Crimson Cowl (Justine Hammer) - Fictional Character Biography

Fictional Character Biography

Justine claims to be the daughter of industrialist and super villain financier Justin Hammer. Despite being the daughter of one of the richest men in the world, Justine's life was not one of privilege. Justin never approved of his daughter and Justine was always trying to prove her worthiness. Justine eventually decided to follow in her father's footsteps and use the supervillain community to accumulate power for herself.

Shortly after the Avengers and the Fantastic Four seemingly died in battle with Onslaught, Justine donned the costume and name of the Crimson Cowl, an identity once used by Ultron, and like Ultron, she formed a new group of super villains called the Masters of Evil. Working for HYDRA, they hoped to win the favor of the New York crime families. All of this enraged the members of the new superhero team the Thunderbolts because they were actually another faction of the Masters of Evil led by Baron Zemo aka Citizen V. Helmut Zemo's father Heinrich was the original founder of the Masters of Evil and Helmut himself had once led the Masters in their siege on Avengers' mansion. As such the legacy of the Masters was important to Helmut and it angered him to see them now reduced to being hired mercenaries. When the Thunderbolts faced the Masters of Evil in battle she and her team escaped due to the blinding flash that accompanies the Crimson Cowl's teleportation effect. When next they fought Crimson Cowl escaped again.

After the Thunderbolts had turned on Zemo and Techno, they found themselves fugitives hated by heroes and villains alike. The Crimson Cowl saw this as an opportunity to induct the remaining Bolts into her Masters of Evil. She sent Cyclone to bait the Thunderbolts into walking into an ambush. After defeating the T-bolts she made her "proposal:" join her and enjoy all the amenities that come with being in her organization or defy her and she would tell all of the Thunderbolts' enemies how to find them. The Thunderbolts were given time to think over the situation but in the end decided they would rather take down the Crimson Cowl instead. When next they fought, it looked like the Crimson Cowl had won until Hawkeye disguised as Dreadknight saved the team. Hawkeye offered to become the new Thunderbolts leader and one of his first actions as leader was to promise the media the capture of the Masters of Evil.

The Masters began a plan to use a weather machine to blackmail world leaders for a billion dollars. The Masters' numbers had grown under the Cowl from 6 members to 25. Realizing they were outnumbered, Hawkeye decided to use Moonstone and her reputation as a traitor to infiltrate the Masters. Moonstone was tempted to side with the Masters for real but eventually decided against it and took the Cowl down instead. Moonstone unmasked the Crimson Cowl and the Thunderbolts were shocked to find she was Dallas Riordan, their former liaison to the office of the New York city mayor.

In reality, Dallas Riordan was actually the new Citizen V. She had been knocked unconscious when she began to interfere with the Cowl's plans for the weather machine. At the last moment, Justine had teleported out of her costume and placed Dallas into it. Dallas didn't tell the Thunderbolts the truth because she was still bitter about being fired as the mayor's liaison because of the Thunderbolts deception as heroes. Eventually Dallas was rescued from jail by her team the V-Battalion.

Eventually Dallas parted company with the V-Battalion after they ordered her to assassinate Henry Gyrich and she refused. Dallas came back to America to get aid from the Thunderbolts. During a battle between the V-Battalion and the Thunderbolts, the Crimson Cowl had Dallas teleported to her hideout, which was on the border of Symkaria and Latveria. Dallas was briefly held prisoner but soon escaped. She and Justine fought a long battle that ended with Dallas falling off a bridge which left her paralyzed.

Silver Sable was apparently friends with Justine and allowed her to stay in Sable's country of Symkaria when Justine moved there after inheriting her father's fortune. Silver Sable was unaware that Justine was a super villain for quite some time.

Eventually, the Crimson Cowl created a new Masters of Evil. Hawkeye, Songbird, and Plantman defeated most of them and convinced several of them that the Crimson Cowl would kill them with a bio-toxin Justine's father had surreptitiously placed in the majority of super villains he had employed over the years. Hawkeye inducted several of these Masters into the Thunderbolts. The Crimson Cowl was eventually defeated by Skein who used her powers to deconstruct Justine's costume leaving her naked even when she was put in her own cell by the Thunderbolts. Though Skein managed to stitch most of it back together for Silver Sable.