Retro Girl

Origin

When Calista Secor was seven years old, she was kidnapped and held hostage by a man her mother had been dating. The man, named Flinch, had gotten into a fight with her mother over money. Calista was rescued from the situation by Detective Christian Walker.

Her mother took off during the incident, never to be seen again. This left Calista in the temporary care of Detective Walker while he and Detective Deena Pilgrim were investigating the murder of Retro Girl, one of the most popular superheroes of the time. Unknown to anyone, the essence that empowered Retro Girl passed on to Calista, giving her some knowledge that helped Walker solve the case. She was then given over to child services.

Creation

Calista Secor was created by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming as a character in the first arc of their creator owned Powers series for Image. She was seemingly a one-off character who appeared only in the first arc but was set up to make a major return in the second volume of Powers.

Character Evolution

Initially appearing in the first story arc of Powers entitled Who Killed Retro Girl, Calista Secor's character disappeared from the series for the rest of the duration of the first volume. The character was not seen again until the opening story arc of Powers' second volume, now being published under the Icon imprint of Marvel Comics. Set nearly ten years after that original story arc, Calista was now a teenager and emerged as the new Retro Girl.

Now as Retro Girl, Calista became a prominent member of the recurring supporting cast with steady appearances from that time on. She became Christian Walker's apprentice, wanting to learn how to be a superhero from him, and became the first to know when he gained new powers.

Major Story Arcs

Legends

When the governments of the world declare powers illegal, the law-abiding population of superheroes all went into retirement, leaving the police to deal with powered criminals alone. This went on for months until Calista Secor, having fully gained the powers mysteriously transferred to her, made herself into the new Retro Girl and broke the law against powers by intervening in a situation where Christian Walker and Deena Pilgrim were outmatched by a powered criminal.

Walker recognized her immediately and confronted her at the record store where she worked part-time. She admitted it was true and explained the strange inheritance she got from the original Retro Girl. She said she believed whatever had been given to her was something that had transferred from girl to girl throughout time. She also said that Walker knew this, having met more than one of her kind, but just couldn't remember it anymore. Walker was against her breaking the law as a superhero, but Calista was insistent. Even more, she begged him to teach her how to be a superhero. Reluctantly, he agreed.

Cosmic

By pure accident, Calista discovered that Walker had been given new powers by an intergalactic organization called the Millennium Guard. She helped him on his first outing as its newest recruit and teamed up with him on occasion from then on as they fought alien threats to the Earth.

The 25 Coolest Dead Super-Heroes of All Time

When a powers-related virus was wreaking havoc on the city, Calista came to the police as Retro Girl to help. Whoever was controlling the spread of the virus was also preying on teenage girls, resulting in the morgue being filled with dozens of their corpses. These girls were like Calista, so she volunteered to go undercover to help the police track down the source.

Things did not go exactly as planned. She was taken by surprise, and the police lost track of her. While she was in captivity, her electricity-wielding captors tortured her with their power. It turned out, however, that she was playing possum until the police could locate her and she was sure they could apprehend as many people as possible. When that time came, she leapt into action with Deena Pilgrim, who had been infected and empowered by the virus. Those responsible were killed, and a cure for the virus was found.