| â | I've done this so that you, my adoring and helpless public can gaze upon moi, your lovely queen of all media. Actually, I pretty much am the media now, seeing as I've taken complete control. So don't touch that dial, Metropolis, because if you ever want your phone back, your lights, your talk shows, your home shopping channels and your stupid little lives, then you're gonna have to deal with me! | â |
| ~ Livewire, holding Metropolis hostage. |
Livewire (real name: Leslie Willis) is an electrokinetic supervillain and she is an enemy of Superman.
History
Leslie Willis was a popular WLXL shock jock who made a habit of creating controversies among social issues within Metropolis, as well as ridiculing and insulting people around Metropolis, mostly Superman. People all over Metropolis listened to Leslie, even Superman, who is completed annoyed by her venomous words. Lex Luthor, in particular, enjoyed her radio show.
Leslie was interviewed by Lois Lane and Clark Kent about her views on Superman. Leslie explains 3 main reasons why she hates Superman: the first one is that Superman is never around when anyone needs him, the second one is that everyone is so easy for him to interfere, and the third one is that he cares about himself. These claims were disproven, when Kent secretly left the interview after hearing of a large crane falling from the top of a building, endangering a worker as well as a woman and her child; and despite his difficulty to stop the crane from falling, he manages to save the worker, the woman, and her child from being crushed. Following the end of the interview, Leslie announces the upcoming party in Centennial Park to celebrate the third anniversary of her show.
During the party, there was a thunderstorm, and Leslie's producer tried to convince her to close the party because of the arriving police's concerns for the risks of the concert during a thunderstorm and the crowd's safety. Leslie refuses to take note of her producer's warning and went so far as to incite the crowd against the police. The chaos continued until Superman arrived. But Superman couldn't convince her to stop the party. In fact, she took Superman's appearance as an opportunity to ridicule him in public. Then, suddenly, while verbally attacking Superman, a bolt of lightning simultaneously struck the stage, forcing everyone to evade from the bolts. Leslie, on the other hand, sees this amusing, forcing Superman to push her out of the way before being shocked by the electrical currents. Upon witnessing this, Leslie tries to escape, but she steps on a wire and gets shocked as well before falling unconscious.
Upon regaining his strength, Superman takes Leslie to Metropolis Hospital, where she recovered and quickly learned that not only had her hair and skin changed color. She blamed Superman for her transformation, refusing to take the fact that she should've shut down the concert that caused it in the first place. She later finds out that she has the power to generate and manipulate electricity. Delighted, Leslie escapes from the hospital via electrical current, and the former radio personality renamed herself "Livewire" and started her life as a criminal.
She used her new abilities to hijack Metropolis and manipulated every medium, including telephones, televisions, and billboards. She announced that she would take control of Metropolis's utilities, declaring that if the public wanted to use them they would have to pay her on a regular basis. However, her power was limited and she needed to recharge her powers regularly. This left her vulnerable. Because of this weakness, Superman was able to track Livewire to a local hydroelectric plant and, in the ensuing battle, she was defeated when exposed to water. After this, she was held under heavy restraint and left in a near catatonic state at Stryker's Island. Her medical care while at Stryker's was financed by Lex Luthor, the same man who enjoyed listening to her insulting rants against Superman on the radio.
Sometime later, she recovered and was kept in a regular cell. She managed to escape her cell by manipulating a janitor into letting her listen to his cassette player which she drained power from and used to blast her way out. Livewire then engaged Superman, but her power was not enough to destroy him. Livewire decided that the best way to defeat Superman was to team up so she sprung another supervillain, Parasite, from his cell. Together, they committed a series of crimes in Metropolis, but eventually Parasite betrayed Livewire by draining her powers. He subsequently used Livewire's powers to attack Superman, all while holding Livewire captive to feed off of her energy. After the Parasite was defeated, he and Livewire were delivered to the authorities. Livewire would be moved to a new prison.
Sometime later, when she was being transported through Gotham City, Livewire escaped again and escaped into the Gotham underworld. There, she met Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. The three formed an alliance to commit a series of crimes. With Superman unavailable, Supergirl headed to Gotham, where she met Batgirl who informed her about Livewire. Batgirl and Supergirl teamed up to fight Livewire, Ivy, and Harley at Gotham Park. During this melee, Livewire almost electrocuted Supergirl, but Batgirl saved her and Livewire was defeated. She was later returned to the Metropolis prison system.
Years later, Livewire became a member of the Superman Revenge Squad to destroy Superman once and for all. They started a rampage at Daily Planet Plaza, but the Justice League intervened and Livewire was easily knocked out by J'onn J'onzz. After Superman was "killed" by Toyman, Livewire and Kalibak started another rampage at Metropolis. When Superman returned, Livewire, Kalibak, and the other villains were taken down.
Livewire later joined Grodd's Legion of Doom. However, she did not appear to be particularly dedicated to it; While she helped the Legion on a couple jobs, she was not among the Legion villains involved in its space mission and the Luthor/ Grodd civil war.
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