As someone who suffered from a mobster’s actions, Wildstreak commits to helping the helpless and stopping crime before it starts.
From Tragedy to Triumph
Born to Dennis and Yvonne, Tamika Bowden loses her mother at a young age. Her father raises her and decides his career as an exotic weapons designer for the terrorist organization Hydra is unsafe and therefore retires. Dennis supports Tamika’s growing interest in gymnastics. While in junior high school, Tamika develops a crush on Carl Washington, an older boy who hangs out with a rough crowd until he drops out.
Continuing her gymnastic training, Tamika becomes an Olympic hopeful until goons working for New York mobster Big John Buscelli try to force her father to create weapons for them. Dennis refuses, and they sabotage Tamika’s training equipment, causing an accident that leaves her unable to use her legs. Her athletic career over, Tamika attends college while her father, not wanting his daughter to spend her life in a wheelchair, designs a powered exoskeleton to restore her ability to walk. When Dennis reveals the device to her, Tamika finds that it makes her faster, stronger, and more agile than she had ever been.
Using the exoskeleton and under the codename Wildstreak, she decides to oppose Buscelli to ensure nobody else would ever be victimized as she had. Dennis supports her, and while he does not like to see her put herself into dangerous situations, they use his savings to finance the endeavor.
Exoskeleton
The exoskeleton that lets Tamika use her legs also enhances her already Olympic-level agility and speed to superhuman levels along with making her strong enough to lift over two tons. The device is powered by an internal source that must be periodically recharged, with an alarm sounding when the power levels get low. The more Tamika physically exerts herself, the quicker the battery is drained.
Close Ties and Crooks
Tamika’s closest ally is her father Dennis who not only raises her, but also provides her with the means to walk again after her accident. When the exoskeleton he designs for her grants her enhanced strength and agility, and she chooses to fight crime with it, Dennis does not approve of her putting herself in danger but continues to fund her endeavors.
One major foe that Tamika continues to face over and over again is that of mob boss Big John Buscelli, who was responsible for putting Tamika in a wheelchair. She seeks her own form of vigilante justice to prevent others from suffering in the way that she did.
Tamika as Wildstreak fights alongside other heroes such as Fantastic Four’s Ben Grimm, AKA the Thing. She also goes head to head with other heroes, typically out of misunderstanding or due to a difference in values. She battles registered Super Heroes Tony Stark, AKA Iron Man and Peter Parker, AKA Spider-Man alongside other unregistered heroes but gets arrested. She eventually escapes custody thanks to anti-registration supporter Susan Storm Richards, AKA Invisible Woman who offers her assistance in her escape.
Fighting Criminals
Roughing up criminals for information, Wildstreak began targeting Buscelli’s operations. When a tip led her to one of Buscelli’s operations in Florida, Wildstreak met the Thing, and Psi-Lord (a divergent Franklin Richards) and joined them in fighting Dreadface, an alien foe of the Fantastic Four. Later, back in New York, Wildstreak busted up a Buscelli-backed weapon sale and was caught off guard when she discovered one of the gun runners was Carl Washington. Carl escaped, and Tamika told her father she was going to find him and help him turn his life around. Setting out without a full charge in her exoskeleton, she stumbled across Eric Masterson, AKA Thunderstrike. The two heroes fought briefly before realizing they were on the same side, then heard a commotion as Carl was confronted by criminals upset by his failure to provide weapons for which they had paid. Coming to the scene, Thunderstrike handled the angry buyers as Wildstreak confronted Carl. Recognizing Tamika, Carl disappointed her by ignoring her attempts to reason with him, instead thinking of the fortune he could make selling her exoskeleton. Wildstreak’s batteries died, and Carl tried to escape, only to be apparently shot dead by the killer vigilante Julia Concepcion, AKA Sangre. Weeks later, Tamika and her father visited Carl’s grave where she lamented the mistakes Carl and other young people like him made with their lives.
When the Superhuman Registration Act was passed requiring superhumans to register their identities with the government, Tamika was uncertain if her artificial powers qualified and, unwilling to limit her ability to oppose Buscelli, did not register. Alongside other unregistered heroes AG Bell, AKA Phone Ranger, Tommy Samuels, AKA Lectronn, and Obax Majid Lightbright, she was cornered by NYPD officers and arrested after a struggle against registered heroes Iron Man and Spider-Man. While Tamika was being transported to the Negative Zone prison by Reed Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic, a S.H.I.E.L.D. guard accidentally caused a malfunction allowing her a chance to escape. Fighting her way past the guards, Wildstreak was turned invisible by Invisible Woman, who had decided to join the Anti-Registration forces. Wildstreak escaped and after the Super Hero Civil War ended, she resumed opposing Buscelli whenever possible. She later joined Roderick Kingsley, AKA Hobgoblin’s Hob Heroes.