WILLIAM CHANCE

Real Name: William Destine

Identity/Class: Human/Djinn hybrid, British citizen (see comments), (at least WWII, possibly as early as 18-19th century, through to modern day)

Occupation: Actor

Group Membership: ClanDestine (Argent/Samantha Hasard, Crimson Crusader/Rory Destine, Cuckoo/Kay Cera/Jasmine Destine, Adam Destine, Albert Destine, Florence Destine, Garth Destine, Gracie Gamble, Lance Destine, Maurice Fortuit, Nathaniel Destine, Rik Destine, Sebastian Destine, Sherlock Destine, Thaddeus Destine, Vincent Destine, Imp/Pandora Destine, Vex/Dominic Fate, Wallop/Walter Destine, Warlord/Newton Destine) (see comments);
presumably MEAA (Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance - Australian union for actors and other media professionals)

Affiliations: Alice Springs, Bruce (Cap'n Oz director), Dario (Cap'n Oz special effects man)

Enemies: Lenz, Lenz's progeny

Known Relatives: Adam Destine (father), Elelyth (mother), Albert Destine, Dominic Destine, Garth Destine (deceased), Lance Destine (deceased), Maurice Destine (deceased), Nathaniel Destine, Newton Destine, Rik Destine, Rory Destine, Sherlock Destine (deceased), Thaddeus Destine (deceased), Walter Destine, Vincent Destine (deceased) (brothers); Florence Destine (deceased), Gracie Destine, Jasmine Destine (Kay), Pandora Destine, Samantha Destine (Sam) (sisters); unidentified paternal grandparents (deceased)

Aliases: Will "Take A" Chance, Cap'n Oz

Base of Operations: Australia;
   formerly Destine Mansion, Ravenscroft, England, U.K.

First Appearance: ClanDestine I#2 (July 1994)

Powers/Abilities: Will possesses superhuman strength to an unrevealed degree, sufficient at least to propel him when swimming with sufficient speed to exit the water like a rocket. He was also exceptionally agile and acrobatic, able to leap from point to point to cross a wide movie compound without ever touching the ground. Like all his siblings his aging slowed dramatically after he reached adulthood, allowing him to live for centuries; somewhere between one and two and a half centuries old, he looks no older than his early thirties. He is also capable of cloaking his mind to block anyone searching for him psychically, and to stymie direct telepathic contact or, presumably, intrusion.

   He's presumably a capable actor.

Height: 6'3" (by estimation - see comments)
Weight: 220 lbs. (by estimation - see comments)
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown

History:
(Alan Davis website) - A member of the Destine family conceived from the union of Adam Destine and the djinn Elalyth, whose children were born spread across several centuries, William was born in the extradimensional paradise of Yden some time after his brother Walter (born no later than A.D. 1808), himself born after Newton (D.O.B. A.D. 1774), but prior to Dominic (see comments). 

(Clan Destine I#2 (fb)) - In 1963 William posed for a family photo taken by his elder sister Gracie and alongside his siblings Florence, Maurice, Walter, Dominic, Samantha, Vincent, Kay and their father Adam (see comments).

(Fantastic Four Annual#33 (fb) - BTS) - When the hippie era kicked off in the late 1960s William embraced it, or at minimum the part about free love.  

(Fantastic Four Annual#33) - In 1969 several Destines - William, Dominic, Maurice, Newton, Sebastian and Vincent (younger here than he was in the 1963 photo, presumably thanks to his ability to time travel) - went to Woodstock. To William's annoyance he was left on a hillside overlooking the festival to babysit Vincent and Dominic, the former because he was currently only a young teen, the latter because his hyper-senses responded to the crowd's sounds and smells by effectively making him stoned. When Vincent wandered away, Will went hunting for him, and found his brother seemingly starting fires in the grass; stamping the flames out William told Vincent that arson wasn't cool, but Vincent protested it wasn't him but a full-sized fire-sprite (actually the Fantastic Four's Human Torch) that he'd conjured before shrinking it down to fit in a jam jar. William told Vincent that he needed his brother to be a grown-up, and noted that it had been a mistake to bring Dominic; Vincent defended Dom, noting it wasn't his fault that he was suffering sensory overload, but Will decried being left to look after them while the others were having fun and "getting all the action" from the "groovy chicks" down nearer the stage. Telling Vincent that he could play nursemaid since he understood Dom so well, Will left them to go down to the party.

(X-Men/ClanDestine#1 (fb) - BTS) - Somewhere around twelve years ago, when the two youngest Destines, the twins Rory and Pandora were just infants, a conflict between Vincent and the rest of the family saw Vincent destroy Destine Mansion near Ravenscroft, England, and ended with Vincent's death at the hands of Adam. After this tragedy Adam sought solitude and went into space, and the rest of the family scattered around the world to pursue separate lives. If he hadn't already done so, this was presumably when William left the family home too.

(ClanDestine#2 (fb) - BTS) - By the modern day William had reinvented himself as Will "Take A" Chance, the premier action man of Australian cinema and was portraying the lead character in the superhero movie Cap'n Oz. He was also in a secret relationship with his co-star Alice Springs, but had kept her unaware he was really William Destine, one of the English Destine clan, and genuinely superhuman.  

(Clan Destine I#2) - With the film crew on location in the Simpson Desert, Alice and Will finished filming a scene where Cap'n Oz defeated the cyborg Rumbalara Raiders. After the director, Bruce, confirmed he didn't need another take, the pair were approached by a reporter who asked what the story was between them, but Will brushed him off, insisting that he was merely a fan of his talented co-star. As Alice and Will entered a trailer together, Will ended the attempted interview by insisting the pair needed to rehearse their next scene, but as soon as the door closed, hiding them from the reporter, Alice put her arms round Will in an embrace. Before things could progress they were startled by another voice in the caravan, and turned to see three strange men, who demanded to know the location of the Gryphon. Unaware these were artificial creations of Lenz, a foe of the Destines, and having no idea that they were trying to find a device Lenz believed was in the possession of one of the Destine family members, Will assumed they were tabloid reporters. Apologizing to Alice for the interruption, Will moved to teach the intruders a lesson and then throw them out, but as soon as he hit the trio they splattered into goo. Coated in the stinking slime, a confused Will noted that he'd barely hit them. Swiftly exiting the trailer Will smiled and told the crew outside that he could take a joke, but queried who was going to clean the literally stinking mess up. When the special effects supervisor Dario denied knowledge, Will told him not to play dumb, claiming that the "bags of people shaped gunk" was a neat trick that had impressed him. However, when Dario still insisted it wasn't them, Will was left to wonder who had been behind the "prank," unaware he was being observed from a distance by more of Lenz's creations.

(Clan Destine I#3) - Seeking some privacy away from the rest of the film crew, Alice and Will drove out to a beauty spot he knew, not even taking the time to change out of their costumes from the shoot. Seeing the stunning watering hole he had taken her to, Alice agreed that it was worth the long drive, and asked Will if the crew's pranks had started getting to him. He insisted they weren't, adding that they relieved the stress of filming. Turning to face her, he moved closer and added that while he enjoyed his job, all work and no play "makes Will a dull boy" as he raised his hand to brush against her cheek. Moving in for a kiss, Alice retorted that he could never be dull, but before they could lock lips Will spotted some nearby individuals watching them from across the pool. Enraged that someone had followed them, and assuming it was more reporters, Will shouted to a startled Alice to stay put while he dealt with the nuisances even as he leapt gracefully into the waters. Zooming across underwater, Will emerged to confront the watchers, but instead of reporters they turned out to to be monstrous creatures with elongated jaws and limbs (more of Lenz's creations), who momentarily attacked him before declaring him unimportant and vanishing in literal flash of light (recalled because the Gryphon device they sought had been found elsewhere). Having ignored Will's instruction and run around the edge of the pool, Alice arrived moments later to find a nonplussed Will staring at a patch of smoking ground, and asked him what had happened. Confused, Will told her he had no idea.

(Clan Destine I#5 (fb) - BTS) - Will remained convinced the two encounters were some sort of bizarre special effects pranking being carried out by the crew, so in order to avoid their time together being spoiled by more "practical jokes" they decided to convince the crew (who had long since realized they were involved with each other) that they had broken up.

(Clan Destine I#5) - Still at the desert shoot, Alice and Will finished off filming a scene where Taz declared her love for Cap'n Oz, only for him to rebuff her because his duty to Australia permitted no distractions. As soon as the scene ended the director advised everyone to get some sleep as it was now two a.m. and shooting was scheduled to resume at six thirty. At this Will and Alice wished each other a stiff and overly formal good night and, making sure everyone on the crew saw them, headed to their respective trailers on opposite ends of the compound. However, Will then used his superhuman agility to make a much more covert acrobatic trip across the compound to enter Alice's trailer through the skylight, his prowess earning her admiration. Entering a clinch, they were about to kiss when Alice spotted a glowing spectral figure behind Will, and just managed to stammer out that it was a ghost before fainting. Catching Alice as she fell, Will turned to see the astral projection of his sister Cuckoo (Jasmine Destine, a.k.a. Kay Cera). He expressed annoyance at her mode of making contact, but an unrepentant Cuckoo said it was his own fault for cloaking his mind, adding that it had taken her ages to track him down as a result. As Will placed Alice on the trailer's bed, it suddenly occurred to him to ask whether the exploding people had been Cuckoo's idea of a sick joke, but she explained they were Lenz's people, and that two of his siblings, Maurice and Flo, had been murdered. Shocked at the news, Will demanded to know what had been going on, and Cuckoo offered to telepathically update him with the full story if he opened up his mind; however, unwilling to have Cuckoo "worming around" in his head, Will insisted on a verbal debrief. Cuckoo swiftly summarized recent events, detailing how the family had been attacked and ultimately saved by their father's return from his prolonged sojourn to outer space. Hearing the convoluted tale, Will told his sister that it sounded more absurd than the script of Cap'n Oz, and requested an update on what was happening with the family now that the crisis had been dealt with, which Cuckoo provided. 

Comments: Created by Alan Davis and Mark Farmer.

   Based on being younger than Walter, who was born between 1775 and 1808, and being a full grown adult by the time of the 1963 family photo shown in ClanDestine I#2, William had to be born in the still extremely wide window of 1776 to 1943. My guess would be late 19th or early 20th century, but really the only person who knows until further information is disclosed in a comic would be his creator Alan Davis.

   Though born in Elalyth, like the other Destine children he would have been registered officially as being born in England (probably Ravenscroft, since it'd be easier to list the family's private estate as his place of birth than claim he was born in a hospital whose records might contradict this fallacy). However, again like his siblings, he'd have to keep updating his birth records to hide his true age, which might lead to new citizenships, and it's possible that since he was now based in Australia he had taken up Australian citizenship, whether officially emigrating there from the U.K. or falsifying records to claim he'd been born there.

   Will also appears in ClanDestine#9-12, but the post-Alan Davis stories of those four issues were subsequently retconned to be a dream (or visions of Earth-95710 - same difference).

   Calculating his height: In terms of height references, we see Will in an old photo with other family members in ClanDestine I#2, but most of them aren't standing up straight, which makes height comparisons tricky bar the fact that he's definitely taller than Walter's human form or Dominic. We do see him with other Clan members in the aforementioned ClanDestine#9-12, and the other Clan members have appeared alongside people whose heights are known, but in ClanDestine#9-12 his height isn't well defined - he's seen as several inches taller than Kay in ClanDestine#9, but the same height as her on the last page of ClanDestine#12. Between that and it all turning out to be dream later, I don't think we can use those appearances for a height reference. Lacking any real options for estimating Will's height, I've guessed instead. As a leading action hero he's probably not short (we'll ignore Tom Cruise for the sake of this debate). So I took another Australian action hero leading man, Chris "Thor" Hemsworth, as a model, and very much ASSumed Will matches him. And continuing with that comparison, since he's clearly bulked up with muscles, I've ASSumed he weighed the same as Hemsworth did when he filmed the original Thor movie. 

   In his group affiliations, the ClanDestine isn't a proper team as such, but rather than family, who all of the Destines are members of more or less by default. As such it includes even the ones who died before William was born. All of their surnames are Destine, which I've used in relatives, but for the group listing I've put down the surname aliases they used in the modern day.

   This profile was completed on 05/09/2026, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 25th anniversary's celebratory event to ClanDestine.  

Profile by Loki.

CLARIFICATIONS:
William Chance has no known connections to:

images: (without ads)
ClanDestine#5, p1, pan1 (main image)
ClanDestine#3, p18, pan7 (headshot)
Fantastic Four Annual#33, p12, pan1 (hippie phase)
ClanDestine#5, p2, pan7 & p3, pan1-6 (acrobatics)

Appearances:
ClanDestine#2-3 (November-December 1994) - Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Paul Neary (editor)
ClanDestine#5 (February 1995) - Alan Davis (writer, pencils), Mark Farmer (inks), Paul Neary (editor)
Fantastic Four Annual#33 (September 2012) - Alan Davis (writer), Mark Farmer (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)

First Posted: 09/29/2026
Last updated: 05/09/2026

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

Non-Marvel Copyright info
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