Aspen Matthews

Aspen was born after Rahger of The Black seduced Eilah of The Blue in order to save his race, The Black, from extintion.

### Education

Ph.D in Marine Biology from the University of San Diego, California

## Physical Description

### Alien Race

Half-Blue
Half-Black

## Political Information

### Base Of Operations

San Diego, C.A., Muria
The Wave (Formerly)

### Citizenship

American
Blue
Black

### Occupation

Olympic Swimmer (Formerly)
Marine Biologist
Adventurer

### Affiliation

The Blue
The Four Points
The Black (Formerly)

### Alias(es)

Aspen
Dr. Matthews
Dr. M
Froggy

## Relationships

### Relative(s)

Abesaloma (Stepfather, deceased)
Captain Matthews (adoptive father)
Chance Calloway (boyfriend)

## Real World Information

### First Appearence

Fathom Vol 1 #½

Raised in the world above, Aspen Matthews is truly caught between two worlds and she's the daughter of two race of underwater dwellers called the Blue and the Black, making her the most powerful being of all.

## Origin

Aspen is biologically the daughter of Eilah of The Blue and Rahger of The Black. In order to save his race Rahger, leader of The Black, decided that his people needed to breed with the newer race of waterkin. To accomplish this, Rahger seduced Eilah of The Blue, the only successful mating of the two races.

When Aspen was eleven years old (Year 1984 in the comics), she and her older brother, Finn, came home from a late night swim to discover their parents being murdered by a group of dissidents led by Killian. They fled, stealing a ship and heading away as fast as possible. Killian's people followed them but their ship exploded and they were presumed dead. Aspen's latent powers activated and she survived. Her brother, on the other hand, was hit by a beam and disappeared (It was later revealed that the beam caused his body to become permanently water-based). Aspen somehow wound up on a ship called Paradise.

### Found and Adopted by Captain Matthews

She was found by the crew of the ship who alerted Captain Matthews, who was a passenger on the ship, because their Captain was busy with the other passengers. Though she didn't remember what she was, she never forgot her love for the water. Aspen never called Captain Matthews "dad" or "father", she always referred to him as " Captain Matthews," even though it was too formal, she just became used to it. Captain Matthews was mostly away due to his service to the U.S. Navy.

### Olympic Swimmer

She was an excellent swimmer and even made it to the 1988 Olympics in Korea at the age of fifteen. After winning a gold medal and breaking the world record by thirty seconds, the committee forced her to take a drug test. She tested negative for performance enhancing drugs, but an analysis of her blood showed that she induced Erythrocythemia (also known as blood doping), an illegal form of performance enhancing in which a person injects themselves with their own blood, increasing their red blood cells, endurance, and oxygen capacity (It is most likely due to her being a Blue and a Black). This ended her career as a professional swimmer. Aspen was disqualified from the 1988 competition, banned from the 1992 and 1996 Olympic games, and "disgraced her country." After this tragedy, she became a Marine Biologist in order to have a job that kept her in the water most of the time.

## The World Below

### Deep Marine Discovery

Aspen, now a Marine Biologist, is enjoying her time swimming in some pool, then, she and her friend were transported through helicopter to the vessel Viking II, North of Hawaii, where she met Akiko Nigata and her ex-boyfriend, Jack Gregory.
After a short dive in a submergible, they finaly reached their destiny, Deep Marine Discovery, where a research team leaded by Alexander Jarvis.
Aspen rapidilly crossed her path with Cannon Hawke, before finding out that the DMD was studying a Blue ship and none other than the Blue radical Killian, that she has seen before, in a vision, or she thought it was vision.
Unbesknown to her, he woke up, seconds before a torpedo hit the facility's generatores, the closest heat scourse it found.

### Killian and Finn

After the generators explosion, several breaches appeared and cold water started pouring into the facility. Desperate, Aspen asked Killian for help, wich she remembered seeing when she was young, during one of her scuba diving lessons. At the last second, Killian managed to break the glass of his cage and started to rescuing her, only for her brother, Finn to interfere and attack him, only for their fight to be interrupted by other Blue, and, with the help of her brother, she was able to awaken her powers, right before Chance Calloway found her.
Sometime and some exams later, she was surfing when Chance Calloway appeared at her door wanting to talk to her, later discussing if what happened after the explosion was real or not.

### Kidnapped

Sometime after Aspen left and later was kindapped by a group of Black, only to be rescued by Cannon, then retaken by the Black, after an underater fight, and sent to Easter Island, where Killian was waiting, or so Cannon tought

### First Kill

After the kidnapping Aspen woke up in the middle of the ocea, surrounded by dolphins, until they come across Killian that told him the truth about her and that they needed her help. She accepted Killian's help and started to travel with him, learning to control her powers nd to fight under his guidance, but, unbesknown to her, he was, in reality, training her to be a murder as Cannon learned while searching for her.
In her first real life fight she used the blood of a man to kill him, making him his first victim, one she would never forget then she chaged some instalation that was revealed to be an enormous ship. Then she traveled to New Zealand where she met Taras, and repeated the process, charging another of these instalations.
Finaly Aspen, accompanied with Taras and Kyla returned to where everything started, the DMD, now taken over by the submariners technology.

### Turning Sides

Shortly after arriving at DMD, Cannon arrived and tried to put some senses into her head, but it was only at the mentioning of Chance's name that Aspen realized what was happening and that Cannon, Kyla and Chance were in the same side and were allies trying to save her, but, before she could accept their help, Taras attack Kyla, prompting Aspen to attack him, managing then to escape on Cannon's personal ship, only for Kyla to die in her arms, only to discover that Cannon was her guardian when she was young, living among The Blue.

### Blue Sun

Accompanied with Chance and Cannon, Aspen quickly arrived at Charnanay, the place where Killian's planned to unfold his mastes plan, but pefore Apen and Cannon could do anything to stop him, Killian himself, accompanied with The Black, stepped in their way, telling them that the weapon, that was his master plan, was unstoppable, but, then, Aspen came up with a plan, make water drop into the hole the weapon had made into the crust on the bottom of the ocean.
While Cannon faced Killian and his forces, Aspen and Chance went into the cente of the weapon's beam, however, during the fight Taras was killed by Cannon and Aspen was knocked out of consciouness alowing Killian to get her and throwing her into the beam, killing her, or so he believed, because, moments after, she emerged from the beam, fully charging her powers.
After Cannon left the battlefield, Apen used her newly found powers to quickly and easily defeat Killian, firrst turning him into water and then sending him to the beam, just like he had done to her moments before.
Then, using all her memories she preceeded to destroy the weapon and it's three conduits, making torrents of water flood the hole, at the exact same moment Cannon saved Chance, making them think she had sacrificed herself, until she surfaced like a mermaid.

#### The Spelunker

After dealing with Killian and his Blue Sun, Aspen was surfing, remeniscing in what happened since DMD, when a gigantic shadow swam right beneath her, catching her by surprise, she then decided to dive to chase it, only to be surprise by an arpoon that flew to close to her head, directly to the creature's flesh. Following the cable of the weapon, Aspen found herself facing an enormous ship, from where a crazy looking guy was waving at her. Sometime after, Aspen was back at her home ,researching all sea creatures she knew when the same strange man that waved at her knocked at her door saying that he didn't remember coming to her home, saying that he just "magically" appeared there. Deciding to help the man, Aspen accepted going aboard his ship, the Spelunker and help him find the answers. During their travel to the deep sea, Aspen learned that the man was following some creature named Big Moe, and that he's been chasing her for three hundred years. Sometime after, while Aspen was piloting the ship, Big Moe crossed their path, coming face to face with the gigantic creature that headbutted the ship where they were. This was the moment where the captain of the ship had one of his moments of lunacy, loosing all his memory. After the Spelunker became dead in the water, Aspen was forced to dive in the sea, in front of Big Moe to fix it, finding that, in reality, there are three diferent creatures. After Big Moe was taken out by Baha Aspen found herself agaisnt the two creatures that were left that she was able to quickly kill with an enormous explosion, but then Big Moe was able to escape Baha and after a look to Aspen fled the scene, being left alone in the middle of the ocean after Baha left to continue to chase Big Moe.

#### Ressurection of Taras

Some time after the Big Moe chase, Aspen went to the North Atlantic searching for Cannon that was kidnapped by Vana.
While in New York, Aspen was attacked by one of Vana's goons, falling into a nightclub, then falling unconscious after a small fight. She then was kiddnaped and made prisioner by Vana's forces, until she was able to flee and hide herself in the ice that surrounded her.
After evading Vana's soldiers, Aspen found Cannon's boat, hidden beneath a solid ice slab, inside, she found a vault full of Crustaceous Weapons and Crustaceous Armor that she equipped. Then going to rescue her friend. She then found out that Vana was trying to bring Taras back from the death through Cannon. Vana tried to stop Aspen by freezing her, but Aspen was able to resist long enough to stab her in the chest. She then was able to deflect a Blast from Vana that destroyed the ice Cannon was held in, interrupting the process. In an episode of pure rage, Vana made her body explode into ice, almost killing Aspen and Cannon had they not escape at the last second.
What Aspen didn't notice is that the process wasn't a complete failure, because now, inside Cannon, lived a revenge hungry Taras.

## Into the Deep

### Poseidon Shrugged

When Aspen was again kiddnapped, she was dressed like a black and was brought to their homeland, and before their leader, but then she awoke and started to run, frightened until she met Casque that said categorically that she belonged among the Black.
Casque preceded then to calm her and show her the place where they were at, and that it was time Aspen knew all about herself. Casque showed then the story of the world from The Black point of view, then saying that Aspen is diferent from The Black and from The Blue, asking then if she would like to meet her real father.

### Illumination

Guided by Casque, Aspen swam into the cave where she finally met her real father Rahger and after a brief exchange Aspen realized that her father wanted something from her, and like Killian before him, he wanted the destruction of the humans, wich she completely refused, being promptly attacked by Rahger and escaping from him, right before he gathered his forces and declared war on the surface.

### Missing Persons

After she escaped from Rahger, Aspen, tried to get Tyler's help, only to come face to face with her mother. After changing into civilian clothes she decied to cantact Chance and ask him for help. When she found him she told that she wanted to find Captain Matthews and that for that she needed his help. He then told her that Maylander attacked and took over Saba one of the Blue cities and was conducting experiences there, trying to level the playing field, she then told her that a friend in military found the captain adress.
After a short road trip, Aspen and Chance found the Captains house, finding him in bed where he told her that Maylander knew their plan and had set them a trap.
After they sprung Maylander's trap, the three managed to escape to a nearby damn, where the Captain threw his daughter to the water, hoping that she would recover fast enough to help them. Luckily their plan work and right when they her she came to the rescue completely recovered.

### Gut Check

Furious that they used her own father to catch her, Aspen didn't hold back, creating a shield around Chance and her father at same time as she used her water powers to defeat the small army, then taking helicopter down. Of course she couldn't stop a flying missile and so, the damn crashed threatening to destroy everything in it's path, but Aspen, used all her powers and with great effort was able to control it, causing torrential rain to fall, covering their escape.
After driving her father to safety, Aspen and Chance finally kissed, making their relationship official, before Finn emerged from the water of the beach.

### Reunited

With Finn at her side, Aspen traveled to the city of Saba, becoming heartbroken with the state it was in. However her mind was taken away when she noticed that someone was shooting at her brother, becoming relieved when understood the ship belonged to Cannon, howver, the damage was done, Finn was dying, but Aspen, saved him by condensing every bit of water in his body.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* Template:Blood Manipulation: The first power ever used by Aspen. Because there is water in blood, Aspen is able to control it with the ease as any other water based liquid
* **Energy Control**: At Killian's order, Aspen was able to chage some instalations with pure energy
* Template:High Preasure Geyser: Aspen can create up to three geyses that erupt from any body of water and engulf any enemy nearby.
* **Water Body**: After being thrown into the beam of Killian's Weapon, Aspen is now able to convert her whole body into water
* Template:Karkah Blast
* **Liquid Manipulation**: Aspen is able to manipulate any water based liquid even going to the extreme of transforming another body into water and making it disappear in the ocean
	+ Template:Wave Creation: While Surfing in the middle of the ocean, Aspen is able to create waves of all sizes
		- Template:Condensed Water: For short periods of time Aspen is able to condensate small portions of water, making ice out of it
* **Body Overload**: Aspen can create enormous explosions by making her own body overload and explode, without causing any damage to her or her allies and friends.
* Template:Water Shield

### Abilities

* **Master Swimmer**: Aspen has lived arround underwater her whole life. As such she is an expert in swimming and has taken to it as serious as competing in the 1988 Olympic Games in South Korea and winning the Gold Medal in Freestyle Swiming at the age of Seventeen Years Old, before her victory was overturned on a cheating charge
* **Diving**: Aspen has five times the lung capacity of an Olympic Swimmer
	+ **Scuba Diving**: Aspen took some classes but it is unknown if she finished said classes
* **Surfing**
	+ Template:Snowboarding: Probably because of her knowledge of surfing, Aspen is as capable of snowboarding.
* **Marine Biology**: Aspen is extremely knowledgeable about things involving water and the ocean thanks to her extensive education and experience as a marine biologist
* Template:Underwater Breathing: Because of her Half-Blue, Half Black biology, Aspen is as able to breathe and talk on the surface as she is underwater

* **Hand-to-Hand Combat (Basic)**: Aspen demonstrates Basic Hand-to-Hand skills and as such she is capable of holding her own against most of her enemies

## Strengths and Weaknesses

### Weaknesses

* Template:Extreme Dehydration: Because she is a submariner, she can't use her powers too far inland or she risks extreme dehydration, that could kill her

## Notes

* **Aspen Matthews** was created by Michael Turner, first appearing in ***Fathom*
#½**.

## Trivia

Aspen Matthews was ranked #46 in Comic Buyer's Guide's 100 Sexiest Women in Comics list.