Real Name:
David Harstein
Envoy
Real Name:
David Harstein
Identity/Class: Mutated human (Ace)
Occupation: Actor, former U.S.Government agent
Affiliations: member of the Four Aces
Enemies: Senator Joe McCarthy
Known Relatives: Rebecca Davidson (wife), Sheila Davidson, Edie Davidson (daughters)
Aliases: Josh Davidson
Base of Operations: originally Washington D.C.; currently Israel
First Appearance: "Witness", Wild Cards (1987)
Powers/Abilities: David has the ability to make anyone agree with him and like him. This power is pheromonal however, and so only works if the other person can smell him (e.g. not through a tv screen). Additionally, it wears off after a few hours out of his presence.
History: David Harstein was one of many Americans affected by the alien Wild Card virus during the initial outbreak in 1946. Luckily for him, he was one of the 1% who gained superhuman powers rather than a hideous death or disfiguring mutation. David gained the ability to make others like him and agree with him, through the uncontrolled release of special pheromones into the air around him. Along with a handful of others he was recruited to work for the U.S government to work on special missions for them, such as overthrowing the Peron regime in Argentina.
Things turned dark however when Senator McCarthy and the HUAC hearings began. David was called to testify in front of the anti-Wild Card group. Initially his powers meant he was released after they had promised to stop their witch-hunt, but realising later what had happened once the pheromones wore off, the Committee recalled him, and this time took testimony while he was sealed within a glass case. Treated as a hostile witness, he was imprisoned. After being released a few years later, he promptly vanished, never to be seen by the public again.
He fled to Israel, where he took on a new identity and used his powers to help his new homeland. Decades later he would once more encounter some of his old teammates during a trip back to the U.S.A., but although they realised who he was, they did not betray his secret.
Comments: Created by Walter Jon Williams.
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