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Skein

Skein

Sybil Dvorak

Prime Marvel Universe

Skein's History

Sybil Dvorak was born and raised in Foc�?ani, Romania. She is a mutant whose powers manifested themselves while she was a child. Raised by gypsies, she had spent much time alone nurturing and focusing her mental abilities. In her late teens, she met a handsome middle-aged American actor named Jason Reed who was starring in a foreign-financed remake of the movie Dracula. Seduced by him, she agreed to accompany him to Hollywood, California as his mistress. The glamour and excitement of being in America, in love with a wealthy actor soon faded when Reed spent increasingly more time away from home. Her citizenship papers not yet processed, and still not speaking English fluently, Dvorak felt like a prisoner in the actor's home. She soon began to suspect that Reed was having affairs with other Hollywood starlets. One night she used her powers to weave herself wings and a disguise, and began to scour the haunts of the rich and famous in search of her errant lover.

Gypsy Moth

The sight of these social gatherings, which she felt she could never be a part of, provoked her to use her powers to adopt the identity of the Gypsy Moth and begin preying upon socialites. This brought her to the attention of the original Spider-Woman, who mistakenly believed that Dvorak was one of the High Evolutionary's creations. Though Drew tried to befriend the woman, and even blasted then-boyfriend Jerry Hunt in the face to prevent him from shooting out Gypsy Moth's wings, Dvorak rebuffed her.

She was battling Spider-Woman in San Francisco when the hero disappeared as she was taken away to take part in the Contest of Champions.

Eventually, The Gypsy Moth received her American citizenship and an inclusion in Reed's will. Soon afterward, Jason Reed died and Dvorak inherited his home and wealth. She used it to start a hedonistic cult of drugs and decadence that worshiped her as their queen.

Spider-Woman found the Gypsy Moth, Shroud, Tigra, the Werewolf, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Flying Tiger, and Tatterdemalion all as prisoners of the Locksmith. The two women cooperated to escape from the cell. Sybill was invited with other heroes to Jessica's apartment.

Night Shift

At some point later, the Gypsy Moth agreed to join the vigilante Shroud, who was forming a team of criminals called the Night Shift. The team battled Moon Knight. As a member of the Night Shift, the Gypsy Moth battled the Avengers West Coast on several occasions, including the time the Night Shift sold their souls to the demon Satannish in exchange for increasing their powers. Time and again the Night Shift was defeated. Eventually the Gypsy Moth quit the group and gave up her cult.

Masters Of Evil / Thunderbolts

The Crimson Cowl recruited the Gypsy Moth for her new incarnation of the Masters Of Evil. The Gypsy Moth was convinced by Hawkeye to turn on the Masters of Evil and joined his group, the Thunderbolts. As a member of the Thunderbolts, the Gypsy Moth recreated herself and adopted the new identity Skein. Though she was very cooperative, her flighty demeanor and romantic overtures towards teammate Songbird caused her teammates to discourage her from staying on when the team expanded and reorganized, and so Skein quit and returned to Hamburg.

Women Warriors

During Dark Reign; she joined the Women Warriors, a female team part of the Initiative as the Delaware team.

In that team and along with Constrictor, she confronted the R.A.I.D., and later participated in Osborn's attack on Asgard.

Spider-Island

During the Spider-Island event, she was hired by the Spider Queen to abduct Alicia Masters. She used her powers on Jessica Drew to seal her mouth shut and dressed her in a Gypsy Moth suit. This lead to a fight with the Thing who was trying to rescue Alicia. However the gag was removed and Alicia was rescued.

Menagerie

Skein is later seen as a member of White Rabbit's group The Menagerie as they were leaving the scene of a heist they pulled off involving Easter eggs. They were eventually stopped by Spider-Man.

Pleasant Hill

At some point in time, she was imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Pleasant Hill, a prison in the form of a small town where its inmates had their memories and appearances tampered with using a sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik, so they could be turned into model citizens. When a group of villains led by Baron Zemo snapped out of this fantasy world and returned to their true selves, they attacked the village from within, wrecking havoc and freeing the other prisoners from Pleasant Hill's control. She was one of these numerous villains. When the bad guys took notice of the presence of the Avengers on the scene, they used their numbers to their advantage and mercilessly struck down the heroes. However, Kobik took pity on the Avengers and healed them.

Death & Rebirth

Skein, White Rabbit and Jessica Jones, all three women with low-level powers, were similarly shot in the head the same week by the evil duplicate of Jared Beekman. Both Skein and White Rabbit appeared to be permanently dead, while Jones survived.

After the real Jared Beekman reabsorbed his evil duplicate, both White Rabbit and Skein woke up in the morgue suspecting that with the elimination of the evil Jared all his crimes were undone.