NEVADANEVADA
Real Name: Unrevealed;
she only goes by Nevada, but we don't know if that is her full name,
and whether it was her birth name or an adopted name
Identity/Class: Alternate Reality (somewhere in DC's Vertigo Multiverse) human, apparent mutate
Occupation: Dancer;
Rift Warrior
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Benny
(bartender), Bianca, Bolero
(pet, partner), Rip Lefkowitz, Ogden S. Locke,
Jeff
Newhall, Spoozer (pet, deceased);
formerly Dolan, C.W. Zastro
Enemies: Dolan, Reverend J. Pierce Polk,
C.W. Zastro;
various beings from the Rift
Known Relatives: Unidentified mother; unidentified father; unidentified grandmother (deceased); Rose (aunt, deceased)
Aliases: "Sweet Legs"
Base of Operations: Las Vegas, Nevada
frequently hangs out at the bar Bushwackers;
last seen to be staying at the Hard
Eight motel off the strip;
formerly lived at Vegas Vista
apartments;
formerly employed at the Nile
Hotel and Casino;
First Appearance: Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1
(January, 1998)
Powers/Abilities: Nevada is a skilled dancer and experienced at unarmed combat. She is willing and able to use things like keys to the eye to take out a mugger.
She has a chronic injury of her left ankle.
Within the Rift, she can apparently
generate a sword and battle all sorts of alien creatures.
She is presumably unable to access the Rift on its
own.
Nevada's experiences growing up led her to dislike the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.
Her drink of choice is a Vodka Collins.
Nevada tended to sing obscure songs, many of which Bolero did not enjoy.
Bolero will sometimes come to her defense or serve as her mount. Bolero is fairly small for an ostrich.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'10" - 6')
History:
(Nevada#4 (fb) - BTS) - After Nevada's aunt Rose died, Nevada's parents brought all of her albums home. Her father hated them, but her mother listed to them when he was at work. She listened to and learned the words to songs from the Beatles to Frank Zappa.
(Vertigo:
Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb)) - At nine-years-old, Nevada was playing the
role of the Virgin Mary in an "X"-Mas pageant at church. Wishing the
opening scene to look authentic, Nevada stuffed a pillow in the front
of her costume. However, the Reverend Polk was furious, accusing her of
portraying the mother of their lord as a brazen slut and re-assigning
the role to Marjory Dingle, who was previously assigned to play the
back end of a sheep.
Hearing the story, her mother took the Reverend
Polk's side.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb) - BTS) - The next Thanksgiving, Nevada's grandmother died.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb) - BTS) - The next year, her dog, Spoozer, froze to death during a snowstorm.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb) - BTS) - Her genetic father, who had no real role in her upbringing and was essentially a "sperm donor," went to prison on one X-Mas and stayed there for two more X-Mases.
(Nevada#2 (fb) - BTS) - Nevada traveled around in her younger days.
(Nevada#6
(fb) - BTS) <Nine years before the main story> - Nevada moved to
Las Vegas for a clean start and a new life. 
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb) - BTS) - The Friday before the main story, her boyfriend, C. W. Zastro, broke up with her, telling her he had "accidentally" fallen in love with a 23-year-old Keno-runner at the Mirage.
Nevada gave C.W. a split lip for X-Mas.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 (fb) - BTS) - On Christmas Eve (December 24), 1997, Nevada went to her favorite bar, Bushwackers, and had a pair of Vodka Collins.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7) - As Nevada ordered her third Vodka Collins, the bartender, Benny, asked her if she would be OK driving home. She assured him that tonight she could drink the entire Kamchatka Peninsula under the table. When a man seated nearby said, "Don't tell me a looker like you is all alone on Christmas Eve," she replied, "Fine, I won't tell you. End of conversation. Go away." Not easily dissuaded, the man asked what it would cost her to be a little sociable and ordered the "little lady" a beer, but she cancelled the order, clarifying what she was drinking and noting that she was neither little nor a lady. She told him to hit on somebody else, as she had to go walk her ostrich.
Driving back to the Vegas Vista, she was enthusiastically greeted by Bolero, whom she took out for a walk and cleaned up after when he defecated by a Nativity scene.
Back in her apartment, Nevada ranted about Reverend Polk's robbing her of her acting role before passing out. Having an odd dream in which Polk ultimately granted her the role, Nevada woke up strangely satisfied.
(Nevada#2 (fb) - BTS) - Nevada's private investigator friend Rip Lefkowitz told her that he never gambled.
(Nevada#1 (fb) - BTS) - Nevada had a relationship with Dolan, which she eventually ended...although he refused to accept it.
(Nevada#1
(fb) - BTS) - Ogden S. Locke -- a former doctor who had fallen into
alcoholism and then fallen under the influence of some extradimensional
being -- saw Nevada and Bolero at the "Ancient Evenings" exhibit at the
Nile, and he was taken with Nevada's legs and her movements, but
then he realized that he had unwittingly led "him" (the unidentified
cosmic being who manipulated him) to Nevada.
(Nevada#1) - While jogging Bolero down the streets, Nevada dove to the ground to avoid being hit by Dolan's truck when he swerved at her, exacerbating an old ankle injury. She was helped back to her feet by an unidentified woman in that neighborhood.
Nevada subsequently met with Rip Lefkowitz, blowing off the recent assault and noting that she could handle herself, after which he told her about a man being mysteriously sliced in half at the Nile.
One half hour later, despite her ankle injury, Nevada went on stage with Bolero. Pained by her ankle thereafter, Nevada took a phone call from Dolan and told him she did not want to hear from him again and that he needed to grow up and deal with the fact that they were over.
After finishing up a show, Nevada agreed to meet co-worker Bianca at Bushwhackers for drinks. As she returned to the Vegas Vista, she was ambushed by Dolan, who grabbed her by the neck, but she keyed him in the eye and then set Bolero on him. After Bolero had torn out a chunk of Dolan's hindquarters, Nevada told him not to come near him again, warning that she would have kicked the shit out of him herself if not for her ankle.
(Nevada#2) - After receiving a call from Rip, Nevada checked out the news and learned of the most recent violent death at the Nile and then called him back. Considering that she might be out of job, Nevada noted, "F@#$ me," but then clarified that it was just an expression and that if she ever actually propositioned him, he would not have to ask.
As she later went to a laundromat, she met massage therapist Jeff Newhall, who impressed her by immediately helping her ankle, but she was then distracted by visions of a caveman and a Moses-type.
As the
vision faded, she was confronted by Vegas detective Blount, who asked
her if she had met Ogden (who had identified her as "Sweet Legs" and
noted that he did not want to get her involved in his problems. After
she told Blount she had never seen him before, Blount told her to
contact her if Ogden ever bothered her and noted that he agreed about
her legs. Nevada subsequently arranged to meet Jeff at
Bushwacker's at 2 AM after she got off work. 
Nevada subsequently met with Rip, who told her his theory -- despite her repetitively telling him she was bored by computer talk and didn't understand a word of it -- that somebody (possibly hackers, a rival corporation, or even aliens) was using the Nile's pyramid laser as a data conduit to inject a virus down the beam into the hotel's main computer.
(Nevada#4 - BTS) - The laser was actually striking a "gash" in space that allowed access to the Rift dimension...
After her shift, an
exhausted Nevada went into the bathroom to splash water on her face, at
which point she again had visions that included a warning from Ogden
about the coming "nail time." She was subsequently confronted by a
high-speed assailant that stunned Bolero before she slew it with a pair
of shears...and found it to be some alien creature (a Peripherim, a
monstrous creature from the Rift)
(Nevada#3) - Nevada sat down, exhausted, dripping with the dead alien's fluids, and she was questioned by Detective Emery Blount.
Returning to her apartment, she struggled to wash the gunk out of her hair, eventually cutting out large chunks of her hair to get rid of it. She subsequently had her hair fixed up by stylist Jamil at Planet Hair, during which she had another vision. She subsequently encountered Jeff Newhall and had tea and conversation with him.
Going in to work, she found the show had been cancelled following massive check outs following the various murders. Rip showed Nevada the laser, which seemed to be singing to her and then extended a tendril around her arm.
(Nevada#4) - Nevada was pulled into another dimension (the Rift) by the particles of a creature trying to get down the beam to Earth. Communing with an unidentified being, she experienced a series of visions and a stream of consciousness. A manifestation of Ogden Locke told her that she was undergoing on ordeal known as "the hammer," which would measure her resilience and strength, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Finally confronted by a giant face outside a window, Nevada seemingly shattered to pieces.
(Nevada#5) - The voice/face guided Nevada to admit into her consciousness the true nature of Space, Time, and Spirit. After accepting that most things were neither good nor evil but served a purpose, Nevada reformed and continued her spiritual journey that concluded with the voice of the giant face telling her of beings from the Rift that constituted a counter-vibration to the force of her universe, which would destroy both realms when they collided. It advised her to disrupt the counter-vibration.
(Nevada#5 - BTS) - With Nevada missing, Rip was considered a suspect in some sort of foul play.
(Nevada#6 (fb) - BTS) - Rip was sentenced to murder and imprisoned pending trial, and Bianca -- not knowing what else to do -- sent Bolero to Animal Control's shelter.
(Nevada#6) - Now a
Rift Warrior, fought off the invading army, after which she took a nap.
Awakening back in the desert outside Las Vegas. Returning to her
apartment, she found it occupied by her former landlord, who told her
she had been away for four months. Meeting up with Bianca, she went to
Animal Control and recovered Bolero, after which she met with Det.
Blount and revealed her survival. 
Rip was released and reunited with Nevada, who summarized recent events.
(Nevada#6 (fb) - BTS) - Using his credit cards, Rip got himself and Nevada adjoining rooms at the Hard Eight motel off the strip. Nevada spent most of the next week trying to prove she was alive to credit card companies and the Department of Motor Vehicles. She had to re-tested and get a new license.
(Vertigo: Winter's Edge#2/8) <December 31, 1998> - Wearing a beard and portraying the old year and/or Father Time, Nevada danced with a Baby New Year-dressed Bolero minutes before the planned detonation of the Camelot building. Although she blew some of the lyrics and nearly decapitated Bolero with her scythe, the crowd didn't care too much.
Afterward, a Clootie (a demon-like being from the Rift) abducted Bolero, pulling him into the Camelot building and planning to die with him to punish Nevada from killing his brother in the Rift. While searching for Bolero, Nevada encountered Leonard the Duck and Rhonda Martini. Ultimately impaling the Clootie with a lance, Nevada escaped atop Bolero seconds before the building blew up.
Comments: Created by Steve Gerber, Phil Winslade, and Steve Leialoha.
Nevada's origins began in a single
panel, double page spread of the "obligatory comic book fight scene"
involving a Las
Vegas chorus girl, an ostrich, and Killer Lampshade, which
occurred during an experimental stream of consciousness issue (taking
place during a cross-country roadtrip involving Howard the Duck and
Steve Gerber) printed as an alternative to a reprint in the event of a
missed deadline.
In a subsequent letter page, Gerber
himself pretended to be a fan writing in, demanding a series for the
ostrich and chorus girl.
Allegedly (according to Wikipedia, at least; I haven't personally seen the request, so I neither confirm nor deny), Neil Gaiman, writing on the CompuServe comics forum. said he'd love to see that story. Regardless, Gerber eventually re imagined the characters as Nevada and Bolero for the Vertigo imprint of DC comics. AFAIK, Nevada and Bolero first appeared in Vertigo Winter's Edge#1 (January, 1988), followed by the six issue series "Nevada" (May-October, 1998; I have the trade paperback), and again in Vertigo Winter's Edge#2 (January, 1999). When I wrote the profile for the Las Vegas chorus girl 07/29/2012, I noted that I might get around to profiling Nevada once my son went off to college in 2026...so here we are...
Additionally, Gerber parodied Nevada
and Bolero as Utah and Ravel (a roc-like gastornis (Google it)) in
Howard the Duck (MAX)#4 (June, 2002).
Arizona and Maurice would be great names for the -616 versions.
Nevada refers to being Polked, which would seem to be a euphemism for Reverend Polk having raped/molested her, but the story on refers to his taking away her acting role. So maybe not...
Nevada was 33-years-old at the time of the Vertigo: Winter's Edge#1/7 story.
Profile by Snood.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Nevada should be distinguished from:
Appearances:
Vertigo:
Winter's Edge#1/7 (Nevada story; January, 1998) - Steve Gerber
(writer), Phil Winslade (penciler), Steve Leialoha (inker), Joan Hilty
(assistant editor), Karen Berger (editor)
Nevada#1-6 (May-October, 1998) - Steve Gerber
(writer), Phil Winslade (penciler), Steve Leialoha and Dick Giorano
(inkers), Joan Hilty
(assistant editor), Karen Berger (editor)
Vertigo:
Winter's Edge#2/8 (January, 1989) - Steve Gerber
(writer), Phil Winslade (penciler), Steve Leialoha (inker), Joan Hilty
(assistant editor), Karen Berger and Shelly Roeberg (editors)
First posted: 09/23/2026
Last updated: 11/20/2022
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel
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