Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Surge

Gallery

Real Name

Noriko Ashida

Current Alias

Surge

Aliases

Nori

Identity

Secret

Alignment

Good

Affiliation

New X-Men(trainee team); formerly: New Mutants training squad, The 198

Relatives

Seiji Ashida (father), Suki Ashida (mother), Keitaro Ashida (brother)

Universe

Earth-616

Base Of Operations

Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York

Characteristics

Gender

Female

Height

5' 7"

Weight

137 lbs (62 kg)

Eyes

Brown

Hair

Black

Unusual Features

Noriko dyes her hair Blue

Status

Citizenship

Japanese

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Student

Education

Currently in high school level classes

Origin

Origin

Mutant, born with her amazing abilities that developed during puberty.

Place of Birth

Tokyo, Japan

Creators

Nunzio DeFilippis, Christina Weir, Keron Grant

First appearance

New Mutants Vol 2 #8
(January, 2004)

History

Noriko Ashida was born in Japan (possibly in Tokyo where her family still lives). She was close to her brother, Keitaro, but she ran away from home when she was thirteen-years-old, after her powers manifested; she claimed that her father "doesn't believe in mutants." How she came to the United States is unknown, but she was living homeless on the streets of New York when, four years later, she went up to the Xavier Institute gates - only to be turned away by student Hellion for being homeless.

Noriko's powers

Elixir gathered the rest of the group to try and find Nori that night, and they reluctantly went to try and keep her out of trouble. They eventually found her buying drugs, and assuming that was what was causing her to go out of control, Sofia blew the capsules away. In reality, it was the other way around, and without the pills, Surge completely lost control of her powers. Between Wallflower's powers, and the fact that she was mostly discharged by that point, they managed to subdue her and take her back to the X-Mansion. There, Beast designed gauntlets that could regulate her absorption of ambient electricity, and that she could discharge through/into as required to prevent further mental overloads - to her less-than-complete gratitude.

Nori became a student of the Xavier Institute and, when the school adopted a squad system, was assigned to the New Mutants squad led by Dani Moonstar. She reluctantly was required to share a room with Dust; the two young women disagreed upon the accepted role of women and tension arose from their disagreement.

Soon afterwards, the romantic relationship between teammate Josh Foley and teacher Rahne Sinclair was revealed. Returning Rahne's lost power with his own, Josh was severely injured by the feral Sinclair. Nori proved herself innovative when she suggested she use her powers on teammate Josh Foley in order to shock his body into healing himself. Her plan successful, Josh awoke. Surprised by the taboo relationship, the New Mutants squad - except Nori - ostracized Josh. Eventually the conflict was dissolved.

The events of House of M left over 90% of the world's mutant population depowered and Nori with yet another glimpse of what a relationship between she and Prodigy would be. With only 27 students with their powers, Emma Frost, fearing their safety, ordered the depowered students and staff including Nori's advisor Danielle Moonstar to leave the Institute. Iceman, while talking to Noriko's father on the phone, confirmed that she was one of the "lucky ones" who retained their powers. As it departed, one bus of depowered students was bombed by anti-mutant zealot Reverend William Stryker, killing all on board. Though depowered, David was not killed, and he and Nori furthered their romantic relationship.

Most of the remaining students were organized by Emma Frost into a melee fight to determine who would become a member of Frost's X-Men-in-training. Much to her surprise, Nori was chosen by Frost to be the team's leader. Soon afterwards, Nori received new, lighter, and more effective gauntlets from Forge.

Surge

The remaining students at the Institute became the targets of Stryker's crusade against mutants. After killing two more students, capturing others, luring one to his side, and finally attacking the Institute, Nori was able to lead her team against the attackers. Josh, enraged by Stryker's murder of Laurie, killed Stryker, ending his plot.

Upon discovering that the advanced Sentinel Nimrod was alive, and threatening Forge, Nori, as team leader, made the decision for the New X-Men to confront Nimrod themselves. In the end, Nori removed her gauntlets and poured all her power into Nimrod causing him to jaunt backwards in time. Nori then went to the hospital wing to talk to Elixir and David. She asked if he could still kill, and he said yes. Elixir said that he wanted to learn how to control the new increase to his abilities. Nori went to the memorial service to remember all the students lost in Stryker's attack.

Nori and David, unaware of the events that involved Emma threatening Laura, Mercury taking X-23 out on the town and being captured by Kimura, and Laura returning and taking Julian with her to go after Cessily, were busy at the mansion trying to recruit some of their fellow classmates to their squad. They had asked Bling who had blatantly refused because of the things that has been happening to anyone wishing to be an X-Man or X-Men period. Onyxx blurted out something about Laura coming in all bloody without Cessily and panicking; Surge and Prodigy rushed to Dust who told them what had happened to Cessily.

Soon, Surge took Rockslide and Dust with her outside of the Institute on the way looking for their teammates. Lexington refused to let them pass and Surge began to command Rockslide and Dust to attack; Shadowcat arrived and took them inside where they strategized. Before long, Surge, Rockslide, Dust, Elixir, Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, and Shadowcat crashed into the Facility saving Laura, Julian, and Cessily.

Nori took Julian outside to talk and ended up slapping some sense into him and yelling at him for sneaking off behind her back to go with Laura to go rescue Cessily.

Surge

As a result, Surge and Hellion were the only students that were not teleported to Limbo. Trance used her powers to get a message to the two, hastily informing them that the Institute students had been taken into Limbo by Belasco, and that "Belasco killed David," much to Nori's grief. Coordinating with O*N*E*, Surge and Hellion discovered that Amanda Sefton had been expelled from Limbo and was in a coma in Germany. Since learning of David's "death", Surge has become somewhat impulsive and angry, threatening the O*N*E* troopers when they attempted to block her from seeing Sefton, using her electrical powers to revive the sorceress despite the risks and generally being rather belligerent towards her allies. When asked by Hellion if she was going to be alright, Nori replied with, "Ask me again when I've turned Belasco into a smoking black pile of ash." Surge, Hellion, Amanda Sefton and the O*N*E* Megaton Sentinel confronted by a horde of demons. At Lexington's behest, Surge and Hellion stopped fighting demons and headed for the castle. In the final battle against Belasco, Surge led the united Xavier Institute students against the demonic hordes, even engaging the twisted sorcerer in single combat before Belasco was killed by Pixie and Darkchild. After the Institute was returned to Earth, at Santo's insistence, Nori and Cyclops offered Pixie and Anole positions on the team in response to their bravery in Limbo, which they gladly accepted.

After their return from Limbo, the New X-Men were debriefed and consoled by the senior Institute staff, Nori amongst them. While Cyclops praised her for her excellent work in Limbo, Surge still dealt with anger issues and her inner conflict over Prodigy. Shortly thereafter, Surge passionately kissed Hellion in front of the other students as a means of driving David away from her...and out of harm's way, in hopes of sparing them the pain of losing each other. This ploy, however, backfired as David regained his memories of abilities he once had and copied up until he lost his power. In the aftermath, David decided to stay at the Institute and also ended their relationship.

Furious at being left on the sidelines, Surge organized the New X-Men (and Armor) on a strike against the Purifiers in Washington D.C. in hopes of finding information about the baby and avenging the dead students. Elixir, Dust, and Prodigy opted not to go, thinking Surge was going for vengeance. The New X-Men infiltrated a Purifier church, while Anole searched on the status of the baby. After rampaging through the lower levels of the church, the team was attacked by Lady Deathstrike and her Reavers, but managed to be teleported out in time by Pixie. Returning to the school after the attack by the Nano-Sentinel infected O*N*E* Sentinels, Surge blamed herself for her team's injuries, in particular Hellion. Emma Frost explained to Surge that everyone was blindsided and that the important thing was to continue to survive. Surge asked Emma why she chose her as team leader and Emma responded, "Because I knew you'd protect them, no matter what. Even from me."

When Predator X attacked the Institute, Surge leaped to the defense of Indra, ordering the Institute students towards safety while she drew the creature's attention. Saved from being a quick meal by Anole and Prodigy, Surge led the team against Predator X in an attempt to stop it from attacking the injured students, and was teleported alongside the other combatants to Muir Island with Pixie's spell.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Surge

Known Powers: Surge is an Alpha-Level mutant.

Electrical Absorption: absorbs electricity at all times: from static in the air, electrical appliances, outlets, etc (often causing lights to flicker, etc). She can't control the absorption, and thus must wear specifically-designed gauntlets at all times to regulate it.

• Lightning Blasts: She can discharge the energy through lightning blasts from her hands or body
• Superhuman Speed: ability to channel the energy into bursts of super-speed
  

Abilities

Surge is native Japanese speaker who speaks English fluently, with little trace of an accent.

Strength level

Possesses the strength of a normal girl her age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise

Weaknesses

If Noriko doesn't discharge the electricity that builds in her body it causes her mind to race.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: Power Gauntlets: which allow her to regulate intake and release, which minimizes her problems with her ability
Transportation: X-Men Blackbird
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• According to her creators, Nunzio DeFilippis and Christina Weir, Noriko was seventeen-years-old at the beginning of the first series. As an entire school year has passed, it might be assumed that she is now eighteen. However, given Marvel's floating timeline policy, that may not be the case.

See Also

• Appearances of Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)
• Images that include Noriko Ashida (Earth-616)

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Links and References

• Electric Blue - Fansite