Foes of the Superwomen of EVA #9: Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor
"The years that followed Second Impact proved to be fruitful ones for the American business conglomerate known as LexCorp, as they ensured they had a finger in every pie when it came to the global environment of the time, be it supplying weapons to the warring factions that littered the developing countries to aiding relief efforts in those same hotspots. In the more developed parts of the world, they proved to be one of the few 'kingdoms' of big business and technology that the secret organization SEELE couldn't sink their claws into, as the head of LexCorp, Alexander "Lex" Luthor, was wary enough to steer clear of whatever Lorenz Kihl and co. were trying to sell, figuring that SEELE's endgame wouldn't come to pass. He was proven right when SEELE's goal of a controlled Third Impact was thwarted by a number of superhuman women and girls who emerged in Tokyo-3 in 2015 during the battle against the otherworldly monstrosities codenamed 'Angels', often assisting the U.N.-backed special agency NERV in their efforts. The exposure of SEELE's conspiracy only further amused Luthor, who all-but-gleefully supplied the U.N. investigators with a recording of Kihl making his 'pitch' to him.
With the threat of SEELE gone, Luthor turned his thoughts towards the superwomen themselves, feeling that their presence threatened the balance of power when it came to 'mere mortals', especially once they banded together as the Justice League. It was a sentiment that was shared by his niece, Nasthalthia Luthor, nicknamed 'Nasty' by her classmates at the private school she attended, Stanhope Academy for Girls. Much like her uncle, Nasthalthia was conniving, manipulative, and doggedly persistent, with an intellect that nearly rivaled Lex's own. One particular superwoman she showed the most disdain for was Supergirl (secretly former NERV Evangelion pilot Asuka Langley Sohryu), and made it her personal goal of exposing the real identity of the girl of steel, while also showing her that humankind wouldn't be intimidated by a teenager with near-godlike powers.
To that end, with her uncle's backing, she moved herself to Tokyo-3 and transferred into the local high school; she was joined by her powerfully-built chauffer/bodyguard Maria, and her three 'assistants', Yume, Aja, and Tina, the latter three accompanying her as new students as well. This high school, as it turned out, was where the former Evangelion pilots and their friends had started attending, and it was here that Nasthalthia found herself beginning a bit of a bristling rivalry with Asuka. (Asuka's fellow former EVA pilot, Mari "Illustrious" Makinami, secretly the Flash, jokingly declared (in a riff on a classic Western movie cliché) that this town wouldn't be big enough for two genius redheads.)
To get the attention of Supergirl, Nasthalthia secretly paid off Daisuke Daitokuji, an ex-technologist for the Japan branch of S.T.A.R. Labs, to go on a crime spree in downtown Tokyo-3 using the tech he had secretly pilfered from his former employer. He did just that under the costumed guise of the molecular-disrupting criminal Loophole, and soon enough got the encounter with Supergirl he'd been paid to set up. From a covert location, Nasthalthia and her cronies studied the fight, and soon she put the finishing touches on her trump card against Supergirl.
The following day, while on patrol, Supergirl was ambushed by an unknown assailant in an unusual set of power armor; she was unaware that it was Nasthalthia herself in the armor, a streamlined version of the prototype 'Lexoskel' suit being developed by LexCorp. Her version of the armor put her on roughly equal footing with Supergirl, who tried to keep their battle from causing too much damage to the city. When it appeared that Supergirl was managing to get the upper hand, Nasthalthia unleashed her armor's 'Nasty surprise' when the chestplate opened, revealing a Kryptonite crystal within. Suddenly greatly weakened by exposure to the element, Supergirl soon found herself on the receiving end of Nasthathia's blows. Nasthalthia nearly unmasked her, only to be knocked to the side thanks to the sudden arrival of Supergirl's fellow Justice Leaguer, Steel (secretly engineering wunderkind Mana Kirishima, ironically also a redhead). A swing of her hammer managed to shatter the crystal, which she then followed up by using another of her armor's features to vaporize the shards, allowing Supergirl to recover. Knowing that she'd be cornered if she kept going, Nasthalthia used a powerful flashbang generator in her armor's left gauntlet on her opponents; while they were temporarily blinded, she fled the scene, vowing that her quest wouldn't be over anytime soon."
*Author's Note(s)*
For today's entry, a take on a somewhat minor member of the Luthor clan in the Superman mythos. Nasthalthia 'Nasty' Luthor originally debuted in September 1970's Adventure Comics #397, intended to be a clear recurring rival of Supergirl's; said rivalry lasted long after the two had graduated from college, where they both wound up working at KSF-TV in San Francisco. Here she wasn't as brilliant as her (in)famous uncle, but was loyal to him in his private war against the Kryptonian heroes of Earth, hoping she'd be rewarded for said loyalty. The more well-known version of 'Nasty' was a major supporting character in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman (where she sported a 'Goth' look). For the Superwomen of EVA Supergirl, it felt right that she'd have a Luthor as an opponent at some point, but Lex has been done enough, as has Lena, so why not let a more minor Luthor take the slot instead?
As for which anime character to serve as a visual basis for my take on 'Nasty', the perfect one hit me after seeing her OVA of origin. That being...B-ko, from the cult classic 1986 action-comedy Project A-ko. (Both are rich girl geniuses with axes to grind against superpowered redheads, after all.) Thus, for the Deviation I uploaded, all it took was recoloring an image of B-ko in her rather...unusual set of battle armor, plus the addition of a LexCorp logo, to give me the desired result. In her other biographical details, her cronies are based on the four 'yes-girls' B-ko had with her in the anime; it's a detail inspired by a collaboration between DeviantArt members Ishida1694 and SXGodzilla on what a DC Universe version of Project A-ko would look like. (And it's a pretty fun 'pitch', I have to say.) The villain 'Nasty' hires to fight Supergirl, Loophole, is a very minor villain who debuted in October 1993's Adventures of Superman #505 who somehow managed to make an appearance in 2003's JLA/Avengers. I 'Nippon-ized' his name for narrative purposes, yet while looking up Japanese surnames for him, I wound up giving him a fitting one-the reason being, Daitokuji was B-ko's last name, so in a way, the SWOE version of Loophole could resemble B-ko's father, Hikaru Daitokuji...
