Billy Kaplan/Wiccan

Subject Facts

Full Name: William Kaplan
Codename: Wiccan
Age: Eighteen years
Gender: Cisgender man (he/him)
Archetype: Super Hero
Aliases: Billy, Asgardian (formerly), Demiurge
Marital Status: Engaged to Teddy Altman
Affiliation: Young Avengers (formerly), Avengers (reserve), A.I.M. (formerly), New Avengers (formerly)

Subject Attributes

Superhuman Abilities: 

• Reality Warping: Billy's magic is largely in the form of altering the reality around him. This allows him to control forms of magic as well as other mystical, or supernatural, forces. He uses this in the form of spells. His spells are simply him focusing on and chanting what he wants to happen. This ability can manifest in the form of any of the abilities listed below.
• Electrokinesis: He's able to manipulate, generate, and discharge energy in the form of lightning or electricity. Most often he generates it from his hands but he's also able to generate it from other parts of his body or his body as a whole. So far this appears to be the one of the only ability that does not require him to verbally chant a spell in order to use.
• Teleportation: He can teleport himself and others seemingly anywhere on the planet simply by repeating he wants to go there. He's also able to open portals and gates to other locations. The limitations of this ability remain unclear and unknown to even Billy.
• Telekinesis: He's able to move objects and matter with his mind such as levitating, manipulating, and even propelling them at enemies.
• Healing: He can heal others and potentially himself, though he mostly focuses this ability on others. The healing process is affected by how much he desires it. For example, healing enemies has been known to be slower than when he heals allies or civilians.
• Flight: He's able to propel himself into and through the air in order to fly. This doesn't seem to require any verbal spells.
• Photokinesis: He's able to generate and project light and heat, even at an intense enough strength to cause harm to enemies.
• Cyrokinesis: He's able to control, generate, and even absorb ice.
• Solid Energy Constructs: He's able to manipulate, as well as generate, energy in order to form solid objects.
• Concussive Force Blast: He's able to produce and project blasts, beams, bolts, and waves of concussive force from energy.
• Pyrokinesis: He can generate and control fire.
• Clairvoyance: He's able to locate another person through brief periods of intense concentration. The less he knows the person, the harder it becomes for him to locate them.
• Conjuring: He can create objects such as clothing, decor, and food seemingly from nothing.

Standard Abilities: N/A

Paraphernalia: N/A

Subject Weaknesses:

• Needs to Hear: Billy needs to be able to hear the spells he chants or else they don't work at all.
• Self-Esteem: Despite all that he's accomplished, he more often than not has low self-esteem and continues to doubt himself and his abilities.
• Needs to Think: He needs to be able to focus along with his chanting in order to work his spells. He's been able to use a spell while panicking but the more he's able to think, to focus on what he wants to happen, the more control over it he has and the more likely he is to be successful.
• Needs to Speak: Just like hearing, he needs to be able to verbally speak the spells. He's unable to cast a spell by saying the chant in his head. Verbally speaking his spells helps him concentrate and cast them with more accuracy.
• Protective: He's very protective over those he cares about. This can easily be manipulated against him. He also seems to be willing to do whatever it takes to keep those people safe - even if it means he takes on a threat by himself.
• Others First: He often puts the well being of others before himself. This goes hand in hand with his protective nature. It also means he's likely to neglect his own needs in order to help someone else.
• Depression: Specifically since the death of Cassie Lang and Vision (Jonas), he's suffered from depression. He was helped through it when Teddy proposed to him but some of it has still lingered with him. He can more easily get depressed than before now, which can also go hand in hand with his self-esteem and anxiety issues.
• Anxiety: He has anxiety that can be brought on when he gets frustrated or panics. He can even have anxiety, or panic, attacks.

Subject History

Billy was born the eldest son of Jeff and Rebecca Kaplan. He grew up with his parents and two younger brothers in New York. He was often bullied throughout school both because he was gay and because he was a big fanboy of superheroes such as the Avengers. This, however, led to two things. First he met Wanda Maximoff outside of Avengers Mansion, where she healed his bruises and encouraged him, telling him that he was capable of taking care of and protecting himself. The second was his electric abilities manifesting.

His electrokinesis first manifested when he was being attacked by a bully by the name of John Kesler. During the attack, Billy had decided to take Wanda's advice and stand up for himself. He didn't expect nor even know about his powers and was both surprised and terrified when he almost killed Kesler. That never stopped him from using his powers and trying to figure them out.

As he learned more and more about his powers, he returned to Avengers Mansion to try to find Wanda, seeking her help in understanding what he could do and possibly even what he was. Unfortunately he was too late and soon discovered that the Avengers had been officially disbanded and Avengers Mansion was essentially destroyed.

Eventually Billy was approached by Nathaniel Richards, or Iron Lad, who informed him that he was a younger version of Kang the Conqueror and that Billy was part of something called the Avengers Fail-Safe Program. Alongside Teddy Altman, Eli Bradley, and Nathan, Billy dawned the identity of Asgardian and became one of the founding members of the Young Avengers with the goal of stopping Kang from returning to the present.

Under the direction of Nathan, he trained with his teammates, growing closer to them - he and Teddy eventually started dating - and viewing them as his best friends. Unfortunately things soon changed for the Young Avengers. After being discovered by Jessica Jones, Tony Stark, and Steve Rogers, the Young Avengers, along with their two new members - Kate Bishop and Cassie Lang - were held at the former Avengers Mansion while the three adults figured out to do with them. That was until Kang attacked.

The battle ended when Nathan killed his older self only to decide to return to the future, leaving a new and younger Vision with the team in his stead. The Young Avengers were technically disbanded after that, under threat of Jessica, Tony, and Steve revealing their secret identities to their parents. But that didn't completely deter the young heroes. At the advice of Kate and Cassie, Billy changed his codename to Wiccan and the team dawned new costumes and once again took up the fight against evil.

With the threat of being outed as a superhero looming over him, Billy tried to tell his parents but they ended up thinking he was coming out as gay instead and lovingly welcomed Teddy into the family. Then later the Super Skrull attacked, attempting to kidnap Teddy and putting Billy's family in danger. This resulted in the death of Teddy's mother, or at least the woman who had raised him.

When Kree sentries kidnapped Teddy, Billy and his teammates were desperate to get him back and turned to the same fail-safe that Nathan had used to find the original Young Avengers. This lead to him meeting Tommy Shepherd, who was a speedster that looked identical to him aside from their hair differing. The team had to break Tommy out of prison and afterwards he aided them in rescuing Teddy - a fight that left Eli gravely wounded, though he later recovered. Tommy joined the Young Avengers and their similarities as well as Tommy's speed led Billy to start believing they were the reincarnated children of Wanda Maximoff and the original Vision.

Then a civil war between the heroes broke out and the Young Avengers, Billy included, found themselves arrested by S.H.I.E.L.D. due to none of them registering. When Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers intercepted the bus that was transporting them and other prisoners, Billy used his powers to teleport himself and his friends to base of operations for the Resistance Fighters.

They joined the resistance and even ran off to help the Runaways, despite Steve's objections, but unfortunately the Runaways believed they were there to do anything but help and a fight broke out. Shortly after the fight was brought to an end, Noh-Varr attacked and captured Billy along with Karolina Dean and Teddy. They were held prisoner by Cube Warden until Xavin managed to help them break out. After all that, Billy almost killed the Warden if not for Teddy stopping him.

Afterwards Billy joined the ranks of the Secret Avengers in order to take part in a major battle however he was quickly taken out with a tranquilizer dart due to the threat Tony believed his teleportation powers posed. When the battle ended, Billy was captured and imprisoned in Prison 42 until Steve led a raid to free him and others.

After the civil war had ended, Billy started searching for Wanda Maximoff alongside Tommy, who he was already viewing as his twin brother. Their search led them to Transia but they were never able to find the real Wanda. Then the Skrulls invaded Earth and the Young Avengers found themselves teaming up with the Runaways yet again, saving Teddy in the process.

When Chthon started causing a wave of supernatural chaos, Billy took it upon himself to gather the rest of the Young Avengers at Avengers' Mansion but the team ended up being turned to stone by Chthon with the exception of Vision and Cassie. Thankfully this didn't last and they were eventually returned back to normal. Billy then found out he was a potential candidate to one day become Sorcerer Supreme, something he'd most definitely hadn't been expecting.

During a fight with the Sons of the Serpent, Billy lost control of his powers when Teddy's life was threatened and his powers overloaded, putting the Sons in comas. Because of this and the fear that Billy could be related to Wanda and cause another event similar to the World of M, the Avengers decided to keep an eye on him at the Mansion - something he refused until Steve showed up at his home and spoke with his biological parents. Teddy ended up joining him at Avengers Mansion where they were eventually rescued by the remaining Young Avengers.

And then Max Eisenhardt, or Magneto as he was better known as, showed up. Magneto helped the young heroes get away from the Avengers and to Transia, where they ran into quite literally Pietro Maximoff. Together with Magneto and Pietro, they found Wanda in Latveria and engaged to Victor von Doom with no memories of her past life or her powers.

When the Avengers arrived in Latveria, a battle inevitably broke out and Wanda and the Young Avengers found themselves trapped in the middle of it until Nathan returned from the future, whisking them into the past to protect them. But as the team had already learned, time travel came with a price. They managed to save the life of Scott Lang and returned Wanda's memory to her, as well as her powers which she used to transport them back into their present.

When the X-Men attacked and the Avengers fought back, Wanda teleported her sons and their teammates out of harm's way - but straight to Victor von Doom's castle. Billy attempted to aide Wanda and Victor in a ritual to restore all the mutants' powers that had been lost after the World of M but the ritual was interrupted by Eli. This resulted in the life force moving to Victor and thus preventing Wanda from restoring the powers of any more mutants.

This time the Avengers, X-Men, and Young Avengers teamed up in an attempt to stop Victor from reshaping reality in his image. However the battle resulted in the death of Cassie Lang. When Nathan insisted on messing with time to bring Cassie back and Vision objected, he attacked and murdered Vision. This left the Young Avengers, Billy included, in ruins and the team officially disbanded with Eli being the first to leave.

Billy quit being Wiccan and for months fell into a deep depression and only seemed to be brought out of it - even if only momentarily - by Teddy proposing. Their proposal was interrupted, however, by Carol Danvers who invited them both to Avengers Mansion where they were shown a statue remembering both Cassie and Vision and were all officially made members of the Avengers' roster.

However Billy still retired from being Wiccan for a time alongside Teddy. He was only brought back to the hero life when he accidentally let lose an inter-dimensional parasite named Mother. The fight against Mother led him and Teddy into teaming back up with Kate Bishop and teaming up for the first time with Loki, America Chavez, Noh-Varr, and David Alleyne, essentially renewing the Young Avengers.

Through this, Billy discovered he was destined to eventually become the Demiurge, an omnipotent being. Backed up by various other teenage heroes, the new Young Avengers eventually defeated Mother as well as alternate versions of themselves.

Billy eventually became a full-time hero again and joined Roberto da Costa's New Avengers. He aided Roberto and the New Avengers against multiple enemies. He was eventually one of the New Avengers that was forcibly branched off from the rest but later joined back up with the rest of the team to thwart at Avengers Base Two in the Savage Land. Afterwards he and Teddy were gifted with a luxurious apartment from Roberto as a thank you for their help. Not long after that, though, the New Avengers were officially disbanded.

Subject Interview

[Sample from a point post-The Children's Crusade, prior to the second run of the Young Avengers comics]

It still wasn't easy - doing hero work without Cassie, without Vision, without Eli. He was happy to be officially an Avenger, but he'd hoped to one day join them. It still didn't feel entirely right. He didn't really talk about it. He knew he worried Teddy and Tommy enough. His parents too - well the biological one. He hadn't seen Wanda in some time now. He thought she was perhaps giving him space to grieve.

But the grieving didn't stop. He wasn't sure if you ever truly got over losing someone. Teddy never seemed quite moved on from losing his mother.

But at least there were plenty of distractions - which just meant there were plenty of crimes committed to keep him busy.

Right now the distraction was an armored bank car that had gotten stolen by some no-names - well no-names sounded mean but considering they'd shot at both cops and civilians, he wasn't in a nice mood.

He landed in the cross-section of two streets, the car speeding right toward him. He held his hands out toward the car, his blue magic flickering to life.

"IwantthecartostopIwantthecartostop," he muttered aloud. His eyes glowed blue as his magic swirled around him, moving up and then down his arms. Once it reached his hands, it shot out toward the car, enveloping it and bringing it to a screeching halt.

Then two men stepped out of the car and started firing. Wiccan darted into the air then threw out a bolt of lightning at the men. He hadn't used his lightning in a while - the last time he remembered was when he went by Asgardian instead. That felt like lifetimes ago.

The lightning blasted one thug back. He collided with the ground and lay there groaning.

"You might want to surrender," he stated to the other thug, putting on a cheeky smile.

The other thug didn't seem to want to surrender, though. He aimed his gun and Wiccan instinctively flicked his hand, sending out a small burst of magic that was enough to knock the gun out of his hands. Then the cops were there and they had the man surrounded. That was when he surrendered.

Billy admittedly thought it would have been smarter to surrender to a magic user like himself - mutant magic user? He was technically a mutant, right? - than to the police. He could do far more damage than them - not that he ever wanted to kill someone, or put anyone in a coma again.

He sighed, cast a smile to the police then flew off before they could ask any questions. Some distraction. He already wanted to go home.

Author's Notes

Player Alias: Wiccan / Anna (she/her)

Other Characters: Loki Laufeyson , @brawn , Bobby Drake , @northstar

How did you find MFT?: Personal invite.