Pravda

Creation

Created by Jim Aparo & Mike W. Barr, Pravda first appeared in the pages of Outsiders vol. 1 #10 (August, 1986).

History

Little is known about the past history of the Russian heroine who goes by the code-name Pravda, named after the Slavic word for truth (or justice) before she appeared as a member of the Peoples Heroes. It is known that her mentalist powers were granted by the Soviet Republic Government. When the American super-team known as the Force of July were captured by Communist agents, they were subjected to thorough examination and scientific analysis. Soviet scientists used this information to create a government super-group called the People’s Heroes.

The organization she joined called the People’s Heroes were a covert force under the direct command of the Soviet Premier, and their first known mission was to capture Batman and the Outsiders in Mozambia. They are than defeated and detained in the United States were Pravda and her teammates meet the American meta-humans which their powers were derived from. The Force of July and People’s Heroes have a tense first meeting. Neither group wants to work with the other. However, they are both following orders. The two groups change into civilian attire to check on suspicious activity at a warehouse. Pravda confirms Fusion was recently at the location. Pravda states that she can trace Fusion’s mental pattern and hence follow him/them.

Meanwhile, on Liberty Island, Looker senses the presence of Pravda. She alerts the other Outsiders. Looker leads the Outsiders to Pravda and the warehouse district. Halo than surrounds the team with her distortion aura to render them invisible. However, Pravda mental powers allow her to scenes the masked heroes and is able to alert the Force of July and People’s Heroes to their presence. Geo-Force states his distrust and disdain for the two teams. As the Outsiders face-off against the two government teams, one of Fusion’s men is observing. The man runs back to inform Fusion. While the teams continue to fight, Fusion arrives with some men. They spray the area with gas that causes the teams to lose consciousness.

While the others are still knocked out, they are transported to a ship. The ship also contains missiles intended to destroy the Statue of Liberty and the American President. Sickle and Katana are actually conscious. Sickle is able to remove a throwing star from Katana’s belt and Katana uses this to free herself and disable the guard. They free Looker and Pravda and the two mentalists use their psychic powers to wake the others and the three teams work together against the terrorist group.

They managed to defeat the Outsiders, but the heroes escaped and would later win against Pravda and her teammates when they had a rematch. When they managed to go back home, they found their reputation and image were tarnished. The Soviet Union would then bring in their next attempt to show their equal might to the United States in super powered meta-human teams and they were eclipsed by the all new Rocket Red brigade. 

After this failure, the Heroes were keen to prove themselves. In the meantime, they had been eclipsed by the Rocket Red Brigade. When the Suicide Squad kidnapped activist Zoya Trigorin, the team clashed with the Americans. They were crushed, however, and Pravda was left for dead by the Enchantress.

However Pravda survived and was later seen alongside a few other members of the Peoples Heroes when they lay wait to intercept members of the Suicide Squad; Bronze Tiger, Nightshade, Captain Boomerang and Deadshot. Amanda Waller had sent the unit to obtain former member Rick Flag who was being held as a prisoner at the Gurjikev Prison in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic of the Russian Federation. They successfully infiltrated the Soviet Union with the abilities of Nightshade, however it has been a set up with false information sent to Waller. Pravda used her mental powers to attempt to defeat Nightshade but once she entered her mind she was assaulted by the demonic shadow-land images from Nightshades mind and withdrew into herself due to mental shock.

They later attempted to capture Red Star in the United States, but where opposed by the New Titans. Most of their missions - domestic security details and black ops - are undocumented.

During Mikhail Gorbatchev’s mandate, the People’s Heroes became strongly tied to him, and faded into obscurity when he left ; they unofficially disbanded in the late 1990s. Some of her former teammates went on to be assigned to the covert unit named Red Shadows while Pravda became a senior editor of the newspaper Mediaset.

Powers and Abilities

Pravda is a mentalist. Although her raw mental power is not tremendous compared to some, she’s quite adept in using it. She’s particularly efficient at implanting images evoking a victim’s worst fears, and at melting in the local mindscape like some mad artist repainting her victims memories.