Real
Name: Iman Dashire MANDALA
Real
Name: Iman Dashire
Identity/Class: Human mutate;
uncertain citizenship (see comments)
Occupation: Superhero
Group Membership: Gemini
(Balance/Debora
Crovi, Front/Gabriel
Caine, Grip/Brandon
Blake, Suede/Nicholas
Blake), S.H.I.E.L.D.;
possibly EuroMind
(see comments)
Affiliations: Edwig Caine, Lancelot;
formerly Dr.
Alma Zareth
Enemies: Alba Nera, Alma
Matrix (Alma Zareth), Euroadaptoid, Nosferath, possessed Vera
Croce security;
formerly Voyager
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: The Mandala of Darkness
Base of Operations: Unrevealed;
formerly Vera
Croce (True Cross) Base, Northern Italy
First Appearance: Europa#0 (April 1996)
Powers/Abilities: Mandala can generate numerous black discs, perhaps accessing some form of Darkforce; however, they may actually be some form of miniature black holes, as they seem to affect gravity in their vicinity. She can transit between the discs, hiding in whatever dimension they access to later emerge from another disc, effectively teleporting. She can also use this effect to literally carve circular holes in people's bodies. As the discs float in the air, she can fly by standing partway in a disc. The discs also discharge energy, which looks similar to lightning but may be visible gravity waves or something else entirely; the energy from multiple discs striking a single target at once is powerful enough to potentially slay a being as strong as the Hulk. Mandala was able to make a boulder thrown at her explode in mid-air; whether this was because she struck it with energy or somehow shattered it by opening portals within it is unclear.
Height:
5'9" (by approximation)
Weight: 150 lbbs. (by estimation)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Purple
(Europa#2 (fb) - BTS) Segrate International Hospital in
northern Italy.
(Europa#3 (fb) - The energy discharge caused by
Nosferath's arrival was detected by Professor Edwig Caine.
(Europa#0 (fb) - BTS) - Fascinated by superhumans, Edwig Caine, a former MI5 secret agent, had studied them extensively for decades...
(Europa#1 (fb) - BTS) - searching for a reason for behind their existence of superhumans.
(Europa#4 (fb) - BTS) - Detecting what he dubbed the
"Meta-impulse," he took an army unit with him to investigate.
(Europa#3
(fb)) - The Meta-impulse Nosferath had caused killed all the other
infants in the hospital nursery, and horrifically mutated those adults
not similarly slain. After fighting their way to the nursery, Caine and
his men, including one who was video taping their progress, found the
Nosferath...
(Europa#4 (fb)) - in the body of its infant host, floating in
the air above the cribs, glowing with green energy. Caine communicated
with the glowing infant, who explained the true nature of the
Meta-impulse and itself. Though possessing almost infinite power,
Nosferath was confused and unarmed in its infant body, which Caine
dubbed Child One. Needing help, it struck a deal
with Caine, agreeing to divide part of its power into some of the slain
babies in return for Caine providing it with the assistance a human
child needed.
(Europa#3 (fb) - BTS) - At Caine's direction, ...
(Europa#4 (fb)) - the transfer of
transformative energy from Child One revived five of the infants and
healed their injuries. One of these was Iman Dashire.
(Europa#3 (fb) - BTS) - Caine then placed Child One into a
containment pod.
(Europa#4 (fb)) - However, Caine had no intention of honoring his end of the bargain, instead planning to keep Nosferath trapped in a child's body forever, keeping it unconscious and treating it like a guinea pig.
(Europa#2 (fb)) - An unidentified man attending the hospital had survived the explosion, but was drawn back inside by Nosferath's telepathic summons. Unnoticed by Caine or his soldiers, they witnessed Caine and his men flooding Child One's containment vessel with coolant, rapidly decreasing the temperature within and sending the infant into hibernation. Sensing it would lose consciousness imminently, Nosferath implanted instructions into the man's subconscious to make him eventually gather the surviving children and deliver them into Nosferath's hands, after which it imbued the man with a fraction of its power, giving him the ability to generate hallucinations; the man used this ability to become the stage magician Mr. Illusion, his dreams plagued by nightmares of the hospital incident.
(Europa#1 (fb) - BTS) - Caine hid the truth behind the disaster, locking it away within himself.
(Europa#2 (fb)
- BTS) - Since the terrorist group Alba Nera (Black Dawn) had already
been linked to a spate of bombings in Italy, they became convenient
scapegoats for the incident at Segrate International Hospital.
(Europa#3 (fb)
- BTS) - Members of Alba Nera were framed and imprisoned for the
massacre.
(Europa#1 (fb) - BTS) - Though
genuinely guilty of other atrocities, being blamed for one they had not
caused in combination with their existing hatred of the Italian
government left the group eager to clear their name.
(Europa#2
(fb) - BTS) - The official story became that only five
newborns had survived the "massacre," in desperate condition, leaving
Caine with no option but to risk flooding their bodies with
"meta-impulses," giving life back to burned limbs and giving the infants
a chance to survive. Those with surviving family were returned to them,
and the others adopted.
(Europa#2
(fb) - BTS) - The children manifested
superpowers as they grew, though the public were informed that Caine had
not anticipated this development. Caine convinced all of them to take up
his dream of forming a team of superheroes.
(Europa#0 (fb) -
BTS) - Edwig Caine gathered the five now-adult survivors at Vera Croce
Base in northern Italy, and trained them to become superheroes. He named
the group Gemini, after the zodiac sign all of them had been born under.
Iman Dashire, who could create black energy discs
and teleport, took the codename Mandala, while the others adopted the
codenames Front (team leader and Edwig's adoptive son Gabriel Caine),
Grip (Brandon Blake), Suede (Nicholas Blake) and Balance (Debora Crovi).
(Europa#3 - BTS (fb)) - Suede developed an unrequited interest in Mandala.
(Europa#0 (fb) - BTS) - Caine's assistant, Dr. Alma Zareth, a world expert on artificial intelligence, created a virtual reality training program for their EuroMind series supercomputer, enabling them to practice their combat techniques safely against simulated opponents; accessing the cerebral areas that generated dreams, those inside the simulation believed themselves to be in genuine combat and real danger, thus ensuring realistic responses. Eager to obtain S.H.I.E.L.D. backing for the team, Caine arranged for the team to be officially evaluated, and programmed their simulation with a standard training program sent to them by S.H.I.E.L.D.
(Europa#0)
- When American S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Lancelot arrived at Vera Croce to
carry out the evaluation, the team were already in the training
program. After Caine and Zareth greeted the new arrival, Lancelot and
Caine monitored the simulation using interface helmets, effectively
electronic ghosts watching the action from inside the battle. Lancelot
witnessed as one by one the team members took down opponents with
overly brutal efficiency, the last being Mandala. A shift in gravity
heralded her power in action, as she confronted an enraged Hulk. Using
her darkness discs, she shattered a boulder he threw at her and carved
holes out of his body, then vanished through another disc to emerge
behind the bewildered behemoth and fire on him with multiple discs,
combining their attack into a single shot to destroy him. As with the
other Gemini members, this impressive display disquieted Lancelot, who
felt Mandala seemed to like to play with her foes like a cat torturing
a mouse, before striking them down with bloody proficiency.
Telepathically sensing that Lancelot had concluded that Gemini was not
ready Balance mentally
attacked the agent, pulling him fully into the simulation and forcing
him to briefly fight for his life before releasing him back into the
real world. Declining Caine's invitation to stay for dinner,
Lancelot left, deciding to ask S.H.I.E.L.D. for more tests and to
obstruct Caine's project by any means. Back at Vera Croce, Caine
chastised the Gemini members for failing to impress Lancelot.
(Europa#1 -
BTS) - Front told the team they had to emulate the Avengers, which meant
no killing if possible, and so the members planning to use guns loaded
their "ultra-tech" weapons with anesthetic capsules.
(Europa#1)
- Upon seeing the intruders, the terrorists used hostages as
shields and tried to shoot, but Balance and Grip took them down with
ease. However, more terrorists they had overlooked got the drop on
them. Before they could open fire, black energy discs appeared behind
them and Mandala emerged from one, swiftly shocking the terrorists
into unconsciousness with lightning-like blasts from the discs. A
terrorist hiding in the shadows took aim at the back of the
unsuspecting Mandala, but Grip used his mind-influencing powers to
make the man turn the gun on himself. Before Grip could force the
terrorist to shoot himself, Balance knocked the man out, angrily
reminding Grip yet again of Front's orders.
Elsewhere within the base
Front took down a terrorist who had accessed a laser disc containing
video footage of Caine at Segrate International Hospital, and thus
learned the truth about the Gemini members' origins, shattering his
trust for Edwig Caine. With all the terrorists neutralized, the team
returned to Vera Croce. In the aftermath Caine
evaluated the mission, judging it a success, but as he reviewed
video surveillance tapes from Monfalcone, he witnessed Front
taking the laser disc, and concluded that Front now knew that what
he had been told of his origin was a lie. Caine realized Front
would soon come to confront him over this deception, demanding
explanations Caine was still unwilling to provide.
(Europa#2 (fb)
- BTS) - Believing that the best way to protect Gemini from Front
revealing what he had learned lay in discrediting Front's credibility,
Caine convinced Lancelot to lend him a S.H.I.E.L.D. Life Model Decoy
android to stand in for him during the imminent confrontation.
(Europa#2 (fb) - BTS) - immediately learning of the substitution as the bullets damaged the LMD's flesh covering. Knowing that Front destroying a robotic doppelganger would not be sufficient to turn the rest of Gemini against their leader, Caine told Lancelot to maintain the deception, letting the team and the world believe him truly dead.
(Europa#2 (fb) - BTS) - Front fled to Milan, wanting to tell his teammates the truth, but fearing they would be disinclined to listen since they would believe he had murdered Caine. With Caine's seeming demise, S.H.I.E.L.D. stepped in and took charge of Gemini. By chance, apparently unconnected to other events, around the same time a dissident faction of A.I.M. that believed high-tech random terrorist incidents bolstered their unspecified ultimate cause, decided to target the busy Milan subway and inflict multiple civilian casualties. Front was nearby when the Euroadaptoid activated and trapped a young child in its body, using her nervous system to boost its own. Front was forced to activate his gun's A.I., Revo, to fight it. Alerted by this, Gemini raced towards his location.
(Europa#2)
- Balance found Front
trying to deal with the captured child's distraught mother, with the
Euroadaptoid temporarily elsewhere. Mistakenly thinking the
woman to be Front's hostage, Balance demanded he let her go, ignoring
his request to help evacuate the remaining bystanders from the area as
she informed him that she needed to hand him over to S.H.I.E.L.D. and
berated him for killing Caine. Front again tried to appeal to her to
help get everyone to safety, but she reiterated her demand he surrender,
declaring him a murderer. As she did so, the rest of Gemini arrived and
surrounded their former leader. Grip angrily concluded that Front was
using civilians to protect himself, openly wondering if he had always
been a traitor and demanded to know who had paid him to kill Caine. The
revelation that his former teammates had apparently already judged and
condemned him horrified Front, but Mandala assumed Revo was calculating
their next moves. She warned the others that Front would not hesitate to
kill them, prompting Suede to suggest they all attack him
simultaneously. Front dodged as Mandala unleashed a blast from her
energy discs, while Suede realized he could not activate his powers in
the enclosed space of the subway for fear of burning up all the oxygen.
Mandala shouted to Grip to stop Front, but as Grip moved to attack,
Front noticed the Euroadaptoid sneaking up behind Balance and shouted a
warning. Grip derided this as a childish attempt to distract him until
Balance screamed; deeming Balance a better host than the child, the
robot absorbed her into its framework.
While the terrified but now freed child fled to
its mother's arms, the robot decided the Gemini members were threats and
turned its attention towards them, snatching them up with metal
tentacles. Front grabbed at Suede as he began to ignite, warning him
that damaging the robot would hurt Balance, but Suede mistook this for
him defending the robot. Losing his cool at his former teammates'
bull-headedness, Front angrily ordered them to only hit peripheral parts
and stick to defensive hits, then began snapping the tentacles holding
them, hoping that doing so would not cause Balance irreparable damage.
Declaring him the main target, the robot knocked him to the ground, then
returned to its extermination protocol. With the civilians all gone now,
it opened fire on Mandala, but Front tackled her out of the way, taking
a hit to the shoulder as he did so. As he got painfully back to his
feet, Mandala pleaded with him not to attack the Euroadaptoid, fearful
it would kill him, but he threw this back at her, asking her if that
wasn't just what she wanted anyway. Rushing towards the robot, Front
asked Revo if it could upload a virus into it, and Revo confirmed it
might be able to, but only if it used Front's brain nerves as an
interface. Analyzing Front as he attacked, the Euroadaptoid concluded
that he was bursting with "A-class superenergy" and it would be unable
to defeat him in a direct fight, so it switched to adapting to him
instead. Front let himself be caught, despite Revo's pleading not to
risk himself, and as he was absorbed, Balance was released, collapsing
to the ground stunned. While the Euroadaptoid struggled to assimilate
Front, Grip suggested his teammates seize their chance and attack it,
but Mandala vehemently rejected this, pointing out that Front was
fighting the machine on their behalf. Grip and Suede were both
dismissive, still sure he had murdered Caine and betrayed them, but
Mandala pointed out that he had saved both her and Balance's life,
sacrificing himself for the latter when he could have run. Grip remained
unconvinced, reminding Mandala that they had orders to capture Front,
but he was interrupted as the Euroadaptoid
announced that contact had failed and Front
screamed. As they watched, the robot declared a system error and
overloaded. Front ripped himself free from the dying machine, then
crushed the robot's head, but as he declared the Euroadaptoid's threat
ended, he was shot in the face by the newly arrived Lancelot. Screaming
in agony as his face burned, Front fled. Lancelot prepared to shoot him
in the back, but Balance knocked his gun arm to spoil his shot. Lancelot
angrily instructed the other three Gemini members to pursue Front, but
they defiantly ignored his order.
(Europa#3 (fb) - BTS) - Caine apparently revealed
he was still alive to the Gemini team members (see comments).
(Europa#3)
- Elsewhere in the base, Mandala and Balance were trying to
relax, but it soon became clear that Balance was still preoccupied by
thoughts of Front, unable to get her lover's scream as he fled down the
subway tunnel out of her head. Commenting that Balance could easily
locate Front with her powers, Mandala queried why she didn't do so, and
Balance replied that she didn't want to, feeling that he must have a
reason for not making contact. Their chat was interrupted by a scream
nearby, but before they could investigate the ground in their room
erupted as a technological serpent of cables and flooring rose to attack
them. The pair fled into the corridor to see Suede battling the security
guards. He took them down with an explosion, and tried to reassure
Mandala and Balance, who were unsure whether he or the guards were the
threat. As the ground began shaking, Suede urged them that they needed
to leave, fast, but his plea came too late, as the entire building
lifted off into the air.
Suede, Mandala and Balance fought their way
through the base, overpowering more security guards and discovering to
their horror that the men inside the armor were dead, slain and then
piloted by cables which had extruded from the helmets (not dissimilar to
how the Euroadaptoid had worked). They continued on, painfully aware
that the base might soon reach outer space, hoping to recover Caine,
Grip, Lancelot and any other survivors and then evacuate to hanger and
escape in one of the base's aircraft. Reaching the main control area,
the trio blasted the door open, and were momentarily relieved to see
Grip standing amidst the swirling smoke...until he collapsed. Behind him
was Alma Matrix, carrying Child One.
(Europa#4 (fb)
- BTS) - Alma Matrix and Child One captured the remaining members of
Gemini and Caine.
(Europa#4) - On the
orbiting Vera Croce base, Alma taunted her captives, telling the Gemini
members that they were, and always had been, cursed, and she recounted
the details of Caine's pact with Nosferath and how it pertained to their
true origin.
Meanwhile on Earth, Front had been found by Lancelot, who had escaped Vera Croce by means of high altitude skydive, and though Front distrusted the agent he put this aside upon hearing of Gemini's plight. Using the agent's S.H.I.E.L.D. aircraft Front and Lancelot returned to Vera Croce, unknowingly accompanied by a cloaked Mr. Illusion. Upon boarding the orbiting base, Mr. Illusion tried unsuccessfully to deceive the pair with fake versions of Caine and Balance, both seemingly fine and happy to see them, but his deception failed and the truth was revealed once Mr. Illusion was knocked out. The facade they had been seeing dropped away, revealing Gemini and Caine trapped by organic-looking growths protruding from the walls, and in the center Alma Matrix and the floating form of Child One. Desperate to be free of Nosferath's nightmarish influence, Mr. Illusion proclaimed that he had brought his lord the final child, and the entity happily acknowledged that he had served his slave purpose well, including slaying its "Earthling mother." Now ready to reclaim its energies, Child One turned to Alma Matrix and, ignoring her protests and screams, drained her lifeforce, initiating its transformation into its true form. Seizing this momentary distraction, Front hastily shot his teammates free, and they began attacking Nosferath, but the entity taunted them, noting that their powers were part of it and so their attacks merely fed it. Declaring the games to be over, Nosferath began draining the five Gemini members and Mr. Illusion, all of whom collapsed helpless as it extracted their energies. Just as all seemed lost, a wall exploded and a strange figure entered, the Voyager, an agent of order intent on returning Nosferath to its prison. The entity instantly regressed to its infant form as Voyager began binding its power, and it began protesting helplessly, desperately switching between pleading to Caine, seemingly slain by Voyager's explosive arrival, then berating the barely conscious Gemini members. Child One screamed that Voyager would not only destroy it, but also Earth, but Voyager told it to shut up and accept its imprisonment, then opened a portal that sucked Child One through into its prison dimension.
Voyager declared that with Nosferath now
recaptured, the explosion sequence could be stopped, but only after the
humans infected by Nosferath had been eliminated. Lancelot made a futile
attempt to stop Voyager, but though he only managed to distract the
cosmic entity for scant moments, it was enough for Front to climb
painfully to his feet. Trying to get a clean shot, the Gemini leader
told Lancelot to get out the way, and Voyager paused, reconsidering its
next move. Apparently impressed by their resolve, Voyager decided that
justice would not be served if it destroyed them, and departed without a
word, much to Lancelot and Front's surprise.
Lancelot returned with the injured Gemini
members to Earth, where the media coverage of their return attributed
the loss of Vera Croce base, Caine and Zareth to another terrorist
attack. Though seriously injured, the Gemini members were expected to
full recover, having retained their super-human metabolisms.
Comments: Created by Giorgio Lavagna, Francesco Mio, Luca Poli and Carmine Di
Giandomenico.
Poli and Di Giandomenico did the character designs for the
Gemini characters, while Fabrizio
Ugolini and Giampaolo Frizzi drew and inked the actual series.
Mandala's ethnicity is identified as being Indian, but it isn't clear if this is her citizenship too. Given she was born in Italy, she may well be Italian.
In Europa#3, when Mandala, Suede and Balance are fighting their way through the armor-controlled guards, Suede mentions that they need to find Caine. Since the other two don't respond with an incredulous "Huh?" this presumably means all three know Caine is alive by this point, something they didn't seem to know when they confronted Front in the previous issue. So either they figured out that his death was faked, or else he told them - since Caine himself said at the end of the second issue that it was time to stop lying, I'm guessing the latter.
Profile by Loki, with invaluable aid from comic translator Angelo Mammone.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Mandala has no known connections to:
images: (without ads)
Europa#1, p10, pan4 (main
image)
Europa#0, p14, pan1 (face
close-up)
Europa#1, p5, pan1 (standing
straight, clear view of costume)
Europa#0,
p15, pan2 (exploding rock and opening holes in Hulk simulacrum using
black discs)
Europa#0, p15, pan5 (blasting Hulk simulacrum using
discs)
Europa#3, p15, pan1 (clear view
of boots)
Europa#4, p17, pan1
(full view of boots - literally the only time you see her feet!)
Appearances:
Europa#0-5 (April-October, 1996) - Giorgio Lavagna
and Francesco Mio (writers), Fabrizio Ugolini (pencils), Giampaolo
Frizzi (inks), Enrico Fornaroli; Marco M. Lupoi; Miguel Carrasco
(editors)
First Posted: 10/18/2022
Last updated: 10/18/2022
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.!