, spending as much time with her husband and now-teenaged son as she can manage.

 

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