Maddie Warner - Character History

Character History

Madeline Warner was born Madeline Moyer. She was an agent of F.L.A.G., a U.S. government organization that deals with threats posed by superhuman beings, though she used the cover of an award-winning investigative journalist. Her partner was Augie Ford. She first met Captain Dynamo (aka William Warner), the much-beloved protector of Tower City during a mission in which Dynamo saved her from the supervillain Red Scare. She eventually ended an engagement with a man named Tom in order to be with Captain Dynamo. They eventually married, though over the years, Dynamo's career as a costumed crimefighter often kept him away from home for extended periods of time, which put a strain on their marriage. Dynamo's absences were partially due to the numerous extramarital affairs that he had, including one in which he fathered a daughter with his archenemy, Chrysalis, whom he helped to raise, though Warner was unaware of this. Warner eventually retired from F.L.A.G. Following an argument with Warner over his absences, Dynamo engaged in a sexual liaison with the assassin Widowmaker, who killed Dynamo for an as-yet-unnamed client.

Although Warner did not know this at the time, she did suspect that the condition and setting in which his body was found was not natural, but arranged by whoever murdered him in order to further tarnish his image. In sorting through his personal effects, Warner discovered his little black book, which was filled with detailed information on countless incidents of infidelity on his part. Although devastated by the extent of her late husband’s indiscretions, Warner was faced with the problem of Dynamo’s numerous enemies, who would now take advantage of Tower City in his absence. Although other superheroes attempted to pitch in to keep the peace, Warner decided that Tower City needed a permanent protector.

Scouring through the information she gleaned from her husband’s belongings, she located five young people she believed could be his illegitimate children: Vancouver, British Columbia high school geek Hector Chang, Washington DC law student and activist Olivia “Livvie” Lewis, aimless ne'er do well and ladies’ man Spencer Bridges, Hollywood, California theater employee and NYU Film School graduate Bridget Flynn, and Eastbridge, Texas high school football star Gage Reinhart. Gathering them together, Warner exposed the five to the same radiation that Dynamo had been exposed to forty years earlier, unlocking their own latent superhuman abilities, with each one manifesting one of the five powers that their father possessed. Donning costumes and codenames, the five of them carry on his legacy as the superhero team the Dynamo 5, while coming to terms with learning about the father they never knew, and the four new half-siblings they each now have. Warner is determined to mold them not only into a team, but into a family as well, and functions as their mentor and “unofficial sixth member”, keeping in constant remote contact with them during their missions from the Aquarium, the same headquarters once used by Captain Dynamo.

Warner learned that Captain Dynamo also fathered Synergy with Chrysalis, and helped raise her, when the two supervillainesses kidnapped Warner. Warner foiled their attempt to murder her, had Scatterbrain wipe Synergy's memories, and left her in the care of a parish orphanage.

Warner was eventually confronted by Widowmaker, who invaded the Aquarium with a group of the team's assembled adversaries, for the purpose of killing the team. Widowmaker revealed that it was she who killed Captain Dynamo. During the encounter, Warner fell into a comatose state as a result of a telepathic attack by the villainess Brains. She was eventually brought out of this state by the telepath Scatterbrain.

In a 2009 storyline, it was revealed that when Warner left her fiance two weeks before their wedding 20 years previously, they had a son, Michael who was a few years old at the time. Michael tried to get revenge on Warner by allying himself with Synergy, with whom he erased Dynamo 5's powers and captured them, with the intention of killing them. However, the team freed themselves and restored their powers, and when Synergy discovered that Michael had no intention of helping her free her own imprisoned mother, she abandoned him, leaving him for Dynamo 5 to turn him over to the authorities.