History
Adeline had been brought up as a jet setting, wealthy, careless playgirl, despite being trained by a father who had worked with Chinese guerrilla forces. But, after a traumatic first marriage at nineteen, she joined the U.S. military, where she met, trained, and married Slade Wilson. After Slade left the military, due to a) the supposed failure of the experiment he had undergone and b) his refusal of a direct order so that he could retrieve Major Wintergreen, Slade and Adeline took up the socialite lifestyle Adeline had been raised to.
Unbeknownst to her, Slade was using his hunting trips to gain clients for his mercenary side job, which resulted in the kidnapping and near-death of their younger son, Joseph. Enraged and betrayed by Slade's prioritization of Deathstroke's honor code over their son's well-being, Adeline shot her husband and, when he survived, served him with divorce papers.
In the long run, that might have been a poor choice. Grant, who had idolized his father, rebelled against his mother and ran away to New York, where he ran into the Titans and ended up dying due to his alliance with the H.I.V.E.. Slade vowed to pick up his dead son's contract against the Teen Titans; Adeline promptly interfered. She blamed Slade for Grant's death. Due to Adeline's intervention, Joseph, who had been working with her, joined the Titans as Jericho.
In the long run, that also might have been a bad choice: Joseph eventually became possessed by the spirits of Azarath. Begging his father to kill him in order to prevent the corrupted spirits from achieving their purpose, Adeline's only remaining son died at her husband's hand.
Adeline found this out from one of her Searchers Inc. agents, rather than from Slade himself, which merely cemented her long-held grudge against her ex-husband.
Slade, however, held no grudge against her, keeping an eye out for her safety and attempting to aid her when he thought he could get away with it, e.g. when Adeline had been abducted by her first husband, Morel, aka Count Tavolara, who had poisoned her in an attempt to force her to work with him to discover her ancestor Josiah Kane's treasure.
To save Adeline's life, Slade gave her some of his own, serum-altered blood. This ended up driving her crazy; Slade's genotype had a unique mutation which enabled him to effectively metabolize his serum. Other, less fortunate people either died or went mad.
For a time, Adeline went underground, slowly losing more and more of her normal cognitive abilities, though none of her tactical skills. She turned herself into the H.I.V.E. Mistress, in her madness focusing on superheroes as the reason for her sons' death and creating a plan to kill all the capes she could.
Her plot resulted in her death. Vandal Savage put a team together to take advantage of Adeline's plan, intending to take her immortal blood to create a sort of Fountain of Youth potion. With her throat cut, unable to die and yet unable to fully heal, Adeline regained her sanity briefly and pleaded with Slade (who had learned of her involvement and arrived to try and save her) to kill her and reunite her with their children. He was unable to comply with her request, and Starfire killed her instead.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Immortality: After receiving a blood transfusion from her husband Slade, Adeline became unable to die from physical trauma or aging as long as her brain was intact but could be killed if her entire body was destroyed.[1]
Abilities
- Eidetic Memory[2]
- Firearms
- Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced)
- Tactician: Adeline specialized in training the soldiers under her in strategies designed to decimate a group of opponents.
Paraphernalia
Weapons
- Firearms
- Black Lantern Ring (Formerly)
Notes
- Although this character was originally introduced during DC's Earth-One era of publication, their existence following the events of the 1985–86 limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths remains intact. However, some elements of the character's Pre-Crisis history may have been altered or removed for Post-Crisis New Earth continuity, and should be considered apocryphal.
Trivia
- According to Vandal Savage, Adeline had Type O Blood, making her a universal blood donor.[1]
Related
- 63 Appearances of Adeline Kane (New Earth)
- 9 Images featuring Adeline Kane (New Earth)
- 1 Quotations by or about Adeline Kane (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Adeline Kane (New Earth)
External Links
Footnotes
  This character has been primarily an enemy of the Teen Titans, the Titans, or any of the other various Titans incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Titans Villains" category. |
 This character is or was a member of H.I.V.E., a criminal organization that specializes in training assassins and mercenaries, in any of its various incarnations. |
 Black Lantern Corps member |