Velocity (comics)

Velocity, (real name Carin Taylor) is an Image Comics/Top Cow Productions character from the comic series Cyberforce, created by Marc Silvestri in 1992. She is one of, if not the main character in the Cyberforce series, and often serves as the reader’s guide or eyes through the story arcs. Most of the early story arcs focused on her burgeoning friendship with the members of Cyberforce, and her struggle through meta-human teenage development. She is the younger sister of Ballistic.

Publication history
After Cyberforce, Velocity was one of the winning one-shots in the first year of the Top Cow Pilot Season, in a story written by Joe Casey with art by Kevin Maguire. Winning meant the character would get their own title, and it was announced that Casey would return and ChrisCross would provide the art. However, this team never completed an issue and the project was shelved until 2010.

Fictional character biography
She was cybernetically enhanced like the rest of Cyberforce, by a company called Cyberdata. Cyberdata was a global corporation with ambitions of world control. It was run by brilliant scientists who created advanced cybernetics technology and employed it with the creation of “Special Hazardous Operations Cyborgs”, or SHOCS for short. Velocity’s induction into the SHOCS program endowed her with supersonic speed and movement, much like the DC Comics character the Flash. She was cybernetically enhanced with a layer of Kevlar implanted beneath her skin to combat the friction generated by her high speeds. Her sister Ballistic, Cassie Lane, is a part-time member of Cyberforce. Despite the level of development undergone by Carin at the hands of Cyberdata, she was never transformed into a fully operational SHOC, as her psychological profile was never wiped and re-instated into a more appropriately amoral and obedient state better suited to the needs and desires of Cyberdata. Carin's memories appear not so much to have been erased as suppressed, as under duress, she starts to recover fragments of her memories. She has vignettes of her life as a child, playing ball with her sister and father, and already beginning to display her power. Another vignette reveals that her father left, or died, and her mother entered into another relationship with an unnamed but abusive man. Matters come to a head one evening and her sister winds up killing this abusive man, while Carin runs at super-speed to find a police officer. As Velocity, she was the taken hostage several times, being constantly rescued and retaken by both Cyberdata and Cyberforce until later in the series, when she developed more as a character capable of standing side by side with the rest of the Cyberforce characters.

At her introduction she is sixteen years of age, and a runaway from the Cyberdata forces. Initially, it was not revealed that Cassie Lane, (aka Ballistic) is Carin’s sister. They share a different last name as their real father, Frank Taylor, abandoned them to an orphanage, and Ballistic presumably adopted the different name to distance herself from the memory. After their father had abandoned them, both sisters wound up in an orphanage run by Mother May I, a mysterious woman with a red third eye in the middle of her forehead. During this time Velocity received her trademark lightning tattoo over her eye, a gift from the resident bully of the orphanage. Soon after she was adopted by Cyberdata through the operative called Mother May I. Mother May I was running the orphanage at the time and saw Carin’s potential for cybernetic enhancement. Carin was then subsequently given/sold to Cyberdata. It seems as though Velocity spends a fair amount of time being captured by Cyberdata and subsequently rescued, although in such shenanigans more bits of her history and possible futures are revealed; for example, in issue #11, a virtual-reality simulation shows what Velocity might have turned out like had her conversion to a S.H.O.C. been completed. She was SHOC trained and implanted with a Brain Box, an invention of Cyberdata’s that allowed for the natural difficulties of cybernetic implants and adjustments to be overcome. Primarily, in Carin’s case, the Brain Box allowed her to run faster without overloading her brain or body with the chemicals naturally produced by the body with any muscle movement. It also allowed her to make directional adjustments to avoid obstacles when travelling at high speeds.

Velocity has her own limited series in 1995; she is assisted in part by Savage Dragon.

Shattered Image
Around this time Velocity is one of the few superheros actively aware that reality was breaking down into six different sub-Earths. She works with the few others aware of this, such as Savage Dragon, Shadowhawk, Ripclaw, Spawn, Barbaric, Savant and Zealot. Velocity and her teammate represent one of the six realities and ultimately, Ripclaw convinces her to go with Heatwave's recommendation and let their earth go off on its own. Despite this, their world reforms with the other 'continuities' soon after.

Cyberforce
In the first series of Cyberforce, in issue #30, Carin writes in her journal, hinting at a crush she has on Heatwave, (aka Dylan Cruise) although this was only construed as a mere crush, as Carin was still underage at the time. Later in the series, affections begin to manifest between Ripclaw (aka Robert Bearclaw/Berresford) and Carin, although this was never realised because the comic’s first series ended shortly after. The series closed with Ripclaw and Velocity heading towards Antarctica to try to find the alien technology usurped by Cyberdata which eventually led to the development of the technology which created Cyberforce and the other SHOCS. At Cyberdata’s final destruction, the company released a virus meant to kill all those on the planet infected with the alien technology found in Antarctica. In the Marc Silvestri re-introduction of Cyberforce, Ripclaw and Velocity are betrayed by the captain of the vessel they used to reach Antarctica, and flee to the ruins. Once inside, the tunnel collapses, burying them alive. Ripclaw, weakened by the virus, is killed by the Russian Captain of the ship, and Carin kills the captain. Carin buries Ripclaw in a shallow grave and resigns herself to die.

Rising From the Ashes
In the newest series of Cyberforce, released in June, 2006, Carin undergoes a transformation in the ruins of the alien ship which removes the tattoo scar from over her eye and gives her a new, older look. The previously established relationship between herself and Ripclaw is tentatively explored during the first story arc, where the two are seen grasping hand and holding one another.

First Born
Velocity was briefly taken over by the Angelus, until it was driven out by Cyblade.

Cyberforce/Hunter-Killer
Carin was the first to become alerted when Cyberforce's base on Mikquit Island was attacked by a Hunter-Killer squad. She took point and grabbed Samantha Argent and dragged her off, until Architect stopped her by restructuring the island. When the two teams started working together against Morningstar and Cyberdata she, Cyblade and Samantha attacked Cyberdata's San Francisco server. However she was captured and, along with Cyblade and Wolf, connected to Cyberdata's server in order that Cyberdata could speak through them. When she was released, it was revealed that she and 12 million others world-wide were being mind controlled and given new Ultra-Sapien abilities via their Jett phones. She recovered when Damper plugged himself into the Jett network.

Powers and abilities
Carin can run at speeds in excess of 10,000 miles per hour, but has yet to max out her speed for fear that she could rip the world to pieces. She has been shown to sustain speeds in excess of Mach 3, as when she destroyed a warship from within while saving Cyberforce from an updated killer robot. Cyberdata cybernetically implanted layers of Kevlar under her skin to avoid friction burns. Her speed also grants her super fast reflexes. In issue #31, when she spends a day with her sister Cassie, Carin also demonstrates that her eyes can move at an incredible pace as well, allowing her to follow the path of a card while playing a game of three-card monte. The Brain Box also enhances her reaction time and ability to process sensory input, so she will be able to control herself and understand what she sees and hears when moving at high speed.

Lately she has gained Ultra-Sapien abilities. When activated, these allow her to sprout sharp ridges along the outer length of her arms and legs, as well as the ability to quickly heal from injuries.