Known Powers:

The Empress is a young woman with powers over the four elements of the ancient world: Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. She can only access or control one element at a time and there is a delay in changing between each element. The type of effects the Empress can perform is constant from element to element. How these powers are perceived is what actually changes.

In the element of Air, the Empress can strike with blasts of compressed air, cause mini-whirlwinds to surround her foes, and create fierce winds that limit sight. In the element of earth, she can launch rams of hardened earth, will the ground to rise up and imprison her enemies, or create areas of swirling debris. The Empress can project blasts of fire, create fiery cages, and areas of pyrotechnic light in the element of fire. Lastly, her water element effects consist of streams of high pressured water, ice-like cocoons, and areas of thick fog. The Empress can fly regardless of what element she is using.

Another side effect from the crown is that the Empress has a rudimentary magical sense. With practice, this sense could be honed to finer degrees. Right now she can sense only very strong sources of magic and roughly gauge their direction.

Notes:

Angie Szymanksi was a normal college student. Her major was archaeology, partially inspired by the Indiana Jones movies. However, when it came to real world archaeology, Angie found it to be deadly dull. During a class dig in southern California, Angie unearthed a strange crown-like headpiece. Something about the crown compelled her to place it on her own head. At that instant, the crown transferred powers over the four ancient elements into Angie.

After several weeks of playing with her newfound powers, Angie dropped out of school, created a heroine costume, and became the Empress. It's a lot more exciting than archaeology!

The Empress still wears the crown that she found and for a long time believed it to be the source of her powers. However, the crown is now powerless, its energy is a part of Angie and cannot be taken away. The Empress discovered this to be true when Lady Bale attempted to steal her crown.

The Empress burst on the hero scene and met several other new heroes, Goshawk and Starburst. It was with these two that she first met her former boyfriend, Blizzard, in a wild battle at the Tanghal Tower. Together, they became founding members of X-Factor. Personally, Angie likes being the center of attention. When she is ignored, she'll tend to get even in very petty ways.

The Empress is also an employee of Heroes for Hire, working for Blizzard.

When X-Factor became responsible for Icicle, the Empress rebelled and quit the team. To her astonishment, Blizzard did not leave with her. Looking to make a clean change in her life, the Empress changed costumes and has dropped her relationship with Blizzard and took up with Impact. Turns out that she and Impact had dated while both were in high school. However, Angie hasn't bothered to tell Blizzard about the change in their relationship yet and continues to act like his girlfriend.

Recently, the services of Heroes for Hire were acquired by supermodel Shiela Grace. The group repelled a robbery attempt by Shadow Queen and Foxbat, earning the thanks of Shiela. Much to the Empress' surprise, Ms. Grace asked the elemental heroine to show up at her offices as she had a business proposition for her. The Empress is very intrigued by this notion.

The Empress' powers were designed by Spectrum. Her image is by Muskateer and is based on a character of the same name that appeared in several Villains and Vigilantes moduals.

Appearances:

Spectrum # 15, 16, 20, 22, 28, 30-32
X-Factor # 1 - 15, 17 - Present