MARRINA
Real Name: Marrina Smallwood
Group Affiliation: Former member of Alpha Flight, former associate of the Avengers, former member of Beta Flight.
First Appearance: Alpha Flight v1 #1
Creator: John Byrne

        Thousands of years ago a colony ship of the alien Plodex, carrying thousands of eggs, crash landed on Earth. Standard operating procedure for the Plodex was to discover the dominant lifeform of a planet, imprint the eggs in the colony with the genetic data, and then send the new Plodex out to breed and conquer. In this case, something went wrong: Ninety-eight percent of the eggs were expelled, unimprinted, after the crash.

        One night roughly twenty or so years ago, Thomas Smallwood, a Newfoundland fisherman, was washed overboard in a storm and tangled in his nets. He thought he was dead until he grabbed a strangely glowing object on the sea bottom. Once freed from the sea muck the object had sufficient buoyancy to carry him back to the surface. After getting safely to dry land Smallwood took it home with him.

        After showing it to his wife Gladys, she noticed what seemed to be a form inside. Breaking it open she took out what appeared to be a very strange looking baby girl, no bigger than her two hands.

        The object was a Plodex egg, and Gladys Smallwood imprinted it with her genetic code, creating a female human/Plodex hybrid. The organism developed amphibian qualities as a compromise between the genetic information from Mrs. Smallwood and the conditions it had encountered during its long stay beneath the ocean. The Smallwoods named the little girl Marrina.

        Marrina grew up quite happily, as the community she lived in was quite small and protected its own. However, on her sixteenth birthday she demonstrated that her non-human traits went beyond looks. The Smallwoods decided to have it checked out, and eventually Marrina came to the attention of James MacDonald Hudson. She soon joined Department H as part of the Beta Flight training team. Marrina moved up to Alpha shortly after H's original disbanding by the Federal Government.

        Marrina came to know her complete origin during Alpha Flight's first encounter with the being calling himself the Master of the World. It was after this adventure that Marrina first encountered Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner. Intrigued by the notion of an underwater civilization, Marrina accompanied Prince Namor back to Atlantis, where the two soon fell in love.

        Marrina remained in Atlantis for some time, until summoned by her fellow Alphan Puck to investigate a series of murders on Toronto's waterfront. During the investigation she found that the murders were being done by another Plodex, who, having "hatched" without being imprinted, was "sampling" every genetic structure it could find. This Plodex was Marrina's genetically designed mate and its presence unleashed an uncontrollable rage in her.

        The second Plodex and its controller, the Master, were defeated by the efforts of the Sub-Mariner and Puck. Full of shame over her instinctive reactions, Marrina avoided Namor after the battle and began wandering on her own.

        During her travels Marrina was captured by the Warlord Attuma, a long time foe of Namor's. Attuma used Marrina's alien nature as a public relations ploy to turn the people of Atlantis against their prince. Marrina was rescued by a joint operation of Alpha Flight and the Avengers, but still ashamed she once again fled the scene. It took a final encounter with her Plodex "mate" before Marrina came to terms with her nature and married the Sub-Mariner.

        Their happiness was not to last, however. Marrina's association with Namor activated her Plodex reproductive system. She spawned three eggs, and transformed into a monstrous Leviathan to protect them. Namor was finally forced to kill her, using the Black Knight's Ebony Sword.

        Llan the Sorcerer informed the Master that Marrina wasn't truly dead, but "sleeping a false death beneath the waves". The truth of this pronouncement was shown when a comatose Marrina was seen in the Master's base of operations during his attempt to "save" the Earth from Kang the Conqueror. The base self-destructed, however, and Marrina has not been seen since.

        Marrina derives numerous super-human abilities from her amphibious and alien natures. She is capable of indefinite survival on either land or in water, but is at her most formidable while submerged.

        Above water Marrina possesses two main abilities: the strength that enables her to survive the ocean's depths, and an oil that she secretes from her skin. The limits of Marrina's strength have never been documented. The oil is a shared trait of all Plodex, and can blind an opponent if it gets in the opponent's eyes. It causes severe dilation of the pupils.

        In the water, she is capable of swim speeds of up to 800 knots or more. Her maneuverability, even at her highest speeds, is close to perfect. Her senses are enhanced to compensate for the lack of light at the lower depths, making it almost impossible to surprise her if she's submerged. Marrina's most unusual ability is the creation of waterspouts that stretch up to five miles long. She uses the 'spouts to travel to land-locked areas.