Vamp's History
Nothing has yet been revealed about the origin of the woman known as the Vamp. She was secretly a member of the subversive criminal organization called the Corporation and was the lover of Senator Eugene Kligger Stivak, the head of Corporation-East, the division of the Corporation that dealt with operations in the eastern half of the United States.
Presumably through genetic manipulation, Corporation scientists endowed the Vamp with the ability to transform herself into the Animus, a humanoid being with an enormous head, no female sexual characteristics (at least on the upper half of her body), and great psionic abilities. Stivak himself triggered her transformations by remote control through a device in his possession.
Aware that the Corporation employed agents with real or artificial superhuman abilities, the international law enforcement agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D. organized its own team of "super-agents" to combat them. Each of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Super Agents had either actual superhuman powers, in the case of the Texas Twister, or artificial superhuman abilities, given them by special devices, such as Marvel Man (now known as Quasar) and the Blue Streak. Two of the Super-Agents, the Blue Streak and the Vamp, were secretly double agents who actually served the Corporation. It is not known how the Corporation managed to place these two agents within S.H.I.E.L.D. undetected.
Apparently the Vamp was chosen to become a S.H.I.E.L.D. Super-Agent due to her excellent ability at hand-to-hand combat. S.H.I.E.L.D. was unaware of her power to become the Animus. Instead, S.H.I.E.L.D. gave her an "absorbo-belt" which enabled her to duplicate within herself the powers and skills of another person within certain limits. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Public Director Nick Fury wanted to give her the code name of "Femme Force," but she chose the name "Vamp" instead.
As the Animus the Vamp made repeated but unsuccessful efforts to kill Captain America, an opponent of the Corporation. Later, Captain America realized that one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. Super-Agents was a Corporation agent and confronted the four Super-Agents. The Blue Streak revealed himself to be a Corporation agent while battling Captain America. Pretending to be trying to halt him because he was a traitor to S.H.I.E.L.D., the Vamp attacked the Blue Streak and tried to kill him until Captain America stopped her.
Captain America, Marvel Man, and the Vamp then went to Alcatrax Island in San Francisco Bay, where the Corporation was holding Captain America's ally the Falcon prisoner. Arriving, they found that the Corporation was also holding Bruce Banner, the alter ego of the Hulk, captive. Captain America and Marvel Man were confronted by Stivak and Corporation-West leader Curtiss Jackson, and the Vamp revealed herself to be a Corporation agent. A battle ensued during which Marvel Man freed Banner, who transformed into the Hulk. Stivak then triggered the Vamp's transformation into the Animus, in which form she had enough power to battle the Hulk. But the Hulk smashed the crystalline club that the Animus carried and that stored most of her psionic energies. The destruction of the club caused the Animus to turn back into the Vamp, but she had fallen into a catatonic state from the mental shock the smashing of the club had caused her. Stivak was killed, Jackson escaped, and Captain America, Marvel Man, and the freed Falcon turned the Vamp over to S.H.I.E.L.D.
It is not known exactly what happened to the Vamp then. Somehow she regained full consciousness and was convicted, but somehow regained her freedom. Presumably she no longer possessed the absorbo-belt, and it is unknown whether or not she could still become the Animus. She apparently became a free-lance professional criminal and operated for at least a time in the American Midwest.
The Vamp was invited by Gary Gilbert, who was formerly the costumed criminal Firebrand, to attend a meeting of costumed criminals to discuss possible strategies to use against Scourge, the mysterious vigilante who was assassinating such criminals. The meeting was held at the "bar with no name" in Medina County, Ohio, one of a number of similar secret meeting places for criminals. However, despite Gilbert's precautions, Scourge showed up at the meeting disguised as the bartender and shot the Vamp and all the other criminals present with explosive bullets.
Arnim Zola collected the remains of some of the criminals at that meeting in order to clone them; Vamp's remains were among those. Zola allowed Vamp's cloned to engage in similar criminal activities as if she had never died, in order to collect money for his future experiments. The clone was hired by one of Typhoid Mary's personalities to assassinate herself; this job brought her up against the hero known as Deadpool. Later, Deadpool infiltrated Arnim Zola's lab and destroyed all the clones from the Bar With No Name, including Vamp's.
