Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #7: Nebula

"The brutal and cunning space pirate Nebula was known as a scourge throughout the galaxy for her ruthlessness, power, and tactical expertise, allowing her to command a crew that became known and feared far and wide. Her reputation would be further bolstered after she seized control of the Sanctuary II, a massive starship previously helmed by the mad titan Thanos. At some point in her campaign across the stars, Nebula's attention would be drawn to the planet Earth after the ship's supercomputer had detected signs of the presence of beings related to the fabled First Ancestral Race, as well as their purportedly powerful Super-Solenoid technology.

The arrival of Nebula and her crew would be detected by SHIELD's sister agency SWORD (led by Abigail Brand), who called upon a recently-recruited secret operative to assess the situation: NERV scientist Hitomi Kaga, who had become the alien-powered hero Ms. Marvel. Aided by her 'mentor', the Kree soldier Mar-Vell (who had assumed the human identity of Kenzaki Kyoya, an agent of NERV's Section-2), Hitomi/Ms. Marvel infiltrated the Sanctuary II and did battle with Nebula herself, while Mar-Vell and some SWORD agents handled her crew. While a tough fight for the rookie hero, Hitomi was able to eventually best the arguably better fighter in Nebula, but instead of finishing her off as the space pirate demanded, Hitomi made her order her crew to take themselves out of Earth's corner of the universe and not return, lest they be dealt with by the full force of SWORD. Nebula reluctantly agreed, but reminded Hitomi that things would be different should she ever venture outside Earth's 'jurisdiction', beginning a long rivalry between the two.

Nebula would next encounter Hitomi/Ms. Marvel when she and the new team of superheroes she'd helped form, the Avengers, were brought to a far reach of space by a member of the Watchers to prevent Nebula from obtaining absolute power from the Infinity Union, a mysterious device owned by a cosmic being known as the Stranger. Her means of obtaining this power-releasing a vast amount of energy that would be absorbed by the Union-would threaten to end the universe, necessitating the intervention of not only the Avengers, but also two teams of intergalactic freebooters: the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Starjammers (both of whom counted Earthlings among their respective memberships). In the chaos that followed the destruction of the Infinity Union, Nebula escaped, occasionally returning to plague Earth's heroes time and again."

*Author's Note(s)*

Today we have here a SWOE interpretation of a Marvel villain-turned-antihero who gained a newfound level of popularity thanks to Karen Gillan's portrayal in the MCU Guardians of the Galaxy movies. For this take (and the Deviation I made), I opted for a more 'classic' approach compared to the cybernetically-enhanced warrior we've been seeing of late. (All apologies to Mike McElwee, but old-school Nebula wasn't just a 'blue Gamora'.) I also went with Nebula to tie into the cosmic corner I contributed to SWOE with my powering up of Hitomi Kaga. As seen in my Deviation, for the anime character basis for Nebula, I went with one of anime's most well-known space pirates in Ryoko Hakubi from the harem genre-pioneering Tenchi Muyo! franchise. Specifically, I went with her character model from the more recent Ai Tenchi Muyo! series, which suited my purposes nicely.