First Appearance: Prime II#6 (March, 1996)

Powers/Abilities: Coco had excellent fighting skills in hand-to-hand combat, but did not use conventional weaponry like guns or knives. Her strength appeared to be peak human, with athlete speed, stamina, durability and reflexes. She displayed peak human agility. She may have had hardened skin, but this unconfirmed.

    She had steel grey-colored skin and wore a costume of red (leather?) with fishnet stocking material on her legs, arms, hands, back and upper chest. She also wore high red military style boots, red rings on each finger that may have added to the impact of a punch from her, and small red spectacles that may have aided in night vision, plus a small designer-style jacket. Her make-up included red fingernails and lipstick (sometimes black), plus a large red dot on each cheek that were easily removed. She had shoulder-length black hair that was frizzed out and had red eyes.

    Coco was physically addicted to the Drug, the source of her ultra power, to the point that it would kill her if she went without a fix for 36 hours. Her final hours without the ultra drug would lead to delirium and pain. The Drug gave her power, but was also a weakness. She also smoked cigarettes.

(Prime II#6) - Coco attacked a drug dealer, Phil, who sought to deal the Drug to children, leaping onto the roof of the dealer's Ford Mustang, before forcing him to crash. She then began to beat him up as punishment and deterrent, knocking away his gun. Solitaire then intervened with a flying kick to Coco's jaw. As the drug dealer hobbled away, Solitaire and Coco battled until he managed to grab her arms and tie them up with his sash-weapon. However, Coco quickly turned the tables and managed to slide free, while Solitaire told her to get her emotions under control. They agreed to discuss the matter elsewhere.

    Arriving at her place, Coco was confronted by Keith, who sought to buy some of her stash of the ultra drug with money he was flashing about. She shrugged him off and told him to book into a clinic. Coco and Solitaire then went indoors, where Coco revealed that she was locked into the drug or she would die 36 hours after taking the last fix. Solitaire explained that his father may have developed the ultra drug that Coco was addicted to. Keith then returned as the Prime imposter and destroyed her abode, flattening it. Solitaire then scrambled through the wreckage until he found her injured body, with the objective of getting her to a hospital. Unfortunately, the real Prime appeared then, each blaming the other for the destruction, while Coco lay unconscious in Solitaire's arms.

(Prime II#7) - Solitaire fired a quickly drawn gun into Prime's eyes, temporarily blinding him, as Solitaire, cradling Coco in his arms, deftly somersaulted over Prime's head and away. Solitaire evaded Prime's grasp and managed to escape on his nearby motorbike, taking Coco to a local hospital, as the sun rose to a new day. Solitaire signed Coco in under a false name, hoping the doctors could help her, then sped off to attack the dealers. The next day, Solitaire scaled the hospital walls and climbed in through the window to confront the near-delirious Coco, then passed a hit of the Drug to her that would allow her to live, before leaving quickly.

    Solitaire and Prime individually attacked the lab of the local dealer, which was based in an abandoned church, only to be overwhelmed by the drug-induced ultras, including the Prime imposter (Keith).

(Prime II#8) - After Prime flew off to battle the Prime imposter, Solitaire was left against a mob of around ten drug-induced (but unnamed) ultras. Sheer force of numbers drove him down until Coco arrived in costume to divide the addicts with the confusion of the destruction of the highly flammable ultra drug. All but one addict ran toward the lab to rescue what they could of the Drug, with Solitaire easily overpowering an ape-like drug-induced ultra. Solitaire and Coco then escaped, as the lab exploded from the trap set by Coco, which destroyed the church.

    Coco refused Solitaire's demand for aid in stopping the spread of the Drug, as she would die without it so she would only try to keep others away from the Drug. Coco then returned to the hospital for a scheduled sponge bath, leaving Solitaire behind as the sirens approached.

(Prime II#8 (fb) BTS) - Prime later encountered the two pushers of the Drug, who he thought were being attacked by Coco. However, while Coco watched from the shadows, both pushers claimed that they had become bloodied by falling down some stairs.

Comments: Created by Gerard Jones (writer), Scott Kolins (penciler) & Dennis Jensen (inker).

Profile by Grendel Prime

    One of the pushers said that Coco bought the Drug to sell and distribute to support her habit. However, she may also have been controlling its distribution. This storyline also suggests that some of the ultras in the Ultraverse may only have had temporary superpowers. It appears that the ultra powers bestowed by the Drug were random but mostly physical mutations.

    Gerard Jones, the writer of this little epic showcasing the post-Black September return of Solitaire, was the writer behind the original Solitaire series, and featured some scripted echoes from that earlier series.

Clarifications:

Coco has no known connections to:

• Coco of Earth-238 - Crazy Gang, destroyed when Mandragon destroyed universe @ Marvel Super-Heroes (UK)#377 Coco @ Howard the Duck#11
• Coconut Grove dimension (Ariel, Unipar) @ Fallen Angels#6
• Cocteau (magical being?), invoked by Dr. Strange @ Midnight Suns Unlimited#6
• Raymond Coker, werewolf @ Werewolf by Night I#11
• Kokoro of Earth Amalgam (Tatsu "Betsy" Braddock) - Psylocke + Katana @ Magneto and the Magnetic Men#1
• Coco Chanel, fashion designer extraordinaire, yet to be seen in the Marvel Universe
• Any other Coco characters