TYPHOON

Real Name: Kwan Tai Fung

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Detective, shipping/exports dealer

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: Oliver Cutlass, Defenders, Rufus T. Hackstabber, Hellcat, Daimon Hellstrom, Hannibal King

Enemies: Minerva Bannister, "Fat Man", Ozu, an unnamed assassin

Known Relatives: Oliver Cutlass (husband)

Aliases: None

Base of Operations: Oriental Expediters, San Francisco, California

First Appearance: Defenders I#133 (July, 1984)

Powers/Abilities: Typhoon is a skilled detective, the only person alive who can keep up with her husband Cutlass' theories and understand them. She is also an excellent markswoman, hand-to-hand combatant, and learned how to pick locks with a hairpin and suck bullets out wounds at "girl's school."

History: (Defenders I#133)- Typhoon had just turned down another request for a date from Rufus T. Hackstabber when Martin stumbled into her and Cutlass' office, shot. Martin tried to tell them what was going on, but a brick crashed through their window, followed by a dagger to Martin's heart. Cutlass set out after the assassin, while Typhoon set after one of their contacts, Swifty.

Typhoon found Swifty at the Casa Dominica Hotel, but was attacked by a band of assassins. Cutlass arrived with the Defenders, but during the fight that erupted Swifty was hit in the heart with a dagger and died.

Just then, Ozu of the Drug Enforcement Agency appeared, and Typhoon kneed him in the groin so that they could set after the man behind the assassins, as one had been followed by Cloud. This lead them to a warehouse on the waterfront, where they confronted the fat man who was behind an illegal shipment of cocaine, hidden within a less-illegal shipment of Russian caviar. The fat man and his assassins escaped in the battle that erupted, but Cutlass let them go, having realized something bigger was at stake. Martin had been shot in the shoulder before being stabbed, but the fat man's men didn't use guns. Cutlass had Typhoon suck the bullet out of his left shoulder, and it turned out to contain a tracer.

Cutlass and Typhoon led the Defenders to the boat containing the caviar/cocaine, and confronted Ozu, who had come to arrest the smugglers. Cutlass had determined that Ozu was behind everything, having hidden computer tape inside of the wrapper of the cocaine beneath the caviar (all clear?). Cutlass deduced that Ozu was actually a member of the outer Mongolia KGB.

(Defenders I#148)- Oliver Cutlass and Typhoon later encountered the Defenders again, along with Patsy and Daimon Hellstrom and Rufus T. Hackstabber as they were brought in my Mr. Van Vliet, who was searching for the Lesser Grey God, a powerful mystical artifact. Van Vliet committed suicide, aware that he was being marked for death by Minerva Bannister, and Cutlass was able to follow the trail back to Minerva Bannister, solving the case with the aid of Hannibal King, and battling her assassins. Cutlass and Typhoon thus wrapped up another successful caper.

Comments: Created by Peter B. Gillis, Alan Kupperburg and Kim DeMulder.

Oriental Expediters was also the name of Fah Lo Suee's company, a cover for her splinter cell of Si-Fan. It was later run by Black Jack Tarr as a cover for Freelance Restorations.

I had to read Cutlass and Typhoon's stories four times before I could claim to understand the plot well enough to explain it to someone else.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
Typhoon should not be confused with:

• Typhon, Titan, Avengers foe, @ Avengers I#49
• Typhoon, enemy of the First Line, @ Marvel: The Lost Generation #6

Non-Marvel Copyright info
All other characters mentioned or pictured are ™  and © 1941-2099 Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff, you should check out the real thing!
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