Candy Southern

Origin

Daughter and heiress to a rich family, Candy Southern was a childhood friend of Warren Worthington III. When they were growing up Warren concealed the fact that he was the mutant superhero known as the Avenging Angel. When he left to join Xavier's Institute For Gifted Youngsters she convinced her parents to let her move to the city. Living in an apartment in New York, Candy became an intern at the United Nations while attending Archer College at night.

It was a chance encounter that brought Warren back into her life. They met in a nightclub and began to catch up what each other had been up to. Warren told her how fantastic his new school was, while omitting the fact that it was for mutants. When Candy said she was tempted to attend Xavier's, he changed the subject. They arranged to meet again, and soon began dating.

Creation

Candy Southern was created by Roy Thomas and Werner Roth and first appeared in The X-Men issue 31 (1967).

Major Story Arcs

Dating An X-Man

When Warren first introduced Candy to the X-Men, it was for Bobby Drake's 18th birthday party. Warren still had not revealed his secret identity to Candy, and they hid their secret identities as the X-Men when the party was crashed by Satan's Saints. Through a series of clever antics, the young mutants managed to put an end to the fight while retaining their mutant abilities a secret. Candy was impressed with their cunning, and didn't suspect them.

Candy discovered Warren's secret identity later when she was kidnapped. The Dazzler was Warren's uncle Burt Worthington, and he kidnapped Candy to ransom her for Warren's money. Candy caught a glimpse of Warren's wings when he came to rescue her, and she figured out the rest for herself. During their escape, they believed that the Dazzler had perished after a long fall. However, when Candy discovered he was still alive and intended to marry Warren's mother. She dashed to Xavier's school to alert Warren, but was detained by a security droid until Professor Xavier came to release her. Gradually she was released and Warren stopped his uncle once more.

A similar event happened when Candy went to the school a second time. Although she had been granted limited access to the school grounds she found the place was empty and was again detained by robotic security. When Cyclops and Marvel Girl returned Jean used her telepathy to read Candy's mind. Together, with Candy they set off to save Warren; Jean loaned Candy one of her Marvel Girl outfits to help protect their identities. The three of them found Angel who had been kidnapped by Krueger and his freak show. As Candy was wearing one of Jean's dressed she was mistaken for Marvel Girl, which Jean used to distract Krueger's men. However, both Cyclops & Marvel Girl were caught and sold to the remaining Brotherhood members; Blob, Unus the Untouchable and Mastermind. Candy didn't need mutant powers to avoid Kruger's men. She would knock their heads together and knock them unconscious with heavy equipment. However, Angel did insist on flying her to a high point where she would be safe from harm while they finished the fight.

Although not always perfect, they continued to date for many years. After Warren's mother tragically passed away, he inherited the Worthington fortune and membership into the Hellfire Club. Candy was already a member, but had not been interested in attending the club. The two of them briefly attended a visit, but decided not to go back. They even vacationed with other X-Men, but they would rarely see each other while Warren trained as an X-Men so the two began to live together in a city apartment.

One night when she returned to their apartment she discovered feathers scattered all over the floor. She called Professor Xavier for help just moments before the Morlock known as Sunder knocked her through the window. Candy was caught in mid-air by Nightcrawler, who instantly teleported her back to his bath-tub where he'd left Amanda Sefton moments earlier. After explaining what had happened, the X-Men descended into the tunnels beneath New York to rescue Angel.

Defenders

While Candy had made many friends with the X-Men, the same could not be said for Warren's new team-mates in the Defenders. She was often left behind to baby-sit Sassafras, and confided in Dolly Donahue about how she hated having to share Warren with the Defenders. While Warren was off on adventures Candy oversaw the day-to-day running of Worthington Industries and would arrange for medical attention when the team returned. She would overtly display her affections for Warren to keep the other female members of the team at bay, particularly Moondragon. And at times Candy, Sassfras and Dolly would either easily be beaten or kidnapped to use as bait for the other Defenders.

However, despite the rocky beginning with the Defenders, Candy became an integral supporting member of the team. She tricked the team with a hologram of the Hulk carrying a tommy gun to display the capabilities of the new security system. The team held a meeting during which they proclaimed Candy to be 'The Brains Behind The Defenders' and therefore the leader of an non-combat issues. Candy proved her worth on many occasions, but ultimately the team disbanded after attacks from Dragon of the Moon. Although the Dragon has been defeated, it appeared that Andromeda, Gargoyle, Interloper, Manslaughter, Moondragon and Valkyrie had been killed.

X-Factor

With the majority of the Defenders seemingly killed in action, Candy and Warren retired to their home in New Mexico. Beast & Iceman joined them, and Candy commented how Warren was sad now that he was no longer an adventurer. The three former X-Men began to wonder if the should with a brand new team. It was at this time that the Fantastic Four and Avengers discovered the unconscious body of Jean Grey lying at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Once she had regained consciousness and come to terms with how Phoenix had taken her place, Jean rejoined her friends. Soon after Scott met the others and they agreed to start X-Factor.

Like with the early days of the Defenders, Candy was one again left behind while the others would dash off to save lives. Candy was still successfully running Worthington Industries in Warren's best interests, but began to experience difficulty. She tried to contact him for help, but he dismissed her without listening to the problem stating that whatever it was she could deal with it. Soon afterwards she broke the new to Warren that had been exposed as a mutant, and therefore his own company would financially back X-Factor, the public mutant hunting group of humans. She burst into the room and found Warren comforting Jean, who had her own relationship problems with Cyclops. However, to Candy the embrace looked romantic. Their relationship had already been under stress since Warren would ignore Candy's efforts at Worthington Industries and he would often kiss Jean when greeting her. This was the last straw and Candy ended their relationship and left Worthington Industries.

Death

It was a long time before Candy was seen again. In the meantime Warren's wings had been amputated and although he had attempted to commit suicide, his life had been saved & genetically twisted by Apocalypse.

Candy was dragged back into Warren's life by Cameron Hodge. Although Hodge had worked closely with Warren and X-Factor, he had in fact hated his mutant friends. Hodge joined the anti-mutant terrorist group The Right, and kidnapped Candy. He tortured her, but refused to let her die. Repeatedly torturing her body, he kept her alive on life-support machines. When Archangel arrived to save her, Hodge declared that she was brain-dead. Before Hodge was defeated, he pulled the plug on Candy's life-support machines and she died. The death of Candy caused much grief to Warren, whom did not get over her death for many more years and also caused him to withdrawal into his "Archangel" persona even more.

Resurrection

On the anniversary of Candy's death, Warren and Jean returned to Warren's home in Colorado and were surprised when Candy appeared before them. Jean telepathically confirmed that Candy was not a threat, and with Warren they probed Candy's mind to discover what had happened after her apparent death.

Cameron Hodge had made a deal with the demon N'Astirh which made him immortal. Despite being beheaded by Archangel's razor-sharp wings, Hodge had survived and begun a life as a mechanical being. He then offered himself to the Phalanx and use the technarch knowledge to resurrect and bond with Candy. This allowed Hodge to survive on Candy's energy whenever he battled with the X-Men.

Candy was appalled to discover that she was connected to one of her lover's greatest enemies and began to tear herself apart. By literally destroying her own techno-organic body she would therefore severe the link with Hodge, but at the cost of her own life. As she lay dying she confessed how she still loved Warren.

Powers & Skills

As a normal human being Candy Southern did not have any super powers. However, that does not mean that she was powerless. Candy was a keen business woman, and could transfer those abilities into tactically orchestrating a super-hero team. She was also a skilled markswoman.