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    The Bionic Woman

    Character » The Bionic Woman appears in 134 issues.

    A parachuting accident caused tennis pro Jaime Sommers to undergo bionic replacement surgery, to become the world's first female cyborg.

    Short summary describing this character.

    The Bionic Woman last edited by fred9101 on 01/04/24 07:17AM View full history

    Current Events

    Showing another cyborg who is boss.
    Showing another cyborg who is boss.

    After tracking down the other cyborg to a rooftop, he proceeds to throw Nora off of the roof. Jamie tries to follow her but she is stopped by him. She attacks him and defeats him and heads below to find out that Nora has survived the fall (by landing on a car.) She urges the medical personnel to do what they can to save her short of turning her into a bionic person as well. At that moment the other cyborg returns and tries to run over Jamie with a truck. She stops him by hacking into his brain. In the immediate vicinity someone is watching and descends into a secret lair where it is revealed that there is an army of female robotic or bionic soldiers being prepared to fight Jamie.

    History

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    Sommers was a world-class tennis player, and Col. Steve Austin's childhood sweetheart. The two drifted apart when Austin became an astronaut. Years later, after Austin's own accident that led him to becoming the Six Million Dollar Man, the two reunited in Ojai, California and soon fell in love. Austin proposed and she accepted. But a few days later, while parachuting, Sommers' parachute malfunctioned and she fell to earth. Her injuries were massive, and paralleled Austin's own from earlier: both legs destroyed, her right arm torn away, and rendered deaf in her right ear. Austin pushed for Oscar Goldman and the Office of Scientific Intelligence to rebuild her. Goldman agrees, but makes Austin aware that Sommers will be asked to become an agent. The bionic surgery, overseen by Dr. Rudy Wells, replaces Sommers arm and legs with similar super-powered bionics capable of rendering her with superhuman strength, speed, and jumping ability. Her right ear is replaced with a super-sensitive listening device capable of selectively detecting a pin drop from a mile away. The cost of these replacements is never revealed, but Goldman indicates the cost is less than Austin's $6 million due to the parts being smaller.

    Sommers willingly becomes an OSI agent, over Austin's objections. But she soon begins experiencing rejection of the bionic limbs, causing psychosis and pain. Ultimately, she dies on the operating table as Wells and his team try to save her. Austin believes her to be dead, but in fact one of Wells' team members tries an experimental procedure that keeps her alive while the blood clot in her brain was removed.

    Austin is not aware of her survival until months later. But while Sommers has survived with her bionic abilities intact, she has lost all memory of her relationship with Austin. And initially any attempt to remember her past results in the same pain and psychosis that brought about her death earlier. Sommers and Austin agree to remain friends, but their romantic relationship, for now, is over. Sommers goes on to serve the OSI with distinction for several years, before resigning from the organization, although she would later return to work with the OSI in the 1980s and 90s and reignite her relationship with Austin, leading to the two finally marrying.

    Sommers was played by Lindsay Wagner in the original series, which ran from 1976 to 1978. She later reprised the role in three TV movies produced between 1987 and 1994 (in the last film, Sommers' bionics receive a major upgrade that, among other things, give her bionic vision similar to Steve's).

    Relaunch

    Michelle Ryan
    Michelle Ryan

    In 2007, NBC launched a drastically re-imagined version of Bionic Woman with British actress Michelle Ryan as Jaime Sommers. In this series Jamie is a bar tender struggling to make ends meet while also raising her teenage sister. While out one evening with her boyfriend Will Anthros the couple are involved in a car accident that severely injures Jamie. Will has Jamie transported to the government facility that he works at and arranges to have her destroyed body parts replaced with bionic implants.

    While trying to adapt to her situation Jamie encounters Sarah Corvus, the first Bionic Woman. Sarah shoot Will (leading to his "death") and the pair fight. Almost identical (Sarah has 2 bionic arms as opposed to Jamie's one), Jaime holds her own with Sarah eventually withdrawing to vex her another day. The series was not a success and was cancelled after nine episodes.

    The re-imaged Jamie Sommers had two bionic legs, a bionic right arm & ear. She had bionic eyes (unlike the original series) and had nanites that acted as a healing factor for her.

    Comic Books

    The Charlton comic book was short-lived, but remained faithful to the TV version of the character. Rob Liefeld acquired the rights to both the Six Million Dollar Man & Bionic Woman and solicited a series known as Bionix but only a preview in his Maximum Press anthology series, Asylum, was published.

    Abilities

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    Jamie was a world class athlete prior to her bionic upgrade, who made her physically several times stronger than any human being, male or female. She is given two super strong bionic legs, capable of propelling her at speeds exceeding 60 mph., jumping to and from great heights, and kick through solid doors or concrete walls. Her right arm and hand are replaced by a lifelike prosthetic capable of bending steel, breaking chains, lift tremendous weight or throwing objects great distances.

    The inner mechanism of Jaime's right ear is replaced by a bionic device that gives her amplified hearing such that she can detect most sounds regardless of volume or frequency (she is often shown using this ability to break into safes).

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