Whisper A'Daire
Whisper A'Daire is a fictional character in DC Comics. She is an operative of the League of Assassins headed by Ra's al Ghul, who is primarily one of the archenemies of the superhero Batman.
| Whisper A'Daire | |
|---|---|
 Interior artwork from Batman: Gotham City Secret Files and Origins vol. 1, 1 (April 2000 DC Comics). Art by Michael Blair. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Detective Comics #743 (April 2000) |
| Created by | Greg Rucka (writer) Shawn Martinbrough (artist) |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Whisper A'Daire |
| Team affiliations | Intergang League of Assassins |
| Abilities | Longevity, shapeshifting into a snake-like form, hypnosis, venom secretion, moulting. |
Publication history
Whisper A'Daire first appears in Detective Comics #743 and was created by Greg Rucka.[1]
Fictional character biography
An operative for the League of Assassins served under its immortal leader Ra's al Ghul, Ra's gave Whisper a serum that grants her longevity and the ability to shapeshift. Partnered with Kyle Abbot, officially her bodyguard, she is a snake lady, and Kyle himself a wolf man. When Batman tries to free her from the immortal mastermind, Whisper refuses his help and disappears.
The same serum allows her to create a small group of men who also have the ability to shapeshift into different animals. Usually the redhead seductress uses her mind control to force them to obey her orders, though a stronger mind can break free from hers by clinging to his free will.
52
Whisper resurfaces in 52 week 11, with the formal role of a manager for HSC International Banking, a company connected with Intergang, which is flooding Gotham with strange futuristic weaponry. Confronted by the Question and ex-police officer Renee Montoya, she is able to flee without giving away other details of her current mission. In Kahndaq, Whisper is revealed as the leader of the Cult of Cain. Using her powers, Whisper brainwashes kidnapped children into being Intergang operatives. Whisper is confronted by Montoya, the Question, Black Adam and Isis and flees.
She resurfaces several weeks later in Gotham, helping Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim fathom the secrets of the "Bible of Crime". Discovering that "the twice named daughter of Kaine", is Kate Kane, the Batwoman, she officiates with Bruno a rite meant to drown Gotham in a fire pit, sacrificing Kate while activating alien devices all over Gotham. With Batwoman drugged, shackled, and gagged, Whisper and Mannheim attempt to kill her with a sacrificial dagger, but once again, her bodyguard betrays her, siding with Nightwing and Renee Montoya. Nightwing is sent to interrupt the rite. In the ensuring fight Whisper is badly burnt.
A burn-scarred Whisper A'daire shows up in Africa when the Justice League come to assist Vixen in liberating Zambesi villages from a local warlord name Kwesi. A'daire – representing Intergang interests – had been supplying Kwesi with advanced technology in order for him to appear metahuman or supernatural. She also gave him a modified datura based Vodun zombie poison that was effective on Superman as well as humans. Superman and Black Canary fell victim to the poison and, under A'daire's thrall, were forced to battle the other members of the Justice League.[2]
Powers and abilities
Whisper is a shapeshifter who takes Ra's serum on a regular basis. Ra's serum spliced Whisper's genetics with a king cobra's DNA, granting her some of its abilities include secreting venomous poison, enhanced reflexes, and speed of this particular reptile. Though her routine usage with Ra's drugs has slowed her physical aging process thus prolonging her lifespan, Whisper is not an immortal despite her belief. Because of her engagement with Ra's serum, Whisper has developed a drug dependency to its addictive stimulus.
Appearing to be in her late twenties, she is at least eighty years old and keeps her appearance youthful by shedding her skin like a reptile. Her shapeshifting abilities allow her to transform between her basic human form and a snake-like form, scaly and with slit-like irises and a forked tongue.
She has some form of mind control or mesmerization that apparently relies on eye contact, as Whisper is unable to control the faceless Question, but succeeds in forcing Renee to give her a name. Whisper has always been described as a seductress, so after establishing a first contact with the subject, she can rely on her charms and her voice to keep him (or her) under her thrall.
Even though Whisper is considered to be a metahuman as the result of her mutation, she prefers to rely on her deceptive defenseless appearance and her mind control abilities to avoid any fight, having always around her a small number of expendable henchmen, or fleeing shortly before being discovered.
In other media
Television
- Whisper A'Daire appears in the Young Justice episode "Disordered" voiced by Grey DeLisle. Superboy and the Forever People stumble upon Whisper and the rest of Intergang while the criminals are robbing an underground gold vault using weapons and technology from Apokolips. Though her cohorts manage to escape, Whisper is captured by Infinity-Man. Beautiful Dreamer then probes her mind to learn that the weapons were given to Intergang by Desaad. In the second-season episode "Salvage", Whisper works with Bruno to use a special technology to merge the Appellaxian host bodies into one Appellaxian Golem. The two successfully use the Appellaxian Golem to defeat Superboy and the Blue Beetle, but were unable to stop the two from destroying their control device. Notably, Whisper showed some compassion for the Appellaxian Golem and put up no resistance when Blue Beetle strapped her and Mannheim to trees. Whisper and Bruno are later put into a catatonic-like state by Sportsmaster as a warning to anyone who goes against The Light, suggesting the two were operating independently. She returns in Young Justice: Outsiders, fully recovered and continuing to further Intergang's goals, such as stealing Reach technology.
Video Games
- Whisper A'Daire appears in DC Universe Online voiced by Jenny Larson. In the hero and villain campaign, she is encountered in the Intergang Warehouse with Kyle Abbot after Batwoman gets captured. She attacks the players after Kyle Abbot's defeat and ends up defeated as well. Whisper A'Daire had telekinesis as opposed to her mainstream powers of shapeshifting, but has since been giving control over snakes, a more canon ability as opposed to her telekinetic abilities.
References
- Greenberger, Robert (2008). The Essential Batman Encyclopedia. Del Rey. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9780345501066.
- Vixen: Return of the Lion #1-5, DC Comics, (2008-09)