He is also my dad. His real name is Bart J. Holcomb.
Mom died when I was six years old, leaving just me and my dad. My dad was already knee deep in the super hero thing by then, and suddenly he was also a single parent.
You may have met my dad. He's been all over the world, fighting evil, righting wrongs, helping to rebuild after major natural disasters. If you haven't met my dad, then you've definitely heard of him.
He was named Bart after my great great grandfather, Bartholomew Holcomb. Bartholomew was some kind of baron and slave owner - a real captain of industry type - and my grandmother apparently thought the world of him. But my dad always hated the name Bart - he hated the way it sounded, and the history of the scummy ancestor it came from. Moreover, my dad always felt he needed to make up for his family's sins - hence Fusionman.
Fusionman is the brain child of my dad's work at ITER and, later, with DARPA. He was the child genius who made sustainable, energy positive fusion possible. But for him, that wasn't enough - nothing ever was. My dad wanted to save the world directly, get out there and blow up the bad guys.
So, he built himself an arsenal, fueled by the fusion power he had made possible and then miniaturized, and then set out saving the world one person at a time.
Unfortunately for me, I was not dad's top priority. To be honest, after my mother died, I probably saw less of him than before. I think it might be because I remind my dad of my mother. Whatever the reason, I went the next 12 years with an absentee father who, on the off chance he hung around for a few days, would just moralize at me incessantly.
During my childhood I remember seeing dad on the news all the time. Fusionman saves Paris, Fusionman stops meteor, Fusionman defeats sea monster. All the while I would be at home with the nanny wondering when my dad would have time for me. When would Fusionman return to save his own daughter from crushing loneliness?
I guess my opening line answers that question well enough - never. Dad never had time for me, only for every other person on the face of the Earth. Needless to say, I grew a bit sour about that, started to hold a grudge - against him, against everyone.
I also inherited my dad's brain for engineering, and often broke into his lab while he was away and tinkered on his suits and vehicles, learning how he made them and, eventually, learning to make them myself.
It all came to a head on my 17th birthday. I'd been working on a suit of my own for over a year. I had all the same powers my dad had - flight, rockets, lasers, armor, the works. The only thing I hadn't done was paint it. I had two coats ready - one was a pink and white combo, the other a darker black and red.
In my head, I gave my dad an ultimatum, if he made it to my 17th birthday, even for a few minutes, then I would paint it pink and white and become Fusiongirl, and we could save the world together.
But if he didn't - if he missed it like he'd missed so many others, that would be it for me. I would paint the suit black and red and become Vengeance.
Truth is, I really wanted him to come. I waited until midnight, until the last possible second, and only then did I call it. I found out later he was busy responding to an earthquake in Chile.
I painted the suit that night and sent him an email the next morning, announcing my decision, and my rationale, excoriating Bart, Fusionman, my dad, for his lack of fatherly support, his failure of empathy, and for generally being a shitty parent. For all of these reasons, I said, I will become Vengeance.
And you know the crazy thing - for the first time ever, he really heard me and responded. He understood my motivations and apologized for his failings as a father. He basically mea culpa'd me via email and then, at the end, said though he respected my decision, of course he would have to fight me, tooth and nail, if I persisted. As he said "I may not always agree with you, I may not always like you, but I'll always love you."
Can you believe that righteous bullshit?
That was three years ago, and now we fight every few months. When I see him, floating in mid air, weapons poised, I hardly even think of him as dad anymore. And he never calls me anything but Vengeance.
Sometimes I feel like he pulls his punches, but I never do. As far as I'm concerned, he isn't my father. I have no father. There is only Fusionman, my arch nemesis.
[Photo Credit]
[1]By Original works: Vegas Bleeds NeonDerivative work: FRacco [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
