Malevola
Possesses a prehensile tail. Sonar's NA Sponsor. Atheist. True crime aficionado.
Assault, burglary, extortion, forgery, kidnapping, second degree murder
Duelist
Half-Demon
#ffb8bdMalevola Gibb is a supporting character in Dispatch and one of the two protagonists of "The Last Bender" comic. She is a reformed villain employed as a superhero by the Superhero Dispatch Network (SDN) under the Phoenix Program.
Biography
Background
Malevola is a half-demon from Australia. According to her, the Yachties have "been trying to finger [her] for three generations," suggesting she may be older than 33. She is frequently pestered by cults that worship her.
Prior to joining the Phoenix Program, she acted as Sonar's Narcotics Anonymous (NA) sponsor, as he is addicted to various controlled substances, most notably cocaine.
The Last Bender
Portaling into his room, Malevola excitedly tells Sonar that she has signed them up for SDN's Phoenix Program. Although initially dismissive about the idea, Sonar is convinced when Malevola suggests they go out partying to celebrate.
They start with a strip club where Sonar is seduced by a stripper, but is pulled away by Malevola before he can pay her for a private dance. Now at a club, the pair are approached by two obnoxious men, who try to invite them back to their place. Taking them up on their offer, Sonar distracts the men by talking about cryptocurrency while Malevola steals one of their wallets. Returning to the strip club, Sonar pays the stripper from earlier with the money they stole and returns to Malevola in his monster form.
The two former villains continue to party the night away until the morning, arriving at the SDN headquarters disheveled and hungover. As Malevola weakly celebrates that it is the first day of their new lives, Sonar pukes up a pigeon.
Onboard
Malevola first appears in a file shown to Robert Robertson by Blonde Blazer along with the rest of the Z-Team.
As the Z-Team is taking bets on when Robert will quit, Malevola bets on Monday. Later, Punch Up and Coupé are recounting Flambae's encounter with Robert at Crypto Night. When Punch Up judged Robert to be a "robot guy without a robot," which Malevola summarizes as "just a guy."
Turnover
As Robert informs the Z-Team that one of them is getting cut from the Phoenix Program at the end of the day, Malevola reacts with annoyance, calling it "judgy bullshit" because he does not have to deal with it. Robert rebukes this, stating that he will be judged along with them as their dispatcher, sarcastically asking her if she knows what a job is. During the first shift of the day, various team members sabotage each other, with Malevola getting led into a cult worshipping her, hitting Coupé with her sword, and getting into a physical altercation with Invisigal after she tripped her while pursuing Lightningstruck, causing the villain to escape and prompting Robert to call an emergency meeting.
Once the team has gathered in the conference room, Robert gives a speech that motivates them to do their best, convincing them to work together. During the shift, Malevola and Prism talk about her taste in music. Later in the shift, Malevola is among the people to overhear Robert and Invisigal catch Lightningstruck. As Invisigal takes him into the office, Malevola celebrates with the team and takes a picture with her, showing there was no lasting animosity between them.
Restructure
If Coupé was cut, Malevola, and Flambae are present to see Punch Up pull a prank on Robert by playing porn pop-ups on his computer and laughing at his expense as revenge for cutting his ex. If Sonar was cut instead, it is Malevola who pulls the prank by playing loud screeching noises as revenge for having her friend cut from the Phoenix Program before flipping him the bird.
If Sonar was cut, Malevola refuses to be dispatched to three calls and eventually leaves mid shift out of anger and spite. If Coupé was cut, Malevola comments that she agrees with Robert's decision, and Punch Up leaves midshift to check on his ex instead. Either way, the rest of the Z-Team struggles to complete their duties.
The next day, the cut hero is replaced with either Phenomaman or Waterboy, who, respectively, prove difficult to work with due to their depression and hazardous power.
Team Building
During their break, Malevola and Prism are debating what Robert's potential superpower in the break room as he is heating his lunch. Questioning what they are talking about, the Prism explains that there is a betting pool going around the group on which hero he used to be before becoming a dispatcher. Malevola then asks for a hint. No matter what Robert replies with, neither hero is satisfied, and he jokingly suggests they should do their job if they want to earn the money instead. Testing his reflexes, Malevola throws her cup of coffee at Robert's head, who tells them to clean it up before leaving.
At the end of the workday, the Z-Team decides to go to The Sardine for drinks and invites Robert to come with. At the counter, Malevola, Punch Up, and Prism have Robert pay for their drinks before Malevola repeatedly beats a poor goon in arm wrestling. Eventually, a bar fight breaks out between the Z-Team and the other patrons, who reveal themselves to be part of the Red Ring. During the fight, Malevola chokes a man out with her tail before throwing him out of the bar with a portal, allowing Golem to enter and join the fray.
The battle won, the team goes to FuGo for Mexican food, where Malevola teases Robert by giving him a burrito to sauce up, only to take it from the dispatcher and give him the triple crunch tacos he ordered. As the team reflects on the bar fight, the topic of Robert's former identity comes up. If Robert chooses to reveal he used to be Mecha Man, Flambae attempts to incinerate Robert for humiliating him in the past, only for Golem to step between them. If Waterboy was not recruited into the Z-Team, Malevola douses Flambae with water from her cup before he can make another attempt on Robert's life. Humiliated, Flambae flies off in a huff. Regardless, the team exchanges their real names, with Malevola revealing her last name is Gibbs, before they talk the rest of the night away.
Moving Parts
If Robert revealed his identity as Mecha Man to the Z-Team, Malevola, and the rest of the team attend the latest Proto Pulse test to confirm his identity as part of the bet they have. As the Proto Pulse starts to malfunction, Malevola opens a portal to allow Royd to enter the test area and restrain the Mecha Man suit only to have it explode with Robert inside. Though Robert thankfully survives and lands in the infirmary. If Robert kept his identity a secret, Punch Up and the team are ignorant of the incident.
Regardless, the team buys Robert an expensive bottle of vodka as a 'get-better' gift and is invited by Invisigal to have a housewarming party at the dispatcher's apartment to find a way to track the Astral Pulse down, as it has been recently discovered to be intact. With Robert indisposed, Blonde Blazer took over his post for the day and proves herself to be a rather rusty dispatcher, sending Malevola to teach Sunday school. Fortunately, Robert recovers swiftly and reassumes his dispatching duties. At the end of the shift, the team makes plans to travel to Robert's apartment.
Malevola is the first to arrive, along with Invisigal and Royd. Although Robert protests to having a party, he is brought over when Invisigal reveals that the true purpose of the party is to gather the team and track the Astral Pulse down. As Royd explains that the last energy signal they received was in Marina Del Rey, Malovla recognizes it as Yachtie territory, having had a history with the gang. Throughout the night, the rest of the team arrives, though the mood turns sour after Invisigal and Chase get into an argument over whether to storm the warehouse where the Astral Pulse is being kept or not, which swiftly turns personal, with Chase accusing Invisigal of being a fake hero and a threat to Robert. The argument ends with Invisigal punching Chase and storming off, after which the Z-Team is told by Blazer to leave and keep quiet over what happened.
Retrospective
Following the housewarming party, Invisigal disobeyed Blond Blazer's orders and assaulted the warehouse on her own. Although she was successful in retrieving the Astral Pulse with Robert's reluctant aid, she was ambushed by Shroud soon after, who seemingly left with the pulse. This forced Chase to use his superhuman speed to rescue her, and he fell into a coma afterward because of his accelerated aging. As punishment, Invisigal was suspended from the Z-Team until further investigation.
This hit the Z-Team hard, who decide to hold a meeting regarding Invisigal's membership. At the start of the shift, Malevola is seen solemnly cleaning her blade and spots Golem pulling over a beer truck to raid it for its cargo. During the shift, Flambae expresses worry that Chase may die, though Malevola assures him that if he does, he will be well taken care of, which confuses Prism.
As Robert leaves the office following the end of his shift, he sees Punch Up flying out of the glass door of the boardroom. Investigating as to why it happened, the Z-Team explains to him that they believe Invisigal's suspension is not enough and voted to cut her. If Robert defends Invisigal and refuses to cut her, Malevola suffers a morale drop. Regardless, the heroes soon spot the door swinging open and shut, revealing that Invisigal was using her powers to spy on the group as they are holding their meeting. Worried, Robert follows her.
Personality
Described as terrifying by Blonde Blazer, Malevola is, conversely, a down-to-earth, self-aware half-demon. She has an independent streak with little respect for procedure, purposefully showing up late to meetings, and is implied to use her portals to leave the room, refusing to get her mugshot taken.
She has a playful side, using common church phrases such as 'confess your sins, cause I... really want the tea,' and greeting citizens by calling herself their 'lord and savior.' While catching Robert in his underwear, he flirts with him and playfully taps his crotch.
Malevola shows amusement in being feared, saying that 'fear is the best teacher' when dispatched to handle a juvenile pickpocket, and gleefully saying that people will 'piss their pants when they see [her].' When commenting on first impressions, she quips that people judge her for her appearance, then judge her even more after getting to know her. Similarly, she’s aware that while she’s not to everyone’s taste, ‘too many’ people fetishise her.
Despite this, she's implied to be dissatisfied with being perceived unfavourably, expressing her enjoyment of being seen as a 'benevolent devil,' re-routing to avoid police and churches, saying '[she] doesn’t need that drama today,' and sarcastically commenting that her favourite part of the job is scaring children when ordered to scare one.
Appearance
Malevola is a tall half-demon with yellow, pupilless eyes, red skin and long black hair. Her horns are dark grey, protruding from the sides of her head and curling inwards, pointing up in an H-shape.
She wears a pair of jean shorts over a white leotard, yellow diamond-shaped earrings, and black heels.
Powers
Default
Life Trade: Malevola heals one hero when sent on a call together. She then receives +1 Charisma or Vigor. This effect stacks.
Hero Training
- Life Trade Visions: After healing a hero, Malevola also reveals the stats of the next call she's assigned to.
Portal Ritual: After healing a hero, Malevola also creates a portal near the call once per shift. The portal lasts about 45 seconds after call completion.
Abilities
- Demon physiology: A half-demon Malevola possesses a host of powers unique to her demon physiology.
- Superhuman strength: Standing at an impressive 6 feet and 6.6 inches, Malevola is amazonian. Despite her sword appearing too heavy for a normal human to carry, Malevola swings it without any issues. She is also capable of lifting grown men with one hand and was able to match Armstrong's bionic arms.
- Heat resistance: She is resistant to heat. This allowed her to walk through the flames to evacuate civilians caught in a house fire.
- Prehensile tail: She has a prehensile demon tail, allowing her to grab objects and people it.
- Night vision: Malevola can see in the dark.
- Portal creation: She can create portals, allowing her and others to travel short distances more quickly and effectively ignore walls. The portals leave soot behind if directly placed on an object.
- Wound transferal: She can absorb other people's wounds, healing them and boosting her own strength. With training, doing so also gives her visions of the future (Life Trade Visions) or allow her to use portals over longer distances (Portal Ritual).
- Occult knowledge: Malevola shows a surprising, or perhaps unsurprising, knowledge of the occult. She was able to recognize the Cult of Ch'aad at a glance and assured the Z-Team that Chase would be taken care of if he died.
Equipment
- Sword: Malevola carries a two-handed magic greatsword into battle that more closely resembles a worn slab of red stone. Despite its edge and point being nonexistent, the sword can cut and pierce through stone and metal with ease. The cuts it makes briefly glow red, and the sword glows when swung, suggesting that the cuts are a result of magic rather than coming from the blade itself. The pommel is notably sharp and capable of piercing flesh.
Relationships
Robert Robertson
Malevola was relatively polite to Robert on his first shift, not making fun of his name and helpfully informing him of Sonar's ability, though she did bet he would quit as their dispatcher on Monday. Should Sonar be cut from the team, she pranks Robert by playing loud screeching on his computer and actively acts disdainful towards him in the following shift, frustrated that he was replaced by either Waterboy or Phenomaman.
Regardless, Malevola warms up to him, playfully teases him as the team went out for tacos, and throws water on Flambae if Waterboy was not chosen for the team and Robert chose to reveal his identity as Mecha Man. She flirts with him during his housewarming party, calling him cute and playfully sack-tapping Robert while he was in his underwear.
Sonar
Malevola acts as a source of stability in Sonar's life, having been the one to sign them up for the Phoenix Program. She acted as his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor, attempting to steer him away from substance abuse, and intervening on his behalf when his monster form causes issues. She tries to keep him in check when dispatched with him, advising him to 'be cool' when he shows excitement and is not afraid to point out his flaws if needed. In turn, Malevola is notably one of the only women Sonar does not actively act pervertedly towards, showcasing his respect for her.
Malevola acts shocked and distraught when Sonar joins the Red Ring if he was cut.
Trivia
- She is the only Z-Teamer to lack a mug shot on their dossier.
- Her ex was conned into doing a tell-all by Bone Zone.
- Malevola shares the same surname as Alanah Pearce's late stepdad's. The surname Gibb was additionally not written by the writers and was added by Pearce.
- Malevola is 6 feet and 6.6 inches tall, a reference to the number of the beast.
- She is a fan of ska and techno yodeling music.
Gallery
Key art
Dossier portrait
Power activation pose
Max Synergy with Waterboy
Max Synergy with Phenomaman
Injured
Unique choice pose
