Dora Leigh, alias Godiva was a stunning British socialite and now the United Kingdom's premier superhero, who was recruited into the international crime fighting team the Global Guardians.
History
Dora was a metahuman with the power to control her hair's movement as if they were limbs, providing a high level of superhuman strength and dexterity.[1]
Global Guardians
The Global Guardians was appointed to protect Paris during the Appellaxian invasion of Earth, this was the largest theater of battle during the entire war with the alien invaders.
After many years service with the team, Dora and her fellow Global Guardians were brainwashed by Queen Bee to become the nation of Bialya's own superhero team. To keep the team in the public eye, Queen Bee had the team sent to work with the Justice League Europe to fight an invading alien robot. Dora tried to use her hair to take down the machine but became tangled up in his extending arm, forcing Metamorpho to shape shift into a giant pair of scissors and cut the robot's arm off, this moment it is revealed her aversion to scissors. Along with Olympian she catches the falling robot as it nearly falls on a group of nearby spectators.[2]
Sumaan Harjavti, the brother of the previous leader Colonl Rumaan Harjavti, decides to take back the leadership of Bialya. The Justice League infiltrated the country and confronted the Global Guardians.[3] An accident kills Little Mermaid, and the Justice League is blamed while other members of the League arrived to help with the international incident. Sumaan destroys the brainwashing facility, killing many innocent civilians. Ice manages to save most of the Global Guardians and the Justice League and the civilians. The team eventually regain control of their own minds and help in the battle against Queen Bee. Godiva herself suffers lacerations, but is alive and well after the battle. The Queen herself is shot and killed by Sumaan, who then usurps the leadership of the country.[4]
The Global Guardians eventually break up, but it's during this departure Dora and her then boyfriend Olympian are attacked by Fain Y'onia at their home in London. This particular battle ends in his retreat, not before killing Thunderlord and Bushmaster and leaving her hair burnt off in the attack. The other member of the team such as Wild Huntsman went missing in action and Tuatara was put into a coma.[5]
Post-Infinite Crisis
After the last battle, Dora's hair has grown back but had led to other problems as she had become a victim of a metahuman organ black market. Her hair had been surgically removed from her scalp leaving her bald, powerless. She then received medical treatment at a S.T.A.R. Labs facility. Delores Winters had ordered the hair to be stolen and transplanted onto her own scalp. It was revealed that she wanted the hair as she wished to feel special.[6]
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Prehensile Hair: Godiva can control the movement of her hair as if it were countless thin appendages growing from her head. A psionic field permeates her altered hair-cells, causing mutual attraction across the gaps between strands. These relatively small forces operate in conjunction to develop larger forces. Through concentration, she can move her hair in any manner imaginable. She can snap the length of it through the air like a whip, or rotate it in a fan-like manner. She can bind persons or objects with it as if it were rope or use it to lift objects which weigh more than she could lift with her arms. Her scalp, skull, and neck do not support the weight of an object that she lifts: it is held aloft by the psionic force coursing through the hair. Godiva can also perform delicate manipulations with her hair such as lock picking or threading a needle, and such complex acts of coordination as typing or shuffling a deck of cards. Although she has no nerve endings in her hair, she can "feel" sensations on all parts of her hair by a form of mental feedback from her psionic field.
Notes
- Godiva was created by E. Nelson Bridwell and Ramona Fradon, first appearing in Super Friends #7. However, in the New Earth continuity her first appearance as part of the Global Guardians is in Roy Thomas, Dann Thomas and Todd McFarlane's Infinity Inc. (Volume 1) series.
- Godiva's name and powers are a reference to Lady Godiva a figure form English legend who rode a horse through the town of Coventry naked, covered only by her own hair, as penance for her husbands oppressive rule.
Related
- 17 Appearances of Dorcas Leigh (New Earth)
- 4 Images featuring Dorcas Leigh (New Earth)
- Quotations by or about Dorcas Leigh (New Earth)
- Character Gallery: Dorcas Leigh (New Earth)
Footnotes
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