Alias: The Equal
Real Name: Marybeth Luton
Genre: Superhero
Powers/Special Skills: gains power to match that of her adversary
Special Weapons/Tools/Armor: none
Affiliations: The Celestials
Other Aliases: Libra
Status: active
Bio:
Marybeth’s life was average before she became a superhero. She grew up in the suburbs of Ford City, married shortly after high school, became a housewife and then a mother of three, and had basically settled down into the familiarity and comfort of her life.
But one night, as she was driving home from the grocery store in a terrible thunderstorm, she suddenly saw lying in the middle of the road a strange-looking figure. She swerved to miss it and fishtailed into a ditch. She leaped from the vehicle and ran to the person in the road, who turned out to be neither man nor woman, but alien. It was, in fact, Cal Gronfeld, who had years prior been a member of the Council of Sol, an extraterrestrial group who oversaw the happenings in our solar system. He had escaped the Council in order to come to Earth to protect it from destruction.
Finally, after all these years of living as a human-looking alien and fighting crime as the Equalizer, Cal had been located by the Council and neutralized. He was taking his dying breaths as Marybeth knelt at his side. As she tried to get him to tell her his condition, Cal transferred his otherworldly superpower into her. He told her to always use it for the betterment of the world. And then he died and his body suddenly dissolved in the rain.
Shaken, Marybeth returned home. Life went back to normal for a few days, until Marybeth was in a bank during a hold-up. All four bank robbers were huge, muscle-bound men and could easily beat anyone of the hostages to death with their fists, but Marybeth suddenly felt a surge of power course through her body. Without really thinking, she stood up and beat the living daylights out of all 4 men.
From then on out, Marybeth has realized that when she is faced with conflict, her physical abilities change according to the abilities and power of her enemy or adversary. When not challenged, she has no power, and as her foe becomes weaker, so does she.
Unable to ignore this remarkable gift, Marybeth began stopping small crimes here and there, testing her limits. But one night, she found herself face to face with the villainous Effigy, a psychopath killer made of living fire. All at once, she acquired the same power, and after her initial shock she was able to subdue effigy by creating a ring of fire around him which ate all of the oxygen necessary for him to stay alight. It was then that she realized her true potential, and dedicated her life to crime fighting. She began as the Equal, and gained notoriety as the petite, soft spoken woman who could drop weight lifters with one punch.
Sadly, the pursuit of justice became an obsession of Marybeth’s, and her family life began to suffer. She and her husband finally decided that it would be best, not only for their emotions but also for their safety, that he take the kids and move elsewhere. Marybeth channeled her sadness and loneliness into ferocity and dedication, throwing herself into her work and surviving on monthly checks from her estranged but loyal husband.
Marybeth’s actions were finally noticed by Aquarius of the Celestials, and her strange power of balance made her the perfect choice to fill the shoes of recently retired Libra. Along with the name change came a new costume and a new group of allies.
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