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Roxanne "Roxy" Spaulding is Freefall, a young superhero with the power to manipulate gravity. She is a member of Gen 13.

Origin

Roxy is the daughter of Team 7 member Alexander Fairchild and Gloria Spaulding. The two met when Alex was a soldier, stationed at Kelly Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Gloria was the daughter of the base commander. Despite her father's dislike of Alex, Gloria and Alex grew close, but soon Alex was called away on another secret mission. Gloria, who had become pregnant, had no way of contacting him. Gloria later married another man and told everyone, including her daughter Roxanne, that the child was merely her stepchild.

Details on Roxy's life before coming to Project: Genesis are sketchy. But a picture of her past can be gleaned from comments Freefall made over the course of the series.

During a dream sequence Roxy is called "trailer trash" by classmates from her Catholic school. This, along with Roxy's habit of sometimes wearing a crucifix necklace and comments during some conversations confirmed that she was raised a Catholic, though her behavior indicates that she is a lapsed Catholic.

Freefall tends to speak with something of a valley girl accent, hinting that she may have grown up somewhere in Southern California, though she visited her mother when staying in New York City. In Las Vegas, Roxy had missed her mother by mere hours at a casino she had been working at. This could be a hint that Gloria Spaulding has a tendency to move often.

Gen Factor

Roxy's father, Alex, was exposed to the Gen-factor, a substance which gave him and his fellow Team 7 members superhuman powers. Team 7's superiors, International Operations, thought that their children had inherited their powers and started Project: Genesis, testing and recruiting children who were gen-active from all over the United States. Roxy was the youngest member of Gen 13. She managed to escape Project: Genesis with them after they found out that the I.O. was planning to enslave them. During their escape, Roxy's powers manifested: she was now capable of manipulating gravity and took the codename Freefall. Roxy became infatuated with fellow teammate, Grunge, whom she saw as "the man of her dreams". She developed a jealousy of her statuesque teammate, Caitlin Fairchild, who was often ogled by Grunge, even though she likes Caitlin a lot.

Gen 13

Gen 13 relocated to San Diego after their escape and one evening, Roxy snuck out of the house barefoot to go to a dance club called The Soil Machine. In the club, she found the alien, Qeelocke, who was hunted by alien bounty hunters. Gen 13's mentor, John Lynch, noticed the aliens arriving on Earth and sent the rest of Gen 13 to help Roxy. They drove back the bounty hunters and the Qeelocke became Roxy's pet. Shortly afterwards, Grunge finally returned her affections and the two became romantically involved. However, Grunge was unfaithful, insensitive and immature and their relationship often broke apart.

During her time in Gen 13, Roxy would find out that Alex Fairchild was her father and that her teammate Fairchild was her half-sister. She would also learn that the woman she thought was her foster mother was in fact her birth mother. Roxy was deeply upset that her mother had lied to her for her entire life, even if the lies had been meant to protect her. However, the two did eventually mend fences. It also led to frictions between her and Alex Fairchild, who had become the team's mentor. After Alex explained to her that he had no way of knowing about her, she came to accept him as a father, but Alex died protecting the team shortly afterwards.

Over the next few months, Roxy had a lot of arguments with her teammates, who had always had difficulties understanding Roxy's infatuation with Grunge, her smoking habits, and her general attitude. Their concerns were proven correct when Roxy found out that Grunge had been having an affair with Swift from The Authority. Despite this all, Roxy was still in love with Grunge. During this time, Roxy also became a bit of an otaku, with a great love for J-pop music and anime.

Roxy was thought to be have been killed in an explosion with the rest of Gen 13, but in fact, Gen 13 had been displaced to an alternate universe and they returned to their own Earth months later.

Worldstorm

Following the events of Captain Atom: Armageddon, Roxanne Lynette Spalding lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was raised in a working class environment by a verbally and emotionally abusive single mother. After waking up in her uniform, her "mother" apologizes to her about the abusive upbringing and makes an effort to help her escape. Tabula Rasa renders her unconscious and Roxy was captured and taken in with the rest of the group.

Eventually, the group escaped the compound, Roxy ran into Reverend Timothy Hogan (AKA Special T). Special T revealed that Roxy was a clone based on his deceased daughter. He helped Roxy and the team (minus Grunge), by deactivating the chips implanted by Tabula Rasa, and provided transport back to Tabula Rasa to rescue Grunge. After Doctor Peter Cross' death, she was eventually reunited with her foster mother, who provided a minivan and money to escape to Tranquility. Eventually, she went with the gang to New York City, where they become trapped in a teleporter while the Earth was destroyed by The High's clones, the Reapers.

During Gen 13's adventures, Roxanne was revealed to be, as her Gen 13 teammates, the recipient of the soul of her original namesake, collected by the Doctor and restored in the new body. However, in this life all the Gens exhibit different tendencies, becoming progressively their own persons.

World's End

During the World's End events, Roxy was the first to witness the devastation brought on Earth, after a teletransport mishap left the entire team frozen for months. Emotionally shattered, she tried to cope and help the team to survive.[1] Pressured to share her fantasies about the post-atomic world as a way to crack the tension, she revealed to have none: she just wanted to have had more time to live a happier and more peaceful adolescence, becoming a better student, a beloved cheerleader and growing up in a caring family: things she feels she will never have again.[2]

Across Gen 13's journey, Roxy and her team encountered the Paladins after being saved from the Fearsmiths. She and her friends were trained by the heroes into becoming better superheros, in which Roxy became further in touch with her powers by Mite.[3] At this time, Palatine Hill was then under attack by remnants of the U.S. military. Fortunately, Roxy used her powers in levitating Palatine Hill into space, allowing the invading soldiers to pass out from asphyxiation.[4] Gen 13 were later summoned to UnLondon where they were briefed by the Authority into being offered a chance to leave Earth on the Carrier. Subsequently, Roxy boarded the shift-ship and reunited with Sarah Rainmaker, who had earlier left Gen 13.[5]

Powers

  • Gravitikinesis: Roxanne has the ability to manipulate gravity to various effects. She can nullify gravity beneath her, allowing her and/or others to levitate. She can also increase the gravity around a specific area inflicting damage or just simply making it impossible for an enemy to move.[6]

Weaknesses

  • Power Limitation: This ability requires concentration, and is exhausting to maintain for long periods of time.


  • In the original WildStorm Universe continuity, Roxy's middle name is Lynette. In the post-WorldStorm continuity, it is Amethyst.
  • Roxy is a fan of the folk-rock duo the Indigo Girls and the British alternative rock band Bush. She's also a fan of the anime series Sailor Moon.
  • In WorldStorm continuity, even though she still smokes and has a crush on Grunge (who she nicknames "Monkey-boy"), other aspects of Roxy's personality are markedly different. She is more confident, and has been known to end fights by talking to her opponents (such as the Authority and Gen13/Doctor Cross clones).
  • In Gen 13 (Volume 2) #18, Freefall gets a tattoo on the small of her back. It has never been revealed what the tattoo looks like.
  • Freefall has appeared in the following non-WildStorm publications: The Deadly Duo (Vol. 2) #3, Atomik Angels #1, Overstreet's Fan #5.

Related

External Links

Footnotes



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