Known Powers:

All of Howler's powers come from an amulet she found in the wreckage of an alien spaceship. The amulet grants Howler several different powers that are all sonic in nature. She can unleash piercing sonic screams to damage or deafen foes. Howler can create a sonic wall for personal protection and fly upon waves of sound. Thanks to the amulet, she can absorb sound and use it amplify her own abilities. Lastly, Howler is virtually immune to other sound-based attacks and has a superior sense of hearing.

Several years later while exploring Azkan's ship, Howler discovered a choker that further increased her sonic powers. These new abilities include being able to change herself into sound itself and rapidly heal wounds. All of her previous powers require less effort to use as well.

Notes:

Ruth Levy was a young archeologist working on a dig in Israel, when she unearthed the wreckage of an alien spacecraft. While most of her assistants fled in fear, Ruth entered the vessel and explored. She discovered the skeleton of one of the ship's occupants. Around its neck was a pulsating amulet. A strange compulsion overcame Ruth, and she took the amulet and placed it about her neck. At that moment, she was imbued with the power of Howler.

Outside the ship, PLO terrorists raided the dig, intent upon claiming the wreck for themselves. Howler flew out of the ship and drove the terrorists off, but not before they had slain the rest of her archeological team, with the exception of her trusted assistant Akeem. A stray shot struck the ship, triggering an explosion that destroyed the wreck.

Since that day, Howler has attempted to learn all she could about her unknown alien benefactors. She has become addicted to the amulet and being separated from it causes her to go through a painful withdrawal. The amulet also compels Howler to try and locate other artifacts from the same alien race. This is almost an obsession for her. At the same time, Howler lives in fear that the aliens will return and try to take back her amulet. Another side effect of the amulet is that Howler now possesses an incredibly sultry and sexy voice.

Howler is not a particularly evil or malevolent criminal. She avoids using lethal force whenever possible. Her crimes primarily consist of raising capital to continue her search for alien artifacts. Aided by Akeem, Howler searches the world for other such artifacts.

Recently, Howler has come into the employ of a mysterious benefactor who wishes her to find a lost tribe of Aztecs that were led away from South America by a being known as Azkan. Howler believes Azkan to be a member of the same alien race that created her amulet. Thinking that Azkan has a stash of more alien artifacts, Howler has assembled a team of other supers to help her recover them. Her team includes the mercenary Daigon, the mutant husband and wife Raccoon and Panda, and Tempest, late of the Young Champions.

The mysterious benefactor turned out to be none other than the villainous Malachite, Ruler of the Malachite Isles. The master geneticist hired Howler to retrieve DNA samples from now extinct species he believes Azkan to have saved. During the trip, Agents of Malachite drugged Howler and her band and took DNA samples from each of them as well. Upon the discovery of this vile act, Howler and her band mutinied and abandoned Malachite's cronies on a disabled submarine.

In spite of abandoning Malachite's agents, the trip did not become any easier. The Tigress had been rescued from the Jade Prince and was unwillingly added to the crew. Howler herself did not mind her presence, as long as Tigress didn't interfere with the mission. But Daigon appeared to go out of her way to aggravate the situation, causing Howler to side against the armored mercenary.

Finally the Jade Princess arrived at the marker island. Tempest located the cave etchings that would lead to the lost realm of Azkan. While this was going on, Daigon again went after the Tigress, but this time the Tigress was the victor. She defeated not only Daigon, but Panda and Raccoon as well. Rather than engage in combat, Howler allowed Tigress to flee to a nearby island. With the Tigress gone, the Jade Princess continued on its way once more.

During the short voyage, Howler and Akeem attempted to decipher the instructions that would unlock the lost realm. It was an inadvertent clue from Tempest that provided Howler with the answer. The key was musical in nature.

The Jade Princess arrived at an area dominated by three small islands. An obelisk was uncovered on each of the islands. Howler provided the musical key to each obelisk via walkie-talkies. The obelisks then powered up and a fourth island shimmered into existence between the other three. Howler and her band have now entered the Lost Realm of Azkan.

Soon after Howler and Tempest were teleported inside Azkan's space ship, which had been disguised as a pyramid. The automated system identified her amulet as belonging to a being known as Zanthar and released her. Howler then proceeded to explore the alien ship to uncover knowledge and other artifacts.

During her explorations, Howler discovered a second artifact like her amulet. This one was a choker and was blue in color. However, her amulet inflicted terrible pain upon her when she tried to retrieve this new artifact. Frustrated, Howler continued to explore and did find other items that may be of interest.

Howler searched the ship's computer and uncovered the vessel's mission. Azkan was essentially an alien anthropologist studying life on Earth. He had recreated many extinct spieces from trace DNA samples and set up game preserves to watch his specimens in their natural habitats. At some point Azkan had died, leaving behind only his skeleton and pulsating blue choker.

Unknown to Howler, the aliens were physically fragile beings. They were part sonic energy, part flesh and blood. When their physical forms were disrupted, they reverted to sonic energy. Typically, each alien would have a specialized containment device nearby to house his sonic essence until a new body could be acquired. Howler's amulet actually possessed the sonic essence of a criminal by the name of Zanthar. The amulet did attempt to transfer Zanthar's essence into Ruth Levy's body, but the process was unsuccessful. Zanthar remained trapped inside the amulet, but Ruth did gain the powers of Howler.

For years Zanthar used and manipulated Howler to accomplish his goals. That goal being a return to corporeal form. Through further manipulations, Zanthar directed Howler to the ship's medical center and activated a reconstitution device. Howler screamed the sonic essence of Zanthar into the chamber where it merged with other energy and took corporeal form.

Zanthar departed the chamber a living being once more. He headed to the control center of Azkan's ship in preparation of departing this world. Power was cut to the game preserves, causing the dimensional warp to collapse. Howler and Tempest attempted to stop Zanthar but were unsuccessful. Howler and Zanthar were immune to each other's powers and Tempest wasn't powerful enough to stop the criminal on her own.

Howler came up with a desperate plan to stop the destruction of Azkan's experiment. She retrieved Azkan's choker and put it on. With Zanthar's influence gone, there was nothing to stop her. Azkan's choker tried to merge with Howler like Zanthar's amulet had attempted to. It also failed, but did modify Howler's powers a bit.

Working together, Howler and Azkan set out to stop Zanthar. They teleported several of Tempest's Young Champion teammates on board to fight Zanthar. The criminal stopped most of them but could not hold back Sapphire. The Azurian Warrior slapped Zanthar, disrupting his physical form changing him back to his sonic essence. However, his containment device was still with Howler and his essence had nowhere to go. Howler gained her final revenge by screaming at the sonic essence, causing it to spread too thin. Zanthar died as his essence was blown apart.

The damage caused by Zanthar was beyond repair. Azkan teleported all his specimens on board his ship and stored them as energy patterns before the dimensional warp could fully collapse. He then sent Howler and her allies back to the nearby Wave Runner. Then Azkan's ship lifted off and flew off into space.

Finally free of Zanthar's influence, Howler has much to consider in her life. She is widely known as a criminal, even though she doesn't consider herself one. To that end, she has asked Gladiator to see if she can be granted asylum on Sanctuary until she can sort things out.

Howler originally appeared in the Champions Rulebooks, the latest being in the 4th Edition. She has been modified for use in our campaign by Spectrum. Manipulation by Spectrum.

Appearances:

Avengers #18, 19
Young Champions #10-13, 15, 17 - Present
X-Factor #4

Awards:

Voted Best Villainess for 2002.