Cinder

CINDER

Real Name: Carla Moretti

Class: Human mutant? / mutate?

Occupation: Assassin, formerly soldier, Italian army

Group Affiliation: Titans III

Known Relatives: Dario (brother, deceased), Lorenzo (brother, deceased), unnamed mother

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: The Labyrinth, formerly Montsi, Italy, Rome, Italy

First Appearance: Titans: Villains For Hire Special #1 (July, 2010)

Powers: Cinder could manipulate heat and transform her body into molten lava. Cinder's molten form was capable of regeneration.

History: (Titans II #29 (fb, BTS), 30 (fb)) - Carla grew up in Montisis, Italy, and on her brothers 8^th birthdays they were blown up by a landmine. She was shocked and began to feel that life was meaningless. As a youth she would later have her life ruined by the child predator Nursery Cryme.

(Titans II #36 (fb, BTS)) - Carla enlisted in the Italian army, and became immersed in the culture of being a soldier, which taught her loyalty to her fellow warriors.

(Titans: Villains For Hire Special #1) - Cinder was haunted by her past, and dedicated her life to killing people that abused children. Deathstroke was assembling a team of assassins that he named the Titans. He chose metas with recent personal tragedies, and approached Cinder after watching her lure a molester into a hotel room and burning him to death, promising to help her kill the monsters she couldn’t reach, politicians, church figures and men of industry. The Titans were hired by serial killer Dwarfstar to kill the Atom Ryan Choi, and ambushed him at home. Deathstroke stood back and watched as his team tore into the hero, but allowed Atom a brief respite when his girlfriend Amanda knocked at his front door, so he could convince her to go away. Atom was grateful, and Deathstroke assured him that killing him was just business, they weren't looking to harm anyone else. Atom fled to his basement ant tried to activate his JLA signal, but the Titans had disabled it. The Titans wore him down, and Deathstroke made it clear he was about to die, and commended him for not begging. Deathstroke killed him with a sword through his stomach, and delivered Atom's corpse in a matchbox to Dwarfstar. Back at their headquarters Deathstroke chastised his Titans for not working better as a team. Osiris told him they weren't worthy of the heroic mantle Titans, and Deathstroke told him that he had personal reasons for naming them after the heroes he so despised.

(Titans II #24, 25) - At the Titans hq Labyrinth Slade watched a fight between Cinder and Osiris. Cinder reached out to Osiris, who was with the Titans because Slade promised to bring his “family” of Black Adam and Isis back to life, but when he laid he hand on Cinder’s shoulder she flippeds out and tried to incinerate him, telling him she hated being touched. Slade scoffed that he was working with broken humans, but vowed to mold them into what he wanted. He assembled the Titans and told them they’d been assigned to kill Lex Luthor, who’d been reappointed head of LexCorp. In truth Deathstroke had been hired by Lex to ferret out the LexCorp members that wanted him dead, but he needed the threat on his life to seem genuine. The Titans attacked Lex, and in the battle against LexCorp security Cinder exploded the LexCorp limo gas tank, and her teammates were furious at her seeming death-wish. Lex fled to the sewers with his LexCorp board members and his bodyguard, and his bodyguard revealed herself as Façade, a LexCorp project set loose on him by the board members to eliminate him. The Titans were angry at Deathstroke for having to lied about the nature of their mission, and Osiris attacked Deathstroke, but was easily put down. The mutinous LexCorp board members Cooper, Dyson and Monroe were killed, and Façade shape shifted into Cheshire in an attempt to escape, but Deathstroke simply shot both him and Cheshire, who recovered in the Titans medical bay.

(Titans II #26, 27) - Cinder created a holographic representation of the Italy of her childhood in her room, and when Tattooed Man stopped in he asked her how someone with no hope could have such beautiful memories. He told her that he’d seen death wishes like hers in the military, and was concerned with her. The Titans took a job to rescue the son of millionaire Christopher Bockman. His son had been kidnapped by Elijah, who used the innocence of children to manufacture the drug Bliss. Jade and Tattooed Man posed as investors, and Elijah showed them his facility where he processed Bliss. The Titans made their move, and Elijah defended himself with his hired met humans, the Dominators.

(Titans II #28-30) -Deathstroke was hired to liberate Allegra Garcia from Arkham Asylum, and he bribed a guard to allow his Titans the run of the asylum for the night. Cinder wanted to take time to kill Nursery Cryme, who preyed on children, and uttered her disgust at society trying to reform people like him, but Deathstroke told her to stick to the mission. Osiris stayed with the guard, and was convinced he needed to keep killing to save Isis. The guard warned him that he was no stranger to a double-cross, and had a device that would release every prisoner from their cell. Osiris killed him anyway, but the guard hit the switch before dying, and the rest of the Titans had to fight off Arkham’s lunatics. Osiris decided not to help them because they hadn’t shown him the proper respect. Cinder made her way from the rest of the group to confront Nursery Cryme. He was amazed that she was able to live with such hatred inside her from what he’d done to her, and used his hypnotic singing on her. He made her relive the tragic deaths of her brothers, and walked out of his cell, thanking her for giving him the opportunity to touch the lives of other children. Cinder promised to find him and kill him. Deathstroke entered Allegra’s cell, but was halted by Batman. Deathstroke had convinced Allegra he was on her side, and had her use her electromagnetic powers to disable the Arkham inmates security collars. Deathstroke told them they were free to play with Batman, and they allowed the Titans and Allegra to leave. Deathstroke reunited Allegra with her father in the Amazon, but she resented her dad for abandoning her, and used her powers to kill him. She told Deathstroke she wanted to join the Titans, but he told her to grow up first. At Titans Labyrinth the team grumbled about losing Osiris. Deathstroke admitted that he understood that they were getting impatient in him holding up his end pof the bargain to help them. He revealed that he’d kidnapped Slipknot, the man that killed Tattooed Man’s son Leon, and had him bound so Tattooed Man could do whatever he wanted to him.

(Titans II #31, 32) - Cinder and the Titans faith was restored in Deathstroke after seeing him fulfill his promise to the Tattooed Man. Deathstroke told him to take his revenge, and directed him to one of the levels of the Labyrinth where Slipknot was. By the time he arrived Slipknot was no longer in captivity; Deathstroke knew he’d never forgive himself if he killed a defenseless man. The Titans asked Deathstroke what he’d do if Slipknot killed him, and he said he’d offer him a job. Arsenal declined to watch the confrontation on the Titans view screen, while Cinder was glued to the action, wanting to see a child murderer get his punishment. Tattooed Man and Slipknot fought, and Tattooed Man used a barbed wire tattoo to rip off Slipknot’s head, but with his vengeance complete he still didn’t feel like a hero. Tattoeed Man told his team that he quit, and Slade warned him that he still owed him. Tattooed Man was sick of killing, and Cheshire encouraged him to walk out while he could, so he left. A disturbance in the Labyrinth led the team to Osiris’ quarters. Osiris had returned after stealing the thunder from Captain Marvel, bringing Isis back to life.

(Titans II #33-36) - Deathstroke wanted to fulfill his promise to Cheshire, and the Titans traveled to the South Pacific to deal with Cheshire’s former employee Drago. Drago had actually coerced Cheshire into getting close to Deathstroke, and she and Arsenal took the opportunity to wound Deathstroke. Drago’s men restrained Cinder, and brought Deathstroke to their master. Deathstroke recognized Drago as Daniel Rogers, a soldier he’d served with, and abandoned in Afghanistan. Drago had vowed revenge since that day, and plucked out Deathstroke’s one good eye. Drago decided to make Deathstroke enlightened like he was. He dumped him in the caverns beneath his island, and told him to survive. The caverns were filled with the failed experiments of his second-in-command Dr. Rainn. Drago turned on Arsenal, imprisoning him alongside Cinder. Arsenal escaped captivity and freed Cinder. She killed Dr. Rainn,, disgusted with the acts of torture he committed in the name of science, and agreed to trust Arsenal until the mission was over. Deathstroke’s eye healed, and he overcame Rainn’s Subhumans, and the Titans united to defeat Drago. Deathstroke was about to kill Drago, when Drago reminded him that he’d broken his promise in Afghanistan to never leave a man behind. Deathstroke spared his life, but made him promise to leave Cheshire alone. Cheshire was furious, but Deathstroke told her she lost the right to expect him to fulfill his promise to her after she stabbed him in the back. He told Cheshire and Arsenal that he’d call things even. He was not a forgiving man, but the Titans were almost done with their true goal, reviving Jericho using the Methuselah Device. Arsenal tried to quit, but Deathstroke kept him in line by threatening him, and offering him another hit of Bliss. The Titans flew out of Drago’s airspace, and were confronted by the Justice League of America, who wanted Deathstroke to answer for his role in Atom Ryan Choi’s death.

(Titans Annual II #1) - Deathstroke showed the Justice League that his plane was equipped with a nuclear self-destruct system, and he’d rather destroy himself and them than surrender. The League backed off temporarily, and allowed the Titans to fly off. The Titans landed in Kahndaq, and Deathstroke once again sought Osiris as an ally, promising to restore Black Adam. The League followed the Titans to Kahndaq, and a battle erupted, with Osiris gleefully joining in, loving the violence. Cinder fought recklessly, again allowing her death wish to take over. Tattooed Man rejoined the team, just as Deathstroke knew he would, and gave Slade the opportunity to stab Supergirl with a kryptonite sword created for him by Lex Luthor. The battle ravaged Kahndaq, and Isis had enough. She demonstrated her godlike powers, and banished the League from her country. She sent Osiris and the Titans off, telling her brother that he’d proved he was unfit to rule. The Titans returned to the Labyrinth, where Deathstroke showed them the Methuselah Device he‘d hired Sivana to build, capable of restoring health and youth. Supergirl’s blood was the last component, and Deathstroke hoped the device could restore Jericho to health.

(Titans II #37, 38) - Deathstroke regenerated Jericho with the Methuselah Device, and told the Titans it was theoretically possible to resurrect their dead loved ones if they agreed to keep following him and help him kill superheroes whose superior DNA would form the templates for the Methuselah Device to work. They all agreed, except for Cinder, who saw resurrecting the dead as an abomination. Arsenal went against Cheshire, and told her he valed the memory of their daughter more than the idea of resurrecting her. Cinder tried to destroy the Device, and the Titans brawled. Jericho was horrified; he blamed himself for the mayhem Deathstroke committed to heal him, and decided it was time to finally take responsibility for both of their lives. He possessed Deathstroke, and vowed to destroy the Device, and then himself and Slade. Cheshire, desperate to have Lain back, attacked Jericho and broke his control over his father. Cinder set off a chain reaction inside the Device, causing her apparent death, and destroying the machine.

Comments: Created by Eric Wallace, Fabrizio Fiorentino, Mike Mayhew,Sergio Arino & Walden Wong.