MELINDA

Real Name: Melinda ??

Identity/Class: Alternate Earth (Earth-90134) human

Occupation: Test subject

Group Membership: None

Affiliations: 19 other pregnant women (including Lana) and their children

Enemies: Unidentified doctors

Known Relatives: Twilight (daughter, decesead)

Aliases: Alpha Delta 99 017

Base of Operations: A bunker in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, USA

First Appearance: Last American#4 (March, 1991)

Powers/Abilities: She was a courageous and devoted mother, who was very protective not only of her child, but also those around her. Despite being mentally disabled due to autism she was smart enough to keep a diary and use her lighter to get to safety.

Height: Unrevealed (5'5", by approximation)
Weight: Unrevealed (115 lbs.; by approximation)
Eyes: Green
Hair: Black

History:
(Last American#4 (fb)) - Melinda was an autistic woman from Brooklyn, who kept writing in her diary about her experiences. She arrived on a bus in Virginia and was one of twenty pregnant women that were taken to an underground bunker by a group of doctors before the bombs fell. She received the denomination Alpha Delta 99 017 and lived in a room within the underground facility with fellow pregnant woman Lana. To make sure the baby wouldn't be like her she received pills and underwent tests and radiation treatments. She got paid 10 dollars per day and told the doctors that she was saving the money to buy nice things for her baby, which she was going to call Hope because she hoped the baby would not be like her.

   Melinda was having an MRI when World War III broke out above ground and the power went out after atomic bombs were dropped on America. Lana helped Melinda get out of the machine after the emergency power went on. The doctors calmed down the women and assured them that they had enough food and emergency power.

   After a week Melinda had earned 70 dollars for the baby. The phones were still not working and the doctors took the women to the surface. From the entrance of the bunker Melinda saw a doctor go outside and dissolve in the acid smog. She and Lana screamed in fear and the doctors quickly closed the door. Melinda then had a fit, fell to the ground and gave birth to her baby under the watchful eyes of two doctors.

   Melinda decided against calling her baby Hope after doctors told her that the worst had happened and that no hope was left. They told her that it was the twilight of the world so Melinda named her baby Twilight. The baby was born sick, but the doctors couldn't run tests on her baby daughter because the emergency power had went out. Melinda kept feeding Twilight and promised the baby that everything would be alright, but the doctors were sure that it wouldn't.

   After many days in the underground facility a doctor shouted at Melinda when she asked him if they were still getting their ten dollars per day. Eventually the women and doctors burnt everything they could find to keep warm with the emergency power gone and ate their way through all the food supplies. After all reserves were gone and the fires went out they lived in the cold and dark and everyone became hungry.

   One day Melinda picked up her baby and bumped into Lana, who told her that the doctors had stolen one of the babies and were eating it. Another woman told her that it was the truth and Melinda used her lighter to keep the women together and find the steps downstairs to another level. The women hid with their babies in a locked room from the doctors, but they could still hear them scrambling around and screaming. When the door began to break Melinda and the other women headed further down with their babies to the bottom floor and blocked the stairs. Lana found some water on the wall, but there was nothing that could save Melinda's daughter Twilight, who died in her sleep. Melinda was sure her lighter wouldn't work much longer either.

(Last American#4 (fb) - BTS) - Melinda and a few of the other women found an underground passage carved into the stone by water and made their way back to the surface through a cave system in the mountain. They carved a message at the entry to the surface that just said America. Upon reaching the surface Melinda dropped her lighter...

Comments: Created by Alan Grant, John Wagner & Michael McMahon.

Last American was a creator-owned mini-series published by Marvel as part of their Epic Comics line.

Melinda's final fate remained unrevealed, but Last American's protagonist Ulysses S. Pilgrim found her lighter 20 years later (at some point in 2019) at the entrance of the cave and it was still working. He had hope that Melinda and the women had survived and lived happily somewhere out there in the wastelands with their now grown up children.

She was presumably not a highly functioning autistic. Her handwriting looked child-like and she was far away from winning a Spelling Bee contest.

World War III in 1999? A few years off for another apocalypse! Still waiting, but the end of days could arrive any day now.

This profile was completed on 01/16/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary event.

Profile by Markus Raymond.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Melinda has no known connections to:

Twilight

(Last American#4 (fb)) - A week after America was destroyed by atomic bombs during World War III, Melinda gave birth to her daughter at the entrance of an underground bunker under the supervision of two doctors. She called her Twilight instead of Hope after a doctor told her that there was no hope left and that this was the twilight of the world. Twilight was born sick, but doctors couldn't run any tests on her because the emergency power had went out. Melinda still fed her Twilight even though doctors told her that she had no future.

   One day Melinda picked up Twilight and was told by her roommate Lana that the doctors had stolen one of the babies and had eaten it. Melinda fled with Twilight and the other women and their babies to a lower level and locked the door behind them. When the door began to break down the women fled with their babies further down and blocked the steps. Twilight died in her sleep and Melinda put her corpse in a box and left it behind.

(Last American#4) - In 2019 Ulysses S. Pilgrim, leader of the U.S. Deep Reserve Command Unit, found the box with Twilight's remains while investigating the underground facility with his robotic allies.

--Last American#4 (Last American#4 (fb), 4

images: (without ads)
Last American#4, p14, pan1 (main)
Last American#4, p13, pan8 (head shot)
Last American#4, p21, pan5 (Twilight's skeleton)

Appearances:
Last American#4 (March, 1991) - Alan Grant & John Wagner (writers), Michael McMahon (artist), Nel Yomtov (editor)

First Posted: 09/11/2026
Last updated: 01/16/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at: http://www.marvel.com

Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!

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