Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)

Skein
Name	Sybil Dvorak
Current Alias	Skein
Aliases	Gypsy Moth, Sybarite
Affiliation and Relationships
Affiliation	Menagerie; Formerly Women Warriors (Delaware Initiative), Thunderbolts, Masters of Evil, Night Shift, Femizons, Leader of the Cult of the Sybarite
Marital Status	Widowed
Physical Characteristics
Gender	Female
Height	5′5″ (1.65 m)
Weight	112 lbs (50.8 kg)
Eyes	Irises: Brown
Hair	Brown
Origin and Living Status
Origin	Mutant
Living Status	Alive
Reality	Earth-616
Place of Birth	Focşani, Romania
Personal Information
Identity	Secret
Occupation	Registered adventurer, Socialite, Cult leader, Sex club owner
Education	No formal education
Base of Operations	Delaware Formerly Los Angeles, California; Superia's private island in the Caribbean and the Tower of Shadows, Focşani, Romania
Creators and Appearances
Creators	Mark Gruenwald, Carmine Infantino
First	Spider-Woman #10 (October, 1978)
First	Spider-Woman #10 (October, 1978)

 The Gypsy Moth does not fear you. 

—Gypsy Moth

History

Early Life

Sybil Dvorak was born and raised in Focşani, Romania. She is a mutant whose powers manifested themselves while she was a child. Raised by gypsies, she had spent much time alone nurturing and focusing her mental abilities. In her late teens, she met a handsome middle-aged American actor named Jason Reed who was starring in a foreign-financed remake of the movie Dracula. Seduced by him, she agreed to accompany him to Hollywood, California as his mistress. The glamor and excitement of being in America in love with a wealthy actor soon faded when Reed spent increasingly more time away from home. Her citizenship papers not yet processed, and still not speaking English fluently, Dvorak felt like a prisoner in the actor's home She soon began to suspect that Reed was having affairs with other Hollywood starlets. One night she used her powers to weave herself wings and a disguise, and began to scour the haunts of the rich and famous in search of her errant lover.

Gypsy Moth'

File:Gypsy Moth.jpg

"Gypsy Moth"

The sight of these social gatherings, which she felt she could never be a part of, provoked her to use her powers to adopt the identity of the Gypsy Moth and begin preying upon socialites. This brought her to the attention of the original Spider-Woman, who mistakenly believed that Dvorak was one of the High Evolutionary's creations. Though Drew tried to befriend the woman, and even blasted then-boyfriend Jerry Hunt in the face to prevent him from shooting out Gypsy Moth's wings, Dvorak rebuffed her.

She was battling Spider-Woman in San Francisco when the hero disappeared as she was taken away to take part in the Contest of Champions ,

Eventually, The Gypsy Moth received her American citizenship and an inclusion in Reed's will. Soon afterward, Jason Reed died and Dvorak inherited his home and wealth. She used it to start a hedonistic cult of drugs and decadence that worshiped her as their queen.

Spider-Woman found that the Gypsy Moth, Shroud, Tigra, the Werewolf, Poltergeist, Angar the Screamer, Daddy Longlegs, Dansen Macabre, Hangman, Killer Shrike, Needle, Nekra, Flying Tiger and Tatterdemalion are all prisoners of the Locksmith. The two women cooperated to escape from the cell. Sybill was invited with other heroes to Jessica's apartment.

Night Shift

At some point later, the Gypsy Moth agreed to join the vigilante Shroud, who was forming a team of criminals called the Night Shift. The team battled Moon Knight. As a member of the Night Shift, the Gypsy Moth battled the Avengers West Coast on several occasions, including the time the Night Shift sold their souls to the demon Satannish in exchange for increasing their powers. Time and again the Night Shift was defeated. Eventually the Gypsy Moth quit the group and gave up her cult.

Femizons

She was recruited to join the Femizons. ...

Masters Of Evil / Thunderbolts

File:Thunderbolts Vol 1 69 page 21 Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616).jpg

The Crimson Cowl recruited the Gypsy Moth for her new incarnation of the Masters Of Evil. The Gypsy Moth was convinced by Hawkeye to turn on the Masters of Evil and joined his group, the Thunderbolts. As a member of the Thunderbolts, the Gypsy Moth recreated herself and adopted the new identity Skein. Though she was very cooperative, her flighty demeanor and romantic overtures towards teammate Songbird caused her teammates to discourage her from staying on when the team expanded and reorganized, and so Skein quit and returned to Hamburg.

After M-Day

She kept her powers after M-Day.

Women Warriors

During Dark Reign; she joined the Women Warriors, a female team part of the Initiative as the Delaware team.

In that team and along with Constrictor, she confronted the R.A.I.D., and later participated in Osborn's attack on Asgard.

Spider-Island

During the Spider-Island event she was hired by the Spider Queen to abduct Alicia Masters. She used her powers on Jessica Drew to seal her mouth shut and dressed her as Gypsy Moth suit. This lead to a fight with the Thing who was trying to rescue Alicia. However the gag was removed and Alicia was rescued.

Menagerie

Skein is later seen as a member of White Rabbit's group The Menagerie as they were leaving the scene of a heist they pulled off involving easter eggs. They were eventually stopped by Spider-Man.

Pleasant Hill

At some point in time, she was imprisoned by S.H.I.E.L.D. in Pleasant Hill, a prison in the form of a small town where its inmates had their memories and appearances tampered with using a sentient Cosmic Cube named Kobik, so they could be turned into model citizens. When a group of villains led by Baron Zemo snapped out of this fantasy world and returned to their true selves, they attacked the village from within, wrecking havoc and freeing the other prisoners from Pleasant Hill's control. She was one of these numerous villains. When the bad guys took notice of the presence of the Avengers on the scene, they used their numbers to their advantage and mercilessly stroke down the heroes. However, Kobik took compassion on the Avengers and healed them.

Attributes

Power Grid

Powers

• Psychokinesis: Skein possesses the mutant ability to mentally manipulate materials and objects with her mind. Because all matter has a powerful and specific "texture" to her mind, she prefers to only manipulate "soft" substances like fibers and other malleable, yielding substances. (This preference extends to the point of her having a strong aversion to mentally touching anything hard or solid.) Thus she confines her manipulation to such substances as fabrics (both organic and synthetic) and organic tissue such as that of plants or animals. The maximum amount of material she can manipulate at once is equivalent to the amount of weight she can lift physically, about 120 pounds. She is able to make such gross movements as yanking 120 pounds of cloth across a room all at once or such fine movements as threading a needle from across the room. The range of her influence is about 50 feet.
  • Levitation - Skein may levitate herself by manipulating her own clothing. By concentrating, she can move through the air as if she were swimming, at up to a top speed of 20 miles per hour for periods of up to a half hour before tiring from the mental exertion. Her wings are strictly ornamental, not functional. She not strong enough to to carry anyone else while she levitates, however she can levitate another person, provided that person weighs less than 120 pounds.
  • Ensnare Opponents - Skein can constrict her foes using their own clothing and hair, or even control their gross movements, providing their clothes are durable enough.
  • Biophysical Control - Skein can control living organic tissue, causing muscles to cramp, skin to break, or blood vessels to burst or contract.

Abilities

• Multilingual: Though she is a reluctant physical combatant, Skein is skilled at seduction and shameless about using these skills. She is also fluent in both English and Romanian.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Skein's costume has an arsenal of tendrils which she can animate and use to entwine her opponents.

Notes

• Skein is bisexual.

See Also

• 44 appearance(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 9 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 1 minor appearance(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 5 mention(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 4 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 21 image(s) of Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)
• 2 quotation(s) by or about Sybil Dvorak (Earth-616)

Links and References

• Gay League Profile