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Quote1 Ever since childhood, I have followed the path of my country's greatest need! In play or in study, no sacrifice was too great for me to make in my ambition to serve others! But to contemplate a lifetime spent in solitary confinement -- that is too much! Quote2
Red Guardian[src]

History

Tania Belinskaya from Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Vol 2 10 001

Belinskaya's original Red Guardian costume

Tania Belinskaya (Russian: Таня Белинская) is the daughter of Dr. Andrei Belinsky, a leader of a Soviet dissident movement that protested repressive policies of the Soviet Union.[2]

As a child, Tania aspired to serve the greatest need of her country. Her ambition in life was to serve others, and no sacrifice was too great to achieve her goal.[1] Tania was secretly lonely. She never knew real friendship until she joined the ranks of the Defenders.[1]

At a young age, Belinskaya had already become one of the world's greatest and most renowned neurosurgeons. After her father was exiled to Siberia for his public denunciations of Soviet policies, Belinskaya decided to adopt a secret identity in order to help other dissidents and to fight crime. Belinskaya named herself after the deceased Red Guardian and took a similar costume.[3] She was the third person to use the name.

Doctor Strange obtained permission for Belinskaya to come to the United States to perform a complicated operation on Nighthawk, returning his brain to his body after Gorilla-Man had removed it.[3] Richmond was abducted from the hospital by Plant Man, and Tania teamed up with the Defenders to help rescue him.[4] She remained with the team for their battles against Nebulon[5] and the Headmen,[6] helped free the Valkyrie from prison,[7] fought the Assassin of the xenophobic Committee for Free Emigration,[8] and helped rescue Nighthawk's former girlfriend Trish Starr from Shazana's control.[9]

She was forced to return to the Soviet Union by Sergei Krylov, the Presence. Krylov was planning to transform himself and saw Tania as his ideal mate.[10] He used his mind control on her, and after exposure to cobalt radiation and a nuclear explosion, both were transformed into beings of nuclear energy.[11] The Defenders fought both of them until Tania was able to break Presence's mind control on her. Tania had herself placed on an isolated research facility to not harm others.[12]

Tania was held in isolation in order to not irradiate other people. She dreaded the thought of a lifetime spent in solitary confinement.[1] The Soviet authorities informed Tania that the Presence returned to the 'Forbidden Zone' and apparently released a Giant Amoeba. Approaching the area was too dangerous for normal humans, so they asked Tania to take the mission and stop the Presence. Released from her cell, the Red Guardian discovered that the Amoeba was actually threatening the Presence's life. The two radioactive beings joined forces against the monster. Tania and Sergei discovered that they did have feelings for one another, and became a couple.[1]

The two worked together against Professor Phobos, and then left the planet hoping to make themselves inert. The enigmatic Stranger found the two. They were later released by Quasar.[13]

Tania was attempting to keep Presence in check after a confrontation with the Avengers and the Winter Guard.[14]

The two eventually separated when Starlight joined the Winter Guard alongside the Presence's son, Vanguard. She then joined his splinter group, the Protectorate, looking for a way to bring Darkstar back to life. They got trapped in Limbo, where they discovered that one of their members, Fantasia was actually a Dire Wraith. Fantasia then escaped back to Earth, where the Protectorate followed her. After encountering the current Winter Guard, they realized that they had to go back to the Winter Guard's headquarters, where Fantasia was located to stop her from causing anymore damage. However, they were too late and Fantasia created a new Dire Wraith army with the help of Presence. They teleported into the base and attacked Fantasia, but were soon outnumbered, however, Powersurge and Red Guardian managed to make a device capable of defeating the Dire Wraiths. Crimson Dynamo then boosted its signal, which created a tear in time that led to Limbo. Seeing that this tear could destroy the world, she threw Fantasia into the tear, but Fantasia latched onto to Starlight and dragged her into the tear. Tania's last words were "I will always love you" to Vanguard before the tear collapsed and killed them.[15]

Attributes

Power Grid[17]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Experienced Fighter:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/Single Type: Long Range:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Superhuman:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Supersonic:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Superhuman (800 lbs-25 ton):Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Gifted

Powers

  • Superhuman Strength: Tania is superhumanly strong and can lift 10 tons.[16]
  • Superhuman Stamina: Tania's stamina has been enhanced to superhuman levels.[16]
  • Superhuman Durability: Tania's durability has been enhanced to superhuman levels.[16]
  • Peak Human Speed: Tania possesses peak human levels of speed.[16]
  • Peak Human Reflexes: Tania possesses extremely quick reflexes.[16]
  • Flight: Tania can fly at supersonic speeds and can achieve orbital velocity.[16]
  • Self-Sustenance: Tania can fly in space without special protection or equipment.[16]
  • Energy Projection: Tania can shoot from her hands or eyes[1] energy blasts of concussive force, intensive heat, hard radiation or a combination of these elements.[16]

Abilities

  • Medicine: Tania is one of the world's foremost neurosurgeons.[16]
  • Experienced Combatant: Tania was an Olympic-class athlete in her first days as Red Guardian and has considerable skill in hand to hand combat and acrobatics.[16]
  • Multilingualism: Tania is fluent in Russian, French and English.[16]

Weaknesses

She is constantly giving off radiation

Paraphernalia

Weapons

As the Red Guardian, Tania used a throwing disc carried on her belt buckle.

Notes

  • Tania's footsteps are irradiated, and glow in the dark.[1]
  • According to Defenders Annual #1, Tania has a Ukrainian accent, even though she is from St. Petersburg in Russia.

See Also

Links and References

References

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